A Found Memento, Serenity Stops Raiding - Players Join Method, Upcoming Raid Testing

[FelPlague]

Okay, look, for all it's worth I never understood why people gave her so much praise, to me she was always on the same level or below knaak when it comes to writing. But when I read "our beloved characters" and "what metzen had build" in the same sentence then I can't help but laugh. The awful writing with green jesus, garrosh and a myriad of other head scratching things were Metzen's doing. If you fear it will get significantly worse now, then I doubt that will bethe case, unless they start hiring games workshop writers.

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Or she just isn't and deflecting by being offended has nothing to do with it.
Her writing is flat, lacks world building and spanning a narrative arc is something that just barely works out in her books. She is not on the level of fan fic writers, but her works are far from literary masterpieces as well; barely decent if anything.

Edit: That might be different for her original work, but her WoW stuff is bland and boring.

did you read the arthas novel?

[Deleted]

You want Richard Knaak, do you?

Anyone but her. Her craft is fanfic at best.

[Deleted]

Multi class confirmed!

[Exlex]

Anyone has any info when is Tomb of Sargeras coming live?

[Eggroll]

Well, maaaybe Christie goes to work on the unannounced project Blizzard is hiring for?

[Deleted]

I wonder how many competitive guilds, and players, need to shelve World of Warcraft before the designers realise that their vision for raiding is driving its community into the ground?

00.001% of the playerbase hardly classifies as "it's community"

[Deleted]

The anduin cinematic eventhough cheesy was one of the best blizzard has done. Strangely it felt like a ending aswell as a start so i'm sort of fine if it's not really picked up much further unlike many other things in the past where blizzard created a moment (their good at it) and than completly fail capitilizing it (their good botching that as well).

I respect Christie Golden for her work, but I don't like it. She has a terrible alliance bias and most of the books I read from her (Lord of the Clans, Rise of the Horde, Beyond the Dark Portal, Jaina Proudmoore) had no real arc of suspense. Yeah, it's just an opinion, but my guess is we see a lot of Alliance stuff with her in the back.

I thought Christie golden was one of the better writers with WoW books?
Or is it mainly because of her supposesd alliance bias? Dont really understand since the first 2 books you mention are horde lore.

But right now i like how legion is low on story and only focuses on the player because everytime they involve the factions they do some shitting similiar to faction war.
Basically i dont trust blizzard with faction lore so i only want deep lore involvement from new races and islands/planets like pandaria nonfaction stuff was.

Faction lore right now Horde one is gone and needs a serious build up of new leaders and characters starting with books than hints in expansion.
Alliance is fucked because of the entire faction war which is a wound that keeps being prodded and never repaired and blizzard is not going to adress it because it needs to be at the cost of the horde at alliances hands.
Only hope for that is the readers/ players having a fishbrain.

[Mic_128]

Anyone but her. Her craft is fanfic at best.

And Knaak isn't? His Mary Sue character defeats Deathwing, marries a beautiful elf, goes back in time and becomes super powerful and a teacher of Illidan, talking with raptors (think that Chris Prat scene from Jurrasic World) and convincing them to be teleported around and fight for him to save the rest of his party as well as things such as Kalecgos falling in love with the Sunwell.

Feel free to say Golden's a bad writer if you wish, but don't complain she's fan-fiction and then say that Knaak was better.

[Deleted]

I wouldn't call her that. I haven't found a book from her yet I really liked. My two favorites are still "The last guardian" and "Shadows of the Horde".
Her Alliance bias is only one reason. Even in the so called "Horde books" the Alliance heroes are more present than the Horde counterparts.
I don't like her for her simple writing style, the missing arcs of suspense, bad character progression, really annoying or boring dialogues and her Alliance bias.

But as stated before, that is my opinion. There are other who likes how she writes.

wasnt rise of the only horde characters, mainly thralls father?

[Arvandor]

in the name of the light, pls christie no more cata and wod style storys!

[Deleted]

Christie Golden means more Jaina to come I think.

[Unholyground]

Honestly they could have made the story so much more interesting if Varians body had survived and Sylvanas had turned him into Undead. Such a missed opportunity.

[Hobb]

Doesn't really surprise me to see Serenity break up. The game is rather stagnate right now and people are getting bored and taking a break or leaving.

Even the guild I'm in has gone form 15 active raiders and pugging a few to fill the mythic gap, down to just 5 active players. The new raid really needs to come out sooner rather than later to hopefully save the player base.

[Unholyground]

Doesn't really surprise me to see Serenity break up. The game is rather stagnate right now and people are getting bored and taking a break or leaving.

Even the guild I'm in has gone form 15 active raiders and pugging a few to fill the mythic gap, down to just 5 active players. The new raid really needs to come out sooner rather than later to hopefully save the player base.

This is great. It lets me farm with less people so when prople come back in droves for 7.2.5 and 7.3 I will be able to get tokens for dirt cheap since people will be buyingnthem like crazy just like with every patch since thwir release, and I can sell all my BOE items for tons of gold. Also this is nothing new, large numbers of people have always taken breaks periodically between patches it doesn't effect much other than economy.

[Deleted]

Hm, people keep bashing Knaak left and right but I actually enjoyed the War of the Ancient books Tho I've read them before "I've learnt English", alas I've read translated versions, so those might've been actually better than the original (seen that happen to a few books).

Oh well, if I enjoyed Knaak's books and she's better than Knaak, this is actually a win situation for me!

[Drusin]

....who's Christie Golden?

lol me forever, I keep seeing her name everywhere like she is someone famous.

[Pua]

Perhaps you should look into why Serenity disbanded before you apply your cookie cutter blanket statement.

Nothing you said disproves my point; largely, because I didn't make one that attributed another top guild folding. I vaguely referred to the PvE progression set up in World of Warcraft, and you've just assumed the rest.

That's a silly way to start your intercession. But the other quote I received helps to build this a little. Let's look at it together.

00.001% of the playerbase hardly classifies as "it's community"

I suppose an example of arse-number-pulling is as good a place to start as any.

Here's some history:

Cataclysm, tier 11, was maybe the first time this really cropped up. The progression drive was brutal, to the point when even top guilds (Sco, on behalf of Method) argued that it was getting too much. Nihilum, SK, Paragon, Premonition, vodka, Exodus, Midwinter... All of these guilds were competitive until they were forced to cannibalize each other, and now Serenity couldn't keep up with the personnel drive (Method's longevity is extraordinary). Raiding has gotten mechanically much harder, stress on rosters has increased with a lower playing population, organized raiding now has a higher skill floor than ever, and the time demands are getting ramped up by currency grinds that elongate progression well into player burnout.

It's also true that the raiding community is much more than merely its top players. While the race isn't as interesting as it used to be, the top guilds provide a leg up for those below them that need assistance in figuring out how to approach encounters.

All of these points are design incentives created specifically by Blizzard. Top guilds have always eaten each other as time moves on, but the pace is ramping up as a result of the design intent - not in spite of it. Players below that are starting to look for the first exit sign of a raiding treadmill that they're never done with, thanks largely to a never-ending stream of difficulty settings that are wholly unnecessary. And what was the policy for Legion?

Exasperate these issues with a never-ending currency grind, triple or quadruple-random reward vehicles, and a dismantling of effective alt support.

Blizzard really need to look at their approach. They've gotten LFR to the point where it's unnecessary and ready to be removed, while Mythic was always unnecessary. Creating a game that chases the dragon of players that churn through no matter what is hurrying the collapse of the entire endgame dynamic.

[Tupolew519]

for the alliance!

[Igzorn]

I wonder how many competitive guilds, and players, need to shelve World of Warcraft before the designers realise that their vision for raiding is driving its community into the ground?

well as part of the wow comunity i could not care less waht those guilds/players do. i know i dont speak for all but hell i am two part of it.

[9Nails]

I suppose an example of arse-number-pulling is as good a place to start as any.

Here's some history:

Cataclysm, tier 11, was maybe the first time this really cropped up. The progression drive was brutal, to the point when even top guilds (Sco, on behalf of Method) argued that it was getting too much. Nihilum, SK, Paragon, Premonition, vodka, Exodus, Midwinter... All of these guilds were competitive until they were forced to cannibalize each other, and now Serenity couldn't keep up with the personnel drive (Method's longevity is extraordinary). Raiding has gotten mechanically much harder, stress on rosters has increased with a lower playing population, organized raiding now has a higher skill floor than ever, and the time demands are getting ramped up by currency grinds that elongate progression well into player burnout.

It's also true that the raiding community is much more than merely its top players. While the race isn't as interesting as it used to be, the top guilds provide a leg up for those below them that need assistance in figuring out how to approach encounters.

All of these points are design incentives created specifically by Blizzard. Top guilds have always eaten each other as time moves on, but the pace is ramping up as a result of the design intent - not in spite of it. Players below that are starting to look for the first exit sign of a raiding treadmill that they're never done with, thanks largely to a never-ending stream of difficulty settings that are wholly unnecessary. And what was the policy for Legion?

Exasperate these issues with a never-ending currency grind, triple or quadruple-random reward vehicles, and a dismantling of effective alt support.

Blizzard really need to look at their approach. They've gotten LFR to the point where it's unnecessary and ready to be removed, while Mythic was always unnecessary. Creating a game that chases the dragon of players that churn through no matter what is hurrying the collapse of the entire endgame dynamic.

I would love to raid with my guild again. But the fact is that time is not on my side. I'd love it if we were able to kill a handful of bosses in an hour. Lessen the grinds required to come to this point, such as food, potions, etc - which usually takes as long as the raid to grind or longer. Keep raiding short, but rewarding, and lessen it to what could only take me away from the family for the length of a TV show. When I raided, we would spend 2 nights, 3 hours each time trying to clear a raid. This time-sink and heavy pace would burn players out or cause real life family issues. Our off nights we would run alts for other guild members who wanted to see the inside of the encounter. Not all of us can stay single forever. And after a while this got to be too much to keep up. The support to get us to raiding was immense. I had a fantastic guild, and some of the team I've flown or drove out to meet in person. They're some real life friends and some of the best people I've met over a video game. I know that Blizzard has an impossible task to make content challenging, yet accessible. I really don't care what the top guild is up to. These guys only account for less than a fraction of players. My guild would fall into the 50 - 75%, and for us taking the time was taking a toll.