A Wow Thread

[Mangala]

...(or the ability to STOP xp gain) for all levels (basically making the journey important as it once was)...

So aside from one or two small things...

Blizzard are stalking me? 

C/D?

Found this out when discussing the good and bad of WoW with an old drinking buddy who has been playing it now for a few months over dinner lastnight. Apparently this feature is in - for BGs mainly, but it seemingly stops all xp gain from ANY activity that gains xp normally.  I'd be happy if Turbine copied this for LOTRO!

[Kurtt]

I'm pretty sure that feature was in when I was still playing. Been around for a while at least.

Mostly for twinks I think.

[Kathras]

I believe it costs 10g to active and deactivate xp.

[Mangala]

So, I actually watched the Cataclysm trailer - sexy as per usual for Blizzard.

Then i read this on the FOH board:

MP5: This will be removed from items and replaced with Spirit. All healers will be given a meditation-like ability.
Spell Power: Spell Power is being removed from items as well. Don't panic, we'll be improving Intellect so that it provides mana and Spell Power.
Attack Power: We're removing Attack Power from items as well. Instead, we're allowing Agility to provide the necessary Attack Power for leather and mail wearers. Strength will provide the appropriate amount of Attack Power for plate wearers. This means leather and mail items will no longer be desirable for plate wearers.
Defense: The Defense statistic is also being removed from items so that players no longer have to worry about juggling around "the cap." Tanks will receive the necessary anti-crit from talents, like Survival of the Fittest.
Armor Penetration: This ability is too confusing and "mathy." It is being replaced with Mastery, a stat that makes you better at what you do. More on that later!
Haste: Will also increase the rate at which you gain energy, runes, and focus. Retribution paladins and Enhancement shaman will have a talent that allows them to take advantage of this benefit.
Block: Block Value is being removed. Blocking will now always mitigate a percentage of damage.
Stamina: Players will notice more Stamina on gear as Defense, Spell Power, Attack Power and Armor Penetration are removed.

How much further can they make the game less cerebral (Which it was to an extent in vanilla and early tbc as far as getting the numbers on your gear "just so" for a given situation - balancing def cap, plus other stats was a fun exercise for a tank like me).

Howabout just putting people in a room with a freeloot button?

I have to admit, Im becoming fascinated* with how they are changing that game (it had a big impact on my MMO "life" after all), and it gets to me to wondering about what exactly they'll be doing with their new game in regards to all the changes theyve made over time to capture and keep the lowest common denominator.

*Aforementioned fascination isnt helped that the chap whose gaff im at today down south was playing it all night

[Keggi]

you cant expect the players to use their brains when the devs leave theirs at the door.

they cant even invent new land masses for the xpacks anymore just rehash what is already there(although does sound slightly cool).

i tried deleting WOW from my system but seems there is a missing file and i cant its worse than norton for trying to get rid of(conspiracy).

[Mangala]

Pointed out to me on another forum I use.

WarCry Network : Five Years of Warcraft: Speaking With Blizzard's Rob Pardo

Quote:
Q: What was the biggest mistake you think you made?
A: As for the biggest mistake? There's a lot of them that I think, were ... they just "fell out" of things. One example: I wish the servers were more stable when we launched, of course - there's a lot of that sort of thing. We have a lot of excuses for that - we didn't expect nearly the response - but we can't say it wasn't a mistake. If I was going to pick on a game design thing that I look back on and think was a mistake? We really never designed WoW to be a competitive e-sports game; it was something that we decided to start tackling because there was such a desire and demand to evolve it in that direction, to introduce competitive arenas. I'm not sure that that was the right thing to do with the game.

We didn't engineer the game and classes and balance around it, we just added it on, so it continues to be very difficult to balance. Is WoW a PvE cooperative game, or a competitive PvP game? There's constant pressure on the class balance team, there's pressure on the game itself, and a lot of times players who don't PvP don't understand why their classes are changing. I don't think we ever foresaw how much tuning and tweaking we'd have to do to balance it in that direction. Either I'd go back in time to before WoW ever shipped and change the rules to make the basic game more conductive for being an e-sport, or if not that, just say it doesn't make sense. Right now, WoW has a bit of a schizophrenic philosophy behind it, and we're trying to figure out how to guide it.

It's tricky, now that we've gone down that road, because we have a passionate, large audience that enjoys it - the Arena, the e-sport - so we can't just chop off that head. We can't just say, "We fouled up and will go back to how it used to be before," because we have a really passionate audience that wants it in the game.

If I could go back in time before we shipped WoW, I would have either made serious changes to basic class balance to facilitate that type of play, or if I went back to when we had the idea two years later, I would have said, "Maybe we shouldn't go there."

There's more stuff in the interview, but that's about the most interesting thing.

The whole "Oh, but a lot of people enjoy Arenas so we can't just remove them" thing is fucking hilarious, too. No, a small minority of people enjoyed Arenas when i played - most of the people there faceroll their way to victory in whatever Cleave-gimmick team is strongest this season purely for the rewards. Change the arena rewards to superficial trophy items, and I guarantee that at least three-quarters of Arena players would go back to running instances & raiding. Blizzard really needs to get out of "E-sports".

[Kathras]

Quote:
Q: What was the biggest mistake you think you made?
A: As for the biggest mistake? There's a lot of them that I think, were ... they just "fell out" of things. One example: I wish the servers were more stable when we launched, of course - there's a lot of that sort of thing. We have a lot of excuses for that - we didn't expect nearly the response - but we can't say it wasn't a mistake. If I was going to pick on a game design thing that I look back on and think was a mistake? We really never designed WoW to be a competitive e-sports game; it was something that we decided to start tackling because there was such a desire and demand to evolve it in that direction, to introduce competitive arenas. I'm not sure that that was the right thing to do with the game.

I can say from a position of authority that any popular on-line title will have this issue.  It hard to determine what the response will be prior to launch.  The best you can do is throw has much hardware at it as you can and be prepared with hot spares.  Also, the initial influx of users does not translate to the actual number of long term players.  Most titles eventually end up pulling out hardware as the flood of users dies down to a daily average.

[Mangala]

Quote:
Q: What was the biggest mistake you think you made?
A: As for the biggest mistake? There's a lot of them that I think, were ... they just "fell out" of things. One example: I wish the servers were more stable when we launched, of course - there's a lot of that sort of thing. We have a lot of excuses for that - we didn't expect nearly the response - but we can't say it wasn't a mistake. If I was going to pick on a game design thing that I look back on and think was a mistake? We really never designed WoW to be a competitive e-sports game; it was something that we decided to start tackling because there was such a desire and demand to evolve it in that direction, to introduce competitive arenas. I'm not sure that that was the right thing to do with the game.

I can say from a position of authority that any popular on-line title will have this issue.  It hard to determine what the response will be prior to launch.  The best you can do is throw has much hardware at it as you can and be prepared with hot spares.  Also, the initial influx of users does not translate to the actual number of long term players.  Most titles eventually end up pulling out hardware as the flood of users dies down to a daily average.

You sound like a mythic employee

[Kurtt]

As much as WoW will always have a special place in my heart, I don't think I could ever get back into it seriously again. As much as I like the idea of levelling, and as much as I like certain classes and mechanics, I cannot face the end game grind again. Everything I do in that game is overshadowed by the fact that I'll have to grind heroics, then Naxx, then Ulduar then whatever else they've added since I last played.

No thanks, have better things to do with my free time than be shouted at by, or shout at, other players.

[Dlarah]

You can skip naxx now, the gear from emblems of conquest from heroic 5-mans and trial of the champion normal + heroic can get you good enough to go raiding. New instances in icecrown citadel comming soon that probably got even better gear too. I could go on about how its bad how people can get good gear with just 5-mans and heroics, but it does help on gearing your raiders even as a casual guild that dont do 4+ raids a week and you wont have to rely on people running the "easy" raids to keep up if you havent played for a while.

Even if i am kinda bored by things i still keep going back to wow, theres just something about it they must have done right that others games is missing for me.
Also with the gear people got these days i stopped caring about moonkin druids in feral gear doing 300 dps while running heroics(most pugs are actually ok), and raids i do with the guild only anyways so they are usually fun even if we keep wiping(lemming raids are usually the highlight of the week for me those days i can do them).

If i try to have fun in wow i can usually find something to do, or just do some dailies while trying to figure out something.

[Mangala]

No thanks, have better things to do with my free time than be shouted at by, or shout at, other players.

i never shouted

saying that though is my own opinion of myself as an rl/fc/rvr bossy type

[Kurtt]

No thanks, have better things to do with my free time than be shouted at by, or shout at, other players.

i never shouted

saying that though is my own opinion of myself as an rl/fc/rvr bossy type

Wasn't refering to you


But as for your comments Dlarah, I've still got to do those heroics, and farm those badges, and devote an inordinate amount of time to gearing up to be on the same level as my guildies. Frankly, I have better things to be doing with my time these days.

Casual is King.

[Jeremiah]

So is there a HoJ casual guild? I've got a Death Knight I'd quite like do some casual dungeons and stuff with - I'm thinking of following the Way of the PuG (PuGido) when 3.3 hits with the cross-realm random lfg system but a few of the HoJ team would be cool. 

[Mangala]

There isnt one - those of us here from the HoJ in wow days are mainly bitter vets or people who went on to guilds that came about as a result of HoJ.

Kurtt for example went hordeside mainly to a sister guild we had and eventually ended up running it, Elv, Taith, Thuggy, Keggi and others stayed alliance and went to a post-HoJ-drama guild that was setup; Dlarah was in an allied guild in wow, but is now in a guild that kinda stepped into shoes HoJ left empty on our server.

Out of therest who play - they play on other servers in other guilds with no wow ties to us here really.

[Keggi]

was never the same after hoj in wow for me nobody could motivate/organise in the same way jon could.

the post hoj guild is still there on aszune but quite a few of the old hoj crowd either stopped playing or moved on.