Epic Slant is pleased to host differing (or similar) opinions from other players and guest articles. As always please allow me to dispense with the necessary disclaimer. The following article and author’s opinions do not necessarily represent the opinions and/or views of Epic Slant, Ferrel, or any staff writers. -Ferrel
Recently, at Blizzcon, some pretty exciting changes and additions were announced for the upcoming 3.3 patch and the new expansion – Cataclysm. There are too many changes to list in one article so for the sake of my brain (and yours!) I will limit this to two major changes. In future posts, if Ferrel allows it, I will post on other changes in hopes for dialogue between Ferrel and his faithful readers.
First change – Patch 3.3 will introduce a cross-server Looking for Group (LFG) interface. Currently the LFG interface allows players to search for other players on the same server to do quests, instances, heroic instances and raids. The new interface will include all current functionality but will also allow any player to search for additional players on servers in the searcher’s battle group. Each battle group has approximately 15-20 servers which should yield a large amount of potential candidates for the event. The cross-server LFG interface may make grouping easier but WoW players could be in for a hurricane of drama. WoW does not truly have an established mechanism to prevent people from being “d-bags” and stealing loot earned by all party members. Some players could have no qualms about stealing items from cross-server people. There is a slight safeguard to this however which would be to set everything to a “master loot” status and only the leader can award items. My curse is finding exploits in almost every system I come across and I see a huge one with that safeguard. I feel that the LFG interface looks good on paper; in practical application, not so much. Kind of like Communism.
In addition to the new cross-server LFG interface rewards will be given to the leader of the party for any successful run including raids. I have heard whisperings of the drama that could arise from the “group leader benefit” as many people could join a group, demand to be leader, and leave if not promoted. This could result in heartache and frustration for any player attempting to form a successful group. I think the additional reward system will be excellent for anyone that runs events. People that run an event have the task of putting together a solid group and should be rewarded for their efforts if they are truly running it.
Second change – In Cataclysm, Blizzard will be doing a complete revamp of the guild interface system and will introduce a new system of guild leveling. For the guild interface system there will be detailed information listed in the guild window for people to see loot drops from raid instances, which guild mate it went to, which bosses were killed and the ability to do custom searches for information. Guild members will also be able to view all profession recipes, patterns, plans, etc. of their guild mates. There will also be guild achievements to include building legendary items, maxing out professions, etc.
The guild leveling system will be based on experience at first and can be earned from players leveling, killing bosses, leveling professions, PvP victories and reputations. Each time the guild levels it will result in talent points which affect the entire guild. The guild talents will in turn allow removal of reagent costs from spells, increased gold drops from looting, summon the entire raid to an instance, resurrect the entire raid after a wipe and automatically transfer a percentage of gold dropped by bosses to the guild bank. Guild talent points will be resettable as well. Once a guild reaches level 20, the experience earned becomes currency in which the GM can purchase items such as mounts, profession recipes, potions, banners and rare reagents. Anyone can learn a guild profession recipe, however, once the member leaves their guild, all items earned from the guild are immediately returned to the guild bank.
Based off the details that have been released the upcoming changes to the guild interface and addition of the guild leveling should be phenomenal. On paper it appears flawless. The guild leveling system should be fantastic and could promote camaraderie between members by working together to achieve more for the guild. There is also the potential for friendly competition as well between guild mates. I know some of my own mates are fiercely competitive with regard to achievements. The guild leveling system could increase it ten fold. Summoning the entire raid to an instance is amazing. Have raid members that resemble turtles when it’s time to start the raid? Well no more. It should also provide a momentous amount of stress relief to the GM.
Many GMs have suffered through a disease I like to call “music guild syndrome.” A large population of WoW players, in comparison to the EQ2 players I’ve experienced, have almost no regard for their guild. There is no regret in leaving a guild and the devastation it may cause. Once the new changes are implemented people may exercise caution before leaving a guild as they could potentially lose any reward they have received from the guild. I feel that this addition will help high pop servers tremendously, but small pop servers may still be in the same situation. GMs on small pop servers seem to have almost no control over their members due to a low recruitment pool. “The boot” most likely wouldn’t happen.
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I hate musical guidl syndrome btw, it drove me nuts, and still does. I hope this change helps with that at least, though I think it will hurt small guilds
As usual, Blizzard take an another MMO’s idea (Guild Leveling) and refine to such a nice degree. It’s a trait to be admired.
Leaving the guild penalty, is extremely well conceived, Kudos to Blizzard.
Not a big WoW fan but I have massive respect for Blizzard’s ability to spot qualities in other MMOs that are worth having and implementing them in their game. In many ways WoW started as the ultimate amalgamation of the best MMO attributes and it seems to stay on top by continuing that trend.
I’m equally not a huge WoW fan but it most certainly does a lot of things correctly. The information I’ve read about the guild management system sounds exciting.
I’ve been begging for years for a game to implement a rich set of guild tools. Somewhat hilarious to me that the game to do it is World of Warcraft. It is still a ways out though. We’ll see how it works in reality vs hype.
” Not a big WoW fan but I have massive respect for Blizzard’s ability to spot qualities in other MMOs that are worth having and implementing them in their game. In many ways WoW started as the ultimate amalgamation of the best MMO attributes and it seems to stay on top by continuing that trend. ”
Yes, Blizzard is pretty crafty and they pull these things off well. They aren’t shy about taking others’ ideas and to their credit … they appear to do a nice job incorporating them into their own product. I wonder if some of these features are patented?
IMO, what it sort of shows … is that they aren’t very good on innovation (generally speaking). So someone comes out with something awesome. Their MMO isn’t as large or as popular. Blizz comes along, takes the idea, and uses that same concept in their game. They are geniuses! Not really. Glad to see some folks give props to those who created these things first. Many just assume they were Blizzard’s own ideas.
Blizz reminds me of Microsoft.
well, realistically everyone that plays that game is probably old enough to realize its not all blizzards work, i think theyre actually pretty innovative with their story lines too, they really do put heart into that work. Especially since the original creators of WoW had DnD creators to spice it up even more. theyre not con’s though greedy they are, and i think everyone knows with any kind of mmo gaming knowledge that every rpg nearly is ripped from dungeons and dragons anyway. none of this stuff is that original, not even some of the technical implementations of the game as well. Blizzard isn’t starbucks smashing the smaller games. Even if there was a comparison obvious more people prefer wow anyway if said game was not making a large amount of players. on that note starbucks is the same, i hate starbucks, i think the coffee tastes like shit, and a lot of their customers are snooty but thats big business if you wanted to see it that way. and yes there are other issues seen as currency but im pretty sure anyone that is trying to hit big on that scale should know how much they need and however theyre obtaining their currency they cant shoot right into something, it would take a lot of time, no matter what it is, no half-assing
“Glad to see some folks give props to those who created these things first. Many just assume they were Blizzard’s own ideas.
Blizz reminds me of Microsoft.”
No doubt. Since WoW has been out so long, people just assume that it invented alot of its features. Sadly, when it came out, it just grabbed the best of EQ and other games and made it accessible PC spec wise to the normal consumer.
Your comparison is spot on. After all, didn’t Microsoft steal the mouse and Windows UI concept from Xerox?
“Glad to see some folks give props to those who created these things first. Many just assume they were Blizzard’s own ideas.”
I’m one of the people that assumed Blizzard was the inventor of neat game ideas. It’s interesting to find out that they really are not. There are many other changes and additions Blizzard is introducing and many of them are stolen from the pages of other MMO’s. However unethical it may seem, it is good for business.
” It is still a ways out though. We’ll see how it works in reality vs hype.”
Aye Blizzard could completely change their minds and take the guild interface out or postpone it. I’m excited to see what the final product will look like when launched.
My guild is verry organized and prepared when it comes to raids. So Iv never had any of these issues. If you wanna check my guild out its on Burning Blade real and the guild name is Demise.