Gameplay:
The gameplay retains most of the same aspects as the original World of Warcraft, though with the introduction of The Burning Crusade, some of the coding was changed which ended up rendering all the user-made addons and mods prior to this release useless. While the game can be played straight out of the box with no problems, seasoned players know that the addons and mods are what make the game. A lot of the scripting and macros that took care of situational instances no longer work, replaced by more global settings. These changes were made to put more responsibility on the person behind the screen so that you can no longer go semi-afk while healing a whole 40-man raid with a click of a single button. It’s still a headache if you are used to the old gameplay though. Yes, that’s me whining. And speaking of which, Blizzard incorporated a spam filter as well! Very excellent.
Talking about raids, TBC has done away with the epic 40-man raiding instances and replaced them with more manageable 5-, 10-, and 25-man instances. So there’s no more waiting around for 45 minutes just to gather enough people to do a zone! In addition to that, the 5- and 10-man instances can be set to Normal and Heroic difficulties. Changing the difficulty affects the outcome of the loot that drops inside the instance, as well as the butt-kicking ability of the monsters inside.
Player-Versus-Player has been completely revamped to give everyone the same chance for getting PVP geared items. Honor points no longer depreciate over time and are now used to purchase items from the PVP suppliers. This means the casual gamer has as much of a chance to get that epic purple weapon of mass destruction as the hardcore elite pvp’er, just not as fast.
And speaking of items, TBC introduces Jewelcrafting as a profession. Jewelcrafting allows players to create necklaces and rings to wear as well as gems that can be placed inside armor and weapons to enhance stats. It’s one of the main professions, so in order to take up Jewelcrafting, you’d either have to give up one of your already known professions or start up a new character.
Multiplayer:
Like most MMOs, The Burning Crusade is ONLY playable online. The great thing about this is you can play with friends already playing, or meet and make new friends who have the similar goals in the game. While the game is designed so you never have to group up with others while leveling, in order to do the end-game content, you must have a group. Plus it’s fun being able to group up with like-minded people and work towards a similar goal. And you get EPICS!
Marketing Efforts Towards Women:
The game has both male and female characters for each of the races. While the new races have some eye-candy (the Blood Elf male is buff and Brad Pitt-esque from Troy), you have to wonder what the designers were thinking in some cases (the Blood Elf female looks like an anorexic Calista Flockheart…if you can imagine a skinnier Calista, you’ve got your Blood Elf). The game itself is a great social event. My girlfriend will get on at times and just sit in a main city for a few hours just chatting in the guild. I’ll never understand that.
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