Monday, 23 November 2009
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WoW's Wrath of the Lich King: A Spiral Downward?
It seems that everyone I talk to while in game cannot stand what is happening with the expansion, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. Every "new" fight is just an old one revamped with different colored armor. I don't mean to sound ungrateful, because, let's face it...there aren't any MMORPGs out there that come close to touching "Blizzard's Epic Game."
I loved vanilla WoW. I loved how hard it was, the challenge to get the kill. 40 people working together to conqueror old gods. Then The Burning Crusades came out, and the level of difficulty was changed. It no longer took a 40-man team to defeat our world's villains, but a measly 25. Even still, we fought on conquering old enemies, and found new friends...but this was just the beginning. We were not prepared.
Blizzard released expansions within BC to continue to challenge even the strongest players. Floating fortresses crumbled, Mountains were crushed, Troll Kingdoms fell, and the Sunwell was vanquished...and we were left in limbo. The release of Wrath was supposed to prove to gamers out there, that Blizzard had not lost their touch. They were releasing it about the same time as Warhammer and this was going to be the expansion to surpass all dreams.
Gamers flew through Naxxaramas without flinching. The once infamous dungeon became this expansion's laughing stock. Even Karazhan posed more of a challenge by the end of BC then Naxx does now. What a shame. We moved on to kill the dragons of our new frozen waste. The Spell-Weaver fell, as did Sartharion without any second thoughts. Though a few heroes were lost along the way, Fordragon and Saurfang's Son, we marched on to the new threat of an old enemy, Yogg Saron and Ulduar. Ulduar was a place of wonderments. It was not as easily destroyed as its predecessors, but it too was conquered.
It feels as though Blizzard has given up on this expansion. That they have chosen to cut their losses and move forward; is it too soon? Is it fair to the gamers to just stop this expansion, off the Lich King, and move on? When we kill the King of the Dead, the once Prince of Lordaeron, do we celebrate or do we cry? It seems that in this expansion, the forests of Lordaeron whispered, "Failure."
What do you think, does Wrath of the Lich King fail to live up to WoW's legacy?
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About the Author
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- From: Twisted
- Name: Twisted
- About Me: My friends are my life. I am attached to my phone as if it were another limb. I think World of Warcraft is the best thing since sliced bread. If you don't then you suck! =p
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Comments (24)
HAHAHAHA
Okay. As a WoW hater, I could troll, say mean and nasty things...but I'm going to actually look at this from a non biased point of view.
"They were releasing it about the same time as Warhammer and this was going to be the expansion to surpass all dreams. "
Trying to compete with other MMOs is always a problem. Blizzard should have pulled a SquareEnix, not cared about Warhammer, and held the expansion until they thought it was ready to release.
Subscription numbers don't cut in half overnight, it takes at least a month, I mean, look at Age of Conan. One new game wasn't going to make a difference.
And what of Warhammer online? It's just like WoW, with better PvP. that's all.
Aion was a very hype filled MMO, In my opinion not worthy of the hype, but still a competitor to WoW nonetheless.
If WoW went back, enhanced PvE, and made it better (which would take a lot considering reprogramming such a huge monster of an MMO at this point),, they could make WotLK not the best thing ever, but at least keep the status quo.
I only wish that they kept it as a real time strategy game, and made Warcraft 4.
Also, kept the story and races as they were.
While I agree with your love for vanilla and the distaste for raiding system, I must disagree on WOTLK. I think WOTLK is an amazing expansion, it's what TBC should have been. TBC seemed far too rushed, too alien. I expected a whole lot more from Draenor, especially in terms of lore.
TBC seemed like an unfinished answer to players who wanted more.
WOTLK, has some problems, but I think it was really well done. Northrend, the leveling instances, Death Knights, things like the wrath gate and the evolving zones, all very, very well done.
As an ex-WoW player, I have to say that part of the boredom and ease of this expansion is a result of people getting better at WoW. I mean... we've had 5 years to get to know this game, right? People might have rerolled classes and whatnot, but the mechanics of the game have remained relatively unchanged... and are arguably pretty simple. Add in inflated gear stats and you've got things easy-peasy.
5 years is a long time to play a game. I praise Blizzard for their well made game. But really, try a different game =).
luckily im an ex wow player too..i just was never into raiding..playing with 39 or 24 random people you've never met before in your life and sitting there for like a few hours with them complaining into vent. It was a great game but i just never like the raiding part of wow.
As a PVPer, WOTLK was a steaming pile of horseshit. And this season is the most balanced yet (just ignore warriors for the moment), but my motivation to play has been drastically cut since they killed 2v2s. Aah, the shame of going from a Duelist to a Challenger.
@Gerald_Washington@xanga -
i've never played WoW in my life, i always thought it was too overrated. instead, i was really really happy when blizzard FINALLY announced that it was going to release diablo 3 and starcraft 2, games i had anticipated for YEARS! if lich king was a failure, then it's all too good for me. it just means, to me, that blizzard finally decided that warcraft was getting old and that starcraft and diablo needed to be opened to the world again.
WoW hasn't been the same since WotLK. I bought WotLK about six months after it came out and have been disappointed ever since.
I prefer TBC.
I've since quit WoW for good.
It's too easy now. I like games that are challenging, and WoW isn't challenging anymore.
blizzard is just milking as much money as possible out of wow with WOTLK, basically gave up on it really.. I played wow for 5 years... and after half a year of WOTLk i was just sick of it >.>' what is this bull?!? What happen to 40 man raids blizzard? WHAT HAPPENED!?!?! oh well :P no point getting upset now. D3 and SC2 is gonna take over as blizzard's main priority, lets move on.
@TakingxOverxMe@xanga - I would take the time to type my own comment, but yours pretty much reflects the story of my life haha.
I enjoy a game that I can pretty much solo. I'm an introvert, obv. I hated having to group up in order to play EQ.
Yes, it does. In my opinion vanilla took way too many people to accomplish anything, and the reward for it was pitiful at best. I preferred BC's 25-man raids to the lengthy, complicated, and downright frustrating 40 man bullshit.
However. The armor sets now? All the same but recoloured. The instances? Well ToC is a joke, and Naxx is just a boring remake, and Ony. I love Ulduar but it's just the only f'ing new thing out there.
And having total moron noobs out there getting amazing gear and trying to raid with you (but becoming epic fail sessions that piss you off and make you smash things in your house) just furthering the decline of the game.
I haven't played in a couple of weeks - same with my boyfriend. I hope we don't go back. It's just gone downhill since BC, I like the new concept, but 10 and 25 man raids? All this ridiculous different level emblems?! Come on Blizzard, you could have done millions of years better worth of content.
@Lordv16@xanga - I disagree, I liked that they pulled out burning crusade from where it was. It's probably one of my favourite sections of the game to play through. I loved the raids, through and through. I love the IDEA of WotLK but the execution has been horrible. What you've mentioned was well done, however content-wise and now pandering to shitty players, it's horrible.
@Unfettered_Mind@xanga - I agree, too easy, which made real idiots trying to raid with you (and wrecking it) a reality. They just get emblem after emblem and buy the awesome gear they don't deserve.
@TakingxOverxMe@xanga - I'm the exact same.
I think I'll stop replying to people's comments now >.>
I agree.
Kudos.
Things are too easy, and because things are so easy, people have gotten lazy.
So you're saying you did 3d sarth non zerg method with ease.
You did zero lights in the dark without a flinch.
You did freya 3 trees and firefighter in your sleep.
Anub 25TGoC still seems pretty hard to me.
Naxx was intentionally a give away to bring everyone up to speed as with every expansion pack to replenish the player pool to form new guilds. There are still plenty of challenging content for people who want the challenge, just because theres more accessible content for casuals hasn't made the game easier, the top tier content is still there. And I dont mind having more people play even if they're not all hardcore.
When it was 40 ppl, if it wasn't the top tier dungeon, it was just 15-20 ppl carrying alot of casual sometimes afk people. It was only harder because there were more baddies sneaking in and getting by to be carried. Making it 25 didn't make it easier just because it needs less people, theres just less of a requirement of bodies to scale correctly. In 25 you can see who isn't doing what they're supposed to do. I don't exactly miss the 40 man days tbh.
all i can say is,
i miss the old WoW.
and i'm a girl ;)
I loved WoW for a long time, but before that I had a ridiculous childhood affair with Everquest back when it was new and the graphics were pretty much crap.
So after WoW became too simple and boring I switched back to EQ which has had a million changes and is taking some getting used to. Which one do I like better? It's hard to tell, but aside from my switch I see WoW going downhill even now.
Maybe if they beefed up that game, made it a little more complex and difficult. Aside from that, one small peeve of mine is how hard it is to customize your character! I know it's a silly bother, but running into a million characters with the same race, hairstyle, hair color and piercings just...bothers me. D: In EQ, sure you run into some near clones, but there's so much to customize it's hard to make an exact copy of someone else's charry.
Anyways, if anyone wants to hit me up on EQ send me a private message and I'll give you my charry's names. =)
WoW was the only game I played for a few years. I quit earlier this year and tried some other games when I got one of those "free 7 day trial" e-mails from Blizzard, so I logged on just to chat with some of my old guildies, and I realized how dated the game actually looks. It's gonna need a serious graphical revamp pretty soon if Blizzard wants to keep drawing in new players.
And I agree that the game was a lot better in vanilla or even BC. Graphics aside, it just seemed like the developers and art designers put a lot more effort into it. One of the things that put me off about WotLK was how generic all of the gear looks (recolors, recolors, recolors), and it looks like the upcoming tier set is no different. It surprises me that there are even players who are excited for it. I saw several pages of a thread where people were stoked about the new death knight set, and I'm like, "What the hell? It looks almost exactly like one of the sets that already exists..."
The latest news it seems is that they're taking away the PvP ranks that people earned in vanilla WoW so they can reinstate the ranks system in the next expansion. Talk about spitting in the faces of your loyal customers. I'm just glad I got off of the ratwheel when I did, otherwise I'd be really pissed off about that.
Blizzard wonder why there are an evergrowing number of accounts appearing for sale on eBay ;)
I've quit countless times over the years, but this time I actually sold my end game raiding priest, because the game just got ridiculous. It's 'Free for all' nowadays.
My bf talked me into playing WoW and at first I really liked it.
Then my troll warrior hit 80 and I sat there thinking "now what?" I watched him play fail raid after fail raid with new80's who thought they knew what was going on and just effed everything all up. Then there are the people who have been playing since the beginning who think they can dictate everything and are really just elitist assholes. My guild is completely over run with the latter. They expect people to drop everything and help them raid, but they cant even tell you where the best place for mat farming is cause theyre too good for that.
So I made a new character, (A BE hunter which got me enough shit from guildies cause apparently huntards are useless and only noobs play them and blah blah blah) and started to level it and got frustrated cause its the same exact shit as before. There are NO variations in the quests based on class. Well now whats the point?
The bf and I have pretty much quit playing and gone back to the trusty 360. Hooray for Gears, CoD and L4D2. Kill the zombies!!!