This may have been brought up repeatedly but, frankly, I think that the developers need to hear if there is a serious problem with this, and I believe there is.
Pet battles.
Blizzard has, time and time again, told us about their limited dev resources. How yes, they have a pretty big team, but there is only so much work that can be done, and only so many resources that they can allocate. Personally, I think they must construct additional pylons (yes, token lighten-the-mood statement) but that's me. However, they also reveal the "Pet Battle" system at Blizzcon.
Pet battles? Why? Who wanted this?
I understand the Pandaren. I hate them, I don't want them in the game, but I understand them, and I understand that a lot of people want them. Fine. But who wanted a Pokemon rip off in WoW? Where was the gigantic outcry from the fanbase that we needed our vanity pets to battle each other for no apparent reason? Who screamed for trainers located in the far corners of the world that you had to go defeat so you could take over their gym...er...learn from them? Anyone?
This expansion is going to be divisive. I think looking around at the official forums and various fansite forums it's pretty easy to see that. What people are missing in the "Pro-Panda vs Anti-Panda" rant threads is where development time that could be used to further *World of Warcraft* is getting lost, and one place it's squarely being lost is the Pet Battle system.
Assuming the pics from Blizzcon are just Photoshop mockups, then I'd beg/urge/demand/grovel for the devs to please, please, please let this "feature" die. Don't waste a single man-minute of programming or art or even thought time on it from this day forward. If the system is already mostly done, coded, etc...then it is a sad waste of time, and there is no way that any player who cares about this game can believe the devs when they say "we just don't have the resources to do all this cool stuff, sorry." Even if a single person worked on this system (which we know isn't possible, as it has art assets, programming, terrain, quest mechanics, battle mechanics, etc) it'd be a waste of time. That person could have worked on improving the PvP experience for players who want to kill each other, or designing new and exciting raid content zones or stories or assets, or enhancing the leveling experience pre- and post-expansion.
Now, of course, people are going to say "all you're doing is whining, what would you *want* them to do with this development time, smartypants?" Well, I can think of a few things offhand...
Abyssal Maw: It didn't "fit the story", but we somehow got Thrall jaunting all over creation being angryThrall and maudlinThrall and...kinda drowningThrall. You guys have story writers for a reason, make it work.
Rogue Vanish: This is still broken I think.
Heroic Leap: Same deal.
Dance Studio: Yes, I think it's a frivolous waste of time, too, but you had originally slated that for BC...3 expansions ago. Finish it?
Cross-Realm mail: Databases don't like to talk? Dev time for fixing that!
Bolvar: He's no longer on fire, but he's still sitting up there...doing...something...maybe some insights into that? Why didn't he do anything when Deathwing came back? He knew (through the Scourge) that it happened, he didn't want to unleash the fury?
Various terrain exploits: You've stated they exist, devote dev time to them?
Those are just a smattering of things that could have time devoted toward them, and I tried to span art/terrain assets, raw programming, and story progression so we could get all the major chunks into one thought process.
Now, I realize that this thread, if anyone even reads it, is likely going to devolve into flaming, trolling, insinuations that I'm just whining or complaining or should just shut up and deal or quit or any number of other, non-useful responses. I'd appreciate if we could keep it civil. The purpose of this thread, honestly, is to show Blizzard that people need to be able to trust them when they say they don't have the time to deal with real issues that currently exist, instead of bringing out ripoffs of other franchises (this isn't even an homage, it's a ripoff).
Thanks for reading.
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