Blizzcon is almost here! This is one of the most important Blizzard fanfests yet. We have Diablo 3 in the pipeline, Starcraft 2 in close orbit and of course the next World of Warcraft expansion. There's enough gaming anticipation in those three titles alone to elevate this Blizzcon to epic event status.
Id like to put myself on the line here and make a stab at what we are going to see. If Im right, a sense of accomplishment complete with pizza and chocolate will be my reward. If I'm wrong, I'll be just another Blogger mouthing off crazy talk.
Diablo 3. More information about how the new Battle. Net is going to affect multiplayer. Since Diablo 3 is still most likely a year away from release, it will probably play 3rd fiddle at the convention. Which may be a good thing as....
The prospect of being hooked on Diablo3 and WOW simultaneously. Forget the Mayan 2012 Armageddon folks, these two games could bring down civilization.
StarCraft 2. The delay was expected, but the ditching of LAN play has left many in the community more than slightly irritated. As with Diablo 3, Blizzard are really going to 'sell' the heights they hope to achieve with the new Battle.Net. The lack of LAN play will be forgotten by the end of the convention.
Cataclysm. Is it Blizzard's mysterious new MMO? Or is it the WOW expansion? Over at Wow.com they are mighty sure of themselves that Cataclysm is the Wow expansion. Not only that, they are claiming with supreme confidence that two new races will be introduced. That being Worgen for the Alliance, and Goblins for the Horde.
Ok Im willing to run with this. WOW's expansion is a dead certainty to arrive next year. New expansions raise the profile of WOW, thereby attracting new players, whilst vitally keeping veteran players coming back for more.
The fly in the ointment, are the two new races being introduced. Here we go, back to level 1...again. I think WOW is at that point, where the vast majority of players have seen the early game content...again...and again...and again. A new skin, aka player race is not enough motivation to grind through Chuck Norris land aka The Barrens again. And don't get me started on Stranglethorn Vale. Even without the ganking on a PVP server, that place is a long haul of stunted growth dinosaurs, invisible panthers and strangely angry pirates.
No, Blizzard will offer an incentive to go back to level 1 again. And what better way to do that, by adjusting the old world content in some sort of facelift, or (drumroll please) Cataclysm! New environments, new angles on familiar territories. The whole player base will happily ditch their epic raids for some sweet leveling once again.
If we end up getting 10 extra levels, plus a new island to play with people are going to be a bit meh. Wow needs a shakeup, and after two 'comfortably expected' expansions, now is the time to shake Azeroth up.
As for Blizzard's in-the-shadows MMO. On the off chance we get an announcement, my money is on some sort of post-apocalyptic scenario. We've already had World of Starcraft officially denied. And another fantasy MMO would just compete with WOW. Post-apocalyptic land offers a nice mix of off-beat fantasy with sci-fi elements to allow Blizzard's creative team to go nuts. Come to think of it, the name Cataclysm really sits alongside a post-apocalyptic scenario. Oops might miss that chocolate and pizza after all...
Ladies and Gentlemen, Blizzcon awaits...
No comments:
Post a Comment