New World of Warcraft Expansion: Confirmed at Blizzcon

Worgens and Goblins!

It certainly looks a lot different to the World of Warcraft I have seen. I get the feeling they are trying to make the game world appear more dark and moody.

I imagine Blizzard are getting ready to compete with the new Star Wars Republic MMO which is due for release in October 2010.

From the sounds of it, 2010 looks to be a big year for MMO titles, only time will tell which one comes on out top.

Yep, yep indeed... Champion's Online is almost ready considering you can download the open-beta on Fileplanet. I've been messing around with the character creator for that pretty much. Umm Champion's Online is the sequel to City of Heroes/Villains. City of Heroes was a very, very unique MMO I have to say, and really fun in its own right. It was long known for insane character customization. From my experience with dinking around with the open Beta of Champions I have to say they really went all out on the character customization this time around. It's just INSANE! I mean creating a character I'm finding is more fun than the actual gameplay. Grant you Champion's does have some really cool gameplay concepts in terms of your hero or villain's super powers. Again they really took their customization system from City of Heroes and went like a thousand times further with it. While I enjoyed City of Heroes/Villain's for kind of fun little side thing every so often. It never was an MMO that really kept me playing very long. The missions were terribly boring, the controls like in most MMO's I've played were sluggish and awkward. So yeahhh...

Then again my new MMO of choice right now SWG has pretty bad controls but makes up for it with spot on gameplay, immersion, and just ton's of fun things to do. Leveling is kind of boring but it'll pay off by the time I'm done. As I've found the Entertainer is indeed really easy to level. Mine's 71 and I've only been playing for like a week. I'm not at all surprised that someone could level one in less than a day. Especially if they were familiar with macro's, which I'm not with SWG. With WoW I had a bunch of Macro's but I'm still feeling out SWG. My Jedi on the other hand is only level 26, which I guess isn't bad considering I've only had the game a week. Despite my fast leveling I will be the first to admit I totally suck at SWG. Without a guide, or someone who's willing to let me tag along and level with them like a puppy... I'd be totally lost. Not to mention the fact that I've been having an insanely hard time sleeping lately due impart to the heat this Summer, had kept me up for long leveling periods. Again what I dig about SWG is not so much the control's PvP, or even PvE. But just the level of immersion and possibility. Also it's roleplaying potential is huge! I can't wait to finish leveling both my characters so I can really get into the RP portion of the game, and get a nice little house. Decorate it, maybe advertise for my Entertainer once I work the newbie out of my system. It's really not a game I plan to really go nuts in. I just want to level, then sit back and just have fun roleplaying, decorating, exploring etc... Maybe one day I'll try some PvP/PvE... I have heard that it's not near as demanding when it comes to gear as WoW is. That you can generally buyvery expensive craftable armor made by other players who are traders, and while it's not the best it's enough to get you by. That's what I like about SWG. It is more centered around the players as opposed to fetching gear constantly.

Of course as Sluggy mentioned the new KOTOR MMO is set to come out next year. Something I'll also give a try... I'm just wondering if it will try to copy WoW or if it will be more like SWG. In the latter case I might get into the KOTOR MMO, because WoW?

WoW had a good thing going when it was first released then they just totally f'ed things up pretty bad with the honor system. Then they f'ed things up worse when they started releasing their raid instances, which back in the day were all 40 man instances. So only really select guilds had a chance to get in those instances and grind for gear. That was the start however of the gear=skill phenomenon, which in my opinion destroyed the game. Before that it was very balanced, with great controls and gameplay, with room to expand on that gameplay, which Blizz never took advantage of opting instead to go the low road with their gear=skill BS. Then again the low road is in my opinion why WoW is so popular.

Then with Burning Crusade came Arena, but they did throw casual gamers a bone cutting down raid instances to 25 man's, making 5 man heroic instances, allowing at the end there non-hardcore players to get hand-me down Arena gear from BG's. The BG two Season back Arena gear was a grind yes, but it was one that a casual player could undertake and gear up nicely within a couple months of on and off play. More Hardcore players however would gear up with that system in like a few weeks. It took me months to gear up, then I was ready for some Arena... Guhhh Arena is so stupid! I mean while I did do Arena, I started to like the idea of giving like S1 gear to people doing BG's via honor during say Season 3, as opposed to forcing players to compete in a glorified tag team duel. Arena's were horribly imbalanced, and Blizzard spent so much time trying to balance them they wound up messing up the class balance terribly for the whole game including PvE. Yes this stupid PvP gimmick they added even affected many PvE aspects of the game. Some classes got ridiculously overpowered, while others were horribly nerfed. In a nutshell Arena = MAJOR F-UP for WoW.

What really was the last straw for me with WoW though is the fact they suck at making expansions. When you have people putting so much effort into getting great gear only to make an expansion that makes it all obsolete due to the new level cap. It kind of makes you wonder, "why even bother?" This was a big reason I quit after WotLK, and I've been WoW free for about a year now. It's also a reason I quit for 6 months after BC was released. I mean in BC I had a PvP Mage with S2 gear, and few pieces of Season 3. I was working mostly towards the S3 staff before the expansion at my own pace, as I did take things rather slow. I was kind of shocked I had two 70's to tell the truth, let alone well geared 70's. But then again considering I have been playing WoW at my own pace since it's release back in 2004... Yeah I guess in four years one can pull that off. I also had a PvE character with decent PvE gear, a nice mix of T4, and Tier 5. I was slow all things considered in my gear grind, let alone my level grind... Say for my first Mage when the game first came out. I leveled her fast because at the time I was just laid off, hence no job, and due to having recently moved to California at the time I only knew my roomate, who then became my partner, then later realized she was straight and not bi, so now we're sisters.... bleh, basically at the time I had no social life either. But once I got a job again my playtime drastically decreased.

I digress... With my two Burning Crusade 70's, you know I did have some of the best items in the game for my characters all things considered. I mean they weren't the very, very best but they were up there, and I spent a long time getting all that. Now while my accomplishments may not have been much in contrast to what many WoW addicts are capable of. For a casual gamer like me I was pretty proud of what I had.

Then Wrath of the Lich King comes out like right before I almost had enough to get my staff, and all that effort into getting that gear is for nothing because of the new level cap. Level 74 greens were now a vast improvement over my level 70 purples, WTF?! That's what bugs me the most about WoW and it's expansions. For someone like me who can't keep up with the grind but manages to get two characters to 70 and somehow manages to outfit them with some pretty great gear. That's really an accomplishment. But it's not something I want to do all over AGAIN! I say make the expansion, but leave out the blasted level cap! I felt similar when Burning Crusade came out as I had on my original Mage some decent Molten Core gear, and a little Black Wing Lair gear. I didn't like raiding much so my gear wasn't the best but it still was up there considering there were only 3 raid instances. Molten Core for T1 Black Wing Lair for T2 and Naxxramas for T3, which almost no one got to see because they released Burning Crusade too quickly. There was also Ahn'Qiraj, and Zul'Gurrab (sp). I never did AQ, but I did do ZG. ZG wasn't too bad it was the first 25 man raid instance. I think it was an experiment by Blizz to see how that may work out in Burning Crusade. It did work much nicer in Burning Crusade. 40 man raid's were just really hard to get going... Grant you ZG was kinda meh, and I was only in it for the trinket.

But yeah the level cap thing really irks me. They shouldn't up it... I mean then at the very least I can keep my gear reasonable and upgrade when necessary. As opposed to raising the level cap, make the new Heroic's have nicer gear, make the new raid instances have nicer gear, and just stick with the Season's for PvP gear, and allow people who hate Arena to get hand me downs from two Season's ago in Battlgrounds. Why must the level cap be raised? Well it's obvious why? More levels harder to get gear = more time invested in playing the game. Where as they could leave the level cap alone and just let you get new gear with rep grinding to get into instances etc... It's still a grind either way, believe me... Rep grinding is boring.... But no they have to add that extra BS! I don't care about new abilities, or talents!

If WoW let up a bit on the pressure of Gear grinding in general, and stopped releasing expansions like clockwork as they've been doing lately, so people could y'know actually experience end game content before it becomes obsolete, and as opposed to devoting so much time on creative ways to make people grind for gear instead add some creative new features to the gameplay. Like look at SWG? Just look at all the stuff you can do!? If WoW did this it could be a fun game. But the constant grind, then the inevitable level cap raising with every expansion, which makes old content obsolete, just makes WoW more of a chore than a game. They really need to put less blasted focus on gear and more on y'know? Focus more on actual FUN! Yeah that reason people play video games to begin with and all...

You see that's why I opt for SWG! It may not have great controls like WoW. It may be clunky... But you know what? It doesn't make you feel pressured to constantly play to keep up with the gear. Instead it's way more laid back with so many fun and interesting features, all you want to do is explore everything, try everything, and yeah okay you may need to grind for some cash to invest in certain areas of gameplay. But the economy in SWG is pretty reasonable overall.

The emphasis on gear in WoW tricks people into thinking they're playing for fun, when in reality they're playing so they can grind the gear that will actually allow them to play for fun later on. I don't know, maybe this stuff is easy for hardcore players, but for me it's not. Plus when I actually do get time to waste on an MMO I rather not be grinding my eyeballs out. Instead I just want to have fun. I can't imagine how difficult this game will be for a new player at this point with the level cap so high? I mean a fresh new casual player to the game. I wonder if they will ever reach level 80 let alone 85, let alone get good gear at this point! You see these expansions are going to turn off casual gamers as the cap and gear demand increases. This will be the downfall of the all might WoW MMO monopoly over time.

For example a level 70 in Tier 5 vs a level 70 Season 1 will be destroyed by the level 70 in Season 1. Why? Because Season 1 Gladiator gear is PvP gear where as Tier 5 is PvE gear. A level 70 in Tier 4 vs a level 70 in Season 2, the 70 in Tier 4 will come out on top of the DPS charts in the raid because they're wearing PvE gear. PvP gear is all about resilience and burst damage, where as PvE gear is built for longevity and prolonged damage over time. The 70 in PvP gear will run out of mana much faster then the 70 with PvE gear, and generally have less overall spellpower. However The 70 in PvE gear will hardly dent the 70 in PvP gear due to resilance and Stamina attached to the PvP gear.

Ugghh it's just gear, gear, gear! I mean I miss when WoW first launched and gear really wasn't a deciding factor in these sorts of things. I mean it certainly helped a bit to have better gear. But it didn't guarantee you would defeat an opponent in PvP, or perform greatly in PvE. If anything the gear was just a nice little boost but overall everything was much more skill reliant on the players behalf. Once the honor system was introduced, and once Raid Instances started dropping ridiculously overpowered items. It all started to slowly go down Hill. This became worse, and worse in BC with the introduction of Arena, and the clear separation of PvE and PvP gear. While there should be some slight seperation that gives a PvPer a little advantage over PvEer in PvP it shouldn't be such MASSIVE gap! And vica versa....

Then again it's the gear grinding that's the core component of WoW being the most addictive MMO of them all, and likely the most popular. It's not fun, it's a chore. You feel obligated to do said chore so you can have fun. Then the fun is snatched away a few patches later when new gear is released, or especially after Blizz decides to up the level cap again and cash in on a new expansion, which as I've noticed the quality with each expansion gets worse and worse. Vanilla WoW was well done at launch with great quality. Burning Crusade had loads of balance issues, WotLK seemed so rushed that even veterans of WoW like my Big Sis got sick of it, and now they're going to completely overhaul Azeroth?! Something about that just seems wrong for various reasons I'm not going into because I've already typed A LOT! I could write an entire article about this, but I'm still mulling it over because I might anger some people with my thoughts on the subject of MMO addiction specifically WoW addiction as it's by far the most addictive in how it's implemented, which is why I suspect it's the most popular MMO on the market by far.

In a nutshell though, WoW could've have remained a good MMO if Blizz didn't make it all about the gear, and instead focused more on other things. Like player housing, expanding the World in creative ways. etc.... But it is that gear pull that makes WoW the most popular MMO. It's not popular because it's fun. It's popular because it tricks its players on a subconscious level basically making them zombies.

Very interesting, indeed. Thanks Strange Angel for this Add^^.

I think this new addon could be interesting, but I'm worrying about 1 thing: if Azeroth changes so drastically will it still be as interesting as before? Everything looks so devastated, I'm not sure if I and anyone else will like this alot. On the other hand, after countless hours of grinding (as mentioned by Strange Angel, after all, WoW is really about items), that change might be an interesting change.

What I really like are the Flying mounts in Azeroth. It's nonsense that you're able to fly in Northrend, but not in Azeroth...

Glad you enjoyed Mayu. I never understood why Flying Mounts were only exclusive to Outland when I played. I didn't know they were playable in Northrend, but I'm guessing at a higher level you can see yet another mount trainer and get the ability to fly around Northrend. I'm guessing they disabled it because possibly raids on major factions cities would be easier? Like just flying over Orgimmar/Stormwind and landing in a strategically good area? Who knows?

Also I really do not like the idea of an overhaul on Azeroth. It'll make leveling confusing for veterans I imagine, and what's going to happen to The Barrens? Early on that was like the ideal place to level? Oh well...

But here's a freaky story. Out of nowhere this week I had like this overwhelming urge to play WoW! It was freaky in that I'm already busy with Starwars Galaxies, and that I really have no rational reasons to go back to the game. I don't find it fun anymore. I think this goes to show just how addictive the game is. It's like when you quit smoking and you go to a convenience store and see the cigarettes behind the counter, you get an urge to by a pack even though you haven't smoked in like two years, and know all you're going to get out of it is a nasty taste in your mouth, and a sore throat. It was that exact type of urge with WoW for me this week.

Just out of blue I felt like leveling my Mage from 71-80 and grinding out in the Arena's/BG's for upgraded PvP gear. It was just sick! It wasn't out of a desire for fun, it was out of like this weird programming in my head that I must catch up, that in the last year I've lagged too far behind. It was this weird competitive urge to get back into it. Rationally I knew it was messed up! And I subsequently came to the rational decision to of course NOT renew my account. But yikes... I was always a casual player. I didn't have the time to play MMO's for hours on end back when I was healthy. However when I did play I did manage to slowly climb the ladder and obtain some great stuff. Right now that I'm sick and my true friends have all moved away out of state, I have not much to do. That's why I decided why not go nuts leveling in SWG and then just enjoy the game.

However in some sick way this logic was being applied to WoW via this urge. It was like now would be the perfect time to level your Mage up and get back in the game. I was like no way! I don't even like the game, why am I even having these thoughts?! O_o What's worse is it felt kind of like some unwritten responsibility! I finally shrugged this crazy urge off, but it spooked me.

Again using the quitting smoking analogy. You bringing WoW up on the forums, then me learning about the new expansion in a way was like being in a convenience store after having quit smoking for a year only to see the cigarettes behind the counter and have an urge to buy pack. The cigarettes behind the counter in this analogy being of course WoW and the expansion. This really struck me, and made me realize that the fallacious sense of competition the gear creates is one of the strongest hooks in terms of WoW addiction. I always knew it was one of the hooks, I just didn't realize it was that strong! WoW does when I think about it have all the ingredients for being the most addictive MMO ever made. Even for a casual like me... WoW is more addictive than I thought, and I come to this conclusion now because of that sudden urge I had to play it that defied all rational thought. Once again I shrugged off the urge, it just kind of spooked me, and continued doing my own thing. Right now I've just finished reading, "On Revolution by Hannah Arendt" one of my favorite authors. I just picked it the book up earlier in the week at a Borders across the street from my doctors office. I felt it needed a short break from the powerleveling I've been doing in SWG. Grant you, I finished the book Thursday.

As for SWG... I'm missing out on a lot of fun right now because leveling is all I'm doing. However while it is boring especially considering I have no idea what I am doing half the time it will pay off when I'm done because I'll have so many more options and variety. I just get have to get that big of grind out of the way and I'm building my house, I may in the future build a club of some sort depends on how well known my Ent becomes, I do plan to put up a few billboards when I get really good with the class. Also I need to accessorize, and build myself a nice wardrobe, eventually I'll do the quest for the 5th Generation Saber, but not until I get all the newbie out of my system because as I've read this quest is kind of a one shot deal. I'll also learn to actually play when I cap out both my classes, because when you level compulsively like this you don't learn much at all I'm still a huge newbie. I'm estimating I should cap out level wise with both my classes by October at the most. It's a boring job but once its done... Oh yeah I forgot to add I'm also gonna build me a starship! Perhaps even a luxury cruise ship people can pay to take trips on. Yes you can actually build cruise ships in this game akin to luxury cruise ships in r/l that take your around the Ocean, instead you take people around the Galaxy. It's also a very lucrative business too or so I here.