I like to play an undead warlock in the World of Warcraft. His name is Relvinian, and he shows a /played time of 16 days and 12 hours. Meaning I've played World of Warcraft for about 35 minutes a day, every day, since November 2004 when the game originally hit store shelves.
The Dark Portal to Outland opened on January 16, 2007. So I sent Relvinian through, and now he has some thoughts.
Simply: wow.
The game dynamics have not changed. The formula remains the same: get quest, complete objectives, receive experience, rise in level, rinse & repeat.
But the world itself is more alive now. The beginning area is full of people, and Blizzard has wisely chosen to combine the areas for characters from the two major factions, Alliance & Horde, to coexist in the same space. And the spawn rate of mobs is insanely high, sometimes down to 5 seconds in various spots on the beginning plains.
Perhaps the largest change at the new end-game, around level 70, is the introduction of smaller raid instances for 10-25 man groups, rather than the previous epic 40 man requirements. Tier sets have also changed from a random drop rate on specific items to a high-rate of generic drop items for all classes that one converts into specialised armor for your specific class. Brilliant! The days of running Blackwing Lair sixty times to get your headgear are long gone, as one might expect to get your full set within five to ten visits.
The two new races are also intriguing... had I not fallen in love with the undead and orc warlocks, I might have rolled a blood elf. But of course I will have to create a cutely called Belf Blight (Blood Elf Blood Knight, the Horde paladin) and Belf Hunter. Silvermoon City and the entire Eversong Woods area is inspired. A strong, strong difference from Trisfal Glades, Durotar, and Mulgore.
I do not have much care for the Alliance, so little time will be spent with the Draenei other than exploring their starting area.
And it appears my thoughts are not unfounded, as the Burning Crusade is now the largest and fastest multimedia release in terms of gross revenue in 24 hours. Show me one other movie, video game, television show, or music album that will have made $99,000,000 in 24 hours? You will not find it.
Tangent: I am conjuring the $99 million from two confirmed sales numbers; 100,000 Collectors editions ($70 each) and 2.3 million standard boxes ($40 each).
Amazing.
I plan to be getting my money's worth. My /played meter will probably rock off the charts in the next few months. =)
See you in Outland!
The game dynamics have not changed. The formula remains the same: get quest, complete objectives, receive experience, rise in level, rinse & repeat.
But the world itself is more alive now. The beginning area is full of people, and Blizzard has wisely chosen to combine the areas for characters from the two major factions, Alliance & Horde, to coexist in the same space. And the spawn rate of mobs is insanely high, sometimes down to 5 seconds in various spots on the beginning plains.
Perhaps the largest change at the new end-game, around level 70, is the introduction of smaller raid instances for 10-25 man groups, rather than the previous epic 40 man requirements. Tier sets have also changed from a random drop rate on specific items to a high-rate of generic drop items for all classes that one converts into specialised armor for your specific class. Brilliant! The days of running Blackwing Lair sixty times to get your headgear are long gone, as one might expect to get your full set within five to ten visits.
The two new races are also intriguing... had I not fallen in love with the undead and orc warlocks, I might have rolled a blood elf. But of course I will have to create a cutely called Belf Blight (Blood Elf Blood Knight, the Horde paladin) and Belf Hunter. Silvermoon City and the entire Eversong Woods area is inspired. A strong, strong difference from Trisfal Glades, Durotar, and Mulgore.
I do not have much care for the Alliance, so little time will be spent with the Draenei other than exploring their starting area.
And it appears my thoughts are not unfounded, as the Burning Crusade is now the largest and fastest multimedia release in terms of gross revenue in 24 hours. Show me one other movie, video game, television show, or music album that will have made $99,000,000 in 24 hours? You will not find it.
Tangent: I am conjuring the $99 million from two confirmed sales numbers; 100,000 Collectors editions ($70 each) and 2.3 million standard boxes ($40 each).
Amazing.
I plan to be getting my money's worth. My /played meter will probably rock off the charts in the next few months. =)
See you in Outland!
