So as BlizzCon fades further and further from view in the rear window, I'm getting more and more excited and impatient for news of Cataclysm, so much so that I've sort of forgotten to get excited about Patch 3.3. I want Worgen, and new conflicts, and new lore, and a redesigned old world that offers a massive leap forward in the story as things change forever and the Horde and Alliance finally shrug off all pretense of peace and rush headlong into a war that has really never truly ended.

But then I start thinking. The combo I really wanted to play, Worgen Paladin, looks like it won't make it in. It seems like Worgen may not get their own capital city (instead, said city will become a battleground under siege by the Forsaken), which may put a damper on how much their awesome quasi-Victorian scenery and architecture actually features in game. While some zones are getting complete revamps, others are only getting minor tweaks, which makes me fear there may be some zones that still feel out of place and some old lore story lines that still remain unresolved or out of place.

Now, I don't mean to be a complete downer here. I still love Blizzard and the dev team, but sometimes I don't agree with them, and sometimes, some stuff just plain turns out to be a disappointment. Sort of like Vehicle combat, which is clunky and jarring and bug-filled and also ubiquitous (seriously, 7 jousts for dailies back before Patch 3.2, plus more jousting just to get through the latest dungeon?), or the Argent Tournament, which has brought the story of Wrath to a grinding halt while simultaneously making Tirion look like an incompetent hypocrite and Arthas look weak and ineffective.

Of course, at the same time, sometimes expectations are just too high. Which, I think, is the case of the Death Knight. Some people assumed that "hero" class would mean "overpowered," and are now almost angry that the Death Knight has been bought back to earth. Of course, Blizzard never promised overpoweredness, nor that Hero classes would ultimately be more powerful than normal classes.

But hey, just to keep it all balanced, I'll ask more than one question this morning. Of course the first is obvious: When has some feature or event in WoW not met your expectations? Do you think your expectations were too high, or did the dev team just fall short? But also, when did Blizzard exceed your expectations?

Tags: argent-tournament, expectations, game-discussion, gamer-discussion, hero-classes, new-features, patch-3.3, upcoming-patch, upcoming-plans, vehicle-combat, worgen-paladin, worgen-paladins, world-of-warcraft-discussion, world-of-warcraft-hot-topics, world-of-warcraft-topics, wow-discussion, wow-hot-topics, wow-issues, wow-topics

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Events, Blizzard, Breakfast Topics, Expansions, Lore, Worgen