Well, I've been MIA for the last month, which consisted of surgeries, constant nausea, and incessant tardies to class. But I think the thing that kept me from writing the most was my beta invite.
Yes, I got a beta invite. And what did I do with it, I didn't go "ooh" and "ahh" at the new stuff, I went online, talked to people, tested with some dummies, copied over characters I didn't even have, and really got a feel of what was coming.
First of all, my prediction was wrong, Blizzard didn't push the date back. A lot of that seems to be around Warhammer's release (at least, that's the popular explanation) and the fact that it already has 500,000 accounts in a matter of weeks. That's a huge turn out. I'll admit, I was tempted, but I knew I would be testing Wrath too much to get involved with the new game.
But I'm writing now to tell you something amazing. This a new World of Warcraft. No, it isn't Warhammer, and no it isn't perfect, but it's a new world, with new changes that are really good, and some that aren't so good. But for the most part, there are a lot to look forward to. Once again I will bring to you an intellectual look at the whole new World (of Warcraft).
If the song from Aladdin is playing in your head now, good. Because that means I'm doing my job. This world includes a lot of lore, most of which is thrown right in your face rather than in between the lines. One of the major flaws to Burning Crusade was that everything was either skippable or you weren't looking through the quest text with a magnifying glass. Thanks to the daily quest system and quest helping mods, we barely read the quest text before jumping into the game. Blizzard first alerts us that it's a bad idea right when you start a Death Knight.
As you start the Death Knight, you stand before Arthas himself, and he gives you a quest. I read through the text simply because he was Arthas. But when I accepted, I heard a booming voice overpower the background noise in my room, as Arthas spoke the quest text to me! It was amazing. Of course, not all the NPCs will speak the quests to you, but this is just one reason to start reading the quest text. There is quite a bit of lore, and honestly we need to start looking at the "why" for doing quests rather than the "how". That's part of the game; it's story.
Also, there are mechanics they added, such as the phasing environments. "Phasing" was first introduced in TBC via the flying quest "Maintaining the Sunwell Portal". You picked up the quest item and became invisible, only seeing those invisible as well, and only fighting mobs that were invisible. Blizzard took this and made it wide-scale. As you progress through the Death Knight starting zones, you don't go through instances. You "phase" through each scene. (Spoilers incoming, if you don't want to look, go to the next paragraph.) For example, one quest requires you to kill the villagers running away from the new hold floating above their town of Havenshire. After you finish the quest and turn it in, the area changes as you begin a new quest. Now, when you go back outside, the undead have taken it over, cauldrons have been established, etc. But the people who haven't done it yet are still seeing villagers, and cannot even see you, nor the mobs you must fight on the next set of quests.
The game is pretty well done, and there are definitely some changes that people need to see. So consider this the overview for the new series, "A Whole New World (of Warcraft)". Part 1 will cover one of our greatest concerns, PvP! It's had one of the biggest changes in the expansion, so I want to get it out of the way so we can get to the good stuff. Later.
