World of Warcraft, expansion time or not?
The other day I talked about my absolute hatred towards levelling in World of Warcraft. I started playing that game a long long time ago, more precise at release date (EU). Back then I still played a Horde character on a PVP server (Shattered Hand). I had four characters (priest, shaman, rogue & hunter) all level 60.
I stopped playing a bit before the release of The Burning Crusade and started again not so long ago. This time on a PVE server (Ghostland), an Alliance Night Elf Druid.
So here’s my issue, what happens when Wrath of the Lich King comes? Again, more levelling, more reputation grinding, more getting shiny purple gear? After reading Tobolds post on Death Knights in beta, I’m not so sure I want to.
So all this leads to the following, why in earth do I keep playing? To be honest, I have no idea. I really don’t. I like computergames, no wait, make that I love computergames. I grew up with a controller in my hands. Eventually that controller became a mouse and a keyboard. And computergames became MMO’s.
But why do I keep torturing myself with the WOW grind?
Don’t get me wrong, I really like the game, from a design point of view (the worlds, the lore, …), but lets not kid ourselves, the game is designed with one thing in mind:
MINDLESS GRINDING aka a timesink.
It’s well hidden and sugarized, but a grind will always be a grind.
Please note, i’m only speaking for myself here, so if you don’t mind all that, and are happily enjoying yourself in WOW, hey more power to you.
So what will I do when the expansion hits the shelves? Am I going to be doing this all over again? More quests that are the same as always. More getting to exhalted reputation. More keys to need in order to get into an instance. More mounts to go after. More gear to replace. More skills to level.
Look at me ranting.
Somebody needs to say to me STOP PLAYING THE DAMN GAME FOOL!
Where’s Mr. T when you need him.
A little update on my mmo’s
Slow days regarding my blogging. Guess it’s the weather.
A little about my World of Warcrafting.
My druid is level 66 now, four more levels and I’m hitting the cap. It’s exhausting. Really it is. I don’t like to level, I don’t like to grind reputation. Unfortunately, Warcraft is pretty much all that. I’ve read an article about this very issue the other day, where Tigole (dev) says that levelling from 60-70 will be made faster with the release of Wrath of the Lich King.
I say why wait until the release? Do it now. levelling is a pain in the a**. I was to be able to have fun, you know the fun that starts at 70.
Lucky for me I have two buddies (Aurian & Veldan) that are truly endgame people, and have boosted me through pretty much every zone (we’re at the Blade’s Edge Mountains at the moment). If it weren’t for them, I don’t think I would still be playing. Outland was fun and exciting the first two hours, but it’s pretty much the same after that.
Chilling in Blade's Edge Mountains
And this screenshot is to cool not to show.
- Sneaking by at Black Rock Mountain
A MMO you start hearing from more and more is Stargate Worlds. I’m not really a fan of the TV series, a,d definately not from the expanded show, what’s it called, Atlantis?
Anyway, there are two movies up and running, and my first though was, Tabula Rasa? I don’t think SGW is going to be a huge success.
Random MMO thoughts and ramblings (SWG, WAR)
Another fellow that took a peek at post NGE Star Wars Galaxies. A very nice read. He pretty much enjoyed the experience, although he much preferred the old game. Where have we heared that before?
And I’m going to write about this too.
The recent announcement from EA Mythic regarding their upcoming mmo: Warhammer Online.
Apparantly, due to project management, time-management issues, some stuff got scraped from the game. To be more precise:
- Most capital cities will not be available at release (leaving only 2 CC for players)
- Five classes have been scraped from the game (Choppa, Greenskin, Hammerer, Blackguard and Knight of the Blazing Sun) and probably will not be added again.
Mythic’s community/PR wizard Mark Jacobs explains the why and how’s on a forum.
Now, I’ve been following the game with some interest. I’ve never played Dark Age of Camelot (also from Mythic) but the whole realm vs realm thing appeals to me. I’m not that keen on games with an EA brand on them, so that is an issue that might decided whether or not I’ll buy the game.
Also, the itemization (WOW pvp anyone? How fun is it to get oneshot?) and balancing of the characters is vital to a PvP centric game.
So is this cutting a good or a bad thing?
For starters, no-one knows the real deal. Only Mythic has the real reason as to why. We mere mortals can only speculate. But that’s what the internet is all about so lets get to it.
The BAD:
- Beta Beta! The game is nowhere near finished and polished and they are pushing for a release (AoC anyone?). Who knows why? They’re out of money, EA is breathing down their neck, they are tired of developping …
- Promise a lot! That’s the mmo mantra these days. if you are creating a game it’s always best to say it is the most uber thing ever done. It’s packed with next-gen features (Next-Gen baby, woohoo). Offcourse the day will come that you get confronted with reality and funding and stuff like that. Woop did we dream out loud?
- World of Warcraft! Yea the killer of mmo’s. In a couple of month, WOW’s second expansion will hit the shelves, Wrath of the Lich King. And it is bound to hook players for several months to come. Bad time for you to release your mmo after that no?
The GOOD:
- They really really want the game to be perfect! Not just good, but awesomely perfect. It takes balls to make a decision like this so far into the developement cycle. They could have waited with the announcement until WAR was being shipped. They could have shipped with uncompleted (bad) content and try to fix it after release, and we all know how easy that is right? (/sarcasm off)
- The game will actually benefit from it! I actually like the decision to cut the number of capital cities. This way everything will be centered around two cities. As a player, a heck of a lot easier.
The classes is something you just have to trust Mythic on. if the data they get from their beta-testers says crap, it probably is crap. And again, kudos to them for actually listening to their QA people.
I’ve been reading statements of people (gamers) saying stuff like “I want my pre-order money back” & “I won’t be playing the game now you EA sellouts”.
Please … get real.
It certainly is an interesting developement, and I’m curious what the next couple of months will bring for the game, but I’m certain this isn’t the last surprising announcement Mythic has in store for us.
Sunken temple and a druid quest
Yesterday I was able to finish to last part of my Druid questline.
Objective, head over to Sunken Temple and summon the boss. Kill and loot something for someone.
Easier said than done offcourse. ST is not one of the most popular instances in WOW, and takes a relative long time to complete. Finding a PUG can be a major drag, and is not even a garantee for a complete run.
Besides this, I actually pretty much like Sunken Temple. I think it’s very well designed, and offcourse the drag00ns flying inside make a nice show.
Thanks to two of my friends, that are level 70 and pretty hardcore raiders with extra bling-bling gear, I am now the proud owner of a blue piece that will be replaced after 15 seconds in Outlands.
/Salute to Aurian & Veldan