World of Warcraft reveals why current events will be improved post-launch

Key insights

  • WoW buffs event currency gains are because it is easier to increase the numbers than to decrease them.
  • World of Warcraft plays it safe when it comes to event rewards, but ultimately adjusts them based on player feedback, one example being the increased currency gains for the 20th Anniversary event.



World of Warcraft Recently, the reason for this was revealed that many of the limited-time events in 2024 later received boosts to the currency gains, because it is easier to increase these numbers than to decrease them. While it can be frustrating for players to complete the events as quickly as possible, World of Warcraft tends to err on the side of caution as it cannot reduce these numbers without significant community backlash.

This year, World of Warcraft has held several time-limited events: Plunderstorm, WoW Remix: Mists of Pandariathe Radiant Echoes pre-patch event for The internal warand the ongoing 20th anniversary celebrations. Despite their differences, these are World of Warcraft All events received improvements to their currency collection rates at some point during their duration.


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During a recent interview with GamesRadar+, World of Warcraft Game director Ion Hazzikostas explained why this keeps happening. “We can increase the rewards at any time,” he said. “We're never going to weaken the rewards, really, are we? If things go out too quickly and generously, we will never take it back. And so, as we play, if there's something in the guessing game of trying to choose the right values, we may tend to err on the conservative side.” Hazzikostas stressed that the developers weren't being intentionally stingy, but rather tried to find the balance between reward and engagement. “Hopefully players understand that we are quick and responsive when it feels like we've missed the mark. We're hearing the community's feedback loud and clear.”


World of Warcraft plays it safe when it comes to events


Regarding the most recent example, Hazzikostas noted that the developers had not taken into account the impact of their own release rhythm on the 20th anniversary event. It didn't start until eight weeks later The internal warThis means that many players were still in the middle of the endgame loop. “Even though they really enjoyed the 20th anniversary content, they felt like, 'I've already spent a lot of time exploring dungeons and dungeons and leveling up these other alts.' Beyond that, it seems too much to ask.'” Adding the 20th anniversary event content on top of the existing 11.0 “tasks” was overwhelming and leading-edge World of Warcraft to increase Bronze Celebration Tokens earned through Season 1 activities.

“We can improve the rewards at any time. We'll never weaken the rewards, right? If things go out too quickly and generously, we will never take it back. And so, while we're playing this guessing game a little bit, when we try to pick the right values, we may tend to err on the conservative side.”


The impact of what would happen if event currency acquisition rates were reduced can be seen in the response to hotfixes during World of Warcraft Remix: Mists of Pandaria. There were a number of superspawn exploits that players discovered that trivialized the battle for bronze, reputation, and threads for their Cloaks of Infinite Potential, with the infamous Swallowing Frogs being the most notorious of all. The fans were outraged when World of Warcraft has rolled back the efficiency of these farming spots – and it's not a logical step to assume that they would react similarly if Blizzard weakened an event for being “too fast and generous.”

While players may not be happy with Hazzikostas' answer, the logic makes perfect sense. From a development perspective, it's better to buff an under-tuned event than to release an over-tuned one and decide between losing engagement or causing outrage with a nerf. However, setting a trend that encourages fans to wait for inevitable buffs before engaging in an event isn't good either. Hopefully the lessons learned from these events will be helpful in the future World of Warcraft Activities achieve this balance on the first try.

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