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World of Warcraft: Chatting With Blizzard
Dana
Member Posts: 2,415
Blizzard VP Frank Pearce and World of Warcraft Production Director J. Allen Brack recently spoke to MMORPG.com about the company, Cataclysm and the state of World of Warcraft.
When interviewing and talking with Production Director J. Allen Brack about the upcoming additions to World of Warcraft there were a lot of ideas that look great for the game. The MMO market is changing and WoW is set to change with it. Their system of the five man, 10 man, and 25 man advancement dungeons are tiered so that players with all kinds of time can enjoy the game. If you do not have the time to raid every night, you have the chance to do instances and still gain the epic gear in the game. Brack was definitely excited about Patch 3.3 were players will get the chance to square off against the Lich King himself and hope to add some epic storylines into the dungeons they are creating. The idea of a two handed legendary axe named Shadowmourne has Death Knights, Hunters, and Warriors eager with excitement. Patch 3.3 will have normal and heroic five-man, normal and heroic ten and twenty five man instances. You can except some heavy lore added in this patch about Northrend and the Lich King himself. The patch will close out the Lich King story line and lead into the new ear that we all know as Cataclysm.
;)
Read it all here.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Comments
No matter what you say about WOW or Blizzard - noone can take away the fact that they create quality GAMES. Gaming has nothing to do with fancy graphics - long loading screens and boring side issues. Its pure and simple. Fun !
I'd agree, but WoW isn't fun.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
It sure took them, the companies, awhile to realize that if they are just starting to see.
Now I just hope they realize there needs to be more than just vanilla and chocolate as flavors for games.
------
A work in progress: (Update: 08/09/10)Easily find your favorite type of MMO
I'd agree, but WoW isn't fun.
To me WoW isnt a quality game either, I do however think and hope they will pull off their next mmo way better. (yes I'm talking from my own perspective since I know its a huge success in general no matter how you look at it)
I'd agree, but WoW isn't fun.
I have to disagree. WoW is fun. But it just a matter of opinion. Is it my favorite MMO? Not even close but compared to the current offerings on the market and with what my pos system will run it is best value atm.
I'd agree, but WoW isn't fun.
ahh I like how you state that as fact
. I have fun playing WoW... does that make me wierd? I mean I must be if I find it fun when it is not...
Pretty sure the rest of the millions of players are weird too what kind of a normal person pays money to play a non fun game...
Lets just say that what is fun for you may not be fun for me and what is fun for millions of players is not fun for you
there we do agree, but your statement is not fact. Its just an opinion.
LOL graphics has EVERYTHING to do with quality,that is what brings the game to life.If it was just text based and mechanics with no graphics it would be dull and boring.
The quality part is a debate as cheap is not really considered to be quality imo anyhow.If you went to buy a coffee table,would cal la veneer top quality? or would the natural cherry wood grain finish be considered quality?again this leads back to visual.I hope i made the point clear enough.
No i am also fair i realize wow has lots of mechanics and lots of maps and lots of different battles and variety in classes.
The graphics were ONLY done to cater to their already fanbase and the ease of creating the game.This also is why they used the cheap game engine,they went for the cheap approach,the easiest way to get a game out.Nothing in the creation of wow was planned to make a solid game for the user,they went with what they knew from EQ and what they already had.
Ok now here is my other beef.The community,ok that is not Blizzard's fault,except when you cater to the warcraft crowd using the same graphics ,you ARE catering to kids.My biggest beef is in the way Blizzard has transpired over the years.Ok they made a cheap version of Eq fine,that is what they had to go with ,so they did their best.They figured to make up for the lack of game versus EQ,they would offer easier leveling and bigger rewards for doing the simplest quests.So in essence they were BRIBING their fanbase.I can see it, the kids need pampering.
Ok it does not end there.After years of making millions,it is about time Blizzard stepped up and delivered their game back to the customers who made them rich.Step up and re do the textures,other games have done it ,Blizzard most certainly could do it.
Why ?because looking at a tree with a terrible looking bark texture ruins the atmosphere for me.Why? because looking at rock and it looks like one big texture pasted onto the side of one big brush ,loses everything for me,it just looks bad and fake.Personally i think Blizzard did not know they would be a success,this has come back to bite them.Their game engine is soooo cheap their hands are tied for turning the game into anything good looking.Their payroll and staff is SOoooo huge they can't afford to do anything for the game,that they cannot sell to it's customer.
In the end ,if i want to see a better designed WOW,i look to EQ2,and i have been there in both games.The ONLY way WOW could ever become a good QUALITY game is to redo it with a better game engine and better textures and proper lighting and use of shaders.As is i fails in almost every area of QUALITY.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
WoW is still fun . Its just not as much fun as it used to be . Its been aimed far too much at the casual and younger gamers at the expence of gamers that prefer a little more challenge . Thats ok but its not for me as it stands . I never say never about coming back but cant see it for a while am happy enough in Aion and Lotro at the moment .
The other issue I have with wow is the raid content. I don't care if they drop the loot tables down but they should give at least 5 man versions of all dungeons.
Worst idea ever it would just ruin raiding
LOL graphics has EVERYTHING to do with quality,that is what brings the game to life.If it was just text based and mechanics with no graphics it would be dull and boring.
IMHO, EQ2 graphics look like garbage. Utter and complete garbage. Unless seeing a guy with an iguana head run around in plastic-looking armor is somehow revolutionary in the world where you live. I played EQ, GW, WoW and EQ2, in that order, and of the 4, I hated the look of EQ2 the most -by far-.
So beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder. As for WoW, the graphic style falls perfectly in line with the RTS games.
Katsma is Lithuanian for 'he who drinks used douche fluid'.
What in the game is fun for you?
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
WOW and quality? Hmm, maybe if you look at bugs...but it is a very single minded game, there is nothing to do aside from getting gear. I played EQ and SWG and EQ2 as well as a variety of other games.....wow is very simple.....but also unbalanced in terms of PvP.
Just look at shaman and compare them to what other hybrids can do....shaman are a joke.
Until blizzard can move away from the FOTM class (which they won't as it is their "gimick" to keep younger l33t seeking players in the game) I will never return.
EQ2? That game I would return to if they did something with their graphics.........
AoC wasnt too bad and WAR was OK, but somewhat single tracked as well.
SWG, the perfect game in my opinion, at least the Pre CU was.......I still can not understand how they never rolled at least one server back.....it is amazing how the human mind can be so creative yet utterly stupid and stubborn at the same time.
LOL graphics has EVERYTHING to do with quality,that is what brings the game to life.If it was just text based and mechanics with no graphics it would be dull and boring.
The quality part is a debate as cheap is not really considered to be quality imo anyhow.If you went to buy a coffee table,would cal la veneer top quality? or would the natural cherry wood grain finish be considered quality?again this leads back to visual.I hope i made the point clear enough.
No i am also fair i realize wow has lots of mechanics and lots of maps and lots of different battles and variety in classes.
The graphics were ONLY done to cater to their already fanbase and the ease of creating the game.This also is why they used the cheap game engine,they went for the cheap approach,the easiest way to get a game out.Nothing in the creation of wow was planned to make a solid game for the user,they went with what they knew from EQ and what they already had.
Ok now here is my other beef.The community,ok that is not Blizzard's fault,except when you cater to the warcraft crowd using the same graphics ,you ARE catering to kids.My biggest beef is in the way Blizzard has transpired over the years.Ok they made a cheap version of Eq fine,that is what they had to go with ,so they did their best.They figured to make up for the lack of game versus EQ,they would offer easier leveling and bigger rewards for doing the simplest quests.So in essence they were BRIBING their fanbase.I can see it, the kids need pampering.
Ok it does not end there.After years of making millions,it is about time Blizzard stepped up and delivered their game back to the customers who made them rich.Step up and re do the textures,other games have done it ,Blizzard most certainly could do it.
Why ?because looking at a tree with a terrible looking bark texture ruins the atmosphere for me.Why? because looking at rock and it looks like one big texture pasted onto the side of one big brush ,loses everything for me,it just looks bad and fake.Personally i think Blizzard did not know they would be a success,this has come back to bite them.Their game engine is soooo cheap their hands are tied for turning the game into anything good looking.Their payroll and staff is SOoooo huge they can't afford to do anything for the game,that they cannot sell to it's customer.
In the end ,if i want to see a better designed WOW,i look to EQ2,and i have been there in both games.The ONLY way WOW could ever become a good QUALITY game is to redo it with a better game engine and better textures and proper lighting and use of shaders.As is i fails in almost every area of QUALITY.
You're labouring under a few misconceptions as far as WoW's graphics are concerned, the graphics are the way they are for reasons that have nothing at all to do with being "cheap".
First and foremost Blizzard understood that if you create a game with absolute bleeding-edge visuals you just nuked your potential player base, bleeding-edge visuals require bleeding-edge hardware to run them, if they had wanted WoW to be so top of the line visually they had more than enough resources to do so, even before the success of WoW bringing in the money it undoubtedly does.
So the graphics were created to not only evoke the RTS game graphics, essentially easing the transition of its Warcraft I to III players to the new environment, but also to be playable by as wide a selection of PC's as was reasonable to do while preserving the level of desired quality, they therefore took a long & in depth approach to the grahics and laboured quite intensively to allow even low-end machines to run the game satisfactorily.
So cheap is a misconception, the graphics engine was simply tuned to a different purpose than giving a convincing suspension of disbelief, it was tuned to low end performance & then built to upscale from that point upwards, it's in the upscaling that the limitations of the engine show up, so cheap it was not, but highly tuned, polished & tweaked it certainly is, & with good reason.
As far as the article itself goes, well I prefer the older hardcore games, but I recognise quality when I see it, & the quality I see is the aim/goal of what the warcraft devs are setting out to do, which is provide a fun game to as many people as they can, and not have the "gating" of content that the bulk of the WoW audience would not/does not enjoy.
Personally I don't like WoW, there is too much about it which is not to my tastes, but it's not that WoW does anything "wrong" they have an audience & they aim to cater to it, I'm just not a member of their audience because I want different things from a game than WoW gives.
Overall though I did enjoy the article, it shows Blizzard are doing what they love.....making games.
Other developers should focus harder on making games & focus less on squeezing every dime from their players, they might get more subs/revenue when they pour as much passion into creating & developing their games as it is clear Blizzard do.
Worst idea ever it would just ruin raiding
Ever? That's really pushing it don't you think?. I mean those kids who shot up Columbine, or Bin Ladens 9/11 ideas were way worse.
I don't think 5 man everything would work but it's not the worst idea ever.
I'd agree, but WoW isn't fun.
To me WoW isnt a quality game either, I do however think and hope they will pull off their next mmo way better. (yes I'm talking from my own perspective since I know its a huge success in general no matter how you look at it)
If WOW is not a quality game, then there has never been a quality game released...
I agree. I would never say WoW isn't a quality game.
It has set a remarkable standard WRT to polish and quantity of content.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Interesting article, one thing stood out for me personally. They've talked about the new races here and how leveling alts isn't huge amounts of fun but the question that springs to mind here is: Do people need more alts even if there are new races? I already have four lv80s and aren't even playing much anymore, can i even be bothered to level with different races, different quests but similar class mechanics and end game expectations? I'm not sure, but this maybe a temporary change in policy for Blizz to try and move away from an end game intensive experience, (where it seems most of the playerbase blow through the new content anyway, what with the changes to difficulty over the years), to a questing leveling one at least at the beginning at Cataclysm anyway.
It might be a smart move, considering how many complain about buffing/nerfing class and how, 'easy' the game has become making the alt leveling an attractive option might head off potential rivals to WoW's now hardcore fickle fanbase. Then again I could be wrong and next week they tell us this Path of the Titans system is so hardcore that even Jenna Jameson can't take it, who knows :P
hey dude if your able to speak to blizzard tell em they need to add a veteran server no map ,no coord ,no add-on on their hard mode and remove the hard mode from the regular server
why because we need it
And what's stopping you from playing like that? Don't use the map, ignore the coordinates and don't use any add-ons. It really is that simple.
you know its not the same its nice to be all = gees
I'd agree, but WoW isn't fun.
I have to disagree. WoW is fun. But it just a matter of opinion. Is it my favorite MMO? Not even close but compared to the current offerings on the market and with what my pos system will run it is best value atm.
WoW was fun in the beginning in my opinion. Before instanced PvP and the horrible loot grind that started in BWL.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
I'd agree, but WoW isn't fun.
I have to disagree. WoW is fun. But it just a matter of opinion. Is it my favorite MMO? Not even close but compared to the current offerings on the market and with what my pos system will run it is best value atm.
WoW was fun in the beginning in my opinion. Before instanced PvP and the horrible loot grind that started in BWL.
i like the weekly style blizzard started but they have to add what made wow huge world pvp ,and weekly is a good format
LOL graphics has EVERYTHING to do with quality,that is what brings the game to life.If it was just text based and mechanics with no graphics it would be dull and boring.
The quality part is a debate as cheap is not really considered to be quality imo anyhow.If you went to buy a coffee table,would cal la veneer top quality? or would the natural cherry wood grain finish be considered quality?again this leads back to visual.I hope i made the point clear enough.
No i am also fair i realize wow has lots of mechanics and lots of maps and lots of different battles and variety in classes.
The graphics were ONLY done to cater to their already fanbase and the ease of creating the game.This also is why they used the cheap game engine,they went for the cheap approach,the easiest way to get a game out.Nothing in the creation of wow was planned to make a solid game for the user,they went with what they knew from EQ and what they already had.
Ok now here is my other beef.The community,ok that is not Blizzard's fault,except when you cater to the warcraft crowd using the same graphics ,you ARE catering to kids.My biggest beef is in the way Blizzard has transpired over the years.Ok they made a cheap version of Eq fine,that is what they had to go with ,so they did their best.They figured to make up for the lack of game versus EQ,they would offer easier leveling and bigger rewards for doing the simplest quests.So in essence they were BRIBING their fanbase.I can see it, the kids need pampering.
Ok it does not end there.After years of making millions,it is about time Blizzard stepped up and delivered their game back to the customers who made them rich.Step up and re do the textures,other games have done it ,Blizzard most certainly could do it.
Why ?because looking at a tree with a terrible looking bark texture ruins the atmosphere for me.Why? because looking at rock and it looks like one big texture pasted onto the side of one big brush ,loses everything for me,it just looks bad and fake.Personally i think Blizzard did not know they would be a success,this has come back to bite them.Their game engine is soooo cheap their hands are tied for turning the game into anything good looking.Their payroll and staff is SOoooo huge they can't afford to do anything for the game,that they cannot sell to it's customer.
In the end ,if i want to see a better designed WOW,i look to EQ2,and i have been there in both games.The ONLY way WOW could ever become a good QUALITY game is to redo it with a better game engine and better textures and proper lighting and use of shaders.As is i fails in almost every area of QUALITY.
Wow is basically the highest quality game you can get from a performance standpoint. The graphics are far from life like but it fits with the lore of the game. They wanted to to feel like your in the world they had in WC 3 and they did an amazing job at that.
this is the dawning of the ear of aquarius
have a blessed thread.