Forgot to mention that I know tons of people, guildies an non (bf included) who all played in vanilla and still love the pants off the game...if it wore pants...
Great question: Why do I still play wow? After my 1st response to this question which turned into a thinly veiled bitch feast of what I though was wrong with wow, I was disappointed with my self. Why do I still play this game? I took a 6 month break from wow at the end of last summer, I re-subscribed both my son and myself this spring with the goal of downing the lynch king. As i said before I started playing WoW about 8 months before BC was released. Up until the ROTLK was released I always felt like I was playing behind the curve of most people. I turn 70 just as most people stop running heroic dungeons; I got into raiding in KZ only as a lot of the friends I had made in my 1st guild got burned out and stopped raiding. I finally had "made it" with ROTLK because I started Naxx raiding w/ everybody else and my guild was in 3rd place for completing Uldar at which time I took my 1st break from the game. I when thru warcraftrealms.com census data and was amazed. It had never registered with me how many characters that I had leveled with, raided with and in general had fun playing with were no longer playing wow. I was never one to jump guilds; even so I've been in 7 guilds of which only 3 still have any active members. I could find only one other toon who was in my 1st raiding guild still playing. So, why I'm I still playing wow? I like to complete what I choose to start and WoW drew me into a very cool world and story line. I want to kill the lynch king and finish that story line. I finally got that far in ICC last night and it was bloody fun being able to finally attached him. While playing wow of the last 4 years, I have enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment of reaching each level, 70 then 80, going from casual raiding to hardcore raiding and at the same time I felt like a lot of it was work: why did I get that dang dragon mount in BC? And why did I level up all those professions? That really was more work than fun. I'm now at the point of feeling like I can finish the game, which for me is downing the lynch king.
Unlike each of the previous expansion, the new expansion does not interest me at all. I my mind the new expansion really is a complete new game. I may try it but with so many other cool games out there I've put it low on my list of games to try. WoW – been there done that (except for the lynch king of course)
I first stepped foot in WoW in 2005 as Alliance, playing alone mostly I ended up playing Guild Wars for a while instead. I introduced my sister to gaming around this time and as a result have some good memories of GW, it's a good game but didn't manage to hold my interest after a year or so...yup, I got out my copy of WoW and reinstalled it and tried again taking a friend and my sister along with me, this made all the difference! Went back as Horde and not really looked back since, the reason I still play aside from having responsibilities to my guild as a main healer and the fact that my boyfriend now is my Guild Leader (gives me little choice!) is the people in the guild...friendship and feeling a sense of belonging, I try not to play too much to avoid burnout as it's something that I fight with sometimes, I log in to raid and gather herbs for flasks and chat with guildies and thats about it these days.
I admit though that if I feel a bit nostalgic I log a low level alt and quest for a bit in the old world, thats where my fond memories are, from levelling back in vanilla, I didn't raid back then (started in BC)
p.s Everyone should take a group to strat to experience it at min level...oh the fun! 5 man instances are nothing like that anymore, it's sad...
I don't live in the past or the future, just the present.
Past is for rotting old corpses and the future has not hatched yet. So I presently play with the wife and have all the expansions and I am enjoying it.
Originally posted by arenasb I have played since beta. This past xpac I was off and on for various times. Despite my bitching about certain points about the game I did enjoy it for a large part. However, I'm sick and tired of raid end games and wow right now is all about raiding.
This^^.
I still play off and on, more so around expack time. the game is still great, I just wish it would grow more depth and add more fluff, housing, collections etc., but that's why my off time from WoW is spent in EQ2 and Lotro.
To answer the title, I played Vanilla and play off and on now.
In Vanilla, I played alliance and really enjoyed the World PvP (spent a lot of time defending Astranaar or attacking XR) and I really liked the old honor system. I had made Knight-Lieutenant before I took a break from PvP. I still have the character with the title though I rolled Horde a little before BC.
Strat was one of my favorite instances and the timed run was a fun challenge to attempt. I also spent a lot of time in ZG, though I was not big on raiding.
Honestly, I enjoyed the challenges of Vanilla. In the current version of the game, there are still challenges, but they are in the form of "Defeat Super-Bad-Ass-#324 while running backwards and singing Kumbaya" instead of just "Defeat Super-Bad-Ass-#324". Point being, it used to be the boss that was difficult and not the boss plus modifier.
Still, the game is fun to jump on for an hour here or there and I now play it very casually as a break from EvE (which I play slightly more, but still casually..:P)
-mklinic
"Do something right, no one remembers. Do something wrong, no one forgets" -from No One Remembers by In Strict Confidence
I played WoW since beta on and off. Twice I left for half a year (2nd time due to being married). I play on and off now leveling alts, leveling tradeskills and doing business on AH ( I can earn 10K in a week if I need it quickly ). I play VERY casually (sometimes i play for just 10-20 minutes checking AH) thats why I only have 3 level 80 toons, 3 in their 70s and the rest are 30/40/50
But for the people going back to Cataclysm, don't get your hopes up too much. It's just going to be the same thing over again just like Burning Crusade. It's just the same thing over and over again, and blizzard are very good at manipulating the nieve people who play World of Nocraft.
I read your post and agree with you mostly. But isn't every game expansion/patch/update "the same thing over and over again"? Talking content, not new features (which Cataclysm does have as well). More dungeon content, more battleground content, more zones, etc. Every game is the same.
MMM, not every game. Age of Conan added in a new expansion and added quite alot of new and interesting features, same with some of the Everquest 2 expansions added in some new features that were never done before, but thats not really the point,. My point is new dungeons, 2 new races, raids, and battleground content is nothing new in World of Warcraft. It's just the same thing over and over again of which they have been doing to the game since the first expansion that had come out 4 years ago. This isn't really my problem with the game though. Don't take what I'm saying the wrong way.
I'm not one of those WoW haters who just complain about WoW because it is one of the most successful MMO's in history. WoW is a pretty good game, and it deserves that much, but alot of people like me who have played it since the beginning have eather gone to hate it or don't play it anymore because of one simple reason. Because the game is way to easy now. Anyone can get epic gear without hardly lifting a finger. I don't know why Blizzard has kept nerfing the diffculty of the game, because it was never really a problem. If the game wasn't so focused on obtaining badges, and giving everything to the casual player I probably would be still playing it.
I don't find it enjoyable when I see 100's of people with the same gear I have and they have hardly even put in any time at all to get it. Thats why so many people liked the Original World of Warcraft, because the ones who played the most were rewarded for it, and rarely did you ever see someone with a full set of judgement on there paladin. It made the game rewarding and fun, and made you want to play more because you wanted to same thing that other guy had, but then all the casual players starting whining that the game was to hard and it took to much time for them to get the same stuff. So now WoW caters to the casual player, all at the expence of the hardcore players who actually played more, knew more about the game in general. They are also removing alot of the features that were introduced into WoW that made the game more deverse. Like alot of the Stats, like mp5, and alot of others.. so too me that tells me right off the bat this game has not only been dubbed down it also has been turn into a game for retards who can't do simple 8th grade algebra.
I'll wrapp up this post with saying Tauren Paladins? Hello? I don't really need to say anymore then that. I think you all know were I'm comming from..
I have played since January of 2005 and I still continue to play. Throughout vanilla and BC I was mostly a pvper. My original 60 was leveled up on a pvp server, I believe I was about 45 when BGs were added. Before that, Hillsbrad foothills was the place for pvp. Playing on a pvp server in vanilla was great, mostly because of all the neat conflicts that arose in certain areas, such as Nesingwary's in STV. That was also when your level didn't matter quite as much since no one was really geared. I went to Molten Core a few times and spent many hours in ZG and AQ 20.
In BC, I spent an equal amount of time in pvp and raids. I really only ever raided T4 content, since I was in a small guild, but I spent a lot of time in the BGs. I really grew to hate the arena and the importance that was placed upon it for the best pvp rewards. Resilience was introduced with good intentions, but I believe that the resilience system simply didn't work, still doesn't in many regards.
WotLK I became a raider. Since my guild was able to take on 10 man versions of all of the raid instances, we were able to progress through the expansion pack. I had all but stopped pvping. I have had a blast through the raiding scene, but it's getting a bit tiresome now. WoW is ready for Cataclysm, but Blizzard doesn't have Cataclysm ready.
I have had a subscription for nearly the entirety that I have played, missed the AQ event due to an extended move, but the wife and I continue to play. I always have one eye out for another quality mmo, but nothing can grab my attention like WoW can. Before WoW I played UO, AC1, AC2, DAoC and Shadowbane. I have tried LotRO, Aion, and WAR but none of them can pull me from WoW.
As long as Blizzard keeps the game interesting I will continue to play, but I do have hopes that FFXIV or GW2 will turn out to be quality games, because it would be nice to find something completely new. Otherwise, I might have to wait for Blizzard's next mmo.
What do you base that on? I've played since European closed beta. We had a rather hardcore raiding guild back then, most of the people I got to know from vanilla are still playing WotLK all though some a bit more casual due to family/work issues and an over all more casual friendly game play.
We've all had our breaks and side steps, I've raided endgame in both Lotro, Vanguard and AoC (and PvP'ed endgame in WAR) since then, but somehow WoW has been the only game actually sticking us together. There are many enjoyable mmo's and also mmo's I prefer above WoW, but in the end it is my friends, gamemates and guildies that matters the most to me in mmo gaming; hence I've always kept my WoW sub open. People complain about progress resets, but it sure has its huge advantages when returning after longer breaks, I think maybe this is the main reason I still stick to WoW ; a couple of weeks steady work and you're set to go raiding with your friends again
PvP player as early as Vanilla. Blizzard made everyone a Raider in Wotlk, despite the succes of Wintergrasp at launch. LW was simply put too popular for its servers. That means Blizzard needs to redo the small rvr mechanics in CATA.
Wotlk shows one thing; there is a limit to PVE content. You don't have this in PvP.
Cata's PvP competition will bring an interesting twist to a new Azeroth. It's about time WOW focused on PvP again, because players that play for a competition against other players are the backbone for lasting gameplay. Rated Bg's and casual RvR mechanics are a staying power for subs: -e-sports more than ever.
Look at SC1 and WC3.
GW2 to follow, but I'll pass on FF14 (too slow - pve only) and perhaps try SW, but I am doubtful of its PvP status.
Played all the rest of the "killers" and was impressed by their lack of substance and gaming value overall.
I guess those who left WOW for lotro, conan, war, aion, vg found themselves lost after a while and disliked the genre even for the wrong reasons.
Its embarrassing when an NPC compliments you in an MMo, the only relevant, cool and epic things come from players whispering you Grtz, mate, we did it. copyright Pilnkplonk
WoW is the only MMO I've played consistently for the previous 6 years. Still very much enjoy the game.
How much did Blizzard pay you for this post? ^_^
Actually, he paid them over 1000 dollars in subs. A small amount compared to investing in all those other duds.
Its embarrassing when an NPC compliments you in an MMo, the only relevant, cool and epic things come from players whispering you Grtz, mate, we did it. copyright Pilnkplonk
If it was free to play, it might be worth playing a few days a month. Too repetitive, and predictable, but if that's your thing, go for it I say. Paying and then being teased with content for a month, that you should have gotten all the first day, just isn't my thing in a MMO. Makes my stomach crawl, to see a game artificially lengthened in the cheesiest ways possible.
I started playing WoW at European launch and have played it on and off since then, being currently subscribed.
I have absolutely zero interest in PvP or raids, and have no obsession with gear, but am simply running the PvE content mostly solo and occasionally duo with a RL friend and across multiple characters, the highest being 68.
WoW is one of a number of MMO's I play, usually for a month or two at a time in the case of WoW. It's a very good game albeit not the best one, and I imagine I will continue to play it on the same basis for a long time to come. I doubt very much that my approach to the game is a unique one.
After WotLK expansion, I gave up on WoW. WotLK was only fun as a Deathknight BEFORE the NERFS.
1.Deathknights should not have been merged with the general game and pvp. Blizz should have continued to develop a more challenging game play for deathknights only!
2.Also, Blizzard killed twinking for me! Hours upon hours of 19, 49, 59 pvp gone. With Blizz's patches to make the game more casual user friendly, some of my gear enchants were nerfed: they required lvl 35 or 55. I never used exploited gear so I was very upset to see all my time running Zul'Gurub, and Argent Dawn quests down the drain.
3. Gamers stop running Vanilla WoW raids, such as Molten Core. Why should they? It was much easier to go to Hellfire at lvl 55 (yes 55 with mage port or pvp group with Outland as base) grind to 58, run quests for better gear than Molten core and then enter 59 pvp. When WotLK came out, gamers stop running heroic Outlands for the same reason they stop running vanilla WoW end game runs.
4. Pvp servers where not pvp servers. PvP server should be a server where you can get attacked by the enemy faction at anytime and anywhere even starting areas (starting areas a little extreme but I would love it). So frustrating to hit Westfalls at level 19 and I could not attack unless a) they were flagged or b) they attack me first! In most cases, they would call for high level to come and pwn (which is understandable for gamers who suck at pvp....... but again, why were they on pvp servers?)
on and off... longest probably 6 months off, after hitting 70 on TBC....
unlike most people i don't miss vanilla, i mean TBC was shit... it really was (Although i liked the vagina islan.. sorry "quel'danas", but Wotlk was slightly better. I don't miss the grinding honour for rank (even if i was the first to knight champion on darkspear EU.. then university 3rd year kicked in lol)
I do miss old old AV... now it's very arena orientated... not as much fun.. no summoning ivus or calvary or using the wing commanders... sigh good times in AV.
i don't miss the 40 man raids, i don't miss MC, or dire maul for the special "enchants" or the "baron run"... i don't miss lagforge.
i do kinda miss some things though, the paladin/shaman alliance/horde only... bolvar in SW keep. a certain marshal that needs rescuing
good times, but everything changes... i do still play but... only because nothing better has came along. I do play Fallen Earth occassionally... the rest.. tried but... pretty "meh". I still have a bitter taste to what Mythic did to warhammer....
at the moment i'm playing more starcraft 2 beta, and console games (red dead redemption, etc)... but i'm always subscribed to one MMO (beats brain dead tv)
I am looking forward to the new cata expansion, simply because i want to see Azeroth moving on... and gilneas looks awesome. Plus i'd like to see the gnomes get gnomeregan and be able to explore Azeroth fully...but who knows how long it'll hold me :P
"nothing actually matters, we're just slightly evolved monkeys clinging to a dying piece of rock hurtling through space waiting for our eventual death." - Frankie Boyle, Mock The Week
I'm the same, started playing in 2005 (actually played EQ2 at launch for a year before that). Took a long break (about 1.5 years) when my daughter was born. The game has definetely changed, some things I don't agree on but others I think definetely improved the game (no more 40 man raids, easing the leveling process). What I think is amazing and sad at the same time is early on, when you first played wow it was amazing because really there was nothing else like it. And here we are now, almost 6 years since the game launched and there still isn't anything that's been launched that's been 'amazing because there is nothing else like it'.
Everyone gives Blizzard and WoW a hard time for numerous reasons, but the fact of the matter is you don't just stumble upon 11 million subscribers if you're not doing something right.
I'm the same, started playing in 2005 (actually played EQ2 at launch for a year before that). Took a long break (about 1.5 years) when my daughter was born. The game has definetely changed, some things I don't agree on but others I think definetely improved the game (no more 40 man raids, easing the leveling process). What I think is amazing and sad at the same time is early on, when you first played wow it was amazing because really there was nothing else like it. And here we are now, almost 6 years since the game launched and there still isn't anything that's been launched that's been 'amazing because there is nothing else like it'.
Everyone gives Blizzard and WoW a hard time for numerous reasons, but the fact of the matter is you don't just stumble upon 11 million subscribers if you're not doing something right.
I completely agree with your assessment. If another mmorpg would have come along and had a similar amount of polish as WoW, but was a different game, they would have found success. Many other mmorpgs have seen smaller successes, and there is nothing wrong with that, but no one has really tried anything drastically different.
WoW wasn't all that original, it just blended what was right with mmorpgs and removed a lot of what was wrong with them, and they did so with a tremendous amount of polish. Blizzard continues to make changes to the game, some more drastic than others. WoW 1.0 was a very different game than WoW 3.3 is, and 4.0 will even make further changes. People like to think that WoW is stagnating or dying, but the reality is that the game is still on top after 5+ years. Blizzard does have a way at keeping the game fresh in intervals, and that's how they retain many of their players. I imagine Cataclysm will probably sell extremely well, along with all of the other versions of WoW.
What other developers/publishers fail to grasp is that you're not going to beat Blizzard at their own game, so stop trying to copy WoW and come up with a new idea. If they could make a game that was familiar enough, yet also provided enough differences to make the game feel extremely new, and did so with polish, they'd find a lot of success.
I've been playing since March 2005 and just like everyone else I've been off and on with it ever since. I loved vanilla WoW but didn't really get to experience it to its fullest so I can't really say much on its behalf. BC, however, I think was a ton of fun and the game was definitely headed in the right direction. All the way up to Sunwell that xpac was very nicely done. Wotlk is a different story, I don't even really feel like I'm playing WoW anymore, I feel like I'm just doing a chore when I log on and farm heroics. Thanks to the RDF you'll barely see anyone leveling in the original zones anymore. Its all ghost towns.
and
"Reforging (changing) the gear stats to your own personal taste and redesigning the classes and their talent setting."
^ I personally think that is stupid. Just my 2 cents.
Been playing WoW off an on, mostly on, since early beta and yeah I still play. The reasons I've always gone back is to keep my girlfriend happy but I recently realized another major component I thoroughly enjoy and really miss in other MMOs, addons. Yeah I'd rather play an early EQesque type of game, I really hate that Blizz thinks we can't handle invisible enemies at 10 or realize that getting clubbed in the back of the head before then might slow us down but I cannot stand being locked into a UI after having the freedom I do with WoW and that's why i think I'm still there, besides the fact that we finally found a server I'm really happy with. Arthas is excellent on both sides for those looking, highly recommend Twisted Fate for horde if you're looking for a guild, solid, mature but not boring guild. Nothing similar that I've found on Alliance side I'm afraid. But still a very solid community... for WoW.
Played in some form: UO til tram, AC, EQ, AO, WW2O, PS, SB, CoH, AC2, Hor, LoTRO, DDO, AoC, Aion, CO, STO Playing: WoW (for gf), WAR Waiting For: SWTOR, FFXVI Hoping For: DCUO, Secret World, Earthrise -S- (UO Sonoma)
I have played since December 04. I stopped playing the game 6+ times for a few months here and there. The other games I rotated around are LOTRO, EQ2, and Vanguard, though I am pretty much done with SOE.
WoW is just the most polished game out there and there is always something to do.
Comments
Forgot to mention that I know tons of people, guildies an non (bf included) who all played in vanilla and still love the pants off the game...if it wore pants...
Great question: Why do I still play wow? After my 1st response to this question which turned into a thinly veiled bitch feast of what I though was wrong with wow, I was disappointed with my self. Why do I still play this game? I took a 6 month break from wow at the end of last summer, I re-subscribed both my son and myself this spring with the goal of downing the lynch king. As i said before I started playing WoW about 8 months before BC was released. Up until the ROTLK was released I always felt like I was playing behind the curve of most people. I turn 70 just as most people stop running heroic dungeons; I got into raiding in KZ only as a lot of the friends I had made in my 1st guild got burned out and stopped raiding. I finally had "made it" with ROTLK because I started Naxx raiding w/ everybody else and my guild was in 3rd place for completing Uldar at which time I took my 1st break from the game. I when thru warcraftrealms.com census data and was amazed. It had never registered with me how many characters that I had leveled with, raided with and in general had fun playing with were no longer playing wow. I was never one to jump guilds; even so I've been in 7 guilds of which only 3 still have any active members. I could find only one other toon who was in my 1st raiding guild still playing. So, why I'm I still playing wow? I like to complete what I choose to start and WoW drew me into a very cool world and story line. I want to kill the lynch king and finish that story line. I finally got that far in ICC last night and it was bloody fun being able to finally attached him. While playing wow of the last 4 years, I have enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment of reaching each level, 70 then 80, going from casual raiding to hardcore raiding and at the same time I felt like a lot of it was work: why did I get that dang dragon mount in BC? And why did I level up all those professions? That really was more work than fun. I'm now at the point of feeling like I can finish the game, which for me is downing the lynch king.
Unlike each of the previous expansion, the new expansion does not interest me at all. I my mind the new expansion really is a complete new game. I may try it but with so many other cool games out there I've put it low on my list of games to try. WoW – been there done that (except for the lynch king of course)
your pic plx
I was there the day of launch.
I don't live in the past or the future, just the present.
Past is for rotting old corpses and the future has not hatched yet. So I presently play with the wife and have all the expansions and I am enjoying it.
This^^.
I still play off and on, more so around expack time. the game is still great, I just wish it would grow more depth and add more fluff, housing, collections etc., but that's why my off time from WoW is spent in EQ2 and Lotro.
To answer the title, I played Vanilla and play off and on now.
In Vanilla, I played alliance and really enjoyed the World PvP (spent a lot of time defending Astranaar or attacking XR) and I really liked the old honor system. I had made Knight-Lieutenant before I took a break from PvP. I still have the character with the title though I rolled Horde a little before BC.
Strat was one of my favorite instances and the timed run was a fun challenge to attempt. I also spent a lot of time in ZG, though I was not big on raiding.
Honestly, I enjoyed the challenges of Vanilla. In the current version of the game, there are still challenges, but they are in the form of "Defeat Super-Bad-Ass-#324 while running backwards and singing Kumbaya" instead of just "Defeat Super-Bad-Ass-#324". Point being, it used to be the boss that was difficult and not the boss plus modifier.
Still, the game is fun to jump on for an hour here or there and I now play it very casually as a break from EvE (which I play slightly more, but still casually..:P)
-mklinic
"Do something right, no one remembers.
Do something wrong, no one forgets"
-from No One Remembers by In Strict Confidence
I played WoW since beta on and off. Twice I left for half a year (2nd time due to being married). I play on and off now leveling alts, leveling tradeskills and doing business on AH ( I can earn 10K in a week if I need it quickly ). I play VERY casually (sometimes i play for just 10-20 minutes checking AH) thats why I only have 3 level 80 toons, 3 in their 70s and the rest are 30/40/50
I am the type of player where I like to do everything and anything from time to time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor - pre-WW2 genocide.
WoW is the only MMO I've played consistently for the previous 6 years. Still very much enjoy the game.
MMM, not every game. Age of Conan added in a new expansion and added quite alot of new and interesting features, same with some of the Everquest 2 expansions added in some new features that were never done before, but thats not really the point,. My point is new dungeons, 2 new races, raids, and battleground content is nothing new in World of Warcraft. It's just the same thing over and over again of which they have been doing to the game since the first expansion that had come out 4 years ago. This isn't really my problem with the game though. Don't take what I'm saying the wrong way.
I'm not one of those WoW haters who just complain about WoW because it is one of the most successful MMO's in history. WoW is a pretty good game, and it deserves that much, but alot of people like me who have played it since the beginning have eather gone to hate it or don't play it anymore because of one simple reason. Because the game is way to easy now. Anyone can get epic gear without hardly lifting a finger. I don't know why Blizzard has kept nerfing the diffculty of the game, because it was never really a problem. If the game wasn't so focused on obtaining badges, and giving everything to the casual player I probably would be still playing it.
I don't find it enjoyable when I see 100's of people with the same gear I have and they have hardly even put in any time at all to get it. Thats why so many people liked the Original World of Warcraft, because the ones who played the most were rewarded for it, and rarely did you ever see someone with a full set of judgement on there paladin. It made the game rewarding and fun, and made you want to play more because you wanted to same thing that other guy had, but then all the casual players starting whining that the game was to hard and it took to much time for them to get the same stuff. So now WoW caters to the casual player, all at the expence of the hardcore players who actually played more, knew more about the game in general. They are also removing alot of the features that were introduced into WoW that made the game more deverse. Like alot of the Stats, like mp5, and alot of others.. so too me that tells me right off the bat this game has not only been dubbed down it also has been turn into a game for retards who can't do simple 8th grade algebra.
I'll wrapp up this post with saying Tauren Paladins? Hello? I don't really need to say anymore then that. I think you all know were I'm comming from..
I have played since January of 2005 and I still continue to play. Throughout vanilla and BC I was mostly a pvper. My original 60 was leveled up on a pvp server, I believe I was about 45 when BGs were added. Before that, Hillsbrad foothills was the place for pvp. Playing on a pvp server in vanilla was great, mostly because of all the neat conflicts that arose in certain areas, such as Nesingwary's in STV. That was also when your level didn't matter quite as much since no one was really geared. I went to Molten Core a few times and spent many hours in ZG and AQ 20.
In BC, I spent an equal amount of time in pvp and raids. I really only ever raided T4 content, since I was in a small guild, but I spent a lot of time in the BGs. I really grew to hate the arena and the importance that was placed upon it for the best pvp rewards. Resilience was introduced with good intentions, but I believe that the resilience system simply didn't work, still doesn't in many regards.
WotLK I became a raider. Since my guild was able to take on 10 man versions of all of the raid instances, we were able to progress through the expansion pack. I had all but stopped pvping. I have had a blast through the raiding scene, but it's getting a bit tiresome now. WoW is ready for Cataclysm, but Blizzard doesn't have Cataclysm ready.
I have had a subscription for nearly the entirety that I have played, missed the AQ event due to an extended move, but the wife and I continue to play. I always have one eye out for another quality mmo, but nothing can grab my attention like WoW can. Before WoW I played UO, AC1, AC2, DAoC and Shadowbane. I have tried LotRO, Aion, and WAR but none of them can pull me from WoW.
As long as Blizzard keeps the game interesting I will continue to play, but I do have hopes that FFXIV or GW2 will turn out to be quality games, because it would be nice to find something completely new. Otherwise, I might have to wait for Blizzard's next mmo.
What do you base that on? I've played since European closed beta. We had a rather hardcore raiding guild back then, most of the people I got to know from vanilla are still playing WotLK all though some a bit more casual due to family/work issues and an over all more casual friendly game play.
We've all had our breaks and side steps, I've raided endgame in both Lotro, Vanguard and AoC (and PvP'ed endgame in WAR) since then, but somehow WoW has been the only game actually sticking us together. There are many enjoyable mmo's and also mmo's I prefer above WoW, but in the end it is my friends, gamemates and guildies that matters the most to me in mmo gaming; hence I've always kept my WoW sub open. People complain about progress resets, but it sure has its huge advantages when returning after longer breaks, I think maybe this is the main reason I still stick to WoW ; a couple of weeks steady work and you're set to go raiding with your friends again
PvP player as early as Vanilla. Blizzard made everyone a Raider in Wotlk, despite the succes of Wintergrasp at launch. LW was simply put too popular for its servers. That means Blizzard needs to redo the small rvr mechanics in CATA.
Wotlk shows one thing; there is a limit to PVE content. You don't have this in PvP.
Cata's PvP competition will bring an interesting twist to a new Azeroth. It's about time WOW focused on PvP again, because players that play for a competition against other players are the backbone for lasting gameplay. Rated Bg's and casual RvR mechanics are a staying power for subs: -e-sports more than ever.
Look at SC1 and WC3.
GW2 to follow, but I'll pass on FF14 (too slow - pve only) and perhaps try SW, but I am doubtful of its PvP status.
Played all the rest of the "killers" and was impressed by their lack of substance and gaming value overall.
I guess those who left WOW for lotro, conan, war, aion, vg found themselves lost after a while and disliked the genre even for the wrong reasons.
Its embarrassing when an NPC compliments you in an MMo, the only relevant, cool and epic things come from players whispering you Grtz, mate, we did it. copyright Pilnkplonk
How much did Blizzard pay you for this post? ^_^
Actually, he paid them over 1000 dollars in subs. A small amount compared to investing in all those other duds.
Its embarrassing when an NPC compliments you in an MMo, the only relevant, cool and epic things come from players whispering you Grtz, mate, we did it. copyright Pilnkplonk
If it was free to play, it might be worth playing a few days a month. Too repetitive, and predictable, but if that's your thing, go for it I say. Paying and then being teased with content for a month, that you should have gotten all the first day, just isn't my thing in a MMO. Makes my stomach crawl, to see a game artificially lengthened in the cheesiest ways possible.
(Akiraosc)
I started playing WoW at European launch and have played it on and off since then, being currently subscribed.
I have absolutely zero interest in PvP or raids, and have no obsession with gear, but am simply running the PvE content mostly solo and occasionally duo with a RL friend and across multiple characters, the highest being 68.
WoW is one of a number of MMO's I play, usually for a month or two at a time in the case of WoW. It's a very good game albeit not the best one, and I imagine I will continue to play it on the same basis for a long time to come. I doubt very much that my approach to the game is a unique one.
After WotLK expansion, I gave up on WoW. WotLK was only fun as a Deathknight BEFORE the NERFS.
1.Deathknights should not have been merged with the general game and pvp. Blizz should have continued to develop a more challenging game play for deathknights only!
2.Also, Blizzard killed twinking for me! Hours upon hours of 19, 49, 59 pvp gone. With Blizz's patches to make the game more casual user friendly, some of my gear enchants were nerfed: they required lvl 35 or 55. I never used exploited gear so I was very upset to see all my time running Zul'Gurub, and Argent Dawn quests down the drain.
3. Gamers stop running Vanilla WoW raids, such as Molten Core. Why should they? It was much easier to go to Hellfire at lvl 55 (yes 55 with mage port or pvp group with Outland as base) grind to 58, run quests for better gear than Molten core and then enter 59 pvp. When WotLK came out, gamers stop running heroic Outlands for the same reason they stop running vanilla WoW end game runs.
4. Pvp servers where not pvp servers. PvP server should be a server where you can get attacked by the enemy faction at anytime and anywhere even starting areas (starting areas a little extreme but I would love it). So frustrating to hit Westfalls at level 19 and I could not attack unless a) they were flagged or b) they attack me first! In most cases, they would call for high level to come and pwn (which is understandable for gamers who suck at pvp....... but again, why were they on pvp servers?)
Bring back Vanilla WoW pvp
on and off... longest probably 6 months off, after hitting 70 on TBC....
unlike most people i don't miss vanilla, i mean TBC was shit... it really was (Although i liked the vagina islan.. sorry "quel'danas", but Wotlk was slightly better. I don't miss the grinding honour for rank (even if i was the first to knight champion on darkspear EU.. then university 3rd year kicked in lol)
I do miss old old AV... now it's very arena orientated... not as much fun.. no summoning ivus or calvary or using the wing commanders... sigh good times in AV.
i don't miss the 40 man raids, i don't miss MC, or dire maul for the special "enchants" or the "baron run"... i don't miss lagforge.
i do kinda miss some things though, the paladin/shaman alliance/horde only... bolvar in SW keep. a certain marshal that needs rescuing
good times, but everything changes... i do still play but... only because nothing better has came along. I do play Fallen Earth occassionally... the rest.. tried but... pretty "meh". I still have a bitter taste to what Mythic did to warhammer....
at the moment i'm playing more starcraft 2 beta, and console games (red dead redemption, etc)... but i'm always subscribed to one MMO (beats brain dead tv)
I am looking forward to the new cata expansion, simply because i want to see Azeroth moving on... and gilneas looks awesome. Plus i'd like to see the gnomes get gnomeregan and be able to explore Azeroth fully...but who knows how long it'll hold me :P
"nothing actually matters, we're just slightly evolved monkeys clinging to a dying piece of rock hurtling through space waiting for our eventual death." - Frankie Boyle, Mock The Week
I'm the same, started playing in 2005 (actually played EQ2 at launch for a year before that). Took a long break (about 1.5 years) when my daughter was born. The game has definetely changed, some things I don't agree on but others I think definetely improved the game (no more 40 man raids, easing the leveling process). What I think is amazing and sad at the same time is early on, when you first played wow it was amazing because really there was nothing else like it. And here we are now, almost 6 years since the game launched and there still isn't anything that's been launched that's been 'amazing because there is nothing else like it'.
Everyone gives Blizzard and WoW a hard time for numerous reasons, but the fact of the matter is you don't just stumble upon 11 million subscribers if you're not doing something right.
I completely agree with your assessment. If another mmorpg would have come along and had a similar amount of polish as WoW, but was a different game, they would have found success. Many other mmorpgs have seen smaller successes, and there is nothing wrong with that, but no one has really tried anything drastically different.
WoW wasn't all that original, it just blended what was right with mmorpgs and removed a lot of what was wrong with them, and they did so with a tremendous amount of polish. Blizzard continues to make changes to the game, some more drastic than others. WoW 1.0 was a very different game than WoW 3.3 is, and 4.0 will even make further changes. People like to think that WoW is stagnating or dying, but the reality is that the game is still on top after 5+ years. Blizzard does have a way at keeping the game fresh in intervals, and that's how they retain many of their players. I imagine Cataclysm will probably sell extremely well, along with all of the other versions of WoW.
What other developers/publishers fail to grasp is that you're not going to beat Blizzard at their own game, so stop trying to copy WoW and come up with a new idea. If they could make a game that was familiar enough, yet also provided enough differences to make the game feel extremely new, and did so with polish, they'd find a lot of success.
I've been playing since March 2005 and just like everyone else I've been off and on with it ever since. I loved vanilla WoW but didn't really get to experience it to its fullest so I can't really say much on its behalf. BC, however, I think was a ton of fun and the game was definitely headed in the right direction. All the way up to Sunwell that xpac was very nicely done. Wotlk is a different story, I don't even really feel like I'm playing WoW anymore, I feel like I'm just doing a chore when I log on and farm heroics. Thanks to the RDF you'll barely see anyone leveling in the original zones anymore. Its all ghost towns.
and
"Reforging (changing) the gear stats to your own personal taste and redesigning the classes and their talent setting."
^ I personally think that is stupid. Just my 2 cents.
I quit before some time before Ulduar was released WOTLK was and still is just terrible imo , TBC was the last time I enjoyed WoW
Ive played on and off since a month before BC. Only reason I still come back is because nothing else has ever kept me playing.
Been playing WoW off an on, mostly on, since early beta and yeah I still play. The reasons I've always gone back is to keep my girlfriend happy but I recently realized another major component I thoroughly enjoy and really miss in other MMOs, addons. Yeah I'd rather play an early EQesque type of game, I really hate that Blizz thinks we can't handle invisible enemies at 10 or realize that getting clubbed in the back of the head before then might slow us down but I cannot stand being locked into a UI after having the freedom I do with WoW and that's why i think I'm still there, besides the fact that we finally found a server I'm really happy with. Arthas is excellent on both sides for those looking, highly recommend Twisted Fate for horde if you're looking for a guild, solid, mature but not boring guild. Nothing similar that I've found on Alliance side I'm afraid. But still a very solid community... for WoW.
Played in some form:
UO til tram, AC, EQ, AO, WW2O, PS, SB, CoH, AC2, Hor, LoTRO, DDO, AoC, Aion, CO, STO
Playing: WoW (for gf), WAR
Waiting For: SWTOR, FFXVI
Hoping For: DCUO, Secret World, Earthrise
-S- (UO Sonoma)
I have played since December 04. I stopped playing the game 6+ times for a few months here and there. The other games I rotated around are LOTRO, EQ2, and Vanguard, though I am pretty much done with SOE.
WoW is just the most polished game out there and there is always something to do.