World
of Warcraft launched with very few (if any) real
attunement requirements. Many of the dungeons launched later that
required Keys
or attunements such as Molten Core, though some attunements and keys
were in at
launch (even Scarlet Monastery required a key). Getting someone of
higher level
to run a character through lower level content just to get keys became
a staple
of the game. “LFG shortcut to core fragment” was my
first glimpse into
attunement work around options. That simple request would snowball into
all
types of game designs and exploitation.

style="">Key to my heart

The
first type of gated content was sealed behind locked
doors. Even Searing Gorge required a couple of quick quests so that
players
could earn the favor of the gatekeeper and obtain a key. Beyond that,
keys
started filling up bag space and requiring a checklist of who had which
keys
(before Key Rings, keys were kept in bags, and the largest bags were 16
slots).
Dire Maul, Stratholmes Mail boxes, Scholomance, Upper Black Rock Spire
and
others started filling up our bags with all kinds of keys. The keys got
easier
once we received key rings, but it still didn’t help if we
leveled up an alt,
it was starting over from scratch.

style="width: 400px; height: 209px;" alt="Old Keys"
src="/image/view/75061/preview">

style="">That’s Attune I Can
Dance To

The
next round of gates were more figurative, they were
attunements to Molten Core and who could forget the Onyxia chain?
Onyxia brings
back some fun memories as it has been re-released with no attunement
requirements what-so-ever. Keys provided a slight gate, Attunements is
when the
instance entrances got really interesting.

The
two game breakers for most people were Blackwing Lair
and Naxxramas (the original version). Casual players could PUG or slog
their
way through most of the other keys and attunements, but Naxx required a
real
guild to get people attuned. Thus the beginning of the end of
attunements – the
gold rush. Real money transactions (RMT) is one area that Blizzard has
been
fighting since day one, but what about in-game exploits of rushing
people
through for in-game currency? Give us gold and we’ll run you
through. This type
of scenario created two issues: now Blizzard was supporting the idea of
RMT if
players bought gold to pay others so they could get attuned, and as
they said
themselves, the attunements weren’t fun.

The
Burning Crusade was full of attunements, keys, shards
and all kinds of throttled access to the endgame content. The
attunement
process for Mount Hyjal was part rocket science and part tarot card,
neither of
which make much sense to me.

class="MsoNormal"> style="width: 416px; height: 327px;" alt="Mount Hyjal"
src="/image/view/75060">

class="MsoNormal">You put your right foot in, you put
your right foot out, you do some higher math and still don't figure
out...Mount Hyjal Attunement

class="MsoNormal">

It
seemed that every dungeon was locked and either required
a key or some previous event prior to gaining admittance. Karazahn was
a
relatively mild attunement process that I enjoyed, but that was the
drop in the
virtual bucket. Beyond Kara, many players threw up their hands in
frustration
or just assumed it was out of reach for a reason –
they’d never see it. At this
point in the game’s history Attunements crescendo’d
into a final blow out
causing most players to fall into two camps: hardcore raiders (5-10%)
who
completed the attunements and the rest of the player base.

style="">Wrath of the
Key
Master, oh and the Lich King

When
Wrath launched, most keys and attunements were thrown
out the window. Blizzard wanted to make everything accessible to
everyone. Great
in theory, but do you really want to go to a concert with no entry fee?
Every
Tom, Dick and Harry shows up and then the next thing you know you
can’t even
see the stage.

Keys,
gone. Attunements, gone. Pre-requisites, gone. Looking
back it’s safe to say that the game has changed. Everyone can
get into every
instance in the game (within level requirements). Has this made it
better?

style="">Pros and Cons – the
Pro Side

From
the accessibility aspect, the game has become amazingly
available to the masses. More players are seeing more of the content
than ever
before. This has to be one of the biggest successes in game design in
MMOGs.
Instead of gating everything off with keys and attunements, Blizzard is
using
“hard modes” for the hard core end-gamers. If a
guild needs a role filled (i.e.
another healer), then the alt of someone can be geared up in very short
order
and become a prime contributor quickly and easily.

style="">Pros and Cons – the
Con Side

Just
because the game says you “can” run an endgame
instance
doesn’t mean you should. As discussed in previous articles
from Medawky,
Messiah, and even my previous works, raiding is at an all-time fever
pace but
at a fairly high cost. Without attunements and keys, guilds can no
longer judge
on that basis. This has led to gear scoring, achievement boasting, DPS
meter
flogging, and all kinds of player-driven attunements. It seemed easier
when the
game made the hurdles and kept out the riff-raff (and I’m
part of the riff-raff
usually so don’t take that as a dig). The attunement quests
weren’t that hard
and only required a bit of effort and persistence to get through. In
the drive
to make the game open and available, it feels like we’ve lost
some of what made
us special.

style="">Bring ‘Em Back

I’m
no elitist except that I believe in rewarding players
for their skills and/or their perseverance. One of our biggest social
issues is
that we give too many trophies for participation and not enough for
winning. I
had an interesting conversation the other day when I was grinding away.
I like
grinding when the reward meets or exceeds the pain and suffering. If I
need to
kill 50 mobs for one piece of tar, I’m ok with that as long
as I’ll gain a
level in XP and a bunch of gold or reputation or skills for doing it.
Bring
back grinding instances or reputation so that I have a reason to gather
up my
friends and go get attuned to the latest instance.

style="">Change Is Good,
Except When It Sucks

Blizzard
explained that they are fans of gating new content
without making it gated. Thus, the “Grinding versus
Gated” debate was created. I
am usually the first one to grab onto change and call it a good thing,
but I
really believe that grinding is better than the idea of
“gating.” I hate daily
quests. Yes, they provide a good return on your investment of time, but
I don’t
like to think of anything in terms of days/weeks/months. When I read
about
something I want via dailies, I immediately calculate how many days of
doing X
quests it will take. If that number is higher than about a week,
I’m not doing
it. It’s not that I won’t play enough to do it, or
be online enough, it’s just
that I lose interest. I want to know that I can log in on a weekend and
put on
some tunes and grind on a thousand Furlbogs and become exalted. I
don’t want to
read that I can kill 100 per day maximum, and then do that for 10 days.
This is
off the main topic, but I think it applies.

Cataclysm
is rolling out with more gates according to the
discussions at Blizzcon. Let’s hope they have learned from
all of these past
experiences and provide a compelling mechanism for raiders and casual
players
alike to enjoy the content to which they should have access.