Posts with tag game-changes

World of Warcraft constantly changes. It changes in patches in small ways (buffs change, spell power changes making a formerly useless ability stronger, or a strong ability weaker) and it changes between expansions in much larger ways. If I still played a fury warrior today the way I would have played one back in Wrath I'd be using Whirlwind as part of my rotation.

Between player action (players roll alts, switch mains and change roles) and the game's inexorable forward progress, there are always new things to learn, which require us to unlearn what we did before. Factor in returning players who take weeks, months, even years off - I've seen a lot of Hey, I left the game in X expansion, what's different now emails in my time at WoW Insider - and you have a continuous problem for World of Warcraft in people who have, in essence, a different game in mind when they play. This issue affects gameplay in numerous ways, both for those players (and eventually, we're all those players) and for the game itself.

So much has changed in the game of late. The acceleration to experience has some grumbling "I remember when you had to grind your levels," a la Grandpa Simpson. In fact, for those who have been playing the game for a couple of years, nostalgia not only kicks in, but a little dementia as well. The_ivorytower recently posted on the WoW LJ about this very topic, about all those moments that add up in WoW to just make you feel just plain old.

Among the things she brings up are those times in long past when spells like Consecration and Evocation were talents. Or how about the Unending Breath that never actually ended, allowing the Undead to sit underwater untouchable by their opponents? She mentions also Mor'Ladim and his insane aggro radius; he would basically run straight at you once you set foot in Raven Hill. And the Sons of Arugal that would descend in a pack to pick your bones clean in Silverpine before you even knew they were there.

Because this game has changed so very much since launch, often times you can date yourself from the elements you remember before they were removed. Plains Running anyone?