WoW - Musings & Discussion

[Showdown]

World of Warcrft just made one of GT's top ten games of the pass 10 years.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/top-10-gt-countdown/61859

I disagree with some of the choices on the list, but I was pleasantly surprised by WoW made it.

 

[Rii]

No surprises there, WoW has always been well received critically. Gamasutra gave it their "Game of the Decade" as I recall.

 

[Showdown]

I just realised my previous post could potentially de-rail this thread from WoW to something else. Sorry about that. If anyone want to comment on best games in the past decade, please make another thread, and keep this about warcraft.

Rii, you're right. I shouldn't be suprised WoW topped the list. Gametrailers did say WoW is a "phenomenon that took the planet by storm."

 

[RichMerk]

If you've had a South Park episode done about you, you know you've hit the big time. Sometimes for the better (WoW), sometimes for the worse. (John Edwards...)

 

[Kegg]

World of Warcrft just made one of GT's top ten games of the pass 10 years.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/top-10-gt-countdown/61859

Very deserved. It's a transformative game; there is MMORPGs prior to Warcraft and MMORPGs in the post-Warcraft reality. No MMORPG released in the last decade can claim to have that level of importance; and no other MMORPG in the West can seriously rival Warcraft's success.

 

[Rii]

^ I find that interesting given that you previously dismissed WoW's most significant contribution to the genre - its emphasis on fleshing out the solo play experience -as pointless.

So... what do we have planned for Cata? I plan to take my longstanding Female Undead Mage to 85, roll a Goblin character just long enough to check out their starting content, and roll a Male Worgen Fury Warrior. I think the beastial nature of the Worgen race is a good match for the "berserker" archetype embodied by the Fury Warrior.

 

[Kegg]

^ I find that interesting given that you previously dismissed WoW's most significant contribution to the genre - its emphasis on fleshing out the solo play experience -as pointless.

I don't remember saying that. Got me confused with someone else? I think one of WoW's greatest strengths is its enormous flexibility - PvE, PvP, soloing, grouping, just about everything at this point is a pretty worthwhile approach to gameplay.

So... what do we have planned for Cata? I plan to take my longstanding Female Undead Mage to 85, roll a Goblin character just long enough to check out their starting content, and roll a Male Worgen Fury Warrior.

I'll probably bring my Draenei Priest to 85; but mostly I'll be focusing on my new Goblin character - possibly a shaman, since I enjoy healing and as indicated I've already got a priest.

 

[Rii]

^ I find that interesting given that you previously dismissed WoW's most significant contribution to the genre - its emphasis on fleshing out the solo play experience -as pointless.

I don't remember saying that. Got me confused with someone else?

I was thinking of this post.

I think one of WoW's greatest strengths is its enormous flexibility - PvE, PvP, soloing, grouping, just about everything at this point is a pretty worthwhile approach to gameplay.

Indeed. As an altoholic, between the new RLFD function and rewards, and XP from BGs, one problem I find myself having is levelling faster than I want to. Out of a bracket I wanted to spend more time in, out of a zone I wanted to quest in, even out of a dungeon I wanted a drop from. It's vexing, but it's also a testament to the variety in the game.

I'll probably bring my Draenei Priest to 85; but mostly I'll be focusing on my new Goblin character - possibly a shaman, since I enjoy healing and as indicated I've already got a priest.

One thing I like about Resto Shaman is that it's easier for them to contribute in ways other than merely healing than it is for most healers. Blizzard has made noises about wanting to shift the totem system away from passive buffs to more active tools, so hopefully this will be even more true in Cata.

 

[darthraidr]

you can talk to npcs to turn off xp gain... granted, in BGs it will dump you into matches with other people who have XP turned off, but if you just want to quest and run instances at a certain level, it should help.

 

[Leroy]

escapist article About new player retention rates especially trial accounts that don't make it past level 10. I firmly believe that Cataclysm will save this game I'm sure a lot of people couldn't stand the crappier content of the old zones and never made it to 80 much less endgame content. Sure the old zone were great in 2004 but now times have changed and I think the whole game should reflect that not just 80+ or whatever the new level cap is.

 

[Kegg]

I was thinking of this post.

Ah. Well I stand by that, though I was speaking of MMOs sui generis opposed to single player games. If you're just going to solo and nothing else, though, what's the point? What WoW offers is different kinds of cooperation and a viable solo experience; but if you want the really good gear for PvP or PvE you typically need to do battlegrounds or instances, both of which require groups.

. Out of a bracket I wanted to spend more time in, out of a zone I wanted to quest in, even out of a dungeon I wanted a drop from. It's vexing, but it's also a testament to the variety in the game.

Very. I rarely if ever finish a zone. In that respect the game's come a long way from the time you sort of had to finish lots of zones if you ever wanted to have a shot of becoming 60. These days your typical player will probably never level in Silithus, I remember doing a dozen quests and repgrinds there just to reach the then-max level way back when.

One thing I like about Resto Shaman is that it's easier for them to contribute in ways other than merely healing than it is for most healers.

That'll be an interesting challenge. As a priest I just like the flexibility of my heals and the emphasis on AoE; it's nice to know I have half-a-dozen 'oh crap' buttons for whenever something goes south.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

. Out of a bracket I wanted to spend more time in, out of a zone I wanted to quest in, even out of a dungeon I wanted a drop from. It's vexing, but it's also a testament to the variety in the game.

Very. I rarely if ever finish a zone. In that respect the game's come a long way from the time you sort of had to finish lots of zones if you ever wanted to have a shot of becoming 60. These days your typical player will probably never level in Silithus, I remember doing a dozen quests and repgrinds there just to reach the then-max level way back when.

Unless you're going for the Loremaster title, then you finish everything

I've been doing a lot of quests purely for the lore having missed them on horde since my 80 is a DK. It makes me quite happy to spend a few hours pursuing quest chains for the lore and getting neither XP or gold for it.

Silithus has some interesting things going on, the elements invasion which happens periodically, that gigantic Anubis type silver elite.. once you get past the endless bug killing there are some good story lines.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

escapist article About new player retention rates especially trial accounts that don't make it past level 10. I firmly believe that Cataclysm will save this game I'm sure a lot of people couldn't stand the crappier content of the old zones and never made it to 80 much less endgame content. Sure the old zone were great in 2004 but now times have changed and I think the whole game should reflect that not just 80+ or whatever the new level cap is.

That was really interesting, thanks for the link. I guess this explains the endless push to make everything easier and faster.. who knows how much easier and faster it will be come CAT. I'm betting first level mounts will be your reward for getting to lvl 10 in half an hour, LOL.

As to WoW growth being stagnant at 11.5 million, well it had to plateau eventually. I'm sure many ex-players won't be able to resist the lure of CAT and will put in a few months at least looking at the old world shot to pieces.

Why hasn't WOTLK been released to the Chinese market? Are they still WoW-less?

 

[darthraidr]

China is not WoW-less... they just had TBC authorized for release (after the switch to Netease)

 

[Kegg]

Why hasn't WOTLK been released to the Chinese market? Are they still WoW-less?

They vetoed it. The Chinese market has always had a problem with the depiction of the dead in WoW (Undead player models, for example, don't have bones sticking out in the Chinese version) and an expansion which is compeltely dead themed apparently crossed the line. Or something like that.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

That's very interesting. Must suck to be a goth in China..

So do you think there will never be WOTLK there?

 

[darthraidr]

i think there will be... they have undead, and there is plenty of undead stuff in TBC.

 

[Rii]

you can talk to npcs to turn off xp gain... granted, in BGs it will dump you into matches with other people who have XP turned off, but if you just want to quest and run instances at a certain level, it should help.

I'm not that desperate.

Besides, if the twinks are to be believed, the /noxp brackets are pretty much dead. Not that I have a lot of sympathy for them there. I hear the thing they're doing now is twinking out for 51-60 AV on vanilla accounts.

It's about the pacing is all. I like to "clear out" zones, run dungeons at the appropriate levels, and throw in some PVP in the latter half of the bracket, and with XP gain everywhere now that's difficult to manage. Oh well.

escapist article About new player retention rates especially trial accounts that don't make it past level 10.

The stat is interesting, but lacking context I'm not sure how meaningful it is. At this point I imagine that the proportion of trial accounts being used by gold sellers - who of course have no interest in levelling - is not trivial, and we've no idea how the stat stacks up relative to other games - particularly MMOGs - or even WoW itself at other points in its history.

I was thinking of this post.

Ah. Well I stand by that, though I was speaking of MMOs sui generis opposed to single player games. If you're just going to solo and nothing else, though, what's the point?

Oh, absolutely. But solo play in an MMO isn't like solo play in a game limited to solo play. You're part of the economy, part of a guild; the progress of your character is relative not only to the game systems, but also to other players. You're still very much part of a living world.

Jeff Strain (of Guild Wars, Starcraft) had some interesting things to say on this and related matters in his keynote at Leipzig 2007:

"Don't design an MMO around the assumption that players are a "type" of gamer. I often hear developers discussing whether an individual is a roleplayer, or a PvP player, or a solo player. Our belief is that while you can certainly find players who exclusively fall into one category, most players dabble in everything. It is tempting to believe that because a player is playing an MMO, and because good MMOs are social games, every player must therefore like to play with other players in a group. Our experience with Guild Wars is that this is an erroneous and dangerous assumption. On any given day, a player may want to play with his guild, or he may want to play with his best friend, or he may want to play alone. The fact that he is playing in a large communal environment is not a predictor of how he wants to play. We should be striving to make games that let you play how you want to play right now, and offer you the flexibility to progress with any combination of players you like.

Don't underestimate the importance of solo play! Sometimes your friends aren't online, sometimes you want to kill 30 minutes while everyone groups together, and sometimes you just don't want to go to committee on every damn decision. The quality of the solo play experience is just as important to the success of an MMO as the quality of the multiplayer experience. A few months before the release of Guild Wars we added computer-controlled henchmen to the game as a way to pad out your party when your friends weren't around. Later we enhanced this feature and introduced computer-controlled Heroes, which gave you control over their actions and more fully supported the notion of playing the game entirely on your own. While it may seem counterintuitive to add features that support the solo play experience into an MMO, we believe that Guild Wars would not have been as successful had we not added these features.

Two-player gaming, or as we call it "buddy gaming", is not a generic case of multi-player gaming, but is instead its own form of play that deserves special attention. Increasingly, MMOs are used as a setting for "real world" social interaction, including dating, spending time with your kids, or hanging out with your best friend or spouse. Just as the real social dynamics in a one-on-one setting greatly differ from the dynamics of a large group setting, the game experience when playing with one person differs from the experience of playing with a group. You can slow down, smell the flowers, discuss what you've seen and what you'd like to do, strategize and assist each other, and communicate on a more sincere level. In short, it's a more intimate form of community, and we should be supporting it explicitly."

 

[FordSVT]

No chatter about the new raid, Assault on the Ruby Sanctum?

Lot's of new changes in the next couple of patches, it's going to be a tumultuous spring and summer leading up to Cataclysm...

http://www.mmo-champion.com/

 

[ATimson]

No chatter about the new raid, Assault on the Ruby Sanctum?

It can't be that important/interesting, if they're throwing it in as part of a maintenance patch and not actually making it a content patch...