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Why Cataclysm will be the best expansion to WoW ever
Amarandes
Member Posts: 104
I remember my first year of playing WoW, it was the most epic experience I have ever had. I remember the first time I ever entered the Deadmine instance. No one understood their role in a group. I was spec holy but was dpsing most of the time instead of healing. The tank did not know how to tank, the dpsers kept pulling agro off the tank but regardless it was still an enjoyable. We all missed the old days when we were all noobs. I expected to be completed with that dungeon in just 1 hour, but I severely underestimated how long the instance was. I was forced to abandon the group right before the final boss because I had to go to sleep. I never completed Deadmines at the intended level. Many months later, I returned as a level 70 to finally kill the final boss and complete the quest chain into the stockades.
I am probably one of the few people that actually enjoys the leveling aspect of WoW and do not rush to the endgame like most other people. I read every word of the quest texts, did battlegrounds while leveling up, and also stopped to work on leveling my professions. However, during my time leveling up, I felt that something that was missing from WoW that was present in Warcraft 3 was an actual story to the game world. Before WoTLK, there was limited ways to tell the story of WoW. Most of the story was presented through dialogues between characters and quest texts. I have to admit that the quests of vanilla WoW and the Burning Crusade was not well designed at all. You have long walks between questing points and too many quests that have you collecting x or killing y. It made all of the quests of vanilla WoW too much of a grind.
MOST IMPROVED ASPECT OF WOTLK
The most improved aspect of WoTLK was, without a doubt, the lore, storyline, and the quality of quests.
Phasing offered Blizzard a new tool to tell a story with. Phasing meant that the world was no longer static like it was in the Burning Crusade and classic WoW. Suddenly, what you do can actually affect the environment around you, giving you the sense that you are advancing the storyline. We see phasing used a lot in the death knight starting area and in Icecrown. In the death knight starting area for example, players start off above a town that was initially intact. As the phasing progressed, the players saw the buildings catch fire and eventually burn to the ground. Phasing also saw NPCs constantly moving about and changing their locations as you progressed through the zones. In Icecrown, through the use of phasing, the player helped to capture a base that was previously in enemy’s hands which you then hold permanently. There was a quest chain in which you help clear an area of NPCs. The area would then remain devoid of mobs from then on instead of the mobs respawning for other players to complete the quest.
WoTLK also saw Blizzard beginning to use cinematic cutscenes to tell the story of WoW. The Wrath gate cinematic stunned players the first time they went through the scene. Even today, it is still a moving and effective cutscene. The Patch 3.1 Ulduar trailer was presented in a cinematic format showing us the deteriorating truce between the Alliance and Horde. It is the only patch trailer that had a lot more story in it than any other patch trailers. Following the Lich King’s defeat, we are treated to another trailer showing us the moment of his death and the immediate aftermath. While some players may say that his death was anti-climatic, it was certainly much better than Illidan’s or Kil’jaeden’s defeat where NPCs just talked to each other.
And of course, the quality of quest had also greatly improved with WoTLK. Yes, you still have the collect x and kill x quest but there was a lot less of these in the expansion. WoTLK introduced a lot more fun and varied quests with a lot of different mechanics. You now have quests where you can control cannons, vehicles, and even other creatures, bombing quests, quests that have you interacting with the hero NPCs of Azeroth, and so much more. You even have quests where you get to control Arthas himself when he was a deathknight. WoTLK also had more epic quest chain than ever before. The Wrathgate quest chain to the Battle of the Undercity was one of the best quest chain Blizzard has ever produced for WoW. The Death Knight Starting Area was the best starting experience Blizzard has made for the game. There are so many other epic quest chains that I won’t list them here.
Besides, the quest, the dungeons themselves also saw a great improvement in storytelling. The three 5 mans dungeons of ICC were the three most heavily lore driven dungeon Blizzard had released to date. In most other past dungeons, you went in, killed groups of mobs and several bosses and then leave. In these dungeons, you were witnessing scripted events that advanced the storyline. When you turn in some quests, the heroes of the Alliance and Horde directly talks to you, making you feel as if you are part of the game world itself. At the Pit of Saron, you witness a Scourge NPC single-handedly kill a dozen soldiers and raised them as undeads. In the Halls of Reflection, you did not fight the Lich King at all, but you run away from him. Doing the instance the first time, seeing THE LICH KING HIMSELF, walking menacingly, ever so slowly closer to your group gave you the sense of urgency to get the hell out of there! The conversation that Uther have with Jaina/Sylvanas at the beginning of Halls of Reflection was so memorable that I sometimes go into the instance alone to listen to their dialogue.
LOOKING AHEAD TO CATACLYSM
The Cataclysm beta has already shown that there will be a lot more lore and storyline that will be on par with or even surpass WoTLK. In Cataclysm, Blizzard can now phase the terrains themselves, allowing for an even more dynamic game world. The Goblin and Worgen starting area and a lot of areas in Cataclysm makes use of the terrain phasing. You see volcanoes erupting, lands being sundered apart, a village that gets destroyed and remains permanently destroyed afterwards, and so much more. Blizzard is also making use of more in-game cutscenes to tell its story. Phasing, more cutscenes, more interactions with the hero NPCs, and the quality of quests all come together to make Cataclysm the most immersive expansion in terms of story and lore. If you are into the lore of Warcraft, the game now begins at level 1 rather than at the max level cap.
A lot of people have also said that Cataclysm will be more of the same crap over again. Some people have accused Blizzard of being lazy and recycling contents in Cataclysm instead of making a new continent. BLIZZARD ISN’T BEING LAZY. They are redesigning the entire old world to bring it up to par with WoTLK. Cataclysm will have a lot less quests that involves killing x and gathering y. There will be a lot more quests with more varied mechanics that will actually advance the storyline of the expansion itself. In other words, Cataclysm is making questing less of a grind and a lot more fun. Maybe raid and dungeons are more of the same but definitely not quests. I do not call redesigning quests with new mechanics, introducing two new races in a unique starting area with an epic storyline as more of the same. To do so is very ignorant.
Some people may think that removing the stats in Cataclysm is considered dumbing down the game but I see it as removing something that was completely unnecessary. There is nothing fun about having to go to a third party website to determine which gear was better. In doing this, I spend less time playing the game itself. On top of removing a lot of the stats, Cataclysm is also introducing the mastery system and improving the customization of glyphs with prime, major, and minor glyphs. This keeps enough complexity in class mechanics but enough is enough! The game should not become more complex than it already has. Also, by removing the unnecessary stats, and trimming down the talent trees, they are bringing WoW back to its roots in classic WoW where there were not as many stats and there were only 31 points talent trees. I don’t see people complaining about these things back in classic WoW.
Many people have accused Blizzard of ruining the lore of WoW by introducing odd character races/classes combinations like the Dwarf shamans or tauren paladins. BLIZZARD ISN”T RUINING THE LORE. As the Cataclysm brings time of great peril, the races ADAPTS to new classes for survival. Plus, I have total faith that Blizzard will come up with a great lore explanation for the new races/classes just like they did for the Draenai shamans and Blood Elves paladins of the Burning Crusade.
If you read the above link, you can see that Blizzard still cares A LOT about the lore of WoW.
In closing, many people accused WoW is being run by the B team. Well it is not! Why would Blizzard abandon a beloved franchise that have existed for 15 years and is still making loads of money? It makes no sense at all. WoW is still very much being run by the A team.
No TLDR! Read the whole thing and don’t be lazy!
Comments
The problem with Cataclysm is that despite the additional lore, it is still a raiders paradise. The thing I hate most about it, is having to be at a certain place and time and then expecting to spend several hours wiping and killng respawns. You can't pug most of the instances either and respawns in a instance are just an absurd aberration.
So many will enjoy it, but it still won't be the great release you expect.
Cataclysm is WoW's "New Game Experience". The newest incarnation of the development team has been busy making the game they wanted to play and have pretty much gutted what kept a lot of us playing WoW in the first place. It's occurred to me that the only way they could completely retool every class and game mechanic was to completely redesign the gameworld.
I have a sneaking suspicion that Cataclysm will make World of Warcraft into "World of Ghostcrawler". I wonder how long it will be before he gets bored with WoW like he got bored with being a Marine Biologist. I'll buy Cataclysm, but it will probably be my last.
"Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they''re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were." - Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer, Everquest II
"People love groups. Its a fallacy that people want to play solo all the time." - Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer, Rift
I agree with you, it'll be the best WoW expansion so far (expansion, not version, because the game nowadays is nothing compared to Vanilla). After all it's wows third expansion, blizz must be getting real good with the tools already, improving the quests, lore, etc. However, it'll still be crap, because it'll do zero effort to change the gear progression system and improve the immersion.
Playing: Starcraft II.
Played: Tibia, Ragnarok Online, Ultima Online, Guild Wars, World of Warcraft.
Wanna play: Guild Wars 2, SW:TOR, Final Fantasy XIV, Diablo III.
Looks alright, but it wont be better then Burning Crusade...... hahaha it will be better then WOTLK, but anything is better then that.
~Knaple~
It's formatted into paragraphs already....
Anyway, yes, I believe Cata will be the best wow expansion to date simply because it will breathe some new life into old zones. I'm looking forward to it solely for that reason. Once I've run through the refurbished old zones, however, I'll be done. WoW isn't for me long term.
Until you cancel your subscription, you are only helping to continue the cycle of mediocrity.
No, it really won't. It wont matter how good it is, how amazing the gameplay, or how stunning the graphics. The majority of WoW players are not "MMO Genre" fans, they dont look about for the next WoW killer. They just like Warcraft, and so play it.
The only thing likely to kill WoW is a combination of age and the WoW sequel.
"When people don't know much about something, they tend to fill in the blanks the way they want them to be filled in. They are almost always disappointed." - Will Wright
Add to that the fact that GW2 will have no monthly fee. Probably any WoW players that might want to check out GW2 will keep playing both.
Playing: Starcraft II.
Played: Tibia, Ragnarok Online, Ultima Online, Guild Wars, World of Warcraft.
Wanna play: Guild Wars 2, SW:TOR, Final Fantasy XIV, Diablo III.
Argument of a "WoW-killer coming along" is cited often but is incorrect. EQ1 isn't dead yet - has survived DAOC (which was supposed to kill it), then WoW (which was in turn supposed to kill DAOC) - both games may be well below their prime, but EQ1 in particular is completely supported and still churning out expansions.
Heck, the EQ sequel didn't kill EQ. If I had a choice, I'd go back to EQ1 (happen to be considering it) before EQ2 based on reviews and member opinions and where my friends are.
WoW will be around at least 5 more years. I won't play it at all during that time, but surely there's plenty of life left in WoW.
I wished more people played WoW for the lore and roleplaying instead of just simply rushing through to get to the end-game. There's a reason why its called an MMORPG. Its an element that some of the newer MMOs are trying to bring back.
Racing for a world's first kill on a boss, like the guild, Ensidia, and so many other does has no place at all in an MMORPG in my opinion.
Fair point.
I was more meaning that no one game will stop it, and its more likely to just slowly get less popular over time. But that could indeed be an extremely long time!
"When people don't know much about something, they tend to fill in the blanks the way they want them to be filled in. They are almost always disappointed." - Will Wright
I will purchase Cata. I enjoy running instances, and raiding. I enjoy the lore. I played Warcraft 1, 2 and 3. WoW was the first MMORPG I played, and I have a special place for it in my heart.
I have quite a few alts, and I look forward to them reworking classic WoW. I will be sad if the get rid of a few of the questlines in Eastern Plaguelands, like Battle of Darrowshire.
Currently Play: ?
Occasionally Play: Champions, Pirates of the Burning Sea, WOW, EVE ONLINE
I also have to laugh a bit at the people who love phasing citing that it makes them feel like they're making a real change in the world. Really? How many possible outcomes are there? How is your experience any different than any of the mutlitudes of other players who play the same railed content? You don't change anything. The game changes it for you. Phasing is just one of Blizzard's latest toys and all it serves to do is create theme park rides that compartmentalize the game world.
There are a couple of problems here. First, phasing creates an alternate universe, if you will, exclusively for those who have ridden that particular "Event Ride". Other players who haven't done the event are in a different reality. This makes going back and helping your friends problematic since they are now in a different "phase". Also, with the addition of phased content in the new racial areas, those races are stuck doing the same content. No more creating an alt and running to another race's starting area for a little freshness.
Boxes within boxes within boxes, that's what the once expansive world of Azeroth is becoming.
"Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they''re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were." - Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer, Everquest II
"People love groups. Its a fallacy that people want to play solo all the time." - Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer, Rift
You're right on. I think WoW has already passed it's peak, but it may spike a few more times on the popularity chart. It has alot of life and isn't really in need of heals at the moment
DAOC on the other hand? HEAL! HEAL PLZ!
I dont play WoW at the moment, it wasn't my first MMO, I have never raided in it.
But I do enjoy seeing what Blizzard do with their expansions - WotLK had some fantastic elements in, especially the opening Death Knight area, where the landscape changed almost seamlessly as you levelled. So I'll be giving Cataclysm a go, and I'm sure it will keep me entertained for a while.
"When people don't know much about something, they tend to fill in the blanks the way they want them to be filled in. They are almost always disappointed." - Will Wright
I don't see how Cataclysm expansion could fail in terms of losing player base. SWtOR coming out Spring 2011 though.
The success behind Cataclysm could be the new rated Battlegrounds and "guild wars" mechanism.
A new river bend is a new river bend is a new river bend. Quests can be adapted to 2010 standards, yes but people get spoiled ... very fast.
All earlier Blizzard games were played to death due to their competitive playing sessions (- WC3 - SC1 etc ...)
The shifting from a Raiding game to a competitive PvP game started already with TBC, but apparently rated Arena play is simply too hardcore for most players.
Perhaps BG's are more conveniant to hide the lesser eye/hand coordination of most older MMO players.
If they succeed with Cataclysm's total PvP package (also trying to mix realm based quests with PvP again), the higher end PVE part is rather trivial for the long term playing value of WOW.
A competitive personal PvP rating system is far easier to update than the ever growing hunger for PVE content.
The complete overhaul of Azeroth is not as important for the long term competitive play Blizzard seeks at the moment.
It's a direction some MMORPG gamers don't like, but this competitive PvP play (with Guilds as a background) is a direcction that could assure long term investment in your played avatars (as earlier Blizzard games showed).
I cant wait to try cata but when I saw best thing with wotlk was Lore I immediatly didnt even bother to read your thread lore is just fluff to me maybe for you lore is everything but to me lore is nothing, we could be playing the crappiest game inside the greatist story ever told game is still crap :P
But ya cata will be fun cant wait to roll a lvl 1 gnome
They are changing the stats and talent trees a lot because WOW actually needs this change. Blizzard is removing a lot of unnecessary stats and talents because it has become too much like work. Like I said, there is no fun in going to another third party website to theorycraft. It means you are not playing the game itself. And a game should be about entertainment, not work.
Also, while a lot of stats may be changing, "feel" of the class stays the same. For example, Hunter will use focus instead of mana in Cataclysm. Regardless of this however, you still feel like a hunter when playing that class. You are still relying on ranged attacks and training pets, just like you always have.
Another area of concern is the new Talent Trees. While many are parroting the developers assurances of how much more "fun" it will be and how much this was "needed", it still smacks of nothing more than Blizzard tinkering with things that aren't really broken. First of all, once you choose a Talent Tree, you're stuck with it, barring a respec. No more choosing Talents a'la carte according to what suits your fancy. Blizzard knows best and they are going to "make" you effective by setting you on the path and making you stay there.
Then, there's the issue with the selection of Talents. Right now, I look forward to the next level when I get to open my Talent interface and manage my talents. After the Cataclysm, that's gone. Talents become available at much greater intervals and no more can you buy into a new talent in increments. Instead, if you want a Talent that costs two points and you've only gained one, you can't get a lower level version and work your way up. The whole Talent is closed to you until you have enough points to buy it. With the WoW playerbase demanding more immediate gratification, I can't imagine how anyone on the development team honestly thinks this will be well-received.
Blizzard has always suffered from hubris and demonstrates a certain contempt for their playerbase. Greg Street seems bent on leaving his own mark on the game, like Kaplan, Afrasiabi, and others. Blizzard is so secure in the addictive nature of their product, that they don't care what players think. The shift from their recent RealID debacle was, I'm sure, based on the potential of multiple lawsuits and bad publicity. Much of the WoW customer base isn't too tightly wrapped and this was a nightmare waiting to happen.
Cataclysm looks exciting on the surface, but beneath that is a big middle finger and a smirk directed at the players Blizzard thinks they've got enthralled.
"Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they''re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were." - Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer, Everquest II
"People love groups. Its a fallacy that people want to play solo all the time." - Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer, Rift
a bit off-topic but, shouldnt this be at WoW forum here in mmorpg.com?
"It has potential"
-Second most used phrase on existence
"It sucks"
-Most used phrase on existence
This is so true was just talking to a friend the other day about other MMOs and his answer was pretty much "I dont play other mmos I just play WoW" and that is likely how it will continue it will be really hard for other companies to draw those players from blizzard, its really a smart move with this whole gaming network they are creating will just ensure that ppl never leave their games since the social aspect is becoming cross game between their games.
Its intriguing your last comment I wonder if there will be a WoW sequel ( very likely really wouldnt see why they wouldnt plan it), I have no idea what it would look like tho its strange to think about it.
FYI, we have no idea who the majority of WoW players are. For all we no 10 million of them could indeed be looking out for the WoW killer.
Make an MMO good enough to keep the first month herd and i guarantee you the others will follow. When news breaks that something is doing very well more and more people are going to start trying the game. The problem at the moment? Nothing can sustain that first herd and the bad reputation starts flowing in. People rarely look twice so a good first impression is what you need.
Latest MMO's have been failing at the that and thats the reason why WoW survives.
As for Cata being the best WoW expansion, From what i've heard TBC and WotLK didn't exactly set the bar to high. (Not to say they was complete fails but i hear alot of people saying WoW Vanilla is still the best)
HAH....older mmo players should be euthanized for their lack of pvp skill. It's the only humane thing to do.
<totally joking>
The Stranger: It's what people know about themselves inside that makes 'em afraid.
I havent seen anything from with streaming walkthroughs and dev posts to show it will be great. Cataclysm is the first new lore to Warcraft in 8 years, Thats because everything up until Cataclysm was taken from the old IP. They basically said we have 85% of the games content not being used as greater than 75% of active players are at max level and that is Northrend. So they put some new polish on it, brought it up to date, and gave you a new stat system to grind for more gear. Its basically WOTLK part deux. Diablo is the only fairly original IP that Blizzard has produced mainstream, Warcraft and Starcraft are both stolen and made cute with their influx of pop culture so I am not sure what "lore" is so awesome but to each their own. It will be the last exp I buy and I may be wrong but I wouldnt be suprised if by spring next year, they start losing people and after this, they may lose the subscribers that keep their subscriptions and dont play. People finally may...cancel.