Third World of Warcraft Expansion Announced, Blizzard Can Print Money.

Not even a year after the previous expansion has been out, all of the content that should’ve been in the original expansion still hasn’t been released, Blizzard has announced a third World of Warcraft expansion.  I’m a bit ambivalent about this as I haven’t played in a while, but as there usually is with a new expansion announcement, there’s a ton of cool new features coming to the game.  It’s great for Blizzard, most of their subscribers will shell out the $30-40 for the new content and raised level cap without a second thought.

But do they really need to release another update so soon?  The list of what’s going to be in the new expansion (which is called Cataclysm, by the way) was announced at Blizzcon the other day.  A couple of new races, new class/race combinations, and a bevy of other new quests, zones, and dungeons.  The most recent expansion has received several updates beyond the original version (to date, there have been 2 major updates to it), adding a couple of new dungeons and quests, which the best guilds have ploughed through like nobody’s business.

What bothers me more than how soon this new content has been announced it how fast players go through it.  Back in my day the dungeons were hard.  Hard as in, new bosses took a month or more to learn.  The newer instances have taken (from what I’ve heard, not necessarily the average) at most 2 weeks to learn how to do.  I guess this allows for more people to see more content, like the PvP aspects of the game, and the entirety of the endgame content available.  But more people have more of the same gear, and people that don’t play that often have items that are just as good, or better than other items from more difficult aspects of the game.  This has greatly contributed to the insane amount of success WoW has garnered.  Allowing players who don’t put in as much time as the more dedicated players to go toe to toe and have a chance.

So, take what you will from the announcement, but Blizzard can essentially print money.  Announcing exciting new content before it really needs to be announced only hypes players even more than they already are, and greatly reflects the carrot on a stick progression that the game employs, and I honestly don’t see it going away any time soon.  Is this depressing?  Somewhat.  One of the most polished games in the MMO market is wildly successful, despite its shortcomings in the innovation department.  You can’t really be mad at the WoW team, but at the same time, I can’t help but wish they could do more interesting things with their IP and really blow the industry away with some truly original ideas and mechanics that the MMO world has never seen before.