Support NeoGAF

[Freyjadour]

Thats kinda his point, people playing the game want faster content, randoms coming into the thread assume faster expansions = bad = activisions devil powers.

I was somewhat agreeing/making a sidepoint without quoting something from the first page.

It is good or bad depending on how Blizzard handles it. If twice as many expansions gives Blizzard the revenue to make compelling content then I'm happy to pay for it. If it means paying twice as much for roughly the current output then no thank you.

 

[Subliminal]

A pandaria themed expansion would be a bit weird after this one.

At the end of this expansion we will have taken down one of the most powerful dragon aspects and saved the whole planet.

and then.. pandas?!

I don't think its an expansion, perhaps its something else (The PC TCG?)

 

[water_wendi]

I was somewhat agreeing/making a sidepoint without quoting something from the first page.

It is good or bad depending on how Blizzard handles it. If twice as many expansions gives Blizzard the revenue to make compelling content then I'm happy to pay for it. If it means paying twice as much for roughly the current output then no thank you.

i hear you. They just dont have the funds to make compelling content as it is.

 

[Interfectum]

TOR can't decide if it wants to be a single player game or an MMO. Purely gameplay speaking, the game is extremely similar to WoW.

Are you in the beta for TOR?

 

[Mechanized]

I'll give Blizzard $500 if I can play as a Panderan Monk. Right goddamn now. $500 Blizz.

 

[ultron87]

If that is actually the name of the next expansion they have officially run out of ideas.

 

[Freyjadour]

i hear you. They just dont have the funds to make compelling content as it is.

Believe me I'm as pessimistic as the next guy when it comes to New Blizzard.

 

[Mammoth Jones]

Ugh. This expansion won't change anything or bring back players until they attempt to move past the "loot casino" paradigm WoW has been for the past 6 years.

Raiding was nice, but not everyone is going to stay subbed when they can't fully gear up unless they run raids.

I'm sure Mists of the Panda Bears will still sell, but Blizzard should really look into infusing their next MMO w/ more sandbox content. How the number 1 MMO of all time doesn't have things like player housing after 6 years is just beyond me...

 

[water_wendi]

Believe me I'm as pessimistic as the next guy when it comes to New Blizzard.

Maybe if they raise the subscription a dollar or two they can afford to put in new animations or models. Blizzard could always put a Paypal donate button on their site. "Help us raise $10m so we can put in a new dwarf face!"

 

[FLEABttn]

but Blizzard should really look into infusing their next MMO w/ more sandbox content. How the number 1 MMO of all time doesn't have things like player housing after 6 years is just beyond me...

I don't see why considering that a lack of sandbox content clearly hasn't hurt them. That's basically why there's no housing or anything like that, they frankly don't need it as their bottom line is unmatched.

---

I played WoW from November 2004 through February 2011, with maybe 3 months of break in that time period. Pandas do nothing for me. They need to make the game good again. Cata killed the forward momentum Blizz had been gaining from vanilla to TBC to WotLK.

 

[Freyjadour]

Maybe if they raise the subscription a dollar or two they can afford to put in new animations or models. Blizzard could always put a Paypal donate button on their site. "Help us raise $10m so we can put in a new dwarf face!"

Whether they are working on a second Olympic sized swimming pool of gold or more content, they're going to play the "that's the best we can do" card.

I would hope, however, that the general population would balk at paying $40 for 4.0 to 4.2 and another $40 for 4.3 to Deathwing.

I don't think one expansion a year is a bad business model. I didn't think that years ago when they first started talking about it. Blizzard obviously has issues with allocations to WoW with regard to its revenue and say...development on Titan or D3.

 

[Interfectum]

I don't see why considering that a lack of sandbox content clearly hasn't hurt them. That's basically why there's no housing or anything like that, the frankly don't need it as their bottom line is unmatched.

Well they are bleeding a shitload of subscribers and there isn't even any real competition out yet... so something is amiss. Putting sandbox elements in would allow for gamers to create their own fun while waiting on the next raid / lands / battlegrounds Blizzard decides to grant us.

Speaking of battlegrounds, I'm still shocked they haven't done more with them at this point. How is there not a DOTA style battleground yet?

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

rofl, I literally said "ITS" out loud irl

 

[bill0527]

A business trying to make money.

Stop the presses!

Blizzard was suppose to be a charity!!!1

The problem is the actual THINGS they are monetizing.

It seems their trend lately is that if the player base comes up with a good idea or starts to complain that <something, something> should be in the game, Blizzard's attitude is - "yeah we can do that, but you're gonna pay extra for it".

At some point, you cross a line where monetized value-added features are more than the features you'll find in the actual boxed product, and that's when things are really out of control. That's why this whole thing stinks of Activision. This is how they operate.

 

[water_wendi]

Speaking of battlegrounds, I'm still shocked they haven't done more with them at this point. How is there not a DOTA style battleground yet?

Yea they arent going to do this. It took them 5 years to add another map for CTF.

 

[mclem]

Speaking of battlegrounds, I'm still shocked they haven't done more with them at this point. How is there not a DOTA style battleground yet?

Successful or otherwise, I loved the *principle* behind the original AV; on paper, it felt like a questing zone in which PvP took place, rather than a PvP zone. I wonder if there's scope there; a PvP zone, with sanctuaries at the Alliance and Horde entrances to prevent getting too overwhelmed, and quests to retake territory; PvP is forced on when you move into hostile territory. That could be fun.

 

[Deleted member 81567]

Why don't they just release a sequel?

 

[RPGCrazied]

What happened to the Emerald Dream?

 

[Tacitus_]

? wotlk heroics were cake compared to BC

360 degree cleaves were fun if you were a caster - nobody wanted melee dps in their groups!

 

[Guanoape]

I picked up Cataclysm at launch, leveled to 85, played for 2 more months, and then called it quits. Even though the new zones and quests are still fun to explore, the game has grown stale. Maybe it's because I only focused on arena/rated battlegrounds, which suffered from balance issues more than ever before, but I just don't see the appeal of the game anymore. That said, I will still pick up new expansions to go through new zones, because that's what Blizzard does best. For everything else, I'm better off playing other games.

 

[FLEABttn]

Well they are bleeding a shitload of subscribers and there isn't even any real competition out yet... so something is amiss. Putting sandbox elements in would allow for gamers to create their own fun while waiting on the next raid / lands / battlegrounds Blizzard decides to grant us.

I'd argue what's amiss is Blizz done fucked up endgame with Cata. 80-85 was some of the best designed leveling content I'd ever done but being level capped in Cata was the worst time I've had at level cap since vanilla. And I'm a person who thought endgame vanilla was shit while playing vanilla.

Sandbox to me feels like something you'd have to design your game around from the base and not something you can shoehorn in later. Also, while it might bring some people back, it won't bring others back, and it might chase others away. If I were still subbed and they introduced the "minecraft" patch, I'd have serious reservations about wanting to keep playing, as it would represent a significant shift away from the elements that make WoW.

Why don't they just release a sequel?

If they do it as a game that supersedes WoW, they risk losing people in the jump from WoW1 to WoW2. You also piss off your playerbase that has multiple level capped characters. If you have parallel games, that might work, but it may have a high opportunity cost. I don't know, you'd have to ask SOE if they found EQ2 to ultimately be worth doing.

 

[Lenardo]

eq2 made soe a profit-thus it was worth it, what hurt eq2 was a combination of thing:

poor initial design for character development (the first you are this, then you are this THEN you become your final class, on paper it sounded good, in actual gameplay, not so much.

poor to bad FPS even with good hardware - eq2's engine was a bit TOO advanced for when it was released compared to what the hardware was capable of- with the latest mainstream video cards 4gig ram etc averaging ~20fps or LESS at medium settings was not good.

not enough content (naturally)

not putting scott hartsman in charge ~2years before release

releasing 1 month before wow*****<--this one is huge. biggest problem eq2 had for retention was WoW came out 1 month after it. thus everyone went to eq2 for a month, THEN went to wow and at release wow was a MUCH better product-WoW's main problem @ release was Demand for the game/overloaded servers.


for the record i was in both beta's -(was in wow's alpha/beta since nov 2003) heck soe sent me a collectors edition of the game @ release (which i gave away)

 

[Tenks]

I always assumed Blizzard would implement pandas as the final money grab for WoW. I would expect now would be the perfect time for this expansion.

 

[Bisnic]

I don't see what's so great with pandas honestly.

What they should do with the next expansion is upgrade the models of all the races from 2004 so they can look as good as goblins and worgens. Maybe upgrade blood elves and draeneis too, but those aren't too bad.

It really sucks when the fucking fire elemental you're fighting has better textures and polygons than your character.

 

[DarkKyo]

I don't see what's so great with pandas honestly.

What they should do with the next expansion is upgrade the models of all the races from 2004 so they can look as good as goblins and worgens. Maybe blood elves and draeneis too, but those aren't too bad.

It really sucks when the fucking fire elemental you're fighting has better textures and polygons than your character.

Honestly they should have done that when they updated all the starting zones :/

 

[OrangeYouGlad]

I always assumed Blizzard would implement pandas as the final money grab for WoW. I would expect now would be the perfect time for this expansion.

Pandas are WoW's swan song? Titan beta confirmed!

 

[The Lamonster]

Why the hell aren't people as hyped as I am about Pandaria??

I have been wanting more Pandaren since Warcraft III!!!!!

 

[mxgt]

Nvm

 

[water_wendi]

Honestly they should have done that when they updated all the starting zones :/

With billions of profit every year stuff like this should constantly be added.

 

[CassSept]

? wotlk heroics were cake compared to BC

To be honest, whether he was talking seriously or not, at the beginning not really. Hell, Naxx 10 was easier than some of the heroics. And some hc achievements at the beginning were straight-out hellish.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

I don't even see the evidence for "faster" expansions or content patches. Sure, Blizzard has promised these things, but anyone actually playing the game and not just reading news knows better.

They tend to get paint themselves into corners when they promise things now, don't they?

To be honest, whether he was talking seriously or not, at the beginning not really. Hell, Naxx 10 was easier than some of the heroics. And some hc achievements at the beginning were straight-out hellish.

I don't wish "the Immortal" or "the Undying" on my worst enemies.

Successful or otherwise, I loved the *principle* behind the original AV; on paper, it felt like a questing zone in which PvP took place, rather than a PvP zone. I wonder if there's scope there; a PvP zone, with sanctuaries at the Alliance and Horde entrances to prevent getting too overwhelmed, and quests to retake territory; PvP is forced on when you move into hostile territory. That could be fun.

I miss old AV so bad, and nothing has replaced that hole in their BG lineup. Funny thing: they removed most of the PvE in that zone, and most of the PvP went with it! Madness!

 

[HotHamWater]

Are you in the beta for TOR?

I have been, and he's right.

 

[Coolwhip]

With billions of profit every year stuff like this should constantly be added.

It's mind blowing how much corners Blizzard is cutting with Wow. So much money coming in and so little invested in making the game better.

 

[FieryBalrog]

I find it amusing that some people get less enjoyment when the company that makes the product makes more money.

Well this would have been good if it was run with a couple million in profit, but since it makes more money than that, it sucks.

The rate of content generated for patches is pretty glacial, but the amount of content (not just end-game obv) that came with Cata showed a lot of work, whether you compare it to the previous expansions or the stuff put out by its nearest competitors (EQ2? AoC? FFXI? Aeon? um, WAR, or is that dead yet?)

I mean other MMOs exist, people can play them if the content is more appealing. Maybe Rift will continue to steal WoW's player base, if so, it's about time. And of course SWTOR. Competition is good.

 

[Belfast]

A pandaria themed expansion would be a bit weird after this one.

At the end of this expansion we will have taken down one of the most powerful dragon aspects and saved the whole planet.

and then.. pandas?!

I don't think its an expansion, perhaps its something else (The PC TCG?)

I'll say what I said in the beginning of the thread:

I think this may be a mini-expansion. If Blizzard was at all serious about ramping up content production, then I believe this is the solution. It may even come out before the Cataclysm storyline is "finished." Maybe a few new zones, perhaps a new playable race/class, a dungeon or two, and a raid.

It would occupy some weird space between content patches and full expansions. I don't see any reason why this would be a continuation of what happens post-Deathwing, unless it is intended to be filler or a "break point" between two bigger arcs.

Either way, I, like most people have soured on WoW and stopped playing. I don't know if they will ever fully recover from the exodus and I don't think it will draw many people back.

 

[CassSept]

I don't wish "the Immortal" or "the Undying" on my worst enemies.

I was talking straightly about heroic achievements, Gotta Go before nerf was harder than pretty much all of raid content in 3.0.

Please don't mention Immortal. Please. The horror. THE HORROR.

 

[Maikrobi]

First Look at WoW: Mists of Pandaria video

 

[Angry Grimace]

Every time this comes up they start going on that old chestnut that its illegal to show pandas in China, even though that isn't true. They were pissed of because they thought it was disrespectful to have chinese pandas in japanese looking outfits in WCIII. Kung Fu Panda was a big hit in China.

 

[ToyMachine228]

What happened to the Emerald Dream?

Why do people always ask this? The Emerald Dream is nothing special. We've entered it several times on quests throughout the various expansions of WoW and all it ever is, is the normal world with a green filter, and fucking slimes crawling around. It's like an "alternate reality" with nothing really different about it. It's not an interesting concept for an expansion at all. Blizzard just retooled Azeroth with Cataclysm. The next expansion damn well better add a new continent, not just offer an "emerald dream" version of Azeroth.