Inside of todays Ahn'Quiraj temple, which have looked the same since the release of World of Warcraft
"Players will have to complete a world event of massive proportions before they can open the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj on their realm."
Alpha version 5.3
Dec 11 2003
- 0, Azeroth
- 1, Kalimdor
- 2, UnderMine
- 13, test (Testing)
- 17, Kalidar
- 25, ScottTest (Scott Test)
- 29, Test (CashTest)
- 30, PVPZone01
- 33, Shadowfang
- 34, StormwindJail
- 35, StormwindPrison
- 36, DeadminesInstance
- 37, PVPZone02
- 42, Collin (Collin's Test)
- 43, WailingCaverns (WailingCavernsInstance)
- 44, Monastery (MonasteryInterior)
- 47, RazorfenKraulInstance (RazorfenKraul)
- 48, Blackfathom (Blackfathom Instance)
- 70, Uldaman (Uldaman Instance)
- 90, GnomeragonInstance
- 109, SunkenTemple (SunkenTempleInstance)
- 129, RazorfenDowns (RazorfenDownsInstance)
Nov 07 2004
- 0, Azeroth (Eastern Kingdoms)
- 1, Kalimdor
- 13, test (Testing)
- 25, ScottTest (Scott Test)
- 29, Test (CashTest)
- 30, PVPZone01
- 33, Shadowfang
- 34, StormwindJail
- 35, StormwindPrison
- 36, DeadminesInstance
- 37, PVPZone02 (Crush the Alliance!)
(Defend yourself from the onslaught of the Horde!) - 42, Collin (Collin's Test)
- 43, WailingCaverns (WailingCavernsInstance)
- 44, Monastery (MonasteryInterior)
- 47, RazorfenKraulInstance (RazorfenKraul)
- 48, Blackfathom (Blackfathom Instance)
- 70, Uldaman (Uldaman Instance)
- 90, GnomeragonInstance (GnomeragonInstance)
- 109, SunkenTemple (SunkenTempleInstance)
- 129, RazorfenDowns (RazorfenDownsInstance)
- 169, EmeraldDream (Emerald Dream)
- 189, MonasteryInstances
- 209, TanarisInstance (Zul'farrak)
- 229, BlackRockSpire (Blackrock Upper Instance)
- 230, BlackrockDepths (Blackrock Lower Instance)
- 249, OnyxiaLairInstance (Onyxias Lair Instance)
- 269, CavernsOfTime (Caverns of Time)
- 289, SchoolofNecromancy (School of Necromancy)
- 309, Zul'gurub
- 329, Stratholme
- 349, Mauradon
- 369, DeeprunTram (Deeprun Tram)
- 389, OrgrimmarInstance
- 409, MoltenCore (Molten Core)
- 429, DireMaul (Dire Maul)
- 449, AlliancePVPBarracks (Alliance PVP Barracks)
- 450, HordePVPBarracks (Horde PVP Barracks)
- 451, development (Development Land)
Release version 1.9.3 Feb 07 2006
- 0, Azeroth (Eastern Kingdoms)
- 1, Kalimdor
- 13, test (Testing)
- 25, ScottTest (Scott Test)
- 29, Test (CashTest)
- 30, PVPZone01 (Alterac Valley)
- 33, Shadowfang
- 34, StormwindJail
- 35, StormwindPrison
- 36, DeadminesInstance
- 37, PVPZone02 (Azshara Crater)
- 42, Collin (Collin's Test)
- 43, WailingCaverns (WailingCavernsInstance)
- 44, Monastery (MonasteryInterior)
- 47, RazorfenKraulInstance (RazorfenKraul)
- 48, Blackfathom (Blackfathom Instance)
- 70, Uldaman (Uldaman Instance)
- 90, GnomeragonInstance (GnomeragonInstance)
- 109, SunkenTemple (SunkenTempleInstance)
- 129, RazorfenDowns (RazorfenDownsInstance)
- 169, EmeraldDream (Emerald Dream)
- 189, MonasteryInstances
- 209, TanarisInstance (Zul'farrak)
- 229, BlackRockSpire (Blackrock Upper Instance)
- 230, BlackrockDepths (Blackrock Lower Instance)
- 249, OnyxiaLairInstance (Onyxias Lair Instance)
- 269, CavernsOfTime (Caverns of Time)
- 289, SchoolofNecromancy (School of Necromancy)
- 309, Zul'gurub
- 329, Stratholme
- 349, Mauradon
- 369, DeeprunTram (Deeprun Tram)
- 389, OrgrimmarInstance
- 409, MoltenCore (Molten Core)
- 429, DireMaul (Dire Maul)
- 449, AlliancePVPBarracks (Alliance PVP Barracks)
- 450, HordePVPBarracks (Horde PVP Barracks)
- 451, development (Development Land)
- 469, BlackwingLair (Blackwing Lair)
- 489, PVPZone03 (Warsong Gulch)
- 509, AhnQiraj (Ahn'Qiraj)
- 529, PVPZone04 (Arathi Basin)
- 531, AhnQirajTemple (Ahn'Qiraj Temple)
Blackwing Lair was released july 2005, atleast over three months since its existance. One of the oldest battlegrounds, Azhara Crater (PVPZone02) haven't yet been released due of this date and it has been in the game for 2 years already.
World of Warcraft\Data\World\wmo\PlayerHousing\HumanHumanLevelOneTest.wmo.MPQ from the alpha
Programmer Island, the prefab for Elwynn Forest, was also once part of Azeroth (northwest outside the map), but got instanced along with Designer Island into the Developer Instance (451) at the retail release of World of Warcraft.
The entrance to Western Plaguelands from Trisfal Glades, was blocked off by Guardians of Blizzard to prevent players to enter the unfinished zone
For those who made it past the fatigue area between the islands and Tanaris, there was a bottle with a note buried in the sand, waiting for them at the first island.
The note said "What the heck are you doing here?", but that one got also removed shortly after and the only remains is a circle formed shadow of the bottle in the sand.
Inside of Karazhan, the tower of Medivh, will be released in the expansion The Burning Crusade. Although this actually new content that seems to have gone through alot of work and it's looking really interesting, it requires people to buy a expansion to be able to access this content which I find unreasonalbe.
They have already been paying a monthly fee and they've already bought a version of the game from the store, so why do they need to pay yet again for new content?
Both islands got removed in the retail version of the game, but if you swim far enough, west of Booty Bay, you can still make the zone names appear.
The Island of Doctor Lapidis seems to have been a development area for troll ruins, that could later be found throughout the game.
The statue of liberty on Jaguero Isle, east of Stranglethorn, like a scene from planet of the apes, and although the island still exist, the statue was removed by the release of WoW. A interesting note is that the statue is actually a titan female.
The same goes for the Darkshore
And I think this is from Teldrassil in a early version of WoW
Some old screenshots from Darnassus
Darkshire during alpha
And Darkshire from the release of WoW, notice how the trees got uglier
Orgrimmar during alpha
Orgrimmar after retail was released
Something in between
Searing Gorge in alpha
Searing Gorge in retail
Stratholme during alpha, with what looks like a untextured version of the black citadel in the sky
Kel'Thuzad
NYTimes: "What can you tell me about Naxxramas?"
Tigole: "Naxxramas is going to be the most difficult thing in the game until the expansion pack comes out. It will be the pinnacle, and it's absolutely massive. You'll see this big necropolis floating above Eastern Plaguelands. It's a 40-man raid zone, and it's bigger than the Undercity [one of the main cities in the game]. Things could change, but we're up to something like 18 bosses in there, and they are really cool, too. But it's going to be hard. Really hard. We're hoping to release it in the spring."
NYTimes: "Will we need to open Naxxramas with a big farming event like Ahn'Qiraj?"
Tigole: "No. Naxxramas will just be open. But we do want to do a world event, which we want to call the Scourge Invasion, or hopefully something cooler than that, that would basically be something for everyone who's not going into Naxxramas. So they would see the impact without having to actually go in. [In other words, get ready for undead to pop up in some unlikely places.]"
The Emerald Dream, and how it looked back around the release of World of Warcraft
"The Emerald Dream is shaping up to be extremely cool. We don't want to preview any of that content yet as it is *endgame* and we want some surprises for players.
The zone is massive and beautiful. And once the content team is done with it, it will be exceedingly challenging >=]
Actually, we have some pretty cool stuff planned for druids. They will definitely have a link to the Emerald Dream. There's also a zone on the way to the peak of Mount Hyjal called Moonglade that will be very core to druid characters. Our *master of Warcraft lore*, Chris Metzen, is never short on ideas when it comes to the druid class. I was running around the Emerald Dream last Thursday... you guys are in for a treat. The level designers are doing a killer job."
"Chris Metzen revealed in the Developer Panels that Illidan closed all the Dark Portals of Outland. Nevertheless, MagusRogue, a World of Warcraft RPG Game Designer from White-Wolf revealed the following:
"The portals were shut down by Illidan, actually. However, some of the quests in the Burning Crusade Expansion have you re-opening these and going to new dimensions, fighting the legion in new worlds. Should be awesome."
Tom Chilton: "[Outland is] going to comprise of several new outdoors zones. In a lot of ways, it'll be like crossing from Azeroth to Kalimdor. You'll go through the portal, get your load screen and there you are: Outlands. You'll start off on what we call the Hellfire Peninsula. That's a level 54-60 zone. Everything in Outlands just kind of goes from there. It'll flow like you'd expect from outdoor world zones in WoW, all the way through to the Level 70 content, dungeons, and so on."
So hopefully you've now realized that the game haven't really changed much contentwise since the early alpha 2003, so what have Blizzard been adding to the game each patch?
They've added a few more quests, a few more armors, redone the graphics on some armors, released a few already finished instances, some holiday material and most notoriously, they've done class and talents changes each patch, and even redone some completly.
This, and the standard bug fixes, has been all the changes that have been done to the game since 2-3 years ago, and that's the reason why I say there haven't really been any new content implemented to the game, just reworked some of the old. Releasing instances every second month, that's been finished for years, isn't considered new content.
Scrolls of Lore: Pre-release screenshots
9 comments:
hey man, have you ever coded a massive project? do you think that as soon as new art is done they can just pop it into the game, and provide more, usless patches? do you really think that the instances are completely finished? maybe they are place holders and blizz is going to fill in blanks before a realse of the patch containg the new instance/area/quest or whatever else. This is a game first, it is art work second, i am sure as soon as major class issues are worked out and all the remaning instances are finished, then you will see updates in the art area.
Also, just because it was in alpha does not mean it is anywhere near ready for retail, even beta. If you got a problem, go program for blizz and show them what they are doing wrong, and im sure the 5.5million players also agree, more downtime for bigger patches to make the game look "pretty"
hey man, have you ever coded a massive project? do you think that as soon as new art is done they can just pop it into the game, and provide more, usless patches? do you really think that the instances are completely finished? maybe they are place holders and blizz is going to fill in blanks before a realse of the patch containg the new instance/area/quest or whatever else. This is a game first, it is art work second, i am sure as soon as major class issues are worked out and all the remaning instances are finished, then you will see updates in the art area.
Also, just because it was in alpha does not mean it is anywhere near ready for retail, even beta. If you got a problem, go program for blizz and show them what they are doing wrong, and im sure the 5.5million players also agree, more downtime for bigger patches to make the game look "pretty"
The whole point is, why pay for something that is already loaded into your PC's files? Monthly fee, fine, but buying a new expansion pack for something that's already on your computer(as tweaked as it may be)? Pssh...
Very interesting read, thanks.
For as negative as this post seems it's supposed to be, I'm actually intrigued by it. I didn't play any of Alpha or Beta, nor could I get a grasp on wall-walking so I missed out on a big chunk of the "hidden" game. I really do enjoy seeing this though. How things started, what they developed into and some ideas as to what I'll see in the future. I understand your point, that a lot of the "content" is in the game already, but not all. As much as it might seem like the company is being selfish by making people pay for things they do have to pay employees and server rental/upkeep fees. I won't deny that the company is making money off this game, but isn't that why it's here? I'm a firm believer that I--at least--am getting what I pay for. Sure, some of the game has unreleased tidbits of the expansion in it, but over all, that is all just skeleton for what the expansion is building. Untill I play Burning Crusade (if I play, of course) I'm going to stand by my feeling of this game being extremely well put together and presented.
I love the pictures. And I can see Blizzard doing to WoW what EA did to Ultima Online.
They have the "stuff" already in game, but are forcing people to spend another 29.99-39.99 for an expansion to enjoy it.
Wow, thanks for the cool pictures! That map of the emerald dream is really gonna come in handy for the private server I play on, and the Jesus pic was good for a laugh. But I still love WoW just as much as before.
i play the expansion, MAN this is an OLD post. the game is awesome, and it is a small price to pay for another awesome 10 levels and plenty of instances, there are tons of patches fixing every little thing that goes wrong, and the art may suck a little but its a game, who cares? are you going to be just standing there, looking at the trees, all day? NO! you are going to be out there kicking ass lvling up and destroying everything. currently with the expansion you get access to 2 instance hubs with around 4 instances in each of them, oh strike that, 3 instance hubs with 4 instances, thats 12 so far, then 2 huge instances called Zul'Aman, and the Black Temple, where you fight illidan himself. there is also Gruuls Lair, where a giant Gronn resides, and the Sunwell with one of the newer patches, giving 2 MORE instances. count them up buddy, thats 17 instances, and they are getting closer with the NEXT expansion Wrath of the Lich King, which will be awe inspiring. GG the game rocks, you just must be a picky art critic.
You're completly right, this post is old! :)
Some of the posts in this series feels kind of dumb/outdated afterwards, and the biggest conclusion for me is that WoW simply isn't my type of game.
It's hugely successful and Blizzard should have credits for that.
And yeah I'm very cynical. I even complain about the games we're doing at our office ;)
good post :)
Post a Comment