Posts with tag spaces

Old news if you paid attention to our liveblog of the PvP panel at BlizzCon (or if you read through Zach's great analysis of the news we got there), but Blizzard is adding two new Arena spaces to the game, and they've created an official page to show off the new designs and mechanics in each.

The Ring of Valor is a new space in Orgrimmar -- it features an elevator that rises up to a starting position that leaves players in close proximity, and then there is a set of fire obstacles and two moving pillars that can be used to as many tactical advantages that you can come up with. The other space, the Dalaran Sewers, also mixes in a few line-of-sight tricks, including a periodic waterfall that blocks LoS and a raised platform in the middle that can only be reached via two sets of stairs on diagonal sides.

Personally, I think the new mechanics are exciting, but then again I've played maybe four Arena matches in my life -- word I'm getting from most of the Arena players I know is that these changes add a little too much RNG to the maps (considering the all the obstacles are timed, they're not really random, but that's just what I think). What say you, Arena players?

Of all the recurring topics Blizzard faces on the forums, player housing might be the most recurring-- since many other MMOs are more than happy to offer customizable spaces to their players in the game world, a lot of players continually ask Blizzard why they haven't. And the answer is only partially unclear: as you might expect, Blizzard isn't interested in doing something if they can't do it better than everyone else, and at this point they just haven't figured out exactly how to do it their own polished way.

But in its current iteration on the forums, there's a bit of a surprise: many players don't care about player housing in the first place. As Drysc says, "support is not widespread," and considering everything that Blizzard is working on, there's no way they're going to jump into something as big as player housing without having a large portion of the player base behind them.

Then again, players are always in favor of customizing their characters-- look at the hairstyles coming up in the next expansion. If Blizzard can figure out a way to give players a customizable space that was both great looking and easy to customize-- something players could show off to each other and store achievements in-- then there's no doubt that most players would probably jump at the chance.