This Friday October the 10th hails the beginning of Blizzcon 2008. Typically that includes announcements about future WoW expansions. It got me to speculating about what Blizzard plans on doing for their next expansion. I think there are two ways to look at this: 1) what Blizzard *will* do for their next expansion and 2) what Blizzard *needs* to do for their next expansion. Let’s face it, WoW is getting on in years. By the time the 3rd WoW expansion is released the venerable MMO will be at least 5 years old if not older. So what does the future hold for 10 million plus subscribers?
Predictions: What Blizzard Will Do
1 ) Timely Expansion Release Date – Blizzard realizes that they have to start releasing expansions faster. Due to the quick leveling and easy accomplishments players are getting bored of the content and tend to unsubscribe once they reach the level cap. With the release of each expansion, players are reaching the tedium threshold much sooner. Pressure from Activision shareholders who will want to see some return for their investment will also be a factor in Blizzard creating expansions on a more timely basis.
2 ) Restructuring of Development Teams – Due to the fact that they are lagging behind in their promise to release expansions in a more timely fashion, Blizzard will eventually realize that they need to create two distinct teams: a live team to manage the day to day WoW and an expansion team to develop and implement future expansion content. Blizzard has no excuse now as they have a shiny new headquarters and lots of money to hire new people.
3 ) Raising the Level Cap to 90 – Blizzard feels that 10 more levels will provide casual players with enough content to tide them over until the next expansion. Expect Blizzard to follow in the footsteps of previous expansions here.
4 ) Seafaring Expansion Theme – I fully expect Blizzard to create a seafaring based expansion theme full of goblins, pirates and naga. I believe the Maelstrom and the Undermine will play a big role in determining the geographic locations. Also expect to see the inclusion of the human city of Gilneas. You’ll most likely see Queen Azshara and Neptulon as raid bosses.
5 ) Personal Water Travel – Without a doubt there will be some kind of water based travel that Blizzard will devise. Expect to see gnomish water machines and/or surfboards for players. Players will literally be able to jump the shark with Blizzard’s help.
6 ) New Hero Class – Blizzard will most certainly create a new hero class and it will tie in to the lore of the new expansion following the precedent of the first hero class: the Deathknight. The new class will probably be caster or range type class or even a new pet class — pet classes are very popular with players. Also the new class will probably have the ability to heal as healers are in short supply; Blizzard used the first hero class to address a tank shortage so it’s likely that the next hero class will address some need. Expect the class to start at level 55 like the first hero class.
7 ) The Death of E-Sports – Blizzard will cancel their PVP Tournaments marking the end of their self-indulgent foray into e-sports. Blizzard has recently revealed that they are refocusing their PVP development on Battlegrounds. Good riddance!
8 ) Player Housing – It’s now or never for Blizzard. By the time the 3rd expansion comes out I predict WoW’s subscriber base will be in decline. Blizzard will implement player housing as way to help stop the bleeding. Players have been clamoring for this feature for years now only to be vetoed by someone at the top in Blizzard.
Wishlist: What Blizzard Should Do
1 ) Customer Loyalty Program – The 3rd expansion will probably be released between Christmas 2009 and Spring 2010. By then many WoW subscribers will have left the ranks of the 10 million for other MMOs. A customer loyalty program will help keep people subscribing. SOE created one for their EverQuest MMOs a few months after the release of WoW due to falling subscriptions.
2 ) Five New Levels Instead of Ten – Blizzard doesn’t need to release 10 new levels each expansion. Instead they should double the amount of experience needed to reach each level and only have 5 new levels. Fewer levels puts less pressure and demands on developers who have to create half the content and half the time testing new class abilities. Slower leveling means that players will be forced to enjoy the content at their level instead of bypassing it by madly racing to the level cap.
3 ) Live GM Events – Facing decreasing revenues from fewer subscribers, Blizzard should introduce live GM events in order to stop the hemorrhaging by renewing player interest in WoW again. Live events would go a long way toward making Azeroth come alive.
4 ) Azeroth Reborn Expansion Theme – Forget adding new areas to WoW. The boring, repetitive and unchanging content of old Azeroth has become a major liability. New quests, NPCs, stories and dungeons (instances) need to be developed in order to revitalize all of the old areas. Give players a reason to roll new characters. Also new players (who are the lifeblood of any MMO) would be able to experience more advanced quest technology that is currently being used in Wrath of the Lich King.
5 ) Role-Playing Support and Mechanics – Eventually Blizzard will realize that role-players are a very valuable asset to their much beloved player “community”. Players should be able to go to special vendors to purchase role-playing support which would include being able to spawn special NPC’s. Imagine being able to host a wedding, a treasure hunt, a party, a tug of war game — the possibilities are endless.
6 ) Guild Halls– This is a feature that players have been requesting for many years. Guild halls could provide guild masters and officers with many management features that are critical in managing a guild. Guild trophies of recent kills could be displayed. Statues and memorials to guild members could also be created here. Also they would provide rank and file members with places to congregate before and after raids.
7 ) Player Housing – Yet another long requested feature that Blizzard really needs to implement. Player housing gives players more of a stake in the MMOs they inhabit. They are also a great way to revitalize crafting as many crafted items will be required to decorate those homes. Player housing is the biggest no-brainer for any MMO and Blizzard can easily afford it.
8 ) Clean Up the Discussion Forums – Probably the most disheartening thing about WoW is the terrible forum community that has emerged. The WoW forums are a disgrace. The forum meta-game has become all about oneupsmanship, trolling and sophomoric nastiness that has managed to drown out the thoughtful and legitimate posters. If I was a new player researching a potential MMO to play I would be appalled at the forums and shy away from WoW. Blizzard needs to clean them up or remove them completely.
Conclusion
Players are getting tired of the predictable gameplay in WoW. The flaws in their MMO are starting to stick out like a sore thumb and it will only get worse in the next year as players experience more of the same fare with the release of Wrath of the Lich King expansion.
One thing is certain in this world: all good things must come to an end. WoW will not be at the top of the MMO heap indefinitely and their current business as usual attitude will need to change and evolve. It will be interesting to see how the inevitable reality of declining subscribers influences the decision making process at Blizzard with regard to new expansions.
-Wolfshead
#1) Absolutely! After 3 1/2 years I finally let my sub lapse and I was buying the 6-month block, so I was already getting WoW cheaper than the month-to-month players. A year or so back I would have thrown $200 at them for a lifetime sub w/o even thinking about it. Now? Maybe too much too late. I’d probably only pay $100 or so, now.
#2) How about no new levels? Instead, revamp the existing content Heroic UBRS, anyone? My Dwarf Hunter completed the UBRS key a few months before BC came out. Now it’s practically useless. Make Naxx and AQ lvl 70 Instances as well…well, lvl 80 now, I guess. Forget adding new content, just tweak what they have now, and sell the XPac which unlocks access to the “new” content for $20. They’d still make a fortune.
#3) Live GM Events could work, depending on the creativity of the GM. Hard to discuss this without seeing what the GMs can do.
#4) Covered that in #2 😉 Although, new quest givers with lvl 60-80 quests and new, smaller, instanced areas in the old areas could do wonders in this respect. Slap a 2-room Instance at the bottom of the Janglode Mine with a lvl 80+ Boss inside, and there you go. New content in the old area.
#5) I like it!
#6) & #7) Absolutely! I still have a lot of gear wasting away in my Banks. Rhok’delar, the Epic Hunter Bow for one. Give me a house, or at least a Guild Hall, where I can show that stuff off! It would be easy enough to add. There’s plenty of areas in all major cities where an Instance portal could be located. Hell! Stormwind already has one on the…SE corner in the Canal area, sealed behind a portcullis. Ironforge has empty stores everywhere, not to mention Old Ironforge is still accessible through the King’s chambers (well, accessible if you know how to get in there 😉 Just turn any of them into Instance portals opening up to a brand new area with Guild Halls (Instanced, of course), but, Raid Boss kills could show up on the outside of each Guild Hall, and of course only bigger, wealthier Guilds could have halls because there’d be an upkeep cost to ensure every player who has his own Guild (for the Bank) can’t have his own Guild hall, too. Blizzard could easily implement Housing and Guild Halls, if they wanted to.
#8) SIGNED! SIGNED SIGNED! The absolute last time I posted on the Forums was to complain about the lvl 70 Flying Mount (Standard, not Epic) being slower than the 60 Epic, and not being able to be used in Azeroth, not even as a Ground mount.
Not one single person agreed with me, or at least, none who posted. Every single posted reply was negative, spiteful, or hateful. STFU, Noob! Troll much? L2Play! QQ More! Etc. I couldn’t believe people were so willing to accept an upgrade that was worse than its predecessor in all aspects bar one. Yes, it flies, but it’s also slower and can’t be used as a Ground mount in the Old World.
“So grind the 5k for the Epic! Nub!”
The Epic Flier still cannot be used as a Ground Mount in Azeroth.
“QQ MUCH!”
Then again, Blizzard’s lackadaisical attitude towards their own, official Forums, is par for the course given their attitude towards their casual in-game player base. “Just toss them a few PvP Epics, give them another Rep Grind or two, and they’ll be fine.”
Nice article, Wolf! I might take the “player housing and guild halls” in a different direction, though. I see them as part of a larger suite of new “customization” options that could fuel a microtransaction server. That’s the beauty of the Puzzle Pirates model; the vast majority of things that players pay real money for are purely cosmetic. Yet, since people love to get involved with their avatars and make them “theirs”, customization is in high demand. PP can have free play, and monetize their game by accepting money from those who want to get involved with the world. It’s more preening, true, but isn’t it established already that people love that sort of thing? Imagine being able to dye those Tier 6 shoulderpads that you see everywhere (supposedly), giving even further customization…
Never underestimate the desire for personalization in an MMO. It’s a potential revenue stream.
These two areas in my opinion have been flatly ignored by Blizzard totally. I realize wolf I look at games mostly from a player perspective whereas you can look at both sides of the coin. But my big question is why taking so long to give the players the 2 main things they want? With Blizzards massive income money can’t be the reason, which leaves me with their arrogance to only give players what they want them to have?
Yeh. if players where to have houses personal homes wud be awsome. allowing people to have fun while not killling stuff. So they got things to do while not questing or raiding an can jus hang out some where nice and personal and just have fun chatting / parying/ or whatever.
Curtis, that is a great question. It’s very puzzling to me as well to think that Blizzard has not yet come close to implementing these features that have long been requested by their players.
I recall reading an account of how the Blizzard design process works. A Blizz dev said that if one person in a meeting objects to something then it doesn’t get implemented. Therefore there must be someone on the dev team that doesn’t like these ideas. I believe that Blizzard’s disdain for “GM events” also is the result of this type of decision making. Such a shame.
Guild halls, player housing, role-playing support, GM events — all of them seem to be at odds with someone high up on the Blizzard dev team. There’s a pattern it seems. Anything that is not directly related to the “game” part of their MMO seems destined for a perpetual stay on the backburner.
Also, what I find a counterpoint to this is the fact that there are features that Blizzard has spent considerable resources on such as Arena PVP, voice communication, etc. which were never requested by the players.
It seems Blizzard only listens to players that agree with them.
That type of thinking amazes me because in any other line of business where the company wants to grow and stay ahead of it’s competition they realize listening to what customers want is the number one goal.
As a side note I was taking a break from playing the Everquest 2 trial to read this. Even though Everquest 2, like all games, is not perfect it has brought back to me some of the fun factor I had the first year in Dark Age Of Camelot. The graphics are amazing, the questing and exploring are top notch and the “spirit of adventure” is certainly in the game. The maturity of the players is so much different than WoW, like day and night. Player housing is introduced to you even in the first few lvls, whether a house or renting a room. They have guild halls, etc. I don’t know if they had them at the start of the game but from what I have read on their forums in the last 2 years SOE had made steady impr0vements to the game, which was very easy to see while playing.
One amazing thing I saw last night visiting their forums is “gasp” devs actually visit them and make posts!
Anyway played the game into the early morning hours, something I haven’t done in a while and had lots of fun. Oh one more thing, their crafting system is amazing!
One thing I have learned recently is just because a game has millions of players doesn’t necessary mean it is any good or they listen to their players.
I never played the original Everquest but a great “community” of players makes all the difference in the world to me how much I enjoy the game.
#8) SIGNED! SIGNED SIGNED! The absolute last time I posted on the Forums was to complain about the lvl 70 Flying Mount (Standard, not Epic) being slower than the 60 Epic, and not being able to be used in Azeroth, not even as a Ground mount.
Not one single person agreed with me, or at least, none who posted. Every single posted reply was negative, spiteful, or hateful. STFU, Noob! Troll much? L2Play! QQ More! Etc. I couldn’t believe people were so willing to accept an upgrade that was worse than its predecessor in all aspects bar one. Yes, it flies, but it’s also slower and can’t be used as a Ground mount in the Old World.
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1. If you have a flying mount you can reach places you normally dont. (meaning I dont care if it´s slower I can get to the top of that mountain if I need too.)
2. If I need to get from one spot to another I wont have to circkle around monutains or dismount in waters. I can just pick out a spot on the map where i want to go and head there easy. In the meantime I can go and eat lunch while my flying mount is heading where I want to go. (trust me that would go faster than an swift riding mount and I wont have to worry a bit)
3. with a flying mount I dont need to worry about mobs running after you and onetimehit you off the mount. (also this makes it faster for me geting from one spot to another spot)
Note: this is not a (you are a nub-thingu) I respect you but there are some things you clearly havent thought about when comparing a none epic flying mount to an epic riding mount.
Curtis and Wolf, as someone who played original EQ from its release in 1999 until Sony reorganized the development team in mid 2001, I believe that alot of Blizzard’s aversion towards implementing things like guild halls and player housing and other so-called “demands” from players stems from a fear not to slide down the same slope that did EQ. Relative to WoW at its release, EQ was an incredibly difficult game. Mobs were geometrically more difficult to kill, gear was incredibly difficult to come by (and good gear nearly impossible to come by), and the concept of instanced dungeons had yet to be invented. The degree to which players had to rely on each other in order to survive in Norrath was the driving force behind EQ’s incredibly well developed social community. Players who lacked a modicum of intelligence, attention spans longer than 30 seconds, or otherwise adeptness at MMOs quit the game very, very quickly. Although the “opening up” of Everquest resulted in a massive increase in the player base for a year or two, the watering down of gameplay, empty and pointless zones, the introduction of gizmos like guild houses and mounts, and the radical graphics overhaul of the landscapes and character models to make the game seem visually modern (but ended up making a completely incongruent looking world) eventually caused original player base to jump ship en masse. Without the established community to guide the new generation of EQ players, the game quickly took a nose dive, and was below 2001 player levels by 2005.
I think that Blizzard understands that it is naive to believe that WoW’s population will always continue to grow. They know that there will be diminishing returns and eventually decline in subscriptions. They know the day will come when WoW is utterly obsolete. However, they also understand the concept of “if it’s broken, don’t fix it.” Right now, WoW is doing fine, and even when it starts to decline slowly, Blizzard will still be making a killing. Introducing gimmicks and a complete revamp of the old world (do not underestimate the power of nostalgia) may have unforseen consequences that could cause the population to tank very quickly. Honestly, alot of players don’t really know what they want or what is good for the game, and I have faith in the original devs at Blizz (many of whom were old EQ gamers).
That said, I think WotLK is absolutely incredible. It is significantly more graphically engrossing than BC and has a better storyline. With a few glaring exceptions like achievements, the game still feels like WoW, through and through.
I agree that the next expansion will likely revolve around the maelstrom. However, I don’t know if it will be a full-fledged expansion release. It could be a large new patch introducing Gilneas, Kul Tiras, Nazjatar, Undermine, the Tomb of Sargeras, etc. Also be on the lookout for Deathwing as a killable boss sometime during Lich King, possibly in Grim Batol.
Thanks for your comments Trillsix! I agree that it was the group interdependency that made EQ so incredible. The EverQuest experience has always had a special place in my heard and in 2005 I attempted to explain the magic behind the game in an article entitled The EverQuest Paradox Revealed.
I think EQ became too raid centric as each expansion would cater to the hardcore MMO gamers. Whereas Blizzard offered a MMO that anyone could pickup and play and graduate to a more hardcore grouping and raiding game if they wished. Blizzard made a better product and the rest is history.
Sadly those new MMO players with short attention spans are the current “core” demographic.
When I left EverQuest with my friends and migrated to WoW I don’t recall there being any guildhalls or guild housing in EQ — I’m still not sure any of that even exists in the game currently as I’ve been away for so long but I’ll take your word for it.
I’m just not convinced that players left EQ for WoW because of “feature creep”. Part of the reason they left was that SOE had released a series of very poor expansions (Gates of War, Omens of War); contrast that to the sheer simplicity, striking grandeur and painstaking polish of WoW — there was just no competition after that.
I do agree that changing the focus of your game midstream and watering down the gameplay is a stupid idea. From what I hear SOE has tried to “WoWify” EQ. All that does is alienate your core subscribers and create a world (as you mentioned) that looks like a hodgepodge of styles.
I agree with your assessment. WoW is a cash cow for Blizzard right now. They will only improve their MMO if it absolutely needs it. I sense they are saving any new features for their next MMO or WoW2 — face it, it’s just a matter of time.
I think Arena PVP was a questionable addition to WoW. If players were going to leave in droves it would have been after that. Instead, they flocked to it like sheep and saw it for what it was — a incentived reward system where players entertain themselves.
Of course making MMOs should not be done democratically. The designers should always be in complete control. Still, there are legitimate concerns by the players as to a lack of dynamcism, role-playing support, customer service and live events coming from Blizzard. Those are the kinds of improvements that would not change the character of the game to make it unplayable, rather they are tweaks that would improve the game for all and bring it the much needed depth that it sorely lacks.
If anything I find that the new Achievements system is out of place and gimmicky. Frankly, it’s very poorly implemented and lacks any form of believable connection to Azeroth (more on that in a future article).
I played in the beta for a few months and the expansion to me seems more of the same. More quest-based gameplay, more new environments, more new gear, more dungeons. One reader lamented on the forums that within a few hours he had replaced some of his cherished epic gear with green gear he was awarded for doing a quest collecting pieces of “poo”. Progress indeed.
But to be fair, the expansion seems to be more of the same quality at least with the addition of Northrend. It’s just not very ambitious if you ask me. But I should reserve judgment as I’ve only seen a few of the starting zones.
While the Deathknight class and the associated quests are amazing, I am still left with a bad taste in my mouth for the cheesy and cheap way that a “hero” class was given so freely to the public.
One thing is certain: they have to start creating expansions a bit faster then once every 2 years. Many people got bored and left WoW in the past year because they ran out of accessible content. People with jobs and families — the ones who play responsibly — not the hardcore raiders.
I too would like to see Grim Batal opened up at some time. Also, I’d like to see some new lore being written instead of Metzen just regurgitating the lore from the RTS Warcraft series.
Trillsix,
Don’t quite agree with you, for one guild housing, housing, and mounts are not gimmicks to me. Neither are portals and ways to speed up travel. some of us casual gamers want a game to enjoy in the evening after work, with friends, and not take hours to have fun. This was becoming harder to find in Wow since the developers don’t listen to what their paying customers what.
I am not a pvper, more an explorer,socializer and crafter and since playing the Everquest 2 trial and subscribing today have found not only all of these but a very friendly group of people to play with.
Making a game challenging is great but making a game have such a high penalty to play casually doesn’t fit most peoples lifestyle today.
Games in my opinion should be fun not a second job.
“People with jobs and families — the ones who play responsibly — not the hardcore raiders.”
Agree with this, maybe the reason the original Everquest got the name of Evercrack was because it was not casual player friendly?
Of course no game is perfect but I did find a game that doesn’t seem to have the problem I had with Wow lately. Populated by what seemed to be a large group of immature children who have no respect for anyone. At least I can go into the Everquest 2 forums looking for answers and not get called a newbie by some punk 15 year old who thinks he knows everything.:)
Appreciate reading your comments Trillsix but from someone who played Dark Age Of Camelot for over 3 years and WoW 4 it was time for me to move on.:)
I wonder what will be the key selling feature and the direction of the next expansion, too.
But I am not optimist: Northrend is done extremely well, especially the landscapes, questing… but then it stops: class imbalances, Death Knights feel like WW2 Panzers compared to WW1’s in terms of class design. The casualization: short, quick and piss easy – from quests to instances. The only harder quest was the Hour of the Worg, it really required a party. But some druids and DKs managed to solo it, not possible for every class, but well.
Dungeons became a stupid aoe nukefest. Even heroics. And Naxxramas and the other raids of WOTLK have not only been cleaned by hardcore guilds already, I already did it with randoms. Not that casual players of course, but still…
I expect better GAME design. And game does not mean win all the time, it requires me to try and fail, to find out ways how to win. It is not epic at all if you roflstomp over everything in your path.
But Blizzard seems to cater to initially positive reviews and reactions – and WOTLK is beautifully done in this regard. I just doubt the longevity of extremely accessible content, I have cancelled my account for now.
Guild Wars was going into the same direction with the last Eye of the North expansion: MMOs have never been so easy before.
Not a good thing. Especially for seasoned MMO players. Not that I ever liked grind or insane boss mobs, but I want to play, not only have PvP as supposedly unlimited and neverending fun endgame content. This did not work out ever. And the casualization of the MMO will neither.
Too bad WoW is the top dog, and competitors do not dare new things but follow in WoW’s trails… 🙁
Regarding #8, I have been a long time Ultima online:ML player and have seen the housing crunch. I just can imagine where people would even put a house in wow. If anything they could make a separate area to place housing, or have a specific soulstone type thing to teleport to your own house.
Andrew, I’m confident that Blizzard could easily put in housing in most of the major cities in Azeroth. At least 40% of the current buildings are vacant and boarded up. They could convert the entrances to “instances” and charge a fee based on the size of the home and the desirablity of the location.
They could also do what Turbine did with Lord of the Rings Online and create new locations just outside all of the major cities. The good side to this is that you get a full blown home as opposed to a flat in a big city. The down side is that players would have to travel from the city hub to get to their home. Cities should be bustling with people and add to that the convenience factor of having your residence near a bank, AH, trainers, etc. and it seems like a win-win situation.
Another option would be to add new areas to each city the same way the expanded on Stormwind by creating Stormwind Harbor.
I do expect to see player housing by the 3rd expansion. Blizzard has run out of excuses for not implementing it.
Housing in a virtual world need not be suburban sprawl. Instanced housing is very acceptable in a world where we can play as an anthropomorphic cow or an Undead, have bags that can hold insane amounts of heavy and bulky junk, and there’s this thing called “magic” that most characters dabble in.
If home “instancing” were available in the real world via multiple dimensions or some such, it would be a hit. No more overbuilding, no more sprawl, just build what people need, set up a queue or hearthstone/teleport system (in and out, to avoid bunching), and you’re set.
“I do expect to see player housing by the 3rd expansion. Blizzard has run out of excuses for not implementing it.”
Wolf let’s hope so, because up to this point all Blizzard has been creating is what they want, not what the players want.:)
Would appreciate hearing your views on how hard or challenging you think a game should be to be entertaining and fun.
Where would the Emerald Dream take place then? would it be an expansion or just a quest lin einto the game perhaps since it will be based upon the druids, preferably Tauren since they were the last race (storywise) to be accepted be the Moonglade.
Purchasing homes would be great in my opinion. A spell that creates a portal to your home should be given to you at purchase. If a guest wants to come to your house he/she could whisper you to send them a teleport (similar to warlock and summoning stone summoning mechanics). It would be very interesting if your “family” or other characters on that account also resided in the house and wandered about as NPCs while you are there.
Housing/Guild Hangouts would be best if they stuck with a some sort of instance barrier within a city, one instance barrier for your personal house and another for your guild one. Special menues to place furniture, hiring NPC’s etc. implemented for use only in those areas (and if in guild area, for Guild Masters unless they give priveliges to someone) All they need to do is put instance barriers then go on from there. (Also if your in a party/raid u CAN let someone visit, just the first person to enter their personal house, they can activate something to let others enter)
Indeed, an instance already exists in SW which has been barred off since release, and it is the rumored location of future guild halls or houses.
What about some sort of Elite levels? Couldn’t instead of offering the standard quest/grind to the cap, blizzard offer players the option of becoming elite at any level? Think….you have elite NPC’s but no elite toons. That would then open the option for Blizz to release a challenging 5 or 10 level (which ever works best) xpack that offers twice the required experience to gain the elite status and all the perks that would bring.
Housing? Are we playing the Sims here? Ill pay that it is an interesting idea but if you want to play house perhaps a softer game than world of WARCRAFT is recommended. Guild Halls is a great idea and one that could perhaps incorporate the whole house thingy, you could have a message board to post on/request items or help with something and so on and all your pals would see it. An instance to get to the halls is a definite requirement; the amount of space it would require would be too much for any of the major cities.
I think Blizzard are doing well with their content and I also think that just up and giving their consumer what the want is a cop out and not good for business…they are the developer, this game is their baby. Yes, we as the consumer should be listened to a little more but I think we can also trust that Blizzard might have more than half a clue as to what makes a good game and what the majority of their customers will enjoy.
I do agree with the flying mounts in the old world, however, the amount of work required to make this possible is a huge ask, not impossible but it is a long task to complete. I did hear that someone on the inside had already started working on it but from what I gather it isn’t something I would wait in the snow for!
Anyway, good discussion here wolf.
FOR THE HORDE!!
The way i see problems in wow is that they always and never do what players want. With anymore new expansions after wotlk its just gonna me be the same thing. 10 more lvls a crap-load of dungeons, a new class or two, new races or so, a huge boss fight that changes the whole game, more arena instances, new bg’s and a new capital city with one side for horde and one side for alliance.
After awhile it does just get repetitive. We have seen this with burning crusade AND wrath of the lich king. People with complaints that blizzard isnt doing this or blizzard is doing this really need to come to three decisions. First being to fight against blizzard(useless), second being to quit wow, or third to just get over it and play. It’s really simple and anyone who thinks they are ever gonna improve graphics is dumb.
Also be on the lookout for Deathwing as a killable boss sometime during Lich King, possibly in Grim Batol.
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Sorry forgot to add this in.
If you look closely in outland blades edge you see deathwing below that gnome engineer place.
With the release of each expansion WoW players get bored of the MMO much faster. Blizzard will have to make some pretty big changes to WoW in order to keep people subscribed for their 3rd expansion.
The problem is that much of their talent has moved to other projects. Jeff Kaplan is overseeing the new console MMO project. Rob Pardo has his hands full with that project and of course the new Starcraft 2 “trilogy”. Which leaves us with Tom Chilton which scares me.
Already Blizzard is dangling near the edge of the cliff with a game that is shamefully easy and lacks any form of real challenge unless of course you want to lose your life to the addiction that is raiding.
For my part I’d like to see a return to the the classic world of Azeroth with new stories/quests that involve new cities, towns and dungeons. It’s time for Blizzard to focus back on the original world much like SOE did with their EverQuest expansion Lost Dungeons of Norrath.
OK, this is an old post, but I wanted to find a relevant place to put this rather than just randomly interject into a newer post. Wizard101, an up and coming “tweenish” MMO, introduced player housing at GDC. They are a fraction the size of WoW, but are doing things that the venerable cash cow isn’t, for one reason or another.
Yay for the little guys!
Thanks for the update Tesh! It seems each time Blizzard decides on their feature list for an upcoming expansion somehow player housing doesn’t make the cut. Unlike instanced content that has a very short shelf life, player housing would last forever. From my point of view it’s a much better investment of development hours spent on WoW if you look at it long term.
Absolutely. It’s also a *fantastic* hook to get people invested in the game world, and in role playing, and the fact that you can “nick” decorations from the world at large means you have more reason to explore. It’s also great for socializing, as you have something in-world to talk about beyond killing stuff.
Housing has a great long term ROI in my view, and it really is baffling that more devs haven’t seen that and acted on it.
Exactly Tesh. WoW sorely needs to give players a sense *ownership* in their world. It boggles my mind why they haven’t implemented this yet. Personally I think the problem is that they don’t seem to have anyone on their team that cares or is passionate about about big picture issues in MMOs and virtual worlds and it shows.
I just wanted to note to Wolfshed, about an earlier comment, that adding houses and guild halls is popular to MMOs. I think that just pulls WOW away from the warcraft storyline. And starts to make it more personal, I mean its fictional. And I am not a fan of Guildwars which is what that would lead to, in my opinion. You guys do have some great ideas, and points though 🙂
I also wanted to input on a lot of Wolfshead’s comments, that many people like the fact that WOW doesn’t try to mimic other MMOs. They have done a fantastic job already. If they keep trying to patch it up WOW will begin to turn phony, if they’re not careful.
Compare it to other games, if they stop patching people will all get a chance to do whatever they like and never have to worry about time, or their characters being degraded. Blizzard will make their money, and people will remember their game, I mean look at the GA pokemon games they are still straggling.
Its becoming something we adjust to; Blizzard was paid enough money as it is. Maybe they should stop working with WOW completly, you know? Becuase maybe housing isn’t WOW’s thing. They can create another MMO. WOW wasn’t the beginning, which I’m sure you know, there was warcraft 1-3 including battlenet.
It’s just my opinion though. I hope you understand.
WoW never strayed far from the path of the EQ formula, so I do not understand what makes WoW special. Do you mean they should not add too many new features to dilute the game somehow?
I also do not get how you get the idea that housing leads to Guild Wars, which does not have “housing” besides a guild hall?
Blizzard is already working on a completely WoW-lore-and-everything-else unrelated “Next Generation MMO”.
I bet their 3rd WoW expansion will most likely be the maelstrom, and we will get… tadaa… DIVING MOUNTS and the level cap will be 90. There has already been a shark minipet sighted some time during WOTKL beta, i guess this could be a hint. 🙂
Well I was relating Guild wars to guild halls….. there is a clue when Guild Wars has “Guild” in it’s name. And I meant that houses really dont have anything to do with original warcraft so, i don’t think it should be their. And Draenei having houses? It’s just mot for wow, but maybe guild halls 😛
Why would houses have nothing to do with original warcraft?
The human supply unit is a house, the orc supply unit is a house, you have witch doctor’s hut and so many others…
After all you have cities, which are made of houses.
The Warcraft series is a RTS, and the first one was not even that popular, it needed some time to grow the hype.
Blizzard managed to convert Diablo and RTS gamers to MMO players – sort of. But the nature of WoW is rather single player, the guided bus tour of the cruise director. Then the dreaded “endgame” is suddenly the favorite pasttime of Pardo and Kaplan from EQ times, raiding, basically 10, 25, 40 people killing a boss.
I bet not the difficulty but the fact that most players actually do not like raiding but just want the loot is the reason why most WoW players did not raid that much. The often mentioned 10% of people who actually experienced the last tier of the tiered endgame experience.
And what has this to do with the idea of a MMO and housing?
I guess that WoW is a GAME, not a virtual world… a game does not need housing. But a MMO for those interested in a fantasy world would need that and many other features. Not only murder on rails. :>
Thanks Longasc someone who has common knowledge. And in Warcraft heros do not come out of houses or own houses they come out of hero alters just popping in at middle age sort of like WoW, if you add houses what is next children, a wife?, c’mon WoW is not meant to be like the other games or like real life it just shouldn’t happen. Guild halls wouldn’t hurt though.
In original warcraft games Humans have farms, orcs have orc burrows, undead have ziggarauts, and night elfs have moonwells. Human cities are made out of wood, bricks, cement, and sorts.
@KryptoKnighT
Firstly, you presume that your character in WoW is a hero, which he is not. He is more like a first tier unit. “The first WoW hero class” is also not a hero, it is a class designed as a look-alike of a hero unit, unlike the other classes who dont have many hero-unit abilities.
Of course, this is my perception. If you want to think of your character as the force that shapes the game and the leader of WC3-like armies, OK, I just see it more like a pawn in those armies.
Now, wives and children – you do have children’s week in WoW. If you look around Stormwind you will probably meet at least 20 children, like the famous “gimme back ma dolly!”.
But anyway, I dont mean to argue semantics, the discussion was about what WoW could be. My comment was provoked by you seeming to know what exactly WoW was meant to be, and I dare not answer that, only WoW ‘s developers can say what their game is meant to be like.
Currently they have stated that they think in-game housing is not implementable. Apart from that I havent read any comment on the subject on their part, hence our speculations.
Wolfshead pointed that out in the “Quest Designer Cruise Director blabla” interview with Jeff Kaplan. Kaplan never calls World of Warcraft a world, but prefers the term “game”. He is not really a guy who envisions a virtual world. He gives us a guided quest tour instead of this.
Killing in a wallpaper world where the only form of interaction with the environment is killing mobs placed here and there and hunting for better items is one of the major reasons why I burnt out several times. And I doubt I will come back another time.
It is interesting that you envision your character so much as a hero. Of course we go on heroic adventures, but after all, everyone does so, has the same quest and raid gear rewards and when we are all heroes the notion to be one becomes a bit strange.
Is this somehow a relic of Warcraft III, where the “hero” was after a few levels stronger than a whole bunch of other units? This super unit design ruined it for me as a RTS, I guess there is a reason why the Koreans still prefer Starcraft as a more “pure” RTS.
The latest addition to WoW, the Achievement tab, allows us to measure our heroic prowess with the achievement penis bar, hehe. 🙂
OK ever played Runescape. They have housing. YES RUNESCAPE HAS HOUSING. It’s not complusory content that Blizzard needs to add and make the very demanding ZOMG hurry up, players happy. It will be nice and can enhance the game in many ways. Guild Halls will be a NEED not a maybe becasue really a GUILD is a place not a window, either it be in a game or in real life. Yes make it instanced it will be easier for Blizard and us.
DO NOT and I mean DO NOT diss, annoy, talk fake stuff or think that Blizzard is a dumb company that doesn’t know how to make a game, because they have attractd over 11 million people to play a game. Yes 11 MILLION! It has gone up since WotLK. Making a MMORPG isn’t easy and never will be for any company because the amount of techniques, physics, designing and so on put behind WoW is what makes WoW, WoW. After all they ACTULLY MADE A GAME THAT WORKS REALLY GOOD EVEN THOUGH NOT PERFECT.
I say Death Knights were called a “hero class” because they were too powerful for anything and even matched a Paladin. Thats what I think, till they got nerfed. I will ad more to comments later.
i was hopeing too see 2 new classes, one for hord one for alliance, kinda like before TBC came out and hord had shamans and alliance had pallys, i was thinking a classs like druids except they shape shit into different types of demons, kinda like a warlock/druid combo
WoW say hello to your excruciating, horrific execution… which will leave you with 100k subscribers and 50 server merges. FINAL FANTASY 14 BABAYYYYYYYYYYYY!!! I promise you that the release of this game will be like no other MMO out there that could have done this very easily since they wouldnt advertise EX. EQ2… Final Fantasy 14 will actually have advertising so really just prepare for your DEATH.
I think wow has the potential to keep growing…
They just have to add content faster, before peaple get bored.
In regards to “Azeroth Reborn” I disagree with updating the world (as a wow player) for the lower levelled characters as I have been a fan of the creative minds at Blizzard throughout their entire series of games & the story evolving is very good to be a part of. Instead, I think that an alternate Azeroth (but the same) for the higher levels should be brought in, with updated tech etc as you mentioned, so once the lower levels get high enough & trigger certain events, instead of boring old Azeroth, they will go back to the same place, only with new things & no low level monsters & players. I hope that sort of makes sense… Same place only once you’re high enough, you cant go to the low level one.. Anyway, makes sense to me.