Repeated History, and the Real Challenge of Legion XP-Off

[Kirise]

@Flaxy raised a provocative question, that got me ruminating about the future of XP-Off play. I see history getting ready to repeat itself, and wanted to share my concerns. TL;DR version at the end.

Back in 3.1, when news surfaced that Blizzard would add XP to battlegrounds alongside the ability to shut off XP gain, the twink community got into an uproar. Many said this would kill twinking. Some said it would provide a new era for twinking, since twinks would only face each other. History showed that both were right.

World of Warcraft PvP leveraged gear, and the vast majority of twinks were more interested in using their gear to destroy opponents, rather than elevating play. I bet if someone started a thread titled, "when was the first time you saw a twink kick ass?" we would see all kinds of fun stories about how most of us got into twinking because we experienced or saw someone get destroyed in a battleground. Then we researched and acquired twink gear, and discovered two results.

One, now we could smash undergeared players. Two, players with much greater skills still smashed us, regardless of our new twink gear. That "Aha!" moment -- when we realized that gear wasn't the reason someone made an amazing play on the battlefield -- that moment serves as part of the foundation for much of the XP-Off community.

Outgearing an opponent wasn't the reason most people played XP-off when patch 3.2 landed, nor was it the reason people play XP-off today. XP-off play effectively nullified gear advantage when everyone arrived fully geared. However, gear served both a functional and symbolic role for twinking, a sort of "entrance fee" requiring time and gold. We geared twinks to show our commitment to our characters, and to the brackets in which we played.

Fast forward to today, a few scant weeks away from 7.0.3 and the re-merging of XP-off and XP-on players in battlegrounds and arenas. Many look forward to endless pops in their particular brackets "without gear as a crutch". Some lament the end of gear-based PvP. I think once again, both sides are right.

Blizz made an overall positive step by eliminating gear in WoW instanced PvP. But neither the forthcoming "XP-off" icon in BGs nor twinks wearing high ilvl gear like the Mist-Piercing Goggles will intrigue or impress anyone (@willix and others made a similar point in another thread). Gear will no longer serve as the gateway for players to discover the joys of organized premades, of dedicated team members, of camaraderie and rivalry.

TL;DR version/my final point: For those who hope the re-merging of battlegrounds will reignite interest in skilled PvP at lower levels, I think you're in for a disappointment. XP-off players may have some great games and make some new friends, but community growth will not happen by itself. If anything, the XP-off community faces a greater threat in Legion: irrelevancy. When gear won't matter, something else needs to inspire players to explore the hidden depth of low-level PvP.

 

[willix]

Yes, twinking is indeed dead. in Legion. That much is indisputable. However, I do think that players who really enjoy it will just move back to owning levelers regardless of gear disparity (or lack thereof). I think we'll see a return of the old Vanilla low level pvp problem of the average leveler having a bunch of empty slots still and being below the ilvl baseline for their bracket, resulting in the same artificial disparity that existed before.

It's kind of funny, actually. I remember the conversations players had before and after 3.2 came. It was a common thread to see twinks being berated for ruining everyone's good time prior to 3.2. Then it was a common thread to berate leveling twinks (people who twinked just to level up and bypass segregation). Then we heard about 'BoA twinks' like having BoAs made someone a twink. I'm genuinely curious to see where the threads go post 7.0.

 

[DeLindsay]

Yes, twinking is indeed dead. in Legion. That much is indisputable.

I'll dispute your comment, Twinking will never die as long as there are Players willing to put the time/effort into Twinking their Characters. It makes no difference how YOU define Twinking as I'm sure it's different from MY definition and different from a dozen other People's definition.

 

[Conq]

Okay well I do not care to have this conversation personally because I think it is exactly what you said, the community will not grow alone. Meaning actions are more important than debate, and the truth of the matter is the same people who have been organizing, recruiting, and running guilds/the bracket (at least in 19s) are very well aware that their efforts are more important than ever in legion, but their efforts also have far more room for success, I personally think that the attractive aspect of Twinks will be our events, and i'm more than prepared for that.

 

[willix]

I'll dispute your comment, Twinking will never die as long as there are Players willing to put the time/effort into Twinking their Characters. It makes no difference how YOU define Twinking as I'm sure it's different from MY definition and different from a dozen other People's definition.

If only definitions of words were a matter of opinion. People will always lock XP (as long as it's possible) and play the popular low level pvp bracket. That won't be changing at all any time soon, because people really enjoy the low level pvp experience. But I'm not here to get into a side argument with you about it.

Okay well I do not care to have this conversation personally because I think it is exactly what you said, the community will not grow alone. Meaning actions are more important than debate, and the truth of the matter is the same people who have been organizing, recruiting, and running guilds/the bracket (at least in 19s) are very well aware that their efforts are more important than ever in legion, but their efforts also have far more room for success, I personally think that the attractive aspect of Twinks will be our events, and i'm more than prepared for that.

I think that there will still be Wargames as a feature for players interested in a more skilled play environment. We leveraged the hell out of Wargames in MoP with pretty good success (imo) with a completely dead bracket (29s). It's not something that is going away as a possibility in Legion (at least as far as I know), so I would expect some use out of it in that way.

But I think the larger point to draw here is that organization won't be the only source of activity for these players, as it has been since 3.2. So the presence of good players in low level pvp will again have the added effect of recruiting more skilled players. It's difficult to recruit and build a guild when your player pool is segregated from newer players who might be interested in it.

 

[Voc]

The time has come for tinks to take over endgame #legion