Wednesday, February 11, 2015

I Must Be Getting Old

Looking at the "content" being added when patch 6.1 comes out I am left wondering, where is the content, if there is any at all.  Heirloom tab should have been part of release.  Blood elf models should have been part of release.  "Increased" garrisons stuff and profession stuff should have been part of release. 

The darkmoon faire additions I can see as new content for 6.1 and I do see it as such , but that is something you will do until you get the achievement for them and it is in an area that is only around one week a month to begin with.  So it is not lasting content and it is not content that will always be there.

The raiding with leashes, adding more pets we can collect to older raids is more content, but like most other things of this nature, for many, it will be a one time thing and for others they might use it as a source of income.  A nice addition but not really robust content.

There are a lot of nice little additions coming with 6.1 like these, but nothing ground breaking, nothing that I personally would call content.  No new raids, no new dungeons, no new scenarios, nothing with any meat to it.  There is a rumored quest hub but I am not so sure of that.  There is not even a continuation of the garrison campaign which is a sad turn of events.

Basically what we are getting with 6.1 is not a patch, it is the final release of 6.0 as it should have been with some small added goodies.  6.1's release signals the end of the warlords of draenor beta basically.

When talking about this to a friend in guild he told me, but I forgot about the twitter integration and the selfies.  The thing is, I did not forget about them, and that is why I say I must be getting old.

To me those are probably the two most worthless features ever added to warcraft, while for many others it is the biggest addition to the game in a long time.  Being I just do not see the fascination with twitter and / or posting selfies I can only assume that I am getting way too old for this game.

I do not blame blizzard for adding this stuff.  I think it is fantastic for business.  Beyond fantastic even.  Spreading word on social media is better than airing commercials on TV.  Having people tweet from in game will be the biggest boost to the exposure of the game in many years, maybe even  the largest exposure since its burst growth period really took off in the burning crusade. 

I think the addition of twitter is a great thing for the game.  But it just shows me that as I grow older the game remains the same age, and maybe I am just outgrowing warcraft if this is the future of the game and were they intended to push the game in the future with additions like posting to twitter directly from game.  At least it won't be intrusive and I will never notice it is even there, or so we are told.

In the vernacular of the twitter generation, when I first heard of this being added I would have had to say, "lolwut"

And that exactly explains why I must be getting too old for this.  When even a great addition to the game that will help it grow I still can not connect to in any way, shape or form, because I just don't get it.  My beard is getting grey.  Well, greyer.

27 comments:

  1. What were all the previous x.1s? We had the beach invasion in Pandaland. Where there new Scenarios or something in 5.1? And 4.1 was the Zandalari dungeons, and BWD? I wasn't really around for a 3.1 or earlier, but definitely looks like we've gotten significantly less out of the .1 patch over the last 2 expansions. huh...

    I actually skipped a lot of 5.1 after getting burnt out on too quick of raids (even if they were partial tiers) and billions of dailies. So I guess in my head, I wasn't even thinking of it as a real patch, just another set of hotfixes...

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    1. The beach invasion in mists was an entire new series of dailies which consisted of three different hubs. Those dailies not only offered us a new reputation to get but as we leveled that reputation we got an entirely new story line with entirely new side quests that progressed the story. And that is just the start of landfall.

      There were new valor items and new justice items which could, and did for many, breathe new life into the existing dungeons if they wanted to get those items. You do not always need to add new dungeons. You can make the old dungeons relevant again with gear, which is what they did.

      There were six new rares to hunt there, three for each faction, and they even dropped new PvP trinkets, while not great were a solid addition for many people looking to PvP in the world or even use for the item level boost to get into random content, even if that is a little "wrong" to do.

      They added item level upgrades, which also added to breathing new life into the existing dungeons.

      Five new scenarios were added. One both factions shared and 2 each that were faction specific.

      Brawlers guild was added, upgrade stones for pet battles were added, and then of course the series of bug fixes, classes fixes, and other little quality of life fixes.

      It wasn't just "landfall" and that was it. There was more to landfall alone than everything in 6.1 combined and there was more to that patch than just landfall.

      Yes, 0.1 patches are usually smaller, but never in the history of the game have they been this small and include nothing much that could not have been held off until later or should have been given to us at the release of the expansion.

      The only thing 6.1 has to offer really is twitter, and that is why I say I am getting old, because that does not excite me at all, even in the slightest.

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  2. It feels to me that I have finished this expansion.

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    1. I keep hoping for more, anything more. We got spoiled in mists with so much content we did not know what to do with it (at least at the start) that this expansion just seems so lacking in comparison.

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  3. There isn't a word of your post with which I do not agree, perhaps especially the part about your (my) beard!

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    1. Some people say grey is distinguishing.

      I wonder if they are just trying to be nice. ;)

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  4. Twitter/Selfies/Heirloom tab are not content. They are features, but not content.

    The only new content that I know of is new garrison missions, DMF, and Raiding with Leashes. Which is not much...

    5.1 offered a lot more content, as Grumpy highlighted.

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    1. fully agree it is not much. little yet nice content, mostly in niches (pet battles etc). the small scale doesn't bother me because we're still in the middle of a pretty huge raiding tier so there's plenty of action. for the non raiders it's another story though. there are a few grinds i think?

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    2. @Ril

      I am not sure of the non raiders would be the type to do "grinds" so to speak. I liked the reputation grinds but I am also a raider. Most people I know that are into those sorts of things fit into one of two categories. Raiders who like to do all the little stuff, or hardcore casuals, who do not raid but love to do everything you can do solo.

      The "average" player probably would have nothing to do with grinds, but they would do dungeons if they had more to offer or would do dailies if they were there.

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  5. i haven't really looked past the hunter changes on the 6.1 patchnotes, so i thought that the selfie camera was going to be a new toy, making fun of all that selfie bullcrap going on (i despise that trend and the only selfies i've ever taken is with my cat because he's cute ya know). it seems that i'm wrong, oh well.

    the twitter implementation won't hurt or affect me in any way, i guess it's a nice little addition for all those folk who are active on social plattforms and of course it's free advertising which is fair enough.

    anyway it seems like 6.1 is going to be mostly a "fix the release hiccups" patch, and apart from being far, far too late, i don't mind that. they should have released it weeks after 6.0 tho. because some tooltips are just plain wrong and that shouldn't be left like that.

    there's still enough content going on for raiders, which is my main playstyle in the game, so i'm not sure that i want more content just now. we're not even halfway through mythic progression and even haven't finished BRF foundry heroic yet, blackhand being really hard. so i'd rather not be stressed thank you very much. we advance at a decent pace for a 2 night raid and i think that most guilds who put up some effort into raid organisation and recruiting good players should at least get a chance to get through progression. on top of it i'd rather wait 2 extra months for new content rather than getting nothing new for almost a year at the end of the xpac. that mistake was done in both MoP and Cata and I don't see the point. the early tiers were really well done yet most semi hardcore raids didn't get to finish them in time because the next tier was released too fast. highmaul + brf are 17 bosses, that's a lot, so no hurry please.

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    1. ps, i am really looking forward to farming the new pets (at least for, like, a month), because that gives me reason to visit those old raids full of fond memories. i really appreciate small changes like that. i just wish they wouldn't nerf the menagerie xp... :(

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    2. @Ril: Wait, what? They are nerfing the menagerie experience? It is so very nice to be able to use the Jahan team to level pets.

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    3. that's what's being reported from PTR over on the warcraftpets forums. appearently it won't be viable anymore. because of this i went pretty crazy with JSA yesterday, spent 6 hours doing battles (averaging about 0.9 battle/min) to bring all my pets above 20 so i can easily finish them off by doing outdoor battles in order to get the brawler achievement. i hope we'll see another JSA day before 6.1 hits (26.2. on EU i think) to push them all >22.

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    4. The funny part about this is that while it will be the *one* thing that gets folks out of the garrison, they won't be going out into current content. Leveling pets against Mists' tamers is much easier and more efficient.

      All of my pets are leveled, but I was using Jahan to level pets that I wanted to sell. It provided a nice little boost to income every two weeks or so. I'm not sure I care that much or need the money enough to actually go outside!

      Thanks for the info, Ril. Hope you get that final leveling day!

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    5. @Ril

      I will go after the pets too, no doubt, and with all my high level characters I will surely have them all the first week too. So, as I mentioned, that is really not "content" it is a one time thing. I like it yes, I appreciate it, yes, but it really is not content.

      I agree there is still so much to do, but a lot of what is in 6.1 should have been part of the must to do that is already here. The 680 gear upgrade should already be in game with BRF as well as the BRF missions in garrisons. They are only holding them back so it seems like 6.1 has something, but it should already be out.

      @To Bee

      I love the easy ones to level pets, I do that while waiting on raid time to come. It is great to have a place to just stand right there and level and not need to go all over the place. Sucks they are lowering it, but Ril mentioning it was the first time I heard of it as well. Might have missed it somewhere.

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  6. Doesn't 6.1 progress the legendary quest line any further? Not that I've spent the time to pass the Proving Grounds (i.e. no heroic dungeons), so both my 100s are still stuck with the 640 ring and that's it.

    Scanning wow verse...
    1.1 Looks to be a finish of the initial build - lots of profession changes, tauren get kodo..
    2.1 opening the Black Temple
    3.1 = opened up Ulduar raiding.
    4.1 = revamped troll dungeons (ZA and ZG)
    5.1 = as you stated introduced LandFall

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    1. heh, very interesting. i looked at the 1.1 patch (never went live on EU realms i believe), does someone remember what glimpse of instincts was? i can't seem to find anything about it and definetely don't remember ever using a spell or talent named like this. i was removed before i started playing i guess.

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    2. @Elkagorasa

      The legendary quest line got extended when BRF came out, it has nothing to do with 6.1 as I've noticed.

      @Ril

      I have no clue what that is, but I am guessing it is no longer in game or I would have stumbled across it at one time or another I am sure.

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  7. It's like Blizz read your post... I see news on wowhead about new quests announced for 6.1!

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    1. There were rumors of a quest hub being added somewhere. Was just waiting on it. Seems like there are new inn quests too, but doesn't seem to offer anything worthwhile.

      Hey, it is a start.

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  8. as a lvl 100, I am enjoying doing solo 25 man heroics from Mists on down. True, I may be OP for them, but damn it, I enjoy whiling away my time in them. Until I get stuck - how do you kill the horde airship in the Litchking raid to kill him (I don't remember the name of it)? By myself, I died a bunch of times as I can't burn down the enemy airship. So, maybe I need to get a couple more. Oh well, it was looking swell there.

    -roo

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    1. For the ship in ICC do this.

      1) Start fight.

      2) Get in cannon and keep hitting 1.

      3) Make sure not to cap out the energy bar hitting one, let it get to 90%, drop to 80%, then hit is again. Never cap it.

      4) As soon as the battle starts and the other ship lands aim the cannon to the center of the deck and hit 2.

      5) It will one shot it, collect loot thereafter.

      Hope that helps.

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    2. I will try that Thursday when I can go back in. Thanks a bunch GE!!!!

      -roo

      PS - I never got that love mount either, but hey, it's only a game. :D

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    3. Good luck.

      My girlfriend got it some years back. Her first time in there, she just went because someone needed a healer for a fast queue and she won it. She stole my luck I think.

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    4. :D

      probably so, GE, probably so.

      -roo
      [that's goods]

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  9. This video on youtube made me think of you.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQR9XWGFkj4

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    1. Oh my god, I love you for sharing this, it is the greatest. I actually like 6.1 just watching this. Because if it were not for 6.1 someone would have never made this video.

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