[WoW] Should the next expansion raise the level cap?

[Mahes]

Originally Posted by Grave

Haha, I hope the next WoW expansion has a big starburst on the front that says "1000s of new PETS to COLLECT!"

If they would create a kind of side game where the pets could fight each other via player control, and players could try to locate items that strengthen each pet in one way or another, that might actually be fun. To bad that might take away from the general concept of the game, and that the programming for said idea would be too much.

[Horse]

sorry dude, but fuck your red protodrake

I can type /fart 10,000x and "do de dungen wearing party hat lol" and pretend I'm cool or doing such is cool, too, but I'd actually prefer some content that:

1) isn't based on repeating some bullshit
2) isn't old
3) isn't forcing the issue (DO IT WITH LESS PEOPLE!)

So far this expansion has been Malygos and Sarth, with a bunch of bullshit tossed in the mix. The achievements feel like some faggotry that you'd see in runescape where someone spent a godawful amount of time and energy to equip a striped red and black blotchy stick instead of a green and blue blotchy stick.

Wow, are you going to sit at the launch pad in dalaran blocking the flight master with it? Now that's awesome.

Strand of the Ancients with alliance always going first, and with the south graveyard that most of the time with a pug means offensively cap = loss because of the runtime to get the vehicles. Snore.

Requiring honor grind and throwing in an RNG PVE boss to get arena gear is a large multiple worse than before.

The state of resilience is a fucking joke for some classes, and somehow it is acceptable that "it is an arms race" for certain classes to stack resilience while others use their ghetto pve nonsense to absolutely destroy.

DKs have gotten their hack down at the knees (overnerfed). Now we start with the "hey I can't believe they're changing this shit mid-arena season vs. it really isn't enough" back and forth.

QWErnqjkwebkqjbwjk

[Sharmai]

MTGO online but using the wow trading card game. Make table rooms in cities. Make some common cards collectible through achievements and raiding. (like the basic training sets)


It's a money machine that's begging to happen.

[Aaubert]

Originally Posted by Rusty Dagger

It's a very simple question. What is there to do now outside of a raid instance? That's right: nothing. There's no meaningful and not even any fun way to progress. There's nothing to do. Period. If you want to stand on your soapbox and say this game should be nothing but clearing naxx once or twice a week plus the single boss zones and then afk'ing for 5 days til next reset, then you have completely missed the entire point of a role playing game.

i don't support AAs. but it is true that there is less progress available in this expansion than ever before. Maxxing all TBC factions including aldor/scryer + BGs took me a crapton longer than getting to a similar level in wotlk.

[Grave]

Originally Posted by Mahes

If they would create a kind of side game where the pets could fight each other via player control, and players could try to locate items that strengthen each pet in one way or another, that might actually be fun. To bad that might take away from the general concept of the game, and that the programming for said idea would be too much.

Nah, it'd be real easy. Once a pet duel started, you could just have the player control the pet like all the vehicle quests in WotLK, with it's own abilities and such.

It'd still be lame though.

"Whatcha running H-Violet Hold for, man?"
"Trying to get the razorbeak mask for me Penguin."

[The Ancient]

Originally Posted by Mahes

If they would create a kind of side game where the pets could fight each other via player control, and players could try to locate items that strengthen each pet in one way or another, that might actually be fun. To bad that might take away from the general concept of the game, and that the programming for said idea would be too much.

I choose you, Sleepy Willy!

[Malvesti]

I like the idea of having a non-level-cap expansion for variety--I have good memories of Kunark-->Velious--but this thread has pointed out a lot of pitfalls with it.

On one hand, if you do a level increase, you have a bunch of obsolete content left behind. On the other, if you don't raise the level cap and tune the new expansion to require the best gear from the old, new people might take forever to catch up because they have to go through the old world before seeing the new stuff. A semi-gear reset with quests and BOEs from the new world might be a good compromise. For example, if WOTLK hadn't raised the level cap, and its entry dungeons had been tuned to require T6, then it could have added easy ways to get T5-equivalents (quests, tradeskills) and some expensive ways to get T6-equivalents (e.g. BOE tradeskill items requiring rare drops in WOTLK dungeons). You would still need to hit TBC content, but it would be much easier and you wouldn't have to do it many times.


There's also the option of making the new expansion entail a side branch of progression. Say the new expansion is the Emerald Dream, you could make it such that normal gear cannot be worn in the Dream, and vice-versa. (And add a Dream bank!) My initial thought is this seems too gimmicky. Also, given that MMOGs are based on advancement, would anyone actually play it? What if the final bosses of the Emerald Dream gave upgrades that transferred to the real world? You could do something equivalent (side branch progression) with an expansion in which you don't go as yourself but as something else--e.g., an expansion in which you become able to control a dragon and the entire expansion is devoted to fighting on, and leveling and gearing up, the dragon rather than yourself. Again, gimmicky.

[Erumaron]

Originally Posted by Malvesti

I like the idea of having a non-level-cap expansion for variety--I have good memories of Kunark-->Velious--but this thread has pointed out a lot of pitfalls with it.

On one hand, if you do a level increase, you have a bunch of obsolete content left behind. On the other, if you don't raise the level cap and tune the new expansion to require the best gear from the old, new people might take forever to catch up because they have to go through the old world before seeing the new stuff. A semi-gear reset with quests and BOEs from the new world might be a good compromise. For example, if WOTLK hadn't raised the level cap, and its entry dungeons had been tuned to require T6, then it could have added easy ways to get T5-equivalents (quests, tradeskills) and some expensive ways to get T6-equivalents (e.g. BOE tradeskill items requiring rare drops in WOTLK dungeons). You would still need to hit TBC content, but it would be much easier and you wouldn't have to do it many times.


There's also the option of making the new expansion entail a side branch of progression. Say the new expansion is the Emerald Dream, you could make it such that normal gear cannot be worn in the Dream, and vice-versa. (And add a Dream bank!) My initial thought is this seems too gimmicky. Also, given that MMOGs are based on advancement, would anyone actually play it? What if the final bosses of the Emerald Dream gave upgrades that transferred to the real world? You could do something equivalent (side branch progression) with an expansion in which you don't go as yourself but as something else--e.g., an expansion in which you become able to control a dragon and the entire expansion is devoted to fighting on, and leveling and gearing up, the dragon rather than yourself. Again, gimmicky.

WoW wouldn't even need to change their model so much to catch people up. They can use Regular difficulty instances as the catch up mechanism (and have their own badges or something, this on top of the things you mentioned) and Heroic is for the top geared people from the previous expansion.

[FoghornDeadhorn]

I think people could do to not flip out about the current state of progression. First and foremost, if you don't want a game that is based on repeating content...don't tell me you don't know what advice I would write to you. It's too overwhelmingly obvious there's a compatibility issue there.

Sarth is the new model; I think everyone could tell that, and the developers did confirm it. You're going to 'beat' content once and then come back and beat it on hard more. If you don't like that idea, I seriously suggest you stop playing WoW. They are finding as many ways to get as much mileage out of each bit of content that they can. Sitting here and bitching about it is just pissing into the wind.

Get over it, or don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. It is what it is.

[Vinen]

Originally Posted by FoghornDeadhorn

I think people could do to not flip out about the current state of progression. First and foremost, if you don't want a game that is based on repeating content...don't tell me you don't know what advice I would write to you. It's too overwhelmingly obvious there's a compatibility issue there.

Sarth is the new model; I think everyone could tell that, and the developers did confirm it. You're going to 'beat' content once and then come back and beat it on hard more. If you don't like that idea, I seriously suggest you stop playing WoW. They are finding as many ways to get as much mileage out of each bit of content that they can. Sitting here and bitching about it is just pissing into the wind.

Get over it, or don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. It is what it is.

As a "hardcore" raider who has completed all raid content. I don't care if Joe the Retard can complete it on easy. They get to enjoy the game also and we get our nifty titles.

Overall, this is my favorite model I've seen in a MMO. And it's nice to not give a shit about my gear for a change as it flows in so quickly.

My only bitch is that the reset timers need to be shorter for 10man etc in the long run. I liked how ZA worked in that aspect.

[Ukerric]

Originally Posted by Grave

Have you considered the reason you don't find many of those things fun may be because they don't offer you any kind of meaningful, important increase?

Making them have some meaningful increase would not make them fun magically. It would make them required, that's all.

[Ukerric]

Originally Posted by Mahes

If they would create a kind of side game where the pets could fight each other via player control, and players could try to locate items that strengthen each pet in one way or another, that might actually be fun. To bad that might take away from the general concept of the game, and that the programming for said idea would be too much.

People are still clamoring the Engineering "Microbot Arena" league. My Crashin' Trashin Racer vs your Steam Tonk.

[Cybsled]

I remember that idea from those fake patchnotes so long ago.

I'm surprised Bliz hasn't tried to implement it fully.

[Mist]

Originally Posted by Sharmai

MTGO online but using the wow trading card game. Make table rooms in cities. Make some common cards collectible through achievements and raiding. (like the basic training sets)


It's a money machine that's begging to happen.

They should make a collectible figures game instead. The WoW card game is popular enough and I doubt their parent company would like Blizzard screwing with it.

[Arbitrary]

No reason to pussyfoot around. If you want gaming crack than just implement Texas Hold'em in WoW in which you are wagering your gold.