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World of Warcraft
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Developer: Blizzard Entertainment Next month, World of Warcraft will be celebrating its first birthday. Almost one year ago gaming enthusiasts were introduced to a very entertaining MMORPG rendition fostered in the Warcraft lore. Soon thereafter, it rose to a dominant global position ahead of all its contemporary peers.
Today, however, gaming nerds and enthusiasts end their pilgrimage to the Blizzard event of the year-BlizzCon, or more commonly referred to as WoWcon by the convention attendees.
What have we learned at this seemingly auspicious event about this beloved game?
In the past year, almost 4.5 million subscribers have enjoyed this game. During this time, we have experienced a host of content updates that have provided less than a handful of new dungeons to explore and some other notable additions-trade-skill recipes and character items. We have also enjoyed a class retooling, via talent trees, of various classes.
BlizzCon introduced us to the first and long anticipated expansion-Burning Crusade. Burning Crusade will enable Blood Elves as a playable Horde race and the Alliance will be given access to another race; the exact name and character model will be announced sometime in the future. Veteran players will have the opportunity to experience more leveling with the new cap of 70, 10 additional talent points, and a battery of new spells. In addition to new dungeons for the purpose of leveling to 70, Blizzard will provide another handful of raid dungeons for raiding participants. Ostensibly, with the introduction of two additional playable races, players will enjoy two new low-level areas for the purpose of leveling character to 20.
So far so good? Possibly.
Burning Crusade will not introduce any new classes to the fray. The expansion will not launch any new dungeon content for levels 21 through 60. In fact, during an interview with Lead Game Designer, Tom Chilton, he stated to me that Blizzard internal, albeit informal, survey sentiments depict no appreciable interest from the player community for such additional content. He stated that the new Jewel crafting trade-skill and other minor content additions (read: new mid level items) should suffice for that level range. I guess players should forget about a siege equipment trade-skill.
Conspicuously absent from the expansion-Player built communities. Disregard any idea about building your own little pig farm with a guard dog or better yet, an architect trade-skill.
PvP content will remain essentially the same other than the possible opening of two additional battlegrounds. Thinking about a new continent for large-scale, dynamic, siege faring and massively evolving fighting with a global impact? Not going to happen.
Overall, the game has evolved very little in the past year. A handful of content additions do not quench the thirst of an avid gamer. Burning Crusade might be a step in the right direction, but Blizzard still leaves many desired game attributes hanging in purgatory.
A bottom-to-top comparison of games in this genre undoubtedly leaves World of Warcraft at the top of the pyramid. A $50.00 dollar initial investment and an additional 12 month content payment of approximately $180.00 has provided substantive entertainment for that period, but a guarded outlook.
Sometime next year, an estimated $30.00 subsequent investment will be needed to unlock the Burning Crusade content.
An additional $180.00 will be required to play 12 more months.
No revolutionary content will be advanced in the foreseeable future.
The time and financial investment might be better focused somewhere else. I will wait for Burning Crusade to make its debut before a final conclusion.
Past Review(s): World of Warcraft (April 2005)
