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Looking at the negative in WoW's BlizzCon announcements
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Warning: This is all personal opinion.
BlizzCon is about to wrap up and there were great announcements and terrible ones. Of course this is all about personal preferences but I think it's important to point some of what I thought were bad choices.
Right now, I want to look at the negatives. Guild advancement and leveling is a bad idea. Punishing smaller guilds isn't the way to go and forcing people who like to solo into a guild is an even worse idea. The biggest flaw is that in order to get guild experience for a boss kill or from a battleground you need 75% of the team to be from your guild. That means smaller guilds are screwed. My guild, although great is small and we would never make up 75% of anything. That means if you want credit from an Isle of Conquest match you need 30 of the 40 members to be from your guild or else you'll receive no guild experience.
Not to mention, there are lone wolves out there that want nothing to do with guilds. It sounds like those lone wolves will have an easier time finding groups, but catering to guilds and groups will surely make them feel left out.
Guild advancement and leveling isn't a terrible idea at its core. The 75% requirement makes it a terrible idea. There's a theme of WoW hating smaller groups or players that prefer to go it alone. I don't know why WoW hates small numbers. There's no group bonus for duos, 2v2 is nonexistent, and dungeons are built for 5 men (something 3 could do at max level but maybe not 2). Other games, like LotRO, offer dungeons for 3 people. No, those dungeons aren't as epic, but it is something to do for smaller groups.
By all means, if I misinterpreted something from BlizzCon point it out. This is the biggest disappointment to me in a wealth of good news. Altogether, Cataclysm sounds great but the more time I get to think about it, the more nervous it makes me. I guess this was the straw that broke the camel's back. There were so many little things that bothered me but the overall awesomeness of the announcement overshadowed them. Now, I feel like we need to examine the negatives in order to appreciate the positives.
Overall, I do think what we've learned at BlizzCon is good news for an aging game. Recreating Azeroth in Cataclysm, although intimidating, is like WoW 2.0 and that's a good thing in a game that's showing its blemishes and wrinkles rather quickly. Even the new race/class combos will help the game survive longer, but I'm still not sold on all of them. Why is it a Tauren Paladin and not an Undead Paladin instead? Really, I want to know.
This article was originally published by Pamela Blalock at Examiner.com. If you like it, please subscribe and add me on Twitter or Facebook.
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