Email: Item Squish

In RPGs, power growth tends to be either along a linear or an exponential curve.  Western RPGs tend to have linear growth, and JRPGs tend to have exponential growth.  Vanilla WoW was a linear curve.  I don’t remember anyone complaining that the numbers at max level weren’t big enough.  WIth the add-ons, they took the growth exponential.  The item squish is basically a proposal to take the curve back to the original linear growth rate.  Was the vanilla WoW growth rate so intolerable that if it was restored, millions of people would quit?  Doubtful.  The only constant here is that change makes people angry.

Your idea for a mod wouldn’t work because the growth curve has a structural effect on an RPG; it’s not merely cosmetic.  The growth structure of an RPG determines what range of levels can be effective against a certain level of monster or dungeon.

The exponential jump is to make people rush out and buy the expansion. The ‘greens’ of the expansion are better than the heroic raid gear of the previous expansion.

The stats have always been level except for in between expansions. The Item Squish isn’t about linear leveling but pretending those exponential jumps never occurred in previous expansions. Exponential jumps would still exist with future expansions (or people wouldn’t buy it).

This would be only one item squish out of future ones to come.