Next World Of Warcraft Raid Dungeon 281
GrandGranini writes "The New York Times has an interview with World Of Warcraft Lead Game Designer Jeff Kaplan (Tigole), in which he talks about the next raid dungeon after Ahn'Quiraj, the necropolis Naxxramas." From the article: "Naxxramas is going to be the most difficult thing in the game until the expansion pack comes out. It will be the pinnacle, and it's absolutely massive. You'll see this big necropolis floating above Eastern Plaguelands. It's a 40-man raid zone, and it's bigger than the Undercity [one of the main cities in the game]. Things could change, but we're up to something like 18 bosses in there, and they are really cool, too. But it's going to be hard. Really hard. We're hoping to release it in the spring." If you told me two years ago that I'd be reading about an upcoming instance in the sport section of the NYT, I'd have called you a damn dirty liar. May you live in interesting times, indeed.
Re:What is a "raid zone"? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:What is a "raid zone"? (Score:5, Informative)
A typical "raid zone" (in the context of the article) signifies a dungeon that requires a massive number of people (usually 40) teamed up to beat it. There are several such dungeons in the game. Alternatively, there are other dungeons that can be beaten with a small group of 5, or even smaller.
The Eastern Plaguelands [wikipedia.org] is just a location in the game. The Undercity [wikipedia.org] is home to one of the WoW races, the Forsaken Undead. The wiki links have a lot more information about WoW locations in general, as well as game lore regarding them.
Re:A little less MM MMORPG? (Score:3, Informative)
You can make it to the "end" without joining a huge guild or raiding all the time. You'll simply reach the "end" sooner if you don't do those things. There is a finite amount of content in the game, whether you're into small group stuff or raiding. The raiding content simply takes longer to burn through.
I don't plan to join a raiding guild (not quite 60 yet, only 51), which means I'll probably have to settle for lower quality gear. But I don't really mind. I've had a lot of fun getting my current current character to where he is, and I suspect I'll enjoy PvP for a good while, even if I'm at a disadvantage at 60 without epics. When I get bored with the small group content/PvP at level 60, I will likely either start up a new character and try a different class or find some new games to play.
Definitions: (Score:3, Informative)
Eastern Plaguelands: [wikipedia.org] One of the toughest outside areas of World of Warcraft. The Plaguelands are the remnants of a country that was killed by a plauge and ravaged by undead. Everything is dead, rotting, and there are undead (skeletons, zombies) and huge maggots everywhere. The Eastern Plaguelands are home to two of the first Raid Dungeons of the endgame -- Scholomance, a destroyed city full of undead, and Stratholme, a ruined city divided into two, one half is full of corrupted paladins, the other half full of undead.
Undercity: [wikipedia.org] The main town of the Forsaken. [wikipedia.org] Previously the capital city Lordaeron, events in Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos caused it to be destroyed by an undead Army called the scourge. Later, a "free" faction of undead, the Forsaken, took it over as their home.
WoW's dirty secret... (Score:2, Informative)
Within the 40 person raid, there's a few people working hard; the main tank, the leader co-ordinating, etc. But most of the 40 people are just mechanically doing their job. Working as "healbots" staring at health bars and castng heals when the health goes down, or as "damagebots" casting the same attack over and over when the leader says to attack and pausing when the leader says to stop attacking so the tanks can regain control. It's sickening how easy it is to rake in the epics. It just takes time. About 6-8 hours to complete the raid and get around 20 epics for the 40 players.
By contrast, the other content is far more challenging. Especially PvP, but even smaller high level instances like Dire Maul are much more challenging than MC. Even the blizzard quote from the article scoffs at how easy Stratholme is (a 5 man instance). Stratholme is *harder* than Molten Core. Yet Molten Core gives out epics like free candy.
Re:NO MORE HUGE RAIDS! (Score:1, Informative)
Prince of Persia was a "short" game, finished in ~ 10-15 hours.
I've been playing World of Warcraft on my main for 6 days (144 hours), and I'm ~ level 40. I have 20 more levels to go of "main" content, then I can explore alternate content on my alt if I want, e.g. alternative starting area content, or even 2nd zone content.
And then I can do it all differently, with completely different quests, with a player from the other faction.
~ 200 hours to "complete" a game is by NO MEANS a "very short" game. Even Morrowind, which is an "extremely long" game has at most that much content, even with both the expansions!
If you include alt-replayability (new content, not just same content with a different class) and two factions, you're looking at potentially 500 hours of unique content - all new quests and such.
I understand that the game is basically dead for non-raiders at level 60, but what exactly are you looking for out of this game after it's already provided that many hours of gameplay??
Re:NO MORE HUGE RAIDS! (Score:3, Informative)