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World of Warcraft Editorial: A Glimpse of The Burning Crusade
Hasani Davis gives MMORPG.com our first peek inside the new World of Warcraft expansion, The Burning Crusade.
By Hasani Davis on January 19, 2007
A Glimpse of The Burning Crusade
Hasani Davis gives MMORPG.com our first peek inside the new World of Warcraft expansion, The Burning Crusade.
After months of hype, pushed back release dates, countless banner ads, and lots of forum hype, the Burning Crusade has finally come out. Boys and girls, I won’t over romanticize this and make it long winded in the beginning. I am going to cut straight to the chase and then go into detail. Okay are you ready, here we go…Burning Crusade is …the same World of Warcraft as before, just more of it. There, I said it. You can click the minimize button and stop reading, or follow along while I start my long winded comments.
;)
I waited in line for The Burning Crusade at 12 am on January 16th. Yes, I was one of many gamer geeks to get their copy that night. I even had the next four days off work, so I had plenty of time to sit back and get into Outland. It is funny putting faces to the many types of people that play WOW. Most of the crowds at the store that night were typical gamers. You could even pick out the “hard core” players based on how similar they looked to the South Park incarnations. A few others in the crowd didn’t fit the bill at all. There were a few older players, even one old enough to be my dad, a guy very much into hip-hop, and about five female gamers as well. After listening to various stories from the people I was in line with, I asked the crowd what they wanted out of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. Answers came back varied, but after one person said “more fun” they all agreed they wanted more “fun” out of this expansion. Having myself played MMOs for the past 15 years wanted a little more “fun” out of the game as well. Here was my chance, I stepped up in line and got my copy and raced to my car to get home for the install.
I must congratulate Blizzard Entertainment. The transition to The Burning Crusade was flawless. It was the smoothest install that I have seen in quite some time from a gaming company on a release date. No servers crashed, no horrid downloads, I simply logged in, downloaded two quick patches, and I was inside Hellfire Peninsula by 12:30 am able to begin my fight against the Burning Legion and the Alliance.
;)
The first thing I see as I zone through, yellow con orcs. Wait a minute, neutral faction orcs? Ok, it’s a faction-based starting town, that’s not a problem. We had faction in the old game. The graphics in the starting zone look and make you feel like you’re in the movie Mortal Kombat. The quests are fun and plentiful. With the bombing runs being the most fun. However, I decided that I was here to explore the whole game and not just the first zone of Hellfire Peninsula, so I moved on to the second zone which is a lush blue marshland named Zangarmarsh.
I enter Zangarmarsh and what is the first thing I find as I walk into the zone? You got it, another yellow con town, named Cenarion Outpost. Once again, I start out having a neutral faction there. Did Blizzard not learn anything about the pain of faction grinding in the first two years of the game? I played a few hours and already two new factions to impress, yikes! I press on to try to get to the next zone, named Terokkar Forest. But, before I leave Zangarmarsh, I trip over a small town full of unfriendly fuzzy little spore-like people who won’t talk to me, yet are not attacking me either. Wait a second; *DING*, yet another faction slot pops up on my bar!
;)
I press on and finally get to Terokkar Forest. This is the zone I am playing in now. The first city I come to is, guess what sports fans, something new! It is a blue city in which all Horde and Alliance are friendly (boy doesn’t that fit in with the story of the Warcraft Universe really well?) and not one, not two, but four factions inside of one town. The town is called Shattrath City.
Each town that had its own faction will offer its own rewards and gear. Faction, faction and more faction! This expansion is 80% about the faction grind. The quests are also the same as before. It is the very typical quest, kill fifty swamp rats and then kill ten evil swamp rats and collect their tails. Once done, return all the tails to a specific NPC in the faction based town. Swamp rats are plentiful and drop tails often, EVIL swamp rats on the other hand are very hard to find and are spread out all over the zone, combine that with a low drop rate and DING you are questing for hours. Taking a page out of Dark Age of Camelot, you also have a lot of “seek out this huge elite boss and slay him” type quests, where the bosses you are looking for spawn randomly and wander around an area. The problem with this type of quest is that these bosses and areas are usually camped (especially in the beginning), so actually getting a kill can take a long time. Heck with eight million players in the zone across various servers, these bosses have become public enemies of the population and are on the highest hit list.
Even the PvP is now based on the faction grind (not like it wasn’t before), by taking general strong points in the zone you will give people from your side who are leveling in that zone a bonus to damage, experience, or critical strike rate. Taking the strong points, as they are called, will also let you earn credit for repeatable quests. These quests again allow you to gain higher faction so you can buy the gear you want.
;)
Every one of the first four instances I have finished was faction based as well. From the Hellfire Ramparts to the Slave Pen, gaining rep with said faction and working up to one day become exalted will get you the items. The items are very much needed, as what you get in The Burning Crusade far outshines what you gained in poor old Azeroth. I replaced my old items within 2 days. Yes, even my Epics. I have almost double my starting hit points and four times my old spell effectiveness. I truly feel sorry for anyone who did not buy The Burning Crusade that still plans on playing this game. In most games, the expansion is optional and you in theory can still play using the old client, just minus a few bells and whistles. That is not the case with this expansion. If you want to stay in the arms race of Warcraft, go buy The Burning Crusade now.
One thing that has changed so far, it’s very funny to see the raider vs. non-raider fights break out. I play on a PvP server and the guilds who were notorious for having a large advantage because of their item power level are now constantly being assaulted by guilds that formerly where powerless against them. Because the gear is so strong in the expansion, players in green items can beat some of the old players in their epics.
It leads me to wonder, even though it’s the same type of quests and same faction grind, it will be a lot of fun to see the new order of players rise as old guilds fall. I find this story more compelling than Illidan at the moment.
All in all, I find the expansion interesting, but it’s still too early to tell exactly what is going to become of World of Warcraft. I myself am only level 64 at this point. So there is a lot of the game left for me to explore. I will say this though, with all the new factions, objectives, and recipes, this game is twice as deep as the original was. It will take two years for people to get bored with this product due to lack of content. Too bad the game may lose many players due to the repetition and unimaginative nature of the game mechanics.
Despite the new look, because the questing and grinding is the same, Burning Crusade is just Warcraft plain and simple.
Were they prepared?
On my server PVP horde and alliance are happy to quest next to each other, I hope this will change soon and make grinding a little more interesting.
I really hope mmorpg.com gets a clue and start making this kind of glimpses into new released games,expanisons,even open betas
more often!
How shocking...a casual player whining about spending time to gain epic gear (at least it's in there this time, jackass). The raiders will spend a lot of time in the high level 25 mans while the rest of the 'casual's have to grind for faction to get something epic. boo freaking hoo
The author of this article is extremely biased. Time for MMORPG to get some new editors. In fact, I think I'll write the senior editors a little note since this is the third WoW article in a row that's been biased toward 'casuals'.
And the quests are the same, yes, but who expected different?
The only thing I enjoy is the new starter areas, but how long will that last?
Not sure if I should use my time card or not atm
'Oh nos!! someone is not stating that WoW/TBC is the bestest ever, he/she is SO wrong, it HAS to be good!!!' *snort!!* 'Ahh.. give me more of that epicy Warcrack'..
Sorry for being rude, I'm not generally like that however the above posts are a tipically kneejerk reaction for any fanboi (or just general fan) for a game that gets a bad review. Sorry to brust the WoW bubble but whats been stated is 100% true TBC has made WoW a faction grind fest for the simle reason it's a way to keep players playing longer, don't get me wrong it's working so far, people are still playing WoW (I'm still dabbling with my hunter and new shammy) but what many of my friends and guildies have said about the general tone of TBC is the the content is casual...
Basically they've been doing the 5 mans in about an hour (which is shorter then the orginal did in some cases) so I'm guessing the new 'casual' 25 mans will take what? 2/3 hours tops? With the reset times in play once your done the handful of instances whats left to do? Rep grinding for the faction items!!! So basically for the 'hardcore' types you've gone from '40 man raiding' grinding to 'Solo rep' grinding, Blizzard's endgame solution hasn't changed it's still 'grinding' just with a new skin.
Another thing to point out most 'new' content isn't exclusive to TBC, the 'new' honer system is also avaible to the orginal owners, arenas are too, the new talents, 'outlands 'world pvp' is practally EPL (excluding the 'town' points which are currently no were near what the devs said it would be like), and as stated the quests and mobs are nothing new, it's the same dance just a different tune.. and with Blizzard adding content for 'classic' WoW in the near future, I wouldn't be surpised to find out that many players havn't got TBC at release, sorry but looking at it currently there is nothing in TBC that really would make a person look at it objectivly and say 'WoW! I gotta get me this it really improves the game!', sorry to be blunt but all people want TBC for is the shiny new epics at lvl70 so they can prance around IF/Ogg in them (come on you can't say people don't do that when you see people just sitting on their epic/rare mount outside any bank in the teir gear).
Don't get me wrong TBC has done it's job it's kept players wanting to play WoW and brought a lot of the 'bored of 40 mans' back, however come 2-3 months down the line it's gonna hit the same problem, players are going to end up with a 'lack' of content and Blizzard will have to relase new instances to cater for it, as like with the orginal WoW there IS a ton of content in TBC however most of it is during the leveling process and with people rushing toward 'endgame' for the teir stuff they are missing techically the best part of WoW the 'leveling experence'. So basically to all those with TBC slow down and enjoy the view and to all those without it don't rush out and get it go and enjoy the orginal content you havn't expored and wait a few months that content in TBC isn't going to go anywhere in fact it's going to grow.
TBC is a double egded sword for WoW for 'the masses' in the short term it's gonna keep them happy however due to the lack of innervation it's the final nail in the coffin for some players, it is just 'same old, same old'. WoW dosn't have that tight grip on the console style MMO market anymore and dispite the expantion it's starting to look old and 4-6 month down the line when fresh titles hit the market WoW will start to lose some of the playerbase the hoped to have kept with TBC. WoW isn't going to die, but it is starting to bleed.
A biased review? That covers very little of the expansion it self. Centered around what the writer has evidently allways disliked about the game. With little information on whats contained there in. Like or dislike at least give a review that actualy details information.
for example like the one here
http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/29701
Interesting take on the expansion.
Personally I am enjoying it even while I see exactly what he is talking about.
The amount of quests is simply insane. Its very fun to feel like no matter what I am doing its helping one or even two quests.
The new Draenei race starter zone is very cool. Yes, blood efls looks much cooler, but the Draenei zone is the most fun I have had in a starter zone.
I am hoping that the 5 mans have a lot of people playing them later in the game. Diablo II was a lot of fun running the exact the same patterns again and again. I don't even know why. I still like Alterac Valley and even Arathi Basin. I am not sure about the arena because, quite frankly, I am just not a good enough player to like my odds.
But if its not fun, this year there will be so many other options.
I had to laugh with this editorial almost from the beginning when the author said there were no server crashes. I wasnt able to play at 12:30 am that day but did get on around 6pm mountain time. No problem with the install except I had to disable a anti spyware/firewall to do the install.
Now the thing that made me laugh that I mentioned was first thing I created a BE lock that i've been waiting to create. I'm on Bonechewer server and we were crashing over and over ALL night on tuesday. Did at least THREE restarts. Hard to turn in quests when there was NO npc's to turn them into!
BE is very fun to play on horde side as they are more visually interesting to a lot of players(like myself) who like horde but hated the ugly old characters. The mana tap and torent abilities also will have a lot of interesting possiblities especially in the pvp part of the game. Another thing I noticed was 60% (roughly) of the new BE's were pally. Not really unexpected, but a bit disappointing horde players going FTW with that.
After I created a played a few levels of my lock(between all the crashes) I switched over to my 60 pally and decided to check out Outland. I was diappointed in the first area. I found it very bare and boring. I also noticed on my pvp server same as the author of alliance and horde running quests next to each without attacking each other often. I think most are in such a hurry to rush to 70 that they dont care about the pvp element at the moment. I think this will change after people start hitting 70 and the ganking will start again. Honestly, i've barely played Outland because it's just so blah while i've been playing my lock and I also started a BE hunter.
I also noticed like the author how the very 1st quests had better equipment than most 60's that have been running around the game for a while now. I'll be checking out Outland more probably over the weekend but am really having more fun playing the BE starting area.
Haters, don't be mad that Blizzard took McQuaid's shitty vision and reshaped it into perfection. Just because you quit or you hate the game doesn't give you any right to throw it in anyones faces, thats called harassment because we who play WoW already told you - we don't give a fuck, so get off our forum and go watch your porn.
Hasani, you need to go back to your homeworld of Kyoto where people will care about your biased lifestyle. Grinding in a game is what it is all about. If you rush the game than of course you'll get bored. I've played since release, not a single level 60, only my one main who is now nearing level 59. And guess what? I have Outland gear, and it woops your tier 3. As they said on the Palomides forums for DAoC - Cry More N00b.
good bye old friend
I think you guys are alittle jaded. I'm having a blast with the expansion. But then I love doing quests. Most are kill quest but they are well done. And I never done a quest in a mmorpg like the bombing runs. (Would be out of place in other fantasy games but fits in WoW) One of my favorite quests is that you lead a shall we say horny lady off for a rendevous*. Her pet cat tags along. I got out my pet black tabby also. What happened next brought a big smile to my face.
A lot of the graphics are just stunning. Can't really describe them but they are top notch. Nice sounds also. Whenever I hear the distinctive sound that a fel reaver (big mechanical roaming giant) makes I quickly turn to find it and run out of its way. It's a weird kind of moan that if you don't want to die brings fear.
I've only done two instances so far. They were short and sweet. But the 2nd I did had a beholder looking boss that was cool as hell.
I have no idea what kind longitivity* the expansion will have. But I have no idea where $50 could bring so much enjoyment. (Well maybe in certain 3rd world countries but...)
Jaded?
Sorry but having to wait 2 years for the cash whore that is blizzard to release a crappy expansion that adds almost nothing to an already played out and crappy game tends to piss players off. Sorry but I just cant see dropping any more money on a game that has no future because of poor repetitive game mechanics and the best they could do was add 2 races and no new professions to a 2 year old game that most of us completed in less than 6 months.
This editorial left out two major things in the expansion. Obviously the reviewer was to obssesed with reaching level 70 to even try them out. that would be the Blood Elves and the Draenai.
Both offer beautiful new starting lands and increased powers over the original characters. It will be interesting to see what happens when these characters reach outland.
There is much more to the expansion than just Outland.
"One thing that has changed so far, it’s very funny to see the raider vs. non-raider fights break out. I play on a PvP server and the guilds who were notorious for having a large advantage because of their item power level are now constantly being assaulted by guilds that formerly where powerless against them. Because the gear is so strong in the expansion, players in green items can beat some of the old players in their epics.
It leads me to wonder, even though it’s the same type of quests and same faction grind, it will be a lot of fun to see the new order of players rise as old guilds fall. I find this story more compelling than Illidan at the moment."
Now THAT'S funny as heck. You have to wonder how elitist hardcore raiding guild like WoW designer Jeff Kaplan's Fires of Heaven (One of the few WoW guilds ever allowed a FREE transfer from a PvE to PvP server) are doing now that they don't have the crutch from all their MC, AQ and Naxx grinding.
Maybe WoW actually has a chance of becoming a little more skill based - or at least offering a more even playing field and no longer catering to hardcore raiders.
/agree...loving my Blood Elf
Gonna have to go with the "same old, same old" attitude prevaling here, which a few elaborations:
1: new gfx: the character graphics options for the two new races really sets them apart from the other races, and this is a problem. Who wants to be a clunky-looking Orc when you could look much cooler as a Belf? Moreover, the Outland quest rewards look really slick, unlike the crafted gear and drops that use the old item graphics.
2: faction grind/rewards in the new zones are an effective way of implementing a minimum gear allotment for a specific region, which makes sense as a "newb-friendly" game like WoW. Again, the problem is the fact that the old zones don't have this.
And why are the faction rewards handed out by a Provisioner like BGs and not Vendors (who, by the way, still sell the same crappy white gear)?
3: now that TBC gives casuals access to gear on par with old pre-TBC engame raid epics, does this mean the death of those very same raid instances? After all, doesn't TBC eliminate the rewards of having the most uber-weapon in the game, yet stll retaining the headache of having to manage a huge raid, particularly attuned ones like MC?
Ironic that in releasing the xpac, Bliz may have effectively wiped out months of work spent in setting up the raid content post-DM. :P Please, if you know of any guilds doing MC/WL/AQ/ZG/Naxx "because raids are fun", I really, really want to hear about it!
(edit)
oh yeah, and the Belf racial is just insane for PvP - a free AoE spell interrupt that you can use on the run? Yes, please.
Agreed
If you think we are being uncharitable in our opinions, Google FoH and look up their website. Then go back with your casual epics (assuming you are on Black Dragonflight) and gank the nearest FoH member untill they logout.
I was really looking forward in december for BC so i ordered it and it arived last Thuesday, installed it, 2 updates, login worked perfectly, went for Draeni, pass the little intro, saw the starters area walked towards the first quest giver and really thought to meself why in earth would i contineu, first of i've been a hugh fan of WOW (lets face it there wasn't much else that felt as stabel) but i was/am in Vanguard beta and especialy after today's update's that game is really the game i was waiting for. I had some awesome times en pleasureble experiances in WOW but i have noticed that i really like to move forward, amaze meself with new surrouding, BC might look somewhat new but it al comes at me as the same.
Afcourse WOW will stay succesfull cause for now its still the most stabel game to be played on any type of computer system. But for everyone that keeps their system uptodate as in high-end systems they will definitly move on to the more evolved kind of mmorpg's like Vanguard and LotrO.
People that have played Vanguard after today's update really got the feel what the game will be like, those that havn't played after today's update have missed alott. (noticed that lag also really depended on wich b.server you played as Server 1 was laggy as hell when i tried as Server 3 wich i played all beta is completly lag free, so the more server the beter it will get for those that might still have some lag)
So my conclusion about BC is that it will survive aslong people don't upgrade there systems. And afcourse those that became really commited as in guild/factions will stick to their game.The tactic of Blizzard is fantastic i mean i'm sure if every mmorpg gave out a free 10 day trail for like 6 months in a year you be sure to atleast keep some of them to sign a sub-fee after the trail. The thing what holds back i think for most people is the lack of being able to really tryout a game before you start spending money on it. And this again is something Blizzard has done with succes.
Vanguard servers closing down the 23th of Jan. to be opened the 30th of Jan. (atleast if all goes well ;) so might hopin and try to experiance BC a little more, besides still got my Un-Epic Weak Orcy lvl 60 Shaman
Bah! Nothing new in WoW's overly hyped expansion but I guess everyone knew it would happen although many hoped for something better, something new. The opening poster seem to be a pro WOW gamer and he said its just a lot more of the same unimaginative...same old.
game difficulty well balanced
flawles character animations
best feeling and control over the character in pvp.
diablo-like drop and collectionable items, more play more power, more items more people wants them.
I wanted to ask a small question to everyone?
Who is better?????????????
I brought Guildwars(NF) and i'm thinking about WoW
is there any diffrence between GUildwars(NF) and WOW
The expansion is unbelievably fun. I'm having a ball. All my friends love it. My guildmates love it. I haven't met a single person in game who doesn't love it.
Bottom line, if you don't like WoW the expansion won't change your mind. But if you are one of the 8 million people who do like WoW this expansion rocks!!
"It will take two years for people to get bored with this product due to lack of content."
This quote from the editorial pretty much sums up WoW as a whole; in that WoW at one point or another becomes a boring game and this expansion has merely prolonged its eventual mass decline in subscribers and players.
....."if you're one of the 8 million people who love WoW" someone wrote.
First off, this figure of 8 million players WoW loves to over hype to the gaming world may not even be true. With this said, even if it's true that this figure existed, it's 8 million who have played this game at one time or other. Not 8 million current suscribers. Besides, with as many servers as the game currently has, do you in your wildest dreams really think it's holding 8 million players worldwide? Pluzzeee!!!
I think just as many dislike the game and the bulk who do played it at some time or other. These players are part of the figure WoW constantly throws around. It's like every time someone registered the game to play it, a little bell goes off, ding! That player gets counted as do all others who played it. At the end they all add the final figure but that dosen't mean they all loved it, many have already left because they don't like it for whatever the reason but they still get counted.
8 million people love WoW.../gasp* choke*, pftth!!!
Most of your article was spot on, with the exception of one very important thing. You claim 2 years worth of material from this expansion. :) Ah, I remember your optimism the first time I loaded the beta client. I was all charmed by the Burning Crusade all the way till 70. Then, I realized I had nothing to do. Well, not exactly nothing. I mean, I could grind for faction. I could grind the pvp arenas for the best pvp gear. I could even grind the endless array of raids for bind on pickup gear which lovingly greet you at 70. I could even take my brand spankin' new uber fast flying mount out for a ride.
But in the end, it's the same old wow. Nothing really new, creative, or unique. Leveling up is an absolute blast, but even the slowest player will get to 70 in six months, 3 months for normal late bloomers, 1.5 to 2 months for the "average" gamer, 2 weeks to 1 month for the stereotypical raider, and under a week for the red bull charged psychos out there. Sure, raids are 25-man now rather then 40-man, but there's not much difference. Even the supposed savior 10-man raid is a pure joke compared to the real raids. Crafting has barely been expanded upon, and of the new recipes, they're either bind on pickup (Yes, you now can use your TRADEskill to make bind on pickup gear), or so worthless that you can't sell. Heck, level 62 greens are better then level 70 crafted items. It's real bad.
So enjoy leveling as much as you possibly can. Besides the always stunning artistic work of Blizzard, leveling is the only real redeeming quality of this expansion. Enjoy!! :)
You don't read do you? In their press release they specifcally exclude cancelled and expired subscriptions from that number.
As to the servers, that's a worldwide figure. When you look at the server list, you don't see all the WoW servers. You only see the list of North American servers.
Sorry to bust your bubble Skippy, but just because you don't like the game doesn't change the math.
"It is a blue city in which all Horde and Alliance are friendly (boy doesn’t that fit in with the story of the Warcraft Universe really well?)"
Good God that game sucks!
I'm always on the look out for new MMORPGs out there. But unlike what's common in these forums, I take the gameplay on face value. I care little about the hype (aka people filling in the gaps with their imagination), the potential gameplay (aka the game mechanics that are yet to be proven to be fun) and the promised gameplay (aka the promise that the bugs will be fixed and the game will be playable in 1 or 2 or X months from release).
What matters is fun. If you're having fun, you are generally don't hang around forums alot. There are exceptions of course (like me taking a break from work hehe).
Have fun with anything you choose to play.
I'm the same way, unfortunatly the gear race that WoW is stuck in ceased to be fun for me... I'm getting daily fun report from my girlfriend whose playing BC though.
She loves it, but then again, she only has one 60 and never burned herself out on the original content
This expansion adds absolutely nothing to the game. It really kicked the die-hards in the pants. 10 minutes into the new content and those epics they grinded 4 months for are now obsolete. Jewelcrafting is just as boring as all the other professions and the faction grind is now at an all time high.
Now that there is no difference in the Horde or Alliance, I think Blizzard has achieved their goal, of not allowing for any uniqueness.
Sure millions of people will be playing this game for some time, but if you put millions of rats in a cage and gave them a treat everytime they hit the feeder bar, they would do the same thing.
This expansion is nothing more than a quick greedy update. Blizzard isn't even trying to draw in older players by not giving away a free month with their $40 expansion.
The fact that you can only have a flying mount in outland is really silly imho. Whats the point?
I guess WOW has turned into World of Outland because now there is no need to go back to that big beautiful world of the past.
I just don't get this expansion.
I'll be playing UO until someone can learn to make an in depth mmo like they used to make 10 years ago.
Yawn
I guess most people feel bad about the loss of status that their gear present. The best guilds in every server tend to attract the most skilled people, thus they are usually the ones having access to the best equipment any dungeon could offer. With the expansion everything was reset, so the old-timers feel the strip of their raid medallions (so to speak)(and only for those that were there for the first kills, the rest don't even deserve to utter the words "epics are easy").
I have the feeling that the end content will be there. Blizzard managed to cater before for both the hardcore (abeit with not alot of free time) crowd and the casual (relaxed) people. If it's not there, we'll move on. Hopefully by the time we done exploring the new content, there will be more MMORPG of equal quality and with fun enough gameplay to keep us occupied.
i think you hit the nail on the head.
all the "established" guilds with tier 2/3, aq40 gear, all the PVP gods with full warlords/grandmarshals sets......
Blizzard just reset the playing field so all of their shiny epics aren't as shiny anymore. this makes them angry because they are no longer top dogs.
They probably will be top dogs once they get to 70 and start raiding again, but people are just pissed that Blizzard reset the playing field.
i have many epics (6/8 tier 1 and other MC/ZG/AQ20 gear) but im trying to replace them with kick ass new greens/blues from Outland... why? MUCH cheaper repair bills when you are wearing plate ;)
All I have to say is I played WoW without BC, i am not a hardcore gamer, by that i mean i don't spend every minute of my life on the game, sorry i have a life
Yet i do spend a good bit, and i went out and got BC the day after it came out, only to come up with more of a reason to quit, so many people enjoy playing it, but all you have do is press buttons, absolutely no skill involved the new areas and new instance, yes they are new more quests but it is just same old lets grind and get gear for end game that is pretty boring as it is
Sorry but i do have to say i can't wait for a game to come out that has more of a user hands on skill required to play
i think MMORPG.com needs to have an OpEd piece about WoW by someone who is not soooooooo biased....
not just saying this because I completely disagree, but there isn't any objectivity in this piece..
Like everyone else, of course entitled to their own opinion, but to post this as an editorial review is a joke
only way to counter is have someone else on staff who is just as biased (but from opposite end of spectrum) post their impressions
What Jon has said is fairly negative but you as a lot of other people are taking it as biased? It is biased if he doesn’t like WoW but he does. Everything he has written was correct, the expansion is the same game with more faction grinding. What exactly do you want him to write? Oh the games got loads of new content... No wait its actually got lots more of the same content.
In short he’s said what he feels about the expansion and every word of it was correct.
you are right that he has stated his opinion, but to say every word is correct is false as opinions by their very nature are neither correct nor are they incorrect... they are simply one's opinion. A matter of perspective and individual experience.
i can't remember who said it, but if you didn't like/don't like WoW you are not going to like TBC.
I love WoW and I love TBC.
just found it funny that for all the "haters" who dislike WoW for one reason or another they get Jon to post an extremely negative review of TBC as a "see told ya so! WoW sux!" for all the haters to eat up
If you can, please find me an MMO without a grind (for anything) and quests that are not more of the same. i'll be waiting. and no one say Vanguard because that is simply a lie, quests are exactly the same, but there is more of a grind to make it "hardcore"
WoW IMO simply has the best and most fun "grind" and the most interesting quests and environments in which to quest. Those who say it's just a button mash do not know how to play their character, and those who says it requires no skill must have been sleeping through the 50+ instances/raids, or they never got a toon that high in level.
All in my opinion, of course. call me a "fanboi" but i'm not trying to write an OpEd piece as an objective review
You want a game that is more accessible than WoW in terms of accomplishment since you don't have the time to play it while on the same time you want something that is complex enough that you can brag about your skills in it? I can think of one game like this, chess. But that's not a computer game (not really). Which game currently in the market come close to the game you envision as the best for you?
You do know that in the world of warcraft, the main objective in the game is to succeed in endgame? So by saying this game is "this" and "that', you're really judging the whole game on your 4 levels of experiencem, even though the main content of BC is at lvl 70.
Too bad the game may lose many players due to the repetition and unimaginative nature of the game mechanics.
These mechanics have been in the game and the MMO's industry for a long time now and if the current playerbase hasn't realized this, well they're in for a suprise.
Despite the new look, because the questing and grinding is the same, Burning Crusade is just Warcraft plain and simple.
A warcraft expansion is.. wait for it... WARCRAFT!
Wow geez thanks for stating the obvious, next time I should ask Blizzard if my EQ expansion works with their game.
"Burning Crusade is... the same Warcraft as before."
How is that biased if it's true? This line is enough to tell me my money is far better spent NOT returning to this game (as if the hugely immature community wasn't reason enough). Blizzard has proved well enough to me they care more about money than a good game, and all WoW is is a well-designed version of thsame tried, tried, tried, and cloned, cloned, cloned gameplay found in 99% of the MMOs out there, in particular the 3D ones. WoW just happens to be the funnest grind for end-game raids and fancy loot (and it makes sense, Blizzard are AMAZING game designers). The same tired concept of a MMORPG in the Warcraft universe doesn't make it a good game. It's just, oh my god, MORE OF THE SAME! The only difference is the context. So instead of an EQ ogre, you're playing a horde tauren. Instead of an AO Omni Opifex Nano-technician, you're a gnome mage. Instead of your Warforged paladin, you're a dwarf paladin. And this expansion is simply further proof that Blizzard cares more about money than making an innovative and creative MMO.
The reason WoW will eventually die out into a die-hard playerbase is because it has no content (raiding was content in Everquest and hasn't been since). It has nothing to immerse players (WoW's very click-and-watch in all aspects, PVE/PVP just requires a lot more clicking, not too involving). It has no story that makes you feel useful (Gratz, Thrall gave Orgrimmar a buff because you killed that big bad orc and his dragon in Blackrock. He only did that 6 million times before for the same reason). It has no evolving plotline for players to follow and affect (content patches, as hard it is for me to call what they add "content", are not a story). WoW has nothing to offer that is new, unique, original, immersive, or different from most every other MMO on the market. This expansion was nothing more than a content patch you had to pay for. It wasn't a real expansion because it didn't expand on the game. It just added on more of the same. As more games come out, people are going to move on to whatever else is pretty and somehow improves upon the same old, same old, or plays it out in such a context that it holds attention for more than a week. Or, maybe an MMO will come out that is trying to be new, different, and truly fresh in this festering pile of loot mongering and level grinding that the MMO genre has become, and change things for the better?
Sadly, but true...
Just found more free space on my harddisk
Nice Game
1. The company. Blizzard is one of the elites in the industry. You can trust them to make fair, fun, and well designed games. From a game designer's standpoint, World of Warcraft is simply breathtaking.
2. It's Warcraft! How many copies of the series have been sold? Or just the first, and the second, and the third?
3. Battle.net. The vast amount of players of this free online network for Diablo, Warcraft, and Starcraft gave Blizzard many more followers and loyal gamers than had Bnet never existed. People who never play Warcraft online (and surely some who never played a warcraft game ever) knew they'd be getting a good and stable service in a Blizzard MMO.
4. It's casual safe. You don't need a team, ever, to get the best equipment and to enjoy the game, least of all have to grunge through a raid. Providing compotent and doable solo content broadened their available market.
I really don't think that this Expansion is worth $40.
I would pay $20, but $40 bucks and a Game card for $30 = wait till AOC or WAR and enjoy my XBOX 360 for a while.
have ta agree
I thought the review was incredibly biased, in a way that just looks down-right unprofessional. You really have to wonder whether the author even plays MMOs, because many of the things he blasts WoW for are staples of the genre. The author of the article goes out of his way to specifically knock the idea of a city in the Outlands where both the Alliance and Horde coexist. To the author, this is a ridiculous concept that he has never seen before. He asks how this is justified with WoW lore. I suppose the author has never been to Booty Bay, Ratchet, Gadgetzan, Cenarion Hold, or Light's Hope Chapel. It really highlights how he's just writing a review to reinforce his own negative opinions of the game.
The author, to his credit, is right about rep grinds. It's a gay mechanic, and there are a lot more of them to do. However, to be fair these rep grind really are not bad at all. Blizzard really screwed this up in the first game, and made us go through many brutal rep grinds. So when you first get to the Outland, you think it's going to be just as brutal. It's not. I'm not saying the mechanic isn't gay, just that it's not nearly as bad as it used to be. Then again, maybe it just doesn't *feel* as bad.
Also, I'd like to comment on how delusional most forum posters are. I know I'm lumping you all in together, but here is how I view you people. When I see you knocking WoW, it's because the game is too easy for a hardcore, accomplished MMO gamer like yourself. Then you go on to explain how you quit because you didn't like grinding for gear or xp or being in a guild. You then go crazy over a little anecdote about how scrubs with crap gear are beating epic-geared raiders, which shows just how unaccomplished a player you actually are. So yes people, I imagine that you derelects who hate guilds and raiders and grinds were the top gamers in UO, EQ, DAoC or whatever. You are like those people on American Idol who absolutely suck balls at singing but have no sense of self-awareness. And you're hilarious to watch! Hardcore MMO players who quit WoW cause they didn't like grinding for gear or xp or being in guilds? LMAO!
Is it your contention that the 8 million WoW players only play because they were huge fans of WC 1 and/or Diablo?
Sit down and think about it. Is this your contention?
All the casual players that play this game - girls and old people, housewives, etc. All those people only play because they know about Blizzard's reputation? They know all reputations of the numerous gaming development and publishing companies? Not only are these casual players exceptionall well-informed about the gaming industry, they are also champions of WC1 and Diablo.
Is that it? Is that what you're claiming?
Further, I quit WoW after 8 months from retail, and the only raid boss I ever saw was Lucifron, through PUGs, and fought him collectively? 4 times? Never did get him, though. Your generalization, even of the hardcore gamers (of which I am not) that replied, is pretty untrue and unfair o_O
some more reasons could be...
5. Its the most stabel mmo on the market suiteble for almost every decent pc.
6. It atracted more then gamers alone, people that never even heard or played warcraft before, but been bombarded with add/commercials, and Blizzard really knows how to market and make great Intro movies.
Not playing anymore cause i kept missing some form of immersivness but never found it in WOW but had fun tho while i played, but if technology lets it and if there ever will be a WOW 2 that will look and play like the intro-movies they make then i'll be there and really would call something like that Nex-Gen.
I most certainly did not. You listed the 3 biggest reasons of WoW's success as having to do with Blizzard's reputation before WoW. It's an absurd notion that 8 million people knew or even cared who Blizzard was. If it was the reason WoW was so popular, then you would have expected Diablo to have 8 million players too.
Glad you admit that you're not a hardcore gamer. Most elitists on this board would not admit that fact, when their record of MMO accomplishments is as non-existant as yours. But my characterization is most definitely not unfair. Just about every single elitist on this board is a MMO loser, who can't get into a good guild and has no MMO accomplishments worth noting. It's so easy to spot. How can you be an MMO elitist and simultaneous bash WoW for having to get gear and join a guild?
Yes, you did, and you're leaving out the fourth in your argument, which is probably the biggest reason of all; WoW is a casual friendly game. This modern world is quite busy, and you'd be surprised just how many people out there play video games. Did you know the mobile phone game market consists largely of soccer moms? And now, when the lemonade is made and the game is done, they can sit back for a couple hours, socialize with some of their friends, and play something that helps them relate to their kids. Blizzard's reputation for good games, and the stability and fun of Diablo and Warcraft and Starcraft online provided WoW with a rather large garaunteed initial player base, which included me. I never once said 8 million people play based purely on Blizzard's reputation alone. I never once even gave numbers. I merely listed rather plausable reasons why it's so popular. Please do not try to argue by putting words into my mouth. For that matter, why ARE we arguing about this?
You know, I am a very casual player, and I still have to agree with you. The point of a review is to be objective and explain what's going on in the game. Whining about the new factions is silly, as it should have been obvious they were going to exists, and I think there are even fewer factions in the Outland than Azeroth. Add to that the fact that they made reputation come faster, and that's just a case of bad journalism. He should know better, and he should be more professional.
Tell us what's going on; don't whine like a baby because you have to level up and get new faction in an expansion; that's what happens in expansions. Terrible writing, and terrible bias. I'm irked again by the reviews here.
You are taking what he said and saying that he said something he didn't say.
(Yes I did that because it was fun for me.)
He never made that contention, but you said he did, and then made that contention sound stupid. Of course that's a terrible idea. No one would ever say that the 8million people that bought WoW played their other games, but I bet almost everyone who bought it back in the first November was already a Blizzard gamer. That's the only reason GW is so popular; they already had a fan base, because, in essence, they are the people who were once Blizzard, and now Blizzard is full of different people.
It would be stupid and wrong to say that all 8million people loved Blizzard before, but it would be just as stupid to claim that that isn't a factor in their popularity.
I was never a huge fan of Blizzard's former games and I was in early beta and bought WOW on day 1. Diablo was boring and I never could get into their style of RTS games for very long. Too much base building, micromanagement and zerging.
People do not just play a game because its made by a company they like. They might buy one, but they won't play it for months unless they like it. People only play games they find fun. The name has very little to do with it, especially when it comes to MMOGs and paying monthly fees. EQ2 shouldn't done just as well as EQ1. SWG would've sold 30 million. DDO would've sold waaaay more than WOW. Name only sparks interest. A quality game doesn't need anything other than word of mouth and WOW has that in spades. Amazing reviews from every single reputable source helps;)
That's certainly true. I was so excited about DDO, but when I played the Beta, I was so disillusioned that I had to stop. I already had a preorder, so I went ahead and got it, and played it for a while, but it was just too terrible. I couldn't keep playing. It was very dissapointing for me to be unable to play a game set in a world where I have roleplayed for years.
I wouldn't call this review biased. I'd call it the truth. And if you can't stand how reviews often offer opinions from the writer about what they're reviewing (which is the whole point of a review) then don't read them. If you like it and they don't, why does it bother you? Their review doesn't effect you. It's telling potential new players and long gone old players if it's worth checking out. TBC is, thanks TO these kinds of reviews, very much not worth my time. And just for the record, if he glorified faction grinding as opposed to putting it down, I STILL would not have bought TBC, because it'd be just that: faction grinding.
I've been playing this game since October 2005 with on-and-off break periods. In November 2006, my friends encouraged me to play again, so I reactivated my subscription.
I hit 60 on my Tauren Warrior two weeks before the expansion came out, and was shaking with excitement for it. I hurried with any last minute things and quests, got my mining/blacksmithing to 300 each, and sat back waiting for the portal to open.
Midnight on the 16th, we went to GameStop and waited for the store to open. Once the gates raised, we rushed in with hundreds of other people and grabbed our copies. We rushed home hurriedly to install the game and jump into Outland.
Out of the 6 of us, 2 had corrupted CDs, and 1 other had 2 disk 1 CDs, so only half of us were able to install. I was praying that I wouldn't get the corrupted error. Pretty sad when you paid fourty bucks for something and you have to pray for it to work?
I logged on, and rushed through the portal, excited for any tasks ahead. The minute I stepped into Hellfire, I was disappointed. First off, something is very wrong with the current graphics engine in Outland. I'm running my PC on a 7800GT, 1.5GB of RAM, and a 2.4GHz AMD processor. In Azeroth, I was always getting 60FPS straight. Even in 40-man raids. But just from looking at the sky, it cut down to 32. What the heck is this?! I thought maybe it'd go away, so I kept playing.
I flew into Thrallmar and grabbed every quest available. The bombing runs were really appealing and fun to me. I was, however disappointed once again when I saw that the greens that I recieved from the quest easily replaced my Epic PVP set. All the time I had spent getting that honor had just flown out the window!
After finishing basic quests, I was told to report to 4 different outposts, which all gave me about 4-6 quests. OH BOY, A FULL QUEST LOG! Hmm...where to start? Oh! Each quest has me walk ALL OVER THE ZONE! Great! So in 4 hours, I can finish 6-8 quests! Oh boy, great job there, Blizzard!
7 hours later, I hit 61! Finally! Maybe I can leave this hellhole and go somewhere better! WRONG! More quests, more quests, and more quests! They flooded my log until it was full, so I said SCREW THIS! Cleared them all, and went on to Zangarmarsh.
SHROOMS! BLUENESS! Everything's blue! And dark! Wow, how creative. I go to the neutral Cenarion town, and guess what: MORE QUESTS! TONS! I couldn't take it any longer. I was so bored and stressed with having to run everywhere, I just logged off and made a Blood Elf Mage, something I had been wanting to do for months.
OH BOY, THREE THOUSAND BEs! Hundreds camping one quest mob, and you'll never get it unless you target-macro! Great...
After 9 hours and finally hitting level 10 (something I could easily have done in an hour and a half), I uninstalled and cancelled my subscription. I just can't stand another 10 levels of repetitive grinding and questing, the huge amount of carebears, the annoyingness of one race plaguing a server, and everyone screaming and whining.
Blizzard, IMO, failed with this expansion. Now, I'm waiting for WHO or AoC, I'm sure after those are released, you'll start seeing this 2 year-old game's population drop by the double digits in percent.
For all who enjoy this steaming pile of horse manure, good luck with it!
I feel sorry for you and I know the feeling, I bought the Alien invasion expansion for AO, played for 4 or so months and the only aliens I EVER fought were in the newbie area, because orgs were too high level, not active enough at mine, and my only real option was to pray for some rare mission drop or reward or something to call the aliens in. That was fun.
It's amusing to see people think questing is the only way to gain xp, if you dont like quests, dont do them simple as that. Also, its your own fault for spending all that time getting the pvp set when we all knew that in BC greens will be better than lvl 60 epics.
Killing mobs
Finishing Quests
also some from "exploring" a new area
so if you plan to level in WoW you might as well do quests since they will almost invariably require to kill something along the way.
Now for a item driven game at the level cap do you expect people to not play just incase an expansion is going to come out.
It's either grind, or grind while you quest. At least one nets you rep and extra loot.
I knew what was coming, I thought 2 races won't save a game, and the game will be exactly the same stuff over and over..
So well, I finally quited, now I'm waiting for AoC, which seems to have what I expect from a MMORPG, meanwhile I sometimes play AA
but that has nothing to do with it
This review was poorly done to say the least. I am not here to argue that it should have shown TBC in a different light, just one with more accuracy. This so called "review" ressembles more a QQ post on things he didnt like such as rep grinds he clearly dislikes. So to go into more detail about this "inaccuracy" I would like to say a few things regaurding this article.
1. First off I would like to talk about the different rep groups there are. Yes, there are many different rep groups that have been added, however he made the false assumption that the rep "grind" was the way it was pre-BC. Rep is much easier to get. Do the instances in the zone a couple times and bam ur at honored. Plenty of qeusts that will give u rewards in gear, money, and rep. The very first zone, there is an instance with 4 parts (however 1 is a raid so I will leave that one out.) The first 2 can give rep up to honored very quickly. Add in rep from qeusts u initially get and the grind is already have done in a couple days. The at lvl 70 u do the last wing and because u have lvled up more qeusts are now avaible to you thus giving u access to more rep. The reviewer of this article, not having spent more time investigating and lvling would not have known this.
2. Another fact about the rep would be the nuumbers of groups. Although there are many groups to gain rep with, he failed to mention that with a few groups, gaining rep with one will cause your rep to drop with another thus making choices in who you side with (ex. scryer vs. alador) more important and cutting down on the number of factions to get rep with.
3. Another thing the reviewer complains about is the look of the first zone as compared to the existing blasted lands. While yes it may look similar, many parts of the zone are very unique (demon held forge camps, the warp fields, the canyon area to southwest, ect.) and hold a variety of different things to do and see. Even the parts that do look similar have rifts of fire shooting out, burning crevices, and such. But yes it does share similarties although it is to be expected as WC3:TFT showed what the hellfire area looked like so it was already established in looks so no getting around that unless they changed everything which would have been worse.
4. He also harps on the city of Shattrah being blue (meaning no pvp). This may seem out of line with the whole idea of war however within the story and importance of the city of Shattrah it is easy to understand why this is so and pvp would actually seem out of fit for this major city (in terms of player use and story lore). This is the only city that is blue so its no big deal and evidently the reviewer just likes gankers in cities i guess.
5. He also complains about qeusts that are nothing more then kill x and kill y then bring back z. While these qeusts do exist he has failed to mention the other types of qeusts that can be found. There are the bombing missions, qeusts which involve collection materials to create costumes to infiltrate and assasinate, spy, collect, those that involve. There are quests that involve long story arcs that will involve different quest types, items, places, and tell the story of the zone, person, ect. The review since he just touched upon different things would only have found the qeusts to kill stuff since they are usually the first ones u get since it helps u explore the zone looking for the creatues/humaniods and gives u a feel for the enimies of the particular faction, and helps u understand the events going on in the zone before u start to get actively involved in working within the story. So while his short sighted view of the avaiable quests is not accurate, it is understandable how he would come to this conlusion.
6. Next I would like to talk about the pvp outdoor objectives. He calls them a grind but has failed to mention the mechanics or what rewards they yeild. For this example I will discuss the pvp city of Halaa in the Nagrand zone. Basically you cap the city the same way you do a tower in EPL. However once that happens the city becomes yours with vendors and gaurds spawning inside along with the quartermaster (more on him later when i disscuss vendor rewards). Then on the outskirts of the city, enemey flight points spawn on which they can will then take to the air and drop bombs upon your city in an attempt to kill the gaurds then storm you and take the city back. By kill players within this area you are awarded tokens which can be redeemed for rewards from the quartermaster which is only avaiable to you when you are in control of the city. So he calls it a grind but basically is controlled ganking and with objectives in a non instanced area which many people have been asking for, so although he may not like it, it isnt hard and its what players have been asking for.
Well I think I have wrote enough and I will stop here before i get the "To long didnt read posts" of which I am sure I will still have. But for those who did read some or all of it and would like to discuss further, I am open to civil discussion. I will not get involed in a flame war so plz civil discussion would be appreciated.
1 expansion in 2 years....well look at other games, they bring out an expansion for ever little thing they are going to put into the game, like Everquest and guild wars, Blizzard gave us ZG Naxx, and so on for free, if u people would wanta pay for them just so u get the trill of a expansion more often. Email blizzard and complain, but there is alot of people that notice this and like that we don't have to pay 50 so often.
OMG Hellfire looks like blasted lands, well...the portal is there....and if u didn't relise when the legion come from the outlands the land got tainted from outlands...maybe...look guys the shit u cry about in here on a game that u don't even like and people don't give a shit what u think, if u think about it for 2 seconds if that u would notice that u really don't have anyidea what u are talking about....not even for a second....at all.....none that's it.
How do u lvl in any mmorpg....quests, why the fuck would u cry about there being more quests, do u want to grind 10 lvl worth of xp..a normal person wouldn't want to.
Horde and allaince not killing one another on pvp servers because they want to get to lvl 70....if you want to pvp, right click on them....its a pvp server after all. How can u cry about a lack of pvp on a pvp server..... the only think u can go on about is there being 2 much pvp going on...that the case...why the hell did u go onto a pvp server.....reroll if u hate it that much, or email blizzard its not that hard, they get money they are going to move your chacter whereever and its not like it costs that much.
So just to finish off, if u don't like the game we don't give a rats arse, if u think the game is just the same u do quests and pvp, find me a mmorpg that u don't do that plz!!!!!!!, and im happy with $50 for 2 years, then $50 every 3-6 months.
Thx Shand (70 Rogue Lightbringer Allaince)
I had to comment you cause you kept saying you don't give a rats arse what people think or say tho you doing nothing more then reacting on those people you so called don't care about, futher more keep in mind this is a forum, people are free to say what they want so are you, discussions might be negative/positive, its what gives us the ability to have opinions. Sure some people arn't as mature to get into a good healthy discussion and they start to flame away, i just feel sorry for people like that and know better for meself
. So what i'm kinda saying here is that if you don't give a rats ass don't react to those people, it only makes you look silly because you shown us you do care ;) Now you think about what you have written for 2 seconds...again ;)
And the biggest question i would like to be answered (not personal to you Tokiking) just overall.
" What has BC done for for the overall state of WOW/BC, i couldn't help myself and payed yet another month sub. for WOW/BC to see if i might be wrong to cancel wow( i did already cancel just after 10 minutes of BC at release date), but when i was back ingame all the normal populated area's where empty, the only thing populated is the newbie race zones and bc, so BC has actualy asfar i could see damaged the overall game, also wished that the new rases would be more unique, well the only thing that can be done is become a jewelcrafter, but for the rest all the profs are the same, lvl 1 to 20 of the new races cool and enjoyeble but after that same same and same.
People please read that this is my personal opinion like most people write down their personal opinions
Well, there are a lot of things going on at blizzard right now. All these changes has prevented me from buying TBC, it has made me quit WoW, it has made me quit the MMORPG genre (due to that I can´t find any new games a bit similar to WoW) and perhaps even computer games. I have listed the ten pretty unintresting statements below, feel free to read if you have a lot of time. =P
I appologize for any harsh language or spelling mistakes I might have done, but I´ve edited it ONCE at least. :P
10 things that are now f****ed up about World of Warcraft
1. The new armor sets
Since the update when Tier 3 came into play, you can see lack of quality in the armor sets. Poor thoughts, not too much time designing them. A person on the offical WoW forums stated this when he saw the new tier 4 rogue set: "Naa, that can´t be real. It just looks like they have painted the head black and added the eyes". My own favorites are "Rogue tier 5 looks like Skeletor!" and "From now on the paladin will be known as the purple lantern". It´s time to fire the designers.
2. The development team
If you read on the back of the warcraft package it will say something like "The epic tale continues", but to be honest the game doesn´t have any real story at all. Anyone else a bit upset about this? So anyway, the development team promises "There will be story". WoW has been out for two years so far, and there is no story written exept for this part: Draenei=shamans Draenei=paladins Bloodelves are evil and the orcs now venture back to Outland. Is that what you wrote in TWO YEARS TIME, blizzard? Then we have the quest bugs. If you look at Thottbot.com you will see that there are quests which have been bugged for over 9 months now. So there I go, spending three hours on a three-step quest and get no reward? That´s kinda frustrating, but the worst part is that they have been saying for nine months "We will fix it as soon as possible". Come up with something new, because your not developing the game, you´re just ruining it.
3. The lvl 70 cap idea and the new armor in TBC.
So, as blizzard states it is our own choise if we want to buy the Burning Crusade or not. How intresting that you´re saying that, what about us playing on a PvP server? Let´s say you have a party of three lvl 60s and all suddenly this lvl 70 rogue with tier 6 sneaks up on you and attacks you. You won´t stand a chance. This nolifer can go on bugging you for hours and you won´t have a fair chance UNLESS you have bought the expansion pack. Good job Blizzard, but before you make a new release, think it through properly.
4. Character migration
The free character migration is selected by blizzard, and it´s been AGES since I´ve even been able to migrate for free. When you pay 12,50 Euro a month you would think that blizzard would take care of this for you, but no. They will charge you 20 Euro and freeze your account for days before the migration is complete. Well, I´m sitting here, playing on a server with 25% warriors, and being a warrior myself I can´t get to anything because people are more likely to pick that tier 3 equipped, earlier to be rank 14 guy (and there are loads of these warrior nerds). Gearclasses suck, do NOT roll warrior if you want to keep your social life.
5. The "new" proffession
The new proffession Jewelcrafting is almost similar to enchanting. Boasting about a new proffession is pretty much nonsense to me.
6. The storyline does not make sense
If you look at wow-europes website and read about Paladins it will say "protectors of the alliance". Recently renegade Bloodelf Paladins came to join the horde, but do they still protect the alliance? I would rather see some in-deapht story and not this nonsense. Shut off WoW and start making Warcraft 4, that´s my clear messege to Blizzard. WoW has gone to the point where the development team can do anything they want and still expect income.
7. Changing the classes, the racial treats and the PvP system
Blizzard made a horrible mistake when they launched TBC. They added Paladins to the horde faction, resulting in that the shamans no longer get invited to raid groups. The shamans have become a PvP class, unable to raid. Do you want all shamans to reroll paladin or what were you thinking? Plus that now there are no longer any diffrences between the opposite factions.
After changing the classes the orcs seemed to powerful. So those who were smart and rolled orc shaman got reduced in two ways. The orcs racial treats were made less powerful by for example reducing the chance to resist stun. The orcs are probably hated by Blizzard as well. If the orcs seemed too powerful to you you should have changed it before the release of WoW, that´s what I would have done anyway.
Last of all we have the PvP system. The ones who spent 14 hours a day to get their rank 14 gear will now know that they did it all invain. Blizzard, instead of changing your game you must think it through before the release.
8. The ultimatley useless and bugging LFG channel
The LFG channel has become a channel for spamming out messenges that no one wants to listen to. When you see someone starting to tell bad Chuck Norris jokes and soon everyone does, you will write /leave 4 and won´t be able to find a group unless if you agree to listen to this nonsense for 20 minutes. Thank GOD for the new LFG thingy (even if it itsn´t working very well yet, or so I´ve heard. Oo).
9. The website and the forums
Who is responsable for the website? I mean, come on, it takes forever to see any updated news on WoWs site. It still says that TBC FAQ:s will "soon be answered". The release date was two weeks ago. The forums are not accessable even if you have payed 150 Euro to blizzard in monthly fees. No, I don´t have an ACTIVE account so I can´t post anything at the forums or discuss with other players. This has been bugging me for a long time.
10. The Gamemasters - totally useless
The GM:s on WoW seem to think of themselves a bit like the world police. When someone needs help or if something is wrong they just say "It will be fixed soon" and then go back to playing WoW. However, if their own game experiance becomes disturbed in any way they are quick to report it to Blizzard. I´ve seen examples on this. But the worst thing is that the GM:s do not know the rules that apply to players, because they havn´t read them. Do these people get payed or what? "Give me a salery, I´m a WoW 1337 P14Y4h!"