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World of Warcraft - The Burning Crusade Review
It would be hard to argue that World of Warcraft hasn't been a huge success. Not only has it been a financial success in the MMO market, but it has introduced many new people to Massive gaming that might not have otherwise given it a shot. With their first expansion, The Burning Crusade, Blizzard has made huge advances in many areas of the game. Long-standing complaints have been addressed, and the structure of the popular title has been reinforced. The casual players have gotten a large injection of content that is both accessible and enjoyable to someone who doesn't have huge amounts of time to play. At the same time, hardcore players who thirst for new challenges on a daily basis have quite a bit of work ahead of them. This is not to say that The Burning Crusade (BC) doesn't have its pitfalls, but overall I get the feeling that this is closer to what Blizzard's World of Warcraft dream was meant to be. Read on for my opinions of this new round of addiction.
The first major improvement in the game comes with the extension of the level grind. There is a vast difference in the enjoyment of leveling a character from levels 1-60 and from 60-70. While the amount of experience is relatively comparable, the mechanisms in place make it a completely different animal. With the original game, leveling was thought of as one of the main aspects of the game and designed to take a long time to do with very little continuity or help to speed you along. Instances were designed to be for gear rewards and something you did rarely in between your bouts of leveling. With The Burning Crusade, the quests were designed to make you feel like you were accomplishing smaller tasks within a grand scheme, and they actually helped to develop the plot and a feeling that you were a part of the game rather than just trying to "beat" the game to get a level.
Throughout the questing and overall leveling process, instances in the Burning Crusade were also designed to be a much more integral part of the game for both leveling and gear. The group experience bonus allows a player to still make good progress towards the next level while playing through group content with friends and finding new challenges and boss fights along the way. The quests for every zone eventually start to poke and prod you towards the next level appropriate instance to help players make this decision and help round out the leveling experience. To make the process of instancing even better, Blizzard has grouped the instances in each zone together as "wings" of increasing difficulty within a larger structure that has an overall theme. This allows players to tackle the content in smaller chunks without having to commit large blocks of time just to do an instance. At the end of each group of instances the content culminates in a larger group encounter for raids to tackle once their players have completed a key quest for that particular instance.
While instances may have gotten a large push in the right direction, there are still a couple of major problems that continue to crop up, preventing players from really enjoying the content that is right in front of them. The largest of these problems are instance-breaking bugs. There have been quite a few of them since launch, and while bugs are to be expected, these are taking a long time to fix. Meanwhile the customer service reps in game are doing very little to help the players deal with the bugs beyond telling them it is a known problem and sorry about your luck. Now, I realize that some people are going to try and exploit GM assistance, but there comes a time when you just need to give your customer the benefit of the doubt and help them through any problems that crop up. The other major problem attached to instances comes before you even make it to the instance. If you aren't part of a large guild with resources always at hand, it means you are going to have to try your luck with a pickup group. While the "Looking for Group" interface was a neat addition, I think Blizzard either did too much or too little depending on what they were going for. With a simple global chat channel it was very easy for players just to type what they were looking to do and for others to answer, a quick and easy solution. In fact, most servers have seen a grass roots channel emerge to move back to this functionality. With the introduction of a user interface and automation to the process, they removed the "easy" solution but didn't go far enough with the complex solution. Ultimately, the "best" answer to this problem would be to bring back the chat channel but make the user interface "grab" names and classes from that chat channel into a larger pool of people to draw from, allowing users to use both methods of communication depending on their preference.
One of the main points of skepticism before the release of The Burning Crusade was the number of reputation "grinds" that would be required in order to experience new content. While much of the new content is hidden behind reputation requirements, the new system allows players to gain reputation at an amazingly fast rate making this requirement almost a non-issue. In addition to new content for these new factions the reputation system also unlocks a vast amount of new pearls for the crafting system. This allows different reputation choices to determine which recipes you are able to craft so that each crafter has the ability to obtain unique recipes instead of being a cookie cutter crafter like it was before the expansion.
Despite the fact that the casual consumer has definitely been given quite a bit of content to work their way through, the hardcore player has certainly not been left in the lurch. Raid content is available in spades. The addition of a 'heroic mode' for dungeons allows players to go back and play through previous instances at a higher difficulty level (and for better rewards). This, again, requires that they have put in the time to attain a high enough reputation level with the controlling faction. With each set of instances, there is also a difficult 25-man raid (now that Blizzard has decided to limit their "large" raids to 25 players instead of 40) encounter designed to provide an additional challenge. Beyond these short raids there is also new 10-man content (Karazhan) that allows players to work through a larger dungeon and attain a new armor "set" in addition to the random drops that still occur. Once players have made their way through this 10-man content they can start working towards some of the even larger 25-man content with huge sprawling dungeons promised, eventually culminating in the battle through Mount Hyjal. However, in order to get to this final realization players must wade through a lot of content. In an effort to help players in this goal one player even put together a flow chart of what it is going to take to realize this goal.
The largest problem with the current raid content is that while it requires large amounts of work to get to and complete (as it should), the rewards for actually completing that raid content have all but eviscerated the desire to do the work. Having moved from a "hardcore" raiding style of play to a much more casual approach I was quite pleased at how much I was able to do on a daily basis with my limited time. However, looking back at my previous play style and the rewards that I would be shooting for I realized that there was very little reason for me to aim for those "end game" rewards anymore. The time spent versus rewards earned seems a little imbalanced. I'm sure that a large part of this decision was to try and cater to the larger "casual" player base and stop the hemorrhage of players they were losing to other games. Just the same, if you are going to create content that caters to your hardcore players you should probably create rewards that justify the work they are about to put into it.
While much of the game play and content has been improved greatly the class balance issue is still one that continues to haunt Blizzard. For example, if you are a Rogue and you really want to experience some of the heroic content and smaller raid encounters, you are in for a difficult time finding a group. The same goes for priests if you are really into the competitive player versus player aspect of the game. I am willing to give Blizzard the benefit of the doubt on this one since they are probably still evaluating how the new talents and new gear will effect the overall class balance, but changes are definitely needed.
In addition to all of the game play changes, each faction also has a new race, a new homeland, and tons of new starting quests to work through. While information on the new horde race, the Blood-Elf, has been available for quite some time, the new alliance race, the Draenei, has been somewhat of a mystery almost until the release of the beta. Unfortunately, this also shows in the quality of both the quests and the overall feel for each of these races. The homeland and starting quests for the Blood-Elves have a much larger degree of continuity and they lend a feeling of a long time in development while the Draenei feel like a last minute cobble when they couldn't think of anything else. This obviously doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things once you make it to Outland and the new content, but it can have a definite effect on someone just starting the game.
Overall, it seems that Blizzard is definitely listening to their player base, they just need to do a better job of communicating that fact. I realize that it is hard to release information about something if it later gets taken away or changed, but let your GM staff work for you, give the player the benefit of the doubt more often, and admit when something is wrong so that players can avoid the disappointment while it is being fixed.
Despite any pitfalls, The Burning Crusade is an excellent addition to the Warcraft Universe. Blizzard has done an excellent job of catering to many of the different types of players within the game, providing a wide array of enjoyable content. If you are new to the MMO scene or even if you gave up hope before The Burning Crusade hit the streets, now is a great time to get into the game and give it a shot.
- Title: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
- Developer/Publisher: Blizzard / Vivendi
- System: PC / Mac
- Genre: Massively Multiplayer Online Game
- Score: 4/5 - This game is a wonderful addition to the original World of Warcraft universe and helps to alleviate many of the "problems" that players have been complaining about for a long time. If you are burnt out on the original game, now is a good time to give it another look.
The first major improvement in the game comes with the extension of the level grind. There is a vast difference in the enjoyment of leveling a character from levels 1-60 and from 60-70. While the amount of experience is relatively comparable, the mechanisms in place make it a completely different animal. With the original game, leveling was thought of as one of the main aspects of the game and designed to take a long time to do with very little continuity or help to speed you along. Instances were designed to be for gear rewards and something you did rarely in between your bouts of leveling. With The Burning Crusade, the quests were designed to make you feel like you were accomplishing smaller tasks within a grand scheme, and they actually helped to develop the plot and a feeling that you were a part of the game rather than just trying to "beat" the game to get a level.
Throughout the questing and overall leveling process, instances in the Burning Crusade were also designed to be a much more integral part of the game for both leveling and gear. The group experience bonus allows a player to still make good progress towards the next level while playing through group content with friends and finding new challenges and boss fights along the way. The quests for every zone eventually start to poke and prod you towards the next level appropriate instance to help players make this decision and help round out the leveling experience. To make the process of instancing even better, Blizzard has grouped the instances in each zone together as "wings" of increasing difficulty within a larger structure that has an overall theme. This allows players to tackle the content in smaller chunks without having to commit large blocks of time just to do an instance. At the end of each group of instances the content culminates in a larger group encounter for raids to tackle once their players have completed a key quest for that particular instance.
While instances may have gotten a large push in the right direction, there are still a couple of major problems that continue to crop up, preventing players from really enjoying the content that is right in front of them. The largest of these problems are instance-breaking bugs. There have been quite a few of them since launch, and while bugs are to be expected, these are taking a long time to fix. Meanwhile the customer service reps in game are doing very little to help the players deal with the bugs beyond telling them it is a known problem and sorry about your luck. Now, I realize that some people are going to try and exploit GM assistance, but there comes a time when you just need to give your customer the benefit of the doubt and help them through any problems that crop up. The other major problem attached to instances comes before you even make it to the instance. If you aren't part of a large guild with resources always at hand, it means you are going to have to try your luck with a pickup group. While the "Looking for Group" interface was a neat addition, I think Blizzard either did too much or too little depending on what they were going for. With a simple global chat channel it was very easy for players just to type what they were looking to do and for others to answer, a quick and easy solution. In fact, most servers have seen a grass roots channel emerge to move back to this functionality. With the introduction of a user interface and automation to the process, they removed the "easy" solution but didn't go far enough with the complex solution. Ultimately, the "best" answer to this problem would be to bring back the chat channel but make the user interface "grab" names and classes from that chat channel into a larger pool of people to draw from, allowing users to use both methods of communication depending on their preference.
One of the main points of skepticism before the release of The Burning Crusade was the number of reputation "grinds" that would be required in order to experience new content. While much of the new content is hidden behind reputation requirements, the new system allows players to gain reputation at an amazingly fast rate making this requirement almost a non-issue. In addition to new content for these new factions the reputation system also unlocks a vast amount of new pearls for the crafting system. This allows different reputation choices to determine which recipes you are able to craft so that each crafter has the ability to obtain unique recipes instead of being a cookie cutter crafter like it was before the expansion.
Despite the fact that the casual consumer has definitely been given quite a bit of content to work their way through, the hardcore player has certainly not been left in the lurch. Raid content is available in spades. The addition of a 'heroic mode' for dungeons allows players to go back and play through previous instances at a higher difficulty level (and for better rewards). This, again, requires that they have put in the time to attain a high enough reputation level with the controlling faction. With each set of instances, there is also a difficult 25-man raid (now that Blizzard has decided to limit their "large" raids to 25 players instead of 40) encounter designed to provide an additional challenge. Beyond these short raids there is also new 10-man content (Karazhan) that allows players to work through a larger dungeon and attain a new armor "set" in addition to the random drops that still occur. Once players have made their way through this 10-man content they can start working towards some of the even larger 25-man content with huge sprawling dungeons promised, eventually culminating in the battle through Mount Hyjal. However, in order to get to this final realization players must wade through a lot of content. In an effort to help players in this goal one player even put together a flow chart of what it is going to take to realize this goal.
The largest problem with the current raid content is that while it requires large amounts of work to get to and complete (as it should), the rewards for actually completing that raid content have all but eviscerated the desire to do the work. Having moved from a "hardcore" raiding style of play to a much more casual approach I was quite pleased at how much I was able to do on a daily basis with my limited time. However, looking back at my previous play style and the rewards that I would be shooting for I realized that there was very little reason for me to aim for those "end game" rewards anymore. The time spent versus rewards earned seems a little imbalanced. I'm sure that a large part of this decision was to try and cater to the larger "casual" player base and stop the hemorrhage of players they were losing to other games. Just the same, if you are going to create content that caters to your hardcore players you should probably create rewards that justify the work they are about to put into it.
While much of the game play and content has been improved greatly the class balance issue is still one that continues to haunt Blizzard. For example, if you are a Rogue and you really want to experience some of the heroic content and smaller raid encounters, you are in for a difficult time finding a group. The same goes for priests if you are really into the competitive player versus player aspect of the game. I am willing to give Blizzard the benefit of the doubt on this one since they are probably still evaluating how the new talents and new gear will effect the overall class balance, but changes are definitely needed.
In addition to all of the game play changes, each faction also has a new race, a new homeland, and tons of new starting quests to work through. While information on the new horde race, the Blood-Elf, has been available for quite some time, the new alliance race, the Draenei, has been somewhat of a mystery almost until the release of the beta. Unfortunately, this also shows in the quality of both the quests and the overall feel for each of these races. The homeland and starting quests for the Blood-Elves have a much larger degree of continuity and they lend a feeling of a long time in development while the Draenei feel like a last minute cobble when they couldn't think of anything else. This obviously doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things once you make it to Outland and the new content, but it can have a definite effect on someone just starting the game.
Overall, it seems that Blizzard is definitely listening to their player base, they just need to do a better job of communicating that fact. I realize that it is hard to release information about something if it later gets taken away or changed, but let your GM staff work for you, give the player the benefit of the doubt more often, and admit when something is wrong so that players can avoid the disappointment while it is being fixed.
Despite any pitfalls, The Burning Crusade is an excellent addition to the Warcraft Universe. Blizzard has done an excellent job of catering to many of the different types of players within the game, providing a wide array of enjoyable content. If you are new to the MMO scene or even if you gave up hope before The Burning Crusade hit the streets, now is a great time to get into the game and give it a shot.
This darned game is really getting on my chimes.
Everyone who plays WoW will buy it. If you don't play WoW, you either aren't interested or you would have started by now, or you realized how pointless and boring the game is and have no intention of buying a pointless and boring expansion.
To make the process of instancing even better, Blizzard has grouped the instances in each zone together as "wings" of increasing difficulty within a larger structure that has an overall theme.
Uh, you mean like the Scarlet Monastary? (That's pre BC for both of you who haven't played)
Sony ha
As far as expansions for MMOs go, the Burning Crusade does have a TON more content than normal. No new classes was a glaring flaw though, and it will be interesting to see if they can get away with that in future expansions.
Caffeine is my anti-drug!
Duranin - A NWN2 Roleplaying Persistent World
While I can see people's point when they complain about the newish LFG tool, I really don't want to go back to the server-wide LFG channel. It was basically global Barrens chat.
As a non-WoW player (I do play Runescape though) this made very little sense to me. Can someone explain what an 'instance' is?
I'm equally baffled by the reviewer saying "players must wade through a lot of content." isn't content rather than grind what everyone wants?
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
I concur with almost everything in this review.
I'll note one additional data point: When you do some of the initial quests, you'll be amazed at the quality of the quest rewards for relatively simple quests. I believe this was an intentional design to bring the "casual" player up to raid quality gear, effectively levelling the playing field. Casuals do not start at much of a disadvantage when they're having T2-quality gear heaped upon them (previously only available in instances such as BWL, where few casual players were able to attend).
The game does slow down after you hit 70, but more options open. Most likely, you'll be grinding to get a fast mount, but you'll almost certainly have 1000g for the slow flying mount. You'll want a guild, but one is not necessary to participate in most of the content. However, guildless, it's unlikely you'll progress into the "advanced" content for quite a while. It's difficult to complete the 10-man Karazhan key in PUGs, and even if you do, there are few 10-man PUGs. That sounds kind of funny, but Karazhan is NOT simply a level 70 UBRS. It's more like a 10-man Naxxramus.
While I've liked both starting areas, I have quite enjoyed the Draenei starting quests. It's true that the architecture in the Blood Elf region is more complex, but that's consistent with the game in my opinion - the Blood Elfs are starting in their recently wrecked city, the Draenei start stranded on a remote island. The starting quests on the Draenei side are quite good - in fact, the "Medal Ceremony" at the end of the final elite quest is very cool. And then there's the Kessell Run.
However, I can see how someone might prefer the flavor of the Blood Elf starting area to the Draenei area. To me, that difference in flavor shows how much thought Blizzard put into each area.
what do they mean by casual players? People playing less than 2hrs a day ?
Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
Just some intro caveats: I'm a casual player. I think I've been in a raid-group of more than 5 twice. I am friends with several people who are serious raiders, but I'm not one.
Initially when you first start the new content, the items you receive feel unbelievably good. They are meant to bring you up to just barely under the power level of the folks who have spent the past years raiding. And because of this, the new stuff felt really munchkin initially. Fun, but munchkin. Epic items from pre-BC were replaced with green(normal) items found in BC. The quests are good - a lot of the little annoying bits have been toned down (fewer pointless long runs, flagging quests that really require multiple people as requiring 2 or 3 people as appropriate). There is a lot of nice flavor here.
One thing the reviewer missed is that a lot of BC is really beautiful. Each zone is very distinctive. And there have been several times when I just paused to admire the beauty. With the addition of flying mounts, there are some really gorgeous views that can be found. Several of the instances are visually stunning as well. This is a pretty game.
There are some class balance issues -- but I think at least part of the issues are that the classes changed a bit and people have not adapted their thinking. For example, it used to be hard to try to be a raiding druid in the tank role -- there was effectively one set of gear that all tank-druids went for. BC has added a large variety -- which means the class is a lot more viable in a role than it used to be. Is this unbalancing? No. It is different and changes some of the feel of the game.
I'm of the small minority of players that purchased the expansion with great intent, and then realized what a small amount of content was added for a year of development. The game is still the same, the only difference is that it takes up more space on my drive. The customer service is atrocious, and I've now sworn off of it for good.
$15 a month may not mean a lot to a company that pulls in billions a year, but it means a lot to me, and it's my $15. They have to earn it by doing more than making me cough up an extra $40 every year. Their community is in horrible shape, and their employees are offensive and unhelpful.
I say "good riddance" as I remove this horrible and horribly supported product from my computer.
Blerg.
Given the amount of money coming in they should be dropping one of these out every 12 months, this was thrown together to try and keep the competition at bay.
:) must level ... must level ... must level .......
There is no-reason why there shouldn't be 10-15 races by now, with a *proper* crafting system. Instead blizzard wasted time with Raid instances that only the minority wanted.
Doesn't mean I'm not playing it though
Where you able to type out "With the original game, leveling was thought of as one of the main aspects of the game and designed to take a long time to do with very little continuity or help to speed you along." without laughing?
currently hard-mode rewards are hardly worth the time invested getting them. Majority of loot from the few we've run has be disenchanted, because we had better items from quests, or regular 5 man instances.
net result running them? one guy leaves with a token, of which he'll need many to get anything with.
hoping they reitemize...
Interestingly enough the reviewer completly neglected the glaring class related issues that BC has created.
With the nerfing of warriors, the lack of scalability in the priests defensive and healing spells and the huge buffs given to druids and
paladins. BC has created a considerable number of unhappy players who installed the expansion just
to find their toon is no longer relevant as a hybrid class fills their niche much better than they do.
I have seen many priests and warriors dropping over the last couple of weeks.
So far I think the BC's content is large but short on quality. Lots and tons of new gear but re-colored items with no new graphics. Some new epic gear has some of the wackiest artwork, doesn't have the consistent quality of many pre-BC designs. Most of the quests are way too easy for certain classes, while certain classes are dependent on others to help them grind quests. They have yet to fix class imbalances and looks like it got worst. Some classes have scaled so far ahead of others that they don't even need a party to help grind elite quests. Its a bit unfair there. I say BC was a bit rushed overall, lots of repetitive quest grinds and nothing new to the game, many class specific changes only benefit those classes and Blizzard has remained silent about changes, not giving anyone a shred of hope that they would fix them. Perhaps LOTR Online, here we come?
Did anyone else read this synopsis on the Slashdot front page and then completely misinterpret the next article down? For a minute I thought Slashdot was turning into Gamespot.
First Article - "World of Warcraft - The Burning Crusade Review"
Second Article - "Recovering a Wrecked RAID"
There are 2 kinds of people in this world. Those that can keep their train of thought,
Aside from Scarlet Monastery, which was always broken up into sections, does anyone know if they broke any of the pre-BC instances into multiple parts? Specifically AQ, MC, or ZF?
What?
.)
I think you have a hard time separating the real world from video games. . . . .
Just as 'bad' as watching TV or listening to music, except you actually interact with people in this game (yeah, I know, it's not face-to-face). Not a replacement for going and hanging out with your friends and such, but jesus, give it a rest. Not all people that play this game are 100% reclusive.
Besides, 90% of the people in the world are retarded and not worth conversing with (unfortunately, 75% of those play WoW. .
- Instances no longer require a 4 hour commitment
- Casual playing actually has rewards
- Zones are very well designed and laid out
- One in ten quests is actually interesting and fun
However, after I did a quest where I had to kill Hydras for 4 hours in order to get 8 scales or whatever, I realized that it was more of the same crap and the promptly quit the game again.The perfect sig is a lot like silence, only louder
This is the first time the Preparation H folks have gotten involved with games promotion with their The Way It's Meant To Be Wiped campaign.
The Quest For The Hanging Pile expansion promises even more fun.
System: PC / Mac ?
There is a Linux port ? woaw !! that's great. Or PC = Windows ?The point of my opinion is in fact wrapped around the difference between real world and MMORPG's. Those parallels that would be drawn around TV and Music are not necessarily similar in that neither one of those mediums are interactive. There is an output that requires no input. In either case, Im not arguing the merits or demerits of other forms of entertainment, I am only stating my opinion on this one aspect of PC entertainment.
I'm not trying to troll, but I think the expanions should have been a free upgrade. For one thing, adding free new content gives players incentive to keep playing (and they're already paying). I'm guessing there are at least few players out there who have lost interest, and a $40 expansion isn't enticing, but maybe a free one would be.
Also, this expansion has "de-valued" a lot of characters. For example, my once powerful 60, is now getting 2-hitted by characters only a few levels higher, because 61-70 characters are disproporionately more powerful. Not being able to access new content is one thing, but it actually puts others at a significant disadvantage (items, levels, battlegrounds, etc.).
I realize Blizzard is in the business to make money, but a free expansion could have made financial sense too.
Why should it? This is why I hate (and do not play) this game. A good game should advance with the player's skill and a little bit of time. World of Warcraft advances the story only with time, time, and more time. You'll pour your life into the game, but you can still suck large amounts of ass at it. The reason that there are countless level 60/70 clueless morons is because the game requires no skill to speak of, only endless amounts of time.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Green Smoke Flares
What do they do you ask? Nothing. FUCK YOU BLIZZARD!
I quit because nobody really has that much time to devote to games. It's especially true of the huge raids that require formal scheduling to get enough experienced (qualified) people together to complete anything.
It sounds like the BC expansion made good changes but still requires the huge time commitment. I'll stick with my former plan to return to WoW when I retire. (Hopefully there will be improvements made in the next 40 years)
I don't understand that observation. I'm still pointing and clicking and doing repetitive tasks.
I still have 25 or so backpack slots filled with stuff I need for some forgotten (and possibly lapsed) purpose.
I enjoy the game every so often, but need to find my buddies online to really get into a play session.
tone
tone
Would you please point at any other "pointless and boring" things that I should avoid so that I can be sure to avoid them too?
The comment towards the end about how elaborate and well-done the Blood Elf starting area is, compared to the Draeno, is interesting. For those of us who have played characters on both factions pre-BC the reasons are apparent, and have been mentioned on the forums by Blizzard customer service reps.
:)
The "lackluster" Draeno areas are familiar to Horde players. This is how ALL Horde starting areas are, up until Burning Crusdade. The Alliance starting areas are complex, beautiful, and full of life. Horde characters typically spend their first 25 levels in a place called The Barrens, which is....surprise....Barren. It's a gigantic brown swatch of land that is as bland as can be.
This is due, apparently, to the fact that the Horde really was an aferthought in game development, and had much of their content rushed through for launch. Since the initial launch of the game, some efforts have been made to improve the Horde areas, but they still fall far behind what you see on the Alliance side. If you go to cancel your WOW account, "poor Horde content" is an option in the dropdown for why you're cancelling.
So the Blood Elf starting area is the way it is for two reasons. One, because the Horde have been lacking any good starting areas since the game's inception. But in addition, but partially for that reason, there have always been fewer Horde characters on every server than Alliance. Another reason cited for this discrepancy is that the horde classes are ugly.
The addition of Blood Elves with an awesome starting area gives the Horde side some much needed attention. It gives them a sought-after "pretty" class to draw players in, and it gives them an good starting area to keep them playing.
The flip side is that the Draeno are intentionally 'alien' and weird, with a starting area equivalent to the other Horde starting areas. So while the Alliance get a new race, it's intentionally designed to push people towards the new Horde race instead. Balancing the number of players on each faction is very important for PVP, and is a good move on Blizzard's part.
And you Alliance whiners can shut up and go level a toon through the Barrens, *then* try to say the Drano starting area is bad...
roflcopter lawl lrn2dps nub
lawl dude ur ghay
wtf i need
i clicked greed it must be a bug
ya right btch
ok we're almost to the boss
i gotta go
What? why?
mom wants cpu
Huh? Your Mom? Its 4a.m. How old are you anyway?
i nd gold plz
Huh?
ind gold to repr my armer
will u giv me sm gd?
No.
y not? wtf
I'm almost broke, I can't be giving any gold.
FU thn nub u sck
because it still takes no skill to partake in.
i p
I'll be waiting for DarkFall Online. As an added note for those who love PvP... check out the in-game movie:
http://files.darkfallonline.com/darkfall_battle.z
Enjoy folks! I'll be on that when it's out... WoW is still a level treadmill that I'm not a fan of.
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
With a name like "crusade" how does it sell in Arab countries? Or do they have a different name for those countries like "Idol Crusher" or something?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
You are saying that a game in which you interact-with/play-with/talk-to hundreds of people is social aversion?
That this story was posted RIGHT ABOVE "Recovering a Wrecked RAID"?
Aren't they all?
-Styopa
90% of those 75% play Alliance.
I play World of Warcraft every summer and quit when I return back to college. Honestly, I have no problem quitting for months at a time but I have to admit, there is something in the game that I'm addicted to that when I read stuff like this I get very nostalgic. Even if I were to install the game and just look at the menu screen I would have the urge to play again. The game itself gets very boring end game but there is something I miss about it. Fortunately for me I realized this and sold my characters to make sure I didn't start playing again.
I will bend like a reed in the wind.
And going to a bar plunges you into a sea of masks and unrealities. Dont lie to yourself, clubbing with other meat puppets is easily more fake.
I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
Actually, yes, it is true. Studies have shown the number of "close confidants" have decreased dramatically in the past decade or so. The type of relationships formed in online environments-- while friendships-- typically last for shorter periods of time and are less strong of friendships than many "real life" friendships. One reason for this is that face-to-face, mirror neurons in the brain play important functions in empathy and socializing, and thus attachment to the other person, whereas this does not happen online (save for videoconferencing or voice perhaps if both parties are rather exceptional about emotional infliction through voice).
Now, this is important, as the value of these closest confidant relationships has been found to be very powerful psychologically in ensuring an individual's mental well-being... from which stems their very physical well-being.
Are there exceptions to this? Sure. Some people, for a variety of reasons (social anxiety, avoidant personality disorder, schizoid personality disorder, etc) do not form close relationships very well to begin with, so online worlds do give them increased social connections and perhaps even practice/desensitization that will hopefully lead to better relationships with others offline as well. And some relationships formed online can be close and can migrate offline as well. The vast majority however, aren't very close or long-lasting.
The vast majority of WoW players, statistically, don't play all that much, so I doubt WoW is especially a "waste of their life" or "social aversion" or whatever. But for those that play obsessively, it can either be a good or bad influence on their social relationships. It just depends upon what they were to begin with. For some, the risks here are indeed real ones and they will suffer as the OP says. But that is not true of all.
I do believe that instance-breaking bugs are the least of blizzard's problems. They spent a considerable amount of effort making the instances in Azeroth robust and a pleasure to play. These instances are no longer being (or very minimally) run. For example, no one would want to run Blackwing Lair anymore because the gear there is on par with level 70 Blues which are EASIER to obtain. MC is completely broken. Naxx is barely hanging on. Level 60 5-Mans are basically done for too since the gear form them is completely inadequate to the uncommon items available from outland.
Has Blizzard broke half the game by introducing a new half? You decide.
It basically boils down to two reasons:
1) More Of The Same: Kill critters, collect items, and get gold and shiny weapons or armor. Lather, rinse, repeat. I've been playing from the open beta, and the "new content" slowly felt like the same old thing after a while. I've grown tired of pressing the lever in my Skinner box, and the pellets aren't quite as tasty after eating them for two years.
2) Social Discord: I went from being a semi-hardcore player to a casual player in a so-called casual guild. Before BC hit we would run instances for fun or to help a guildie level an alt. We'd laugh it up on our Vent server and have a grand old time. Once BC hit, a core group of people - the guild leaders and their real-life friends - took off for level 70, leaving most of the casual players like myself behind. These guys have been friends for years and they either had or were willing to commit more time to the game than I was. And it's not much fun to be in a Vent channel with four or five guys who are running quests or instances that you won't be able to run until the following week, so the social aspect of the game diminished for me as well.
More of the same + level stratification = not fun anymore
->
i loled.
I just started playing WOW 3 weeks ago. I resisted the urge for a long time partly because I wanted to have a life. As a complete newb I'm not sure if I should buy this or not so it is helpfull. At this point I don't even know if a low level player like me could benefit much from the new content. It especially helps to know what kind of experience I will get based on how much time I devote to the game. One thing I can say for sure is that there are a lot of newcomers so your comment is really innacurate. Basically the review doesn't help you and thats fine, but don't speak for everyone else.
>
> If you don't play WoW, you either aren't interested or you would have started by now.
>
Thats not true, I've gone from FFXI to WoW after ToAU, or post BC. First impresions after a month of WoW BC?
50% of the Horde is Elvan.
WoW is very easy vs FFXI. (doing things seem unrewarding)
It's fun to play, but may not have long term intrest for me.
There is not much comunity, I think in a month I have talked to 2 people, and not been in a group yet. Far as I can tell it might as well be a single player Warcraft 4.
I dunno, I complain about certan things but overall its a fun game, its really good for quick play. So apprently if I'm joining it now It's still picking up players.
Bringing liberty to the masses. - http://freetalklive.com/
If going to a bar/ club were my only pastime outside of my career, then I would be playing a game like WoW.
Popular culture seems to create a certain level of narrow-mindedness that limits your opportunities to be happy and socially content, and illustrated by this type of defensive comment.
WTB 2 years of my life back PST!
Bite my shiny metal ass.
Apparently you've missed that whole social part of MMORPGs.
Since I've been on MMORPG I spend more time than ever with friends and family. My guild is made up of RL friends and family. We've moved all over the country, got jobs and kids. There's no way I can meet them for dinner or invite them over for a party, but Tuesday and Thursday nights we all sign on, daisy chain 3 way calling and we're all back together again.
WOW acutally has several types of "instances", distinguished by portal color. First, the two main continents (Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms) actually are instances that are separate from each other (the ships and zeppelins are the "portals"). These work the same way "travel" instances do (white portals)...programming-wise they are still instances, but there is no limit to the number of players in it, and all players are placed in the same instance. Outland is the same way, and the Blood Elf/Draenei starting areas also are (to get to the blood elf area you walk through a white portal or teleport). This means that the Blood Elf/Draenei starting areas, while they are shown on the main world map, are not technically part of the geography of EK or Kalimdor...if you were to find a way to exploit the terrain to get around the portal to the blood elf area you'd probably just end up at a beach with nothing there (and possibly terrain glitches since that area hasn't been finished since you're not supposed to go there). Blue instance portals are normal 5-man instances (some of these have a limit of 10 players so you can technically enter with a raid but you're not really supposed to). In these, a separate instance is created for every party that enters. Raid portals are green and are either 10, 20, 25, or 40-man, separate instance is created for each party...only difference with these is that they reset on a regular weekly schedule rather than when you clear it or reset it manually, you can't reset these manually. This is because these are long and hard and take a lot of work to find a group for...so you don't necessarily have to complete it all at once. Finally there are purple portals (only in Outland so far)...these are the same as regular (blue), only difference is it indicates that a heroic mode exists for that instance.
The problem is advertising that you're interested in an instance to people other than those also immediately interested. How do you tell people that are questing that you could use them in a group? If they don't have the instance tool open you can't.
Also the game doesn't allow you to specify any classes. If you have several DPS classes there's no way to specify for it to only add a tank and healer.
Lol WoW Addicts. Gotta give it to blizzard for getting so many americans hooked on their game. "LOL lets release a game for the mass market, keep them busy for a year or two with lootz, announce an expansion to keep them playing ,after that expansion is released wait 6 months to announce the other one and wa-la! We have a cash cow!"
There are varying degrees of how "hardcore" a player you are. The point is that the game doesn't force a given amount of playtime on you to be fun. You can literally play once a month for an hour and still enjoy it (though your money might be better spent elsewhere if you play that little). Basically it's designed such that there's things to do, regardless of how much you play and what your skill is.
Most of the MMORPGs I've played in the past or that I've watched friends play have the problem of having an optimum range you need to play. They generally tend towards the hardcore side. You have to play a whole lot or there's just nothing to do. You can't just play once and a while. However there are others, City of Heros comes to mind, that seem to be the opposite. Play too much and you'll do everything there is to do and just kinda be out of options, except to start another character.
WoW seems to really allow any and every level of play to participate. You can play 10 hours a day, 7 days a week and still have plenty of things to do. However you can also just play a couple hours a week and there's lots to do, even if all the hardcore types have left you behind.
Given the restrictive governments in most Arabic countries there's just not a lot of market there. As far as I know they don't have any Arabic translations of the game, and no middle east server clusters (they've got servers for North America, Europe, Oceania, China, and South Korea that I'm aware of). There has not been a middle eastern launch. It is very likely they feel that they'd not recoup the costs of doing such a translation and what few gamers there are will simply buy one of the other versions.
So you don't agree that $15/month is worth it for yourself. Fair enough. But saying that "Blizzard has really gone down hill" is really quite idiotic, considering how many subscribers they have (including myself) who are happily paying that fee and playing the game. Are you trying to imply that we've also "gone down hill" for doing so? I certainly hope you're not, because that's just being short-sighted and close-minded.
If $15/month really were an ludicrous idea, then a game like WoW would have never been as popular as it is. Nor would other MMOs before it that were moderately successful (Ultima Online, Everquest). Believe it or not, there are a lot of gamers that like the MMO concept, and will gladly pay for it.
I remember when Guild Wars was coming out, a lot of people were claiming that the subscription fee model was going to die since Guild Wars supplied a lot of the same MMO-mechanics without charging for it. Well, you can see now just how wrong that prediction was. Blizzard happened to supply a game that millions of people like (and thus will pay for). I don't see at all why that's a bad thing.
-- jchenx
But there are times where the "interesting" quests aren't much fun after all, and I end up wishing for the normal "kill X monsters" quests. One example is of a quest in Shadowmoon Valley, where you're supposed to farm some weird potatoes for an orc farmer. (Yeah yeah, it's absurd that I'm a level 70, death-dealing rogue
So, this task turns into a game of trying to protect the boars long enough to have them dig up tubers for you. The problem is that the boars are often not near the tubers, and the reavers respawn very quickly. I spent an hour running around the blasted area, constantly killing reavers, but unable to get one tuber because another reaver would spawn while I was busy and take out even more boars. This was easily the most frustrating quest in BC, and perhaps in the entire game. Fortunately, I did come back later and was able to complete it, through a combination of luck and better planning.
So yeah, the quest certainly was interesting and different. I wouldn't say it was too difficult either, since I was able to complete it later. In any other game, I would not have been frustrated by a quest like this, since part of the fun is the challenge. But it's interesting that WoW has gotten to the point where I'm almost obsessed with the act of being able to grind efficiently, that when Blizzard does throw a curve-ball from time to time, ironically I do wish for the "boring-but-straight-forward" quests after all.
-- jchenx
In a average computer game store: Look a WoW expansion nifty...wait it still costs money to play per month...back to Guild Wars.
Cannot find REALITY.SYS. Universe halted.
Seriously, the whole challenge combat thing bores the living daylights out of me - I had enough of that in the Army, don't want to do that as a civilian.
...
... but never?
Why can't I have multiple professions? In real life, I've actually done most of the professions to an expert level - before I was 24! Mining, engineering, leatherworking, blacksmithing
Now, a level cap on that might be good - you can only learn a 3rd or 4th profession after you go up another 10 levels
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There is a Linux port ? woaw !! that's great. Or PC = Windows ?
... I would like one for Wii.
Not only that, but in addition to Linux - I'm ditching my WinXP laptop when it won't "work" anymore
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I'm somewhere between a casual & heavy player. I raided a little bit on multiple servers, and burned out with the need to schedule my life around 40-man guild raids. I just can't justify playing for more than 6-7 hours in a week, and I had three lvl 60 characters at the time.
So, I put the game down as I'd seen everything I wanted to see, and accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish except for the last new pieces of epic purple lewt(TM) in my set.
Fast forward a year or so, and I bought the expansion, and I found that my needs (being halfway between "raider" and "casual") had been met absolutely perfectly.
The game is gorgeous, the new questlines and level progression from 60-70 doesn't feel anything like a grind, and the improvements to the game made over the last year as a whole, are astonishing.
Yeah, you can look at that flowchart about what it takes to get into the final, epic battle at Mt. Hyjal and it looks terrifying. But, with the exception of taking out Lady Vashj and Kael'thelas, you'll be doing all of that anyway while you're progressing through the content.
That's what people don't realize... you only have to visit each of those instances once (well, twice if you run Heroic versions for the Naaru trials), and you'll be hitting that content anyway as you continue down questlines in your 60s and past 70. The reputations with each faction aren't grinds anymore. You'll get the required rep just following quests and running instances a couple times (as opposed to running, say, ZG 300 times to get exalted so you can actually use the chestpiece you won).
The point is, there's a TON of stuff to do at level 70 now that doesn't require a raid, and raids are far less painful a proposition than they were in the Molten Core days.
Contrast that to pre-burning crusade. If you didn't run raids, you were either stuck in UBRS to rinse & repeat for loot, or stuck in 18 hour Alterac Valley BGs for loot.
Now, I can log in, run any one of 18 new high level, incredibly well-designed instances (requiring boss strategy normally reserved for old 40-man runs) in an hour, run TWO games of Alterac Valley in an hour, and actually make progress in both quests and reputations for the foreseeable future in a couple hours a week.
That flowchart shows you what it takes to "win"... ie get attuned to everything and raid the 'leet raid. For all but a few of the hardcore, getting there is the fun part. You're not supposed to "win"... because you run out of stuff to do!
There's a lot to do now post-70 that's a hell of a lot of fun if you don't raid, and there's a TON to do if you raid.
The best part is: the gear gap is really narrow now. Those who pvp or run dungeons occasionally for their gear won't be horribly outclassed in PvP anymore by people with full Tier 4/5 raided gear. It's a really, really small upgrade, but the raiders are more interested that the name's in purple and they look cool, so everyone wins.
For those who never got to high levels, the new Dranei and Blood Elf areas are great little alt sandboxes as well. The leveling seems a little faster than it used to be as well.
Take all that and add in some of the best art direction, game design and polish that you're likely to see in any game, and I think it's a fabulous expansion.
I'm an enchanter and I'm in a chatty guild, but I don't think that I'm a casual player
Well, I'm in two guilds but I'm a casual player, as I have both a social life and a job.
I personally was offended when my son joined a guild and they dropped him once they had enough guild members, only using him for the 10 signature requirement. In real life, I would hunt down that guild and grief them for eternity. Luckily, he never told me their names.
Some guilds seem overly complex, others seem fairly good. One guild is fairly new, doesn't even have a tabard, but is a great gang, mostly women or guys who play women characters as who they are. They give you grief for wanting to learn cooking, though.
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The game is not the problem its people. You have to be responsible and realize that the game is not the real world. My wife and myself both play WOW we group up and play together, my kids play too we WOW as a family. I have spent more with quality time lately with my wife than I used to, sometimes I spend to much time with my C compiler! You still have get up and be an adult and realize that the real world still exists you have to go to work, clean your house and do all the other day to day things. Don't blame the game or the developer. Didn't your momma teach you some self control?
While I don't agree with the bulk of your comments, I do agree that there could be some better quality-control overall with BC. I've run into several quests which were bugged in some way. Anyone encounter Fel Cannons and sand worms that were hidden underground? You can't attack them, but very annoyingly, they can attack you. Yeah, extremely frustrating. There are a couple of other quests which were bugged in various ways, that had to be patched as well.
As for the "class imbalances", I have to disagree with the bulk of the player base. In every MMO, you will always have people bitch that their particular class being imbalanced, and whine that "so-and-so" class needs to be nerfed. All you need to do is spend some time on the WoW forums to see this. What these posters don't realize is that they represent a tiny percentage of the actual population. Just because they have a particular grudge about something, doesn't mean it's real. Only Blizzard has access to the raw stats and data, to see what is actually occurring in the game. Certainly there are imbalances of some level, which is why tweaking is always occuring. It's just natural, as the players find new ways to use their spells and talents, to maximize their potential (and minimize others). But if you just listen to forum posters and bloggers, they make it seem like the sky is falling.
One great example is that of the Shaman class. For months, the popular sentiment was that Shamans were overpowered, and they needed to be "nerfed" (tweaked so that they were less powerful). I even joined a guild, entirely made of Shamans, that was called "Nerf Shamans", poking fun at this idea. Nowadays, it's the popular sentiment that Shamans are underpowered and thus need "buffs" (tweaked so they are more powerful). But you know, not all that much has really changed with the class. You can say the same with almost every WoW class, which always seems to go through a cycle of being over-and-under-powered.
-- jchenx
I need my MMORPG fix but I do NOT need those random loot drop grinds.
WoW players might regonize were I stopped playing WoW. It is in the night elf area, third area, and you got to kill some warlocks with their pets for an item to drop as part of a longer quest.
It didn't drop. My rogue gained two levels in that area while I learned how exactly to get them in the shortest possible time. Simple, conceal, sap caster, kill pet, kill caster. Rince and repeat.
That killed the game for me, right there and then I knew that this was exactly how the game would be for the next 40 levels and then some.
Since I had already paid over the next few weeks I got my char to around 30 (were getting new skills ends and you just get slightly more powerful skills to deal with more powerful critters) and then just stopped.
I couldn't stand the random drop nature of things. EQ2 at least most times TOLD you how much you had to kill. Granted most its quests were Kill 8 X, Kill another 8 X, and again. Once more. Okay, now kill 10 of them. Okay! Now kill 8 x (adjective) X. Congrats, you done part 1, now kill more X.
But at least you could count them.
Get the goddamn fucking randomizer OUT of my MMORPG's. If I kill every single last one of those casters the damn item should just fucking drop.
It was the same with crafting. The chances of actually getting some of the rarer stuff were so random that you just couldn't make plans. By the time some items actually dropped I had gotten so many levels I was way beyond the item I had wanted to grind.
WoW takes to long. Your warning tells me BC does not improve this. I HATE RANDOM DROPS.
If Blizzard had made Star Wars poor Luke would have had to make a dozen trips to the Jawas before R2-D2 dropped.
Then again, if Sony had made Star Wars, you would have had to form a que to rescue Leia, if she was spawning that day.
Mmm, if only Lucas made a MMORPG. Surely that would be tops! Oh wait.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Sheesh... this happens all the time. Half the time people offer payment in general chat specifically for people to sign guild charters. The other half the time, some dork runs around a capital city asking every unguilded toon they see to sign.
Point being, your son probably wasn't asked to join a guild in any meaningful sense. Shame that he and/or you thought so.
Because the skill that most people profess to have, and constantly rail that WOW players do not have, only exists in their own minds.
Its up to the player to decide if the effort required is worth it to them. The nice thing about WOW is that you don't have to do that. You can play the game just for fun or you can spend your life in it.
One of the reasons there are "countless" level 60+ players who are clueless is simply because the game has so many damn players its beyond hope they would all be good. Want a hint? Guilds, the bigger the better. The more hardcore the guild the less likely your will be surrounded by idiots.
Finally, for all those who love to call WOW "easy mode - requires no skill" Its obvious you didn't play very long. RAIDs require not only skill and cooperation but the ability to react to situations when someone screws up. Whats so much fun is I can find these complainers in other games, usually getting good groups wiped.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
After getting into BC a bit, overwhelming applied to how much new quest, gear and instance content there is.
I'd say I'm a casual gamer even though I play WoW ~25 hours a week. I've played since beta, played every class to some extent, achieved a few level 60's, run all the non-raid instances and half of the raiding ones. I still felt like I had quite a bit more to do and see in the old content. Then BC came out and I feel like I'm starting over again.
I've started new characters to experience the new starting zones, and I have a few of my characters in Outland. My guild is quite divided about the content: hardcore group has muscled ahead and reached 70 planning to lead the guild through raiding, casual group is still reaching 60 and wants to raid the old content.
I haven't purchased any other game since November 2004. I played Ultima Online for 7.5 years. WoW is considerably better than that, so I expect to be playing for a very long time. The review is fairly accurate though I disagree with the author's negative opinions about the old content.
If you have a spare second computer and a broadband connection, you might want to look into running a personal Ventrilo server and getting your family to install and run the client. Saves on hurt shoulders from cradling a handset. ^_^ And also leaves the phone free for calling out for pizza in the middle of a dungeon. :ninja:
www.ventrilo.com
Yeah, but it was on an RP server, not just a PvP or mixed server. There, you theoretically are there to role-play, so doing stuff like that is by nature contrary to the concept of a guild.
As opposed to, say, having people join the guild, realizing that they just don't fit with the goals of the guild - or the guild realizing that - and then dropping them after a warning or something.
I tend to give away a lot of the things I make as a blacksmith or leatherworker to low-level characters at the starting locations - it adds to the sense of role-play, in that something that useful when you start off means a lot more than just getting it in a trade. Or use magic to upgrade people who are playing well or are deserving.
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The bcraids.jpg seems wrong to me. I think you need to do Shadow Lab, Arcatraz and Steamvault to obtain Karazhan key.
I'd say more, but I have to level my alts.
ID: the nose did not occur naturally, how would we wear glasses otherwise? (apologies to Voltaire)
Thank you! That video just made the whole thing even funnier. I'm choking on my own laughter here! Shit, don't tell them about my online slashdot funeral if I die..... The trolls will have a field day.
I wish WoW had a rep/karma system. Not sure how it could be done to actually work - so many liars and people who would vote you down just because you didn't give them the gold they begged for - but damn I'd like to see it. Maybe your rep vote would be weighted based on your rep! Good rep toons' votes get counted for more.
In Nature, stupidity is a capital offense. In human society, too many get off with less than a warning.
Some other player (who apparently didn't notice, in his first twenty levels, that once you have "focus" on a monster, other people attacking that monster merely saves you some time, and costs you neither experience nor gold) took umbrage with my attempted altruism and spent the next ten minutes preemptively attacking every monster in which I displayed any interest.
This episode reminded me of what I hate most about gaming: gamers. I thought to myself, "I'm paying money for the privilege of being annoyed by some under-socialized puke with a chip on his shoulder."
So tell me... why did YOU quit?
It's embarrassing to admit, but I've never even gotten a character to level 60. My highest one is level 33, the rest are 4-5 levels below that.
Has the new expansion made things any easier for the "below 60" crowd *who aren't one of the new races*, or was it mainly geared toward the 60s and the new races?
I use Windows... like a two dollar wh.. why don't I just go ahead and not finish that sentence.
Firstly, define casual. The reviews (such as this one) tend to define casual as a play style - as someone who enjoys playing for quests and exploration rather than powerlevelling. But can someone please please redefine casual - maybe - as someone who actually isn't playing for 12 hours a day?
I cannot fathom the amount of hours of work it would take me to get to level 60. I'm a causal player - casual in the sense that - I basically want to spent about 150 hours total playing this game. Like a normal game. I'm not a big MMO fan but I am a huge huge Warcraft fan which is why I have continually given this game a shot. It's why I bought the Burning Crusade.
But I had no idea BC would add almost zero content until level 58. I thought it was insane, and I still just cannot begin to comprehend why they did this.WHAT ABOUT SOMEONE WHO NEVER HAD HUGE AMOUNTS OF TIME TO PLAY, AND NEVER GOT ANYWHERE NEAR LEVEL 58??? What do we get from the expansion, or any of the new content coming into the game? Why did I give Blizzard $60 just so that hardcore people can enjoy this stuff?
I just never understood why no other review I've seen has ever said anything like "but you may want to hold off on this expansion unless you're level 58". Every review and everybody I've spoken to seems to assume that every WoW player is level 58. What about the true casuals, who spend their time in the 20s or 30s and are never going to see high levels?
I'll tell you what - like me, they all finally realised they had no hope of seeing any of this content, and quit. And they're not coming back.
What was it? The terrible terrible terrible amount of collection quests. You know the ones. Collect X amount of item that is dropped from Y mob, and turn it in. Then, as a follow up, collect X amount of other item that is dropped from Y other mob, sometimes even the same mobs you had just killed to get to the first set. Then usually there is some more collection quests of even bigger mobs and finally you take down some random named mob (who rarely is anything more interesting than a little-bit-tougher enemy) and the quest line ends.
It sounds silly, but think about it. How else are you supposed to level up? You could solo, but you miss out on the quest rewards, and the XP reward arguably isn't as good. You could do 5-man's, and those are actually fun and offer OK rewards, but there are only a couple avalable to you at any given level, only one of which anyone ever decides to do (sup SM), and you have to go through a whole ringamarole in order to get there, having to meet up, dying on the way ass-deep in horde territory and having to trek a good bit of the ditance away, it's just way more of a pain in the ass than it should be. So what do you do? You solo quests. Those god-awful, boring as hell collection quests. Over and over and over again for rat asses and rusted axes and red bandanas and....honestly why the fuck do people contine to play this shit?
Now, I haven't played Burning Crusade to see if it had improved. But if I were in Blizzards shoes, here is what I would have done:
- More unique named mobs that I have to kill, or one singular treasure I have to recover, hell, even fedex quests into dangerous territory were tons more fun than what most of the quests turned out to be. I should never have to grind double-digit numbers of five different types of animals to 'thin the herds' or bring back a double digit number of momentos as 'proof of your deed'. Seriously, that shit needs to stop.
- Have a definitive 'top end' in gear, that doesn't require 5 hour raids. Balance that out by making the stuff in raids look heaps more awesome than 'common' armor. You might think this is nuts, but Guild Wars pulled this off excillently, people LOVE to farm high end content to have armor that had no practical value but looked cool as hell. Think of it as a status symbol.
- Improve PvP. Arenas are a good start, but why is it impossible to be able to schedule Guild vs. Guild on the battlegrounds? Do you have any comprehension how much more fun that would be than random assholes running around meat-grinding aroud one or two points of interest while one or two good players carry the entire team? Think of it...cordination on both sides....calculated strikes instead of mass stupidity...it would probably be the greatest thing ever.
I'm the guy with the unpopular opinion
why dont you faggots go out and get a life? stop sucking that elf dicks, faggot.
Yeah, your momma taught me all kinds of things...I mean damn, it is a miracle that she can breathe at all with her throat full of orc juice...
When faced with a problem, many web developers say "I know, I'll use JavaScript!".
Now they have two problems.
Because I don't have the patience to play WoW for long periods of time, I'll never get to 60. I have an 18 rogue, 21 shaman, 33 priest, and 36 paladin, all Alliance. Between each character is a time when I quit the game when I got tired of it.
I'll never get to 60, so from my perspective, Outland simply doesn't exist. I think that that is the big flaw with the expansion.
The Draenei and Blood Elf zones are pretty, but they seem quite short, and they are the entire expansion to me.
"Screw Sun, cross-platform will never work. Let's move on and steal the Java language." - Visual J++ Product Manager
For a hammer, ok, it shows you power and there won't be any defiant stopping you from your quest (maybe) but, some of the clothes are really NASTY to wear;
to not leave out some headpieces. They are everything against casual!
I'm a partially bald mage; do they really need to show the baldness right thru? I don't got a complex, but man!
Don't tell me that looks good once I face my enemy while having 3 diamonds spinning above my mage head! It looks ridicilous!
Casual means (according Wikipedia In the European tradition, casual is the dress code which emphasizes comfort and personal expression over presentation and uniformity. It includes a very wide variety of costume, so is perhaps better defined by what it isn't than what it is. The following are not considered casual wear
- Ceremonial dress such as royal robes and full dress military costume
- Formal wear such as white tie and black tie
- Suits such as those sold by Brooks Brothers and Chanel
- Any stiff or very traditional elements, such as highly polished dark leather shoes, or highly creased and pressed shirts and trousers
Of'course, you better not wear a kilt and trip on it like I've seen with some druidsfor Gnomeregan!!!!
ps: Oh, I already saw Brooks, Brothers and Chanel (nasty girl sometimes!) in Azeroth, don't buy anything from them,
they are not only against casual, oversized and made in Durotar; but they sell very cheap fakes!
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
Blizzard disabled the auto joining to the LookingForGroup channel; since the new LFG tool came out the channel is not standard anymore. This has serious complications since the LFG tool does not allow lower levels to be helped out through a LFG tool, no raids can be made to certain cities, no fun things can be done like I've once seen an online wedding anniversary which was very nice, completely organized thru the LFG tool.
;)" SPAM even.
When dawn was set, not many users were online, fun could happen through the LFG channel. It's always nice to see someone alive on your realm and making fun too; often more than a half dozen of other people reply nicely too and very rarely you had those anal-retentive guys calling "join us now to go discover plaguelands, a mage and a healer gets a free cookie
To make things short; the social factor is completely missing now and special LFG requests cannot be done thru the LFG tool.
The LFG tool is way to limited in design which locks out a lot of player to interact with eachother on the world; which was the strength of the LFG channel.
More annoying is the *continuesly repeating* spam messages from gold sellers; using virtually the same words every time and blizzard not phrasebanning them or letting the same user to spam those phrases over and over using guestpasses...
I still do not know why they do not allow the user to join both methods; the channel and the tool; and let the users decide themselves to unsubscribe the latter. It would be a trade for both; just like you can show your headpiece or your cloak.
This all is now not anymore; on top of that there is a half working global General channel; less open player interaction.
Since I've left my guild shortly ago, I've been noticing that impact very hard.
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
You must be from Gnomeregan, right?
I hope you happen to know that *I* will be dominating the realms with the masterplan I stole from Thermaplug! NOT you!
relax
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
Many of the new zones now have a world PvP objective, in which one side, Horde/Alliance, needs to capture and hold certain points. Some of these objectives have interesting mechanics - the PvP point Halla in Nagrand has gryphon roosts that allow you to bomb out the center of the flag point before moving in. Fighting at these points rewards you with battle tokens that can be turned in for good armor and the like, and the side that holds a PvP objective often gains a zone-wide buff for their side as long as they hold it, like a +5% damage bonus. It's a bit of a pain on some PvE servers where the Alliance has a large population side, but it's otherwise good times with less BG queue.
You might think this is nuts, but Guild Wars pulled this off excillently... Ah, yes, because everyone knows about another MMO that does things better than WoW.
Libertarians somehow believe that private businesses should be stronger than governments but weaker than individuals.
http://www.worldofwconline.com/content/guides-emot es.php
I heard about that. It sounds fun, but that seems to me like more of a distraction than anything else, because you still have to level up somehow. You might think this is nuts, but Guild Wars pulled this off excillently... Ah, yes, because everyone knows about another MMO that does things better than WoW.
And I don't see how lumping me in with everyone else is a valid point at all. Seriously, would you want to pay 15 dollars a month for a game that was simple enough to the point of a bot being able to play, unaided?
I'm the guy with the unpopular opinion
I think there's a difference between a bot being able to kill mobs in a specified area and actually "playing" the game? Maybe? Nah....