World of Warcraft: Hour of Twilight Update Now Live

This looks so much better than that Kung Fu Panda Expansion coming out soon.

Just think in 2 years your going to get to say "Panda'd" whenever a developer decides to torpedo their own game with a laughably bad idea based on marketing strategy.

And WoW has sucked since Greg Street became in charge and decided that good class balance is not an achievable goal, but making the mage class he plays god mode was.

A content patch on an mmo is worthy of its own article on Tom's? Did Blizzard bribe Kevin? You don't hear of patches in other games unless it seriously screws up something...

I just stopped playing Skyrim for a moment to read the news... Im guessing Tom got a kickback to announce this update, still not re-activating my account tho... Anyway, back to Skyrim.

Twilight sucks.

milk that cow...wait, you left a drop....god help us all

STM, I disagree with you on Ghostcrawler. His tenure began at the same time as did Bobby Kotick's as CEO over the merged Activision Blizzard. I don't think anyone with common sense can deny that Kotick's influence can be clearly seen as Blizzard today is a much different company then it was pre-merger.

It's also not GC's fault that so much time has been spent on PvP. I know this will anger PvP fans, but even Rob Pardo in his 2008 interview with Warcry admitted introducing high level PvP (arenas and such) was the single biggest mistake they made to the game. Not because the competive PvP is a bad idea, but because the game was not designed for it. And because the game was not designed for it, Pardo admitted it has been a headache that has taken up much more of their time than they ever dreamed it would.

I don't think it's any coincidence that the two expansions that have fully had arenas, Wrath and Cataclysm (arenas were introduced in BC after almost all the work on the content patches was done) have both had at least half, and in Cataclysm's case, more than half of the content discussed during the betas, fully cut out of the expansion. It's nothing but a non stop cycle of nerfs and buffs patch after patch. And it's also obvious that since Kotick took over, that the microtransactions have taken over full force.

It also seems as if the Looking For Raid has some mixed reviews. There are already pugs after one day who are on Deathwing for it. Will these Farmville style players keep their subs up for an entire year after they downed the last boss of the expansion? Doubtful. And non LFR players have noticed that normal mode raids are alsmost as insanely easy as the mechanics are the same, they mobs and bosses just do a bit more damage. Even a lot of those players who refer to themselves as casual are actually complaining how easy it is. Blizzard should never have tried to make a Farmville type easy game out of WoW. It's something that is suppose to be a different type of gamer entirely. And in their rush to try to please everyone, they have pleased no one.

People are also complaining about the Void Storage and the ridiculous gold sink it is and how you can't even put items in that a person would think should go in, like a number of the tabards and costumes. Why couldn't Blizz simply institute tabs on personal banks like they did with guild banks? If they wanted it to be a gold sink, make the tabs need to be purchased like the tabs for the guild banks but let it act like regular storage once bought.

And of course there is the ridiculous attempt at costuming with Transmogrification. Sorry, but this has to be more of a slap in the face to all the players who asked for costumer slots for years than a genuine attempt to fill the need. For one thing, holiday costumes can not even be used, so they are still essentially nothing more than bank filler. I just don't understand the need to make it a gold sink either or the need to go to an NPC to get the look one desires. Is it really so hard for Blizzard to do what other games have done for years much better and much easier?

I also don't believe MoP will have a positive impact on sub numbers. While I don't think pandas or pokemon will be as negative as some think, though I do think they will be a net negative, I think the more damning aspect of MoP is the fact that they are dropping the Warcraft story completely from the game. My personal opinion is that will only accelerate the decline, not stop it. The reason WoW broke EQ's subscription records on the first day was because of the Warcraft story. Since they have stopped showing it, subs have stagnated then declined. And there are still a LOT of lore firgures true Warcraft fans want to see.

nice timing by blizzard while the new twilight movie is out. LOL

I used to love WoW. I played it since it came out. But Kung Fu Pandas... seriously?! No thanks. Account cancelled and SWTOR pre-ordered. I beta tested that game and it friggin rocks! It'll be out in 20 days. I predict another big drop in WoW's subscription numbers when it does.

the only succes of wow is it was a first (alrightish) MMORPG, and that is why they keep sales. if i find someone who never played wow or any other MMO. and give them a choice, i can garantee you he wont look at wow.

But like an RPG game fan myself, i hate starting over, i like to get a hero max asap(who doesnt) and thats why an mmorpg keep its people for long. so being first was the success, not the actual game itself. and warcraft 3 is still one of the top games today...

to little to late, wow is dying since wrath.

They just need to keep it alive until their next big MMO. We all know, regardless of what we are playing, we will be curious as to what it's like.

A lot of haters, but there is a reason WoW patches make news and WoW in general still has 10 million plus subscribers. It's the best overall MMO out there. Claim what you want but 10 million active accounts dwarfs any other MMO.

On the subject of SWTOR I've enjoyed the beta quite a bit. However, the game has quite a few major core component flaws that prevent it becoming both a PvP and PvE blockbuster like WoW. That said, I think it will be the best leveling MMO out there, just incredibly weak end game when compared to something polished like WoW.

Honestly I think that there are two types of players, those who love dungeons, and those who love quests. Thing is that dungeons are meant to be played over and over and eventually you will get that awesome piece of gear. Quests need to be engaging and fun, and killing 1000 rats to find 10 intact bones is boring as hell. MMOs need to find better and more interesting quests to keep players interacting with the environment.

Personally I think Blizzard should work on adding 50 new dungeons which are long and interactive instead of spending time on this Kung Fu Panda thing. So how many hours will it take a someone equipped with full heirlooms to get to level 90? Especially with the new talent(less) system!

I moved from the US servers to the EU ones for better latency, but now I need to level new characters. It is a pain, and there still aren't enough players available for dungeons. Well at least not tanks (I play a Holy Priest). I don't want to start a new level 1 toon and grind my way through the same content again. I have gone through the for 40 levels about 8 times now, with different races, and different classes.

Why can't Blizzard add a Dungeon every month or two? Maybe they are just throwing us a bone while Diablo 3 gets established, and they finish off Titan.

Personally I think that with Guild Wars 2, TERA, and SWTOR coming up soon WoW is going to lose a lot of people.

And all this can be yours for 3 low payments of 9.99 and one large payment of 59.99! What a deal folks!

OK? so where's the announcement about the eve crucible expansion that just came out?

I've been playing skyrim.. It's whetting my RPG appetite.. My problem with WOW was the time sink... That and everything just felt like a grind.. I don't want to grind I want epic story.. Unfortunately it's hard to maintain that number of players and make everyone feel like they are the hero of the story... I think the future is in more instancing and you see that a little in WOW... You want to feel as if you are playing the area for the first time.. I am sure their new MMO will do alot more of it. I want an epic battle all the way in.

@wildkitten : You are so right on every point. These are the reasons I stopped playing. PvP have been a major downfall for WoW since the end of BC. It's all a big rock-paper-scissor-lizard-spock game since then, with Blizzard buffing and nerfing at every patch. And while they do that, PvE suffers from side-effects. Worst offender? Giving paladins to the horde and shamans to the alliance. This was a PvP-based choice, and the story and consistency of the game began to change greatly.

I had a great 4-years run, but it's now behind me. I pre-ordered ToR after playing twice in the beta. So long I can only qualify it as WoW with lightsabers, but we a lot of good improvements. This may sound like a complaint, but it's actually a big win for me! Let's hope they can keep the game fresh and captivating for the years to come.

All I can say is, the new Chuck Norris WOW commercial is awesome. "There are 10 million people in the World of Warcraft...because Chuck Norris allows them to live."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arKpdxjHamI

I have played WOW on and off for a few years and to be honest I'm getting sick of grinding from 0 to 85, and all the new development seems to be going into dungeons and raids with the quests being as dull as ditchwater. Just how many crabs do I have to kill for the game to remain interesting??

WoW like any MMO is only enjoyable long term if you have a quality guild and friends who play the game.
While I think SWTOR will get a lot of subscribers from WoW I'm not sure how many they will retain. It's not nearly as polished as WoW and the content is lacking. The people I know with beta keys got bored after 2 weeks.

Anything with the word "Twilight" in it seems much less appealing...

And content isn't lacking from WoW? WoW has precious little content. All it is is a gear grindfest and most of the end game content is doing the same dailies over and over day after day. No way Star Wars could be worse.

WoW has roughly 150 instances of varying 5/10/25 man raid content. The later ones offer multiple difficulty levels which make the fights unique. A new game can't possibly have that level of content.

Gear grindfest? That's every MMO. Collect new shiny bobbles to equip on your character.

@wildkitten and Cazalan : WoW has a tremendous amount of content. The problem is that it becomes obsolete as soon as an expansion comes out. What they need to do is find a way to keep old instances and raid compeling. One cool way was the adding of the dungeon finder tool. That way, people leveling toons could easily find a groupe for a low-level instance while grinding their xp. However, it isn't enough since leveling is faster than before.

Raids like AQ, SSC, BT, Kara and the like are solely run for achievements and people farming mounts or legendary weapons. They should find a way to compel players in doing them at least once in the leveling process. Or make them scale to the players level (bosses and items). Or, dare I say, make them mandatory in order for the player to move to a new zone? I know those ideas won't catch up, but you get my point : there is content, Blizzard just have to find a way to make it fresh.

Only about 6 or 7 dungeons are relevant to max level players. And 5 person isn't a raid, only 10 and 25 are. As for multiple difficulty levels, there has only been two, normal and heroic. That started in Wrath. Initially, with Naxx, OS and Malygos, 10 mans were normal and 25's were considered heroic versions. With ToC they introduced normal and heroic within both 10 and 25 man modes.

And what I mean by gear grindfest is that is all there is. There is no immersion, no feeling like your character contributes to the world. Practically every boss that has been "killed" has returned. There is even talk of Illidan coming back. The whole "[blank] was merely a setback" has become a huge, tired joke within the game.

And once it's obsolete there is no point in running it unless you are someone who wants achievments and you need one or more from it. Even then it is so easy it's not even enjoyable.

They could keep older raids and dungeons compelling by taking a page out of Guild Wars book and not increasing the level cap, at least not every expansion. And they could stop making such huge gaps in gear's stats.

And the dungeon finder did not make a way to keep old instances compelling. For one thing you can not even use it to queue for dungeons past your XP level, not that you would anyway as there is no point. In all, the RDF has been a negative for the game because it destroyed the community. It used to be that once you got known for someone who put forward an effort in a dungeon you got groups. People who had trouble pre-RDF getting groups were ones who would not enchant or gem and didn't even try. Since RDF was introduced, it's a mess of players who just don't care about trying which of course frustrates players who do.

And I agree, older raids should be required for progression when someone levels, but the Farmville style player which Blizzard has cultivated would complain incessantly. Just look at what happened with simple attunements. The old attunements was part of telling the story, it explained why things were happening with the story and set the stage for the upcoming raid. But of course Blizzard catered to the "we hate the story, just give us purples" crowd.

RDF hasn't had a negative effect on the game at all. People that otherwise wouldn't be able to get into dungeons, can easily do so because of RDF. I do question the long-term effects that the Raid Finder will have on the game. I gave Raid Finder a shot lastnight. I joined the group at 2/4 bosses down. With no experience in Dragon Soul and absolutely no explanation of the fight, Yor'sahj was easily doable with no assistance other than the addon "Deadly Boss Mods" running. Hagara on the other hand, took my group 3 attempts to completely master....again, with no explanation or previous experience. If you have a group of players that actually pay attention to what's going on, the mechanics can easily be picked up as you work through the fight. It might take a few untimely deaths, but the mechanics are simple enough that they can be learned "on the fly"... All in all, I'm actually pretty disappointed with the content patch as the 3 dungeons combined only took my guild based group 45mins to run through. My guild's GM reported that the Raid Finder variation of Dragon Soul only took 45mins from time of entry until the achievement was awarded....even with multiple requeues to replace players that "rage-logged"....

Raids and Dungeons are both considered "Instances"....so, yes, WoW does have roughly 150 instances.

I didn't say anything about instances. I was responding to the person who made the comment about 5/10/25 RAID instances. 5 mans are not raids. I didn't say that dungeons were not instances.

And yes, RDF has had a negative effect. Running with people you will never run with again has led people who are inclined not to do their best to indeed not do their best. Back in vanilla and BC a player's reputation mattered. People who were known to enchant and gem their gear and actually pay attention in a dungeon and not stand in the fire never had a problem getting into groups. With RDF you get people who will not enchant or gem their gear, or do so improperly. I have seen mages with strength and agility gems (just one example of many) and when you try to be nice to help them, you get called an elitist and told that they will do what they want. And if you kick that person, they go whine on the forums about how the mean elitists kicked them for "no reason". In response to the whining Blizzard makes it harder to kick people. So players who want to play the game as it was intended can't so it makes things frustrating. I have little doubt that the RDF is one of the reasons that subscriptions are down. WoW never increased, except for the slight bump in China when Wrath was released, during the time RDF has been in the game. In fact WoW has never grown since Blizzard made it so easy.

-5 votes for saying Twilight sucks? You guys are bitches.

That's a good point on the attunements. It used to take significant work just to get into an instance. AQ took months to open and the whole server needed to participate. The majority of people just don't have that level of time, and that's what they've been catering to.

Instead of catering to hardcore elitists now the majority of people can see all the content. I think it's a good thing overall. Compare that to vanilla when maybe 2 guilds per server got to see the later bosses in Naxx. Is it good when only 20,000 people out of millions get to complete an instance? If 99% of the customers can not complete a game they will be pissed.

People can still do the questing if they want the story.