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toblix

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

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I don't even play this, so I don't know what's going on gameplay wise, but I find it interesting that they have been doing some gradual graphics improvements since they first released the game. Apparently they've improved rendering distance, added some better shadows, and in Cataclysm they finally have a better-looking water.

They can keep doing this indefinitely, of course, but does anyone know if they're also updating more work-intensive stuff like graphics assets? They've played it pretty safe with the intentionally blocky style, but will things like texture and animation resolution, sound and whatever become so outdated at one point that they'll be forced to revamp the huge amount of assets they have amassed so far?

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I'm not 100% sure, but I think with Cataclysm they've made a truly genius move. See, the game doesn't add a whole lot of new areas, but instead revamps the old areas, storywise because Azeroth is being 'sundered'. This gives them a great opportunity to recreate the whole world with the better graphics of the newer expansions (like you said: higher texture resolutions, better shadows, weather effects, water, etc), without having to spend huge amounts of time updating a world that isn't in the picture anymore (because: lowlevel). So with Cataclysm, Blizzard is really doing exactly this (updating the graphics), in the form of a new expansion.

Of course, it won't exactly be Mass Effect levels of high fidelity models et al, but it should help bridge the gap between it and newer, beautiful MMO's like Aion and Warhammer that will, at least graphically, pose a threat to Warcraft's crown.

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The textures in the last expansion were higher resolution, and I think they are upping the average number of polygons. The game is still amazingly economic with it's resources, but yes they are pushing that stuff up slowly.

The details on Cataclysm leave me a bit cold TBH. The new races and class combinations don't appeal to me, and nothing about the new zones and story elements has sucked me in yet. I haven't been playing this much year anyway so I think my time with WOW is pretty much over.

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Same goes for me. What I had feared is basically happening: they shot their load with Wrath of the Lich King, which in Warcraft storyline terms is the culmination of everything happening since Warcraft III.

Though the revamped old world interests me, and Deathwing obviously is extremely cool (he never went out of style since War2), 'tain't no Arthas.

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The details on Cataclysm leave me a bit cold TBH. The new races and class combinations don't appeal to me, and nothing about the new zones and story elements has sucked me in yet.

At risk of being buried up to the waist and pelted with rocks by WoW players, I think Cataclysm looks pretty fucking cheesy. It appears to be a climate change trope dressed up in glowy fantasy magic. I'm sick of seeing the same old things in these kind of trailers while listening to a narrator spout disjointed cliches about destiny, might, and the magic macguffin.

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Not sure where you got the climate change from. Most of the changes are massive earthquake style things. A zone called Desolace has changed quite a bit but that fits in with very old story elements, and also because it was boring and ugly and everyone hated it.

As for the rest; well that's high fantasy for you.

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Vast changes affecting the entire world, mass migrations. While it's dressed up in high fantasy causes rather than industrialisation, it seems to be cribbing from more or less everything I ever read about climate change from Bruce Sterling, John Robb and Worldchanging.

I'm intrigued, can anyone see it appealing to new players? The trailer seemed like it was entirely aimed at retaining players already familiar with WoW.

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I'd say the theme is more 'natural disasters' - earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, hurricanes. floods, wildfires. The cause may be a dragon, but that dragon is the 'corrupted guardian of the earth' and he just punched out of the 'elemental realm of earth' or something. Pretty strong metaphor for tectonic plate shenanigans.

The scene in the trailer with the goblin exodus looks like a pretty close analogy to the Indian Ocean tsunami, I reckon.

I can't see it appealing to new players much - not only is it more end level content they may never see, but the original early content is being actively overwritten - there may be certain things that are common knowledge amongst old-timers, that new players will never be able to experience. Maybe.

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There'll be a minimum level before a player can start it. I just think it's an interesting bifurcation: on the one hand you have the William Shatner/Mr. T etc. adverts roping new players, then you have things like this expansion aimed at old players, using trailers packed with things newbies aren't necessarily going to understand.

As concepts go, "High fantasy disaster movie" simultaneously tickles my funny bone while making me wince :)

Edit: Could an MMO run profitably for so long that a generational gap emerges in the players? If something like Cataclysm were a one way trip for a character, then an entire wedge of the players could take all their learned behaviour with them, while players going through the older bits of WoW would gradually invent new customs that might seem quite alien to old players when they catch up.

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There'll be a minimum level before a player can start it. I just think it's an interesting bifurcation: on the one hand you have the William Shatner/Mr. T etc. adverts roping new players, then you have things like this expansion aimed at old players, using trailers packed with things newbies aren't necessarily going to understand.

As concepts go, "High fantasy disaster movie" simultaneously tickles my funny bone while making me wince :)

Edit: Could an MMO run profitably for so long that a generational gap emerges in the players? If something like Cataclysm were a one way trip for a character, then an entire wedge of the players could take all their learned behaviour with them, while players going through the older bits of WoW would gradually invent new customs that might seem quite alien to old players when they catch up.

It could be pretty interesting, particularly for non MMORPG players, like me. I have no intention to play one except for the old republic.

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The cataclysm rewrites the old world entirely, there's no level restriction and even if you don't buy the expansion you get the revamped old world.

This expansion is very much targeted at new players as they are rewriting the old content to make the levelling process as fun as the newer quests in WotLK. Less stupid running back and forth between two disparate locations, much greater flow from zone to zone.

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The cataclysm rewrites the old world entirely, there's no level restriction and even if you don't buy the expansion you get the revamped old world.

This expansion is very much targeted at new players as they are rewriting the old content to make the levelling process as fun as the newer quests in WotLK.

I was wrong, soz ;(

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The BlizzCon announcement trailer is definitely not targeted at new players, as it was made for those "faithful" enough to actually get themselves to a convention that's just about Blizzard games. So there's that.

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Yeah absolutely, I was just clarifying the details of the expansion that are not so clear from the trailer.

It would have been pretty bizarre for them to make a trailer to appeal to non-players only to show it to a huge hall full almost exclusively of long term players.

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