Siege of Niuzao Temple Preview, New Character Creation Screen, Blue Posts, Fan Art

[Deleted]

finally they added a zoom for face creation! Yaaay!
Ive been asking for this for years - I'm sure blizzard read the comments on this site.

[Hexo]

If Hyjal, Karazhan, and Sunwell fused into one, it would be the Niuzao Temple.

karazhan and AQ

[Zokten]

That's just not how programming works. Someone who does models and textures isn't necessarily an expert at bug squashing and vice versa. Just because both work with computer code doesn't mean they're interchangeable at all. This has nothing to do with repeating what blues say, it has to do with common sense and knowing at least the basics of software programming.

Was not saying Graphics people can code everything or that coders could do models and textures.....not even sure how you got to that exactly.

Saying that they could have worked on other content besides the pet battles.

[Sarevokcz]

That's just not how programming works. Someone who does models and textures isn't necessarily an expert at bug squashing and vice versa. Just because both work with computer code doesn't mean they're interchangeable at all. This has nothing to do with repeating what blues say, it has to do with common sense and knowing at least the basics of software programming.

your common sense is fried then? How do you think pets will actually battle? they need completely new interface and new code just for that, who do you think wrote it? tier designers?

[Nesingwary-Eliada]

They could have taken those coders+others and used them for other content within the game.

Note: I could not care less about the pet battle system as a whole.

But they could also LEAVE those coders where they are, working on the pet battle system.

Note: I could not care less about other features as a whole.

2nd Note: Oh those differing tastes and wants are such a nuisance!

[Deleted]

w/e never playing with sound anyway

[evilgnomey]

too those who think pet battles won't be big, you have no idea how addictive this type of game can be and i suggest you give pokemon a try :P also whenever I'm on the beta pretty much everyone wants to know about pet battles and if they are available yet etc.

[Zokten]

But they could also LEAVE those coders where they are, working on the pet battle system.

Note: I could not care less about other features as a whole.

2nd Note: Oh those differing tastes and wants are such a nuisance!

You make the assumption that I'm talking about different tastes and not incomplete, broken, bugs, etc content already within the game.

[tamriilin]

And don't feed me that you have different developers for this and that, those people certainly don't have "pet battle specialization", they COULD have been working on models, pvp balance or whatever you can think of.

Perhaps you should do some research into how game development works before you make sweeping generalizations like this.

No, a developer who does mechanics design will NOT work on models, because they are not an artist. And no, that same person will NOT work on pvp balance, because they don't do number crunching and they don't have a feel for what number range works, what doesn't, etc.

Game development in general is a very complex machine and each gear is specialized to work in one specific area. Taking a gear from one part of a clock and trying to shoehorn it into another doesn't make the clock run longer or better, it breaks it outright.

And this is why blizzard is losing players.

You will shout, PLAY OUR GAME!!!
We will whisper no.

You're missing the part where literally every developer ever does this, MMO developers most of all. What do you expect them to do?

"Hey guys you know absolutely nothing about game development and what should work, we have 20+ years of experience, but we're leaving all of the development decisions up to you!"

Capcom tried to do that with Megaman Legends 3. Hardly anybody was interested enough in the prospect of a crowd-sourced AAA game, and those that were had really lofty/dumb ideas that would never actually work in a video game.

The result? The game that fans had been waiting for over a decade for was canned.

There is a reason that video game development is a degree, and also a career path. Because it's really damn hard.

[lilbuddhaman]

"Hey guys you know absolutely nothing about game development and what should work, we have 20+ years of experience, but we're leaving all of the development decisions up to you!"

No. Terrible terrible idea.

Blizzard has almost universally ignored the suggestions of the original players of this game (beta through vanilla/bc), and this is where we are today. I can not count the amount of things brought up in PTR threads/feedback by players that blizz has blatantly ignored and pushed right along to release code. And not just opinionated things like the balance of a certain class/boss , but blatant stuff like broken skills/bugs. Or the countless times players have provided feedback such as "This ability is a bit OP, if you nerf it maybe 5% it'll be balanced to everyone else, here are 1000 dps logs to show that", and then blizz responding by nerfing the ability 25-30%, then later buffing it 30-35%, then finally nerfing it down to that 5% below original the players first suggested.

Blizzard's first major cop-out in wow was putting shaman and paladin in both factions. It was claimed as a lazy way of balancing the game, encouraged care-bear status between the two factions, and the "lore" they decided on to explain it was nothing less than horrible (Space Goats). It was an early sign of things to come, but no veteran of the game expected the amount of class homogenization, newbie-catering, "popularization" that the game has undergone.

----

On an unrelated note: LOL at New player creation backgrounds, yet no new models.

[evilgnomey]

*Player 1, is bored doing the same thing over and over so player 1 wants more to do.
*Blizzard introduces challenge modes, scenarios, pet battles and tillers.
*Player 1 doesn't like the idea of pet battles and complains about it.
*Blizzard removes pet battles due to complaints.

*Player 2, is bored doing the same thing over and over so player 2 wants more to do.
*Blizzard introduces challenge modes, scenarios, pet battles and tillers.
*Player 2 doesn't like the idea of challenge modes and complains about it.
*Blizzard removes challenge modes due to complaints.

*Player 3, is bored doing the same thing over and over so player 3 wants more to do.
*Blizzard introduces challenge modes, scenarios, pet battles and tillers.
*Player 3 doesn't like the idea of scenarios and complains about it.
*Blizzard removes scenarios due to complaints.

*Player 4, is bored doing the same thing over and over so player 4 wants more to do.
*Blizzard introduces challenge modes, scenarios, pet battles and tillers.
*Player 4 doesn't like the idea of tillers and complains about it.
*Blizzard removes tillers due to complaints.

*players 1,2,3 and 4 complete all content in MoP and are bored so they ask for more to do.
*blizzard facepalms.

and people wonder why we can't have more nice things to do.

[tamriilin]

Blizzard has almost universally ignored the suggestions of the original players of this game (beta through vanilla/bc), and this is where we are today.

They have only ignored the suggestions of people who propose things that would be of great detriment to the game as a whole. Mechanically, aesthetically, and design-wise, I feel like the game is way better off now than it was in BC.

I've never really understood the zeitgeist-type attitude towards vanilla or BC. Nostalgia does not (or should not) outweigh good design.

Blizzard's first major cop-out in wow was putting shaman and paladin in both factions. It was claimed as a lazy way of balancing the game, encouraged care-bear status between the two factions, and the "lore" they decided on to explain it was nothing less than horrible (Space Goats).

Except that the classes are totally different and it was a way to balance the game. I don't understand why being able to play the class you want on the faction you want in a game like WoW is a bad thing.

Also: The space goats were in warcraft lore long before Burning Crusade came about.

It was an early sign of things to come, but no veteran of the game expected the amount of class homogenization, newbie-catering, "popularization" that the game has undergone.

You toss around terms like "class homogenization" like it's some stigma that is to be avoided at all costs. I'd rather not have a game where people would almost always rather take x class over y class because their buffs are 5% more beneficial to the raid. That's terrible design.

And this is coming from a shaman, who in Cata currently has no unique buffs that are better (in fact they are universally worse) than every other class' buffs.

And, honestly, I can't really speak to all of the balance decisions and bugs that make it to release candidate because obviously I don't work for Blizzard. But what I will say is that developers always have a time and budget constraint that they are working against and some things inevitably just don't make it in. That's why there are hotfixes!

And, not like it really matters (?), but keep in mind that I have been playing the game since shortly before release. I remember what it was like in vanilla and BC. I remember hunting for resist gear for specific dungeons.

[Grithmir]

If there's one thing in WoW that's always been been perfect, it's the music.

[sourmonkey]

The one true fact is blizzard will never make everyone happy, people overlook how the new ideas will work

Hardcore players - will be raiding , min maxing, and will not worry about pet battles
Casual players - will be doing dungeons , scenarios and quests pet battles etc.

I just overlook the features I will not have time to do .
Raiding comes first , I will be to busy leveling Both my toon and his professions then doing dungeons and heroics
So I can get into raiding ASAP . I may try the pet thing when waiting for content

[VanishO2]

"You could've worked on character models. You could've worked on more battlegrounds, dungeons, raids, and arenas.
By and large you're not talking at all about the same developers/artists/programmers. The development team isn't just a pool of people, all with the exact same skill sets. That's too big an assumption on your part with regard to what could've been created in the absence of pet battles, not to mention whether or not the payoff would actually be better if development resources were dedicated to other projects."

Guess they forgot what they've said about their team... a small team that need to pick what is worth doing.

[Lilitheria]

Please someone tell me that those character creation screens will change. I don't want to see that ugly Orgrimmar behind all Horde races. Just give every race their own cities. Seriously, why that ugly Orgrimmar should be everywhere?

Whatever, let's wait and see.

And that guy who complains about WoW music... Wow... He is really out of his mind.

[Resentful]

The music is horrible? That's the first time I've ever heard of something so... atrocious on the forums =/

[Stormykitten]

However, I rather doubt that they have a team specialized in coding pet battles on the standby at all times, so that argument doesn't really fly. They could have been alloted different tasks, except maybe the lead designer for that (depends on if they were hired for it). Personally though I think it will be a good thing, but I hope they learned from the Cata revamp so it doesn't take too much resources/time. So far, MoP is looking promising so I hope it's not the case

I don't think Zarhym has to worry; wow/blizz is one of the best in the industry at music themes

[Books]

I like everything so far, people just complain waaay to much. Hard for blizzard to do anything with the amounts of complains they get from stupid cry babies. All and all im a pvper and a pve-er. pet battles is going to be fun but yeah i think they might be going a little too over board but ill still play it from time to time, as well most people.

[tamriilin]

However, I rather doubt that they have a team specialized in coding pet battles on the standby at all times, so that argument doesn't really fly. They could have been alloted different tasks, except maybe the lead designer for that (depends on if they were hired for it).

Oh, certainly not. Having one design team go work on other design projects is one thing; suggesting that somebody who works in coding could pick up modeling and immediately be proficient at it and not a bane to everyone they're working with is totally outlandish.