General Discussion

In Joe Iuliani's World of Warcraft column this week, he discusses the feeling of futility that he is feeling in waiting for the new WoW expansion, and offers some suggestions to players of things to do in the meantime.

There is no doubt that WoW will always be looked at as one of the defining MMOs to ever hit the gaming world. Love it or hate it, there is no denying its impact on both computer games, and main stream culture. As great as a game WoW has been, I can’t help but think “Now what?”

With the announcement of Wrath of Lich King expansion the game feels like it has come to a bit of a stand still. In my opinion the announcement came far too soon. I understand it was Blizzcon, and Blizzard wanted to make a splash, but I do think it was a bit unfair to the players.

Expansion announcements always have a way of slowing the drive of many game players. It’s hard to motivate yourself to work toward items that will be rendered obsolete by future quest items and random drops. This was made evident when the Burning Crusade expansion was announced. Game advancement came to a halt. Remember Naxx? Count yourself lucky if you do. How many folks even stepped foot there, let alone progressed through it. Both The Black Temple and Hyjal Summit face the same danger as Naxxamaras, two great well thought out and designed instances that most players will never see.

Read the whole thing here.

I just rolled a new toon, a class I haven't really explored too much (hunter), and a Dranei because I've never played through their opening two zones... and I'm really enjoying myself.

Coming back to the 'core' experience of the game is really quite fun. I have no interest in raiding or grinding rep/money, so I haven't touched my level 70 epix t4/5 toon, probably won't until Wrath of the Lich King comes out...

From what I've seen, just doing a /who every now and again with different level ranges, that a LOT of people are doing the same. Leaving raiding/grinding behind and messing around on alts.

I 'd bet that's why Blizzard sped up the 20-60 leveling speed, so new players could get to the Burning Crusade and then Lich King content faster, and to give the already maxed out players motivation to play alts instead of cancelling their subs until WoTLK comes out...

but it is very sad that so many don't get to experience the high end raid content.

I truly hoped Burning Crusade would soften the curve so that more people would be able to raid, and they did to some extent with the reduction in raid size from 40 to 25.... 20 to 10... etc.

I truly hope again that Wrath of the Lich King softens the curve even further, not in further party size reduction, in fact I don't know how they should do it... 

maybe use the Heroic dungeon system and apply it to raiding? Tier 7,8,9 from normal difficulty and then repeat the same raids again for tier 10,11,12 on Heroic difficulty. That way, the "best" would still be the best, but more people would be able to experience the content?  

I'm at that stage where I'm asking, What now? I think all mmo's get to that " What now" stage around the 3rd year anniversary and most of us move on to something new.  The only game that I played for more than 3 years was UO and we all know why people played it so long because of the FREEDOM aspect of the game and the skill system "Early UO". I'd reccomend WoW to anyone that hasn't tried it but til lthey add open real world pvp on the pvp servers and remove the bg's from them then the veteran pvp'er will be bored and when I say pvp I mean pvp with a purpose instead of the direction woW is going ..Pimp yo character. I really hope Warhammer brings back world pvp because I liked DAOC but it needed work also and I could never understand why they never had a server that you could invade each realm and take over cities,

Personally i'm playing alts. It is indeed a breath of fresh air to play another class that i've never played before. I think that 2008 will be the year that WOW will face some real challenges in the MMO market place. This time next year people will either still be playing WOW or playing one of the 'next generation' MMO's. With that said, many players like myself are filling the void before the next-gen MMO's are released by continuing to play WOW.

Careful Joe, you don't want to start down this road.  Once you do, you'll realize as I did once I found out the contents of TBC that with games designed like WOW, there will always be yet another expansion that will make all of your previous efforts worthless. 

You have to play them to enjoy the content,and not attach any real value to your gear or accomplishments, as truth be told, you really don't accomplish much of anything in WOW except to get your certificate of completion.

Its not just a WOW phenomenon, all games that don't let the players impact the world in a significant way suffer from this basic design flaw.  Its in their nature.

You need to just play the game as it stand prior to the next expansion and enjoy it for what you can complete....then when WLK comes out, you start over and do it again.

Or you do what I do and find a different game with an endgame that is centered on real player accomplishment and will actually let you individually dominate the world (in theory)

I think the poster above me made a really good statement. But, I must say I find it strange from one claiming to be WoW free hehe..

I happen to be a casual player of WoW.. I've been in the game since before it went live and I actually thought I was leaving it when LotRo came out, so much so I bought a fully paid sub from them, aww well.. After playing to 50 I went back to WoW. I must say keeping it casual it has continued to stay fun for me.. I have been in a Hard Core Raiding guild but I found that work not fun and left.. True I don't have the best armor weapons and mounts but I do have FUN!! I also have the time to do other things and follow other interests and that keeps WoW fresh and fun everytime I log in..

Acceptance to the fact the upgrades to the game, kill your former hard work, will truly save your life.. Listening to my daughter rant over this same thing makes me LOL.. Just grow up find the world of Maturity and Accept the fact that EVERYTHING changes even WoW and the old passes away.. Oh!, and stay in the here and now, today is a new day so is your equipment.

Well I saw a bit of a flaw in your reasoning, even casual guilds such as mine are beating their way into SSC and TK with a relatively smooth pace. WOTLK won't be till at least Christmas next year. so I presume there will be many people who reach the higher levels of content.

As you mentioned Naxx didn't get much attention pre-TBC and Blizzard realized that as well; which is why Naxx is being rereleased as an introductory 25 man raid, sort of like today's Karazhan with only minor retuning of the encounters for 25 man participation rather than 40 man.

The only instance I feel will be at risk to the pre-expansion lethargy will be Sunwell plateau the next planned raid release slated for future development.

I personally still render much enjoyment from the current instances even though I know that my gear will be obsolete next expansion because gear is often not the real reason to be raiding. When I think back to BWL and MC I don't remember the loot I got I remember when a priest accidentally smite pulled Vael during the fight prep. Or when a mage blinked into Hakkar before our first downing. I remember the fun I had with my guild mates not the gear. And it's the enjoyment that stays with you.

So as a final note I suggest to anyone who wishes to play this game and make this phase of the game memorable and enjoyable: Find a guild that will stay together and has friendly people. My guild is what has kept me playing these last 2 years- not the expansion, or the gear.

Originally posted by Kyleran

Careful Joe, you don't want to start down this road.  Once you do, you'll realize as I did once I found out the contents of TBC that with games designed like WOW, there will always be yet another expansion that will make all of your previous efforts worthless. 

You have to play them to enjoy the content,and not attach any real value to your gear or accomplishments, as truth be told, you really don't accomplish much of anything in WOW except to get your certificate of completion.

Its not just a WOW phenomenon, all games that don't let the players impact the world in a significant way suffer from this basic design flaw.  Its in their nature.

You need to just play the game as it stand prior to the next expansion and enjoy it for what you can complete....then when WLK comes out, you start over and do it again.

Or you do what I do and find a different game with an endgame that is centered on real player accomplishment and will actually let you individually dominate the world (in theory)

 

Oh really? And what game might that be that lets you individually dominate the world?? Oh wait... ( in theory) LOL...