World of Warcraft is going to undergo a "level squish" at some point in the future, Blizzard has announced, although not in its typical manner. Instead of releasing a cool CGI rendered trailer, or in a forum or blog post, it sent out a survey to players recently asking if they knew anything about it.
"Are you aware that the maximum level of 120 will be reduced in the future (i.e., "level squish")? Blizzard's survey question reads. It's followed up by another question which reads:
"The level squish will reduce the total number of levels required to access the most current game content. The new level cap will be dramatically lower than the current level cap of 120. How much would you like or dislike a reduction in total character levels?"
It then asked players to rate this idea on the scale of Strongly dislike, to Strongly like, with a few "meh" options in the middle.
No one seems particularly aware of Blizzard having announced this before, so it seems like an odd way to inform your community of it. Although we and other tech and game publications are talking about it, so perhaps it's not a terrible idea.
But the level squish itself? How do you feel about it? Players who have spent years grinding their characters through content and levels only to have their level cut down, may not be too pleased with it. Perhaps giving new content to a wider player base is healthier for the long term life of the game. It's hard to tell.
I suppose we'll have to wait for the results of the survey.