What If: Blizzard Lifted Various Restrictions?

I hear people asking for blizzard to remove certain things in the game like the valor cap and wonder what it would be like if they did.  Restrictions are there for a reason, limits do have some thought behind them.  But they don't always work for everyone.  What if some of those restrictions were removed.  I'll touch on a few that I think come up the most and give my opinion on them.

Time to enter the... what if zone.

What if they removed the weekly valor cap restriction?

Not the total cap, just the weekly cap.  Do you think that it would help the game?  I know that I would personally do everything I could on my main ASAP to get everything that I might ever need with valor.  Effectively over one week I would have every new piece of valor gear that was released and every single upgrade that I could upgrade.  Assuming those upgrade guys were there at the time of course.

I think that is the reason there is a cap.  Because people like me would do that.  Even if we retained the hard cap of 3000 if I could keep earning I would just collect and buy and collect and buy until there was nothing left to buy.  I believe this to be the reason blizzard does not do something like this.

However.  It might be a decent change.  Sure the people like me might burn ourselves out, but people that play like I do are an extremely small percentage.  How would it effect the masses, or would it even?

Lets say you have the guy that only logs on during the weekends and not every weekend.  Sometimes he has more time than others.  So he might be able to earn 1800 valor this weekend but only 300 the next and 400 the one after.  He would still be well under the 3000 that 1000 per week would limit him to over that three week period but he would have more being he was not limited by the 1000 cap that one week he was able to really get a lot of play in.  For people like that, who actually are the majority of the player base, it would be a fantastic change.

I might love and hate a change like this.  Love it so I can get things done faster but hate it because I know I would keep going until I did, which would eat up content, and burn me out.  But for the masses, I don't think removing the weekly cap would be a bad thing at all.  For them it would be a very good thing.  They most likely never, or rarely, reach the cap anyway, so that one week that they do they can earn a little more.  I see nothing wrong with that.

It would also work as the perfect catch up mechanic.  Of course assuming you have something to spend the valor on and aren't now gated by reputation.  If you are late out of the gate or just leveled up an alt, just grind as much valor as you are willing to grind and you are effectively caught up.

I am torn on if this what if would be a good idea or not.

What if they remove raid lock outs restrictions?

As in there is no such thing as a raid lock out any more.  Just boss loot table lock outs.  You are locked to the first boss in ToT but you can still do it again.  You just will not get loot.  The lock would be for loot only, not from doing it.  Something like that.

I would absolutely love this idea.  With that I can run my 10s and still bring my main along for the 25s.  So can all the other people from the more progressed 10 man group.  This, in turn, would help our 25 man group see more content, get more gear, get more experience, and get better as a team.

I think the removal of raid lock outs would be an excellent addition to the game.  Lock you to the bosses loot table.  You are only allowed to get loot off a boss once a week.  For the LFR it works nice and easy but for the real raid it would be harder to code into it as you could just have a loot master passing things out. 

But I do not think it would be anything beyond their capability.  You can not trade a piece of gear that dropped off the first boss to someone that only joined for the second because they are not eligible for it.  The system realizes that by a tag on the item and/or the person.  So all people that have already looted a boss would get that same flag, as if they were not there for it, so gear could not be awarded to them or traded to them.  See, really simple, in theory anyway.

So it can be done and I would fully and completely support this being done.  This is one what if I could really get behind and would love to see added to the game.  It not only would help in my situation as I mentioned above but it would, or could, help the pug situation on most servers like mine, where there are none at all.

What if you could raid the current tier cross realm?

I already know why you can't.  Money.  Simple as that.  Guilds would be posting to sell runs and people would buy them.  If there were the no raid lock out system like the last what if, and this, a really good guild with a lot of time could run it over and over carrying people through it for titles and achievements making gold hand over fist or real life money behind the scenes.

So I can not see this and the last what if existing in the same gaming world.  It would have to be one or the other in my opinion.  I think I would like the other better.  But that is not to say I do not like this idea.

I have alts on other servers that I do not have guilds to run with.  So it would be nice to bring them along with my guild so I can get some gear on them.  That would be one of the good uses for it.  I can live without this what if however.  I don't really know enough people on other servers that I would care to run with to begin with, but that is just me.  I do not even use battle tag and won't until the ability to appear offline is added.  So cross server is not on my radar to begin with.

What if they remove the once a week loot restriction from the LFR?

What it if were like the LFD and every time you ran it you had a chance to win something.  It think this would be like the valor one.  People would just run it over and over until they got what they needed.  It could cause burn out for some but it might just have its place.

People that complain about not getting anything can do something about it themselves instead of having it be a wait until next week thing.  They can run it again and again.  Still at the mercy of the random number generator gods but at least they would feel that they had the power in their hands to get what they want without waiting even if the system doesn't give it to them.

I am not sure I would support this what if but I can surely see why many would.  Sure you can run something over and over again with coins for an additional chance but you can only get three coins a week and if you use them all in the LFR what would you have for the world bosses and real raid bosses?

What if they made the coin exchange a daily instead of a weekly?

Three coins per day instead of three coins per week.  Would that flood the players with gear?  Seeing the drop rates I would say no of course, but it could very well do that.  Stack up before raid night with a full 10 and you can roll on 10 bosses.  10 extra chances to win loot for the person that was willing to grind enough lesser charms to afford them.

But would that add more to the mandatory feeling that some people have?  I know for me it sure would.  As long as there was an upgrade to be had on the bosses that were accessible to me that week I would consider it mandatory to have a coin for the boss to increase my chances at getting loot.

I think 3 per week is a fair rate to get them at.  What about you?

What if blizzard removed the experience cap?

This is a very thinking forward idea.  As in you keep gaining experience, at a lesser pace of course, even after you hit level cap.  If you are active enough you can actually get to the point that when the next expansion comes out and you log in you instantly picked up two or three or even all five levels.

What if they did not stop the gain of experience and they let you bank it?  Would people keep playing even when there was nothing for them to play for because they just wanted to keep working on getting that leg up for the next expansion?  Being they would not know how much experience will be needed for the next expansion they would have to keep earning and earning all the time if they really wanted that leg up.

Would it hurt the game any for me to log in and be 95 the second I log in for the next expansion?  Lets face it, anyone as active as I am will surely have amassed enough experience by the time the next expansion comes out to hit the new cap instantly.  It wouldn't really save me much time.  I've always reached max level the day a new expansion was released anyway.  I would also still need to do the quests because I would need the gear.  Unless they also added a gear catch up knowing many active players would already be well on their way to max or at it.

I can't see this what if ever happening.  It would basically remove the leveling process for a great deal of the really active players that play at max level but there are also many of those players that would greatly welcome removing the leveling process.

The end for this is, blizzard wants us to see the new world they make, they will never release anything that allows you to completely skip it.  Speed it up maybe, not skip it.

Perhaps if all the experience you gained converted to rested for the next expansion.  That is something I could see happening in this what if world, if anything.  But not this.

What if they removed all class/race restrictions?

My Troll Paladin would say, thank you mon.  Seriously, outside of lore there are no reasons to now allow every race to be every class.  The reason for the restrictions is because they want to make it feel more reality based, if that makes sense.  Certain people can not do certain things.  Simple as that.  The lore decides who can do what.

Would it be good for the game play wise?  Absolutely.  People will get to play with the skin they want.  If you wanted to be a paladin horde side I have options but troll is no one of them.  What real difference is there for me as a player to use a troll instead of my tauren?  A skin only.  And I really like the way plate gear looks on a troll personally.

Lore wise I could see this having a down side but outside of that I see no reason why this is not a possible what if scenario that we might actually see some time in the future.

What if they removed single class restrictions?

What if dual spec had a sister ability of dual class.  My hunter would no longer be my hunter.  It would be my night elf who is main spec SV hunter and off spec disc priest.  Could you imagine that?  Being able to have your off spec be an spec from another class?

What is really keeping someone from knowing two skill sets.  Who says that a priest can not also be a hunter?  There are a few lore characters that would like to have a word with you if you think that combo is far fetched.  Or a warlock can not also be a mage.  Or a rogue might want to moonlight as a warrior.

The possibilities of this what if are endless.  When you choose your class you can not ever change it, so it should be the same with your off class.  If you choose to be a main hunter and an off class of priest you can never change that.  You would be those two always.  While being those two you can of course choose between the 6 specs they can be as your two active specs.

I can actually see something like this being added to the game some time in the future.  One of those expansion where they are not adding a new race or a new class, just to give it some spice.  Sooner or later they will need to have to offer something character wise when they run out of race and class options to add.  This would fit nicely in that spot.

As far as what ifs go this is a huge what if and would need a lot of redesigning in some aspects of course but I think this is not as crazy of a what if as you might think it is.

What if they removed storage restrictions?

Either by making it so we can keep upgrading our storage space with gold, or just removing the need for it for a variety of items.  A tabard tab, an equipment tab where anything soulbound that you can equip appears as a drop down option and not in your bags, a toy box for all your fun things that is a menu like the titles of your toys, things like that.

The only thing that bags would be left for is quest items, junk, grays, BoEs, and crafting materials, which also would now stack to insane amounts.  Just all the little things to remove the restrictions on how much garbage we can collect.  Making it so we can be in charge of how much we want.

Our bank would have endless tabs for adding more bags, each costing more.  Our void storage would now become the place all our gear ends up in, and we equip it those one of those screens that are now in the transmog section where it is just a selection list.  When you are out of gear space, more tabs for your void storage open, for a fee of course.

All those little things and more added just to remove the storage restrictions.  What if that happened?

Well, I will tell you what if for me.  I would just end up with more junk and still somehow find a way to fill every available slot causing me to need more gold to open more and more spaces.

I think that is why there are limits and always will be limits.  No need to turn warcraft into an episode of hoarders.  It is bad enough as is already with all the junk we collect.  I want more space, but I don't see them ever making this what if a reality.  Damn my hoarding tendencies.

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There are a lot of restrictions in the game and some we might like and others we might hate but they are there for a reason.  Should some of them be lifted, that is a matter of opinion of course.  But of all the ones I listed here I would love to see the raid lock out lifting being we probably will never see the return of 10 and 25 mans on separate lock outs.  Locking us to loot once a week just seems like a much better idea.  But the idea that people could sell a carry service, for real money too, means I doubt we will see it.  But an elf can dream and of all the what ifs here that is the what if I would dream for most.

What are your ideas on these restriction what ifs being removed?  Or do you have a what if for removing another restriction?