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Many answers needed for many questions!
Akumasama
Member Posts: 4
Hi everybody! I guess I'll be posting here on MMORPG.com, given the big quantity of competent players you can find here 
I don't want to discuss wether WoW is good or bad, it's a very different game from all the rest of MMORPGs we've seen until now, and this made WoW SO different that for some aspects you may love it, and for some others you may complain the lack of something. I'm here just because I have some questions. I guess for many questions there is no "official" answers, so I'm asking just for your, I'm sure of it, very competent opinion, that's all So let's go for the questions, I'll use Bold to separate the different questions.
1) Plot Related
I did not play Warcraft III. I know it was a very very very good game, and I don't want to deny it, of course. Still it didn't "catched" me as Warcraft, Warcraft II and Starcraft did. The 3D graphics was really inferior to the 2D one of Starcraft (imho, of course!), and they changed the gameplay so much with all that hero stuff that in the end I didn't like it a lot. I think they made the right move, instead of bringing just a copy&past of the previous games, they tried to innvoate bringing something new. This is very good for the gaming industry, but personally I would probably have preferred a game more similar to the previous one (which probably would have been a worse game than Warcraft III was).
Since I didn't play a lot Warcraft III, I really don't know from where are Night Elves coming from. WarI and II (and beyond the portal) had normal Elves. Where are they now? Why are Night Elves in their place? I whish someone could explain the plot reasons for this choice. Thanks!
1.1 Another Plot Related question
What about the horde? How come they are on the same world? In Warcraft I and II the orcs and the horde came from ANOTHER DIMENSION, arriving in the world of Azeroth through the Dark Portal. You even explored the world of the horde in the Warcraft II expansion set called "Beyond The Dark Portal". So how did Blizzard explain this, apparent, paradox? Does something happens at the end of WarIII that brings the 2 world together?
2) Graphic
WoW has really beautiful graphics. The engine is really light and can handle a lot of effects without becoming super-heavy. Flying on a gripphon across the skyes of WoW, seeing how the land scroll benath you as you ride freely in the sky is something uncompared... So beautiful! The draw distance too is very good, and the animation are soo smooth! Another very good thing is how almost everything is seamless as you go from area to area, instead of all those boring load times like in Everquest 2 or Final Fantasy XI. This aspect is more important that anybody think, in my opinion. It really makes the experience better, as the beaeutiful environments and area creates a wonderful atmosphere. There is one part I don't like much though. Even if very good animated (and I mean VERY good) the characters are a lot blocky/edgy. I still have to try on a GeForce 6800 Ultra, but I think the models would remain the same. Do you think they will ever get updated? Maybe in the far future? I'm not talking wether Blizzard will actually do it or not. I'm asking: is this technically POSSIBLE in your opinion? And if it's not (I guess it's very hard to update the 3d models of the characters with just a simple patch or an expansion disc), do you think there will ever be a fitler, maybe a very heavy one, that could make the character look less blocky/edgy? Thanks
3) Instanced Dungeons
In other MMORPGs playing alltogheter in the same areas created problems. Like people killing you with monsters they were zoning, or people stealing the treasures or the monsters you need for the quest XXX and so on. Even if this is a REAL problems in other MMORPGs, I think the solution of Instanced Dungeons is a bit too drastic. No well let me correct myself, it COULD be a bit too drastic. It depends on HOW much it is used. For example I think there aren't, actually, really isntanced dungeons. But so-called Instanced dungeons inside which you have some instanced AREAS. I would like to know, what percentage does those isntanced areas represent amongst the whole available areas in WoW? Like if you look at EVERY place of WoW, the whole WoW world, how many Instnaced areas do you have? 10%? 50%? 90%? Just that. I would like to know because a low percentage is a very good choice, in my opinion, let's say a good compromise. But a high percentage imho is BAD for what a MMO game should offer, that is PLAYING TOGETHER, not playing alone with yourself or your party, and knowing other people are there just because you see them in cities or because you chat with them with a /yell or /tell command.
4) How much big is the world?
I think the are 2 great areas, the Horde area, and the alliance area. This is a deep question for whom has been playin' WoW a lot of time, and hence has explored a lot of areas. How big is the world of WoW? Is it bigger than EverquestII's? (which is not that big after all), and Final Fantasy XI? (which have probably the bigger world I've ever seen, the only problem is that you need to spend like 6 months to level up, to be able to explore it all)
5) Character Customization
You cannot customize a lot... For example weight and Height. Blizzard said they needed to create fixed models to smoothly animate them. I understand this point and they did a wonderful work. But about height they could have made something more. For example, instead of letting the users chose a level of heights, letting the users chose between 3 choices. For example Tall, normal and small. So you could have had 3 different models. It wouldn't have been hard to create identical models but slightly taller or smaller than the original one. In my country there is a thing we say "you made 98, you could have made 100". In the end we only have 8 DIFFERENT 3D models between wich we must chose. It's bad to see every human with the same height, and so on. I guess they will never update this point, so I can just complain 
But about the customization, there is one very stupid thing I noticed. You can customize according to a few fields (like face, hair, horns and so on). Instead of creating 8 BIG groups of options (one for every races) inside you could have like 50 possibilities for every field (like 50 faces, 50 hairstyles and so on) they created sub-groups! So you don't have only 8 of them, but you have humanpaladin, humanmage, human rogue and so on. This is BAD because in the end every group only have like 10 options for every field (like 10 faces, 10 hairstyles, even though some are shared amongst the different groups). This makes me even more mad than a game with just few options. Because here we have A LOT of possible combinations in theory, but only a few really possible ones! This feels like a waste of possibilities to me! I tried more than 1 hour to create a Human Mage I could have liked. No chance! I could only create characters with old or werido look
I like to play in RPG servers, so I like my character to represent me, I want to create one I like! How can I role-play if I have a character I don't like at all?
So let's come to the question: do you think the range of possibilities (faces, hairstyles, horns and so on) will ever increase in the future? What do you think about it? I think Blizzard never made official announce about this issue.
6) Competitive vs Cooperative
I think both of these aspects are very necessary in a good MMORPG, even though maybe people is so bored of many years of Cooperative-driven MMORPGs that now they want to have a moment of relax with just competitive play 
In my opinion WoW is, for now, very weak in the cooperative side. You can always make party, of course, but in reality you make it only when you are forced to do so (like specific quests). Only a really SLIGHT percentage of people try to make parties, and often they are frustrated because nobody else wants to. Instead of announcing they are working on this side too, Blizzard annouced they wants to improve even more the Competitive side of WoW (like with battlegrounds). This put me in panic
I mean, I like that FINALLY in this game you can soloplay whenever you want, cutting all those boring dead times between fights. This is REALLY good, but don't you think they should make cooperative play (partyplay) a little more "interesting"? Giving it some more advantages so it could become just a little more appealing to players? You should always (or almost always) be able to play alone, but you should not forget that maybe the best part of MMO games is that you can play TOGETHER with thousands of people. If you play within a group of thousand of people but ALWAYS ALONE what's the good point of playin' a MMO game? You can play an offline RPG and satisfy your frag needs on FPS or other games, isn't it? I like that WoW finally doesn't FORCE you to wait hours to get a party, and that if you WANT you can play the game ALONE from the beginning to the end. This is good! But in my opinion it becomes a little less good when EVERYBODY (or almost) behave like this. Don't you think? That's why I think Blizzard should make cooperative play NOT NECESSARY (of course, I don't want it like that) but at least a little more interesting, appealing and satisfing. For example every character is, maybe, too much independent. So Independent that when you create a party you don't have a specific role... They should tweak abilities, talents and whatever to assure that you can still easily solo-play, but that you are a little less independent too, so that in a party youre role is more specific and crucial. What do you think about it? What direction will WoW take? Will it be just a wonderful and fast MMO game that you finish in 4-5 months and after on you just go on playin' for raids, assoults and PvP? Or will they work on the cooperative direction too, instead that just in the Competitive one?
Ok I'm finished. I just hope they'll add a new class, a Monk-like class that fights with his own fists, or maybe something like the DiabloII assassin, or FFXI Monk or EverquestII Brawler. I think this is a serious possibility, what do you think? And I hope they will extend the possible class for races too. It's a shame only Elves and Tauren can be Druids, and it's a shame Humans can't be rangers
Comments
1)The night elves and the High elves are related. Actually the High elves are Night elves that fell prey to the addictive power of magic and did not wanted to stop using it and as a result, got exiled. that was around 10000 years before Warcraft 1. Now, the source of their magic got destroyed in Warcraft III and all got in a bad crisis of abstinence.
They managed to derive magical power from blood and got rebaptised the Blood Elf. They left the Alliance when the remains of it offended them and joined Illadan, the NE Demon hunter, in the Outworlds. they have been serving him stll. This of course do not count ALL the elves of Quel Tha'las, but most of them.
the leader of the elves, a female ranger called Silvana, got killed by Arthas, prince of the humans and corrupted by the Scourge to become a Death knight, and resurrected as a banshee. She managed to free some of the undead, though, and they are now called Forsaken, allied with the Horde.
1.1) In warcraft 3 it comes out the Orks had been corrupted by the demonic forces of the Burning legions transforming their shamanistic and peaceful culture in bloodthirsty and violent. The Burning legion wanted to use them as a hammer to smash the natives of Azeroth to then conquer that world, but they failed. the native world of the Horde got destroyed and the only remants left fled trough the dark portal to Azeroth where they lived in prison camps for long years until Thrall, son of Durotat, only chief that didn't drank the demon blood and so not corrupted, freed them and led them on the other side of the ocean. There, they met up with the Night Elves, fought the corruption, won it and allied with humans of Jaina proudmore, daughter of the the Admiral, and the NE themselves to fight the Burning legion and their undead Scourge (the second weapon the demons used to weaken azeroth).
There they also allied themselves with the Tauren that they helped to save from the bloody centaurs. At end of all, the horde found themselves on this desolate continent, alone and free from the demon corruption. So now they are quite different from the ones of Warcraft II, much more honorable and spiritualistic than savage barbarians, even if of course they are not saints nor sheeps. The forsaken, a group of undead that broke free from the Scourge, joined them for convenience more than friendship.
you can find the complete story, including all this and more at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/story/
2) of course it is possible they get updated, surely no problem from a technical point of view as DAoC and EQ did it several time in the past. The characters, howver, are "simple" to favor better performance both in net and computer. So as hardware grows and net technology become more advanced, it will be possible to have better models. Still, do nto expect a complete departure from thsi artistic style.
3) cannot give you a complete percentual, but keep in mind that the instanced DUNGEONS (they are whole dungeons, not only areas of a dungeon as you say) are not that many (18 total, plus 2 raid instances). The rest of the world is all completely seamless. So i would say a 10% is instanced, total.
4) i am not sure how big is the world, but i can assure you that is quite big. Plus is not as cut and dry as you put it, there is no "Alliance" and "Horde" area. Both have presence in both continents and most of the areas are "contested", IE: not owned fully by any of the two factions. The only full alliance and Horde areas are the regions immediatly outside the capitals AND 1 region away from them. Total of 6 for alliance and 5 for horde. (Horde has the Barrens, a really huge area, that is next to both orgrimarr and thunderbluff).
Most importantly, the world feels nice. Because in each and every region, there are dozens of interesting thing to see. a ruined shrine here, a mage tower there, furbolg encampments yonder, a ruined sailor outpost, pirate camps etc etc etc. Really a lot to cover.
5) surely it is possible and i think Blizzard will add more possibilities to the ones already existing. I didn't even noticed the faces/styles were different from class to class
6) i am sorry, you can't have it both ways. It is exactly because the characters are varied and each possess a loads of skills and abilities, that solo play is possible. Changing it would make Group play the way to go and other way around. But, actually, i think WoW IS a group game. small group game. I think you obtain the best results when you play in small group of 2 or 3 people. I can tell you this as i always play with my wife. and sometimes i play alone. i can tell you with my wife, i am proceeding much faster than alone. So it pays off to make a small group. For large groups, i do not know, maybe later on. For now i needed a full group just for some quests as you said. Sincerely i find nothing wrong in it, i do not HAVE to PLAY with all the thousands of players around to be a MMorpg. i can interact with them by talking, auctioning, getting in a guild and so fort.
That is all . Bye!
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
I don't think Blizzard will change this. The reality is that unless you create a game mechanic that *forces* people to group, they will not group often outside of grouping with friends from RL. That is the case is *any* game. Most people prefer the flexibility of being able to play the game without a group and so they will do so to the extent that the game mechanic allows it and does not *force* them to group to accomplish things. I don't expect that Blizzard will change this because it appears to be a very popular aspect of their game ... namely that people can play most of it solo (outside of instances and elite quests and higher levels), which makes it appealing to most gamers. I honestly think most gamers prefer to solo most of the time and have other people around to socialize with in a chat channel unless they are actually playing the game with pre-existing friends or loved ones. I think people like the social aspect and the presence of some cooperative play, and this is what attracts them to an MMO as opposed to an offline game, but they do not want mostly cooperative play. I think that's just the nature of many gamers. Blizzard tapped into this with WoW and so I highly doubt that they will make any significant changes to this.
___________ ___ __ _ _ _
Stealth - Ambush - Hemorrhage - Sinister Strike x2 - Cold Blood - Eviscerate - Vanish - Preparation - Cold Blood - Ambush - ... you're dead! :P
Tank you very much for your time. You kindly answered all my questions, and you read all that stuff! Whoa! I'm impressed
I guess I learnt everything I wanted to know. Oh and, since I forgot to say that before, please pardon my very raw english ^_^;
For Johnark
Can you please tell me the exact name of that strategy guide? Or Gimme a link?
For Volkmar
Whoa man thanks for that link and your explanations. They helped me a lot
For Novaseeker
You got quite a good point there. Yeah I believe u're completely right. WoW is "different", as I said before, and it's this DIFFERENCE that makes it appealing to a lot of people who never liked MMORPGs, or who god bored of 'em after years of play with the same mechanics.
For me... I still can't decide. I guess I will wait a little bit more. Maybe the expansion set. Maybe sooner, who knows? It's just that many aspects of the game I don't like... I do prefer cooperative play much more than competitive. If you have a static it's easy, otherwise it's hard... when you send an invite you always get refused, almost all the times. Dunno... Playing solo is cool I guess. I wished I could do it several times in FFXI, but even though sometimes I like it, I prefer deep strategy and a mechanic with specific role, where you are part of a group where everybody has a specific role, and you need everybody to act at his best to remain alive. In FFXI this is really rare, 'cause usually you find bad parties, or power players, or whatever (that game is so full of problems...) but when it happens is so godly satisfying. It's wonderful. So sad it only happens rarely.
Even though, on the paper, I don't like many things of WoW, still there are so many things that attract me a lot, and I mean a lot. Dunno... I definitely have to play it more deeply. Guess I'll wait as a watcher for now, to see how it evolves.
If you think about it, WoW is a really young game for now, MMORPGs usually reach maturity after at least 1 year.
Let me say it one more time: THANK YOU! U've been really kind, u can't tell how much I appreciated it
Uh another thing, it's just a stupid one btw...
I've heard that WoW doesn't have a housing system. Is this true?
it seems pretty strange to me... Is Blizzard thinking to include one in the future? No official statements yet, I guess... what's your thought on this issue? 
I agree that the late game is very group-oriented at the moment because it is mostly elite and instance quests/raids. I think that the prior poster's statement holds true for most of the game, and then when you hit the late game, it changes dramatically ... a game that was really very solo-friendly is not solo-friendly any longer. I guess that's fine, but it's pretty interesting how the game changes at that point. It goes back to my earlier point about people grouping when they are forced to. The late game in WoW forces you to group, really, so you will either group or you will leave I guess.
You are right, as i said, maybe later on
you seems to confirm this fully. thanks. I reached just level 21 at the moment and , of course, my answers are based on that (plus what i read, but mostly my personal ones... )
Have a nice day.
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"