Is Blizzard done with WoW? pt 3

#1 - June 12, 2011, 2:58 a.m.

This is something I've been pondering lately. Has Blizzard decided to just cash out with World of Warcraft? It kind of feels like it lately, but hold on! Before you go and bite my head off let me get my point across. Let me explain where I'm coming from, then you're all more than welcome to rip me a new one.

My biggest concern comes in patch 4.2 with the coming of the Firelands. Yes, it seems like a promising raid but apparently it's two major content patches late. It also was supposed to include the abyssal maw instance, but that has been scrapped. I remember reading in one of the Blue Posts that they "feel the daily quests are so awesome leading up to the firelands, that they really didn't need the other instance. " I personally feel that's just saving face. From what I've heard those 'awesome' dailies are basically some of the most grindtastic quests they have put into the game recently.

Now why do I feel like the above mention means Blizzard has walked away from WoW? Quite simply it feels like the bare minimum effort. It feels token and slap dashed, which is a little bad since Firelands and Abyssal Maw were suppose, according to my knowledge, be launch included. It feels as if these daily quests are just a stall tactic in my honest opinion. It feels as if we are paying the same we have been for years for the bare minimum of content.

This recent expansion is actually the slowest in terms of content production. Burning Crusade was much faster in terms of pushing out content. It even managed multiple raid tiers in short periods of time. Why then is a game that has been around this long actually taking longer to push out content that just isn't as substantial? Is it because they have multiple projects they are working on? Well that can't be it because that would be silly to have only one team working on five different games.

4.1 was another point of contention for me. It just felt like it was something rushed onto stage to stammer and tell some stories about Trolls while Blizzard quickly tried to finish the Firelands behind the curtains. It felt like another stalling tactic, and a reskined one at that. Yes, ZG and ZA were beloved instances in their time. Yes the loot was lovely and yes everyone loves Trolls but what we'd love more than anything is fresh, new content. We would love for new instances, new lore.

It just feels, at least to me, like Blizzard has been putting as little effort as possible into all this. Sure, they remade the world but even then there are spots where it's just a coat of paint over some rust, with Theramore being a perfect example. All of the quests there are exactly the same since Vanilla. They haven't actually changed a single one. You're still discrediting deserters and fighting that kraken in the bay.

I know Blizzard can do amazing things. In fact I saw amazing things in Wrath of the Lich King, in fact I'm still exploring Northrend. Blizzard, I love you guys, you've provided a few years of wonderful entertainment for me and many others but it just feels like you heart isn't in it any more. There are things that need to be addressed and to be totally honest they have been danced around long enough.

Where is Abyssal Maw? Where is our multiple raids/instances per content? Where is the Lore? Where is Deathwing? Where is everything you've promised? Path of the Titans? Dance Studio? Updated player models?

We crave more content per major patch and we crave something more. We were promised a three course meal, and we were expecting just that. What we've been given so far has been rolls. Delicious, tasty, wonderful rolls...but they just aren't the meal we've been promised.