Lack of immersion - all the addons blocking your screen, all of the LFM2DPSICC10PSTACHIEVGS>9000OMGROFLBBQSAUCE" on chat and the dungeon/bg finders.
Lack of freedom - just ICC will give you proper rewards, as much as u want to run some old content or raid tarren mill, u will do it alone. We should be able to follow many different paths once in the endgame, all of them should be rewarding.
Gear progression - it sucks, it is no fun to repeat the same dungeon over and over only to see all your efforts crumble in the next expansion.
Lack of player driven content - WoW has no soul nowadays, no level 1 raids to kill hogger, no world pvp... just a bunch of nerds sitting at dalaran, it feels like a job. I'm sorry but I get paid to work, not the opposite. The only fun i had in WoW since a long time ago was the time i logged on a RP server to troll around.
I'm not saying WoW is a complete crap though, in fact the first run and the first couple months of raiding were absolutely fantastic, one of the best experiences i've ever had. But it fails miserably at approaching the "how to retain subscriptions" aspect, this kind of gear profression is just like a carrot on a stick: u'll be trying to get it for a long time, if you ever do u'll be stuck in a wall looking to the sides for what to do next, and then when everyone gets to this wall, Blizz comes and destroy it, putting another carrot on your stick. Some of us realize this and never come back, others also realize this but there is no real competition to WoWs overall quality nowadays (a couple get close, but wow has tons of good aspects too).
Playing: Starcraft II. Played: Tibia, Ragnarok Online, Ultima Online, Guild Wars, World of Warcraft. Wanna play: Guild Wars 2, SW:TOR, Final Fantasy XIV, Diablo III.
I've recently started playing WoW again with my girlfriend (it's the only game she likes so far). As someone who was a WoW player for a few years..to a WoW hater..now back again. I've wondered am I really angry at WoW? Or am I angry that the genre itself hasn't innovated much since WoW came out? I've played more MMO's than I care to list...but I haven't played LOTRO, FFXIV and many of the F2P games.. but thats it.
Here are some points I've used in the past and I'll debunk my own:
WoW is too easy. Can anyone on this forum honestly say any MMORPG was hard? When I say hard.... I mean truly difficult not just longer or more tedious. I see the insta gratification kiddies line being thrown around like political circles throw around democraps and rethuglicans. So you kill 10 monsters versus killing 100 to level (for example) either way I as a player I have thoroughly proved I know how to kill said monster... what's more difficult really? I think this is more of an emotional response and a case of rose colored glasses. I've raided in EQ1(up to Luclin), AoC and DAoC .. it was not at all difficult; in fact I'd say easier overall. This also might be a case of the ease in which you can find info on MMO's nowadays.
WoW has the worst community. I'm not gonna sit here and tell you the WoW community is some bastion of polite civilization. I am going to tell you that the community in every game I have ever played is roughly similar. I remember trolls in EQ trash talking constantly and people generally being shitty to eachother. How about the raid guilds that used to run by other lesser experienced guilds at a raid boss (remember open dungeons) and ninja the kill? Then they would be "nice" and give the lesser experienced raid..have whatever they didn't want.. Wow how nice! /sarcasm. DAoC didn't have much better of a community either. I had to quit a character because someone *accused* me of ninjaing with no proof.. just an accusation (they couldn't even provide a ss)... and boom I can't even pvp... on a midgard healer.
So I'm just wondering wondering if the WoW hate (which is considered cool apparently) and how older games were so much better is a lot like the old guy's description of his youth in this clip:
"WoW is too easy" is actually very accurate. The bigger problem is that each expansion makes the game easier and easier. I (and my friends) finally quit with Wrath when we joined a 10 man raid of mostly inept, almost entirely undergeared players...and we were successful. Started running into way too inept players that made it to 80 and clearly didn't know how to play (but were busy patting themselves on the back because they were "raiders" now...so very 133t). Grouping has been reduced to tank (regardless of class) AoE tanking, DPS stricting dpsing (no longer any need for cc), and healers scrambling and going OOM because the DPS had become too idiotic to not stand in fires, etc. Not enough for you? There was videos out in spring 2009 of a shaman actually tanking (very successfully) full blown raids. He was able to do all 10 man raids and was starting to work his way up through 25 man raids. I have found some other MMOs to be equally too easy, but there are some that take more skill.
I have played a number of MMOs (at least 6 for several months to several years each). WoW is easily the worst behaved community of them all. Is there trash talking in other MMOs? Absolutely. But regardless of server I was on in WoW (played for close to 5 years), people were far more rude far more often (kill stealing, node stealing, outright belittlement of people asking questions, etc) than any other MMO. I find it laughable in LOTRO when people mention rude behavior...the rarity of it is the only real reason it sticks out. New people asking questions actually get even tempered answers the overwhelming majority of the time (unless the asker gets rude first). But I would point out that WoW was better behaved earlier, and this is another function of WoW that has distinctly degraded over time.
How easy has WoW gotten? My wife was able to put out very respectable dps on her toon hitting only 2 buttons with the launch of Wrath. She could quit literally faceroll on the keyboard and do just fine. I'm not hardcore enough to want super hard challenges...and I thought BC was at least a reasonable balance (you needed to actually use cc and coordination to get through raids and instances)...but I'm not personally interested in something so easy that it becomes largely irrelevant which skills I use (we started running into hunters than made it to 80 without ever learning how to use their traps just before we quit).
Do I hate WoW? No. Blizzard has decided to take it in the direction it has gone...basically, it is now the McDonalds of the MMOs. Extremely successful compared to the competition. And, like McDonalds, I can take some of WoW probably every now and then (might even play again if they try a F2P model...might as well since there is already a major tween population). But, like McDonalds, WoW is not a great game...it's just very, very popular. One of the last pieces of the puzzle regarding why I left is that the devs were very clear in their posts that they were very happy with the direction WoW took with Wrath and intend to continuing down that path. That is certainly their choice...but I have a better developed palate than to continue with WoW / McDonalds as my primary choice.
Comments
To me it's very easy:
Lack of immersion - all the addons blocking your screen, all of the LFM2DPSICC10PSTACHIEVGS>9000OMGROFLBBQSAUCE" on chat and the dungeon/bg finders.
Lack of freedom - just ICC will give you proper rewards, as much as u want to run some old content or raid tarren mill, u will do it alone. We should be able to follow many different paths once in the endgame, all of them should be rewarding.
Gear progression - it sucks, it is no fun to repeat the same dungeon over and over only to see all your efforts crumble in the next expansion.
Lack of player driven content - WoW has no soul nowadays, no level 1 raids to kill hogger, no world pvp... just a bunch of nerds sitting at dalaran, it feels like a job. I'm sorry but I get paid to work, not the opposite. The only fun i had in WoW since a long time ago was the time i logged on a RP server to troll around.
I'm not saying WoW is a complete crap though, in fact the first run and the first couple months of raiding were absolutely fantastic, one of the best experiences i've ever had. But it fails miserably at approaching the "how to retain subscriptions" aspect, this kind of gear profression is just like a carrot on a stick: u'll be trying to get it for a long time, if you ever do u'll be stuck in a wall looking to the sides for what to do next, and then when everyone gets to this wall, Blizz comes and destroy it, putting another carrot on your stick. Some of us realize this and never come back, others also realize this but there is no real competition to WoWs overall quality nowadays (a couple get close, but wow has tons of good aspects too).
Playing: Starcraft II.
Played: Tibia, Ragnarok Online, Ultima Online, Guild Wars, World of Warcraft.
Wanna play: Guild Wars 2, SW:TOR, Final Fantasy XIV, Diablo III.
"WoW is too easy" is actually very accurate. The bigger problem is that each expansion makes the game easier and easier. I (and my friends) finally quit with Wrath when we joined a 10 man raid of mostly inept, almost entirely undergeared players...and we were successful. Started running into way too inept players that made it to 80 and clearly didn't know how to play (but were busy patting themselves on the back because they were "raiders" now...so very 133t). Grouping has been reduced to tank (regardless of class) AoE tanking, DPS stricting dpsing (no longer any need for cc), and healers scrambling and going OOM because the DPS had become too idiotic to not stand in fires, etc. Not enough for you? There was videos out in spring 2009 of a shaman actually tanking (very successfully) full blown raids. He was able to do all 10 man raids and was starting to work his way up through 25 man raids. I have found some other MMOs to be equally too easy, but there are some that take more skill.
I have played a number of MMOs (at least 6 for several months to several years each). WoW is easily the worst behaved community of them all. Is there trash talking in other MMOs? Absolutely. But regardless of server I was on in WoW (played for close to 5 years), people were far more rude far more often (kill stealing, node stealing, outright belittlement of people asking questions, etc) than any other MMO. I find it laughable in LOTRO when people mention rude behavior...the rarity of it is the only real reason it sticks out. New people asking questions actually get even tempered answers the overwhelming majority of the time (unless the asker gets rude first). But I would point out that WoW was better behaved earlier, and this is another function of WoW that has distinctly degraded over time.
How easy has WoW gotten? My wife was able to put out very respectable dps on her toon hitting only 2 buttons with the launch of Wrath. She could quit literally faceroll on the keyboard and do just fine. I'm not hardcore enough to want super hard challenges...and I thought BC was at least a reasonable balance (you needed to actually use cc and coordination to get through raids and instances)...but I'm not personally interested in something so easy that it becomes largely irrelevant which skills I use (we started running into hunters than made it to 80 without ever learning how to use their traps just before we quit).
Do I hate WoW? No. Blizzard has decided to take it in the direction it has gone...basically, it is now the McDonalds of the MMOs. Extremely successful compared to the competition. And, like McDonalds, I can take some of WoW probably every now and then (might even play again if they try a F2P model...might as well since there is already a major tween population). But, like McDonalds, WoW is not a great game...it's just very, very popular. One of the last pieces of the puzzle regarding why I left is that the devs were very clear in their posts that they were very happy with the direction WoW took with Wrath and intend to continuing down that path. That is certainly their choice...but I have a better developed palate than to continue with WoW / McDonalds as my primary choice.
Really? Nothing real major in problems. Only real problem is people enjoy complaining over nothing.
It's only a game. Who cares.
When did you start playing "old school" MMO's. World Of Warcraft?