Now the Open Beta's over - my thoughts on WoW

UsualSuspect · November 2004

I actually got into Open Beta the same day they opened it, but my hard-drive space was so small I didn't have enough to actually download and install the thing. A week later and with 200Gb's in the machine, I finally get around to playing it. Hmm. Where to start. I got to play the game for two days, and my highest level character was 7 (also three 6's), so I'm obviously not open to all the facts.

1) Too Easy - As I said above, I don't know if its like this later in the levels, but I found the game to be incredibly easy. My first character, as always, was a Human Priest, because I wanted to get to know a few people first by grouping, and healers usually always get groups. Well, I never saw a single group, not once did I ever get invited, and why? Because its too damn easy. Even my Priest was soloing two +2 level mobs at the same time, and the out of combat heal time was so fast there simply was no downtime to heal after a battle either. Literally everyone was soloing.

2) Nothing to Do - Now, I don't mean there was nothing to do in-game, I always had at least 1 quest in my list to do, so that wasn't a problem. When I say there was nothing to do, I mean during combat, which.. lets face it.. is at least 75 percent of your playing time. It was like: Hit Attack, Press 2.. wait.. Press 3.. wait.. Press 2.. wait.. snooze.. As a test, I decided not to bother pressing anything on a few mobs, and I still won. I just hit Attack, crossed my arms and waited until the mob was dead. Is this a game or an interactive movie?

3) Everything Else - The graphics were nice, and the sound was REALLY well done, I was well impressed with the sound. I've got 5.1 surround, but never have I looked over my shoulder because I thought someone was behind me. How they got that surround effect to work like that, I don't know, but that was amazing.

The quests I thought were a bit basic - go kill 10 of these and 5 of these.. good, now go kill 10 of these.. good, now 10 of these.. ookay, all done. While these quests were basic, I liked the story that linked them and the reasons for doing them - I was quite content to jog around trying to kill kobolds and boars.

I've never liked PvP, but I thought it was nicely done in this. I dueled a few people and had fun doing it, instead of hating the whole idea like I have in other games. I'd like to see how a mass PvP battle would work out, that might be interesting. I think WoW is the only game where I've actually become interested in the PvP aspect, so thats a feat on its own.

Summary:

Will I buy it? No. Not in its current state. There simply isn't enough there to keep me interested - the combat is boring and completely lacking skill, especially against AI targets. The lack of grouping only adds to the boredom because you have to do the combat on your own almost all the time, so while the pretty graphics and nice sound might be an attraction, the actually gameplay soon starts to tire until you find yourself (or me at least) standing in one of the towns watching people duel, because you're not interested in going out and doing something else.

To make this game attractive they need to up the difficulty, make grouping a bigger part of the game, and tweak the combat system to make it more fun. After playing City of Heroes, Auto Attack games really do nothing at all for me.

jimothypetro · November 2004

Get ready to be flamed for having a different opinion than most of the poeple on this forum.

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"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
-- Ken Olson, chairman of Digital Equipment Corp, 1977

Shobu · November 2004

The PvP honor system, Hero classes and battlegrounds will be implemented at, or shortly after retail. These are the features that the game will basically revolve around, and I for one cannot wait.

EDIT: Your comment that the game is too easy is completely irrelevant btw... If you want a challenge, find one. Do a tough raid. Do a tough quest. I didn't find levelling "easy" at all because I picked challenging quests. I died my fair share of times and when I reaped the rewards I felt like I'd earned them. Is it up to blizzard to ensure you do quests that are appropriate to your level? No. It's up to you. If you chose to do easy quests, yay you... But don't whine that the game is too easy. You found +2 mobs easy? Woot! Try +3 mobs. Still easy? Try +4 mobs. I'm thinking this all up as I type!!

Everywhere I went in the game, the general chat was buzzing with people setting up groups for challenging quests... I've never had a problem finding a group or a suitable quest to group in.

Also it sounds to me like you found the paladins fighting style boring. Did you try any other classes? I played a Warrior in the stress test and loved it although it was relatively simplistic (because some people like that kind of class), but the Warlock turned out to be a class I could get totally immersed in and suited me so well I'm gonna play one in retail.

UsualSuspect · November 2004

Originally posted by Shobu

The PvP honor system, Hero classes and battlegrounds will be implemented at, or shortly after retail. These are the features that the game will basically revolve around, and I for one cannot wait.
EDIT: Your comment that the game is too easy is completely irrelevant btw... If you want a challenge, find one. Do a tough raid. Do a tough quest. I didn't find levelling "easy" at all because I picked challenging quests. I died my fair share of times and when I reaped the rewards I felt like I'd earned them. Is it up to blizzard to ensure you do quests that are appropriate to your level? No. It's up to you. If you chose to do easy quests, yay you... But don't whine that the game is too easy. You found +2 mobs easy? Woot! Try +3 mobs. Still easy? Try +4 mobs. I'm thinking this all up as I type!!
Everywhere I went in the game, the general chat was buzzing with people setting up groups for challenging quests... I've never had a problem finding a group or a suitable quest to group in.
Also it sounds to me like you found the paladins fighting style boring. Did you try any other classes? I played a Warrior in the stress test and loved it although it was relatively simplistic (because some people like that kind of class), but the Warlock turned out to be a class I could get totally immersed in and suited me so well I'm gonna play one in retail.

Firstly, about the quests. I did the quests that were given to me, the mobs involved simply were no challenge unless I got swamped, and that would only happen if I did something really stupid. Simply put: I couldn't GET any harder quests. The ! above the quest givers head was silver until I reached the appropriate level to pick up the quest he was offering - but the quest mobs were too easy then.

I mean, sure, I can run around mindlessly killing +4 mobs, but wheres the fun in that? All I'm getting is xp and more boredom - at least when I'm doing quests I have some sense of purpose behind it all. I pulled away from "Kill X mob Y times until level." when I quit playing EverQuest the last time. Now I prefer to have a purpose, a reason for going somewhere. Is that wanting to have my hand held through the game? I suppose you could see it that way. I see it as being 'given' the fun instead of having to try and find it.

As for the last part. I didn't even mention playing a Paladin , I played a Priest. But to answer your question, I played a Rogue to 7th, Hunter to 6th, Paladin to 6th, Priest to 6th, Warlock to 5th, Druid to 5th. Once I got to late 6th on them all, I seemed to get bored - I eventually realised its because the combat/solo play was boring me, not the actual characters.

Not sure what level you were, by the way, but I never once heard anyone ask for a group or mention starting one, not from low level or higher. Of course, it could be the simple fact that the people on my server sucked.

Ken`Shiero · November 2004

Its seems to me that this game has its problems. I couldn't get into the bets because of a faulty downloader, on to the positive stuff. From what you guys are saying this game wasn't as good as you had hoped and they seldom are. Guild Wars looks very promising and EQII is doing well. I guess WoW is the weakest link. Its funny really how everyone was talking how EQII and WoW is gonna battle it out and the other games that have come out are doing very well.

Never judge a book by its cover especially the ones with flashy action

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I must not fear, fear is the mind killer
fear is the little death that leads to obliteration, i must permit fear to pass over me and through me.
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khas001 · November 2004

Originally posted by UsualSuspect

I actually got into Open Beta the same day they opened it, but my hard-drive space was so small I didn't have enough to actually download and install the thing. A week later and with 200Gb's in the machine, I finally get around to playing it. Hmm. Where to start. I got to play the game for two days, and my highest level character was 7 (also three 6's), so I'm obviously not open to all the facts.
1) Too Easy - As I said above, I don't know if its like this later in the levels, but I found the game to be incredibly easy. My first character, as always, was a Human Priest, because I wanted to get to know a few people first by grouping, and healers usually always get groups. Well, I never saw a single group, not once did I ever get invited, and why? Because its too damn easy. Even my Priest was soloing two +2 level mobs at the same time, and the out of combat heal time was so fast there simply was no downtime to heal after a battle either. Literally everyone was soloing.
We expect there to be a lot of people at the end of the game, since we aren't putting in a steep leveling curve. -Jeffrey Kaplan *WoW.com raid interview*
Obviously it's going to be a little easy if you only made it to lvl 7. And yes, your right, after reaching lvl 10 it increases in difficulty. At lvl 13 I fought a lvl 11 Elite mob that came within an inch of killing me.
2) Nothing to Do - Now, I don't mean there was nothing to do in-game, I always had at least 1 quest in my list to do, so that wasn't a problem. When I say there was nothing to do, I mean during combat, which.. lets face it.. is at least 75 percent of your playing time. It was like: Hit Attack, Press 2.. wait.. Press 3.. wait.. Press 2.. wait.. snooze.. As a test, I decided not to bother pressing anything on a few mobs, and I still won. I just hit Attack, crossed my arms and waited until the mob was dead. Is this a game or an interactive movie?
I was a lvl 25 Hunter with a lvl 27 Warlock and we took down a lvl 29 mob that nearly slaughtered us. Both our pets died and so did the Warlock. I had 50 hp out of 600+. So once you start getting mroe spells and abilities it gets really kool. HECK I have to use three toolbars just to hold all the abilities I use.
3) Everything Else - The graphics were nice, and the sound was REALLY well done, I was well impressed with the sound. I've got 5.1 surround, but never have I looked over my shoulder because I thought someone was behind me. How they got that surround effect to work like that, I don't know, but that was amazing.
I as well loved the graphics and sound quality, truely a remarkable production.
The quests I thought were a bit basic - go kill 10 of these and 5 of these.. good, now go kill 10 of these.. good, now 10 of these.. ookay, all done. While these quests were basic, I liked the story that linked them and the reasons for doing them - I was quite content to jog around trying to kill kobolds and boars.
There was a quest where I had to search for a 'blue flame' that took me 30 minutes to find; next I had to kill some mobs to collect X item *agree thats basic*; next I had to find the right mob out of 5 possible, and kill it for a 20% drop item and bring it back; and finally I had to find a 'burning fire' to cleanse the item i just found. All this took over an hour. And there was a lot of story as to why your doing it. Best of all this was all done as a level 14. At level 24 I took a quest that made me travel over both continents and back, and through 5 zones to complete it had everything from running letters to killing mobs for item drops and even an escort section. So keep looking for those quests, good ones are out there.
I've never liked PvP, but I thought it was nicely done in this. I dueled a few people and had fun doing it, instead of hating the whole idea like I have in other games. I'd like to see how a mass PvP battle would work out, that might be interesting. I think WoW is the only game where I've actually become interested in the PvP aspect, so thats a feat on its own.
I've never been huge on PvP either but I did participate on a 10 vs 10 attack and it was kool. The only bad thing is it was a little chaotic, But I'd guess thats more because of the players not the system.
Summary:
Will I buy it? No. Not in its current state. There simply isn't enough there to keep me interested - the combat is boring and completely lacking skill, especially against AI targets. The lack of grouping only adds to the boredom because you have to do the combat on your own almost all the time, so while the pretty graphics and nice sound might be an attraction, the actually gameplay soon starts to tire until you find yourself (or me at least) standing in one of the towns watching people duel, because you're not interested in going out and doing something else.
I'm sorry you never had the pleasure of Grouping but I never found myself without a group. Thats how I was able to get to level 25 in such a short amount of time.
To make this game attractive they need to up the difficulty, make grouping a bigger part of the game, and tweak the combat system to make it more fun. After playing City of Heroes, Auto Attack games really do nothing at all for me.
I to like fast paced action but I DONT look for it in a MMORPG, if I want intense action I'll go here http://doom3.com/ or here http://half-life.com/ . Well I hope you change your mind but if not... I guess it's your lose.

Hope is a waking dream.
-Aristotle [384 BC - 322 BC]

blacksails · November 2004

good ananlogy realmreaver.

jmillerdls · November 2004

you never reached level 10?? well of course the quests are easy..the early level quests are designed to get you to 10 as quickly as possible (clearly you never made it there, shocking since its so easy)...the game starts really after level 10. im shocked anyone would write a review without ever getting to level 10...sad, sad stuff

Goob · November 2004

You don't know anything about MMORPG's.

EDIT: What was wrong with Realmreavers post? Seriously, that 'POST DELETED' is L-A-M-E.

eschient · November 2004

You do realize that the first 10ish levels are meant to be the game tutorial, right? And that locations are broken up according to level?

1. By the time you started playing, everyone else who got into open was already into their 20s and had moved on to harder areas.

2. Elite quests and instances don't start until around level 15+. And require a group. A full group. Of people who know how to play. With someone who can res. And an hour or more.

3. Anyone you ran across would have been rerolls testing out as many classes as they could for play style, not people trying out the game. With such a limited amount of play time, most people were looking to fly through as much as possible to get a feel for everything they can {including the things you didn't make it to, like talents and real AvH PvP}.

4. Most classes don't get new spells or abilities {as opposed to upgrades to starter spells} until after 12 or so, as in the early levels, you should just be learning how to use what you have.

5. Low level mobs are not meant to beat the hell out of you, they're there to be moving target dummies so you can learn how to use your character abilities. Wait until you fight a caster murloc who runs away and brings back 4 of his chain-casting buddies. Or a Furbolg shaman who throws up a healing totem after sicking couple of his buddies on you.

I was in closed beta and got my main up to level 42. In open beta I played 3 characters; 1 NE druid {21}, 1 undead mage {13} and 1 dwarf hunter {20}, to get a feel of other classes and zones. You simply do not get a true feel for the actual game until late teens and higher.

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Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.

forestdutch · November 2004

How dumb can people be to give reviews on games they play for few hours few lvls man you guys are realy idiots.

Prolly fanboi,s from other mmorpg,s (eq2mostly)lol. All who love wow or smart dont give shit about these moron reviews

But no use if your dumb, you keep making these dumb threads

Nimrod4154 · November 2004

Originally posted by forestdutch

How dumb can people be to give reviews on games they play for few hours few lvls man you guys are realy idiots.
Prolly fanboi,s from other mmorpg,s (eq2mostly)lol. All who love wow or smart dont give shit about these moron reviews
But no use if your dumb, you keep making these dumb threads

He has not spent a few hours. I know that it takes atleast 4 days of gameplay to get that many players to level 7. All of his points were correct and your just another WoW Fanboy who assumes anyone who doesnt like the game is an EQ2 Fanatic. These reviews are what some people are basing on whether or not they want to buy the game. Ive played the game since beginning of Stress Test and got a shaman to 29 and a mage to 18 and I agree with everything.

Games Played:DoAC, EQ, CoH, Lineage 2, Planetside, and Shadowbane.
Games Playing:None:(
Waiting For:WoW, EQII

forestdutch · November 2004

Man they get dumber and dumber every min ,eq2 crap fanboi,s agree with other eq2crap fanboi,s there review about WoW LOL

jimothypetro · November 2004

Originally posted by jimothypetro
Get ready to be flamed for having a different opinion than most of the poeple on this forum.----------------------------------
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
-- Ken Olson, chairman of Digital Equipment Corp, 1977

Yes I quoted myself.

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"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
-- Ken Olson, chairman of Digital Equipment Corp, 1977

khas001 · November 2004

ok if you take 4 days to get 4-6 toons to get to lvl 7 you dont know how MMO's work. It took me 6 hours the first time I played to get to lvl 10 with a NE and NE's have to run around a lot in the first 10 lvls. The second time took me mearly 2 hours to get to lvl 8 with my orc shaman.

Seriously, maybe it's just that he's not good at playing MMORPG's... I know here's a game for ya, maybe this is more his speed... http://www.silent-running.com/lord.htm

Hope is a waking dream.
-Aristotle [384 BC - 322 BC]

SpeedMann · November 2004

I leveled to 7 in a hour so you shouldn't comment to much about the game. Some people will like it some won't. There's lots of choices for everyone out there. Try and find one you like.

==================================================
speedmann.blogspot.com

*Guild Wars and World of Warcraft will kick @55*

Nimrod4154 · November 2004

Originally posted by forestdutch
Man they get dumber and dumber every min ,eq2 crap fanboi,s agree with other eq2crap fanboi,s there review about WoW LOL

Ok now I seriously doubt you are 26. I dont play EQ2 and dont plan on buying it. Just another ignorant guy who believes every Blizzard games is perfect.

Games Played:DoAC, EQ, CoH, Lineage 2, Planetside, and Shadowbane.
Games Playing:None:(
Waiting For:WoW, EQII

Nimrod4154 · November 2004

Originally posted by khas001

ok if you take 4 days to get 4-6 toons to get to lvl 7 you dont know how MMO's work. It took me 6 hours the first time I played to get to lvl 10 with a NE and NE's have to run around a lot in the first 10 lvls. The second time took me mearly 2 hours to get to lvl 8 with my orc shaman.
Seriously, maybe it's just that he's not good at playing MMORPG's... I know here's a game for ya, maybe this is more his speed... http://www.silent-running.com/lord.htm

Hope is a waking dream.
-Aristotle [384 BC - 322 BC]

Yes but not everyone has 7 hours to play when they get home and then can stay up all night playing. Yes you can get to level 8 in 2 hours if you just sit there doing non stop boring quests. I found the quests to be just as boring at 25 as I did at level 5.

Games Played:DoAC, EQ, CoH, Lineage 2, Planetside, and Shadowbane.
Games Playing:None:(
Waiting For:WoW, EQII

Harafnir · November 2004

Question: Why do people even discuss and argue over a post where someone shoot down a game after reaching lvl 7? It is clear he does not like these types of games, if he can set a review in print after 7 levels (That is the beginning of tutorial) flaming the game. he is just a guy playing the wrong genre and will probably be better off waiting for the next Diablo or something similar.

All games are not for all people... This was not for him.. that has no reference to the quality of the actual game. Leave it be, take to a post that matters from someone who has played it.

Man.. its exactly like the EQ II lovers that defended the game brutally against old beta players with "What I have heard..." It is so easy to have a rock solid opinion when you know absolutly nothing.

____________________________
Waiting for WoW, all of a sudden. Damn open beta.
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khas001 · November 2004

well I'm sorry you didn't like the quests. Maybe you should go play FF. Then you can grind to your hearts content. Personally I loved reading the backdrop of all the stories. Sure there were to kill 10 of this so I can make a good stew/potion/my revenge, but most quests had goos story and reason.

But thats jsut me...

P.S. B4 anyone trys to sneak in a Fanboi comment. I've already admidtted many a time, Including NOW, I AM A BLIZZARD FAN BOY. Blizzard.com IS my Homepage. AND I'M PROUD OF IT!

Hope is a waking dream.
-Aristotle [384 BC - 322 BC]

dougfrippon · November 2004

Jesus, the "nothing to do" part is making me crazy. I played a Shaman in the OB, and I had about 3 full bars of abilities I had to play with, different totems, healing, attack spells, potions, food, it was quite a button pressing fest, and y'know my group and I actually died quite a few times in some instances, I'd like to see you NOT die in them.

RavenStJ · November 2004

This is the game I was waiting for, after working on Neocron and hop[ing that DoY would improve... it didnt , so i waited out WoW... when i got into the game the first 6 levels, I was not impressed. But, I figured lets keep pushing it and see what this game has.. after all ihunted rats.. spiders and other crap in other mmorpgs and sci-fis for hours on end.

As i pushed on, i discovered the cuite wimpy characters soon gave way to hellishly clevelr monsters.. at level 20 i was having a hell of a time with level 17 elite monsters... It shook me up, I was like what the hell is this. It me and 4 other people 3 tries on vancleef. We were overwhelmed at certain points.

I made it to 36 and did a lot of quests. There was one quest that took me from westfalls to the dwarfs to the swamps and back.. time 8 hours. Deaths 32.. hrmm I did the pre order thing asap and have gotten the spec edition,, cant wait! ::::28::

Shobu · November 2004

Originally posted by dougfrippon
Jesus, the "nothing to do" part is making me crazy. I played a Shaman in the OB, and I had about 3 full bars of abilities I had to play with, different totems, healing, attack spells, potions, food, it was quite a button pressing fest, and y'know my group and I actually died quite a few times in some instances, I'd like to see you NOT die in them.

Yeah it makes me mad too. I've never played a computer game of any genre that keeps you so busy and "up". If anyone has downtime in WoW they should blame themselves.

A lot of people tried WoW with predisposed opinions on it that were never gonna change (too cartoony (because EQ2 looks just like reality... yeah ok) and it's for kids (it's for everyone and not just spotty geeks. Those days are now gone thanks to WoW)) and for now, that's their loss.

In a couple of months when everyone is raving about WoW and it becomes well known as an extremely fully featured game, they can swallow their pride and join the fun.

Realmreaver · November 2004

Originally posted by blacksails
good ananlogy realmreaver.

Would be if they didn't delete it. I try to be honest and they tossed me blow. /shrug BTW that was the statement about gerbils right?

"love how they make an announcement saying open beta will be coming soon, then turn around and say it won't be here for a while.. its like poetry, only it sucks.. " -About Blizzard and their concept of 'soon'

Drunky · November 2004

Well i had fun playing the OP with my Paladin...make it up to lvl 14...had fun since lvl 9-10.....It will keep me busy for a,long time!....i love the way the game is done...cartoonish...takes less graphic power to play it so it play smooth...i did pre-ordered the Collector's Edition cuz i think this game rocks....you can actually play solo for quite a while...compare to FFXI..that i played way too much...anyway...i can't wait for the retails when the servers and bugs will be fixed

Was my 2 cents....thx for reading it..

Realmreaver · November 2004

Originally posted by khas001

well I'm sorry you didn't like the quests. Maybe you should go play FF. Then you can grind to your hearts content. Personally I loved reading the backdrop of all the stories. Sure there were to kill 10 of this so I can make a good stew/potion/my revenge, but most quests had goos story and reason.
But thats jsut me...
P.S. B4 anyone trys to sneak in a Fanboi comment. I've already admidtted many a time, Including NOW, I AM A BLIZZARD FAN BOY. Blizzard.com IS my Homepage. AND I'M PROUD OF IT!

Hope is a waking dream.
-Aristotle [384 BC - 322 BC]

LOL in EQ I past people and people past me in lelvels.... rule 1 in any MMO make ALOT of friends of various level cause you never know when you all might need one another...

"love how they make an announcement saying open beta will be coming soon, then turn around and say it won't be here for a while.. its like poetry, only it sucks.. " -About Blizzard and their concept of 'soon'

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Now the Open Beta's over - my thoughts on WoW

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