The Queue: In which Jeff Kaplan is a troll and makes Ensidia cry
by Adam Holisky 
Apr 12th 2011 at 11:00AM
We're gonna get right into it today, because I found myself opining over a single question. And honestly? I'm pleased with my answer.
There, I said it.
I want my cookie.
Zayd asked:
What, in your collective opinion, is the bravest decision Blizzard has made in regards to World of Warcraft?
Unfortunately, the collective opinion isn't available right now, but mine is! And so is The Queue (lucky you!).
I don't think it's really possible to narrow down the bravest decisions by Blizzard beyond a few key points. And I should say that by a "brave decision," I mean a decision that took a lot of guts and could have failed terribly, but instead resulted in a ton of great things for Blizzard and the game. Remember, the brave man is the successful man, whereas otherwised he'd just be a fool (or however the saying goes).
The very first brave decision Blizzard made was to hire Jeff Kaplan. Before WoW, he was a huge thorn in the side of the EverQuest designers. He constantly hurled massive criticisms at them, became one of the first very vocal individuals in MMORPGS, and pushed in ways to reform EverQuest unlike anyone has done previously.
Jeff Kaplan was a troll, and no trolls active today are even in the same ballpark as he was. In his rants, he could stand toe-to-toe with Ghostcrawler and make Greg cry like a little mage without his Ice Block, all the while getting another world-first kill and making Ensidia cry like a bunch of wimps.
Hiring Kaplan paid off, and it was perhaps WoW's bravest move of all.
The second brave decision Blizzard made was to move away from 40-man raid content in The Burning Crusade. While many leaders in the community were stressed out beyond belief over fielding 40-man raids every week, the consensus of the community as a whole at the time was that the switch away from 40-mans would spell the death of WoW. Of course it didn't, and it took a lot of guts for Blizzard to make that call in the first place and then stick with it during the transition.
Some might argue with me that 40-mans were great, but as someone who lived through organizing them and running them -- the headache wasn't worth it.
Finally, I think the third bravest thing Blizzard has done was to remove the barrier of entry to raiding. This started back in BC and really picked up in Wrath. Giving casual players the ability to enter raid instances without grinding for 30 to 50 hours a week threatened to disenfranchise a very large and vocal minority of the playerbase (and when all the loudmouths are gone, so goes places like WoW Insider, MMO-Champion, and the official forums, and then the doomsayers are not far behind). But the hardcore players overall were not put off. They were given new challenges and opportunities, and that has paid off in (what appears to be) increased retention rates amongst old players and a boost in subscriptions from new and returning players.
I should note that I don't think revamping the old world was all that brave, nor was changing the difficulty of the endgame in Cataclysm (and note there's a difference between endgame in Cataclysm and making raiding more accessible). All those are minor tweaks that, at the end of the day, have rather predictable outcomes (including QQ).
Vector
Could someone please explain to my why in the blazes you'd want to level a character mount-less?
Honestly? To just be a badass. Can any of your friends say they've done it? Probably not. And if you do it, you're not a special and unique snowflake.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column. Leave your questions in the comments, and we'll do our best to answer 'em!
Filed under: The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 11)
Moridin Apr 12th 2011 11:06AM
From a progession raider point of view those raiding gates were so dumb. Glad they are gone.
fallemwarrior Apr 12th 2011 11:34AM
The first... and last time i will ever agree with Adam
angellusEU Apr 12th 2011 12:34PM
not just as a raider, but as a GM and raid leader i completely agree, back in TBC before the attunements were lifted we had very real issues recruiting people and then having to go back to TK and SSC to get them attuned instead of making progress through BT/MH. our first trip into MH was with 22 people and we still killed rage winterchill on the 3rd attempt.
Fjaweru Apr 12th 2011 2:08PM
@ fallemwarrior
Everything I see of yours is down-rated... Meme or general disagreement to your posts? I'm inclined to believe it is a little of both.
mark Apr 12th 2011 3:39PM
i agree that it should be easier than it was, but at least back then if somone was in T4 you KNEW they would of read up on T5 stuff ready and they were geared.
now its a lot harder to tell whose ready to raid.
also...
"Remember, the brave man is the successful man, whereas otherwised he'd just be a fool (or however the saying goes)."
i always liked "the difference between genius and insanity is success
Eldoron Apr 12th 2011 8:12PM
Fjaweru: we hate people posting "First"
Katherine Apr 12th 2011 8:12PM
Storm Peaks even let you hire a mount from the goblins if you couldn't afford to buy the riding skill and mount outright.
wutsconflag Apr 14th 2011 2:44PM
While I'll agree that organizing 40-mans was difficult, raids don't really feel epic with so few people anymore.
Moobs Apr 12th 2011 11:07AM
Can you get to 85 with out ever using a mount?
Pumabackup Apr 12th 2011 11:10AM
that was my thought...even when lvling in icecrown, which is by far the best way to get to 80, you were almost required to have a flying mount. the zone in itself was just designed to be flown it, not crossed on land. and if my memory serves me, i believe the cata zones were designed the same way.
Moobs Apr 12th 2011 11:11AM
After pondering my own question, I believe the answer is yes. Deepholme would have to be skipped and going into uldum ungeared would make it challengeing to say the least.
Nathanyel Apr 12th 2011 11:16AM
Well you could level with instances completely. Though even there, mounts can come in handy (Zul'Farrak)
Moobs Apr 12th 2011 11:16AM
@Pumabackup
If you had lots of rest XP all the time you could hit 80 in 4 zones in wrath, I know because I have done this. The sheer thought of running all over Borean Tundra, Howling fjord, Grizzley hills and Dragonblight just numbs me to no end!
The you would have to do Vash and Hyjal to get to 84ish and the Uldum and Twilight highlands would be finish you off to 85, but again running every where, I am out of breathjust thinking of it!
pinteresque Apr 12th 2011 11:18AM
Or you could just park yourself in Stormwind and queue for dungeons til you hit the cap.
sporkwind Apr 12th 2011 11:19AM
Dungeon Finder / PvP finder your way all the way up the ladder and you never have to leave the comforts of Stormwind. I've heard a lot of people recommend it for supplemental XP while leveling, but it can also be used as the main source.
Wolfshanze Apr 12th 2011 11:24AM
Most definately yes... especially if you're a tank... all you have to do is que, que, que, que your dungeons all the way from 1 to 85 doing nothing but dungeon runs... skip the whole "do zone quest thing". You'd probably have better gear too. The thought of trying to do some zones with no mount is horrid... instead, just sit on the steps of your capital city bank and que LFD until you hit 85.
Huzurahh Apr 12th 2011 11:26AM
Vanilla, BC, and the Wrath zones were designed to be done on ground mounts until you reached around 76. And, with the general nerfing of Wrath leveling, you can hit 80 without going into Icecrown and Storm Peaks (the first zones designed around needing a flying mount).
The Cata zones - other than Deepholm - seem like they could be done by land. It would take forever, and you'd be constantly fighting all the random mobs a person generally just flies over..
Spazmoose Apr 12th 2011 11:29AM
This is absolutely possible. In fact, you never even have to step foot outside of a city to go from 10-85 (level 10 is the minimum level that you can begin running instances).
I'm sure that there are many people that have done this sort of thing, especially those that have all of the available BoA gear that is out there these days (with more coming).
Skrotus Apr 12th 2011 11:29AM
Well the easiest way would probably be to just spam dungeons and/or battlegrounds all the way to 85. You could also grind archeology or any of the gathering professions, though that would be pretty painful without any mounts. So yeah, quite possible.
(cutaia) Apr 12th 2011 11:30AM
Absolutely you could. Storm Peaks and Icecrown both have areas that could be reached without getting a mount, even if the full zones require them. The guy who said he was doing it uses flightpaths, too, which if anything opens up argent tournament dailies.
Then Hyjal has paths everywhere and Uldum and Twilight Highlands are pretty flat as well. Then, if you ever do find yourself unable to reach any quests, you could always do some herbing or archeology for some quick XP, or do the random dungeon finder.
I'm not sure this is all very badass, though. It's akin to eating with your feet for a year. I don't know anyone who's done it, and I'm pretty sure I could pull it off if I felt like it...but I don't think it would make me a badass.