Blizzard Admits Linearity 'Error' in World of Warcraft Cataclysm

Felt short-changed by World of Warcraft's last expansion pack, Cataclysm? Blizzard appears to have heard you, as the studio has admitted that the linear nature of the add-on was a mistake.

Community Manager Nik Gianozakos jumped into a thread on the developer's official forum and moved to stave off criticism from the MMO's users by suggesting that the feedback will be used to implement improvements in its upcoming expansion, Mists of Pandaria. Which features pandas.

In response to the comment, "There is almost no reason what so ever to venture out into the world [following Cataclysm's launch]," Gianozakos replied that this "was an error we made with the design of Cataclysm, but getting players invested in the world again is something we're interested in addressing with Mists [of Pandaria]."

The reaction to the official comment seems to have been mixed, with subscribers hinting that Blizzard has been slow to listen to constructive comments from its userbase. "Yet, since the announcement of MoP, their actions have actually gone in the opposite direction, forcing players to spend even more time in Orgrimmar/Stormwind with the removal of reforging services from all cities except these two," writes one user response.

With Star Wars: The Old Republic gaining attention and the World of Warcraft forum topic actually ending with a lot of interest in the upcoming free-to-play rival Guild Wars 2, it seems that Blizzard has some work to do to maintain its stronghold on the MMO genre. Hopefully pandas will do it.