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"Dying game?" An in-depth review of current WoW conditions.
EDIT: Added quotation marks to thread title as a show of the intended sarcasm. I do not believe WoW is dying, it was a quip at what a lot of doomsayers have been talking about. This is just an in-depth analysis of WoW as it stands today.
I have been an avid World of Warcraft player for about 4 years now. I have experienced pretty much all the game has to offer, including: leveling, questlines, theorycrafting, raiding (including realm 1st progression kills), pvp (up to 2k bracket, partners kept quitting : /), economy dominating (there is always someone who tries to undercut by like 60%... under whatever mentality produces such behavior). The only reason I can definitively say that I stuck with WoW as long as I did is the combination of its activity levels and friends I had made in-game (and still hang out with even though I'm inactive now). The first part of this review is to just get a few annoyances out of the way (somewhat rushed).
Things that have been pestering me about WoW:
1. EXTREME class imbalances in pvp (lolDKS, rogues, and [depending on arena season] druids/priests[although often both])
A. There are times when I can play a flawless match and still come up short due purely to arena comp
B. Decisions like giving mages a 20% MS debuff frustrate me... seriously... you think mages needed that???
2. Questing is extremely drab, although it can be slightly more entertaining if you are a big fan of the Warcraft series and delve completely into the lore of the quests (in before LOL-lore).
A. Blizzard has recently implemented a measure such that you can level through pvp battlegrounds (unfortunately the current exp rate is appalling until you get to huge BGs like Alterac Valley).
B. Alternatively, you could level by grinding on [insert NPC here] until you brain rots away from boredom.
C. Leveling an alternate character is mind-numbing... pushing through the same drab quests over and over again
i. Alternatively, you can buy a second account and essentially trade 1-2 hardcore days for a 60 level... intelligent on Blizzard's part... >.>
ii. (See above) You just shelled out an additional ~$20 for an alt to be level 60
3. Raiding, initially this was the gem of the game for me... and still pretty much is, the overall raiding scheme works well enough, except...
A. Where is the challenge? Albeit, there are hard-modes that can be completed nowadays... that is not justification enough to make the "normal" content so easy that an unorganized PuG could still dominate it with minor effort
i. I recently ventured into 10 and 25 man ToC (patch 3.2 raid) and my group of moderately geared (on average) friends downed every raid boss to date with only a few wipes at maximum (like 3 tops per boss).
ii. I have heard horror tales from friends that have tried PuGing with a less than satisfactory group that was WAY undergeared, barely capable of clicking abilities (especially in a competent rotation), BUT they still downed the bosses. So much for 'progression'
4. Daily quests and economy, initially... a really good idea to help supplement player income and boost AH economy...
A. The problem, WAY TOO MANY DAILY QUESTS, holy crap... you are "limited" to 25 daily quests PER DAY; "geez, only 25 a day? But I want my epic flying mount and phat lewtz NOW"
i. That part is mildly biased in that I really miss the days when you actually had to play the game... to play the game o.O
ii. Also, "the game"
B. There are random things that the auto-tuned AH deposits are just unbelievable on (ex. Saronite Bars are like 15G for a 48hr listing... and generally they sell for no more than like 25 a stack [at least on my server]); BoE gear is ESPECIALLY culprit here, notably BoE blue items, the average BoE blue will sell for no more than 100G (that is really pushing it too)... listing price? how about 6-10G?
C. In keeping with realism, the AH cuts are rarely noticable, unless: a. you are a professional seller (not gold selling, but like a reseller), b. you have farmed up or crafted something very pricy and you feel accomplished (note: Nobles Deck/Greatness card) and then you realize that you've been duped several hundred gold; don't even think about the neutral AH >.>
D. Undercutting, a natural part of any economy and especially a realistic economy, however it would that about 20-30% of undercutters on WoW have some sort of handicap... I have often done things like control the Greater Cosmic Essence market to lock it into a fair price (due to my large quantities of disenchanted materials). Sometimes people get the idea like I am driving the price up when I actually list at average market price or a bit below; After listing around 200-300 auctions I take a breath and relax momentarily... and only momentarily, because I know that someone has come along and been like "lolmats" and undercut me by ~40-50% of the items legit market value : /
5. This is rare but worth mentioning, Account management errors: I recently had a friend who had reported another player for abusing a bug (and they were)... apparently the GM decided that the best idea was to suspend my friend for ~1 week while investigating (mind you, my friend was the reporter... not the reported). Upon returning control of his account they said that they were taking preventative measures to make she he wasn't getting hacked... SERIOUSLY?!? Also they never credited him that week back in game-time.
Having cleared the air on my general peeves of the current WoW state/community/etc., let's move on to the overall review of World of Warcraft (in its current state):
Graphics and Overall game performance
World of Warcraft provides an astounding flexibility in range of detail and tuning such that it may play an computers that should've been retired YEARS ago... while at the same time it allows for performance gaming rigs to delve the player into a richly-beautiful game world. Interestingly enough it would seem that Blizzard has put an outrageous amount of the game's performance stock into the CPU management, rather than the GPU. Albeit, they are both important parts to fully experience the game to its fullest technological capabilities. World of Warcraft caters to the casual player who rarely thinks about upgrading their weak components, while allowing a tech-savvy 'hardcore' gamer the opportunity to really make the game shine. The latter has especially been noticable in the most recent expansion (Wrath of the Lich King).
The lavish color schemes and other-worldly vividness really spark the imagination in World of Warcraft, a particular good zone to notice the ideal color scheming in would be The Barrens... rather a bleak, desolate area, but looking into the oases one will notice the colors to be extravagant and and the plant life lush. World of Warcraft makes exceptional use of options like ground clutter density and detail to really pull you into the environment; most MMOs really lack this appeal in that they are trying to be more realistic... such that they promote a gloomier environment. WoW really counters the realism with the thought that 'Hey, I'm playing a videogame... why not make the experience extravagant? After all, videogames are an escape from reality.' Often times people criticize the semi-cartoony feel to WoW, but it is hard to imagine it changing all that much without becoming a different game entirely (See: Cataclysm, lol thoughts on that later in the review).
Graphics and Overall performance Rating: 9/10
... Jack-of-all-trades, master at some. The flexibility is what really sets WoW apart int his department.
Community
Ultimately, one of the major selling points of any MMORPG is its community, after all... you can't solo the entire game and get much out of it. Here is where World of Warcraft starts to become a rather strange mixture; there is not merely one definitive answer on what the community is like, I would venture a guess due purely to the size of the player-base. There will always be the "12 year-old kids", the "hardcore elitists", the "extreme casuals", and people that are generally just good overall; occasionally in WoW you will come across someone that just makes you question what they were thinking (whether it be an issue with their crazy spec, gear choices, enchants, or terrible terrible performance).
Having played in many MMORPGs, I can honestly say that you can't really have a good rating on anything other than activity levels. Yet again, mixed bag situation with WoW. If you are a low-level player that is looking for an actively progressing game all the way until level cap... you will probably (although not definitely) be disappointed; now, I can't speak for every realm, but generally the game only really opens up at upper levels (predominately level 70+ in its current form). Most players are simply too busy playing their level-capped character--doing one random thing or another; nowadays, there seems to be a growing number of new players who are fundamentally backwards when it comes to gameplay, despite WoW being one of the most linearly-designed MMOs ever. Players that venture out of capital cities and away to quest hubs and towns around Azeroth are likely to be extremely disappointed in that most of them are essentially ghost-towns at this point. Even raid groups and dungeon-runners are likely to be out as little as possible (especially with new conveniences like 30 min. hearthstones).
All-in-all: WoW is really an end-game MMORPG... you lose some of the appeal in its inactivity until the level cap, but you can always find something to do with people in WoW (due to sheer numbers). Even if you are unguilded, you can still PuG groups consistently, battleground, gather/farm, or just have a conversation.
Community Rating: 6/10
... could definitely have improvement, but under current game design that is purely placed on player-will
Leveling
Find something to bite down on, you are in for a painfully dull experience. Even my first time through WoW, I really didn't enjoy the venture past the idea that I was getting to the level-cap so that the REAL game would begin for me. However, I won't be so biased to say that nobody will enjoy the experience; after having level-capped a few characters I went back into the realm of Azeroth after having read a few of the books and freshened up on lore (yet again, in before LOL-lore)... this made for a mildly interesting experience, but only so much new interest that you can extrapolate into the quest lines (closed zones, speculation, expansion ideas, plot twists, etc.).
My suggestion: Pick up a friend or two to level with (the more, the merrier[*cough* up to 5 >.> don't want to fight over spots in instances : /]). You should really start the social experience and close-friendships that are formed in WoW as early as possible, without being an annoyance to busy players.
Leveling Rating: 5/10
... Although I will probably get bashed for this rating, I stand firm on it. A legion of MMORPG players might note that WoW's leveling system is the same as almost any other one, which is true... personally, however, I believe that a bad system is a bad system, regardless on the game. It needs to be more involved with less emphasis on grinding and running 5 yards to turn in "talk to this guy" quests.
Guilds
Guilds will be your savior in this game. Although I do know a few players that have successfully played through a lot of the game guildless... they are generally helped by guilded friends. Guilds cement the social bonds of this game; you have people that you can rely on and vice-versa... this little factoid allows you to truly experience the game without sacrificing your life to it. Casual guilds are truly hard to rate in any game, seeing as they lack an overall measure other than 'friendly points'... and I don't judge in that. With World of Warcraft, the playerbase is so diverse that it would be really, truly hard to nail down a rating based on raiding guilds as well (as a large portion of the player base intentionally does not raid). However, I CAN effectively judge based on a combination of guild organization features and customization.
This is a very lacking area in World of Warcraft (at the moment, see Cataclysm). Organization of a guild is extremely user-friendly, with the basic features like: guild rankings, permissions, banks, and calendars... as far as guild organization goes it is essentially spotless (then again, a white t-shirt can be spotless... but that doesn't make it interesting). Guild Customization is absolutely terrible in its current state; you get to customize the guild name and tabard publicly... everything else is purely private. No guild halls, no progression charts (excluding unofficial sites and addons), no organized guild battles.
Guilds Rating: 5.5/10
... at the moment, the guild aspect of WoW is rather lacking, Cataclysm will definitely spice things up here
Character Customization/Uniqueness
World of Warcraft allots a rather large range of intial character customization: 10 races, 10 classes, tons of different unique features (horns, tusks, etc.), very large selection of hairstyles (especially when using barbershop in-game), several skin tones per race, etc... Overall WoW allows for several hundred thousand combinations in character customization (excluding the zounds of gear). It is a relatively rare occasion that you will find characters who are essentially clones of your own, this really helps with the fantasy feel of the game. A nice level of uniqueness on a character is a must (at least for me) to really get into a game; I don't want to be running around as Orc #109726489, I want to be Brutor the Decimator (made-up character name >.>)... but you get the idea. My only qualm is the lack of visual gear customization.
Character Customization/Uniqueness Rating: 8.5/10
... there are only a few games that have overall better character customization (especially in fantasy games)
Raiding
An infamous word when it comes to World of Warcraft, however this is one of the strongest points of World of Warcraft gameplay... or, rather it used to be. Remember raiders, this is a note on the CURRENT condition of the raiding experience in WoW; let's try and not be nostalgic (I know, it's hard). So you want phat lewtz, eh? Well then, raiding is where it is at. Just gather up a group of people and go smack something till it drops purple gear for you... OKAY, it's not quite THAT simple, but it is pretty close nowadays; the learning curve for raiding has drastically been lowered in WotLK... I'll recap my raiding experience from release of WotLK-3.2 (current)
You've just hit level 80 and have acquired some good blues and heroic epics, time for Naxxramas. What's that? But it has only been like 5 days since the expansion? They've already cleared the WHOLE place? Sad to say, but this actually was the case. Within a very short amount of time from expansion release, EVERY SINGLE RAID HAD BEEN CLEARED. In my own case, I had hit level 80 4 days after the expansion released (with sleep and class, etc.) and then I ***PUGGED*** my first two raids (Archavon and Sartharion); after finishing those, I decided that I'd wait for the guildies to finish leveling up and then head into Naxx together. Even in a friendly, casual guild we had Naxxramas cleared on our second week, Malygos on our third (mind you this is in blues and heroic gear). We weren't pushing progression or anything, but holy crap was that stuff easy.
Patch 3.1 has been released and I head into Ulduar, the first few bosses catch me off-guard (was expecting a challenge)... but then the learning curve started to re-develop a bit further we pushed into the raid. This is also the patch that true hard modes were released, most hard modes were actually challenging (at the time) and raiding was becoming fun again. It took a decent amount of time for Yogg-Saron to be downed (and a really good challenge was set by Algalon the Observor). Months pass and gear has been farmed... that instance was well-designed and the bosses were challenging enough for my liking. I'm holding high hopes for 3.2
Patch 3.2 has been released... first attempt at the first boss encounter, one shot; next week, two attempts at the second boss, he dies; third week, 2 attempts at third boss encounter and it is down. You get the idea. Well, now to add insult to injury: Emblems of Conquest (the badges I worked so hard for in 3.1) are now dropped even in trivial heroic dungeons.
Overall, the raiding learning curve has been flattened in WotLK (with the exception of some hard modes and sparingly few bosses). you can now skip Ulduar entirely due to both emblem gear and the extreme ease of ToC (3.2 raid). Strangely, I noticed that there hasn't been a single world boss encounter in WotLK. Something I have not heard people discussing much is the seemingly hidden agenda in gear level jumps in 3.2; note that every other patch has had a slightly increase in item level, but in 3.2 the entry level raid gear starts at the top of 25-man Ulduar hard mode gear... ESSENTIALLY, Blizzard has cornered players to raid ToC or acquire new emblem of triumph gear due to a double-patch jump in item level. It makes me wonder if Blizzard is trying to force people to play now and tide themselves over until icecrown citadel is released (won't be very competitive in i226 gear when IC is dropping ~272+).
TYPICAL RAIDING SUMMARY: Well, that is my personal recap of the raiding experience in WotLK, however I did not address the typical environment in a raid. It is pretty simple, you get 10 or 25 people, enter the respective level raid, kill your way through some menial minions, attack someone who is determinedly evil, they drop phat lewtz for you. Avoid the majority of things on the ground, study fights though because some things on the ground are good, watch out for flying objects, interrupt boss casts, tank adds (most of the time, you kill them too)... past that there are few bosses with tricks to watch out for. A raiding guild will require that you study the fights online (5-10 min. reads generally). The "majority" (note majority and not "all") of raiding guilds have tension whether it is over loot, attendance, or poor performance. THERE IS YOUR SUMMARY OF RAIDING
Raiding Rating (sounds funny =] ): 7/10
... I give a higher rating than you might expect having read my above posting, however I give the rating to the overall effectiveness of design and execution here. Albeit, the challenge is lacking and the raiding often becomes tedious in short time... it can be a fun bonding experiences with your guildmates.
Player vs. Player Combat
You will find no more controversial a topic than PvP in WoW. To keep QQ to a relative minimum, I will summarize the PvP situation in WoW (because there will always be a couple people who just freak out about whatever anyone says). Player vs. Player combat in this game has three aspects: World PvP, Battlegrounds, and Arenas.
Let us touch on World PvP briefly (as it is a rarity in today's gameplay). The majority of World PvP in WoW is ganking and retaliation, however there has been a relative increase in World PvP raids in WotLK due to achievements. Guards are pretty easy in a raid environment, city bosses as well... all that is needed is a wee bit of organization. Overall, WPvP is essentially dead in WoW. I don't really count Wintergrasp due to it now being queued for nowadays... it is essentially a battleground.
Now, on to battlegrounds. Battlegrounds take many forms in World of Warcraft, ranging in size from 10 to 40 players (with the exception being Wintergrasp which holds up to ~200 players of each faction??? I think???). They all have simple goals and simple ways to achieve said goals. Warsong Gulch is simply capture-the-flag, Arathi Basin is multi-node King-of-the-Hill, Alterac Valley ends up being a race to kill the other factions boss first, Eye of the Storm is a combination of WSG and AB, SotA is an assault game with siege vehicles (best time wins), and Isle of Conquest (my favorite) is a mixture of AB, AV, and SotA... You have to assault the opponents base until you break into their keep and slay their boss.
A note on WPvP and BGs:
Honorable kills, game objectives (BGs), and winning BGs causes you to gain honor which can be spent on gear that is primarily tuned to allow for better PvP performance. Similar gear can be purchased with arena points earned through battle in Arena matches (see below)
Arena is the single most controversial feature in World of Warcraft. There is always a constant flame-war between classes about how imbalanced one is over another or how certain combinations are too good... however, there are truth to the majority of these claims. Arenas are a highly imbalanced PvP form due to the majority of classes being designed to work well given a large group of fellow players; limiting the number of players allows for more solo-able classes to shine, some examples of current ones are rogues, death knights, priests, and druids. Certainly given certain situations others are equally as good if not better, but the entire aspect of Arena is skewed in balance terms. Arena comes in brackets of 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5... the majority of tournaments are 3v3 due to it being considered the most skilled/balanced brackets. I will cut short on Arena discussion in an attempt to curtail future flame wars etc.etc.
Player vs. Player Combat Rating: 7/10
... The WPvP and BG aspect really help pull up arenas in this area. Balance is just so critical to PvP rating that despite the execution of the arena system, it is bad overall.
Crafting/Gathering
The crafting system in World of Warcraft is simple, straightforward, and economy-balanced (for the most part). The crafting system does not require an outrageous amount of materials to craft decent or subpar items like some games. Even at the level-cap some of the best items in the game are craftables from recipes dropped in raids (although nowadays the majority of the recipes are BoE). Generally the more effort you put into a profession, the better the profession is... even the gathering professions give stat bonuses (albeit rather lackluster ones). I think that the only real weakness behind the crafting system at this point is the fact that you can only have two main professions per character; although if you have friends/guildmates in abundance, you could always rely on them for special crafting needs. Overall, crafting in this game is a rather ideal system.
Crafting/Gathering Rating: 9.5/10
Achievements, Exploration, and Nifty Features
I will use this section to delve into the non-essentials of the review:
Achievements
Achievements are a nice side-track from the typical grindfest. The achievement system is all but useless in purpose, but it does provide a nice outlet to boost your nerd points. On a day when you're bored, you may find yourself flicking through your achievements tabs and pondering what to do that day... suddenly you see an interesting achievements (whether it be hugging bunnies or slaughtering your foes with unrivaled fury), that is your new goal for the day.
Achievements Rating Contribution: 2.0/3.3
Exploration
A lore nerd like myself would have had a field day exploring in the past (lol @ wall-jumping)... and I did. Nowadays the majority of meaningful exploration will be done through questlines. Blizzard has really spurned the act of trying to/getting into closed zones (whether they are unfinished or not). However, that allure of going to a "hidden place" really grasps at you. If you read into the lore and fully explore the world of Azeroth, you can find many neat things. I will lower this score only slightly due to the lack of exploration reception currently promoted by Blizzard.
Exploration Rating Contribution: 1.5/3.3
Nifty Features
WoW has an extreme amount of flexibility when it comes to customization through add-ons. Even adopting mini-games into the add-on library (Bejeweled and Peggle). There are plenty of fun and nifty items to use in the game that are all but pointless beyond having some fun (Disco balls, snowballs, special mounts, etc.). Also the extra customization through the barbershop is just plain nifty.
Nifty Features Rating Contribution: 3.1/3.3
Fun Stuff Rating: 2.0+1.5+3.1= 6.6
64.1/90 = 7.1
Overall Rating: 7.1/10
... When all is said and done throughout the WotLK expansion to-date, the game is a pretty decent play. Worth it to tide one over for awhile if they aren't busy, but certainly not the bright and shining jewel that most players make WoW out to be. I, personally, will be testing out Aion once it is released (however I am not holding my hopes particularly high... just in case). The game that I am really looking forward to is Final Fantasy XIV next year. I hope that this review has helped both players thinking about entering the World of Warcraft and those that currently play and are looking for opinions about the game. Feel free to comment, question, and discuss... try to keep attitudes to a minimum, it's just a game after all =P.
Comments
WoW's PvP is were the fun at. Many people say Guild Wars PvP is better, but I disagree. I get bored of GW's PvP. Spaming 1-4 buttons and the other 4 bottons when certains effects are on me, is just lame.
WoW has Large scale PvP. Even Old AV beat out everything GW has to offer.
PvP rocks, its just that once they added Arena, they bacially crapeed all over the PvP Puging gameplay fun. Now people with real life friends get the advantage of PvP by having better Arena matchs and by being on around the same time. Puging Arena was no fun, Puging BG was. Blizzard seems to be trying to fix that in the new X-pac, but this GW Arena Wana be crap that started in TBC, upsets me the most.
I've got a pounding headache after writing this review. I will post up a Cataclysm notes review later this week. It will probably be around 1/2 the length of this review, but I am unsure until I start scribbling away. If you enjoy this review, let me know, otherwise flame me like you were probably going to do anyways =P. I'll be back probably tomorrow to check replies.
One thing I am looking forward to will be the rated battlegrounds (which I will cover in my Cataclysm notes review). It will really bring the idea of a PvP guild into full spectrum. So long as they follow the current BG queue system it will even allow an organized guild vs. guild battle. Imagine two of the top guilds making an 80 man BG where everybody knows everybody else... that would be intense =D!
You hit the nail on the head with this review, AND were pretty unbiased (a rarity). I think the score is fair, but I hold higher hopes for the future of WoW with Cataclysm, where Battleground PvP makes its return. Where PvP and Raiding are the meat and potatoes of WoW, the meat is burnt and the potatoes are bland.
That's a really crappy rating for a game as good as Wow. Please point me to the game that you gave a higher rating too because eleven million of us are playing a shitty game by mistake, please help.
Playing: WoW, EvE
Interested in: TOR, ER, GW2, WoD, Dust514
LOL. These Forums are the most notorius wow hating forums in posibly the entire history of forums, since the time of the greeks who invented forums and didn't much care 4 wow themselves. This game is not diying, as much as lots of people would like to see it, most of thoes people can be found here. Its taken some knocks and its not the same game it was pre Bc and its boring and its shallow but I loved it and introduced me to a genre of games I v much apreciate. Its still the most polished game out there 4 an old boy bar none including Aion who in my opinion 4 the next big thing is a korean grinder like flyff with much better graphics . I will never play Wow again but even so, i'm tired of all the doomsayer jaded knuckledragers consitantly going on about how its ruined everything and how its going to die very soon and everybody will get free cheesecake and there will be partys in the street and the starving children in Africa will be fed............STFU retards! If its that important that loads of you keep having to make pointles threads saying the same old shit that has been said 1000 times b4, infact on these very forums. FFs? how not imporatnt is it? let the people who play it play it and you just go ahead and play whatever you're playing and just get on with it you shallow bunch of egotistical uni tards.
Blizzard games don't "die." They can only be defeated by another Blizzard product or sequel.
There's no reason for any WoW player to defend the game on mmorpg.com because when you look at the score ratings it's obvious how much childish rebel hatred there is for it here.
My only real disagree is character customization. Yes, great, you can pick from 6 heads, 10 hairstyles, some colors and a "racial feature". Except that, once you level up and get items, you look exactly the same as the next priest, DK, Paladin. You're initial choices, outside of skin color, are covered up by all your armor. Your hair style/color is gone if you show helm.
You are just a carbon copy of the person next to you.
While there are millions of talent specs you could be, unless you follow the cookie cutter builds, you are considered bad or just wrong. Again, basically forced to be like everyone else. So not only do you look exactly like that hunter next to you, but you have the exact same talent build.
I perfectly understand they don't wish to create tons of gear with very similar stats just so you could look different, but a dye system would be a huge step in the right direction. And being blizzard, it could be better than Guild Wars dye system.
Calm down there buddy. I was not making an attack at WoW; if you read all the way through you'd notice I said WoW is a pretty good game overall. There is no perfect game out there atm. I am using the 10 on my scale as what I consider the optimal level in an online MMO given today's standards. The game that has all the quality culmination of playing options would be my 10 (example in PvP: a game that allows for well organized PvP (arenas), large-scale battle (guild battles or battlegrounds), rewarding world PvP, duels, and so forth... instead of only a few options being balanced or rewarding). The ratings that get a very high score (such as the graphics one) come with good reason, and I quote: "You could play WoW on just about anything, even a fancy toaster would do."; a game that allows such flexibility while having the tuning range that it does is a remarkable feat.
I'm just saying WoW is a good game overall, but it has its fair share of problems. At the moment, I would say that there are very few, if any games that could get a higher score (venturing none off the top of my head).
Perhaps I should've quoted "dying game" in the title so people don't think I'm blantantly bashing WoW. After all, I've played it for years, I love the game, and I've had some great times on it; I've met some amazing people that I'd hate to fall out of touch with. I don't want to seem like a doomsayer, I will probably renew for IC and most definitely buy and level through Cataclysm when that launches (barring some wicked-dumb decision on Blizzard's part ["Magister's Terrace was merely a setback"] >.>) I will try out Aion for a bit, but I'm not saying it'll be a WoW-killer (no game has come close to that yet).
Great review! It is a decent game, but there are some aspects that certainly are not ideal. My main complaint about WoW is the character development. Or lack thereof.
OOOOOh if you mean my earlyer post Chiv I wasn't getting at you, that was a v good review which I enjoyed reading v much. 4 some reason my fingers took on a life of there own and I decided 2 vent on all the wow hating i've been reading in these forums 4 much to long, sorry if I gave that impression bud. Liked your post:)
I have added an edit to the original post to signify where I was trying to go with the title of the thread; don't want more people thinking that this is some angsty rebellious review about how I don't like WoW anymore : /
You're kidding, right?
cfurlin - "When are you flakey gamers going to realize that game development is a business."
Blocked - MMO_Doubter, Angelof2070
You're kidding, right?
Guild Wars Warrior coustomization Crit you for 0 Damage. cause it sucks
You're kidding, right?
Guild Wars Warrior coustomization Crit you for 0 Damage. cause it sucks
Sense, that did not make. Please try again.
cfurlin - "When are you flakey gamers going to realize that game development is a business."
Blocked - MMO_Doubter, Angelof2070
I have to agree, you're on crack if you consider this to be a high level of customization.
Granted, it's shades above something like Everquest II, but even compared to some free MMOs it isn't anything special. Where it shines is customization after the fact, which is a recent invention, there are very few MMOs which give you a "barbershop" and the like to change your features, and none promise the faction and race changes we'll see in the future.
You should expose yourself to City Of Heroes/Villains or Champions Online to grasp just how astonishingly deep and rewarding character customization can be.
Peace and Beaverly Love
I'll respect those opinions, I think I was supposed to put a 6.5 there. I'll take the fall for it though =P; {{{given fantasy parameters}}} if I would choose my 10, I'd pull a scaling system like PWI's in, the gear design quality of WoW, and a gear customization that you find in (insert most free MMOs here)... gear dyeing, glowing enchants, scaling... that sort of thing. I can't remember which games it is, but I recently played one that had the ability to pull stats from one piece of gear and transfer it another so that you could wear your favorite outfit without dampering your character.
I have heard wondrous things about Champions online customization (although I've heard that is its real selling point, which seems lackluster to me). Then again, I'm more of a fantasy guy personally.
EDIT: I'd like to pose another question, if you could add to/change some of the customization features in WoW what would you do?
Lord of the Rings Online is what you're thinking of, to answer your question.
Simply expanding the amount of options would be all I'd need, there are too few as is, coloring gear, gear coloration for guilds, more faces, more horns, more hanging undead skin arrangements.
Generally just a lot more of what is currently available and the aforementioned coloration options would please me perfectly.
Champions Online has a lot going for it, and a lot of flaws, the main draw for me are the engaging, interactive combat and expansive customization.
The combat allows you to actually block by holding the shift key, and it's very important since things like Knockback are available before you're even level 10, and there are a diverse array of effects applied with other abilities you can avoid with it.
There are even additions to block which greatly increase it's power in only a frontal cone, it's a great dynamic that factors well into a system where "swing swing miss swing block swing" are the norm.
I also take issue with your leveling rating and argument, there is no level grinding in WoW, you grind if you choose to and no other time. You can do your quests and have fun with them(As they get better the deeper you get), or you can stand there blasting Wildkin and grinding instances, but the fact is the middle option is not forced on you. You choose to grind in WoW, in most other MMOs you have absolutely no choice in the matter.
Peace and Beaverly Love
I have to say I disagree with the score on crafting. It is certainly a simplistic and streamlined system like you say, but I hardly think that makes it ideal. There is no room for customization or experiementation; everyone's products are identical (with the exception of a few low level randomly enchanted recipes), there is no interactivity to the actual act of crafting, and saying that some of the best items in the game are crafted is a bit disingenious because they might as well be raid drops (taking the one defining mat from a raid drop). It gets the job done for what it is trying to accomplish (an afterthought system to assist combat gameplay), but there are much more complex and rich systems out there that are more rewarding to the player.
As a side note, I agree that the customization score is a bit too high as well. It was up there when the game came out, but in the face of more recent titles (CoX and Aion particularly) it doesn't hold a candle.
Hmmm, maybe I'll check out Champions sometime.
The argument can be made for leveling though that a LOT of quests in WoW are "Kill X *insert mob*" or "Collect Y items from a mob". I understand your view on it, and I really liked the leveling experience when I went through and actually read the quests, followed the lore, and watched it unravel some of the key fixtures from the Warcraft series. Leveling is really what you make it, but the majority of WoW players would seem to get lost in their rush to level 80 and quests simply become a manner of gathering EXP... which is a real shame.
EDIT: I'm glad to see some constructive and thoughtful replies, I'm looking forward to seeing more when I wake up =D. Keep them coming guys. Remember, if you have an issue with one of my scores or an evaluation method (remember, I'm a player just like you, I don't do this for a living =P) please reply in a constructive manner... "lol noob"-type responses are simply fodder in this discussion.
Great post . I would agree WOW is nt dying but i think it has peaked in it popularity .Whether it can regain its numbers and retain them when The Cataclysm expansion is released remains to be seen . The issue of community is what leading me to take a break from it more than anything else . Most of the friends i made in the 4 years i ve played have left now and i got fed up with all the immature backstabbing and squabbling in whatever guild i got into . Theres always been an element of players with a bad attitude in WOW but it much worse now than its been in the past . I think its most likly down to the game becoming more appealing to a younger age group . I did see a post a while back from someone claiming that the average age of a Warcraft gamer was 30 . LOL I had to laugh .
They need to solve the issue of Horde winning PVP games almost 95% of the time. When I played this was an issue for me.
Played : WOW, LOTRO, COH/COV, EQ2, SWG, and WAR.
Playing EVE Online and AOC.
Wtg for SW:TOR and WOD
While i do agree with most of your review, i fail to see how this game deserves a 9 in graphics, and using The Barrens as an example, (i would think of some zone on the latest expansion).
Since all you review showed a certain degree of unbiaseness i was wondering what score would new games like AoC, Aion, Champions Online and many others get.
I understand the obvious difference from the cartoonish/asian/realistic styles, but whats in question here is the graphic technologies that those new game have and wow doesnt, even if it highly appeals to you.
You must admit that a graphical score muct be given according to the technological possibilities they deliver, and wow is way to limited to get such a high score.
Performance wise i have a low average computer, and i can play wow with all options on high at around 50fps, i can have the same performance on Aion for example, so i dont think wow has such a great advantage in performance since there are other games that allow you to go down to meet lower requirements while allowing for graphics allot more advanced than wow in higher settings.
Edit: And the Customization offcourse, 8.5 is CRAZY... the game deserves half at best, the characters all look alike and at maximum level all use same armor in same color and mostly same weapons, Shamefull.
I generally agree with the rest of the review and the final score, and i liked very much the style and the way you organized your topics, Gratz
I don't get why the OP felt the need to respond to doomsayers anyway. This is the internet -- doomsayers are a dime-a-dozen for any game.
Unlike Everquest's slow slide into obscurity, there's very, very little quality competition to take much from WoW. And it's a good thing too, because WAR and AoC proved that players ARE more than willing to leave World of Warcraft. But it wasn't a huge chunk of their base, and both titles' disappointments just made them go right back to WoW.
Cataclysm is, no doubt, Blizzard's way of saying they're aware that they have a portion of players who are there because there's nothing else good out. The trailer coming out now was no accident, either -- they're not even giving a more specific release date than "2010". But they're aware that there's a fair amount of hype for Aion.