Gamers on the Street: Some thoughts on the Expansion
by Krystalle Voecks 
Aug 17th 2007 at 12:35AM
After a week off to plan the Stampede on Stormwind event and deal with that Real Life thing that likes to sneak up on me between raiding and writing, Gamers on the Street has returned for another weekly chat with the denizens of Azeroth! Poised and ready to ask the nowhere nearly hard questions that many other people spend all their time on the forums thinking up. This week's run took me to the Bronzebeard server where I actually was able to find people on both sides of the fence who were willing to share their opinions about the news from Blizzcon about the upcoming expansion, and some of the buzz that has been going on ever since.
For this week's interviews with a couple of very cool WoW players, join me after the jump for the word from the Gamers on the Street.
For the Alliance side of the house, this week we spoke to the lovely Night Elf Druid Mezzaluna from the guild <Balance>. She let me know that one of the things that she really loves is when she gets to gaming with people, letting them know that she's a grandmother! She said she loves breaking down the gaming barriers -- especially when she lets them know she has three other 70s under her belt! When she's not running around on Mezzaluna, or having fun with her new guild (she recently joined them to take a break from "hardcore" raiding burnout) she loves to spend time helping other players out -- no matter if they're Horde or Alliance.WoW Insider: So, with the news about hero classes, what do you think? Should they add more, or do you think Death Knight is going to be enough for now?
Mezzaluna: Well, I was hoping that the initial release would include multiple hero classes, so that we'd see more... But if the mechanics need to be debugged a bit in play, maybe [having only] one is a good idea.
WI: How about the new dances and hairstyles? Are you looking forward to changing your look, or do you think those are kind of silly additions to the new expansion?
M: Actually, I don't care much about dancing, but Ive always thought that more customization to your character would be great. I'm a good example! My blue rinse hair does not go well with this set of robes. Dances are fun for about 2 minutes, but after that...meh. I hope they didn't spend a lot of man-hours on dances.
WI: I'm with you on customization, I've been after armor dyes myself. If you had the option to add any one thing into the new expansion, what's the one thing you really hope to see?
M: More character slots per realm. I'd also like to see a second hearthstone -- one for Azeroth and one for Outlands; with faster cool-downs. And a pet peeve I'd like fixed would be: make the NPC's on PVE servers non- flaggable for PVP.
WI: Those are all great ideas. Finally, if they do a Collector's Edition for WotLK, what kind of Limited Edition pet do you think you'd like to see?
M: LOL! Let's see..... a penguin! Northrend is very icy, I hear. I think a Penguin would be terrific. I just like the idea of a little waddling penguin, maybe with a little "Happy Feet" tribute in there.
Later, I managed to get a few minutes of time with Frostkip, level 70 Undead Mage from the guild <Legacy>. Much like Mezzaluna, Frostkip also recently joined his guild. However, in his case, Frostkip admitted that outside of raiding, he spends most of the rest of his time gaming with 10 of his his close friends from Boise, Idaho who call themselves the Comrades of Awesomeness! Frostkip let me know that he and his friends had a guild together for a while, but they branched off to seek raid progression once they got to endgame. (There seems to be quite a lot of progression jumping going on as of late!)WoW Insider: So, with the news about the Death Knights and hero classes, what do you think? Should Blizzard add more in, or do you think sticking with one is enough for now?
Frostkip: They should put in others. Considering it will be the newest, coolest thing, everyone will have a Death Knight. it will be like how Silvermoon City was filled with Paladins the day Burning Crusade was released.
WI: How about the new dances and hairstyles? Are you looking forward to changing your look, or do you think those are kind of silly additions to the new expansion?
F: They will be a very nice addition to the game. The hairstyles thing will add dynamics to your play and Blizzard just does a good job with their dances.
WI: I can definitely relate -- I'd like to see more character customization myself! If Blizzard let you design one thing for the new expansion... What would be the one thing you'd really want to see in it?
F: That's a hard one. Allow big cities to be raided easier. Make actual goals and quests for 40 man raids to attack the opposing faction's cities. This game pioneered the concept of open PvP. [They should] continue to build on [their] brain child.
WI: And finally, if they do a Collector's Edition for WotLK, what kind of Limited Edition pet do you think you'd like to see Blizzard add in?
F: Well since they've already made the Yeti, how about a mini fake siege weapon to go along with the new siege content?
WI: That's an interesting idea! I'd be curious to see a little catapult, but since there is a baby bomb pet from Engineering, why not?
F: Very true.
So with the buzz going on about different aspects of the upcoming expansion, what do you think? Should they open it up to other Hero Classes, or keep it to one until they work the bugs out? (Especially considering there wasn't even a playable Death Knight demo at Blizzcon, and Blizzard undoubtedly has a lot of work ahead of them...) Do hairstyles and dances make the character, or would you rather see other options for customization? Will Happy Feet rule the day or a wee little trebuchet? We'll have to wait and see, but it's always fun to daydream.
And remember, if you've got a Level 70, 15 minutes, and don't mind sharing your opinions, let me know you're willing to be interviewed for an upcoming edition of Gamers on the Street! Just drop me a line with your character name, server, if you're Horde or Alliance, and a good time to catch you online at gamersonthestreet@gmail.com! You never know, you could be the next person getting /whispered by me for an interview.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Gamers on the Street, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
WatcherZero Aug 17th 2007 1:20AM
What I would most like them to add in the expansion is another Primary proffesion slot, its all good having them differentiate but theyve added two new proffesions now and will probably add more meaning they actually become more constraining on your charachters. Something they could do is make inscription a secondary proffesion, or give you a secondary slot for one gathering proffesion.
Atebash Aug 17th 2007 3:04AM
Indeed, having one gathering profession as secondary would be ingenious! I am a kind of person who likes to stick with whatever I have (i.e. I don't like changes :D) and I am a skinner/leatherworker since day 1. Jewelcrafting sounded nice in TBC, now Inscription sounds great as well... but to give up on my old professions? Never!
Let us have 3rd primary or allow us to have one gathering profession as secondary!
RogueJedi86 Aug 17th 2007 3:42AM
Make engineering a secondary profession, since it mostly only benefits itself, isn't primarily marketable to others like all the other primary professions are.
popor on eu-lightbringer Aug 17th 2007 5:14AM
When frostkip comments on two things, namely dancing and pvp raids to attack opposing factions cities, he touches upon an idea I think would be cool. That is as follows:
Make dancing a kind of trainable skill. Normal race dances come automatically, for example, Tauren males will still know the peanut butter jelly dance upon creation. However, it could also learn the undead dances (in the Undercity) and the orc or troll dances (in Orgrimmar). Those extra dances would just cost a bit of gold. Also, you could learn cross-faction dances. But the catch is that you would have to fight your way to the trainer and the rest of your party would have to keep away the opposing faction and guards while you train for those few seconds, and of course you take your turn standing guard while others train. As for stealthy classes, they would have to unstealth to train.
I think this would encourage city raids and be a lot of fun. It would be a mark of honor to know all the cross-faction dances, especially if you knew them at a low level.
Zechs Aug 17th 2007 12:23PM
If Blizzard wanted to make a better game as much as they want to make more money, the hairstyles shop would have been available on Day 2 of release.
bwest0526 Aug 17th 2007 6:14AM
I know I read about this somewhere here that someone mentioned a VERY good idea that kinda relates back to EQII and that is a very long and tidious quest to defect to the opposing faction. I really like playing Gnome rogues but I don't like playing Alliance, now if I could get my Gnome Rogue over to the horde...Happy as the peanut-butter jelly dance!!
Oh yeah, peanut butter jelly time....
anyway, I am sure that it would be nice for some of the forsaken to rekindle old times with lost relatives in stormwind as well..little RPing there..or would that be RiPing there...Hey Mike, see what I did there! HAHA!
Niklaw
ICFtB
Zangarmarsh.
Brandisis Aug 17th 2007 8:40AM
One question: Why does your character have to be level 70 to be interviewed? Wouldn't it be nice to get the opinions of new, as well as causal, players?
Elurion Aug 17th 2007 6:52PM
"This game pioneered the concept of open PvP. [They should] continue to build on [their] brain child."
ROFL. Yeah sure it did. Obviously, this clown never played UO, AC's Darktide server or the PvP servers in EQ, not to mention DAoC and Shadowbane.
Paw Aug 17th 2007 10:39AM
Ditto what Brandisis said. Why does it need to be a lvl 70?
Regardless, and though my main is a lowly 48 (dinged last night /cheer [me]) I have some things I'd like to see. Keeping it to the OP questions, however:
Hair style changes/additional hairstyles. Definite plus to make the game more enjoyable. Easy addition for Blizzard to make. It doesn't add to anything except my own amusement/enjoyment of the game and my toons. I gave my gnome a bob cut, but wouldn't mind switching to pink pigtails for the irony (a bitty girl warlock with pink pigtails)
New dances: Same. Even better if I can chose the dance by way of numbering. ie: /dance1 or /dance2.
Collectible pets. I like different pets, but after the novelty wears off I really don't give them much thought except to get them out of my bag to make room for more loot. A trebuchet would be a dumb idea. Penguin I could buy. I think a baby frost giant or a baby ogre would be more amusing, though. Maybe a Charley in a Box? A train with square wheels? A polka dot elephant?
Hero class: They're asking for trouble launching just one, and with the ease to acquire one, it will be like day 2, TBC where 500 BE paladins and 500 Draenei Shaman were all competing for precious few lvl 1-5 mobs in their respective, overcrowded starting zones. Eneryone who can, will have one. I can picture wave after wave of DK squads running roughshod through lower zones one-shotting entire 5-man groups of lvl 38's questing for gorillas in STV. Oh the humanity! "But why would a level 80 player, much less an army of them, come all the way to STV to gank lowbies?" Because the same jayholes who do it now with their 70s would hardly alter their playstyle for sake of the new expansion. Sure, eventually the whole issue of whose gonna tank/dps/heal/etc will level things off, but for a while there will be a ridiculous number of DKs running around.
braydn Aug 17th 2007 5:28PM
to number 2, i also wish you could have more than 2 primary professions, but as far as secondary gathering profession, everyone already has it, it is called cloth, everyone in the game can get cloth off of mobs. i think it is pretty unfair to tailors that just anyone can get cloth. you have to learn skinning to get leather, you have to learn mining to get ore/gems, and you have to learn herbalism to get herbs, but anyone can get cloth. and i know the reason for that is so people can skill up in first aid. but it really screws tailors out of making more money. to compensate for this, i propose that all gathering professions be made into secondary professions. that would even out the playing field for everyone and give everyone more stuff to sell/trade. i don't think that making cloth sampling would be good because most tailors are probly also enchanters since there is no gathering profession for enchanting as well, and the things you make in tailoring can be disenchanted to get enchanting mats.
the only other way i can see it working would be to add a cloth gathering skill for tailor and also add an essence/dust gathering skill as well. that way every single profession has a primary gathering and crafting that goes together nicely, which is really the way it should have been all along. that would mean that cloth gatherers could choose first aid or tailoring, skinners choose leatherworking, miners can choose jewelcrafting or enginering, herbalist choose alchemy, and essence/dust gathering would choose enchanting.
now as far as the heroic class death knight, i believe they should not be adding just one. they cite balancing issues? they could solve that by creating all the herioc classes at the same time. just like when the game was released, we had 8 classes to choose from, all viable together, and over the last 2.5 years balancing has been ongoing. they should have waited to initroduce heroic classes until they could create 4 or 5 of them to be released all at the same time. balancing would still be ongoing anyway, so why only release one? just wait and give us several to choose from.
now, having said that, i really think the death knight is pretty cool. i just don't want to see a million of them running around. at a minimum they should have at least released 3, one mostly DPS, one mostly healing, and one mostly ranged. they would all have summoning abilities.
anyway, that is what i think...
Wren Aug 17th 2007 1:09PM
I am very excited about the new hairstyle options. If I had know I would have spent 70 levels looking at the stupid bun on the back of my mages head, I would never have chosen it.
bill gates Aug 17th 2007 3:19PM
@6 because people that are not lvl 70 have no reason to buy wotlk, because blizz only cares about the leet players
Sepp Aug 17th 2007 4:00PM
There's a good reason for interviewing lv70 toons, and that's because they've experienced more content then new players to the game. I'm a casual player and have a lv70 lock under my belt, associating a lv70 with a raider is a mistake... some of us are still casual.
All of this is not to say that a lowbie casual players opinions are not important, just that you still have alot more content to discover.
Nothing is perfect, and everything can be improved upon, always.
Also its a very nice read, sensible questions, and some sound comments /kudos