Yay.


/cue WoWSUX

I wonder how long they can milk this game? Considering Everquest is still kicking, my guess is forever.

i heard that it has 10 million subcribers. i wonder if that's the real, active number - because that's an insane amount of revenue per month.

Its never been clear whether that included trials or not but even if it they had 2 million active subscribers thats pretty insane, considering EQ had some 300k at its highest, I believe.

This game (probably due to WC3:DOTA) is very popular in asia and gamers are like gods over there. (wierdos :P)

From what I know Blizzard is working on a new MMORPG so I wouldnt be surprised that additional flavour and content will severely be toned down after the next expansion.

5 million gold farmers, 4 million compromised accounts

Someone resurrect J. R. R. Tolkien and give him a shotgun. He couldn't get any decent sleep.

I'm in the beta of WOTLK right now, and I can honestly say that it's worth the hype. The scale of Northrend is so much larger than Outland, and it's a much more cohesive landmass. WOTLK isn't just another cheap WoW expansion like a lot of people felt TBC was, it has a much cooler story that doesn't try to tackle too much really poorly like they did for Illidan / Kael / Vashj. There's 1 large, over-arching story that covers everything really well. They've got interesting side stories that you can play with, as well, with the Dragonflights, the Dalaran mages, and the different competing factions already in the area, and you can go as deep or as lightly into the story as you want.

WOTLK isn't just WoW 1.2. It's a pretty massive, ground-up overhaul of how things work. They've restructured raiding, PVP combat, how classes work together, and how and when you receive certain loot.

Also: When you see The Storm Peaks, you'll s*** bricks.

What kind of month is 13?

Oh great, here we go again, lets debate how to write the date everyone!

Blizzard wrote it as 11.13.2008 here : http://www.wowhead.com/

EDIT: You know what, nevermind, it's just too stupid to even talk about.

I played WoW for 3+ years and I don't think there is anything they could do to get me to play that game again. I am beyond burn out on that game. On the bright side, it was fun most of the time I played it. I just have a helluva better time shooting people in the head.

Smarch.

Haven't heard word one about this--and blizzard doesn't let rumors leak. Ever. I mean even when people KNEW starcraft 2 was gonna be announced in March (I think it was), everyone (including you iirc) denied it.

So I doubt it.


This.

Do you mind elaborating on some of this? Specifically, all of it.

How is raiding changed?
How do the factions work into the story?
How is pvp changed?
How is looting changed?
How is class cohesion changed?
How well do Death Knights fit in to pve raid scenarios as well as pvp?
What are the storm peaks?
Why will they make me **** bricks?
What's the large arcing story-line and why would I care anymore about it than the whole Vash, Illidan, Kael ****storm?

I might consider going back after the death knight kiddies die down a little.

How is raiding changed?
Every instance is now available in 10-man and 25-man varieties, with 25-man having slightly better loot than the 10 man. Also there are more 1-boss raid instances, similar to Magtheridon or Onyxia. The 10-man are much more manageable, although it is still raiding, and requires a time commitment if you want to tackle the large dungeons.

How do the factions work into the story?
I'm not entirely sure yet, I haven't been leveling in Northrend (been doing DK and level 80 stuff), but Blizzard is starting this player specific instancing of the world. So if you destroy a building of faction A, it stays destroyed for you for the rest of the game, but for other players, that building is still standing. This isn't for large scale events (You can't side with the Lich King, for example, but the more minor factions you can, and you'll get a different story than someone that sided with the enemy faction)

How is pvp changed?
The best source of honor / arena points is now Lake Wintergrasp, an outdoor PVP area. It features siege combat, large scale invasions (there were over 400 people fighting at once last night). The battles are relatively quick (You don't get stalemates like you do in Alterac Valley), and since you get arena points and honor, it enables players to get PVP gear without having to sit through those awful BG and Arena queues.

How is looting changed?
It's now possible to get PVP gear from PVE, and vise versa. It enables players to get gear in more branching paths. The "best" gear still comes from pure activity (Best PVE gear comes from PVE instances), but it doesn't leave players out in the cold that don't excel or wish to commit to a certain style of play. They're enabling a lot more token based gear, so you don't have to wait months for that "certain" drop, you can just trade in 50 badges from bosses to get the gear you want.

How is class cohesion changed?
They're restructuring how buffing works, both positively and negatively, so you no longer benefit from stacking a certain class. It's looking like every class and spec fits into a PVE scenario, and there will no longer be cookie cutter "PVE" specs. Our raiding team is looking at basically having 1 player as every different spec, except maybe a couple PVP specs (Demonology Warlock, Subtlety Rogues).

How well do Death Knights fit in to pve raid scenarios as well as pvp?
Death Knights are looking to be really good "anti-magic" tanks, and excellent DPSers. They have neat abilities that boost attack power, similar to what a Ret Paladin or Enhancement Shaman do now, as well as healing and protecting a group through dealing damage. (they heal the group when they do damage, and buff armor / resistances). They're also shaping up as an extremely formidable PVP class, they have great damage and great survivability, as well as good CC and debuffing power. They're not extremely overpowered, they fall into the rock/paper/scissors PVP structure they're trying to balance out.

What are the storm peaks?
They're a new zone, where the Titans have been based for centuries.

Why will they make me **** bricks?
The scale of it is unlike anything before. There's these massive towers and buildings hat have Titans on the top, offering quests, that are nestled between massive ravines where little dudes are building golems and such. There's also these huge Titan workshops with gnomes are running around experimenting. This zone is just massive, with hundreds of different nooks and crannies and various levels of cool stuff, all under the backdrop of these massive spires. It's really cool.

What's the large arcing story-line and why would I care anymore about it than the whole Vash, Illidan, Kael ****storm?

I guess if you didn't care about that story, you won't care about this one. The single offensive power that is The Lich King and Icecrown casts a shadow over everything you do. Icecrown looks to have some massive battles planned out, and the scourge have taken over all kinds of areas around Northrend, as opposed to the little isolated pockets of Naga, Bloodelves and Demons like in TBC.