I was able to catch most of Blizzcon via live internet stream this year. My first reaction was how fun it looks to attend something like Blizzcon; maybe I’ll go next year.
I’d also like to get out of the way that I CANNOT wait for Diablo 3 and SC2. The SC2 custom maps initiative is so much more comprehensive than I ever imagined and revived memories of creating my own Neverwinter nights dungeons. I’ve always been interested in creating a simple video game, but never wanted to really take the time to learn an engine. I’m not sure how I feel about taking a creation of mine and partially signing over the rights to Blizzard, but we’ll see how I feel about it as the release approaches.
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Now onto Cataclysm. One fundamental problem I’ve always had with WOW expansions their need to grow the world. Many players may not share that same feeling, which I understand (after all, doing the same thing all the time DOES get boring). However, the Outlands is currently desolate (besides the few DKs still roaming around) and the old world is even worse. If Cataclysm were to be released in the normal order of things it would leave Outlands, Northrend AND the old world completely barren. Instead what they’ve decided to do is revive the old world and breathe some life into it. This was desperately needed and really gives me a good gut feeling about the direction the expansion is heading. I would love to see more motivation to move about the already huge world in existence rather then just creating more and more content, in turn making the prior content obsolete. (This HAS to feel good for the developers who spend countless years of their life slaving over the old world as well) More end game content and a level cap of 85 reinforces the fact that we are on the same page. They are, in fact, creating entirely new content for the grind to 85 but at least this is a start. More levels and meaningless content does not a good game make. The experiences, challenges and connections are why we stick around.
This brings me to guild changes. Being in AIE (a guild of over 2k members), I’m not sure how significant the guild changes will be but I do like the initiative put forth to create a foundation for a meaningful community. Lets be honest, that’s why 99% of us play WOW anyway.
Overall I have a really good feeling about this expansion and it seems as though everyone keeping up with the news seemingly shares my instinct.