Ever wondered why less-popular MMORPGs these days are beefing up for the great MMO battle? We thought it's because Blizzard has managed to maintain the WoW fandom at the edge of their seats... until the WoW expansion, that is. We won't be the messenger of ill news, but let's hear what veteran (and even newbie) WoW players have got to say about the latest expansion to one of the most popular online games of our time, WoW: The Burning Crusade:

"WoW is easy to learn but hard to master."

"Blizzard is very lazy. They have become very good at nerfing and buffing, and pretending it isn't so, or masking it as a "bugfix"."

"I personally don't see the great need to change stuff. Do you want massive changes that alienate people like the things that happened to SWG ?(not that it was a great game to begin with)."

Now before you start throwing fits, no we are not putting down WoW. In fact it's one of our favorite games, but in his editorial for MMORPG.com about WoW: The Burning Crusade, Garrett Fuller saw fit to outline the reasons why he thought TBC is just the same old WoW game with more content, more updates on talents, spells, lands, and quests, more activities such as farming, questing, and instancing, and with more levels - which all happened to be things that can be created far easier than the original game. Ofourse, there are mixed (and violent) reactions as to whether TBC is still truly the same WoW that we know and love, with just more flavors.

Burning Crusade is currently in its beta testing stage, and were hoping that those who were able to do some hands-on would be able to let us know whether these comments are true or not. Nothing beats real experience, so to speak, and we're all ears.

Pre-order: [World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade]

The debate now is "Contested Raids" (as in  Everquest) versus "Instanced Raids" (World of Warcraft).  While the former is more suited to solo players, the latter requires teamwork and the ability to muster allies into an "instanced" area.

According to one side of the debate, the problem with "Instancing" is that it promotes a type of "elitism," which excludes single players who may not belong - or wish to belong - to a guild. Instead of bringing folks together to enjoy interactions in the virtual world, it simply divides players into smaller groups.

On the other hand, it seems that MMO gaming is not as "player-driven" as it once was. Practices such as "Griefing" and "Botting" apparently have caused problems in open zones, forcing hundreds of players into "instanced dungeons" in order to escape. It seems that single players can indeed enjoy instances, undisturbed by other players whose goals may be the same. According to this argument, "contested" areas often require long camps that don't always end successfully. With the existence of instanced dungeons having lockout timers, camping becomes unnecessary. Players needn't worry about "kill stealing," or other players lying in wait for another's failure.

Those who advocate for "contested" raids insist that the problems with their preference are due to the actions of a few "bad apples."  Contested content, the insist, provides the "purest MMO experience.  By attempting to legislate game behavior through instancing because of a handful of cheats will lead to games in which everything is instanced and all players are segregated except for a few meeting areas. By this argument, its better to have and create even more contested content with more areas in the game in which the game excitement can be spread among a large population. Having only one or two "cool" areas in a game will - understandably - lead to congestion and frustration.

So...where do YOU stand on this debate? Weigh in below...