I never thought I'd go back to WoW either. But, there I was last night downloading the 10 day trial after not playing the game for about three years. I swore I'd never go back. Blizzard did WTFPWN everyone with this new expansion and I must simply be a part of it. Blizzard simply knows how to stand by the games they make. I'm going back to play WoW for the experience of what WoW is and I don't really care if it doesn't compare to some of the more recent games. I'll still be playing Darkfall and EVE Online but will make time for an MMO that was, at one time, a huge part of my life.
How many years later and I am still waiting for someone to explain:
If I have to purchase expansion packs seperately, what exactly does my $15/mo go towards? Server maintenance? Give me a break. Vote with your dollar, people. Find another game to play, don't support this bs.
Umm...lots of things...Server Maintenance, Server Costs to keep them running, Blizzard Employees {GMs, Artists, Programmers, etc}, the huge content updates that Blizzard creates and doesn't charge a dime for, etc etc etc....
How is it Turbine can turn out free updates in patches time and again that actually add epic quests, new areas etc.? Their one xpac that required purchase included not only the xpac but the base game as well. SOE also includes all content with their xpacs. I know Blizz gives free updates as well that include, nerfing and buffing classes but little else. With all the money they are making from however many millions of subs they are claiming this week i would think they could do a little better in the free content department.
And Blizzard has only had 2 xpacs to Turbines 1 ... and WoW was released first. The initial game only costs 20 bucks .. may as well be free. I don't think any of that is bad at all considering how popular WoW is. Its not as If they were SOE releasing one every 2 months. Blizzard could put out a half ass xpac every 6 months or year and rake in even more money , but they aren't.
I really hope you dont think this explains why you get more content in Turbine patches than you do in WOW's and why Turbine and SOE include all content for the price tag and all you get from the "King" is the update. You can justify in your own mind all you want to but Blizzard has you and others by the short hairs and is milking you for all they can get.
There is just no end to your mindless bile is there?
You are seriously trying to compare Blizzard with your beloved SOE and try to make Blizzard look Greedy?
Blizzard gives out large content patches 3-4 times a year for free. Sure it costs about $50 to buy the original game and all the expansions, but it sells very well at that price. It could sell for more I'm sure.
Lets look at what SOE has done
Crammed microtransactions into their games with cash shops. Thats right, you don't get the full 100% of the game with your subscription anymore.
Crammed micortransactions into their games with randomized virtual loot cards. Yes Smedly admitted that is why they created the virtual card games, to get into the micro transaction market. Again, less thatn 100% of the game for your subscription fee.
Crammed microtransactions into their games via live gamer. SOE takes their dirty little cut.
Instead of giving content patches away for free like blizzard does, they tried selling some of them. Remember adventure packs?
/pizza. LOL!
So many bad expansions so fast that soe had to promise to slow down their release so they could "focus on quality". It sure is odd how much time they spent on microtransaction efforts during this time and the expansions are still the same quality.
The only reason soe bundles the expansions together is because they don't sell. It isn't because soe is generous, it is because yet again they have built the barrier so high to join their games they have little option than to do that. Even combined they sit on shelves at stores and get dropped from inventory a few months after release.
You talk about a company that tries to squeeze every last dime out of its players while giving less and less in return and you have soe. Your comparison is very sad and misguided, but you don't talk from facts, you talk from emotions.
As for Turbine, I applaud Turbine for their free content patches. Nice job for them and by most reports they are pretty nice. That doesn't diminish wows content patches, because they are pretty big themselves.
Originally posted by isurus How many years later and I am still waiting for someone to explain: If I have to purchase expansion packs seperately, what exactly does my $15/mo go towards? Server maintenance? Give me a break. Vote with your dollar, people. Find another game to play, don't support this bs.
yeah right lets all play that point and click artifact called lineageII dont get me wrong i had great years of fun playing l2 but lets be honest nothing in the market can compete to wow in game experience, quality and contents.
Seriouslly can everyone shut up now I know this will be the best xpac ever...
You know why? My GM friend, (who I can't name but you can trust me), said that Blizzard have been listening to the community and that the four people who've left the game since it launched, (all four had underlining mental health issues and died soon after leaving the game, obviously), left because there was one key thing that is lacking in WoW.....LAVA!!
Yes now everything in WoW will have lava on it, all zones/npcs/items/authenticators will be covered in lava, engineers can make lava lamps, shaman's lava lash will make continents explode, everything will literally facemelt your friends and family!!!
New xpac for 2012/September 2009: The Horde invades Scotland
Some people are so desperate to try to suck the fun out of this game for others that's it's almost pathetic. World of Warcraft, for those people that enjoy it and play it will always have something to look forward to because Blizzard is one of the best game developers out there. It really shows when you see the staff talking on panels, and how even they re-act to releasing news. They always seem to 'geeked' out because they enjoy what they do, and I think they like seeing the player's reponses to what they have to offer us. Which is always a fairly good response.
As for the tools who think they're dumbing down the game anymore, really? They're taking away stats that weren't that hard to figure out in the first place, and most people didn't even bother with the math because they were in fact too stupid, that includes most high end raiders that rely on some type of spredsheet that was already created by somebody else, or the elitist jerks forums.
Mmmmmmmmmm, I love my MMO, and it's the most popular one in the world - I've always got somebody to play with, and most of my friends play this game too. I'm curious as to how many other people can actually say that, that is, if they weren't far too busy browsing our forums to try to defend their choice of MMO when it's clearly 'insuperior' aka: Inferior to WoW - Kekekeke.
I swore up and down I'd never go back to WoW either but Cataclysm just looked too good to pass up on, and with the new heirloom items (well, new to me anyway) might as well resub for a few months to farm up a set for my Worgan Priest. I'm in a good place to take a break from EvE anyway, between corps and in some nowhere wormhole system. Of course I'm not quitting so no you can't have my stuff :P
Found out on the official forums it may be possible to get my old Shaman back (with his Champion of the Naaru title, which is all I really care about), so hopefully it'll turn out OK, if not don't really care.
Now is the time to get to playing so that you'll have at least one level 80 when Cataclysm hits. I know I cannot wait. I have 2 toons that are 80 and am working on my Priestess now.
You and me both Teala (Mrs. "Fisher" as well). Haven't played in months. I'm hopping back in tonight to get my grind on! Oh the humanity!
I'll be playing till the servers shutdown, call me whatever name you wish, i don't care, i'm having fun and blizzard is an awesome company.
Only thing i'm trying to understand is why people who won't play the game or even just plain hate it, care so much about what happens in this game and with blizzard.
So what gives? why so much interest in a game you don't want anything to do with? nobody is trying to convince anyone to come back to the game, don't worry you don't have to save anyone, we are all adults and i'm sure everyone here knows what the like and dislike. No need to play the white Knight, like your saving people from the evil blizzard.
"The great thing about human language is that it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand." - Lewis Thomas
I don't play EVE, but I definately think CCP leads the way in precentage of money invested back into the game as far as new content.
WoW only rewards those who are the very top elite, while EVE rewards all its players. Not to mention WoW should be coming out with new content every month considering the amount they bring in.
Its just too bad EVE's combat is boring, and going afk for 20 minutes to get somewhere is no way to play a game. I'm looking forward to their upcoming MMO, though.
How many years later and I am still waiting for someone to explain:
If I have to purchase expansion packs seperately, what exactly does my $15/mo go towards? Server maintenance? Give me a break. Vote with your dollar, people. Find another game to play, don't support this bs.
Umm...lots of things...Server Maintenance, Server Costs to keep them running, Blizzard Employees {GMs, Artists, Programmers, etc}, the huge content updates that Blizzard creates and doesn't charge a dime for, etc etc etc....
How is it Turbine can turn out free updates in patches time and again that actually add epic quests, new areas etc.? Their one xpac that required purchase included not only the xpac but the base game as well. SOE also includes all content with their xpacs. I know Blizz gives free updates as well that include, nerfing and buffing classes but little else. With all the money they are making from however many millions of subs they are claiming this week i would think they could do a little better in the free content department.
And Blizzard has only had 2 xpacs to Turbines 1 ... and WoW was released first. The initial game only costs 20 bucks .. may as well be free. I don't think any of that is bad at all considering how popular WoW is. Its not as If they were SOE releasing one every 2 months. Blizzard could put out a half ass xpac every 6 months or year and rake in even more money , but they aren't.
I really hope you dont think this explains why you get more content in Turbine patches than you do in WOW's and why Turbine and SOE include all content for the price tag and all you get from the "King" is the update. You can justify in your own mind all you want to but Blizzard has you and others by the short hairs and is milking you for all they can get.
"If your really good at something, Never do it for free."
And honestly, the main reason I think those other games give out all their previous xpacs and base game with the latest Xpac is cause if they didn't no one would try the game, we all have wow, its not like we really need the other stuff to get started.
If I had to buy EQ2, desert of flames, kingdom of sky, echoes of faydwar, rise of kunark and the shadow oddessy to play EQ2, I'd say never, so would most people, and thats why LoTRO did the same thing.
As it is, you can get the Wow Battle chest for $40, I'd be willing to bet two that when cataclysm comes out their gonna make the wow battle chest contain WoTLK as well.
As it is, you can get the Wow Battle chest for $40, I'd be willing to bet two that when cataclysm comes out their gonna make the wow battle chest contain WoTLK as well.
I don't think so, WoW+BC makes sense because you get 2 new races to play with so geting BC from the start has it's advantages. WotLK is all about the end game content.
edit
I can see some kind of MegaChest where you get everything with Cataclysm, but that again would defeat the purpose of battlechest as easy, affordable acces to WoW.
I really like the world changes but I hate the mechanic changes, with the exception to hunters having focus instead of mana, which should have been a no brainer in the first place. I feel like it will hurt classes or specs that use crit, pure AP classes will be overkill and Tanking from what I have seen will be made EZ mode. Also the bonus to spec fully into one tree and punishing you for cross speccing seems more like a gimmick to force Sub rogues and Spriests to take their weak 51 point talents so GC can claim they are popular. Of course it will be what 5 more talent points in the expansion so were looking at 56 point talents they want to show off I imagine. The Mastery system they call it.
I also really am at odds with the races they chose, keep in mind I already hate blood elves and I cant stand Dreanei. Mainly because the females annoying scream audio sound. But I could maybe see it, but Alliance demonic werewolves I am trying to understand.
That being said if they don't screw up the pvp to a point it is World of Melee craft I might stay, but not if they give everyone a dispel and silence. This homogenization of class mechanics is making me sick. Also getting very upset they are trying to make tanking so easy.
But I'm hugely tempted to return to WoW. Blizzard have just WTF'ed almost every MMO player in the world, and let's face it, we've all played WoW at some point, and they've shook the foundations of their prized game. Brave move, and one that has turned every head, gamer and developer alike. THIS, is how you make an expansion, you just don't add new areas and classes, you alter the game itself in ways most developers wouldn't dream touching because this would be a waste of resources.
Almost seems like WoW will be reborn, and I can see it becoming something more.
It's nice to see Blizzard making good changes to this game, five years on, and the game seems fresh as it did at release. We know who else does this, CCP with their EVE Online.
I'm keeping my eye on Cataclysm.
Look at your past in WOW and ask yourself why you did quit.
Then realize that beside having updated old world landscap, the game mechanics will be strictly identical, class balance wills till be non existant, the goal will still be an hungry race to update your equipment.
The only reason i would reactivate my wow account would be to take some pictures of the updated zones, then i would simply cancel it again.
My addiction History: >> EQ1 2000-2004 - Shaman/Bard/Wizard/Monk - nolife raid-whore >> WoW 2004-2009 + Cataclysm for 2 months - hardcore casual >> Current status : done with MMO, too old for that crap.
Hey don't get me wrong I loved WoW and the four years I had there but the one thing that made me finally quit wasn't the, 'free epics' arguement, or the, 'it's 2 hard nerf it', attitude although what did make me quit was the byproduct of those changes.
It doesn't really matter if the xpac is awesome and has great content it'll still have the main reason i quit in there. That reason?...the same, 'immature, I'm-entitled-becasue-I-turned-up, twelve year old, e-peen stroking', based community which is what the majority of the players seem to be now.
Before you all start I know not everyone is like that and I have made some good friends but when your relying on these people to see content you know it's time to call it quits.
Hey don't get me wrong I loved WoW and the four years I had there but the one thing that made me finally quit wasn't the, 'free epics' arguement, or the, 'it's 2 hard nerf it', attitude although what did make me quit was the byproduct of those changes. It doesn't really matter if the xpac is awesome and has great content it'll still have the main reason i quit in there. That reason?...the same, 'immature, I'm-entitled-becasue-I-turned-up, twelve year old, e-peen stroking', based community which is what the majority of the players seem to be now.
Before you all start I know not everyone is like that and I have made some good friends but when your relying on these people to see content you know it's time to call it quits.
Rant over
I must admit i ve kept returning to wow over the years but i think your estimation of what the game has become is mostly right . I see this expansion as a bit of a con job . All its doing is tinkering around with the old world . If it had a graphics engine update it would be a real revamp without it this Cataclysm really is nothing more than what you would get in a major patch .
Hey don't get me wrong I loved WoW and the four years I had there but the one thing that made me finally quit wasn't the, 'free epics' arguement, or the, 'it's 2 hard nerf it', attitude although what did make me quit was the byproduct of those changes. It doesn't really matter if the xpac is awesome and has great content it'll still have the main reason i quit in there. That reason?...the same, 'immature, I'm-entitled-becasue-I-turned-up, twelve year old, e-peen stroking', based community which is what the majority of the players seem to be now.
Before you all start I know not everyone is like that and I have made some good friends but when your relying on these people to see content you know it's time to call it quits.
Rant over
I must admit i ve kept returning to wow over the years but i think your estimation of what the game has become is mostly right . I see this expansion as a bit of a con job . All its doing is tinkering around with the old world . If it had a graphics engine update it would be a real revamp without it this Cataclysm really is nothing more than what you would get in a major patch .
Seven brand new zones, 4 brand new raids zones, 7 new dungeons, completely redone talents, item stats, a second type of skill tree to advance beyond max level (archeology), guild leveling system, item customization system (reforging), ladder rating system for battlegrounds, etc. All of this on top of redesigning over 50 of the original zones with new areas, quests and locations?
All of that is equal to a patch, but if they reskinned some models it would somehow be equal to an expansion?
I understand that the expansion can look cheap if all you want to focus on is reworking old content, but it really does go outside of the box. If you really look at the non revamped areas of the expansion it looks to have the normal amount of content one would see in burning crusade/lich king and that is on top of the tons of redesigns they are doing.
This expansion is well outside of my comfort zone, but it also looks to be the biggest expansion to the game yet in terms of volume. Both old and new.
How is it Turbine can turn out free updates in patches time and again that actually add epic quests, new areas etc.? Their one xpac that required purchase included not only the xpac but the base game as well. SOE also includes all content with their xpacs. I know Blizz gives free updates as well that include, nerfing and buffing classes but little else. With all the money they are making from however many millions of subs they are claiming this week i would think they could do a little better in the free content department.
How about Lineage 2 and EVE which both release free expansions every 6 months or so?
Blizzard rips people off because they CAN. Because the average WOWer is completely disengaged from the rest of the MMO genre... they don't know that they're getting robbed, they just keep forking it over because that's what they do for all their other Blizzard games.
Originally posted by Daffid011 Seven brand new zones, 4 brand new raids zones, 7 new dungeons, completely redone talents, item stats, a second type of skill tree to advance beyond max level (archeology), guild leveling system, item customization system (reforging), ladder rating system for battlegrounds, etc. All of this on top of redesigning over 50 of the original zones with new areas, quests and locations? All of that is equal to a patch, but if they reskinned some models it would somehow be equal to an expansion?
I understand that the expansion can look cheap if all you want to focus on is reworking old content, but it really does go outside of the box. If you really look at the non revamped areas of the expansion it looks to have the normal amount of content one would see in burning crusade/lich king and that is on top of the tons of redesigns they are doing.
This expansion is well outside of my comfort zone, but it also looks to be the biggest expansion to the game yet in terms of volume. Both old and new.
None of which address the biggest downfall to WoW currently; the horrible community. Yes, I know not everyone that plays is like that. But there are far far far more bad apples in the bunch, that there are good.
Katsma is Lithuanian for 'he who drinks used douche fluid'.
None of which address the biggest downfall to WoW currently; the horrible community. Yes, I know not everyone that plays is like that. But there are far far far more bad apples in the bunch, that there are good.
People are the same everywhere my friend. If all you look for is the bad in people, that is all you will find.
None of which address the biggest downfall to WoW currently; the horrible community. Yes, I know not everyone that plays is like that. But there are far far far more bad apples in the bunch, that there are good.
People are the same everywhere my friend. If all you look for is the bad in people, that is all you will find.
When all decent arguments against WOW fail (of course they fail, just look at what WOW 2010 will be like !)....
They start talking about the 11.6 M people playing WOW.
Guess what? These people who play 180 dollars a year (well the non Chinese part anyway) are guys like you and me...
Millions of fathers, mothers, their children, brothers and sisters, graddaddys even.
Welcome to society. ----> mainstream video game.
Argument pretty much failed.
Yeah ive heard this argument several times but the thing is, you dont have to look for bad people in WOW all you have to do is log in. I cant think of another game where "mailbox sitting "on your latest mount is such a big part of the game. Go to any hub and see the circus. Trade chat is impossible to use due to all the crap flying around. Considering nearly everyone here has played WOW at one time or another, you will have a hard time convincing people that the community isnt just horrible.
As a long-time WoW player, I can honestly say WoW has really nice and mature community on servers I play, especially compared to Age of Conan servers I played on (including so-called RP servers). I don't like to generalize much, but those people really look like a bunch of adolescents only too happy to be able to use the most obscene language in chat and not be penalized.
I can almost visualize them showing the monitor to their acne-ridden friends - "look what I can type, cool huh?". Disgusting community to say the least.
I happen to think WoW has one of the more mature communities. There is the occassional bickering and belittling on trade chat and in battlegrounds but they are just a vocal, attention-whoring minority, but overall the individual people you bump into when on quests or in small guilds are friendly/cooperative.
I too was tempted to go back.. in fact I did.. but I'm already bored and dissatisfied again. The news of changing the game with the expansion interested me but like i said, it's still pretty boring... still has a crappy community... and it's starting to look pretty old.. even the newer areas. I'll probably just get Aion or something.. at least it's better looking and has a different feel.
But I'm hugely tempted to return to WoW. Blizzard have just WTF'ed almost every MMO player in the world, and let's face it, we've all played WoW at some point, and they've shook the foundations of their prized game. Brave move, and one that has turned every head, gamer and developer alike.
Sorta like what Sony did with SWG with NGE huh...?
Not saying it'll have the same results, just saying it's not as easy to pull off as everyone would think....not even sure if Blizzard is totally aware of what they've done just yet...=/
I played WoW for almost 4 Years in a quite succsseful guild C'Thun Server First Kill included and absolutely nothing in that Cataclysm Add On would make me play WoW again just one damn second...
"You're such an inspiration for the ways that i will never ever choose to be"
Comments
I never thought I'd go back to WoW either. But, there I was last night downloading the 10 day trial after not playing the game for about three years. I swore I'd never go back. Blizzard did WTFPWN everyone with this new expansion and I must simply be a part of it. Blizzard simply knows how to stand by the games they make. I'm going back to play WoW for the experience of what WoW is and I don't really care if it doesn't compare to some of the more recent games. I'll still be playing Darkfall and EVE Online but will make time for an MMO that was, at one time, a huge part of my life.
Umm...lots of things...Server Maintenance, Server Costs to keep them running, Blizzard Employees {GMs, Artists, Programmers, etc}, the huge content updates that Blizzard creates and doesn't charge a dime for, etc etc etc....
How is it Turbine can turn out free updates in patches time and again that actually add epic quests, new areas etc.? Their one xpac that required purchase included not only the xpac but the base game as well. SOE also includes all content with their xpacs. I know Blizz gives free updates as well that include, nerfing and buffing classes but little else. With all the money they are making from however many millions of subs they are claiming this week i would think they could do a little better in the free content department.
And Blizzard has only had 2 xpacs to Turbines 1 ... and WoW was released first. The initial game only costs 20 bucks .. may as well be free. I don't think any of that is bad at all considering how popular WoW is. Its not as If they were SOE releasing one every 2 months.
Blizzard could put out a half ass xpac every 6 months or year and rake in even more money , but they aren't.
I really hope you dont think this explains why you get more content in Turbine patches than you do in WOW's and why Turbine and SOE include all content for the price tag and all you get from the "King" is the update. You can justify in your own mind all you want to but Blizzard has you and others by the short hairs and is milking you for all they can get.
There is just no end to your mindless bile is there?
You are seriously trying to compare Blizzard with your beloved SOE and try to make Blizzard look Greedy?
Blizzard gives out large content patches 3-4 times a year for free. Sure it costs about $50 to buy the original game and all the expansions, but it sells very well at that price. It could sell for more I'm sure.
Lets look at what SOE has done
The only reason soe bundles the expansions together is because they don't sell. It isn't because soe is generous, it is because yet again they have built the barrier so high to join their games they have little option than to do that. Even combined they sit on shelves at stores and get dropped from inventory a few months after release.
You talk about a company that tries to squeeze every last dime out of its players while giving less and less in return and you have soe. Your comparison is very sad and misguided, but you don't talk from facts, you talk from emotions.
As for Turbine, I applaud Turbine for their free content patches. Nice job for them and by most reports they are pretty nice. That doesn't diminish wows content patches, because they are pretty big themselves.
yeah right lets all play that point and click artifact called lineageII
dont get me wrong i had great years of fun playing l2 but lets be honest nothing in the market can compete to wow in game experience, quality and contents.
Seriouslly can everyone shut up now I know this will be the best xpac ever...
You know why? My GM friend, (who I can't name but you can trust me), said that Blizzard have been listening to the community and that the four people who've left the game since it launched, (all four had underlining mental health issues and died soon after leaving the game, obviously), left because there was one key thing that is lacking in WoW.....LAVA!!
Yes now everything in WoW will have lava on it, all zones/npcs/items/authenticators will be covered in lava, engineers can make lava lamps, shaman's lava lash will make continents explode, everything will literally facemelt your friends and family!!!
New xpac for 2012/September 2009: The Horde invades Scotland
Some people are so desperate to try to suck the fun out of this game for others that's it's almost pathetic. World of Warcraft, for those people that enjoy it and play it will always have something to look forward to because Blizzard is one of the best game developers out there. It really shows when you see the staff talking on panels, and how even they re-act to releasing news. They always seem to 'geeked' out because they enjoy what they do, and I think they like seeing the player's reponses to what they have to offer us. Which is always a fairly good response.
As for the tools who think they're dumbing down the game anymore, really? They're taking away stats that weren't that hard to figure out in the first place, and most people didn't even bother with the math because they were in fact too stupid, that includes most high end raiders that rely on some type of spredsheet that was already created by somebody else, or the elitist jerks forums.
Mmmmmmmmmm, I love my MMO, and it's the most popular one in the world - I've always got somebody to play with, and most of my friends play this game too. I'm curious as to how many other people can actually say that, that is, if they weren't far too busy browsing our forums to try to defend their choice of MMO when it's clearly 'insuperior' aka: Inferior to WoW - Kekekeke.
For the Horde! >:3
Damned whine babies.
I swore up and down I'd never go back to WoW either but Cataclysm just looked too good to pass up on, and with the new heirloom items (well, new to me anyway) might as well resub for a few months to farm up a set for my Worgan Priest. I'm in a good place to take a break from EvE anyway, between corps and in some nowhere wormhole system. Of course I'm not quitting so no you can't have my stuff :P
Found out on the official forums it may be possible to get my old Shaman back (with his Champion of the Naaru title, which is all I really care about), so hopefully it'll turn out OK, if not don't really care.
You and me both Teala (Mrs. "Fisher" as well). Haven't played in months. I'm hopping back in tonight to get my grind on! Oh the humanity!
fishermage.blogspot.com
I'll be playing till the servers shutdown, call me whatever name you wish, i don't care, i'm having fun and blizzard is an awesome company.
Only thing i'm trying to understand is why people who won't play the game or even just plain hate it, care so much about what happens in this game and with blizzard.
So what gives? why so much interest in a game you don't want anything to do with? nobody is trying to convince anyone to come back to the game, don't worry you don't have to save anyone, we are all adults and i'm sure everyone here knows what the like and dislike. No need to play the white Knight, like your saving people from the evil blizzard.
"The great thing about human language is that it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand."
- Lewis Thomas
I don't play EVE, but I definately think CCP leads the way in precentage of money invested back into the game as far as new content.
WoW only rewards those who are the very top elite, while EVE rewards all its players. Not to mention WoW should be coming out with new content every month considering the amount they bring in.
Its just too bad EVE's combat is boring, and going afk for 20 minutes to get somewhere is no way to play a game. I'm looking forward to their upcoming MMO, though.
Umm...lots of things...Server Maintenance, Server Costs to keep them running, Blizzard Employees {GMs, Artists, Programmers, etc}, the huge content updates that Blizzard creates and doesn't charge a dime for, etc etc etc....
How is it Turbine can turn out free updates in patches time and again that actually add epic quests, new areas etc.? Their one xpac that required purchase included not only the xpac but the base game as well. SOE also includes all content with their xpacs. I know Blizz gives free updates as well that include, nerfing and buffing classes but little else. With all the money they are making from however many millions of subs they are claiming this week i would think they could do a little better in the free content department.
And Blizzard has only had 2 xpacs to Turbines 1 ... and WoW was released first. The initial game only costs 20 bucks .. may as well be free. I don't think any of that is bad at all considering how popular WoW is. Its not as If they were SOE releasing one every 2 months.
Blizzard could put out a half ass xpac every 6 months or year and rake in even more money , but they aren't.
I really hope you dont think this explains why you get more content in Turbine patches than you do in WOW's and why Turbine and SOE include all content for the price tag and all you get from the "King" is the update. You can justify in your own mind all you want to but Blizzard has you and others by the short hairs and is milking you for all they can get.
"If your really good at something, Never do it for free."
And honestly, the main reason I think those other games give out all their previous xpacs and base game with the latest Xpac is cause if they didn't no one would try the game, we all have wow, its not like we really need the other stuff to get started.
If I had to buy EQ2, desert of flames, kingdom of sky, echoes of faydwar, rise of kunark and the shadow oddessy to play EQ2, I'd say never, so would most people, and thats why LoTRO did the same thing.
As it is, you can get the Wow Battle chest for $40, I'd be willing to bet two that when cataclysm comes out their gonna make the wow battle chest contain WoTLK as well.
My Thoughts on Content Locust
I don't think so, WoW+BC makes sense because you get 2 new races to play with so geting BC from the start has it's advantages. WotLK is all about the end game content.
edit
I can see some kind of MegaChest where you get everything with Cataclysm, but that again would defeat the purpose of battlechest as easy, affordable acces to WoW.
I really like the world changes but I hate the mechanic changes, with the exception to hunters having focus instead of mana, which should have been a no brainer in the first place. I feel like it will hurt classes or specs that use crit, pure AP classes will be overkill and Tanking from what I have seen will be made EZ mode. Also the bonus to spec fully into one tree and punishing you for cross speccing seems more like a gimmick to force Sub rogues and Spriests to take their weak 51 point talents so GC can claim they are popular. Of course it will be what 5 more talent points in the expansion so were looking at 56 point talents they want to show off I imagine. The Mastery system they call it.
I also really am at odds with the races they chose, keep in mind I already hate blood elves and I cant stand Dreanei. Mainly because the females annoying scream audio sound. But I could maybe see it, but Alliance demonic werewolves I am trying to understand.
That being said if they don't screw up the pvp to a point it is World of Melee craft I might stay, but not if they give everyone a dispel and silence. This homogenization of class mechanics is making me sick. Also getting very upset they are trying to make tanking so easy.
Look at your past in WOW and ask yourself why you did quit.
Then realize that beside having updated old world landscap, the game mechanics will be strictly identical, class balance wills till be non existant, the goal will still be an hungry race to update your equipment.
The only reason i would reactivate my wow account would be to take some pictures of the updated zones, then i would simply cancel it again.
My addiction History:
>> EQ1 2000-2004 - Shaman/Bard/Wizard/Monk - nolife raid-whore
>> WoW 2004-2009 + Cataclysm for 2 months - hardcore casual
>> Current status : done with MMO, too old for that crap.
Hey don't get me wrong I loved WoW and the four years I had there but the one thing that made me finally quit wasn't the, 'free epics' arguement, or the, 'it's 2 hard nerf it', attitude although what did make me quit was the byproduct of those changes.
It doesn't really matter if the xpac is awesome and has great content it'll still have the main reason i quit in there. That reason?...the same, 'immature, I'm-entitled-becasue-I-turned-up, twelve year old, e-peen stroking', based community which is what the majority of the players seem to be now.
Before you all start I know not everyone is like that and I have made some good friends but when your relying on these people to see content you know it's time to call it quits.
Rant over
I must admit i ve kept returning to wow over the years but i think your estimation of what the game has become is mostly right . I see this expansion as a bit of a con job . All its doing is tinkering around with the old world . If it had a graphics engine update it would be a real revamp without it this Cataclysm really is nothing more than what you would get in a major patch .
I must admit i ve kept returning to wow over the years but i think your estimation of what the game has become is mostly right . I see this expansion as a bit of a con job . All its doing is tinkering around with the old world . If it had a graphics engine update it would be a real revamp without it this Cataclysm really is nothing more than what you would get in a major patch .
Seven brand new zones, 4 brand new raids zones, 7 new dungeons, completely redone talents, item stats, a second type of skill tree to advance beyond max level (archeology), guild leveling system, item customization system (reforging), ladder rating system for battlegrounds, etc. All of this on top of redesigning over 50 of the original zones with new areas, quests and locations?
All of that is equal to a patch, but if they reskinned some models it would somehow be equal to an expansion?
I understand that the expansion can look cheap if all you want to focus on is reworking old content, but it really does go outside of the box. If you really look at the non revamped areas of the expansion it looks to have the normal amount of content one would see in burning crusade/lich king and that is on top of the tons of redesigns they are doing.
This expansion is well outside of my comfort zone, but it also looks to be the biggest expansion to the game yet in terms of volume. Both old and new.
How about Lineage 2 and EVE which both release free expansions every 6 months or so?
Blizzard rips people off because they CAN. Because the average WOWer is completely disengaged from the rest of the MMO genre... they don't know that they're getting robbed, they just keep forking it over because that's what they do for all their other Blizzard games.
None of which address the biggest downfall to WoW currently; the horrible community. Yes, I know not everyone that plays is like that. But there are far far far more bad apples in the bunch, that there are good.
Katsma is Lithuanian for 'he who drinks used douche fluid'.
People are the same everywhere my friend. If all you look for is the bad in people, that is all you will find.
People are the same everywhere my friend. If all you look for is the bad in people, that is all you will find.
When all decent arguments against WOW fail (of course they fail, just look at what WOW 2010 will be like !)....
They start talking about the 11.6 M people playing WOW.
Guess what? These people who play 180 dollars a year (well the non Chinese part anyway) are guys like you and me...
Millions of fathers, mothers, their children, brothers and sisters, graddaddys even.
Welcome to society. ----> mainstream video game.
Argument pretty much failed.
Yeah ive heard this argument several times but the thing is, you dont have to look for bad people in WOW all you have to do is log in. I cant think of another game where "mailbox sitting "on your latest mount is such a big part of the game. Go to any hub and see the circus. Trade chat is impossible to use due to all the crap flying around. Considering nearly everyone here has played WOW at one time or another, you will have a hard time convincing people that the community isnt just horrible.
As a long-time WoW player, I can honestly say WoW has really nice and mature community on servers I play, especially compared to Age of Conan servers I played on (including so-called RP servers). I don't like to generalize much, but those people really look like a bunch of adolescents only too happy to be able to use the most obscene language in chat and not be penalized.
I can almost visualize them showing the monitor to their acne-ridden friends - "look what I can type, cool huh?". Disgusting community to say the least.
NEW IDEAS that can refresh the STALE state of MMORPGs
I happen to think WoW has one of the more mature communities. There is the occassional bickering and belittling on trade chat and in battlegrounds but they are just a vocal, attention-whoring minority, but overall the individual people you bump into when on quests or in small guilds are friendly/cooperative.
I too was tempted to go back.. in fact I did.. but I'm already bored and dissatisfied again. The news of changing the game with the expansion interested me but like i said, it's still pretty boring... still has a crappy community... and it's starting to look pretty old.. even the newer areas. I'll probably just get Aion or something.. at least it's better looking and has a different feel.
Sorta like what Sony did with SWG with NGE huh...?
Not saying it'll have the same results, just saying it's not as easy to pull off as everyone would think....not even sure if Blizzard is totally aware of what they've done just yet...=/
I played WoW for almost 4 Years in a quite succsseful guild C'Thun Server First Kill included and absolutely nothing in that Cataclysm Add On would make me play WoW again just one damn second...
"You're such an inspiration for the ways that i will never ever choose to be"