Blizzard Moves Towards "Phased" World - Good Or Bad???
World of Warcraft has always had a love-affair with Instancing. It's been a big part of the game's design since the beginning. Some people love instances and some people hate them - but regardless, I think it's safe to say that for the most part - they have been a boon to Blizzard's game.
With the new "Wrath of the Lich King" expansion coming out next month, there's a lot of talk swirling around about Blizzard's new approach to their game which is being termed "Phasing" by some.
The concept is much the same as instances, but it affects the entire world at large, rather than a small slice.
For example - Lets say you run into Thrall in Orgrimmar. You go about your business and complete the Nagrand quest chain in which Thrall travels to Outland to reunite with his people.
From this point on your game has advanced to a different phase. If you return to Orgrimmar, Thrall WILL NOT be there, FOR YOU. Yet to other players who have not reached the phase you are in - Thrall is still sitting there, chilling and handing out RFC quests.
Essentially the concept is that the world will feel more persistent and real because it will change around you - but only around you. All players will still interact in the same world but may not necessarily see it the same way.
This clearly could open the game up to become an amazing PvE and Lore experience for everyone involved. But it could also pose some strange and unforeseen problems as players enter different phases and try to interact with each other in very different worlds.
Obviously this will be a WOTLK feature and won't retroactively affect other parts of the game - but moving forward - we may see more and more of this.
What do you think of it?
__________________ The Highest Rep'd Troll - Ever.
Humanity continues to be the worst plague to ever desecrate this planet.
We have added a new article to our site, explaining in detail what the new mechanics Wrath of the Lich King brings to the table, such as "Phasing" content, "Championing" for Northrend factions, and Vehicular Combat - if you're wondering what any of these terms mean, check out our latest article!
I must have missed that article, cos this sounds awsome!
It's always bothered me how the world had to stay the 'same' even though I've been changing it through heroic deeds.... if pushing various animals towards extinction could be called 'heroic'.
I just posted it tonight. I don't know what's up with my moderator priviledges, but if you could merge this one into the one I have I would be thankful, Mikes, while I look into this
OK, phased worlds - one of the quests that really stood out to me for all the bad reasons was the Horde quest in HFP where you run into the lost orc tribe. You head back to Orgrimmar to tell Thrall who comes undone in excitement and then... nothing. It was such a good quest line, and is again completely undone by the Greatmother questline in Nagrand, but it it totally destroyed the illusion I was doing anything worthwhile for the Horde.
We've seen some examples of phasing even before the Island of Quel'danas, like everytime a seasonal event comes in, so the technology's been there, it just so happens that in Wrath, your entire world may change in the blink of a n eye for good, which is a welcome change
And true, I would've loved more polish on the Garadar questlines.
The problem with stuff like The Isle and also the gates of AQ though is that it's easy for them to pass you by.
With the Gates of AQ I was waaaay too low level to experince, and the Isle i avoided like the plague due to all the mob camping and kill stealing going on when it opened up. But I still appreciated that something was progressing, even if I wasn't taking part. I just wish I could've taken part :sad:
The more I hear about WotLK, the MORE excited I get. I'm a "veteran" WoW player. I've been around since the beta, actually, and regardless of all the crap talk you hear, Blizzard STILL, in my opinion, is the company that puts out the best quality of games. (WoW isn't my first MMO, by far, nor is it my first Blizzard-made game.)
I cannot WAIT for this expansion! And I have a lot of "work" ahead of me, since by the time the expansion is released I will have 6 level 70s that will be going through the new content. (Obviously, I'm not one of the "rush to the end" folks, or I'd have 10 70s, or more, by now...lol.) I'm so looking forward to just ENJOYING the journey again. =D
This all looks very cool, but I have just two minor questions. First, about phasing. If you group up with someone on a different phase of the world than you, what happens. IE, the quest chain where the UC becomes a mini-dungeon phase and you haven't done the quest with Thrall and Co. yet. What if you were questing with someone in the normal UC phase and you guys had to go to UC to drop off a quest? Second about championing. Do you know whether or not you can use the tabards in raids and if so, how does the rep gain compare to heroic rep?
Blizzard Moves Towards "Phased" World - Good Or Bad???
Linear Mode
