By Jim Rossignol on August 21st, 2009 at 9:04 pm.
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.
21/08/2009 at 21:09 damien says:
is news of a WoW expansion a similar experience for webservers to being slashdotted?
(every now and then i peek my head out of my own arse – and all the snooty, niche games i like to play – long enough to remember just how popular this game is, and am always amazed by its ubiquitous success.)
21/08/2009 at 21:13 Steve says:
Wow. Didn’t the newest expansion just come out already? Blizzard sure like to exploit their franchises.
21/08/2009 at 21:17 KnightOfCydonia says:
To n-million WoW subscribers (I gave up counting your Zerg-like ranks long ago) – prepare to bend over and pay £30 to be exploited some more.
21/08/2009 at 21:18 coupsan says:
I do not even know how people can get into this game! It’s so…boring.
21/08/2009 at 21:21 Flint says:
Steve: Blizzard has said that they intend to launch a new WoW expansion each year. So yeah.
Anyway, I had gone off WoW a bit but oh god all this new info is just heaven to my ears. I always loved the original continents the best so it’s amazing they’re bringing back focus to them, some of the zone changes seem so very amazing and of course playable werewolves! Some of the best game news of the year.
But fuck positivity, what we need is more people filling the comments threads about this particular game by moaning about the game because they have nothing better to do.
21/08/2009 at 21:21 ilves says:
eeech… only MMO at the moment that might even barely get my interest is Guild Wars 2, when it eventually comes out… currently not playing anything.
21/08/2009 at 21:25 damien says:
to answer my own question, it seems similar but not identical as parts of the site do load in while others dont.
i wonder how much bandwidth 11 million people hitting a server to watch a trailer generates in 24 hours?
21/08/2009 at 21:29 Alaric says:
Worgen! That’s awesome!
I don;t like it that they burned a bunch of pretty old zones though. Lave and chasms – uncool!
Still, I think I’ll return to the game when this comes out.
21/08/2009 at 21:29 Alaric says:
Oh and flying mounts in the old world is cool!
21/08/2009 at 21:30 Optimaximal says:
Isn’t simply pushing the level cap higher and introducing crappy races such as goblins a clear sign that they’re running out of ideas?
21/08/2009 at 21:32 Meat Circus says:
So, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Game Studio Out of Ideas then.
21/08/2009 at 21:39 Alaric says:
Why is it that people start bitching and complaining at the first mention of Blizzard?
What do you mean out of ideas? The game is being improved. For example the use of flying mounts in the old world is (in my book) a great improvement. So are many of the other changes. Of course something is not to my liking, but it seems weird that nothing at all is to yours.
“Oh no, Diablo III is too colorful! What a shitty game! /wrists”
“Oh no, StarCraft 2 has no LAN! What a shitty game! /wrists”
“Oh no, WoW is out of ideas! What a shitty game! /wrists”
Do you guys ever get tired of being so horribly disappointed all the time? I’d probably quit gaming altogether if something was making me this upset.
21/08/2009 at 21:43 Vinraith says:
I don’t care about WoW, but the D3 information is interesting. I eagerly await a trailer.
21/08/2009 at 21:45 Vinraith says:
Also, I don’t understand the “out of ideas” complaint. There was nothing particularly original about WoW to begin with. It’s not about ideas, it’s about polishing existing MMO tropes to a mirror shine so you can endlessly string along your player base. Those that have a weakness for these things enjoy it (for reasons that escape me), Blizzard gets rich, and those of us that don’t care about the game continue not caring about the game. Where’s the down side?
21/08/2009 at 21:46 Flint says:
Alaric:
Then again, they also prettied up Desolace from one of the most depressing zones of the game into what looks like is going to be one of the most beautiful.
21/08/2009 at 21:51 Dean says:
It’s a brilliant move by Blizzard. Have said it many times, but the last expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, was a brilliant game. Problem was, you had to play through 70 other levels first to get there. The first 60 of which were very badly dated.
If they can rework the old zones in to something on par with the ones in the last expansion, they might just attract an entire new generation of fans. Blizzard pretty much re-invented the MMO again last year but no-one noticed as unless you were already playing, you couldn’t play it.
21/08/2009 at 21:52 Andy says:
Are they seriously allowing flying mounts in the old worlds? I find this hard to believe, it has always been requested but always denied due to the fact that they designed the whole of the old world before thinking that people would fly over, hence there are many many makeshift villages and crappy green spaces with nothing drawn because they never thought people would see it. It will take a lot of time to redo all that, time that could arguably be spent making actual challenging raids and quests and raising the level cap further than five levels which will take about a week to complete.
21/08/2009 at 21:54 Cutman says:
Oooooh my god Monk. My life is complete.
21/08/2009 at 21:55 Alaric says:
@Andy,
They are changing most zones anyway, so they decided to make them flight accessible.
21/08/2009 at 21:56 Flint says:
Andy, they’re reworking, revamping and completely altering big parts of the old world with this expansion. Editing the previous issues concerning flying in Azeroth is going to be fixed alongside that.
I personally don’t care at all that the level cap’s being raised with only five levels, the old world will be completely revamped with legions of new quests and areas to explore, it’s going to be a reroller’s paradise.
21/08/2009 at 21:56 Steve says:
So they’re redoing the original world? I wonder how this will work for people who do not buy the expansion. Any guesses that don’t involve the person being screwed?
21/08/2009 at 21:56 JadedEyes says:
Monk class? I assume of the Shaolin variety that peacefully, humbly beats people to a pulp with hands and feet.
21/08/2009 at 21:58 St4ud3 says:
Another one?
Meh, who cares. I’ll just go play some EVE and have fun instead of farming herbs to make Flasks for some stuckup raids.
21/08/2009 at 21:59 Meat Circus says:
@Alaric:
Diablo III looks amazing. It looks like it’s gonna offer all the stuff I loved about WoW (Blizzard’s dungeon design) with none of the stuff I hated (grrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnd).
21/08/2009 at 22:00 Andy says:
@Alaric
Yeah, I didn’t actually see any useful info on the linked article, but Tobold to the rescue – http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2009/08/i-was-wrong-leak-was-true.html – And I see that they are indeed remaking all the old land. Are they really saying Goldshire and the Barrens and Dustwallow Marsh and everywhere is going to look different? This saddens and confuses me.
21/08/2009 at 22:00 Flint says:
Steve:
The changes will affect everyone, regardless of whether or not you have the new expansion. However, all the new zones will only be accessible for the expansion owners.
21/08/2009 at 22:01 Flint says:
Here’s another brilliant list on all the new changes: http://www.wow.com/2009/08/21/blizzcon-2009-world-of-warcraft-preview-panel-liveblog/
21/08/2009 at 22:02 Heliocentric says:
Whee! goblins. Finally the gnomes have their proper counterpart. I’ll never play this for ethical reasons, but i’m glad this expansion is new material plot wise. Arthas should have been punched in the noggin ages ago but he was too iconic.
So where is warcraft4?
21/08/2009 at 22:05 mehh says:
Given how little I care of WoW (former addict gone bitter) I guess the only thing that surprised me of this news was how accurate the leaked information/gossip of this was when it was posted about a month ago.
21/08/2009 at 22:07 Zaij says:
People bitch about Blizzard because they think they’re smarter if they buck the trend. Actual thinking is rare these days.
21/08/2009 at 22:10 greenB says:
Heliocentric:
Cynical answer would be “even with a crazy patch that (apparently unnecessarily) broke many custom maps, people are still playing Warcraft 3… so why spend money on developing a WC4, it’ll never bring in the kind of cash WoW makes in a couple of hours.”
The more reasonable one: doesn’t Blizzard still have two unannounced new titles in their pipeline, one being the new and original MMO and the other just a mystery?
21/08/2009 at 22:14 LeFishy says:
So revamping the entire 1-60 experience and introducing new zones and adding a lot more endgame is “simply pushing the level cap higher and introducing crappy races such as goblins”
Sorry. I am a player. I don’t have any real love for the game and half expect to be jumping ship to GW2 when it is released but people complaining when they are clearly missing the bigger picture is somewhat annoying.
Especially when someone clearly states that they have no interest in the title but are going to list a string of reasons why this is bad.
21/08/2009 at 22:16 Natalie says:
This is me waving goodbye to real life :D I thought they couldn’t suck me back in, but world changes? That’s exactly what I’m looking for. Woohoo!
21/08/2009 at 22:18 Army of None says:
Looks good. I don’t play WoW anymore, but still looks interesting! And I’ll definitely be picking up D3 (monk! So much want!). Not so much for the Starcraft II though (LAN play is essential, especially for us few blighters that don’t have internet except on their Blackberry)
21/08/2009 at 22:20 Jeremy says:
Looks like a ton of nice changes for WoW, except I agree with Meat Circus in that a barrier to entry for me to any MMO is the unbearable grind. The Old Republic and potentially Guild Wars 2 seem to show some promise towards getting rid of some of the grind associated with MMOs, so I’ll keep my eye on that.
I understand it’s hard to make an MMO without grind, and that is why I respectfully decline to play them, while recognizing the brilliance in its design (WoW specifically).
21/08/2009 at 22:21 Heliosicle says:
WoW has never interested me, even EVE interest’s me more..
21/08/2009 at 22:25 Railick says:
I’m freaking happy that they’re releasing goblins, I wanted that to be one of the races since the very start. Of course I don’t play WoW any more so I won’t be able to enjoy it :P
21/08/2009 at 22:28 lolwot says:
Night Elf mages. Tauren paladins?
21/08/2009 at 22:34 Flint says:
Night elves had mages before they managed to nearly destroy the world, they’re now making a return. The tauren following light are on the other hand explained by the tauren beginning to take power from their sun god (in a similar way that moon = arcane classification in spells with night elves, sun = holy with tauren). They’ve actually already added new NPCs pondering about these things to the game world.
So at least they’re trying to somehow bend the lore rather than just outright breaking it.
21/08/2009 at 22:39 Feintlocke says:
All hail the mighty Game Trailers!
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/debut-trailer-wow-cataclysm/54776
No word on a release date. I’d be up for kicking about in the game right about now, but I doubt I’ll feel the same way in a year’s time.
21/08/2009 at 22:40 lolwot says:
Sounds all very Lucas-y retconny.
Also, the monk looks like the new Max Payne :D
21/08/2009 at 22:43 DD says:
@Meat Circus
your absolutly right about diablo 3.
Now for the announcement……. my god, blizzard is incredible. Hopefully most of these changes will start reverting WoW back to what it was when it was released, and less towards standardization thats currently happening. From the looks of it thats what this expansion seems to be trying to achieve.
21/08/2009 at 22:44 Sonic Goo says:
You can only keep adding new continents to a world for so long before it gets boring as well.
The main reason I like this idea, though, is that it finally turns an MMO into a living, breathing, changing world. Something we haven’t seen too much of so far.
21/08/2009 at 22:44 AiglosCelt says:
Kung fu? In my Diablo 3?
oh god I hope so D:
21/08/2009 at 22:46 Antsy says:
I’m really pleased with the announcement of the Monk class. The Hellfire expansion for Diablo was great and I really enjoyed the Monk. The Warcraft new has really just snuffed out any lingering interest I had in the title. The shake up of the original zones is much needed, but goblins in the horde? Blizzard have finally caved and gone with the Greenskin faction they avoided for so long.
21/08/2009 at 22:46 Subject 706 says:
And so the social virus has mutated yet again.
21/08/2009 at 22:47 Leman says:
World of Teenage Furries.
21/08/2009 at 22:47 Low Quality Beard says:
Yiff-tastic!
21/08/2009 at 22:50 leelad says:
Love it all the only thing that bothers me is the rumor that garrosh is taking over thrall as the warchief, the guy is a complete cock.
Grom cocked things up for his clan and redeemed himself with this life, garrosh should really make sure that his daddys debt is paid in full and jump off dalaran.
The hate puzzles me, dont like it? eat a willy!
21/08/2009 at 22:53 Leman says:
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/60143
Monk trailer on Shack.
21/08/2009 at 23:08 BigJonno says:
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.
21/08/2009 at 23:08 Optimaximal says:
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?’
21/08/2009 at 23:13 Gorgeras says:
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.
21/08/2009 at 23:13 Sajmn says:
@Army of None
Chances are D3 won’t have LAN either for the same reasons as SC2.
21/08/2009 at 23:13 Alaric says:
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?
21/08/2009 at 23:19 Rakinishu says:
Yeah, if my eyes weren’t distracted by the gratuitous flashy, colourful effects, I’d say those were low poly models.
21/08/2009 at 23:22 We Fly Spitfires - MMORPG Blog says:
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.
21/08/2009 at 23:32 PointZero says:
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.
21/08/2009 at 23:46 Alaric says:
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.
21/08/2009 at 23:57 Zaphid says:
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!
22/08/2009 at 00:03 Army of None says:
@Sajmn
Really? I haven’t heard that, but it does make sense I suppose. Oh dear, I hope that’s not the case! :’(
22/08/2009 at 00:11 Stupoider says:
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..
22/08/2009 at 00:13 Thrawny says:
i am the only person here that has never played WoW?
22/08/2009 at 00:14 Thrawny says:
yeesh that was supposed to be am i, not i am.
damn i’m tired.
22/08/2009 at 00:14 Stupoider says:
@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.
22/08/2009 at 00:15 Stupoider says:
Oh, also, I cannot believe Blizzard haven’t included the new dances yet. That is ridiculous!
22/08/2009 at 00:21 Taillefer says:
Nope, Thrawny. I’ve never even seen it in action.
22/08/2009 at 00:23 Hmm-Hmm. says:
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.
22/08/2009 at 00:23 We Fly Spitfires - MMORPG Blog says:
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…
22/08/2009 at 00:25 Alaric says:
;-) 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.?
22/08/2009 at 00:29 Gabe says:
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 ><
22/08/2009 at 00:39 BabelFish says:
@lolwat:
Yes, tauren paladins (and priests.) Beware the incoming flood of “holy cow” jokes.
22/08/2009 at 01:06 Hmm-Hmm. says:
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
22/08/2009 at 01:12 Alaric says:
@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
22/08/2009 at 01:15 Keegan says:
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?
22/08/2009 at 01:48 Carra says:
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.
22/08/2009 at 01:51 Skalpadda says:
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 :)
22/08/2009 at 01:58 Geraint says:
already got the name terryworgen reserved on saurfang server, and dermotworgen in case they can be priests or pallies
22/08/2009 at 02:05 Gorgeras says:
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.
22/08/2009 at 02:39 DethDonald says:
I guess I can say “good bye” to all my friends again.
Blizzard removing my friends from reality sense 2005.
22/08/2009 at 02:49 Psychopomp says:
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
22/08/2009 at 02:53 KnightOfCydonia says:
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.
22/08/2009 at 04:07 reaper47 says:
Money of Moneycraft: Moneyclysm
22/08/2009 at 04:25 The Great Wayne says:
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.
22/08/2009 at 04:36 idmmao says:
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!
22/08/2009 at 05:01 Vinraith says:
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.
22/08/2009 at 05:11 Z says:
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.
22/08/2009 at 05:50 motherpuncher says:
Can the monk brew beer? That is all that matters. Beer.
22/08/2009 at 06:59 Darkelp says:
I chose the wrong week to quit World Of Warcraft.
22/08/2009 at 07:14 Psychopomp says:
Same with me, Dark. I attempted to go back to EVE.
Didn’t work.
22/08/2009 at 08:41 Wulf says:
@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.
22/08/2009 at 10:50 l1ddl3monkey says:
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.
22/08/2009 at 12:19 Zaphid says:
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.
22/08/2009 at 12:47 Gorgeras says:
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.
22/08/2009 at 12:48 sebmojo says:
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.
22/08/2009 at 13:27 R. says:
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…
23/08/2009 at 00:40 Gorgeras says:
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.
23/08/2009 at 10:24 nill says:
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.