{"id":626,"date":"2011-10-25T18:07:49","date_gmt":"2011-10-25T17:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/25\/blizzcon\/"},"modified":"2011-10-25T18:07:49","modified_gmt":"2011-10-25T17:07:49","slug":"blizzcon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/25\/blizzcon\/","title":{"rendered":"Blizzcon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/world-of-warcraft-mists-of-pandaria-artwork.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px\" title=\"world-of-warcraft-mists-of-pandaria-artwork\" border=\"0\" alt=\"world-of-warcraft-mists-of-pandaria-artwork\" src=\"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/world-of-warcraft-mists-of-pandaria-artwork_thumb.jpg\" width=\"569\" height=\"244\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Well, another Blizzcon has gone by and some news came from one of my favorite game developers\u2026<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">No release date for Diablo III, but it seems the release is close, so crossing my fingers the game is as good as it looks (and to be honest, to see if it has aged well\u2026 It\u2019s been almost 10 years since I\u2019ve played Diablo, and I\u2019ve played WoW in the meantime, that takes a lot of the Diablo ideas ten steps forward, so let\u2019s see how it feels nowadays\u2026)<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">No release date aswell for \u201cStarcraft II: Heart of the Swarm\u201d, and I can\u2019t wait to play it\u2026 think it\u2019s the most excited I\u2019ve been for the release of an RTS ever! The DOTA thing they\u2019re going to release doesn\u2019t excite me that much, but I\u2019ve never been a big fan of DOTA-type games, to be honest. It seems they\u2019re trying to do something special with the genre, though\u2026<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">And the big news\u2026 \u201cMists of Pandaria\u201d, the new expansion for WoW has been announced (also without a release date)\u2026 This was expected, and to be honest I\u2019m more or less disappointed with it.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div align=\"justify\">New race: the Pandarens\u2026 Really? Pandas? Kung-Fu Pandas? That was the best they could come up with? What\u2019s next? The Shrek Race?! Besides, for a 7-year player, adding a new race really doesn\u2019t add anything to the game at this point\u2026 <\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"justify\">New class: Monk\u2026 Again, same rationale as above\u2026 introducing another class for a 7-year old player is useless\u2026 I won\u2019t stop playing my character to play a new one; I know there are some players that actually do it, but I wonder what percentage of players that actually is, and how significant it is for Blizzard\u2026 It seems to me that alt-oholics aren\u2019t as committed to the game as hardcore raiders, and those won\u2019t change characters that easily\u2026 On the other hand, that might be precisely what Blizzard has in mind: add new content for less-committed players because committed players won\u2019t drop the game that easily.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"justify\">5 new levels. Same as Cataclysm, probably last a bit longer (because of the additional time it takes to level up). So its good enough, I think.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"justify\">Pet battle system: Seriously? World of Pokemon? Was this something people actually wanted?!<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"justify\">New continent: This was expected, and the setting seems great. Oriental-based stuff is new in WoW, so it seems like a very good choice (allows for new visuals, new music, new lore)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"justify\">Challenge Mode Dungeons: The concept seems interesting, but I think again it lacks interest for end-game players\u2026 But it\u2019s probably good for more casual players (because of the gear normalization, a raider won\u2019t get an edge, so it\u2019s really just a skill contest, albeit raiders and pvpers tend to be better players because of the general playtime)~<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"justify\">New talent system. On Cataclysm, Blizzard changed the whole talent system, which required players to relearn their classes\u2026 now they\u2019re changing it again, replacing the tree-system for a \u201cchoose your main orientation\u201d \u2013 in the case of mages, fire, arcane or frost \u2013 with some new spells\/buffs every 15 levels\u2026 Their idea was to diminish the amount of cookie-cutter specs around, and make player specs be more diversified and play-styles more different\u2026 but it seems to me (unless I\u2019m missing something) that this will lead to basically people choosing their main spec and then some cosmetic choices (a bit like minor glyphs) that don\u2019t actually change the gameplay style (at least by looking to the current proposition). I think they\u2019re trying to limit something that can\u2019t be limited: the endless search for the perfect spec, the best combination of stats\/spec\/glyphs that make the player perform best\u2026 They\u2019re trying to limit this so that all players play differently, but I think their fighting a losing battle\u2026 If they want that kind of behaviors from the players, they\u2019ll have to invest in better AI for the bosses and such, and make players have to improvise more\u2026 <\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"justify\">Account-achievements: this is a good idea for people that have alts\u2026 <\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p align=\"justify\">&#160;<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">Now for my main complaint: no epic-ness!<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">There\u2019s no &quot;\u201dbig menace\u201d (the whole \u201cfocus on the war between the Alliance and Horde\u201d seems like a cop-out, since I couldn\u2019t care in the littlest \u2013 most of that war seems to be driven by petty interests and 1000 year old history\u2026 Maybe players in PvP realms feel it, but most players in PvE realms couldn\u2019t care less). The game has some new lore coming in because of the damn pandas (they were enslaved by some guys, so there\u2019s some bosses there), but no epic threat\u2026 Come on, we\u2019ve fought Elemental Lords, Elder Gods (and other demi-Gods), a Lich King, armies of undead, several bad-ass dragons (including one that ripped apart the damn world!), and now we\u2019re kicking the ass of some guys that enslaved pandas?! Seems like anti-climatic\u2026<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">Of course, this might all be a part of Blizzard\u2019s plan to do a weak-ass expansion while \u201cStar Wars: the Old Republic\u201d, \u201cDiablo III\u201d and \u201cStarcraft II\u201d roll out, so they don\u2019t \u201cwaste\u201d good content, but it seems like a dangerous game\u2026 I\u2019m almost considering quitting the game, and I\u2019ve spent almost 7 years of my life playing it!<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">There\u2019s more information coming out in the next months, so I might change my mind about a lot of things, but I can\u2019t stop looking at this as the decline of World of Warcraft\u2026 still, it was 7 years, it was a very good run! <img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none\" class=\"wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile\" alt=\"Smile\" src=\"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/wlEmoticon-smile3.png\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"tweetbutton626\" class=\"tw_button\" style=\"\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fshadowcovenant.com%2Fblog%2F2011%2F10%2F25%2Fblizzcon%2F&amp;text=Blizzcon&amp;related=&amp;lang=en&amp;count=horizontal&amp;counturl=http%3A%2F%2Fshadowcovenant.com%2Fblog%2F2011%2F10%2F25%2Fblizzcon%2F\" class=\"twitter-share-button\"  style=\"width:55px;height:22px;background:transparent url('http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-tweet-button\/tweetn.png') no-repeat  0 0;text-align:left;text-indent:-9999px;display:block;\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, another Blizzcon has gone by and some news came from one of my favorite game developers\u2026 No release date for Diablo III, but it seems the release is close, so crossing my fingers the game is as good as it looks (and to be honest, to see if it has aged well\u2026 It\u2019s been [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div id=\"tweetbutton626\" class=\"tw_button\" style=\"\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fshadowcovenant.com%2Fblog%2F2011%2F10%2F25%2Fblizzcon%2F&amp;text=Blizzcon&amp;related=&amp;lang=en&amp;count=horizontal&amp;counturl=http%3A%2F%2Fshadowcovenant.com%2Fblog%2F2011%2F10%2F25%2Fblizzcon%2F\" class=\"twitter-share-button\"  style=\"width:55px;height:22px;background:transparent url('http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-tweet-button\/tweetn.png') no-repeat  0 0;text-align:left;text-indent:-9999px;display:block;\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}