Anticipating WoD, and Looking Back

[Poisonenvy]

 

So what are you looking forward to in WoD?  New pets, new mounts, Garrisons, new content?

Have you read up on everything you can, on certain bits, or decided to keep it completely fresh?

Did you get invited to the Beta?  Did you have a play?

Looking back .. why did you start playing, and what kept you hooked?

Watch the "Looking for Group" documentary ...

[Sheiabah]

I cannot wait for garrison and new pets and trainers, sad as I am,  I am a bit of a pet battle nut.  I am really looking forward to new story lines and amazing locations, simple things like the grass moving or the music in a zone, my family get annoyed as I always have the sound up really high when I play WoW as I love hearing the crickets in the background or the waterfall, I do tend to turn down the fighting noises and whack up the Ambient sounds :P and I remember the first time I walked into OL and looked up at the sky in Hellfire Peninsula, I still love that sky (hate the zone!).  That is what I am looking forward to exploring.

I did play the beta a little but not as much as I did when Mists was coming out, I want WoD to be fresher and less known to me but I have read up on various bits and pieces so I am not completely without a clue.

WoW always encourages me back for various reasons, I can get lost in WoW.  I can choose to be sociable and play with others but I can also hide and play a low level character in some far off land and ignore everyone and release some stress from the day.  I have unsubbed a couple of times, mostly because of life stuff like my son being born and I did think that perhaps Wildstar was going to actually encourage me to leave WoW all together but you know what, it didnt.  I have spent the last 6/7 years in WoW, I have invested so much time and effort into my characters and become so attached to them (they all have personalities to me) that I can't really imagine ever totally leaving WoW.   I am inconsistent in my playtime and have some weeks/months where I hardly play at all and some where its all I do but at the end of the day WoW is part of my daily life and will continue for as long as they make it.

[Poisonenvy]

I think we're very similar ... I'm looking forward to the Garrisons (primarily the followers) .. and I've just discovered that if you have a specific garrison building at a certain level, you can get a follower to actually "follow" you out whilst you're questing .. and each of the followers do different things, like healing, or produce a mail box, or sell stuff for you ... I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm going to get horribly distracted as soon as I can send them on missions.

New battle pets I'm looking forward to, as well as new rares and mounts, and treasure collecting ... the moving grass thing is already in!  I noticed that the other day when I was playing a lowbie .. I spent a ridiculous amount of time going out of my way just to walk through tall grass :p

The impact of the Hellfire sky has remained with me also .. when I first saw it I spent a long time just staring at it, but I still love it now ... Netherstorm and Blades Edge, in certain areas, have gorgeous skies too.  Perhaps they put the best skies in the worst places to level, as a form of compensation :p

The problem I have sometimes, is that there are just too many things I want to do.  Occasionally I don't log in simply because I can't decide what I want to do first .. and sometimes when I only have half an hour spare, I won't log in because I just know I'll get distracted and end up losing an hour or two! (we've had a few burnt meals, because of that!)

I'm mainly looking forward to being part of the guild as we all explore, level and die, find new things and share them, get achievements, etc.

I'm basically looking forward to a major geekfest :p

[Lindalë]

I've been a massive fan of Blizzard games ever since I first started playing Diablo 1 and later Warcraft and Starcraft. So when it was announced that Blizzard would release an MMO based on the world of Warcraft (I think it's a simple and elegent title!), I was really psyched. Back in those days, everything made in the US was released several months later in Europe, so of course, I was biting my nails until it was released here. One of the things I loved best about it, even before I started playing, was the fact that pretty much any PC could run the game. For the incredibly high quality of graphics, it was amazingly performance friendly.

I clearly remember the difference with many MMO's at the time, something that was heavily advertised: Thousands of quests for players to enjoy. I started playing on a Role Playing server, as alliance and though I don't fancy Roleplaying all the time, I enjoy it very much when I do. What struck me most though, was the immersiveness of it all, the questlines and just about everything. Even if you don't fancy the incredible quest messages, which all tell the tale of how and why, (and I often don't bother with them), you can still get a sense of the story by just doing the quests. I particularly like the Edwin van Cleef storyline.

As the game progresses, I see more and more of Warcraft's old Baddies and story being incorporated into the game, which, as a minor lore buff, I really appreciate. For instance, the fall from grace of Illidan Stormrage is one of my most favourite storylines. The fact that Warden Maiev was incorporated into WoW as well through a questline in Shadowmoon Valley, as well as in the Illidan fight in Black Temple just shows how much Blizzard cares about its storylines and lore. While there are inevitably some deviations from the original storyline, they are pretty much all in line with the progression of the story in WoW, or minor side quests that have little to no impact on the greater story.

Now, almost 10 years later, I still play WoW. I often wonder why, because I am so often so bored with WoW that I take a short or long hiatus (I think my total time not playing adds up to a year or two). It's not because of the story or the quests, or the graphics, they are as beautiful as ever and continue to evolve. What I really don't like about WoW is the incessant need to grind things. I HATE that. Yet, I keep returning, still begging the question why. I have played many other MMO's before or during those 10 years, amongst which are Lord of the Rings online (incredibly close to the original lore!), EVE online, Wildstar, Dark Age of Camelot, Star Wars (both of them), and still I return to WoW. While all of the above is certainly a major factor, not to mention the social interaction with people (both hateful and incredibly moving), but I think the most important factor is this: Blizzard has always found a way to incorporate the best parts of MMO's into WoW.

When Lord of the Rings Online was released, it featured an achievement system that actually had an impact on the game. Blizzard immediately latched on to this, and though the impact on the game is more in a secondary manner (titles, tabards, mounts, etc), it also means that those that hate to grind, don't have to. People have always liked the vanity pets WoW has always had, but with the advent of Pet Battles they struck a golden note. Now, with WoD on the horizon, they have masterfully copied yet another thing, this time from Star Wars: The Old Republic and partially from LotRO, and made it fully their own. Both LotRO and SWTOR have a sort of housing system, in which you can furnish your house, or whatever it's called to your own liking. Though I don't entirely enjoy the thought of real-time building queues, it doesn't bother me that much either. The Garrison is definitely something I am going to twiddle with. The other thing, entirely from SWTOR, is the followers that can be sent out on tradeskill missions. Blizzard has made this even more awesome by adding a lot of potential followers and tieing the missions in with the Garrison. OMG! I love this!

So there you have it. Blizzard is a gaming God. In my opinion, it will be very hard to screw up so much that I will stop revering them (and boy, did they screw up badly on D3!). I figure that as long as WoW lives, I will continue to keep playing it, more often than not.

[Poisonenvy]

Here here! (or is it hear hear?!) .. and nicely written.  You should consider doing some blogging

[Leeboi2703]

Haha, a few things about the posts here; first is yes PE it's hear hear (just for future reference or whatever), two, PE is very right, though I don't agree with everything you have said, you are quite the writer Lindalé, I wouldn't go as far as gifted, but you should consider what PE said, your writing is strong, you have very vivid details and you seem to have a lot passion which is a big bonus for a writer. And third, you are so (!) wrong about D3, yes it may have been flawed at the start and a bit linear, but you haven't given it a chance, they have very much improved it, graphics, content and play wise, they have made it much prettier than when it originally was, though the grinding is still prominent.

 

Now for the topic at hand, why did I start WoW and what has kept me playing? Well I was referred by friend originally on a week trial, when I first started playing it was ground-mark technology, I had never seen or played a game as beautiful or enticing, though the novelty soon wore off and I dipped in and out frequently, I wont say I've played for 9 years, despite starting then I've only really played for about 5 with all the breaks, the account stealing, real life issues and just plain boredom, it is a great game, but I have a short attention and they have been slow lately. As for the future I haven't looked into a it with great detail, and I really have not like the spoilers that have been thrown around by friends and the guild, I love (!) surprises, mostly because if I look into something that isn't out yet I get familiar with it then bored, but I am looking forward to WoD, thankfully the "spoilers" have been more like trailers and I still have very little idea of what is to come.

 

And Lindalé isn't the only one with a knack for writing, you're posts though not quite as well written as Lindale's are very insightful and they get the message across well, I can't tell you how often I have been bored by some people's blog posts, even when what they write is important, but yours are clearly well thought out (maybe too well) and I like how you get your message across without going off on a tangent and putting the guild to sleep :P

[Poisonenvy]

You won't have seen many spoilers from me (in my opinion spoilers are those little cool bits that, when you come across them, you go "oooh .. how cool!") .. I've mentioned the big stuff, generally, because that's everywhere .. but to be honest even thought I did play the beta a bit, I didn't do a lot of it because I, too, wanted to see it fresh.  I also only played the first couple of levels, during the very early stages of the beta .. so (a) quite a bit of that may have changed (they completely re-wrote Jade Forest during that Beta) and (b) I only really saw one and a bit areas :P

I'm pleased I have someone else reading my blog posts .. but my main problem is it takes me far too long to write them, so I often don't have the time.  I do also have a horrible habit of seeing spelling mistakes everywhere .. so it takes me forever to spell and grammatically check what I write.  Hence the lack of regular posts

 

[Konfor]

Ho ho ho. Demon corrects PE's spelling, goes on a comma frenzy and finally writes, "You're posts". I have fully confidence in the future of our English students :)

 

I fully agree with PE's sentiments about the Hellfire skies. While it was not everyone's favourite leveling zone, it was stunning to look at. I also enjoyed always having to keep an eye out for everyone's favourite Fel Reaver :)

I started during BC and was quite content to enjoy a relaxed leveling experience with a lovely Czech couple who sadly no longer play. The husband was an end-game raider (quite an achievement at the time) and had an encyclopedic knowledge of the game. He ALWAYS knew where to go. I loved the whole BC experience. I did not mind grinding, had no problem with unlocking access to raids and dungeons via reputation and loved spending hours going through the bigger dungeons with friends. 

Wrath was a different experience. I had found that I enjoyed raiding, and was lucky enough to raid with some lovely Portuguese people followed by another guild full of fun Northerners :) I missed a lot of Ulduar as my wife went into labor during a raid (I have never forgiven her) but came back when life settled and managed to to complete heroic Lich King before the nerfs came in. I suffered complete burn out in Cataclysm due to the the non-stop progression raiding and vowed never to put as much effort into raiding again. MOP was a horrendous affair for me. Pandas are horrible animals that mask their foulness behind supposed cute looks.

I am looking forward to WOD, though I am still trying to work out if Garrisons will be useful or if it is just some Android game plugged into WOW, just like pet battles (sorry to say this to you pet lovers). Fortunately, I think I am now in a guild where I can start enjoying the game again.

 

[Poisonenvy]

Haha .. I confess I did giggle a bit there Konfor :p

"you're" and "you are" weirdly always remind me of an episode of Star Trek where they explained that you could tell Data was an android because he couldn't work out contractions :p

[Lindalë]

Thanks guys! :)

I've always had a knack for writing, though I do tend to be a bit long-winded, mostly thanks to Tolkien's influence. I've written a number of poems, short stories and even once attempted to write a sequel to Lord of the Rings. I stopped doing that at 80 pages (hand written), because it was way too heavily influenced by SciFi, as well as it was fully written in I form.

Perhaps I should enter NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) though and see how I do there. :P

 

[Poisonenvy]

I think that's an excellent idea.  It does take a lot of discipline to sit down and write, and unfortunately generally I'm just too impatient (plus too slow!).  My typing is fairly fast, and usually (!) fairly accurate, but it takes a long time sometimes to get the stuff out of my head onto the screen .. and then I have to re-read it multiple times to make sure it makes sense to everyone NOT in my head :p 

If you post some stuff online, feel free to link it

[Leeboi2703]

Sorry for correcting you PE, force of habit, and I corrected my 'your', 'you're' thing 3 times, I must have been having a brain fart, though I have a minor coordination disability so that will have caused me to see it wrong, strangely I only miss these things in my own work, a bit of a doofus sometimes, oh and Linda if you ever want to share stuff you've written for support, criticism or ideas feel free to share them with me either here or on a FB PM or something, my career aspiration is to be an author of some kind so I'd love for us to help and learn from each other, anyone else who has a writing hobby of any kind, poetry like Lindale, short stories like me or just a fancy for blogging say so, a blogging/ writing sharing group would be fun, plus being an English Student I will have assignments involving creative writing of some sort and I rarely find my own grammar and spelling mistake :)

[Poisonenvy]

Not a problem Lee .. I did kinda invite a correction, after all

If you are interested in writing, Lee, it might be worth looking into http://nanowrimo.org/ that Lindale mentioned ... I've seen other bloggers talk about it, and I think some of the WoW bloggers are also part of something similar.

If you need anyone to check things, I'm usually fairly good at proofreading (in fact, I'm a little OCD about it at times if I'm not careful!  Sometimes I deliberately let a spelling mistake through just because I need to prove to myself I can .. although admittedly sometimes they just slip through anyway :P )

I have done a little proofreading before .. I often checked reports for guys I worked for, before sending them out to clients, and I've also proof-read an initial script for the start of a web-series/game that was in the process of being developed, although I don't think that's gone any further for quite some time.

I would just say though, that the people who are often most criticised for their spelling and grammatical errors, are those who have just criticised someone else .. so worth double checking

[Sheiabah]

Haha I've been known to write the odd short story, usually in the theme of a Mills and Boon Blaze story (I would google it if you don't know what they are!) and so I will perhaps refrain from posting here and asking for comments :P

 

 

[Poisonenvy]

Ooooh Jol!!! Well I never!  .. send me a link! :P