Back into the Womb

When having a '60' was awesome.

The magic of my first character is still barely palpable. I've come to accept that 'barely' is better than nothing. Now, the blank areas on maps that are uncovered do not tend to ignite a spark of excitement... there is no struggling with new quests, no new recipes, items, and so on.

Of course, there is new content with which I am unfamiliar. It just doesn't seem all that exciting. I miss the old world. Perhaps it's some kind of postpartum depression. If I had my way, we'd all revert back to being capped at sixty; we'd struggle through Molten Core and Blackwing Lair all day, every day... for months on end. And it would be both satisfying and exciting. Sure, we'd wonder about something more... but we'd shake our heads and tell ourselves that we have everything we need right here.

I've managed to satiate my own listlessness by playing the opposite faction - something I neglected to do before. I was one of those who had one main character (you know - sans unending list of alts) to whom I devoted all of my playing time. Playing the opposing faction is almost like starting anew... almost.

With the continual promise of expanding world and new content, I find myself in a bit of despair - I can't keep up with the old new content (i.e. Burning Crusade). Can it ever be how it once was again? I just want to be stuck at improving after being capped.

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  • Tue, Dec 18 2007 9:59 PM ()

    I started playing during patch 1.1. I've been around forever. I have one character who is above level 60. I took my time with everything in WoW. I stopped to smell the roses anywhere I could. If there was content, I tried to experience it. I was immersed. I've never run any of the old raids, I want to though, many of you will say, "Its your own fault for not getting to 60!" and although true, its also wrong.

    I digress. About a month ago, I broke 60 on my Mage. I went to Hellfire and suddenly the game changed. Suddenly I didn't feel immersed by it anymore. Suddenly I lost interest in questing. I lost interest in gaining The Next Level. Because all I was doing was re-living level 1. I was in a newb zone, doing newb quests, and getting newb rewards. What do I mean by this? Simple, everyone in outlands quests for the same stuff. There is not any real variety, and so far every quest I've done up to level 66 has rewarded every class with "the next upgrade". I remember back when I looked forward to doing the next instance. Now? I don't hardly instance at all. They don't feel the same. They're disappointing, small, and surprisingly lacking in the way of trash mobs.

    The game has lost it's Epic feel.

    Also, another problem I've noticed is lore. Pre-BC, any issue with the lore was a "loop-hole" something that wasn't really covered in the pre-wow warcraft saga. Blizzard made a few streches here and there, and it was okay. That was fine. The world itself fit nicely into Warcraft lore and everything was explained.

    Then BC came along.

    Now, we're in outlands, a totally new zone that we've only heard about in Warcraft legend. We've never been here, we've never seen it, it has no lore whatsoever. That made it feel like an afterthought. Something blizzard said, "Here, have this new set of zones that we've never really even DISCUSSED in the game before this, and barely touched on in WC3." at the same time as upping the upping the level cap and "epic greening" everyone.

    were there ways this could have been avoided? yes. Is there a viable way to make the old world relevant again? I think so. Will blizzard do it? Probably not. Here's why. From a Business stand-point, it does not make sense. They've dropped money into developing TBC, most likely lots of it. They spent A LOT of money hyping BC. Why would they want you running Naxx? or BWL?

    Anyways sorry for the long rant.

  • Feiorai said 
    Tue, Dec 18 2007 9:59 PM ()

    After listening to many of the commenters here, I decided to try to push myself to get my original character into Outlands. First, I got sidetracked in the Blasted Lands for about 4 hours doing those crazy "gather everything from every creature here" quests and the "run across all of Azeroth" quests from the Hero of the Horde NPC right outside the Blasted Lands. (That's a bad sign in itself, I guess.)

    When I was returning to the Hero of the Horde, a level 70 night elf (my character is also a night elf) came up next to me and started chatting to me in Darnassian. (It's an RP server, and I'm more than happy to engage in such.) I told her that I was about to go through the "dreadful portal". She led me there, we walked up to the edge, she gave me some background information on what I was seeing, why they were fighting, why it was both Alliance and Horde fighting together.

    It was incredibly nice to have someone there who was willing to go out of their way to roleplay at such a time for me, taking into account that I really did not want to do it at all. If it weren't for that, I'm sure I'd have invented new ways to get distracted and never do it.

    As far as lore goes, I fully agree with you. One dramatic thing I've noticed in Outlands is that I have not seen any read-able books laying around anywhere. I always enjoyed reading the books in Azeroth, and there were always plenty of them. It's definitely a striking contrast for me. Am I enjoying it? Not really. I'm doing it anyway, though. Though, I must say Terokkar is probably the most beautiful zone I've seen. I guess that's something.

  • Feiorai said 
    Tue, Dec 18 2007 9:59 PM ()

    I am still trying to get used to the fact that it is okay to innervate *myself* (gasp! - as opposed to the 'Main Healer') and whenever I want to do it... As a balance druid, I never even had innervate as an option... now I have it, but after so much "save your innervate for the MH!" stigma caused by endless months of 40-man raids, I hesitate to even use it. It's kind of hilarious.

  • Feiorai said 
    Tue, Dec 18 2007 9:59 PM ()

    Let me tell you, that event was something I'll never forget, and it is a shame you missed it. But it is more a shame that I have no hope that there will ever be another one to compare. (The shame is on Blizzard for that.) It took so long, and had so many different parts, and was such a global effort.... just to get a dungeon opened. Yet... BAM here's Outlands. No effort at all. It's so sad.