In Gamers on the Street, Krystalle Voecks will be creating characters and joining random US servers in an attempt to find out what the everyday Gamer thinks about different things going on in and around the World of Warcraft. With research in hand, she'll report back here on Thursdays, to share the word from the front lines.

With all the excitement about the PTRs and pre-made characters, I thought it would be interesting to ask people what they thought about some of the upcoming changes that Blizzard is adding into WoW in patch 2.2. Interestingly enough, the majority of people that I asked admitted that they didn't even bother reading the patch notes until they were released as live. Many said this was because of changes happening so fast that it wasn't worth tracking until it was finished. Others had only heard about the frenzy to get on the PTRs, and maybe of a couple of things in the works. But after a bit of searching, I managed to get two people who were willing to take time out of their busy schedules and give me their thoughts on their "best and worst" in the upcoming patch, as well as their thoughts on Voice Over IP (VOIP) that Blizzard is building into the game and hopes to make available soon.

In pursuit of the word from the everyday gamer, I signed into one of the oldest servers in the game: Lothar. It was originally brought online when the game was released, and has seen open transfers off the realm due to over-population. According to Warcraft Realms' Census information, Lothar houses a good-sized population of roughly 23 thousand players. The server heavily favors the Alliance, with an average of 2.8 Alliance players for every Horde player.

I managed to get a few words with Angelsil, Level 70 Human Mage of the guild <Ominous>. When asked, Angelsil told me that she was one of the continuing Frost Mage devotees, unable to part with her beloved Ice Block in the new fiery game. When she's not blowing through Kara with her guildmates, she says she enjoys putting Ice Lances in Gruul for fun and profit. She also has a Warlock and a Priest at endgame, although those are Horde side.

WoW Insider: So what is it that you are really looking forward to in patch 2.2?

Angelsil: There is supposed to be more loot for the Violet Eye faction, which is good. It seems that right now there are kinda crappy rewards for farming Karazhan rep-wise.

WI: I love my ring, but I'd love to see more too. What's the absolute worst thing in patch 2.2 that you've seen as yet?

Angelsil: I still think that resilience is a complete waste on PvE characters [compared to other stats], as clothies shouldn't be getting hit in raids. But it seems we're going to be forced to take it on some gear. Blizzard seems to be giving it up to PvP again at the cost of PvE raiding.

WI: What do you think of the upcoming in-game Voice Over IP (VOIP) that Blizzard has planned?

Angelsil: I think it's a brilliant idea! PUGs have long suffered from a lack of easy communication. Admittedly, I don't think it will replace private VOIP, but I do think it will become commonplace in PUGs and BGs where previously we only had typed chat.


The next person I caught up with was the L70 Orc Rogue, Biata from the guild <Hikari No Senshi>. Biata is a combat dagger specced Rogue, who says she's in a medium sized guild. Her guild has cleared Kara, and is currently working on Gruul's Lair. When she's not raiding, she says she can be found killing Ogres in Outland as revenge against the ones in Dire Maul that killed her many, many times.

WoW Insider: So what are you really looking forward to in patch 2.2?

Biata: The thing I'm looking forward to most in the patch is the AQ 40 enchants that are being added to Outland factions for purchase since my guild doesn't do the instance anymore. (she is an enchanter)

WI: What's the absolute worst thing in patch 2.2 that you've seen as yet?

Biata: The only thing that I'm not looking forward to in the patch is the reputation grind to exalted for the enchanting patterns. I just get bored with the grind sometimes.

WI: I can relate to you there. And finally, what do you think of the upcoming in-game VOIP that is planned?

Biata: I'm still up in the air about the proposed VOIP. It could either be a positive or negative change depending on exactly how it works. If there is a way to make it guild, group, or raid specific then I feel the implementation could be wonderful. If not, then things have the potential for going in a less enjoyable direction. As to guilds not having their own Team Server/Ventrillo servers... Again I think it will depend on what the options are for its use.

While resilience on cloth doesn't affect me, I can totally agree with some of the rest. As I'm also an enchanter, making the old enchants available is nice. The only real problem I see is that now there's pretty well very little to no reason to ever go back and even bother with that content. (Not that there are queues of people waiting to get into AQ) What are some of your best and worst of the upcoming patch 2.2? How about VOIP?

Also, if you're interested in potentially being interviewed for Gamers on the Street, send a mail to gamersonthestreet@gmail.com, with your character name and server. You might just get a visit from a low-level character asking if you'd like to give your thoughts on what's going on in World of Warcraft!

Tags: gamers on the street, GamersOnTheStreet, interviews, joystiqfeatures, patch 2.2, Patch2.2, VOIP

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gamers on the Street