Project Lore

As a dedicated progression raider, I may only PvP once in a blue moon, but when I do it's almost always in a Battleground. To be frank, the beating handed down for my first and only Arena match several years ago was enough to let me know I wasn't cut out. And world PvP? Well, there just doesn't seem to be a whole lot of incentive beyond a hearty laugh from ganking some flagged Alliance outside of an instance portal! But I love the concept of a Battleground: a protracted war against a set number of people with actual goals beyond random slaughter. My favorite? Alterac Valley. Sure, the other ones are just fine, each representative of a type of match you're bound to find in other popular, competitive online games (Capture the Flag, Assault, and so on), but AV comes closest to matching my ideal. Or, at least, old Alterac did. It borrowed a lot of ideas from WoW's RTS predecessors, including the gathering of resources, help from NPCs, unit upgrades, and base destruction (well, by proxy through "capturing" towers). By looting materials off of enemy players or the local fauna, you could summon several types of destructive assaults, as well as your faction's super-unit: either Ivus the Forest Lord or Lokholar the Ice Lord. Battles could (and many times would) last for hours, no less heated towards the end than when they began. You'd be hard pressed to find this icy bruiser on the Fields of Strife these days. If you never played World of Warcraft before its first expansion, you might not even realize this version of Alterac Valley once existed. For the rest of us, my complaints aren't exactly recent news. Sure, many of the mechanics are still there, and you might find someone running off to capture a mine once in awhile, but for the most part it's an honor grind these days, likely accounting for why it continues to be the most played Battleground despite the introductions of Eye of the Storm and Strand of the Ancients since. Admittedly, it's hard to keep any aspect of gameplay from narrowing to the razor sharp point of efficiency. Players always tend to figure out the best way to do something, whether it be class tweaking, boss strategy, or otherwise. Their methods get posted on the internet, and everyone else follows. I'm actually not surprised at all that Alterac Valley has turned into what it is, considering that rushing through it is absolutely the best way to earn honor. Of course it could be argued that if Blizzard had retained its original tuning, AV would still as interesting as it once was. On the flip side, there would be a whole lot fewer people playing it. So, keeping these issues in mind, how do we go about making a Battleground that is compelling and fun while satisfying all those ravenous honor hounds out there? Lake Wintergrasp is the first place to look, having revived the same sorts of large-scale battles that Alterac made popular. The addition of destructible buildings and siege vehicles is a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, there are also a few drawbacks. As an element of World PvP, you can't simply jump into a fight any old time you want. Wintergrasp is on a strict schedule, so as to allow the winning side the chance to defeat the raid bosses inside of the Vault of Archavon. Likewise, it seems to accommodate pure Assault gameplay. Wintergrasp is a big zone. It can support a lot of people, but it doesn't exactly give a whole lot of incentive for the defending faction to protect anything but the castle itself, and perhaps the closest factories. On top of all that, there are no hard player limits. Even considering the buffs and debuffs doled out for population control, individual bodies still matter. An Alliance force with 50 players is going to whoop a Horde that only had 10, and vice versa. Battlegrounds tend to ensure that sides are kept even, at least in terms of raw numbers. So, then, what about Strand of the Ancients? It features some of the same conceits as Wintergrasp (namely Assault style gameplay and controllable vehicles/defenses), and makes up for the core balance deficiencies non-Battlegrounds suffer from. Despite that, it has yet to give me a rise, and I blame that on how absolutely wimpy it feels. For a scenario based loosely on D-Day, I expected masses of people, seemingly insurmountable defenses, and bullets flying everywhere. As it is, Strand feels a lot like the Battle of Normandy conducted on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Was 10 people people per side really enough? Or how about those pea-shooters they call defensive cannons? Clearly, both Wintergrasp and SotA suffer from their own unique problems, but I do think they're evidence of Blizzard proceeding in the right direction with Battlegrounds. In fact, the description for their next attempt leaves my mouth watering:

Isle of Conquest, a new large-scale siege Battleground, will be open. The Horde and Alliance will battle head-to-head for control of strategic resources to lay siege to the keeps of their opponents.

Kind of speaks for itself, but let me zero in on the key phrases: "large-scale," "control of strategic resources," and "lay siege." We're talking, in all likelihood here, a happy marriage between the Alterac of old and the best bits of Lake Wintergrasp. Though I'm a bit hesitant to go so far as to say that would be the "perfect" Battleground, it comes damn close to what I've always wanted. Of course, that little blurb is all we know about it so far, and it may not be until Blizzcon that we get a whole lot more. That considered, the only thing left to do is speculate. How could a battle on the Isle of Conquest be executed so as to meet the criteria (fun and gobs of honor) I set above? The simple answer is to actually dole out the amounts of honor people want. Put hard locks on different phases of the battle so that there is no possible way to rush right into the opposition's keep, and give large quantities of honor to everyone who participated in pushing forward. In order to keep people from bailing early, withhold their rewards until the very end of the battle, and at that time, give them appropriate bonuses for completing objectives/gathering resources that are not one-hundred percent necessary to win. In fact, I would award more honor for the optional bits than those required, perhaps as some sort of PvP version of raiding's "hard modes." For instance, how about a fight over some sort of bridge that both sides need to cross over at some point to assault the enemy's keep? Holding the bridge is one thing, but destroying it locks both sides out of the option of a direct ground attack, forcing the adoption of new, more complex strategies. The faction that chooses to destroy said bridge gets the bonus honor, but must also gather resources to produce air units necessary to continue the fight (assuming there will actually be any available), while the other side gets some free "emergency" reinforcements, but no honor at all for it. The bottom line is that there must be some way to incentivize the (perceived) optional mechanics of a Battleground so that the aggregate honor is significantly greater than a pure rush to the end. Now, as we know little about the actual nature of the Isle of Conquest, similar conceits may already been in place, but I'm also quite sure that it's far enough into development that no further major changes to its basic setup can be made before its release with 3.2. Those are my thoughts anyway, and I applaud anyone who's sat through my lengthy brainspew long enough to reach this point! If so, Why not contribute yourself? Let me know what you think of my ideas. Are they shining examples of game design brilliance or pure poppycock? Should Battlegrounds be epic in scale or do you prefer more intimate experiences like Warsong Gulch? What would your perfect Battleground be? Don't be shy, the comment box is just a few scrolls below!

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In an effort to reduce lag by reducing the number of players who are in Wintergrasp at one time, the daily quests in the zone, such as No Mercy for the Merciless, Slay them all!, and Defend the Siege will only be converted into a new weekly quest format in an upcoming patch. Honor and Stone Keeper Shard rewards are said to be increased, though the gold reward doesn't seem to be affected. MMO-Champion is reporting that certain quests are giving 20 Stone Keeper Shards each, but the current reward is showing 10, so we will have to wait and see how things unfold. There are a couple of known issues with the new weekly format, specifically the quest showing up as a yellow exclamation point instead of a blue one and the quests not showing up after the reset until the player moves out of line of sight of the NPC who gives it. I am not sure how much this change is going to affect the numbe of players who go into Wintergrasp during each fight, as most of the people I know go in for Marks of Wintergrasp or so they can go into the Vault of Archavon afterwards, and not necessarily for the quests. , the quests are a nice bonus, and the new format may actually increase the amount of honor and shards that many players get who don't usually finish the dailies every day, like me. What do you guys think? Is it going to affect you at all, or will you still go into WG every time you get the chance?

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You young ones are spoiled these days, what with your multiple Battlegrounds and Arena matches. Heck, one of the most exciting features coming with Wrath of the Lich King is Lake Wintergrasp. An entire zone dedicated to uninstanced PvP, complete with siege weapons. Back in my day we had to travel across the ocean, uphill, through the snow while dodging bear and lion pies to get our PvP fix. Yea, I am talking about the good old days of Southshore versus Tarren Mill. All of those who leveled up before the invention of Alterac Valley and Wasrong Gulch know exactly what I speak of. The Horde and Alliance quest hubs in Hillsbrad Foothills are meant for mid-20 level players, but players of all levels used to pass by to get to the higher level zones like Eastern and Western Plaguelands. This was also the time before you could chain together flightpaths, forcing players to jump from node to node, rather than one continuous flight (node to node somehow makes it cheaper...). Tarren Mill and Southshore happened to only be a stones throw from each other, allowing for short trips from the graveyard to the battlefield. The conditions caused a perfect storm of PvP, the likes which have never been seen in World of Warcraft again. My first trip into crux of mayhem and death was early in my WoW career. Before Onyxia was released, my guild already had its fair share of players that were level 40+. I remained on my level 20ish Rogue, still too low to head to Southshore for quests, but always wanted to help my guild. My guildmates one night decided it was time to raid Thrall (we were under the impression that killing him would allow you to loot Thrall's Ear, Diablo-style, obviously we were mistaken), so the Guildmaster grabbed as many members as possible, along with anyone who was interested, and stormed off to Ogrimmar. After the Horde handed our ass to us, we turned back, dejected and depressed at our failure. We sought revenge, and what better target than the hotspot of Tarren Mill (on the way to Tyr's Hand, which was were most people were headed). Now about 30 strong, and mostly composed of Ventrilo-equipped guildmates, we laid waste to Tarren Mill and any Horde that dared enter the Hillsbrad Foothills. For almost two hours, we commandeered the zone for no better reason than that we could. The Horde had won the battle at the capital city of Ogrimmar, but the Alliance sent out a message. No town is safe. Tarren Mill versus Southshore battle royals are long gone, and unfortunately, will likely stay that way. If you wish to re-live or even experience the mess for the first time, there is a new website called YouTube. You may have heard about it? I have tried a few times to recreate those memories, but it never happens. Battlegrounds truly ended World PvP for WoW. Blizzard tried to bring World PvP back with The Burning Crusade's PvP objectives, but it wasn't the same. Thankfully, Blizzard is trying again, and what we have heard about Lake Wintergrasp keeps me hoping.

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Wrath of the Lich King has me far more excited than The Burning Crusade ever did. I don't know what it was about TBC that turned me off so much, because I was interested in what it had to offer. I was in TBC's beta, but I didn't burn myself out in it. In fact, that is where I realized that I wasn't as intrigued by The Burning Crusade as much as I was for World of Warcraft. I bought the first expansion regardless, hoping that Blizzard would manage to wow me in some way. I don't believe TBC struck me as much as vanilla WoW, but the expansion – and the community - managed to keep me entertained for the past 21 months and counting. Thankfully, WotLK seems like it will do more than just hold on to me.  With exciting features like these, how could it fail?

• Questing & Exploration – I love exploring these digital worlds that we spend so much of our time in and the new quests should make it that much more enjoyable.  To top it off, the lands are full of unseen monsters living in harsh conditions.
• Phasing – Phasing is the new black. The idea of phasing is to allow players to have their own unique world. Did you manage to do an escort quest and your buddy didn't? Well, to you, the person you escorted may appear in the nearby town, while for your buddy, he is still held captive by the forces of the scourge.  Same game, but appearing to each player in its own special way.
• Stormwind Harbor – Stormwind is getting a large addition that will gradually be introduced to the Human stronghold.  For the aesthetics alone, it is nice to see the major cities change over time.
• Naxxaramas – My hardore raiding days ended with Naxxaramas 40-man. No guild on my main server managed to clear it before TBC went live, although we were the closest. I can't wait to dance tackle it again, only this time at level 80.
• New talents & Level 80 – The idea of dual specs are interesting and so are all the new talents, for all classes.
• World PvP – World PvP and Battlegrounds are to make a comeback in Wrath. Arenas with environmental hazards are all well and good, but Lake Wintergrasp and Strand of The Ancients are where it is at for me.
• Enchanting Changes - Being able to sell and purchase Enchants on the Auction House = priceless.
• Death Knights – Forget about new races, that is old hat. Yea, we will have new racial abilities, but what could be more exciting than the first Hero class? I won't be leveling a Death Knight right away, but I will definitely take one for a spin due to the quest chains and lore associated with starting one.
• Lore – This is actually the number one thing I am waiting for. Wrath of the Lich King promises to have some killer lore.  With the introduction of the new Death Knight class, new quests, the lead up to Icecrown Glacier and the battle against the Lich King/Arthas, how could it not be awesome? I guarantee you that there will be one quest chain in the game that will blow you away. KooPA's are known for their truthiness...and walking off cliffs.

There is tons more to Wrath of the Lich King than what I have listed, another reason that I can't wait to jump in on November 13th. What has you all in a tither?

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