Project Lore

Before we had any confirmation at Blizzcon that Goblins and Worgens would be introduced as playable races in WoW Cataclysm, we had a plethora of speculation that that might be the case. If you recall, it all started with the discovery of four new textures for Hallow's End masks datamined from within the depths of Patch 3.2. Of course, later, new textures also were added (perhaps to throw us off the path, a successful tactic) for murlocs, Vrykul, ogres and naga.

But now, of course, information on the expansion has been confirmed, and I know I'm not the only one itching to play the new races for more than just a few-minute demo. So, what could be better than to pretend to play the new races as part of the fun of Hallow's End?

One of the things I was most looking forward to for the holiday this year was getting a chance to don one of those new masks while riding around on my Magic Broom. The original file names of the four masks found by Scrolls of Lore specifically include "Halloween" in them - for example "Helm_Mask_Halloween_WoF.blp" - so it's a reasonable conclusion that they're the same as the other masks for Hallow's End. But at least so far, the masks are nowhere to be found.

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Wishful Thinking is a column for the theorycrafting behind World of Warcraft.  No, not the number crunching madness perfected by the folks at ElitistJerks, but the features, abilities, and design ideas that the Project Lore writers conjure from their squishy pink stuff. Well, readers. I don't know about you, but I've been working on that old Loremaster title for some time now. It was easy enough to complete all of the Northrend zones, perhaps because they were freshest in my mind. But the old world? Not a chance! On my main, Amatera, I must've leveled through those areas at least three or four years ago. And if you're like me, then you know the real pain isn't necessarily doing all the quests you missed, but finding them in the first place. Why, just the other day, I decided to pick up the torch again and make some progress on the achievement. I flew over to Tarren Mill and found a whole bank of quests that I had never actually finished. I'm talk at least six or seven missions that I apparently didn't touch on this character. Of course, I thought I'd done them, but that might just because when leveling up one of my numerous alts, I made sure to clear out the area before moving on. Time had fogged up my memory, and in all likelihood, I pushed Amatera forward to new zones where there were better experience-gaining opportunities to be had and never looked back. Oh, and then there's Nagrand. The only zone in Outland that I've yet to get the questing achievement for. I've heard it's a little harder to finish on the Horde side, and that I'm not the only one who's had trouble with it in the past, but at the same time there are people that have obviously done what, for me, seems currently impossible. In other words, I must be missing something. One possible candidate is this quest: I'm Saved! But the problem is that the NPC needed to complete it spawns seemingly at random. I've spent long spans of time at Nesingwary's camp waiting for her to show up and she never does. Do you know what makes it even worse, though? I need two more quests to get the Nagrand achievement. And I have absolutely zero clue as to what the second might be. This is why I'm putting out the call to Blizzard: where's my completed quest log? It seems like such a simple feature to implement that you might wonder why it wasn't included with the game when it launched. I'd love a way to easily check an online database against a list of my finished quests to figure out which ones I'm missing. Sure, there's always flying from hub to hub and picking up tasks from NPCs with punctuation over their heads, but others aren't that easy to find, like those that might require a random drop from a group of enemies. And it goes beyond achievement tracking, too. I can't count the number of times someone has asked me if I've completed a specific quest and I've had to go all the way back to the quest-giver to see if there was still an exclamation point there. It's a real shame, because they've made some significant improvements to the quest log over the years, and they're set to do it again with 3.3. The only two reasons I can think of for not implementing a completed quest tracker is because there is either some technical issue preventing them from doing so, or it's simply something they don't deem important enough to spend time developing. I'd like to rule out the former, because it seems that the game already knows what missions you have and haven't done. After all, achievements like the Loremaster ones can keep track of them numerically. They'll tell you how many you've finished, just not which ones. Currently, the only solution is to download an add-on that can do it for you, but they tend to only be able to log quests you've completed since installing them, and not any of the ones before that. I feel like I'm about to give up on my Loremaster title, but there is one shining hope on the horizon. I speak of: account-wide achievements. When Cataclysm hits, I already know I'm going to roll a Goblin alt, and I can make sure that I do everything right from the very beginning. Not to mention, of course, that the quests themselves will likely change with the expansion, meaning that Loremaster achievements will likely be reset, or moved to Feats of Strength and replaced with new ones for the old world anyway. But this is one of those simple conveniences I still can't believe hasn't made its way into the game just yet. What say you, readers? Wouldn't it make your life a whole lot easier?

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The jury's still out on whether or not Garrosh Hellscream is truly a dangerous man. Sure, he's pushy, belligerent, hot-headed, and more than a little racist, but he seems to honestly believe that what he's doing is best for the Orcish people. And yet, we know somewhere in there, that he seeks to defy the more... unsavory aspects of his father's legacy, who was equally lustful for power, but failed to control himself by drinking Mannoroth's blood and esnlaving the Orcs. Likewise, we must consider that Garrosh has spent nearly his entire life in Nagrand. He's not as familiar with the struggles on Azeroth as his compatriots are; not as beholden to the same love of certain humans or ideals of peace as Thrall is. And let's not forget that he's got a virtual equal in the Humans' King Varian Wrynn. In Garrosh's eyes, he is a man who cannot be controlled and will take the opportunity to destroy the Horde when it presents itself. If Garrosh is to slated to become Warchief, he has to do what he thinks is right to protect his people, even if his methods seem wrong. We haven't reached the expansion just yet, or even the world events that will lead up to them, but signs of the changing times are already starting to show themselves on the PTR. While everyone else is distracted by the shiny, new 5-man dungeon (Pit of Saron), I decided to do a little bit of poking around, and discovered a rather interesting development in the good old Undercity. Bye-bye Abominations! As you might recall, after the events of the Wrathgate, Thrall sent his elite soldiers, the Kor'Kron Guard, to keep watch over the remaining apothecaries in the Forsaken capital. The difference on the test realm is that now, they're all over the place. Gone are the abominations that used to protect the city, replaced by Orcish knights patrolling the city. It's possible that this is just an expansion of Thrall's policy to keep the apothecaries in check, but it also fits in with things we've heard about the future. Namely, Garrosh becoming Warchief and changing the way things work. Only letting Orcs and Tauren into the center of Orgrimmar, because he believes that they're the only ones actually capable of defending it. Hey, what about the Trolls, Garrosh? Sure, the double-dealing of a certain faction of Undead and the inherently shifty Blood Elves need to be scrutinized, but what did the poor Trolls ever do to lose your trust? But, I digress. If the betrayal at Wrathgate made Garrosh lose faith in his already tenuous allies, the installation of Orcish guards in foreign cities may be a sign of the new Horde to come. And if this is truly the younger Hellscream's policy, then we may see him take the throne sooner than we thought. Another interesting tidbit that could possibly corroborate this idea: pre-BlizzCon claims cited that Cairne Bloodhoof, leader of the Tauren, would be framed for treason against the Horde and be killed by Garrosh. We don't yet know if that's actually how things will play out, but the tag for Cairne's son, Baine, has been changed in MMO-Champion's database. He is now listed as the High Chieftan, leader of the Tauren. Food for thought, people. Food. For. Thought.

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At BlizzCon, we learned that parts of Azeroth would be reshaped as Deathwing broke the the Plane of Earth and shattered the world. Azshara, The Barrens, Ashenvale, Desolace, and several more were showcased, both in panels and in the trailer for Cataclysm released during the event. But that doesn't mean those are the only areas that would be greatly affected by the destruction, just because that's all we saw at the time. I think it's reasonable to believe that Blizzard only showed those that were farthest along in development at the time. Stranglethorn in all its (current) glory. Well, thanks to the most recent issue of PC Gamer UK, we now know that the oh-so-infamous Stranglethorn Vale is set to join the ranks of those zones receiving a substantial face lift in the next expansion. But, you might ask, what's wrong with Stranglethorn? Clearly, something. In his interview with Gamasutra, Lead World Designer Alex Afrasiabi mentioned that they've taken a hard look at every zone internally, giving each a rating depending on how happy they are with it currently. So, if Stranglethorn is getting reworked as drastically as implied, either the development team has a really big beef with its present incarnation, or the redesigns are important to the continuation of the story. Knowing that, I'd like to examine several possibilities for the Vale of the future. Right from the start, I think it's safe to assume that the zone will undergo the typical terrain changes. There's always the possibility of seeing volcanic ruptures tearing through the ground, just as they do in several of the other transformed zones. And with most of its landmass being coastal, we may see parts of Stranglethorn flood or be washed away by tidal waves (hey, it's happening to Southshore). By doing this, they could potentially eliminate some of the quest-lines and reduce the overall amount of time that you'll be spending here as opposed to the past. Sometimes streamlining means trimming the fat, and while the zone currently showcases a wealth of content, it both completely supplants leveling in other areas (like Desolace) and requires a lot of back-and-forth between those of the same band. Leveling zones in Cataclysm will usually be right next to each other. As an example, Horde players often have to split their leveling with far away regions like Thousand Needles, Arathi Highlands, and Badlands from 28-45. If we take a look at the slides from the Preview panel at BlizzCon, they show new leveling paths moving from one adjacent zone to the next, largely eliminating the ludicrous amounts of globe-trotting required in the game now. We'll still go to Stranglethorn, but I think the question now is "when?" That's a tough one. The zone has always been closer to Alliance territory, perhaps implying that it will now be more integral to their mid-range leveling experience, but at the same time, they've only ever had a meager presence in the area. One might argue that neither has the Horde, but now we have a bit of a wild card to consider -- Garrosh Hellscream. We already know that he's bent on not only fortifying the faction's capital, Orgrimmar, but also tightening the grip on Alliance lands. If Zoram'Gar Outpost in Ashenvale is set to swell in size and importance, it's not a huge jump in logic to think that the Grom'Gol Base Camp might, too. Going a bit farther, I have a feeling that it will also move more in-land, with the original encampment being overtaken by the sea. Figuring out which level band Stranglethorn might occupy in the future isn't easy, but I imagine it'll be a lot more homogeneous, requiring only one trip around the zone, instead of making the Northern and Southern halves effectively separate in terms of difficulty. But let's take it to the next level, beyond the fundamental changes that have become a part of the Cataclysm experience. What's been going on there the entire time? For one, the animals of have been experiencing a small-scale Cataclysm all their own. Hemet Nesingwary and his cohorts have been decimating the local wildlife population unchecked for the past few years. And what about D.E.H.T.A.? Though I was surprised that it took them until Wrath of the Lich King to react to his genocidal ways, perhaps they'll return here in the expansion to protect the rich floral and faunal habitat that is Stranglethorn Vale. If we combine the threat of new found ecological disaster (as well as an old one, if the Venture Co. sticks around) with the Nesingwary onslaught, I'd be astonished if they didn't show up once again. Whether they do or not, I fully expect a revamp of Nesingwary's (or Nesingwary Jr.'s, if they keep him here) quests to be more in line with those in Sholazar Basin. In other words, a lot less "grindy" than they are now. Something else I'd really like to see is an extension of the war between the Blackwater Raiders and the Bloodsail Buccaneers. After all, who doesn't want more pirate action? Undoubtedly, the local swashbucklers will find some way to exploit the chaos of the Cataclysm, whether that be open plundering or an escalation of their conflict. This could have dire consequences for Booty Bay. Though I fully expect it to remain a hub of transportation, I suspect that it will not survive the Armageddon unscathed. And then there are the Gurubashi Trolls and Zul'Gurub. Now that we'll be able to fly over it, will we see activity, or will it look barren until you jump through the portal, like most current outdoor instances? If I recall correctly, the Darkspear Trolls (the faction associated with the Horde) once lived here, and I think it's high time that we got a look at their story again. I would love to see them join the other Horde forces in establishing a greater presence here, perhaps reclaiming their homeland from their corrupted brothers and sisters. If anything can be said about the Cataclysm, though, it's that it has affected the world in completely unexpected ways, and that may be the case with Stranglethorn Vale, too. The expansion provides Blizzard with the chance to really move the existing story in each zone forward, but at the end of the day, there's no way to tell exactly what they have planned until they let us in on it. Let's hope that day comes sooner rather than later! In the meantime, please chime in with your thought on the future of Stranglethorn, and what things you'd like to see change from the current version!

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Gamasutra's Chris Remo recently sat down with Alex Afrasiabi to chat about some of the design philosophy behind the upcoming expansion. Though Afrasiabi might not be the household name that a Samwise Didier, Tom Chilton, or Mike Morhaime is, you might start to hear it more often. Why? Because he occupies a very important position on the development team: Lead World Designer for Cataclysm. And with the world about to undergo some significant changes, he's got his work cut out for him. Afrasiabi remains tight-lipped in the interview, typical for a Blizzard employee, but he does paint an exciting (if destructive) future for Azeroth and hints about what we might expect are dropped like bread crumbs for those who can read between the lines. For instance, he cites that "the cataclysm starts out with rumbles, and what those rumbles are are the stirrings of Deathwing beneath the world." Perhaps, then, we'll start to feel earthquakes as part of the events leading up to the release of the expansion. Zones like the Barrens are in need of a major overhaul, while those like Loch Modan still meet Blizzard's standards. He also spends some time talking about how they prioritized zone restructuring in Cataclysm. Though certainly some attention needs to be paid to those that are important to the progression of the story (meaning areas like Azshara were going to be turned upside-down regardless), others will be changed merely based on an internal ranking system. Essentially, those zones that Blizzard decided they were most unhappy with will undergo drastic modifications, while those that were deemed acceptable will be remodeled less. According to Afrasiabi, Loch Modan is one part of the world that will be transformed "lightly" (though he hesitates to say any given zone will be affected as little as that term might imply). Much of the article focuses on the use of phasing and its role in quest design from here on out. Apparently, Blizzard wants to focus more on "showing, instead of telling," which seems to mean less reliance on quest text to relay the story. Providing players with visual information, or scenes that are acted out in the course of completing a mission, seems to be the way of the future. One of the exercises that Blizzard's quest designers reportedly utilize is to see if someone can figure out what they're supposed to be doing with being given any textual information. They better they can manage without it, the better the quest's design is. One big surprise to come out of the interview is that the invention of phasing was sort of an "a-ha!" moment, a serendipitous accident like Newton watching the apple fall from the tree. Afrasiabi says that it the mechanics, now used to create a more progressive game world, was born out of a bug in the Blade's Edge Mountains. Phasing was implemented by a programmer as a quick fix for the problem, but ended up becoming key to the future of World of Warcraft. Of course, this is only a taste. I encourage everybody to head on over to Gamasutra and check out the rest of the interview. There's plenty more to read, and some really intriguing stuff in there worth speculating about!

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And I thought the possible announcement of in-game prizes was an exciting enough reason to start following Warcraft on Twitter! Not but a few minutes ago was a new, tantalizing hook posted to the game's page, and it says the following:

The mysteries of the Abyssal Maw are starting to take shape… #WoW

What we currently know of the Abyssal Maw. Just when you thought it was over, they reel you back in! But what could this really mean? For the uninitiated, the Abyssal Maw is the Plane of the Water Elementals, which we recently learned we'd be visiting in the next expansion. As yet, we only know of one portal to the alternate dimension, a swirling whirlpool in the center of the new zone, Vashj'ir. We also know that it will contain at least two leveling dungeons for 80-85 level players. So, does that mean we might be learning more about this unexplored area in the very near future? The Abyssal Maw was highlighted heavily in various panels at Blizzcon, perhaps indicating that it is one of the pieces of fresh, high-level content that's the furthest along in development. And that means it may also be the first that we get an extensive preview of. It hasn't even been a month since the expansion's reveal, and yet the time seems ripe for Blizzard to start peeling back the veil on Cataclysm little by little. Very little else can be gleaned from this brief tease, and there's no way that we can confirm at the moment if anything is true. After all, there's always the possibility that this might pertain to the comic series or the TCG,  but we'll keep our eyes glued to Twitter for any further information, which we will no doubt bring to the rest of you! Speculation is always fun, though. Readers, what do you think this strange message might mean?

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Blue Stew is a new daily column bringing you a delicious concoction of developer news, thoughts, and opinions straight from the boiling pot that is the official World of Warcraft forums. The highlights of each day include additional commentary by Project Lore staff. It's a surprisingly tame day on the forums, folks. Well, of course there's the usual whining, and some questions about the Paid Faction Change, but if you want to find answers to those or discuss the new service, Project Lore's coverage is a really good place to start (I even wrote it myself!). With that said, I've still managed to cherry-pick a few things that I think are worth looking at: So Explain To Me Again... Weapon Skill: Quite possibly the most useless skill in the game! Wait, wasn't that supposed to be Spirit? Nerthuz must be suffering from Memory Gremlins in her brain again, because she can't remember what she was told last time she asked about Weapon Skill. It must be hard with those nasty little critter eatin' up your thoughts and all. But, hey, she has a point. What is up with Weapon Skill, anyway? This is an issue we've covered here at Project Lore before. Why iTZKoopA posted something about it just one month ago, and he came to the conclusion that it was a sloppy, poorly-implemented stat, though it may have simply been used as a limiter to keep people from tackling mobs way above their current level. But, then, couldn't weapon proficiency simply be built into levels instead of being something you need to raise? Why not just tack on an extra five points every time you ding and automatically pro-rate new skills you learn from Weapon Trainers? Lore-wise, I suppose there is some sort of justification. Ancilorn points out, in accordance with the theme of Nerthuz's original post: "The worlds most skilled swordsman are not so skilled when it comes to wielding axes in combat. They would have to hone their skill to become competent at wielding axes in combat effectively." Indeed, it makes sense that while just about anybody should be able to theoretically wield any weapon, Weapon Skill is associated with how well they can actually do it. In real life, anyone can learn to shoot a gun, but not everybody can be a Bob Munden. Still, I think it's an iffy stat. It's not terribly inconvenient to max out, but it does feel kind of useless. Even if its inclusion can be justified, maybe it should've been tossed out like all those other stats were at BlizzCon. Cataclysm Compilation Nothing snarky to say about Frejya, the kind of person that everyone on the official forums should strive to be. And it seems that Blizzard approves, as well, as they've given her the hallowed green text of a V.I.P. (Very Important Poster). Now that the Cataclysm section has been opened, Nethaera thought it was high time to move Frejya's extensive and resourceful thread on the next expansion to the new forum. The only flaw with it, of course, is the lack of back-linking to Project Lore! Be sure to check it out if you need to know something about Cataclysm on the fly! Two Minute Buffs Need [To Be] Changed! It just wouldn't be a normal day on the forums without Ghostcrawler addressing a little bit of QQ. This time, 'letter Z' fanatic Bearlizion wantz to know why Blizzard dizcriminatez againzt all of hiz two-minute buffz. This is where I bring up something we talked about yesterday, namely people who don't play the game as it is and rather desire to play it the way they want it to be. Usually, this means ignoring basic play mechanics in favor of unrestricted convenience. Why can't people realize that without limiters placed on your class, it wouldn't be fun to play at all? Ghostcrawler's sage advice shines like a light from the heavens once again: "With warrior shouts, the intent is that the resources do matter. You might not have enough rage at any given moment and part of the skill required in playing a warrior is making sure you have enough resources to both shout and do your other damage." The fun in playing the game comes from strategizing in combat and figuring out how to manage your resources and when to use your skills. As I see it, most Warriors (especially tanks), already deal with a rather bland experience and the best thing to do would be to make them more complex, not easier to play. GC goes on to detail a couple of ways in which that could be accomplished, but the common theme seems to be restructuring rage so that a Warrior tank would have to pay attention to it throughout an encounter and not just at the beginning of it. You guys do remember the old days, right? When threat was actually something people had to worry about? I know I can recall the days of having to strategically limit my DPS and make alternate use of Feint and Vanish to clear my aggro on the target. His other core idea is perhaps putting key Warrior buffs on CDs: "Imagine (I am arm waving for a moment) that Battle Shout and Commanding Shout didn't cost any rage and in fact gave you rage, but were on a cooldown. Then using the shouts might become a more interesting choice -- you'd want to use them at moments when you're rage-starved and generally not when you have a full bar. However, you'd also want to keep them going because of their buff so you couldn't neglect to use them too often either. A challenge of playing the class / a test of your skill would be to shout at the right moment to keep the buff up but also make sure you earn the rage when you most needed it." Sure sounds more interesting to me! But I don't play a Warrior as my main, so I'd like to hear what you more experienced players think of this sort of change. Keep in mind that they're only ideas and this is not an indication that the development team is going to suddenly change the class' mechanics. I just happen to believe that making any class more strategic to play can only be a good thing!

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Blue Stew is a new daily column bringing you a delicious concoction of developer news, thoughts, and opinions straight from the boiling pot that is the official World of Warcraft forums. The highlights of each day include additional commentary by Project Lore staff. It's the beginning of September, and you know what that means! New content for all! OK, so that has less to do with the beginning of the month, and more to do with it being a Tuesday. But that doesn't mean we can't get excited about it, right? You can bet the forums are abuzz with people discussing Arena Season 7, Koralon: The Flame Watcher, and the release of the final boss in Trial of the Crusader, Anub'Arak (which brings with it the unlocking of Heroic mode).

• Oddly enough, the big issue of the day is none of these things. Instead, people are concerned with something Bornakk said yesterday in regards to heirloom items in Cataclysm: "Heirloom items specifically state that they go from levels 1 to 80 so we don't currently plan to make the currently available items auto-update to go to level 85 in the next expansion. As for the experience gain, nothing is set in stone yet, but I think it makes sense that we won't want players to get a 20% exp bonus when leveling to 85." Seems like some people will do just about anything to get ahead! Isn't a boost from 1-80 good enough for ya? After all, they were meant to lend you a hand through the painful process of leveling an alt for the umpteenth time. Bigger and broader changes are being made to the 1-60 game in Cataclysm, not to mention all of the new items and equipment that Blizzard would probably rather you use (considering they've spent so much time developing them already). Really, heirloom items should be less of a concern until the whole process becomes boring once again. Why not concentrate on enjoying the streamlined leveling experience and new zones instead of being the first on your server to hit the cap? Wryxian doesn't rule out the potential for "Tome of Cold Weather Flying" style upgrades when your first character hits 85.
• RAWK! The complaining doesn't end there. You'd think Carstalker would be happy after beating out his little sister for first place in the Domino Rally, but he's only interested in figuring out what he's going to do with all those badges he spent on heirloom gear (you know, the ones that Blizzard practically hands out for free these days?): "Sooooooo i just spent alot of badges for my shadowcraft parts giving me a total of 20% bonus to experience gained for my rogue which has been lvl 80 since a week after wotlk was released... can i have these badges back please? i feel kinda tricked, the chest heirloom got handed too us pretty recently ingame which made me think that heirlooms is going to be a + when cataclysm arrives..." Listen up, Carstalker, I'm not sure you're entitled to anything. Blizzard's not out to get you, mon frere! Outside of the experience bonus, do you really think it's worth running around in those old hand-me-downs like Azeroth's own Bag Lady? Surely, you'll be able to find better (and better looking) gear from quest rewards and leveling dungeons. Maybe it's just me, but I get really cheesed when it seems the only thing anybody ever worries about is the race to the finish. What do you think, readers, should the man get all those badges back or is he simply a victim of planning a little too far ahead for his own good?
• Kanye West impersonator, er... Kanye, insists that he doesn't like fish sticks. But he does enjoy things when they're hard. Case in point: raiding in World of Warcraft. Echoing a popular philosophy amongst the player base, he asks if Blizzard can make Icecrown Citadel just as challenging as Sunwell: "The concept of a hard version of every instance sounds okay at first, but then you realize how easy they make the regular version and it just seems pointless. This expansion needs more fights like Brut/Muru that are extreme cockblocks and make you feel awesome when they die. Hopefully some of the ToC hardmodes are like this, as well as plenty of Icecrown encounters. I will be beyond disappointed if 3 or 4 months into Icecrown these same 31 guilds have killed Arthas too. This may come off as me being an elitist #%%###* but who can honestly say they hope the final encounter of the game will be puggable eventually? There were only like 10 guilds to kill Illidan and even less to kill KJ at level 70 on my server." The reponse from Valnoth was as curt as his rant was verbose: "Heroic Modes are for progression. Please make use of them." I'm a rather big fan of difficult raids myself. To most people, they may feel like running a sheet of sandpaper over your genitals until they bleed, but oh man does the payoff make all the pain worth it. At the end of the day, though, I'm not going to let it bother me. While my guild's easily bested all comers in Trial of the Crusader so far, we still haven't made it past General Vezax in Ulduar. I'd say raid difficulty, overall, is more lop-sided than it used to be, but challenges remain for those who seek them.

Anyway, that's enough from me. All of the servers should certainly be up by now, so go forth, and enjoy the new offerings Blizzard has so beautifully laid out before us today. Whether you're a fan of PvE or PvP, there's something for everyone!

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iTZKooPA took us through the starting area of the Goblins, who have joined the stinky Horde, where as I will be bringing us back to the, ahem, better faction with the Alliance. I know you've been clamoring for this, so here it is: the hands-on preview of the new Alliance race, the Worgen! With the announcement of Cataclysm, the Alliance and Horde are once again receiving new races. The Alliance finally get a “beastly” race in the Worgen, which are a group of feral wolf-beasts. Those of us who got to attend BlizzCon 2009 got a chance to get some hands on time with the new race and their starting area and it is quite good! Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) the demo we played started the Worgen off at level 6 (in the Cataclysm panel they told us they didn't want to show us exactly what happens with 1-5 just yet) and if you were at the event this weekend and saw a Worgen Rogue running around named “Projectlore”, well, more than likely it was me (a little more creative than certain other bloggers!). The demo started us off with your character, in Worgen form, in “The Stocks” with other Humans around your character discussing your fate. Some of the humans seem to think you are lost to your fate as a beast and should be killed, but a doctor runs up with a potion which allows you to be “cured” and appear as a Human again. This allows you to start your questing, and you have the ability to switch from Worgen form to Human form at will (although you are forced into Worgen form while in combat). Worgen also get a “sprint” ability on a three minute cooldown which increases their run speed for a short time. They also have a couple of static racials: Flayer, which increases skinning skill by 15, and Viciousness, which increases damage by 1%. The quests are designed to get you involved in the Forsaken invasion that is happening in Gilneas. The first couple quests involve finding a package, which upon completion starts a small cut scene showing you the Forsaken ships docked on the shore near Gilneas. You then go and kill them to advance to the next area, which involves Worgen in the basement of a shack where a mother asks for your help with finding her children at the farm nearby, and another asks you to continue to help kill the Forsaken. There has been a lot of care put into the starting zone, as Blizzard felt that the Death Knight area was really successful in engaging the player and getting the player really involved in their character (and I'm inclined to agree). While we only got a small taste of the opening area for the Worgen, we still witnessed lots of scripted events, phasing, and cut scenes which only get me even more excited for the new expansion. The area is well designed, and if this is any indication of how they're revamping classic WoW, there will be a fewer obnoxious walks to get to different places, which I am perfectly OK with. The whole of Gilneas looks absolutely stunning and I am really excited about what's to come in the later levels of the starting zone. Blizzard uses the weather effects extremely well here, as well, and I am looking forward to seeing how the rest of the zone turns out. For players wanting a fresh start, there is a nice selection of classes to choose from including: Death Knight, Druid, Hunter, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Warlock and Warrior (only classes they cannot be are Paladins and Shaman). I am really hoping that, similarly to what they did with Wrath, they lock out Goblins and Worgen from being Death Knights at the beginning of the expansion, and maybe allow it later on in the life of the expansion. It would really be a shame if the first 85 worgen didn't even set foot in Gilneas because the brief taste we got at BlizzCon was so polished and well done that I can't wait to do 1-15 again (and I honestly thought I would never say something like that). I included some screenshots that will hopefully give a bit of perspective of what this great starting zone looks like! [gallery]

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Cataclysm is changing many things, but perhaps nothing moreso than player psychology. The thing you really have to be careful about, when deciding what information to reveal for an expansion that's still at least nine months out, is how that's going to impact progression from right now, up until its release. We've witnessed it before: the vast swaths of people who fret for the worth of their gear when Wrath was announced. Many had considered themselves burned by the instant upgrades they found when they first stepped foot into Hellfire Peninsula. All the goodies that they had earned through blood, sweat, and tears of high-end raiding; so many epics, just completely wiped out by a green or a blue won for killing a few basic demons. Blizzard took note of this and made gear scale differently in Wrath of the Lich King. I admit that I didn't find very many replacements for my Rogue's gear until I got into the 78-80 range. Sure, there's an innate thrill in obtaining cheap upgrades, but it surely isn't one that lasts very long. Even though I'm sure Cataclysm will continue this positive trend, the effects of itemization mismanagement are still felt. I was shocked to hear that one of my guildmates hadn't even heard there was going to be an expansion, but when words reached his ears, he briefly sighed and wondered if all of this neat stuff he'd be accumulating would be worth anything a year from now. Who knows? Maybe initially, but it never will in the long run. Even Icecrown Citadel gear will likely struggle to find a home with the equipment that drops from Blackwing Descent or Grim Batol. But I don't consider that to be a big deal anymore. I think a lot of people (and I know for sure that I have) accepted that as part of the game. It's always the effort I put into obtaining an epic that I appreciate more than the item itself (unless it looks really, really cool). cataclysm logo Cataclysm is already having its effect on players in other ways. One major issue is, of course, the controversial change to stats. Players are going to have to start wondering whether or not that extra Armor Penetration or MP5 is worth it on their next drop. In the end, this probably won't be a huge deal. All of these extraneous stats will be folded into the basic ones, so while you'll see certain things disappear entirely, you'll see others boosted greatly. I believe this is something that will resolve itself with time, but players react quickly and fiercely whenever they're confronted with such sweeping changes. For the record, I agree with Blizzard's decision, and I think their reasoning is sound (that most people can't eyeball legitimate upgrades on the spot). It's just going to affect player habits, and I think that's what really scares people. Naturally, we all fear the unknown, and while we know a lot more about the expansion than we did a week ago, it's done nothing but raise more questions. When nobody can provide concrete answers, the mob gets antsy. And that's when we get extreme claims of people quitting en masse or calling out Blizzard for ruining the game. The fact of the matter is that we've gone through this at least two times before, and the number of people who play WoW has only increased. We'll get used to the differences, and we'll get through it again. But until we can wrap our grimy mitts around our very own copies of Cataclysm, player habits are still going to change. There's a psychological effect associated with anticipation that causes people to fear until the worst of things are over. Think of it as a roller coaster. Right now we're going up the first hill, we're tensing up, we're worried about what's to come, but as we crest that hill and start to come down the other side, we'll let loose and enjoy ourselves. As I said earlier, I've come to accept a good many things about the nature of the MMORPG, and World of Warcraft specifically, but if there's one thing I know I'm personally going to have to change, it's this: I'm going to really have to pump the brakes on my habit of creating new alts. Right now, I'm working on a Paladin. It's Level 73. When I hit the level cap, that means I'll have five 80s. But I really want to experience all of the new and improved 1-60 content. I want to move along the new leveling paths, complete all the new quests, and see what Goblins and Worgen have to offer. One of the reasons I've never gotten an Alliance character past the mid-20s is because I hated having to jump around the world only to find a small pocket of quests available at each new location. Leveling a Horde character isn't a cakewalk, but Alliance just felt so much worse to me. Now that I have a race that I'd actually like to be, and the flow of leveling is going to be streamlined, I think I might be taking my first Alliance character to the cap. I just have to make sure that I leave some classes untouched until Cataclysm comes around! So what about you folks out there? Has the expansion already changed your playing habits? Do you think these are positive or negative changes? Are you worried about what's to come or have you already begun to accept what Cataclysm plans to offer?

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