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Blizzard AMA responses on Reddit (09/11)
Nadia
Member UncommonPosts: 11,798
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Nadia
Member UncommonPosts: 11,798
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TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development
This is just really silly. Very little of the ´new´ content Blizzard puts out is rehashed.... and a lot of it is ´rehashed´ in name only.
For instance, Scarlet Monestary is being ´rehashed´ for MOP. Except that the entire map has changed and all the bosses are completely new. When you enter the place, you get a bit of nastalgia because of the theme.... it is still a Scarlet Crusade Monestery. But nothing you knew about the bosses before is going to help you.
Then talk about Shadowfang Keep in Cata... it was a ´rehash´ too. Except with all new bosses and a lot of new mobs. They did keep the map the same, but that is because most people always identified it as one of the cooler designs from Vanilla. It was also done from a lore perspective because Shadowfang keep tied in so closely with the worgen and there was a new reason to go back in there.
Zul-Aman and Naxx were ´rehashed´.. only because very few players saw the originals. Naxx especially was one of the coolest raids ever done.. but it was done right before an expansion and very few raiding guilds, let alone players had advanced far enough to get into it. Zul-Aman similarly was a very popular raid that wasn´t seen by many people.. why not bring it back as a 5man.
The point is that these are the exceptions to the rule. Very little content is rehashed, and if it is ´rehashed´ it is completely different as far as gameplay. Maybe that is why so many groups wiped on the first boss of SFK.
Longtime players like to see some nastalgia moments from Vanilla.. especially when it fits into the lore like SFK and Deadmines (another with a new map and completely new bosses).
But really, you are talking about 2 or 3 dungeons per expansion out of a ton that have the same name as an older dungeon.
Going off that, there seems to be a significant lack of clarity on many people's parts about what impact (if any) Activision has had on Blizzard. As the people designing the game, do you feel there has been a change in how things are done since the merger, either within game development or the company in general?
I'll come out and say it. Activision gets an unfair reputation among our players for this, as does Bobby Kotick. We do demos for the Activision executive team about twice per year (sometimes only once). They ask intelligent questions about why we're doing what we're doing, but at no point have any mandates (or even "suggestions") about the game's design been issued.
I .. kinda hate this! They shouldn't tell this! I always though that Blizzard IS Blizzard and that's it! No : Hey boss, look .. this is our new toy. - Oh yea? Why are you doing this? - Well boss..because ...
But in the end, I think we all end up "reporting" to someone, but I wish Blizzard to become an independent company in the (near) future!
Reporter: What's behind Blizzard success, and how do you make your gamers happy?
Blizzard Boss: Making gamers happy is not my concern, making money.. yes!
That's all well and good, But all those places you have been too 1000 times before.
Even if they have made 'tweaks' to npcs and bosses.
They should introduce completely new dungeons and artwork if they expect customers to pay what ever their charging for expansions ($60)
I remember wayyy back when BC released They had artwork and mobs never dreamed before in vanilla.
The quality and quantity of new content within these expansions have degraded so much.
TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development
Who has been to them 1000 times before? Like I said.. very few people saw Naxx 1.0 a larger number saw ZA and ZG, but certainly not even 10% ZG was a raid in Vanilla.. the 5 man was released like 5 years later. Very few people saw it as a raid... and if they did.. 5 years later it was kinda cool doing it again as a 5man.
And you completely missed the point that you are still only talking about 2-3 dungeons per expac. SM is a completely different dungeon.. new maps, new mobs, new boss mechanisms. The only thing that remains the same is the name and it´s location on the outdoor map. There are 10 other dungeons and raids released with the expansion.
I like the fact that they throw in an old dungeon now and then.. I like the nastalgia. Actually, my very first ´dumb´ moment was in SM while leveling my first toon. I was a moonkin and during a trash pull, I packed into a side room and pulled another group of mobs. (one of my very first instance runs). You don´t think it´s cool that 6 years later, I get to take my moonkin back into that dungeon? (although the map is completely changed). You really consider it rehashed content if it isn´t something most players have done in 6 years?
I think refreshing the old content is a great idea.
In games like WoW the old content is usually forgotten and worthless. "Refreshing" that content to actually be part of the game again is marvelous.
Can't agree more. Cataclysm was one of the coolest things ever done in an MMO in my opinion. Also I think it's awesome that every zone in WoW is still relevant (except old instances of course).
I remember EQ released so many new zones with expansions that old zones were just worthless because the new zones had all the better loot and exp.
the old zones were always relevant in WOW for leveling alts
preCata WOW didnt add any lower level content under level 50
(w exception of Diremaul dungeon back in 2005)
I agree EQ went overboard w too many zones -- at all levels
EQs first expansion, Kunark, had new content for all levels, 1 thru 60
EQs third expansion, Luclin, did same thing, new content for all levels, 1 thru 60
for similar reasons,
i was disppointed to hear that RIFTs expansion was going to expand the world to triple size
but have no new content for under 50 -- despite having only 2 starting areas in the game
PreCata, WOW wasnt much better,
add expansion content exclusive for post 60
and toss in new racial starting areas only good for first 20 levels
EQ2 fan sites
I agree, the Lich King is dead, we have had a cataclysm. Updating the dungeons reflects the changes that have gone on in the world. Shadow Fang Keep would have made no sense if it hadn't been updated.
Hey, last expansion they did water and trees. Those really sucked. Player animation have always been good. (The looks have just lacked variety)
They redoing the entire engine to update character models? or is it still gonna be a bit rough and a bit blocky? characters gonna look Aion-ish?
i doubt they are re-doing the engine
the ama mentions they will start w 2 races, Orcs and Humans
http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2923-Developer-AMA-Live!
I am eagerly awaiting the redesigned Orc and Human models because as said during Gamescom, if these first two are successful then you’ll move onto the other races. My question is thus: do you plan on keeping the animations the same or develop something different?
Part of doing new models would have to be doing new animations. The pandaren are just capable of so many more evocative or even charming animations than the older models with their older rigs can do. Obviously, that makes the task bigger, but that's what we'd like to do.
EQ2 fan sites
Well that's objective but the look, the aesthetics and visual style of WoW has nothing to do with the game engine and everything to do with the way blizzard want WoW to look. If it looks rough and blocky to you then thats how Blizzard want it to look, it's not a technical or talent limitation it's a deliberate design decision.
Putting Vanillia WoW next to MOP WoW is a huge difference, key additions, full shadows, hi-res textures, Shader 3.0 effects, DX11 effects, 64bit native client, weather and an overal increase in poly counts with each expansion. The thing is these have all be added gradually since the game was released in 2004 so many forget this and don't appriciate it.
If WoW was still running on the 2004 engine then we would certainly have an ugly game.
why would someone want outdated graphics...like the person above said they are working on it. Yea updating the engine would up the graphics for everything, including character models...but in the long run i think its worth the effort because graphics are only limited to the engine...most of the features you listed are new yes but only to WoW, the ones you listed are mostly basic features in any modern game. The first thing people would probably reply to this is graphics dont make a good game, yet im greedy i want both graphics and a good game.
Edit: i misread some of your post, o well i just woke up and dont feel like redoing my whole post lol
Like this?
From 2002
From 2002
From 2004
From 2004 ( this one is not that bad
)
Reporter: What's behind Blizzard success, and how do you make your gamers happy?
Blizzard Boss: Making gamers happy is not my concern, making money.. yes!