WoW Insider Best of 2006: Blizzard's Best and Worst
by Mike Schramm 
Dec 22nd 2006 at 3:34PM
This is the final entry in our year end awards. All this week, we've looked at the best Azeroth had to offer this year-- from Guild, Server and Class, through Friend, Enemy, and Instance, all the way to Player and Addon of the Year.And today we're taking a final look at the company behind it all in 2006. WoW looks like a completely different game right now then it did last January-- PVP is completely different, the endgame instances have almost doubled in size and number, items have sprouted up like adds in UBRS, and the classes have almost completely new talents across the board. Blizzard did a lot to this game this year, but not all of it was great. So today we're taking a look at the best change Blizzard made this year, and the worst. Best and Worst Blizzard Moves of the Year are after the jump.
Best Blizzard Move of the Year: Cross-server BattlegroundsPVP is a completely different game, especially after the changes at the end of the year. DHKs are gone, as well as HKs-- now it's all honor points. Rankings are completely out, and a lot of players are glad to see them go. But as beneficial as that change was, it didn't affect the game as much as the implementation of cross-server battlegrounds. Through some magic of code, Blizzard hooked up groups of servers, connected them to the same battleground, and suddenly, the days of waiting for the other side to fill up the queue were shortened, if not gone completely.
Suddenly, with an overnight patch, players could actually play in the BGs instead of just waiting for them. Honor was plentiful (as plentiful as it got back then), and PVP guilds and premades actually became worth making. As a result, rivalries have built up-- in between servers. There are still some issues-- I spent a really long time in a queue tonight, and I'm not sure why-- but for the most part, cross-server BGs made BGs as popular as they are today. Players keep saying that grinding for honor points today is easy and takes relatively no time at all. But that's only because you can get a match together every few minutes-- before cross-server, it was most like once every few hours.
Worst Blizzard Move of the Year: The Addon Lockdown
Blizzard has made a lot of talent changes that players didn't like, but they've made a lot that players have, too. Druids really didn't like that cooldown added to their shifting, and Warriors will never settle down over in their forum until Tactical Mastery is trainable. But the Addon Lockdown affected everyone in the game, and not in a good way. Blizzard devs decided that mods like Decursive were making the game too easy, and locked them out, requiring all Addons (even valuable and uncontested addons like Auctioneer and CTRaid) to update themselves.
Now, leave out for a second the argument of whether you think Decursive was cheating or not. The problem with this move isn't in the reasons behind it, it's in the way it was implemented. When Blizzard decided Decursive wasn't appropriate, they could have changed the encounters "required" to use it. They could have implemented new challenges in those encounters, challenges that a mod couldn't solve for players. In short, they could have changed the game. But instead, they decided to yank the mods and change the way players play. That's why it was such an issue-- instead of adjusting the game to fit the players, they forced the players to adjust to fit their game.
And that lead to all kinds of trouble. All mods were broken, left and right. Mods whose authors have stopped updating will never be seen in the game again, and mods like Auctioneer, whose authors don't have time to fix things quickly, are still MIA. As a result, endgame raiding was a disaster for weeks after the patch. And I still get errors in game, telling me my (updated for 2.0) addons are doing something they're not allowed to do. Instead of coming with a creative way to challenge the player, Blizzard challenged everyone by breaking the interface.
Things will get back to normal-- with new addons and macros, almost everybody is back to speed, and the devs, we assume, are happy now. But for forcing players' hands instead of honing their videogame, the Addon Lockdown is Blizzard's Worst Move of the Year.
That's it for this year's awards-- thanks again for your nominations. We'll see you again next year-- who knows what will be coming for WoW in 2007? Well, there is that whole "expansion" thing...
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items, Add-Ons, Features
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
randomengine Dec 22nd 2006 3:59PM
Dear Mr. Schramm,
Maybe if you and many others like you stop using mods as a crutch and play the game the way it was designed to be played (without any mods) you wouldn't be having any problems. Using mods in my opinion is cheating because by definition it gives unfair advantages to players who use them over everyone else who does not.
I wish Blizzard would break them permanently and that you and others like you would learn to play the game in its natural state.
Duro Dec 22nd 2006 4:15PM
@#1
They (Blizz) gave out the UI modification information *for a reason*.
Blizz has a UI Addon forum *for the same reason*.
They *want* people to be able to play with the UI and customize it.
Now, as far as the (usual) reaction of "zomg decursive!?!" goes, I think it's overblown to a degree. My guild's casters are upset, but no accounts are being canceled.
What gets me is that Decursive et al only became an issue as we moved to the release of TBC, yet it was fine until then when they (probably) could have patched it out with the release of AQ or Naxx.
Code_Man65 Dec 22nd 2006 4:18PM
@#1
Umm have you ever tried raiding with Blizzards default UI? To say it sucks is a massive understatement. Almost every UI change they have made has been spurred on by an addon that became ubiquitous. Need some examples? Here we go
Raid Leader having a different text color.
Being able to send a warning that shows up in the center of the scree.
Being able to set Main Tanks.
Being able to have the Raid Groups visible on the screen.
And those are all from just ONE mod. So might I recommend a little thoughtful consideration rather then levity?
Sylythn Dec 22nd 2006 4:20PM
One thing that very often is overlooked in the "mod breaking" patch, is the fact that Blizzard didn't solely do this to break decursive or other mods. The update was essentially a new software revision of the mod (LUA) coding scheme - and as such, broke some existing functionality while adding others.
One new feature of mods v2.0 (as I'll call it) that has let us do some really amazing simple macros is /focus. Focus allows you to save a target other than the current one. So in just a couple lines, I can have a macro that sets my focus to a mob I want seduced. Then all I have to do, is click seduce whenever its timer expires and voila - the original target gets seduced again - without ever breaking stride in what I'm currently doing.
randomengine Dec 22nd 2006 4:44PM
Just because Blizzard creates tools and gives support to players that modify the UI does not address the argument that using mods that gives advantages in-game is cheating. There is little difference between WoW mods of today and the Diablo trainers of yesterday.
The are only 2 differences between WoW mods and Diablo trainers. They are of two kinds: support and scope.
Firstly, Blizzard does not create any first-party mods, for WoW, but gives support and tools to third-party mod makers. The Diablo trainers which completely ruined that game where also done by a third-party, but no official channel existed to support them.
Lastly, the scope of the UI modifications for WoW are much more limited than the trainers for Diablo were.
It is a slippery slope, but looking at it from this perspective the only differences are of scale.
That is not to say I hate all UI modifications. This is not true, skinning is a good example of a UI mod that does not lend unfair advantages to users.
It is a major fault of a game if, like many say, the raid mods are NECESSARY for doing high-end content. If this is the case, then the game needs to be changed to allow proper play without the mods.
From my perspective, Blizzard is condoning and supporting cheating in their game.
Argent Dec 22nd 2006 5:05PM
from DAY *ONE* WoW was meant to have a sandbox-like UI environment which would allow people to tweak and extend the UI to do stuff of their choosing. this is something that goes as far back as 2002. and from day one, blizz has been pretty adamant about setting parameters from within said sandbox would be governed.
blizz has on previous occasions identified and removed mods and their functionality because they didn't conform to their vision. that's their prerogative and entirely within their right. but that's still nowere even remotely near a sort of hamfisted edict of 'thou must play the game with no mods that extend functionality'.
a good counterexample is how blizzard considered and incorporated click-casting. yeah, decursive got the boot but stuff like clique got embraced and supported. personally, i don't miss decursive, love my grid+clique setup and feel that all things considered, 2.0 has helped my ui/mod setup more than it has hindered it -- and it's within the parameters of blizzards sandbox, to boot.
if you really wanna shop comparisons to diablo trainers, look at stuff like patch5 and whatnot -- that's an appropriate comparison. but blizz has been pretty staunch in their support of peoples freedom to innovate within their sandbox -- just as long as said innovation is on their terms.
that's a far, far cry from 'we expect everyone to only use the UI we supply them'. besides, if that's the case, how come CT RA and SCT haven't been written out altogether as well?
Kirkburn Dec 22nd 2006 5:28PM
I would be interested to know if anyone who continues to speak of the addon apocalypse has actually spoken to addon authors about it.
There's a difference between addons getting broken due to a code update and addons getting broken *on purpose*. It was the former.
Not only that, but NOT ALL ADDONS WERE BROKEN. And I can prove it, since my own, ClearFont, was not broken in any way shape or form.
Please, please for god's sake stop saying that all this was due to Blizz trying to lock out Decursive. IT WASN'T. Some of the changes were related, yes, but far FAR more of then were due to the update of the base code from Lua 5.0 to 5.1.
Jason Dec 22nd 2006 7:23PM
Blizzard breaking the vast majority of addons was not, by far, their 'worst move of the year'. People got used to having mods do everything in raids for them, and Blizzard took their time, looked at what was out there, decided what they wanted to stay in the game, and rewrote the UI scripting interface around that premise.
Yes, as a result the way most mods did things was broken. Yes, as a result, you can't implement decursive in any way, shape or form as it was before. One button heals that auto-downrank no longer work.
So what does still work? Clique still works. It's a click healing mod for raids, and I know several people that use it to great effect. Yes, it requires a little more work since it can't choose rank/type of heal for you. Shaman mods like Call of Elements don't work the same either. However, I'd bet that it could be rewritten to use a custom bar setup with all your totems placed there, calling them as needed from the totem sets you create.
Ultimately, if you want a truly bad move? How about Naxxramas? One last bone tossed to the hardcore raiders. Yes, it had been in development for a while. Yes, it was pretty much next in line to be released. However, I see it as one more poor move in a line of them, that started with a 40 man endgame that for the near future is going away. Will it remain that way? I honestly don't know; I don't work at Blizzard. Do I hope it stays the way it's going? Most certainly, I do. So, all in all, QQ a little more, now that your raiding crutch is gone. I'll freely admit to having decursive installed and using it. Now that it's gone, it's time to find a better way of doing things, without a crutch.
Guernia Dec 22nd 2006 7:30PM
IMHO mods don't enable some players to cheat. Instead, they enable every player to level the playing field as much or as little as they like.
For some obviously gifted players such as randomengine for whom the default UI is presumably 100% accessible and workable, this is not a problem. For others, the defult UI is a clunky, cumbersome and poorly planned nightmare of an interface. Mods that lets everyone change whatever at their whim enable the greatest freedom for all.
If someone has an advantage over you because they use a mod, there's NOTHING stopping you from utilizing said mod and leveling the playing field. By choosing not to, you're choosing to deliberately gimp yourself. If you tell yourself that that's because the majority of mod users like to cheat in order for you to maintain your artificial holier-than-thou sense of martyrdom, don't expect too many people to feel much sympathy for you.
L2play? L2mod.
Skunky Dec 22nd 2006 7:40PM
Decursive was in Blizzard's sights for a very long time. Since like Patch 1.7 or so, Blizzard has stated clearly that they felt Decursive and mods like it were not in the spirit of the game. Although the Decursive developers found a way around Blizzard's first attempt to kill it, that did not mean that Blizzard was going to stop trying. Boom, head shot! Decursive is dead. Blizzard made no bones about their goal of eliminating Decursive for a very long time.
With that said, I have raided many, many times on my priest and my pally, and I will certainly miss Decursive, but, at the same time, it's not like Blizzard was sneaking around behind our backs about it. If Blizzard says the AddOn feature of WoW was not intended to allow for such mods as Decursive, then that is the way it is, and we all must deal with it.
It is unfortunate, though, that the new AddOn interface broke so many of the older mods. I do believe that could have been handled better. However, the blow is an impetus for the mod community to rebuild what it has lost, and I think we will see some very good things from this effort. Necessity combined with new ideas will bring about some interesting new mods I think.
The one thing I am very glad about Decursive being removed is that in PvP on my lock I don't have nearly the number of DoTs dispelled. :)
Tiny Tim Dec 23rd 2006 2:41AM
I'm not commmenting on the worst thing blizzard did like everyone else, I'm commenting on the best... Yes, for some people, especially the Horde in my BG group, have almost instant queues, but the alliance side of my BG group has close to half hour queues for AB and WSG and hour queues for AV... so with the new honor grind the Horde that we play against are getting tons and tons of honor very quickly and we're not... just making the playing field less equal to begin with, before the cross server battlegrounds was implemented are queue times were no where near this long... I completely hate the x-server battlegrounds, as does most of the alliance on my realm.
Ghostle Dec 23rd 2006 2:47AM
I have to partially dissagree with the cross realm bg's being a good thing. Being horde, my times were already pretty fast, never had to wait more than 2 mins, now waiting more then 30 seconds is too long. The allies on my server got the shaft, they went from 10-20 mins queues to 45-60 mins queues.
Thats not the bad part. The bad part is that before the cross realms bg's, our horde av teams would finish the game in 20 mins, capping everything, killing everything and winning, approx 19 out of 20 times. Now, the horde I am paired with in bg's seem like they came off the short bus. While discussing it with people from those other servers that their horde could not win an av for the life of them. The other day, the x-realm bg's went down for a night, so we only had people from our own server playing against each other (like old times) and we just murdered the allies, so far as them going on our realm boards and wonder how in gods name we could win all the games in a night when they barely see horde win when the cross realms are up.
No we are not overgeared, no the allies are not undergeared, its just that we had to learn to play and win AV matches vs amazingly hard alliance (who yes, at times out geared us). Simply put, we used team work. But try that now, or give people advice in bg's and they mock you or call you a noob and thats not how they did it on their server.
Ender Dec 24th 2006 7:46PM
I'd say the best thing they did was the 25 man raids ni BC (yeah probably counts towards next year). 40 man raids are just no fun to organize and really dumb down individual skill.
I'm not a huge fan of the battlegroups. BG's are easier to start now but they aren't anywhere near as fun. There is no sense of competition or rivalry anymore because you don't see the same people time and time again. Furthermore AB and WSG are running rampant with premades so aren't even worth playing in general and AV gets boring really fast if its all you do. Finally I play on a newer server so I spend 100% of my time fighting people with gear 10 times as good as mine. The entire system was poorly designed.
What they should have done is grouped servers by age and faction population and made created smaller groups to keep the rivalries alive.
Procurion Dec 26th 2006 7:59PM
Those that say Decursive wasn't a valuable tool never healed a big raid before. I understand that Blizzard deliberately disabled that avenue. Randomengine will be the FIRST to complain to his healers if they don't decurse him, I'm sure. I am out of the decursing business because I cannot heal 39 other people AND inspect them to find out if they have something to be cured. To all of you that want to bitch about mods and how you're glad they are gone, remember that when you don't get cured. I used to decurse over 500 times in an average MC run...no more. I've refused to do it since the patch-I have the right to be able to look around and SEE the instances and enjoy them, too. Do what Blizzard intended and learn First Aid, make your poison cure pots, and buy the ones' that you can't make...PLEASE!....:) I'm an Alchemist and looking forward to it.