Where did WoW go right?

[DatGrump]

WoW was fun untill they made it obvious that they were going for people cash. Mini-stores and half-assed Xpac's for all now. Same art, same crappy models.

I'm sorry but even with the current gen stuff, no game will come close to the immersion or the feeling of hard work paying off like EQ(now p99) or Vanilla UO.

Thanks again to the p99 guys for bringing the best PC gaming memories I had as a kid back. Not even looking at another MMO current or down the line since I've found this! [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I tip my hat to you all.

[Breeziyo]

Originally Posted by DatGrump [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

half-assed Xpac's for all now. Same art, same crappy models.

This isn't really true. The closest you could get to calling an expansion half-assed is Cataclysm, but that's only if you focus on end game content. They completely revamped the 1-60 experience for that expac.

The problem most people have with WoW's current rate of content being pushed out is the fact that during Vanilla WoW, loads of new things(not just 7 boss raids lol Firelands, though to my understanding heroic ragnaros is one of the hardest WoW fights in history) each patch would be pushed out faster than they manage to now. And even then, each patch had much more substance comparitavely. WoW has been letting too much promised content go to the dump because Blizzard has either gotten complacent or doesn't have the work force to push it out, or maybe I could be wrong and they just don't like the end product.

For instance FL was supposed to be released with patch 4.1 and the troll dungeons were complete filler content. The War of the Ancients raid was scrapped and condensed into a shitty 5 man heroic. The Abyssal Maw was completely scrapped, though two of the bosses in Dragon Soul were supposedly going to be in that raid instead. The Malygos raid was supposed to be a full fledged raid as well rather than the Onyxia style one-boss room it came to. I'll probably get asked for a source here, but I can't find the alpha screenshots and data from WotLK I had saved. The only solid thing I can provide is the fact that blue dragonflight themed items are scattered throughout Naxxrammas. Anyway, it's things like this that people pick up on and it's seemingly gotten worse ever since WotLK.

MoP is looking like it will actually be nice in terms of quality and quantity of content available at launch(highest # of raid targets to date I believe), but we'll just have to wait and see how it pans out mid to late expansion. If the promised new models aren't scrapped as well(and there will be an uproar if they are), I think it will be enough to hold their audience and even bring back a sizeable portion of those who quit just like transmogrification has.

Here's to hoping WoW "goes right" again with MoP and makes better attempts to keep their game interesting. They're doing pretty well, but their subscription losses indicate they could probably stand to do better.

tl;dr Half-assery comes mostly from patch content(or lack thereof), not expansions. Expansions for the most part provide a huge amount of content that is very well polished.

[Dirtnap]

Originally Posted by Breeziyo [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The problem most people have with WoW's current rate of content being pushed out is the fact that during Vanilla WoW, loads of new things(not just 7 boss raids lol Firelands, though to my understanding heroic ragnaros is one of the hardest WoW fights in history) each patch would be pushed out faster than they manage to now. And even then, each patch had much more substance comparitavely. WoW has been letting too much promised content go to the dump because Blizzard has either gotten complacent or doesn't have the work force to push it out, or maybe I could be wrong and they just don't like the end product.

I've been following the assumption that they fired most of the staff that created the game. I think all the content from day one, to TBC was planned out, and mostly created. Then they fired those guys, and now have half-assed workers doing all the new stuff. Fire the expensive workers, hire cheap ones = more money padding your pockets.

I saw a bunch of stuff a while back showing how the Emerald Dream, and Outlands had quite a lot worked on before an expansion was even considered.

[choklo]

Originally Posted by Dirtnap [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I've been following the assumption that they fired most of the staff that created the game. I think all the content from day one, to TBC was planned out, and mostly created. Then they fired those guys, and now have half-assed workers doing all the new stuff. Fire the expensive workers, hire cheap ones = more money padding your pockets.

I saw a bunch of stuff a while back showing how the Emerald Dream, and Outlands had quite a lot worked on before an expansion was even considered.

Isn't this how EQ started the spiral down the toilet?

[Dirtnap]

Originally Posted by choklo [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Isn't this how EQ started the spiral down the toilet?

Yeah, a lot of companies use skilled/hardworking people to build something big. Then fire them all for people who can do patchwork for a lot cheaper.