Believe it or not Old Wow was way more balanced in terms of pvp minus fear or the Cold Blood Ambush. The only thing i hated in old wow was the lack of control over my attacks as a Retribution Paladin. My spells meant something. If i popped Blessing of Freedom the player had to think on his feet. Paladins felt more like hybrid then they do know and healing mattered no matter what spec you where. I'll agree that trying to get GM or HWL was too hard and they could of made it directed towards the player to make it better then your overall standing on the server but in the end it made for better pvp.
My point is old wow was very cut and dry. Kill or be killed and Raid or die. Now it's all about a player sitting in Dalaran asking himself "What can i do today that will progress my character?" If a player is asking himself that question then you have failed him as a developer. A player needs a clear indication as to what he can and cannot do to progress on his own and hold meaning. Now a days it's about chasing after epics that would of been considered to be blue grade gear in old wow if he's not sitting with a 2500+ arena rating in 3-5s or clearing the cutting edge raid instance on hard mode. In old wow GM HWL and Tier 2 gear had meaning and lasted a very long time. Today in Wow epics flood my screen causing my head to do a 360 when going over the loot lists figuring out Bis.
I think it's a pretty bad example tbh, after the recent Ret nerfs, you spend a lot of time healing with AoW than before. HoF is still an important spell and people in (high rated) arenas still keep track of it and play around it properly.
"After the recent Ret nerfs" ? I can only think of 2 maybe 3 patches where Paladins let alone Retribution didn't get nerfed. 1.7-1.8 was probably the best 2 builds that balanced out the overall talents and on demand spells for the spec. Healing more with Aow procs is iffy at best given you probably rather want to hit your exo spell. Healing now as Ret is all hots and flashes. Back in old wow you'd have to be skilled enough to keep going and you had the mana pool to support this.
Heck the whole play style supported front burst damage with on demand spells that supported that game mechanic when dealing damage. Now it's like they took a Warrior gave him a mana bar and removed everything that supports his melee damage that would otherwise be on demand spells/abilities.
It makes me cry to see what Retribution has become over the last 6 months of wrath. It went from a bit op that could of be easily toned down instead of a full revamp to a garbage play style that has ever landed on the face of the spec imo.
In all right considering how underpowered and what Retribution could do in Raids in old wow and BC they should be the highest power through the life of Wrath imho. To think or say otherwise is being a bigot and just plan ignorant to the facts and history of the game's life.
The only reason why Retribution got changed in 3.2 was to keep Death Knights i a strong standing while allow for Warlocks to take back the power position in Pvp.
1) Removal of the Arena 2) Termination of Kalgan and Ghostwalker 3) A promise, in writing, that PvP balancing will never affect PvE content 4) A stricter adherence to lore 5) stricter policing of the open chat channels 6) For the forums, ONE login per account. No switching around names/avatars to 7) stricter (MUCH) moderation of the forums 8) removal of the ability to link achievments 9) removal of the armory, or at least make it an option
WoW is potentially a good game. Too bad it's run like a College frat house....
Back in the day Blizzard did police channels like trade and other open channels. You got warnings and even bans if you persisted in swearing or abusing people in trade channel etc.
These days if Blizzard banned every obnoxious idiot who was swearing and abusing people in trade channel there would be less subscribers than Age of Conan. Blizzard is content to let WoW go to hell to keep up their subcribers number.
Numbers 1-5 on your list can be solved by introducing Classic WoW servers.
1. Remove Arenas. Completely. Forever. 2. Blizzard start acting like lore meant a damn, like they used to. 3. (Impossible) Replace the vast majority of the sycophantic, me-me-me whining assholes that currently play, with people I could stand to communicate with for more than a few minutes at a time. Honestly, #3 is the biggie for me. I don't have big problem with the game itself, but it's the people that play it that made me cancel after 3 years. Just got to be too much for me, and the quality of people playing has gotten worse, IMHO.
Arenas serve as an excellent constant on line datamining balancing tool for all the classes in fixed controlled PvP settings.
Any serious PvP game should have such a balancing datamining tool for ANY serious developper.
Demanding to delete such a tool is madness these days.
It is that or wet thumb balancing practice and we ALL saw what that means in the so called " Wow killers" present and past.
----
The only sycophantic - me-me-me assXXXX" I meet are mostly situated in the forums. Impossible to communicate with when talking about the single most succesful video game ever made in the last 30 years.
Don't want to play WOW after having played for shit time ? why show interest in the forums ?
I can't help it either all of your RL friends are playing the game. Is it that frustrating ? )))
Well, here we have proof that Zorndorf is as bad as he is stupid. Guess what team dominates in 3v3, zorndorf? Thats right, its still RMP . The same 3v3 group makeup that has dominated still arenas came out 2.5 years ago. What, Blizzard cant balance 3v3 after 2.5 years. Do you even know what I mean by RMP?
As for 5v5 ... considering only about 12 people do 5v5 worldwide so it doesnt count for much.
Look at the most popular 2v2 groups. World of Meleecraft. Since season 3 melee has dominated 2v2. Gee, almost 2 years and blizzard still cant balance 2v2?
And didnt Blizzard say that in season 7 2v2 wouldnt give points or something? Pretty much Blizzard admitting they failed. Just like arena numbers have declined every season since S3.
I been playing WoW for 5 years since it started....if they bring the challange back to the game and made the lore more part of the game till then I'll just keep playing Diablo 2 till Aion release
I don't think anything they could possible do would bring me back to the game. I loved WoW for many years but for me its quitting time. Now, if only the rest of my guild felt tht way, lol.
There is just too much things i could list that is keeping me away from reinstalling Wow, fixing up all the addons and look for a new guild again that would make me come back if fixed/changed. However if they did revert the front burst damage back to Retribution where is lived for like almost 5 years I'd strongly consider coming back.
Acutally ths had me thinking. A huge turn off rihgt now for me is getting all my add-on's back and spending half the day reconfiguring them.
having the option to use add-on's is nice. But when they are almost required to advance in the game, thats ridiculous.
Nothing actually. It's about time Blizzard and its fanbase to move on. If someone has the money to evolve the genre then it's Blizzard and Blizzard alone.
Player housing is a major thing that would bring me back. Perhaps more emphasis on exploration and adventuring rather than just questing for xp/gear. More face/hair options. The ability to join any of the factions you choose no matter what race you are (Orcs joining the Alliance, Night Elves joining the Horde, Gnome joining the Burning Blade Cultists, etc).
FFA PVP server would bring me back, especially if they dumped all instanced PVP and rewarded players for open world PVP. Toss in a few keeps from that new instance they made and we'd be good to go.
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
Nothing can bring me back...okay there are a few things, but they won't make it back into an MMO made for young people.
But a start
Areans GONE, PvP balance. Every few months/weeks, they nerf one class, buff another. This keeps people playing because their bad class became good, and causes some to reroll. More people retained by that. Melee has been king for so long, it's silly.
Do what guild wars did with skills. have a PvP/PVE version. So if I attack a player, it does this effect. An NPC, another effect.
Customization on armor with dyes and such. God, so big, and everyone is a clone of the next person. All the time.
A return to what made warcraft, warcraft. The story and lore behind the game. LOL who am I kidding, MORE LEWTS FOR MEW AND YOU LOL.
World pvp, out in the open, running into a raid that was getting ready to do an instance was some of the best times I had. Than they have flying mounts, which removes any chance at real pvp. Oh boy. And even better, Guards at the PvE enterences.
-remove ghostcrawler who can only compare his spreadsheets and defend stupid design decisions, but is lightyears away from understanding the classes and their abilities' interactions among each other as actually experienced in game
-no more 10 levels of "kill 8 wolfs, bring 12 beartails" per addon, but vertical expansion of content
-bring back fun and diversity in content like in pre-BC, were you could do ten times more things compared to be forced to only grind daylies/tokens/reputation for 35+ factions as it is today
-away with the constant nerfing of all things fun and rollercoaster-ride of skills/classes, about time for meaningfull buffs instead
-bring back the unique character of classes and shove the awfull damn homogenisation because it makes it easier for their B-team to "develope" (=copy+paste!!) the joke they call "content"
-already merge my former server with the almost endless list of other servers that are as dead as could be
*edit:
away with the overuse of 100yr old 1000 times used same models and awfull ugly 256x256 maximum stretched textures
I'm really upset with the way they constantly cator to solo-players that don't want to group.
I say "dont want to group" because I myself am a solo'ish player that is always pressed for time, but I still am able to raid once a week. I can't see where anyone else is having trouble when I have a job, a wife and 2 kids, but can find the time.
Now, with patch 3.2 it is even more prevalent. You can run a new 30 minute(overestimate) 5 man instance and get better gear there than you can in 10 or 25 man Naxx raids. So in 30 minutes of VERY EASY content, you wipe out 2-6 months of somebody else taking the time to raid.
Another thing is that WOW is losing it's edge on originality. YAY...let's bring back Onyxia...'snore'. Let's bring Naxx back...Let's make every type of armor look the same for each tier. You've got to be a fool if you don't notice that Blizzard is showing a complete lack of motivation and concern for their player-base.
In short, I feel dirty anymore....there is no sense of accomplishment...you're handed everything on a silver spoon. That's why my sub ends this month.
Having to grind battlegrounds non stop to get honor is incredibly boring, and frankly unfun when that's how you're FORCED to gain honor. You should have other options other than farming battlegrounds.
Better arena PvP. When Wrath came out, arena turned into a joke.
1) Class balance rather than class tug-o-war for PvP.
2) A revamp of Dragonblight. It's a horrendous grind. The same goes for Icecrown.
3) Reinstatement of the original mount level requirements and pricing.
4) A much steeper leveling curve with enough content to satisfy the higher XP requirement.
5) Crafting made fun and far more elaborate.
6) Crafting made useful.
7) The removal of easy epics.
8) Less cookie-cutter instances and raids.
9) Harder raids.
10) A skill-based PvP game.
11) A PvE game that is more reliant on skill than on gear.
12) A PvE game that actually encourages different tactics to be used rather than picking a class and basically having one of three viable builds.
13) A way to actually make myself a toon that is somewhat unique, preferably also through other means than just high-end raiding.
14) Player & guild housing.
15) The replacement of faction and daily grinds with mostly non-repetitive content.
16) The introduction of platinum pieces. As soon as 10g for switching XP gain on and off is considered a minor fee, you ought to rethink your currency values.
17) The reworking of the game in such a way that casuals can still have fun rather than grind levels only to realise afterwards that there is not much left for them to do.
18) A complete change of player base. Their immaturity is absolutely terrible and puts me off instantly.
19) A different community approach by Blizzard; I don't want you to listen to players shouting loudest that their Shammy needs a self-res, plate armour, instant self-heals to full on a 30 second CD, and an 40yd AoE that applies a DoT, silences people, and negates all healing, only to shift it all over a month or so later after you've come to the realisation that Rogues now do a better job at screaming at the top of their lungs.
20) A different financial approach by Blizzard; I don't want you to put a lot of effort into paid character transfers, paid race changes, paid name changes, and on-forum advertisements. I already pay for the game. I want you to put in some proper content. If I wanted to dye my hair, I would've gone and played the Sims. I want you to focus on creating cool content rather than creating cash cows. Finally, if you DO decide to put up advertisements on your forums -- much against the community's nearly unanimous voice, I might add -- make sure you don't suddenly end up with gold spam advertisements on your website by accident.
21) A development team that makes up its mind. If you're a PvE game, make proper PvE goals and don't rehash content with the added 'difficulty' of ridiculous achievements, like killing Onyxia with one hand tied behind your back, your face bound inside the toilet bowl, and a midget dressed in leather tormenting you with candlewax. If you're a PvP game, make sure the PvP WORKS properly, rather than making deliberately NOT finishing a WSG run for the honourable mid-field kills more rewarding than the actual win. Also, if you're a PvP game, make sure aforementioned class balance checks out. It's usually very hard to balance both PvE and PvP for all available classes AND keep them fun to play, you're currently not doing a very good job, and that's an UNDERSTATEMENT.
22) A company that doesn't pull its best devs from the game in order to work on another project.
23) A dev team that doesn't come up with lame excuses for why they could not produce a patch that actually had some worthwhile content in it (i.e. 3.2 was terrible).
24) A better effort at keeping players that cross the line in check.
25) Better support for RP realms. Non-RPers are a plague, so that can't much be helped, but at least include stuff like cosmetic gear, more suitable RP locations, and stuff like that. Guild housing, as said, would go a long way here.
26) In short, make the game fun and challenging once again, rather than a boring, nearly mindless, skill-less, linear, unimaginative, exploitable (I'm looking at you, WSG), and mostly uninteresting time and money sink.
I'm still playing two MMOs. I pay subscription fees for both. That means I am (in this case: more than) satisfied with them and they live up to my expectations. The 26 demands above may seem stressing, but they're not unreasonable, I think, as I know of at least four games that got it right. I'm the one paying money, in the end, and I won't do it to play a game of which the only two selling points are impressive art direction and a stable client.
Comments
I think it's a pretty bad example tbh, after the recent Ret nerfs, you spend a lot of time healing with AoW than before. HoF is still an important spell and people in (high rated) arenas still keep track of it and play around it properly.
"After the recent Ret nerfs" ? I can only think of 2 maybe 3 patches where Paladins let alone Retribution didn't get nerfed. 1.7-1.8 was probably the best 2 builds that balanced out the overall talents and on demand spells for the spec. Healing more with Aow procs is iffy at best given you probably rather want to hit your exo spell. Healing now as Ret is all hots and flashes. Back in old wow you'd have to be skilled enough to keep going and you had the mana pool to support this.
Heck the whole play style supported front burst damage with on demand spells that supported that game mechanic when dealing damage. Now it's like they took a Warrior gave him a mana bar and removed everything that supports his melee damage that would otherwise be on demand spells/abilities.
It makes me cry to see what Retribution has become over the last 6 months of wrath. It went from a bit op that could of be easily toned down instead of a full revamp to a garbage play style that has ever landed on the face of the spec imo.
In all right considering how underpowered and what Retribution could do in Raids in old wow and BC they should be the highest power through the life of Wrath imho. To think or say otherwise is being a bigot and just plan ignorant to the facts and history of the game's life.
The only reason why Retribution got changed in 3.2 was to keep Death Knights i a strong standing while allow for Warlocks to take back the power position in Pvp.
Back in the day Blizzard did police channels like trade and other open channels. You got warnings and even bans if you persisted in swearing or abusing people in trade channel etc.
These days if Blizzard banned every obnoxious idiot who was swearing and abusing people in trade channel there would be less subscribers than Age of Conan. Blizzard is content to let WoW go to hell to keep up their subcribers number.
Numbers 1-5 on your list can be solved by introducing Classic WoW servers.
Arenas serve as an excellent constant on line datamining balancing tool for all the classes in fixed controlled PvP settings.
Any serious PvP game should have such a balancing datamining tool for ANY serious developper.
Demanding to delete such a tool is madness these days.
It is that or wet thumb balancing practice and we ALL saw what that means in the so called " Wow killers" present and past.
----
The only sycophantic - me-me-me assXXXX" I meet are mostly situated in the forums. Impossible to communicate with when talking about the single most succesful video game ever made in the last 30 years.
Don't want to play WOW after having played for shit time ? why show interest in the forums ?
I can't help it either all of your RL friends are playing the game. Is it that frustrating ?
)))
Well, here we have proof that Zorndorf is as bad as he is stupid. Guess what team dominates in 3v3, zorndorf? Thats right, its still RMP . The same 3v3 group makeup that has dominated still arenas came out 2.5 years ago. What, Blizzard cant balance 3v3 after 2.5 years. Do you even know what I mean by RMP?
As for 5v5 ... considering only about 12 people do 5v5 worldwide so it doesnt count for much.
Look at the most popular 2v2 groups. World of Meleecraft. Since season 3 melee has dominated 2v2. Gee, almost 2 years and blizzard still cant balance 2v2?
And didnt Blizzard say that in season 7 2v2 wouldnt give points or something? Pretty much Blizzard admitting they failed. Just like arena numbers have declined every season since S3.
I been playing WoW for 5 years since it started....if they bring the challange back to the game and made the lore more part of the game till then I'll just keep playing Diablo 2 till Aion release
I don't think anything they could possible do would bring me back to the game. I loved WoW for many years but for me its quitting time. Now, if only the rest of my guild felt tht way, lol.
Acutally ths had me thinking. A huge turn off rihgt now for me is getting all my add-on's back and spending half the day reconfiguring them.
having the option to use add-on's is nice. But when they are almost required to advance in the game, thats ridiculous.
Nothing actually. It's about time Blizzard and its fanbase to move on. If someone has the money to evolve the genre then it's Blizzard and Blizzard alone.
Player housing is a major thing that would bring me back. Perhaps more emphasis on exploration and adventuring rather than just questing for xp/gear. More face/hair options. The ability to join any of the factions you choose no matter what race you are (Orcs joining the Alliance, Night Elves joining the Horde, Gnome joining the Burning Blade Cultists, etc).
Classic servers with everything the way it was before they started to update for TBC.
FFA PVP server would bring me back, especially if they dumped all instanced PVP and rewarded players for open world PVP. Toss in a few keeps from that new instance they made and we'd be good to go.
"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
A swat team maybe
No not even the threat of death would work. Even my resurected zombie corps would tell you to go fuck yourself
Nothing can bring me back...okay there are a few things, but they won't make it back into an MMO made for young people.
But a start
Areans GONE, PvP balance. Every few months/weeks, they nerf one class, buff another. This keeps people playing because their bad class became good, and causes some to reroll. More people retained by that. Melee has been king for so long, it's silly.
Do what guild wars did with skills. have a PvP/PVE version. So if I attack a player, it does this effect. An NPC, another effect.
Customization on armor with dyes and such. God, so big, and everyone is a clone of the next person. All the time.
A return to what made warcraft, warcraft. The story and lore behind the game. LOL who am I kidding, MORE LEWTS FOR MEW AND YOU LOL.
World pvp, out in the open, running into a raid that was getting ready to do an instance was some of the best times I had. Than they have flying mounts, which removes any chance at real pvp. Oh boy. And even better, Guards at the PvE enterences.
-remove arenas
-remove ghostcrawler who can only compare his spreadsheets and defend stupid design decisions, but is lightyears away from understanding the classes and their abilities' interactions among each other as actually experienced in game
-no more 10 levels of "kill 8 wolfs, bring 12 beartails" per addon, but vertical expansion of content
-bring back fun and diversity in content like in pre-BC, were you could do ten times more things compared to be forced to only grind daylies/tokens/reputation for 35+ factions as it is today
-away with the constant nerfing of all things fun and rollercoaster-ride of skills/classes, about time for meaningfull buffs instead
-bring back the unique character of classes and shove the awfull damn homogenisation because it makes it easier for their B-team to "develope" (=copy+paste!!) the joke they call "content"
-already merge my former server with the almost endless list of other servers that are as dead as could be
*edit:
away with the overuse of 100yr old 1000 times used same models and awfull ugly 256x256 maximum stretched textures
LoL The only thing that would get me to re-install and play WoW is the following.
Instead of Pay to Play, you would have to pay ME to play.
&
Gold Farmer Executions.
Truthfully? Nothing. It was a good run, I think my big issue with WoW is that I'm all WoWed out.
I dont think blizzard could formulate anything to get me back.
The community is a big turn off. If they did something about that...(dreaming, I know). And if they made the crafting meaningful.
QFT
Just ready me for a new mmo
I'm really upset with the way they constantly cator to solo-players that don't want to group.
I say "dont want to group" because I myself am a solo'ish player that is always pressed for time, but I still am able to raid once a week. I can't see where anyone else is having trouble when I have a job, a wife and 2 kids, but can find the time.
Now, with patch 3.2 it is even more prevalent. You can run a new 30 minute(overestimate) 5 man instance and get better gear there than you can in 10 or 25 man Naxx raids. So in 30 minutes of VERY EASY content, you wipe out 2-6 months of somebody else taking the time to raid.
Another thing is that WOW is losing it's edge on originality. YAY...let's bring back Onyxia...'snore'. Let's bring Naxx back...Let's make every type of armor look the same for each tier. You've got to be a fool if you don't notice that Blizzard is showing a complete lack of motivation and concern for their player-base.
In short, I feel dirty anymore....there is no sense of accomplishment...you're handed everything on a silver spoon. That's why my sub ends this month.
Civil War between the factions
Taurens and dwarfs teaming up against a human and orc or something
Nightelfs taking in the Gnomes and the whole city blowing up in a brilliant display of carnage
Idk... somthing actually "New"
Classic servers.
Alltern8 Blog | Star Wars Space Combat and The Old Republic | Cryptic Studios - A Pre Post-Mortem | Klingon Preview, STO's Monster Play
A Funeral.
QFT
Sometimes a game just runs its course.
PvP actually being decent.
Having to grind battlegrounds non stop to get honor is incredibly boring, and frankly unfun when that's how you're FORCED to gain honor. You should have other options other than farming battlegrounds.
Better arena PvP. When Wrath came out, arena turned into a joke.
1) Class balance rather than class tug-o-war for PvP.
2) A revamp of Dragonblight. It's a horrendous grind. The same goes for Icecrown.
3) Reinstatement of the original mount level requirements and pricing.
4) A much steeper leveling curve with enough content to satisfy the higher XP requirement.
5) Crafting made fun and far more elaborate.
6) Crafting made useful.
7) The removal of easy epics.
8) Less cookie-cutter instances and raids.
9) Harder raids.
10) A skill-based PvP game.
11) A PvE game that is more reliant on skill than on gear.
12) A PvE game that actually encourages different tactics to be used rather than picking a class and basically having one of three viable builds.
13) A way to actually make myself a toon that is somewhat unique, preferably also through other means than just high-end raiding.
14) Player & guild housing.
15) The replacement of faction and daily grinds with mostly non-repetitive content.
16) The introduction of platinum pieces. As soon as 10g for switching XP gain on and off is considered a minor fee, you ought to rethink your currency values.
17) The reworking of the game in such a way that casuals can still have fun rather than grind levels only to realise afterwards that there is not much left for them to do.
18) A complete change of player base. Their immaturity is absolutely terrible and puts me off instantly.
19) A different community approach by Blizzard; I don't want you to listen to players shouting loudest that their Shammy needs a self-res, plate armour, instant self-heals to full on a 30 second CD, and an 40yd AoE that applies a DoT, silences people, and negates all healing, only to shift it all over a month or so later after you've come to the realisation that Rogues now do a better job at screaming at the top of their lungs.
20) A different financial approach by Blizzard; I don't want you to put a lot of effort into paid character transfers, paid race changes, paid name changes, and on-forum advertisements. I already pay for the game. I want you to put in some proper content. If I wanted to dye my hair, I would've gone and played the Sims. I want you to focus on creating cool content rather than creating cash cows. Finally, if you DO decide to put up advertisements on your forums -- much against the community's nearly unanimous voice, I might add -- make sure you don't suddenly end up with gold spam advertisements on your website by accident.
21) A development team that makes up its mind. If you're a PvE game, make proper PvE goals and don't rehash content with the added 'difficulty' of ridiculous achievements, like killing Onyxia with one hand tied behind your back, your face bound inside the toilet bowl, and a midget dressed in leather tormenting you with candlewax. If you're a PvP game, make sure the PvP WORKS properly, rather than making deliberately NOT finishing a WSG run for the honourable mid-field kills more rewarding than the actual win. Also, if you're a PvP game, make sure aforementioned class balance checks out. It's usually very hard to balance both PvE and PvP for all available classes AND keep them fun to play, you're currently not doing a very good job, and that's an UNDERSTATEMENT.
22) A company that doesn't pull its best devs from the game in order to work on another project.
23) A dev team that doesn't come up with lame excuses for why they could not produce a patch that actually had some worthwhile content in it (i.e. 3.2 was terrible).
24) A better effort at keeping players that cross the line in check.
25) Better support for RP realms. Non-RPers are a plague, so that can't much be helped, but at least include stuff like cosmetic gear, more suitable RP locations, and stuff like that. Guild housing, as said, would go a long way here.
26) In short, make the game fun and challenging once again, rather than a boring, nearly mindless, skill-less, linear, unimaginative, exploitable (I'm looking at you, WSG), and mostly uninteresting time and money sink.
I'm still playing two MMOs. I pay subscription fees for both. That means I am (in this case: more than) satisfied with them and they live up to my expectations. The 26 demands above may seem stressing, but they're not unreasonable, I think, as I know of at least four games that got it right. I'm the one paying money, in the end, and I won't do it to play a game of which the only two selling points are impressive art direction and a stable client.