WoW is dead. Long live WoW!

[Zane0]

Some of the priest tier 4 stuff is in fact worse than my tier 2/3.  I'll probably still be preserving my Trans 3-piece set-bonus until tier 5.

EDIT: To clarify, I'd say that while initial inflation is fairly high, it is definitely restricted to the lower end of itemization.  Everyone is essentially raised to around tier 2/3, but without good set bonuses in many cases, and after that point growth is far more graduated.

[Tebonas]

I wouldn't underestimate the fine-tuning you can do with sockets. Plus (and I don't know if that is actually realized in TBC) you can make raid drop gems that surpass the other gems, further improving raidgear compared to casual gear without rubbing everyones nose in it.

[Koyasha]

All factually correct. My initial comment about how WoW's approach is new is simply that the mudflation effect of the new expansion is virtually instantaneous. The mudflation dymanic itself will always be part of diku.

That's most of my point summed up in two sentences.  The instantaneousness of the increase in power is surprising and significantly different than any other game has done before.  It also has the effect of obsoleting large amounts of old content and equipment instantly on expansion release rather than slowly over the course of the next 6-18 months.

What I'll find most interesting is if they do this again in the next expansion or not.  It could be a one-time thing that they're using to try to flatten the curve, as some opinions seem to hold, and the next expansion won't be instantly obsoleting all old level 70 content.  Or it may be a standard plan for every expansion.

[Morat20]

That's most of my point summed up in two sentences.  The instantaneousness of the increase in power is surprising and significantly different than any other game has done before.  It also has the effect of obsoleting large amounts of old content and equipment instantly on expansion release rather than slowly over the course of the next 6-18 months.

What I'll find most interesting is if they do this again in the next expansion or not.  It could be a one-time thing that they're using to try to flatten the curve, as some opinions seem to hold, and the next expansion won't be instantly obsoleting all old level 70 content.  Or it may be a standard plan for every expansion.

There's a certain benefit to it, however. It means they can tune quests/dungeons in TBC to fit a certain level of gear -- I don't think the WoW playerbase would appreciate being told "You can't do new 5-man X until you've raided MC enough to get a chunk of your Tier 1 stuff -- you'll just be undergeared". With "Heroic"  dungeons they can give the Naxx-geared guys a decent challenge (they'll still be overgeared for the early instances of course).

If they plan to go back and revamp the old 5-mans -- add quests and itemization that takes you back there to a new level 70 version (with the previous version still there for those at the normal level range) they're not exactly obsoleting old content. And if they were going to do that (no idea, but their dungeon difficulty slider means they now DO have the capability to have multiple versions of a single dungeon), you'd do it well after the expansion -- people are probably a bit sick of Strat, Scholo, etc. You'd layer in those through patches to keep content flowing as you move towards the next expansion.

[shiznitz]

Instancing means less zone obsolescence. When players click on the door, they can choose the appropriate version for their level. If no one ever plays the lowest level version again, nothing is wasted. The second a new instance goes live its development becomes a sunk cost.  It is much harder to re-populate an open zone without disrupting gameflow.

[Alkiera]

What I'll find most interesting is if they do this again in the next expansion or not.  It could be a one-time thing that they're using to try to flatten the curve, as some opinions seem to hold, and the next expansion won't be instantly obsoleting all old level 70 content.  Or it may be a standard plan for every expansion.

But either way, we won't know for 2 more years.  8)

As an anecdotal note, a friend of mine who plays has quit due to the huge jump.  15 days /played to get to 60, 45 days /played AT 60, had lots of high-end raid gear, and now n00bs are picking up equivilent stuff off random world mobs in the expansion...  He's pretty ticked about it.

Me?  I don't care, one way or the other, atm.

--
Alkiera

[tkinnun0]

Better him than me.

[Ironwood]

Fuck your friend.  Fuck his self-righteousness.  Fuck him in the ass.

[Azazel]

As an anecdotal note, a friend of mine who plays has quit due to the huge jump.  15 days /played to get to 60, 45 days /played AT 60, had lots of high-end raid gear, and now n00bs are picking up equivilent stuff off random world mobs in the expansion...  He's pretty ticked about it.

Your friend is clearly a pathetic e-peen measuring tosser. His crying is a good thing. Send him to Vanguard.

[Dren]

I am thoroughly satisfied with the expansion.  It has increased my "fun" with WoW 100%.  This is due to three things.

1.  I get decent items again.  Not since lvl 50 have I found items I actually have to contemplate if they are better than what I have.  I mean this from a casual perspective of course.  I was blocked from getting anything decent after that level unless I set aside 4+ hours of raiding time that never came to be due to my choice of a small casual guild.  Nothing was available on the AH.  My only choice was to wait for those 1 in 1000 chances of getting a world drop that actually worked for my class.

2.  More choices.  With more land, I have more choices and more variety.  I have another character I'm alt'ing too.  The crafting choices have increased, which satisfies the true crafter heart I have.  More is better in my book.

3.  The instances.  So far, I can now get online and ask around to get into an instance.  I don't have to wait long before 4 others say they want to do it.  An hour to an hour and a half later, we're done.  Some lewts was found and some quests were completed.  No fuss, no muss.  Love it.  The really fun part is working on finishing faster than the fastest time in the guild.  Or, trying to complete them with odd group mixes.  We get a sense of accomplishment when we get through it with no tank, no priest, just a druid, rogue, warlock, mage, and paladin.  Challenging and fun.

I haven't changed my playtimes or durations.  Good show Blizzard.

[Venkman]

As an anecdotal note, a friend of mine who plays has quit due to the huge jump. 15 days /played to get to 60, 45 days /played AT 60, had lots of high-end raid gear, and now n00bs are picking up equivilent stuff off random world mobs in the expansion... He's pretty ticked about it.

Heh, a buddy of mine was pissed when they turned the honor point grind into something anyone can do. He kept bragging about the rank he achieved as a measure of his e-peen. He didn't realize I knew wtf he was talking about though. "Sorry bud, First Sergeant is only rank 5. You were wearing roughly the equivalent of crap dropped in Felwood". Heh.

I find that the people who get most pissed about wholesale changes to their status as an uber are folks new to the genre, or the copious amounts of level 60s who never ever hit a high rank in these games before because they got bored before the end. Even the harder core veterans I know roll with the punches, based mostly on the deep and intrinsic understanding that NOTHING in this genre is permanent.

[Nebu]

I find that the people who get most pissed about wholesale changes to their status as an uber are folks new to the genre, or the copious amounts of level 60s who never ever hit a high rank in these games before because they got bored before the end. Even the harder core veterans I know roll with the punches, based mostly on the deep and intrinsic understanding that NOTHING in this genre is permanent.

Changing/raising the bar generates new goals or new directions in gameplay.  It's just tough for some people accept change.  I happen to think that this dynamic is one of the things that makes mmo's interesting.  Each expansion creates a new environment that begs to be adapted to. 

[Azazel]

As an anecdotal note, a friend of mine who plays has quit due to the huge jump. 15 days /played to get to 60, 45 days /played AT 60, had lots of high-end raid gear, and now n00bs are picking up equivilent stuff off random world mobs in the expansion... He's pretty ticked about it.

Heh, a buddy of mine was pissed when they turned the honor point grind into something anyone can do. He kept bragging about the rank he achieved as a measure of his e-peen. He didn't realize I knew wtf he was talking about though. "Sorry bud, First Sergeant is only rank 5. You were wearing roughly the equivalent of crap dropped in Felwood". Heh.

Wait.. your friend who was bragging was a First Sergeant?

[Morat20]

As an anecdotal note, a friend of mine who plays has quit due to the huge jump. 15 days /played to get to 60, 45 days /played AT 60, had lots of high-end raid gear, and now n00bs are picking up equivilent stuff off random world mobs in the expansion... He's pretty ticked about it.

Heh, a buddy of mine was pissed when they turned the honor point grind into something anyone can do. He kept bragging about the rank he achieved as a measure of his e-peen. He didn't realize I knew wtf he was talking about though. "Sorry bud, First Sergeant is only rank 5. You were wearing roughly the equivalent of crap dropped in Felwood". Heh.

Wait.. your friend who was bragging was a First Sergeant?

No shit. I half-assed my way to Knight-Lt, just doing the BG weekends.

[Venkman]

Exactly :) Christ. Even I managed to hit Sergeant Major (Alliance) within a bit over two weeks. He's one of those irrationally competitive types experiencing his first MMO. We all know the type (maybe some of us were like that in UO, EQ, or AO): new game, OMGAWESOME_robotJesus, coolnewpeople_e-p33n, WAIT_WTF_youcan'tchangethegame! I just finished learning it!

I can relate. That was me when The Lost Lands launched in UO. What do you mean I can't sell runebooks with T2A runes?! That's my whole business! (was later glad though. Cleared out Destard for Mage/Bard Dragon farming)

/memories

[Azazel]

I got three characters to Sergeant-Major back-to-back in a pretty short stint of catassing to get my 2 toons and my wife's toon the AV-rep caster books/Lobotomizer/AV Ram mounts (she saw my Ram and wanted one, too). Despite the fact that it was a pretty average-for-fun stint of catassing, the rank was incidental (I just wanted rep) and it's hardly a fucking achievement if I managed to do it once, let alone three times. A mate took slightly longer to get his rep and ended up some kind of Knight. 

[Venkman]

GameSpot reports Vivendi Games Division profit, for 2006.

The games division revenue was up 25.4 percent from the previous year to 804 million euros (about $1 billion) for the full year 2006.

Everything else we know already.

[shiznitz]

http://news.com.com/Warcraft+A+world+in+transition/2100-1043_3-6155592.html?tag=st.num

Kaplan added that by extending WoW, raising the level cap and adding new races and content, Blizzard was trying to ensure the continued existence of the WoW franchise.

It is like the press thinks WoW is the first MMOG ever made. The whole article is about how the BC expansion is changing the face of the game. Every goddamn expansion for every goddamn MMOG in the last 10 years does this. Yeesh.

[eldaec]

http://news.com.com/Warcraft+A+world+in+transition/2100-1043_3-6155592.html?tag=st.num

Kaplan added that by extending WoW, raising the level cap and adding new races and content, Blizzard was trying to ensure the continued existence of the WoW franchise.

It is like the press thinks WoW is the first MMOG ever made. The whole article is about how the BC expansion is changing the face of the game. Every goddamn expansion for every goddamn MMOG in the last 10 years does this. Yeesh.

It's hard to critise the media 'press-release reprint industry' for this when even people on this very board sometimes seem to think WoW was the first MMOG ever made.

And before WoW everyone thought EQ was the first MMOG ever made....

And before EQ everyone thought UO was the only multiplayer RPG ever made....

and so on...

Being aware of history is the curse of the relatively well informed. Probably.

[Special J]

I'll be interested in the time between everyone hitting 70 and how long the next expansion takes.  The two year wait turned the 'end-game' into a crapfest that would do the most hardcore EQ poopsocker proud.  Blizzard was too slow in getting it out so we ended up with all new content catering to the raiding end-game in a linear progression. 

Heroic instances are a move in the right direction, so if the next release is as slow (which I don't see why it wouldn't be), I hope that a) there's more to do and b) whatever gets added can actually be played by most players.