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World of Warcraft News - Chatting With Blizzard
Posted by Dana Massey on Oct 06, 2009 | 54 comments in our forums
Blizzard VP Frank Pearce and World of Warcraft Production Director J. Allen Brack recently spoke to MMORPG.com about the company, Cataclysm and the state of World of Warcraft.
When interviewing and talking with Production Director J. Allen Brack about the upcoming additions to World of Warcraft there were a lot of ideas that look great for the game. The MMO market is changing and WoW is set to change with it. Their system of the five man, 10 man, and 25 man advancement dungeons are tiered so that players with all kinds of time can enjoy the game. If you do not have the time to raid every night, you have the chance to do instances and still gain the epic gear in the game. Brack was definitely excited about Patch 3.3 were players will get the chance to square off against the Lich King himself and hope to add some epic storylines into the dungeons they are creating. The idea of a two handed legendary axe named Shadowmourne has Death Knights, Hunters, and Warriors eager with excitement. Patch 3.3 will have normal and heroic five-man, normal and heroic ten and twenty five man instances. You can except some heavy lore added in this patch about Northrend and the Lich King himself. The patch will close out the Lich King story line and lead into the new ear that we all know as Cataclysm.
;)
Read it all here.
No matter what you say about WOW or Blizzard - noone can take away the fact that they create quality GAMES. Gaming has nothing to do with fancy graphics - long loading screens and boring side issues. Its pure and simple. Fun !
I'd agree, but WoW isn't fun.
It sure took them, the companies, awhile to realize that if they are just starting to see.
Now I just hope they realize there needs to be more than just vanilla and chocolate as flavors for games.
I'd agree, but WoW isn't fun.
To me WoW isnt a quality game either, I do however think and hope they will pull off their next mmo way better. (yes I'm talking from my own perspective since I know its a huge success in general no matter how you look at it)
I'd agree, but WoW isn't fun.
I have to disagree. WoW is fun. But it just a matter of opinion. Is it my favorite MMO? Not even close but compared to the current offerings on the market and with what my pos system will run it is best value atm.
I'd agree, but WoW isn't fun.
ahh I like how you state that as fact :). I have fun playing WoW... does that make me wierd? I mean I must be if I find it fun when it is not...
Pretty sure the rest of the millions of players are weird too what kind of a normal person pays money to play a non fun game...
Lets just say that what is fun for you may not be fun for me and what is fun for millions of players is not fun for you :) there we do agree, but your statement is not fact. Its just an opinion.
LOL graphics has EVERYTHING to do with quality,that is what brings the game to life.If it was just text based and mechanics with no graphics it would be dull and boring.
The quality part is a debate as cheap is not really considered to be quality imo anyhow.If you went to buy a coffee table,would cal la veneer top quality? or would the natural cherry wood grain finish be considered quality?again this leads back to visual.I hope i made the point clear enough.
No i am also fair i realize wow has lots of mechanics and lots of maps and lots of different battles and variety in classes.
The graphics were ONLY done to cater to their already fanbase and the ease of creating the game.This also is why they used the cheap game engine,they went for the cheap approach,the easiest way to get a game out.Nothing in the creation of wow was planned to make a solid game for the user,they went with what they knew from EQ and what they already had.
Ok now here is my other beef.The community,ok that is not Blizzard's fault,except when you cater to the warcraft crowd using the same graphics ,you ARE catering to kids.My biggest beef is in the way Blizzard has transpired over the years.Ok they made a cheap version of Eq fine,that is what they had to go with ,so they did their best.They figured to make up for the lack of game versus EQ,they would offer easier leveling and bigger rewards for doing the simplest quests.So in essence they were BRIBING their fanbase.I can see it, the kids need pampering.
Ok it does not end there.After years of making millions,it is about time Blizzard stepped up and delivered their game back to the customers who made them rich.Step up and re do the textures,other games have done it ,Blizzard most certainly could do it.
Why ?because looking at a tree with a terrible looking bark texture ruins the atmosphere for me.Why? because looking at rock and it looks like one big texture pasted onto the side of one big brush ,loses everything for me,it just looks bad and fake.Personally i think Blizzard did not know they would be a success,this has come back to bite them.Their game engine is soooo cheap their hands are tied for turning the game into anything good looking.Their payroll and staff is SOoooo huge they can't afford to do anything for the game,that they cannot sell to it's customer.
In the end ,if i want to see a better designed WOW,i look to EQ2,and i have been there in both games.The ONLY way WOW could ever become a good QUALITY game is to redo it with a better game engine and better textures and proper lighting and use of shaders.As is i fails in almost every area of QUALITY.
WoW is still fun . Its just not as much fun as it used to be . Its been aimed far too much at the casual and younger gamers at the expence of gamers that prefer a little more challenge . Thats ok but its not for me as it stands . I never say never about coming back but cant see it for a while am happy enough in Aion and Lotro at the moment .
The other issue I have with wow is the raid content. I don't care if they drop the loot tables down but they should give at least 5 man versions of all dungeons.
Worst idea ever it would just ruin raiding
LOL graphics has EVERYTHING to do with quality,that is what brings the game to life.If it was just text based and mechanics with no graphics it would be dull and boring.
IMHO, EQ2 graphics look like garbage. Utter and complete garbage. Unless seeing a guy with an iguana head run around in plastic-looking armor is somehow revolutionary in the world where you live. I played EQ, GW, WoW and EQ2, in that order, and of the 4, I hated the look of EQ2 the most -by far-.
So beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder. As for WoW, the graphic style falls perfectly in line with the RTS games.
What in the game is fun for you?
WOW and quality? Hmm, maybe if you look at bugs...but it is a very single minded game, there is nothing to do aside from getting gear. I played EQ and SWG and EQ2 as well as a variety of other games.....wow is very simple.....but also unbalanced in terms of PvP.
Just look at shaman and compare them to what other hybrids can do....shaman are a joke.
Until blizzard can move away from the FOTM class (which they won't as it is their "gimick" to keep younger l33t seeking players in the game) I will never return.
EQ2? That game I would return to if they did something with their graphics.........
AoC wasnt too bad and WAR was OK, but somewhat single tracked as well.
SWG, the perfect game in my opinion, at least the Pre CU was.......I still can not understand how they never rolled at least one server back.....it is amazing how the human mind can be so creative yet utterly stupid and stubborn at the same time.
LOL graphics has EVERYTHING to do with quality,that is what brings the game to life.If it was just text based and mechanics with no graphics it would be dull and boring.
The quality part is a debate as cheap is not really considered to be quality imo anyhow.If you went to buy a coffee table,would cal la veneer top quality? or would the natural cherry wood grain finish be considered quality?again this leads back to visual.I hope i made the point clear enough.
No i am also fair i realize wow has lots of mechanics and lots of maps and lots of different battles and variety in classes.
The graphics were ONLY done to cater to their already fanbase and the ease of creating the game.This also is why they used the cheap game engine,they went for the cheap approach,the easiest way to get a game out.Nothing in the creation of wow was planned to make a solid game for the user,they went with what they knew from EQ and what they already had.
Ok now here is my other beef.The community,ok that is not Blizzard's fault,except when you cater to the warcraft crowd using the same graphics ,you ARE catering to kids.My biggest beef is in the way Blizzard has transpired over the years.Ok they made a cheap version of Eq fine,that is what they had to go with ,so they did their best.They figured to make up for the lack of game versus EQ,they would offer easier leveling and bigger rewards for doing the simplest quests.So in essence they were BRIBING their fanbase.I can see it, the kids need pampering.
Ok it does not end there.After years of making millions,it is about time Blizzard stepped up and delivered their game back to the customers who made them rich.Step up and re do the textures,other games have done it ,Blizzard most certainly could do it.
Why ?because looking at a tree with a terrible looking bark texture ruins the atmosphere for me.Why? because looking at rock and it looks like one big texture pasted onto the side of one big brush ,loses everything for me,it just looks bad and fake.Personally i think Blizzard did not know they would be a success,this has come back to bite them.Their game engine is soooo cheap their hands are tied for turning the game into anything good looking.Their payroll and staff is SOoooo huge they can't afford to do anything for the game,that they cannot sell to it's customer.
In the end ,if i want to see a better designed WOW,i look to EQ2,and i have been there in both games.The ONLY way WOW could ever become a good QUALITY game is to redo it with a better game engine and better textures and proper lighting and use of shaders.As is i fails in almost every area of QUALITY.
You're labouring under a few misconceptions as far as WoW's graphics are concerned, the graphics are the way they are for reasons that have nothing at all to do with being "cheap".
First and foremost Blizzard understood that if you create a game with absolute bleeding-edge visuals you just nuked your potential player base, bleeding-edge visuals require bleeding-edge hardware to run them, if they had wanted WoW to be so top of the line visually they had more than enough resources to do so, even before the success of WoW bringing in the money it undoubtedly does.
So the graphics were created to not only evoke the RTS game graphics, essentially easing the transition of its Warcraft I to III players to the new environment, but also to be playable by as wide a selection of PC's as was reasonable to do while preserving the level of desired quality, they therefore took a long & in depth approach to the grahics and laboured quite intensively to allow even low-end machines to run the game satisfactorily.
So cheap is a misconception, the graphics engine was simply tuned to a different purpose than giving a convincing suspension of disbelief, it was tuned to low end performance & then built to upscale from that point upwards, it's in the upscaling that the limitations of the engine show up, so cheap it was not, but highly tuned, polished & tweaked it certainly is, & with good reason.
As far as the article itself goes, well I prefer the older hardcore games, but I recognise quality when I see it, & the quality I see is the aim/goal of what the warcraft devs are setting out to do, which is provide a fun game to as many people as they can, and not have the "gating" of content that the bulk of the WoW audience would not/does not enjoy.
Personally I don't like WoW, there is too much about it which is not to my tastes, but it's not that WoW does anything "wrong" they have an audience & they aim to cater to it, I'm just not a member of their audience because I want different things from a game than WoW gives.
Overall though I did enjoy the article, it shows Blizzard are doing what they love.....making games.
Other developers should focus harder on making games & focus less on squeezing every dime from their players, they might get more subs/revenue when they pour as much passion into creating & developing their games as it is clear Blizzard do.
Worst idea ever it would just ruin raiding
Ever? That's really pushing it don't you think?. I mean those kids who shot up Columbine, or Bin Ladens 9/11 ideas were way worse.
I don't think 5 man everything would work but it's not the worst idea ever.
To me WoW isnt a quality game either, I do however think and hope they will pull off their next mmo way better. (yes I'm talking from my own perspective since I know its a huge success in general no matter how you look at it)
If WOW is not a quality game, then there has never been a quality game released...
I agree. I would never say WoW isn't a quality game.
It has set a remarkable standard WRT to polish and quantity of content.
Interesting article, one thing stood out for me personally. They've talked about the new races here and how leveling alts isn't huge amounts of fun but the question that springs to mind here is: Do people need more alts even if there are new races? I already have four lv80s and aren't even playing much anymore, can i even be bothered to level with different races, different quests but similar class mechanics and end game expectations? I'm not sure, but this maybe a temporary change in policy for Blizz to try and move away from an end game intensive experience, (where it seems most of the playerbase blow through the new content anyway, what with the changes to difficulty over the years), to a questing leveling one at least at the beginning at Cataclysm anyway.
It might be a smart move, considering how many complain about buffing/nerfing class and how, 'easy' the game has become making the alt leveling an attractive option might head off potential rivals to WoW's now hardcore fickle fanbase. Then again I could be wrong and next week they tell us this Path of the Titans system is so hardcore that even Jenna Jameson can't take it, who knows :P
hey dude if your able to speak to blizzard tell em they need to add a veteran server no map ,no coord ,no add-on on their hard mode and remove the hard mode from the regular server
why because we need it
And what's stopping you from playing like that? Don't use the map, ignore the coordinates and don't use any add-ons. It really is that simple.
And what's stopping you from playing like that? Don't use the map, ignore the coordinates and don't use any add-ons. It really is that simple.
you know its not the same its nice to be all = gees
I have to disagree. WoW is fun. But it just a matter of opinion. Is it my favorite MMO? Not even close but compared to the current offerings on the market and with what my pos system will run it is best value atm.
WoW was fun in the beginning in my opinion. Before instanced PvP and the horrible loot grind that started in BWL.
I have to disagree. WoW is fun. But it just a matter of opinion. Is it my favorite MMO? Not even close but compared to the current offerings on the market and with what my pos system will run it is best value atm.
WoW was fun in the beginning in my opinion. Before instanced PvP and the horrible loot grind that started in BWL.
i like the weekly style blizzard started but they have to add what made wow huge world pvp ,and weekly is a good format
LOL graphics has EVERYTHING to do with quality,that is what brings the game to life.If it was just text based and mechanics with no graphics it would be dull and boring.
The quality part is a debate as cheap is not really considered to be quality imo anyhow.If you went to buy a coffee table,would cal la veneer top quality? or would the natural cherry wood grain finish be considered quality?again this leads back to visual.I hope i made the point clear enough.
No i am also fair i realize wow has lots of mechanics and lots of maps and lots of different battles and variety in classes.
The graphics were ONLY done to cater to their already fanbase and the ease of creating the game.This also is why they used the cheap game engine,they went for the cheap approach,the easiest way to get a game out.Nothing in the creation of wow was planned to make a solid game for the user,they went with what they knew from EQ and what they already had.
Ok now here is my other beef.The community,ok that is not Blizzard's fault,except when you cater to the warcraft crowd using the same graphics ,you ARE catering to kids.My biggest beef is in the way Blizzard has transpired over the years.Ok they made a cheap version of Eq fine,that is what they had to go with ,so they did their best.They figured to make up for the lack of game versus EQ,they would offer easier leveling and bigger rewards for doing the simplest quests.So in essence they were BRIBING their fanbase.I can see it, the kids need pampering.
Ok it does not end there.After years of making millions,it is about time Blizzard stepped up and delivered their game back to the customers who made them rich.Step up and re do the textures,other games have done it ,Blizzard most certainly could do it.
Why ?because looking at a tree with a terrible looking bark texture ruins the atmosphere for me.Why? because looking at rock and it looks like one big texture pasted onto the side of one big brush ,loses everything for me,it just looks bad and fake.Personally i think Blizzard did not know they would be a success,this has come back to bite them.Their game engine is soooo cheap their hands are tied for turning the game into anything good looking.Their payroll and staff is SOoooo huge they can't afford to do anything for the game,that they cannot sell to it's customer.
In the end ,if i want to see a better designed WOW,i look to EQ2,and i have been there in both games.The ONLY way WOW could ever become a good QUALITY game is to redo it with a better game engine and better textures and proper lighting and use of shaders.As is i fails in almost every area of QUALITY.
Wow is basically the highest quality game you can get from a performance standpoint. The graphics are far from life like but it fits with the lore of the game. They wanted to to feel like your in the world they had in WC 3 and they did an amazing job at that.
this is the dawning of the ear of aquarius
Wow is a great game and brought a lot of fun to people and still is, and blizzard has tried to make it different with every patch and gave us something new everytime (which i admire) - people are only saying it's shit cause its getting old .
The only thing that i didnt see blizzard doing was giving australia it's own servers. When my mates made a public server to stuff around on.... i found my wow experience had gotten so much better, to know that when i cast a "Instant cast" spell it actually casts instantly (lol) with no .5 of a second reaction bs.
I agree, while WoW isn't particularly fun, it's a very solid game and does pretty much everything right.. increasing the standards of MMOs.... and for that it deserves to be on top, despite all the haters.. Most haters hate the game not because it's bad but because it's such a bully making other decent and sometimes even good quality MMOs go under. It steals attention from other MMOs and that makes people angry.
And while you can argue whether or not WoW is fun... I don't think anyone could say WoW is a bad game and be taken seriously.
WoW can only steal attention from other games because other games are lacking in something. WoW has the fan base and cash to keep refining and refining. Probably refining the hell out of the new mmo they are making. That is what sets Blizzard apart from a lot of companies. Nothing leaves Blizzard's door till they say it is ready.
As to graphics...I like the graphics because it reminds me of Warcraft 3. One thing I will give WoW...they have the best character combat animations in a game I have seen. Every other game that I have tried look like ginger bread men bending at all the wrong places to swing a sword in a rather lame way. EQ2 is the worst. Horrible animations.
I have not played Wow for at least 3 years. I just got tired of it and never went back, not even for the expansions, but I still consider it one of the better MMO's out there and their continued success speaks for itself.
So while you might not like Wow, but saying it is not a good game is just dumb.
Next big thing, Virtual MMORPG! :| that be sweet!
I agree with this. WoW might not fit the definitions of what fun is to you, but it does fit that definition for a lot of people. Even if they only had 2 million players worldwide, WoW would be considered a runaway success. To maintain that same number over 5 years? Unthinkable. And yet by every account, there's more players than that, and the level of player retention is very high.
WoW might not be your game, but it's still good game. You can't even use the excuse that there's no alternative, because there's plenty of alternative games. Most people would just rather keep playing, or go back to WoW. That being said, there's always room for improvement in the industry. It just needs a developer to get the courage to buck the trend and make a game that you might consider fun, but at the same time can be popular.
So many people are willing to dis WoW or not give it credit 1. because they dident like WC3 or any of blizzards games... fact is Blizzard is the Number 1 gaming company in the world more copies have sold of there games then all the ffs all the zeldas.. they are number 1 in sales.. and say they are cheap... nice
Right on!
That's probably why the gaming industry in no way has influenced the GPU technology development, and why we still mainly play MUDs.
/Irony
Blizzard's World of Warcraft is the number one PC game ever created.
If you can't live with that, ... play it.
I think you mean "races" not "classes." Blizzard indicates on the FAQ for Cataclysm they don't plan on adding another class.
Im glad blizzard has figured out that making a quality game easier and requiring little time will make them millions from the casual players.
I just wish some company would figure out that there are enough of us that would like a quality game with open world PvP, challenging dungeons that last more than 30 minutes and larger scale, progressive raiding.
Ive played WoW off and on for a long while and although it is a good game, it just fails to keep me and my friends happy for any length of time.
Right on!
That's probably why the gaming industry in no way has influenced the GPU technology development, and why we still mainly play MUDs.
/Irony
I think he meant that you can get away with using lower quality graphics if you have solid game play (WoW). Games with better graphics and low quality game play (EQ2, AoC) tend to exist, but never prosper. Bioware wants to compete with WoW and they have gone the same route, using low quality graphics, which will allow them to run smoothly on lower end machines.
Exactly. Blizzard, while it has had problems with some employees in the past, and that is why we have GW, they still make the most polished games and the most well-conceived games. The problem with WoW for so many people is not that it is a bad game. It is perhaps the most well-designed game on the market. If you do not like WoW, it is because it is not your playstyle, not because it is a bad game. I have two major problems with WoW that prevent me from playing it (ignoring lore-mixups, too themeparky, and not enough sandboxy)
1. Progression is gear-based, and gear is far too powerful when compared with player skill and player talents.
2. PvE is just too easy. There is not an encounter in the game that is genuinely hard; every encounter is based on one or two things (per phase) that the group must be aware of and avoid or react to. That simply isn't the level of difficulty that I want.
Blizzard has marketed this game to the masses, many of which are more eager to play an easy but fun game than I am. Blizzard marketed well (television what?), and they game appeals to most young and new gamers. And say what you want about the graphics, they are fine for most people. How much time do you spend look at your character's face, really? I mean, really?
I think that Blizzard's secret MMO with a new IP will be much more..."hardcore." I think it will still appeal to casuals, but I think it will be harder and more complex. I think Blizzard knows they have cornered this one market, and if they make a hard sandbox, they could easily get the vast majority or what is left.
Right on!
That's probably why the gaming industry in no way has influenced the GPU technology development, and why we still mainly play MUDs.
/Irony
Right cause I meant who cares about content, fun, playability or any of that crap as long as the graphics are good! Fail. Flashy visuals do not a good MMO make.
Yeah, it only took the MMORPG industry more than 10 years and the recent failures of their founding fathers like Brad McQuaid, Gaute Godager, Mark Jacobs and Richard Garriottt, that's all.
And yet we still have some in the community whining that modern MMORPGs should be more like the hardcore game in the past. It's like asking car companies for the return of the Model-T automobile.
For all it's flaws WoW showed the MMORPG industry that it didn't have to a niche market that only appealed to hardcores who were wiling to pay for tedious, timesink game mechanics. The online market is larger than anyone imagined and it's only going to grow. And that's not going to grow by tapping into the hardcore market which has already showed its severe limits in the decade pre-WoW.
The old-school MMORPG designers had their chance to try and make games for this market. Vanguard, Age of Conan, Warhammerand Tabula Rasa ranged from being utter failures to just mediocre.
The MMORPG community needs to figure out that companies with any brains are not going to be looking to the games of the past as examples for their future games.
I had alot of fun playing WoW so I don't hate it simply because I grew bored of it. For me unfortionately nothing Blizz does with WoW in the future will make me return. WoW is so old and stale now I can hardly stand to even look at screenshots of it...lol
Right cause I meant who cares about content, fun, playability or any of that crap as long as the graphics are good! Fail. Flashy visuals do not a good MMO make.
From what do you conclude that I don't care about fun, content and playability? I just find it curious that someone would claim that fancy graphics has nothing to do with gaming.
LOL graphics has EVERYTHING to do with quality,that is what brings the game to life.If it was just text based and mechanics with no graphics it would be dull and boring.
The quality part is a debate as cheap is not really considered to be quality imo anyhow.If you went to buy a coffee table,would cal la veneer top quality? or would the natural cherry wood grain finish be considered quality?again this leads back to visual.I hope i made the point clear enough.
No i am also fair i realize wow has lots of mechanics and lots of maps and lots of different battles and variety in classes.
The graphics were ONLY done to cater to their already fanbase and the ease of creating the game.This also is why they used the cheap game engine,they went for the cheap approach,the easiest way to get a game out.Nothing in the creation of wow was planned to make a solid game for the user,they went with what they knew from EQ and what they already had.
Ok now here is my other beef.The community,ok that is not Blizzard's fault,except when you cater to the warcraft crowd using the same graphics ,you ARE catering to kids.My biggest beef is in the way Blizzard has transpired over the years.Ok they made a cheap version of Eq fine,that is what they had to go with ,so they did their best.They figured to make up for the lack of game versus EQ,they would offer easier leveling and bigger rewards for doing the simplest quests.So in essence they were BRIBING their fanbase.I can see it, the kids need pampering.
Ok it does not end there.After years of making millions,it is about time Blizzard stepped up and delivered their game back to the customers who made them rich.Step up and re do the textures,other games have done it ,Blizzard most certainly could do it.
Why ?because looking at a tree with a terrible looking bark texture ruins the atmosphere for me.Why? because looking at rock and it looks like one big texture pasted onto the side of one big brush ,loses everything for me,it just looks bad and fake.Personally i think Blizzard did not know they would be a success,this has come back to bite them.Their game engine is soooo cheap their hands are tied for turning the game into anything good looking.Their payroll and staff is SOoooo huge they can't afford to do anything for the game,that they cannot sell to it's customer.
In the end ,if i want to see a better designed WOW,i look to EQ2,and i have been there in both games.The ONLY way WOW could ever become a good QUALITY game is to redo it with a better game engine and better textures and proper lighting and use of shaders.As is i fails in almost every area of QUALITY.
You sir are an idiot. Graphics are not the make all end all of any game, it's a contributing factor but gameplay is the single most important aspect of any game. If things like textures bother you then stop fucking playing video games pure and simple.
Secondly blizzard makes over $5 billion a year if you think they're broke I second the you are an idiot. 12 million times $15 is $180,000,000 a month then you have expansions, faction/realm changes, blizzard store crap and w/e else. So get real man seriously.
Blizzard doesn't make a game that they wouldn't think would be a success, in fact ANY business does not develop or manufacture shit it doesn't think will make them serious money. Where's your common sense?
Blizzard's hands aren't tied at all, but why would they want to recreate a game that is almost over? They are more concerned about the release of their new mmo. If they turned around and gave us all the bells and whistles then what would they be able to offer us in the next game?
Also not everyone can afford to run top notch graphics, wow is good for catering to people with a lower budget computer you might not be able to explore all content but you can explore most even with the shittiest computer.
Wow's game engine is completely fine, it's been around for 5 years and has dominated every damn mmo made. You can't do that with a broken game.
Blizzard doesn't bribe their fanbase, they only cater to what they want. People wanted realm and faction transfers so blizz offered it at a price. People wanted game cards so they didn't need a credit card, blizzard let it happen. Most of the mmo world do not have time to play hardcore and wanted a more casual raiding experience, blizzard offered that too. Everything the majority of players wanted they got. It's common business practice, you cater to your customers and they will continue to give you their money end of story. They don't care about the little guy, and why should they?
They fail with quality? I guess 12 million people are wrong with what they chose as quality.
You sir need to learn how to research and actually have a clue wtf you're talking about. Stop trying to troll and get your head out of your ass and learn to have fun.
aren't they doing just that? And one man.
I do give Blizzard the top seat when it comes to WoW overall quality and customer support; no other gaming company I've dealt with sets as high a standard and does it's best to live up to it.
Certainly I'm not thrilled with every little change that has come along in WoW, but the game has imo become better than it was, from story lines to graphics and sound. More ways of advancing are open to more people than ever before.
However, the cry for real quality in quest chains and rewards had fallen of deaf ears, for the most part. WotLK did improve the story line quality of the quests, overall, but they were no more challenging, and some of the re-visiting of the same areas to do different quests was abysmal. I'm talking particularly the Zul'Drak area. Time and time again we go to the same place, have to kill the same mobs, one quest after the other because it is impossible to do them all at once. They are pretty much grind-level quests too - kill x number of mobs, gather x number loot. Blizzard takes a new world full of interesting content and makes it dull by providing insipid quest chains - and, at the beginning of WotLK, forces you to wait until L77 and spend another 1K gold to be able to fly again.
Better quests, and a bigger world too. MMOs are just too small these days, the world can be explored in hours and it should take weeks, or months. I know we live in an "instant gratification" society, but where the effort to please all gamers hurts the experience of the more dedicated (or just the one with more time to play in the short term) is where quality is adveresely effected. This too is happening in WoW.
Overall though, yes, the devs are doing a great job and I'm excited about Cataclysm. Thanks Blizzard, and keep up the good work!
You're never going to get everyone to like your game... but hey, for the hardcores, there's still 25 man raids, and there are heroic modes of various other dungeons which are pretty hard.
Blizzard is trying to cater to everyone, so it's natural some people are going to feel put out - sorry they aren't just catering for one group (pvpers, pve-ers, explorers, achievement whores, etc. etc.) - but this seems to be a pretty good strategy. Everyone gets like, a 7/10 experience, on average, and that's what Blizzard wants, because aiming for any one group moreso than others would make some people have a 2/10, and 10/10 experience, and despite the raving good reviews from the 10/10 group, the bad rep from those scorned with their 2/10 experience isn't worth it to them.
But the 7/10 gameplay coupled with a good, solid game engine core with nice (if a little dated) graphics, the game does pretty well for itself.
If they updated the graphics to something that most computers nowadays can run (you know, like, triple the current polygons, quadruple the texture size (256x256 -> 512x512 = 4x total), and hell keep the current animations (they are DAMN good) and they'd have themselves a good chance against the current Aion newbies.
That said, it'd take a lot of investment to create all that new artwork, including server fees again (downloading what, a 10GB patch for 11 million players? Daaang)
But it'd be pretty nice to log into a game that looks current-gen.
A fresh download of Champions online and similar is only like 2-3GB and that have brad new artwork not just updated ones, a graphics update should be like 700 meg at most.
I'd agree, but WoW isn't fun.
Perhaps not to you. But I've been in since late beta, and while I get bored and wander off once in a while. Its a fun game all the way to level cap, and I keep going back once they add new content.
LOL graphics has EVERYTHING to do with quality,that is what brings the game to life.If it was just text based and mechanics with no graphics it would be dull and boring.
The quality part is a debate as cheap is not really considered to be quality imo anyhow.If you went to buy a coffee table,would cal la veneer top quality? or would the natural cherry wood grain finish be considered quality?again this leads back to visual.I hope i made the point clear enough.
No i am also fair i realize wow has lots of mechanics and lots of maps and lots of different battles and variety in classes.
The graphics were ONLY done to cater to their already fanbase and the ease of creating the game.This also is why they used the cheap game engine,they went for the cheap approach,the easiest way to get a game out.Nothing in the creation of wow was planned to make a solid game for the user,they went with what they knew from EQ and what they already had.
Ok now here is my other beef.The community,ok that is not Blizzard's fault,except when you cater to the warcraft crowd using the same graphics ,you ARE catering to kids.My biggest beef is in the way Blizzard has transpired over the years.Ok they made a cheap version of Eq fine,that is what they had to go with ,so they did their best.They figured to make up for the lack of game versus EQ,they would offer easier leveling and bigger rewards for doing the simplest quests.So in essence they were BRIBING their fanbase.I can see it, the kids need pampering.
Ok it does not end there.After years of making millions,it is about time Blizzard stepped up and delivered their game back to the customers who made them rich.Step up and re do the textures,other games have done it ,Blizzard most certainly could do it.
Why ?because looking at a tree with a terrible looking bark texture ruins the atmosphere for me.Why? because looking at rock and it looks like one big texture pasted onto the side of one big brush ,loses everything for me,it just looks bad and fake.Personally i think Blizzard did not know they would be a success,this has come back to bite them.Their game engine is soooo cheap their hands are tied for turning the game into anything good looking.Their payroll and staff is SOoooo huge they can't afford to do anything for the game,that they cannot sell to it's customer.
In the end ,if i want to see a better designed WOW,i look to EQ2,and i have been there in both games.The ONLY way WOW could ever become a good QUALITY game is to redo it with a better game engine and better textures and proper lighting and use of shaders.As is i fails in almost every area of QUALITY.
Well... Having played EQ2, while its certainly pretty in places, I'll take WoW's armor and weapons over EQ2 any day of the week. Not to mention that WoW will run on a much larger section of the installed hardware base than EQ2 will(epsecially when it launched). The animations in EQ2 seemed rather stiff(look at the flying griffin as an example). I suspect you are using the word "quality" in a rather subjective fashion. First and foremost WoW is *fun* to me. It also seems to be fun to many millions of other people around the world. While there are a lot of Bnet battle kiddies in WoW, looking down ones nose at the WoW community(such as it is) is neither helpful, nor profitable...
I doubt one would find a game company that wouldn't LOVE to have WoW's subscriber numbers.
Is it just me or was this article really poorly written with many grammatical errors? Also, the sentences were awkward.
no it wasn't just you, i just logged in to say "umm... proof read?"
I could barely read this; it's very sloppy with poor, almost unexistant transitions.
ahh I like how you state that as fact :). I have fun playing WoW... does that make me wierd? I mean I must be if I find it fun when it is not...
Pretty sure the rest of the millions of players are weird too what kind of a normal person pays money to play a non fun game...
Lets just say that what is fun for you may not be fun for me and what is fun for millions of players is not fun for you :) there we do agree, but your statement is not fact. Its just an opinion.
Weird?? Hell the whole world is weird these days. That is why wow has so many subs. WOW was good back in the day but has since went downhill. I played it for bout 2 years and quit for good. Since realized there are far better games out there. ANd don't even get me started on the community. WOW has the worst! ... Well next to Asmodian Communities in AION. Oh wait...that's where most of the WOW rejects have went! Nevermind.
Every time i read forums on most mmo sites, i see many people whining about how WoW sux and stuff. Yeah, WoW gfx sux if u turned down all ur gfx settings and ur loading wil be slow if u have a sucky PC. I know i will get FLAMED really really bad by saying so. Getting 80 is very easy and gearing up to 2/5T9 3/5T9 will take u a month or so if u dont have time. If u quit WoW long time ago or whatever, dont brag about it and let it be like a real man. If u dont play WoW, leave WoW alone and go play ur fancy gfx Korean/Chinese mmo. Yeah, they are fun. What u really needa do is sit back relax and think if it is fair to be harsh to fellow gamers who plays WoW just bcos u dont play and thinks its sh*t? Even if ur biatching about it, most of WoW playing dont have time to bother bcos we have jobs and we don't go to forums just to bad mouth about other games
I was a effing WoW hater back then like the rest of you are now. yeah. I thought and said WoW's for efftards & nerds and stuff. WoW has no creativity.etc
u know what. WoW is far better than many mmorpgs ive ever played (both f2p and p2p).
We all have our choices to choose which to play, dont we? Yeah, we chose WoW because it fits out playing style .etc
HOLY SH*T ! FLAME INC !!!
ahh I like how you state that as fact :). I have fun playing WoW... does that make me wierd? I mean I must be if I find it fun when it is not...
Pretty sure the rest of the millions of players are weird too what kind of a normal person pays money to play a non fun game...
Lets just say that what is fun for you may not be fun for me and what is fun for millions of players is not fun for you :) there we do agree, but your statement is not fact. Its just an opinion.
Weird?? Hell the whole world is weird these days. That is why wow has so many subs. WOW was good back in the day but has since went downhill. I played it for bout 2 years and quit for good. Since realized there are far better games out there. ANd don't even get me started on the community. WOW has the worst! ... Well next to Asmodian Communities in AION. Oh wait...that's where most of the WOW rejects have went! Nevermind.
You know, I'd wondered where all of the Hordies went to...
WoW is a good game up to level cap. Then its little but raiding and/or PVP. But obviously a lot of people like that...<shrug>