In a discussion of
new realm transfers opening up, we get this tidbit: from now on, new realms will be created with the AQ gates already open. What that means is, there will be no races on any newly created servers in the future to be the first to gain the Scarab Lord title, for one thing. Those servers will have no Scarab Lords until one transfers there, because it will be impossible to complete the quest chain necesssary for the title. It also means that if you missed the title on your original server but were going to try and transfer to pick it up, you can forget it. Unless you can find a server that's currently active that doesn't have the gates open, I suppose.
The way the statement is phrased is a little odd:
By automatically opening the gates and allowing immediate access to the Ahn'Qiraj instances, we would like to promote the higher level content that is available as well as ensure a smooth overall experience for players on these new realms. I suppose they just mean the 20 and 40 man instances that are already there, but it seems odd to call level 60 raids higher level content at this point.
Tags: AQ, New-Realms, Scarab-Lord, Transfers
Filed under: Realm News, Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items
Feb 12th 2009 at 9:00AM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Drager Feb 12th 2009 9:09AM
By "promoting higher level content" I think they mean to not have people wrapped up in this older content... not that AQ is higher level.
Erogroth Feb 12th 2009 11:20AM
My problem with this is that Blizzard is telling me not to do something that I may want to do. If I want to run old content who are they to say no? I think it is BS.
Now there is a long discussion that has been going on in the suggestion forums about how to handle the scepter turn ins and bug mounts. As many of you know in patch 3.0.2 some servers bugged out closing the AQ gates and allowing people to bang the gong again and get there mounts. Many people felt that it was unfair that only some got this oppertunity and started this discussion. The discussion started before this announcement was made and has had several suggestions added on. The thread has reached max posts and it is now onto it's second thread. I have posted the links to both below.
One suggestion is to be able to buy the black bug mount form the rare mount vendor in Dalaran for the scepter. Another suggestion is to allow riding of the other bug mounts outside of AQ if you turn the scepter in. And yet another suggestion was to bang the gong and summon a level 80 raid boss to fight and then you get the mount and/or title.
There are many more suggestions but the post has quite a bit of support and this announcement was a slap in the face to many people. I feel this is an epic fail on Blizzard's part. The quest chain for the scepter and AQ in general was the most epic quest line ever in this game, even more so then wrath gate. Removing this content is horrible.
Erogroth Feb 12th 2009 11:23AM
Here are the links. I forgot to post them at the end of my post.
First thread:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12891292131&sid=1&pageNo=1
Second thread: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14990463179&postId=149889167642&sid=1#9
SunwellVialist Feb 12th 2009 11:41AM
@Erogroth
You know, some of those ideas are great.
I took a little peek at the links and I would love to have Blizzard consider some of those suggestions.
Personally I like the idea of making the War of the Shifting Sands a yearly thing. Update the content, and make the ongoing battle, which still isn't -over- a repeat thing. Every year the forces of AQ try to gather their strength to invade the rest of the world, and Horde/Alliance must open the doors quickly enough to attack them before they can muster their strength, and 'cull' the AQ armies. Or somesuch! Would keep the titles and mounts rare still.
Erogroth Feb 12th 2009 11:55AM
That was actually my original idea but it didn't get as much support as I had hoped. I still like it the best though.
jrb Feb 12th 2009 12:22PM
the fact that all new realms will be getting the gates open as a default is further evidence that blizz is anti-nostalgia.
Which, in my opinion, is in direct conflict with a majority of the achievement points which are designed to get high-level toons re-visiting content for which that are vastly over powered.
it all comes down to $$$ for blizzard. getting people to play non-current content full time; for example setting up classic or burning crusade realms would conflict with the message that they want people to pour moneys in to the latest and greatest expansion packs, which i'm sure there will be plenty more of.
only when subscriptions start to drop off will we see blizz looking in to the idea of nostalgia realms, and re-appropriating 'old' content in new ways. which is a shame.
Thera Feb 12th 2009 9:10AM
No what they mean is they don't want you wasting your time with AQ period... They want people to just move on! Probably will just remove it all-together eventually saying "lack of interest"... I have seen more and more responses from Blizzard like this when asking about Older Raid Content
Offsprnge Feb 12th 2009 9:23AM
Would be a real shame, older raids like AQ40 and BWL is still fun and quite challanging if you have a bad group who don't know what they're doing.
Aghast Feb 12th 2009 11:52AM
I dont understand why they would want us to be concentrating on new raid content.
Anyone who has put the slightest amount of concentration has completed all the raid content. Maybe not 3 drakes. But definitely all the raid instances.
I am sick of running new content over and over and over, same 4 raid instances every week. What are we supposed to do with the rest of our week?
Crazy bug quest farming? Old School mount runs? Old rep grinds? Oh wait..... thats all old stuff!
snowleopard233 Feb 12th 2009 9:12AM
It's the end of an era...
snowleopard233 Feb 12th 2009 9:15AM
Hey, can you guys please remove those Dollhouse ads? Eliza Dushku's sexy bod is seriously distracting me from the important research I need to do on patch 3.1.
Tushar Bharadia Feb 12th 2009 9:58AM
Damn, Adblock plus=double-edged sword :(
Punjab Feb 12th 2009 9:59AM
Adblock is your friend.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865
Adam Holisky Feb 12th 2009 11:40AM
Every time we try to remove it we hear a whisper in our ear...
"Hey, wanna see me stab somethin? Like a vampire?"
Then we snap out of it and go back to work forgetting about what we were doing, only to repeat the process over and over again like a horribly sexy Twilight Zone episode.
But we are aware of the problem and I know some folks are looking into it. =)
Burlann Feb 12th 2009 12:30PM
Nice going @$$. They replaced the lovely Eliza with that dude from Biggest Loser Jillian Michaels. That is one bad man.
BRING BACK ELIZA!!
Eliza...?
Malyfactian Feb 12th 2009 9:17AM
A simple solution to the "lack of interest" would be to make heroic versions of old-world instances and raids.
But that's crazy talk, I'll shut up now.
Thera Feb 12th 2009 9:20AM
Maly... Yea remaking old content... We all know they love doing that to make quick money...
Deadly. Off. Topic. Feb 12th 2009 9:23AM
I'd love to see heroics for old dungeons, the only problem is that alot of the older dungeons are LONG.
Two things would have to be done - 1. let people ride mounts inside the old instances. 2. Cut the amount of mobs in there so that it can be done quicker.
Xigageshi Feb 12th 2009 12:09PM
you know people say that like they just flip some switches and bam, heroic modes, but it is CLEARLY more complex than that otherwise they would have just done it.
try one-manning them, thats the new heroic mode for you, if you guys really want the quest chain to still be there, how about they just make it so anyone can do it? sure it might possibly make it less 'rare' but if wotlk has shown us anything its that blizzard is through with stroking epeens.
and for one, I say good riddance.
Eversor Feb 12th 2009 2:48PM
Heroic Molten Snore? No thanks.