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This is why I like WoW so much
Explorium
Member Posts: 395
It has atmosphere. I feel like it has spirit, character...mood to it. Each zone is unique and the art is really well done. I love the races (especially Horde) and the whole atmosphere of their cities. Thunder Bluff I love, cause I like Native American style cities/culture. Orgrimmar is another awesome city and I like it has much as Thunder Bluff. Even the Undead city is really cool in its own way, and I love the whole Undead thing...dunno many games (MMO/RPG wise) if any that actually let you play as the Undead. And the Blood Elves...make my gay friends really happy. No seriously, my three friends that are into each other, really like the BE because it reminds them of themselves...that is what they said anyway.
Even the Alliance is awesome. Got to love those Dwarves. 
And the Night Elves are pretty cool. And the Gnomes are cute 
Humans are typical Humans except with JAWS OF STEEL!...and the Draenei...are LORELOL
The classes are a lot of fun too. I love the Shaman, dropping down titems and stuff. They are a really unique class imo. Plus I love how they are all with nature and the "earth" 
Especially Tauren Shamans
But yes...the main reason I like WoW is it has atmosphere, character, spirit and mood to it, that a lot of games don't have. Even the so called WoW clones just don't really feel any of that compared to WoW.
And another thing but not really a main thing...the world actually feels like a real world. Like LOTRO, everything is so condensed...Bree is right next to Combe. And what game LOTRO really sucky for me, I ran out of Archet...right outside the gate was a broken wagon and the people around it were like "how will we ever get to Combe now?" and Combe is literally 5 seconds away...I pretty much logged out right then.
But WoW, like in Westfall there is a broken wagon. That actually makes sense, they still have a reletively long way to Goldshire or longer to Stormwind (their destination)...it doesn't seem out of place or make you go "WTF? walk there you stupid idiots, its 5 seconds away..."
WoW is an amazing game. Though some may not like it for whatever reason, I myself love it. I love the whole mood of the game.
Check out my nature/animal/relaxing music channel on Youtube!
My game channel on Youtube!
http://www.youtube.com/vendayn
Comments
I think you really hit the gong on this one here. This is what kept me in WoW for so long. I'm not playing now, but to this day, I'm really thankful for my moments as a noob in this game, exploring the world. Everything felt so new to me, and was genuinely amazing. The world is huge, and the background lore and characters are intriguing. I played WoW because of one thing: I wanted to go to Azeroth. I wanted to actually BE in Azeroth. Its a very fantastic and well-put-together world. Even now, I still miss that world sometimes. My greatest moments were those times when I first stepped into a major city (Darnassus, Stormwind, Ironforge, Oh my my!), was greeted by the epic music, and saw all of the elite players moving back and forth throughout the city, decked out in some of the most amazing gear I'd ever seen. It was a great experience, and one I'll never forget. This game really pulled me in when I first started playing
The feeling got lost when I realized how gear oriented the game had become, and how much grinding it required to actually enjoy ALL of the game, and not just 60% of it. The elitists, and the "thats not how you play your class" crowd turned me off. The people who weren't interested in the lore or lower level instances turned me off. I couldn't even get into some dungeons because nobody wanted to play them with me. They just wanted to rush to endgame so they could deck out in epics and raise their arena ratings. (Arena and BG's effectively killed World PVP, and just made it a random gankfest).
Speaking of gear, I hated that I couldn't wear what I wanted to wear without severely gimping my character. I always imagined putting together my own unique outfit to represent my character in this world and adventuring alongside my companions as a unique character in the world. Where the hell are my appearance slots? I can't even see a reason why Blizzard still fails to implement them. Gearscore? Give me my sense of immersion back! I'm not interested in mathematics, I want adventure.
Okay....thats enough, I'm back.
My point is that this was the same reason that I loved WoW once. Unfortunately, there are too many things that messed up this game for me, making it hard for me to just enjoy the game anymore. I could go on and on, but I think I've made my point.
I miss Azeroth...
"Everyone dies. It is how one lives that matters."
Artemis Entreri (R.A. Salvatore)
"P.S. MAKE NO DEALS WITH THE WOLF." -Durzo Blint-
"But, there is one they fear.
In their tongue, he is Dovahkiin -- Dragonborn!" -Game of the Century-
I agree with the OP, Azeroth is cool, the feeling you got was pretty epic. I remember playing in pre-BC days on my hunter and was trying to figure out a way to do my epic quest to get my bow (Rok'Delar), very unique and exciting times....
Sadly though, I do agree with rcb13 as well, the feeling you get now is... meh. You login to every alt, to run the heroic daily to get those 2 frost emblems, just to get better gear eventually. Login run, weekly raid, once we down the quest boss, everyone drops raid, nobody wants to finish the run, cause its pointless for them, the gear isnt good, so theres no point to them.
Its become a farm fest / grind fest, where you almost dont have to leave dalaran cause everything is instanced. LFG tool.... is.... for lack of better word crap. It made grouping easier, but it just took away the quality of the runs/players and overall the experience. Immersion is meh.... I play on a pvp server and my friends remember me when I use to say back in BC days, Ill use a lesser item, if it looks better on me. Now... that is long gone, if your gear score isnt on par... you're not getting a raid invite. So your stuck looking how blizz wants you to look without having any choice or customization.
Was a fun game, has become dull. Cataclysm looks promising though.... who knows if they will be able to bring back some of the epic feel we got back in Azeroth pre-BC days.
Yep, the lore and setting were one of the best parts of Warcraft in general...then they ran that shit into the ground by inundating the IP with fart jokes and flying motorcycle helicopters....
The only way that I would even CONSIDER coming back is if they introduce appearance slots vs. stat slots for the game. While this won't bring EVERYONE back, it will restore some life to the game (there are many areas in which a simple feature like this would improve the game overall). While this won't guarantee my return (I've tried it many times, and ended up leaving again and again), it would at least cause me to take a another cautious look at the game again. Otherwise, I'm not wasting my money on WoW anymore. (Lights a candle for Uther the Lightbringer and Tyrion Fordring)
"Everyone dies. It is how one lives that matters."
Artemis Entreri (R.A. Salvatore)
"P.S. MAKE NO DEALS WITH THE WOLF." -Durzo Blint-
"But, there is one they fear.
In their tongue, he is Dovahkiin -- Dragonborn!" -Game of the Century-
I can't figure out if the OP is trolling or not...
Some may disagree with me here, but I don't think those things destroyed the game. It actually kept places like the cities alive (drunken beerfests, and snow fights, machines that temporarily turn you into gnomes, dudes racing their helicopters). While Blizzard had added some silly elements to the game throughout the years, it never really destroyed the lore for me. It just simply gave our more silly players a chance to just kick it and play around with their buddies when they were bored. It demonstrated that the devs didn't take themselves too seriously, and wanted players to still have fun whenever they were not delving deep into the world and its lore. Helicopters weren't something too farfetched because of how technologically advanced Azeroth was. I never had one, but it didn't bother me to see someone with one. It allowed them to play the game the way they wanted to play it. I think that the post I typed above really summarize the reasons for WoW's eventual staleness. Even now, there are very simple features that can easily be implemented that can help this game, but Blizzard refuses to do too much changing now, but keeps pushing in one direction. And I fear that when Cataclysm comes out, players will log in, and after a few hours, realize that the game hasn't changed much since they left, and that its still not the world that they miss. This is an all too familiar experience for many of us, and I'm pretty sure that many more will go through it again at launch. Not me though. I gotta see some real change first, otherwise GW2 is where I'll be.
"Everyone dies. It is how one lives that matters."
Artemis Entreri (R.A. Salvatore)
"P.S. MAKE NO DEALS WITH THE WOLF." -Durzo Blint-
"But, there is one they fear.
In their tongue, he is Dovahkiin -- Dragonborn!" -Game of the Century-
Take a break. There is no point in playing if you feel bored. No game, not even WOW, can last a life-time. The key is to switch around and have fun.
WoW has a lot of leveling options, and lots of different things to do. For instance, I enjoy fishing. In real life and in the game. So, I like finding spots for my characters to fish. Also, cooking is practical, and has great benefits for raiding (fish feasts). However, I would like to see more party like food buffs at earlier levels. I could go on and on about all the different things you can do besides grinding for XP.
However, I don't have to quest anymore. As soon as my toon gets up to level 15 I can queue for Dungeons...and as a Healer, or tank that is the best way for me to level. I fish during the downtime or work on crafting.
In my opinion, WoW biggest problem is that there wonderful LFG hasn't taken away the need to quest. It is now a real quest to the end game. I understand that they want everyone to see their end game. But, don't they want people to appreciate all the other great work they have done. There are some great quests out there. Specifically, Battle of Darrowshire with the red path storyline where you help Redpath spirit find peace. That was a really awesome quest or the quest with Tirion Fordrings son. Now, I can just burn through all those quests, and race to Northrend...Anyways, I enjoy WoW. I will get the XP. And I will enjoy playing my goblin.
Currently Play: ?
Occasionally Play: Champions, Pirates of the Burning Sea, WOW, EVE ONLINE
This game is fun if you like everything handed to you. There is really no effort put into anything you do in this game. They took away everything that made it a challenging game. You can instantly instance with random 10 year olds, and as soon as you hit 80 are ready for heroics and after running a few of those your ready to raid. It is sad really everything is handed to you now. They even made the mechanics insanely easy with no thought at all put into it. Overall WOTLK was a huge disappointment and I dont think Ill be back to try the new expansion.
~Knaple~
that is a thing that I like about WoW though. It isn't work, and it doesn't feel like work either. For me, a game should be just that...a game...entertainment...not a second job. I like the easiness of WoW. As a casual gamer, I can raid with the big guys...I don't need to spend all day, every day raiding for uber items. I don't want to devote my life to a game, MMO or not. I can just play for fun, which is what a game should be. But I can understand some gamers do like a challenge or want to be uber hardcore. But not being able to raid and see cool stuff because I am casual isn't really fun to me.
Now, I admit to not have much raid experience. But I have seen my friends raid ICC while I've been at their place, and I raided a few times on their character(s). But I don't really have too much personal experience outside that, besides what I've seen from my friends and from what I've heard. But from everything I've seen, casual players can easily get into raids too. Which is a great thing for me.
Check out my nature/animal/relaxing music channel on Youtube!
My game channel on Youtube!
http://www.youtube.com/vendayn
This is really a strong comment and I agree, having played MMOs for years since the very beginning always trying to be hardcore and being online at silly hours to do the "hard" stuff, I really feel this has somehow come to an end over the last couple of years, RL really catching up and you cant look at this as "the other job" anymore, while I would still devote time to a really good mmo where time was needed to achieve things, I dont think it would fit the purpose for me anymore, having a game where I can have instant fun and gratification by playing at my own pace is very fitting.
I think the holy grail for the next few years will be creating a game that can provide these different levels of achievement without alienating either part of the community.
I like titems too
............ oh wait, what was this about?
I agree that Azeroth, and areas of the world made mainly as levelling content are great. All that does, however, is make me sad that the game is designed in a way that encourages people to rush through the fun parts of the game in a few days to get to the 5% at the end that is a boring repetitive grind. Yeah, I know, the fast-paced levelling and addictive threadmills at the end is a huge part of the reason why WoW is the most popular P2P MMO in the world. It just seems like such a waste that 95% of the game world is just for passing through.
have to agree.before wow had a good feeling of exploration.I left eq1 years ago because of pok now blizzard have copied it with dalaran.
people just stand there all day till they are instanced or summoned to some dungeon or raid.
Choice of play:
Playing with my level 34 Rogue and killing level 40 (!) Raptors. Quite a challenge in Strangleton Vale. Died 3 times due to non crits and the wondering unkillable level 41 didn't help either.
Why? Because the end goal of this character is becoming Conqueror and Battlemaster within a year or so.
The Raptor quest line gives a great leather chest for my PvP in the 30's PvP bracket.
I'll stop experience gains at level 37 of course and up all stats and professions to max out and own everything at the provisional end game of that 30's PvP bracket. Putting experience back on again and simply do BG's 37-39 to level.
Then the next bracket 40 starts and the goals for those long term PvP achievements.
Who even needs end game ?
)
Leveled out already the artisanal Ir bracket(200) at this 34 level, because bombs help in PvP
)
It's all a matter of choices (and end goals).
Perhaps some need to learn to play to have fun instead of moaning/standing in a City and complaining about the new unlaunched hype.
Something this site never learned: FUN at your own pace and inventive playing.
I'm really glad you are able to retain your sense of fun while playing this game. Unfortunately, I can't say that I agree with your comments towards the end of your post. The people who left for the same reasons that I left were not those who "moan or stand around in a city, complaining about the new unlaunched hype". Those are the people who never leave the game in the first place.
Sorry, but my reasons for leaving are a lot more complicated than your overly simplified assumptions. Some of them are very clearly stated above if you'd like to read them. "This site", or the people on this site have left this game for real reasons, which has been clearly stated, countless times.
Either way, please don't let any of our posts dissuade you from enjoying the game you love. Strength and honor, friend!
"Everyone dies. It is how one lives that matters."
Artemis Entreri (R.A. Salvatore)
"P.S. MAKE NO DEALS WITH THE WOLF." -Durzo Blint-
"But, there is one they fear.
In their tongue, he is Dovahkiin -- Dragonborn!" -Game of the Century-
Many other games have them and they are a pretty minor thing to add but I can't understand how they cand be the make or break thing for you.
But OP has a point, Wows large world and competent art is besides the excellent coding Wows greatest advantage.
WOW was really fun for me back in the early days, but BC started the downhill slide into the easy mode game that it is today. (and it wasn't that tough back then btw)
"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
What is funny is that I get minorly annoyed at Blizzard when zones look too much alike. For instance, Durator, blasted lands, hellfire pennsula... too me are very similar with the same reddish color.
Then I go to a game like EVE, where every 'zone' looks exactly the same and you can't tell where you are except by the words on the map. The complicated crafting system in EVE was great, but I couldn't keep playing it because the graphics were terrible. Every zone looks the same and most of your 'fighting' is done with ships that are a small and look like a * on your screen.
The thing that really got me into WOW was just the amount of detail. That whole thing with the dwarves and the target dummies ( TNT).
I never said that this was the only reason. I'm saying that I'm not sure why this is not included in the game by now (there have been many threads on the official sites devoted to this, and its not difficult to implement). Including this would allow me more freedom to customize my character the way I want him to look without him eventually looking like 40% of the other high level rogues in the game. There were many other reasons why I left, some of them which I spoke of in this thread already.
Either way, the large world, competent art, excellent coding, music (AWESOME!), presentation, and the wonderful lore (I am a lore freak) etc are indeed some of the reasons that kept me coming back over and over again. Even now, I still feel that temptation to resub, but I realize now that its mostly nostalgia, and not much more than that. Whenever I come back, I am VERY quickly reminded of the reasons I left, and my sub doesn't last long.
"Everyone dies. It is how one lives that matters."
Artemis Entreri (R.A. Salvatore)
"P.S. MAKE NO DEALS WITH THE WOLF." -Durzo Blint-
"But, there is one they fear.
In their tongue, he is Dovahkiin -- Dragonborn!" -Game of the Century-
I was there for the launch Planes of Power in Everquest and you are comparing apples and oranges. The POK portals in EQ1 where available outside every newbie zone in the world. You can't reach Dalaran in WoW until you are at least level 72 or so (I forget the exact level because I haven't levelled a character recently.)
WoW still has its sense of exploration and world size very much intact.
Still waiting for your Holy Grail MMORPG? Interesting...
I think the biggest success of wow is that it didn't allow itself to become a niche game dominated by one type of player or playstyle. Niche games that, for example, are for hardcore pvpers or hardcore raiders only, keep those particular types of people VERY happy, but will never have the success of wow because they don't compromise with other player types or play styles.
And population, despite what some posters say, does reflect mmorpg quality in one crucial area: it feels nice to be in a game with millions of people playing, it creates a buzz. You have more opportunity to meed idiots for sure (ignore them, easy), but also more opportunity to meet cool, nice and interesting people from all walks of life.
There was a moment in wow when it was becoming a game that only hardcore raiding guilds could play and if wow had not evolved beyond that then I reckon it would have crashed and become a niche game that only a few uber guilds would have played. This was their best move and they have always been a company that value diversity: diversity of players, playstyles and gaming commitments.
If a game wants to rival wow, really rival WOW for the long haul; then it needs more than a famous story, bug-free launch etc. It needs to value player diversity and not cave in to the demands of a particular niche that will ultimately scare everyone else away.
Regards
Melmoth