Won't the lack of a new class/race and higher price point hurt WoD's sucess?

[Sinndra]

in terms of strictly races included with expansions? i know when cata released and Goblins and Worgen became playable, i still to this day dont have a worgen (never was into vampires/werewolves) so worgen didnt interest me in the slightest. Goblins, i was like yay, i can have my squirt sized warrior now but, it wasnt a major selling point for me either.

then MoP was released, and pandaren which i was really excited for and enjoyed immensely, and pretty much made every new alt a Pandaren, so yes MoP did offer a selling point in that race.

WoD does not bother me and im actually more excited over the updated models than any other possible *new* race. i doubt they could have added a race that i would have been very excited about at this point, mainly because i feel WoW has enough races for now.

so i guess all things really are relative. sometimes its a selling point, others its not.

[Lazuli]

Yes absolutely.

I never play the new classes.

Unless they add something that is totally cool and my style, which I highly doubt.

What irks me about the no new class thing is not so much that there wasn't one, but that we didn't get to see what the next class in their arsenal is. (if any)

Same feeling with new races, except all races added since BC have been absolute garbage in my opinion, being an alliance player.. Draenei are retarded goats, fuckin panda's.. werewolves.. what next, vampires? rofl

[Eighty1]

Yeah, I'm sure they will lose big numbers because there is no new race, class... because, that is... content, right? No. I didn't even think or care for a second about no new race or class when I saw WoD announcement. This is alternate timeline expansion and we are going back to experience some history of WoW we couldn't see otherwise, so it makes no sense to throw in new race/class. They even "make up" for it by updateing old models, and I'd prefer that and take it any day over any new number of new races/classes.

There is tons of content in WoD and with all the new features and polish I'm sure (I'm in beta and even thou its not even done yet with final touches I LOVE what Blizzard did) this will be my best expansion after TBC, its kinda between TBC and WotLK.

[Enosh]

The newer races' population usually only spikes the first few months and then they're usually at the bottom of the population so I seriously doubt people won't buy WoD merely because of no new races. If anything we're getting all new races seeing as many racials are changing as well as appearances. So yeah.

belfs are the most popular race horde side and they were an expansion race
worgen are fourth alliance side were close to the third which are draenei, another expansion race

low are pandas and goblins
in short, make races people want to play because they look good/people like their story -> people will play them

and of course it will hurt wod, look at any non wow fansite, most people consider it the most bare bones expansion feature wise that comes with an unexplained price hike

[Krommm]

Somewhat. It had been a standard for what people have come to expect from a WoW expansion. There is always new content, but new races/classes are rather large "hooks" to grab in new or returning players. Surely most of us play for the content, but it does feel a bit lacking.

At any rate, without a new race/class to prop up the expansion, they really need to deliver if they want the game to be a success.

[Alvito]

The price might keep a few from getting it. On Blizzard's side of things enough will still buy it that they will make more money from it. As far as no new race, so what? We have more then enough now and all adding new ones does is either get ppl to start a new toon based on race or dump even more money to Blizzard to race change.

[Thimagryn]

Monks and Pandarens didn't help against sub loss. It all depends on what we're getting. I doubt there were many people who were that excited to sub or stay subbed just for Pandarens and Monks.

[rorian]

New classes? No.
New races? No.
We can fly in new zones? No.
Wait, have they said how they're going to handle the reintroduction of flight? No.
More dungeons than ever before? No.
More raids than ever before? No.
Are Garrisons exciting? No.
Are Garrisons optional? No.
Are the new models like our old toons? No.
Well okay, so they're better than our old toons, yeah? No.
Yikes, free cosmetic toon customization then? No.
After 2 horde expansions, this is an Alliance expansion, right? No.
Thrall dies? No.
But Alliance will still kick ass? No.
Stormwind has been rebuilt? No.
Wait, does something even worse happen to Stormwind? ....

Wait, what am I getting for my $50? Pure value. [snicker]

Blizzard Entertainment proudly presents "The No Expansion!"

Even if you add up every single person that has ever viewed this forum that felt like this person does, it would still be an extreme minority of the actual player base that feels this way. Millions of people are going to buy this game and enjoy it, but dead game right?

[AVPaul]

For me new class is very important at xpack release, cuz at least it makes this xpack worth buying to spend 1-2 months leveling new toon, while imagining, that I'm playing this game for the first time (and new class with new features and abilities feeds this feeling very strongly). Blizzard killed LFR, they killed 5ppls, in WOD they'll kill questing too. What else enjoyable left in this game, except leveling new toons like in single player RPG?

[Socialhealer]

Blizzard killed LFR,

killed lfr, what the fuck? it's probably the most raided difficulty.

then i saw your sig oh really? if you can't do flex you never got set bonuses before dragon soul, if you can do flex go do it for tier, all i see is a want of zero effort for any reward.

[Nightspear]

I havnt been this hyped since WotLK about a new expansion. The design ideas I absolutly love. They seem to have learned so much in cata and mop about what fun and what isnt fun.
The approch to gearing in WoD is some of the best ideas for a while.
What they learned was fun from timeless island will be introduced in zones.
And Garrisons is giving casuals a lot do and goals to strive for.

I see a lot of content for everyone and fun stuff to do.

[Irian]

People posting their personal opinions, ex: "well I never played a goblin/worgen/blood elf/draenei/dk/monk so i don't think so", you don't understand the question.

Will it hurt WoD's success not having a new feature? Without a doubt, yes.

This was one of the things that baffled me the most about WoD. Players have come to expect some things from a new expansion. Things to hype them up. Things to change the world significantly. To be blunt, past a cursory look I can't really see the difference between a troll with lots of polygons and a troll with less polygons; that's not enough to be interesting. An expansion needs hype, something interesting, something new. It's the basics of selling a product; even if I was never interested in goblins and worgen, they still shook up and changed each faction and gave returning players something new to play with.

Now that we've seen what they'll be like in large part on live, Garrisons are not really a whole lot more than a loosely interactive alternative to daily questing. I say "loosely" because I don't really get to pick all that much content at all. It's mostly just kind of there and you go back to it sometimes and turn in your follower quests, get rewards, send more followers out and check your garrison box. But the worst part: what content does exist, Blizzard never advertised. All new players or returning players know is that "there will be garrisons." What is a garrison? What does it do? Is it player housing? Is it a customizable fortress? Nobody really knows because blizzard doesn't really advertise anything other than vague information.

New models are interesting and different and new, and that's great and all, but again; it's not that exciting. In fact, a lot of players are unhappy and/or dreading what's going to happen to their character or their specific look. It was more work than new models, sure, but it would've been much, much more effective as an "over the course of several expansions" thing rather than an expansion feature. There's a solid amount of players who either don't want or don't care about model revamps, and another chunk of players who are unhappy that their character doesn't look the way it used to.

[Rosstafa]

Yeah, no. With four brand new ones they'd have to design them from the ground up including all the animations and then create an area for them to be spawned in and then fill that area with quests and NPCs.

The new models are like taking an anime gif and recreating it with hand-drawn semi-realistic style.

Updating the vanilla models requires constant back and forth between devs making sure they aren't too different from the originals. Creating a new model allows a lot more freedom, so it speeds up the process as they don't have to constantly compare every little change to the original models.

[Deleted]

I don't really see how people can justify paying full price for WOD. Its an expansion with less content than any previous expansion, and frankly I'll believe Draenor is completely 100% different from Outland when I see it.

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People posting their personal opinions, ex: "well I never played a goblin/worgen/blood elf/draenei/dk/monk so i don't think so", you don't understand the question.

Will it hurt WoD's success not having a new feature? Without a doubt, yes.

This was one of the things that baffled me the most about WoD. Players have come to expect some things from a new expansion. Things to hype them up. Things to change the world significantly. To be blunt, past a cursory look I can't really see the difference between a troll with lots of polygons and a troll with less polygons; that's not enough to be interesting. An expansion needs hype, something interesting, something new. It's the basics of selling a product; even if I was never interested in goblins and worgen, they still shook up and changed each faction and gave returning players something new to play with.

Now that we've seen what they'll be like in large part on live, Garrisons are not really a whole lot more than a loosely interactive alternative to daily questing. I say "loosely" because I don't really get to pick all that much content at all. It's mostly just kind of there and you go back to it sometimes and turn in your follower quests, get rewards, send more followers out and check your garrison box. But the worst part: what content does exist, Blizzard never advertised. All new players or returning players know is that "there will be garrisons." What is a garrison? What does it do? Is it player housing? Is it a customizable fortress? Nobody really knows because blizzard doesn't really advertise anything other than vague information.

New models are interesting and different and new, and that's great and all, but again; it's not that exciting. In fact, a lot of players are unhappy and/or dreading what's going to happen to their character or their specific look. It was more work than new models, sure, but it would've been much, much more effective as an "over the course of several expansions" thing rather than an expansion feature. There's a solid amount of players who either don't want or don't care about model revamps, and another chunk of players who are unhappy that their character doesn't look the way it used to.

I think in the end new models, whilst nice, really aren't a selling point for an expansion. And you're right about WoD not being that exciting for new or returning players. TBC had flying mounts, new races and a new, super weird continent. Wrath had the return of an enemy we'd not really seen since Warcraft 3 and a new class that had an interesting new concept. Cataclysm had an entirely revamped old world. Even MoP had a new class, race and continent that were all really new and unusual in their design. WOD only has a continent we've already been to and a story about a bunch of Orcs who are mostly only of interest to players who are into their lore..

[randomnamegenerator16]

Last thing we need is more races and more classes.

[IxilaFA]

People posting their personal opinions, ex: "well I never played a goblin/worgen/blood elf/draenei/dk/monk so i don't think so", you don't understand the question.

Will it hurt WoD's success not having a new feature? Without a doubt, yes.

This was one of the things that baffled me the most about WoD. Players have come to expect some things from a new expansion. Things to hype them up. Things to change the world significantly. To be blunt, past a cursory look I can't really see the difference between a troll with lots of polygons and a troll with less polygons; that's not enough to be interesting. An expansion needs hype, something interesting, something new. It's the basics of selling a product; even if I was never interested in goblins and worgen, they still shook up and changed each faction and gave returning players something new to play with.

Now that we've seen what they'll be like in large part on live, Garrisons are not really a whole lot more than a loosely interactive alternative to daily questing. I say "loosely" because I don't really get to pick all that much content at all. It's mostly just kind of there and you go back to it sometimes and turn in your follower quests, get rewards, send more followers out and check your garrison box. But the worst part: what content does exist, Blizzard never advertised. All new players or returning players know is that "there will be garrisons." What is a garrison? What does it do? Is it player housing? Is it a customizable fortress? Nobody really knows because blizzard doesn't really advertise anything other than vague information.

New models are interesting and different and new, and that's great and all, but again; it's not that exciting. In fact, a lot of players are unhappy and/or dreading what's going to happen to their character or their specific look. It was more work than new models, sure, but it would've been much, much more effective as an "over the course of several expansions" thing rather than an expansion feature. There's a solid amount of players who either don't want or don't care about model revamps, and another chunk of players who are unhappy that their character doesn't look the way it used to.

Trying to argue away subjective and anecdotal opinions with your own subjective and anecdotal opinion is not a very good idea...


I never understood the argument that no new race / class = less content. Sure there won't be some tacked on starting quest zone, or a couple new models added, but having no new race or class doesn't automatically mean there's less content. They could release an expansion with 4 raid instances, 20 bosses, and 10 zones with 10 levels and 1000 new quests...would you guys still claim that there's less content than previous expansions because of no new race / class?

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I think in the end new models, whilst nice, really aren't a selling point for an expansion. And you're right about WoD not being that exciting for new or returning players. TBC had flying mounts, new races and a new, super weird continent. Wrath had the return of an enemy we'd not really seen since Warcraft 3 and a new class that had an interesting new concept. Cataclysm had an entirely revamped old world. Even MoP had a new class, race and continent that were all really new and unusual in their design. WOD only has a continent we've already been to and a story about a bunch of Orcs who are mostly only of interest to players who are into their lore..

Can people please stop trying to claim that they know what the majority of the previous WoW players want? From my viewpoint, everyone who I know that used to play the game is excited about returning / has already returned in preparation. I would never try to use that as an argument point, though, because I recognize that it's not very useful so far as that data goes. You can't assume just because there's nothing in it that's exciting to you, that nobody is excited about coming back to play.

[Deleted]

Can people please stop trying to claim that they know what the majority of the previous WoW players want? From my viewpoint, everyone who I know that used to play the game is excited about returning / has already returned in preparation. I would never try to use that as an argument point, though, because I recognize that it's not very useful so far as that data goes. You can't assume just because there's nothing in it that's exciting to you, that nobody is excited about coming back to play.

Then I don't see why you felt the need to bring it up.

Frankly time and numbers will tell. Right now WoW is losing subs and I can't see WOD really changing that.

[Ytlayol]

I think its going to be less successful than Mope, people who are actually going to play wod have already preordered. Don't think they'll sell that many more when the game launches.

[IxilaFA]

Then I don't see why you felt the need to bring it up.

Frankly time and numbers will tell. Right now WoW is losing subs and I can't see WOD really changing that.

To show you that anecdotal evidence is useless in an argument. So what if you go to the local comic shop and there a hundred nerds there who refuse to ever play WoW again and think WoD is a tragedy? It is most definitely not an indication of anything.

I agree with your last part. This debate that is going on over whether WoD will bring subs up or make them lose more is ridiculous because we don't have access to near the level of data that any company in the industry would have towards prospective players and their chances of returning to a specific game.

[NuLogic]

The new race/class usually just serves as hype but it's the content that's the deciding factor. As long as there's shit to do WoW will be fine.

Besides look at cod, fifa, and Mario they're not much different yet still sell at $60 a pop with possible dlc every year.