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Cataclysm The best mmo expansion hands down.
Ramonski7
Member UncommonPosts: 2,662
I've been mmo gaming for years now and between the old formula of adding expansion after expansion at a alarming unhealthy way, I can clearly state that Cata is by far the best 2-part expansion released in my mmo playing life so far. It just seems so logical for Blizzard to bring their lore and world full circle. Honestly there are key things I think Blizzard did that I don't think I've ever witnessed in an expansion:
Revamping the old world into a fully 3D version from a smoke and mirror version to allow flying
Revamping the old questing treadmill and scrapping thousands of quest and introducing a more story driven version
Revamping the old skill gaining system without killing their core gameplay while future proofing for later expansions
Changing the old world's lore and look to reflect what has happened from past expansions
And I'm saying all of this even after experiencing:
UO's 3D client expansion flop (World changing attempt)
DAoC's assimilate EQ's PvE expansion flop (Game style changing attempt)
FFXI's add PvP and soloing expansion flop (Balistia attempt)
EQ's expansion whoring flop (adding content attempt)
SWG's gameplay revamp flop (Gameplay changing attempt)
I could add more but the list would get too freakin long. I hope more developers are taking notes as to how to pace expansions and how to go about adding content to your mmo in the most logical sense to your own. I'm tired of the half ass attempts that most of these companies put into releasing expansions. One view of the behind the scenes dvd of cata's birth will have you scratching your head at why other developers can only drawn in limited audiences. I guess their passions don't run as deep.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
Comments
Had to LOL at this. Half assed as in mixxing a few things around in Azeroth, while not adding new classes to give a veteran a reason to go back through and experience it. I mean 2 new races but for what when there arent any new classes to experience?!? Oh wait lemme guess, they added classes to races that weren't there before and we spin this to make the lemmings feel like they are playen something new. Maybe I am just bitter because I came from FFXI where there were a huge amount of options of what to play, but even my wife (who was the reason I ever played WoW) has no interest in this expansion after how easy the game has become and shes about as casual as you can get.
I hear the new heroics are hard and take time to clear. Sure for now but they will be dumbed down in no time to appease the masses. Game has lost its appeal, and this expansion failed to strike even a spark of interest. But to each his own, if you wanna pay this lazy company for a shitty product, who am I to tell you you are wrong, but I wouldn't claim its the best expansion ever released by any means. Opinions may vary.
RIP Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan and Paul Gray.
Not best ever in my opinion, its pretty good yes but not best ever. Its more of a needed fix to old and outdated than a best ever. Best ever thing I seen added in an expansion is Skirmishes in LoTRO. Not saying the entire expansion was great either, but the skirmishes were definately up there on the scale of great 'things' in MMORPG history.
It's pretty good. I have no idea if it's the best expansion ever, there are a lot of bugs that came with this expansion. While it is fun the first time through I'm not sure how much replayability it holds; it's pretty linear.
The only reasoning behind adding new classes for an existing mmo is if players or devs think that the ones they have released so far are lacking. Expanding on your mmo should not automatically equate to adding more bloat in the form of half-assed classes or tacked on land masses to justify a purchase pirce. Sooner or later you end up detering new players from joining a top heavy mmo or widening the gap between your social groups that may not level at the same pace.
Logic would dictate that you have to pace your release of expansions as well as pace the type of expansions you release. Far too often aging games wait too long to give their mmos a facelift. See Runescape, Planetside, Ultima Online, DAoC, EQ and other failed attempts revitalize old graphics engines. What Blizzard did was successfully rebuild their game from the ground up to accept any future improvements to graphics (even if slightly). And they did this without having to futher split their playerbase.
I'm sorry to hear your wife doesn't like the new expansion, mine happens to enjoy it and is currently leveling a worgen druid along with me while exploring the new alchemy recipes. To each his own I guess. But I still stand firm on believing WoW succeeded where other mmos have not. That is revamping/upgrading their mmo on a graphical/content scale that's lightyears ahead of any other mmo as of this place in time. Period.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
When measured in scope against any other expansion ever released for a mmo, then yes I feel it outshines any predecessors before it. It was such a huge scope that it had to be split into 2 parts.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
Unlike the OP i cant claim to have experienced all expansions ever for all MMOs out there so i cant Judge if its the best ever or not.
I never was a big fan of Wow to begin with but like usually Blizzard made a good TV spot so i looked into it again to see if WoW finally became a game worth playing.
I did not find anything in the last expansion which would have convinced me to give it another try.
I personal think that the FF11 expansions were all a way better than the so called best expansion ever for an MMO
(not talking about the last 6 mini expansions for FF11)
But than again like already mentioned i cant claim to have experienced all expansions first hand so maybe the OP is right after all....
The problem is they didnt expand the game at all really.
What did this expansion REALLY do to WoW?
It changed the mechanics of classes, but they are all pretty much the same. Some work differently, but mainly its minor stylistic differences at most. We arent talking completely new mechanics, we are talking slight modifications of the former classes to stream line balance.
It added 10 or so new dungeons.
It added 12 new raid boses.
It added 5 new levels.
80 - 85 can be done inside of 2 days, so that cant really be considered content.
That leaves you with the standard heroics / raid grind that you had in wotlk, tbc, and vanilla. Sure they made the game harder... but this isnt new content.
There is nothing NEW to the game, game mechanics wise, there are no new features really, unless you count the guild leveling system. All they did was simply add 2 more miles for you to run on your treadmil that most folks will have done before new years and then its just grinding the raids till the next area is released.
This isnt expanding, this isnt anything new or ground breaking... its wow. Dungeon grinds, raid grinds, honor grinds.
If you enjoy this kind of thing, then rock on.
Personally, I prefer new classes, new complete game mechanics, new methods of gameplay.
You want to talk about better expansions?
Sure ok, how about EQ's expansion that added AA's? That completely changed the way character progression was done. How about many of EvE's expansions (that are free by the way) that add completely new game play mechanics? (Exploration, Sansha invasions, new ship types [classes from other mmos] etc)
Someone mentioned LOTRO and skirmishes, granted, its not earth shattering but it was a new way to play the game.
Just in content alone most other video games expansions beat the hell out of wow's, why? Cause they take longer than a week to grind through.
The casual wow player will still most likely hit 85 in under 10 days, at that point outside of the ONE new raid dungeon he will have experienced the entire new expansion. If anything I think WoW players got completely screwed on this expansion.
Gimme 40 bucks for a weeks worth of content! Enjoy!
Y U MAD?
Cata has done everything you listed in the body of your post. Except new classes. Cata went back to their roots whereby people actually had to work to earn their gear. No longer can you waltz your way to epics. Every single 5 man heroic is hard and on par with raid bosses.
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Best MMO of all time: Asheron's Call - The first company to recreate AC will be the next greatest MMO.
Am I mad? No...
I just find it hilarious that folks are paying for this thats all.
Re-read my post... I documented quite well what they didnt do. No new classes, less than a weeks worth of new content, no new mechanics, no new gameplay. Its still wow.
Heroics and the like are harder, because AOE of the liche king's method of play no longer works. You are still fully geared for heroics in less than a week, and unless you are completely beyond help you are ready to raid shortly there after. OH MY GOD WE HAVE TO CC AGAIN! Again not new mechanics.
Again, weeks worth of content is not the greatest expansion ever. Sorry.
wow so without trying the game you can say this. nice. go and try the new heroics who take 2-4 hours with a full guild run and the new raids which look impossible
What they did was very smart. They knew how many people they lose in the first few levels. They are trying to fix that.
That being said, some of the things they did really are just not something I like. Sure, it makes it easier for the casual, and that's their moneymaker.
What does age have to do with it?
I personally despise wow, but that doesnt mean someone over 20 or 30 or even 40 is "weird" for playing it.
I personally dont enjoy collecting stamps, fish, coins, or having pet spiders... but people who do arent "weird" they are just different.
Really? My friends have different reviews, some are not so happy, others have I not seen or heard from since launch so my guess is that they love it.
But best ever? I don't think anyone of us really could say that fairly without playing all MMO expansions out there and even then it is an opinion.
All that said, they did add some things that was really due and needed, but a new class or hero class should have been included as well. And guildhouses for that matter. It seems like a good addition to the game but not perfect to me.
Not that I really am sure which the best expansion is, there are many to choose from and more I should have tested to fairly say that. I can say which expansions I like best for a certain game I been playing but that is about it.
So saying "Wows best expansion so far" would be more accurate.
Agreed. Some people think all gamers over 18 are weird... Adults have the right to decide what they like themselves and saying one MMO is ok for them while another one is weirs sounds... weird to me.
With all of the money they have raked in they might have redeemed themselves by making this expansion free, however, they choose to continue to nickle and dime their loyal customers to death. I think this xpack is WoW meets the Little Mermaid, and I am fully expecting to see Flounder pop up as a raid boss.
If you played all 10 classes to max lvl you have to much free time. I doubt that the majority has more than 2-3 80s. Aside from that its not the strong point of the expansion, the storytelling reached a new lvl towering over anything else on the market
Pi*1337/100 = 42
Umm you are sizing up Wow like MOST wow players do ,you are saying the gear grind is what makes it a game?pretty shallow gaming no?As far as hard to kil la boss,i say a big lol,in FFXI there is normal mobs that can wipe a party nvermind having to find a boss,this is called a challenging game,Wow normal mobs are a complete joke.IN FFXI there are mobs that can be 15 levels lower than you ,heck they can be 20 levels lower and kill you and these are not boss mobs just normal everyday farming mobs.
Before players get to any gear Raiding,what does the game offer that would keep people interested??A questing treadmill?You can get that for free in many places and with more challenge as well.Of all the new low quests about 50 in each zone,not one single one is challenging,all easy mode,i did 3 different characters never died once,never even felt the threat of a challenge.
I look at gaming like i do sports,and this is quite the same because i see the same thing in sports.My teammates ask if i want to drop down a tier in hockey ,so we can win,i say forget that,i will quit first,i play for the challenge.Now in saying that there is LOTS of people who would rather win playing 10 year olds if they could,this is the mentality out there,some people want easy mode to pat themselves on the back,some don't pat themselves unless it is worthy of doing so.To me Wow is the lower tier of challenge,actually very little of it,high levels do not matter,bcause the game MUST keep me interested from day 1,promises of somethign better later on does not cut it for me,nor should it for anyone else.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Imo best expansion I've ever experienced so far? Guild Wars Nightfall (Guild Wars unlike WoW had harder and harder game content with other expansions and heroes in NF were amazing! or EoN? Hmm, dungeons here are pretty cool too).
Cataclysm is here just to make world of WoW a little but unknown for old players, so they are not bored by soloing same maps again and again. I mean flying in old world? Flying was there before they just let you do that here. Remaping is interesting but realy not so inovative for game that you could say its best.
Played: Lineage 2,Guild Wars 1 and 2, Age of Conan, Ragnarok Online, LOTRO, World of Warcraft, League of Legends, EvE online
Tried: KAL Online, Face of Mankind, ROSE online
Playing: CS:GO
It could have been great, imo, had they gotten rid of the latex-look gear and made it possible for you to look anyway you like (like LoTRO's or Aion's skinning system).
The game feels more on-rails than ever before!
You're spoonfed fun, all the way through. I am having fun sometimes, but it feels so forced. I overlook this, only if I put my thumb in bum and brain in neutral.
The questing, style and theme in WoW is what interested most people, but what gets them to stay in the end game raiding. Most expansion focus should have been on that.. instead millions of people have just been convinced to grind to max level 'again'. They put in all this lore and the quests.. yes, nice linear story.. most won't read it really, they will just rush through it, have moderate fun, then complain the end game is pretty much the same.. leave.. and come back to grind again on the next expansion.
Now, WoW is good. I respect it. The devs are geniuses. They have done almost the opposite of expanding their game and everyone is loving it, for now. Well done.
Before WoW what was there?
EQ, EQ2, DAoC, UO, AC, AC2 and SB? Which of those had major success.. EQ, DAoC and UO at the point WoW was released? What sandbox/old-styled MMOs are out today? Darkfall and EVE? With Dawntide in the works? Maybe a few others? The genre you speak of isn't ruined, it's clouded with gear-grinding MMOs, you just have to look and appreciate what games there are to play. None are perfect, but WoW didn't ruin the genre it only expanded it.
I've read quotes from Blizzard that this was "like two expansions and nearly 6 months more than planned". To be honest, they wanted people to get max level as fast as possible, and they wanted to revamp the leveling to streamline it and flow it, so it would be fresh for veterans and better for newbies.
Once you hit 85, there is one raid. 1.0-1.3 there was only one raid. 2.0 - 2.1 there was only one raid. 3.0-3.2 there was only one raid. You understand? There has always been quite a bit of 5-mans, as there is in Cataclysm right now, and one raid and later patches would supplement the game with further raids. They would also add single-raid boss encounters like Onyxia and world bosses.
To say that you can justify that this expansion has a lack of content is really being ignorant of how any other expansion has been done. Also, of course they'll run through the content, why do you think Blizzard has made leveling easier and easier? That's what they did at launch in 2004, they took the EQ experience and loved the raiding and wanted others to join in.
Look at how they business.. and maybe you will understand.
In your opinion it may be the best expansion of all time. To me UO:T2A was best expansion of all time. Then I would say the FFXI expansions but hey that is just me. I personally see WOW as pile of crap.. and no matter how much you add to the pile of crap it is still a pile of crap, even if you find some pieces of corn in it.. it's still a pile of crap that isn't worth a subscription fee.
Yes it streamlined MMOs... made them somewhat more popular over all, but due to this now all MMOs are the same with nearly identical UI and gameplay mechanics. Button smash number keys and/or F-keys till you kill a monster to get an item to take back to NPC, or to just kill X-amount of monsters. I am hoping DC Universe is as different as it claims to be, it will be a nice breath of fresh air in a wasteland of smelly crap.
I am currently playing DDO cause I have nothing else to play and I enjoy the combat system and its a good enough D&D experience since I can't play pen and paper anymore..
Dustin
Best expansion ever? /cough
Did they make the leveling process more challenging and enjoyable? Getting to max level should MEAN something, it should be something to be proud of.. Right? Leveling today can't get any easier.. In fact if you are not max level, most of the community will look down on you as some innept flake with no skills.. Did the end game change from being a dungeon / raid grind for gear? Is global PvP alive and thriving with a PURPOSE? Did they add sandbox features like collecting and housing? Did they add a new woodworking prof so players can FINALLY make staves, wands, bows and the such?
I'm sorry, I dont' see much expansion here, just extended gear grind after 2 weeks worth of leveling..
The new areas in wow is really beautiful and there are more depth in many of the quests.
Forget about easy mode dungeons, they are very challenging now.
I've tried most of the mmo's on the market, nothing comes even close to wow, especially not after this expansion.
well done Blizzard.