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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: What do you think of the Wintergrasp changes?
by Lesley Smith 
May 21st 2009 at 8:00AM
But, of course, there were problems. The Horde seem to out number us Alliance on my server and they're also a hell of a lot more organised. For them, Wintergrasp isn't just a sport, it's a carefully planned massacre. but, despite the instability, the DCs, the insufferable lag, it was fun. But I was keen to find out if Blizzard had plans to fix the problems so I asked Tom Chilton. He he specifically mentioned the issues of Wintergrasp and that they didn't think that the lag and other issues "was an acceptable play environment situation". So Blizzard did the 'smart' thing -- they nerfed it. Boo.
So readers? What do you think of the weekly quests? Do you think nerfing Wintergrasp was the way to go? Now you only have to do them once every seven days, do you think you will do the battles less? Are you pleased you now get more Shards for the quests? Can't care less? Tell us!
Filed under: PvP, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 6)
Rich May 21st 2009 11:48AM
I dunno.
WoW has been near unplayable since 3.1 dropped for me. Nasty latency spikes for no reason.
Dreadskull May 21st 2009 12:12PM
The WG changes (at least the weekly quests thing) seem to have the intent of driving people away due to the lower rewards you get from it compared to if you were doing the daily versions seven days a week.
Still, WG is fun as hell. The vehicles help make it less about "bringing the class", and imo they're really fun to use.
dragonrealm May 21st 2009 12:12PM
WoW Experience (and usual life) History repeats its self, so why should now be any different? If people like a good thing then it is the first to be nerfed.
In the beginning, there was AV, and it was good,
It got nerfed and then left for almost dead.
Then came the Eye, and it was good, not sure where its at but hey, at least its still useful.
Then they heard a voice "If you built it, they will come, they will come in droves, packs, and pairs, they will come from across Azeroth to experience it."
And experience it we did. Farms for gatherers, pve, and pvp. Everything in one big bundle. Everyone was awed by its greatness. It was not just good, it was like Jimmy Hendrix. Pvp'ers now want to pve, and vice versa, the tide had changed and a full moon was out showing everyone where to be.
And in a blink of an eye, history repeated.
Now here is the fun part: Blizz wanted to disable WG, yet on our server Steamwheedle Cartel, every 2.5 hours, the raids are still packed and there is now an even more epic battle than before they decided to nerf and "disable" WG. And everyone we are there with, the same thing is still heard in every chat: "what was blizz thinking??? WTF??? are they out of their minds??? they dont know how to fix something so they nerf it???
I would like to say that it might just be me, but by the amounts of comments that I have read already in 2 days of postings, I don't think so. I know that its a huge aggro on the server and it lags horifficly for about 10 min every 2.5 hours approximately because of the battles, but if I'm in that battle, blood lust flowing, blood boils going off and corpses exploding around me, I dont care about the lag. All I know is we are fighting for our rights to get to the instances, to be able to farm the drops we need, to say that we once again control WG. Its not about one single aspect, its about the whole experience. They built it, people will come regardless. And they will come...
Matazuma May 21st 2009 12:17PM
I remember the most epic WG was in the beta with Imba classes when My mage could 2 shot any class when Godly planes would rain death form the sky. where 90% of the people were in WG 300+ people fights with tolerable lag, not like today's. and when it would reset every half hour, Yeah Back then was pretty fun because there was not much lag and we still had all the people. Epic fights!
Sean May 21st 2009 12:24PM
I do WG for VoA as well as when some guildies plan on heading in. You still get a ton of honor in there and it still gives us control with a victory. The quest reward is probably better for me now since I'm not in there every single day and usually when I go in, I am not trying too hard to make sure I accomplish all of the quest requirements, I am there to defend or capture and everything else is gravy.
wscotthinds May 21st 2009 12:27PM
I am personally saddened by this change. Wintergrasp routinely gathered numerous players and will likely sharply decrease. Why take something so insanely successful and nerf it? It actually brought characters together in a way heretofore unseen. I predict a groundswell of tumbleweed.
And screw the shards.
theRaptor May 21st 2009 12:59PM
That was the point. The nerfed it to make it less attractive, not because they thought it was too rewarding. Apparently Blizzard didn't realize people would do something new, especially if it came loaded with rewards (kind of weird thinking as it was a major talking point of the expansion).
If they can't fix the lag they need to redesign it and make it more of an all day kind of epic fight (have turn in quests like AV that are running all day and buff your side for the epic showdown in the evening).
Tomnationwide May 21st 2009 12:53PM
I tried WG last night and there were twice as many people as normal so it was WORSE. It doesn't improve anything if there are 2-3 days of twice as many people.
wscotthinds May 21st 2009 1:04PM
But why make something that is not only successful but a great social feature of the game and a huge draw less desirable?
I don't understand the reasoning. In WG you could find hard core PVPers of course, but also players from the opposite side of the spectrum, the casual PVEer who took 2+ years to level their first 80 and generally RPs or talks to his/her guild in vent and maybe instances periodically. Why would you drive a stake between these people?
This was the first place where no matter your skill, people would help other people and it was all presupposed by a common goal - obliteration of the other faction. I have a hard time stomaching that they willfully have ruined this.
Marysia May 21st 2009 1:09PM
So far on my server (Steamwheedle Cartel-H) I haven't noticed a difference in WG attendance. There are usually at least two full raids on Horde side. I mainly do it for fun and honor, the dailies were a nice bonus, so I don't think I am going to stop. Seems like a lot of people on my server have similar views.
bouillestfu May 21st 2009 5:07PM
I don,t like the idea because the "compensated rewards" don't compensate the change at all. we get 3x the rewards instead of 7x.
While I still think this won't change a thing to how often people play Wintergrasp because it's an Open Buffet for Honor and people still need to do VoA, I hope it'll bring down the lag.
Nikkadaem May 21st 2009 2:18PM
I am not a fan of the weekly conversion simply because it cuts a chunk out of my day. Doing the dailies was fun. Instead of doing a work around they should actually look towards fixing the lag issue. It may be as simple as tuning down the environmental detail. At any rate, making the other battlegrounds more attractive may be would be one way to go. Another would be to add a couple of more Strand of the Ancients-esque battlegrounds. That place is a BLAST; pun intended. At any rate reducing the number of people that will enter Wintergrasp at any given time is the wrong direction. IMO
cybershamus May 21st 2009 2:26PM
Wow, you even failed at failing.
FFTARoxorz05 May 21st 2009 2:57PM
They made it so you have to do WG more, so I don't see how they actually fixed anything.
Kyo May 21st 2009 3:17PM
I wish they would buff the quests to give something around 5k honor and 15 shards so that the quest rewards would be a bit closer to what you got for doing it 7 days a week, but besides that I honestly enjoy Wintergrasp more because there are still a lot of players and it can cause small lag, but its not enough to make me have to wait 30 seconds before my fan of knives does anything (Also the fact that they are weeklies makes it much more convenient in case I couldn't do Wintergrasp a few days of the week - or forgot!).
Holyholly May 21st 2009 3:21PM
I used to go to WG everyday to get my quests done. I will not do that anymore. I will go until I have the quests done, and both VoA cleared. Other than that, I don't need honor. I am maxxed out in both Ret and Holy PVP gear, so I use my honor for gems, which I have a load of.
Too bad, I loved WG.
lp May 21st 2009 3:20PM
thoughts on WG nerf. stupid. go mess with your arena rating system. sometimes i wonder if the dev's ever actually talk to people about the game other then those that are so immersed in it, that it has become there life. BLIZZARD= losing touch with subscriber base.
anotherlock May 21st 2009 4:08PM
I don't think they care. Over the past couple years I've noticed an increase in what seems to be an 'it's our game, we'll do what we want to, don't care what our paying subscribers think, you will eat what we feed you and you'll like it' attitude. Even some of the replys by blues in Blizz forums are, to be blunt smart-assed. For every player who gets fed up and quits another batch of unsuspecting players subscribe, and since they don't know how it once was, it keeps their numbers up. It's all about that bottom line.
Jon Do May 21st 2009 3:31PM
Sadly typical.
1000thghost May 21st 2009 9:21PM
On Spinebreaker Horde defends WG more than 260 times (cant recall actual #) while Alliance defends no more than 30 times.
When the lag got out of hand a few weeks ago, who ever is on offense wins no matter what. Blizz needs to fix this! Lag is not a way to even the odds.