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World of Warcraft |OT6| This wolf still has teeth

Nudull

Banned
Left is my fairy Gnome priest. It's my only real Alliance character, so don't shoot me for being a traitor. Middle is my 70 mage twink (in progress), which needs a transmog for MH/OH at the moment. Right is my main in one of her many transmog sets.

Wait, what's this about being a traitor? B-but...I'm neutral. I like everyone. ;_;
 

Ark

Member
I'm reading a bunch of forums to catch up on where the community is at after five years, and all I see is rampant negativity :lol

Nice to see the WoW community hasn't changed at all.
 

Robin64

Member
I'm reading a bunch of forums to catch up on where the community is at after five years, and all I see is rampant negativity :lol

Nice to see the WoW community hasn't changed at all.

To be fair now, it's not uncalled for negativity. There are legitimate complains all round.
 

Tenebrous

Member
I use Spooky Scythe. Love the colours.

421434.jpg

I use that on my feral with tier 5. They match really nicely!
 

Draxal

Member
I'm reading a bunch of forums to catch up on where the community is at after five years, and all I see is rampant negativity :lol

Nice to see the WoW community hasn't changed at all.

Honestly, the negativity i've seen here is much stronger than it was at any previous point in time.
 

Robin64

Member
Honestly, the negativity i've seen here is much stronger than it was at any previous point in time.

Any negativity from WoWGAF is just because we love the game to bits and care about it, so get upset when it doesn't meet even smallest expectations.
 

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Honestly, the negativity i've seen here is much stronger than it was at any previous point in time.

I have to agree, and it's not just the official forums or neogaf (or other forums), but the opinions of people I have played with. Things do seem to be the worst they've ever been when it comes to overall community attitude towards the game/blizzard. Assuming the next expansion isn't revealed until Blizzcon, I imagine it's going to be a long, rough few months for some Blizz folks. And even then, they kind of need to knock it out of the park if they want people to be feeling that WoW hype again.

The WoD hype was probably the most people were excited about WoW in a long time, and since it many ways didn't deliver, I am not sure what they could do for the next one that people will be really pumped about.
 

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
I can still see the disgusting vanilla orc model beneath the giant shoulders.
 

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Someone just posted this on MMochamp:

UcgsusQl.png


I don't care how unlikely it is, I am really hoping for a Gamescom announcement for the nex expansion. Considering the shortest turn around from reveal to release is still more than a year, a Blizzcon announcement would mean we likely wouldn't have 7.0 until Fall 2016. And that would be terrible.
 

MonkeyNuts

Neo Member
Someone just posted this on MMochamp:

UcgsusQl.png


I don't care how unlikely it is, I am really hoping for a Gamescom announcement for the nex expansion. Considering the shortest turn around from reveal to release is still more than a year, a Blizzcon announcement would mean we likely wouldn't have 7.0 until Fall 2016. And that would be terrible.
Your wish for a Gamescom reveal just got a shot in the arm.

https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/3dyf7x/2_beta_servers_up/

Gamescom reveal followed by Blizzcon showing off the cinematic and release date seems a definite possibility right now.
 

Draxal

Member
I have to agree, and it's not just the official forums or neogaf (or other forums), but the opinions of people I have played with. Things do seem to be the worst they've ever been when it comes to overall community attitude towards the game/blizzard. Assuming the next expansion isn't revealed until Blizzcon, I imagine it's going to be a long, rough few months for some Blizz folks. And even then, they kind of need to knock it out of the park if they want people to be feeling that WoW hype again.

The WoD hype was probably the most people were excited about WoW in a long time, and since it many ways didn't deliver, I am not sure what they could do for the next one that people will be really pumped about.

Yeah, I mean I think people were disappointed with every expansions past BC one way or another, but I think what really killed WoD is that they hype for the expansion was there and it just failed to match it, where something like MoP didn't have as much as much hype behind it.
 

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Yeah, I mean I think people were disappointed with every expansions past BC one way or another, but I think what really killed WoD is that they hype for the expansion was there and it just failed to match that hype, where something like MoP didn't have as much as much hype behind it.

I wouldn't say it was just the Hype itself, but specifically the Hype/quality gap. It's one thing for something to not live up to hype, but it's another for it to be highly hyped AND end up outright mediocre or worse. I mean, you have stuff like Ashran that was pretty seriously hyped as this sort of permanent AV-esque zone you could spend all day in if you liked PvP, but... it fucking sucks. Like, it's not just "oh, Ashran isn't as cool as I wanted it to be"; it is just a straight up failed design, it didn't work at all and it's being propped up entirely by funneling gear through it.

Mists is almost the opposite, more reserved hype but it ended up being a very well executed expansion with only relatively minor issues (the early dailyfest particularly.)
 

CassSept

Member
Your wish for a Gamescom reveal just got a shot in the arm.

https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/3dyf7x/2_beta_servers_up/

Gamescom reveal followed by Blizzcon showing off the cinematic and release date seems a definite possibility right now.

Honestly, unless we get something substantial I wouldn't get my hopes up. I thought WoD had a shot at being revealed at Gamescom (because seriously, are they going to announce the next expansion two months after the last tier is out?), then I hoped WoD had to be long enough in development for the beta to start soon after reveal and we all know how that ended up.
 

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Honestly, unless we get something substantial I wouldn't get my hopes up. I thought WoD had a shot at being revealed at Gamescom (because seriously, are they going to announce the next expansion two months after the last tier is out?), then I hoped WoD had to be long enough in development for the beta to start soon after reveal and we all know how that ended up.

Yeah, that beta server thing doesn't actually mean much I'm afraid. Those IPs being active could be for any number of things, and one of the points people are making is that they have actually been up for months now but no one was bothering to check until recently.
 

strafer

member
I'm 85% sure we will hear something about the new expansion, even if it's only a name reveal.

Will probably get leaked beforehand too :/
 

EmiPrime

Member
There's something that would be a lot easier and quicker to do than a new expansion and would save us from a year of HFC: 6.3 with a new zone (Farahlon), new dungeons and a new raid (Shattrath?) out in Q4 2015. A bit like 2.4 in terms of content (Sunwell patch).

I appreciate that it's hard to top fighting Archimonde in the Twisting Nether as a finale but that's their fault for making such a mess of the story.
 

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
There's something that would be a lot easier and quicker to do than a new expansion and would save us from a year of HFC: 6.3 with a new zone (Farahlon), new dungeons and a new raid (Shattrath?) out in Q4 2015. A bit like 2.4 in terms of content (Sunwell patch).

Unless they have already been working on 6.3 content on that level (which would contradict recent confirmations about 6.2 being the final raid), that is pretty much impossible. At this point, the bulk of the WoW team is working on next expansion content, and creating significant new content for 6.3 would pull people from that and delay the next expansion further. Blizz has explicitly stated this isn't something they want to do when questioned about the pre-expansion gaps leading to Mists and WoD.
 

Not Spaceghost

Spaceghost
I disagree. This is an opportunity for greatness, imagine a record setting 22 months without a content patch

Well considering how blizzard has a track record of leaving people with 12 months of nothing new after releasing their last content patch this is a very real possibility.

It's weird to think about how WoD ONLY CAME OUT IN NOVEMBER. It isn't even a year old.

At this point in MoP lei shen was just killed, at this point in cata the firelands were still going strong, at this point in Wrath Algalon had just been killed, at this point in TBC Kael'thas sunstrider being killed was just a recent event.

Those expansions all felt like they still had so much ahead of them, like they were just hitting their stride yet WoD already feels like it's over, because it is clearly already over.
 

Ark

Member
To be fair now, it's not uncalled for negativity. There are legitimate complains all round.

Oh for sure. I've literally just built the barracks in my first garrison and, whilst it's useful, it destroys the social aspect of WoW entirely.
 

EmiPrime

Member
Unless they have already been working on 6.3 content on that level (which would contradict recent confirmations about 6.2 being the final raid), that is pretty much impossible. At this point, the bulk of the WoW team is working on next expansion content, and creating significant new content for 6.3 would pull people from that and delay the next expansion further. Blizz has explicitly stated this isn't something they want to do when questioned about the pre-expansion gaps leading to Mists and WoD.

I know unless they quickly shifted their priorities this is it. They must have known the backlash was coming but they're too slow or arrogant to mitigate it.
 

Shahadan

Member
Players have destroyed wow's social aspect long ago. Can't remember the last time someone in game wasn't an annoyance one way or another
 

EmiPrime

Member
Players have destroyed wow's social aspect long ago. Can't remember the last time someone in game wasn't an annoyance one way or another

Blizzard's engineered that by removing elites from questing zones and implementing dungeon and raid queueing. It used to be that if you made a nuisance of yourself you got a bad reputation and would stop getting invited, now it doesn't matter and server communities are all but gone.
 

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Players have destroyed wow's social aspect long ago. Can't remember the last time someone in game wasn't an annoyance one way or another

The first HFC LFR run I did had a dude who was over-the-top positive, it was pretty funny. Stuff like "HAVE FUN EVERYONE, TRY NOT TO GET TOO UPSET IF WE WIPE, WE WILL GET HIM NEXT TIME!" It was an enjoyable experience.
 

CHC

Member
Players have destroyed wow's social aspect long ago. Can't remember the last time someone in game wasn't an annoyance one way or another

I just can't remember the last time someone in the game has made me feel one way or another. I honestly don't really care if people are annoying or super-cool - I just want SOME kind of community. As it is right now the game is almost eery in how quiet it is. There are people around but under no circumstances does anyone speak to each other for more than it takes to convey the bare minimum information necessary. Zone chat is always quiet, queues have made dungeons and raids so low-stakes that no one even needs to communicate whatsoever.

Whatever the next expansion is they need to institute SOME kind of measures that get people interacting with each other again in some way. I don't mind solo content but when there is almost nothing to gain (outside of organized raids) from communicatng with your fellow players, that's a problem. So much of what made earlier versions of the game exciting was just the way people "hung out" in Azerorth. For better or worse, things like Barrens chat were something - memorable, even if annoying.

When I log in now it just feels like a factory, everyone has their head down and just wants to get their shit done without being bothered.
 

Not Spaceghost

Spaceghost
Players have destroyed wow's social aspect long ago. Can't remember the last time someone in game wasn't an annoyance one way or another

Interacting with other players is never the problem. I rarely find rude people honestly, only when things are going wrong does some one start bitching and moaning.

LFR in MoP was easily the worst place in the world but since that went away it's never been an issue to interact with players.

There are just few reasons to play with anyone that isn't from a queue finder or some one you personally know.

Gone are the days where you'd be doing something out in the world and you'd find some one and you guys would group up and shoot the shit, because there is almost nothing to facilitate that.
 

Robin64

Member
Even in the group finder for Saber rep, people just silently join the party and proceed with the mindless killing, only ever speaking to say "done" before leaving. Sad times.
 

CHC

Member
Gone are the days where you'd be doing something out in the world and you'd find some one and you guys would group up and shoot the shit, because there is almost nothing to facilitate that.

I know it's a broken record, but like you said, this is really the issue. Blizzard has, for years and years, been catering to an increasingly impatient player base and have "created a monster" so to speak. I miss things like just journeying to an instance while I shoot the breeze in general chat and look for mining nodes along the way; or moments where I struggle to kill a quest mob until another player comes along and we team up. It's unfortunate that they can never go back to simpler times where the community and the exploration provided a lot of the entertainment.
 

Not Spaceghost

Spaceghost
I know it's a broken record, but like you said, this is really the issue. Blizzard has, for years and years, been catering to an increasingly impatient player base and have "created a monster" so to speak. I miss things like just journeying to an instance while I shoot the breeze in general chat and look for mining nodes along the way; or moments where I struggle to kill a quest mob until another player comes along and we team up. It's unfortunate that they can never go back to simpler times where the community and the exploration provided a lot of the entertainment.

I mean it's truly it is a broken record with almost no solution. If you make the game more like the "good old days" everyone will bitch like crazy. Because almost everything that required player interaction viewed through non rose tinted glasses was in some way shape or form an inconvenience. Think about how annoyed you get when you see a quest while leveling that says "recommended for group", it's the reason why people avoided certain zones like icecrown while leveling.

We remember it fondly because we remember it at level cap when it was current and relevant. The best was just spamming trade in wrath with LFG CHAINING HEROICS PST NEED 1 HEALS HAVE TANK! Then the 5 of you would just be a small gang, some people might be like "hey dude it was cool grouping with you message me whenever you're doing this!".

But I still think those faults were what gave the game it's charm

Honestly the only solution I can think of is blizz releasing classic servers as an experiment where they see what players actually want from the old versions of the game, and what was actually bad.
 

Tacitus_

Member
Yeah fuck mandatory grouping during leveling, fuck spamming chat channels attempting to find a group, fuck waiting for that one dude to get to the instance.
 

Granadier

Is currently on Stage 1: Denial regarding the service game future
I think the recent addition of flying in Daenor is a greater indicator than any that WoW will never be able to go back to what it was before.

Players no longer want to deal with those inconveniences when playing the game, as much as that stuff added to the social aspect.
 

ampere

Member
We remember it fondly because we remember it at level cap when it was current and relevant. The best was just spamming trade in wrath with LFG CHAINING HEROICS PST NEED 1 HEALS HAVE TANK! Then the 5 of you would just be a small gang, some people might be like "hey dude it was cool grouping with you message me whenever you're doing this!".

But I still think those faults were what gave the game it's charm

Absolutely. It was fun and there was a certain charm, but it's also incredibly outdated. People put up with that at the time because it was good for the time.

Nowadays if you make a game and people can't queue for random groups on their own time? Yeah, good luck selling copies of that. It'll tank. It's just the evolution of games, sometimes too much convenience becomes the status quo, but that's just how it is.

Also, nostalgia is a helluva drug :p. I loved leveling in Vanilla/BC, but shit those quests were outdated. At the time it was awesome RPG goodness.
 

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
I love how I can tell from the color of the environment behind the chat that is in clearly Barrens.
 

CHC

Member
We remember it fondly because we remember it at level cap when it was current and relevant. The best was just spamming trade in wrath with LFG CHAINING HEROICS PST NEED 1 HEALS HAVE TANK! Then the 5 of you would just be a small gang, some people might be like "hey dude it was cool grouping with you message me whenever you're doing this!".

But I still think those faults were what gave the game it's charm

Honestly the only solution I can think of is blizz releasing classic servers as an experiment where they see what players actually want from the old versions of the game, and what was actually bad.

Couldn't agree more. Inconvenience is an element but games, and MMOs especially, have always been a delicate balance between reward and inconvenience. Things like the success of Dark Souls and the MASSIVE population of some private servers running classic are a testament to this. I'm not saying old WoW was perfect but there is a certain degree of adversity that sweetens an experience and that is just 100% gone from "everyday" WoW (which excludes stuff like Mythics because a big challenge can be found if you set one up for yourself, but should it really be so deliberate?).

I'd be curious about classic servers and I would certainly pay for a legitimate and functional one, but I'm not sure if Blizzard would ever go for it. Things like the newly announced mercenary mode, however, do sort of go to prove that nothing is sacred anymore though.
 

Robin64

Member
Sadly, I'm ten years older now and no longer have the luxury of time I had back then to spend hours just finding a group and getting to a dungeon the long way. I do miss it, it was the height of my online gaming life and made this game so immersive, but the truth is I need queues now to do content.
 
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