Breakfast Topic: What post-launch game features do you most appreciate?
by Aiden James Kosciesza 
Jan 26th 2011 at 8:00AM
World of Warcraft has been up and running for six years now, and to anyone who played in the early days, the game is barely recognizable. I'm not talking about the Shattering; I'm talking about the meat of the game, the interface and UI and mechanics that allow us to interact with Azeroth. Blizzard is a great innovator, and over the years we've gained such features as battlegrounds, linked auction houses, meeting stones, heroic dungeons, arenas, the dungeon finder, heirlooms, and the in-game calendar. None of these were present at launch, but they all affect our playstyles today.
These are all great, but that doesn't mean I stop daydreaming about what else Blizzard could do. I love the armory calendar view, but I'd be thrilled if the Blizzard calendar integrated with my Google calendar so I could see raids and guild events alongside my real-life schedule. I also yearn for variable speed scrolling quest text. Instant text encourages me to skip to the end, but the scrolling option is vastly slower than my reading speed, and I just can't handle it.
Which feature added after launch do you think was the biggest game-changer and why? What new innovations would you like to see? Which new Cataclysm features do you think will have the greatest impact on the way we play?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Mahgo Jan 26th 2011 8:03AM
Real ID brought being social to a new level.
Qaen Jan 26th 2011 2:42PM
Actually, I would really appreciate it if Blizz would limit the log0n and logoff spam that occurs when friends are jumping onto bank toons and alts. Maybe to once every 5 minutes, an update, not every time they want to check on their truegold bid war.
Maymer Jan 26th 2011 8:05AM
The new Dance Studio.......oh wait.
Ben Kelly Jan 26th 2011 8:05AM
It has to be the dungeon finder tool. Not having to beg in chat for people to join you group turned running instances from a chore into a pleasure. OK maybe not a pleasure given the number of times a PUG contains morons who won't stay away form the fire and end up leaving the healer OOM.
But every now and then you get a group that has an awesome tank and decent DPS' and you (as a healer) can do your job without having a panic attack every 10 seconds and that makes the game worthwhile.
Gossamer Jan 26th 2011 10:09AM
I wish Grandpappy Frostheim was here.
*Frostheim impression*
Back in my day, we had to beg in chat for a dungeon group and we liked it! Then once we had put the group together we all had to run to the instance... every time! Unless there was a Warlock. Then only he and two others had to go; however, the warlock was often lazy and afk.
Drakkenfyre Jan 26th 2011 11:20AM
The new LFG is one of the biggest additions.
You used to have to open the LFG, select the instance or area you wanted to get a group for. (Later on you selected your role) then sit and wait for people to join. Then you whispered the other people on the list to see if they wanted to join. Then asking in the zone you were in. Then heading to a city to spam in Trade (because no one read LFG) looking for more. Then needing a tank, or a healer, and spamming for a few more hours.
Finally you get a group together, and no one wants to walk to the instance. Every single person says something like "I'm questing, can you summon me?", or just "Summon plz".
Forcing you to find another member of the party, and head to the stone yourself to summon the lazy bastards. Then once you got there, sometimes someone said "Don't summon me just yet, I'm finishing up a quest", or "I'm almost done here", and you had to wait 10 minutes. Or they decided to pop into a BG, and you have to wait 10 minutes until it's over.
Then once you got the entire group together, someone say "I only have half an hour (or hour), we have to hurry", and it's usually on an instance that took several hours, like BRD.
On the downside, it's made instances less social. Usually no more than a "hi" at the start, and that's it. I miss talking with the group, more than just "hi" and "you idiot, you wiped us!" or whatever directed at someone else. People just want in, to get it done, and that's it. This also creates a problem with some instances where the random dungeon reward is given for the first boss. So after running several times, you have everything that bag can give you that's appropriate for you since they only give out a few specific things for the level range. And people will quit and leave the moment they get it. Meanwhile, more bosses are left. It's dumb to quit when there is 23 more bosses, for example, in BRD. Is that one item that's probably a dupe, 300 exp, and 70s really worth that much? To requeue and have to wait when you could just finish the dungeon, and get way more items?
Qaen Jan 26th 2011 2:45PM
LFG channel, however, was a good source of off-tradechat while flying around gathering stuff. I miss it!
Dozer Jan 26th 2011 7:52PM
I kinda miss getting whispers asking me to heal, made me feel all special like...
tchernobyl Jan 26th 2011 8:05AM
Dual Spec. Duh :)
danarok Jan 26th 2011 10:15AM
I'd go one further and go with actual class/spec role viability and balancing, something that certainly did not exist at release.
Rakah Jan 26th 2011 12:26PM
When sub starts doing as much dps as assassination again then i might be inclined to agree
Adamar Jan 26th 2011 8:15AM
Heroic dungeons for sure. They had a huge impact on the game, and still do
Gendou Jan 26th 2011 8:10AM
It's been so long since release, I hardly remember what the game was like back then.
Honestly, they've made so many amazing changes to this constantly evolving game that it's hard to pick just one.
I suppose the random dungeon finder is probably one of the biggest game-changers I can recall, at least for me.
Hello Pal Jan 26th 2011 8:12AM
Quest related items that sparkle
Gappie Jan 26th 2011 8:38AM
This ^
And Dailies to keep me occupied during rep grinds, cooking ordeals, and fishing related businesses....
Kaphik Jan 26th 2011 8:12AM
I'm going to get flamed by those who have had bad experiences, but I love the LFD random dungeon finder. The number of good groups and cool players I've had vastly outnumber the bad. I would have never had the chance to every play with people from different servers before it was implemented. I learned some new tricks here and there and I've had some really incredible groups that worked through new fights.
Yes, of course there were horrible groups, groups I dropped out of right away, groups where people argued and fought and someone was kicked for no reason. The groups that were awesome, that worked together like a precision machine, or the ones that had a really new player where the rest of the group had the patience and the desire to teach that new person, the groups that were just filled with chatter and joking the entire time by people who never spoke with each other before being stuck together, that's what I love about WoW.
Kay Jan 26th 2011 9:01AM
Amen Brother.
Keith Aug 4th 2011 1:41PM
Random dungeon finder is a positive and a negative. For myself its mainly a negative, I am a tank and never had problems getting a quick group together. And the people you interacted with before the random dungeon finder were better overall (and more humanized) because they were on the same server as you. They knew if they were idiots then next time they needed a random heroic they would have one less group of people to find a group with. Looking for groups is also how I made a lot of friends back in the day. The game seems more and more anti-social now than ever.
Now the random dungeon finder is... Queue, finish, gg, leave.
Keith Jan 26th 2011 10:43AM
Random dungeon finder has made the game less social, you interact with people you otherwise would never have interacted with and have no consequences for grouping with.
Daynthebold Jan 26th 2011 10:49AM
You know your LFD group is awesome when party chat devolves into a discussion of whether Canadian-made or American-made furniture is superior for certain *ahem* nocturnal activites.