Cat on slimfast

snapfusion

I just resubbed WoW dusted off my Druid and took  a spin around the gameworld in flightform .  I had quit Cat at level 82 but couldnt really put my finger on what bothered me about the expansion.    After spending a couple of hours now flying around Vanilla wow Outlands and Northrend I realized what didnt sit right with me and Cat,

Changing topics slightly, one of the things that keeps me away from the F2P clones pouring out of Asia has been zone size.  Most are laid out more and more like console levels.  Narrow zones that guide you down canyons and valleys making sure you can always see the "sides" of the zone at any time allowing almost no freedom to explore discover or get lost.

I imagine its done to funnel people along tripping over bug after bug as you grind through your quests making sure no one gets confused or questions whether they are going in the right direction along with of course keeping pace with the rapid development schedules laid out by investers and publishers.  Unfortunately more and more MMO developers are taking this route includng Blizzard.  And more specifically with ............Cataclysm.

Blizzard clearly deviated from their early design model of creating an actual world to explore and get lost in and now just builds "rail" zones and instances for you to level through.  Some people might not have noticed or care but to me its an unfortunate and now common design trend that moves us even further away from what an MMO in my opinion should be.

 

edited for typos

azmundai

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Originally posted by snapfusion
I just resubbed WoW dusted off my Druid and took  a spin around the gameworld in flightform .  I had quit Cat at level 82 but couldnt really put my finger on what bothered me about the expansion.    After spending a couple of hours now flying around Vanilla wow Outlands and Northrend I realized what didnt sit right with me and Cat,
Changing topics slightly, one of the things that keeps me away from the F2P clones pouring out of Asia has been zone size.  Most are laid out more and more like console levels.  Narrow zones that guide you down canyons and valleys making sure you can always see the "sides" of the zone at any time allowing almost no freedom to explore discover or get lost.
I imagine its done to funnel people along tripping over bug after bug as you grind through your quests. making sure no one gets confused or questions whether they are gong in the right direction along with of course keeping pace with the rapid development schedules laid out by investers and publishers.  Unfortunately more and more MMO developers are taking this route includng Blizzard.  And more specifically............Cataclysm.
Blizzard clearty deviated from their early design model of creating an actual world to explore and get lost in and now just builds "rail" zones and instances for you to level through.  Some people might not have noticed or care but to me its an unfortunate and now common design trend that moves us even further away from what an MMO in my opinion should be.
 
Had to edit for some obvious typos

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kinda dissapointed .. was hoping to see a funny picture of a skinny cat. otherwise I have to agree. I made it into heroics before i'd had enough .. and for me the other half of it was the realization that I had just done 5 levels to get to the exact same spot I was at in WOTLK. Grinding Raids. While I love raiding, imo the implementaion of hard modes and badges has turned the community into a self absorbed pile of poo.

EDIT
Now they are flat out advertising : "Pug Friendly Raids" .. I mean .. really? These games are all single player games with chat boxes at this point. It used to be you had to be a part of a community .. now you just have to put up with some strangers for a while.

Benthon

I was expecting a picture.

 

Know what ya mean though.

snapfusion

Hows this?

azmundai

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Originally posted by snapfusion

Hows this?

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much better

drbaltazar

photoshop rule

Benthon

Thread is much more interesting now!