The onset of pre-expansion depression
by Mike Schramm 
Apr 7th 2008 at 6:00PM
It's that time again. Those of you who were around right before the Burning Crusade release might remember this time -- there are no new content patches before the next expansion, and we've got pretty much nothing to look forward to and nowhere to go before Wrath shows up and changes the world for good. Yes, there is a little more yet to discover at the Sunwell, but once we've seen that instance cleared out (Blizzard originally predicted about a month, and it seems like some players might be moving even faster than that), there'll be nothing left but the waiting.Things went pretty badly last time around -- guilds stopped raiding (what was the point, when the next expansion would replace all of our gear with greens?), players abandoned the game for a while, and there was a general depression in Azeroth. While people were excited for the expansion, the live realms seemed like yesterday's news.
Hopefully things will be better this time around -- back then, we didn't have dailies to do, there weren't any arena matches or tournaments, and the 40 man high-end raid instances were pretty much the only game in town (nowadays we have 10mans, 25mans, or Heroics, and lots of rewards from each). And depending on when Blizzard gets the expansion out, the wait might not be as bad (although if they wait until January again, the time frame should be about the same as last time). But get ready -- the calm before the storm is coming, and we won't see a new game again until we step foot on the icy shores of Northrend.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Guilds, Odds and ends, Expansions, The Burning Crusade, Leveling, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Ahoni Apr 7th 2008 6:11PM
Lucky us, another depressing, the world is ending post from Mike Schramm. Surprise! Mike found nothing and complained about it!
WoW players have plenty to do. The VAST MAJORITY of players have plenty of raiding to do. Sure, some will say why bother when I am just going to replace them with Northrend greens. But that is only the case if your gear sucks. I had some epics from raiding at 60 that didn't get replaced until 70, and I never made it to Naxx, or even AQ40. I for one am in a guild that is looking forward to finishing SSC/TK. Sure, we could skip Kael and Vashj now that we are 5/6 and 3/4 and go right into Hyjal, but we want to kill them. We actually enjoy raiding and are enjoying killing bosses for the first time. We are having fun. Do you remember fun Mike?
adam3039 Apr 7th 2008 6:27PM
lol owned
Jordrah Apr 7th 2008 8:19PM
no, pwnd
Brian Apr 7th 2008 6:29PM
If you raid for gear you are missing the point. The gear is so you can do the next raid not the whole reason for the raid. I didn't get any 'pre expansion depression'. Right now many people are engrossed in 2.4 to get badge gear and see stuff they hadn't been able to before. Especially the 10 man groups who have been progressing in Kara. Personally I'm doing loads of dalies to get my epic mount. Then I will concentrate on getting a second 70 to help out with things when the expansion hits. Right now the player base is suffering with a lack of tanks and healers so I am levelling a hybrid. I've gone for a Dwarven Paladin so that the has lore to interact with on 2 fronts in Wrath; there's Arthas and the Death Knights and then there's the new Dwarven stories. I don't see what there is to be depressed about in WoW right now.
And besides Starcraft 2 is coming and that game is going to be occupying a fair it of my time while waiting for the expansion.
Nick S Apr 8th 2008 1:10AM
no pre-expansion depression here - pre-expansion excitement would be more accurate. i've got 2 alts to get to 70 (maybe 3 is they take as long as they did with TBC,) tons more content to see, and not long to do it!
Rob Apr 7th 2008 6:40PM
Agreed, there is alot to do still, with most people haven't stepped foot into 25 mans (hopefully I will tomorrow, after a year of playing), the so called Isle of QQ quests are fun and I enjoy the progression I'm seeing there. The BGs are fun, Arena is fun, heroics are fun. Leveling another toon is doable. There is still alot to do. Sure if you have 4 70s and have cleared BT, by all means, pick up another game (gasp, you can do other things besides play WoW!). Otherwise, I'm having fun on my limited play budget.
Brandon Tilley Apr 7th 2008 6:48PM
I can understand the "why raid with new lootz" issue a bit, but there are other reasons to raid besides loot, right?
Nick S Apr 8th 2008 1:11AM
absolutely. imo, other than making things easier, loot is a symbol of the things you've accomplished in the game. i have a ton of respect for people wielding stuff like Soulstring or Atiesh - even though that gear is outmoded, it still represents a huge achievement.
Jewbanks Apr 7th 2008 6:52PM
Yea but its true that raiding shut down a good deal as BC approached whether or not thats something that should happen it pretty undeniably did
Kyle Apr 7th 2008 7:04PM
There really is plenty to do. I have friends that will spend ALL of thier time just to farm up money and mats for thier professions to get a kick start. I myself will be working on getting my various alts to 70 so I can get more out of the game at 80.
There are dailies, PvP, farming, and a plethora of other stuff to do. Hell, after the success of the first real x-pac, i'm sure people will stay JUST to see what is going to happen next. Blizz isn't about to go cry about it and nobody else should either.
Coherent Apr 7th 2008 7:11PM
It'll take another 3-4 months for serious update malaise to take hold, so this post is a bit premature.
Jamie Apr 8th 2008 6:36AM
Exactly what I came here to comment on. This is way premature, there is a lot left to do in TBC, especially with us only just getting this awesome 2.4 patch. Moaning that it'll be finished with soon is a bit silly.
When Blizz give us an actual date, that's when we start worrying. Whilst we are ignorant of it, people will have the same motivation to raid as always.
Green Armadillo Apr 7th 2008 7:14PM
Too soon.
That said, Mike's not entirely wrong. Here's how the new PVE content breaks down for the major groups of players:
-The rep grind is, in principle, good for another month or so for solo players, though frankly I'm already referring to the quests that have the chance to yield badges as "the chores" (as in, signed on, did the chores, went on to do whatever I actually wanted to do for the day). When that's done, players who cannot promise not to go AFK for the next two hours will have no more access to 5-man and higher content than they did before.
(It is really unfortunate that the new badge rewards needed to be BT quality in order to appeal to low end raiders. Solo players would have been in paradise if EVERY SSO quest coughed up SSO tokens used to buy ilvl 120ish blue items, but that would have made the content irrelevant to raiders. So instead we get a 10% chance for a badge from a small subset of the new dailies, and prices that are set to keep people who are farming Kara and the daily Heroic from getting BT gear too quickly. I'll be level 80 before I get 100+ badges from dailies, so it's pointless to even try for all but the lowest-hanging rewards.)
- MrT will become more puggable as players become familiar with the fights, but, again, there's no real bridge between "okay, tonight I can be on for however long this run takes" and "I can commit to being available according to a raiding schedule".
-Low end raiding guilds can attempt to outgear low end raid conten, but they're still going to hit a wall when the content requires more dedication than their guild can muster.
-High end raiding guilds can attempt Sunwell as it opens up (the gates are the stupidest thing I've ever heard of, especially since it's almost certain that Kil'Jaeden is going to be badly bugged when people finally get to him since he was mostly held back on the PTR's), but ironically face their biggest challenge in finding time to run Karazhan every week for badges.
My point being, there may technically be content that most players haven't done, but that doesn't mean they automagically CAN accomplish that content. And don't even get me started on PVP.
My point being, Mike is going to have a point in a month or so. Patch 2.4 is a good thing, but not six month's worth of good thing. If Blizzard thinks they're done until the expansion hits, and aren't going to deliver the expansion until the holidays, there is going to be some serious discontent in the community. Personally, I'm leveling an alt (after getting the chores done), and I don't have a problem canceling my subscription when I run out of stuff to do. But that's precisely the type of turmoil that Mike describes, and it might not be pretty.
Aticus Apr 7th 2008 8:02PM
Your last paragraph is perfectly put.
I had a burnout/depression from WoW about 1 month before 2.4 because everything I was doing was the same thing and I already had enough PVP epics (like I did with the GM L60 set) to last me until 80. Then the Sunwell came out and I've been doing 12-14 dailies a day in a matter of 2 hours (maybe 3).
Just as Green said, the Sunwell will not be able to hold players until the holidays. I would guess that it would get old by mid June /July. Really, once people get all their eggs in their baskets and backpacks ready for Northrend, there will be a huge lull like there was with BC. I find it good because it just gives a more... sense of excitement when Wrath comes.
-Aticus, http://www.paladintales.blogspot.com
Joshua Ochs Apr 7th 2008 7:59PM
I actually just quit for a while, but not for the reasons mentioned. My problem is there wasn't anything to *do*.
- I had completed all non-daily questlines
- I'd done enough dailies to cringe at the thought of more
- I'm exalted with a half-dozen to a dozen factions, with no real need for more
- I don't PvP. I've tried it - just don't like it
- Raiding takes too much time at a sitting - I just don't have 4-6 hours at a chunk (our guild was in SSC/TK)
So I quit. I'll come back when WotLK is out and brings real new content, questlines, skills, etc.
Vellesta Apr 7th 2008 8:24PM
I'll never understand the people that cry about gear getting replaced when new content rolls around.
What's the point of getting the best gear in the game half a year before new content or 1 month before new content? The whole point is to have fun achieving new boss kills, so who cares how long you use the gear. I think some people will complain no matter what...good riddance to them all if they quit playing.
Zarzuur Apr 8th 2008 2:52PM
Yeah, it would make more sense if they awarded titles for completing each raid dungeon, since titles are permanent and can be carried over into lvl 80.
Rasnarok Apr 7th 2008 8:53PM
I think you're getting a little ahead of yourself here Mike. The pre-expansion depression certainly hasn't set in on the servers I play on. Think about it:
We just got a heap of new content including Mr T, Sunwell Plateau, heaps of new dailies, new gear to collect from heroic badges, and new stuff to craft. Unlike pre-BC, it is now possible to easily gear both your main and your alts out in full epic sets by the time the expansion arrives and I think alot of people will be taking the opportunity to do so.
Also, I don't even think we'll see a depression, at least not to the scale of the pre-BC depression anyway. We've got dailies to make money for WotLK and the 2.3 leveling changes to allow people to quickly level alts to 70 in preparation for the expansion.
I've been noticing alot of these types of posts on wowinsider lately: fairly negative predications regarding the game that are completely unfounded.
Xfer.cns Apr 8th 2008 1:14AM
If it takes till 2009 to come out, theres other games...
Age of Conan etc.... graphics wise will be better, game play different and when Wrath comes out people will come back they always do.
Atm I'm holding out for AoC for something new and different till Wrath is released.
Zeplar Apr 7th 2008 9:08PM
One difference: Arenas
Arena points will transfer to Season 4.
Everyone will just switch to PVPing for welfare epics.