lol all i have to say Tobold is that on the eve of expansion day make sure your characters aren't logged off on the Eastern Kingdoms world server :P.
 

On the other hand, many people will make the choice to level their toons from 70 to 80 as soon as possible, thus limiting the number of DK played in the very first days of the expansion.
 

I thought that the DK starting zone was a complete new one specifically for DKs, not the Eastern Plaguelands? (Have they confirmed either way?)

I always thought they would instance the DK starter zones, you spend a few hours going from 55-58 before leaving to Outland or EPL/Silithus etc. This would help with the crowding issues.
 

Laggy and zone-crashing as it was, I still know many players that consider the whole "opening of gates of AQ" to be their best experience in WoW.

Granted, they're probably like me, a little nostalgic about that whole era, so it isn't just about the event itself, but the sequence of events and overall status of the game leading up to the gates opening.
 

Despite the lags, I also enjoyed the AQ gate opening and it was a nice feeling to be part of such a heroic deed.
 

mmorog hit the nail on the head. The invasion as simple as it was. Was one of the things I remember fondly.

I wonder if they learned their lesson or if it's just laziness. They seem hell bent on making less content last longer.

That or they still think everyone who's been pvp'ing for epics is doing it because they like pvp.
 

i'm not sure i agree that events and gated content are being ditched. the SSO stuff on the IQD was pretty much a mini AQ event.

also, was there ever any chance of them gating the expansion content? i think this would leave a lot of unhappy people who've paid for new content and then can't get to it.
 

Am I missing something or is any of the Shattered Alliance questing not considered 'Gate Opening'. It seemed to me that the place was overrun after the patch. Not as bad as AQ but still phase this phase that....
Sounds similar to gate opening to me, not quite as big, but still that same model.
Comments?
 

Just a nit to pick, AQ event zone was not EPL it was Silithus.

Anyway as another before me commented, just because you create your DK in EPL doesn't mean you have to stay there...
 

I remember making a blood elf the second I got home and finished installing the Burning Crusade expansion, fresh off the launch party. My God, I've never seen so many people, all in one place, all working on the same eight quests. That poor level 4 sucker living in that tower in the south of the newbie zone was camped non-stop worse than anything I've ever seen, to this day.

Looking back, it is kind of funny, but to address your point: I don't remember the servers having much or any troubles with the flood of level 1 characters.
 

I wouldn't be surprised if a big chunk of the DK starting is instanced, just to stop the flood. Either that or it will be spread out enough in some new content to help mitigate the pain.

Remember when BC launched and there were all those players pounding away at the Fel Orc Mutants (or whatever) right outside Thrallmar/Honor Hold? Even that wasn't awful and it thinned out very quickly once you progressed further into the zone.

From what Blizzard learned of the BC launch, I have hopes that the DK start will only be slightly bumpy.
 

I hate the way they are introducing DKs! Hero classes as a talent tree line is the best and really only answer IMO. Sadly, I had been leveling up my pally, which I love, in the hopes of turning him into a DK at 70 :p ::shakes fist at beta WRotLK::

The question is, this being only the 1st of many hero classes (I assume) are they all going to be released this way? I think BLizzard needs to take another long hard look at the future of hero classes and get it right the first time. THis "all can be 55 DKs" idea is crap.
 

I could have sworn dynamic spawning had hit old Azeroth. I'm not sure if it is everywhere, but I know, for example, I've killed a mob and see a respawn in the same spot instantly.
 

Blizzard has seen the error of their ways, there will be no more world events, and everything is fine?

Blizzard has done no such thing. They have said is that they learned from the mistakes they made with the Dark Portal opening and the AQ event. They have NOT said they don’t plan world events. The latest world event (Sunwell Isle) is the model that they plan to follow for future world events. The idea being that people will contribute to mini-events that will slowly progress the storyline. As each “phase” is opened, we regain more and more control over the Isle. The design is intended to feel like we are accomplishing something in the War by slowly retaking the Isle. Expect more of the same in the future – particularly as we get ready to launch into Northrend.
 

I expect EPL / WPL to get a really sexy revamp. Any update that makes the old world relevant is a good update in my mind.

That being said – if I have a level 55 starting character and EPL is crowded then uh, I can go somewhere else. Last time I checked, you could still level in Winterspring, Sithilus, Burining Steppes and even Felwood and Un’goro at level 55. Now consider that at Level 58, many people are going to just make the jump to Outland.

So yes, while lots of people are going to START in the Plaguelands – many people aren’t going to STAY in the Plaguelands.
 

Y'all need to read the dev's comments more carefully.

Originally the DK was going to take a quest to unlock. They have since said they moved that to the start of the DK class who will start in his own instance.

In other words, you will create a DK and it will be in its own instance for the first period of time & play. You will go to EP after you leave that instance but not immediately.
 

Deathknights (and Blizzard's current plan for implementing them) continue to underwhelm me.
 

Sure there will be mass overcrowding on day one of the release of Wrath of the Lich King. However that's just a temporal problem that will subside within a few short weeks.

The real problem is the mechanics of becoming a hero class which I've commented on extensively at my website. There is nothing "heroic" about having a level 55 character in WoW these days. Yet, that is the so-called act of heroism that is required of players in order to create a deathknight.

We should just have the honesty to rename hero classes as "welfare classes". As that is exactly what they are.

I'm surprised that more people aren't concerned about how Blizzard is devaluing the concept of leveling in a level based MMO. The way things are going leveling will end up being either elminated or trivialized. You can be sure that each new expansion will add yet another hero class that will start at an inflated high level allowing players to skip 55 levels of content or more.

Following this trend to it's logical conclusion, in a few years most classes will probably end up being hero classes as people will not want to "endure" having to level from 1 to 55 on other traditional classes. Humans will always choose the path of least resistance when it's offered to them. Good game designers should know this.

MMO's seems to be devolving into a convenience and entitlement driven social network. As notions of game mechanics like challenge, risk vs reward fall by the wayside in an effort to lure in more subscribers.

It seems WoW is like a modern welfare state where most players seem to accept the free stuff that Blizzard is giving them with no questions asked. Just keep on subscribing and eventually you can have what you want.

You rarely hear players exhort:

"Give us more challenge in WoW!"

In fact the opposite is true, players want things easier and easier and Blizzard is only too happy to comply. I can only imagine the dumbed down state WoW will be in by the year 2010 at the current rate it's going.

Sorry for the derail, it's just hard to believe the direction that Blizzard is taking WoW.
 

Hey, on the flip side, if miraculously WoW *can* accommodate 1000 players in one place, then Blizzard will have cornered the market in mass-mass-PVP with their amazing new net-code. Which they can then use in World of Starcraft.

I'm dreaming again.
 

As far as "world events" go, I think the SSO Quel'danas "war effort" was a much more elegant, and much more involved solution than the AQ gate opening. Instead of one player and one (usually top tier) guild getting all the glory of opening the gate and subsequently crashing the server, here we have something that feels much more like an actual concerted effort to fight back crack elves and demons.

I think this kind of progressive content through "gated" dailies (SSO) and patches (the epic Griftah storyline) is the way Blizzard is seeing future world events.

As to Deathknight overcrowding.. I am not sure. There will still be a lot of people (especially in the hardcore section) that want to level their main characters, and not deal with a Deathknight at all. And I also think the amount of DKs will decrease rapidly beyond curious level 55 baby DKs, and especially once they have to slog it through Outland again.
 

>> That or they still think everyone who's been pvp'ing for epics is doing it because they like pvp.

Yeah. It's quite bizarre to think people would do something they enjoy in a game. It's much more reasonable to think people pay $15 a month and do something which they hate all in the name of showing Blizzard how much they screwed up.
 

Since the "enjoyment" of WoW for a lot of people seems to come from getting items, it makes sense that people would do an activity they don't like doing to get those items.
 

I've talked to a lot of people that view PVP as an unpleasant grind that is the only way they with thier schedule can get thier stuff.

Some of them are confused I'd rather not play than do something I don't like. They've got so much time invested in advancing thier character they do what gets the gear quickest. Not what is the most fun
 

The opening of the Dark Portal was the biggest anti-climax in gaming history.
Even on my PvE server, most people went PvP just to alleviate the boredom of waiting for something to happen in the hour before the portal opened.
When the time came for the portal to open, absolutely nothing happened.
Compare this to the AQ event, which actually had some meaning to it, some interest.
Yes it was laggy, no it didn't cause our server to crash, no there wasn't mass PvP because the mobs that came out of the gates were worth fighting.

More world events please (even the Scourge invasion was fun, because it involved everyone, not just the Lv 60s).