and several bundles [ 21 ]. Classic WoW’ s store offers one cosmetic gear option, five toys, five pets, and three mounts [ 22 ]. Two further expansions, Midnight and The Last Titan, were announced in 2023 [ 1 ]. On the whole, WoW player expectations still continue to be regularly re-set well into its second decade of live services. In this way, Blizzards’ continual stream of skill balanced expansion pack content updates to the game state’ s original mastery experiences motivate veteran WoW players to keep playing such that they continue to gain self-efficacy, and in turn remain committed to the game, creating a virtuous cycle of player retention. Two further expansions, Midnight and The Last Titan, were announced in 2023 [ 1 ].
So, perhaps according to a grand plan, WoW’ s mastery experiences have built upon each other over the years and allow players to use their past performance information to help them select new tasks that they believe they can accomplish in WoW today. In 2021, Blizzard released WoW Classic: Season of Mastery servers that expanded on the Classic servers by changing some of the original mechanics from when the game was released [ 23 ]. There is an extensive list of changes that Blizzard implemented for the Season of Mastery servers; including character alterations to improve class balance, new raid mechanics to make the raid bosses more difficult, and an experience boost for players who are questing to allow them to reach the max level faster [ 23 ]. In 2023, Blizzard released WoW Classic Hardcore servers, allowing for an extra challenge, in the form of perma-death, for players who enjoy the pre-expansion version of the game [ 24 ]. Along with the Classic Hardcore servers, Blizzard also released WoW Classic: Season of Discovery, which is similar to Season of Mastery, putting a spin on the original mechanics of Classic WoW with a focus on discovering new abilities and reworked content [ 25 ]. Ultimately, the fresh content that attracts skilled WoW players with its progressive challenge updates continues to build player self-efficacy and manifests their choice for continued playtime. Did this make WoW the G. O. A. T. of longevity at 20 years with an estimated 158 million total player base [ 26 ]?
EPILOGUE
This GUR also found a significant relationship between a WoW player’ s self-efficacy and goal orientation. Previous studies suggested that a person’ s perceived competence or perceived ability moderates the relationship between goal orientation and their task performance [ 27; 28 ]. These considerations indicate that when examining self-efficacy’ s relationship with player commitment, the mastery experiences need specialized outcomes such that performance goals are designed to meet their player type motivations. This is an issue to address because many massively multiplayer games are not able to balance the experiences that satisfy their experienced players’ goals and also give novice players a satisfying mastery experience, essentially choosing to shut the door to one to satisfy the other and limiting player base growth. To better understand self-efficacy’ s goal related player motivators in WoW, part two of this article series maps players’ goal orientations to WoW’ s performance feedback systems.