I do not see why people are complaining.

Blizzard is doing exactly the right thing.

Look at EverQuest: for a decade, they piled up expansions, new zones, and players kept warning them that 90% of their content was obsolete, nobody ever went there, and even old timers quit for WoW making nostalgia irrelevant.

Now blizzard is doing what ALL MMO players have been asking for: updating old content, making the world feel dynamic by changing the landscape, zone levels, upgraded dungeons... and players are blaming Blizzard for being cheap.

Piling up new zones ic definitely important to renew the interest in a game, but updating old content is equally beneficial, because it blends the need for fresh meat, and the evolution of the gameworld.

Now of course, the game mechanics, combat, crafting, and goals of players will not change: raid/pvp or quit, so if you didn't like wow in the beginning it's not gonna change; but for the players who remain there, this expansion sounds massive, and clever.

Blizzard can't win.  On one side we have people who believe its the same game with a different skin, and in the other corner we have those who believe the changes are the 2nd coming of the NGE.

I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle, far from either extreme.

What really matters is, will a lot of people enjoy playing the game after the expansion?  I'm betting they will and Blizzard will make another ton o money at a time in its lifecycle when most games are dying on the vine.

Sure, maybe what they propose is different than those who went before, but its probably a good thing.

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Originally posted by Abisbowa
- Path of the titans is a character advancment system that kicks in at level 85 and gives you 10 stages of advancement.

Kinda like Champ Levels in DAoC?

- New abiltiies for some crafters to "reforge", redistribute stats on gear, example: gear has 50agi but 0stamina, a reforger can take some of the agi points and add them as stamina.

Kinda like the Arcane Transmuter in Runes of Magic?

Watch out, those rascally guys at Blizzard are redefining the genre again!
 

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Path of the Titans is nothing like Champion levels. Yeah, they both offer advancement beyond the max level but other than that they are nothing alike.

Again, Reforging is nothing like Arcane Transmutation.

I could take time to explain further but why. You wont read the explanation or understand the differences. This is just another lame attempt at trolling using the classic "WoW is stealing ideas again DUR HUR".

Sometimes I think some players forget how dead and lifeless other MMOs get after being around so long. I don't think they've ever resubbed to a MMO they've once enjoyed after a long hiatus and gotten bored just from treading through the old content and quitting before they could get somewhere. I've done this countless times in LoTRO, DAoC, E&B, UO, EQOA, SWG and several F2P games. Sure I could stick my guns and wade through the old quest lines, but the desire to do so does not cling to me for very long.

But leave it to Blizzard to even attempt what hasn't been done before. Finally gnomes will get back Gnomeregan, Ogrimmar maybe in ruins and places I once quested before will be split in two for two different leveling zones (Badlands) or changed completely (Azshara). This is not like NGE. Combat is not getting radically changed from one form to another and classes are not being destroyed and combined.

For many years countless quest have been completed in Azeroth, battles have been fought by thousands of players against powerful foes (Ragnaros and Blackwing) and to no effect to the land itself. But come the release of the next X-pac, Azeroth will be getting it's entire land masses (Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms) refitted in a nod to all players who ever dreamed of what would Azeroth look like if what they've done in past quest actually had an effect in-game and I for one can't wait to see how it looks.

Originally posted by Czanrei

Originally posted by Abrahmm

For the love of god people need to stop referring to this as an "NGE". It is nothing like the NGE at all.

 

wow..thanks for the in-depth well thought reply...

Sorry with all due respect, but he is right. Don't compare this to the NGE, its hilarious. And so far it looks like much more than a same old. Besides. It cant be same old and NGE at the same time. ;)

We have never seen such a world rework in an MMO, that alone is interesting enough.

Originally posted by Czanrei

Originally posted by UWNVME

If you see nothing new in Cataclysm, then I'm sorry, but you must be blind. Two new races, new race/class combinations, all of the classic zones being revamped, 3 new BGs, new skills, the list goes on.  Personally, I like that we're being put back on Azeroth instead of being thrown into a new continent/dimension to further thin out the player population and make things seem even more desolate to new players.If you had said this about WOTLK, then yes, I actually agree with that, Wrath was a bland expansion that I still haven't even bothered with and from what it sounds like, I'm not missing much.

Cataclysm on the other hand has me very excitied. And this is coming from somebody who usually thinks WoW is overrated. I think it's really laughable the way people want to compare this expansion to the NGE. If you really want to know how players feel about the changes, there was a strong positive reception at Blizzcon, so I think everything is pretty safe.

 

 

I watched all the vids from the panel, there was NOT a strong reaction from the fans there. Half the time it sounded like Blizz had to keep waking them up with "light-up applause signs" to get them to clap everytime they announced something they called new. There was only a immediate reaction of clapping maybe twice during the whole panel. The rest of the time there was a lot of hesitating.

 

:Edited for spelling

We must've been watching a different Blizzon then, because I heard plenty of strong reactions from the crowd. Here's the crowd going ape**** over a single animation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydhDPtu1_lw

I disagree that Blizzard can't win; the vast, vast majority of the subscribers will stay with the product redardless of if they hate the 'new' expansion or not. Why? Because it's still a better game than the likes of Conan and WAR. Also, more people will love the new spin on the old lands than will hate it anyway.

But my gripe isn't entirely with the 'reskin, resize, rename and watch the suckers buy it' game design of Cataclysm; it's just that it's the same old shite behind it. Same combat system, same repetition, same quests, same grind, same classes etc etc.

And whilst I'm not expecting that Blizzard will break their cash cow just to pander to the likes of me, I have to hope they might. After all, who the hell else is going to do something original? Funcom? Mythic? Christ those muppets can't copy gameplay mechanics that work without screwing it up.

For a couple of years now, basically since the release of BC, there has been a bunch of griping about how the old content becomes obselete and unused. So...Blizzard does what folks have been asking for and they still can't win, I find this very ironic, and this also proves that folks will piss and moan over anything just for the sake of pissing and moaning.

For those of you who want to see a drastic change to WoW, sorry, not going to happen. WoW isn't the number 1 priority anymore. Look at all of the Blizzard Big Wigs who moved on to the new mmorpg. WoW is all about soaking up as much cash as possible while trying to keep their current subscription base happy. WoW is responsible for the majority of the funding of every other project that Blizzard is working on, they aren't going to do something stupid like try to reinvent WoW.

What Cataclysm will do is change the way we view the game. I haven't been able to stand leveling another toon from level 1, because the old zones are...well old. I've been through them numerous times, it's the same thing over and over. So...Blizzard is going to tear the world apart and basically rebuild it. Remapping of leveling zones, new leveling quests, etc... Hell, Blizzard previously stated that they couldn't add flying mounts to Azeroth due to technical limitations and look....flying mounts in Azeroth.

As a veteran of nearly 5 years, and yes I have tried many other games, WoW is still the game to play for me. It's fun and my friends all play....those are the two key factors for a mmorpg to maintain my subscription dollars.

In short, people can keep on hating WoW, but the game is going to keep moving along unhindered by anything I see in the near future. All of the other mmorpgs, save FF XIV, look like hollow shells compared to WoW. Truly the only game that will topple WoW will be Blizzard's next mmorpg, and even that's not a guarantee.

Actually the biggest change IS the fact that they have the balls to advance their own game in time. Nobody ever did the same before. You take existing content, and change it radicaly under the influence of something (cataclysm) ... it adds and additional level of "live" history to the game (not something read in a book), because now you have players that can walk through Desolace and say "I remember the times when this was a desert - there was a Kodo graveyard right there ... let's check it out, maybe some bones are still sticking out from the ground"

I think the crux of the matter is past players and present players see this expansion in very different ways .

If your a player thats given up Warcraft for reasons like you find the game too easy now etc ,The Cataclysm offers nothing because it does nt seak to put right the things you find wrong with the game .

If your a player that currently plays Warcraft and enjoys it then this expansion is an exciting revamp that breaths new life into an old game .

I m about to give up Warcraft for Aion and Champions online . I m one of these people that takes breaks from it which is why i still return now and again and enjoy it . I ll proberbly give this a try and maybe level a new charater upto 85 ( i m eyeing a goblin ) . but i dont trust Blizzard enough anymore to stay in Warcraft long term . Its simply not worth investing time and money in a character given everything you achieve becomes redundant with the release of each new expansion pack .

I would like to see Blizzard slow the leveling down so i can enjoy the mid game rather than having to solo everything in a rush to get to maximum level . If they do that with this new expansion it will make all the difference to the game .