World of Warcraft introduced seasonal events with the addition of Winter’s Veil in patch 1.2.0, and has since introduced dozens of popular events. However, these events have stirred controversy recently, as the gradual increase of rare items has made the randomized nature of holiday drops more prevalent than ever.
A Wowhead article posted on March 18 by Anshlun titled Holiday Rare Drops are Bad. Here’s Why discusses why rare holiday drops have upset the balance of World of Warcraft and diminished player agency. Anshlun uses the recent Brewfest, Hallow’s End, and Winter Veil exclusive Dragonriding manuscripts as evidence, as all of these cosmetic items are only available through abysmally low drop rates which only exist for a brief window.
Anshlun’s solution is simple, plainly suggesting Blizzard should just do away with the holiday drops altogether. The article also discusses other possibilities, such as increasing the drop rate or allowing players to build towards their desired item in a way that can give players a “tangible sense of progress.”
Over on Reddit, many players shared Anshlun’s frustration, although many provided alternate solutions to the issue. Reddit user i_wear_green_pants proposed a “holiday coin” that could be earned and spent through holiday specific vendors. “Putting time limited items behind RNG is no fun,” the user said.
User Lucifang noted unique currencies for limited time events already exist in World of Warcraft through the Timewalking system. No matter which Timewalking dungeons are active, you can always save up the specific currency to eventually purchase loot from any legacy dungeons.
Of course, this solution would only stack yet another currency on to the seemingly insurmountable pile of coins in every player’s bag. Api4Reddit admitted “currencies are a necessary evil in MMOs,” but that Blizzard should prioritize a renovated, account bound currency tab with filters and favorites. Naturally, there are plenty of players who think adding another currency or creating a new holiday drop system defeats the purpose of seasonal events. “What is this terrible mentality of new gen MMO players where you have to own everything,” Goodestguykeem said in the thread. “These events would totally die if they didn’t have something to farm.”
At the moment, it seems that Blizzard has no intent to change how rare holiday drops work. With the addition of rare Dragonriding Manuscripts in popular holiday events, it does not appear this trend will slow down for The War Within.
