Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Coming Soon to an Alternate Reality Near You...

Perhaps I am just mistaken and I overlooked something but when they announced warlords I do not recall them mentioning anything about scenarios.  They mentioned the new raids.  They mentioned the new dungeons.  They mentioned which dungeon was being remade for current content.  I do not recall them mentioning scenarios.

Does that mean they were a one expansion test or was it just an oversight?  I am going to lean toward the side of it being an oversight or the fact they did not expand much on it and only mentioned it in passing and I completely missed it.

Scenarios have become a nice addition to the game, even more so heroic scenarios where you need to hand assemble a group bringing back a little taste of the old school community feel where you actually needed to talk to people instead of just hitting a button and you are in an instant group.

Heroic scenarios also gave them the opportunity to do some things they can't really do with a random group setting.  One of those things is to make things a slight bit more difficult, something that might need communication which does not work well in a random setting (see LFR for the failures of that) and another was story telling and the ability to do so.

Story telling?  Yes.  In a random setting people just rush through content because it is a group of people just wanting to get their valor, gear, justice, whatever, as quickly as possible, and there is nothing wrong with that.  Heroic scenarios, and the fact they were being hand assembled, would allow people to enjoy the story a little bit more, if they so wished to do so.

I believe that scenarios can be a great tool in the game not just because heroic ones are the fastest most effective way to valor cap but because they allow the game to tell a story for those that wish to see it while still being content people can just blow through if that is what they want to do as well.

I am hoping that next expansion scenarios comes to us with more scenarios for the new (old) alternate reality.  I am hoping for that not only because I do like them as an addition to the game but because I would love to see what they could do, to explore that alternate reality with them.

I doubt it would happen because we are not going to see alternate azeroth, but scenarios would be a great way to give us a taste of what our world would be like in that alternate world where the orcs never made it to azeroth without actually adding out world to the expansion at all.

Having a scenario were we are the tauren protecting ourselves against all odds from the centaur without the assistance of the orcs, because the orcs never came to azeroth.  Having a scenario where we are the vrykul defending ourselves against the corruption from yogg saron because we never went to northrend to find and defeat the old god because there was never a lich king for us to go there and defeat without the orcs coming through the dark portal.

There are a million and one interesting ideas that they could do, add, with heroic scenarios that could be fun and make for a great collection of little what if stories such as allowing us to play as a vrykul or other races they have not added to the game.  It would feed two thirsts, perhaps more, by letting those what if stories be told and having a little fun with them, and putting us in places or races that we might not ever have had a chance to be before.

There are a lot of things that could be touched on to tell a story, just for fun, of "what if".  What story would you like to see coming in the form of a scenario coming soon to an alternate reality near you?

15 comments:

  1. They said there will be scenarios, absolutely. Maybe even during leveling. They also said heroic scenarios were a success from their point of view (I have no problems with that, heroic scenarios are still some content even though not a lot of it, plus they are a great way to cap valor even now, although that might be unintended or only tolerated because you more or less don't need valor now).

    On a side topic, here's a video of a hunter doing 78 waves in Proving Grounds:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwDhXdDCRhk&feature=youtu.be

    I never thought it could go as high as 78 (and, although high, that's not the absolute top result, as it appears). Really tempted to try and work on these waves now, although my main isn't a hunter.

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    1. I must have missed them saying that. There was so much being said it is quite possible. I do not recall seeing any details at least, so they probably said it in passing. I do like them and as you said the heroic ones are awesome. Yesterday when I logged on I took my lock who is on the collect 3000 part now and just capped him in 40 minutes thanks to them.

      I got my gold, never tried endless. I did not find it interesting enough to give it a shot.

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  2. I don't like the time-travel/alternate reality aspect of the next expansion, so I don't want them to emphasize it any further than absolutely necessary. Based on their comments, I don't think they will either. Therefore, I don't expect any alternate Azeroth scenarios or anything like that.

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    1. They already said they will not. I am just asking for "fun" what part of azeroth would you like to see if the orcs never came here.

      I hope they keep it out as well because it would confuse too many people. But it is fun to think about "what if" every so often. I dig that stuff.

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  3. I'm very confident scenarios will exist in WoD, not sure whether they said something during the presentation or during a Q&A or what but I'm confident enough that they must have said something at some point. Not sure about heroic scenarios being used for story telling, though, since week one those were basically just GOGOGO timerfests. Normal scenarios, though, maybe.

    @ PVP anon - far as I know the waves just increase health and damage by 1% each so there isn't really any reason for any cap to exist... they just keep throwing out slightly more difficulty each wave until you lose.

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    1. Yeah, I know. I just thought you'd be toast way before 78. My personal record - albeit not on a hunter - was 32, so... :-) Now I am going to try and improve that.

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    2. I recall them saying they were a success and such but do not remember saying they would continue them. They said lots of things where great and then abandoned them. I don't think they will with this however.

      @R and PvP Anon

      There is a healer vid out there with some serious levels. I forgot how high they went, but it was in the 100s. Amazing.

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    3. I got gold for all 3 PGs, I've retired. I don't really need to know that I'm only a 5th wave endless player rather than a 30th wave one. :)

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    4. Never even tried the tank one. Well, that is a lie, did it on my hunter however. Not one of my tanks.

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  4. Heroic scenarious will exist; however, I would not be surprised if the valor reward is nerfed. I would expect dungeons to once again reward higher valor than even heroic scenarios. I believe such ridiculously high valor awards were provided for heroic scenarios in Pandaria to entice people to use them. I cannot imagine that heroic scenarios will continue to provide greater rewards than the much longer heroic dungeons. I believe there will be a rebalance. Blizzard will not want the higher resource cost dungeon to go unused while the lower cost scenario is heavily utilized in the next expansion, doesn't make economic sense.

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    1. NNNOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

      I know the valor needs to be adjusted, it is just too much but that is why I liked them. If the valor was the same as normal ones, 50 with no bonus, I would never bother doing them, just the same way I never bother doing normal ones. The reward is not worth it.

      What made the heroic scenarios a huge success is the fact people could cap quickly with them. If they do not keep that in tact, they will lose their popularity. I hope blizzard realizes that. The only reason they were the huge success they say they are is because they offered a fair amount of valor and were the only thing this expansion that did.

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    2. I think you spoke to the problem right there... if the only reason people are running them is for a quick cap then they need to go back to the drawing board. :)

      I'd put heroic scenarios on par with heroic dungeons, at least at this point the time investment is similar so 40/80 makes sense and leave the bonus in for hitting the timer. I'd also give a bonus for 5-man runs that are premade, give them an equivalent bonus to the heroic scenario timer for the hassle of putting a group together in advance.

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    3. Depends on how you look at it.

      Would you rather have something people like to do because it is effective in getting a grind like part of the game out of the way or would you rather have people complaining that they feel like the game is a job trying to cap out?

      I think it would be better for the game to have that "easy" out, even more so that valor really is useless now. You will rarely get enough upgrade to outpace your valor gain except when you first start the gearing process.

      Unless they make valor more useful there is really not need to "restrict" it. That was done to slow gearing down, now it isn't used for that to keeping people from getting it makes no sense.

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    4. Perhaps we are all making the presumption that valor will even exist in WoD?

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    5. Valor, or something like it, will exist because they said that item upgrades would be in WoD. So something needs to be used to power that, might as well be valor as that is what it is currently being used for.

      But you are right, we are just making the presumption that they will still be in game.

      I honestly believe they have to, or something has to, otherwise dungeons and scenarios will never see any action.

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