I know that over the next little while there will be a slew of WoW posts on various sites as players live through the shattering taking place. Pictured above is the newly designed Brill, and Orgrimmar has had a drastic face lift among other places in old world Azeroth. A lot people I know simply don’t like World of Warcraft – and that’s ok. There’s lots of things not to like which can be said for pretty much every single game out there. That’s why choices are good.
Even if you don’t like the game what so ever – it’s hard to deny the fact that Blizzard is doing something pretty gutsy with their game. They are revamping (basically) the entire world (which is huge). They’re raising the level cap, and adding more dungeons and raids which is something every game seems to do during an expansion. They are adding two new races, and they’re doing it all at once.They’ve had some incredible live events leading up to the expansion that players can take part in. It’s one thing to have a cataclysm take place before your character arrives on a world, and completely different to physically LIVE through one.
Last night when I logged in there was a cinematic explaining the shattering. It was probably the most incredible thing I watched all day, and it made me want to purchase Cataclysm on the spot. THAT is how you release an expansion. What blizzard is doing is enticing old and new players to try out their expansion. When was such a ruckus made over a 6 year old game? When were we THIS excited? Normally this sort of chatter is reserved for new games that we’re all attempting to get into the beta for. Even if you don’t play WoW and dislike it with every inch of your being, I bet you’ve heard about what’s going on, and maybe, in the deepest, darkest corner of your mind you’re wondering what it would be like to play again. Not that you’d ever admit it.
Just like I hate admitting that Blizzard is doing something right. As one of the very few subscription-without-cash-store games left, they are proving to people that they’ve still got it.
Am I excited? Well. I haven’t played in a month and I decided to subscribe (for a month so far) so that I could check out the changes. I stick by my thoughts that WoW simply doesn’t offer enough to me to make it my main game of choice, and the community is absolutely horrid, but I’m willing to put up with that at least for this massive event.
Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.
Hi There !
I’m following your blog for a while now, you doing a great job!
Regarding this expansion I have to say, I was never so exited about something like that.
I’m playing since release (that makes almost 6 years if I’m right)…
I made it through all ups and downs in WoW but Cataclysm blows it all.
And one point stands: Blizzard knows how to do it and how to push into the market.
I played EQ2 aswell, it was a nice time (6 month) but it lacks in many ways.
And the release of Hala was almost “odd” to me in the way SoE managed it,
the same counts for “free to play”.
At last one thing about the community in WoW!
It is true that it might not be as polite or whatever you wanna call it as
it is in other games.
But you also have to take into account 12 Million subscribers.
I bet, on one or two WoW server are more active players than in EQ or EQ2.
So it is kind of natural that “old” players / gamers don’t want to get too
familiar with “new” or “other” gamers.
It gets kind of annoying after a while to explane everything all over again
every other day.
Since everything is writting on the net, so please go out and google from
time to time to get you up to speed about things regarding the game.
For the most part in the last 6 years I played and play with the same bunch of
people which I call community.
Thats also the reason for staying that long.
So if you are new, try to find a bunch of guys, knowing that game well and
show them you are willing to learn.
I’m sure you wount be disappointed and you will find your group of players
to stick with ;).
So, keep up the good work and have fun out there !!
Regards
Argarash
PS: excuse my spelling, I’m a german guy, trying hard ;)
Tesh, when you say “interesting” like that, for some reason the following exchange goes through my mind:
Wash: This landing’s going to get pretty interesting.
Mal: Define “interesting!”
Wash: Oh God oh God, we’re all gonna die?
Hopefully this isn’t “that kind” of interesting for WoW, right? And yes, Wash did ask his definition, not state it, so the question mark is the correct punctuation. :-P
Sadly in changing the world they ruined (for me) Brill and Silverpine. The new undead architecture is too in your face and huge. I’m a usually a big fan of world change – Ashrons call 2 blew up major cities and geographic regions every update. But someone needs to tell blizzard more=better
I’m interested in what it does for the game’s health. I think the Shattering was a great idea, but if it doesn’t pan out, we may not see MMO devs try things this interesting again for a while.
I tried vanilla WoW back in the day, then sometime after BC came out I actually bought that and re-subbed for a month to check out the blood elves and the. . . . um. . .tentacle-faced Alliance people.
On my 1st attempt, I got an Undead Priest and a Human Mage both to level 14, and as I recall I worked a Tauren Druid up to level 9 or so, but…. it just never “did it” for me, and I only played for about 2 weeks. On my 2nd attempt I made a Blood Elf Paladin, and I think a Warlock at some point also, s well as a tentacle-faced Shaman. No character made it past level 8 or 9 before I stopped logging in again, though — which was also less than 2 weeks.
I can’t really say I think anything’s wrong with WoW, or that I hate it or anything. If anyone wants to play it, it makes no nevermind to me (though I wish they’d come play EQ2 or EVE with me instead). WoW just simply doesn’t “have it” for me. Can’t say why, it just doesn’t.
As a result, I have no desire whatsoever to see what it’s like now after the Shattering, if only becuz I’ve never really seen it before the Shattering either.
I share your feelings. I resubbed yesterday after months of claiming that I wouldn’t. I won’t stick around for long, because as you said, WoW just doesn’t offer enough and the community is dreadful. I was actually disappointed in how little some zones had changed as I wandered through. I don’t know what I expected, but I think it was more… dramatic. Org looks fantastic, but UC and TB are exactly the same. With six level 80s (and numerous alts stuck in Hellfire Peninsula), I still feel pretty much done. The last thing I really want to do is level more alts.
I figure maybe I’ll roll an alliance character on another server, just to experience things from that perspective. But I can’t see myself taking yet another character through Outlands…ugh.