We took a week off from Inquisitions for post-GenCon recovery, I hope you’ll forgive us! Or at least forgive Dave because he apparently contracted strep throat as his own special brand of “con-crud”. Our poll from two weeks ago was a great way for us to figure out what we should spend most of our time at GenCon 2009 covering, the large majority of you at 65% requested News and New Releases coverage with second place being Seminar/Panel Coverage at 57%, both of which I hope we delivered on so far but there are still more coming as we continue to write them up this week. After that was coverage on the fun games we played (41%) which our twitter feeds should have covered pretty well, followed closely by Photos with 39%, and Interviews at 37%. I also have to say that Dave and I were very pleased that 36% of the votes went into the “We just want you to have a good time” answer, thank you very much for that and we definitely enjoyed it!
Pertaining to the fun games we played, perhaps one of the most notable game we participated in other than 4E D&D was the extremely old school Swords & Wizardry game run by Chgowiz from the Old Guy RPG Blog! I neglected to tweet about my character so I’ll expand on him now – he was a Dwarf Fighter (because that’s the only class dwarves can be) named “Larceny” in common which is a language dwarfs in S&W do not speak, so he recognized the word and would respond to it but had no clue what it meant. Due to his thieving ways, he had a large bell tied on a rope around his neck that he could never quite manage to remove. His primary concern was gold, followed at a long second by survival, both tasks are aided by the fact that he can rarely hear anything going on around him over the sound of the ringing bell (and even when he does, odds are high that he won’t care). Larceny was a joy to play, and as I hear he survived the night despite a viciously dangerous dungeon I look forward to reprising the role someday soon!
On to current events, this passed weekend was Blizzcon ’09 which came with a slew of new announcements from everyone’s favorite delayed publishing game company. (Yes, I’m still bitter about Starcraft: Ghost – No, I will not let it go until StarCraft 2 actually comes out.) Chief among the announcements was the third expansion for World of Warcraft which is called Cataclysm, and looks to offer a huge overhaul to the entire game and the world it takes place in. The most intriguing part of it all to me is the physical changes to realms in the game, like the Barrens picture here being changed from a lovely and torturous africanesque plain to a giant smoldering lava crater. I think the actual story reason is for this is that Barrens Chat caused it, no fooling! (Okay, I may be kidding) The Barrens is not the only location changing, the preview video promises many realms are devastated by the return of the mythical dragon with the not-so-mythical name, Deathwing! Other realms, most obviously what we affectionately called “the Depressolace” (aka – the Desolace) are now regrown into lush jungles full of life and finally don’t make you want to kill yourself while adventuring there.
Along with some hinted at huge changes to the basic mechanics of the game such as hit points, defense, and many others they are also adding a new race to each faction. The horde gets Goblins, which I think is awesome, and the alliance gets the Worgen which may/may not be a cheap shot at attracting rabid Twilight fans to the game. Also the preview trailer for the expansion claims race restrictions of class are being changed or removed entirely, which means you can finally play that Tauren Paladin named “Godbeef4dins” that you’ve just been dying to make. In light of the huge changes to the World of Warcraft, I’d really like to know how many of you are currently playing the game or plan on picking it back up once the new expansion comes out.
[poll id=”137″]
I played in both closed and open beta of World of Warcraft, and continued playing up through the beginning of Burning Crusade but then quickly grew disenchanted with the whole thing. I definitely have to admit that sweeping changes to the game world make me really want to play the game again, but I’d love it if they happened more often (a reality I accept as being too difficult to accomplish lucratively for Blizzard, but still I can dream). What caused you to start or stop playing the game when you did, and which expansion or changes have been your most or least favorite?
I’ve only played Burning Crusade version for most of last year, and only started when we saw a free demo disk in our church’s bookstore. We avoided it for years because we knew it would suck up too much of our time, and we were right. It was wonderful, but 4-5 nights a week playing until 2 in the morning and then going off to work at 8 wasn’t a joy. Even trying to cut back in the end didn’t help and we (my wife and I) quit because we just didn’t have time anymore and found that we went weeks without ever logging on.
I loved it and seeing the news on the expansion makes me want to get back into it, but being short on free time due to kids and other real life matters, I prefer to spend my free time playing tabletop than online. The graphics may be better in WoW, but the story in D&D still wins out.
Now, if I somehow managed to have more free time, then I’d definitely be all over WoW again.
I’ve still got a lot of affection for the old world. I’m curious how these new developments are going to affect the old content. The tech exists to maintain two versions of Azeroth, pre- and post-Cataclysm; they tested it on a smaller scale in WotLK, and I’d love it if they did that.
Though the old zones have gotten lonely and largely useless since everyone began massing to the expansion content, I think the original game still has a lot of character and flavor that shouldn’t be thrown out with the bath water.
If they do decide to scrap old Azeroth entirely in favor of new Azeroth however, I’m curious to see how they’ll handle the 1-60 level progression. Might turn WoW into a whole new game.
As long as it requires payment for the possibility of playing, I’m not touching it…
Ken Marable: We’re right there with you! My wife and I played steadily through Beta and the Original game, we had stopped by the time Burning Crusade came out but then picked it back up for a little while. Now we just don’t have the time or money for the game anymore!
Xerosided: I’m hoping they are essentially saying there will be a “whole new game” for levels 1-60, I think it’s been a needed change for some time since they’ve sped up the leveling process there is a lot of content someone playing for the first time is going to miss anyway because of how fast they’re blasting through the zones.
I frequently hear “lack of free time” as a reason for quitting MMOs. And I don’t understand that argument when weighing it against the time investment required for tabletop gaming.
The ability to log on and off at will, and the ability to search for cooperative pickup games, when I don’t have the free time to schedule weekly meetups, is exactly what keeps me playing an MMO.
The truth is I would rather be playing games in the same room with real people, but I don’t because I don’t have the free time.
I’ve been there since the beginning, baby! I’m the WoW whore amongst the CH crew :).
TBH, not one thing about this expansion is exciting even in the slightest. After nearly 5 years of Azerothian content being around, the “old world” has grown old and weary and no amount of foliage and lava pits will make it thrilling again.
To keep players more interested, as TBC and WotLK have done, they need to add entirely new content imho. All in all, I think this expansion is marking the beginning of the end of the MMO.
@Bartoneus: but that’s what I’m saying. I quit right after BC came out, and rejoined right before WotLK. When I came back, there was nobody in Azeroth and the 1-60 quest lines, most of which seemed interesting and worth spending time on (from a story POV), were just leveling fodder. I skipped all the interesting quests to rush level and get to Northrend, where every day I logged in to inseminate some elephant seals and steal badger cubs. Over, and over, and over again. When I realized this, I quit yet again.
Funny though, when I reminisce about playing, I think back to Darkshire, Westfall, Wetlands, and even Desolace. I barely remember Outland and I shudder to think back on Northrend. I think stripping the old content away in place of new dailies is the wrong solution. I’d prefer they found a way to make all the old quests and zones relevant again, more or less as they were.
@The O:
as an off and on again WoWholic (yes, its a disease) I have to say that yes, the “old world” of wow will feel like it always has… stretched out and boring at times. I mean how many times have we bitched at each other about Depressolace??! but in all honesty there will be “new content”. New raid dungeons and lets not forget we get to go at VC ala Herioc!!! I mean who can beat that?… but seriously.
Theres one aspect that were missing here, and its the most important point of all… the Horde will finally have its own crew of shin bitters to counter those damn dirty gnomes….
oh and the Worgen… cant forget those …
CAUTION: MMO life story to follow:
It took awhile for me to get into WoW, many of my friends were playing it and expressed that of MMO’s this was the coolest. After my poor experience with Shadowbane (I’d be slaughtered every time I logged on by an opposing player(s) who would camp the world trees after my guild city was destroyed) I wasn’t interested in playing another MMO. But then my best friend told me he was picking it up for his birthday and I figured it’d be a cool and fun way to hang out with him at odd hours of the day.
Then came lots of playing, my girlfriend started to play on my account because she wanted to see what was so much fun. Later we got married and transferred her character to her own account and we would often play online together during raids, etc.
And it went this way through WoW:Classic, WoW:Burning Crusade, WoW:Wrath of the Lich King.
Then my wife decided she wanted to stop playing and was going to delete her account. Which was fine with me, but I (maybe stupidly) convinced her not to delete her oldest/favorite character and transfer it to my account “just in case”.
What resulted is her playing on my account with regularity and me having a feeling of immense guilt if I was playing and she couldn’t. So now, I barely play at all (once a month?), but will likely play with the Cataclysm expansion. I’m sure we’ll get it and I’ll play until I level up my two “mains” and then stop playing again.
What did this teach me?
Well, I’ve got a lot more free time to do things I’ve wanted to do for awhile since I’ve not been playing. Which is good.
I do miss some of the fun things I enjoyed about the game, one of them was leveling which it appears Cataclysm will make fun/new again.
And I will say, even though all of that previous play could be considered a “waste of time”, I had a lot of fun and met a lot of cool people I still keep in contact with today.
So that’s my start/stop of playing. Possible minor restart.
In terms of favorites, I loved the Lich King expansion. The way quests were set up and the world environment changed as you completed epic story lines made me feel like my character was really having an effect on the world around them.
I hated Burning Crusade, everything was on fire, jagged, and floating randomly in space.
While I look forward to the new expansion with its story and quests. I don’t look forward to traveling through/over waste lands that have been blown up or destroyed by various elements. I look forward to the new low level quest and content rehash. It does seem to be lacking on the upper end of things in terms of content.
I started playing WOW about a year ago when my sister and her boyfriend finally helped my husband convince me that wow would be fun. It started with a free 14 day trial that took all of 1 day before I had purchased the game. I had tried to play Diablo before and I found it to be boring (no offense to any Diablo fans, I drive my husband up a wall with this stand).
I think what I have found to be most interesting and exciting about WOW is how much I can customize my character. Plus Female Blood Elfs actually looked really awesome which is more than I could say about any of the other Horde characters. After a year on the Horde side of things, I have started playing Alliance on a different relam (gnomes are sooo cute!).
I image I will play more of both sides once the new expansion comes out (that is assuming my husband doesn’t convert us both over to Final Fanasty 14 instead, which honestly sounds more my style).
I totally agree adding the Worgen to the Alliance side of things is just to attract Twilight fans (which actually has my sister a current blood elf fan wanting to switch sides). Personally I am not really sure that Worgen make a logical addition to the Alliance, they strike me as a better fit on the Horde, but Golbins fit the Horde better so Worgen just got tossed to the Alliance.
My favorite part about the new expansion is the ability to play any class with a given race. I have always been a fan of the priest and very dissapointed (and part of the reason I played Horde in the first place) that I could not have a gnome priest.
@dice girl:
Im not 100% sure that the Worgen have been thrown into WoW as a character playable race because of Twilight (Gag, sorry any fans out there, but this whole teenybobber vampire thing makes me ill). WoW players have been ravenous to play as both Worgen and Goblins for awhile. Worgen fit the alliance because the storyline behind Shadowfang Keep and Arugial(sp) fit for the alliance. They were used as a weapon against the scourge so it fits that they wouldnt be welcome in the Horde.
I just hate to think that a race that Ive really wanted to see as playable in WoW since its creation has to do with some teenybopper fad movie series… just saying.