Blizzard's April Fools is Up: New Alliance Race is the Wisp

[jpark]

Just another reason why this company has such a great way of connecting its product with the users.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/burningcrusade/townhall/wisps.html

Only one problem, like last year's April fools involving 2 headed ogres, the idea of a wisp this year may also garner widespread popularity and demands that it be implemented lol.

Good stuff.

[SurfD]

Caydiem also posted the 1.11.0 patch notes

Bet you never thought you'd see me again, eh? The Community Team certainly didn't, but -- oops! It looks like my account was left flagged.

They're going to regret that oversight.

Throughout my time in dealing with the developers, I knew a lot more about the game and what was coming than I let on. I had patch notes months in advance, but I was always kept quiet by my superiors. After recent events, however, I no longer have anything to lose. It's time for sweet, sweet vengeance.

I still have access to that information... and now, so do you.

I give you the 1.11 patch notes. Keep in mind they're rough, but this is the plan for the major changes to the game. My condolences.

Make sure to copy these down -- this is going to be deleted in a matter of moments, and the players deserve to know this information. With your help, it will never die. You can't stop the signal.

World of Warcraft Client Patch 1.11.0

New Dungeon Visitation Limitation System

With the many improvements to end-game dungeons implemented last patch, we decided that it was necessary to limit the number of times a player can enter a dungeon per day. This was done to prevent the economy from being flooded with overly valuable items, and to ensure that players weren't acquiring too much gold during what we'd consider a reasonable amount of play-time. We realize that many players enjoy repeated trips to their favorite dungeons, so we've made this new limitation as least restrictive as possible. Each character on a player's account may enter the same dungeon up to three times per day, and may visit a total of five dungeons over the course of a twenty-four hour period. Keep in mind, each character on your account is flagged separately so with eight characters, that's a total of 40 dungeon-runs per day!

Flightpath Scenery Improvements!

Tired of seeing the same old flightpaths? We've completely reworked each flightpath in the game so that the angle and view are shifted just enough to give all of Azeroth's traveling inhabitants the feeling that they are headed to an all new destination. That's not all, each flightpath has been fleshed out to ensure that the player sees every single detail of the passing terrain, which means that for the same reasonable traveling cost, you'll purchase a ride that's twice the length, and in some cases three and even four times as long!

General

    * Number keys can no longer activate character abilities. In many cases, this gave certain players a slight advantage over those that used their mouse to activate their abilities.
    * Black Tabby now called Little Cat.
    * Jumping while mounted will now automatically dismount you.
    * Night Elves will now lose a small percentage of experience after jumping.
    * The non-combat pet ‘Murky’ will now be required from every player wishing to enter Onyxia’s Lair as we wanted this raid encounter to feel very special.



Mac


    * Various emotes have been disabled for Mac users, including /dance, /smile and /thank.



Battlegrounds


    * Each player will only be allowed to pick up one flag per game in Warsong Gulch. While this decision is slightly restrictive, we do feel the value of teamwork it will teach by allowing each player more opportunity to shine outweighs any negative side-effect.
    * 'Friend of Deserter Debuff' will now apply to those chatting with players under the effect of the Deserter Debuff. This has the same effect as the standard Deserter Debuff, except other players do not risk penalty when engaging in a conversation with you.
    * New Level 1 only Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin bracket available!
    * If a match-up begins and drops everyone due to lack a lack of players, Horde automatically wins.



Druid


    * Run speed reduced by approximately 20% when in Bear Form and Dire Bear Form. It should now feel more "bear-like" for players when changing into these forms.
    * Innervate now only works on caster.
    * Gnomes can now select Druids as an available class! New Cub and Kitty forms available!
    * Shapeshifting will now only be possible outside of dungeons.



Hunters


    * A simple check mechanic has been implemented which will prevent Hunters from rolling on items that are more optimal for another class in the party, when using the group loot system.
    * Hunters can now be affected by their own traps. This should add a sense of danger, and increase the Hunter's need to strategize his decisions.
    * Pets have a small chance to attack the Hunter when hungry. The chance increases with each passing moment that the pet isn't fed.



Mages


    * Mage Armor - Now has another new, unique icon.



Paladin


    * Paladins will now receive a 2% increase to DPS for every cloth item worn. In addition, chance to crit will increase by 5% if a dress is worn. This is to encourage a wider variety of itemization for the Paladin.
    * Paladin can no longer target self with Lay on Hands as the spell was intended to help others.
    * New Form: Bear Form and Dire Bear Form! This new ability should help the Paladin tank in five, ten and twenty player-capped dungeons.



Priests


    * A diminishing return has been placed upon Fade, which will prevent it from reducing threat if used a second time in a single encounter. This was to prevent certain unscrupulous players from simply standing way in the back of a raid healing a significant amount of life with very little risk of threat penalty.
    * Shadowform now lasts five minutes with a ten minute cooldown. Mana cost reduced slightly.
    * Fear Ward is now only available to Dwarf Females.
    * Inner Fire will now cause its caster to take a small amount of fire damage while active.



Rogue


    * Moving while stealthed has a very small chance to break stealth. This was to reduce the frequency at which players were being ambushed or backstabbed in player vs. player environments.
    * Discovering a stealthed rogue will now produce a large alert symbol above the rogue’s head similar to the Hunter’s Mark. The alert can only be dispelled by using the Vanish ability.
    * Vanish has been increased to a 30 minute cooldown.
    * Fixed bug which allowed Rogues to wield two weapons at the same time.



Shaman


    * Physical damage will no longer destroy totems.
    * While in Ghostwolf form, the Shaman is now considered to be only partly connected with the real world, as a result dodge and armor have been improved by 35%. To ensure that the Shaman would want to take advantage of these improvements, all spells and abilities will be useable while in this form.
    * Troll Shaman will gain the full benefits of Berserk despite their percentage of health.
    * Reincarnation will now only have a cooldown of 30 minutes, untalented. Reagent cost doubled.
    * Shock spells no longer share the same cooldown.



Warlocks


    * Standard bags will no longer hold soul shards. This should make obtaining larger size soul shard bags feel more rewarding. To compensate for the change at lower levels, we've added new soul shard bags to various vendors throughout Azeroth. These bags are designed to hold between 4 and 12 soul shards, depending upon the size.
    * Using friendly emotes will now significantly increase the Infernal and Doomguard's chance to remain loyal to the Warlock.
    * Friendly emotes are no longer available to the Warlock.



Warriors


    * There will now be a 15 second cooldown when changing stances to prevent players from breaking Fear effects too often.
    * Dwarf Females now generate rage at a rate three times greater than normal.
    * Intimidating Shout now has a chance to intimidate its user.



Items


    * The drop rate for class specific equipment will now be reduced by a small percentage for every member of a given class beyond one that is present in a party or raid. This should encourage players to seek a more varied group of classes.
    * Several new items can be found at various vendors which do double and triple damage to players of a specific class or race. We'll add more each patch, but right now Gnome Stomper, Ancient Warlock Destroyer and the Roguebane are immediately available.
    * Herod’s Shoulder will now result in a decrease to main hand damage by 45% to compensate for the unbalanced weight.
    * Linen Cloth will now only stack in groups of 5.
    * Moonwells are now located exclusively inside Blackwing Lair, near the Alchemy Lab.



Professions


    * Players may now choose only one secondary profession. Too often we saw players choosing Fishing, Cooking and First-Aid when originally our intent was for players to simply pick one or two.
    * Explosive nodes may now spawn in the place of select herbs and mines. Damage will be percentage based upon level.
    * Skinning now requires that you have the equivalent skill in daggers, i.e. in order to skin a 225 beast, you must work your dagger skill up to 225 as well.



Quest & Reputation


    * Many quests which con green to a player will no longer yield experience, but rather grant a monetary gain at a small percentage of the new exp to gold conversion system. While this will make leveling up more challenging, players will have an easier time obtaining their mounts.
    * Improving faction with Timbermaw Hold will now decrease your faction with Argent Dawn, and visa versa, as we want to encourage players to make more important choices at higher levels.
    * New level 35 quest series added which teaches players to detect stealth. We feel that by this time, players have lived in fear of Rogues long enough.



Raid & Dungeons


    * Majordomo Executus will no longer be killed by Ragnaros, as such was very depressing. Instead he will now assist in the battle, making for a much more challenging encounter.
    * Placeholder art for the four world dragons will be used while we fix an animation bug associated with their actual design. The placeholder art will be the standard farm chicken, however, each will have a unique color to ensure that one is distinguishable from another.
    * Scholomance is now spelled "Sko-lo-mance" to alleviate confusion about its pronunciation. In addition, a sound file has been added outside the instance portal which will phonetically sound out the name upon zoning.
    * Edwin Vancleef will occasionally shout "Hey you guys!" as players fight their way through Deadmines.
    * New wing added to Scarlet Monastery called the Graveyard! Check it out!
    * New RageFire Chasm quests added for Alliance players as currently only Horde had quests there.



User Interface


    * The global cooldown timer has been added to all spells and abilities.
    * The Raid UI now allows a maximum of 3 rogues or hunters per raid.
    * Target and player health updates will be limited to once every 5 seconds to save on packet traffic.
    * To minimize potential abuse, you can no longer see opposing faction player names.
    * The use of 'if', 'for' and other flow control statements has been deemed exploitable, and have been removed from the Lua script implementation.



World Environment


    * Due to the awkward look and feel of Taurens in the Undercity, guards will no longer permit their entry and have been flagged to kill on sight. Taurens, you've been warned.
    * Entering the Barrens will now flag your character for PvP, regardless of your faction or realm type. This is being done to make the zone feel more alive.
    * Above the corpse of Mankirk's wife, a large red arrow will now appear and be viewable for up to 500 yards. To ensure that the associated quest offers some challenge, typing the word 'Mankirk' 'wife' or 'anyone seen' in Barrens chat will now result in experience loss.
    * In order to assist with various upkeep costs, at a designated time NPC vendors will now give players an amount of gold based upon their level. This is currently slated to occur every Tuesday from 6:00 AM to 11:00 AM PST.
    * Many new Sons’ of Arugal have been added to Silverpine Forrest. Occasionally Arugal himself wanders the zone. During this time, players may not enter his keep.
    * Due to the changes associated with the new flightpath scenery improvements, players will need to relearn all flightpaths.
    * A total of 26 new flightpaths have been added to various points throughout the Barrens.
    * Additional grass areas have been added to the enemy faction's zones. This grass is exceptionally green.

[Llava]

    * Night Elves will now lose a small percentage of experience after jumping.

Heh.

[Triforcer]

I'm betting among all the jokey ones are a couple of "real" nerfs, and they are cautiously testing the water to see if the community responds enthusiastically to any of them.

[Ironwood]

That's genius.  All of it.

What a giggle.

[El Gallo]

WHERE IS MANKEIRKS WIEF???!!??!

[bhodi]

They make fun of shit they know is wrong with / people hate about their own game...

    * A total of 26 new flightpaths have been added to various points throughout the Barrens.

Tired of seeing the same old flightpaths? We've completely reworked each flightpath in the game so that the angle and view are shifted just enough to give all of Azeroth's traveling inhabitants the feeling that they are headed to an all new destination. That's not all, each flightpath has been fleshed out to ensure that the player sees every single detail of the passing terrain, which means that for the same reasonable traveling cost, you'll purchase a ride that's twice the length, and in some cases three and even four times as long!


This one took me a second, but I laughed.

    * Additional grass areas have been added to the enemy faction's zones. This grass is exceptionally green.

[schild]

They make fun of shit they know is wrong with / people hate about their own game...

Obligatory: And they still won't fix it. I wish that didn't apply to oh....every other MMOG on the market. Including the horse the 91 page thread rode in on.

Edit: Oh, and this is money.

* Due to the awkward look and feel of Taurens in the Undercity, guards will no longer permit their entry and have been flagged to kill on sight. Taurens, you've been warned.

It's like "Ali G in da House" where he only let's the 'fit' women into England.

[SurfD]

Eh, flightpaths never really bothered me.  You can get damn near anywhere in the world in 10 minutes MAX with effiecnt use of hearthstones and flightpaths.

Throw in mages who can port you to any major city (and in 1.11, rumor has it, any 1 town of their choice), warlocks that can summon you anywhere given assistnace of 2 others, and travel never really bothered me that much.

I mean, what do you want? I suppose they could make it like asherons call, with portal stones to everywhere scatered about, but then you would have to RUN between them to make interconnections.  What would you rather do? Run for 2 minutes and fly for 5 to get where you are going (during flight you can get a sandwich / bathroom break or whatever) or run for 4 minutes non stop between interconnects?

[raydeen]

My favorite:

* Using friendly emotes will now significantly increase the Infernal and Doomguard's chance to remain loyal to the Warlock.
    * Friendly emotes are no longer available to the Warlock.

[bhodi]

Eh, flightpaths never really bothered me.  You can get damn near anywhere in the world in 10 minutes MAX with effiecnt use of hearthstones and flightpaths.

Throw in mages who can port you to any major city (and in 1.11, rumor has it, any 1 town of their choice), warlocks that can summon you anywhere given assistnace of 2 others, and travel never really bothered me that much.

I mean, what do you want? I suppose they could make it like asherons call, with portal stones to everywhere scatered about, but then you would have to RUN between them to make interconnections.  What would you rather do? Run for 2 minutes and fly for 5 to get where you are going (during flight you can get a sandwich / bathroom break or whatever) or run for 4 minutes non stop between interconnects?

Mark, Recall.

Also, it takes more then 10 minutes. I'm bound in slith, for AQ, and it takes me a good 15m to get to ironforge and another 5 to get to Blackrock. If you're bound in IF, guess what, 15m to slith and another 5 to AQ.

To be honest, the flgiht points are a nice addition. The boats between continents are still a useless waste of time.

[Ironwood]

Mark and Recall were another nail in the coffin of UO.

[Tale]

To be honest, the flgiht points are a nice addition. The boats between continents are still a useless waste of time.

Well, you either have a convenient room with 100 instance portals and call it a MMORPG, or simulate a world where crossing an ocean is a bigger deal than crossing a river. The main problem with the boats is server lag. It makes them really annoying to use (slow loading at other end, getting dumped in water, etc).

I'm allergic to EQ-style "PoK books" (when they added right-clickable pillars everywhere that insta-ported you around the world). I don't like grinds, but I prefer when the world has size and a sense of being far from other parts of it. I'd actually prefer a risky journey across an ocean full of islands and creatures instead of WoW's wussy "dots across a map" loading thing. I was disappointed when I first saw that.

[Llava]

I like the CoH method.

I don't mind running, as long as I can run really fast.

[WindupAtheist]

Mark and Recall were another nail in the coffin of UO.

You know, I thought the same thing.  I thought how cool it would be to have a world you would walk around through.  Then I subbed to WoW and had arguments with a UO guildy over who got to /follow and who had to actually steer as we marched all over the globe.  The best part was when I jumped us both off a cliff to our deaths just to teach her a lesson.

Kal Ort Por please.

[bhodi]

CoH method is fine, I loved superspeed. BTW, teleport is THE SHIT now, they now made it so you can cast again before the animation completes. When you can get to where you're going in 5m, I have no problem with that.

I've argued with my roommate on this very point numerous times. Yes, it's important to show the scale of the world, and the easiest way of doing this is by forcing you to walk through it. It's pretty clear blizzard did this; the paths seem especially designed NOT to let you autowalk them. By level 60, however, it's not like you're exploring the world anymore; Walking seems like a blatant, pointless, time-sink cockblock during the end-game. I would be 100% okay with having to go there once before you could teleport there, or NPC teleporters to outside different dungeons/zones (50s per trip? 1g? not a problem!), instant birds, or any other method you choose.

Admittedly, I'm not much of an explorer; I'm 50% achiever 50% killer. I explored for the XP. Heh.

The frustration isn't JUST at the end game; let's think back to the PUG days for a moment; When I reach my hand deep into the still-seething cespool of hatred and frustration and pull out a random memory, I recall a "forming a 15 man UBRS" nightmare:

30m to form a group, oh look someone's out in the hinterlands, so you get to wait another 15m for them to get there... doo dee doo, fly down to UBRS, zone in.. key? what? I thought you had the key! anyone have the key? AARGH someone hearth back to IF and try and recruit someone else... wait at the door for 15m, random guy joins, oh of course he's got to be in winterspring... another 20m wait, guy zones in, 2 people go sorry i gotta go, this is all the time I had... we all hearth out...

[Tale]

Yes, it's important to show the scale of the world, and the easiest way of doing this is by forcing you to walk through it. It's pretty clear blizzard did this; the paths seem especially designed NOT to let you autowalk them. By level 60, however, it's not like you're exploring the world anymore; Walking seems like a blatant, pointless, time-sink cockblock during the end-game. I would be 100% okay with having to go there once before you could teleport there, or NPC teleporters to outside different dungeons/zones (50s per trip? 1g? not a problem!), instant birds, or any other method you choose.

I think I would leave WoW like I left EQ if that happened. Level 60s must be exposed to things happening in the world outside raiding, and the world must be exposed to level 60s. The heal or damage you might throw to save the level 40-something guy you're passing. The level 20-something awestruck by a procession of epic-mounted level 60s heading to a raid. The PvP attack you stumble into at your flight destination. The rare mob or loot or resource that happens to be up while you pass. These journeys may annoy you and often they're uneventful, but the chance of something happening on them contributes depth and player-made content to the game.

Admittedly, I'm not much of an explorer; I'm 50% achiever 50% killer. I explored for the XP. Heh.

I'm very much an explorer. I also admire these little game mechanics like XP for exploring to get non-explorers out into the world. It's one of those bits of Blizzard ingenuity, like rested XP for people who hate grinds and a fishing system that is actually useful to the game.

The frustration isn't JUST at the end game; let's think back to the PUG days for a moment; When I reach my hand deep into the still-seething cespool of hatred and frustration and pull out a random memory, I recall a "forming a 15 man UBRS" nightmare:

30m to form a group, oh look someone's out in the hinterlands, so you get to wait another 15m for them to get there... doo dee doo, fly down to UBRS, zone in.. key? what? I thought you had the key! anyone have the key? AARGH someone hearth back to IF and try and recruit someone else... wait at the door for 15m, random guy joins, oh of course he's got to be in winterspring... another 20m wait, guy zones in, 2 people go sorry i gotta go, this is all the time I had... we all hearth out...

I see that as a problem with PUGs, not travel. I'd solve it with a good guild and friends list, not with instant travel.

[Llava]

For CoH, I wish it allowed seamless travel across the city.  No loading screens at zone points, etc.  More worldy, less zoney.

With the travel powers, it'd actually be kinda fun getting around without the monorail.  As it is, there's a sort of stop-go factor to it that detracts from the enjoyment.

Course, you'd have to leave the rail there just cause people using Teleport and Flight would probably get sick of that really quick.

[Sunbury]

Actually I was buying the Wisp race, even with permadeath -- untill they posted a screen shot of a Whisp with a beard, that is just too funny.

[Dren]

I wouldn't play a game Tale designed for very long at all.  Less travel time please.

Travelling at the newb stage is all fine, but when it gets to doing the same thing over and over just to go from point A to point B, no thanks.  And adding random encounters along the way will just annoy me because I have something I'm told to get done and I'm going to go do it.  Placing even more blocks to my content like that would make me cancel.  That reminds me too much of the random travelling combat from RPG's of old.  I didn't like them then either.

Birds need to be made twice as fast.  Yes, 10 minutes is too long.  That's 10 minutes of doing nothing.  I'd rather be doing something else and often do go do other stuff.  Most the time, I don't come back because I've lost interest.  I'd rather not pay for a game like that.

Boats are worthless.  Not only do they take too long, they aren't automatic.  I have to sit there staring at the screen to get on the boat and then sit and stare to get off the boat.  They should at least do it like FFXI.  Pay the cost then sit in a designated area.  You get on the boat and the game automatically takes you off at the end of the trip.  You can go afk during the transition.  Still, having it take long enough for me to want to go afk is, again, stupid.  Plus, I want it to pick me up auto too.

I'd be all for letting us have at least 2 hearthstones and speed up the cooldown on them.  That way I can at least choose to have one on each continent and be able to use them more often.  That alone would cut down travel times considerably.

With the addition of new lands in the expansion, travel times will only get worse.  I do realize there has to be some time to travel to give the sense of a big world, but the penalty doesn't have to be so extreme.  If I knew it would take a full minute to get from A to B, I'd still dread it.  60 seconds of doing nothing is a long time to me.  I try to avoid it if at all possible.

[Ironwood]

Sigh.

Why bother in that case ?  Why not just have an Inn with multiple doors ?  'THIS WAY TO DUNGEON OF PHAT LOOTS'.

That's what happened with UO.

[bhodi]

I think I would leave WoW like I left EQ if that happened. Level 60s must be exposed to things happening in the world outside raiding, and the world must be exposed to level 60s. The heal or damage you might throw to save the level 40-something guy you're passing. The level 20-something awestruck by a procession of epic-mounted level 60s heading to a raid. The PvP attack you stumble into at your flight destination. The rare mob or loot or resource that happens to be up while you pass. These journeys may annoy you and often they're uneventful, but the chance of something happening on them contributes depth and player-made content to the game.

I violently differ. First, I play on a carebear (PvE) server. Second, do you really derive enjoyment from getting jacked after landing on a flight point? Seeing people start popping into the world, and then suddenly your screen goes grey? You consider that "contributing depth and player-made content to the game"? When I'm trying to get to slithius, I take bird->bird->bird->boat->bird->bird->bird. The only time I'm running across the landscape is getting to the slith FP or the ride to blackrock from thorium point. I don't care about parading through a lowbie zone showing off my catassed armor. I could frankly care less about some random 'rare mob or resource' and don't even bother to dismount when I pass that mithril ore. The "chance" for it to happen does not contribute depth, no more than pulling a slot machine handle contributes depth. Yes, the journeys annoy me, yes they are often (ALWAYS) uneventful, and I feel I should be allowed to skip them. People like you are free to waste time, I'll get to where I'm going so I can have fun, thanks.

I see that as a problem with PUGs, not travel. I'd solve it with a good guild and friends list, not with instant travel.

It happens in a guild, too. People aren't just magically sitting in ironforge all day whether they are in your guild or not. It's even worse at lower levels becuase they can be bound in a variety of places and there's no quick easy way to meet up. You're still looking at 15-30 meet time plus another 5-15 before you can start killing. Alliance forming a Dire Maul or Marudon group is a great example; It's so much trouble most people don't bother.

[bhodi]

Sigh.

Why bother in that case ?  Why not just have an Inn with multiple doors ?  'THIS WAY TO DUNGEON OF PHAT LOOTS'.

That's what happened with UO.

I liked diablo.

Edit: less glib reply:

UO was great. looting a guy, seeing a bunch of runes, and wondering if it was worth it to try them, whether they would dump you in the lowest level of a dungeon (before they patched, of course) or take you the roof of the bank (god knows how someone got on there in the first place) or maybe take you to a nice vendor-town, or any number of interesting places that you've never seen before and probably wouldn't normally find. All of that is flatly impossible without teleports because unless you get your kicks out of exploring every nook and cranny, you're never going to find that cool mountain shrine. Self-made teleports enabled explorers to go "Wow, what a cool place!" and show it off to their friends. It allowed PKers to make a vendor town, and *real* "Player made conent" to flourish as others got their hands on the rune and raided it. Without teleports, people simply congregate in the big cities. Yes, there's content beyond city to flight point to city, but when's the last time YOU visited the stonewrought dam?

Guild wars has teleports, CoV is nearly so. The world is big, I get it. The grass is pretty, the trees are well rendered. Now let me get to the content.

[Ironwood]

As did I.  Much.

But I wouldn't pay a recurring fee for it.

Ever.

[HaemishM]

All the rogue stuff is very funny. I especially like the removal of a bug which allowed the rogue to wield two weapons.

[Margalis]

Travel is very tricky stuff. You want people to have to explore and go around in the world, but you don't want people running through the same stupid zones over and over and over again.

There are other ways to get high levels and low levels to interact.

One of the things FFXI does really well is mix high-level and low-level content in the same area. You might be level 15 fighting some weak enemies while some level 60 guy is hunting a Notorious Monster that spawns there as well. You tend to see high-levels even in the newb zones because there are things for high-level characters to do there.

[Telemediocrity]

This is the problem with splitting a game into 'zones', except in the most abstract sense - it becomes like a theme park, where once you've been on a ride, nobody wants to ride through it again.  I'm more in favor of a 'world' map that's filled with somewhat random points of nothingness and points of somethingness, with hand-crafted POI's and dungeons (much greater use of dungeons than aboveground scenarios) on that map replacing handcrafted zones.

Otherwise, you have the paradox:  People want less travel time, but the ultimate result of that is an inn with instances, AKA DDO - and then people say "There's no world, why am I paying a monthly fee for this?".  It's almost like people want a world to run through once and then never see again, rather than a world that is always a part of their playing experience.  I think the "theme park", handcrafted world contributes to that notion.

[Tale]

I think I would leave WoW like I left EQ if that happened. Level 60s must be exposed to things happening in the world outside raiding, and the world must be exposed to level 60s. The heal or damage you might throw to save the level 40-something guy you're passing. The level 20-something awestruck by a procession of epic-mounted level 60s heading to a raid. The PvP attack you stumble into at your flight destination. The rare mob or loot or resource that happens to be up while you pass. These journeys may annoy you and often they're uneventful, but the chance of something happening on them contributes depth and player-made content to the game.

I violently differ. First, I play on a carebear (PvE) server. Second, do you really derive enjoyment from getting jacked after landing on a flight point? Seeing people start popping into the world, and then suddenly your screen goes grey? You consider that "contributing depth and player-made content to the game"?

You got me all wrong on that, and argued against something I did not intend to convey.

I play on a PvE server too. I levelled to 37 on a PvP server and hated it. Please reread what I said in the context of "a PvP attack on your flight destination that you can choose to join/not join". It can be fun to jump in and help the defenders under the normal ruleset. Simple as that. Minor point among many.

People like you are free to waste time, I'll get to where I'm going so I can have fun, thanks.

You are the one pulling a slot-machine handle. You're asking for it to be placed nearer the door so you don't have to walk so far.

I am a creative person who works in technical areas. I encounter many technical people who lack a creative bone in their body, and they often drive me nuts by not appreciating things. I'm about the story, and then the special effects. I appreciate atmosphere and sense of place, and then the buildings. I've travelled for years of my real life across many countries and it always ends up being about the journey, and then the destination. It's never a waste of time.

[Jayce]

Interesting how a thread about the wisp turned this bad....

I personally agree with Tale, but that doesn't matter.  Hell, I even didn't mind travel in Eve, and if there is a more featureless and time-consuming travel system than Eve, I don't know about it. 

Explorers like travel in the right measure ... even repeated travel.  No one else does.  Acheivers like the challenge of getting the next item, but killers would rather just be given the item to go gank with.  It's all a matter of personal opinion and no game will ever satisfy all of them.

[HaemishM]

This is the problem with splitting a game into 'zones', except in the most abstract sense - it becomes like a theme park, where once you've been on a ride, nobody wants to ride through it again.  I'm more in favor of a 'world' map that's filled with somewhat random points of nothingness and points of somethingness, with hand-crafted POI's and dungeons (much greater use of dungeons than aboveground scenarios) on that map replacing handcrafted zones.

And yet you aren't playing Star Wars Galaxies? YOU CAN EVEN BE A JEDI! A NINJA JEDI!

The problem with random zones with random shit is it often doesn't make sense, or is repetitive and bland.

Otherwise, you have the paradox:  People want less travel time, but the ultimate result of that is an inn with instances, AKA DDO - and then people say "There's no world, why am I paying a monthly fee for this?".  It's almost like people want a world to run through once and then never see again, rather than a world that is always a part of their playing experience.  I think the "theme park", handcrafted world contributes to that notion.

DDO's problem wasn't just that it was a hub of instances. It also had issues with the execution of the design, as well as just not having enough content to make it feel like it was worth the monthly fee. It wasn't a lack of world, it was a lack of ENOUGH to make the lack of random or handcrafted stuff outside the dungeons seem like enough content.

[bhodi]

I am a creative person who works in technical areas. I encounter many technical people who lack a creative bone in their body, and they often drive me nuts by not appreciating things. I'm about the story, and then the special effects. I appreciate atmosphere and sense of place, and then the buildings. I've travelled for years of my real life across many countries and it always ends up being about the journey, and then the destination. It's never a waste of time.

I, too, enjoyed the questing, the redridge 'find help for us!" quests, learning about the stormwind cheesemaker, finding the manor (but of course the rogue quests weren't complete at the time, which was a huge letdown), and many other things that give the game depth. The trees and grass are pretty, as I said. There is a limit, however. A great example of this are the pointless fedex quests "give this box of eggs to the guy across the world!" "Thanks, now give this empty crate back!" that really seem put in there to add time. My explorer quotient pretty much maxes out by time I've traveled from the crossroads down to the salt flats. Going from a 60 in epic mount to walking is physically painful and it's why I won't level another character even though I enjoy the world and quests enough to do so.

What Jayce said. You like travel. And repeated travel. Great. Terrific! I'm glad you enjoy the game in that manner. I, however, do not. We've already acknowledged the end game is basically raiding. Raiding consists of going from your main city to the dungeon, killing shit and getting their loot. It appeals to the killer and achiever. You may loathe raiding. To me, anything between the city and the dungeon is a waste of time after I've seen it two or three times.

We could also argue how thottbot contributes to the downfall of the explorer, but that's an argument for another thread.

[Llava]

Finding the Manor was a pretty damn cool idea.

[Yegolev]

This is the problem with splitting a game into 'zones', except in the most abstract sense - it becomes like a theme park, where once you've been on a ride, nobody wants to ride through it again.

You are right.  This is probably why DDO is going down the toilet like so much used mexican food.

[Mazakiel]

When it comes to exploration, I really do like exploring the zones in WoW and seeing what there is to see.  I don't, however, like having to stop every 5 feet to fight whatever wolf, bear, scorpion, or other creature that is pissed off at the world and decides to chase my warlock's bony ass.  So I don't explore zones in much detail minus what I'm forced to find for whatever quests I'm on, unless I go back later to gather herbs, or decide to fully explore an area for the hell of it once I don't have to worry about the beasts being a threat.  I'd explore alot more in every zone I got to if 95% of it didn't attack on sight.  And there are some really nicely done zones that I do love just riding through, such as Tirisfal or Duskwood. 

[Telemediocrity]

This is the problem with splitting a game into 'zones', except in the most abstract sense - it becomes like a theme park, where once you've been on a ride, nobody wants to ride through it again.  I'm more in favor of a 'world' map that's filled with somewhat random points of nothingness and points of somethingness, with hand-crafted POI's and dungeons (much greater use of dungeons than aboveground scenarios) on that map replacing handcrafted zones.

And yet you aren't playing Star Wars Galaxies? YOU CAN EVEN BE A JEDI! A NINJA JEDI!

Why do you keep saying this on multiple threads?  As I've said before, I think the NGE is a step in the right direction, and once they add some things slated for upcoming patches I'm planning to subscribe to the game (I played the 10 day free trial so far and enjoyed it) and seriously play it.

The problem with random zones with random shit is it often doesn't make sense, or is repetitive and bland.

What are your thoughts on AC1's landscape?

Otherwise, you have the paradox:  People want less travel time, but the ultimate result of that is an inn with instances, AKA DDO - and then people say "There's no world, why am I paying a monthly fee for this?".  It's almost like people want a world to run through once and then never see again, rather than a world that is always a part of their playing experience.  I think the "theme park", handcrafted world contributes to that notion.

DDO's problem wasn't just that it was a hub of instances. It also had issues with the execution of the design, as well as just not having enough content to make it feel like it was worth the monthly fee. It wasn't a lack of world, it was a lack of ENOUGH to make the lack of random or handcrafted stuff outside the dungeons seem like enough content.

I wasn't saying "Here's DDO's only problem" - I was pointing out something in DDO that people have complained about and showing how it poses a paradox issue.