Blizzard to Add Experience Gain to Battlegrounds? Everyone Relax!

[Comicus]

Blizzard may be planning to allow players to gain experience in battlegrounds. There…I said it. We’ve all seen at least 100 threads on the subject. We’ve all heard the rumors. Apparently, during Blizzcon 2008, Blizzard hinted that they plan to make add experience gain to PvP battlegrounds.

The sky is not falling. Let’s all step back and think about this before we make another “QQ I quit” post on the forums. Blizzard has not ever said, or even implied, that they will add *mandatory* experience gain to battlegrounds.

We are not talking about Mom & Pop’s Hot Dog Stand here. We are talking about Blizzard Entertainment, producers of the most successful MMORPG of all time (by a large margin at that). Blizzard did not leap to the top of the MMO food chain by alienating pockets of their player/customer base.

They are fully aware of the number of paying customers who focus primarily, if not exclusively, on their twinks. They are also fully aware of the fact that they stand to lose roughly $16 per month for each of those players if they were to implement something like mandatory experience in battlegrounds.

Let’s set panic aside for a moment and look at what the real repercussion of what is likely to be optional experience gain in battlegrounds: an influx of lower level, poorly geared players in each bracket. We’ve all experienced it. We have all groaned after taking a queue and finding ourselves surrounded by a team full of players representing the lower end of our bracket. If Blizzard adds experience gain, you can count on seeing a lot more of them.

Even here though, the sky is not falling. Everyone who steps foot in the battlegrounds pays the same monthly fee as the rest of us. Getting premade vs. premade battleground match-ups will probably become a bit more difficult if this change goes through, but one could argue that it would also add a couple exciting new elements to gameplay. After this change, if your team has more low level players, you can bet the other team will as well.

No respectable twink player, team or guild enjoys steamrolling unequipped lower level players. If there is a positive to be found with the newly-proposed change, it is probably that PUG games are likely to be more balanced and will present a fun challenge for everyone. That being said, if pre-made teams of super twinks end up going up against opposing teams made up of primarily lower level players, the result will be a scenario that is no fun for anyone involved.

The real risk with even optional experience gain in battlegrounds is throwing lower level players who are trying to level up in a new way into a shark tank filled with twinks. The World of Warcraft twink community and style of gameplay is not going anywhere. Twinks will continue to exist, thrive and be as competitive as ever. However, it looks like it may be time for Blizzard to re-visit their battleground gear-matching plan.