The nipples of dragons
by Zach Yonzon 
Dec 20th 2008 at 7:00PM
The lackluster designs came under fire on the forums a few days back, and Zarhym was quick to defend the art team, saying that "the looks of the sets will improve as the seasons continue," and that if Blizzard had started the first sets with awesome designs, the latter seasons might see Thrall being worn around players' heads. It's a pretty funny joke, but I'm not quite sure it holds water. Zarhym continues to say that the design philosophy is that "in PvE you're killing very rare and challenging creatures of Azeroth, while in PvP you're receiving gear from the crafters (so to speak) of your faction to get you battle-ready."
He goes on to make a truly memorable line, "chances are you're going to be given the gear that'll get the job done rather than the gear that has to be constructed entirely out of the nipples of a 7,000 year-old dragon." Now that's pretty clever. It makes a lot of sense, too. Except, my question is, why can't 'crafted' gear that 'gets the job done' be, well, badass? Remember the Level 60 PvP sets? Now those were totally badass.
Who can forget the Horde Warrior plate shoulders? Or the truly noble and Paladin-perfect Alliance plate? In the new world of Wrath homogeneity, there isn't even any more faction-specific armor. Don't get me wrong, the new PvE armor designs are nice. In fact, it seems like Blizzard loved the Death Knight starting armor so much that they rehashed it for the new raid plate. But ever since Burning Crusade, there hasn't been any faction-specific armor sets.I don't think there's been any fantastic-looking PvP sets since the Warlord and Field Marshal days. In that respect, I think the designers have sort of slacked off. No, I don't want the nipples of 7,000-year old dragons, either, but are badass spikes and valorous eagles-on-shoulders really that hard to conceptualize? I think I'll side with the forum posters on this one and hope that something more interesting shows up in the future.
Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Humor, Forums
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Prodromus Dec 20th 2008 7:06PM
It will be interesting how it turns out but i really hope they don't screw up this time such as making it so easy to get you will always see bloody people in raids using pvp epics that they only spent a week farming because it's better than there previous crap lvl 74 green.
Madrox Dec 20th 2008 8:51PM
Unfortunately with the addition of the vault of archevon its even easier. As well as the easy as pie PVE aspect of the game. Really I think pvp epics are probably much more frustrating and difficult to get for many classes than their pve counterparts. So really, more or less, they've made it so easy to get PVE epics you will always see bloody people in arena using pve epics that they only spent a week farming because it's better than there previous crap lvl 74 greens.
Gottalot Dec 21st 2008 2:36AM
Says a typical PvE'er...
I just dont get it. All this PvE'ers constantly whining about PvP epix,
how easy it is to obtain etc... etc...
Procris Dec 21st 2008 5:57AM
Heh, yeah, its not like PvE has been ridiculously easy in WotLk so far, oh wait, it has. Now that all the epic set PvP gear requires arena rating, it should make for a lot less people in PvP epics and more using PvE epics (similar to how people used MC epics instead of the lvl 60 PvP gear), especially since theres no rewards for the people who actually enjoyed playing battlegrounds this time round.
Bullifus Dec 21st 2008 10:59AM
pve is way to easy to get, its the new welfare epics imo. Good to see though, might shut up these 'living in moms basement' people qq'ing for awhile.
blackjack21 Dec 20th 2008 7:07PM
I agree. The level 60, faction specific gear was badass, except for the puke green ally hunter armor.
/votes for more faction specific pvp gear.
Eisengel Dec 20th 2008 11:31PM
I agree.. the 60 PvP sets also echoed the class/spec's tenor much better. The Horde Warlock / Spriest armors looked like badass casters ready to burn you to bits. Alliance Paladins looked righteous, Warriors looked solid and Rogues looked deadly.
Whyisretgimped Dec 20th 2008 7:09PM
Blizzard is just making excuses for the piss poor job they did on gear as whole in LK. EVERYONE looks exactly the same now because they were even more lazy than they were in BC when almost all the gear was retreads. Now, they have completely retreaded the tier 7 gear, making it a lot uglier than T3 in most cases, and regular gear all looks the same.
I feel like I paid $40 for even more lazy game design than last time...
... and don't even get me started on the horrible art decision that led to the crab claw PvP two hander... I thought T1 paladin gear was a wtf ugly moment...
Reinard Dec 21st 2008 12:07AM
So you're saying the entirety of Wrath is horrible and not worth the money because some armor looks similar?
Have you, like, quested at all? Or were you sleeping from 70 to 80? Did you take a single look at any of the Northrend zones? How about all the voice acting? Story elements? Phased zones?
Quit. Please. The last thing this game needs is more ungrateful whiners. From the sounds of it, you won't miss it much anyway :\
Whyisretgimped Dec 21st 2008 6:47AM
Reinard, it's sheep like you that make it possible for game designers to be lazy.
The new zones look very nice, but they feel very haphazardly thrown into a pot and stirred to make a lackluster final product. There are a bunch of disparate story elements that are tied together with the loosest of story elements and the simplest of plot points, "big evil guy is out there". Some of the new quests are fun, but many of them feel very gimicky just to be different for difference sakes.
Dalaran is one of the poorest game design choices I've ever seen. Let's put the whole server in the equivalent gaming space of a closet and then wonder why the servers keep crashing.
Don't even get me started on how the Lich King is a complete rip off of Tolkien. WoW has never claimed to be original, but there's a big difference between homage and just stealing from others. Everything Lich King related has almost all of its art style was stolen from the Peter Jackson movies. There's nothing wrong with having a Tolkienesque bad guy being the focus of your game. There is something wrong making it look exactly the same as someone else's vision of a Tolkien bad guy.
You are right, I should quit. The fact that I keep playing just sends them the same message you are. People will accept any of the schlock Blizzard grinds out of their completely detached psyche.
If I see you in the game... I lend you some of my wool...
rosencratz Dec 21st 2008 7:13AM
So if we don't agree with you we're sheep? Which means ideally for you we should all agree? Wouldn't that still make us sheep. Have you not considered that just because people aren't blindly following you that they might NOT be 'blindly' following whoever it is your disagreeing with?
How can you find any of your statements about the story and zones to be at all true when you compare them to the previous Old world and Outland zones, they are far far superior. Let's keep it in context. when it comes to Northrend there is a LOT of effort gone in and a LOT of cool stuff.
The LoTR similarities are a shame and yes, the samey armour is also frustrating. I've quested in every zone in Northrend now to follow all the story lines and... well the quest reward armour and weapons? they ARE the same. There is about 2-3 different armour models recoloured about 3 times through the whole questing procedure for each armour type (Cloth, Plate, mail,etc)
When i first landed in Howling Fjord a few weeks back i thought, "Cool this stuff looks rugged and nifty!" now i just tend to think. "Oh it's one of them again"
At 70 when i got my Frozen shadowweave i always hated how nearly everyone else wore those same bits as me. Removes your identity from the game.Now we can wear totally different stuff but still look the same. it's not a move i like to be honest. The gear looks nice it's just not as pentiful for my liking... hopefully once i get my tier 7/8 i'll be happier.
So i disagree with both the retgimped guy and reinard... Baa baa? guess not!
They slacked off on armour, we don't need to rise up and rebel like the anti-shepard would want though.... the game is still fun and more so than it was before due to the polish of the rest of Northrend. People whined about looking like clowns, this is what we got.
whyisretgimped Dec 21st 2008 7:39AM
Rosencratz, there's a difference between an intelligent response (yours) and a non-intelligent response (Reinhard calling me a whiner). I don't care if people disagree with me. It does bother me if someone goes "oooh pretty colors" when they're playing LK and then calls me a whiner because I see some flaws in the canvas.
I will agree that Northrend is a vast improvement in story over areas in the original game which were very simplistic. But better doesn't mean good. The story elements in WoW are still a far cry from games with good story elements such as Morrowind, Oblivion, The original Baldur's Gate series, Fallout 1-3. and I could go on. The story elements in LK have all been rather blah. "This is how this guy fights the LK", "this is how that guy fights the LK", "my sister's been killed by the LK and now I'm all broody and emo". Nothing nuanced, nothing which makes me feel like I'm watching an epic story unfold. It's more akin to reading a child's comic on postcards.
So yes, it's better and a vast improvement over the original WoW, but again, doesn't live up to the competition...
... and Blizzard has the resources to have really done that and I feel like they completely failed.
Simon Dec 21st 2008 8:13AM
Then please go and quit WoW. Your whining is starting to get anoying.
Don't know what you expected to get, but I've been rather disappointed by some of your examples of "great storytelling". Morrowind? Oblivion? Those are jokes compared to what WoW offers.
Whyisretgimped Dec 21st 2008 8:47AM
Let's see...
In Morrowind you have a slowly evolving story, in a world with better graphics than WoW even though the game is older, that eventually leads to you learning you're basically a god and have to kill two other gods because they've gone insane. At the end of the game, you radically alter about a third of the world map changing it forever.
In WoW, the story is basically "go kill the big evil guy", even if you're evil yourself because you summon demons, steal from people, or are an undead runesword wielding freak.
Oblivion's ending was amazingly dramatic, far more dramatic than anything I've ever seen in WoW. The dialog in Oblivion is worlds better than WoW. You have to convince the bastard prince to save the day with more nuanced story points than "go kill some dogs and bats for me... okay now I need to take revenge for my son.". That's Tirion Fordring's plot... real deep. If I see one more person in WoW change sides from good to evil or evil to good, I think I'm going to spit. Might be nice to have some more complicated plot points than that or maybe some plausible reasons or in depth character development. WoW has none of that...
And Simon, if you're going to disagree with me, make a point. Give me some detail about WoW that actually proves me wrong. Calling me whiner and saying other games are worse with no examples or points backing that up is fairly un-intelligent discourse.
Eversor Dec 21st 2008 11:02AM
Oh, good job. You just compared a single player RPG with a MMORPG. "Graphics better than...". Please. You must be trolling. I mean, any sane person should understand just WHY graphics are worse in MMO's than single player games. Just to make it blatantly obvious, I will give a hint - it has something to do with thousands of players and as little loading screens as possible. Morrowind - exit a room - loading screen. Oblivion - exit a room - loading screen. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like those games, hell, Morrowind was my very first RPG. There is one problem though in them - there was only on Nerevarine and only one... uh... random hero (which is why I hated the end in Oblivion, Martin stole all the fame). In WoW, everyone wants to be a special snowflake. WHICH IS COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE. Please. Stop being such a spoiled brat, shouting "waa waa mom, that guy has the same gear than I". Open your eyes and smell the scent of keyboard - there are thousands upon thousands of people like you. Thousands upon thousands of whiners with wrong expectations that can't take that the game is not made by their smallest whim.
"Oblivion's dialogues were better than yadda yadda". God. The only way they differ from WoW quest text is that they were voiced. That's all. For an RPG, they weren't even THAT great, but that is a different story. Again, you are comparing a single player game, where you are supposed to be "speshul". In an MMO, it is not so easy to make you be the special snowflake, however I think Wrath has been great in that so far. Doing Argent Crusade quests, I really felt as a hero and a true paladin. I saw the consequences for my actions. In Oblivion? Fuck, even after saving damn Martin's ass over and over again, guard would still go "STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM" on my ass. Even. Though. I. Saved. The. Fucking. Empire.
Maybe this response is not as intelligent as you would want, but it might deliver the point. Might not, not sure, bit drunk while typing this. But your Big Point fails, because you compare single player games to an MMO.
Whyisretgimped Dec 21st 2008 1:15PM
To sum up what Eversor said:
MMO's: For drunk frat boys who are as intellectual as an episode of Barney and Friends.
Single Player RPG's: For people who actually want depth in their gameplay, story telling, and superior graphics.
Oh and both Tabula Rasa and Age of Conan have graphics that were at least trying to be at the level of the current generation of what systems can handle. WoW has a graphics engine that was five years out of date when the game was published four years ago. I understand MMO's have graphical limits, but WoW is seriously out of date.
To get back to the original topic, the age of the graphics engine that WoW uses is even more abundantly obvious in how crappy the gear in LK looks.
Eversor Dec 21st 2008 3:44PM
Way to completely miss the point and the guess of the type of man I am. Amazing. If you like your single player RPG's, what do you do here? Please explain to me, why are you then on a site dedicated to the game for "drunk frat boys who are as intellectual as an episode of Barney and Friends"? Guess what good sir, you fail. Both fail to comprehend not to measure an MMORPG with the RPG ruler, and to fall as low as starting to generalize people who disagree with you.
Also, I'd like to point out to you that graphics is not the most important part of a game, however WoW's graphic style works very well. Sure, it may not look as good as AoC in still screenshots, but it completely smacks AoC in the ground when it comes to motion. Why? Because WoW's graphics do not strain the suspension of disbelief like all the "realistic" graphics engines do. But surely one as intelligent as you already knows that.
It is amazing how such an avid RPG fan as you, good and intelligent sir, cares so much about graphics and not the gameplay itself. Truly amazing.
Zali Dec 23rd 2008 1:25PM
If you can't please all of the people all of the time, then.... you probably work for Blizzard.
Rory Dec 20th 2008 7:40PM
People really should be more upset about this.
The old lvl 60 sets were stunning and even today I toy with the idea of spending honor on them just for the cool factor.
I have nothing good to say about the design of the current sets because they are indeed 'hateful'.
Maybe having Thrall on my head is a bit much but I don't want a dead rat on it either.
To think this is a bunch of guys jobs and someone made the decision that these designs were the way to go.
/epicfail
Simon Dec 21st 2008 8:17AM
"People really should be more upset about this. "
Right ... Let's all focus on what realy matters.