Blizzard's Rob Pardo Talks Five Years of Warcraft

[mew4ever23]

Ah Uldaman... That was a funny dungeon.. I don't see the hate for BRD, I found it another OK dungeon. If you want a dungeon that outright sucks, take Sunken Temple *shudder*.

Blizzard's Rob Pardo Talks Five Years of Warcraft

World of Warcraft turns five this month, and we sat down with Blizzard VP of Game Design Rob Pardo to chat about the biggest triumphs and biggest mistakes of the mega-MMORPG, and why he's not worried that their new MMOG will kill it.

It feels hard to believe, but in just over a week on November 23rd, World of Warcraft will have been live for half of a decade....

MIND BLOWN. I share a birthday with WoW...

 

[Phlopsy]

1. Schizophrenia is a real disorder. I don't think it would be right to say our game has a muscular dystrophy-like approach or a dementia-induced sort of outlook, so I don't this one should be used so cavalierly either.

2. Your usage of the word isn't even close to its legitimate definition.

 

[Jupsto]

+1 for transparency and not marketing talk.

 

[Dommius]

Wow... 5 long years. Pretty damn impressive. Stupid game has recently sucked me back in with its black sickly tendrils and refuses to let go. Oh well, I quit shortly after BC so at the very least there is plenty of new stuff to experience and I cant say i'm not having fun. So long live WoW! ....Until The Old Republic hits shelves that is.

 

[Don't taze me bro]

As someone who raided hardcore in Vanilla, the old way sucked hard.

In some ways I'll have to disagree with you. I will admit that MC was pretty damn boring, but Blackwing Lair and Naxx were very exciting in the days before DBM, KTM threat meter and other now requisite raiding mods. The addition of raiding mods has sucked alot of the fun I got from raiding.

I miss what I consider the Halcyon days, before we were inundated with information overload from bosskillers / Wow webstats / elitist jerks ...ad nauseum. I enjoyed working things out, playing with specs, talking strategy about boss kills. Now all of that information, max dps specs, spreadsheets etc, it's all done for you.

And no, I haven't done Yogg + 0 or Algalon, or anything after that. I quit playing after our guild got the server second Yogg kill.

 

[John Funk]

1. Schizophrenia is a real disorder. I don't think it would be right to say our game has a muscular dystrophy-like approach or a dementia-induced sort of outlook, so I don't this one should be used so cavalierly either.

2. Your usage of the word isn't even close to its legitimate definition.

And yet it's the word Mr. Pardo used, so I felt kind of obliged to get the quote correct

As someone who raided hardcore in Vanilla, the old way sucked hard.

In some ways I'll have to disagree with you. I will admit that MC was pretty damn boring, but Blackwing Lair and Naxx were very exciting in the days before DBM, KTM threat meter and other now requisite raiding mods. The addition of raiding mods has sucked alot of the fun I got from raiding.

I miss what I consider the Halcyon days, before we were inundated with information overload from bosskillers / Wow webstats / elitist jerks ...ad nauseum. I enjoyed working things out, playing with specs, talking strategy about boss kills. Now all of that information, max dps specs, spreadsheets etc, it's all done for you.

And no, I haven't done Yogg + 0 or Algalon, or anything after that. I quit playing after our guild got the server second Yogg kill.

Don't get me wrong, I totally see where you're coming from. The playerbase has distilled WoW into an absolute science (though I disagree that there weren't required raiding mods beforehand - CR Raid and Decursive, anybody?) and there's much less of a feeling of wonder. We all know our Best-in-Slot items, we all know that we should focus on reaching our Hit Cap first then getting extra stats, etc. I absolutely get being frustrated at the state of the WoW raiding community.

But I don't think we can really point the finger at Blizzard for this one. The actual content is better-designed than ever. Original Naxx was pretty epic, but for all the Lv80 version lacks the uber-challenge of its predecessor, I think it's an improvement in almost every way. I mean... Loatheb was literally a fight all about farming for consumables, which is absurd. The only reason it took so long to kill the 4H was because you had to get eight warriors (who were the only tanks back then, of course) their 4-piece (was it 4-piece? I think so...) T3 so that their taunts wouldn't be resisted.

The game itself is so much better than it used to be, and so much more accessible for people who don't have the time to devote their lives to the game. But the attitude of the players has changed, and I totally get being disillusioned with that.

 

[Amnestic]

As someone who raided hardcore in Vanilla, the old way sucked hard.

In some ways I'll have to disagree with you. I will admit that MC was pretty damn boring, but Blackwing Lair and Naxx were very exciting in the days before DBM, KTM threat meter and other now requisite raiding mods. The addition of raiding mods has sucked alot of the fun I got from raiding.

Eh, the first two bosses of BWL were fun, the middle was shite and Nefarian was a blast.

Seriously, did anyone actually enjoy the Suppression Room or the three separate drake encounters? Yawn-tastic.

Razorgore and Vael were incredible for their time, Razor himself being one of the most technically demanding fights up to that point in WoW but a good chunk of BWL was terribly, terribly boring.

Can't speak as to Naxx as I never got to play it pre-80, only poking over my older brother's shoulder when his guild went. Also: Decursive in MC? I get that Blizzard 'fixed' it but if we want to talk about a raiding mod making things too easy, that one's got to take the cake.

I'd agree with you further but even with the addition of Omen ThreatMeter and DeadlyBossMods/BigWigs, people in my guild would still make stupid mistakes. Yes, they would indeed stand in the fire.

2 things. First, I predict World of Starcraft. Second, he looks like a smug ass in that photo. Also, you know who will kill WoW? Star Wars: TOR.

First: Blizzard's new MMO is an entirely new IP. Not Starcraft, not Diablo, not Lost Vikings. New. Never before seen.

Second: No, TOR won't kill WoW because WoW has 11 million+ subscribers and it's growing. No single game will kill WoW. Just like LOTRO, AoC, Warhammer Online and Aion, TOR will take a chunk of people from WoW, some may trickle back, some will stick around but ultimately WoW will still exist.

EVE Online has miniscule subscriber levels in comparison and is still a highly rated MMO game. What do you think will happen to WoW even if they lose 6 million to TOR? Not much. They may have to merge a few servers to cut back on costs, but other than that...not much.

 

[Ohlookit'sMatty]

Its a good read and been a WoWer myself I would just like to add that when they do release their new MMO it will not take anything away from WoW (unless they stop working on new stuff for it) People will go over to the new MMO but they will be back and not for the game but for the World that it is set in // A world that many of us love and despite its flaws will always love, no matter how much we ***** about them

Also, what is goin to be my new ingame pet this comin birthday?!?

-M

 

[Mcface]

This used to be a really great game a few years ago. (pre BC) It's still good now, sure. but nothing can match the time I had in early WoW, the want to keep leveling, meeting new people and fighting new things I had never seen.

 

[Biscotti187]

played wow for 4 and a half years and finally had to sop so i guess any future blizzard MMO projects I'll be looking at from afar remember my good old days but it will be interesting to see just how thoroughly Blizzard learns from its mistakes and if they have the new MMO will probably a masterpiece of game play design similar to how Halo and CoD are known for their near-perfected FPS combat

 

[Twilightruler]

You would've thought that they would mention their biggest mistake. Making the game too god-forsaken easy. That's the main thing that caused me to quit. I hit 80 and 2 months later I was done. Because even my unorganized under-geared guild could clear all the current content with little problem. If you tried 40 man naxx and even a couple people didn't know what was going on, you were flat out boned. Back when having a spell interrupt rotation on Kel'thuzzad was necessary to even stay alive. They tailored the game to appeal to 10 year old's so they could get more money...I would actually consider re-joining if they just dumped all the expansions and went back to vanilla. And I know quite a few hundred people that feel the same way.

So you've done Yogg+0 and Algalon, then, right? You've completed Tribute to Insanity?

What possible sense does it ever make to spend the majority of their development resources on something less than 10% of the game will ever see? The current philosophy - make the base content easy for people to experience it, but give hard mode optional challenges (and better reward) to the uber-l337 - is probably the best one they've had since the game launched.

As someone who raided hardcore in Vanilla, the old way sucked hard.

Well, problem being, you're arguing with a person that has very very little tolerance for pure stupidity. And more than 90% of the time, that's what I encountered. And from what I encountered in my 4-5 years or so of playing WoW, I've seen the most stupidity and annoying 10-12 year olds, in Wrath. In reality, if everyone payed attention, understood directions, and did what they were supposed to do, raiding would be much easier than it already is. At least the difficulty and skill requirements in vanilla scared away more of the morons.

 

[John Funk]

You would've thought that they would mention their biggest mistake. Making the game too god-forsaken easy. That's the main thing that caused me to quit. I hit 80 and 2 months later I was done. Because even my unorganized under-geared guild could clear all the current content with little problem. If you tried 40 man naxx and even a couple people didn't know what was going on, you were flat out boned. Back when having a spell interrupt rotation on Kel'thuzzad was necessary to even stay alive. They tailored the game to appeal to 10 year old's so they could get more money...I would actually consider re-joining if they just dumped all the expansions and went back to vanilla. And I know quite a few hundred people that feel the same way.

So you've done Yogg+0 and Algalon, then, right? You've completed Tribute to Insanity?

What possible sense does it ever make to spend the majority of their development resources on something less than 10% of the game will ever see? The current philosophy - make the base content easy for people to experience it, but give hard mode optional challenges (and better reward) to the uber-l337 - is probably the best one they've had since the game launched.

As someone who raided hardcore in Vanilla, the old way sucked hard.

Well, problem being, you're arguing with a person that has very very little tolerance for pure stupidity. And more than 90% of the time, that's what I encountered. And from what I encountered in my 4-5 years or so of playing WoW, I've seen the most stupidity and annoying 10-12 year olds, in Wrath. In reality, if everyone payed attention, understood directions, and did what they were supposed to do, raiding would be much easier than it already is. At least the difficulty and skill requirements in vanilla scared away more of the morons.

I assure you that the hardest content in Wrath far outstrips the hardest content in Vanilla.

Maybe not M'uru and KJ, but we've yet to see Icecrown.

 

[Twilightruler]

I assure you that the hardest content in Wrath far outstrips the hardest content in Vanilla.

Maybe not M'uru and KJ, but we've yet to see Icecrown.

Doesn't detract from the fact that Wrath brought the kiddies and idiots out. Besides, world first yogg 0 and world first 40 man naxx clear were both about 2 and a half months after their respective patches were released. And I'll believe Icecrown is harder than KJ when I see it, and I don't really expect to see that...

 

[Amnestic]

I assure you that the hardest content in Wrath far outstrips the hardest content in Vanilla.

Maybe not M'uru and KJ, but we've yet to see Icecrown.

Doesn't detract from the fact that Wrath brought the kiddies and idiots out. Besides, world first yogg 0 and world first 40 man naxx clear were both about 2 and a half months after their respective patches were released. And I'll believe Icecrown is harder than KJ when I see it, and I don't really expect to see that...

How long would it have taken for a full Sunwell clear if the god-awful Gate system hadn't been implimented? We don't know, we'll never know, but using the time between SWP patch hitting and KJ World First as a comparison is silly and more than that, ridiculous.

 

[Twilightruler]

How long would it have taken for a full Sunwell clear if the god-awful Gate system hadn't been implimented? We don't know, we'll never know, but using the time between SWP patch hitting and KJ World First as a comparison is silly and more than that, ridiculous.

Which is why I didn't use KJ as an example in my comparison...Frankly, this argument is boring me and isn't going to change my opinion..So I'm done, enjoy your game.

 

[Amnestic]

How long would it have taken for a full Sunwell clear if the god-awful Gate system hadn't been implimented? We don't know, we'll never know, but using the time between SWP patch hitting and KJ World First as a comparison is silly and more than that, ridiculous.

Which is why I didn't use KJ as an example in my comparison...Frankly, this argument is boring me and isn't going to change my opinion..So I'm done, enjoy your game.

I would but I quit last August.

\o/

 

[Twilightruler]

How long would it have taken for a full Sunwell clear if the god-awful Gate system hadn't been implimented? We don't know, we'll never know, but using the time between SWP patch hitting and KJ World First as a comparison is silly and more than that, ridiculous.

Which is why I didn't use KJ as an example in my comparison...Frankly, this argument is boring me and isn't going to change my opinion..So I'm done, enjoy your game.

I would but I quit last August.

\o/

Good man..lol

 

[Simon Stallwood]

I just gave up playing WoW. It got dumbed down so far, anyone could play it and have ready to raid gear. Instead of having to earn the raid gear and picking up gameplay experence at tghe same time, no you get idiots that don't have a clue and you spend ages shift through lots of crap players to find good ones, even though they have Stuff at item level 240+