#40 - April 20, 2007, 11:22 p.m.
"An extremely high percentage of mob models in this expansion was ripped directly from the original game. Colors were changed and names were edited, but overall, only a small handful of new models were added."
This is just simply not true, and I'm going to guess you read this somewhere else instead of actually having played the expansion. I think if you were to simply jump into Hellfire Peninsula and see a few boars (with original models and textures, by the way) that could be your impression, but even then there are fel reavers, burrowers, rock flayers, shivarra, wrathguard, arakkoa, etc. When you move on to the very next zone, Zangarmarsh, there's even more new and unique mobs with almost nothing you've ever seen before, and those that you do recognize are probably races that aren't going to be changed in look, like the Naga.
"Blizzard also delayed the Burning Crusades expansion for a long time."
That's a bit of assumption there as to how our development plans were intended. Since the release of the game and before the release of the expansion there were huge amounts of content added, for free. I don't see rushing the release of an expansion just for the sake of saying we put something out there sooner you can call a proper expansion as a good thing. Do you?
"Those who paid for the expansion were also asked to pay a retail price that matched the original game when it was released -- that is an obscenely expensive amount considering that the original game is much more grander in scale."
The expansion retails for a lower price than the original game when it released, so that's not true. The "grandness" is personal opinion, but it's a price point we feel matches the enormous amounts of content that have been put in to the expansion. Including two new races, a new profession, fifteen 5-person dungeons (for comparison the original game launched with the same number I believe), five 25-man dungeons, a 10-person dungeon, hundreds of new quests, hundreds and hundreds of new items, as well as free updates that are adding even more content, such as the new solo and small-group content and Black Temple in the 2.1 patch.
I really shouldn't have to make the expansion sound good though, people playing know how much content is there.
"Hunter pets that swim deeper and faster than a druid in aquatic form -- I don't know about Blizzard but I certainly have never seen a cat out-swim a seal"
Pets generally aren't inhibited my swimming speed reductions.
"infantry that can run faster than the fastest ground mount in the game."
Probably because we want them to catch you. I think this and the previous point seem to be based on an idea that the game should only use mechanics that follow what should be possible in the real world, instead of what help make the game challenging or to fill specific needs of challenging/restricting/empowering various aspects. We try very hard to limit mechanics to "what makes sense", but that's not always going to be the case, it's a game, for the sake of it they can't all make perfect sense. There's no actual gravity or physics that bind player actions in the game world either, fyi. ;)
"Blizzard also recently announced that the druid class will receive an epic flight form -- instantly castable but will cost 5000 gold to learn the epic riding skill. Wait a minute, you need a "riding skill" to turn into a bird and fly away? Blizzard, what exactly are we riding here?"
See above.
The article comments on class balance and that's not something I will reply to in as general a manner, I realize classes and inevitably how they interact with each other and the world (of warcraft) around them are a subject that many find very personal. I don't feel it would be appropriate to attempt to sum up the entirety of class balance in a single paragraph as the article has.
It's easy to pick specific popular ideas, popular because they seem like they could be true, or because they fight against some sort of authority, and use them rather blatantly. It's far more difficult to see beyond the layer of ridiculousness and actually begin to work within a reasonable and logical view. Beyond that how do you work within a soupy mess where the two are emulsified together? And how do you begin to skim the fat off the top so that you can get to the delicious and clear consumme that you hope lay underneath it somewhere?
Well, now I'm just making myself hungry.
