Originally by: Khiijan Araal

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When WoW first came out, it had a reputation of no hand holding, where players were expected to figure out most of the good bits by themselves. Instances were tough, and required a cooperative group in order to be completed. The kind of people who played ate that stuff up and asked for more, loving every bit of the challenge. It's incredibly addictive to have a challenge thrown at you and then have to work in order to overcome it.

Unfortunately, Blizzard wanted their game to grow. They wanted more people hooked. WoW had a fast growing reputation, which enticed many people to give it a go. Many of those new people came from far out of their usual genre to have a look, some of them barely even gamers to begin with. They had their look and then complained because it wasn't for them.

Blizzard wanted more subs. They wanted these novice players to be hooked as well. With ever subsequent expansion, the game was dumbed down more and more in the name of accessibility.

Do you know what happened? They lost their core players. The hard core MMO guys all left WoW. They scoff at it. They're all playing other games now. WoW now has a reputation as being a playground for little kids. Without the core players, there was nobody left to sing WoW's praises and the game is now crawling into its grave.

I can only hope that this same fate does not befall EVE. Do not dumb down EVE. Easy games do not garner the core group of dedicated players that keep a game going. A game's reputation hinges upon those dedicated players.

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