…but not earth shaking.
It actually looks pretty cool. I’ve been arguing for revitalizing the “old world” of Azeroth for a while now… almost as long as I’ve kept this blog alive. This looks to be a smart move by Blizzard. Though I could be snarky about elements, like the underwater stuff potentially designed to trump underwater exploration in GW2, I do think this is overall great work by Blizzard. Time will tell how it turns out, I suppose.
They do have some guts to change the world for everyone, though. No fancy phasing for high level characters on a whirlwind tour back through the slums, this is a real change for everyone. I’ve also argued that changing things that way is OK for MMOs, and it’s nice to see the gorilla in the room making some significant changes.
Of course, the one change that they could have made to get me on board is one they haven’t actually embraced. You still have to pay the sub fee, and you still have to get all of the expansions to get the most recent stuff, including the new races. Bleh. Blizzard, it’s the perfect time to package up the Old World and sell it as a standalone offline game. Let the late adopters play with the old world that you’ve consigned to history. (And those with a nostalgia kick would pick it up too.)
The concept art page is awesome, though. It makes me want to go draw and paint, which is always a good thing.
Isn’t the whole Cataclysm and the “new” Azeroth phased though? Complete a quest chain and you’re in the new timeline with the new broken Azeroth? In which case, the new Azeroth is end-game content?
If so, didn’t Guild Wars: Prophecies do this in 2004? hahaha
Seriously, though, an offline WoW would be a horrid idea. An offline MMOG of any sort would be horrid. We tolerate the clunkiness for the sake of the massively multiplayer benefits, even the soloers. Try running a private server sometime when you’re the only one on it and see how long that lasts…
We put up with all sorts of DIKU crap in Diablo, too. Somehow, people get fun out of it. Go kill stuff, take the loot, ding, rinse, repeat. I’m not saying it’s the epitome of game design, just that there’s a market for it.
From what I read on the official site, all of Azeroth will be blasted for everyone, no phasing. It’s a world-changing event with no parallel to Pre-Searing Ascalon. (Though that might have been a good idea, even though GW did it first.)
So in 2 years we will still have MMO magazines that actually do not much besides giving their daily report from the WoW court?
I am pretty excited, but I cannot forget what made me quit WoW. They simplify the game even more, quite positive as spellpower, hit and other stats are probably really better as derived stats.
The point of this expansion seems to be: “Hey, start a new alt and explore the new old & improved content”
I think Blizz is super smart to combine a permanent world changing event with a little stat/mechanics revamp and a new expansion.
It is still a bit sickening that one company sets so much the standards for all others, but I would rather blame their competitors and not Blizzard for that.
I fear this is especially bad news for Guild Wars 2 which might have swayed some staunch WoW players otherwise.
I still hope that GW2 will be good enough to beat that and Cataclysm is just the DikuMUD’s new clothes.
Longasc: I’d like to think that we could get this excited about all the games we like.
But the big thing is that revamping the levelling experience is great and all, but once people have gone and explored the new stuff, will they want to stay? I suspect for a lot, they’ll be willing to check out other games after they’ve consumed the new content that they came for.
Blizzard will sell a LOT of boxes. And frankly they’ve earned it, this is a pretty audacious thing to do in an MMO. But that doesn’t mean people will be tied in to WoW forever.
Also, diablo is more roguelike than diku. And roguelikes are /still/ great games.
Spinks, I agree, the lasting appeal for level 80/85 chars is not predictable yet. They promised to (re)make more dungeon/raid content than ever, though.
About Diablo 3, I wonder how it will turn out! I played Diablo 1+2 only rarely online on a 28.8 modem back in the days, mostly offline.
You just made me wonder if GW2 could become a mix of something between Diablo 3 action rpg und WoW MMORPG.
Or maybe Diablo 3 will already be my salvation from the Dikustuff?
I like the sound of the expansion. I like seeing a MMO developer paying attention to their product as a whole and trying to revitalise their old content and keep it updated and interesting rather than just ignoring it and adding new high level zones, making the game top heavy. No doubt it will be a big hit for Blizzard. I’m sure there will be a long wait for it though
Late 2010, early 2011 is my guess.
@Scott- No, Blizzard talked at blizzcon at length about it…the whole world is changing for anyone. Any person coming into the game after the expansion is released will be in a destroyed world…they just will not have acess to the extra races or classes that those with expansions have. So someone new to wow will never see southshore under the alliance control, will never see the barrens as one whole zone or see wailing caverns as just an oasis.
They are completely changing the old lands, there will be a whole heap of quest chains that will be gone for good, to never be played again as they are streamlining much of the questing. I can speak for horde mainly, but I would assume that the early quests that showed that there was a plot within the forsaken to move against the horde will now be gone as the events already happened (wrathgate) and things like that.
And sadly, no new tauren (im a Tauren Druid) may ever get to meet our beloved chief or get his hoofprint for an orphan
[...] existence and sell it as a standalone subscriptionless product. Call it “PreCataclysm Azeroth” and watch it sell like hotcakes and introduce a new batch of newbies. It’s like a [...]