Cataclysm Videos – A case study in bad starting zone design
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So here’s the story on this one. I decided against my better judgement, to fulfil the request of many viewers. Up until this point, I’ve done the videos I think would be best to show so this was a new thing, especially since I knew that the current state of this starting zone was horrendous. So I did it, critiqued it, complained and provided feedback on what I perceive as a HORRENDOUS piece of quest design. 24 hours after the release of this video, Blizzard publishes a list of finished and unfinished zones and of course, this was among them. In the meantime, people bitched at me for posting the video (damned if you do, damned if you don’t).
I’m going to leave the video up however, because it demonstrates exactly my point about alt-a-holism and why many of us don’t care to roll an alt at all. This starting zone has so far received only minor alterations from it’s original format and if you look at it objectively, you will see bad game design. Questing is as a whole, dull and lifeless, this zone is a prime example of that in action. If Blizzard wants to enthuse people like me and even drive us to roll an alt, they’re going to have to reject everything that the vanilla starting zones stood for. This is the sort of thing you can use against MMOs in general, it demonstrates stupidly simplistic errand running tasks that take far too much time and require zero skill of any description. I look forward to having a look at the new Gnome starting zone when it’s finalised but I’ve learned 2 things in the process.
1) People don’t know what they want.
2) Taking requests is a bad idea and won’t happen in the future
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Dam idiots complaining about this video, it was still fun to watch you do this zone
TB I totaly agree with you about people and their wishes
Have a nice day and keep up the good work!
I saw a bluepost on MMO-C about which of the zones were ready for quest testing. Dun Morogh was not one of them. So it would seem there is still hope
this starting zone doesnt seem to have changed at all everything looks exactly the same, and i totally agree with you thats this is the worst starting area, ive leveled a gnome rogue to about level 7 and i gave up on it because of the far distances and the fact that i had 2 climb a ton of mountains which took me forever to find my way up.. so yea hope this will be changed
TB, I am thankful that for our sake, you endured that torturous zone. AND you did it on your birthday. Mother Theresa could’ve learned a lot from you.
I spent some time this weekend on the beta server telling new worgen how to get off of Rut’theran village after the Worgen quests dumped them there with a broken breadcrumb quest that didn’t tell them how to get anywhere else. The boats go to exodar and stormwind, and then there is a flight point to Darkshore. There should be a quest telling worgen to take the flight point to darkshore, but instead, they’re all running around trying to get on the boats. Poor worgen.
A terrible zone for terrible races
The Dwarves and Gnomes always have had the worst starting zones in the history of WoW, and I say that after having played the starting Zone quests of every race. (The Tauren starting zone was also markedly terrible).
Anyway, you are right TB, people should be wary of what they wish for, too high of expectations will always disappoint with Blizzard designs, although the content is getting better.
Thanks again for slaving through this horrible zone.
I have to agree on the fact that it’s very very dull. hope they change it alot!
ow btw, no alliance between trogs and boars, you just used smite on the wrong target
I leveled a dwarf as my main in Vanilla and I can tell you it must have been the longest and most boring thing I have ever done in that game. I do not really have an issue with killing things over and over but the distance between quests as well as just how boring and dumb they are make me want to find an infant and just punch it.
I hope that the quests get updated, they may just be working on the other parts (Goblin/Worgen, Troll). If not, I am going cry.
from what i thought the gnomes are getting a starting zone of their own in front of gnomer
Honestly, you should just hide this video from the world and redo when dun morogh gets revamped. This video is just embarrassing compares to your other great vids.
Altho would have helped if Blizz had that list out before you made it.
@Digitalneo – I learned not to listener to viewers after doing this video, so it’ll stay right where it is. I’m not embarrassed by it and only my opinion matters on that subject.
Lets just compare it when the area is up and running, and YOU being british, should know that we never know what we want. Although i would like a Blue Horse for my birthday….
I’m pretty sure this is the mostly a done zone..
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25968836776&sid=2000
Valnoth says, “We’re still making adjustments to Dun Morogh, but for the most part it is ready for testing”.
Nooo TotalBiscuit, don’t hate me!
I mean’t that since this vid was made under a poor situation, that it didn’t deserve to be among your videos that the world sees. Or maybe I’m just reading the passive rage in your text wrong.
I think it’s worth noting that very little effort was put into this starting zone. Many of the quests are identical to their vanilla counterparts with slight modifications to the number of things you kill/collect. Oftentimes the quest givers themselves have simply moved to a location that was more practical to give an identical quest out (in spite of the changed landscape). I dearly hope Blizzard doesn’t count these as part of the “3,000 new quests”, or consider this a valid way to revamp a zone.
[...] his videos. In particular, there’s a video review of the Dwarf/Gnome starter zone entitled: A case study in bad starting zone design that is [...]
i think its funny you give the winners what they want and they still whine for the sake of whining
I’m pretty sure this is the dwarf starting zone only your seeing, I’m sure they haven’t implemented the new gnome starting area which will be Gnomergan I believe.
Great videos ~a lot like National Geographic documentaries just more entertaining ,with you being so ‘cynical’ and all:).One thing I dont get,I believe I’ve heard you in a video saying you’re not an ‘altoholic’ and you just stick to your mage,in the brightest scenario doin the starting zone quests and thats it.However you got 5characters over level 80.Unless blizzard started giving out ‘free characters’ ,what’s up with that?
———————————–Wall of text hits you for 100k.Totalbiscuit uses Ice Block———————————————-
Happy Birthday with a late response,sorry!
To be fair the boar at 11:15 attacked you because you had him targeted when you started the Smite cast, it wasn’t because you attacked the Trogg.
But yeah I always hated the Gnome/Dwarf starting area, and I’m glad that thing’s unfinished.. Cause hey, at least that way there’s some hope for us alt-lovers.
I skipped half of the video… :S
Though im not complaining…just sayin
Yeah this starting zone is not even the same as it is in live. You don’t start with rampaging Troggs and such. Another thing the gnomes were to be moved off to their own starting zone munch like how the Troll’s got there impressive new starting zone.
I guess its nice Blizzard took time to polish the horde side of things first.
well gnome/dwarf zone has always been designed for the player who like to grind and for that i respect the zone it lerns how to survive or atleast it did before the health gen. was put up alot. there need to be a zone for the more experince player’s 2 who want an alt. i got 5 gnomes my self and i love the starting zone they have. the thing i can c there been some new quest but the mirrority of it is the same as before. biscuit i understand your complain abaut it and its very odd that there isnt a quest there send you to a trainer cous there is in the original zone.
keep up the good work and lets c what bliz will doo abaut thees zone
@Tsuyiin They changed the status to Not Done now, think they were so embarassed by the movie they gonna fix it…. hopefully
There is a blue post up asking for feedback on Dun Morogh (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25968570175&sid=2000). I was in the middle of killing the boars and wolves for that drop quest when the server went down, but so far everything looks the same as it did in TB’s video.