Initial Thoughts
A very good and informative post, which certainly presents some valid points and I agree with a lot of the comments made. However, I do feel that certain aspects have been overlooked. It is for example important to point out that a lot of the changes made to the levelling experience, of experienced and inexperienced players alike, were implemented to shift focus more onto the end-game content of the game – especially raiding.

End-game Content
In conjunction with the changes made to make levelling quicker and easier the accessibility of end-game content was greatly increased, by decreasing the minimum raid group size from 25 (which it was the case for most top end raids in The Burning Crusade) to 10 players. It's understandable that Blizzard would want to focus more attention on level 80 content, as this is the content that is expanded in patches throughout each expansion. Raid Leaders and guilds no longer need to assemble 40 people (as they did back in “vanilla”, or 25 people to raid end-game content. Maintaining the balance between accessibility and still providing a challenge for more hardcore players is something that Blizzard, in my opinion, have managed to do very well. Smaller and more casual guilds getting to see end-game content is more motivating than back in The Burning Crusade, where a majority of the later raid dungeons were only ever seen by more hardcore guilds. From the Having the option of raiding on 10/25 man, as well as optional heroic settings manages to cater to the needs of most players. More casual raiders can now “beat the final boss”, while the 25man heroic modes provide an adequate challenge for those players who want to prove themselves against top-tier content. But I digress....

Mounts and Quest Tracking
When it comes to mounts, you used to have to farm endlessly to be able to afford your mount. With the increased inflation in the game this is no longer required of course, provided one has a main character with deep pockets. Even so, I for one do not miss having to run on foot everywhere and having to grind gorillas in Stranglethorn Vale to afford buying my first mount. It must however say that it felt like much more of an achievement obtaining your first mount, and even more so your first epic mount, back before The Burning Crusade. This is something that players new to the game probably don't experience to the same extent, and therefore feel somewhat bewildered when us old, weathered players start rambling about how easy the young whipper-snappers have it these days. I myself didn't use the Quest Helper add-on before this functionality was implemented into the game, and I don't find myself depending too heavily on it now. I can understand the appeal this holds to players who can either not be bothered reading the quest description or for the quest or who previously had to rely on websites such as Wowhead or Thottbot to provide additional quest information.

Heirloom items
The 25% increase (10% from shoulders, 10% from chest and 5% from the ring obtain by winning the Kalu'ak Fishing Derby) to experience gain one can obtain for ones alts from wearing heirlooms is very nice for those players who've already levelled one character to level 80. As you've said heirlooms are only accessible to players who already have a level 80 character, but therefore they may not want to spend their time questing at lower levels once more. There is always the option of not purchasing or wearing the heirloom items, should one feel so inclined. The heirlooms may not be particularly difficult to obtain at this point, for those who have had their main characters at 80 for some time, but they still require some effort to obtain. That is, assuming you focus on obtaining decent equipment for your level 80 character first. As far as I understand it the heirloom Tome of Cold Weather Flight was implemented to allow players, who had already rode around Northrend on their mounts, to use their alt's flying mounts right from the start - as opposed to first having to level to 77 before being able to do so. In other words it is used to circumvent the level requirement rather than a monetary one, as players do not require Artisan Riding (epic flying) to obtain it.

Dungeon Finder Tool
The Random Dungeon Finder tool does certainly make levelling easier, especially for players who take on a healing role, but in my opinion it is in no way a substitute for questing. Player level entirely from doing dungeons will most likely find this to be a very time-consuming affair, especially if you play a damage dealing class/specc combination, as the dungeon queue can be quite demoralizing.

Lore and Content
People interested in the lore aspects of the game do have the option of going back and exploring older content, while for example trying to obtain the Loremaster title. I know a number of players who started playing the game late in Burning Crusade or at the start of Wrath of the Lich King, who on their own accord have gone back to explore old content out of interest and curiosity regarding lore etc. While some zones may have nostalgic value to me personally there are also zones in the game I am quite glad not having to do any more because you no longer need to scrape together all experience you can get. In other words, players at the moment have much more freedom in choosing what zones to level in and what quest lines to pursue. Dex does have a point when it comes to players missing out on zones while levelling, due to the increased experience gained, but as pointed out these people have the option of going back to explore older content. I do agree with your argument that that it is now somewhat easy for experienced players to reach level 80 on their alts, however it's also important to keep in mind that people who levelled a character back in “vanilla” or The Burning Crusade have most likely seen it all before. Outland is probably the continent that suffers the most from the increased levelling rate, as new players may feel inclined to skip most of it to get started in Northrend as soon as possible. With the upcoming changes to Azeroth in Cataclysm, Outland and Northrend will most likely take an even bigger hit in terms of lore continuity. After all, from a lore perspective; why would you go to Outland to fight the Burning Legion, or Northrend to fight the Lich King, when Deathwing is wreaking havoc back home? (for more on this, see Mike Schramm's old post and the associated links over at WoW.com. Having to cater to experienced and new players alike is no easy task, but something I feel Blizzard have done quite well. I believe that the appeal the game might lose from the decrease in levelling difficulty it makes up for in end-game content and the sheer magnitude of content for players to explore.

Finally, I'd once again like to commend you on the quality of the post, and for providing some very interesting points on the changes made to the levelling in World of Warcraft. I tip my hat to you madam.

Posted by Kristopher Brännström on Fri, Jul 16 2010 07:48:26 CDT | #1