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World of Warcraft: Our Exclusve Preview
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Our writer Richard Duffek has just completed his preview of World of Warcraft based on his beta experiences. Here is a excerpt from it:
Graphics ;) Easily one of the most fought about aspects of the game, Blizzard has decided to take a unique approach to the graphics in World of Warcraft. Most companies these days are trying to make their game as realistic as possible, both in environment and in character models. Blizzard has stuck to the true feeling and look of the Warcraft game world from the RTS series. They've given it more of an artsy cartoon feel that most people who have played any of the Warcraft games from the past will instantly recognize and feel at home in. |
To read the full preview - click here.
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
The dead know only one thing: it is better to be alive.
Comments
What will he do next?
Actually I wrote that Preview before I ever went on the Fansite Event or wrote either the EQ2 Fansite Report or the EQ2 Beta Journal. I feel I gave it a fair preview, I listed both good aspects and bad, I said what I didn't like about it and gave my reasons why. No other game came into question when making those decisions. At the time that I was previewing WoW I had not played EQ2 at all. I wouldn't call myself a fanboi of any game, tho I will say that now that I've played both, yes, I prefer EQ2 to WoW. I ran the preview by several other people who have tested WoW before submitting it and they all seemed to feel it was a fair and accurate analasys/Preview of the game. And as I've always said, anything I write in a Preview or Review is PURELY my opinion, you have yours, I have mine, and we're both entitled to them. I said several times that WoW is indeed a very well made game, one of the best to come along in a long time, it's just not my personal style.
---------- MMORPG.com Staff --------- Desolation Guild Website ----------
Richard J. Cox
"There were much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust."
I think it was well written and accurate to everything else released about the game so far.
Blizzard has never been known for innovating, they take a known formula and polish it. They have done the same with WoW as they have done with all their other games. I'm sure it will be a success just like everything else by Blizzard. There is allot to be said about knowing what to expect for a product you wish to appeal to the masses.
Sadly that seldom appeals me.
I'll postpone all final judgments until after it's released.
-=-=-=-=-
Opinions are like armpits, everyone has them, and they frequently stink.
Bartle: A: 93% E: 55% S:3% K: 50% The Test. Learn what it means here.
-=-=-=-=-
Achievers realise that killers as a concept are necessary in order to make achievement meaningful and worthwhile (there being no way to "lose" the game if any fool can "win" just by plodding slowly unchallenged). -bartle
Bartle: A: 93% E: 55% S:3% K: 50% The Test. Learn what it means here.
I do admit it was written well, that's not my problem with it... nothing's really my problem. It just seemed that you didn't really enjoy the game all that much.
That's what "I" got out of it. I could be wrong, I could be right.
Othen then that, well job.
*EDIT*
Plus I understand this is Blizzard's first attempt at a MMORPG. So things will change later in the times.
What will he do next?
Some people call it "sandwich" style combat, meaning hit auto-attack and go fix a sandwich, come back and loot the corpse and move on to the next targe
A phrase coined directly because of Everquest, and completely irrelevant to World of Warcraft. Sure, you click to attack, but walk away from the keyboard and you're dead.
The game definitely plays smoothly. It plays just like you would expect a MMORPG to if you've ever played one before.
WoW played nothing like I expect an MMORPG to play. MMORPGs are usually clunky as hell and take ages to get immersed and forget you're playing a computer game (if that even happens). This is something else entirely.
To me going and killing 5 rats is NOT a quest, it is a task. Delivering a letter from NPC A in one town to NPC B in another town is NOT a quest, it's a task.
^ This doesn't sound like a preview at all. It sounds like a 10-year-old brat stamping his feet because he didn't get the flavor ice-cream he wanted.
Of course, as you say, you're entitled to your opinion. I'm just surprised there wasn't a less snooty or more enthusiastic member of staff available to preview the most anticipated MMORPG on MMORPG.COM.
I did it several times, I'm sorry if you're unable to do so. In my opinion there was nothing really challenging or different about the combat than EQ or DAoC or any other game which uses the "Sandwich" style combat.
Immersion is COMPLETELY opinion based and depends on the person playing. If you were completely immersed int he game, good for you, the game is obviously the right choice for you. But no, not everyone is going to be immersed in the game, people have different preferences. And if all you've ever played are "clunky as hell and hard to get into MMORPGs" then maybe you've been playing the wrong games. But regardless, my statement wasn't referring to the immersion value of the game, it was referring to the game mechanics and such, which as MANY people have pointed out, there's really nothing new there, so, I say again, if you've played MMORPGs in the past, you'll know what to expect here.
So basically you're saying you wanted a WoW Fanboi to Preview the game so it got a better Preview? I thuroughly enjoyed the time I spent playing WoW, it's a well made game and fun to play, but in the long haul it's not for me. Once again, my opinion, if it's for you, thats fine, if not, thats fine too. And as for a "less snooty or more enthusiastic member of staff", Paratrooper, who does infact really like WoW and plans on playing it for a LONG time to come, read the Preview before I ever submitted it and agreed with everything in it, even tho he's a huge WoW fan.
Actually no, thats simply me once again expressing my opinion, I'm sorry, when I think "quest" I think of something that requires a bit of thought or effort, a challenge. According to dictionary.com, a quest is "An expedition undertaken in medieval romance by a knight in order to perform a prescribed feat: the quest for the Holy Grail." And in my opinion killing 5 rats or taking a letter from point A to point B doesn't fall under that definition. AND if you had bothered to read farther or quote the next couple of lines, you'd have noticed I pointed out this wasn't just a problem with WoW but with the Genre as a whole.
---------- MMORPG.com Staff --------- Desolation Guild Website ----------
Richard J. Cox
"There were much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust."
One thing I didn't see anything about was PvP. Did you get to play with it at all?
-=-=-=-=-
"We're a game that's focused on grouping and on solo play, you know, more group oriented, more solo play..."
John Blakely Senior lead for EQ2. Link
Bartle: A: 93% E: 55% S:3% K: 50% The Test. Learn what it means here.
-=-=-=-=-
Achievers realise that killers as a concept are necessary in order to make achievement meaningful and worthwhile (there being no way to "lose" the game if any fool can "win" just by plodding slowly unchallenged). -bartle
Bartle: A: 93% E: 55% S:3% K: 50% The Test. Learn what it means here.
Reading what you've written makes me not want to even second guess WoW. Why? So many bad remarks...
That's all I'm saying. Doesn't seem worth my $0.02 right now.
What will he do next?
Kunuo, I'm not suggesting that a "WoW fanboi" be the one to preview the game, but I just find it astonishing that out of every preview I've read on the net, the one on MMORPG.COM is the most negative. This is especially baffling given the fact that it's the most anticipated game on here!
Anyway, good luck with EQ2.
What previews are you reading? I have heard nothing but negative about WoW.
I still will give it the good ol' gamer's try. Eventually...
You mean "negativity".
You're seriously telling me you haven't heard anything positive about World of Warcraft? I'd suggest you've been hanging around here too long.
I'm starting to think I have too.
It seems to me even by the reviewers standards that WOW is a solid and potentially entertaining game.
Criticizing Blizzard for making a good game simply because they didn't add anything new to a game that they already knew was going to be good seems a bit like sour grapes. Finding the game to be nearly flawless someone who prefers something else simply HAS to say something negative about it in order to lend some sort of quality or validity to their preferred game even though it may not be as solid in actuality.
In other words its like saying "EQ2 may not be as good overall as WOW but hey at least they did something unique (locked encounters? more realistic graphics?)."
ROLEPLAYERS UNITE!!!!!
Critical thinking is a desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and hatred for every kind of imposture.
This "preview" has turned up a lot of remarks! I love it!
Keeps people on their toes!
What will he do next?
I can't say I was too fond of the review myself. Certainly not with the sandwich combat remark. I hail from Asheron's Call where I play a mage who doesn't even have time to type during combat because I'm mashing so many buttons. I was still mashing buttons on my Druid during the WoW Stress test. Granted, it was a lot less mashing, but I never thought it was a wise idea to walk away during combat in WoW.
The general tone of the review seems like you were looking for things not to like, and when you found something, you ran with it. When you couldn't, you conceeded and moved quickly on to something you could turn your nose up at.
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Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
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Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
from a person who played WoW phase one, I have to say that Kunou hit the nail on the head several times.
In my opinion the main reason WoW wont be purchased by me is the fact that it offers absolutely nothing new under the sun.
With 14 mmorpgs under my belt, I am dying for something radically new and different, and when I played WoW...it didnt do it justice.
I am not saying the game sucks..I just want to play something "new" and WoW isn't "new" ...just "polished". Most people like polished over new and that's cool too. But I have to say I agree with Kunou's preview.
Also, someone mentioned that WoW should be previewed by a fanboy. Why would you want to do something like that? A fanboi will offer nothing but biased opinions.
Also to the other player that's shocked that he has never seen a negative review on WoW...they are out there. I went to google and found 11 high visible well-known game reviewers giving it an ok review just like Kunou did.
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
What's with the double post?
I too have more then a few MMORPGs under my belt. I'm just wanting to see a preview of EQ2 that's not with the NDA. I thought it was foolish that he had to say what SOE wanted.
What type of preview [whatever he wrote] do you call that?
And what's SO NEW about EQ2? I haven't seen one new thing?! Just nicer graphics. Same grinding wheel we've all come to love... same skills, same profession... oh that's it! 15 new races... Neat, I'm now a frog and a bird in EQ2
Anyway. More professional is what we're saying.
What will he do next?
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
And it looks like I can be a troll for both threads.
Sweet!
What will he do next?
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
I have played many MMO's and the questing system in them leaves alot to be desired. They often end up being something where you end up with peices of the quest and you have to log out look up the item to find the quest it is involved with and then print out the quest. Then log in decide if you want to do the quest if you are able to do the quest. Often times just delete the item or do the quest to clear space in your inventory.
With WoW I noticed the quests that had items involved in said quest were not obtainable unless you had accepted the quest, you then could only get enough of that item or items to complete the quests. It never turned into an inventory problem. Most quests I did had enough information in the quest I was able to figure out what to do without having to log out and going to a website and looking up the quest. You can call them quests or tasks but the system they are in is better than most MMO's. Blizzard has set up a system that will make it easy to add new quests to their vastly superior questing system that are more to your liking.
Dumin
Well seeing as my name was mentioned I thought I may as well say something. I really do like WoW and I have a heck of a lot of fun in it. When I got to read Kunou's preview I thought it would be rather negative seeing as we've talked about the game before, and I thought i'd be trying to argue on most points. This however was not the case, when I actually went through each area of the game thinking about it, the preview he wrote was very accurate including what he said about the quests (although i did argue a bit on that aspect of his preview). It's rather odd though, sitting in front of a preview saying the games not that great, and yet knowing this and agreeing with it, still having a great time.
"I can see World of Warcraft being extremely fun for a LOT of people out there. It is an extremely well made game. It succeeds very well at what it's trying to do. Unfortunately, in my opinion it's not trying to do enough. It really brings nothing new to the table."
Thats one stand out statement I think. It's a very well made game, and it's taken in aspects of other mmorpg's to try and make a "complete" game. For my fun factor I don't need new and innovative to keep me going. I personally hope WoW and EQ2 will act as a bridge heading towards innovation and as "completeness" on everything so far for a fantasy mmorpg (you may not get what I mean there).
If i end up playing WoW after having tried EQ2 and other mmorpg's which i mostly likely will, theres going to be a very good reason.
*Notice: The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author... got sick of holding backspace.
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ParaTrooper, That guy that used to mod the MMORPG.com forums.
Good Review but it missed some key gaming features.
1. What is the economic, crafting system like?
2. What role do clans play in WoW?
Still it is refreshing to see an objective account of some game features. Reviewing a game objectively does not come down to whether it is fun or not since that is subjective and depends on each individual. Instead a review must compare and contrast the game with other games and let the reader decide if it is the game for him or her.
Basically DAoC was EQ version 1.5 and World of Warcraft is EQ version 2.0. They all are based off the same model and design with revisions done along the way. WoW is certainly no ground breaking MMO which is unfortunate as Blizzard are a company that once were innovative (Diablo and Warcraft II were the benchmark for all games to come in those genres for a long time), but I suppose alot of the innovative talent have moved on to ArenaNet. The formula is tried and true and certainly a smart business move in this era of collapsing and stillbirth MMOs.
Will WoW be a good MMO, very high chance of YES. Will it offer much different outside of Universe differences to DAoC or EQLive, not really except it will be newer and all features will be in one game install instead of gazillion expansions and patches. Yes it has PvP but so does DAoC and EQ with full PvP servers.
And yes I am going to play EQ2 first, simply because it does offer something new in some areas, not alot but its better then nothing. And if EQ2 is too watered down, casual gamer oriented and it doesn't appeal to me then I'll drop it and move on to something else, either WoW or hopefully Guild Wars. At least by then any teething and major balancing problems should be fixed/identified in WoW by the time if I tire of EQ2.
You have to agree with the author... WoW is simply a very polished version of what we already play.
"I am trying to see things from your perspective but I just can't get my head that far up my @$$."
I've read many reviews (mostly informal) about WoW. I've also talked with two friends who were in the stress test. I have to admit that the overwhelming majority of the feedback was very positive. If I were to guess, less than 5% of the feedback I've read was negative. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but when its attached to MMORPG.COM then I would expect it to be unbiased. It is interesting that the preview's author has what looks to be an EQ2 banner at the bottom of the preview.
That being said, I have just read and heard far too much feedback where people are very positive about WoW to let this review alter my buying decisions.