Monday, March 19, 2012

10 Reasons I am Not Excited About Mists

Please read the sister article as well - 10 Reasons I am Excited About Mists.

10) No Release Date
- Screw beta date, I wanted a release date.  If they said it was coming out tomorrow I would be excited.  If they said it was coming out in two months I would have been excited.  Heck, if they said it was coming out before the years end I could have been excited.  Tell me all the BS info you want, if you are not going to tell me when it is coming you basically just wasted my time and yours.  I need something to look forward to, not just filler info that means nothing.  Evey thing they said would have meant more if there was a date attached to it.

9) Pokeman
- Okay, I will be honest, I can see me playing the pet battles.  I can see me collecting the wild pets because it is no different then killing tons of whelps for a pet drop and I do that.  The difference is, now I do it for something to do to pass the time when I am bored.  If it is a competitive part of the game it moves from a pass time to something I feel I have to do.  I want side games to be side games, not feel as if they are a different type of competition.

8) Farmville
- I can see me doing the farmville thing too, even more so if I can get free herbs from it.  So why is it something I do not like?  It is something else I will feel I have to do.  I don't want added filler I have to do, I want content I have to do.  I would rather have to clear a new raid every month than have to farm for herbs on my own personal farm which I am afraid I will feel compelled to do.

7) History
- Blizzards track record is not exactly good.  Every time something sounds good you can be sure blizzard will surely find a way to screw it up completely and if they don't their player base will surely screw it up.  It doesn't make a difference what it is.  It will always end up screwed up.  Everywhere you look there is another thing that they screwed up on even if in theory it sounded good.  Take the LFR for example.  In theory the loot rules where fine right out of the box but the players, being the jerks most are, screwed it up so blizzard tried to fix it and in some cases made it worse.  Their history for mistakes is well documented.

6) Reusing Content
- Are the two new remade dungeons a peek into the future?  Do they mean that we will have another horrible patch that will be another remake of two dungeons we will be forced to do over and over again?  They should not have remade the dungeons to begin with but it could very well start a pattern that they will continue to think that remaking content means new content.  It doesn't.  Tweaking numbers to work for a higher levels is a cheap way to add new content and I do not like the pattern I see with it.

5) Greg Street (or Tom Chilton as someone pointed out to me)
- Why is this man still employed?  If I put someone in charge of my business and saw myself lose as many customers as have been lost under his watch he would not be employed any more.  At the very least he would not be in the position he is in any more.  His job is to make the decisions based on what others bring to him.  It seems like he just accepts anything anyone throws at him and doesn't think anything out.  I am sure we don't know all of it, not even a part of it, but I still revert to what I originally said, if someone was in charge of my company and I saw a drop like WoW has had there would be some changes and fast and they would start at the top which means him.

4) Glyphs
- They are taking away choices with the changes to the talent system and now they are taking away choices with glyphs as well by ditching the primes.  I do love all the "fun" glyphs they are adding.  My druid would surely use the glyph that makes my bear look different all the time and my healer be a tree all the time and my swimming form be an orca and... oh wait.  I only have three spots.  They are taking away choices by removing prime glyphs and then adding so many minors that would all be good with so few spaces.  There is some choice for you but that is adding choice in the wrong place.  Fun should never be a choice.  We should get lots of fun.  They finally found a true way to add choice.  Too bad they put it in the worst place to make people choose.  Let me choose things that matter, let me have all the options for fun because fun doesn't make a difference.  A change like this shows how disconnected from the player base the people that make the decisions really are.  The choices they give people should impact game play, not fun.

3) Challenge Modes
- I've said it before and I will say it again.  Everyone thinks they are good.  The priest doing 2700 HPS in LFR thinks he is good.  The ret paladin doing 900 DPS in LFR thinks he is good.  The hunter that just uses auto shot thinks he is good.  The rogue that doesn't use poisons thinks he is good.  You get the idea.  These "good" players will also be in your challenge mode dungeons.  Remember the start of cataclysm with allowing these good types of player at item level in dungeons was like.  If they want challenge modes to work there needs to be various checks before they can get it and I hope they add them.  Personal checks, team checks, etc.  People would need to work their way up a ladder before they are allowed to even enter them otherwise they will be a bigger nightmare than the zuls where when they first came out.

2) Have Group
- Not sure if I read that one right but it seems they hinted they are removing have group will travel.  I do not often say words like this in my blog but this one deserves it.  Fuck you blizzard.  Once again, proof they are out of touch with their player base.  At least they will still have summoning stones so it is not a huge deal for raids or dungeons but still, there is no need to remove it.  There are many places it is useful, for many things.  Personally I loved it for world PvP purposes more then anything else.  What?  They are removing it because they want people to get out in the world more when I used to it... get out in the world more and bring people into PvP instantly. They are removing it because I got out in the world with it more?  Okay, I'll go with blizzards logic that it is more important to make two people go to the raid to summon everyone instead of one because it will get more people out in the world.  Yes blizzard, one more person, it gets one more person out in the world to summon people but it removes all the spontaneous PvP my guild has had by inviting tons of people and have grouping them into battle.  Nice thinking blizzard.  I'll bet this was Greg Streets idea, it reeks of something he would red light.

1) Hype
- I was excited about path of the titans, it never came.  I was excited about archaeology, but it was better in theory than in practice.  I was excited about the more difficult dungeons, until I ran into random people in them.  I was excited about faster patches, until they never came.  I was excited about more content, when we got less.  I have a horrible track record being excited about things when it comes to blizzard and it is much safer to not be excited about things because if you are not excited you can't be let down, like I was excited about cataclysm and completely let down by it.

There you go, my top 10 reasons not to be excited.

10 comments:

  1. Challenge Modes - I never once assumed that these would be puggable, so I always assumed the "check" was a common sense check, much like running Rated BGs. You could do it with a ragtag group of people unprepared, sure - and you'd get stomped. I don't see think there needs to be a protective restriction here to protect players from their own ineptitude. If you end up with the 900 DPS Rogue in a Challenge (assuming they're not puggable/LFG-able) then you have no one to blame but yourself for willingly grouping with that person without checking them out, in my eyes.

    Have Group - I'm torn on this. I absolutely think they should not allow this - ON PANDARIA. I think people SHOULD have to venture forth into the new lands and make their way around instead of just skipping everything and getting summoned everywhere. However, I see no reason to remove it from Azeroth / older content, where it is a WONDERFUL luxury. Hopefully they come up with a compromise like this. Or, allowing it for summoning within a raid, so the "get the entire raid in" utility is still there, while not allowing the "skip 90% of pandaria and just be shuttled around" side.

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    1. While I have no facts that can back it up I do believe that the challenge modes will have a LFG version. They have not said they wouldn't or would, so it is only guess work now. If they don't make it LFG people will cry until blizzard ads one.

      I agree however, like everything else in game, if you want it done right, make your on group.

      Have groups removal for their reasons is lacking. So more people get out in the world? So it is really important to have 2 people to summon instead of 1? I don't get it.

      Blizzard needs to realize that if people are not getting out in the world it is because of nothing to do in the world, not because of have group.

      Heck, they are adding something to archaeology that teleports you from dig site to dig site meaning you are out in the world less flying to each location.

      They can't say they are removing one thing because they want people out in the world and in the same breath say they are making someone else so people do not have to spend so much time out in the world.

      Their logic fails.

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    2. There is an interview on Wowhead i believe where they basically say they will not be an LFR as they look at this as one of the things guilds will do together like Regular mode Dungeons etc, But i would not put it past them to make it LFR

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    3. Yes please, remove reason number 3 from your list
      http://www.wowheadnews.com/blog=201766/interviews-with-greg-street-cory-stockton-tom-chilton-and-j-allen-brack

      "... Certainly with challenge modes, we don't plan for you to queue up. We feel that if you queued for a challenge mode in Dungeon Finder, that would cause a lot of problems."

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  2. Aren't challenge mode dungeons a solo thing? I didn't get the impression that it was a group effort. I could be wrong though.

    And could you pls explain a bit more what a Scenario is? The glut of information since late last night has my head scrambling! :)

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    1. Challenge modes are doing heroics with standardized gear.

      For example, if it existed now you could do a Grim Bartol in challenge mode with everyone in 329 gear exactly, no matter what they are wearing.

      It is for the challenge of doing the dungeon in the lowest possible gear allowed.

      Scenarios are group quests but in an instance. So it could be done by three DPS if they wanted.

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  3. You're confusing Ghostcrawler with Kalgan.

    Greg Street is the lead systems designer, he handles things like class balance, and the way mechanics interact with player characters. The two things that you listed as being among your favorite things about Cataclysm, reforging and talent specializations, are the result of GC's work.

    Tom Chilton is the game director, he's responsible for the overall vision of how the game progresses. He was the one who greenlighted the leveling overhaul, the poor quest flow, the deluge of single digit boss tiers. Cataclysm was his baby, and it was his first full expansion since he took over from Jeff Kaplan after the release of patch 3.1. Everything anyone ever disliked about Cataclysm passed across his desk for approval.

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    1. Then I stand corrected... Chilton should be fired or demoted then.

      I've complained about GC a million times and no one ever mentioned that. How is an elf to learn if no one points it out. ;)

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    2. The devs have hierarchies and responsibilities. Chilton is responsible for WoW, the whole thing, he's in charge.

      Greg Street is the lead systems designer. He does the bones of the game, numbers wise. He's the go to for class balance and PvP concerns.

      Scott Mercer is the Lead Encounter Designer. If it's in a dungeon or raid, t's his job. He's the go to guy for encounter design, to the point where some of the prominent raiding guilds have a direct line to him in the event of discovering bugs in encounters.

      Chris Metzen runs the lore, but Dave Kosak, the lead quest designer, is responsible for the implementation of said lore into non dungeon aspects of the game. If you think the story sucks, blame Metzen, if you think the questing was stupid, blame Kosak.

      There are other devs, but those are the big guys.

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    3. I think the reason myself and many others get the feeling that GC is the main guy is because he is the face they put on things. Not to mention his title does sound as if he is the last stop on the take the blame express.

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