I still have hope that Blizzard might finally pull their thumbs out of their asses and add some new content. WotLK should have been out ages ago if you consider the original plans for "one expansion each year". I think they are dragging their feet since there is not much in terms of competition from other MMORPGs at the moment. The upcoming releases of Age of Conan and Warhammer Online might trigger some frantic content upgrades by Blizzard.
The current list of known features in WotLK is kind of underwhelming, especially considering the insane amount of money that should be available for the development. Hopefully Blizzard will put some more beef on the table, since 10 new levels worth of content and a single new class are slim pickings when you stretch it out over the amount of time that the content probably has to last for.
There are still tons of areas of WoW lore left to explore, like the Emerald Dream, or the Maelstrom. And the Caverns of Time are the perfect device to replay each and every major encounter of the Warcraft history. I really hope Blizzard switches development into a higher gear soon.
April 21, 2008
What is left?
There are still some things left for me to do in WoW outside the raid progression. I could start PvP. But I never really liked PvP, so it is unlikely that this is the answer.
Or I could level up more alts to 70 to get to know each class better. But having to drag another character through the same old content doesn't really appeal to me at the moment. I already tried to do some multi-boxing (playing several characters on different accounts at the same time) to spice up the levelling but while this is new and exciting in a technological way it didn't really satisfy me. There is no chance that you really learn to master a class while using the synchronized macros required for multiboxing.
And there are still a few areas I could explore and quests I didn't do. So far I almost exclusively played horde characters. My highest alliance character is a level 17 mage that I started ages ago. The alliance side still has fresh content that I have never seen before, areas I have not been to, quests that I didn't finish ten times already - hurray!
But of course there is a downside to playing alliance. It might as well be a different game, since due to the lack of communication between Alliance and Horde I am instantly cut off from my social network in the game.
Or I could level up more alts to 70 to get to know each class better. But having to drag another character through the same old content doesn't really appeal to me at the moment. I already tried to do some multi-boxing (playing several characters on different accounts at the same time) to spice up the levelling but while this is new and exciting in a technological way it didn't really satisfy me. There is no chance that you really learn to master a class while using the synchronized macros required for multiboxing.
And there are still a few areas I could explore and quests I didn't do. So far I almost exclusively played horde characters. My highest alliance character is a level 17 mage that I started ages ago. The alliance side still has fresh content that I have never seen before, areas I have not been to, quests that I didn't finish ten times already - hurray!
But of course there is a downside to playing alliance. It might as well be a different game, since due to the lack of communication between Alliance and Horde I am instantly cut off from my social network in the game.
Killing time
Over the last few months my enthusiasm for playing WoW has been fading. And now I have reached the point where there is no doubt anymore - I am burned out on WoW. I log on and do the same dailies every day, raid the same instances, do the same quests that I did last week on a different alt, ... basically I am just killing time. It is not so much the repetition that gets to me, it is the lack of new stuff to do, new areas to explore.
A lot of my time is usually spent raiding. The normal schedule of my guild is three nights with 4 hours each, plus some time before and after to prepare or to squeeze in a "last attempt". This is a lot of time, but it is necessary if you want to get through all the raiding tiers in WoW. There is fresh content in the raid instances, but it requires a huge amount of dedication to unlock that content.
While raiding the progress usually is glacially slow. Lots of raids are spent bashing your head against the same boss over and over again. Whatever was unique or cool with the encounter is soon replaced by the feeling of "not again". And after you beat the encounter you still get to do it over and over again every week for months - to gear up.
If I am not raiding then I am often levelling up my alts. But questing on an alt is been-there-done-that - there hasn't been much in terms of mid-level content additions apart from the upgrade of Dustwallow Marsh. There is simply no new content to explore after you levelled three characters to 70, one of which basically has done every quest there is in the game. The only new content gained by playing alts is from class specific quests and from gaining new spells and talents.
And the rest of the time in WoW was spent doing dailies for gold and reputation. The 2.4 patch was exciting for about a week with new daily quests. But doing the dailies over and over again? All the gold I earn doesn't buy me new content to explore.
Maybe it is best to cut down drastically on my WoW time and go into "hibernation". Drag out one of my characters for an evening or two each week and do some instances or a raid with my friends.
A lot of my time is usually spent raiding. The normal schedule of my guild is three nights with 4 hours each, plus some time before and after to prepare or to squeeze in a "last attempt". This is a lot of time, but it is necessary if you want to get through all the raiding tiers in WoW. There is fresh content in the raid instances, but it requires a huge amount of dedication to unlock that content.
While raiding the progress usually is glacially slow. Lots of raids are spent bashing your head against the same boss over and over again. Whatever was unique or cool with the encounter is soon replaced by the feeling of "not again". And after you beat the encounter you still get to do it over and over again every week for months - to gear up.
If I am not raiding then I am often levelling up my alts. But questing on an alt is been-there-done-that - there hasn't been much in terms of mid-level content additions apart from the upgrade of Dustwallow Marsh. There is simply no new content to explore after you levelled three characters to 70, one of which basically has done every quest there is in the game. The only new content gained by playing alts is from class specific quests and from gaining new spells and talents.
And the rest of the time in WoW was spent doing dailies for gold and reputation. The 2.4 patch was exciting for about a week with new daily quests. But doing the dailies over and over again? All the gold I earn doesn't buy me new content to explore.
Maybe it is best to cut down drastically on my WoW time and go into "hibernation". Drag out one of my characters for an evening or two each week and do some instances or a raid with my friends.
March 18, 2008
Friends list improved
The built-in friends list has its limitations, but luckily the WoW interface is very extendable by addons. And there are several that try to address the issues mentioned above. Unfortunately all of them are outdated and buggy.
I've played around with addons like Karma or NoteIt, but none of them was what I was looking for. And every single one of them was ancient and apparently unmaintained.
A real social interface would allow me to add private notes about any character I encounter. I do a PuG with someone - I add a note to that character. Someone says "thank you" when I do a drive-by buffing and even buffs me back - another note. Beggar in Orgrimmar - note it. Stealing my resource node from right under me while I fight a mob - note. Horrible tank that thinks two-handers and Deathwish are the way to go - note!
The notes have to be shared between all characters on the same account and server. An idiot I met on my main stays an idiot when I log on one of my alts. The note should be displayed on mouseover and when shift-clicking the player in a chat window.
And in times of server transfers and name changes a pure matching by name isn't enough. The race and class of the character should be recorded automatically, so I notice if I meet a completely different idiot just with the same name than the idiot I met a year ago. And the guild of the characters should be stored. While I don't judge a player by their guild tag, it does give a hint about the quality of the recruitment.
Since none of the existing addons fit my requirements I've started to tweak the simplest one, NoteIt, to my needs. NoteIt provides a simple notepad ability where you can assign notes to a player or item and have it displayed on mouseover.
So far I have extended it with an "info-stamp" that adds some extra info whenever I save a note, like the current time, the name of my logged on character, and the race, class, and guild of my current target.
So when I target someone and type /ni or /noteit then an edit window pops up that allows me to set a note, for example "repeatedly jumped into my fishing bopper". When saving it some data about my character and the targeted player get added like this:
-- Kirana - 2008-03-17 - Thunder Bluff:
-- male level 17 orc warrior
repeatedly jumped into my fishing bopper
Not perfect, but works well enough to be useful to me.
The next steps will be integration into the chat window so that the note appears when I shift-click a name in chat as well as handling /who queries when adding notes for players that I don't have targeted at the moment.
I've played around with addons like Karma or NoteIt, but none of them was what I was looking for. And every single one of them was ancient and apparently unmaintained.
A real social interface would allow me to add private notes about any character I encounter. I do a PuG with someone - I add a note to that character. Someone says "thank you" when I do a drive-by buffing and even buffs me back - another note. Beggar in Orgrimmar - note it. Stealing my resource node from right under me while I fight a mob - note. Horrible tank that thinks two-handers and Deathwish are the way to go - note!
The notes have to be shared between all characters on the same account and server. An idiot I met on my main stays an idiot when I log on one of my alts. The note should be displayed on mouseover and when shift-clicking the player in a chat window.
And in times of server transfers and name changes a pure matching by name isn't enough. The race and class of the character should be recorded automatically, so I notice if I meet a completely different idiot just with the same name than the idiot I met a year ago. And the guild of the characters should be stored. While I don't judge a player by their guild tag, it does give a hint about the quality of the recruitment.
Since none of the existing addons fit my requirements I've started to tweak the simplest one, NoteIt, to my needs. NoteIt provides a simple notepad ability where you can assign notes to a player or item and have it displayed on mouseover.
So far I have extended it with an "info-stamp" that adds some extra info whenever I save a note, like the current time, the name of my logged on character, and the race, class, and guild of my current target.
So when I target someone and type /ni or /noteit then an edit window pops up that allows me to set a note, for example "repeatedly jumped into my fishing bopper". When saving it some data about my character and the targeted player get added like this:
-- Kirana - 2008-03-17 - Thunder Bluff:
-- male level 17 orc warrior
repeatedly jumped into my fishing bopper
Not perfect, but works well enough to be useful to me.
The next steps will be integration into the chat window so that the note appears when I shift-click a name in chat as well as handling /who queries when adding notes for players that I don't have targeted at the moment.
Friends list limitations
Why oh why can I only have 50 friends on my friends list? Is Blizzard trying to tell me something? Maybe something in the line of "These are not the friends you are looking for"?
In my opinion the social interface in WoW is too limited for an MMORPG. Limitations like 50 friends or 500 members in a guild? Are you kidding me? You call that Massive Multiplayer? There is no sharing of friends lists between your alts on the same server. And the default interface doesn't even allow you to add notes to your friends or ignored people. In short - the social interface of WoW stinks. These artificial limitations are plain and simple a disgrace for such a great game.
For me the friends list in the default interface is almost completely useless. With the amount of alts my friends have I can barely squeeze in more than a handful of "real people". And even then I have a hard time to remember which real player is linked to which alt.
Luckily the WoW interface is very extendable by addons, but more about that in my next post.
In my opinion the social interface in WoW is too limited for an MMORPG. Limitations like 50 friends or 500 members in a guild? Are you kidding me? You call that Massive Multiplayer? There is no sharing of friends lists between your alts on the same server. And the default interface doesn't even allow you to add notes to your friends or ignored people. In short - the social interface of WoW stinks. These artificial limitations are plain and simple a disgrace for such a great game.
For me the friends list in the default interface is almost completely useless. With the amount of alts my friends have I can barely squeeze in more than a handful of "real people". And even then I have a hard time to remember which real player is linked to which alt.
Luckily the WoW interface is very extendable by addons, but more about that in my next post.
March 03, 2008
Player titles
One feature that I really liked in Lord of the Rings Online was collecting player titles. You can gain titles for things like finishing quests, killing mobs, mastering trade skills, or simply exploring the area. After a while you have a long list of titles that showed your accomplishments. You can select one of the titles and have it displayed together with your name.
The titles have no real gameplay effect and are just for show - a roleplayer gimmick. Collecting titles is another time sink for a completionist like me. It is fun to switch to "Kirana, Slug-squasher" while mindlessly grinding or to "Shire Brewmaster" when I am drunk.
WoW has player titles as well, but they are rather rare. There are two for PvE, "Champion of the Naaru" for finishing the Trial of the Naaru and the ultra-rare "Scarab Lord" only available to the openers of the AQ gates. From the arena you can reach one of Challenger, Duelist, Gladiator, or Rival. Reaching exalted reputation in all battlegrounds gives another. And if you PvP'ed before the 2.0 patch abandoned the old honor system then you kept your highest lifetime title.
Patch 2.4 will add two new titles. One for finishing the Black Temple attunement questline - a great accomplishment in my opinion and well worth a title. I am looking forward to getting it. And a second title that you can buy for 1000g at exalted with the Shattered Sun Offensive. That one stumps me.
Buying a title - are you serious, Blizzard? Will you offer a degree from the unaccredited University of Warcrafting next? Having to buy the title after putting a lot of effort into getting to exalted is an insult in my opinion. Titles are something you earn. The price tag devalues the title and people who have it will probably be laughed at. Reaching Exalted will be a long and hard struggle, but the thing most people will be reminded of when seeing the title is that you paid 1000g to feed your vanity.
The titles have no real gameplay effect and are just for show - a roleplayer gimmick. Collecting titles is another time sink for a completionist like me. It is fun to switch to "Kirana, Slug-squasher" while mindlessly grinding or to "Shire Brewmaster" when I am drunk.
WoW has player titles as well, but they are rather rare. There are two for PvE, "Champion of the Naaru" for finishing the Trial of the Naaru and the ultra-rare "Scarab Lord" only available to the openers of the AQ gates. From the arena you can reach one of Challenger, Duelist, Gladiator, or Rival. Reaching exalted reputation in all battlegrounds gives another. And if you PvP'ed before the 2.0 patch abandoned the old honor system then you kept your highest lifetime title.
Patch 2.4 will add two new titles. One for finishing the Black Temple attunement questline - a great accomplishment in my opinion and well worth a title. I am looking forward to getting it. And a second title that you can buy for 1000g at exalted with the Shattered Sun Offensive. That one stumps me.
Buying a title - are you serious, Blizzard? Will you offer a degree from the unaccredited University of Warcrafting next? Having to buy the title after putting a lot of effort into getting to exalted is an insult in my opinion. Titles are something you earn. The price tag devalues the title and people who have it will probably be laughed at. Reaching Exalted will be a long and hard struggle, but the thing most people will be reminded of when seeing the title is that you paid 1000g to feed your vanity.
Memorabilia
Blizzard is devaluing the previous accomplishments of the players with each expansion. The gear reset pretty much wipes out everything you have achieved in the game before. You killed Onyxia, Ragnaros, Hakar, C'thun, and dozens of others? Too bad, nobody will know. Here is a new batch of bosses, kthxbye. The simple reason is that gear is almost always the only reward you get for killing a boss.
WoW is missing something like player-titles or housing with some kind of memorabilia display. I would love to have a collection of treasures from the various adventures I had over the years. A claw from Onyxia, some bubbling lava from Ragnaros, maybe the head of one of the bloody Sons of Arugal that run around near the Sepulcher - on a spike ...
I treasure some old things too much to throw them away, like my Benediction staff or my first mount for example. It would be great if I could store them somewhere other than in the small bank.
Give me a house where I can put old gear-sets on a dummy. Give me a cozy fireplace with Onyxia's head mounted on the wall above. Give me one of the dancing skeletons from Razorfen Downs as an anatomical exhibit in my library. Give me copies of the various books filled with the warcraft lore. Give me a kitchen where I can prepare a filet of the Lurker Below and some murloc sushi. Give me a stable for my old mounts and my various mini pets. I am tired of PETA members trying to free them from my cramped bags!
WoW is missing something like player-titles or housing with some kind of memorabilia display. I would love to have a collection of treasures from the various adventures I had over the years. A claw from Onyxia, some bubbling lava from Ragnaros, maybe the head of one of the bloody Sons of Arugal that run around near the Sepulcher - on a spike ...
I treasure some old things too much to throw them away, like my Benediction staff or my first mount for example. It would be great if I could store them somewhere other than in the small bank.
Give me a house where I can put old gear-sets on a dummy. Give me a cozy fireplace with Onyxia's head mounted on the wall above. Give me one of the dancing skeletons from Razorfen Downs as an anatomical exhibit in my library. Give me copies of the various books filled with the warcraft lore. Give me a kitchen where I can prepare a filet of the Lurker Below and some murloc sushi. Give me a stable for my old mounts and my various mini pets. I am tired of PETA members trying to free them from my cramped bags!
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