This weeks installment of WoW Insider's Community Blog Topic deals with persistent changes like the one we are witnessing currently with the destruction of the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. I am going to take a slightly different direction on this one and talk about how somethings that Blizzard has decided to do (not do) greatly affects the effectiveness of persistent changes.
Warning Tangents Ahead!!!
In Wrath of the Lich King we were introduced to this amazing game changing feature, called phasing. With it we were told that stories could be told and they would change the world around you. I could see it now my characters could play through a story and actually see the changes they were enacting in the world. Yes this lead to some problems with people not being in the same "universe" story wise, but it made it so you could go at your own pace and not miss out on lore content.
Then it started with bang, Cataclysm hit and the world was changed no phasing changed and changed for good. I would not have a problem with this however the only place that this changed effected was 1-60. This is where the problem lies, they gave us a persistent change but didn't make sense of it past a certain point so we experience the change from 1-60 then "go back in time" for 61-80 and then "back to the future" for 81-90. Yes it was a game play and resources that cause this chasm however it really hurts the immersion factor.
Im not saying Cataclysm should have been phased, although if it had been that would've been better than what we have now. What I wish Blizzard would do is clean up the current WoW timeline so we aren't jumping around while leveling that way these persistent changes are consistent.
I would like to see more player influenced changes WG and TB touched on it, but I would like to see zones where the players could influence control at there own pace. For example if the Horde controls the zone they could have certain quest hubs open that offer bonus experience or vanity items, yes I know we have had this before with Vanilla and TBC but I would like to see it be an entire zone that is always contested and not a few objects and definitely not a timer like WG and TB. On PvP servers this zone would offer comparable Honor on honorable kills as BGs do to really push that wPvP.
I know I have gotten off on a tangent here however wPvP zones could be done better and are the perfect place for player driven change, they should be like the Alterac Valley of Classic WoW and bring the War back to Warcraft. Yes there are numerous issues I am not accounting for like server balance and how to make it appealing for PvE players.
As far as PvE player driven persistent change I always thought it would be cool if the world changed based on your guilds PvE progress. Lets say you conquered the Black Temple would could go to it in the world and see that it had been razed or maybe that the Broken had taken over, small changes like that would be neat.
Also I think the farm was a great step towards player driven changes on a personal scale and hope they do more with that (player housing / guild halls).
TL;DR: Blizzard needs to be more consistent on how they tell the story to make it actually feel persistent.
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