The WoW Factor: Can Old Be New Again?With the World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria, on its way, many "old" players are wondering if it will be able to bring the magic back of WoW's glory day.s In today's WoW Factor, we take a look at that notion. See what you think and then leave your thoughts in the comments.
Column By William Murphy on July 06, 2012
Column By William Murphy on July 06, 2012
I remember fondly my first foray into World of Warcraft. Anyone who once played the game and says they don’t have any good memories about it, is probably lying through their teeth in an effort to darken a once happy past the way a person will when thinking of an ex-lover. And while it’s been a while since I was fully devoted to Azeroth the way I once was, I can’t help but wonder if I’ll ever “go back” and dig in again. As we near the inevitable launch of Mists of Pandaria, a highly controversial expansion on this site if there ever was one, I wonder if it will be enough to bring me back and make me smile at the prospect of exploring WoW again, or if those days are just simply over. I imagine I’m not the only one trying to make that distinction.
With games like The Secret World, Guild Wars 2, Planetside 2 and so many others coming out over the next few months and into next year all trying to push the boundaries of what an MMO can be, I wonder if there’s still a place for the traditional theme park that is World of Warcraft. It’s likely still massive subscription count, though not what it once was is enough to keep Blizzard’s behemoth at the forefront of MMO gaming even if the hardcore folks like us no longer spend every day talking, thinking, and dreaming about it. But for how long? Can it ever take someone like myself, someone who’s long since begun exploring new worlds with newer mechanics, and bring me back into the same sense of love and adoration I once had for a world called Azeroth?
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To get me more than just a little salivating when it comes to WoW, there are certain things I’d want to see added to the game. I’ll lay out just a few below, and feel free to post your own. Or, if you prefer, just flat out tell us why you can’t or won’t ever go back to Blizzard’s game. Maybe for you, the past has passed and that’s all there is to the thing. In any case, here are a few features or tweaks to the existing game that could get my ears to perk up again.
World PVP… Done Right This Time
Back when WoW launched, my favorite thing to do (even on a PVE server) was to go out with my guild and cause some ruckus in places like South Shore. Tarren Mill is a thing of legend for pre-Battleground players. We remember what it was like to fight just for the sake of fighting, and while Blizzard never seemed able to capitalize on this unintended competitive “feature” word is that Mists of Pandaria’s first real content patch post launch is aiming squarely at bringing world PVP back to the forefront of the game.
Mentor Me, Mentor You (and some AA please)
I know a large portion of the player base is sitting at the cap, but there’s nothing less fun than raising an alt solo while your guild mates spend time at the top tiers unable to really help you. Rift recently added mentoring, alongside its alternate advancement system for capped players, and it works marvelously to bring higher players together with lower level players. Plus, if you’re like me and just want to work on one character at a time, having both a mentoring system and an Alternate Advancement system would be the bee’s knees. I could revisit old content and still work on my character without feeling like I was wasting my time.
Open World Content on a Grand Scale
There’s plenty of small solo and group content in WoW. More than most games will ever hope to have, really. But it seems like Blizzard is content not paying attention to others games’ successes lately and I wonder why they haven’t tried to bring forth some of their own “Dynamic Content” a la Rift or the upcoming Guild Wars 2. Let’s not beat around the bush here. Blizzard is great at taking other folks’ systems and implementing them in their own way. I would love to see some sort of open world dungeons, boss fights and all. I would also love to see a zone where invasions happen the way they once did with Ahn’Qiraj, only this time preferably without the zone crashing. While they are just as repetitive as any form of theme-park content when played endlessly, the best feature of a game like Rift is that sense of massive group play you get when you sign up for Instant Adventure or partake in a zone invasion. It’s something I’d absolutely love to see happen in Pandaria’s elder game content.
Anyway, those are just a few things that would peak my interest in World of Warcraft again one day. I know we’ll be getting the first with Pandaria, so maybe we’ll get lucky and get a few others before this decade is over. What are your thoughts?
Nope... it can not be new again, not for the people who usualy voice their discontent on sites like this and others. Because what they want back was never really there to begin with. It was not a tangible thing. It was a emotion and a experience and that they can not get back.
And world PvP is not dead.. it is just that people today are way to lazy to actually get something going. There are tons of ways to actually force world PvP but it takes work, just like it did back "in the days" but people have forgoten that part and just want it to happen, materialize out of thin air.
Now ofc these are my personal opinions and does not in any way shape or form classify a truths.
I could be convinced to go back, I likely won't, but I could. I really just want planetside 2 though.
" I would love to see some sort of open world dungeons, boss fights and all." this was the biggest argument that players had when they released cataclysm. Here the story was supposed to be the end of the known world and the threat was supposed to be immense, yet, there were no town raids (not even small ones) no attacker events nothing.even if it were a timed events like Rifts it would have been an overall improvement.
IMO i think that Blizzard's Lead Dev Ghostcrawler is too arrogant to actually admit that WoW needs an overhall. Heck they didn't even add cosmetics until they lost 2 mil subs all at once some time ago.
Their newest expansion is going to have to go a long way to actually catchup to the rest of the gaming world or they'll be left behind, even if people keep their subs they will be spending most of their time in other titles so why pay for WoW when they won't be using it??
"You can never go back home again" or something like that, the saying goes. I didn't buy Cata, but I played for a short time months after it released (free week or something they gave me to come back). It's still fun, but for me, the one thing I couldn't get over was the talent revamp. MoP looks to make it worse in my eyes, and I won't come back.
Character choices are too few for those of us who didn't subscribe to the FotM club. "Gimping" your character to fit your playstyle or roleplay style is gone.
Don't beat the old horse they say. 8 years=move on to something else new. Popular games in general(non-mmos) like CoD or some other big name move on to something new in 2 years.
I have to agree with WhiteLantern. What World of Warcraft once was, it can't be again. I remember watching BlizzCon 2011 and watched the talent revamp portion. All I could remember hearing myself think was: "What the f***?" Cataclysm was nice in thoery. But in truth, it just didn't work out the way Blizzard wanted.
An earlier poster said that if Blizzard doesn't catch up, they'll be left behind. I think it's already too late for that. Blizzard has already fallen behind. And people like Ghostcrawler and Bobby Kotick are not helping the situation, they are only exasperating it.
This is just my personal opinion though.
" But it seems like Blizzard is content not paying attention to others games’ successes lately and I wonder why they haven’t tried to bring forth some of their own “Dynamic Content” a la Rift or the upcoming Guild Wars 2."
Because GW2 isn't out yet and has sold no copies, and Rift has about 7 million less subscribers?
You never step into the same WoW-river twice....
Even if the game was the same, you are different. Hence, much angst.
I agree with ScorpionOne, " And people like Ghostcrawler and Bobby Kotick are not helping the situation, they are only exasperating it."
What blizz is doing, and have always done, which most mmo have fail to see, is to constanly revamp old contents , and adding little nice and different touches to this game here and there. eg, changing of spells effects.
Revamp the talents system is 1 of them, however personally i feel that they are making it worst.
And somehow i feel that blizz is still very stubbon in implementing more new things in the face of more and more competitions, say putting in player housing, its like they just wana prolong every function as long as possible, thus enabling them to sell more x-pac.
But if they dont start to pump out contents more and fast, this mammoth will goes down faster than i think.
Unless, of course they are super duper confident in their new mmo....
I will probably never go back even if it becomes FTP. I played this game to death, and no new feature is going to bring me back. Gameplay was always fun, but in reality the animations, character creation, and graphics are severely outdated and limited by today's standards. I guess it's a been there, done that mentality.