Anyone else feel creativity is leaving the game with future expansions?

[MOEEEE]

I don't feel so. I've been playing for a 4 - 5 years. I'm loving it like i did back then. Its different from person // person, i suppose.

[Sildor]

That argument is perfectly valid. You are really not forced to fly at all. Your Pandaria comment is flawed because every player that leveled 85-90 did so by only being on the ground. Yes, you can fly at level cap but it's not a requirement to get from place to place.

The world is still very much there and I can fully explore it now that I can fly. Reach places I never knew existed. See fantastic landscapes. Most of what you get on the ground is trees, grass and different coloured rock. I still use my ground mounts but I also fly around.

You really are not forced to fly if you don't want to.

You're right that travelling within most zones and from one quest to the next is easy, however, Vale of Eternal blossoms is not non-flight friendly, and getting to Dread Wastes requires a long detour from for example Valley of the Four winds.

This works because everyone is flying and nobody needs to do the journey on foot. Yes, it's immersive to be able to fly, but it removes fear, and it's very hindering for world PvP and greatly reduces the travel (after all wow is composed of a few continents, not a few small islands).

[melodramocracy]

If you zoom out far enough, WoW has always followed the same formula, even since inception. Dangle something to get players subscribed, and make enough new desirable goals to keep them subscribed. That's the model for this and many other games of its kind.

From a creativity standpoint, I'd say they do an admirable job working within this very expected frame.

[Invictus9001]

Flying is convenience, the same way shopping at Wal-Mart for various things is convenience. If you, individually, do not want to fly (shop at Wal-Mart), then use a ground mount (go to a gas station or something) and leave the rest of us be to our choices.

As for creativity? =\ I've honestly been feeling creativity slipping away in most industries, not just the game industry (fingers pointed at movies and music).

[Preheet]

Love how most people in this thread are bashing OP.. Yes, blizzard is loosing creativity more than the US is losing their war on debt. MoP is candyland, plain and simple. Legendary items are acquirable by people doing LFR and raiding once a week? I am all for "helping the casual player" but.. when it comes to giving them gear left right and center, and making hardcore raiders and casuals more similar, I can't stand.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love ToT, but I feel as though every expansion Blizz is making it easier for casual players to get a higher reward for doing less work. It takes the fun out of having downed a heroic boss and getting that EPIC 535 gear.. when casual LFR players are literally 5-10ilvls lower than you.

[Brash]

Flying would be cool if it was actually flight as opposed to movement in a mostly empty space where nothing interacts with you.

You mount up, hit space bar or angle yourself and move to a good height that clears anything within the game world and then move in a straight line.... Boring. But then again I've given up hope that WoW will do much outside of it's group raiding experience.

Comments like these really confuse me. Complaining that flying is boring and assuming everyone takes the same boring path that is being complained about. I almost NEVER just fly above things, its weird but I try to enjoy my time playing games and love to observe the scenery as I'm flying from place to place. If I want to zone out and get to a certain location I take a flight path and alt-tab or take care of some errands.

As for the OP I don't think I've read a more hypocritical post in a while, "Where's the creativity gone?! I want everything the same as it's always been!" I can say fairly certainly that I've ever seen a zone like Jade Forest or Vale in any game I've ever played. Taking a traditional fantasy class like Monk and turning it into a street fighting panda, granted it isn't everything they promised but it is still fun to play.

[Boathouse]

Innovation is over-rated. Sounds silly at first, but think about it. It'll become a little more clear. New and different isn't always good, sometimes the old true method is the best way.

[Pull My Finger]

You're over-stretching it tbh, he didn't need to say it was to late to remove them, as it's a well known fact when it comes to blizzard, that anything that's been in the game for 2+ years is to late to remove (even if there's more negative then positive attached to it)

That's nothing more than a free interpretation like I already mentioned. They never said anything along those lines.

[Glorious Leader]

So the game lacks creativity and the solution is to move it back to what it was 8 years ago? How fucking stupid and ignorant.

I agree the games lacks creativity but this expansion is the worst for that because in many aspects it's trying to make the game like it was in TBC. Painful and regressive. The game lacks innovation but moving it back to some out dated and stale model of what mmos were isn't gonna solve that and I hope the developers learn and move the fuck on next expansion.

[Byniri]

Gear is no longer a badge of honor as everyone can now obtain Tier Sets that look virtually identical other than a recolour for every tier. Where is the carrot on the stick for people?

Normal and Heroic gear.

It's the stats, not the look, and the fact that a piece of gear's image is an issue is what's wrong with part of the community.

[loppy88]

I would say that you focus too much on what other players are doing. They're still behind you if you are doing heroic bosses that they won't even see in the life of the expansion.

I've been quite casual in MoP, even took a break from the game for a couple of months, yet I'm not complaining about being behind heroic raiders and demanding that the game is too hardcore focused and that I should now get free gear on the same level so that I can stay current, and so making the game fun. No, I will simply jump into 5.0 LFR and keep hoping for gear drops that will push me to 480 and then the 5.2 LFR.

I have yet to see a casual player get everything they need for the Legendary quest in a week. Hell, minus the break I took, I've been doing LFR since launch and have yet to finish the first part of the chain!

Same here, LFR since the start and I am on the last stage. Only LFR.

---------- Post added 2013-04-29 at 06:30 PM ----------

So the game lacks creativity and the solution is to move it back to what it was 8 years ago? How fucking stupid and ignorant.

I agree the games lacks creativity but this expansion is the worst for that because in many aspects it's trying to make the game like it was in TBC. Painful and regressive. The game lacks innovation but moving it back to some out dated and stale model of what mmos were isn't gonna solve that and I hope the developers learn and move the fuck on next expansion.

To some parts of it, yes. Having class quests and class specific flavor spells would be a start. Did Eyes of the Beast spell hurt anyone? Nope. Why was it taken out then? And don't give me "Hunters have too much spells on their bars" bullshizzle. You don't like it? Don't use it. Simple as that.

[A Challenger!]

Yeah, the meeting stone for BoT was on the little platform that also help the portal and the BwL meeting stone was just a few feet from it's portal. So, outside the entrances

With regards to Deepholm, the key difference with Cata zones is that they were all designed in such a way because players could fly in Cata from the off. Since they just introduced flying in the Vanilla continents, it made little sense for you not to be able to fly in those zones. And Deepholm was just huge and had different levels where yes, a flying mount was simply needed. But that's just Deepholm. To really get into it, they also gave you a "loaner" flying mount in Storm Peaks so that you could fly there too.

Well then I stand corrected on the meeting stones, but I still stand by the point. I have little invested in the argument to care about sides, I was merely playing devil's advocate as there are examples where ground mounts aren't applicable, which is still very much true and the point of my statements.

If people feel that flying mounts take away from the creativity of WoW, or vice versa, and desire to argue over that, that is their prerogative.

I completely forgot about Storm Peaks though.. A little off topic saying this, but forced flying or not, that was a pretty cool zone, what with all those areas shoved into the sides of mountains and everything.

[Deleted]

Love how most people in this thread are bashing OP.. Yes, blizzard is loosing creativity more than the US is losing their war on debt. MoP is candyland, plain and simple. Legendary items are acquirable by people doing LFR and raiding once a week? I am all for "helping the casual player" but.. when it comes to giving them gear left right and center, and making hardcore raiders and casuals more similar, I can't stand.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love ToT, but I feel as though every expansion Blizz is making it easier for casual players to get a higher reward for doing less work. It takes the fun out of having downed a heroic boss and getting that EPIC 535 gear.. when casual LFR players are literally 5-10ilvls lower than you.

MoP currently makes it harder for casuals than Cataclysm did. Not sure how that is making it EASIER, surely its making it harder again.

[wheelock789]

Love how most people in this thread are bashing OP.. Yes, blizzard is loosing creativity more than the US is losing their war on debt. MoP is candyland, plain and simple. Legendary items are acquirable by people doing LFR and raiding once a week? I am all for "helping the casual player" but.. when it comes to giving them gear left right and center, and making hardcore raiders and casuals more similar, I can't stand.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love ToT, but I feel as though every expansion Blizz is making it easier for casual players to get a higher reward for doing less work. It takes the fun out of having downed a heroic boss and getting that EPIC 535 gear.. when casual LFR players are literally 5-10ilvls lower than you.

This is normally the sort of elitist nonsense I would ignore, but your usage of "literally" irked me. LFR ToT is 502. Heroic ToT is 535 (or 541 if Thunderforged). That's a difference of 33 (or 39) ilevels, not "5-10." Even if you throw in the Shado-Pan Assault VP gear, that's 522, which is 13 (or 19) ilevels. Still not 5-10. So stop using the word "literally" until you understand what it means. (Grammar Nazi moment over)

I still don't see how people being able to get gear that's a weak approximation of herioc gear for less effort should impact a heroic raider at all. What difference does it make if Blizzard adds a kiddy pool? If you had complained about it making recruitment harder or the stacking buff/debuff system they used in ICC/DS then I could muster up at least a little sympathy. But if the only reason you raid is to feel superior to people that don't, you're doing it wrong.

[mvaliz]

Gear is no longer a badge of honor as everyone can now obtain Tier Sets that look virtually identical other than a recolour for every tier. Where is the carrot on the stick for people?

...and there's your problem.

Gear was NEVER a badge of honor save for within your own individual brain. Most of us have moved on from that mentality and now say "Cool! I got this new sword/dagger/axe!!! It looks COOL and does lots of Damage!" and don't care about having a "badge of honor" to parade in front of others as it's ultimately about US having fun, our fun doesn't depend on weither people see our shiny trophies or not.

[Conscious]

The gear is the carrot. Just more people are able to get their carrot now.

Hence accelerating attrition.

The same tried anti-flying mount argument. They aren't going away, get over it. You can't use them 85 through 89 anyway, so you have what you want without even acknowledging it.

I agree here.

Warlock tome quest would like a word.

Warlock's have only gotten this 'unique' treatment, as well as a revamp, due to being vastly underplayed.

Tinfoil hat complaint: check.

There's nothing tinfoil about that, he's just stating his opinion and you're invalidating your own argument. Funny.

[Seranthor]

Love how most people in this thread are bashing OP.. Yes, blizzard is loosing creativity more than the US is losing their war on debt. MoP is candyland, plain and simple. Legendary items are acquirable by people doing LFR and raiding once a week? I am all for "helping the casual player" but.. when it comes to giving them gear left right and center, and making hardcore raiders and casuals more similar, I can't stand.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love ToT, but I feel as though every expansion Blizz is making it easier for casual players to get a higher reward for doing less work. It takes the fun out of having downed a heroic boss and getting that EPIC 535 gear.. when casual LFR players are literally 5-10ilvls lower than you.

LFR drops 502, which makes your 'literally 5-10 ilevels lower' inaccurate... did you mean to be inaccurate, or was it an intentional exaggeration to try and make some kind of point?

[Deleted]

The creativity is there, I think what you are looking for is evolution, that's a big difference.

[MrWolly]

People like Vanilla so much that they don't want to try adding a scoop of sprinkles or an addition of a new flavor. You people are so...boring. I see it everywhere. It's like the people who enjoy the first movie of a trilogy and hate the rest, it's like the people who loved the old Pokemon games and despise the new ones, it's like refusing to change a light bulb whilst talking about how good the old one was. The past is over, and it isn't coming back, deal with it.