You're telling me that shitty version of Item Rack/Closet Gnome that they FINALLY came up with (which took an extra patch to get it right) took "time spent on quality"? What is "quality" about it?

Not to be a Blizzard fan boy, but wouldn't it make more sense to complain about every single other game studio for not making something better than this "crappy no content" game?

If something is the best on the market, I feel compelled to give it some slack. While plenty of things annoy me about the game (like making arenas mandatory for top pvp gear with questionable class balancing), realistically there must be a reason no other company has made a better game. It must be harder than "just throw money at development" or microsoft would have the best MMO going.

But under the consideration of Ulduar, which is IMO one of the better raid instances I've seen even in both expansions(I personally enjoyed BT on a similar level), I would say their level of quality continues to hold up at least in that regard.

I'm beginning to think that having dungeons on PTRs adds nothing of value. It only gives guilds the chance to go in and learn it.

With the release of the Secrets of Ulduar, the Argent Tournament opened its doors to heroes from all over Azeroth and saw champions arise from the ranks to take on the challenges before them to prove their worth. In the next upcoming content patch, Call of the Crusade, the Argent Tournament will be expanding its influence and players will be able to experience all-new dailies, rewards, and areas of interest.

Two New Quest Hubs
A new Cult of the Damned camp now sits overlooking the Tournament grounds and spying on the activity below.

Located on an island north of Icecrown, the former tuskarr village known as Hrothgar's Landing is a mist-shrouded staging point for Sea Vrykul raids upon the ships of the Silver Covenant and the Sunreavers in the waters between the island and Icecrown.

New Dailies and Rewards
Just when you thought you had seen and done it all, the Argent Tournament throws out the gauntlet once more and adds a new line of quests and rewards for players who have become exalted with either the Silver Covenant or the Sunreavers. Earn seals by participating in three additional random dailies and earn brand-new rewards.

* New Tabards: Alliance characters will be able to earn the Silver Covenant tabard and Horde characters will be able to earn the Sunreaver tabard currently seen being worn by NPCs on the grounds.
* New Mounts: New ground and flying mounts will be available for both Horde and Alliance. Alliance will be able to purchase the new Quel'dorei Steed and Silver Covenant Hippogryph. Horde will be able to purchase the new Sunreaver Hawkstrider and Sunreaver Dragonhawk.
* New Pet: A brand-new pet, the Shimmering Wyrmling, will be available to characters of both factions who distinguish themselves.


Argent Crusader Dailies and Rewards
A new line of dailies and rewards for players who have earned the title of Crusader will be available with two random seal-awarding dailies.

* New Heirlooms
* New Argent Crusade Banner
* New Argent Crusade Tabard: Ports you directly to the Tournament grounds.
* An Upgraded Squire: As any good squire should, this upgraded squire now has a mount.
* New Mount: A new Argent Crusade paladin-only charger will be available.


The Black Knight Returns
Just when you thought you had seen the last of the Black Knight, he makes his astonishing return to Tournament. Wait, didn’t you kill him?

Previous point releases had new content with lore associated:

- Ooh Black Temple = Illidan, cool, I know about him he's in the RTS!
- Ooh Sunwell = Kil Jaeden, cool, I know about him!
- Vashj, Kael Thas = yay i saw vag in the RTS and Kil Jaeden is mentioned heavily in blood elf lore.

- Ulduar = Hey I've heard about titans the entire lifespan of WoW, and now I get a whole dungeon associated with them AND an old god, wow that's sweet!

- 3.2 = Hey they can put whatever the fuck they want into this patch. We could be fighting Giant Pokemon for all we know. I get to compete to be the champion that takes on Arthas? What the fuck do you think Naxx and Ulduar were all about, assholes..? If I can kill Yogg Saron don't you think the Black Knight 2.0 "now on roids" is kind of sad and pitiful in comparison?

I just find it a bit presumptious to judge a book by its cover

No need to rationalize it. Game is just boring. So was EQ after 4 years. Shit happens.

What a stupid, ignorant statement. Everyone "judging" Ulduar has done the encounters and are speaking from firsthand experience.

it's pretty clear that Blizzard is starting to not give a fuck

It's entirely possible that we have simply outgrown MMORPGs in their current form.

In the next major content patch, the construction of the Crusaders’ Coliseum on the Argent Tournament grounds will be complete, and it will hold new challenges for players. We’d like to share some details on the new dungeon, which represents the next tier of content for the game, but keep in mind that this is still in development and subject to change. The Crusaders’ Coliseum will include:

* New epic 10- and 25-player raid dungeon with five encounters, with each encounter being unlocked one week at a time
* A more intuitive structure for harder encounters. This raid dungeon will have four different versions: 10-player, 25-player, 10-player Heroic, and 25-player Heroic, with each one using a separate lockout.
* Introduction of the Crusaders’ Tribute! Each of the Heroic mode instances has a new tribute system that will limit players on the number of attempts they get in the Coliseum each week to present a greater challenge for the most battle-hardened heroes. Additional rewards can be earned depending on the number of attempts left in the tribute run each week when the final boss is defeated.
* New 5-player dungeon with three encounters that will include Champion’s Seals as each one is defeated
* New tier of armor and weapons that are modeled with Alliance- or Horde-specific themes

I tend to disagree with Neesha and Blizzard simply not caring; that's not good business sense.

So, by the 2nd point release for each expansion.
TBC: 45 bosses never seen before (39 if you don't count sunwell).
WOTLK: 19 bosses never seen before. (35 if you count Naxx)

People don't have to do all of the hard modes and Algalon to know that Blizzard is taking the cheap approach on everything they do now. This started back when they rehashed Naxx and continues today (to the extreme). Perhaps they should just redo Molten Core and change the boss encounters.

Yes, SOME hard modes have more to them than "now kill him in 3 minutes for REALLY good loot!" but most are just more of the same thing with a little sugar on top. The game has gotten stupid, in my opinion. When a new vanity pet makes it into the "wait 'til you see what the next content will be!!!" conversation, it's pretty clear that Blizzard is starting to not give a fuck. The game will still be fun for millions of people. There will still be guilds that bust their asses to defeat all of the hard modes, but I think more and more people (like me) are just sick of it all by now. Maybe we just want what no game can deliver at this point. It's entirely possible that we have simply outgrown MMORPGs in their current form.

If 80% of the time it's little tweaks that separate encounters that just argues more towards homogenization and the resulting boredom, doesn't it? Your point isn't very clear. o.o

That's also a pretty small population you deem worthy to judge the creativity between non-hard/hard modes if it's 25-man only. Otherwise, I think lots of raiding guilds have experience with hard modes. Most have at least one group going through 10-man hard modes which are substantially easier than 25-mans, and they don't differ from their 25-man counterparts, mechanics-wise, as far as I know.

Above all, it doesn't really *feel* different, and that's what matters most to people. You just do it the hard way and the boss poops out more loot. It's been said before, it's nothing more than an artificial cockblock for the devs to wave around as a shield when their new raid instance gets cleared in a week.

I'd rather see them do something with Gilneas, Grim Batol, The Maelstrom, Azshara Crater, Uldum, Hyjal (non-CoT), the Dark Riders/Scythe of Elune, Alleria/Turaylon, Deathwing, The Emerald Dream, and all the other lore they left unfinished, than a shitty arena in Icecrown.

No, the suggestion is that it's been that way all along, and people generally didn't have a problem with it. Now that it's called hard mode with the same boss graphic, suddenly that's different.

So yeah, this whole Coliseum thing is a joke. 5 bosses and a HOT HOT looking bare room. Sweeeet. What the hell has Blizzards raid team been up to since Sunwell, anyway? Did they all get reassigned to the fucking Pokemon department, designing new vanity pets and mounts?

Blizzard is working on their next gen MMO. Maybe that is where their focus is right now. WoW is 5+ years old, if they lose half their user base, Blizzard will still have 5+ million people in the game. I think they will be happy with those numbers if it happens. And, I bet 90% of the WoW userbase will jump ship to their new MMO game. So, its a win win for Blizzard no? lol

Blizzard is working on their next gen MMO. Maybe that is where their focus is right now. WoW is 5+ years old, if they lose half their user base, Blizzard will still have 5+ million people in the game.