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The truth of what Wow is
I see everyone coming on here bashing WoW and what not and this is why I'm making this thread.
If you have not played WoW then you won't be able to relate to this thread directly necessarily, but in some sort of fashion you will be able to.
I started my days playing MMO's around 7 years ago playing runescape, loved it, played it out, got old and moved onto another MMO, Knight Online. Played it. Loved it. Left due to GM's but thats beyond the point. Then came WoW. When I first played WoW it had just came out a few months ago. I fell in love with the game just like I did the first two. It offered a different approach to leveling. Quests, and lots of them. In reality the leveling was just like grinding in Runescape and Knight Online, except the quests led you through different zones to see differnent scenery and monsters, different music, to keep you from getting bored of leveling. Quests were great in the aspect of this as well as that they gave you extra experience in addition to the scene changing grinding they brought, which was awesome because it made leveling more rewarding. WoW was great because how player friendly it was and that it offered a huge world to go through, all the graphics flowed smoothly together to create a great game. I remember the first time I went into Iron Forge I was amazed at how big it was and thought it was so cool that they had flight points for quicker travel and all the npc's and auction house and what not. Played until I got a mount at level 40 then took a break from the game until after BC came out, played again on and off, eventually LK came out hit 80 raided, pvped, did it all and it was all very fun. But if you notice this is over a period of 4 years or so. No game is gonna be fun enough to keep your attention forever. In my opinion, if a game keeps your attention for a year then you shouldn't be able to help but remember all the fun times you had in it.
I became bored of WoW and have moved onto other games trying guild wars which was great pvp, played runescape again for some fun, and now have fallen to Aion and am enjoying the challenge/reward the tough leveling presents.
In the end I think it's wrong for WoW to be bashed when alot of people who bash it played it for many years. The game got old thats all. Thats like you saying one of your favorite childhood video games like sonic, mario, zelda, etc., is a piece of shit. You wouldn't say this. You'll say "Oh man that game used to be great." Now you have moved on because technology has moved on. People makes post saying did WoW ruin mmo's. No it did not. It was an EXTREMELY successful product blizzard made that brought in over 10 million subscribers(or something like that). So why wouldn't other game companies like Rift and what not try to imitate their success? It would be foolish for them not to try out what's already been successfull. Look at fastfood, it started with McDonalds(I think) and now theres Wendy's, Burgerking, Tacobell, etc., you get the point.
My 14 year old cousin just started playing MMO's and he loves Rift because he has never played a video game with all the gametime involved in the MMO genre. He's just now going through the journey many of us went through with our first couple MMO's, this is why a game like Rift comes out, to attract the generation's after us.
It's now up to the next company to create the next big MMO FAD for our generation. We can bash the quest based mmo's all we want on this forum but in reality recent games released that have tried copying WoW's formula are obviously finding that the need for innovation is here and at the pace technology is moving it shouldn't be long before that game(hopefully Guild Wars 2 or one of the others coming out in the next year so that wait time is short) arrives.
Sorry for long post but felt it was necessary in order to get my point across.
Edit: Meant to put this in just general forums not rift general forums my fault.
Comments
It's rare I'd say this around here but I agree with everything you said. It's too bad it's "trendy" to bash WoW. I quit a while ago and enjoyed it while I was there but you are right, it got old.
I hope your cousin/brother, I forget, has a great time in Rift.
I agree, people should learn to respect elders :P Bet no one expects a 19yrs old to say that! xD
anyways, I'm being thinking about either starting Rift or WoW, or even DCUO, since I don't have much time to play after my two week break from uni. Any suggestions?
How much WoW could a WoWhater hate, if a WoWhater could hate WoW?
As much WoW as a WoWhater would, if a WoWhater could hate WoW.
What about Me? Everyone loves Tails.. Right?
. No, seriously. Sonic gets too much spotlight!
Also, I understand where you're coming from. Been playing MMORPGs a long time, too. First one was Runescape. Hard to look back on it and take it seriously now, but during the time it was the greatest thing I ever played. Like when I used to sit with my brother and play with our Ninja Turtle Action Figures. Seems stupid now, but we would spend hours making up stories with them.
Gave our Ninja turtles power based on their bandana colors. Leo had Ice, Ralph had Fire.
I think it's plain as day now when you see people describe Runescape. It's generally acceptable to say "Do you play WoW?" At a Gamespot, but not "Do you play Runescape?". Probably couldn't show your face there again if you asked that seriously.
~Miles "Tails" Prower out! Catch me if you can!
Come Join us at www.globalequestria.com - Meet other fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic!
Kingdom, any of the choices you listed would be good. However, DCUO is fun but the player population is very low and was the reason I quit within a week of buying it.
What's always ironic to me is when people bash WoW yet praise Rift, LotRO, EQ2, and the like when, at their core, the games are almost identical.
Having played WoW and several other mmo's, my issue with WoW which, at times, honestly added to the fire were these 3 faults:
1: "WoW was and is THE biigest thing to ever happen to mmo's" claim - I always had troubles with this claim because I think it did tons of things well but that didn't make it "THE" best shit out there.
2: "WoW is the best mmo based on subscriber numbers" - This always irritated me as f**k because it really didn't matter as much as I felt others made it to be. Anyone whose been on these forums long enough has heard, seen, or possibly tossed this claim around.
3: "Every other mmo just copies WoW" - Really? No, seriously really? This irks me like almighty sh*t because there is less criticism for the stuff WoW copied from other games and yet a game like oh idk, Warhammer 40k, well get the "Oh it looks like a WoW-Clone" and be bashed relentlessly.
My point is there is no denying that as much bashing as WoW gets, you still get a large number of fanboys completely either oblivious to the flaws of WoW that believe its the Holy Grail of all mmo's who fail to either see the value, point or reason of other mmo's and frankly I think that is technically a valid statement. There are people who will bash WoW because its WoW and players who will defend it because it is WoW. For me I like more of a sandbox-feel with variety and less instancing which why I gravitate towards a game like EvE-online. In fairness I know its not for everyone but I'm also not a religious wingnut trying to defend my "religion" and "convert" everyone to EvE and that's a fair assesment in my opinon.
I mean let's be honest, WoW has been like the iPad for some people. Do I think WoW is the most original mmo ever? Nope, not by a longshot. Do I think WoW is the most immersive mmo? I still don't think it is. I will say it does tons of stuff right, is intuitive enough to playand enjoy and is fun. Am I slightly bashing WoW? Well yes but its been in valid areas and without its praises too.
Ive played asherons call 1 and 2, daoc, shadowbane, ffxi, and ffxiv all for multiple years, except for XIV obviously. The only MMO i have never really touched is WoW. I have played it, but i think it copies elements of every great game ive played and lumps it into a user friendly format to draw people in. Taking a lot of players away from games that had original elements that created a certain loyalty within its players. I dont think there is anything original about wow. When I first tried wow all i could think of was DAoC, except with really crappy character models. the graphics are terrible.
WoW players are usually only WoW players, who havnt experienced other games.. So technically they arent MMO players, but they are world of warcraft players who assume they know anything about playing MMOs. WoW is like MMOs for dummies. Yeah they had some hardcore stuff to do at higher levels, but its wow's following that is ultimately lame. I really think a lot of us were proud to be nerds playing MMOs, and wow kinda ruined that. Its like wow appropriated the MMO scene... if there ever was one. I identified with it when i was younger. People who play wow just seem different from most of the MMO players i knew long ago.
WoW did good, great numbers and really took off... but i think they win because they were able to sell it to a different crowd... the wrong crowd. Its like hanging out at a place not too many people know about. Its not necessary "cool" you just know you can fit in there, and its not too "big." Then some douche bag who doesnt know why its important to some people, but wants to be a part of it, then brings all his douchy friends. Its like how rappers thought 22 inch rims were awesome, and now you see soccer moms sportin em. And yeah ill condescend... wow ruined the mmo scene.
At the end of the day i dont really want to care... but, down with WoW. People shouldnt have to explain themselves.
Post this thread in The Pub and the WoW MMORPG.com forums, because sadly, as good natured as this thread is, it will be locked and/or moved.
.. But in a good way.
I don't know who this "us" business is, but many of the players who dislike wow-type games feel the way they do because that design concept takes a huge dump on what made their first experience memorable. Early generation MMOs like UO were about exploration, society, and spiritual fulfillment (as opposed to pure material bombardment). Everything that Blizzard, Trion, and the coming sequels of Trion want nothing to do with. If those types of games were your first experience, then enjoy, but don't think that these generational fads, as you put it, are revolutions of gaming simply because they garner the highest subscriber base.
There was a time when MMO developers designed games in such a way that players cared about the world they were a part of, and wanted to have a legitimate stake in that world (look at EVE if you need a more modern reminder). World of Warcraft made it profitable to take the existing asian grind bullshit, cloak it in a flashy coat of "look at how big IF is!" and "the changing music from zone to zone makes me forget about the blandness," and subject all their players to excessive levels of slogging while distracting them with a carrot on a stick. They don't want to hold on to players, instead they want to burn their playerbase out every few years, and cycle them out with fresh lemmings who left their last game simply because it was old. Ultimately, there was nothing substantial to hold them to that world, just as there won't be in this next Blizzard/Trion/Trion1, 2, 3, etc.. world.
Their success only made second rate developers realize that they can make Matrix money (the movie, not the MMO) by essentially copying the game and simply reskinning the world. I get that it is a family moment kind of thing, but it is also a profile of two generations being lost to this Blizzard-borne nonsense. Extremely sad as a pre-Blizzard MMO player.
^...
That Guild Wars 2 login screen knocked up my wife. Must be the second coming!
This is SOO true
amen to that man.
i quit wow because of the community, not because of the game.....think about that gamers b4 you bash a game
You just highlighted part of the problem. Way too many people hold it against Blizzard that their MMORPG was as insanely popular as it was.
That success did make a lot of investors' and companies' eyes light up with money signs, but that isn't WoW's fault, nor is it Blizzard's.
Yes, I am growing tired with the shameless clones and copies, but when enough of those fail like they have been doing, I expect basic economics to take hold and companies and investors realize that making a clone is just as risky as trying something new and innovative. At that point when clones stop becoming so rampant, the good thing that WoW did for the genre is inject it with a lot more people. No, they're not all winners, but neither was what we had before, and a lot of them are nice people.
.. But in a good way.
In a way, they are responsible. Blizzard was the first developer to take such a blatantly insulting approach to their playerbase - treating them like pure fodder - and be rewarded so richly by the gaming community. At least with grindy asian games, the developers respect the player enough to lay it out on the table and show them what they are in for. Blizzard is the gaming equivalent a megabank: giving someone a handy with the right hand, while using their other hand to inject them with heroin. Then after the heroin takes effect, they coat their right hand in broken glass and get right back to work.
What WoW really is is a pale imitation of what it was at release. The game isn't the same since the Vanilla areas and classes were 'revamped'. The original game was not my favorite MMO, but it was pretty decent. Almost every decision made post-TBC has been bad in my opinion. I really didn't like most of the changes made in Cata, and I'm not even talking about the heroic lvl 85 dungeons...
So no... Rift is different enough from WoW to make it a better game for me personally. People who keep on harping on the similarities between each game and why leave WoW when it is bigger n better or whatever, you're missing the point entirely. Some people will prefer Rift (or LotRO, or EQ2, or what-have-you) because they are different enough all the while having some similar features! It's not a matter of Rift is new and WoW is old. Perhaps it's more that WoW never really gave the features some people were looking for and that they've found in these other games.
Playing MUDs and MMOs since 1994.
Locking the thread for now and will also be moving it over ASAP.
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