Next World Of Warcraft Raid Dungeon

GrandGranini writes "The New York Times has an interview with World Of Warcraft Lead Game Designer Jeff Kaplan (Tigole), in which he talks about the next raid dungeon after Ahn'Quiraj, the necropolis Naxxramas." From the article: "Naxxramas is going to be the most difficult thing in the game until the expansion pack comes out. It will be the pinnacle, and it's absolutely massive. You'll see this big necropolis floating above Eastern Plaguelands. It's a 40-man raid zone, and it's bigger than the Undercity [one of the main cities in the game]. Things could change, but we're up to something like 18 bosses in there, and they are really cool, too. But it's going to be hard. Really hard. We're hoping to release it in the spring." If you told me two years ago that I'd be reading about an upcoming instance in the sport section of the NYT, I'd have called you a damn dirty liar. May you live in interesting times, indeed.

Comments

It's all about your epic gear

[michaeltoe]

Again you miss the point entirely. Casual players pay the same monthly fee that hardcore players do, they just want to have fun and don't want it to become like a job (probably because they have one already!) Yet the vanguard of WoW's elitist pricks continually make the argument about epic weapons and armor and how "casuals" want Blizzard to give stuff away for free. That's not the case at all, but because you're demented, you can't see that.

Re:all the time in the world

[modecx]

So for some reason doing something you enjoy is a waste of your life?... I feel the time I spend playing relaxes me and keeps me happy. How is that a waste of my life?

Yeah, heh... Most hardcore meth addicts I've ever met would argue that they weren't wasting their lives--if they could stop picking at the imaginary ants crawling all over them long enough to do so, that is! Of course, it's all made worthwhile by the high, and the looking forward to the next high. They don't realize that they look like they were just exhumed and most likely crave brains to the rest of us, because they can't look outside of the box they live in.

Hell, most normally functioning people can't willfully look outside of their own situation, so it comes as no surprise that people with fucked up brain chemistry can't see how screwed up they are. Any number of things can fuck your brain over, and video games are certainly up there among the best. Take for example Anorexia, and chronic over eating... Two disorders which are polar opposites are surprisingly both linked to increased production of dopamine and endorphins, and the same thing is also found in game addicts, and addicts of any kind. The feeling of calming and happiness will be experienced by all of these people when they do their respective things. The body and brain are terrifically complex systems, nobody has it all wrapped up, and my experience in the area is purely casual.

RPG games are the absolute worst type of game, though, simply because of how the game is played. You're encouraged to play for many hours every week, and your avatar receives rewards somehow proportional to the time you play. I think that eventually this action comes to work directly on the reward centers of the brain... And worse yet, the higher level character you get, the rarer items are, and therefore also the rarer the high you receive, making you crave the next item that much more... It's just like any drug, I think... You always need more and more to get the same high you had the previous times, until the drug is all consuming. I know from experience. Diablo2 was a bad thing for me, and for far too long. Eventually I just got so frustrated that I gave up!

Playing games is okay in moderation, just like most everything. However, when anything profoundly affects your relationships, daily life, work, exercise habits, etc. it's likely that you've got a problem. As Jeff Foxworthy might say: If you're at work in the morning, and all you can think about is getting home to get some game time... You might be and addict.