Blizzard
After 20 years, it is now possible for single players to complete stories in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game. World of Warcraft which previously required a group to do an intensive raid.
That's thanks to “Story Mode,” a new raid difficulty that was added for the final wing of the recently released game's first raid. The internal war expansion.
Over the years, developer Blizzard has expanded the difficulty options for raids to meet the needs of different players and communities in terms of playstyles. The highest difficulty is Mythic, where semi-professional hardcore guilds compete. Below that is Heroic, where serious, capital-G players coordinate with friends in weekly raids to progress. Then there’s Normal, which still requires some coordination but isn’t as challenging and can usually be completed with a ragtag group in a few tries.
The most accessible difficulty is Raid Finder, where you're automatically matched with random players to complete a much easier version of a raid. Story Mode has now been added to the mix, and it's even easier than Raid Finder.
How Story Mode Works
In Story Mode, you fight the final boss of the raid alone, whose stats and complexity have been reduced so that it can be defeated by a single player or a very small group of friends. The mechanics of challenging encounters have been removed, and the entire combat has been redesigned to focus solely on the narrative aspects.
There are some rewards, but they are not the same as those of the more difficult raids; the goal was to avoid cheapening the experience for those who do I want to go all the way.
So far, Story Mode is only available for the most recent raid, called Nerub-ar's Palace. It's not yet available for other encounters, but Blizzard has hinted that this could be the long-term goal.
Supports new (well, actually, old) playstyles
Throughout WowThroughout history, it has been common for the conclusion of a major story to involve defeating the final boss of a raid or dungeon. In the early years, the Raid Finder didn't exist, so only a small percentage of players willing to engage in hardcore raiding could see those narrative outcomes.
Added Raid Finder in the Cataclysm expansion, but that still required grouping up with other players, which isn't everyone's cup of tea. For some players, the social aspect of Wow It's simply a guild chat while doing solo activities at your own pace. Some people even play Wow without directly interacting with other players at all, treating others in the game as background crowds that add immersion to the experience.
In most areas, Wow It has been better than most of its peers in supporting this type of game. I played Wow I became more social at first, but I've played almost exclusively solo for the past few years. To see the endings of stories I found while questing, I often turned to YouTube to watch the cutscenes players got when they beat raids.
Story mode is also relevant to older content; Blizzard wisely introduced a new approach to leveling up new characters, where players can choose a previous expansion to level up. It’s designed to get players to max level and ready for the current content around the same time they finish the final solo zone quests in that expansion. But it’s only during special Time Travel events that those players have a chance to find other players to do the raids with, so they often don’t get to finish the stories.
Story mode resolves both scenarios and is a fundamental shift in philosophy on how… Wow is approaching endgame content.
Many players enjoy it WowThe positives for the community are that they don't like the pressure of having to perform for others in a high-stress situation. Raid Finder addressed some of their concerns, but since some people only play for the story, there was no good reason for Blizzard not to have done so a long time ago.
Story mode may be enough to bring back players who have left due to not having time for the demanding social schedules associated with raiding. Plus, it doesn't take away from the satisfaction or fun for hardcore players if casual players can see some version of the final encounter and cutscene of a story arc, especially since the rewards are so different.
Sometimes, casual and hardcore gamers can play the same game without ruining each other's experience. It's a fine line that Blizzard has struggled to maintain at times, but Story Mode is one of the few cases where everyone comes out a winner.