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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Is transmogrification bringing you back?
by Adam Holisky 
Aug 27th 2011 at 8:00AM
Some people that I've spoken with have said it is. They love the old raids and pine for the days of yesteryear. With transmogrification, they hope to find groups of like-minded players to run the old content, expand their raiding beyond just the cutting-edge tier. They want to experience the game for what it is in its entirety and not focus on a single microcosm of content.
To them, transmogrification is (hopefully) the vehicle in which they'll ride to the good ol' days again.
I suspect, although don't know for certain, that transmogrification will contribute to a positive bump (or a slowing of the decline) in subscriber numbers. A commenter in The Queue asked the other day if the upcoming Raid Finder will allow for players to find groups for older raids. While it might be unlikely, given how the current Dungeon Finder behaves, a combination of that ability in the Raid Finder and transmogrification might be enough to draw back the old-schoolers in droves.
So let's hear it: Is transmogrification going to bring you back, or at least keep you around longer?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 6)
DarkWalker Aug 27th 2011 12:49PM
Engineering googles were the first thing that appeared in my head when I read about Transmogrification (pun intended :p ).
Noyou Aug 27th 2011 3:33PM
@Dark
me too! by the time I actually am able to get mine made they will probably not be worth all that much. I was going back looking at some old ones and unfortunately all the cooler ones seems to be cloth. So for headgear at least, I hope they let us change cloth into mail/plate etc. (yes I know they said they won't - right now) or come up with more versions. The other really cool thing would be shields. Shields for protections specs should say something about them, more than what some artsy fartsy pants (who probably doesn't even play the game) wants to display.
Plutarch Aug 29th 2011 1:51PM
I think the new Raid Finder and the current Dungeon Finder should both have an option to select older specific dungeons. Call it "Classic Dungeons" or something. The gist of it is that you can get into dungeons that you are overpowered for, but group with other who don't mind (not the "at level" folks to keep that pure). This opens access to all those achivement hunters and folks looking to experience older content but aren't in huge guilds that can help with that sort of request.
jealouspirate Aug 27th 2011 8:24AM
I thought it might make me resub at first, but then as the details came in I realized it's actually a fairly clunky and restricted system compared to other MMOs out there.
If you already love WoW and wanted cosmetic armor, then transmogrification is great. However, if you're just looking for an MMO with a great cosmetic armor system then there are several good MMOs that pull it off much better.
(Not to mention all the other things that bother me about WoW and this expansion are still around. What would I do with my new custom armor? Run dailies or ZA/ZG for the 1000th time? No thanks)
Ragnuk Aug 27th 2011 9:18AM
Could you name some of the MMOs that does this system better than mogging in wow? I'd like to see those.
snowleopard233 Aug 27th 2011 10:09AM
Yeah, I'm in agreement with you. This is a new feature but it's not new content and it's not going to make older content magically feel like new content. What I'd really like is a solid continuation of all the thousand storylines they've thrown up in the air lately, rather than this truncated plot they seem to be giving us with expansion.
Where's my worgen and goblin themed raids? It's like they threw in those two races at the beginning of the expansion and forgot about them. Even TBC had end game content that was pertinent to its respective races and Wrath was basically one long path of vengeance for Death Knight players. We've seen zip end game for goblins and zip lore period for Worgen this expansion. Given how Blizz forgot about the Draenei and Blood elves after TBC I don't see them finding the time to give the worgen and goblins any more love in the near future.
Matt Aug 27th 2011 11:51AM
@ragnuk - LOTRO does a great job of it, for one...and very smoothly, too.
DarkWalker Aug 27th 2011 1:00PM
The transmogrification system should really be evaluated together with the Void Storage system. The two complement each other nicely (more so if you can transmogrify directly from a piece of gear stored in the Void Storage).
But yeah, I would take LotRO's appearance tab system over WoW's transmogrification any time. Up to 7 stored outfits per character (fist two free, the rest purchased account-wide), plus a server-wide wardrobe with up to 100 slots? Outfits changeable on the fly? And, on top of it, most old content gear becoming purchasable with Skirmish marks (LotRO's rough equivalent to JP)?
IMHO, WoW's planned Transmogrification system doesn't hold a candle to LotRO's outfit system. In LotRO, I always look exactly the way I want, for the occasion at hand, without sacrificing stats. WoW can't match this.
Amaxe Aug 27th 2011 1:29PM
"Up to 7 stored outfits per character (fist two free, the rest purchased account-wide)"
Ouch...
Al Aug 27th 2011 9:07PM
Another good thing about the Lotro system is it's separate from your gear, so you don't have to replace the look each time you upgrade gear.
Slotting an appearance item is also free, rather than the undetermined gold sink Blizzard are aiming for.
Sealskjaer Aug 28th 2011 6:46AM
@jealouspirate: I completely agree. I stopped playing about a month ago (after 4 years solid) and I very nearly re-subbed when I heard about this change. But then I thought about it and realistically, as much as I would have loved this change 3 years ago while I was levelling my army of alts it doesn't change much now.
As much as I would have loved to play my rogue dual wielding [Hanzo Sword]s with a full ninja outfit I would still just be looking awesome whilst doing the same old stuff, the stuff that made me bored and convinced me to stop in the first place.
I am dissappointed that this feature didn't exist while I was playing but it isn't anywhere near enough to drag me back now that I'm gone.
Gendou Aug 27th 2011 8:24AM
I... I never left you. /heart
Parrin Aug 27th 2011 8:43AM
I agree that transmog will offer a small bump in subscriptions, but I won't be one of them. I just really hate the end-game changes, and will not be paying money to be forced into a play style. All of the returning players will leave again after realizing that they aren't the type to enjoy looking pretty but nothing else.
People left because of changes. Changes to play style, changes to content updates, changes to raids and dungeons and bgs oh my. Until Blizz changes it to something better instead of something worse, they won't come back for long.
robitrock Aug 27th 2011 11:13AM
http://youtu.be/TBddZ1uwtsk
Noyou Aug 27th 2011 3:41PM
Like mused said, if you are thinking of quitting, transmogrification will probably not keep you for long. What it is doing is opening up a whole other level of flavor to a flavorless portion of the game. It's like saying, "Here's more toppings for your favorite pizza". With a lot of people they are perfectly fine with cheese pizza. Some people don't like pizza at all. And now some people have new ideas on going out and shopping for ingredients. Making old gear (Such as goggles) or grinding old dungeons for gear/weapons. Mostly it's just buying time for the next expac. If you are looking for a savior, this probably won't do it for you. If you are looking for a distraction, it might. If you leave now, it's ok. You will be back for pandas! (unless that's like a game breaker for you. In that case, can I haz your gold?)
Angus Aug 27th 2011 8:59AM
Nope.
But it has made me dust off the Shaman who is missing the helm and chest for the T5 cataclysm set along with this stupidly horribly itemized fists from Hyjal.
He will be stylin' in raids.
T12 is pretty so the paladin probably won't be switching anything. The fact that they won't let me use the Thunderfury model on anything else has made me unhappy. Still trying to get that weapon simply because it is the only sword that looks big in a female blood elf's hands.
talmeta Aug 27th 2011 9:03AM
Sadly, no. I might resub for Hallow's End, but maybe not. My son is in the SWTOR beta, and I haven't played that in over a week and a half, either. Go kill 20 "x" and bring back their ears just isn't doing it for me anymore. I'll probably play it for a little while when it actually comes out, but even now the prospect of redoing everything I did in beta does not appeal to me.
One thing I always enjoyed in WoW was that if I were sick of a particular areas quests, there was likely to be a zone or three I hadn't leveled through. Once you hit BC content, though, you're in a funnel; BC only really had 2 paths to level, LK did too. Cata seemed to offer two, until you hit Deepholm...
robitrock Aug 27th 2011 11:27AM
Yeah but once you get out of deepholme you have two choices again, i didn't even do hyjal or vash'jr my first time through
Went straight to dungeons then deepholme for awhile > uldum > twilight highlands
I do think that's the problem with most people however, people are just sick of the wow style game whether it be quests or dungeons, flashy words like "Dynamic" or "Engaging" that both star wars and guild wars are throwing around are just that flashy words.
In the end i bet they all feel the same, look at rift as an example they used flashy words, said it was the "New" Azeroth and it feels like vanilla wow all over again.
Abbadon Aug 27th 2011 9:03AM
Meh... I'm one of those that has always been forced to throw away old tier sets as I upgraded. And only recently (maybe 2-3 months ago) ditched my near complete MC and AQ40 sets.
I've seen all the dungeons and probably about half the hard modes in the game. I'm not in any hurry to break my back to collect things I once had but was forced to get rid of due to limited space.
For my main (lock), there are a few sets that are tempting. But thus far, I have not been compelled to start re-farming anything. For the most part, I'm content to display the latest tier showing my progression and accomplishments.
However, I have started working on the purple judgement set on my DK. And given time, I will probably work on a particular set for each of my alts.
I wouldn't say that transmogrification is enough to keep me around (but not like I'm going anywhere soon). Nor do I think it will bring back players in droves. But it is a nifty feature that will certainly extend many players' time in the game working to complete gear sets for display.
crsh Aug 27th 2011 9:22AM
No.
I like the idea, I think it's fun, but that's not enough to bring me back; I have no interest in subbing just to play dress-up.