My wife gave me some game time on WOW as one of my Christmas presents. I had not played the game in many many years.I chose one of the newest game servers(launched in 2009) that was in my time zone. So far I'm stunned at the lack of lower level players.The vast majority of the community seems to be at or close to max level.This is far from healthy for a game franchise ,if true, and makes for a very limited game experience for any new player?

 

Am I off base? What have you seen in this reguard ?

 

Its because levelling is easy now. 

Exp has been boosted everywhere, its been made easier again in outland and exp has been boosted in Northrend.

Due to guild levels and rewards you can get BoA head pieces and cloaks now which give 5% exp each, not only that but they can be used in Northrend now too.

So as you can imagine it really won't take long. I almost got a Warrior to 60 at the start of Cataclysm and it didn't take long at all, i can't remember how long but i never had the patience to level a Warrior before that.

You'll still find people in dungeons but as far as a low level community goes, i think that will be difficult to find. I found that higher population servers had more low levels running around though, alts and such.

blizz has compleatly ravaged and destroyed this game...they have added things that isnt nessesarry and made the game so dummed down that any incest redknech hick can play it on there 1995 intel pent 1 processor...here are a list of my many things i find wrong and that have ruined the game:

-flying mounts (takes away that massive world experience and makes it war to easy to do quests and kill the adventure!)

-dungeon finder (this is the biggest mistake ever...i remember when i used to have fun running with my grp to the selected instance killing allies on the way, now they have lost that sens of adventure and really u dont even heed to leave your main city now)

-Heirlooms ( this is the main reason why there isnt low lvls any more...ppl with herilooms are OP and lvl up 10 times faster than anyone else...they can get to 85 in 2 weeks maybe less...where is teh fun in that.)

-Guild Lvl (shur it gives u good items but has compleatly decimated the guild selection list...such as no low lvl new guilds...who wants to be in a low lvl guild with no perks when u can be in a max guild with all the perks?)

 

Like i said this game has gone so far down hill im surprised ppl r still playing it. All the instanced have been dummed down and epic raids made un epic. Also seems liek in every expanion there is a evil dragon of some sort...

 

OH and spoiler DW is a giant squid with tenticles! (japanees porno FTW)

Originally posted by Shadanwolf

My wife gave me some game time on WOW as one of my Christmas presents. I had not played the game in many many years.I chose one of the newest game servers(launched in 2009) that was in my time zone. So far I'm stunned at the lack of lower level players.The vast majority of the community seems to be at or close to max level.This is far from healthy for a game franchise ,if true, and makes for a very limited game experience for any new player?

 

Am I off base? What have you seen in this reguard ?

Theres just so many times you can roll an alt. The game has been out since forever and has peaked in sub-numbers around 2010 so most people no matter what will be around lvl 30-50. All my alts are 40+, I just can't bring myself to run through Otlands again since its like a nightmare to me.

Add to that the ridiculous pace you level through the first 20 lvls anyways and you get empty zones. WoW is stretched out lvl-wise.

Originally posted by Shadanwolf

My wife gave me some game time on WOW as one of my Christmas presents. I had not played the game in many many years.I chose one of the newest game servers(launched in 2009) that was in my time zone. So far I'm stunned at the lack of lower level players.The vast majority of the community seems to be at or close to max level.This is far from healthy for a game franchise ,if true, and makes for a very limited game experience for any new player?

 

Am I off base? What have you seen in this reguard ?

Can we put you on the long list of ppl that would like to have Vinella WoW back, so you don't have to pay the crap that WoW is now ?

Originally posted by Shadanwolf

My wife gave me some game time on WOW as one of my Christmas presents. I had not played the game in many many years.I chose one of the newest game servers(launched in 2009) that was in my time zone. So far I'm stunned at the lack of lower level players.The vast majority of the community seems to be at or close to max level.This is far from healthy for a game franchise ,if true, and makes for a very limited game experience for any new player?

 

Am I off base? What have you seen in this reguard ?

I haven't played in a while, and one of the reasons I haven't played in forever is the empty zones.  Everything up to the zones for the latest expansion are empty.  I suppose I should not have been surprised to log in after Cataclysm was released and find that even the Northrend zones are empty now.

The game is very focused on keeping end-game raiders playing, who are now the dominant part of the player base.  Those players have alts that they occasionally spend some time on, but with heirloom pieces - and the fact that they have had 6+ years to level up those alts - even they don't spend much time in lower level zones.  All the new content, and all the action, are at maximum level.  Everything else is a ghost town.

A lot of factors have contributed to that.  The biggest is the simple fact that Blizzard has focused on keeping hard-core raiders in the game - that emphasis shows, in terms of content developed and so forth.  Also, faster leveling times, heirloom pieces, and much faster travel, especially instantaneous travel to dungeons, just makes the whole game short of the end-game zones feel very, very empty.

Originally posted by dreamsofwar

Its because levelling is easy now. 

Exp has been boosted everywhere, its been made easier again in outland and exp has been boosted in Northrend.

Due to guild levels and rewards you can get BoA head pieces and cloaks now which give 5% exp each, not only that but they can be used in Northrend now too.

So as you can imagine it really won't take long. I almost got a Warrior to 60 at the start of Cataclysm and it didn't take long at all, i can't remember how long but i never had the patience to level a Warrior before that.

You'll still find people in dungeons but as far as a low level community goes, i think that will be difficult to find. I found that higher population servers had more low levels running around though, alts and such.

 

I disagree with your excuses. It's a THEMEPARK MMO. People are bound to reach higher levels at some point, no matter how fast the leveling is. Also the game is old. Many people have moved on, or already levels Alts, so they just twink from then on. The problem with WoW is that it doesn't have a level scaling feature for players to return to old level zones. That's the problem.

Might also have to do with your server choice. You didn't choose the one the client recommended, did you? You should choose a server with HIGH population, preferrably one with a healthy Alliance:Horde ratio.

People don't stay 'low level' very long anymore.  It's a very small window to find other people in.  Considering the barrenness of some of the servers, the problem is multiplied.  

Noticed the same myself.  It's very top-heavy with high level characters.  Even the Lich King zones are lightly populated, and I'm on one of the busier PVE servers.

This lack  of attracting NEW players impacts other aspects of the game as well...like crafting....or even having people around to help answer questions or give advice.You may see the franchise take a big fall in the next year with the onslaught of new games.

You are totally missing the fact that leveling is best done by lfd. Very few quest grind anymore. Thus, the questing zones r empty. The dungeon queues for leveling is very short now. I was leveling my L40 alt yesterday and the wait time is less than 5 min, much better than h dungeon queues at 85. There r atill plenty of low level toons in wow.

and it isnt on the lack of trying at blizzard end the first 10 or 20 level are free lol you would think more player would go but nope!

the way wow is now it is similar to guild wars reaching level 85 is just the beginning ,once there you got to reach end game and end game is way farther then going from 1 to 85!

This is of course the effect of making leveling so fast and by having so many short levels.

I personally think that D&D got it right, 20 levels is optimal since it makes the community more compact. But it seems like people think that the more levels the more fun, even if it is the time it takes to max out a character that is important.

It is fun to "ding" but it is less fun if you have 80 or 200 than if you have 20.

It is really too bad that Blizzard didn't change the numbers of levels (but not the XP players have or the XP you need to max out) with CATA.

Originally posted by MMOExposed
I disagree with your excuses. It's a THEMEPARK MMO. People are bound to reach higher levels at some point, no matter how fast the leveling is. Also the game is old. Many people have moved on, or already levels Alts, so they just twink from then on. The problem with WoW is that it doesn't have a level scaling feature for players to return to old level zones. That's the problem.

That's the problem with all "themepark" MMOs, not just WoW.  The entire leveling up system means that most of the game world is irrelevant - and therefore empty - after players start hitting the level cap.

The Cata update to the original zones took all of the nostalgia out of leveling alts so most people I know just use the dungeon finder now. 

Blizz also added a lot of in-dungeon quests which provide decent XP and usually blue (superior) quality items

If you roll a tank or healer the dungeon finder queue times are really fast making it a very viable alternative to traditional questing.

Originally posted by nariusseldon
You are totally missing the fact that leveling is best done by lfd. Very few quest grind anymore. Thus, the questing zones r empty. The dungeon queues for leveling is very short now. I was leveling my L40 alt yesterday and the wait time is less than 5 min, much better than h dungeon queues at 85. There r atill plenty of low level toons in wow.

Que times are low only because the dungeon groups are cross-server.  And the whole LFD system results in the game world being even more empty.  It's less like an MMO and more like an RPG that happens to have a mutliplayer lobby built in.  But part of the appeal of MMOs is the immersion that the open world and other players give; you just don't get that with a lobby system.  Hence why I feel that WoW has lost much of the appeal that contributed to its magic during the early years.  Now it's just a level and gear grind where you happen to have to team up with other (random) players, with little or no immersion.

Originally posted by Gudrunix

Originally posted by MMOExposed
I disagree with your excuses. It's a THEMEPARK MMO. People are bound to reach higher levels at some point, no matter how fast the leveling is. Also the game is old. Many people have moved on, or already levels Alts, so they just twink from then on. The problem with WoW is that it doesn't have a level scaling feature for players to return to old level zones. That's the problem.

That's the problem with all "themepark" MMOs, not just WoW.  The entire leveling up system means that most of the game world is irrelevant - and therefore empty - after players start hitting the level cap.

The problem with WoW now though is seriously how easy it is to level up. 2 hours a night, 3 nights a week, 3 weeks, and my new Worgen warlock is alrdy in the high 60s. And thats without grinding ANYTHING, just sit in town, hit the dungeon finder button, buy and sell on the AH. No...in WoW, which differs from other MMOs on the market, is that you really dont need to do ANY world content past level 10 anymore. You dont EVER have to leave town after that point, just dungeon queue and collect your goodies. You dont even have to know how ot play your class to be honest, just show up and mash a couple buttons and look like your paying attention. Seriously, it really is that bad already on the leveling up side of WoW.

So dont worry OP, in a coupe of days you will be nearing cap and there will be plenty of people around.