Well, it looks like Blizzard is going to do a lot of big things in it’s world.  Some of you are happy about it, some are not.

Me?  I think they are making the right moves.  Lets take a look at the nuts and bolts of the situation.

They have a 5 year old Base Product that all current players have or are playing through.

While I do not mind visiting the old world, there are some zone that are incredibly painful to level through again.  I am at the stage where I have Alts, and am helping my girlfriend through the 1-60 grind.  I whimpered all the way through Stranglethorn Vale, Desolace, Ashzara, and Hinterlands.  There were aspects of these that were painful, whether it was quest design or just zone layout.  Frequently I see a “been there done that” attitude accompanied by a desire to create characters at level 55, 60 or even level 70.  (I admit to this myself, at times.)  This is a sign that the Classic Azeroth sections are not serving the player base and need restructuring.  I am going to pick on Lady Jess for a moment and mention that her reaction to going back to Azeroth after doing classic, Burning Crusade, and Wrath of the Lich King was to announce she was going to delete her alts.  This is exactly why this needs to be done, to refresh content for older players as well as make it less painful for new players.  My Orc Warlock ZugSug was leveled in the Blood Elf starting zones because the are was streamlined to the point of being ridiculous compared to the Durotar>Barrens>Stonetalon Mountains progression.

Another reason for the change is that the technology has changed.  Better client machines, better servers and better code are all available, so why not make it work in the first part of the game new players see and where veterans will see the greatest difference?  Everyone I know has been dying to fly in Azeroth Classic, so the opportunity exists to make that happen now, as opposed to before when they were wrapping up the WC III Lore.

Their stats system has become complex and difficult for the average user to navigate. The Talent tree creates cookie cutter toons without variety.

I am a lurker at Elitist Jerks.  I usually pick a spec that sounds fun or fits the character of the toon in my head.  However at max level, people start bitching about DPS, or minutiae and occult number crunching.  So I cookie cutter into what ever spec is doing best while trying to keep true to the character in my head.   By simplifying the stats and making the talent trees easier to work with Blizzard is letting everyone be their own elitist jerk.  Freeing up the play style makes me happier when I get to make the character in my head work without having to look at numbers that for the most part should live in the code but not on my character sheet.  If I want number crunching I’ll work on a D&D 2E Character.

The Paths of the Titans and Mastery systems are going to increase diversity and make your toon uniquely yours.  You get to direct the character of your toon, not some excel spreadsheet.

Making content no one sees doesn’t pay the bills.

Ask Vanguard how that balance sheet is looking, since they were “old skool hardcore raiding” and you might hear weeping and wailing.  It makes sense for Blizzard to make content available to people as the notice drops in the numbers of new people seeing it.  By making the majority of 11 Million people happy as opposed to 20 or 30 thousand, they will have more money to keep on the 18 month Dev Cycle that they seem to be on for expansions (finally!) I think we will see a more steady stream of content in the game and experience new things more often.  There are still people who haven’t done the Black Temple or Sunwell, and it’s a bummer.  I had a blast in Zul’Aman not too long ago, and I would like to think that I’ll get in on some Naxx and Uldular sometime sooner than later.

Why make WoW2 when you can fix what’s broken?

EQII was a flop compared to EQ.  It took body shots and a few heavy hits to the head when it came out because no one really jumped from the first game.  I think that the same would happen with WoW2 if the powers that be decided that was the direction they wanted to go.  Cataclysm is essentially EQII’s basic premise but done in a way that makes sense.  I don’t have to do more than buy the expansion (for the new content) or maintain my subscription (for the revamped 1-60 experience.)  It makes sense to leverage your installed user base for your product upgrades as opposed to making them all get new clients when the ones they have work fine.

Take what you will from the announcement, but I think Blizzard did the right thing for players and WoW both.