World Of Warcraft

Discussion in 'Video and Computer Games' started by bostonsoccermdl, Jan 7, 2006.

  1. Ombak

    Ombak Moderator
    Staff Member

    Flamengo
    Apr 19, 1999
    Irvine, CA
    Club:
    Flamengo Rio Janeiro
    Nat'l Team:
    Brazil
    2010 Cataclysm, LK etc.

    Anyone still playing? I finally decided at some point after ToC was out that I should leave my server and enjoy some "real" raiding at some point during my WoW playing time. In the end though I decided to stick around until Cataclysm.

    To give you an idea of what raiding is like on my server - no guild got Heroic Anub before ICC came out, in fact the top guild only got it recently. They also killed LK with the 5% buff, and 2 guilds have since killed him with the 10% buff.

    I figure I can look for something that fits my schedule and gives me more than that when Cata comes out. I'm looking forward to the cata previews this week and to the last raid in a month or two before Cata finally comes into the picture (still a few months away). So I thought I'd necro this thread about now.
     
  2. Toon³

    Toon³ Member

    Dec 27, 2002
    Club:
    Newcastle United FC
    Stopped raiding in November after ToC/H just sucked all the fun of the game out of it.

    Cata looks interesting so I might start playing again and level up one of the new races but I'm not as excited about this expansion as I have been about others. Which is pretty odd since this one changes and "improves" the game more than the other two.
     
  3. bostonsoccermdl

    bostonsoccermdl Moderator
    Staff Member

    Apr 3, 2002
    Denver, CO
    Re: 2010 Cataclysm, LK etc.

    I pretty did the same thing around ToC.. I had just stopped enjoying the game, and seeing it continously slide in the direction I didnt like.. I announced I was taking a break, when AION came out (september ) and have been playing that since.

    I kept in touch and decided to finish out this expansion, when my guilds main lock, left, and they asked if wanted to come back. But honestly, I dont see myself buying cata. Since coming back, the guild atmosphere has changed for the worse. (ie. Everyone is so bored they have 4 lvl 80's and of course they think they know their new classes inside and out. so they spend time telling and evaluating other people how to play their main, etc. dumb stuff like that..) Its just not the same.

    As far as Cataclysm, I honestly havent looked into it, but I got the impression it was basically a destroyed old world, and doing old content over again (blizz's way of recycing content for newer player base who wasnt around for vanilla WOW.)
    But that could be innacurate. But honestly worgs and goblins (new player races)arent enough to make me come back. I am 90% I am done after we kill the lich king. I think the game has run its course for someone like me who has played for so long.

    Also, Aion is coming out with new content, and imporving some of its weaknesses (rediculously low proc rates/boss drop rates), and I am hearing alot of good stuff about star wars" knights of the old republic" for next year..

    so hopefully b/w Aion and star wars, I will have no time for WOW.
     
  4. minorthreat

    minorthreat Member

    Jan 1, 2001
    NYC
    Club:
    Real Madrid
    Nat'l Team:
    Spain
    Re: 2010 Cataclysm, LK etc.

    I tried Aion but gave up on it around level 38. It looks beautiful and has some interesting ideas (flight and 3d combat), but the relative lack of content and the uninspiring instance design (seriously, Fire Temple is like Molten Core, Uldaman, and Maraudon rolled into one) coupled with the insane EXP curve just sucked the fun out of it.
     
  5. bostonsoccermdl

    bostonsoccermdl Moderator
    Staff Member

    Apr 3, 2002
    Denver, CO
    Re: 2010 Cataclysm, LK etc.

    I can see that. THe content does get better/more difficult at 47-50+ instances. They actually have introduced "double xp" weekends 2x a month to speed up levelling, so that has helped a bit.
    My biggest gripe is their RNG based crafting system. It makes gearing, less skill, more pure luck. Getting your end game Fenris legs costs 30,000,000 kinah per attempt.. odds of success are 20%.. so that alone has frustuated many into quitting. And the drop rates are abyssmally low. (like 5% for a gold drop on a boss.)

    I honestly say, If they could combine the best aspects of Aion and the PVE raiding aspects WOW into one MMO, I wouldnt leave the house. :D
     
  6. Rewinder

    Rewinder Member+

    Jun 24, 2004
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Re: 2010 Cataclysm, LK etc.

    I quit WoW after Ulduar, and won't be going back. Just want something new, but the MMO market is quite barren at the moment. I gave Aion a try, but NCSoft's horrible handling of the launch, and failure to adapt the game to the tastes of western audiences had me quitting at level 35.

    Cataclysm seems decent, but levelling a new race of an existing class isn't enough to draw me back in. Seems like I won't be dipping back in the MMO market until Star Wars TOR comes out next year.
     
  7. El_tri321mex

    El_tri321mex Member

    Oct 20, 2006
    berkeley
    Re: 2010 Cataclysm, LK etc.

    I still play wow but yeah same here I'm waiting for Star Wars TOR I'm only waiting for it because playing the xbox version had one of the funnest story lines , gameplay and was very unique .

    I also quitted right alfter Ulduar well the Raiding part im 100 % competitive pvp now.
     
  8. bostonsoccermdl

    bostonsoccermdl Moderator
    Staff Member

    Apr 3, 2002
    Denver, CO
    Re: 2010 Cataclysm, LK etc.

    I agree with this. Its a shame too, b/c they had a really good opportunity to keep their player base, but they just seem terribly slow at implementing changes.. The changes are being made to suite Western audiences, but they are being made as we speak.. The game isnt failing by any stretch, but I wish our server was as populated as it was 2 months in.
     
  9. Toon³

    Toon³ Member

    Dec 27, 2002
    Club:
    Newcastle United FC
    [ame="http://www.giantbomb.com/rorcraft-wow-cataclysm-beta-part-01/17-2902/"]Rorcraft: WoW Cataclysm Beta - Part 01 - Giant Bomb[/ame]

    I've not played for about 8 months but I'm really considering getting back into WoW for the new expansion
     
  10. leg_breaker

    leg_breaker Member

    Dec 23, 2005
    Might be worth a look just to fly around everywhere. What gets me is how Blizzard put more effort into an expansion than most MMO companies put into an entire game.
     
  11. Toon³

    Toon³ Member

    Dec 27, 2002
    Club:
    Newcastle United FC
    I've watched some videos of the Worgen and Goblin starting area's and they look like so much more fun than the original starting zones. The phasing that takes places is pretty amazing, there is no lag and it's completely instant. It's not just people moving around a bit either, it's huge bits of land being destroyed or changed.

    Plus the Worgen get a top hat
     
  12. Ombak

    Ombak Moderator
    Staff Member

    Flamengo
    Apr 19, 1999
    Irvine, CA
    Club:
    Flamengo Rio Janeiro
    Nat'l Team:
    Brazil
  13. bostonsoccermdl

    bostonsoccermdl Moderator
    Staff Member

    Apr 3, 2002
    Denver, CO
    It seems to me that alot of people are looking for a good MMO. Tired of WOW, tired of poor customer support, etc)Alot of people are loking for for swtor... WOW is way to outdated (south park graphics engine) to maintain their success, IMO.....
     
  14. Ombak

    Ombak Moderator
    Staff Member

    Flamengo
    Apr 19, 1999
    Irvine, CA
    Club:
    Flamengo Rio Janeiro
    Nat'l Team:
    Brazil
    The numbers don't back that up. And let's face it we've heard that over and over again. It's not a reality-based assessment.
     
  15. Toon³

    Toon³ Member

    Dec 27, 2002
    Club:
    Newcastle United FC
    I agree, the numbers might have fallen from their peak in TBC but it's still millions ahead of the nearest other MMO's who are either struggling or going free to play.

    From what I've seen of Cata it's going to make me start playing again and people who I used to play have said the same so hopefully it will deliver.

    As for TOR, it looks ok but it's still over a year away from release and doesn't look anywhere near as polished or actually anything like an MMO at the moment. The space combat they showed looked really lame too.
     
  16. bostonsoccermdl

    bostonsoccermdl Moderator
    Staff Member

    Apr 3, 2002
    Denver, CO
    Its a WOW thread so I dont want to troll it. BUt I will say that numbers dont = taste.

    There is a valid arguement that the typical whiny American MMO player somewhat ruined MMO's, which I totally agree with. Now all MMO's feel pressured to give out instant gratification or face the threat of "I am cancelling my subscription" on their forums. AION is a perfect example of this.

    ANd Blizzard led this movement.
     
  17. Ombak

    Ombak Moderator
    Staff Member

    Flamengo
    Apr 19, 1999
    Irvine, CA
    Club:
    Flamengo Rio Janeiro
    Nat'l Team:
    Brazil
    I won't argue with the general idea that numbers don't equal taste but now you're suddenly changing the argument.
    I read over and over again that casuals ruined the game and so on. Blizzard tends not to add things that don't work to their game. You would be hard-pressed to argue that they led any movement unless you insert the caveat that they lead by virtue of being larger. They usually follow (from instancing to achievements for example) but just happen to do it better than others and on a bigger platform.

    I don't want to get into a back and forth here either, I just think that these forums encourage more rational discussion and nothing you have said is backed up by facts as far as I can tell. The idea that Blizzard does things as a reaction to whining people who threaten to cancel subscriptions is particularly silly.

    Yes there were plenty of problems with WotLK but there were lots of successes too. They made raiding more accessible while also making it to easy for bad players to get carried. That's an overall success that needs to be tweaked. They made Crusader's Colliseum, but they also made Ulduar which is generally considered the best raid in WoW. Again, an overall success but with a particular bad spot (ToC). If they learn from these things then Cataclysm raiding could be better than Ulduar and they definitely seem like a developer that learns from mistakes.

    So while Blizzard does make mistakes, people tend to whine a lot more than is merited - I'll worry about pay-to-gear-up when it actually happens, not when they're making money off of people paying for vanity items. The biggest problem with WotLK (and this happened in a different way in TBC) is burnout from the time raiders had on ToC and ICC raids. I'm not sure there's much that can be done to change that - between the gating and heroic modes there was a lot of content including in ICC one of the bets fights in the game but even that can't stand up to 1 year of repetition. Getting Cataclysm out earlier though would only lead to complaints about it being rushed (and of course there are people who whine about that even now, while simultaneously complaining that they're bored with the current content).

    In the end they still have the most successful product out there by many measures, including numbers, there's just so much stupid noise to sift through when evaluating opinions on it.
     
  18. bostonsoccermdl

    bostonsoccermdl Moderator
    Staff Member

    Apr 3, 2002
    Denver, CO
    You make very good points. I guess the point I was trying to make is that vanilla WOW isnt the new WOW, and I miss it. I tried to stick with it, but mechanics got dumbed down to a retarded level, and all that matterd was "whats ya gear score brah?" and player ability didint matter. A monkey could pound on keys and do the same job as someone who has played for a long time. For me that got to me.... To each their own.

    And also, part of Blizzards success is that they run other games into the ground by incorporating other games features into theirs. (ie Warhammer. vehicle PVP, Wintergrasp, etc)
    I woudnt be surprised to see character custumization suddenly get "patched" in sooner or later..
     
  19. Ombak

    Ombak Moderator
    Staff Member

    Flamengo
    Apr 19, 1999
    Irvine, CA
    Club:
    Flamengo Rio Janeiro
    Nat'l Team:
    Brazil
    The thing with that is it depends on what level you're playing at. Ask the top guilds and they will point out that WotLK had the most challenging fights in the game with LK Hard Mode as well as Mimiron HM, Yogg +0 and Algalon.

    I think the biggest problem for those who played vanilla at a decent but not the highest level is that this accessibility of gear has changed the mid-level playerbase considerably. It's become inflated and it's taken all of WotLK to sort through it and it'll take some of Cata too. Saying vanilla was better is valid only from a nostalgia perspective. The boss fights today are more fun, more challenging and available to a larger population. All of that is a good thing.

    The negative is that it's now tougher for mid-level guilds to sift through the playerbase and keep up with top guilds. In my opinion that's usually a failing of the mid-level guilds themselves as they're usually not clear enough on what they want and often carry a few players. Depending on the server you're on there might not be enough of a playerbase to give most guilds what they want. Another negative is the way this has impacted pugging on servers that don't already have a hugely progressed raiding population.

    I'll disagree on the idea that mechanics have been dumbed down excessively, I think that's a rose-colored glasses opinion but I won't go into all the reasons why. (I think arguing against homogenization is a separate issue to be clear). In the end it's a multi-player game and everyone should be able to play, but I agree that making it more accessible has led to growing pains in raiding. We'll see if Cata manages to get past these problems and making raiding both more accessible while also make it feel more challenging to a larger number of players and not just the very top.

    Finally though, there's nothing wrong with just growing out of the game and not enjoying it anymore, that doesn't necessarily say the game is worse although a lot of people who leave will take that view with them and I might too when I stop playing (I think it's a natural thing in gaming since it's a young social phenomenom).
     
  20. leg_breaker

    leg_breaker Member

    Dec 23, 2005
    From what I've seen, this expansion basically re-does the game from scratch. It updates all the content to modern standards and leaves all its competitors in the dust. SWTOR just looks like WoW except you skip cut-scenes instead of quest text.

    I was under the impression that Aion was a typical Asian grindfest. Do you want to go back to the bad old days of corpse runs, mob-camping, and 12 hour boss fights?
     
  21. bostonsoccermdl

    bostonsoccermdl Moderator
    Staff Member

    Apr 3, 2002
    Denver, CO
     
  22. minorthreat

    minorthreat Member

    Jan 1, 2001
    NYC
    Club:
    Real Madrid
    Nat'l Team:
    Spain
     
  23. Rewinder

    Rewinder Member+

    Jun 24, 2004
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Aion 2.0 is what the game should have looked like on launch.
     
  24. minorthreat

    minorthreat Member

    Jan 1, 2001
    NYC
    Club:
    Real Madrid
    Nat'l Team:
    Spain
    BTW, I have a Cataclysm beta key. I haven't played it much yet because of A, Starcraft, and B, character-copy errors (I somehow ended up with a level 80 DK, which is like the one class in WOW besides warrior that I have no idea how to play).
     
  25. JeremyEritrea

    JeremyEritrea Member+

    Jun 29, 2006
    Takoma Park, MD
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I quit playing WoW months ago. I just now got a beta key for Cataclysm.

    Must. Resist. The. Urge. To. Jump. Back. In.

    :D
     

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