irritated by zone phasing

[valle2000]

I'm very irritated by all these different phases in all the new cataclysm zones. Because the zones changes depending on which quests you've completed different parts are in different phases and follow is broken every time those borders are crossed. Sure Jamba warns when it happens but it is still very irritating.

Also it complicate things a lot when wanting to help a friend who hasn't done all the exact same quests yet.

And also regardless of being a boxer or a solo player I don't like the fact that Blizzard made the story/quests so linear like this. Sure the story is great but the way they've made it now limits the player.
A mmorpg should in my opinion be an open free game world where people can do whatever they want. Now you are being forced to play certain quests with all your chars because if you don't, not all options or npcs in that zone will be unlocked. This is very bad in my opinion, this behavior is used in solo play rpgs and do not belong in an open world mmorpg like WoW...

What do you think?

[Hivetyrant]

I think phasing is the best thing they have ever brought to the questing world, it actually makes me feel like I'm having an impact.

[Bigfish]

I don't think phasing is really being used to it's potential. I would rather it were used to display server wide efforts, or potentially for sliding stagnate. For example, a town that fluctuates between being sacked, abandoned, repaired, and controlled by another faction. Everyone is in the same phase, but the phase itself changes based on what the server as a whole has accomplished.

Right now, the way it is implemented makes sense for low traffic areas, but large groups of friends makes it very inconvenient.

[valle2000]

I think phasing is the best thing they have ever brought to the questing world, it actually makes me feel like I'm having an impact.

But this is exactly why (in my opinion) it shouldn't be implemented like this in a MMORPG. In a MMORPG all players live in the same world and can login at the same time, therefore should be able to interact which each other and be able to see the same npcs at all times.
Now blizzard have added a kind of "time travel" were players are in different phases of time itself. In the new zones there aren't any "ingame real time" anymore, since players can be in different stages of the phasing. This is a very illogical behavior in a game like WoW (but excellent in a single-play-rpg).

I don't think phasing is really being used to it's potential. I would rather it were used to display server wide efforts, or potentially for sliding stagnate. For example, a town that fluctuates between being sacked, abandoned, repaired, and controlled by another faction. Everyone is in the same phase, but the phase itself changes based on what the server as a whole has accomplished.

Now that would have been a nice way to do it. Love that idea.

[birdbleed]

It's annoying when follow breaks because of phasing but other than that it doesn't really bother me. I do, however, agree that everyone should be in the same world. That's what I liked about Eve Online, at least when it first came out, I don't know how they do things now.

One of the reasons Age of Conan flopped (imo) was because there were 8 instances of each zone. You could enter a different one from a graveyard or whatever but that was a pain when you were trying to quest AND pvp.

As far as different parts of quests, I do the same ones in all 5 guys at the same time anyway. So, that hasn't been a problem.

[Bollwerk]

What I don't understand is why Blizzard couldn't just make everything in the same "phase" after you finish all the zone's quests. This would eliminate the majority of the /follow breaking issues. I suppose we are too small of a segment for them to care about. =)

[Tonuss]

I'm of mixed feelings about it, and I think it's been covered by the replies. It's cool to see the world change as you progress through your quests. It's annoying to have your team break follow because the lead character entered a phase. And with so many quests creating a phase for you when you approach a quest location (the wolf cave in Hyjal, for example) you find your group suddenly becoming separated more often. You can work around it, but it's still a pain.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Breaking follow is a minor annoyance to me. My biggest gripe is that by design it separates an MMO into a single-player "story" with a few other folks playing at the same time. I also detest that I can't help out my friends on their solo pet projects because my 85s aren't in the same phase. Or how if my buddy who is usually on from 4pm-7pm can't group with me because he finished up 10 more quests before I logged on at 6pm so he's now in a completely different phase. They could surely have figured out a way to do this phasing stuff so that people in the same group would always be in the leader's phase to prevent this. Just seems half-assed to me. But then again, I like grouping, and WoW is becoming a huge single-player Warcraft 4 with online towns, dungeons and PVP.

/whine
/gripe
/qq

And another thing: what is with this do-two-quests-then-two-more-then-two-more-then-a-boss progression? The last time I was roped into this linear of a plot was when I played a FPS/RTS campaign. Hell, even Stalker (FPS) didn't have this much stovepiped gameplay.

Yeah, I'm QQ'ing. So sue me. It bothered me some in BC but at least I could skip zones. It bothered me more in WotLK but I could smash instances until I bypassed a zone and then go do something else. It bothers me a LOT more in Cata because it's much more phasing, even more linear questing and my choice of group compositions are having a really hard time in dungeons.

Thinking maybe it's time I take a break.

[TeamGrizzly]

What I hate most about phasing is this.

1) See a mineral node a short distance away.
2) Approcah said node. Mineral disappears right before my eyes when I step closer to mine.
3) Step backwards and node reappears.
4) Cry

[Multibocks]

As a single boxer I hate it. My friend and I are often in this conversation:

"hey what ya doin?"
"leveling, come help me"
"ok, I'll bring my mage"

5 minutes later....
"shit I can't see you"