Aug 4
The Shine Has Begun To Wear
So, Wrath of the Lich King. I’ve been giving it some time to sink in. And yeah, my reaction is kinda ‘meh’. The concept behind this expansion is a lot less exciting than Burning Crusade. When even the wowaholics at WoWInsider are underwhelmed by their first impression, it sends a strong message to me: Blizzard is getting sloppy.
Despite the fact that it looks gorgeous , despite the fact that it’s got Northrend (something everyone wants), and even despite the revival of Dalaran (something I’ve wanted since launch day), I just can’t get excited about this thing. The reason for that goes directly to the sloppiness. This thing just doesn’t feel as polished to me as previous work. Take, for example, the Raids and Dungeons panel from the event. Even the developers themselves seem to be of two minds regarding old world content. Early in the Q&A section of the panel, there was this exchange:
Q: Progression and seeing end game content is tough without giving up other things in real life. Will casual raiders or non-raiders ever be able to experience end-game content?
A: They are playing with taking old content (like Naxx) and making it accesible for lower characters. Lots of cheering from the crowd on this one.
But then, later:
Q: The old 40 man dungeons are obselete. There’s no reason to go back to BWL. Is there a way to add heroic difficulties to BWL or something so that we can go back for the experience of the older content?
A: We are considering going back to Naxx when we get to Northrend, but we have a finite time to make dungeons, and even the items guys only have so much time to make new rewards for content, and would rather spend time on new content.
Tuning older content so that it’s doable for a smaller number of higher-level characters, and having a reward for that experience that’s still worthwhile, seems like a great idea to me. But as they say, they’d rather spend time on new content’.
My question is: what was the purpose of the old content? Certainly UBRS, LBRS, BWL and MC got the crap played out of them. That content, a thousand times over, was worth the time and money spent developing them. Likewise, places like Scarlet Monastery and Zul’Farrak are still seeing use today. I’m sure it varies from server to server, but the last time I played I know there were groups still working through that content; undoubtedly veteran players revisiting favoured hunting grounds. But what about Naxxramas? What purpose did it serve? Launched so soon before Burning Crusade that only a very small portion of the playerbase ever saw it, it seems like a waste. And more recently, what about The Black Temple? If WLK dungeons are going to be hitting the servers in less than six months, how many players will have made it through the torturous keying/progression process by then? You can be sure no one at level 80 is going to bother with BT loot, which by that point will be nigh-onto-useless.
Obviously, it’s their game. They can do whatever the hell they want with it. But they (also obviously) care about what they’ve done. They love their game. Hell, I love their game. And I just can’t understand why they’re so willing to throw away all the hard work they’ve put into this gameworld. Why wouldn’t they want people to be able to play Naxx and get something out of it? Hell, why wouldn’t they want folks to be able to enjoy places like AQ and ZG?
It’s more than that though. To me it’s beginning to seem like Blizzard is purposely ignoring the decisions made by other games. In doing so, they’re treading on ground that has already been covered, making mistakes that others have already made for them.
Brandon makes the point, vigorously, that the Death Knight hero class could be seen as ‘another Jedi’:
That’s Jedi, in a nutshell. The right to unlock a slot to play an alt. Wonderful. All that effort you put into your main character, wasted as you battle the reserved name list to find something to call your new dps plate wearer. It may be easier to unlock than a Jedi, but that isn’t the point. The point is you are surrendering your established identity and progression efforts to start over again. I understand how the Death Knight as a class concept is an appealing, aspirational role. But I do not understand how this design is superior to or more appealing than allowing existing players transition into becoming Death Knights. It’s a bald faced retention mechanic, with no sexy angle to make it exciting: you get to start over so you’ll subscribe longer.
Certainly we’ve seen this all before in other companies, but where’s the Blizzard polish? Where’s the shiny so bright you can’t help but look past the flaws and smile? An even more fundamental issue: are you going to need to buy BC to get to the WLK content? Good question, huh? Turns out the Blizz folks don’t know yet either.
One big tidbit that they dropped was the fact that The Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack may require you to have the Burning Crusade as well. Blizzard isn’t sure if this will require an additional purchase, or if they will bundle it in at no extra cost.
This is Joystiq, of course, so they’re probably not aware there’s already a better standard here: EQ2’s new-expansion-equals-whole game is the way to do this now. Having to go back and purchase old expansions is (and has always been) completely screwed up. Every single game should go this route for the future, and the fact that Blizzard is even hemming and hawing about this is enough to make my eyes roll.
Let me be clear, here. No, I am not saying “OMG WoW is dying”. Their user numbers are going up, not down, obviously. What I am saying is that I think we’re starting to see some tarnish on the old Blizzard shine. Hardcore players and vets are going to see this stuff for what it is, and they’re going to be grumpy about it. They’re already pissed because BC has screwed up their guild lives … now just one more thing on top of it.
But, in the end, I also want to make clear that none of what I’ve just said matters in the slightest. The reason? WLK is still going to sell like fucking hotcakes. Every single one of those 9 Million subscribers is going to grab for that hit of numminess; almost certainly myself included. As Tobold says over at his site:
Although I’m not excited about it, I’ll probably buy the expansion, level one or two characters from 70 to 80, play a bit with the Death Knight, and cancel my account again after 3 months. During those 3 months I will gain green and blue items that are more powerful than the purple items people are currently getting from raids, so why would I want to stay for the raiding end game?
After a certain point, this is all Blizzard needs. Even if people are constantly canceling their account because they’ve been-there-done-that, there will always be new people cycling in for that next hit of stuff-they-haven’t-done-yet. Even tarnished and a little less perfect, WoW is going to be the biggest and most badass MMOG on the block for a long, long time.
9 comments9 Comments so far
I don’t think wow is dying but I do think US and EU sales are Flat or slightly down. And since one EU or US subscriber generates 5 times or more the revenue monthly than the chinese market, and remember none of the 7.5 million or more chinese players are going to pay for BC its free for them, I don’t think blizzard is as happy and secure as a lot of people in the gaming community think they are.
If all the new games coming (and this is a big if) can suck 1 million us and Eu subscribers away that will be somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of thier income from monthly subscriptions, plus a lot of expansion boxes not sold. They’ve got to be worried about that possibility.
It’s a shame. All the devs should buy new EQ2 accounts and try leveling in EQ2. The game is great but its a long lonely slog for a new player to get to the fun group stuff.
Wow is almost there. One maybe two more endgame focused expansions and the reward of end game just won’t be enough for the average “casual” player they are focused on to put up with the long lonely climb to 90 or higher.
I think the peak of wow in the us and eu is upon us. Though it’ll probably climb in the less profitable chinese market for some time.
Do you have any evidence that the Chinese players won’t have to upgarde their account? Last I checked or heard, they will be paying for their account to be upgraded to TBC when it does launch.
Let’s be real here. Blizzard knows what works and that is what they will keep on doing. I’ve said it a hundred times, Blizzard does not reinvent the wheel. They make the same wheel over and over and over, stable and shiny every time.
The real question here is what Zonk hints at: is World of Warcraft wearing Blizzard down? WoW marks the first time Blizzard is actively supporting a game with massive updates expansions. Is this wearing them down? Is this creating a content factor… good or bad?
I definately do not like the attitude of “work on new stuff instead of reworking old stuff”. That would be fine, if the old stuff was on par with the new stuff. However, it is not and Blizzard needs to go back and fix the problem before it becomes impossible.
If this is all Blizzard plans to do with their expansions, then they need to take more than a year to produce it. Two years should be enough time for the majority of people to enjoy the content they are producing without feeling like they are just going to be overshadowed in a couple months by the next release.
Personally, I believe there will be more Hero Class announcements before we are all tromping around in Northrend. Damn… I have to start my journey in Outland still :P
Check out the9’s website its on thier own press release that chinese players who have an existing wow account will not have to upgrade to BC. For them it’s free.
http://www.the9.com/en/news/2007/news_070608.htm
I canceled my WoW account a few months before BC basically, like you said, because there wasn’t any point in running end-game stuff when in a few month’s it would take me 20 minutes to find greens better than my purples. But I never did pick up the game again.
I saw this kind of thing before with Blizzard and Diablo II (hey, it still exists, right?). There’s this tension between a game needing new content and new incentives to keep old players playing (no endless unchanging endgame), but once you hop out for a while it’s harder to come back in. Your bearings are off. At least mine always are.
Not sure I’ll ever pick up WoW again, especially now that come a few months I’ll be 20 levels and uncountable items behind everyone else.
Also, RE: Death Knight – 100% agreement there. It would be far far cooler to “earn” that class that to pick it in the beginning.
Maybe WOW is wearing them down heartless. Every company I’ve ever worked for the developers took it as pure hell to get stuck working on the already existing stuff.
It’s an interesting thought. Maybe the devs normal human nature to want to move on to the new interesting stuff is the problem. If that’s the case it’s a shame they don’t understand why so many of us want the old areas tweaked and hopefully seeded with new stuff to find and play with.
I think it’s too early to assess this expansion. They obviously felt the need to announce something, but it’s incomplete. No way this thing comes out with just one Hero class. That alone should be enough to indicate more info will be coming.
Blizzard is likely being forced by higher forces to NOT do another BC. They had a lock on the genre for a good long time, but their retention has got to be decreasing. They can’t afford to continue to think that whoever comes will stay as long as those people who came on launch day. The churn will increase so the need to bring them back and add new players will increase.
As such, expansions can’t take two years to come out. Once a year would be about right.
And while it would be right to ensure all new expansions come out with all old content, they really only have EQ2 to go by. And as mature a game that is, it hasn’t gotten the success to really compel anyone to say to themselves “we gotta do this or else!”.
Finally, Blizzard succeeded in increasing the size of the genre by dragging in millions of new players. Any mistake they make is only recognizable by the veteran set. Unlike in a game like CoX or EQ2, we are not the majority voice.
On the EQ2 is hard to find a group on quote, I couldn’t disagree more. I just picked it up for the 1st serious time last week, and I’m 19 and have grouped for a lot of that. Joining a well established guild on my server helps this, as does the games general slant towards altism. It’s a very big game, with a lot of options, like CoH. So I always seem to be able to find someone playing an alt or on their 1st way through to group up with.
That combined with the mentoring system, helps immensely.
On the Blizzard shine wearing off, I don’t think so. I’m betting the expansion will be as polished as all get out. But what I think is more telling is that you can finally start to see that Blizzard’s got a great art style, but bad content designers. This expansion, for all intents and purposes is the same as the previous one. The only thing remotely interesting is the siege weapons which were talked about and told they’d be coming “soon” back before the game ever launched.
Is it still a great game? Yes. But it has had its share of mistakes made, and you can bet a lot of the upcoming games are going to learn from them. Let’s hope Blizzard does as well for the inevitable WoW2. Because if they do, I’ll be right there to buy it. If they don’t… Waaagh! it is.
This just par for the course for Blizzard with World of Warcraft. I don’t see this a new trend for them, look back to the launch of WoW and BC. It’s always been too little too late as they’ve been unable to create new content faster than their playerbase could consume it.
What new expansions and features they do bring out are all incremental and never innovative to the market. They simply continue building on their base which was good 2 years ago, but now cannot hold with the new MMO’s coming.I was truly hoping they would announce something to really “WoW” the community (pun intended) but again they’ve got yet another missed opportunity.
The game is still a grind, everytime they raise the level cap 10 lvls it becomes even less of a value proposition for those looking for more entertainment.
There’s no doubt for me that my money and limited time investment will be going towards games like Pirates of the Burning Seas, Conan, or Warhammer rather than more regurgitated WoW gameplay.
Perhaps this is just another jaded MMO player that’s been along the ride since UO, the newer generation of MMO gamers that started with WoW may be less quick to tire of the treadmill.
You guys are giving Blizzard its credit for being shiny but your not allowing them anything else before judging the new expansion? Let me ask you….
When has Blizzard ever released detailed complete information that solved everyones wishes at the first announcement of a new game or expansion?
…NEVER!! They like to tease and keep their players in the dark and then drop the detail bombs on them as they get closer and closer.
When has Blizzard done what the player crowd expected based on their initial worries?
…NEVER!! Blizzard always changes it up or releases new info that puts to ease most players concerns (keep in mind no one is perfect not everyone will be happy but you get the idea).
You guys need to just chill and let this thing roll out and as it comes learn to enjoy the idea of it and what it could be, if its not that when the time comes then whine and complain and don’t play cause we all hate QQrs.