Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Popular myths about WoW dispelled
Rekindle
Member UncommonPosts: 1,206
1. Everyone who plays WoW is a kiddie who can't handle a "real" mmo.
I've played them all from EvE to EQ. I'm an adult 31 years old, two kids and a wife and WoW's casual play suits me just fine. Sorry if I don't want to spend 1 hour of my 2 a night LFG.
There are a LOT of idiots in this game.....but there are a LOOOOTT of people playing this game. If you lack the intelligence to discern a connection between lots of people playing and a large population of Morons then here's a cookie. You only see/hear from the idiots, the cool people are playing the game and not talking out in Barrens chat.
2. WoW is very easy. Learn the difference between simple and easy. I still think going from lvl 1-60 (and now 70) on a server from scratch is simple but involves a bit of work and is therefore not necessairly easy. You can lvl pretty fast but people who hold down jobs and have kids will still take some time to advance.
3. WoW has ruined MMO's due to the WoW factor. It took someone like Blizzard who has their shit together to show up this industry. Before WoW all we had to measure ourselves on was the next SOE Expansion that wasn't ready for release. Funny how Blizzard is the only game manufacturer out there that actually waited till their game is ready for release before asking their players to pay for it. (EQ2, Vanguard anyone?). It burns my ass to see games that aren't done get released - should be illegal.
WoW, for me and a subset of the other millions of people, is a perfect storm of MMO and real life balance. I can log on and in 30 mins feel like a hero for dropping some low grade named in some cave some where. Lots of "hardcore" types would fault the game for that ....many of them are the same ones that went to EQ progression server and refused to change their underwear for a week so they could blow through the content.
4. The game is perfect. Its not perfect its not %100 polished and there wil be problems but my goodness it blows the pants off anything else on the market as far as polish goes.
This game has a lot of first time mmo'rs in it. I can tell from the posts because I was reading posts like these 10 years ago when UO first came out.
The bottom line is this game is successful BEYOND the fact its a l33t kiddie game or that its easy or that its cartoon graphics run on computers out today (rather then computers that will be released tomorrow).
For the same reason you can't believe all the hype of other games, take the negativity associated with this game with a grain of salt. After having played SOE, EA, Mythic, CCP I'm here to tell you that the makers of Star Craft and WarCraft made WoW and they made it well ....and to a large extent that is where a lot of the flaming comes from.
Comments
Just thought i'd throw in my 2 cents since your dispelling myths is based on your opinion
1. I never thought of it that way but WOW does have a ton of the "noob" players. Some are cool and enjoy figuring things out and having fun others suck and beg for help the moment they hit "create character" which is highly annoying (some veterans do this too which makes it even more annoying). Then there's the players that openly chastise them left and right hence why i turn the general chat channels off when ever i play this game. There's a low maturity level in high ammounts thanks to wow's insane popularity.
2. Wow is EASY. It is Simple. You log on you kill things, you quest stuff you gain loot and money. Its very linear, theres no concept of trading sides or building up notority for yourself (until endgame which is lame). It is only fast or slow depending on how much time you can commit too which has nothing to do with easy or simplicity of the game.
3. I dont think WOW has ruined anything. Up until wow MMOs were catered primarely towards a core gamer type. Wow simply opened it up to people who've never even tried MMOs before thats it. Nothing they've done is really revolutionary at all. They showed no one up they simply made a game that is easy and simplistic and very linear that attracts large droves. I'd call it an accident their popularity but they did already have a good name built for themselves which helped. How long it will last? is probably the biggest question. Even the mightest of them all start to lose popularity, eventually people will get tired of waiting 2 years for new lands / content.
4. Everyone throws the polish factor in...hello this game was far from polished for the first year it was released. Infact this whole last year it was being revamped left and right. It may run well, not crash alot but balance wise its not anymore polished than the others. Its simply able to gloss it over better than other game companies.
You may advise people to take negativity with a grain of salt, but really people should take positive and negative posts about this game and any other game with a grain of salt. Everyone's opinion is different, everyone's needs are different hence people go a bit wacko on these boards and others. I neither hate nor love WOW. I neither hate nor love any of the game companies that make MMOs out there. The product either appeals to me or it doesn't it, that doesn't make it a bad game (cept for SWG i think we all agreed someone dropped the ball on that).
I'll be honest i get so sick of people praising Blizzard as if they're the only ones to get it right. They got away with putting out a game that simply mashed together the best parts of other games over and over and painting in the Warcraft world. SOE even if some hate them got it right there's still enough core gamers playing they continously make content with ease for both EQ1 and 2(if there was no customer base they wouldn't bother they have to have funds). Mythic got it right they still have their core gamers. Turbine did something right its still attracting the folks their game was made for enough to produce new content. I can't comment on EA i'll always think of Ultima Online as being Origins baby, they did something right too tons of people still play UO.
No one company is better than the rest, just on that rare occasion they strike gold.
Please Refer to Doom Cat with all conspiracies & evil corporation complaints. He'll give you the simple explination of..WE"RE ALL DOOMED!
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
1. WoW is easy.
WoW is player-friend, but not easy. Depending on what class you are playing and what quest you are on, the game isn't easy. It's very difficult to solo with a Warrior, but easy to solo with Hunter because of the Hunter's pet. Missions like Deadmines get awfully deadly and take quite a while to get through with a party level 25 and under.
2. WoW is completely soloable.
They are only a few handful of people who know how to soloable the entire game by themselves and those are veterans who have played for at several months to a year. No newbie players can grasp the gameplay that fast or good enough to solo that well.
3. WoW quests are boring and repetitive.
The same quest you see in WoW are the same quests, you'll see in other fantasy based-MMORPGs. As for the boring part, that's matter of taste.
4. WoW's graphics are bad.
Hating or liking the cartoonish graphics is matter of opinion. Some people like their graphics realistics and others have no taste whatsoever.
5. WoW has a lot of first timers playing the game.
Nope, no one has done a survey to see if anyone has or hasn't played a MMORPG prior to WoW. More or less, these statements are made people who got their info from the word of the mouth or what I like to call...rumors.
6. WoW is made entirely of kids.
Samething applies here as it did #5. No one has really done survey and they are just lying because they hate WoW. They are adults playing the game as well. The game applies to a general audience.
7. WoW was a flop.
8 million people will disagree with you. Some of the people who say WoW sucks or it was bad are only condemning the game because they couldn't find a niche and the game doesn't favor their style of gamepay. They are the same people who thinks anyone playing or praising WoW are complete morons and they believe themselves to be gaming experts or professional gaming critiques or what I like to call them...trolls.
8. WoW doesn't have a lore.
WoW does in fact have a lore that transcends several games and all of it can be found at WoW's version of wikipedia. It's also included in the game, but most people who say there is no lore didn't bother to read up on the available information or read the commentary on the quest summary or quest givers.
9. WoW's PvP is geared based.
This is partially true. WoW's pvp is class/gear/skill in that order. It doesn't matter how well gear your mage is, a hunter take you out anyday of the week because that class was built to be an anti-caster. Gear is irrevelant depending on it's type. For example; elemental resistant gear makes a Warrior resistant effective against a Mage who uses element attacks, but it makes him vulnerable to other Warrior who use strength and critical gear.
10. WoW has caused all MMORPG to use WoW-like ideas.
Nope, WoW maybe a powerful force in the MMORPG market, but that's no reason for people to bite other's dev ideas. WoW isn't responsible for all the copy cat games out there, but this is due to the fact that companies are out of touch with their player base and refuse to ask what they want in MMORPG.
I for one found WoW to be very unsatisfying in terms of other MMO's I have played. I remember being impressed with WoW for about 1 week and then realizing that EQ1 had more to offer than WoW. I still remember going into Lower Guk in EQ1 and being scared out of my mind heading through there...WoW never once managed to do that for me.
WoW has lots of races/classes to choose from
Blizzard spent a lot of time in designing all zones to make them perfectWoW was also a dissapointment in Races/Classes. I can live with the fact that they dont have a ton of classes to choose from when WoW first came out, but after BC they had no excuse for not adding anymore classes such as Monks, Shadow Knights, or any other class they could think of. Instead what do we get? Horde can play paladins and Alliance can play Shamans. Blizzard just took the easy way out for balancing and instead of really putting in the effort to really make it good, just caved in.
Leveling makes a huge difference in PvE and PvPAs mentioned before, the cities and towns really got on my nerves that they were always the same no matter where you went, however even the dungeons and caves were the same in many cases. I remember going into Drywhisker Gorge and thinking...why does this caves look like a dozen others i've been in...o well at least I know where all the ore will be.
Finally, I continue to be dissapointed how leveling did almost nothing for KoS grey con mobs despite your level. In many other MMO's the higher your level the harder it was for lower mobs to even touch you and if they did they would do 1 damage at most. At level 60 Warlock on an epic mount running through Tirisfal Glade and being dazed and knocked off my mount 3 times from level 7 wolves hitting me for 14 damage everytime on a run to WPL really annoyed me. Also level should play a much much bigger factor in PvP. A level 60 warrior in full T1 gear should be able to mow down a dozen or so level 30's at the same time without breaking a sweat, instead what do you get? 8 level 30's in Hillsbrad ganking you for 30 minutes cause you cant kill them.
The graphics ARE bad... that one isn't a myth, anyone with vision can verify it. It isn't all about the cartoony style either. The games color pallet is too limited and overly bright. It's nice that it runs on a laptop, but so do other games that don't sacrifice so much visual quality to do so. I am not a graphics whore, but i do appreciate them when done well. Graphics are the main reason I don't play wow. I have thought about it several times, but as soon as I get to their website I am reminded why i dont play.
-----Zero Punctuation Eve Online Review-----
I laugh so hard when I read or hear people trying to justify the reason they play such a horid game. For the record I am a huge Blizzard fan, and actually tried to get immersed in this pastel world .. TWICE!
Wake up m8, WoW is the MMO for people who could never grasp the "other ones"... that is the reason why it has so many people playing. The game takes no skill, quests are not searched out they are spoon fed to the player, the combat system is so basic a monkey could PvP like a king.
I feel sorry for the gamers whos first MMO is WoW, because you always base your MMOs after off of your first experience, and that will do nothing but dumb down MMOs in our future.
1. Everyone who plays WoW is a kiddie who can't handle a "real" mmo.
Oxymoron argument in the first place, the only truth in this is that WoW has probably attracted a higher % of kids than any other mmorpg. As to a 'real mmorpg', there are differences between WoW and other mmorpgs beyond one being hardcore and the other not-so.
2. WoW is very easy.
The levelling curve is actually just a bit faster than some of the other mmorpgs, except it has rest xp. In terms of difficulty, WoW is made to be much more accessible and the experience is focused around the player more than anything else. So yeah, WoW is probably not as challenging as other mmorpgs, but there is a reason for that out of it's design. (Incidentally, it should be noted that there are challenging situations in WoW which can easily be dismissed all too readily.)
3. WoW has ruined MMO's due to the WoW factor.
WoW factor? It is impressive how WoW has done things, for example, previous mmorpgs would perhaps nerf at a whim.(and cost them subscribers) WoW's policy is not to nerf things but to add an improvement but taking something away. So that is hopefully one of a few standards that can be learnt from WoW. In terms of it's popularity WoW has made mmorpgs mainstream which has to be good in bringing in more developers' attention to the genre. The only thing which could be exaggerated too much but could be a concern by WoW, is that some of the qualities of yesteryear mmorpgs are forgotten, and again this goes beyond just it's hardcore nature. (Though, this concern is probably relieved when you see a mmorpg like Vanguard out, which will attract mmorpgers for different appeals than WoW.)
"WoW, for me and a subset of the other millions of people, is a perfect storm of MMO and real life balance. I can log on and in 30 mins feel like a hero for dropping some low grade named in some cave some where. Lots of "hardcore" types would fault the game for that ....many of them are the same ones that went to EQ progression server and refused to change their underwear for a week so they could blow through the content."
It has made a step in the right direction in terms of making mmorpgs that little bit more casual, but I would still say things can be improved beyond this in making the game more casual. There are too many stories of how people's lives have been taken over by WoW. Like every other mmorpg I believe it has pushed the boundary of what 'casuality' is. Playing 2-3 hours a day every day would be generally light hardcore for any game in my opinion.
"Its not perfect"
Spot on, it has inherited many of the problems of previous mmorpgs, and has the problems that come with many mmorpgs;- lag problems, downtime etc etc.
"This game has a lot of first time mmo'rs in it. I can tell from the posts because I was reading posts like these 10 years ago when UO first came out. "
it does, it bemuses me when people deny this. It does have many people who have played other mmorpgs playing it,(hence why DAoC died or why AC is dwindling) but there are also a large number of new players to the genre.
"The bottom line is this game is successful BEYOND the fact its a l33t kiddie game or that its easy or that its cartoon graphics run on computers out today (rather then computers that will be released tomorrow)."
It is, though things like the Blizzard name, the low specs requirement,the widespread of broadband, its marketing have all contributed in multiplying that success.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
The simple fact remains a lot of people play WoW and I suspect it's because it's FUN and for some folks I guess that means "easy". Fun is fun.
That being said WoW end game at 60 (I can't say at 70 since I re-rolled and not near 70 yet) was difficult. The raiding was on par with EQ1 easily on raid difficulty.
The part of WoW that has massively disappointed me, PVP. The BGs are so artificial (you can "almost" exclude AV from that list) and just seem like a mini-game. I mean WSG... is so much like 2forts from old Team Fortress it's not even funny.,, and in a Fantasy game! WoW needs a world PVP zone like AV but on a much larger scale and without this "instanced" stuff. Sure slap a cap(300-400) on it but don't queue people to get in and balance it. To do that though they really have to add siege warfare (gates, doors that you have to destroy) so when teams are unbalanced you can still hold things.
WoW is fun, the PVP is bleh. I came from DAoC and expected that level of PVP... guess I'll have to wait for Warhammer for it.
http://www.greycouncil.org/
I'd only like to comment on these 2 points.
People base their likes of graphics on different things. Personally I like realism and WoW does not accomplish that since they are so cartoony. EQ2 has "pretty" graphics more like lush art but on a technical or realistic level they're not that good to me. Immersion to me is based on how real it feels to be there. City of Heroes does this to amazing detail but no fantasy world has accomplished this for me.
Now then, for first timers playing the game... that one is absolutely true, and it HAS to be if you pay attention to the numbers. There are 8 freakin million people playing it. If you added up all the people claimed by ALL other games, they wouldn't fill 1 million, but I'll give them at least 1 million. The other 7 million would just HAVE to be new. If those 7 million played other games previously then why can't any game out there claim them as players?
You've never played a real competitive game, and if you have, it's a probably a multi-layered game where you are still on the very lowest layer of understanding of that game.
--------------------
10 million people play WoW but I have yet to find one who admits liking it?!"
"Aion has the grind of EQ, the PvP of DAoC, and the smooth playability of WoW."
Theres a couple games out there for you to enjoy if you feel that way. I've played UO EQ, EQ2, EvE, DaOC and I beta tested Vanguard for months.
The problem with having WoW conversations is people attack other people instead of discussing ideas. Yes WoW is dumbed down to some extent but that factor relates directly to the fact that a lot of old schoolers now have less time and patience for bull shit than we used to.
They're all linear treadmills people, each and every one of the MMORPGs to date. The measure of whether a game is "immersive" is not in its ability to be non linear but in its ability to make you feel its non linear.
The multiple layers or depth you're looking for is, to a great extent, found in memory or why aren't you still playing these "infinitely deep" games.
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
if I were to kill a titan tomorrow and no CCP employees showed up to say grats I would petition it.
Waiting for: the next MMO that lets me make this macro
if hp < 30 then CastSpell("heal") SpellTargetUnit("player") else CastSpell("smite") end
another pointless topic....
Kyleran worded my thought very nicely.
WOW is a nice game with good and bad sides to it. Ignoring (and trying to stay away from) all the flaming and opiniated idiots it has to be said that the target customer for WOW isn't exactly the MMO veteran, the fact that they have so many subscriptions shows that this choice was in fact a good one from a commercial standpoint. It's just that for the veteran MMO player who has been around and a bit AND has the time to put in some effort it lacks, understand that there's a whole range of players between 2-3 hours a week casual gamers and the 23/7 jobless powergamers and everyone likes different things.
It ofcourse also has to do with expectations and everyone is different in that respect, some want an easy road to follow to explore and inhale the atmosphere. Others want to be tested, taxed and made to work for their progression. It's almost impossible to create an environment that caters for both types of players (and everything in between). I happen to like having to 'work' for my gains, to be feel accomplishments as just that; things which needed effort to accomplish. In that respect WOW very much isn't my MMO, nor is guildwars for that matter. Yet I have played both and liked them both for different reasons, up to the point where I felt advancement was hindered due to lack of 'end game' or due to the fact that I didn't need to active my brain to play anymore. This doesn't mean I bash WOW, I'm someone with a strong opinion on things but also 'gifted' with the notion that people can be different and that discussions aren't about winning or losing, but about haring eachother's points of view.
I'm an EVE player atm, for the simple fact that this MMO does in fact require your brain to be active and where mistakes get punished as an incentive to improve one's gameplay and 'skill'. The more I play different games, the more I try the more I don't like... the more I start to get the feeling that DAoC was (and perhaps even IS) king in all these respects; casual gaming for those who wanted it, more hardcore for those who liekd that. Enough variables to be able to make stupid mistakes (wrongly specced) and being punished for that, a proper PVP endgame with a story to it. Crafting was ok, it took skill to be good (more skill than most other MMO's). It required teamwork, it had a minimum of instances (instancing is a bad thing) AND (perhaps the most important thing) the Devs went their own way, not listening too much to the playerbase.
Sure they made tons of mistakes but they also didn't have very much to fall back on. NOT listening to the playerbase is the best thing a DEV team can do for longterm plans simple because players whine, have hidden agenda's and 90% of the time don't even know what they want as long as it's MORE.
WOW is fine, it's just not for everyone.
Greatness is difficult to appreciate from close up. The great mountain on the horizon is only the ground when you are standing on it.