WOW/RPG Combat: All the same old stuff?

I would love to hear what you think...

I have been an avid player of all types of games...and I would like to think I know what makes great games great.  For me, Everquest was great when I first played it.  The sheer size of the place and scope was awesome.  The idea that there was so many places to explore and...it was so close to a real world in respect to size, that it was exciting to imagine what else was out there.  But as time wore on, the game's scenery becames commonplace...what is left is the actual game....more importantly combat.  and thus I slowly get to the point...

The combat in EQ was terrible.  Boring.  Repetative...if I played a fighter.  As a cleric, the situation changed...health bars fluctuated...I would wait till the very last second to throw a greater heal on a furiously typing monk and that would make it more fun.  As a fighter, you initiate combat and, with auto attack, let the sound effects let you know that your swining away.  Ohh yes...there were some great additions...like Kick...Wooo hoo...push a button and you "kick" an opponent for additional damage.  There was no skill.  Someone will no doubt reply that "pulling" takes skill...and for those people I do not argue that...pulling does take skill.  But I ask you...how boring is that.  How boring is auto attack combat. 

History:  The most exciting games, I believe, come into play when you have strategy to what you do.  I would love to hear the science behind it, but I want to think that the more you have to use of your brain...the more real, intense the experience.  Chess, although old and arguably boring and something Ive played very little of, is a game that has transgressed through many centuries and has remained popular, because it is not boring.  There are so many ways to win, strategies to use, ways...to crush your opponents dreams.  But, listen to me clearly, I do not like the slow pace of such a game...and other "turn-based" video games.  Too much thinking makes me a little sleepy. 

As a EQ2 future player, I want the ability to concentrate attacks on certain parts of my opponets body...causing a kind of damage that will work to an advantage.  For instance:  a large right-handed Giant with a large club in his hand....would become less effective without an arm...or leg.  Or...an octopus like creature that needs tenticals cut off ...or eyes blinded so she cant cast spells as effectively...and so on.  Also, a cause to make the player move to create a better attacking scenerio or ....dammit something to make it more like playing a game (in combat) and less like clicking a button.  My question to all us Geeks who make an dplay these games...have you ever been in a fight?  Have you ever been punched in the face...been in a brawl...where things are happening so fast you are reacting...not thinking.  Can they make fighting more intense...more button pushing...something else ...so that if you just sit at your computer and do nothing you will surely be killed.  In EQ, thats not how it was.  You could click and sit quietly and await the outcome.  And for me thats not what I want!!

Right now the excitiement surrounding adventuring is uncovering a new monster/animal/person and waiting to see what kind of spell it or what cleaver line it will say or loot it will drop when you kill it... all in all its the same damn monster just in different textures and shading. 

The fun will come when you adventure out and find a new monster but have no idea how to kill it...and you have to change your style of play significantly ...and learn new strategies in order to beat it.  Maybe a dragon will have a soft underbelly...but will not reveal it until a person risks attacking his tail or feet that causes him to move or a zombie taking extra damage to a shot to the head.  Or...what i think would be great is ...why do all the monsters stand there and fight us.  Why not the ability to hunt deer and bear...like if you attack them they run into the trees and you have to track and kill them.  or...as they run away ...you have to root them...but then their attacking strategy changes and the fun becomes greater.  ...its the unknowning and adventure of fighting that is one factor that makes these games fun. 

People still play Warcraft3 because the can use different/new strategies on fresh opponents ...and have no idea how their opponent is going to play...and that makes it exciting.  The idea that your strategy will be easily countered and thus your heart is racing and mind is working...to quickly think of the counter to the opponents counter.  Does that make sense?

So where am I going with this:  I believe that from what I have seen...the combat system has been revamped.  I am a positive thinker, and hope that this combat wheel will add a little thinking involved than just mind-numbing auto-attack-lef-click type of combat.  Right now....the classic RPG way is ...auto-fight, auto-fight, auto-fight your level of creature....till you level again and then fight the next level of creature.  The thing that changes your play is the equipment that you choose/buy...not much else.  What I want to see is some real thought into how to improve RPG combat and redesign the way the future RPG combat will go.  There was a time not too long ago that 1 person shooter Wolfenstein was revelutionary ...a new way to do combat...that changed the way people thought about games...spawning doom,quake...every shooter out there.  I do not want a shooter RPG = does not work.  But just a new way to do combat so that my heart races, mind thinks and have a new adventure each time i venture out into this pixilated world.

What do you think?

BULLDOG OUT!