Wow, only game I can immagine to play even after 10 years from now or 20. :-) Impossible to like all changes but overall they did much much more good than bad.
Originally posted by Bladestrom I'm not talking about GW2 and I'm not talking about WOW, stop playing the silly game of A is better than Game B and actually read what I'm saying.
Facts : blizzard release content extremely slowly, 1 year since the last content drop. Fact : blizzard have increased the frequency and speed in which players increase in power which compounds the inherent design flaw where there is no content scaling. Fact : blizzard have continually reduced skill sets in an attempt to sticky plaster the balance issues. Fact, in 10 years there are STILL ongoing balancing issues, for example an existing full geared player can 1 shot a new player, a new player regardless of skill could be hitting for leads than 1% of that experienced players health. Fact : blizzard homogenised classes
Fact : Blizzard invest a lower percentage of their profits than any other mmorpg provider.
All of this is true and perfectly well known, do maybe you should focus less on my profile (odd) and look at wgat matters from a gamer/fan of genre perspective.
A "lower percentage" of Blizzard's profits probably amounts to more gross income than most game developers.
Agreed.
Blizzard did homogenize classes. You didn't explain why this was bad. It increased the number of tanks available and increased participation in raids by reducing required classes and builds. Raiding was an activity that very few people participated in.
So making each of the classes and builds the same somehow helps this issue? How about making them all able to tank, but maintain the differencies between classes (warrior good for single targets, pallies good for adds and large groups..). Also, i dont see how this has any impact for raids being popular or not.
There are balance issues in every MMORPG. Developers can either ignore them or try to fix them. How exactly is this an issue that is Blizzard's fault?
It's Blizzards game, isn't it? They are responsible for balance issues concerning their game. If they choose to ignore it - fine. If they want to fix it - even better.
Blizzard has reduced skill sets, but for many reasons. 72+ skill binds (my Priest) for a single class is overkill.
It is overkill. I don't understand why there has to be 5-10 new skills in every expansion. Nowdays you only get 5 levels per expansion, and even in vanilla you barely got 2 new skills in that window. Typical to Blizzard, they go from one extreme to another; if there's too many of them, make sure there will be too few..
Power increase is a fact of life for MMORPGs. Blizzard has more leveling content than nearly any running MMORPG in the West. If they didn't increase the pace of leveling, most casual players (the largest Blizzard customer) would never actually get through the content.
They have more leveling content than anyone else, and they make sure their players will go past it asap. It's not the content that Blizzard thinks is relevant or desirable for players to play through, so they allow players to spend cash to get rid of it, and it certainly isn't something they wanted to be meaningful content in any way.
Blizzard releases content slowly. They develop games slowly. This isn't exactly news.
Yet they earn millions of dollars every month, and they have the biggest and most popular game in their hands. Even companies with a lower budget can release good quality content more frequently than Blizzard. There seems to be a big problem here.
Most of your points seem to be a mix of facts combined with your own assumptions as to why these things happen. You also seem to be attributing things to Blizzard that are just common attributes of theme park MMORPGs.
Each of the classes and builds isn't the same. If this were true, there would be no difference between my Priest and my Hunter. There is a difference. There would be no difference between playing my Disc Priest and my Shadow Priest. There is a difference, and a different reason for having each of these classes in a raid. The classes have been homogenized, but they are not identical, and the different roles are still distinct. The affect on raiding (and dungeons) has been that there are more tanks and more healers. It is easier to build a raid because the requirement that there be at least X number of distinct class/build no longer exists. People stopped being penalized for making a poor choice of class a month or two before they had any idea what their choices meant. Maintaining the distinct differences was what caused the problems in the first place.
Blizzard seems to have low expectations for people seeing their content, but high expectations for the content itself. I found a zone that I didn't know existed (Ulduum) that let me skip out of the underground Earth zone and level to 85 before heading to Pandaland. Unlike the underground area, there weren't many people there, but there was an entire zone with plenty of area to explore, and content that had nothing to do with dungeons or questing. There doesn't seem to be a real good reason for all that stuff to be there other than the occasional person who might see it. This is in spite of the level 90 boost (for $60) and the fast pace of leveling. We should be so lucky to have other developers who put this much effort into their game's content.
Blizzard is very picky about their end results. They rewrote D3 three times. They could throw more people and money at this, but it won't necessarily increase the quality, quantity or speed of the work that gets done. Blizzard is just slow. They've always been slow. Personally I'd prefer to discover a whole zone that I didn't know existed because Blizzard is slow and picky than to have Blizzard be fast, but fast because they didn't put in that other zone. The millions of dollars they are making seems to justify their picky choices. Your mileage may vary.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Yup homogenisation was blizzards way of avoiding the over dependancy on tanks and healers - tanks and healers dps too, then balance dps across all those classes, see where this leads to?
Re alduum that's exactly what I was talking about with regards to blizzard not valuing their own content - for your info it was one of the best zones In Cata, now abandoned appart from the odd leveller. Total waste.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
WoW hasn't been bettered yet by another MMO that has stickability and returnability.
But Blizzard have dropped the ball a few times recently and this could account in some shape or form for reduced subs.
I really do think that a company that has $60m-$75mm a month coming in from one game should really look after those customers. What other company makes that from a computer game? They should be continuoisly adding content and creating a story as they go. How much would it cost to keep things fresh?
We've had nothing for nearly 14 months yet they lose money because people have said, in their droves, that they unsubbed until the next patch as they have done all they are interested in. Please, no arguements about only 1% of people doing the high-end stuff. It's not for everyone. Some people like collecting all the recipes etc and that's their entertainment.
Blizzard should be adding stuff in every month. EVERY SINGLE MONTH for what they make.
This is what WoW should have every month:-
New crafting recipes
New Dailies e.g. change the damn fishing, cooking dailies to give us some variety. They never change.
New Events. Getting really tired of the same annual stuff coming out with little or no changes. Revamp each year please.
New monthly achievements
New mounts and pets and ways to get them (less of the sell it in the shop please)
New quests at all levels. Why not just add a few in every month so that if people do re-roll, they might just do something different.
Phase out the 'kill 10 of these' quests and put some more effort into them
Bring in some new gear each month with different ways of getting it that are not just linked to currency.
I'm sure you guys could think of a load of other stuff, but for the money they make, there should be a dev team actually developing ongoing content, seeing as they also sell the xpac, so money from that too.
Comments
Each of the classes and builds isn't the same. If this were true, there would be no difference between my Priest and my Hunter. There is a difference. There would be no difference between playing my Disc Priest and my Shadow Priest. There is a difference, and a different reason for having each of these classes in a raid. The classes have been homogenized, but they are not identical, and the different roles are still distinct. The affect on raiding (and dungeons) has been that there are more tanks and more healers. It is easier to build a raid because the requirement that there be at least X number of distinct class/build no longer exists. People stopped being penalized for making a poor choice of class a month or two before they had any idea what their choices meant. Maintaining the distinct differences was what caused the problems in the first place.
Blizzard seems to have low expectations for people seeing their content, but high expectations for the content itself. I found a zone that I didn't know existed (Ulduum) that let me skip out of the underground Earth zone and level to 85 before heading to Pandaland. Unlike the underground area, there weren't many people there, but there was an entire zone with plenty of area to explore, and content that had nothing to do with dungeons or questing. There doesn't seem to be a real good reason for all that stuff to be there other than the occasional person who might see it. This is in spite of the level 90 boost (for $60) and the fast pace of leveling. We should be so lucky to have other developers who put this much effort into their game's content.
Blizzard is very picky about their end results. They rewrote D3 three times. They could throw more people and money at this, but it won't necessarily increase the quality, quantity or speed of the work that gets done. Blizzard is just slow. They've always been slow. Personally I'd prefer to discover a whole zone that I didn't know existed because Blizzard is slow and picky than to have Blizzard be fast, but fast because they didn't put in that other zone. The millions of dollars they are making seems to justify their picky choices. Your mileage may vary.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Re alduum that's exactly what I was talking about with regards to blizzard not valuing their own content - for your info it was one of the best zones In Cata, now abandoned appart from the odd leveller. Total waste.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
I've been playing wow at all levels since feb 2005. Oh how my life has changed yet wow is constant.
It's a great game overall although I have to agree that the part with no content for a year is a bit silly with such a big company.
WoW hasn't been bettered yet by another MMO that has stickability and returnability.
But Blizzard have dropped the ball a few times recently and this could account in some shape or form for reduced subs.
I really do think that a company that has $60m-$75mm a month coming in from one game should really look after those customers. What other company makes that from a computer game? They should be continuoisly adding content and creating a story as they go. How much would it cost to keep things fresh?
We've had nothing for nearly 14 months yet they lose money because people have said, in their droves, that they unsubbed until the next patch as they have done all they are interested in. Please, no arguements about only 1% of people doing the high-end stuff. It's not for everyone. Some people like collecting all the recipes etc and that's their entertainment.
Blizzard should be adding stuff in every month. EVERY SINGLE MONTH for what they make.
This is what WoW should have every month:-
I'm sure you guys could think of a load of other stuff, but for the money they make, there should be a dev team actually developing ongoing content, seeing as they also sell the xpac, so money from that too.