Last October, I confessed that I am a female WOW player. Today, I come as a WOW fan, video gamer, and Blizzard Entertainment customer. You don't have to play World of Warcraft to know about the culture, you only need to know someone who lives inside the game. I have not played since February 4th, but that has not stopped me from writing about the game's third and possible final expansion installment, Cataclysm.
Cataclysm is coming soon everyone. Blizzard will probably launch it in late summer/early fall of this year. The volcanic ash incident in Iceland alone is a sure testament of modern-day Azeroth's willingness to change into the drastically, unrecognizable world depicted in Cataclysm. For the last three weeks, I have been analyzing the new Cataclysm preview class changes with exhilaration and worry. I love video games that challenge the mind and transcends the imagination, similarly to what Hollywood mega blockbusters are suppose to do when you enter the movie theaters.
But with the new influx of new WOW players and the stupidly easiness in leveling toons and professions in the game, I have created this proposal to help Blizzard developers out there through the process of this expansion pack in order to regain the trust and satisfaction of its customers and innovate and improve beyond the first two expansion packs: Burning Crusade and the Wrath of the Lich King. Declaimer: If you are not a WOW fan and is reading this, try to catch up!
1. Make sure Tree of Life is efficient in PVE and PVP. In WOW, you can play characters from ten different classes. One of the classes that you can play is a druid. I have a level 72 druid. In the preview, Tree of Life is a passive ability, meaning that if you were to spec in the restoration druid talent spec, you can play as a tree. Now Blizzard wants to make the ability into a cool-down based talent. If this happens, please have TOL last between 30 seconds to 2 minutes, longer than the deep demonology warlock's Metamorphosis talent. Also, I encourage Blizzard to provide resto druids with some, if not all of the Tree of Life buffs when not in form. If not, resto druids will be more susceptible to polymorph effects (mages) and stuns in pvp and arena.
3. Give rogues a reason to kill. I also have a level 80 rogue. Rogues are probably one of the only classes to be gear and Cool-down dependent. Their skill comes from the mastering of its several defensive and offensive cool-down based abilities such as cheap shot and gouge. When all the CDs are down, they are useless and swishy. Rogues are fortunate to receive the Smoke Bomb ability, but what happens when a rogue activates it and cannot use its spells because the cool-downs are up? Is 10 seconds enough? Also, fix Vanish and Cloak of Shadows. I did not played WOW during the Vanilla days (2004-2006), but I will tell you is that if you are suppose to vanish within the naked eye, you are suppose to not be seen.4. Nerf the paladin class. This statement is very self-explanatory. Blizzard made this hybrid class almost unbeatable in every form of combat sequence in the WOTLK expansion pack. When beta testing PTR realms are opened to the public soon, I hope Blizzard keeps in mind that the balance of all classes should be the most important goal in the game. Otherwise, there will be another influx of paladins or your customers will lose interest in the game and quit.
5. Make sure the new level 85 dungeons and other content are challenging. Blizzard has more than 10 million customers worldwide and counting. Your customers should work for the $15 monthly subscription. Do not make leveling their toons to level 85 like a walk in the park. Currently, a new player can easily level to 80 in less than a month and farm level 80 heroic dungeons for level 200-232 gear in less than a week. If you want to keep your customers, make sure the heroic and raiding dungeons are harder to play as a group. As a result, it will allow players to actually think about the content, the group dynamics, and their avatar abilities more intimately than easily defeating bosses and mobs.
6. Finally, Skill is more important than gear. Bring back Vanilla. When a recruiter or internship coordinator analyzes job applications, he/she is looking for potential candidates with some level of experience and personality. When I play WOW, I intend to play with skill. I may not have the best available gear, but I as least have the dps (damage per second) or heals or tanking abilities to defeat any foe in my way. You can always get gear, but skill takes practice. Unfortunately, most WOW players only care more about the shiny new level 277 gear you got from Heroic Icecrown Citadel 25-man than the level of skill it takes to master your particular class(es).This is the reason why I do not like the current gear score system or Blizzard's call to eliminate the gear score system: The Equipment Potency Equivalence Number System. Either way, guilds and groups will still use gear ratings to discriminate against others that have below-average or decent gear. Blizzard wants WOW players to manage their toons' mana and energy more efficiently than ever before in Cataclysm with the new stat changes, but how does that filter into the current gear vs. skill politics? With skill comes great responsibility. To become a great player with the best gear and skill is rare, but should be one of the most ultimate goals of any WOW end-game player.
Other than this, I look forward to the new expansion pack and more hours of epic leetness!
Do you play WOW or know someone who plays it? If so, what do you think Blizzard has in store for us in Cataclysm? What do you agree or disagree about my proposal? If not, what did you not understand about this blog post? I can clarify some points via comments below.
.jpg)
12 comments:
I can't really comment much on what you said, as I'm a role-player. I mean, don't get me wrong, I level and I have tried a dungeon here and there but my main purpose for WoW has been to bring my character to life!!!
My wife and I started playing late 2006 and have played off and on ever since then. We have all the expansions and even beta-tested Wrath of the Lich King. We're hoping we get to test Cata.
Guild Housing and/or Player Housing
Yes, myself and many others have wanted this for a LONG time, but it is still worth mentioning.
Armor Dye
When Jen and I played Guild Wars, I always had a lot of fun with the armor dye. For example, our adorable little monk twins had light blue with light purple armor. I'd also dye my armor for holidays, etc. too. I'm not really sure how armor dye would work on WoW, as you have a lot of armor and clothing (which I LOVE.) And yes, there is a wide range of colored clothing on WoW. I just love customizing stuff.
Carpentry
We've always thought Carpentry would be a fun Profession.
A new RP realm
I've wanted to join a new RP realm for a while, however, I'd really like to join one from the start like I did with my current one.
The ability to have more than ten characters on one realm
Again, on Guild Wars, you could pay a small amount and get another character slot. I wish WoW would do this, as I have many ideas for characters, but no space. :(
More useless crap!
Clothing, mini pets, eye wear, junk items that are fun for RP, etc.
New holiday stuff!
Again... Guild Wars. Every year they have the same events, but new things that drop. Plus, you also get a different helm every year. I love this!
First and last names!
I'd love to be able to give my character a first AND last name while doing character customization. That way, I can use all my favorite names.
Also... The ability to name my mount.
You can name yourself and your pet (for hunters.) How about your mount? And come to think of it, why CAN'T warlocks name their minions? A while ago I saw an Imp named "Karrot"... :/
@ Lariats, I am not a RPer. Do RPers in WOW think differently than most people in PVP servers? That would be interesting. :O
What do you mean by guild housing? Like several players living in a "house" or location in the game? Like a sonority or fraternity house?
I would love to have a first and last name. But WOW only allows a certain number of characters?
If WOW could bring my toons to life, I might have a heart attack! :P
I honestly think PvPers and RPers do think differently. I mean, I've barely raided and even before raiding, I ask more PvP related friends to help me get my character ready.
Right now I'm inactive on WoW. When I am active, I can tell you this and that about my class - but class updates, dungeon updates, raiding, etc. mean very little to me.
And by guild housing, I mean a guild hall. Not sure if you've ever played Guild Wars, but it's a hall where all your guild members can meet up, "buy" different services, etc.
Plus I'd just love player housing.
And right now, WoW does allow a certain number of characters, but I meant I'd like to see a box for both first and last name. Plus we'd hopefully see less people with names crammed into one box.
Hubby was looking over some the class changes a few weeks ago... not sure how I feel about the ToL change, as I've only had my druid for about a year and resto's my offspec... like you said though, they better still offer the buffs ToL currently gives to the Resto Druid or at least make up for it someway...
Nerf Pallies... Considering I've been a pally since day 1, I like how things are now - no longer do I as a Ret pally have to wear mail just to get every stat I need which was like the majority of them in the game at one point. Granted, I don't tank on her and rarely heal on her, but as a Ret, I like how things are right now (or were when I left).
I do hate the gear level thing and that played into partially why I quit - I took a few weeks off, Icecrown came out and that was all my guild on my active toon was doing and my gear was too low for the instance according to the raid leader - I needed more ToC gear, despite the fact that I was usually in the top 3 for damage with my current gear...
I agree though, bring back the days of Vanilla - I LOVED playing back then because it was actually a challenge, yet it was fun - I actually miss the days of MC and BWL! I hated Burning Crusade and while I have enjoyed Wrath so much more as an expansion, it is kinda easy so long as you don't get stuck with total noobs (I've been in some pretty fail Naxx groups even after ToC came out).
in response to Lariats...
Being on one of the original RP realms (Scarlet Crusade), I remember a lot of people used to talk in Vanilla about the guild housing - I even heard a rumor that those swirly portals off the Stormwind Canals were going to be used for that, but then I think Blizzard forgot or something...? Who knows... there are a few RP mods though where you can give a last name and bio and it identifies other RPers on your server using the mod. I forget what it's called, but for a time on my server it was pretty popular - I remember walking around Stormwind and seeing a ton of people flagged with the same mod =)
Armor Dye sounds kinda cool though!
On my server though, despite being an RP server, it's kind of dead. There's strictly RP guilds, but that's about it - long gone are the days of seeing RP going on in Stormwind or anywhere else in public really... it's hard to come by unfortunately - Burning Crusade kinda killed it and our server's kinda turned into more of a PvE realm.
The only difference back in the day between the RP and PVP mindset was that you had to actually flag up and then if someone got ganked by a "blue flagger" there would be flame threads on the forums... I remember many times waiting outside the Warsong Battleground instance in the Elflands, waiting for the queue to pop and while we were all flagged, horde would come sneaking up and a mini-battle would ensue. There used to be HUGE matches in Hillsbrad too - the fight for Tauren Mill and Southshore... oh and we had a huge battle on the Loch Modan too, in the middle of the lake... before battlegrounds PVP was an all out RP battle, it was actually pretty epic and cool... then they created battlegrounds and stuff like that rarely happens anymore =(
@Lariat, Hum, interesting! I need to learn more about the role-playing culture in WOW. Do you guys at least do LFG dungeons to obtain some gear? Are alliance/horde "live" in harmony? BLASPHEMY! :D I NEED BLOOD! LMAO.
@Ray J- If your RP realm is "dead", are you switching to a PVE or PVP server?
my bad, I meant the RP on my server is dead - everyone focuses on PVE or Battlegrounds these days, so it's rare to see any RP outside of an actual RP guild these days
@Ray J- I see. I have another question. Do you think people in Pvp/pve server do a little bit of 'roleplaying'? When I play with my lv 80 rogue in Arathi Basin, I am in my "rogue frame of mind." I want to mutilate and destroy my opponents. Seems appropriate.
@RAY J - There are several addons - MyRolePlay, FlagRSP2 and Immersion - all for giving your character separate names, height, weight, appearance, scent. Basically everything you'd notice ONLY if you were standing around them.
They're really pretty fun, but I'd still love if Blizzard implanted a better naming feature. Oh and yes, those darn swirly things in Stormwind. >.<
@Lady Mel - Jen and I partner up and hit The Deadmines (for our pirates outfits,) Shadowfang Keep (for her priest and my mage) and The Scarlet Monastery for our Scarlet RP gear.
But honestly, that's about it. We're interested in raiding more, but RPing and leveling over raiding any day.
As for blood thirsty, it's like the real world. Some people want war, some want peace, some could care less.
My hunter hates the horde, my pirate's neutral, my Scarlet hates everyone except for other Scarlet's, etc., etc.
@ Lariats- We should raid more or at least use the new LFD dungeon tool. You can still roleplay as you level another toon to lv 80. Or even better, you can do Wailling Caverns (I do not have a horde toon so I have never been down there before).
You are right. People play WOW for different reasons. I go for the bloodlust, you and your wife go for the peaceful, "Let's Not Make Warcraft, But Love" approach. All is good. :)
Actually, quite the opposite. :P We LOVE PvP, we just don't it often. I'd prefer my ass-kickage to be against people over raid bosses. :P
As for the LFG tool, that's just really not our thing. And if we do wanna raid, we're usually running friends. We're also good friends with several amazing raiding RP guilds and they'll ask us for help/help us whenever they need/we need. ^_^
Oh and Wailing Caverns is pretty awesome, we've been there several types with our Blood Elf paladins. Very easy to get lost, though! Big twisty place, if I remember right.
@Lariats, wow you are awesome friends and guilds on your server. In my server, its hard to even pug things especially end-game raids because we are a small-populated server. When I return to WOW, I am going to level a priest. Hopefully, I can do go to Wailing Caverns via LFG. :)
wow private server
Post a Comment