Upcoming patch: is blizzard real?

[Slats]

What they need to do is take the idea of Diablo random dungeon generation and apply it to PvP Maps. Have osme core rules about certian points can't be more than x yards from each other and use some kind of symmetry checking so that neither sie is too lucky in getting a map that favors them.

That way they would always be fresh.

[Ualaa]

I like that idea, quite a bit.

[Mercbeast]

Well... WOW pretty much created the model for the modern day MMORPG. Let's give credit where credit is due. They were groundbreaking.

These days I feel like the game has a huge flaw. This flaw is how WOW expansions work and I have come to realize it isn't fun. I've started from scratch in TBC, WOTLK, and I still haven't bought Cata. The changes while awesome- the starting from scratch once again got to me this time. Still WOW is very hard to walk away from and I keep tabs on the game and still come to Dualboxing because I like you guys. Not in a gay way though

Renewed my main account to just fart around. Still can't seem to get into the game. Kind of sucks, lol. It's weird since I still love WOW at heart- just don't feel like playing. Maybe I'm just burnt on WOW.

Wish WOW's expansions were done differently. For example City of Heroes. They come out with new content constantly without raising the leveling cap. It's a bit complicated to explain in just a few lines but you never feel like you're starting from scratch. Basically they come out with harder taskforces/dungeons and give you the ability to become more powerful to compensate. Also you can adjust taskforce/dungeon difficulty infinitely. Want a more challenging mission just change the difficulty.

What I see is WOW becoming free to play before the next expansion. Then they'll sell expansions and BS making even more money than they are now.

/rant off

What were we talking about again? lol

No, WoW did not. If anything Everquest did. About 95% of the MMO's on the market today can trace their ultimate inspiration in the MMO genre to EQ and the diku mud fundamentals that game was based on. If anyone says "Ultimate Online" I'd have to disagree, while UO was the first real MMO on the market, UO and its sandbox style of game play has been essentially extinct since EQ released. There have been a few attempts into the sandbox market by small budget essentially amateur start up teams and I think that is a large market that is therefore basically untouched. The safe money was to copy EQ, and then to progress to copying WoW. Although, maybe it isn't such a safe bet since almost every MMO that has gone that route with the exception of just a few have failed spectacularly.

The guy who ultimately designed WoW is Jeff Kaplan, he was the guild leader of a guild called Legacy of Steel, along with Fires of Heaven and Afterlife. Those guilds were the big three in EQ. Legacy of Steel happened to have 4 or 5 Blizzard artists/programmers in it, Tigole, or Jeff Kaplan got a position with Blizzard and eventually went on to design WoW.

What he did, was take EQ, and remove all the aspects of the game he hated. Open world raid content, which prevented 99.9% of the player base from ever experiencing it. Gone. Consequences for dying, gone, no more 4 hour corpse runs or 4 hours of grinding gone. Leveling up via grinding, removed, replaced with questing.

What we can credit WoW with, is being far and away the most successful MMO to date, the easiest MMO to play and achieve success in, to date. It took Everquest and refined it and released a game with a high degree of polish. Personally I would argue whether WoW is an actual improvement in the genre over EQ, or DAOC or any of the diku mud derivatives because I don't equate catering to the lowest possible denominator as "improvement" rather I would say it is successful.

The way they run expansions is both brilliant and frustrating. It is brilliant because people who have quit the game can return and be on equal footing with everyone else. It is frustrating for people who have devoted hundreds if not thousands of hours of their lives to be on the cutting edge of the game and content progression for the past 2 years. At the end of the day, Blizzard follows the path of least resistance on all things. There is more money to be had by resetting the game every 2 years than to create an insular environment where a small cadre of players get further and further ahead of the curve with each expansion.

I have a love hate relationship with Blizzard. I generally hate their games because they are neither particularly innovative, or complex. I imagine in 10 years we will be looking at Starcraft 3, Warcraft 5, and Diablo 5, I'd be shocked if they added any more IP to their collection, or rather stole anymore I love them because they always manage to release a quality, highly polished product which aside from Bioware(Pre EA) didn't exist in the market.

[Maxion]

I have a love hate relationship with Blizzard. I generally hate their games because they are neither particularly innovative, or complex. I imagine in 10 years we will be looking at Starcraft 3, Warcraft 5, and Diablo 5, I'd be shocked if they added any more IP to their collection, or rather stole anymore I love them because they always manage to release a quality, highly polished product which aside from Bioware(Pre EA) didn't exist in the market.

Then I guess you can already color yourself shocked, since they are releasing a new IP in the next 1-2 years
Or knowing their habit of delays, perhaps a bit longer.

[Tonuss]

WoW is a success only in terms of the number of players it has, and resultingly, the amount of money it's making for it's shareholders.

So it's "only" a success in two of the primary measures of success for any business?

I think they can live with that.

[Tonuss]

Don't forget Furor works for Blizzard and he was one of the top raiders in EQ1, so its not just people who have never played the game.

So was Tigole. And ironically, both of them used to frequently post rants on their guild websites ripping the EQ dev team. Now they're on the other end of it. It'd be interesting to see how the experience has affected their point of view.

I'll say this for them, many people complain about the game and how it sucks or how it could be improved. Blizzard seems to have a lot of people who were given the chance to make a better game, and they did. For however many flaws it has, it has remained an entertaining game and a relatively cheap way to spend a few hours a month or week or day.

[Toned]

Our server has win trading basically setup. The defense side almost never queues... which means offense never gets in. Thus the 4395734975934573489573945 people standing on the bridge waiting to rush in at the end for honor. it's epic lols. Rep and I basically replaced all our gear this weekend with full pvp gear. Thanks to the TB hotfix that hands out free gear.

[Apps]

What they need to do is take the idea of Diablo random dungeon generation and apply it to PvP Maps. Have osme core rules about certian points can't be more than x yards from each other and use some kind of symmetry checking so that neither sie is too lucky in getting a map that favors them.

That way they would always be fresh.

This is actually a great idea. I like this. ^^

[ebony]

been hotfixed about a hour a go to 360 now if you win.

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1417737786

[Toned]

EDIT: US hotfixed as well.