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World of Warcraft - Wrath Of the Lich King Is In Alpha
simrook writes to tell us that World of Warcraft's second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, has entered closed alpha testing, as reported by WoWInsider. Wrath of the Lich King, which we've discussed previously, will raise the level cap to 80 and introduce a new class: Death Knights. World of Warcraft remains the most popular MMORPG on the market with over 10 million subscribers. WoWInsider notes, "Various players are being invited to check it out, under a strict NDA."
It does actually require skill. Not to the same extent that many other kinds of games do, and persistence is at least as significant a factor, but there is a level of skill required. And sure any idiot can get to level 70 given enough time, but once there only people with actual skill are able to do anything much in raids.
As for the kinds of quests you do while levelling, it's really only as mindless as you want to make it. If you only look at them as "okay, I just kill X number of Y and collect Z number of A, and do variations of that over and over again", of course you're going to see it as a mindless repetitive grind. But if you immerse yourself a little more and think of the reasons why this NPC is telling you to go on this particular quest and what you're achieving by it, and the places it takes you, it's more interesting. And of course, once you're at the level cap it's largely a different game.
Of course, it could be that this kind of game just isn't your cup of tea at all. My point still remains that it's not as mindless as it seems.
They have explained this a number of times already, including in the very first speech in which they announced the class. The PC Death Knights will be former minions of the Lich King (aka the aforementioned scourge) who have exerted their own influence on their destiny and broken free of his control. No longer a mindless pawn they swore allegiance to a new faction (insert horde or alliance here). They can be of any race, as all races are susceptible to the temptation and corruption of the lich king.
It's the lack of consequence.
No one who dies in WoW is unfazed by it. Dying sucks. Even if you take away the repair bill, it sucks.
You have to run your spirit back to your body and even though this only takes 5 minutes in the worst of circumstances...it still sucks. If you're raiding and you wipe, then you have to wait for 25 people to run back to their bodies and rebuff and reorganize themselves for another boss attempt.
The time penalty is significant...you're playing a game, even a single minute of "unfun" is punishment. But even more significant than the time cost is the ego-cost. Dying means that you failed and it stings.
Blizzard correctly determined that they didn't need harsh death penalties in WoW. Dying is its own penalty.
(I also play Nethack, and permadeath is an important part of the game. In the first Aliens vs. Predator FPS for the PC, the limited saves per level were also an important part of the game, and I'm disappointed that they eliminated that for the sequel. But WoW does NOT need a more severe death penalty.)
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