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World of Warcraft: Why Knock It?
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
The mere mention of *whispers* World of Warcraft causes some to immediately begin to sweat, set teeth to chattering and to cause copious amounts of froth to being spewing from oral cavities. Why the hate? Today we feature a new article to examine this particular phenomenon and why exactly it is that *whispers* World of Warcraft causes such high emotion of the negative sort. Read on and then give vent to your emotions in our comments section.
I am not here today to talk about Cyber Creations' plans to dominate the world however. I am instead here to analyse a certain bugbear that most of our readership hold dear like a very abused teddy bear. Of course I am talking about World of Warcraft; El Diablo, The MMO That Must Not Be Named, The Anti-Christ, Hell Bitch, World of Poop-Faces, That Dirty Popular One - and finally - World of Warcraft? More like World of Gay Craft. Because that’s totally not offensive.
Read more of Adam Tingle's World of Warcraft: Why Knock It?
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Comments
Sigh, this topic is so 27 seconds ago....
But you are correct, there is some validity behind each of your points.
There is also some validity to the counterpoints to each topic as well.
For every reason to love WOW there's a reason to not like what it brought to the genre depending on what you are looking for in your MMORPGs.
But never got to level 90 even once? Last time I did it from scratch at the launch of Catacombs and took me about a month (of not so hardcore playing)
It's sort of telling that the title didn't hold your interest long enough to get to the end game even one time.
"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
Nice write up, and the "World of Glee" is funny and scary at the same time.
You are on point with alot of what you said, for me, "World of Warcraft" will never be as good as "Dark Age of Camelot" was. DAOC was my first MMO so everything was new and different and it was a grind but that was OK because once you hit 50 RvR was there and it was fantastic, until the TOA expansion hit.
After that it was easy to give a new game a try and there was "WoW" almost perfect timing for me. I have been subbed off and on for the last 7 years and the one thing I can always say about it is there is fun to be had, sometimes you have to go through some contortions but you will eventually find it.
We are spoiled with our choices of games these days and I have tried many and am always on the lookout for the next really good one so until then I will probably keep play "WoW" off and on and also "Global Agenda" and occasionally "STO".
I dont hate any game but only have time to play a few.
I for one never said WoW is a bad game, but I do hate it. I've done my time in Azeroth and I fully believe that were I new to the game, I'd still find it pretty exciting.
I was over in the WoW forums reading the SW:TOR threads... the most common remark about it is that it's not revolutionary... just more of the same old WoW mechanics. What made me laugh the most is that they feel it's not worth the money or time to buy because it is so much like WoW. Really? And yet you still keep playing/subbing for WoW? I'd bet every last one of those... I won't be buying SW:TOR... will be there on release day in the starter zones along with everyone else.
Everyone is looking to leave WoW. The only ones who aren't are the ones that never even try other games out at all. Most everyone gave Rift a spin. They will do the same for SW:TOR. Saying otherwise would be a lie.
Some people truly don't like WoW. For whatever reason(s). That's cool. But most who say WoW sucks are only doing so because it's the top dog. If SW:TOR, or anything other game suddently dethrones WoW... guess what? That game will become the #1 target of people who like to talk shit.
I LOVED playing a fire mage solo. Now, the only sensible solo option is frost mage.
So in one move, WoW went from a good game to $#!+
If someone could explain how a solo fire mage can equal a solo frost mage, I would return to WoW today.
I don't knock WoW. I knock the envy of WoW's success by post-WoW developers. I knock the fact that I've played WoW in Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, Aion, Star Trek Online, RIFT, and SWTOR.
The games of old differed from one another. It doesn't mean they were ALL good games, but it meant that I had extreme options. These days? I have the option to play WoW 1, WoW 2, WoW 3, etc.
I just couldnt bear the graphics/visual style... thought it was relatively fun otherwise for the few months i played.
To be fair, that just meant "they all sucked in different ways". What WoW did best originally was dump the worst ideas from other developers, and run with the good ones.
If we launched an AO clone with updated graphics (and didn't give you the title), you'ld be ripping it apart for months.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
I don't hate WoW... I'm just tired of it... I'm not going to defend a game that no longer provides me with the entertainment it once used to. Problem is, you can topple the giant so long as the blind sheep continue to worship it. That's why WoW is unbeatable... not that it is a game worthy of your loyalty but rather the fact that they feel so much investment in it that to squash it would some how mean the last 7 years of their lives was a lie.
In some respects, the fact that players are jumping to new games quicker than they can reroll, change factions/races, et al may actually be a good thing for gaming as a whole... we need to instill in the developers that our dollar is not going to them because we can't bare to delete our beloved toons, but rather because they offer us something new and exciting... if that means WoW dons space suits and we all board intergalactic battleships, so be it.
Time for a shakeup... not a shakedown. Take a page from Apple... instead of status quo.. be the guy that comes up with the new ideas that everyone else tries to copy. Problem is with the competition is that they still think a copy, be it free or otherwise, is what we are looking for. It's not. Thus they fail purely by trying to give us what we aren't looking for.
To the OP: Everone is saying they are "tired of WoW".
I think they are right, but not being specific enough with their description for it to carry weight - "tired" is too general a term.
More specifically, the PvE bots are very stupid and repetative in WoW. A lot of the bots are the same with slightly different skins, e.g. - Fighter types that rush up to you or casters at range.
I think you're way off here. I'm currently taking a break from WoW, as I do quite often. I don't feel invested in it at all. I play it because every other MMO I've tried feels subpar to me. Hell, I wish something equal or better would come out. I really really do.
I am jealous of a company that can house itself in Hawaii. Just sayin'.
I think number 6 on your list should be "Shame - Played it and liked it". All those players who played it and enjoyed it for years, but then 'saw the light'. It's a redemption story and it's very attractive to the human mind. You didn't just get tired of playing, you've heroically bested the demon that was possessing you, and now you have to warn everyone else about it so they don't make the same mistake you did. Above all, they should listen to you.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
It is a common human fallacy to categorize everything with regard to themselves at the center of the world. A game/movie they don't like sucks, absolutely. So what if it made $400 mil at the box office opening weekend, it still sucks and those people are idiots.
I don't like WoW, ergo WoW sucks, because it is not possible for me not to like something that is awesome. I don't like it, so it must suck. It's not that *I* don't like it, it's that it is not likeable. Any evidence to the contrary is dismissed.
Much like religion. This is my religion. It is *THE* truth. Anyone who doesn't follow it is an idiot, anyone who follows a different religion is an idiot.
And any argument to support WoW usually ends up looking like an argument about religion anyway
there seems to exist a belief where since it has 10 million players, and has a lot of polish- that it is unconceivable people can dislike or hate it? Eg, there will be people that dislike it- same for any movie, any game- some people may dislike Tekken or Soul calibur- even if they're quality or played a lot by people- there's also a lot of people that don't go on them.
However, I digress. I think the main problem is the lack of quality mmorpgs at the moment. That is probably part of irritation. Hopefully with these new ones around the block- maybe this will be change. So people can talk about other mmos, than be resentful of WoW being the only A+ one.
Always the in thing to bash on the bigger more popular thing. Course I play WoW still mostly since every other MMO that has came out has done nothing to draw me away from WoW. Why exactly should I stop playing WoW to play the same thing in another game? ToR and Rift for example are basically WoW with prettier graphics and different settings (voiceacting isn't that big of a deal). I honestly have no interest in any game coming out until GW2 and since GW2 is F2P I'll just play both.
Or maybe some of the people who "hate" on WoW are people who previously played and loved the game, but have grown tired of it due to the direction Blizzard has taken the game. They continue to voice their displeasure because they're passionate about the game, and deep down they long for WoW to be the way it was in it's "golden" period for them, and lament the fact that the game has become to X, Y, and/or Z compared to what it once was.
That's the reason I "hate" on WoW, anyways.
Welcome to every single MMORPG in the history of the industry that has been out more than 2 years. I dont think there is even an exception to this.
I'd like to directly counter point 1. WoW was in fact the first major MMO that I played for any length of time, so by your reasoning it should be the best that everything else gets compared to. The thing is, it isn't the best by a long shot. I have found another MMO (I won't mention it because of the guaranteed insta-hate against it that would cause) which is far more advanced and involved, and I don't give WoW a second thought.
I rate games primarily based on the logistical complexity of what you can do in them. New graphics may be fun for a bit, but if the core tasks that you can do don't change (PvE grinding, PvP matches, crafting, levelling, skill trees, etc) it does get boring quickly, since there isn't really anything different. And since there are MANY completely free MMOs with all of the above tasks, WoW is not worth its subscription fee whatsoever. I will never, ever go back to it because of this; it's just too boring after a while, and from what I've seen and heard a sizeable chunk of the playerbase seems rather immature as well. Flame me all you want for this, but the last time I tried getting a friend of mine who was an avid WoW fan to play my main MMO, it was so complex to him that he didn't even last a day.
Where's the any key?
The OP is tongue in cheek, but in America atleast starting a rant with the equivalent of 'You people', is in bad taste. Alot of generalizing, which is insulting. The OP is a couple years beyond teenager and while he makes a few points, he is not wise or qualified to judge me as I was playing games 10 years before his daddy's sperm met his mother's ovum.
And OP, if you don't think age makes a difference because you've met a lot of socially retarded adults who hide in games to get some kind of personal validation, you are deluding yourself. In another 20 years, things look differently.
I never said I hated WOW. I never made fun of people who like WOW. It was not my first mmo, but I played WOW and for the type of game it is, I consider it to be the best. Apparently millions of others agree. There are some good things about WOW, there are some bad things. That's how it goes. I don't participate in the WOW bashing or Chuck Norris idolizing.
Perhaps if we did not post under pseudonyms, people would post more thoughtfully and responsibly. Perhaps if children were not allowed to post with the adults or play with adults we would have more mature communities. But you get all ages and maturity levels and one idiot seems to encourage the next.
Normally I don't address my comments to OP but to what was said. But you know what, OP and what was said was obnoxious. Atleast in this post. You're probably a nice person in real life. But when you OP are pointing your finger and saying 'You lot' or 'you people', you are talking to me, so I'm talking to you.
Wow, that was a great article.
Let me say, I hate WoW. It is singularly responsible for the dumbing down of the mmo genre. Now everyone is trying to compete with it instead of trying to make something better.
Don't get me started on the players. In fact, if I say anything more on that, I'll probably get banned.
WoW is slowly losing its subscriber base. In the last year, it lost nearly a million players by its own admission. That will only continue.
WoW is one of those 'gateway' games. It gets you in and then after a while, you're looking for something better. Pity the game industry isn't really giving us the something better.
The game didn't kill itself for me, the players did. My first MMO was Anarchy online, its still going strong but it killed itself for me when I compared it to WOW. The skill system NEEDS a MANDITORY OVERHAUL, an update to EVERYTHING would be nice as well some pvp battlezones to fill everything out. I now play Star Trek Online, it has its problems but they are geting fixed.
Why would you play STO? Horrid game. Almost as bad as wow.
I thought the same thing, but what bothered me more is the lack of talent behind his writing and expression of thoughts. I felt the writing itself was mediocre at best, on a subject that didn't need addressing in a "column". Who approves these things?
EDIT: Never mind, apparently it's just a random thing. Well that eases my mind about the actual staff's credentials.