World Of Warcraft: Trials of Atlantis
As I see more and more information about Cataclysm, I start to worry. They are changing the game, and in some places in a radical way. Sure I heard some real good things, but Beta, and Real Life are two different creatures.
I remember another expension for another game I loved, it was Dark Ages of Camelot. The expansion was Trials of Atlantis. It changed things so radically it made the game almost unbearable. It forever changed the Landscape of the Game and was one of the reasons I left the game to go to World of Warcraft.
Things that has me worried….
1. The Destruction of Community – There is hardly anymore Horde vs Alliance. No more guild pride, people change guilds on a mere whim sometimes, and it’s only going to be worse. With LFD Tool, and now Guild Achievements there are going to be an increase in guild jumpers, and those little tight knit guilds will be a thing of the past.
2. The Bring the Player, Not the Class Attitude – If everyone and their brother has the same abilities, your class won’t be needed. For instance as a mage if I don’t bring anything special to the table besides dps, why would you choose me over a warlock, or hunter. Back in the day certain things we’re needed for certain buffs, and jobs…that seems to be changing.
3. It’s about the numbers, not the player anymore – The only ones that cared about how good your gear was back in the day we’re hardcore raiders. Now every little Pug, or run is looking at your gearscore. Sure it’s not Blizz’s fault entirely, but to allow such tools to go unhampered is their fault. It’s Blizzards job to guide the Playerbase, not the other way around, and that’s why Blizzard will fail.
4. The Fundamentals – When you change your game in such away that makes the game unbearably tedious, or difficult to play like it once was is just inviting disaster. I think Blizzard may be biting off more then they can chew here, and will end up blowing things up. Like what was wrong with the Pally Mechanic’s, did they need a complete overhaul?
Well only time will tell, and I hope I am wrong….but something doesn’t sit right with me here….I’ll just get my TOA tissue box that I used to cry myself to sleep back in the day of DAoC.
A High Latency Life 
September 22, 2010 at 10:14 pm
I agree with your nr 1, but only when it comes to server community. If Catalcysm will introduce a “looking for instance” (10-25man) across servers, I’ll also be very unhappy.
I do however think the guild changes are gonna reduce guild hopping, since fx you have to gain reputation within a guild to get the fancy stuff. How come you think it will go the other way?
September 22, 2010 at 10:22 pm
I feel the guild hopping will be from smaller guilds to bigger guilds, eventually crushing the smaller guilds out of exsistence. Eventually it will all filter to bigger guilds with several “inside” cliques, but that will take a while.
September 23, 2010 at 6:57 pm
While i could see this happen, i dont think the guild benefit are big enough.
Even a small guild will get there eventually, it will just take more time.
September 22, 2010 at 10:15 pm
Newsflash: The game has been tedious. How much of your time do you spend grinding for Rep/Gold/Gear/Crafting/Points? When you essentially have no natural endpoint, it’s practically inevitable for that to happen. At a point in DAOC, it wasn’t nearly as bad. The best gear was made by other players and it could be replicated fairly easy. So, more time could be spent raiding keeps, relics, or just plain roaming back and forth between those two gateways in Hibernia’s rvr area. WoW, has always been a carrot chase.
September 22, 2010 at 10:33 pm
Good point, but WoW has it’s moments….Remember the Eagle Boss. LOL!
September 22, 2010 at 10:39 pm
Yeah, that was a good time. You should do a blog entry on that one.
September 22, 2010 at 11:42 pm
thought I did have one at one time, what the hell another one can’t hurt. 😉
September 22, 2010 at 10:37 pm
Here are my responses to your qualms:
1. With the death of separate gear in raids, more 10 man guilds will form. The guild perks are not unatainable with smaller guilds, it will just take longer. You wont _have_ to be in a large guild anymore. I think this will create a lot more smaller guilds.
2. BTPNTC is wonderful. Why should they bring you the mage instead of the warlock or hunter? Because you are a good raider and/or bring the deeps. This actually helps to bring in other people because you DON’T HAVE TO bring specific classes anymore. If I have a need for bloodlust and I have 3 classes that can bring it (shaman, mage & BM hunter) I will bring the better raider vs the old style I would HAVE to bring the shaman.
I think you are confused on this one.
3. The easiest answer to this is don’t PuG. With the single raid size lock out, you wont need to run both 10 & 25 man raids. You will only have one raid lock out. This means you can run 10 mans with your guild and not worry about having to PuG that 25 man raid. I don’t really see this as continuing to be a major problem as long as you are in a guild.
Now if your guild does this to you, then why are you in this guild?
4. You need to clarify this part for me. You don’t list any specifics so I am not exactly sure what you are referring to.
Those are just my 2 cents, but it just feels like to me that you are getting scared for no reason.
Just remember you don’t _have_ to play WoW 🙂
September 23, 2010 at 7:10 pm
“2. BTPNTC is wonderful. Why should they bring you the mage instead of the warlock or hunter? Because you are a good raider and/or bring the deeps. This actually helps to bring in other people because you DON’T HAVE TO bring specific classes anymore. If I have a need for bloodlust and I have 3 classes that can bring it (shaman, mage & BM hunter) I will bring the better raider vs the old style I would HAVE to bring the shaman.”
I agree about the principle of BTPNTC. Problem is, for it to work, you have to make ABSOLUTELY SURE that all class are capable of similar dps number. Sure, giving bloodlust/heroism to mage and hunter is nice because now you dont have to bring a shammy just for the buff. But lets say you have a good shammy raider and a good mage raider, both bring the same needed buff, but the mage class dps ceiling is higher than the shammy. Who do you bring?
September 24, 2010 at 11:57 am
I completely agree.
When they give out all vital buffs to other classes and lower the hyrbid dps, there’s no reason to bring one at all.
The only viable hybrid then is a tank or healer with a dps offspec.
I play hybrids, and I’m a bit worried about how well they will cope as dps in the expansion.