In hand with yesterday’s post, Wrath of the Lich King is more or less ‘complete’, now, with Icecrown Citadel cleared and what looks to be a potentially long dry spell for WoW looming. I can’t imagine Blizzard releasing a new content patch any time soon, if at all. I suspect they expected Icecrown Citadel to last a little longer than it did. And certainly I suppose a good majority of raiders will still be busy clearing their way through Icecrown during the coming months, but there are also a number of players who will clear it sooner, and probably even more who won’t even bother. There’s something about the fact that such a long-time menace is now, finally, defeatable, that takes the wind right out of a good number of players’ sails.

Why grind through Icecrown when you can just watch a video of Arthas dying on Youtube? In fact, If I’m not mistaken, once he’s killed on a realm, a statue in Dalaran is erected with a clickable plaque that plays the final cinematic of his defeat – a plaque that I believe anybody can click on and view.

Icecrown Citadel is in a strange place right now. To hardcore raiders, it’s easy. To casuals, it’s really hard. The guild I’m in, for instance, has yet to progress past Putricide, and we spend night after night wiping on Rotface, for example. Most casual guilds are in this same situation, facing a hump they just can’t get over. This has the effect on many casuals that they simply….give up.

And once that happens, they’ll probably move on to something else.

And here’s where the opportunity for other MMORPG’s to cash in on ‘The End of Wrath’ arises. There are going to be millions of disgruntled, casual PVE bots in the coming months looking for an alternative. They’re going to be angry at WoW. Angry that’s it’s over, and/or angry that they can’t see the ending for themselves. They’ll protest by cancelling their subscriptions and trying out other games. There is an opportunity for the likes of Star Trek Online and Champions Online and Aion and Warhammer, to capitalise on this.

Of course, to do so they’re going to need content. And lots of it. Not necessarily pointless grindy stuff, but simply lots of things to do. And the problem is that all of these games, games poised to potentially rake in hordes of subscribers, have thus far failed to deliver this one, simple thing. Content. Content, content, content.

Maybe repetition will drill it into their thick skulls.

If I was, say, Mythic, I’d quit pissing about with this whole RvR nonsense. The reality is that only a relatively small niche audience is interested in that. Instead, begin injecting PVE content. Tons of it.  I’m talking 6man dungeons and warband-sized raids. Dozens of them. Cryptic could do the same with Champions or Star Trek Online, NCSoft could with Aion. But each of these suffer from the same lack-of-content issues right now. And the frustrating part is, they could really take a slice out of that WoW playerbase, if they simply acknowledged the fact that people want quantity. They want a lot of it. And they want it to be good. They don’t want endless grinds. They don’t want the responsibility of endgame to be placed at their feet with RvR or whatever. They. Want. Content.

It’s that simple, you morons. You’re missing out on a huge opportunity now by continuing to cut corners. One that won’t come around again any time soon, not once Cataclysm arrives.

Time to wake up and smell the espresso. You have this one chance. Don’t blow it.

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