Rock, Paper, Shotgun

WoW: Cataclysm Sells 3.3m On Day One

By Jim Rossignol on December 13th, 2010 at 3:02 pm.


What does that mean? It means that an expansion pack is the fastest selling PC game of all time. Oh, except that doesn’t change anything. Previous fastest-selling title was, well, Wrath Of The Lich King, which sold 2.8mil on day one. Apparently over 15,000 people attended Cataclysm launch events across the world, and the subs base for the game now sits and 12 million. It’s still an amazing thing, given that I can remember people tutting sceptically over Blizzard spending all their money on making that game in the first place. The lesson here is: don’t bet against Blizzard.

It must be nice to be rich.

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118 Comments »

  1. 13/12/2010 at 15:05 skinlo says:

    All the record selling PC games I never seem to play or enjoy =/

    • 13/12/2010 at 17:20 BAReFOOt says:

      Maybe it comforts you, to remember “argumentum ad populum”. The fact that many people saying something doesn’t make it true. And many people liking something turned out to be a good indicator for something being pretty bad nowadays. (Trough the fact, that most people are by definition only average, and not above average. And the experience that dumb people generally are louder, which biases things downwards.)

      I mean the fact that fantasy is preferred over sci-fi, which was not the case in the less desperate times and places, but was very much the case in the most dark ages and lands, should tell you something…

    • 13/12/2010 at 18:41 The Great Wayne says:

      Myself I see this as another proof that the human race as a whole is doomed, along with most elections and Foxnews.

      Let the mayan apocalypse of 2012 wipe us all and hail the reign of the cephalopods.

    • 13/12/2010 at 19:52 sebmojo says:

      What a snobby pile of pisswallop.

      Some mornings I want to find every bitter, sneering nerd and tattoo ‘THINGS THAT I DON’T LIKE CAN BE GOOD, TOO” on the inside of their eyelids.

    • 13/12/2010 at 20:02 Wulf says:

      Actually, they can’t! Well, at least if you have the most basic idea of how the human psyche works, anyway.

      You can acknowledge that someone else finds something good for reasons that are unfathomable to you, and respect that there is some worth there in order for people to like it. But you really can’t say in any amount of honesty that you think something is good but that you don’t like it.

      In fact, the other night, watching the X-Factor. I commented to a friend that whilst I respect that Rebecca has talent and worth, and that many people like her for it, she wasn’t my favourite and I couldn’t appreciate her as being good because her voice and songs weren’t at all to my taste. So subjectively, she was kind of bad as far as I was concerned, even painfully so at points.

      How about this? Find something you don’t like, saaay… I don’t know… I really don’t. Another thing I don’t like is rap and country music. Find something like that, and try to say that it’s actually really good. You can’t because you don’t truly believe that. Taste is subjective.

      So because I don’t like something can mean that it’s brain-rottingly awful to me. That doesn’t apply to anyone else, and YMMV. I can accept that other people will find that thing good, but I can’t say that something is good and that I don’t like it in the same breath. Not honestly, anyway. Not without lying.

      The human mind will always try to push its own agenda. It’s a survival aspect. And by the same merit I wish I could tattoo ‘JUST BECAUSE I LIKE SOMETHING, IT DOESN’T MEAN IT ISN’T ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE’ to the insides of your eyelids, too. Not that I have any motivation to do so, nor do I believe the veracity of that sentence, I’m just making a point.

    • 13/12/2010 at 20:57 Gassalasca says:

      Well… I’ve always strongly believed in the opposite, Wulf. :)

      My favourite example are The Smiths. An awesome band, but I can’t listen to their music. Why? Morissey’s style of singing. It makes me want to stab my ears (not in all songs, though). But frontman’s singing voice does not a band make. It does mean, however, that I won’t be listening to them in my spare time.

    • 13/12/2010 at 23:54 sebmojo says:

      It’s a linguistic problem, Wulf. Like ‘love’. I love cheese and tomato toasted sandwiches. But not in the same way I love my wife. There’s a clear but linguistically invisible distinction between ‘good’ meaning ‘what I like’ and ‘good’ meaning ‘possessing of quality’.

      So ‘good’ means both ‘good to me’ and ‘good in an abstract for all time way’. And like it or not, public approbation is at least partially relevant to the latter. Also relevant is the sort of thoughtful analysis you get on this site all the time (including, amazingly, the comments on this thread) and most important of all, whether people are still talking about it ten years later.

      Taking a step back, the problem with ‘if I don’t like it then it’s shit and somehow the fact that lots of other people do like is proof that it’s shit BECAUSE MACDONALDS’ is that it’s an arrogant refusal to empathise.

      Though I suppose people doubtless get some weird nerdy emotional validation out of it so good for them. They weren’t fooled! Ha!, goes their bitter little laugh in the face of The Man!

      I mean I hate fish, but does that mean that fish is not a tasty food group? That it cannot be delicious?

      No, my friend. No it does not.

      In summary: Whatevs, dude. (But you’re wrong).

    • 14/12/2010 at 01:45 panther says:

      fuck a lot of you come off as whiny basement dwellers

    • 14/12/2010 at 09:45 The Sombrero Kid says:

      I’m not a real Human, i’m made of Jerky and chicken wire.

    • 15/12/2010 at 02:19 GHudston says:

      Sebmojo. I could kiss you.

  2. 13/12/2010 at 15:07 xmido says:

    I quit wow 3-4 times, no expansion will get me back.

  3. 13/12/2010 at 15:13 TotalBiscuit says:

    Colour me not remotely shocked by this. Oh look, it’s a really good expansion to a very popular MMO, it sold lots of copies.

    • 13/12/2010 at 15:16 subedii says:

      Yeah I don’t really play WoW myself, but I’ve been hearing constantly how this is expansion is supposed to be a massive game changer for the franchise.

    • 13/12/2010 at 15:29 Tuskin says:

      This expansion is a game changer even if you don’t buy it, starting zones have changed for most races, quests have been moved around, new quests for old races.

    • 13/12/2010 at 15:30 ScubaMonster says:

      Well I know at least at first the news of the changes really pissed a lot of people off. I haven’t been following it so I don’t know what the general consensus is now.

    • 13/12/2010 at 15:36 TotalBiscuit says:

      The changes didn’t piss anyone of note, it was as always, just noise. Nothing actually happened.

    • 13/12/2010 at 15:38 Joshua says:

      You know, people are always pissed of about the changes.

    • 13/12/2010 at 15:39 frymaster says:

      Oh look, it’s a really good expansion

      I don’t think any of the people who bought it on day one could have known that, but your point still stands ;)

    • 13/12/2010 at 15:43 Nalano says:

      People are always scared of change. That’s why we have such deep grooves in our gaming genres you can practically paint-by-numbers with new releases.

      That said, I cannot wait for this franchise to die so I can see those people I met in this game in some other venue.

    • 13/12/2010 at 15:50 Loopy says:

      @ frymaster Actually they could if they got involved with the beta test for the expansion as I did. There must have been plenty of people who did, because the servers were absolutely crawling with players when I was on there.

    • 13/12/2010 at 17:30 Danarchist says:

      There are quite a few changes to how quests in general play out. Much more flash, cut-scenes, in general even low level quests have a much more heroic epic feel to them. Even the kill 5 rats ones are somehow generally better.
      I think the absolute best part of it is dungeons are once again hard. In wrath any mouth breather could zone into a dungeon then bang his head into his keyboard for 10 minutes and look up to find himself decked out in purplez. Now if your not paying attention, and using all your class utilities you will simply wipe over and over and over. Normal modes are about as tough as ICC 10, heroic modes can make some of the toughest raid bosses seem like pussy cats.
      Upping the difficulty did piss a number of people off, but on the other hand it has driven away a chunk of the short bussers that wont be missed.

      Then to balance out the awesomeness they added a slew of new time sinks to irritate me.

    • 13/12/2010 at 18:57 ScubaMonster says:

      Mostly it was people complaining about stuff breaking the lore. Like Night Elf Mages, etc. Of course, that was on the official forums and those are clogged daily with people crying about something.

    • 14/12/2010 at 01:47 TotalBiscuit says:

      “I don’t think any of the people who bought it on day one could have known that, but your point still stands ;)”

      You probably picked the worst person in the entire world to aim that comment at

    • 14/12/2010 at 05:32 malkav11 says:

      Sure they could have. Cataclysm’s been in beta for months. I mean, I specifically didn’t even apply to be a beta-tester because I knew perfectly well I’d want the expansion anyway and didn’t want to spoil the experience by running it in a beta, no-progress-is-permanent fashion. But plenty of people were in it that weren’t me.

  4. 13/12/2010 at 15:14 Rich says:

    Do you think Bobby Kotick has a big tower full of gold coins, like Scrooge McDuck?

  5. 13/12/2010 at 15:16 clownst0pper says:

    I got a free copy and resubbed. Wargen starting zone is marvellous :)

  6. 13/12/2010 at 15:19 Jimmy says:

    It looked like a fantastic release, with oodles of events in the month leading up to actual launch.

    Makes me a bit jealous. I couldn’t ever really get into WoW, but I wish there were more developers out there who could put similar amounts of effort into creating a living world (hopefully one that I would be interested in)

  7. 13/12/2010 at 15:19 me says:

    THE URGE!!!! I want to buy this expansion and all others again for hmm, 4th TIME!!

    You want to hear my history..? Read on.

    First I buy WoW, after 3 weeks or so I quite and throw it in the trash can..

    Buy WoW again.. Throw it away after a week or so.

    Then Burning Crusade comes.. I buy WoW and burning crusaded, play 2 weeks throw it away…

    Then Lich King comes, buy WoW crusade and lich… don’t even play it..OMFG

    Now, cataclysm.. My brains know better, but my greed says otherwise.. I must have this!!! HELP ME PLEASE!!!

    • 13/12/2010 at 15:23 Tuskin says:

      But your game is tied to your account, why would you have to re-buy it?

    • 13/12/2010 at 15:27 me says:

      Cause I always forgot my accounts, and my passwords, besides you get 30 days with buying WoW so that didn’t matter much. But last time was just silly.

    • 13/12/2010 at 15:27 Fionny says:

      Lol, you can just download the client… rofl!

    • 13/12/2010 at 15:31 ScubaMonster says:

      Unless you forgot your account info just do what these other guys said and download it. Even if you forgot though you can call up Blizzard and most likely recover it with your name, address, and credit card.

    • 13/12/2010 at 15:34 clownst0pper says:

      Even if you have forgotten your information (all of it) you can just phone the free supportline, answer a question or two and they’ll tell you it over the phone. Takes about 10 minutes; I had to do it.

    • 13/12/2010 at 15:37 Riesenmaulhai says:

      Don’t tell him! You might ruin one hilarious game-related story in the making!

    • 13/12/2010 at 15:49 me says:

      Well, I doubt that’ll work, cause I don’t trust Blizzard with my information, hence I played pre-paid with bogus info (btw, the real-ID bs proofed my right).

      But I was asking you guys for HELP TO CONVINCE ME NOT BUY THIS GAME!!

      But all you do is make it seem like it’s worth it……

    • 13/12/2010 at 16:04 Ed Burst says:

      @me
      You don’t say why you threw away your first copy (or why you decided to get it again). Did you get too addicted to it or just bored of it?

    • 13/12/2010 at 16:09 Riesenmaulhai says:

      Now that you’ve shovelled like 100GB up and down your harddrive, actually _you_ should make it worth it. Problem being: Sooner or later you’ll realize games without ending will always leave you disappointed.
      No matter how marvellous the first time I reached Darkshore was: You can never bring back the first kiss, the first girl. And every girl after her will just be a fading picture in the mirror in comparison to her. And if you stayed with her, sooner or later she’d become her own fading picture in the mirror.
      So don’t try it again. It will only leave you feeling aged and bitter. And perhaps even alone though in company.

    • 13/12/2010 at 16:16 plant42 says:

      “You can never bring back the first kiss, the first girl. And every girl after her will just be a fading picture in the mirror in comparison to her. And if you stayed with her, sooner or later she’d become her own fading picture in the mirror. So don’t try it again. It will only leave you feeling aged and bitter. And perhaps even alone though in company.”

      Ok, who let the goth kid out of his dungeon?

    • 13/12/2010 at 17:36 Danarchist says:

      Well you can buy the first 3 for $20 total, and Cataclysm is 40 so….
      Ya for the first month it costs the same as the last 2 or 3 games I bought and played for one week then beat/got bored of.

      If you have an on again off again thing with MMO’s buy guild wars. No monthly fee, they never wipe your account for any reason, and it’s a really good game to boot. Buy it on steam and it even saves your account info for when you get an itch and reinstall.

    • 13/12/2010 at 19:01 ScubaMonster says:

      I stopped playing WoW once I did most things at end game. After watching new seasons of PvP gear come out right after I finished a set, and new raid content come out making everything of mine obsolete, I just said to heck with it. I realize they have to advance and make new stuff to replace the old, but my main beef was that you were not viable at ALL for later content unless you upgraded your gear. The game is just too gear based for me. A bad player decked out in top tier gear will always be better than a great player who has crap gear. Skill means very little. It only comes into play when you have players in the same level of gear. Anybody else can’t even pitch in.

  8. 13/12/2010 at 15:19 Jimbo says:

    There seem to be a lot of people who haven’t played WoW in years taking the opportunity to get back in and start over with a new character too, and most of the feedback I’ve heard from them has been very positive. I could easily see that subscription number creeping up some more yet. Real smart move from Blizzard to overhaul the early content to entice the WoW quitters back in all over again.

    I probably won’t go back to it -because there’s just so much other stuff I want to play- but it’s the first time I’ve been genuinely tempted to go back to WoW. I never thought that would happen.

  9. 13/12/2010 at 15:23 Sacrovir says:

    The strange thing is that 3.3 million is not that much when you consider they have 11 million subscribers. It means 70% of the players are not playing the new expansion yet.

    • 13/12/2010 at 15:32 ScubaMonster says:

      I’m wagering a lot of those don’t even play at all and haven’t in years. Plus, do they include accounts made by gold farmers? Their numbers seem disingenuous.

    • 13/12/2010 at 15:50 Magius Paulus says:

      This is not true, as that number is only for the 1st day

    • 13/12/2010 at 15:53 Tupimus says:

      Most people can’t get it straight away.

    • 13/12/2010 at 16:08 sneetch says:

      Well, back in October they announced they had 12 million subscribers and that number referred to accounts that were active at the time of that announcement (not trial accounts or free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, or expired prepaid cards).

      The expansion wasn’t out in Asia until December 9th. Of those 12 million subscribers just under half are in Europe or the US so over half of those who could possibly buy the expansion on day one did. That sounds quite reasonable to me, not everyone can get these things the moment they come out.

    • 13/12/2010 at 17:39 Danarchist says:

      I have seen the payment model they use in Asia, it blows me away that it’s so popular there!
      They charge by time played. Considering how much of my playtime is spent sitting on my dragon flapping in the air afk, likely 60%of the time I would be paying for would be doing absolutely nothing interesting. Like paying for time at a paintball palace then hanging out in the bathroom for most of it.

  10. 13/12/2010 at 15:25 Carter says:

    If I was to download the 10 day trial would I have acess to the Cataclysm area’s or are they strictly for high level players?
    Only ask as I’m interested in seeing the changes done to the area’s the uh last time i played the trial

    • 13/12/2010 at 15:35 Ubiquitous says:

      Cataclysm affects the whole world, though it does add many high lvl areas. If you played before and start a new character, you should be able to spot differences right away.

    • 13/12/2010 at 21:58 Shadram says:

      I started a new account from scratch a few weeks back, after the Cataclysm hit. I recently moved from the UK to NZ, so decided to start again rather than suffer the lag and timezone differences on the EU servers.

      The Cataclysm changes are very, very noticeable from the word go. Every start zone I’ve played has been changed quite significantly, all for the better, and the way each class plays at low levels has changed too (mostly with the change to the Talent system, but also abilities are gained at different times, hunters start with pets, etc).

      So yeah, grab the trial, but if you do, expect to be handing over your credit card details a few days later.

  11. 13/12/2010 at 15:25 Dolphan says:

    I’m really quite curious to play this, even though I never got past level 50ish in the past, but I don’t think I really can these days, now that I’m working instead of studenting. It would essentially mean not playing any other games for ages to have the time to play it, and I have about a million things I want to play.

  12. 13/12/2010 at 15:29 Stephen Roberts says:

    As a recurring ‘quitter’ of wow, this isn’t enough to get me involved in the game again. I’m more interested in the content from level 1-58 than in the content from 80-85. I don’t give a rats arse about Goblins and think Horde should have had the Worgen because worgen are actually cool. Also the talent trees look utterly retarded. It seems there’s fuck all room for anything but cookie cutter builds. Colour me curious, but I’m done with WoW. To start up again would be letting myself down and I would have a nightmare reconfiguring my UI from scratch.

    • 14/12/2010 at 03:07 Pope Guilty says:

      If you’re not interested in Cataclysm because you’re only interested in the 1-58 game, you’re either trolling or haven’t paid the least attention to the expansion. Reworking the old world is THE ENTIRE POINT.

    • 14/12/2010 at 05:36 malkav11 says:

      Well, not really. I mean, there’s been a massive amount of 1-60 change that’s well worth a look, but the expansion isn’t required for 90+% of that. You’re getting the 80-85 zones, archaeology, the new races, etc for your expansion buck.

  13. 13/12/2010 at 15:29 Po0py says:

    Do you need Litch King to play this? I would buy it too but there I’ve only ever gotten a mage up to level 40 and I just don’t know if it’s worth all the grinding to get up to 80 and start enjoying the new stuff. I suspect there is plenty new stuff for me to do at the lower levels but the end game stuff always seems so far away.

    • 13/12/2010 at 15:34 Stephen Roberts says:

      Here’s my understanding of the Expansions and how they work now:

      Standard WoW gets you acess to the Azerothian zones that are Old but recently destroyed. You can level from 1-60.
      Burning crusade adds the ability to make Blood Elf and Draenai characters and you can level from 61-70 in Outland.
      Wrath of the Lich King gets you the ability to create Death Knight classes when you have a character on your account (or realm) of level 55 or higher. You can also level from 71-80 in the Icy continent of Northrend.
      Which means, finally, that Cataclysm grants you the option to create Goblin and Worgen characters and level your characters from 81-85 in then newly unlocked areas of Azeroth.
      Actual current wow players should correct me on discrepancies.

      Also as an edited afterthought, if you find any of the ‘required’ content in the game ‘grindy’ then this isn’t the game for you. As I remember it, playing the game was intrinsically enjoyable, regardless of the fact that I was supposedly ‘grinding’ for badges, xp or honour; the very process of it was entertaining for me. If it isn’t for you, then you are putting yourself through an act of masochism for a kind of holy grail (end game) that may well not be worth it. But with all that time invested, that’s now how one may rationalize it. In other words, the carrot on the stick will always be far away, so you better enjoy the journey.

    • 13/12/2010 at 15:35 ScubaMonster says:

      Good question. You wouldn’t have access to Outlands (if you don’t have Burning Crusade either), and no access to Northrend, which would make leveling up to 80 a real pain in the ass. But if you’re starting from scratch that wouldn’t matter much. Just get Burning Crusade when you get to the appropriate level, then Wrath of the Lich King after that.

    • 13/12/2010 at 15:39 clownst0pper says:

      Stephen your correct, you must howeve have all pre expansions to play Cataclysm. You can’t skip Lich King for example :)

    • 13/12/2010 at 16:31 Catastrophe says:

      @Stephen Roberts

      You’re mostly correct apart from the fact they have totally re-done all the leveling between 1-60 and what clown said above me.

    • 13/12/2010 at 17:49 Flint says:

      Each expansion has also added a profession you can’t learn without that expansion – jewelcrafting for TBC, inscription for Wrath, archaeology for Cata. You also can’t learn how to fly in the old world without the expansions (flying mount requires BC, Azeroth flying requires Cata).

    • 13/12/2010 at 19:07 ScubaMonster says:

      @Flint

      Actually that’s not true. For WotLK the professions were patched into the game before the expansion was out. For instance, incsription and glyphs were available to everybody. That’s probably only true for WotLK because if I recall for TBC you could only get jewelcrafting in the new starter areas for Draenei and Blood Elves, or in Outlands.

      But at least for Wrath they tossed all of that in there beforehand. What you got was the ability to go to Northrend and level to 80, and make a Death Knight if you bought the expansion.

      I can’t speak for Cataclysm however as I quit WoW a while back.

  14. 13/12/2010 at 15:32 cjlr says:

    Man, man. I just… I just don’t know anymore. Is this what the kids like these days?

    WoW just sorta launched at just the right time to snag the market and now it’s got all the momentum of a ten mile long gravy train hurtling it inexorably forwards. Also it’s a steam engine. And they stoke it with hundred dollar bills.

    • 13/12/2010 at 16:10 Genas says:

      Well it helps that it’s actually a really fun game. I was in the “hate wow” camp for a long time until I decided to give it a shot. It’s hard not to be impressed with the polish, art style, sounds, game mechanics and the general fun and accesssibility of it all. Coming from EVE online myself it’s quite painful to see that game not living up to it’s full potential. I don’t mean it should be a wow in space but the game can definately use a dose of accessible fun and polish all around. Even the supposed “endgame” in EVE (0.0) ends up being more boring than some of the lesser quests, dungeons, bg’s in wow.

    • 13/12/2010 at 16:21 cjlr says:

      My impression of it (which is not probably worth much, seeing as I never got to the endgame) was that it was good but not great, if you know what I mean. That is to say, while not substantially better than the many competitors it has left in the dirt, it is most certainly not worse. But something’s gotta come out on top, right? And once there there’s a lot keeping it there.

  15. 13/12/2010 at 15:40 The Hammer says:

    Great to see it do well; this is WOW’s biggest expansion pack ever, and despite some major reservations I have about it – very linear questing in the 80-85 zones and some of the revamped ones – it’s also the best. I’m having so much fun playing it again.

    • 14/12/2010 at 00:17 Dances to Podcasts says:

      That’s probably because each area has one or more central stories now. And stories, in other words quest lines, mean linearity.

  16. 13/12/2010 at 15:46 Anonymous says:

    Amazing, its really amazing to see that 6 years later this games still outsells every other MMORPG, but wait thats not a compliment. Its nerds like red shirt guy that feeds the Two-Head Monster called Blizzard-Activision, thus in a not-so-long future we will pay fee for the privilege to pay fee to buy a license for a game.

    • 13/12/2010 at 15:53 subedii says:

      Could…. could someone translate this for me? It looks like English but I’m having a hard time comprehending what it’s actually saying.

    • 13/12/2010 at 16:02 cjlr says:

      See, what he’s really asking here is if anyone has ever really been far as decided as to use even go want to do look more like.

      No, sorry, that’s played out. I would translate thusly: WoW is a languid gambling beast kept alive of its own inertia and ActiBlizzard are greedy bastards. I think was the gist of it. I think.

    • 13/12/2010 at 17:17 Delusibeta says:

      Basically, ActivisionBlizzard is reliant on two things: Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. Plus, general “Kotick is PURE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVIL” stuffs.

    • 13/12/2010 at 19:17 ScubaMonster says:

      WoW is a huge hit because of perfect timing. Was it really original? Not really, but it got most things right and made MMO’s more casual and accessible. In a time when you had EQ, DAoC, and whatnot, WoW was a lot more newbie friendly. Because of that, it attracted non-MMO players, which on top of the people who always played MMO’s beforehand, contributed to a huge player base. Player base is everything. If nobody is playing, everybody is going to leave. That’s why they call it “Massively Multiplayer”. Aside from that however, Blizzard’s name alone was already a juggernaut after the Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft games. Bioware had a similar opportunity with TOR, but they are squandering it by making a “me too” WoW style game.

      WoW’s success can’t be duplicated again, unless someone comes out with something completely amazing and revolutionary in a time when all we have is a bunch of WoW clones, or games that try to be unique but fail horribly in execution. I can’t for the life of me think what that might be. Well, I have some dream MMO ideas, but those are never going to happen.

  17. 13/12/2010 at 15:54 Swanny says:

    The launch was exceedingly smooth, from what i saw: no server queue, respawn rates were very fast, there wer e a couple bugged quests in one area (Vash’jir). Other than that, in a guild with 25 on at the same time, no complaints.
    Plus, exploring ancient Egyptian ruins with ‘Harrison’ (Indiana) Jones was hilarious.

  18. 13/12/2010 at 15:57 fallingmagpie says:

    I played WoW a couple of years back with a free trial, pre any expansions. I think I was a paladin. I remember having to go and kill 12 of something for someone. Rats maybe. Then go to a field somewhere nearby and get 10 of something else. Barrels of apples? Can’t remember.

    Then I stopped playing.

    • 13/12/2010 at 19:21 ScubaMonster says:

      The game picks up a bit after the starter areas, but for almost the entire game, at least 80-90% of questing involves gathering X number of this and killing Y number of that.

    • 14/12/2010 at 00:24 Dances to Podcasts says:

      This is one of the things that are much improved in Cataclysm. Quests everywhere, even in the lower level areas are much more fun now.

  19. 13/12/2010 at 16:11 Skystrider says:

    MMO?

    Bah, humbug.

    That is all.

  20. 13/12/2010 at 16:13 man-eater chimp says:

    I got the original WoW on a month’s subscription just to see what all the fuss was about, and what I played was fantastic. I ended with a level 39 Paladin and some good memories, I was just unwilling to pay a monthly sub. The bit I most enjoyed about the game however was just exploring, and for those like me I guess the big changes in Cataclysm may well reignite what we loved most about WoW.

  21. 13/12/2010 at 16:48 Shagittarius says:

    I enjoy playing WoW, I’ve got a few level 80s and am working my way through to 85 right now. However this expansion seems pretty narrow to me. First its only 5 levels which they have lengthened by the amount of XP required per level, but it’s also much more of a single player focus game. I’m nearly 84 now and I’ve only encountered one dungeon. The gameplay itself is also narrow, the narrative is so defined that running additional characters through the expansion isn’t going to yield any new options for advancement.

    Really to me this expansion pushes the genre farther away from an MMO style and more into a single player game with attached chat room.

    I tried grouping with people and its pointless all the quests are so easy that they get accomplished before you even get a feel for whats going on. The game is actually more confusing when played with a group. I liked having multiple paths for advancement it gave me an incentive to bring other characters through and follow different narratives. I’m not really excited about visiting the same single player story over and over again with Cat.

    I’m having fun on the once through but I don’t think personally this expansion lives up to MMO standards. It’s dumbed down yet again.

    • 13/12/2010 at 19:02 Lagomorph says:

      I strongly agree. World of Chatcraft as a game is child’s play (literally). The challenge comes exclusively from voluntarily seeking out difficult or heroic-mode tasks in the game to complete. Blizzard intends this.

      Don’t expect the game to push you into challenging situations. It won’t. You have to make those situations yourself! You have to kill 12 boars? Try killing 9 at once. You’re gathering 10 apples? Kill every opposing faction you see while doing it. Doing a dungeon or raid? Get the achievements and try heroic mode.

  22. 13/12/2010 at 16:50 Gothnak says:

    I just can’t find that MMO to scratch the itch.

    I’ve Tried EQ, AC, WOW, COH, LOTRO, D&DO, WH, GW and betas of Aion, Tabula Rasa and Conan.

    All of them degenerate into:

    1. Tedious run from point X to point Y (CoH at least made this fun)
    2. Kill Enemy by pressing 1, 3, 1, 4, 2, a lot in a prescribed order to max DPS.
    3. Repeat 2 until enough enemies have been killed/hat’s found/boar livers collected.
    4. Tedious Run back to point X (Alternatively use magic stone/diary/pamplet/hat to teleport home)

    And that, is basically that. I have liked:

    1. The travel powers of CoH
    2. The setting of WoW & WH (They are the same after all)
    3. The Henchman of CoH (I don’t play as much as my friends)
    4. The storytelling in quests of D&DO

    I’m a RPG gamer primarily (With a lot of strategy and some racing and shooters thrown in) but i find the quests and combat so bloody dull, i don’t know how anyone can play it for hours at a time :(.

    1, 2, 4, 3, 1, 3, 1, 7! Oooh, i got a bat eye for that potion recipe, only 73 more left to collect…

    • 13/12/2010 at 17:21 geldonyetich says:

      > And that, is basically that. I have liked:
      >1. The travel powers of CoH
      >2. The setting of WoW & WH (They are the same after all)
      >3. The Henchman of [Guild Wars] (I don’t play as much as my friends)
      >4. The storytelling in quests of D&DO

      Sounds to me like you’d be better off playing Warcraft 3 or (with a bit of setting flexibility) Dragon Age than bother with all the overhead of an MMORPG.

    • 13/12/2010 at 17:29 Gothnak says:

      Yeah, i’ve been playing Dragon Age recently after hating it for a while.. My friend told me to turn off all the allied AI and suddenly it became fun. Pity i have to do the annoying single hero fade mission at the moment…

      I’d love to play an MMO with decent strategic combat though.. And i’d love an MMOCCG.. Every fight is a card game and you earn cards by defeating enemies, not buying packs… That’s a perfect game, right there…

    • 13/12/2010 at 17:55 geldonyetich says:

      It’s not exactly a card game, but I could advise Atlantica Online if you’re looking for a MMO turn-based strategic combat game.

      There’s a lot of card games to be found online, such as Poxnora, but buying boosters is a major staple of how they support themselves.

  23. 13/12/2010 at 17:10 geldonyetich says:

    Of course Catalysm sold 3.3m on day one. As far as the largest body of mainstream gaming players are concerned, the PC only runs one game, and World of Warcraft is it. (Followed shortly by the second largest body which thinks the Call Of Duty series is it.) Real gamers who have had enough EverQuest clones for one lifetime can only pontificate in the direction of the spectacle.

  24. 13/12/2010 at 17:16 Londonistan says:

    The community is just as bad as it has ever been, Blizzard games always seem to attract the worst type of person.

  25. 13/12/2010 at 17:27 strange headache says:

    Screw this, give me Guild Wars 2 already!

  26. 13/12/2010 at 17:38 Adam Whitehead says:

    Isn’t that what STARCRAFT II has sold in like 5 months? Quite impressive.

  27. 13/12/2010 at 18:28 Calabi says:

    Who are these people! Who are they! I cannot understand this nonsense.

    I’m going back to playing Lord of the rings.

  28. 13/12/2010 at 18:29 Malibu Stacey says:

    It’s spelled “Norris” Jim.

  29. 13/12/2010 at 18:51 Carra says:

    WoW had 12 million subscribers months ago. Now there was a big influx of people returning to WoW. Surely the numbers must have gone up.

  30. 13/12/2010 at 21:27 SquareWheel says:

    Wait, you have to pay for a subscription and for new game content? My god, Blizzard really has these people by the balls.

  31. 13/12/2010 at 22:18 Grey_Ghost says:

    I haven’t played WoW, not even a trial. Which is odd considering all the MMO’s I’ve dipped my wick in… so to speak. I wonder if I should be happy or sad that I haven’t touched WoW.

  32. 13/12/2010 at 22:34 Shadram says:

    With Cataclysm, Blizzard have again proved why they’re the leader in the MMO field. Cataclysm is stunningly good, from the updated mechanics to the insanely good artwork. Sorry, other games, looks like you’ll be sitting in the “unplayed” pile for a while longer…

    • 14/12/2010 at 11:18 Stephen Roberts says:

      It would be fun to replay the game again purely to float about just looking at things, as I spent some time doing in Northrend. I’ve always enjoyed how accurately Blizzard deal with texturing. There are almost zero points in the entire game where a brick texture is misaligned as it joins another wall or a trim doesn’t match up as it progresses around an arch.

      There’s probably one guy on the WoW team that would be really pleased that someone noticed all his hard work.

  33. 14/12/2010 at 00:03 heypromoguy says:

    i’m still trying to win my copy! there’s a sweepstakes for cataclysm at http://surgecorp.com/blog/wow-cataclysm-contest/

    cataclysm will be all i live and know for the next 6 months, well gotta give equal time to the girlfriend and WoW, so goodbye netflix! woot!

  34. 14/12/2010 at 01:51 BobDicks says:

    I used to hate WoW back when hating WoW was the cool and trendy thing to do OTI but then my sister gave me her old account and I ended up liking it.

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