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Are you looking for the latest industry headlines? Look no further.
More BlizzCON and SOE FanFaire coverage comes your way today. The Hot Content section has it all listed for those of you who don't want to dig around.
One concern that came up at least twice at BlizzCON Q&As was the death of the content that was once considered premium. Would Blizzard be refashioning the old instances and raid areas to keep people interested? Simple answer, maybe and no.
This article, kind of, sort of, maybe touches on some valid points regarding the lifecycle of World of Warcraft. It is a nice piece of work, putting together mostly unrelated bits of information into an article that seems to point to WoW following the same development path as EverQuest. The problem of course is that the paths aren't really that similar at all. WoW doesn't have the hurdles that EQ did. The problems in WoW are relatively unique compared to most other MMOGs and this is primarily because the game mechanic and progression system in WoW is distinctively paced.
Pacing in WoW is an order of magnitude faster than EQ ever was. You could play EverQuest for an entire evening and logout feeling as if you didn't accomplish anything. Your experience bar could actually be shorter than when you started, leaving you further away from your next level then when you started.
Rarely does a WoW player leave the game feeling that in some way or another they have not progressed. The levels are easy to come by. The professions give immediate feedback. The reputation system and PvP systems both provide expedious gratification for those that want to see some part of the character move forward.
As EverQuest added expansion after expansion the gulf between those who raided and those who did not grew. Blizzard on the other hand took the need to progress through the raid instances in order to compete in the expansion away. The greens (uncommon loot) dropping in Burning Crusade were as good as the blues (rare loot) and purples (epic loot) that dropped in the original game. Players were not required to play through all of the classic content in order to see what was new, fresh and exciting. This was an innovative approach and I applaud Blizzard for taking it. It removed much of the chasm between those that raided and those that did not. A non-raider could join a guild and raid in Burning Crusade almost immediately.
The problem as some players see it is that the old content is no longer worth playing through from a loot perspective. It is more efficient just to get greens in TBC than to run instances in Azeroth. I'm not sure why this is a problem. The old content served its purpose. People leveled and moved on to new content. Such is the lifecycle of a MMOG world. Players constantly want new challenges and though the nostalgia factor may still be there (Who wouldn't want to go on one more Lady Vox raid?) the old content doesn't need to be constantly updated as new content is deployed. In fact, it becomes exponentially harder to do so the more new content that you create.
Will Blizzard go back and revamp the old dungeons? I certainly hope not, at least not on a grand scale. I would much prefer that they used those resources to create new, innovative content to keep the game fresh.
You can toast stale bread, but when all is said and done it is still stale bread. Bake us something new!
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2. New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today
- BlizzCON: Photographs and Favourite Pictures - John "Boomjack" Hoskin
- BlizzCON: Expansion Audience Q&A Video - Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle
- BlizzCON: Professions and Items Discussion Part 2 - Byron "Messiah" Mudry
- BlizzCON: Wrath of the Lich King Overview - John "Boomjack" Hoskin
- BlizzCON: Northrend Discussion - Byron "Messiah" Mudry
- SOE FanFaire: Interview With Debysue Wolfcale - Tony "Radarx" Jones
- SOE FanFaire: Overview of Star Wars Galaxies Panels - Chris Higgins
- Dungeons and Dragons Online: Spell Guide - Level 5 Bard Spells - Greg "Darkgolem" Stanley
- Fury: Europe Bound - New Screenshots - Cody "Micajah" Bye
- Lord of the Rings Online: Tomb of Elendil Access - Stacy "Martuk" Jones
- Tales of Pirates: Ship Screenshots - Cody "Micajah" Bye
- Vanguard: Blog - Old Hat - Danny "Ralsu" Gourley
- World of Warcraft: Horde Leveling Guide Update - Byron "Messiah" Mudry
- BlizzCON: Expansion Audience Q&A Video - Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle
- BlizzCON: Professions and Items Discussion Part 2 - Byron "Messiah" Mudry
- BlizzCON: Wrath of the Lich King Overview - John "Boomjack" Hoskin
- BlizzCON: Northrend Discussion - Byron "Messiah" Mudry
- SOE FanFaire: Interview With Debysue Wolfcale - Tony "Radarx" Jones
- BlizzCON: Blizzard Talks PvP - Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle
- BlizzCON: A Video Preview of the Northrend Zones - Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle
- BlizzCON: Raid and Dungeon Discussion - Byron "Messiah" Mudry
- SOE FanFaire - Over 100 Photos - Pat "Troon" Connoy
- SOE FanFaire: Community Address - Tony "Radarx" Jones
- SOE FanFaire: The Agency Q&A with Hal Milton and Matt Wilson - Tony "Radarx" Jones
- BlizzCON: Death Knight Video Presentation - Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle
- BlizzCON: Video Fan Interviews Part 1 (Note: very hard to hear) - Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle
- BlizzCON: World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - Death Knight Discussion - David "Xerin" Piner
- BlizzCON: Wrath of the Lich King Revealed - Cody "Micajah" Bye
- BlizzCON: First Images From Wrath of the Lich King - Cody "Micajah" Bye
- BlizzCON: Wrath of the Lich King Concept Artwork - Cody "Micajah" Bye
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11 Million British Motorists Unable To Read A Map
...or locate a dentist. -
$500,000 in Property And Cash Stolen From The Police
If only there were someone who could help when things like this happen. -
Speeding Biker Earns Spot On Wall
Sometimes the real headlines are too good to mess with.
Thanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com
John "Boomjack" Hoskin
