For the 6 of you who don't have warcraft...

[FatherJack]

The art style is an odd one. I remember when a couple of us in the office were playing the beta two Diablo fanboys came in and scoffed, "What's that? My First MMO?". Now they play more than anyone I know.

It's partly that you kind of don't notice after a while and partly that it doesn't really matter that much. At first I did compare WoW's chunky style unfavourably to LoTRO's detail or EVE's technical majesty, but despite the quite justified criticisms of the gameplay and reluctance of people to embark on what could be a long and expensive journey, one of the things they got bang on and didn't copy from someone else is the design of the environment. Sure it's not state-of-the-art graphics, but each zone is distinct and readily identifiable at first glance. You could probably work out where someone was just from a screenshot in a random location.

[Killavodka]

One of the main pluses of the simple graphics is that it allows for massive game worlds with little/no loading times. In Conads I couldn't help feel that the loading all the time detracted from the story and made me feel less like I was party of a living world.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Also worth remembering with wow it's still a really, really good game, even if you don't spent 18 hours a day playing and raiding.

Of course, for a lot of people it's the only game they play, so it fucks the stats up rather.


Aaaaanyway, the new world is amazing, the badgers arse collection quests have been toned down, and the new quests are intentionally funny, and enjoyable to do.

Grab a demo, play a bit, don't base your opinion on a 5 year old impression of the game.

[Dog Pants]

A guy at work told me today he cancelled his Warcraft subscription last night. He's in one of the top raiding guilds on his server, and plays nothing else. He quit because he didn't like the changes Cataclysm made.

It made me think. Cataclysm is aimed at makign the game easier to learn, simpler to play, and more fun to level. Basically, it's aimed more at new players. Seems odd for a 5 year old game until you think about the demographics within the game - only 30% of players make it past level 10. Presumably only a fraction of those go on to play end game content.

Consider, then, that the vast majority of your players will be leveling. Compare the amount of revenue Blizzard would get from someone playing from level 1 to level 90 with the revenue someone gets playing raid content at 90, and I strongly suspect the money is in the former category. So it's not surprising that they would want to keep the game turning people round, updating the leveling content and making the game more accessible. In fact, considering this, it's surprising that the last two expansions catered mainly to players who had reached the level cap.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

That's the thing, Itchy ring seemed to be about getting everyone into raids, making it a lot more accessible. Which kinda worked, for 4 bosses in ICC.

Cata seems to be about making the rest of the game more fun and accessible, and raiding more challenging/rewarding for the mouth breathers.

[Dog Pants]

Did you just categorise yourself as a mouth breather?

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Pretty much.

[spoodie]

You can tell from your profile pic.

[XCheekyChelzX]

I'm just not sure I can make this kind of a commitment! If I was to start playing this game, my social life would be out of the window. And my Degree. I have seen the evil ways that addiction to this game changes people. And not for the better (shudders!)

And am I am fully aware of my low levels of will power, hence why me buying this game would doom me into an eternity of WOW madness.

Sorry guys, I'm out

<3

[Guybrush]

They have made levelling a LOT easier - Heroics are pretty hard these days - though might get a bit easier after next patch tho'