If You Could Do One Thing to Fix World of Warcraft...

[Crossroads Inc.]

I would FINISH it...

Finish what? The land! Seriously, there are MASSIVE areas that are empty, blank ugly spaces wiht NOTHING in it. For an example just go here http://mapwow.com/ and look at some of ther areas... You;ll find whole swaths of the world that just arn't USED\

Shoot goto "Eastren Kingdoms" area and you could nearly double the size of some of the zones by extending them out ot he sea.
GEH!

[RazorOutlaw]

Boot anyone under 18. The game is ruined by teenage twats griefing.

What server do you play? I've never had many problems on the one I play, but I'm curious as to how bad a server can get.

And grief is when you just piss around with somebody, right? Well, somebody tried to do that once with me by doing the emote "X steals 10S from Dorii." I quickly checked my bag, couldn't recall how much I had exactly, and then just emoted them "Dorii punches X in the face."

It was only later that I remembered that the supposed theft was a prank instead of an actual ability. She was a Paladin after all. And it's a good thing I didn't really care either because I'm pretty sure one guy started flipping out about the same prank one day in Stormwind.

ANYWAY, maybe this already falls under flying mounts, but I would fucking love it if travel was somehow faster. How about portals to the closest friendly town (rather than hearth to a far away in?) when you're busy questing. Maybe that's too easy, or redundant because the closest town usually has an inn or flightpath in it anyway. I realize part of the game IS traveling, but when you throw that in with a slow grind upwards, I find myself quitting after a half an hour (sometimes) simply out of boredom.

[lPeregrine]

Since I assume "overwrite it with EVE" isn't an option, remove all PvE content from the game. The only part of the game even remotely worth playing (and I say "worth" in a very loose sense, as in "somewhat less motivation to kill myself and end the suffering") is the pvp side, so this has the nice advantage of getting rid of:

1) The level grinding. With no npcs to kill to level up, all characters will have to start at max level.

2) Item grinding, especially the painfully bad idea of "binds on pick up". As there are no npcs to drop items, gear will cease to be an issue.

3) The awful, repetitive and unimaginative quests. No npcs, no quests.

4) The need to buy a new expansion every few months. Since there are no new bosses to kill or levels to gain, the developers can actually focus on fixing the game instead of finding new ways to drain your wallet.

5) The social problems of many players. With no need to play 16 hours a day just to keep up with your friends, players will actually be able to have a social life.


I would suggest "add full looting on death" instead, but that would require a pvp/level system that doesn't completely suck and lack any sense of balance.

[2000AD]

Solo-able 'end game' content. Not everyone has the time to continously do the same dungeon over and over. Hell not everyone wants to be in a guild.
Having some solo end game stuff would help balance out the massive balance difference between players with skill and players with plenty of time.

[Sephirius]

higher endgame that takes longer to get there.
Much like FFXI, it gets rid of the noobs a lot faster than any other initiative could.

[Broomstick]

Player interaction with the world, allowing for players to rise in the gameworld to command cities (or build their own).

As a related thing - I'd like to be able to have a true "home" for my alts, where they could buy a room in a city or build a small hut out in the woods (or wherever). Sort of like what you get with Sims or the relto in the Myst games, where you could decorate it, store things long term outside of a bank (they wouldn't be accessible unless you where at your hut, you couldn't get them from banks in the city). Get a bunch of your friends together, or your guild, and yes, you'd have a small town or city.

No doubt that idea horrifies the PvP purists.

Allow Horde and Alliance to actully work together in the outlands? Both can join the Scryer or Aldor factions, so why can't they team-up?

You'd probably have to limit it to Horde/Alliance team ups within Aldor or within Scryer but not across those lines.

I wouldn't mind seeing more than two main factions, either - instead of Horde/Alliance have, say, the Dranei and Tauren join up, and the Blood Elves and Forsaken form their own grouping, with the Horde being Orcs and Trolls, the Alliance being Humans, Dwarves, and Gnomes. I don't know where you'd put the Night Elves. That could get pretty complex.

Solo-able 'end game' content. Not everyone has the time to continously do the same dungeon over and over. Hell not everyone wants to be in a guild.
Having some solo end game stuff would help balance out the massive balance difference between players with skill and players with plenty of time.

Again, it will probably outrage the PvPurists, but I'd like to see something more for the solo players, even some end-game quests that can only be done solo as solo PvE where you can rely only on yourself does take different skills than getting 39 of your buddies together to go on a raid where each of you can specialize with different skills/gear/whatever.

I'd also like to see it easier to move from a PvP to PvE server to the other sort, as one can easily get started in the game only to find that you would prefer a different sort of server AFTER you've put in the time and effort to rise a significant number of levels. Oh, sure, you can re-roll on a different server, but then you have that whole slog to do over.

[Resinence]

higher endgame that takes longer to get there.
Much like FFXI, it gets rid of the noobs a lot faster than any other initiative could.

Oh yay, a world consisting completely of retards who play 18hours a day, sounds like fun.

[Broomstick]

Maybe we could have separate servers for that, one requiring a minimum 10 hours play a day.

[Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi]

The pain-in-the-assiest level grind in the game is from the mid-30's to the mid-40's. No one zone gives you enough quests to level substantially, and the zones are big, empty, depressing locales that require you to go to the other side and back for every quest. I'd make those zones a little more convenient (an Alliance presence in Badlands, two FPs in Desolace, an inn at the Horde town in Dustwallow Marsh, etc.), and add enough stuff to do so you can go up 5-10 levels without quests from outside the zone.

[Ghost Rider]

The pain-in-the-assiest level grind in the game is from the mid-30's to the mid-40's. No one zone gives you enough quests to level substantially, and the zones are big, empty, depressing locales that require you to go to the other side and back for every quest. I'd make those zones a little more convenient (an Alliance presence in Badlands, two FPs in Desolace, an inn at the Horde town in Dustwallow Marsh, etc.), and add enough stuff to do so you can go up 5-10 levels without quests from outside the zone.

Eh, most of the 25-58 needs to be looked at, and not just quests but quest rewards. I mean let's remember the love of "Here ya go, a piece of cloth with Strength and Spirit for that Melee Warlock everyone is making!". And then when you hit level 57-58, you are better off going to the AH to buy all your equipment then ever questing for a piece again, until level 58-60 when you enter Outland.

Look at the sheer improvement of both the Dranei and BE's quest lines and rewards. They follow logical steps, give rewards for everyone, and have quests that can grouped easily.

[Crown]

The pain-in-the-assiest level grind in the game is from the mid-30's to the mid-40's. No one zone gives you enough quests to level substantially, and the zones are big, empty, depressing locales that require you to go to the other side and back for every quest. I'd make those zones a little more convenient (an Alliance presence in Badlands, two FPs in Desolace, an inn at the Horde town in Dustwallow Marsh, etc.), and add enough stuff to do so you can go up 5-10 levels without quests from outside the zone.

Eh, most of the 25-58 needs to be looked at, and not just quests but quest rewards. I mean let's remember the love of "Here ya go, a piece of cloth with Strength and Spirit for that Melee Warlock everyone is making!". And then when you hit level 57-58, you are better off going to the AH to buy all your equipment then ever questing for a piece again, until level 58-60 when you enter Outland.

Look at the sheer improvement of both the Dranei and BE's quest lines and rewards. They follow logical steps, give rewards for everyone, and have quests that can grouped easily.

From some of the BlizzCon stuff they have on YouTube, the devs said that they are 'seriously going to look at 1-60'. Now I doubt that they'll change itemisation, but from what I gathered they want to make leveling up to Outlands faster (made my day).

Oh, here's a pet peeve of mine; if a lvl 19 has enough honor to buy a PvP trinket, then maybe that's a clue that they don't belong in the same battleground as my new re-roll who is in greens/quest rewards? Hmm, Blizzard?

[Ghost Rider]

From some of the BlizzCon stuff they have on YouTube, the devs said that they are 'seriously going to look at 1-60'. Now I doubt that they'll change itemisation, but from what I gathered they want to make leveling up to Outlands faster (made my day).

Yeah, I heard they were going to speed it up. Something they should do in patch, but improvement will be nice however and whenever.

Oh, here's a pet peeve of mine; if a lvl 19 has enough honor to buy a PvP trinket, then maybe that's a clue that they don't belong in the same battleground as my new re-roll who is in greens/quest rewards? Hmm, Blizzard?

Psh, that just means the person you're facing is not only a bored level 70, he's a bored level 70 with friends that can help him. The best twinks are when you see a Rogue with 2200 HP, and near 100% dodge. And what do they fight for? Nothing. They are just there to gank anyone not up to their insane standards.

I did try for twinking once, and then used the little bastardly warlock on the field. Decent rush for the first few times, but afterwards...you're just there to be there. Really, I will never understand people who are twinks for more then a few weeks.

[Broomstick]

From some of the BlizzCon stuff they have on YouTube, the devs said that they are 'seriously going to look at 1-60'. Now I doubt that they'll change itemisation, but from what I gathered they want to make leveling up to Outlands faster (made my day).

Yeah, I heard they were going to speed it up. Something they should do in patch, but improvement will be nice however and whenever.

That's good news - I've been running my new Horde through Ghostlands which is technically "blood elf" but it works so much better than some of the older Horde quest areas it's worth busting ass to get, say, a new Tauren over there. Ditto for my Alliance and the Dranei start-up area.

With the expansion it's also opened up possibilities that there is truly more than one way to get from level 1 to 60. You couldn't possibly do every quest before (even leaving out class-specific), now that's even more true. You can cherry-pick what best suits your play style and character.

Of course, if they do make such a change you'll have long-time players bitch about how hard they had to work and it's not fair - tough shit. It's a game, get over it. There will be something else to challenge you.

I don't know if this occurs anywhere else, or if it's limited to a one-time thing in the Ghostlands, but there is an NPC who is a vendor but not selling who sends you out on a quest to recover his suppleis, after which he opens for business and is willing to sell you stuff. It's a nice touch - you actually make a change in the world that sticks.

I did try for twinking once, and then used the little bastardly warlock on the field. Decent rush for the first few times, but afterwards...you're just there to be there. Really, I will never understand people who are twinks for more then a few weeks.

Hmmm.... every once in awhile when I have had a really really shit day I do to a low-level area with my highest level character and start killing mobs by slapping them with my bare hands. Aside from an occassional therapeutic pixel-bath, though, I don't understand it either.

[Sharp-kun]

I don't know if this occurs anywhere else, or if it's limited to a one-time thing in the Ghostlands, but there is an NPC who is a vendor but not selling who sends you out on a quest to recover his suppleis, after which he opens for business and is willing to sell you stuff. It's a nice touch - you actually make a change in the world that sticks.

An Engineering vendor in Feralas does that.

[White Haven]

Follow through on promises. I don't even play anymore, but that's a big peeve of mine...look at the feature list of the new expansion. MOST OF THEM are things that were promised either pre-launch or long pre-expansion, it's pathetic. Even if I were still playing, I'd seriously consider not getting it, simply because I don't want to reward the staggeringly dishonest practice of saying 'Hey, if you pay me extra, I'll do what I said I'd do for free years ago.'

[Andrew_Fireborn]

Follow through on promises. I don't even play anymore, but that's a big peeve of mine...look at the feature list of the new expansion. MOST OF THEM are things that were promised either pre-launch or long pre-expansion, it's pathetic. Even if I were still playing, I'd seriously consider not getting it, simply because I don't want to reward the staggeringly dishonest practice of saying 'Hey, if you pay me extra, I'll do what I said I'd do for free years ago.'

Which is one of the things I like about my current MMO, EVE... (Although I'm looking for a second since it's such a slow progression scheme.) The expansions are free. Although they've got their own share of issues with promising things to their customers.


As for WoW... It's a lot like FFXI really. There was a lot of promise, but it boils down to a lot of the same. Too much emphasis on gear, and little to do once you have the gear but help others get it, or kick puppies who don't have theirs yet.

Although, like all Blizzard games, it's really just a polished, but completely bog standard product.

[Lord Pounder]

Boot anyone under 18. The game is ruined by teenage twats griefing.

What server do you play? I've never had many problems on the one I play, but I'm curious as to how bad a server can get.

I played on Dreanor EU and then i paid to transfer to Bronzebeard

There where incidents. From one guy who followed me everywhere demanding a duels because I beat him. Then there was an incident where Revan from this board ran off in the middle of a raid in the XR and came back on the other side with his Alliance char because he couldn't take being killed a few times. In general many of the players made the game more trouble than it was worth.

When I started playing MMO's near 10 years ago there was a sense of community, the players where all mostly adult and it was a time before Counter Strike assholishness had infected the online gamer. In UO I could hand over my very exxpensive sword to a smith and he'd repair it and return it. Couldn't see that happening on WoW. MMO's have been going down hill for me since i left UO the first time.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Tell me about it....

I still remember the time someone got a GM to demolish my house so that they could loot all my containers, claiming that I was using bots....

grr. I hates UO

[Knife]

Hmm, having just canceled my account....I can think of a couple things.

Mostly they need to reorganize their quests/zones configuration with BC, let alone with the new expansion coming. From Itemization to quest/rewards that were created five years ago without the patches and expansions. 1-20 is cake and a good tutorial actually. 20-30 starts to get cumbersome and then 30-40 is hell. Really till 50, then it eases off because 60 used to be top. All of the eastern kingdoms and Kalimdor were geared towards 60, so the last ten levels are pretty easy since all high zones in the original two continents have a enough quests.

BC has been out long enough now that all the old timers with uber gear from killing world bosses or high end 40 man raids have gotten over themselves. However, the very idea that those items made a 60 sooooo powerful has bleed over to the new 70's. I realize Blizzard is just grasping at straws to keep people playing after they've made half a dozen Kara runs but...damn.

Up the damn levels. At some point realize that some one would have 'finished' the game.

I'd have Pallies and Shammies nerfed too. At this point, they've pretty much made a warrior obsolete with a protec-speced Pally, and even a furry speced warrior is getting owned by a shammy. Nerf em or get some one at Blizzard who doesn't mind playing a fucking warrior. It's disgracefull.

At this point, really though, all they need to do is World or Warcraft II. They've neglected so much, written in soooooo much more without thinking about it in gameplay, screwed so many with itemization, it's hardly fixable. Better to make a new one.

BTW, I'm not bitter. I ran a warrior who made 60 before BC, made my runs in Molten Core and others, did outland etc... and have plenty of alts in other servers...well did anyway. Basically it got boring after a while.

[Azazal]

Solo-able 'end game' content. Not everyone has the time to continously do the same dungeon over and over. Hell not everyone wants to be in a guild.
Having some solo end game stuff would help balance out the massive balance difference between players with skill and players with plenty of time.

Again, it will probably outrage the PvPurists, but I'd like to see something more for the solo players, even some end-game quests that can only be done solo as solo PvE where you can rely only on yourself does take different skills than getting 39 of your buddies together to go on a raid where each of you can specialize with different skills/gear/whatever.

I agreed on this one BIG TIME. I have a full log of quests that are 5 man or dungeons in the outlands. I have done all of the quests that can be done solo, BC is at an end for me really. I have no interest in grinding faction rep, since Blizz has come out and said that the greens in the Liche King expansion will out weigh the current outland epics. So the only quets left are the group ones, need to get that 5000 gold, but trying to get together people to run them is a pain in the ass. My guild is fixedated on Karazhan, the thought of helping others out with different sections seems alien to them. PS I'm still in the guild becuase a real life freind of mine is in it, but he's having second thoughts about the guild as well

Hell, any SD.neters on Scarlet Crusade, Horde side?

[Rye]

Oblivion-style fast travel. Even if it cost money. Yes, I know mages can summon portals but FFS, it takes sooo long to get anywhere. Flying mounths in Azeroth would be cool too, but seriously, instant travel to anywhere you've already discovered is needed far more than anything else.

[Broomstick]

If we can't have instant travel, I'd at least like to have mutiple home locations, or some way to travel quickly to a capital city. I've got one character's hearthstone set for Shattrath City because travel from Shattrath to either old world continent is easier due to the permanet portals. I have a Mage with a hearthstone set to a local inn and portal capability to the major cities. Those two strategies alone make quite a difference in getting around, but they're only open to either 60+ characters or mages, not anyone else.

Adding these other continents in just makes travel way too time consuming sometimes.

[2000AD]

The article that made me realise there are people like me who play WoW mostly solo:

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060 ... n_01.shtml

[Broomstick]

Interesting article. I should point out that it is two years old and there have been some changes made to a few of the points he objects to, although many of them still stand as valid.

[Ghost Rider]

The article that made me realise there are people like me who play WoW mostly solo:

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060 ... n_01.shtml

Old article, but he's got a few basic things screwed up. The only real two things I agree are "The ToS sucks." and Group>Single. Yes, it does and that part is too much pressured, but then again Blizz is not charting new territory...it's just making things casual friendly. On that note, imagine he saw fucking Everquest. His head would explode.

Now onto reviewing some of the more laughable parts of his rose colored past.

A fair game does not give material advantages to one player over the other.

This one I find hilarious, given Capcom made certain characters better then others. Thus using Street Fighter as the model for this, makes one wonder...or Why do you think tournaments had most players picking only one or two charcters?

A fair game gives each player equal opportunity to bring whatever legal materials he wants (in our case, you can choose any character you want, no need to grind him to level 60. All players have immediate equal access to all characters.)
It's ok (and the entire point!) to bring to the game a) more knowledge than your opponent about the nuances of the game, and b) more skill than your opponent.

Now this one makes little sense. It's akin to comparing Chess to MMOs. Chess provides everything there, because the whole point of the game is to manipulate pieces to winning position. MMOs have no end goal...thus, wha? His comparison is Apples to Oranges given the completely different models of acquisition the game makers have.

Time invested should count for nothing in a fair game. It might take me 1 hour to learn a few nuances and gain a certain level of skill and you 1000 hours. The hours don't matter; only the knowledge and skill matter.

Here I cry bullshit. Games that are reflex based, which Street Fighter is, is completely time dependant. The more time you train your eyes and muscles to react a certain way...the better you are. If you trained a thousand hours with some bitch character, you are better...not because of skill or knowledge, but the fact you are FASTER. Hell, the best tourney players admit to this. They are good because they are faster at hitting sequences then their opponents. Knowledge helps, but you will see who is faster at the draw winning.

I'll say it again: winning is a meritocracy.

No, it's the same as WoW. I spend more time then you to learn the nuances of the game. Even in WoW at the worst days...it mattered who was faster. Certain classes gave you advantages as did equipment, but one on one? Who was faster won...and with the problems of connection, that could get ugly.

Finally, playing a fair game is what it's all about. It would never occur to us to play a game where one player gets to do 50% more damage because he has a level 60 Chun Li.

No, but playing a character who's priority in manuvers does win if all things are equal, because he/she hits FIRST and you have no way of countering it...but let's not think about that one *sigh*. That's why Street Fighters loved Guile, then Ryu/Ken, then Sagat. These characters had immense priorities in moves that theirs override the opponents most of the time. Combine that with who had better muscle memory is who you saw WINNING.

Oh and let's not mention EXPLOITATION of game mechanics.

1. Investing a lot of time in something is worth more than actual skill.

If you invest more time than someone else, you "deserve" rewards. People who invest less time "do not deserve" rewards. This is an absurd lesson that has no connection to anything I do in the real world. The user interface artist we have at work can create 10 times more value than an artist of average skill, even if the lesser artist works way, way more hours. The same is true of our star programmer. The very idea that time > skill is alien.

He gets the first part right. People in MMOs do believe this, but to say this is not true in the real world is a bald lie, given people consider who has invested more time....are considered more knowledgable.

And his Time > skill is such out and outright bullshit it's astounding. Where the fuck does he think skill comes from. It's poor or incorrect usage of memory that fucks one up. Let's say someone practices a manuver a thousand times, but does it wrong all those time. Then yes, his time is wasted. Not because of time alone...but she was doing it wrong a thousand times. Her body does not realize this, until it is corrected.

His second point is a funny one. Yes, it is time invested...but the best and laziest learned it is not how much but how well. I had in my old guild 6 Grand Marshalls. You know how they did it? Not playing for 8 hours a day, but playing for 3 with a coordinated team. Their winnings in 3 hours a day, got them each in turn the Grand Marshall rank in two weeks. The people who soloed it was because they couldn't use this resource. It sucks, but even the old honor system was about groups >Solo.

Now his Group > Solo is the best if not only correct part of the article. It focuses upon the thought that WoW was, and still is, all about group activities...at the complete expense of anything solo barring farming.

All in all, most of his rants are full of it, except the group versus solo affairs. His particular of how he compares SF to WoW in this regard does have a kernel of truth of how MMOs are and their particular caters in that regard. The rest is bullshit and half truth spinning. He should've focused upon what he believes are the detriment of catering solely to group activities about singular rather then the mish mash he spat out there.