Comments on: See? Blizzard learns

By: Coherent

Coherent — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:40:49 +0000

The first poster said it all in this thread. Blizzard HAS been changing and improving, just very slowly and deliberately. This is to avoid traumatic and ill-advised class and gameplay shifts such as EverQuest repeatedly experienced, which did as much harm as good.

I think Blizzard’s overall goal is integration: they want to pull the raiders into the casual game and encourage alt play, and they want the alt-players to learn how to do basic raids and simple PVP. They don’t want to make it mandatory, because that leads to QQing. But they want to gently _encourage_ people to experience different play styles.

By: Jezebeau

Jezebeau — Sat, 10 May 2008 22:56:53 +0000

I think the big question is whether the 10-mans are going to have easier gameplay, or just easier logistics. I could see the yelling going both directions.

By: Silvanis

Silvanis — Sat, 10 May 2008 17:12:49 +0000

I can’t wait for the inevitable raid progression that allows 10-mans to pick up the lower end 25-man gear. You just know the forums will erupt in flames when they realize that.

By: Buzzkiller

Buzzkiller — Sat, 10 May 2008 15:42:51 +0000

the ONLY reason Blizzard is finally listening is because of games like AoC/War coming out that will ACTUALLY CHALLENGE them for once. I hope people see through the WoW gimicks and find a better game. Wows graphics/gameplay is 2 years outdated. Glad I realized that in time before I bought another crappy Xpak.

By: Jezebeau

Jezebeau — Sat, 10 May 2008 08:25:28 +0000

The one point that needs clarification there is that the heroic 5-man dungeons were not designed for one hour. That said, they’ll probably still take less than two hours, and that’s a step away from Shadow Labyrinth and (long before that) LBRS.

By: Nick

Nick — Fri, 09 May 2008 23:25:55 +0000

I think this is the best thing that they can do without completely redesigning the game from the ground up.

Can you blame them?

When you have millions of players who have become exclusively gear-focused, and grind-focused, there is no way to simply change that focus. You have to take that massive, beautiful but boring beast of WoW and try to improve it.

You have to start designing from day one with a better focus (not gear), in order to make it work. They can’t simply go back and change the very foundations, so this is the best that they can add/

Perhaps World of Starcraft will be better…

By: Adam Tiler

Adam Tiler — Fri, 09 May 2008 20:59:41 +0000

I am worried that

The 5-man instances are designed to not take more than an hour

means that there will be less content — i.e. same number of dungeons, but shorter individually.

I also think that the attunement change is a bad one. One good thing about the system is that is directed inexperienced raiders on the correct path. It is much harder to judge without this system whether this epic bracer is good enough to raid this dungeon or whether you will need to farm this dungeon a few dozen more times to get it without that sort of obvious progression. World of Warcraft’s raiding needs a complete overhaul in terms of itemization to make this change fit. It’s a step in the right direction, to be sure, but it does not benefit new raiders.

None of this is enough to make me return to WOW, as I dislike how casual and shallow a game it is even at this stage; in fact, I loathe what it is becoming with a passion. It is ultimately a good thing for the game, however, because it further defines its style and purpose.

…hope that was coherent.

By: Julian

Julian — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:57:22 +0000

Don’t be surprised if the next expansion after WotLK drops 25-man raids altogether and sticks with 5 and 10s.

You read it first here.

By: yunk

yunk — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:28:27 +0000

I meant “also” not “but if not”. (I deleted a sentence in there).
There are real problems of balance that aren’t addressed in a list of features, problems because WoW is loot-centric to begin with.

By: yunk

yunk — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:25:54 +0000

I don’t see any difference with 5 mans, they already improved them in TBC, making them shorter and with quick exits near the end.

Of course 2 versions of every raid might explain why it is taking them so long, that’s a lot of testing, and each bug may have to be fixed twice depending on how they did it.

I expect more drama still about rewards. What about getting to the first 25 man, I wonder if you can do that without doing any 10 mans?
If so, then that means guilds won’t have to break up into 2 teams and all the drama that ensues with that. But if not, then if that means the 10-man loot will be close enough to the 25 man loot then who will bother doing 25 mans? Will that make it harder to recruit for those guilds? No matter what people say they enjoy, we end up often acting based on the incentives we’re given.

It’s great to have options. It’s the balancing that’s hard.