It has been a long time since I posted anything of substance. The last few days I've been laid up due to my bad knee being, well...bad again. I've been reading alot about the game, the feeling of the players and doing my blogging rounds.
Here is what I've seen and yes this is my opinion but it is based on what others, at least those who frequent the net have said.
-No one is happy - the game is losing players, guilds and some servers are even on the decline. Reused content and lack of things to do is hurting the game. On top of it releasing a major patch during the summer makes it hard for a lot of the non hard core gamer.
-Raid lockouts- going to a single lockout has hurt the player base far worse than anyone expected. This limits the time and activity of many of WOW's players. You can only raid on your toon one lockout per week. You can't even pug, you only have 1 lockout.
-Raiding is difficult - Blizz did what they set out to do by making the raid much harder than they were in Wrath. You hear the calls to bring back Wrath raiding again. Sadly I think Blizz missed the boat thou in how unforgiving they made T11 and T12 raids. Yes they were doable, but honestly, T11 was MUCH harder than T10 ICC. Its never a good thing to have the end of one Xpac be easier, almost too easy and then make the next tier of a new Xpac so challenging.
14,000 guilds have cleared FL's normal modes, this is equal to 1.4% of WOW's population. Way too low. Average Ilvl is 370, that's pretty high seeing as the item level is 371. This means that everyone who has beat Rags is wearing head to toe gear from FL to kill him.
I understand how the upcoming nerf to FL is upsetting all the hard work they have put in with raids and wipes. Taking 20% health and reducing damage as much is a hard pill to swallow. I don't think Blizz doing the 20% right away, doing it in steps would have made this to take.
Other mistakes Blizz has made with Cataclysm :
- Again reusing content, while for the first few weeks it was cool. It got old again fast.
- Making 5 mans soooo long as Cata was released.
- Tuning 10 mans in T11 so tightly. Yes this argument has been beat to death but 1 bad player and on death was almost a certain wipe.
- Taking the community out of the MMO. Just que up and do dailies.
- No central city. Throwing us into the home cities was just horrible.
- Removing VP from T11 raids when FL hit. Even a reduced rate would have been nice.
- 31 point talent tree - everyone is cookie cutter. You can't even be bad by picking the wrong talents, you don't have any to pick wrong.
With all this it seems to me, Blizz has thrown the panic switch and is now allowing us gear up prior to Deathwing hitting the net.
I agree with your home city point! I hate that too. I go to Dalaran just to spend time there. I have a very basic computer (2 gigs of RAM, an average video card, an average processor) and I never had nor will have lag there.
ReplyDeleteI don't like the difficulty of the raids. I should be able to pug with a group who vaguely "know the fights." This was a relaxing game for me, and I play to collect gear. I don't play because this is somehow going to look good on my resume and make me feel better about myself (heads up people, it's not...) so therefore, simply looking good is all that I want. I just can't seem to get all those types of people on one server.
I did have a comment ready to post, but instead, I'll err on the side of caution and say this: please, please, please do a little research before you post. I realize that you're stating your opinions, but you're also giving some information that's easily found to be not true(highest ilvl in the game being 371, not being able to get VP from T11, the nerf to FL going in all at once - all not true).
ReplyDeleteOpinions from anyone, whether you agree with them or not, go over much better when backed up with some good info. :)
I'd agree on the home city front. I know ppl would whine about the lag in Dal.. but honestly, the a bustling cross faction city like a Dal (or Shat before that) really added to a sense being in a realm... not just a faction. By extension, the dungeon finder really took the wind out of the community sails. I used to know the good, the bad and ugly on my realm. Now I mostly get grouped with 'foreigners' who I'll never see again... so who cares if I'm a jerk. Most of the names in general or trade chat are unknown to me now. At least that how it seems to me...
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