My Issues With Warcraft

#0 - July 7, 2009, 7:53 a.m.

Hey ppl,

I 'stole' this post from US forums and hopefully OP will not mind.
Anyways, there is a nice summary of things which ruining this game...

"For those who dislike reading, the bolded section below will serve as a sufficient summary.

Below are a few specific concerns which I believe show a trend:

1) Since BC, item art is being constantly recycled, with many items sharing models. Unique and good-looking sets like most of Tiers 2 and 3 are a rarity.

2) Late in the BC cycle and soon-to-come in 3.2, 5-man Heroics are made relevant far after people stopped doing them on a regular basis [in the first case, by adding items; in the second case, by changing the emblems that drop].

3) In WotLK, unique 10-mans are cut out and instead are the same instance as 25-mans. In 3.2, one instance will be a 5, 10, and 25-man.

4) Classes seem to be losing uniqueness as their roles become more and more homogenized. Blizzard's stance on this is made clear with the introduction of "Damage Dealing," "Healing," and "Tanking" forums. The removal of specific healing power/spell power, spell crit/melee crit, etc, reinforces this.

5) "Hardcore" progression for top guilds now comes not in the form of besting the top content, but rather defeating a "hard mode" of relatively-accessible bosses.

For some of these (most prominently 2, 3, and 5), some people claim that the direction that the game is taking is an extremely casual-friendly approach. This may be true, but I feel it misses the point, as WoW has always been a very casual-friendly game, relative to the MMORPG market.

My problem with the game's direction is that, given the above evidence, it seems that Blizzard is realizing that it can get away with being lazy due to a lack of competition. After all, why make unique gear models? No one's going to EQ2 over it. Why work hard to balance classes when you can make them more similar? No one's going to stick to Aion Online for over a free trial month because of it. Why fix bugs as they come up? No one's running away to Age of Conan because he or she can't get the Defense of the Ancients achievement.

The emblem change in 3.2 seems most egregious to it. There are many complaints that the change is a huge appeasement to scrubs, but I think "scrubs" who will benefit most from it are being cheated. In the past, when Blizzard wanted to make gear more accessible to people, they added things like the Tier 0.5 questline (which used the same instances but at least added quests and bosses). Blizzard is blatantly recycling the content it already has to artificially increase the lifespan of WotLK content, and I think that's ridiculous.

I will never be one of those people who say that x will destroy the game (where x is badge changes, the changes to 2v2 arena, the Warsong time change, 25-man raids, paladins to Horde and shammies to Alliance, death knights, or innumerable other things) because x has never killed the game and it's highly likely that it won't. Blizzard has created a truly excellent game that people love. The problem is that, from where I stand, it seems that Blizzard is resting on its laurels instead of continuing to challenge itself to make a truly great product.

I really wish a game could compete with World of Warcraft, just to make Blizzard try a little harder. What does everyone else think, though? Am I way off-base and failing to appreciate the difficulty of maintaining an MMORPG, or is Blizzard exhibiting laziness? "

Ancilorn

#7 - July 7, 2009, 8:48 p.m.

Q u o t e:
Hey ppl,

I 'stole' this post from US forums and hopefully OP will not mind.
Anyways, there is a nice summary of things which ruining this game...

"For those who dislike reading, the bolded section below will serve as a sufficient summary.

Below are a few specific concerns which I believe show a trend:

1) Since BC, item art is being constantly recycled, with many items sharing models. Unique and good-looking sets like most of Tiers 2 and 3 are a rarity.

2) Late in the BC cycle and soon-to-come in 3.2, 5-man Heroics are made relevant far after people stopped doing them on a regular basis [in the first case, by adding items; in the second case, by changing the emblems that drop].

3) In WotLK, unique 10-mans are cut out and instead are the same instance as 25-mans. In 3.2, one instance will be a 5, 10, and 25-man.

4) Classes seem to be losing uniqueness as their roles become more and more homogenized. Blizzard's stance on this is made clear with the introduction of "Damage Dealing," "Healing," and "Tanking" forums. The removal of specific healing power/spell power, spell crit/melee crit, etc, reinforces this.

5) "Hardcore" progression for top guilds now comes not in the form of besting the top content, but rather defeating a "hard mode" of relatively-accessible bosses.

For some of these (most prominently 2, 3, and 5), some people claim that the direction that the game is taking is an extremely casual-friendly approach. This may be true, but I feel it misses the point, as WoW has always been a very casual-friendly game, relative to the MMORPG market.

My problem with the game's direction is that, given the above evidence, it seems that Blizzard is realizing that it can get away with being lazy due to a lack of competition. After all, why make unique gear models? No one's going to EQ2 over it. Why work hard to balance classes when you can make them more similar? No one's going to stick to Aion Online for over a free trial month because of it. Why fix bugs as they come up? No one's running away to Age of Conan because he or she can't get the Defense of the Ancients achievement.

The emblem change in 3.2 seems most egregious to it. There are many complaints that the change is a huge appeasement to scrubs, but I think "scrubs" who will benefit most from it are being cheated. In the past, when Blizzard wanted to make gear more accessible to people, they added things like the Tier 0.5 questline (which used the same instances but at least added quests and bosses). Blizzard is blatantly recycling the content it already has to artificially increase the lifespan of WotLK content, and I think that's ridiculous.

I will never be one of those people who say that x will destroy the game (where x is badge changes, the changes to 2v2 arena, the Warsong time change, 25-man raids, paladins to Horde and shammies to Alliance, death knights, or innumerable other things) because x has never killed the game and it's highly likely that it won't. Blizzard has created a truly excellent game that people love. The problem is that, from where I stand, it seems that Blizzard is resting on its laurels instead of continuing to challenge itself to make a truly great product.

I really wish a game could compete with World of Warcraft, just to make Blizzard try a little harder. What does everyone else think, though? Am I way off-base and failing to appreciate the difficulty of maintaining an MMORPG, or is Blizzard exhibiting laziness? "

I'm sure Crygil from the US wont mind me doing this. :)

Q u o t e:
Wrath of the Lich King is actually a relatively young expansion. We're not artificially trying to prolong the life of the game; rather we're trying to accommodate a large group of players who simply find themselves without anything to do. It is unfortunate that you don't see all the time, thought and work invested in these changes. We assure you it is considerable. The changes made were made because they were the best possible solution to an issue which was adversely affecting many players. It's good to keep in mind that while you may be fine with no content patch for 6 months to a year, many other players would find that situation very frustrating. So there is something of a balancing act to our decision process - we must find solutions to pressing problems in a very time sensitive way.

Ancilorn

#14 - July 7, 2009, 11:01 a.m.

Q u o t e:
What I find interesting lately is Blizzard's reasoning that the game changes will benefit the majority of players.

Looking around the forums I find that the majority are against these changes in pages of pages of threads.

The majority of players do not use the forums. This is not to say we 'invent' what we think the majority feels. We have means and methods of assessing the state of play when it comes to World of Warcraft.

Ancilorn

#22 - July 7, 2009, 11:24 a.m.

Q u o t e:
Ancilorn, what I think many players want to know is why raidingenvironment took a nosedive into shallow water. The term recycled encounters is hardly unjustified.

If BLZ were of the opinion that TBC was too elitist and decided to change it to become more casualfriendly thats just noble.
However the failure to supply the raiders (often the more serious ones) with encounters is very sad.

With the Coliseum coming up, we're trying a new way of presenting content for both the more hardcore of raiders, and the more laid back folks amongst us. Players of various skill levels and time constraints will be able to experience the content we've created on many different levels, and the more hardcore will be able to experience a challenge without the requirement of having to wear a silly hat and fight naked and kill the boss in under 10 seconds whilst shooting off nothing but rank 1 spells (you may still do this if you wish). =)

// - deleted double post - \\

Ancilorn

#30 - July 7, 2009, 11:48 a.m.

Q u o t e:
The more serious gamers recently started to voice more opinions due to the fact how the raiding content turned out. Waving them off as mere whiners is very, very stupid to do.

We do not ignore the forum as a channel for feedback, but the clarification needed to be made that this is not the only way we collect feedback and as such the forums must not be seen as 'the majority vote'.

Q u o t e:
Lets face it, when someone posts sabout being unhappy about something in the game there will ALWAYS be someone to call the OP a whiner (Even if the OP was dead on with his point)

This is probably true, and a common theme amongst the anonymous world of forums. If a point is well made and valid then it is valuable to us. To note: feedback isn't generated from the accusations of others, but from the valid content of the posts within the thread.

[Edit: clarification of a terrible sentence]

Ancilorn

#63 - July 7, 2009, 1:36 p.m.

Q u o t e:
That phrase was actually meant the DK posting above me when he descirbed how he view players expressing their opinions.

Personally I wouldn't say BLZ ignore anything but that the path that Wrath has taken is way too heavily casualfocused.

Apologies then for misinterpreting your target, however my point remains, albeit in a more general sense.

Q u o t e:
That still does not explain what would someone who doesn't raid would do with T9 except show off in Dalaran?

People like to wear nice items. Ok, so they've earned them outside of raiding, but they've earned them through a means they can logistically do so. It doesn't make them any more skilled. It can even offer them an opportunity to prove themselves in an environment they might not have had a chance to previously due to gear requirements. It wont however make them a better player, but it gives them a chance to show their mettle.

As has also been noted, you cannot gain the full tier in a week, or even a month. It does help hasten the closing of the gearing gap for sure, allowing fresher players to experience current end-game content sooner. It doesn't mean earlier raid instances will be bypassed in any way as there is still plenty of good cause to run them. It would mean less time is spent farming it for lewt, granted.

Q u o t e:
Thanks for the feedback Ancil :) It's wicked when we get some nice discussions with you guys!

Hey, no probl.... wait, what? A GNOME! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! SAVE YOURSELVES!

Ancilorn

#77 - July 7, 2009, 3:03 p.m.

Q u o t e:
Slightly annoying that the attitude I'm getting from Ancilorn is along the lines of 'the only people who post in the forums are whiners, therefore we can ignore them'.

I'd like to point you towards a post I made on page 2 and hope this alleviates some of this unfortunate misunderstanding.

Q u o t e:
We do not ignore the forum as a channel for feedback, but the clarification needed to be made that this is not the only way we collect feedback and as such the forums must not be seen as 'the majority vote'.

This is probably true, and a common theme amongst the anonymous world of forums. If a point is well made and valid then it is valuable to us. To note: feedback isn't generated from the accusations of others, but from the valid content of the posts within the thread.