Wrath of the Lich King Opening Cinematic Released
- Thread starter grabmygoblin
- Start date
The Warhammer one from the other day is also pretty good, done by Blur. Or is it too heretical to mention WAR in a WoW thread?
Works for me. I'm vaguely interested in WAR myself, particularly the Dark Elf Sorceress, although I wasn't overly impressed by the recent cinematic.
I loved the following from Mythic's Paul Barnett:
"So there's this game, "WoW" I believe it's called, and I believe it was incredibly popular. What you've got to understand is that they changed things, like when The Beatles turned up in music. You can't be The Beatles. They sell more units, they did stadiums, they did everything. How are you going to take them on? Well, there's a trick. If you try to be like The Beatles, you"ll end up like The Monkees. We don't want to be The Monkees. So we decided to be the next-generational band. We"re Led Zeppelin: the cooler, heavier rocking one. Less members, but we've got an aeroplane."
I was in the closed beta for WAR but only really got to play it for about a week so far (and as a Dark Elf sorceress no less
). It's definitely fun... the PQ's are really what sets it apart IMO. I'll probably pick it up at launch, but I tend to get tired of all the MMO's I play after a few months anyway.That said, I was watching someone at work playing the WoTLK beta today... and that looked great too!
Warhammer really looks cool. I'm looking forward to becoming thoroughly addicted to another universe and it's lore! ...I doubt, though, that it'll mean I drop my subscription to WoW.
I preferred the cinematic for WotLK.
I preferred the cinematic for WotLK.
What are your toons?
my main is cheekyrabbit on Staghelm. I don't really play through the instances, and it shows in my gear. they're just so time consuming and I hate trying to get a party together that almost always sucks anyway.
I should get around to joining a guild soon, because I suspect WotLK will be released by December and I don't want to miss out on experiencing the raids, but I honestly don't know if I will.
This, I might add, is my favorite part of WAR... the PQ's drop good loot and you don't have to spend time looking for a party (unless you want to) and you can jump in or out whenever you want. Much better then the instances in WoW IMO which I don't like for the same reasons you just gave.
Blizzard really needs to get their act together on improving the "looking for group" interface. it's the most common complaint and will be the biggest problem as competition increases.
in the end, though, they may be stuck. how do you improve the experience when the problem is a player who can only type "wtf f4gg0t5"?
Meh, I'm actually excited about the expac. Moreso than I was with TBC. What appeals to me is story, and Wrath is shaping up to have one helluva story. TBC added in the Blood Elves and Draenei, but after lvl 20 or so completely neglected the Draenei story. Kind of disappointing given that since I dropped my druid I've only played Draenei.
If anything, Blizzard's problem is that it doesn't support alternative ways to play the game. For instance, the rules on the roleplaying servers are ineffective and rarely enforced, and many roleplay servers are bastions of griefers who have forced the roleplay community underground or off server. Likewise, they tend towards adding content instead of adding new features, and that's part of why I suspect people are burning out. Unless you're raiding or PvPing at the cutting edge there's only the same repetitive tasks.
And I say the above as someone who raided for a bit. That gets pretty old quick, also, and so I went back to roleplaying. I won't even do heroics anymore, and consequently the newest character I leveled (a Draenei hunter, for the record) will sit in quest and crafted greens and blues until the expac comes out. I'm happy with my PvE consisting of fluttering around Netherstorm on my epic flyer looking for netherbloom to sell and chain trapping those regular ole lvl 70 instances for friends. The rest of my online time is spent roleplaying, doing something alternative to what most of the rest of the WoW players are doing.
If anything, Blizzard's problem is that it doesn't support alternative ways to play the game. For instance, the rules on the roleplaying servers are ineffective and rarely enforced, and many roleplay servers are bastions of griefers who have forced the roleplay community underground or off server. Likewise, they tend towards adding content instead of adding new features, and that's part of why I suspect people are burning out. Unless you're raiding or PvPing at the cutting edge there's only the same repetitive tasks.
And I say the above as someone who raided for a bit. That gets pretty old quick, also, and so I went back to roleplaying. I won't even do heroics anymore, and consequently the newest character I leveled (a Draenei hunter, for the record) will sit in quest and crafted greens and blues until the expac comes out. I'm happy with my PvE consisting of fluttering around Netherstorm on my epic flyer looking for netherbloom to sell and chain trapping those regular ole lvl 70 instances for friends. The rest of my online time is spent roleplaying, doing something alternative to what most of the rest of the WoW players are doing.
nicely said.Meh, I'm actually excited about the expac. Moreso than I was with TBC. What appeals to me is story, and Wrath is shaping up to have one helluva story. TBC added in the Blood Elves and Draenei, but after lvl 20 or so completely neglected the Draenei story. Kind of disappointing given that since I dropped my druid I've only played Draenei.
If anything, Blizzard's problem is that it doesn't support alternative ways to play the game. For instance, the rules on the roleplaying servers are ineffective and rarely enforced, and many roleplay servers are bastions of griefers who have forced the roleplay community underground or off server. Likewise, they tend towards adding content instead of adding new features, and that's part of why I suspect people are burning out. Unless you're raiding or PvPing at the cutting edge there's only the same repetitive tasks.
And I say the above as someone who raided for a bit. That gets pretty old quick, also, and so I went back to roleplaying. I won't even do heroics anymore, and consequently the newest character I leveled (a Draenei hunter, for the record) will sit in quest and crafted greens and blues until the expac comes out. I'm happy with my PvE consisting of fluttering around Netherstorm on my epic flyer looking for netherbloom to sell and chain trapping those regular ole lvl 70 instances for friends. The rest of my online time is spent roleplaying, doing something alternative to what most of the rest of the WoW players are doing.
too many put too much emphasis on gear. it's the story I like, and in skipping instances, my only regret is missing out on experiencing the story first-hand. maybe someday I'll come across a casual raiding guild that agrees with me and will go back for the older instances simply for the experience of fighting an aspect of an Old God instead of running Karazhan again and again and again to gear players.
Rii
Rear Admiral
Blizzard's current design philosophy for 5-man dungeons is that players should be able to clear them in under an hour, and that's generally the case if there are no hassles during the run and the time taken to gather the group is excluded.
I'd like to see dungeon designs in WOTLK less linear than those in BC, but I'm not hopeful. The linear, winged model used by most dungeons in BC is one of Blizzard's post-launch epiphanies and now appears firmly entrenched. The only winged dungeon in the game in 2004 was Scarlet Monastery, but the model has come to dominate 5-man dungeon design post-launch, from Maraudon through Magister's Terrace. The most architecturally interesting and non-linear 5-man dungeons, notably Sunken Temple, Uldaman, and Blackrock Depths, are all pre-release designs.
Linear dungeons aren't necessarily bad, nor are non-linear dungeons necessarily good; Deadmines is a strictly linear fan-favourite whereas Blackrock Depths is a non-linear nightmare that appears to have been designed so as to test the breaking point of the human mind. Still, variety is important, and BC dungeons simply offer less of it than their pre-BC counterparts. Blizzard has indicated in the past that they're aware of this concern, but the winged design meshes so well with their goal of <1hr runs that it's difficult to envision them straying too far from it in WOTLK. Dire Maul is perhaps the closest they've yet come to a happy medium.
The WOTLK dungeon I'm most interested in is the upcoming Caverns of Time entry that recreates the purging of Stratholme from Warcraft III.
I rather liked the world chat channel that was running immediately prior to the introduction of the LFG tool. It occasionally got out of hand, but it worked. The main issues I had with the LFG tool revolved around the level restrictions that made it impossible to keep an eye out for group openings for one character whilst playing another.
Oh ya, I dug up a couple pics of Rii: [1] [2]
Last edited:
Sadly, I can't armory my 2 toons for you, I got hacked a few months back, hence why I left the game, a blessing in disguise for me though. Rii here knows all about it, I was frantic for a long time over IM with him for days over it.
My mains were a belf Mage and Paladin. Both SSC/TK geared.
As for the grouping system. I was in a good guild so never really had a problem, but I was on a small server so you could imagine every time I walked through a city with the paladin, people would see my gear or whatever and I'd get 200 whispers for a group or raid within seconds, a real pain in the ass.
As much as I loved tanking, I'll fully admit to getting the attitude of so many other tanks and telling people to go away.
My mains were a belf Mage and Paladin. Both SSC/TK geared.
As for the grouping system. I was in a good guild so never really had a problem, but I was on a small server so you could imagine every time I walked through a city with the paladin, people would see my gear or whatever and I'd get 200 whispers for a group or raid within seconds, a real pain in the ass.
As much as I loved tanking, I'll fully admit to getting the attitude of so many other tanks and telling people to go away.
Rii
Rear Admiral
I'm still undecided as to whether tanking attracts prima donnas, or breeds them.
I liked WoW, but after 4 months or so of raiding last spring, I burned out after a week of slamming my figurative head against SSC's figurative rock with no actual progress. 15 hours or so of hitting 2 buttons (I was a hunter, so it was necessary I put all my shots into a macro to maximize damage at the time, supposedly they've worked on the hunters quite a bit, but the hell if I'll find out myself.) without downing anything and I was spent, I quit and soon moved out of that apartment and got away from the guys I was playing with every night.
And now I am free, and await the day that an MMO can come out that will offer something more than "Well, if we make this boss really really hard, and make this trash respawn quickly, and make the good loot drops rare, it'll take them months to get through the dungeon, which will give us time to make the next patch."
WoW has some really good parts. The 5 and 10 man content for BC was great, but the raids were a far step down on the fun-o-meter, with overly complicated boss fights that pretty much required going online to look at strategy guides from beta guilds to get through without lots of wasted time and effort(or just occaionally deciding that you didn't actually click the cube, even though you know for god damn sure that you did, and so everyone dies and they hate you because you're a hunter and you get kicked out of the raid and then the pants that you wanted drop and you fucking get pissed and throw your friend's monitor out a window. . . . and stuff).
And now I am free, and await the day that an MMO can come out that will offer something more than "Well, if we make this boss really really hard, and make this trash respawn quickly, and make the good loot drops rare, it'll take them months to get through the dungeon, which will give us time to make the next patch."
WoW has some really good parts. The 5 and 10 man content for BC was great, but the raids were a far step down on the fun-o-meter, with overly complicated boss fights that pretty much required going online to look at strategy guides from beta guilds to get through without lots of wasted time and effort(or just occaionally deciding that you didn't actually click the cube, even though you know for god damn sure that you did, and so everyone dies and they hate you because you're a hunter and you get kicked out of the raid and then the pants that you wanted drop and you fucking get pissed and throw your friend's monitor out a window. . . . and stuff).
I'm still undecided as to whether tanking attracts prima donnas, or breeds them.
Breeds them.
And you know that. Just from talking to me.
There are 2 possible repsonses to this,
I here ya man, and I agree with you to a degree. I liked it when a boss fight took a good strategy to down though. Tank and spank got super old super fast though. I think SSC had some of the better fights in the game, in the beginning, so did ZA, but ZA got old pretty fast.
Other response, and often times the correct one:
LOL HUNTARDS.
Strategy is fine, but when every fight is dependent on every single player (and often just rely on luck) it gets old. There are some awesome boss fights too, I'm not saying they all suck, I just wish it weren't such a hassle to access the content. WoW becomes like a second (or ONLY, in some cases) job if you want to be a top raider, or really even just to see all the content before the next expansion.
this is both a good thing and a bad thing.
It's the main reason they stopped the 40 man stuff, cause really, 40 man content was 25 people who knew what they were doing and 15 who didn't have a clue and just wanted PURPLZ
So, them taking it down from 40 mans was really cool, but needing 25 who know what they're doing can be tough too. But, it is a lot easier to gear up 25 people over 40.
I was a fan of the 10 man content a lot more to be honest. But then again, that became easy. Once my group of players and I were geared, we could easily 7-8 man Kara in a few hours. I liked how ZA took 10 people who couldn't fuck up.
If you ever went in CoT and fought Archimonde, you know what I'm talking about. I never got to do it personally, but, if 1 person died in that fight, it's a wipe.
Rii
Rear Admiral
I hear that there's more to WoW than raiding, although I could be wrong.
Honestly, I don't understand the problem. Raiding is an activity designed to keep those hardcore players who're focussed on character and gear progression playing the game, because if they run out of gear to obtain and bosses to kill they'll quit. It's a minority pursuit for a minority - albeit a dedicated minority - audience. The casual players that make up most of the WoW juggernaut quest, run 5-mans, create and level additional characters, roleplay, engage in world and battleground PVP, etc. If those activities don't appeal to you, that's fine, but WoW doesn't force players to become "teh hardcorez", raiders do that themselves.
It sounds like you feel the need to "beat the game", but MMOs aren't designed to be beaten. The harder you push, the harder the game will push back.
Incidentally, expansions like WOTLK are of course designed for those players that don't engage with the endgame model. The hardcore elements in the playerbase don't need expansions, indeed many are actively opposed to them on account of their habit of rendering previous accomplishments less significant or even irrelevant.
Last edited:
That's where we're at right now. One of the reasons I'm starting to get burnt out on raiding. :P It's actually a fun fight, but it only takes one guy not getting out of the fire to cause a wipe. Though, one of the guys who keeps nub dying on the fight is one of those raid nazis. He's tempered his comments like "if you die in the fire, you're out of the fucking raid" quite a bit since he manages to get toasty every attempt.
Overall, I like the more complicated fights to straight tank and spank. Vashj and Kael'thas both taught us how to work together as a team in a way we weren't doing before that. Even though you can now skip them, I'm glad we took the time to learn both of those fights. I don't think we would have gotten past the first several T6 bosses as easily as we did without learning VJ and KT first.
The WOTLK cinematic was pretty cool. I'm looking forward to the expansion, but still a bit hesitant. My main is a mage, so I'm a bit leery of what's going to happen with them in the expansion. I'm quite happy with my class, and not one prone to the typical mage QQ, but I'd also like to scale a bit better this time around than mages did in TBC.
I've been in the WAR closed beta, and the preview weekend. It's pretty good, so far. My favorite thing about it are the public quests. It's a great way to get into some community play without the pressure of joining groups or having to run instances. Plus, the loot is pretty nice. I spent most of my playtime this weekend racking up influence to get the rewards. Those are also a ton better than most of the quest reward items I was getting.
S
Stone_Cold_Sisko
Guest
I like WoW, but i'm a fairly casual player. I've only done one raid, and dont play enough to do most other raids. It took me a full year to get one character to 70. I actually play a fair amount but its almost always in 1 or 2 hour blocks and never scheduled, so I could never do a pre-scheduled raid.
My biggest complaint though is that Blizzard is actually too controlling of a lot of aspects. Everything has to be really tuned, really controlled, a good example is world pvp, can't let things get too out of hand. What WoW lacks, is persistency in the world. I'd love there to be a real ingame reason for like 60 people to launch a siege of Stormwind or something, or a battleground that felt like a real battle (i hear pre-changes AV was like that, alas I missed it), or one that was like a giant pit where 40 people just fight instead of some half-baked objective, etc etc. Its like they are afraid things will get too out of hand if they introduce a little freedom into the world.
I'd love to have the actual game/engine/interface of WoW, and the world and freedom of a game like Eve Online.
My biggest complaint though is that Blizzard is actually too controlling of a lot of aspects. Everything has to be really tuned, really controlled, a good example is world pvp, can't let things get too out of hand. What WoW lacks, is persistency in the world. I'd love there to be a real ingame reason for like 60 people to launch a siege of Stormwind or something, or a battleground that felt like a real battle (i hear pre-changes AV was like that, alas I missed it), or one that was like a giant pit where 40 people just fight instead of some half-baked objective, etc etc. Its like they are afraid things will get too out of hand if they introduce a little freedom into the world.
I'd love to have the actual game/engine/interface of WoW, and the world and freedom of a game like Eve Online.