Gamescom Patch 4.3 Interviews, Blue Posts, Fan Art, Comics

Originally Posted by taurenguard

Originally Posted by Flaks

I hope the 4.4 event won't be as shitty as the Pre-Cataclysm one. They need to stop giving into the community's bitching and provide us a world event equal to the Pre-Wrath event. If you want to make it memorable MAKE IT STAND OUT.

Agreed. I loved the pre Wotlk event where you could turn into a ghoul and kill other friendly people, epic feeling ^^

The only things that were great about the zombie invasion was getting to see Orgrimmar and Stormwind getting attacked, and Horde & Alliance players being able to chat with each other if you were a ghoul. That's it. The reason Blizzard didn't do -- and still won't -- a zombie-style pre-expansion world event is because the whole pre-WotLK event became one gigantic gankfest.

Originally Posted by sharpnova

What good does it do to point out that it's "their fault for not reading."

That just comes off as elitism. And the point is that they don't acquire the information/skills necessary to enjoy the game. If they don't read it's because reading's boring and it's human nature to skip that stuff and dive into the gameplay. The failing is on the part of the game to not be dive-into-able.

For some people, I guess, it's not. For these people, more hand holding is necessary.

Being elitist about the fact that they should read, which for people like that, is probably a fairly complex task, is rude and unnecessary.

Reading is elitist now? It's a game, it has rules like any. Is saying someone is "bad at Scrabble" or "bad at hide and seek" because they didn't bother to remember rules elitist, now? Where has all the "correctness" lead us...

For all I know, the players in question may just be little kids (no offense intended, kids are just kids) who are not interested in learning how to play but in running around beating monsters up, and wouldn't read a tooltip or quest text even if forced to. I'm curious what can Blizzard do at this point to help them learn.

Sure, let them get more handholding, I don't care much either way. It's just that people who are bad at something will stay bad without the will to improve at least at the level of "read what does this button do" - not in a wiki, not manual, but in-game, on the screen the moment you click it. You can hold their hand, but how will you convey your message for people who don't feel like looking at it? Download the data directly into their brains?

Originally Posted by Crookers

I don't understand why this is so funny, pretty much every game has some sort of tutorial mode which tells you how to move the camera, move around the game world etc why shouldn't wow?

Halo wont even let you take a step until you 'test your targetting computer' ie look left, look right, look up, look down CoD teaches you how to run, crawl, squat, jump, aim, reload, etc all in the intro to the first campaign.

This is not new

Well depending on how long you have been gaming the yes, this could be considered relatively new. Reading the manual or checking control/key options is hard right?

Originally Posted by Alayea

The only things that were great about the zombie invasion was getting to see Orgrimmar and Stormwind getting attacked, and Horde & Alliance players being able to chat with each other if you were a ghoul. That's it. The reason Blizzard didn't do -- and still won't -- a zombie-style pre-expansion world event is because the whole pre-WotLK event became one gigantic gankfest.

And it was EPIIIIIIIIIIC!!1!!11!!!

The worlds most wealthy game company refuses to implement highly requested features that may potentially stop the declining subscription rates because of "the amount of time it takes to design and implement them." Blizzard should really consider leaving this "we know whats better for the users of our product than the actual users of our product." mentality. They're idiots for thinking adding more epic purps, rehashed dungeons, and useless carebear UI features will do anything to refurbish their dying player-base. If they don't plan to innovate anymore, than they're on their way to becoming the next Tabula Rasa.

I love all the people citing 900k lost subscriptions as proof that Blizzard is doing something wrong with the design of the game, when a bunch of the lost subscriptions are probably due to the economy tanking and people trying to cut stuff from their budget that they can live without.

"why does blizzard want to keep people without gaming experience playing wow? if you cant handle the starting zone..lol...you're going to quit the game anyway at laters levels.Why?its obvious."

This is just wrong.

I know people that play WOW and need the hand holding.
A couple of thoughts:

They still have their accounts.
They are far more profitable to Blizzard as they do not demand anywhere near as much from Blizzard as you do.
You are far more costly and less profitable to Blizzard than they are.

All they really want is to do some fun quests where they can hang out and chat with people.
When they are on, they are on for a while and off for a while as they are interrupted by rl events.
They will not ever interfere with your game, so you don't have to worry about being corrupted or harmed by them in any way.
They are nice people and promise to leave you alone... and they pay the same amount to Blizzard as you do.

You can hate them all you want and with as much intensity as you want.
Mostly they are too busy to care, and don't get much time to play.
But they enjoy the time they DO play, as it allows them to escape from reality for a short time.
And they WILL be around, probably long after you rage quit because some raid has too few bosses, or is too easy,
or whatever the thing is that you are currently raging incessantly about.

Blizzard's best business course is to replace people like you... with people like them.
You are just too damn expensive and too high in maintenance to upkeep.

Is that Dryad supposed to be Mylune? There's a giant wolf (Goldrinn), something with at least one horn or antler (Malorne?) and something large and fairly turtle-looking in the background (Tortolla?) in that artwork, although they look more like stone golems than spirit creatures.

Originally Posted by awa64

I love all the people citing 900k lost subscriptions as proof that Blizzard is doing something wrong with the design of the game, when a bunch of the lost subscriptions are probably due to the economy tanking and people trying to cut stuff from their budget that they can live without.

I love people trying to use the world economy as it is atm, to explain the sudden drop of subs to this game. I bet that only a very small fraction quit for that reason. None of the 50+ players I know from within the game and irl stopped cos they couldn't efford it. They stopped mainly cos they got tired of Blizzard way of handleling a once great game, incl. myself.

Originally Posted by awa64

I love all the people citing 900k lost subscriptions as proof that Blizzard is doing something wrong with the design of the game, when a bunch of the lost subscriptions are probably due to the economy tanking and people trying to cut stuff from their budget that they can live without.

If the economy was the issue the loss in subs wouldve been falling over more and more over the years, the economy did not just started going bad all of the sudden this year, it has been on a decline over the years.

What are you going to say when they report 2 million players lost in the 2nd quarter of next year, the economy again? Because there competition is coming up right around the corner, and it is what they are losing numbers to.

Love people who complain about the hand holding thing ..I mean what the fuck do you care?Hell for a game that has a paid subscription, it should have stuff that helps at the lower levels.The lower levels are the quests that you can enjoy and have fun,people are talking like the starter quests are fucking end-game stuff that needs balancing.That's just retarded.

Curious to see what the new expansion world event will be...I must say, something has just seemed really off about the Cataclysm expansion. Somewhat relieved that it is ending soon.

Originally Posted by Omega10

"why does blizzard want to keep people without gaming experience playing wow? if you cant handle the starting zone..lol...you're going to quit the game anyway at laters levels.Why?its obvious."

This is just wrong.

I know people that play WOW and need the hand holding.
A couple of thoughts:

They still have their accounts.
They are far more profitable to Blizzard as they do not demand anywhere near as much from Blizzard as you do.
You are far more costly and less profitable to Blizzard than they are.

All they really want is to do some fun quests where they can hang out and chat with people.
When they are on, they are on for a while and off for a while as they are interrupted by rl events.
They will not ever interfere with your game, so you don't have to worry about being corrupted or harmed by them in any way.
They are nice people and promise to leave you alone... and they pay the same amount to Blizzard as you do.

You can hate them all you want and with as much intensity as you want.
Mostly they are too busy to care, and don't get much time to play.
But they enjoy the time they DO play, as it allows them to escape from reality for a short time.
And they WILL be around, probably long after you rage quit because some raid has too few bosses, or is too easy,
or whatever the thing is that you are currently raging incessantly about.

Blizzard's best business course is to replace people like you... with people like them.
You are just too damn expensive and too high in maintenance to upkeep.

You don't sound hurt at all <.<
Your post contradicts it self, because from what it sounds like they are spending time and resources on lower levels anyway where they arent spending it on the max level, the one that matters the most. The players who quit after the first 30 minutes, arent going to play any longer then 30 minutes, because if you just nerf the first 5 levels, you cant stop there, you have to nerf everything else and compact it into a small ass area, players like those do not last at all maybe a months sub fee at the max. I am not dissing on any person on any skill level of WoW here, but the people who dedicated the time to get to 85, and still play at the max trivial level are the ones who are more then likey to be constant sub payers.

I wish they bring back class quests. Granted the old ones were to a point, gear grinding, but they were fun. You felt like you grew as a character and were working towards something. To say that those quests take forever to design is kinda.....stupid. If they go back to class quests and redo them so it fits the class a little better, that would be great....Hell I go as far as making class daily quests (Now that is something that would take forever). an example can be like a paladin killing an undead creature or a rogue assassinating or kidnapping a person of interest or a hunter taming a dragon....something like that.

"players are still having trouble with the first 30 minutes of gameplay with basics like movement" approximate quote but more handholding on the way? Blizzard at this point the game is likely going to be too difficult beyond 20 anyway so it is financially irresponsible to put more into getting the 12'oclock flashers online than you already have. My 8 year old niece got movement, questing, leveling, and even using newly trained abilities down. "perhaps this service isn't for you" is a viable answer. As if these things are complicated enough to give up then these players are going to have one nasty welcome when they figure out how to ask the general populace how to do something.

Originally Posted by awa64

I love all the people citing 900k lost subscriptions as proof that Blizzard is doing something wrong with the design of the game, when a bunch of the lost subscriptions are probably due to the economy tanking and people trying to cut stuff from their budget that they can live without.

LOL. That explains 2009. Not.

Originally Posted by Klasis

Chaud, what did they mean by "the next expansion should be released with a "meaningful difference" in timeline compared to previous expansions."

Do they mean from a lore standpoint(as in will it be like 10 years in the future)

Or are they hinting it coming out early

A PANDA invasion!

panda raid bosses!

panda cooking recipes!

rifts from where pandas came out thirsty for blood!

That would be awesome, right? I mean it would be better than pre-cataclysm event.

Also are they really happy about this expansion? Is blizzard serious? I am so glad this shit is almost over, pity it ended lots of people will to play (mine as well).

Originally Posted by Kwickslash

Really? I started playing 6 years ago when there was zero hand holding and I got by fine. Are new gamers really devolving into retards that much?

At first I laughed from your comment then I sadly realized you were correct. Ah well. I guess that's what end game is for, separating the skill from the inept.

I've read that one of the dungeons introduced with 4.3 will be in the cavern of time. Maybe the "The next expansion should be released with a "meaningful difference" in the release timeline compared to previous expansions" means we will be jumping forward or backward in time in relation to the rest of the game.

---------- Post added 2011-08-24 at 05:11 PM ----------

Originally Posted by McFrotton

Have you already doen the shaman and druid class quest, it was long and fucking boring, never did the quest for aquatic form lamest chain quest ever for th most ugly shit to have ever happened in all man creation , damn that aquatic mount is ugly.

I feel everyone is free to their own opinion. Personally I think the shaman and druid class quests were great. They may have been a little tedious in getting to the end game but they really gave the player a different experience in leveling one class from another. In that regard I think class quests are a great idea. It makes you want to try another class not just for the different play style at the end game but a different leveling experience as well.

From blue post: "It turns out that Heirlooms will be eligible targets for Transmogrification." NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!! yes!! cooler gear while levling

---------- Post added 2011-08-24 at 11:28 PM ----------

so next wow expanison is the emerald dream???