World of Warcraft: Current Year
- Thread starter hodj
- Start date
- 48,241
- 283,255
Sounds like a guy who watched as all the talent around him leave the company and now he knows they just produce generic dogshit trying to appeal to everyone and end up appealing to nobody. Playing Classic might of reminded him how much of a failure current design is.
- 1
Love his point about virtual worlds as well. I don't see them going away, but they sure have fucking sucked the last decade and a half....
- 2,605
- 4,143
Prominent Features for Shadowlands:
- The Maw (Endgame Zone): Still boring, still no mounts, still a shitty timer, still no real purpose.
- Torghast (Endless Dungeon): Not so endless anymore. From what I've seen it looks boring, too.
- Covenants: Shitty borrowed power system no one asked for.
With all the last minute balance patches (just in: Disc Priest: "Damage of all abilities reduced by 6%") it's obvious that Blizzard has no idea about the math and how their own game works at this point. Their modeling during the design phase (probably in Excel) and their code seem to be two separate worlds. Their theorycrafters are all theory and no craft.
Art department and music will carry the leveling phase. The dungeons and boss encounters look interesting. I'd give it a go if you are bored for 30 days. Then the slog sets in.
This will be BfA 2.0, which was WoD 2.0, and then management will ask some serious questions, and after that come to the wrong conclusions because everyone lies to management because they are afraid for their jobs.
- 2
- 1
McCheese
SW: Sean, CW: Crone, GW: Wizardhawk
- 6,889
- 4,248
That reminds me of City of Heroes. One of the powersets (Dark Miasma maybe?) had a balance issue and players kept hounding the devs about it, with numbers and evidence of what was messed up. The devs were adamant things were fine and the players didn't know what they were talking about. I remember that Statesman (their lead dev) was a condescending prick about it just like Ian is with WoW.
It turned out that the devs were doing their simulating/testing/whatever on, quite literally, different numbers and balance than what was actually live for the players. It's not the incompetence that irks me, but the hubris that players can't know what's good/bad for the game
Ukerric
Bearded Ape
- 7,911
- 9,547
And apparently, to be sure no hardcore gamer can gain "undue benefits", it's capped to 3 levels the first week.
Because YOU WILL PLAY ACCORDING TO OUR CURATED METRICS, OR ELSE.
- 1
- 1
Only one new class, no new races (reskins don't count) and no new professions in the last 4 expansions. Many mechanics and game elements that either don't exist or don't matter.
"pay $50 for a new treadmill reset and shit that won't matter in 2 patches."
I'll pass.
"pay $50 for a new treadmill reset and shit that won't matter in 2 patches."
I'll pass.
- 6
- 1
WorryPlaysGames
Blackwing Lair Raider
- 537
- 311
I thought "hey, this will be a great expansion to come back to" after bouncing out of BFA early. So resubbed for the prepatch and levelled a few guys to 50 and ... never came back. It's just boring. I don't know how to explain it, but it's lacking something that makes it fun to me anymore. I would rather sit in Halls of Testing farming armor on a TLP than fly from boss to boss in Icecrown hoping for a bag or loot.
It's just too many convoluted systems and knowing no matter how much you do from now until 9.1, it will be "wiped out" with new catch up mechanics, loot and things. Plus the time gating is ridiculous now. You can't play how you want it seems.
It's just too many convoluted systems and knowing no matter how much you do from now until 9.1, it will be "wiped out" with new catch up mechanics, loot and things. Plus the time gating is ridiculous now. You can't play how you want it seems.
- 1
Daidraco
Golden Baronet of the Realm
- 9,197
- 9,305
I dont think anyone has praised this launch event. In memory, this has been the worst one by far but even the media/talking heads have said that this one was not worth the time and effort. They said that if you're trying to gear up, the quickest way to do it was just going to do Mythic + with your legendaries on - that gear will at least last you till around 58-59. While the launch event gear wont last you past 52. WoW is already a waste of time, but this event is a waste of time inside of that.
We've been having gear resets for years now, so thats kind of an old excuse. We had these same misgivings about WoW when we were going from Legion to WoD. At least Shadow Lands is in tune with the "good expansion" after the bad expansion. If you just go off of what your average alpha player is going off of, they are really hyped to play Shadow Lands in retail. If anything, I think it'll be worth the purchase for the time spent.
Springbok
Karen
- 9,017
- 12,569
Well Torghast was awesome, and is still awesome and I'm really stoked to get into it for real next week. Best thing they've added since the Mage Tower and more than enough reason to do the xpac. The new dungeons are great too, and the classes (at least all of my mains - shadow, frost dk, marksman) are actually fun to play again, unlike the entirety of this piece of shit xpac we're about to leave. There is a ton of cause for concern with covenants/conduits and balancing, still, but this is a good expansion and I've really enjoyed what little time I've had in beta. The zones are also, as usual, awesome and some of the story beats are actually cool. I love leveling up the first few weeks of a new xpac and enjoyed it even in BFA - this is significantly better than that experience so I'm excited to do it "for real" Monday night. My newborn baby and toddler notwithstanding......
The Maw seems like a complete waste of time and thrown together at the zero hour - even after their "fixes" it still isn't fun or engaging. Think this is something they have plans to update but not sure what they'll do here. Not even sure that they COULD do with the zone really as the design itself seems fundamentally flawed.
TLDR: Leveling, the zones, the classes and story are all great imo. Torghast isn't just great, it's excellent and I'm extremely stoked to dive back in even after playing it a ton in Beta. Conduits/Covenant choices, The Maw, balancing could eventually derail the really great initial feelings of the Xpac, but I don't really give a fuck. I usually flame out a month or so after launch anyways due to the time/commitment involved in raiding, but the initial rush/experience is going to be quite good.
Will easily last me until Cyberpunk finally drops (whenever that is) and that's all WOW is to me anymore. A fun diversion/distraction, between "real" game launches. It's a theme park to visit every now and then, not something anyone should want to live in long term.
The Maw seems like a complete waste of time and thrown together at the zero hour - even after their "fixes" it still isn't fun or engaging. Think this is something they have plans to update but not sure what they'll do here. Not even sure that they COULD do with the zone really as the design itself seems fundamentally flawed.
TLDR: Leveling, the zones, the classes and story are all great imo. Torghast isn't just great, it's excellent and I'm extremely stoked to dive back in even after playing it a ton in Beta. Conduits/Covenant choices, The Maw, balancing could eventually derail the really great initial feelings of the Xpac, but I don't really give a fuck. I usually flame out a month or so after launch anyways due to the time/commitment involved in raiding, but the initial rush/experience is going to be quite good.
Will easily last me until Cyberpunk finally drops (whenever that is) and that's all WOW is to me anymore. A fun diversion/distraction, between "real" game launches. It's a theme park to visit every now and then, not something anyone should want to live in long term.
Last edited:
- 3
- 1
Zindan
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
- 6,624
- 4,411
WoW just needs to die, but it is still to big of a cash cow for Activision, just like CoD. Cataclysm was their chance at ending WoW as it was and starting up WoW 2, but they lacked any ideas for what WoW 2 could be by that time, so we just got themed xpacs. Now WoW is just too big with each xpac being too distinct/separate from Classic. Going through that new tutorial area makes it clear how far WoW has fallen, it pretty much encapsulates everything that is WoW currently... and that is a pretty sad realization that a 1-10 experience can sum up everything you'll experience past it.
That being said, I still intend to play through Shadowlands to see something new, but most likely not more than one month.
That being said, I still intend to play through Shadowlands to see something new, but most likely not more than one month.
Merrith
Golden Baronet of the Realm
- 18,102
- 6,918
Springbok's comments mirror a lot of what I've heard from old friends in game who did beta quite a bit. Leveling/zones/Torghast (especially Torghast) all very good, covenants/balancing shit probably end up dragging it down eventually.
- 1
Big Phoenix
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
- 44,593
- 93,118
Thats what happens when you get too big. Stability becomes the overriding goal, not innovation.
- 2
Burns
Golden Baronet of the Realm
- 6,081
- 12,260
- Death Knight is a slow melee class (along with Pal)
- Fairies have the best movement speed ability, by far
- If covenants are close, they will be tuned around ability/conduit balance
- Death Knights that dont go Fairy will get outperformed on all fights that require movement (90% of them)
- Therefore, Death Knights are forever Fairy
- 1
- 1
Cinge
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
- 7,009
- 2,077
At 16 years old, I think stability is fine. The problem is they are not doing anything new with their other teams. I mean make a new game, or use one of your IPs to create something new. All they have in the pipeline is 2 sequals, D4 and OW2. There is a gaping hole in the MMO market atm that they could fill, but for some reason choose not to.
- 48,241
- 283,255
Seems like they innovative plenty, it’s just that all of their innovations suck dick. New devs keep wanting to put their stamp on a 15 year old game when everyone wants more of what they enjoyed instead of another borrowed power system. Borrowed power sucks dick period.
So the sad part is everyone who is saying that they will play it will play it for a month level to max and bounce. That doesn’t work for an MMO to be enjoyable. MMOs by their very nature are meant to be long term consistent worlds. Yet the best experience now sounds like playing the game as a solo experience, level, enjoy the art work and zones, explore a little, do some dungeons, get shiny meaningless rewards, hit the brick wall of Blizzards self imposed gated gameplay and quit. As the time investment to fun ratio becomes awful.
So the sad part is everyone who is saying that they will play it will play it for a month level to max and bounce. That doesn’t work for an MMO to be enjoyable. MMOs by their very nature are meant to be long term consistent worlds. Yet the best experience now sounds like playing the game as a solo experience, level, enjoy the art work and zones, explore a little, do some dungeons, get shiny meaningless rewards, hit the brick wall of Blizzards self imposed gated gameplay and quit. As the time investment to fun ratio becomes awful.
- 1
- 1
- 2,605
- 4,143
It's a mobile game with dark patterns now. It would be more honest to have a daily login bonus screen like GW2 at this point instead.
- 1