So i was posed the question the other day, Is Cataclysm Underwhelming? Well it actually wasn’t worded in that way, more like. Are you getting bored of wow already, asked while i was leveling my mage rather than gearing up my priest that was already 85. Have Blizzard really added enough to cataclysm to make it worthwhile?

I think its a bit harsh to judge so quickly, I mean it was a pretty smooth transition really. I’m sure this is far from a complete list, but here is a few of the massive tasks they had underway:
- massive world events leading up to cataclysm
- redesigning the whole world to accommodate flying mounts
- basically re-designing orgrimar from scratch
- adding archeology skill
- redesign of all classes / gear
- addition of two new races and story lines / home worlds / mounts or travel forms, etc.
- new leveling sections added pretty much one section or world for each level between 80 and 85.

I mean, there is a massive pressure on them to get it just right and you can never really please the masses can you. You are always going to get someone hitting the QQ button about their class or whatever.

If you go by the queue times, the popularity has definitely gone down since launch. No more wait times on my server at all for logging in.

For me i think its at a good medium now, as i don’t really want (or have time to) play hardcore mode wow anymore, and its good i can just login and to an instance run or a few battle grounds or level archeology and its just a bit of fun.

This was sparked by the following post that i found on MMO champion I guess just typical QQ action to see here. I mean there not forcing anyone to play, dont like it? quit.

I will start from the start, listing things that blizzard have done wrong:

1) The much hyped pre launch-world event was poorly conceived and not well thought out at all. Other’s opinions might differ but it failed miserably compared to the BC and wotlk world events.

2) Starting zones were released with multiple bugs and many started quests did not function properly. Few bugs can be ignored but there were bugs even in quests that introduced a player to starter zones. The fact that blizzard allowed these buggy quests to be released without fixing them, was the first stop in knowing that the company has lost it’s touch.

3) LFD tool – It is a great tool but since it was released, many people have complained about the random not being ‘really random’. There has been more than enough time to fix this very small problem. No one likes to run the same place over and over again, if you have my luck and the place happens to be Grim Batol (pops everyday, completed rarely), it is easy to get frustrated. Surely making a random tool, actually random, is not too much to ask?

4) Random BG tool – since the release, all that the random BG tool has ever given me is the two “new” BGs. Both BGs lack any imagination on the part of development team and are a rehash of BGs that already exist. Again, I am still searching for the ‘random’ bit of this tool.

5) Extremely poor content like Tol Barad making it to release- Tol barad testing was a big event. Many who participated gave feedback, the feedback was ignored and as a result a complete new zone does not function properly.

6) Heroic dungeons: While i support the level of difficulty in the Heroic instances, I completely disagree with the amount of trash some places have. Grim batol and SFK are classic examples of where the devs crossed the line between difficult and annoying. having 3 trash packs of 4 mobs each in one small room is in no way fun.

7) Forcing new playstyles on players – As a resto druid, I have grave objections to Nourish spam. I healed in BC when nourish did not exist, healing was tough then but it was fun and along the lines of what you read in your class desciption before creating your character. Trying to make eveyone do everything is not something that has benefitted the game.

Knee-jerk reactions from Devs – I will not touch the Pandora’s box that is the class balance that devs tend to do but the Tol barad “fix” of giving the winner 1800 honor stand out. It was the least thought of and most illogical attempt at fixing the broken state of Tol Barad.

9) Regular server and instance server restarts: In the last 3 weeks, I can only think of two raids where there has’nt been a restart. Some people are comfortable with this but personally, if I bought a new fridge that just turned itself on and off again almost everyday, I would not be very happy. Worst part is that players are given no indication as to what is the purpose behind the said restarts which again points to the lack of care for the players, on part of the company.

10) Extremely buggy encounters: A few bugs is acceptable, a few more can be attributed to the fact that cata was a rushed expansion but the number of bugs this expansion came out with has exceeded BC and wotlk by a huge margin. One would think that years of experience runnign a game would have taught the designers a few lessons but clearly not.

11) Blizzard have delibrately put a lot of things in this expansion which are for lack of better word a ‘time-sink’. There have always been time-sinks but this expansion has gone back to the mistakes of vanilla. other’s opinions might vary but personally, there is nothing worthwhile to do other than raids at end level, of course assuming that the raid server is’nt down again.

12) The blizzard representative’s attitude towrds players on the forums has been disrespectful and downright demeaning at times. Sometimes they have even made negative comments on casual players complaining about difficulty. While I do not subscribe to the typical split between so called casual and hardcore, I do subscribe to the idea that if you do not have something nice to say, just do not say anything, is the best approach at times, especially when dealing with your own consumers.

13) Lack of anything new or imaginative: So far there has’nt been one moment in cataclysm where I have just gone ‘ wow, that is amazing’. The only thing that comes close is the Uldum architecture and that’s not really a lot to shout about. Sure they spent time doing lower zones but let’s face it, most of those zones are just a bit more detailed and you can fly over them ! Blizzard must have known that most players will spend a majority of time in the new zones and yet the new zones give a feeling of having been neglected by the devs.