World of ReturnCraft
Posted under: Playing Again
My life goes through cycles.
When it gets tough enough, I find myself returning to World of Warcraft. WoW offers me simple pleasures, with the highest price I pay being the time spent on its servers.
I’ve been energy-sapped enough lately that I’ve been more than willing to pay that price.
It helps that everyone keeps saying things that make me want to play the game again. =]
Cataclysm Baby
Instead of starting out on an existing high-level character (of which I have many), I opted to try out the new starting zones. Cataclysm wracked the vanilla WoW landscape – having been in Warcraft long enough to actually BE a vanilla player, I was more than a little curious about the changes.
As a result, I have experienced the following new starter zones:
- Dwarf. Nice, but the theme of “defend against this new invader threat!” got a little old after a while.
- Night Elf. Very nice – just enough modifications to make me want to hug the nearest developer or send them cookies.
- Troll. Holy wow. Fantastic. Seriously. I’m like a Vol’jin groupie now. This was the ONLY starter zone that made me feel like I was part of the Horde, and cared about that fact.
- Tauren. Love the tauren, and their starter zone has been much improved. Also? Whoever developed the flamingo parade and Spazzenrache deserves an award.
- Worgen. Amazing story. Really makes me feel involved and feel like I know the NPC’s involved, too. *applause* Well done, Blizzard. Worth playing through if you’re a quest-reader, even if you don’t plan on keeping the character. I did not, however, like the way the worgen look. *wince* I know, I know, they’re SUPPOSED to be mean and snarly, but that’s just not how I roll. My online avatar is a pink bunny, for pity’s sake.
- Goblins. Clearly not made for me, I have a laundry list of problems with this starter zone that is neatly balanced by the hordes of folks online who LOVED this zone. That being said, goblins look fan-friggin-tastic. I just don’t like their quests at all.
Quest Flow
My favorite aspect of Cataclysm thus far has been the improvement in quest and zone flow.
Many zones now have a major quest thread running through them – a quest line that, if you complete it, reaps wonderful rewards in lore or enjoyment that go far beyond a soon-replaced piece of gear or a bright jingle in the pocket.
Two examples of this would be Badlands and Westfall.
Westfall’s major quest line begins immediately upon entering the zone (poor Blanchy!) with a murder mystery. That mystery leads you through the whole zone, dropping tantalizing hints juicy enough for the revelation of the NEW Deadmines to feel EPIC – even at level 15.
Badlands* has you helping a too-polite goblin woman with a suspicious “-straza” on the end of her name. Sure enough, she’s a dragon in disguise and her quests send you neatly through the quest hubs and lead to an (again, epic) confrontation that does a fantastic job of making you feel like you’re connected to the game. The final reward is bittersweet indeed**.
Slow and Steady
The biggest change in our gaming style thus far (aside from my near-epic character rerolling) has been that we’re slowing down. A lot.
It’s just myself and Mr. Moore, with no raiding guild impatient for us to hurry up and get to the good parts (the raiding).
We’re reading quest text and hoo boy, does THAT make a difference. Sure, there will always be an element of “okay, what body part from what critter do I need how many of?” but it matters a little more when you realize that it’s to craft a cure for an injured bear whose vanilla WoW companion (who you just saved from drowning) is dying back in Lor’Danel.
Which, I think, is why I’m enjoying some races more than others. I’ve always needed to personally identify with my characters, and I’m kind of a light-and-fluffy sort of person. Let’s rape the land / loot and pillage / start a war / infect the world with a plague … those sorts of quests make me like my character less. (Lest anyone think I dislike Horde completely, I loved the Tauren and the Troll, and dislike most human quests, such as the new Barrens stuff)
What Does This Mean For Writing?
This means that I am playing video games rather than writing. It took me a long time to be able to say that without an accompanying jolt of intense guilt.
I AM still writing – those following CHOOSE already know this, and SONG OF BINDING is progressing very slowly and steadily as my crazy work schedule allows. The frenetic productivity for which I have come to be known, however, is not present. It’s got less to do with “how much time I have” and everything to do with “how much energy I have.”
WoW doesn’t require a ton of energy (the way I’m currently playing it) and like an eager puppy, Blizzard is gleefully pulling out all its shiny new toys for me to inspect and play with.
Footnotes
* Badlands ALSO has one of the most hilarious quest lines ever, as a camp of npc’s vie for your attention to tell you their stories of the Cataclysm. “The Day That Deathwing Came” begins with Theldurin the Lost, and is highly recommended for toons of any level. Who DOESN’T want to punch Deathwing in the nose or ride a flying motorcycle?
** Anyone not reading quests and ALSO reading the names of quest rewards is missing out on some really clever Blizzardry (get it? It’s like wizardry, only with pixels, bits, and bytes!)
Human zone did a good job, much in the same way Nelf did. The starter-starter gnome zone was also pretty fantastic.
I totally agree with you on the worgen and goblin. Though, for me Worgen was less an issue because of *appearance* than it is the damned snuffling. STOP THE SNUFFLING! I hate playing alliance anything with worgen around anymore >.< (Also, goblin– was okay I guess. I mean well designed yes. But it was like the energizer bunny of starting zones… it kept going and going and going and going and… I kept checking my level wondering how much more I'd need to put up with.)
I will say however, you missed the best in your list. Undead, from lv 1 to lv ~25-30. Essentially starter through Silverpine and Hillsbrad. I'm completely meh on WoW at the moment, but what they did with those zones is nothing short of amazing. They make the troll starter feel bland in comparison.
Marianne´s last post ..So- Rift…
I rode through Silverpine and it LOOKS like the new undead starter stuff is pretty awesome … but that whole “plague the land” thing steered me away. That, and seeing kneecaps. (bleh)
;)
And I am SO with you on the snuffling. Crimunettlies, get that worgen a kleenex.
That was always my opinion on the undead. I kept hearing how awesome the zone was though, so decided to suck it up and try it.
Most fun I’ve had in WoW ;)
Marianne´s last post ..So- Rift…
Hmmm, mayhaps I’ll have to suck it up and try it, myself! Thanks for the tip!
*thumbs up*
Play a caster– wear a dress. ;) You’ll have elbows, but your knees at least will be covered by… something.
Marianne´s last post ..So- Rift…
I’m with you with regards to Badlands. The central lore-questline is one of the most moving stories in the game. And Darkshore … I elected to run my worgen through Darkshore to experience the new questlines. The quests around the remains of Auberdine are very touching.
I do have a complaint … around halfway through Ashenvale, quests started turning gray. The XP reward is a tad high. Otherwise, is happy.
Grimmtooth´s last post ..The art of disagreeing
YES on the Ashenvale quests! I’m glad I’m not the only one. Granted, I have heirlooms, so maybe it’s not quite so drastic otherwise, but it did seem alarming to get THAT far into the zone and be sent against level 12 mobs. Pretty sure I can handle the cute widdle bearling, Blizz.
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You just made me miss WoW something bad. We had to stop because we honestly couldn’t afford it – couldn’t justify the expense with what little time we had to play. I would LOVE to go back in and roll a newbie and start over to see all the changes. I’ve heard nothing but awesome stuff about it.
sigh…
Maybe someday.
Tristina´s last post ..Finding the Happy
That is the wonderful thing about WoW. When you are ready, it shall welcome you back with open arms and waiting questgivers. ^_^
@Tristina – My wife got to missing it, we didn’t have the cash on hand at the time, so she fired up a trial account for 10 days or whatever amount it is. Of course if that makes you miss it more, never mind.
The Badlands quest line is beautiful. It has one of the most epic quest series’ in the game (The Day Deathwing Came), and the ending, as you said, is bittersweet. I commented to Marinna at the conclusion of the quest line, “Well, Blizzard certainly knows how to get you to keep a quest reward around.”
If you haven’t yet played through Thousand Needles, I highly suggest it. The lore in that zone, especially after you read The Shattering, is incredible. I miss the Shimmering Flats, to be honest. But the Speedbarge does kindda make up for it a little. But only a little.
I was definitely bummed when our worgen hit 58 and we left the old world to head into Outland. Outland seems so… DULL compared to Azeroth now. That’s a little odd to say, since I remember the joy and awe at seeing Outland’s skies and foreboding landscape the first time I went through the Dark Portal. Now it’s just a chore I have to get through before I get into Northrend.
Yeah. That little dragonling isn’t going anywhere. <3
We made it to Thousand Needles, but didn’t play through it yet. I think we’re finally done rerolling babies, so it won’t take long to get there again. I was a little afraid of the Outlands thing being as you say *wince* Ah, well. It’s only a few levels, right?
I’m loving the new leveling experience. All my little Horde characters are higher level than I’ve ever managed to get them (mostly because everything Horde was so SPRAWLING and the landscapes were mostly so UNINVITING). The troll starting area was the BEST THING. Vol’jin for warchief! Gogogo! Also, only tiny, cheeping baby raptors could soothe me after what happened to poor Zuni :c They successfully made me read quest text! This is a Big Deal!
I agree that everyone should do the new undead stuff, especially if you’ve already seen what happens on the worgen end of things ;) Very cool to get both sides of the story.
I only have one issue with the new questing model, and it’s with the re-playability. I’m one of those who LOVED the goblin starting zone, but just ask me if I want to level a brand new goblin. Go on, ask. The answer is a firm “no thank you.” Same thing with Vash’jir, the 80+ underwater zone. Like I didn’t already hate underwater levels enough in games, and then they toss this at me. Actually, it was really fun the first time. Now that I have an alt parked there, though, I can’t bring myself to log onto her because I know I’ll have to level through Vash’jir again >_> Lame. I think I have a problem with all the gimmicky quests they’ve thrown in to break up the monotony of collecting 15 pristine orca spleens or 7 giraffe sphincters or whatever. If I could just plow through zones on my second playthrough without having to slow down and do that one really annoying vehicle quest AGAIN *sigh*, I’d be much happier. BUT, the linear questing model has made it so it’s very difficult to skip quests, unless you want your questing and leveling to come to a grinding halt, and then you have to search for like an hour for the guy who gave that one stupid quest you abandoned. I LOVE the linear questing model, but on my alts? I just want to faceroll through and FINISH THE ZONE :P /rant
It’s all like a breath of fresh air. Have you tried the new Darkshore quests yet? If you haven’t, get ready to get misty (especially if you’re fairly familiar with pre-Cata Darkshore) :c
Courtney´s last post ..An actual factual recent art post!
Bahahaha check out my new novel. It’s called “Courtney Loves/Hates Linear Questing”
Seriously, I didn’t know I let it get that long XD
Courtney´s last post ..An actual factual recent art post!
Your second comment made me laugh out loud. Seriously. *cackle*
I think you are the first person to successfully explain to me why Blue felt it was necessary to apologize for the linear questing (which they did recently). So thank you for your novel, it was very informative.
Also, I totally snagged a baby leaping raptor from the Takk The Leaper nest, 100% because I adored the little babies from the troll starting zone. <3
I was super lucky enough to be on the Cataclysm Alpha (that’s right, I said Alpha, not Beta) and did the worgen, goblin and that underwater zone before being pregnant completely sapped all energy for life out of me (and then I stopped playing). It was exciting to be in on the begining and fly around and look at all the unfinished things (one time I swam out the side of a lake and fell to my death), but it was a hassle to deal with the bugs.
With all the fun you’ve had, it sounds awesome and I’m tempted to return. But I’ve got a busy few months ahead of me still!
Woot! That’s awesome, Kristen. Alpha. Wow. I know famous people. <3
You’ll probably want something mindless soon(ish) after LBB is born so it wouldn’t surprise me if you went back just to sort of have a thing you can do while still being with t he kidlet. We shall see. <3
For me the best part of WoW was always the questing and leveling, and really getting into the rich lore and my character. It was always hitting max level and then the “what do I do now” feeling that eventually had me leaving for greener pastures. I’ve managed to avoid buying Cataclysm, though I was intrigued to see what they had done with the world. But I know it would only last me a month or two at best. For me WoW was at its best in the “vanilla” days, and it seems I’ve been looking for a replacement for that feeling ever since. Nice to see your opinions on the new stuff.
*nods at Daria* I know exactly what you mean. I don’t know yet if this expansion will last past the “ooh shiny” stage (which I am still in). That’s definitely a huge factor in the staying power of the game, and Wrath did NOT have that for me.
*high five another vanilla wower* <3
Admit it. It was the pitiable crying orc peon that brought you back wasn’t it?
It’s good to have you back Ms. Priest.
If I may, I would suggest checking out the new quest line that you can find in Redridge. The whole thing plays out like an action movie from the 80′s/early 90′s where the men were burly, the women absent and all the action was hilariously overthetop. It’ll take roughly fifteen-twenty minutes if you vastly overlevel the place.
I’d also recommend doing the brief segment centering around Sir Maximillian of Northshire that you can find near the center of Un’Goro Crater. It’ll take you about five to ten minutes if you’re overlevelled and have a flying mount and if you’re familiar in the least with the legend of Don Quixote (and even if you’re not), hopefully, you’ll find the whole thing as hilarious as I did.
I’d include a link showing where these questlines start but the filter here at work prevents me from such humanitarian endeavors, leaving you to the untender mercies of Google and the internet at large should you choose to trust the whims of a stranger =)
*giggle* Me not that kind of orc!
Oooh, thank you SO much for the quest line recommendations! I definitely don’t want to miss any!