What was your reaction to Blizzcon?
- Pandas = Jumped The Shark. Will never pay Blizzard again.
- Signed up for the year-long subscription.
- Something in between these two extremes.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Poll: What was your reaction to Blizzcon?
New poll up on the blog, since I haven't done one of these in a while. My impression is that the overwhelming majority of Blizzcon reactions have been extremely positive or extremely negative. Your options (on the sidebar at PVD) are:
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I deleted all my characters, put it on youtube and installed Rift to bridge the three weeks until Skyrim and SW:TOR.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I blogged a lot about it :)
I voted for something inbetween.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I'm kinda apathetic. I'm likely going to buy the expansion, try out a Pandaren monk, and then not renew my sub after the initial 30 days are up. I expect to have my hands full with SWTOR from now on.
My reaction is on my blog though. I feel like we're past the point where we -need- to talk about Blizzard, because there are a good number of other titles either out or around the corner.
I actually quite like Pandaren. To me people who are so vocal about how 'kiddie' they are seem like they're just trying way too hard to sound 'mature' or 'grown up', but it has the opposite effect.
ReplyDeletePandaria in general looks very visually pleasing. I love exploring zones so the premise of leveling through a whole continent (with no flight!) is extremely appealing.
That being said, the devil is in the details with WoW for me. I don't want to grind, I don't want to do dailies, I don't want to collect points in order to do something I enjoy. I don't like gear gaps. I don't like how the focus seems to be on providing rewards as incentives instead of providing inherently fun gameplay. Will any of this change in MoP? Probably not. They're fairly fundamental elements of the game.
So really, I might pick buy the expansion and play for the 30 days that comes with it, but it's hard to imagine anything else.
I actually quite like Pandaren. To me people who are so vocal about how 'kiddie' they are seem like they're just trying way too hard to sound 'mature' or 'grown up', but it has the opposite effect.
ReplyDeleteThat's ridiculous, Fidjit :)
I am 31 years old and I have no problem with admitting that I like Buffy.
But Pandas do not fit into WoW's style in my opinion. And it doesn't matter to me that there might have been some Panda some 10 years ago in some other Blizzard game that I might not even have played (can't remember).
I just don't play games that use styles that I dislike. I also wouldn't play a game about cats tickling each other; no matter how good the gameplay might be.
I bought popcorn and put my feet up.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if there was a game with cats tickling each other I would probably never play anything else ever again. And I'm two decades older than Nils.
In my opinion, Pandas are silly. I don't mean that in a good or bad way, even. It just feels silly, and I wonder what will come out of it. WoW has enough silly areas already though, so this one shouldn't make or break anything.
ReplyDeleteIt's more the slew of changes: talents, pet battles, etc., that all look like they're supposed to be exciting. But they're not exciting to me. Some of them feel plain bad, some of them, I just shrug my shoulders at.
My subscription is about to run out, and right now, I'm half-angry, half-dispassionate about what they presented. Nothing that would make me stay.
I might change my opinion eventually, I often do. But right now, that's it for me.
"Something in between these two extremes"
ReplyDeleteNew classes and races don't hook me in - not a panda thing, it's just that I'm infinitely more interested in what an expansion means to my main character that I've been playing for many years. I'm sure I'll play a Pandaren Monk alt at some point, but it won't be until after I've levelled to 90 and experienced the new instances and raids.
The new zones look stylish and I'm sure they will provide an 85-90 experience that justifies the box price.
Pet battles could be fun, and I do have 71 pets to battle with. :-)
Ambivalent about yet another redesign of the talent system.
Probably most curious about the Scenario system.
"But Pandas do not fit into WoW's style in my opinion. And it doesn't matter to me that there might have been some Panda some 10 years ago in some other Blizzard game that I might not even have played (can't remember)."
ReplyDeleteIf someone doesn't like Pandas that's fine with me, I just don't quite understand the reasoning. I don't understand why the line was drawn at Pandas. Look at a Tuskarr and then look at a Pandaren. I'm not seeing any major stylistic departure. Same with Murlocs, Wolvar, etc. What exactly makes Pandaren *too silly* or *too childish*? The fact the some movie company made an unrelated film marketed towards children? I don't know.
As far as not caring that Pandaren date back to WC3, it certainly makes a difference. It's more evidence that Pandaren are somehow out of line for Blizzard. Yesterday Metzen revealed that Pandaren were very nearly the Alliance race for TBC. This has been on their minds for a long time, it's not some last-ditch whim to appeal to a new audience of 12 year olds.
Anyway... erm.
A lot of people are also using bashing it as a cheap way to promote their blog/online persona. This is the thing that makes them stop caring about WoW completely, but then they not only blog about it constantly but also comment on every single other blog that mentions it.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why the line was drawn at Pandas. Look at a Tuskarr and then look at a Pandaren
ReplyDeleteWell, first there are, of courese,m many other reasons I am dissatisfied with WoW. Take the dungeon finder that is going to become even more important.
But the difference between Pandas and Tuskarr is that Pandas will be everywhere comes the next expansion. I'd probably sit in some Panda-city-hub full of Panda-NPCs and teleport to my daily Panda-style dungeon and my Panda-style raids, wearing Panda-style items, reading Panda style quests ...
In the end, BlizzCon accomplished what it set out to do at our house.
ReplyDelete50% of WoW players polled in our house were totally jazzed about the expansion and are already nagging the other 50% about resubscribing as well as demanding a date for expansion availability.
The skeptical half of the WoW player demographic in our household liked a lot of what they saw, though they remain indifferent to pandas in general. After space goats, what is a panda between friends?
The key point of contention is whether anything in the new expansion will undo the Cataclysm malaise.
Blizzard is making a change in their target audience. Instead of targeting adults, they are now targeting preteens and the Chinese market. This is a pretext to the game eventually going free-to-play once it's lost enough subscribers. WoW is no longer targeted at the mature adult audience it once was. It's being simplified, adding Pokemon, and being turned into a joke.
ReplyDeleteThe new talents have me running in circles. The other information is just fluff, really. The game is moving in another direction, yawn. You can hit stuff in a new way. You can now be a grizzly or a wolf or whatever the new race is.
ReplyDeleteBut the talents! I think drastically simplifying things is the way to go. Now the talents look like something like the AA from EQ2. With a choice only every 15 levels instead of every two or so, there's a lot less fiddling with the interface.
On the other hand, I wonder what this'll do to the shiny feel of leveling up. Now what do you get? Access to new gear? New dungeons in the DF opening up? New spells automatically, I guess that's pretty good.
I sort of wish they would introduce more talents in the style they've showed they're going to, say every 10 levels instead of 15. Then hitting "the big 5-0" or whatever, feels special with regards to your customization level. I guess there are other bonuses such as mounts that fill the gaps.
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ReplyDeleteThey appear to be fixing many, if not all, of the things they screwed up in Cataclysm. Even better, the changes appear to be more consistent with a game design philosophy I would find acceptable. Having cancelled last February, I will be resubbing when MoP goes live.
ReplyDeleteAnd: quitting over pandas is just ridiculous. Rage-deleting ones characters, even more so. You're going to regret having done that, Nils.
Jumped the shark.
ReplyDeleteNils is my hero!
Also, if there was a game with cats tickling each other I would probably never play anything else ever again. And I'm two decades older than Nils.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Bhagpuss. Age doesn't really have much influence here. People simply have different tastes.
Yeah, out of all the catmen, walrusmen, dogmen and every other retarded race, it's the Pandas that are the breaking point right?
ReplyDeleteI like the Pandas. I like the expansion. I like the talent changes. I like it all.
ReplyDeleteAnd, I'm 40.
I've been thinking about the year-long subscription but I'm ambivalent about it. Chances are, I would pay it anyway (I'm not interested in SW:TOR and don't expect GW2 to replace WoW as my main game due to GW1's emphasis on PvP) but there's very little in the offer that I'm actually interested in. Maybe if I would have time to conduct proper beta testing but I don't expect to...
ReplyDeleteAs for the expansion, most features did not get me excited in either directions. I welcome the challenges as WoW lacked content that was both short and challenging, quest changes for the same reason although the announcement was very vague and the aesthetics as I prefer it over dark and overly realistic graphics most of the western MMOs have. I'm curious about how will the new talent system as I think the previous models lacked choice and the "various ways to earn VP" model pan out and indifferent about most of the other features.
Pandas don't bother me, but I'd actively like them if they were a part of a third faction I could then join with my Tauren Druid.
ReplyDelete"Allowing players to play panda humanoids “Pandaren” is a terrible mistake that will make Blizzard the laughing stock of the MMO world and will haunt them for years to come. The inclusion of these walking, dancing bears makes WoW look like a children’s MMO. It makes a complete mockery of the fundamental premise of WoW: a serious world that in a state of perpetual war." - Wolfshead
ReplyDeleteThis is a big deal for alot of people. I've polled the 10 or so "older" guys that play in my group. They are all quiting over it. Blizzard skipped over it and I think they will lose in the end.