Guild Wars 2

Why not start the next expac just outside a racial city as a level 1-15 zone, then work your way up to 80? Of course we got level scaling to handle the existing players.

The only way I could see that happening is if they added a new race with a city, personal story, and differnt zones going all the way from 1 to 80

simplesimon.2084:

The only way I could see that happening is if they added a new race with a city, personal story, and differnt zones going all the way from 1 to 80

That would be an actual expansion.

OP:

How is this any different than HoT? Or even a FTP account? A new player would begin in a starter zone and work his way to level 80, excluding of course an insta-80 boost.

Maybe you need to elaborate a bit more?

I don’t know about anyone else but I want NEW maps for my expansion. Not reworked old maps.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I don’t know about anyone else but I want NEW maps for my expansion. Not reworked old maps.

I’m not proposing reworking old maps. I’m just throwing the idea that the next expac has low level zones so that new players don’t have to wait until level 80 to get to the new cobtent. There’s plenty of space to put those new maps adjacent to starting cities.

Edit: although, plains of ashford does need a rework. It’s the only starter zone without a world boss. Woodenpotatoes has mentioned that in several of his videos.

archmagus.7249:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I don’t know about anyone else but I want NEW maps for my expansion. Not reworked old maps.

I’m not proposing reworking old maps. I’m just throwing the idea that the next expac has low level zones so that new players don’t have to wait until level 80 to get to the new cobtent. There’s plenty of space to put those new maps adjacent to starting cities.

so, what about the next set of levels after level 15 at the end of the starter zone. Are they going to leave the expansion and go to core Tyria to finish leveling or level to 80 in the starter map?

Just a flesh wound.3589:

archmagus.7249:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I don’t know about anyone else but I want NEW maps for my expansion. Not reworked old maps.

I’m not proposing reworking old maps. I’m just throwing the idea that the next expac has low level zones so that new players don’t have to wait until level 80 to get to the new cobtent. There’s plenty of space to put those new maps adjacent to starting cities.

so, what about the next set of levels after level 15 at the end of the starter zone. Are they going to leave the expansion and go to core Tyria to finish leveling or level to 80 in the starter map?

No, have a whole set of maps. If there’s 4 like in HoT, have a 1-20, a 20-40, 40-60, and 60-80. Given how aggressive xp gain is, they should have no problem out-leveling an area. If they’re a different race, there’s Asuran gates in LA and the other racial cities to get to the capital city to get to the new maps.

I am always in favor of new maps. Best to keep them in the same level increments as the rest, if sub-80’s were added.

I just don’t see an advantage to adding sub-80 maps though. There are already plenty and if you buy an expansion in Anet’s model, you get all previous content.

I wouldn’t mind some permanent evolution in existing maps, such as additional bosses (Ashford, as already mentioned) or event chains or whatever.

ANet is giving everyone who buys the game plus HoT a free level 80 boost. Since the HoT will be folded into each expansion after this, that means all new players who buy the game+expansion from now on will get the free level 80 boost. This will allow them to jump right into the expansion if they desire or play on the old maps, as they please. So setting up a series of expansion leveling maps is made unnecessary by this item.

DeanBB.4268:

I am always in favor of new maps. Best to keep them in the same level increments as the rest, if sub-80’s were added.

I just don’t see an advantage to adding sub-80 maps though. There are already plenty and if you buy an expansion in Anet’s model, you get all previous content.

I wouldn’t mind some permanent evolution in existing maps, such as additional bosses (Ashford, as already mentioned) or event chains or whatever.

Just because they get the previous content doesn’t mean that new players want to play it. I’ve run into people who used boosters and crafting to get to level 80, then ran through core tyria maps, disregarding that content, to get to the new maps. With sub-80 maps, they can jump into the new content right away, then go back and get core tyria (and HoT) later.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

ANet is giving everyone who buys the game plus HoT a free level 80 boost. Since the HoT will be folded into each expansion after this, that means all new players who buy the game+expansion from now on will get the free level 80 boost. This will allow them to jump right into the expansion if they desire or play on the old maps, as they please. So setting up a series of expansion leveling maps is made unnecessary by this item.

Where does that leave alts?

I’d have to disagree. If they jump ahead to 80 now, they will jump ahead to 80 then. Especially considering the insta-80 they will undoubtedly get.

And for a new player -which is what this post is about, right? – what would be different to them between a core map and a new map?

Me, I do much of my exploring post-80.

archmagus.7249:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

ANet is giving everyone who buys the game plus HoT a free level 80 boost. Since the HoT will be folded into each expansion after this, that means all new players who buy the game+expansion from now on will get the free level 80 boost. This will allow them to jump right into the expansion if they desire or play on the old maps, as they please. So setting up a series of expansion leveling maps is made unnecessary by this item.

Where does that leave alts?

They have access to the new maps with their level 80, which takes care of your suggestion of how to bring new people to the expansion. By the time they want to play alts they can craft to 80 or use tomes, or explore the core maps which they aren’t seen yet.

What the OP is suggesting is what ANET did with the 3 campaigns in GW.

It was nice and worked well. Therefore, it needed to be trash canned for the Brave New MMO.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

ANet is giving everyone who buys the game plus HoT a free level 80 boost. Since the HoT will be folded into each expansion after this, that means all new players who buy the game+expansion from now on will get the free level 80 boost. This will allow them to jump right into the expansion if they desire or play on the old maps, as they please. So setting up a series of expansion leveling maps is made unnecessary by this item.

Whatever happened to just making a vibrant distinct world to explore? And who says it all has to be in a specific bracket of levels? And this whole “expansion must be level 80+ or bust” mentality makes even less sense with the whole dynamic leveling system. For any level 80 player, the scale of the zone map doesn’t matter.

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

What the OP is suggesting is what ANET did with the 3 campaigns in GW.

It was nice and worked well. Therefore, it needed to be trash canned for the Brave New MMO.

Actually, not quite. The 3 campaigns were stand alone games with access to the previous games once you reached a certain level. They weren’t on the same map as the others.

Leo G.4501:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

ANet is giving everyone who buys the game plus HoT a free level 80 boost. Since the HoT will be folded into each expansion after this, that means all new players who buy the game+expansion from now on will get the free level 80 boost. This will allow them to jump right into the expansion if they desire or play on the old maps, as they please. So setting up a series of expansion leveling maps is made unnecessary by this item.

Whatever happened to just making a vibrant distinct world to explore? And who says it all has to be in a specific bracket of levels? And this whole “expansion must be level 80+ or bust” mentality makes even less sense with the whole dynamic leveling system. For any level 80 player, the scale of the zone map doesn’t matter.

The fact that ANet is handing out a level 80 to all purchasers of an expansion indicates to me that this is the way that they are giving new players immediate access to new expansions. This way they don’t have to make a series of leveling maps but can go straight into making level 80 maps with harder mobs. This allows the new player to jump into the expansion or not as he pleases.

archmagus.7249:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I don’t know about anyone else but I want NEW maps for my expansion. Not reworked old maps.

I’m not proposing reworking old maps. I’m just throwing the idea that the next expac has low level zones so that new players don’t have to wait until level 80 to get to the new cobtent. There’s plenty of space to put those new maps adjacent to starting cities.

Edit: although, plains of ashford does need a rework. It’s the only starter zone without a world boss. Woodenpotatoes has mentioned that in several of his videos.

If they are a new player then all of the existing content is new for them.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Leo G.4501:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

ANet is giving everyone who buys the game plus HoT a free level 80 boost. Since the HoT will be folded into each expansion after this, that means all new players who buy the game+expansion from now on will get the free level 80 boost. This will allow them to jump right into the expansion if they desire or play on the old maps, as they please. So setting up a series of expansion leveling maps is made unnecessary by this item.

Whatever happened to just making a vibrant distinct world to explore? And who says it all has to be in a specific bracket of levels? And this whole “expansion must be level 80+ or bust” mentality makes even less sense with the whole dynamic leveling system. For any level 80 player, the scale of the zone map doesn’t matter.

The fact that ANet is handing out a level 80 to all purchasers of an expansion indicates to me that this is the way that they are giving new players immediate access to new expansions. This way they don’t have to make a series of leveling maps but can go straight into making level 80 maps with harder mobs. This allows the new player to jump into the expansion or not as he pleases.

Correlating to what is happening isn’t going to satisfy what should happen.

As a further point of discussion, how about the expansion after the next and the expansion after that? Will each new expansion also get a starting map and a set of leveling maps? After a few expansions there are going to be all these leveling maps, each belonging to an expansion.

That could be very confusing to a new player. He starts off on a map for expansion 3, out levels it, makes his way to a map for expansion 2, out levels it, goes to map for core, out levels it, and by this time he has no idea what in the world is going on.

I’m sure we all could expound on negatives and possible problems with ideas. That’s easy.

So when are we going to start discussing positives and possible solutions (because I already have multiple for the issues you just brought up)?

Leo G.4501:

I’m sure we all could expound on negatives and possible problems with ideas. That’s easy.

So when are we going to start discussing positives and possible solutions (because I already have multiple for the issues you just brought up)?

Well, start then. No one is stopping you.

Leo G.4501:

I’m sure we all could expound on negatives and possible problems with ideas. That’s easy.

So when are we going to start discussing positives and possible solutions (because I already have multiple for the issues you just brought up)?

This question assumes there is a problem that the OP’s suggestion will solve. Others don’t believe that the suggestion serves such a purpose. There is no solution because the suggestion has no bearing on the hypothetical problem.

If someone started a thread suggesting that we needed to change the name of the Easter holiday to chocolate bunny day in order to get new people to buy into GW2’s next expansion, what solution or positives would one be expected to provide? This example is comparable to the OP’s suggestion, IMO, because neither is reasonably remotely likely to have the intended effect.

To clarify, I would be interested in a new 1-80 path, but it would be meaningless to someone for whom the existing leveling paths are all bright, shiny, and new.

Expansions aren’t about ‘new’ players, they are made to help retain existing players and bring them back to playing the product.

kurfu.5623:

simplesimon.2084:

The only way I could see that happening is if they added a new race with a city, personal story, and differnt zones going all the way from 1 to 80

That would be an actual expansion.

… such as the Tengu, in the Domain of Winds, finally joining the five other races against the Elder Dragons?

TexZero.7910:

Expansions aren’t about ‘new’ players, they are made to help retain existing players and bring them back to playing the product.

If an expansion isn’t about attracting new players, the best it can ever hope to do is slightly stave off death from an ever-dwindling playerbase.

Sartharina.3542:

kurfu.5623:

simplesimon.2084:

The only way I could see that happening is if they added a new race with a city, personal story, and differnt zones going all the way from 1 to 80

That would be an actual expansion.

… such as the Tengu, in the Domain of Winds, finally joining the five other races against the Elder Dragons?

TexZero.7910:

Expansions aren’t about ‘new’ players, they are made to help retain existing players and bring them back to playing the product.

If an expansion isn’t about attracting new players, the best it can ever hope to do is slightly stave off death from an ever-dwindling playerbase.

Isnt that pretty much a fact of life for any MMO?

Hmm, any entertainment product really? Sure some TV shows last for 26+ years but we all know that the Simpsons are going away eventually.

simplesimon.2084:

The only way I could see that happening is if they added a new race with a city, personal story, and differnt zones going all the way from 1 to 80

Which is exactly what they need to do. It doesn’t have to be quite as large as the original game, but it needs to have new zones covering the spread of levels and at least two new races with new PS.

Ashen.2907:

Sartharina.3542:

kurfu.5623:

simplesimon.2084:

The only way I could see that happening is if they added a new race with a city, personal story, and differnt zones going all the way from 1 to 80

That would be an actual expansion.

… such as the Tengu, in the Domain of Winds, finally joining the five other races against the Elder Dragons?

TexZero.7910:

Expansions aren’t about ‘new’ players, they are made to help retain existing players and bring them back to playing the product.

If an expansion isn’t about attracting new players, the best it can ever hope to do is slightly stave off death from an ever-dwindling playerbase.

Isnt that pretty much a fact of life for any MMO?

Hmm, any entertainment product really? Sure some TV shows last for 26+ years but we all know that the Simpsons are going away eventually.

WoW expanded rapidly over the course of its first two expansions, before dwindling again after Cataclysm released (Which also coincided with the ‘end’ of the MMO Golden Age)

But that aside – an MMO needs a constant influx of new players, because lots of people who quit will NEVER return, no matter how shiny the expac is. Or they’ll return and leave again. Without new players, the death of the game is much faster.

But, unfortunately for the world, the Simpsons will never go away.

DeanBB.4268:

I am always in favor of new maps. Best to keep them in the same level increments as the rest, if sub-80’s were added.

I just don’t see an advantage to adding sub-80 maps though. There are already plenty and if you buy an expansion in Anet’s model, you get all previous content.

I wouldn’t mind some permanent evolution in existing maps, such as additional bosses (Ashford, as already mentioned) or event chains or whatever.

There is definitely an advantage to adding sub-80 maps. The leveling experience is one of the best features of the game, and lots of people like to level alts. The more variety of content there is to progress through while leveling the better the game as a whole is. This is especially true if new personal stories are added for new playable races, which they should be.

To make things even better, sub 80 maps don’t become obsolete once you level past them like they do in other MMOs.

They are simply following market trends that they all see. In a MMO there is a strong feeling and rightly so, if you aren’t in early and it’s been out for quite some time, there is no hope for you ever catching up, so why start now? I’ll wait for the next.

So what combats this the best it can? With a new expansion let everyone start again from this new starting line by allowing a character to be built ready to go. HOT didn’t happen this way originally and that didn’t help, but this still helps some today. But moving forward smart money would be on “there will be a way to make a character right now ready for the new content day one”, this is inviting to new players. Even though I think they would be better off starting from scratch, but they don’t know what I know, they assume standard MMO fare.

It is still a business first and the better they do, the better chance we have for anything we personally want. We all know this, if you aren’t one giving back any $$$, I think you should be a bit more silent and grateful. These are highly skilled and hopefully paid developers.

To be honest I think HOT nailed it (counting after this patch), a lot of people want open world content, but it does need to get harder otherwise it’s just exactly what we have with a new dressing and to me that wouldn’t be good enough. So difficulty did ramp up, new mechanics were added, another smart thing, make it feel fresh and something to play for. The verticalness perhaps is questionable, but I think it could be genius as well, I think the verticalness actually helps open world not become a massive zerg fests that flatter lands lead to, because you can’t see as far ahead, where everybody just runs and gathers. You’ll have all these chained events now and you could be right around the corner and not see that it is even happening. You could be 100 yards away in HOT and feel like you are alone in the world. I get the verticalness could be a bit mind twisting, but I also see the beni’s and perhaps what their goal was. There is a lot packed into the area and with the new awards, bingo.

Chasing World Bosses on a timer schedule while fun time to time, imo isn’t where you want your open world meat and potatoes to be at. It really isn’t a challenge, it’s almost like a handout. I want the game to make me better in a natural progression, I still feel there is a large bump from standard open world content to explorer dungeons, I feel HOT is narrowing the gap for another large group of us that aren’t expert players to get better in the open world to then move into new explorables we struggled with. That’s player progression.

Sartharina.3542:

Ashen.2907:

Sartharina.3542:

kurfu.5623:

simplesimon.2084:

The only way I could see that happening is if they added a new race with a city, personal story, and differnt zones going all the way from 1 to 80

That would be an actual expansion.

… such as the Tengu, in the Domain of Winds, finally joining the five other races against the Elder Dragons?

TexZero.7910:

Expansions aren’t about ‘new’ players, they are made to help retain existing players and bring them back to playing the product.

If an expansion isn’t about attracting new players, the best it can ever hope to do is slightly stave off death from an ever-dwindling playerbase.

Isnt that pretty much a fact of life for any MMO?

Hmm, any entertainment product really? Sure some TV shows last for 26+ years but we all know that the Simpsons are going away eventually.

WoW expanded rapidly over the course of its first two expansions, before dwindling again after Cataclysm released (Which also coincided with the ‘end’ of the MMO Golden Age)

But that aside – an MMO needs a constant influx of new players, because lots of people who quit will NEVER return, no matter how shiny the expac is. Or they’ll return and leave again. Without new players, the death of the game is much faster.

Well of course. The point wasnt that a new player wouldnt, eventually, buy an expansion, but rather that they are not the target audience. The reality is that if your core game isnt appealing to that potential new player, not all of the expansions in the world will matter to him. The expansion might keep him around after he is burned out on core content, or bring him back from a break from the game. Of course he isnt a new player by that time.

Again, I am not speaking against a new leveling path. Such could really benefit veterans who have played the existing paths many times. But a new leveling path doesnt do much for players who have yet to experience the existing paths. Similarly, new endgame content adds little for a new player who isnt at endgame

To be sure it doesnt hurt a games ability to attract new players to show that it is still being actively developed, via expansion releases. But that is even more important for retaining existing, paying, players.

Ashen.2907:

This question assumes there is a problem that the OP’s suggestion will solve. Others don’t believe that the suggestion serves such a purpose. There is no solution because the suggestion has no bearing on the hypothetical problem.

If someone started a thread suggesting that we needed to change the name of the Easter holiday to chocolate bunny day in order to get new people to buy into GW2’s next expansion, what solution or positives would one be expected to provide? This example is comparable to the OP’s suggestion, IMO, because neither is reasonably remotely likely to have the intended effect.

To clarify, I would be interested in a new 1-80 path, but it would be meaningless to someone for whom the existing leveling paths are all bright, shiny, and new.

Imo, having more 1-80 paths goes hand in hand with enticing older and newer players. You’re bringing together older and newer players as well as enriching the replay value for both. There’s also the matter of polish. Imagine if the amount of effort put into making the newest maps had been applied to the first ones.

But the disconnect from our perspectives here likely stems from that term “story path”. Introducing more paths and not just branches can make the newer players feel like they are apart of what is going on now vs catching up on old content.

Leo G.4501:

Ashen.2907:

This question assumes there is a problem that the OP’s suggestion will solve. Others don’t believe that the suggestion serves such a purpose. There is no solution because the suggestion has no bearing on the hypothetical problem.

If someone started a thread suggesting that we needed to change the name of the Easter holiday to chocolate bunny day in order to get new people to buy into GW2’s next expansion, what solution or positives would one be expected to provide? This example is comparable to the OP’s suggestion, IMO, because neither is reasonably remotely likely to have the intended effect.

To clarify, I would be interested in a new 1-80 path, but it would be meaningless to someone for whom the existing leveling paths are all bright, shiny, and new.

Imo, having more 1-80 paths goes hand in hand with enticing older and newer players. You’re bringing together older and newer players as well as enriching the replay value for both. There’s also the matter of polish. Imagine if the amount of effort put into making the newest maps had been applied to the first ones.

But the disconnect from our perspectives here likely stems from that term “story path”. Introducing more paths and not just branches can make the newer players feel like they are apart of what is going on now vs catching up on old content.

The new players being more part of current activity rather than catching up on old content is not an angle I had considered. Thank you.

The replay value is primarily relevant to veterans. A player isnt really new by the time he gets to the point where he is worried about replay value.

GW2’s level scaling and daily system seems likely to keep people revisiting old zones for some time to come. I dont think new players will have a problem finding vets to play with.

Again, I would live to see a new 1-80 path, story, zone, etc. I just dont think that, if the concern is attracting new players (as indicated by the OP), this would be the way to do it.

One additional problem I’ve thought of is the matter of scaling. If a substantial portion of a new expansion is leveling maps, then those maps can’t have mobs that give a level 80 with full exotics/ascended gear, all skills and full trait lines the same sort of challenge that a leveling person with crap gear and some skills and traits will have.

If full level 80s try to do events with low levels in leveling maps, they end up roflstomping the mobs/events and the low levels can barely tag the mobs (as seen by what happens when you mix low levels and large numbers of max geared players during event dailies). In addition, the high level players can to get to events/mobs faster, either because of speed boosts or already having the waypoints. It’s one thing to have the occasional level 80 in with the low levels. It’s another to have a large population of high levels trying to do the new content alongside the new people. The new players are going to be frustrated when they can’t tag mobs and can’t get to events because the high levels are doing it all and the max levels will be frustrated because everything is so easy.

TL:DR Because the leveling maps will have to be set for how weak the new people are, that means they can’t be harder in difficulty than vanilla maps. That means a substantial part of new expansions will be trivial for max level players.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

One additional problem I’ve thought of is the matter of scaling. If a substantial portion of a new expansion is leveling maps, then those maps can’t have mobs that give a level 80 with full exotics/ascended gear, all skills and full trait lines the same sort of challenge that a leveling person with crap gear and some skills and traits will have.

If full level 80s try to do events with low levels in leveling maps, they end up roflstomping the mobs/events and the low levels can barely tag the mobs (as seen by what happens when you mix low levels and large numbers of max geared players during event dailies). In addition, the high level players can to get to events/mobs faster, either because of speed boosts or already having the waypoints. It’s one thing to have the occasional level 80 in with the low levels. It’s another to have a large population of high levels trying to do the new content alongside the new people. The new players are going to be frustrated when they can’t tag mobs and can’t get to events because the high levels are doing it all and the max levels will be frustrated because everything is so easy.

TL:DR Because the leveling maps will have to be set for how weak the new people are, that means they can’t be harder in difficulty than vanilla maps. That means a substantial part of new expansions will be trivial for max level players.

Super-challenging content in the open world shouldn’t be the norm anyway. It’s okay to do it with the occasional map, but not okay to do it with all maps or even the majority of maps.

Einlanzer.1627:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

One additional problem I’ve thought of is the matter of scaling. If a substantial portion of a new expansion is leveling maps, then those maps can’t have mobs that give a level 80 with full exotics/ascended gear, all skills and full trait lines the same sort of challenge that a leveling person with crap gear and some skills and traits will have.

If full level 80s try to do events with low levels in leveling maps, they end up roflstomping the mobs/events and the low levels can barely tag the mobs (as seen by what happens when you mix low levels and large numbers of max geared players during event dailies). In addition, the high level players can to get to events/mobs faster, either because of speed boosts or already having the waypoints. It’s one thing to have the occasional level 80 in with the low levels. It’s another to have a large population of high levels trying to do the new content alongside the new people. The new players are going to be frustrated when they can’t tag mobs and can’t get to events because the high levels are doing it all and the max levels will be frustrated because everything is so easy.

TL:DR Because the leveling maps will have to be set for how weak the new people are, that means they can’t be harder in difficulty than vanilla maps. That means a substantial part of new expansions will be trivial for max level players.

Super challening content in the open world shouldn’t be the norm anyway. It’s okay to do it with the occasional map, but not okay to do it with all maps or even the majority of maps.

I’m not even talking about superchallenging content. I’m saying that it’s frustrating on both sides when it’s rofl easy for max players and ‘OMG I can’t tag anything’ for low levels. The two sides are nowhere equal and to make them equal the max levels would need to be heavily nerfed in low levels areas,

Einlanzer.1627:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

One additional problem I’ve thought of is the matter of scaling. If a substantial portion of a new expansion is leveling maps, then those maps can’t have mobs that give a level 80 with full exotics/ascended gear, all skills and full trait lines the same sort of challenge that a leveling person with crap gear and some skills and traits will have.

If full level 80s try to do events with low levels in leveling maps, they end up roflstomping the mobs/events and the low levels can barely tag the mobs (as seen by what happens when you mix low levels and large numbers of max geared players during event dailies). In addition, the high level players can to get to events/mobs faster, either because of speed boosts or already having the waypoints. It’s one thing to have the occasional level 80 in with the low levels. It’s another to have a large population of high levels trying to do the new content alongside the new people. The new players are going to be frustrated when they can’t tag mobs and can’t get to events because the high levels are doing it all and the max levels will be frustrated because everything is so easy.

TL:DR Because the leveling maps will have to be set for how weak the new people are, that means they can’t be harder in difficulty than vanilla maps. That means a substantial part of new expansions will be trivial for max level players.

Super-challenging content in the open world shouldn’t be the norm anyway. It’s okay to do it with the occasional map, but not okay to do it with all maps or even the majority of maps.

Exactly. Not every piece of content added needs to be tailor made and advertised as try-hard and the next big threat. There shouldn’t be a rush to get to the end but it seems many players are so flustered about resource economy that everything must aim to r reach the end-story. I think there’s time for world enrichment as well.

Einlanzer.1627:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

One additional problem I’ve thought of is the matter of scaling. If a substantial portion of a new expansion is leveling maps, then those maps can’t have mobs that give a level 80 with full exotics/ascended gear, all skills and full trait lines the same sort of challenge that a leveling person with crap gear and some skills and traits will have.

If full level 80s try to do events with low levels in leveling maps, they end up roflstomping the mobs/events and the low levels can barely tag the mobs (as seen by what happens when you mix low levels and large numbers of max geared players during event dailies). In addition, the high level players can to get to events/mobs faster, either because of speed boosts or already having the waypoints. It’s one thing to have the occasional level 80 in with the low levels. It’s another to have a large population of high levels trying to do the new content alongside the new people. The new players are going to be frustrated when they can’t tag mobs and can’t get to events because the high levels are doing it all and the max levels will be frustrated because everything is so easy.

TL:DR Because the leveling maps will have to be set for how weak the new people are, that means they can’t be harder in difficulty than vanilla maps. That means a substantial part of new expansions will be trivial for max level players.

Super-challenging content in the open world shouldn’t be the norm anyway. It’s okay to do it with the occasional map, but not okay to do it with all maps or even the majority of maps.

And that is the case with the game today. I think in general new content should be on the higher end. Why don’t we go back to the old stomping grounds over and over, talking majority? Because it’s simple, too simple and nothing there for us overall.

That’s why I said we don’t need any more sub-80 maps. I say that and yet I still spend an awful lot of time there. We have plenty of maps for anyone under level 80, so it’s best to keep adding max level maps.

And new races… I don’t know that we’ll ever see another. A new race means new armor modeled, every – single – piece. Is it worth it? (I hate to even bring that up, but it’s already been mentioned)