«

»

A Rebuttal to My Last Post and My Response [Mists of Pandaria]

Maxivik left a great comment on my last post and I wrote a response I thought I’d share here. I think it better explains why I was probably the most cynical about WoW I’ve ever been. The rebuttal!

Maxivik Said:

I am pretty stoked about this XPac. Removing the big bad villain at the end frees me up to enjoy other aspects of the game like dungeon challenges, horde v alliance, pokemon etc. It removes one of the big “grind” like aspects of end game. At the same time, there will still be raids to do. I like the apparent lack of focus this seems to be bringing to the game.

As far as talents go, I welcome any change from the cookie cutter builds that we have now. Today I got to decide between a total of two talents when I respecced my resto as we hit hard-mode rag (last hard boss available with current path). What I am hoping to see is more utility vs regen vs throughput etc decisions for healing talents.

I can’t wait to roll a Pandarian Brewmaster, I think it’ll be hilarious. As far as I’m concerned they fit better with lore then the squid face (Draeni, who were the cause of countless “hard core blizzard people” to “quit” wow in BC… ).

My response:

I should probably clarify a little where I’m coming from with this attitude; it’s probably the harshest reaction I’ve published here and that’s for good reason: I like the game. I do. It’s given me more hours of enjoyable game-time than probably all of my single player games combined. As far as I’m concerned, the core of WoW is still solid and appealing to many, many players. I might even come back with the next patch to see the Raid Finder in action.

My animosity really stems from how cocky they were just one year ago. I recall someone asking when a wardrobe system would be added to the game and one of their head guy says, “What I want to know is who wants to play dress-up online,” or something like that. They didn’t even pretend to consider player’s ideas during the QA. I mean, come on guys, we can see your heads from outer space. That’s how it seemed to me, anyway.

Today we see a WoW that’s still king of the hill but maybe not by so much. A lot of what was new and appealing when Cataclysm launched now looks outdated compared to new and upcoming MMOs. Then Blizzcon comes around and we’re seeing a full expansion based on “a joke race” that would “never be added to the game.” I also have a general vibe that this expansion does more to bring the game up to par with the rest of the genre than really offer much new, pet system excluded. The MMO landscape faces major change as this year ends and 2012 begins and if ever there was a time to draw people in and hold them, this would be it. Does Mists of Pandaria do that?

All of that said, I don’t doubt the expansion will be good, silly race aside. If you don’t take it too seriously, there’s some neat stuff coming and giving players more to do at level cap is good. Challenge mode dungeons, I’m sure, will be fun in the same way dungeons have always been fun. If you don’t care much about the wider outlook, this expansion announcement is probably great. I can’t help but to look at things from the wider view, so I see the “we’re still cool, we’re hip, we’re with it” type undertone.

But maybe they just don’t give a damn and are throwing some of their old sticking points to the wind. If the final product turns out to be a blast then I’ll have totally misread the thing and will probably re-sub to see what I’ve been missing.

To be clear about one thing, though, and not just for you, Max: If you’re playing the game and are enjoying it, that’s great. It’s a good game as my /played will easily show.

2 pings

  1. Blizzcon 2011 Blogosphere Reactions: General — MMO Melting Pot

    […] to show that everyone hates pandas , and also explains why he just quit WoWChris at Game By Night defends his harsh reaction to MoPThe Ancient Gaming Noob’s daughter also loves pet battlesPoint-by-pointThe Grumpy Elf stays true […]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

CommentLuv badge