Posts with tag wow-hot-topics

I recently fired up a warlock, something I've always meant to do (I'm a long-time arcane pet class lover and an experienced necromancer) but never managed with any serious effort in WoW. Character selection seemed obvious: Evil class, evil faction, right? Only I don't have an active Horde guild anywhere at the moment, and I was mortifyingly lonely after only two brief play sessions.

Of course, once I remade my character in a happily guilded Alliance version, I was reminded that the guild also runs a Horde alternative guild. Frankly, I'm just as pleased to be tucked safely into the active, happy sprawl of the Alliance-side main guild (especially since I plan to focus on soloing with this character), but I did kick myself when I remembered the Horde alternative. Oh, well. Evil is as evil does, right?

Does your guild maintain an active group on the other side of the faction line? If so, do you belong to both? Are they equally active, or is one guild definitely the primary group?

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Last week, we asked, "What 3 features do you wish WoW had?" Quite a few people answered, many with more than three features. For myself, I suggested cross-realm mail, one free server transfer a month, and story questlines for each class. Here's the breakdown of the responses.

Level scaling

Since reading everyone else's ideas, I'd like to boot cross-realm mail out of my top three list and instead replace it with level scaling so that players of disparate levels can play together. Jojo over at Admiring Azeroth would also like to see level scaling be used so that players could return to lower level zones and complete the content with an appropriate amount of challenge. Feckless Leader's Ross has this to say about what scaling down would have to offer the max-level player:

Quest rewards can always contain gold, and perhaps scaled-down players would also earn the currency of the day, or be able to champion faction rep will questing with your friend. Of course this would work for low-level dungeons, too.

Picking the right professions for a character is always a bit of a puzzle, or at least it is for me. Do I want to make gold in the short term with a pair of gathering professions or do I want to craft gear for myself that will be useful as I level -- and maybe even at end game? If I pick up a profession now, who's to say it will still be what I want after I've leveled up? And do I even want the hassle of leveling up professions? And, even if I do want to go to the trouble for primary professions, what about secondary professions? Do I really want to level up fishing again?

Of course, I inevitably come to the conclusion that leveling the professions as I level up is easier than leveling them later, but my profession choice is always pretty haphazard. (Except for fishing. I have leveled fishing enough for a lifetime.) Though there are, surely, better ways to pick professions, my selection inevitably boils down to what sounds good to me at moment I hit level 5, regardless of what may be good further down the line.

But surely you, dear readers, have better sense than I. How do you go about picking the right professions for a new character?

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From a purely game mechanics point of view, I should love Battlefield Barrens. One of my favorite things to do in Vanilla WoW was head out to the plaguelands and mindlessly grind scourgestones while I read guild chat or watched TV. Sometimes, you don't really want the dedicated direction of dailies or quests, you just wanted to get some progress done on your terms, when you feel like it. Battlefield Barrens, with the ability to grind resources to use for a single weekly quest or for currency for some decent gear and vanity items, would seem to be perfect for that.

But I can't go back to the Barrens, because I'm Alliance. When I go to the Barrens, I've heard from outside sources and little story snippets that I'm supposedly infiltrating the Horde to sew chaos and dissension. Despite that, the actual quest dialogue and gameplay tells a different story. From the moment I hit Durotar, I have to put up with trolls taunting me about the loss of Theramore and trolls threatening to kill me. Even Vol'jin makes me "earn his trust," and threatens to feed me to Sylvanas if I question him. To top it all off, it's not clear that I'm getting anything in return but the vague hope that Vol'jin's Trolls might kill an extra orc or two before the Alliance starts their main offensive.

Temper tantrums aren't really my style. Thanks to years spent onstage in the theatre, my first reaction to any sort of problem is to make sure the audience never knows anything unusual is going on. If something in game irks me that much, I tend to grit my teeth and get through it for the moment. After that, of course, I may well choose to never go back and do that particular thing ever, ever again.

But nothing sends me into a rage faster than those clueless types who bat their eyes while innocently murmuring, "It's just a game, people. It's just the internet. This isn't real life." Players who still manage to think this way even in today's connected age are typically the first ones to thoughtlessly pull the plug when they get their panties in a twist over one thing or another. That whole attitude? Grrr. Stay away from me. If I even so much as get a whiff of that attitude, I'll ... I'll ragequit on you before you ragequit on me.

Have you ever ragequit a WoW group or raid? We're not talking about slipping out of a dysfunctional situation based on sheer frustration; we're talking a full-on, spittle-flecked ragequit with slamming keyboards and turning off the computer power button. What was the thing that broke you down? That bad? Yeah, that bad.

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Blizzard recently released the Armored Bloodwing mount in the Blizzard store. I don't know about you, but I've seen quite a few out in the wild, with some of them just hanging around big cities, showing off. This mount is not quite to my taste -- I'm a huge sparkle pony fan -- but I like its aesthetic and I see the appeal.

Other than the Celestial Steed, I also bought the Wind Rider Cub plushy and in-game pet set. And the Spousal Unit has the Winged Guardian mount. (I think he's eyeing the Armored Bloodwing too. Hmmm. Father's Day is coming up ...) In addition, we each have the collector's editions for several years and all the pets included there.

I admit it: I've been the first domino in guild-killing guild drama. It wasn't anything I said or did that set off the firestorm. But over the course of, oh, nearly 15 years of guild-based MMOs, my curt and final departure from two utterly dysfunctional guilds was most definitely the event that precipitated a cascade of drama leading to the spectacular implosion of both groups.

(See? I told you so. Shoulda left when I did.)

Still, I didn't actually cause the guild-killing drama. I can't say the same for my intrepid spouse, who is quite content to march into the breach of guild dissension with guns blazing. He's not the type to just pack up his toys and go home, like I am. Yeah, he'd be the first to admit he's probably said some things that caused people to go for one another's throats, eventually choking out the entire guild in a frenzy of righteous accusations. Good times. (Not.)

'Fess up: Have you ever said or done something that's set off a guild-wiping drama bomb? Was it a mistake on your part, or would you actually do or say the same thing again? (Yikes.)

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I have two duos going right now. I'm playing a mistweaver with The Spousal Unit's brewmaster and I'm playing a windwalker with The Spawn's frost mage. Both are good times but very different. My daughter and I are leveling very slowly. We stop to smell every peacebloom and sometimes the only questing we get done are the Ironforge cooking and fishing dailies. But we're having a great time tooling around on my two-seater rocket and generally being silly.

The duo with The Spousal Unit is completely different. We're speeding through dungeons on our monk experience buffs and he's definitely a GOGOGOer. I prefer a slower pace -- enough to actually see my surroundings rather than just running from place to place watching health bars. But he wants to get through as many instances as possible in a session. This has led to some discord, but for the most part we are happily GOGOGOing.

Are you playing with a significant other, sibling, parent, or child? Or are you the lone WoW player in your family? Or do you purposely not play with family because of possible out-of-game drama being brought in game or vice versa?

The family that plays together stays together? Maybe? Let us know.

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In the results of last week's Blog Community Topic, many people included wish lists for changes to World of Warcraft along with what they felt was wrong with the game. there were quite a few good ideas, but not really related to the topic. So this week, we want to know what is your list of the top three features you would like added to WoW.

Personally, I'm rather happy with the game as it is, but I still have a wishlist of things that would make my experience in Azeroth even better.

Free server transfers

I would like Blizzard to provide one free server transfer a month per account. It seems to me that many people are quitting the game because they can't afford the $25 to move their characters to a higher population server. Also, quite selfishly, I have some characters that I'd like to move to Zangarmarsh, our It came from the Blog guild server. And while I've paid to transfer characters there before, I really can't afford to keep shelling out the dough. I think this change would go a long way toward keeping people happy and still playing the game -- which is good for everyone.

Every character I've successfully bonded with displays at least some element that relates to the real-world me. Sometimes the tie is tenuous -– a physical resemblance or a quirk of habit that relates to my larger "family" of characters or to me. But when I play a character that's too divergent from the real me, I tend to lose the emotional connection. The character becomes simply "my toon," a tool I use to get certain raid jobs done. (Aaand queue the credits, because that's always the sign that this character's screen time is about to come to a close.)

Still, I'm not so similar to my characters that I think I could handle the work they do in Azeroth. What if I actually possessed the same toolkit of class skills and abilities? I can most assuredly imagine myself as my priest, healing a raid of hardy adventurers. Grace under pressure and rapid triage are strong points for me, and I don't flinch from the unexpected. I wouldn't imagine I'd be traumatized by the horrors of battle. The work of a mage also seems like a solid fit, although I'd prefer to find a useful position off the field of combat. But life as a warrior? Even if I had the physical strength, I'm not sure I could take leaping into melee, day in and day out. Blood and gore at my hand? Not for me.

Could you effectively step into your character's shoes in Azeroth? Like my mage, could you get the work done if you could find a non-combat position? Or do you play any characters whose jobs simply aren't a fit in any sense for the real you?

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Last week, we asked "What's wrong with WoW?" After four blog posts and over 300 comments, it is obvious that quite a few people have very strong thoughts on the subject. We specifically asked what people thought were the reasons that World of Warcraft's subscriber numbers were declining, so I'll be highlighting some of the responses that focus on that.

Age

Carmelo at Clever Musings touts WoW's age as being its biggest problem. 8 years is a very long time for a game, even though it does change every two years with expansions. I'm sure that some people are leaving to play shiny new games with prettier graphics.

After eight years of World of Warcraft, it's definitely time to shift the goal posts on defining what qualifies a player as being old school. How long does someone have to have played WoW before you consider them a seasoned player? How long before you consider them an old timer? Does having played the game for some period of time give you confidence that a player is probably experienced and knowledgeable about the areas of the game he or she commonly plays?

What about you -- how long have you played World of Warcraft? And would you consider yourself an experienced player?

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Intrepid reader Grace wrote in posing this question to us, which started us thinking about why class changes aren't on the menu for WoW players. Blizzard lets you do lots of things to your WoW character after you've created it. Besides leveling it up, you can change races, you can change factions, you can change names, you can change servers, you can change your appearance, and you can even change the looks of your gear with transmogrification. But one thing you're stuck with is your class.

However, while most of these changes are superficial, cosmetic things, class is not -- the class of your character is intrinsic to its identity, and you learn how to manage any class by spending time playing it. But when class changes hit our favored characters hard and we see greener pastures in a newer, more interesting class, leveling an alt -- and then gearing it up -- can make for tedious work. And sometimes all we really want to do is shift from one healing class to another, to better hone our skills or work with our group.

So here's the question for you: Will Blizzard ever offer class changes? Should they?

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Good morning. Today's your lucky day, boys and girls. You get to play hooky from school or work, and you get to do it in Azeroth come to life!

Your guidelines: While this is Azeroth as if it had come to life, you are not your character –- this is the real-world you who's slipping into Azeroth. For the purposes of faction balance, you may assume that you appear to be the appropriate faction and race to be accepted by the inhabitants of the city or land you choose to visit. You can also communicate with the residents.

However, aggressive monsters will remain dangerous to you, and since you are real you and not your character, we don't recommend choosing a zone where you could be attacked by anything at all. (Unless, of course, you're actually qualified to battle these creatures yourself -– in which case, do send photos to lisa@wowinsider.com.) It's probably not a good idea to try stepping into a general zone or instance, unless you're certain you know a safe spot. But what about a city? A quiet fishing hole out of aggro range? A sightseeing tour via zeppelin, or a boating expedition along the shores of Krasarang?

Your advantage is the gift of instant materialization. Wherever you'd like to go, there you'll be. If you'd like to spend the afternoon reading under a tree on a floating island in Nagrand, we can make that happen. If you'd like to party in Goldshire, we'll get you there without braving wolves, spiders, and bandits (although what you'll have to brave once you're there is up to you). You can travel about only if the real you could manage it using Azeroth's usual modes of transportation.

What would you like to see? Who would you try to meet -- and do you think you could talk your way in to see them?

Where would you like to play hooky in Azeroth today?

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