The new World Of Warcraft expansion has been announced at BlizzCon. It’s called “Cataclysm”, and will raise the level cap to 85. There’s also going to be two new playable races, goblins and worgen, and the obligatory new dungeons and raids. VG247 got the whole thing in detail over here.
The Monk class was announced for Diablo III, too. And there’ll presumably be a video available soon – the main site has been flattened by the internet for now.
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Garrosh is supposed to be a cock, as is Varian. It’s Blizzard trying to push the Horde vs Alliance scum side of the backstory.
Yes… Incase it doesn’t show, they’re blatantly repainting the whole original game so that the addicts will just keep making new characters rather than ask the question ‘why am I playing this… AGAIN?’
As someone who criticised WoW non-stop for it’s first four years whilst playing it on and off, I have to say that Wrath of the Lich King was a massive improvement over the Jeff Kaplan-driven awfulness that dominated the game until he left the job of lead developer. This expansion looks like it’s going to continue that trend and has more ideas than just new races as is clear from the fact that they have been announced immediately along with suggestions of other stuff, whilst for Jeff Kaplan’s Burning Crusade the mega-boring new races were a long and drawn-out process to hide the fact that the barely finished first expansion was simply more of the same.
I might finally be getting the WoW I was wanting.
@Army of None
Chances are D3 won’t have LAN either for the same reasons as SC2.
Hmm… I wonder about that Monk trailer. There appears to be a very low polygon count on all the models. Does it seem that way because it is a movie and the zoom level is much higher than the game itself? Or is this not an in-engine sequence?
Yeah, if my eyes weren’t distracted by the gratuitous flashy, colourful effects, I’d say those were low poly models.
Very excited about Cataclysm. I didn’t believe it was true until I saw the official announcement. Good work, Blizzard.
Monk also sounds like an excellent choice for Diablo 3.
I am a really big fan of WoW and I thought their idea of continuing the “Frozen Throne” in MMO was an even better idea…keeping it all in the warcraft universe and keeping the history. But now it only seems they want to milk us, the players, of our money..they have, so to say, rewritten the history(of the universe of warcraft).
As reading that Blizzard will start making new expansions every new year, then what will the level gap be in..let’s say 10 years?
Oh yea..and pointless new races. Why won’t they take some time(like they did with both starcrafts [genius games]) and create a game that is better, more balanced, so they won’t have to release a new patch every week that is about 30GB large..okey that was a bit much..but you get the point.
The point of all the new stuff (including those 30 Gb. patches) is to prevent the players from getting bored.
Myself, I get bored routinely, and so I quit the game every few months until something new comes out that sparks my curiosity. For example I haven’t played since shortly after Ulduar because there just isn’t enough for me to do.
Releasing new stuff is the only way they can keep a lot of people interested.
I guess most of the people complaining about the grind in WoW never actually played it, there never was any grind until you hit the max level and even then it is you subjecting yourself to it, rather than being forced to grind. Raiding is where it’s at folks!
Blizzard’s quests, especially in the last expansion were some of the most fun I’ve ever had in any game ever, yes, it was better than most of the story-centric single player games with “moral” choices. Sure it gets old when you are leveling second character, but the road from 70-80 was well worth it and I dare you to find better timewaster for the money you pay. I know, I could be complaining about a game I don’t play getting an expansion pack!
@Sajmn
Really? I haven’t heard that, but it does make sense I suppose. Oh dear, I hope that’s not the case! :’(
Mhm… Blizzard makes me feel uneasy ever since I quit WoW. It’s really strange disliking a game I played for over 2 years, and now I’m seeing the other side of the argument; beforehand I used to dismiss people who disliked WoW, but now I’ve crossed the boundary and I’m worried about the people who are playing. I’ve got the urge to tell people that they’re wasting their money, but then there’s that whole ignorance is bliss side of the story and I’d rather not ruin their fun.
Frankly, I’m looking forward to Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 now, seeing as those are games which I haven’t dabbled in and would love to explore the hype behind them.
Also, it’s weird finding myself not cheering about the announcement of another expansion for WoW, instead wondering what could’ve been announced if this wasn’t about WoW’s next package. :<
I wonder what an MMO from Valve would be like..
i am the only person here that has never played WoW?
yeesh that was supposed to be am i, not i am.
damn i’m tired.
@Zaphid: The first 60 levels of WoW are a bit of a grind, really. :< It's nice to see that Blizzard are going back and fixing it up, though. I always thought it was something that they should've done in WotLK.
Oh, also, I cannot believe Blizzard haven’t included the new dances yet. That is ridiculous!
Nope, Thrawny. I’ve never even seen it in action.
This was all leaked a week or so ago, but yeah. I still think there’s no need to actually add those two races to make it a real expansion. Were I still playing the game, I’d rather have more (and better) content.
Oh, and Egypt was an inspiration for Uldum, eh? And what about the Aqir?
Underwater fighting and mounts.. should be good.
Anyway, lots of interesting stuff.
Very excited about Cataclysm and very surprised that the leak was accurate. I think an original content revamp is an excellent move by Blizzard and wish other older MMOs would follow suit.
Now if only they’d update the character models…
;-) I may be crossing the line here, but those who used to play WoW, then quit it, and now are bashing it… do they remind anyone else of the sort of people who upon break-up begin telling everyone how their ex-girlfriend is “a stupid whore” etc.?
Oh god… I swear, I had a mindgasm reading that BlizzCon article from wow.com… oh god, every time I try to leave, they pull me back in ><
@lolwat:
Yes, tauren paladins (and priests.) Beware the incoming flood of “holy cow” jokes.
Alaric: Assuming you may (among others) be referring to me, I’ll say this. WoW was my first MMO, and I played it for.. four years, I believe. Four years playing one game a lot of the time will kinda fix it into your mind. I also stopped playing because.. it’d run out for me. I never stopped liking the game, although I have my qualms here and there.
Not that I intended to smack-talk WoW, and I’m sure the expansion will be well-polished and contain many great things. But it’s often the dubious things which draw the eye in a ‘why did you have to go and do that’ way. Whereas the cool things are just as easily enjoyed in silence., I have a tendency to share the negative more. It was the same when I still played the game.
Some things which look great:
-The underwater fighting and mounts
-Flying in Azeroth
-Gnome priests!
-A breath of new life into the old content
-Archeology
@Hmm-Hmm,
You didn’t really bash it, you had a valid point so I didn’t actually mean you when I posted that. =) I was talking about people who are hell bent on making sure that everyone knows how [the game they no longer play] sucks and is a scam to extract money from sheep, and is stupid, and ugly, and how every other game in the world is far better, etc., etc., etc. /yawn
All this Cat expansion sounds absolutely great but…
How are they going to improve raiding?
Guild leveling sounds like a good start.
Leveling up takes two or three weeks then tank and spank raiding starts again…..so what new dynamics are they adding?
Too bad there won’t be a new hero class. Adding the deathknight class was by far the best thing they’ve done with the last expansion.
So far, I’m not convinced yet. New races or race combinations are just cosmic tools. Revamping the old world sounds great. But do I really want to level a 5th character? It’ll have to be really good.
None of that matters though. I’ll still buy the expansion and play it. The only question is: for how many months.
I’m surprised that people seem to think revisiting and remaking the old world is a bad, lazy or unimaginative thing.
From what I’ve seen so far it seems like they’re not only going to give you two new races and then tell you to replay the level 1-80 story, but rather update more or less all areas, questing, instances etc. to current lore, which should be a huge undertaking. The new starting and high level areas they’ve announced have the potential to provide as much exploration as Northrend, just spread out over the two old continents (and underwater in Vashj’ir).
Still, the most important thing; Look at the water! Pretty water! No more horrible tiled awfulness :)
already got the name terryworgen reserved on saurfang server, and dermotworgen in case they can be priests or pallies
Zaphid, WoW was always a grind. The main criticism of it though was the way the Kaplan-led dev team cynically increased the amount of grinding in order to influence the game statistics so they could justify adding almost exclusively the content they preferred: raid dungeons. Raiding was a grind, but it was far less of a grind than the PvP system, reputations, trade skills, gold and non-instanced features. It came to a head during TBC when Jeff Kaplan made his methods pretty transparent when he was quoted as saying Karazhan was by far the most popular *instance* and therefore he was justified in stuffing more and more raids that less and less players ever took part in. Of course by ‘instance’ he deliberately excluded the PvP instances, which very clearly had a wider base of regular participation.
The game started getting better once we saw the back of him. Blizzard unfortunately are getting him to ruin their next MMO in development.
I guess I can say “good bye” to all my friends again.
Blizzard removing my friends from reality sense 2005.
Goblins
* Rocket Jump – Activate your rocket belt to jump up to 20 yards, every 2 min
* Rocket Barrage – Fire your belt rockets at an enemy within 30 yards, every 2 min. (Shared cooldown with Rocket Jump)
* Time is money – Cash in on a 1% increase to attack and casting speed.
* Best Deals Anywhere – Best possible gold discount, regardless of reputation.
* Pack Hobgoblin – Calls in your personal servent, allowing you bank access every 30 min.
* Better Living Through Chemistry – Alchemy skill +15, Your potions give more health / mana
* Goblins can be all classes except Paladin or Druids
AWESOME
TO clarify my (much) earlier comment, which I think may be one of those Alaric is referring to: I’m not bashing WoW. It was 3 years that I enjoyed, to a point. I simply reached the brick wall with it, where I began to think “Why am I paying to run the same raids again and again?” If Cataclysm is delivering a massive reshaping of the world, and addressing the issues I had with it, then that’s fine. But at the end of the day, this is only happening now because Blizzard’s fanbase is starting to get sick of 2 expansions of mostly the same stuff, with a few neat additions that hold the attention briefly.
I won’t be returning to WoW, because of lack of cash + A-Levels starting September, but it is the best at what it does: fantasy-themed RPG, with grindcore tacked onto the end. I just wish Blizzard had the confidence in their material to deliver a free expansion, a la EVE, or a one-off payment, a la Guild Wars.
Money of Moneycraft: Moneyclysm
The principal feat of WoW is that it brought many, many people the mmog genre.
The principal issue with WoW is that it’s been designed to bring many, many people to the mmog genre.
If many guys are bitching about World of Warcraft (and yes, we’ve all played it, disagreeing doesn’t mean people don’t have a clue what they’re talking about), I think that’s because they were disappointed by the cookie cutter game it is, while Blizzard had the financial and R&D potential to inovate tremendously in the genre.
Hell, I think Everquest was more inovative in its time, and that’s considering it had a far less complex and rich gameplay concept than Ultima Online, its predecessor.
Blizzard went for the easy access, customer milking game, and that’s a choice that deserves respect in its own logic, yet you can’t blame people for bitching about this, especially when the needed inovation is nowadays coming from the underdogs like CCP or ANet, who comparatively have far less resources at their disposal.
I think this whole story is what affected Blizzard’s image the most, and what’s provoking the nervosity of some players toward the company nowadays, be it for Starcraft 2, Diablo 3 or WoW.
It’s the ransom of *appearing* (not here to judge blizz, and don’t really care anyway) as a money making monster and no longer as a company that has talent, respect and consideration for its playerbase, imho.
The thing is, since the acquisition of the company by Vivendi and the dissolution of the Blizzard North studio, Blizzard hasn’t proven that they still are this fantastic development team many admired, and that’s also why many players (me included) are waiting either diablo 3 or starcraft 2 to see if the fire is still burning or if the talent is gone with the devs that were behind the great games of the past.
I’m sure those 10 million people who are playing WOW actually aren’t having any fun, and the first 20 posts are correct that the game is actually terrible. They’ve been hypnotized into THINKING they’re having fun when it’s actually TERRIBLY DULL! It’s all an experiment in mind control! Blizzard is doing research for DARPA!
I’ve got nothing in particular against WoW, but a lot of folks playing it right now really AREN”T having any fun. The compulsion outlasts the entertainment value, it’s a refrain I’ve heard from a LOT of former WoW players. I don’t claim to know what the percentages are, but tempting as it may be to dismiss the “no one is having fun” argument with the “everyone is having fun” argument, the truth is somewhere between the two.
As a new player who’s just hit Outland, trialling a way over-powered DK, the new changes sound awesome. I hope they compress all the starter areas down so there’s way less travel time. The Tauren area was the worst for this. I could run 2-3 Draenai through their start zone in the time it takes a Tauren to finish.
Compressing the barrens? Awesome. Basically, Bliz is taking what they’ve learned from the history of the game and remaking their product. Kudos–I may just stick around.
Can the monk brew beer? That is all that matters. Beer.
I chose the wrong week to quit World Of Warcraft.
Same with me, Dark. I attempted to go back to EVE.
Didn’t work.
@Skalpadda
Heh, that was one of the many things that bothered me for the short time I played World of Warcraft. I’m thrilled by the idea of sailing our good Earth’s seven seas, I was always iffy about the idea of getting on a boat and sailing upon Azeroth’s semen seas.
Great; that means at least three of my staff will be off “sick” the week this comes out and I’ll be in trouble with our paymasters again. Fcuking WoW.
Gorgeras: The irony is that I had way more fun raiding in vanilla and TBC than I had in WotLK, belive it or not, the fact that I couldn’t see the whole game kept me more interested than the idea of easy and hard modes. Although at this point it is hard to distinguish how much of it is nostalgia and how much of it was fun or simply new to me.
It’s nostalgia, trust me.
Anyone that isn’t nostalgic for Soviet WoW has no heart(like me), anyone that wants it back has no brain.
It wasn’t so much that there was lots of end-level content that few ever saw that bothered me; it was the fact that there was a lack of anything else. Under Jeff Kaplan there was absolutely no opportunity for persistent open-world fun. All his favoured content: instances, didn’t require a persistent open-world or the server infrastructure that WoW has. It could have easily been run on dedicated third-party servers. The *World* of Warcraft was nothing more than a glorified chat lobby.
This might just about bring me back to WoW.
And for the love of God can we have a little less nerd macho posturing about Blizzard? I’ll say this very simply.
If you have put more than 1000 hours into a game, you don’t get to call it crap.
I would also add that Jeff Kaplan has, if all his interviews in the last 12 months are anything to go by, realises and accepts he made more than a few mistakes in terms of accessibility and design choices. If a man can learn from such things, I don’t see why there’s a need to damn him so harshly. It’s not like anyone’s given a Guide to Making the Perfect Game when they get in the business…
Ah it’s the old ‘few mistakes’ gambit.
Everyone who has ever handled anything disastrously, dishonestly, without shame and with venomous contempt for criticism no matter how mild, uses the ‘few mistakes’ gambit. They think that just because they give a grudging admission to a ‘few mistakes’ they have demonstrated open-mindedness and maturity.
Not sure who Sebmojo is addressing; I’ve certainly not called WoW ‘crap’ and those that have made it clear they don’t see the appeal and probably have not spent a lot of time playing it. I congratulate any new player who can muster the will to get through the mid-late level grind which remains as a legacy of Jeff Kaplan’s leadership.
WoW has been as great and successful as it has in spite of Jeff Kaplan, not because of him. The art direction is it’s most gob-smacking stand-out feature alongside the technical muscle backing it; but it was wasted on unambitious non-talent that insisted on recycled game assets to create raid instance after raid instance. The open-world was a chat room for most the time but still a good one; it’s social bonds that keep people playing and even moving to servers they don’t respect(roleplay servers no longer exist in practicality due to even the incredibly lax policy on them not being enforced at all).
Jeff Kaplan wasn’t merely not given the fictional Guide to Making the Perfect Game; he had never even worked on a major title in his life but was given a senior position, followed shortly after by the MOST senior position when WoW was more than two-thirds finished(he could not possibly have been working on WoW from the start while he was running the Everquest guild Legacy of Steel full). I can’t even find any record of him working in the games industry at all. It almost seems like Rob Pardo gave him the job simply because they played Everquest together and Kaplan managed actually influence the development of that game just as a very pushy and obnoxious player.
Essentially; Jeff Kaplan was about as qualified to be Project Lead as any of the critics that posted on the WoW forums before they were all perma-banned. He was once like them and probably still is.
The trailer for this actually had me rather sucked in — and I haven’t played since the very early days of TBC — but then I saw the Tauren Paladin, laughed my arse off and remembered why I had lost interest in the first place. Well, amongst other things.