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World of Warcraft players will see Blizzard’s transformation of the game in version 10.2.5, with the addition of AI robots providing a better gaming experience, especially for “solo” players, fundamentally changing the previously social-centric game mechanics.
1. Players Can Create AI Robot Dungeon Teams
In the current version of World of Warcraft, if you are a new player or someone with “social anxiety,” the first challenge you encounter on your leveling journey is team quests! World of Warcraft has a characteristic where every expansion pushes players to explore the world through the storyline, but at the end of a small chapter of the storyline, there is always a dungeon to summarize, followed by the seasonal finale raid.
However, dungeons require a five-person team to complete, and if you can’t find enough teammates, players face the awkward situation of not being able to fully experience the storyline.
Many players have probably encountered dungeon quests that they couldn’t complete due to the inability to form a team, leading them to abandon the quest, resulting in reaching max level without even knowing the direction of certain plots and characters. This is not a good gaming experience, and for the development team, it loses the opportunity to showcase the carefully crafted storyline to players.
To allow players to experience the complete storyline, World of Warcraft has introduced AI robots to help players complete dungeon storylines, which has become one of the core changes. Because World of Warcraft has always emphasized social interaction, the gameplay of solo players combined with AI robots does not align with the original intent of the game.
In version 10.2.5, players can create a dungeon team consisting of 4 AI robots! The team composition will change according to the player’s class specialization; for example, if the player is DPS, the AI robot configuration will consist of 2 DPS, 1 tank, and 1 healer, forming a 5-person team.
The 4 AI robots will each perform their roles to help players clear dungeons, and even if players switch class specializations within the dungeon, the AI robots will adjust their responsibilities accordingly to meet the team composition requirements. Players don’t need to worry about team composition; they just need to defeat the final boss of the dungeon with the AI robots to complete the storyline quest.
2. AI Robots are More Friendly to Solo Players
AI robots have long existed in many other MMO games, such as Guild Wars 1 and Final Fantasy XI, and World of Warcraft is somewhat late to the party. However, due to the current advancements in AI, the World of Warcraft development team is very confident in adding AI mechanisms, even applying them in game development, such as in helmet and character adaptability, where AI can now avoid issues of helmet clipping with different races’ character features.
According to interviews with the development team, the different weapons used by character specializations will also have better visual representations with the help of AI, whether dual-wielding, one-handed, or two-handed weapons, the characters will be able to display the equipped weapons appropriately after combat.
However, some players worry that the AI robot dungeon teams will turn World of Warcraft into a single-player game, and the development team should also consider that if AI robots are too powerful, the game will lose its social fun. Therefore, challenging content like Mythic+ dungeons and raids does not feature AI robots, still requiring players to actively seek out suitable teams based on their abilities.
Currently, AI robots are limited to quest dungeons and other lower-difficulty content, and players are not completely abandoning social interaction, primarily focusing on storyline experience, and the social core of World of Warcraft still exists.
In version 12.0, there will also be seasonal companions, with the S1 season of the “Heart of the Abyss” featuring Brann Bronzebeard accompanying players. Unlike previous companions, Brann requires players to provide equipment and unlock talents! Brann can help players treasure hunt in the wild and provide special mechanisms during cave explorations, and Brann is also an AI robot.
With the addition of AI robot dungeon teams and the unlocking of NPCs like Brann, “solo” players no longer need to form player teams for quests, both in the wild and in dungeons. This undoubtedly greatly improves the gaming experience for “solo” players, allowing them to experience the complete storyline on their leveling journey without having to backtrack to run dungeons for plot understanding.
In summary, AI robots are expected to be very popular among players, especially for “solo” players who only enjoy playing DPS, as DPS is the hardest specialization to find a team for. If players enter the game late in the expansion, leveling difficulty increases, and encountering dungeon tasks can lead to hours of searching for a team, which can diminish players’ enthusiasm for the game. It must be said that Blizzard’s changes to World of Warcraft are more suited to the current gaming environment, allowing both solo and team players to find suitable gameplay, which is key to World of Warcraft’s enduring success.
