General Discussion

MMORPG.com's World of Warcraft Correspondent Darren Bridle files this report that takes a look at what Blizzard could learn from their first expansion, Burning Crusade and apply to the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King.

Blizzard is set to release a new expansion for its world renowned MMO and questions need to be answered. How big do you make it? What type of player do you cater to? Are there more raids, more mobs, more loot! However the real question should be, “What have you learned from The Burning Crusade?”

What didn't work

Location location location!

It’s clear that moving away from Azeroth, away from the lands of Dwarves, Elves, Goblins, Orcs and the like, was possibly a wrong move. It was a brave adventure that almost paid off. Moving away from traditional character backgrounds and giving a detached feeling from the mainland really was its failing. Wrath of the Lich King (WOTLK) has a big bonus; it’s ripped straight from Warcraft 3 and contains proven lore and strong character backgrounds. Die hard Warcraft fans will instantly feel comfortable on the new continent of Northrend. The team working on WOTLK is huge and contains personnel that have worked from as far back as the original game, this is really important in terms of deciding what works, what doesn’t working, and keeping a consistent feel across the expansions. But what about arriving there on day one, along with 9 million other people…

Read it all here.

They say we learn more from failure than success... but it is slightly humerous to talk about millions of boxes sold (TBC) and millions of subscribers (WoW Current) as a failure :).  Still, one of the reasons they stay on top is that they are constantly trying to learn and improve.

"Wrath of the Lick King" ? LOL!  Maybe they can get Gene Simmons to do his voice?

Originally posted by Perko

"Wrath of the Lick King" ? LOL!  Maybe they can get Gene Simmons to do his voice?

I stopped reading at

"It was a brave adventure that almost paid off. Moving away from traditional character backgrounds and giving a detached feeling from the mainland really was its failing."

only cause I missed the Lick King... I'd have cleared the cache, closed the browser and formatted the hard disk in that case...

WoW, that typo got fixed fast... Ever get the feeling you're being watched? ;-)

I think all these gaming companies are feeling the AoC "pinch". And further trying to make excuses. Not the some of them are valid. However, it's trying to diver to a class of customer with too high expectations. So, what do you do...but try to lower them a bit. I bet marketing just hates doing that.

Am I the only person who likes TBC? I love flying around all of the floating Islands and stuff, in fact it's about the only part of the game that I do like. I guess that's why I don't play anymore.  Oh well,  I'll just wait for Aion.

But 1 thing i truly like is this part  :    

     " With WOTLK, you will be able to learn about the main character – Arthas - as well as see him and talk to him from the second you step foot on the new continent."

Though i still wont be killing him

I don't think that any company, regardless of the volume of product has sold, can really get by without reevaluating its product on the basis that it has flaws.  World of Warcraft is pop culture phenomenon in a way that no other game has been.  I think  that on its own has contributed to its success in North America where gaming hasn't always been deemed socially acceptable.

Vanilla WoW was a game of haves and have-nots, and Burning Crusades has turned out to be vastly different in design.  I think its great that they decided to set a partition between raiding and pvp.. thus making them separate paths, but I don't think certain aspects of both were able to keep the same luster it  had before the release of BC.

Release day blues?  As a BC beta tester I can say that it was predicted a hundred times over, and Zangarmarsh was offered up as an early release valve.  I think there was plenty of flavor all around, but the author was right by suggesting that adding in an alien (feeling) new world only detracted from the previous world that players came to love.

I have to say that personally I enjoyed 10 man raids far more then the 40 man raids of the past.  I like being involved, and there is far more sense of teamwork when everyone is vital to the cause.  There was definitely a different feel to larger raids that I didn't really care for, and in my mind its far more epic that a 10 man/woman team could rock the biggest baddie out there.

Originally posted by Ugottawantit

Am I the only person who likes TBC? I love flying around all of the floating Islands and stuff, in fact it's about the only part of the game that I do like. I guess that's why I don't play anymore.  Oh well,  I'll just wait for Aion.

Hmm Aion is from NCsoft in Korea and guess what Koreans enjoy in the games, grind, grind and more grind.  Sorry if I find your comment a bit funny as if grind is so much more fun.
 

Wow is certainly not perfect, nor will this new expansion be either, but when you stack it up against other games, it just owns them.

So go enjoy the other games you like and have fun.  Attempting to riducule Blizzard or Wow is an effort in the ridiculous.  It just makes you look like a wanna be.   Wow is not for everyone, but it certainly satisfies most of the players in this market far better than anything else out there. 

Someday one of the development companies will wake up and provide a real