"The point of this editorial and many others about World of Warcraft is to try and figure out what is going on with the biggest MMO in the world. "

I don't think anyone, not even Blizzard can answer what is going on with WoW now.  But the WHY is obvious enough.

Remember all those layoffs and quitting that occured right before WoW was launched?   Remember all those new companies that have started up with ex-Blizzard employees?

Mike Morhaime believes that it is solely because of the culture that he has created at his company that allows Blizzard to create such successful games.  He is only half right.

You need the right culture, but you also need the RIGHT PEOPLE. 

Blizzard lost many of those people right before WoW was released.  Now after a year with a couple of hardcore EQ-raiding Guild leaders running things, we're in a state with Blizzard flailing around trying to figure out how to fix something that never should have been broken. 

WoW seems to have no direction because it was lost before the game was ever released.  It's success is thanks to 5 years of dedicated work by many people who are no longer there and are no longer calling the shots. 

The only question is how long will the momentum last? 

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Originally posted by DemonOvrlord

"The point of this editorial and many others about World of Warcraft is to try and figure out what is going on with the biggest MMO in the world. "

I don't think anyone, not even Blizzard can answer what is going on with WoW now.  But the WHY is obvious enough.

Remember all those layoffs and quitting that occured right before WoW was launched?   Remember all those new companies that have started up with ex-Blizzard employees?

Mike Morhaime believes that it is solely because of the culture that he has created at his company that allows Blizzard to create such successful games.  He is only half right.

You need the right culture, but you also need the RIGHT PEOPLE. 

Blizzard lost many of those people right before WoW was released.  Now after a year with a couple of hardcore EQ-raiding Guild leaders running things, we're in a state with Blizzard flailing around trying to figure out how to fix something that never should have been broken. 

WoW seems to have no direction because it was lost before the game was ever released.  It's success is thanks to 5 years of dedicated work by many people who are no longer there and are no longer calling the shots. 

The only question is how long will the momentum last? 

 

 

 

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I'm not 100% certain, but that seems spot on. Brilliant... /golfclap

I wonder what WoW would have been like if the original crew stayed on and the EQ devs never got their grubby paws on the source code. Anytime an ex-EQ dev touches a game it withers and dies. I bet Vanguard flounders and stagnates like this too, but the cutomization and player housing will give it a little longevity if the crappy animations don't kill it first.

Since you asked, I do feel slighted. I didn't win an XPS Laptop in the last drawing. It really bums me out.

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Originally posted by zguillotine

IMHO, you overestimate your position. Basically, you are saying that there is no room for fixes, no room for balancing, no room for any errors or changes since the game was published. You don't know how good you have it.

Let's take a look at some of the rest of the MMO world. EQ and EQII sucked. They were rife with bugs from day one. And some of them still have not been addressed! So, to bring it back to the discussion, let's say you just love the idea of playing a Druid. You work your rear off to get to level 60 in PvE only to find out that the Druid is broken and doesn't meet your expectations. There is a critical weakness that Druids have that is being exploited in PvP or in Raids or even end game instances. Under your regime you would just be screwed. There will always be changes that need to be made to balance out play in every game. However, Blizzard doesn't do products with test results showing bugs and errors and then just ignore them for all time while they work on the next expansion so they can make another burst profit from expansion sales.

Okay, now that covers the basic tweaking, what about major shifts. I said you don't know how good you have it and that is so true. Ever hear of Star Wars Galaxies? They completely changed the game, not once, but twice. The second time restricted class structure down to 9 possible classes with absolutely no variety from one person to the next in each of those classes except for the weapons and armor you used. And if you departed from the standard weapons and armor, you sucked at everything. Blizzard made a small but noticable change in to add some additional abilities and tweak some others. Oh, boo hoo. My life is over.

Now to talk about your original subject, battleground rewards. I suppose that everything you do is right the first time. That would mean you have never had to change your talent tree, or buy a different weapon or armor in game. It would mean that in your real life, you have never made a mistake, ever. If you think that is you I call bull pucky. Get a clue, life is a growth experience. It is no different when you are providing an online service than if you are running a restaurant. After a while, you grow and change or you get left befind. To give you an example, look at McDonalds. This is probably the biggest chain restaurant in our country, yet they started out with hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries and shakes, and that is it. They introduced new foods to the menu. They took off foods that didn't work. If it is broke fix it. Is there something about that statement that you don't understand?

So, let's examine what would have been the end result if Blizzard had not made the 30% reduction. Based on that percentage, the battleground gear would be the next thing they would have to spend resources to "fix". You are advocating that they change some other area that you don't play in so that you can get the big rewards 30% faster than you are supposed to. Hello? If the plan is not working, you change it or fix it. have you ever heard the saying that no plan survives contact with the enemy? Well, the enemy here is the ones who do nothing but complain, my glass is half empty, how come yours is half full?

Why not spend some time looking at what you gained rather than what you lost that was not in the original plan anyway? Excuse people for being human and making a miscalculation. Remember, we are nerds and geeks, we find all the ways to exploit the program and then we do it. Excuse the programmer for being just as much of a nerd and fixing the exploit. Then take a look at what you get and stop complaining about what you don't. If it ain't there, you don't get it. Get over yourself.

I know this post opens my up for a severe flaming, but I don't care. I can read between the lines of flamers and see the hurt child underneath their cruelty. And yes, I have a hurt child in me too.

Have fun and level fast.

-=zg=-

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Thank you, you saved me time to try and explain the same thing you are explaining, usely i find the topics quite intresting but this topic only show'd once again someone that actualy does not really know mmorpg.

People read the artical of -=zg=- a couple of times and see that this person is more right then the whole topic can ever be, really if some of you feel that the topic made more sence then i wonder where gaming is going to and trust me thats not the way that gaming should be, but unfortunaly seems that now a days the gaming communtiy is rather lazy. I'm just very happy that atleast 1 person ( that's -=zg=-) that see's it like it should be (  -=zg=-)

Reklaw

As a non-raiding, PvP loving, casual player, I activated my account before BC came out only for this patch.  The amount of BG's needed to gain even the slightest honor is ridiculous.

However Blizzard has always catered to it's raiders.  If you got enjoyment from shutting out the rest of the world so you could run BWL 200 times or found that 21 hours of PvP a day wasn't enough, then you are Blizz's ideal customer.  And those were the people that were bitching when the "rest of us" were now able to get epics.

I agree with the author.  I enjoy this game more than any out right now.  However there are a lot of games coming out and a couple more decisions like this, and the WoW era will end.

WoW is a game that I keep coming back to - I've been through a number of MMO's, starting when The Realm was advanced technology (!!!) and WoW is the game that I keep quitting and coming back to at the moment in the MMO market.

I think that is where Blizzard get their (imho) misguided drive from - at the moment there is less competition for their base market.  I'm not stating opinion, but fact when you look at the market figure break-up for MMO's.

However, there are a number of MMO's that are getting close to release, principally focusing on a smaller initial market with a view to expansion - eg. Vanguard, Conan, etc. that I believe will eat into the core population that WoW currently enjoys.  There was an interesting post early in this thread referring to McDonalds - and basically that is what Blizzard has developed with WoW, an MMO that endeavours to cater to the largest group of people possible without really satisfying any of them.

WoW is likely to stay the broadest appealing of MMO's on the market - the future is for companies that see the niche that isn't yet catered for, nails that market, and builds on that success.  At present I think that any MMO that aims for the "McDonald's" approach will fail (DDO anybody?).  As I said at the beginning, I do keep coming back to WoW - please don't take me for a flamer - but you always lose out on quality in the end if your principle focus is on quantity.

Unfortunately I believe that WoW will suffer from the bland standardisation that effects all mass-marketed successful products.  It is up to the consumer to support the quality 'niche' market when it develops and allow it to thrive if you want to overcome mass-market standardisation of your MMO experience.

  I dont like Mcdonalds food.   I try it just one time, and no I never again step in a McDonalds again.

  When I start to play WoW, I just did because a friend just put some effort, for a year telling me, that this game is gonna be "The Game", I start play in the open beta, and I am still playing.  I am not a raider player, I didnt like to do instances, this is boring....

 I have 7 chars that hit level 60, some of with crap gear, but I still enjoy to play, but start to get bored.   I miss my old days at Ashen Empires game, maybe I come back to play there sometime. Or move to Warhammer online when this game release. 

 Ah let me tell my opinion about this 30% less honour.  I dont care, I still can do some PvP sometimes and I will  get this PvP stuffs in the future.  The only thing I dont like is the queue system, is not fun wait around almost half hour to enter a BG.

  WoW, Warhammer, Ashen empires and other games, its just a game. Some people transform this things in a way of life, but remember real life is more challenge, and much more fun.  

PS.: English isnt my first language, so I could make some mistakes. 

I just didn't think that much of the editorial.

This is the way I read it:  WOW is the biggest game ever, MMORPG improves their net worth by having people active on their site, post a poorly written rant as an editorial, people respond and it doen't matter what they say.  Oh and look, here I am falling for it.

If you took out every sentence that had a variation of "What is going on at Blizzard?" what would you have?  I was tricked into wasting my time reading this article by the thought that this "review" might have some really interesting insight into the largest patch in a long time.  Nope its just a PVP rant.

Don't get me wrong.  I agree with the writer's feelings.  But the content of this article could have been summed up with:

"What's going on at Blizzard?  They overhauled the PVP to make it easier for non-raid people to get good stuff, then they pulled the rug out from under us!"

Even the tag line on the end:  "Post if you want to complain too, or say anything, just post!" is annoying.  Maybe the article was written poorly just to annoy people like me enough to post.  "Just because I am paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get me"

Reviews of talent changes, the arenas, which characters got love and which ones not so much - that would be a review worth reading.  If this is the quality of MMORPG articles, I'll be cancelling all my notifications soon.

So, now I have read the stuff posted after my post and I believe some folks are just not understanding what I am saying, though some definitely do. Let me try another tack.

What does MMORPG stand for? It is Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. To start off with, let's just remove the first three words. OMG, he is talking about role playing! Smash him down, Chew him up! Chill a minute and listen to what I have to say, please.

Taking the last word from the remainder that I left, I want to take this opportunity to remind everyone, this is a game. It is not a life or death struggle against the forces of light or darkness. It is a means to find some relaxation. As the tips say, take all things in moderation, including World of Warcraft.

Now that I have that off my chest, let's look at the two remaining words, role playing. To me, this does not mean that you must run around spouting prose at every combat opportunity to ensure that you have validated your right to "...smite those damnable creatures soundly about the head and shoulders until I have appeased the great Pumpkin's need for blood and destruction..." well, you get the point. Role playing on an MMO to me means taking my time, finding out new things, finding my equipment, taking what I get, immersing myself in the story that many of the "hundreds of programmers" (someone in a previous post) put together for our enjoyment. I am not looking for a hack and slash environment where it is all endless combat in order to get one piece of uber armor or some "Godhammer" weapon.

I think of an MMORPG as a different universe, one that I can partake in freely (as long as I pay my subscription) and one that I can allow myself to enjoy without the feeling that I must have the ultimate character. I mean think about it, if this was a real place (it is not for those of you who might not know that), would you and 4 of your closest friends think you could go and put the beat down on Onyxia? I think not. You would take along 39 of your friends and associates and anyone else brave enough to take the chance to kill one of the great creatures of your land. Rightly so! And then, once you got there, would you want the same Bastard Sword of Unbelievably Hard Hitting that everyone else that ever raided a dragon's lair got? I think not! I want something unique, something mine, something that is not something that every other Tom, Dick or Harry has in his pack.

Well, frankly, that last is not possible. I cannot see the game having 7.5 million unique items drop from one, albeit huge and old, dragon. So, because of the nature of the game, some duplication is unavoidable. However, that doesn't mean that because Johnny-Joe has the above mentioned Bastard Sword that I must have it. But too many people seem hung up on having to get some predetermined item or set. The beauty of an RPG is that you can take what you get and make the most out of it. Okay, so my weapon use level is 4 below mine, and the DPS is .6 less than yours, so what? I don't care if I can piss further than you can or not. Why do you? Can't you come up with some originality on your own? Find something that no one else has and step away from the cookie cutter Talent trees. You do know the people that come up with those had to think, right? Try it on, thinking is not that hard and it can be very rewarding. Maybe someday someone will post your new idea as the new best gear setup around.

You know, it all comes down to this. If you are playing the game and think that Blizzard screwed it up because you cannot get to level 40 in less than 10 hours of play time, you are looking at this whole thing wrong. You are setting yourself up for unhappiness. You are making it impossible to achieve happiness. Then, to top it all off, you post your reasoning as if it was the only way to think on forums in a vain attempt to STEAL OUR HAPPINESS. I say, let it go, take a breath, find something else to fill a portion of your life, like a girl/boyfriend, spouse, children, job, hobby other than online. Take some time to stop and smell the roses and stop trying to be a wet blanket thrown over the rest of us.

Have you ever heard the saying, "If you don't have something good to say, don't say anything."?

-=zg=-

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Originally posted by Ponico
Seriously, someone said it took about 20 hours to get Grand Marshall. That's maybe 2 or 3 hardcore days of playing of let's say a week for an adverage player. Keep in mind that i'm saying if you only PVP.

30% increase is what... 2 or maybe 3 weeks for an adverage player. It's not that that bad.

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Actually, if you are talking about a 30% increase in play time to achieve a goal and the base is say 3 days, that would mean it would then take 4 days. If you are talking about online time, then 72 hours would turn into about 96 hours. At say 6 hours per day (I would say that is hardcore, but I may be low) that is 16 days of play versus the original 12 days. I agree, not that bad.

-=zg=-

Slighted?! No way, not me! hehe Yeah right!

My account is cancelled. In fact: it was cancelled a couple days after 2.01 came out. Once I let it sink in that Blizzard is still all about hardcore players (who scream that x is too easy to get and y is too easy to get...), my second account cancellation was so easy. I took two people down with me too... 3 accounts activated 2 months ago because of boredom and just wanting to get well geared and do some PvPing.

And all the "hardcore" players who "put in more effort and deserve to be better [than me]"?! rofl My friends and I have been chain killing idiots in tier 2 epics since we hit level 30. Now that is fun! Like I've said before: I guess the afk fighting "skill" they learned for raiding doesn't apply vs. skilled players in PvP!

Have fun with your raiders Blizzard. I'm going to look for a game that doesn't reward dumbasses and no-skill-slackjaws.