That Blizzard had decided to make this change initially is surprising and a little disturbing. Achievement hunters are already the people who invest a great deal of time in the game and also tend to stick around when all the raiding content is done. They're the people who have subbed for years without interruption. People who had 40 exalted reps are the same people who will grind out the next 10 just to say they did.
And unlike many changes this was not a change based around "fixing" something or balancing gameplay. This change did not benefit a single person and really had that "we just want your money" feel behind it.
Blizzard's argument that it was "too hard" to come up with another title or a different reward seems like a cop out. They could have easily implemented a tabard, pet, or new title (or just left it as is with no new title). Plenty of wonderful suggestions were offered in the 139 page thread on the subject.
I'm glad they reverted this change but it's amazing it made it through in the first place when Blizzard has explicitly said they would not ever remove rewards from people who had earned them fairly and that is exactly what they had ended up doing.
Exalted Title Once Again Requires 40 Reputations
In response to player feedback, Blizzard has decided to revert the requirement for 'the Exalted' title back to 40 exalted reputations. The team recently bumped it up to 50 reputations in an attempt to keep it a difficult reward in Cataclysm and beyond, but many players were frustrated to lose their title with the change. Blizzard took the constructive posts to heart and will be switching back to 40 reputations through a hotfix or client patch.
If you're wondering why 'the Exalted' title isn't grandfathered like 'the Loremaster' or 'the Explorer' titles, Community Manager Bashiok explained in his post that it's simply a technical issue. While Blizzard can't do it now, they're "working on such a technology that will allow players to keep items or titles associated with achievements even if we decide to change that criteria."
Check out Bashiok's full post after the jump.
Recently we changed 'the Exalted' title to require 50 exalted titles up from 40, which meant those that had achieved it were now asked to get 10 more reputations to gain the title back. We felt this kept the title as a difficult reward given the additional reputations introduced with Cataclysm, and also avoided the problem of achievement inflation as the game continues to grow, devaluing the reward.
We didn’t let people know beforehand that we were making this change. A pretty cut and dry error on our part. We take full responsibility for not communicating the change properly, and apologize for the frustration it added to the situation. Unfortunately, that frustration in some people’s cases went to an extreme. Over the past couple days we’ve handed out innumerable suspensions to people who were unable to stay within the forum code of conduct while posting about this change. We of course understand passions can run hot, but some of the violations were extreme enough to remove people’s posting privileges permanently. It’s unfortunate because rational, calm, and constructive posting is the type of feedback that’s taken, discussed, and can help encourage real change. For those that were able to adhere to those posting ideals, we truly thank you for your efforts in keeping your cool.
We took your constructive posts and points, and after discussing the change for quite a while with the designers, the decision has been made to move ‘the Exalted’ title back to require 40 exalted reputations. We’re going to attempt this change with a hotfix, but are unsure at this time if it will be able to be applied through a hotfix. It’s possible that a client patch will be required. (We’ll let you know if it does.)
The 45 and 50 exalted reputation achievements will continue to exist, but for the time being won’t provide anything beyond achievement points. As some have questioned why the title isn’t grandfathered like ‘the Loremaster’ or ‘the Explorer’ titles, these function differently mechanically. While their requirements have changed, the actual achievement is the same. There’s no tech currently that allows us to give a title for an achievement and then move that title to a different achievement altogether and have people keep them. We are however working on such a technology that will allow players to keep items or titles associated with achievements even if we decide to change that criteria. So, say if we eventually decide to move ‘the Exalted’ title to an achievement which requires 60 reputations in the next expansion (just as an example), players who already earned the title at 40 reputations will get to keep the title when the criteria changes. This technology would allow us to let players keep titles or items they’ve already earned, while ensuring we don’t get stuck in a position where we have to continually generate new rewards just so those who earned them originally don’t lose them.
Thanks again for your feedback.
Tags: News, WorldofWarcraft
