I played up to the first major patch in WOTLK and would say I would resub if they brought back servers based up to Burning crusade.. 2 would work. 1 PVP and other PVE. Let the ol timers play WOW the way we enjoyed it.
Just try any other MMO so you will realise you can't play WoW and pandas anymore :-) For me it was DC Universe online - was better than Cataclysm for me, man if you see how beautiful the models in DCU are you won't go back to WoW even though DC can't offer the full MMO experience (there is no crafting, very limited PvE ect., lack of end-game content) - but DC story is amazing, I've leveled 3 chars ot the end just to go through all the 3 possible story-lines for villians. And yes - I've palyed TOR beta - it looks pretty much like WoW in terms of game system ect. but it is fresh, good looking and easy. I mean it - easy to play. Stupid pointless grinding is still there but in a reasonable ammount and you enjoy it when taken with the SW story. You don't have to search for quest solutions ect. - you do them naturally. It's fun. To compare WoW always left me with the feeling of doing some routine (not to say anonismic) dirty job rather than having fun leveling.
I have been playing wow on and off, since the beginning, and have had several characters in the end game of each expansion. The bottom line is, i play to have fun. When it is no longer fun, i let my sub expire.. then 3 months.. 6 months etc, or a month or so before a new expansion drops, i hop back on, cause experiencing the new stuff is fun to me.
This time i have been away for quite some time.. prob close to a year... but i came back, checked out the new ZA/ZG, and have been gearing up in the new heroics, and LFR (got a few nice items so far) Recently joined a new guild.. and hopefully can start hitting the raid content.. but i don't see it being very challenging.. i mean with LFR so accessable, learning the base mechanics of the fights will be pretty easy. Sure normal and heroic modes will be harder and have a few extra mechanics to learn.. but the moment i step into normal 10/25 for the first time.. i will have a lot more knowledge then i did on the old style of raiding.
Heck i remember when i went into Naxx for the first time, way back when.. i had no idea what to expect... but now getting familiar with what is in store will be a lot easier. Resulting in hopefully a smaller learning curve and quicker results. but will esentially end up with me getting more even sooner.. but oh well.
bottom line is, play while you have fun, then find something else when your bored.. and come back when new stuff is added, so you can have fun again.
I was in well of eternity last night, (farming for the dam trinket i want off the final boss) hasn't dropped for me yet.. but heck my mage was blasting out 25k dps and i was loving it.
4.3 changed things.. and added new stuff, and it's fun to experience it.. but after you've see it for a while it does get old...and boring. so perhaps the new expansion will be here sooner than later and give us all something else fun to extertain us for a while.
*Looks for what changes in 4.3* *Notices nothing really changes, just things get even easier* I thought something new would happen for a 'change' to be emphasized?
"World of Warcraft Column: 4.3 Changes Everything" First congratulations on a great advertisement title, way to try to get that blizz gold there. Second, let me just say as a player that sure they finally added cosmetics, updated the faire, and made improvements to the priest class. Here's all the things they didn't do that they should have: fixed pet combat, fixed trap launcher time to cast, added non-rep grindy items to engineering, added a strong solo epic storyline, improved looting, updated hunter pets so there are more then just two with AOE's both of which aren't even Ferocity pets, guild halls, added costume sets to crafting, still no random world events that matter pve or pvp, updated the alternate items one can obtain from fishing... my list goes on. Might wanna change that title to, 4.3 only changed a tiny iota of things.
so perhaps the new expansion will be here sooner than later and give us all something else fun to extertain us for a while.
Unfortunately not, Ghostcrawler will most likely strike again with this one and put it out in a years time thus negating the fun factor. It's amazing to me that after all this time that they can still have such a large audience playing their game but still maintain the long drawn out and disappointing content despite having 5 million subs in america and 10 world wide. Why they haven't learned from the examples of Trion and Arenanet when it comes to quality and content release times is beyond me. Trion released 6? new content patches since launch included their upgrades and inprovements to classes in those patches and didn't charge and thing. And then there's Anet, the list of improvements to gameplay alone should be a manual for every mmo designer and dev required reading in college before they are sent out into the field for just how a game should be before launch.
so perhaps the new expansion will be here sooner than later and give us all something else fun to extertain us for a while.
Unfortunately not, Ghostcrawler will most likely strike again with this one and put it out in a years time thus negating the fun factor. It's amazing to me that after all this time that they can still have such a large audience playing their game but still maintain the long drawn out and disappointing content despite having 5 million subs in america and 10 world wide. Why they haven't learned from the examples of Trion and Arenanet when it comes to quality and content release times is beyond me. Trion released 6? new content patches since launch included their upgrades and inprovements to classes in those patches and didn't charge and thing. And then there's Anet, the list of improvements to gameplay alone should be a manual for every mmo designer and dev required reading in college before they are sent out into the field for just how a game should be before launch.
When lotro first came out they updated quite often with new "books" which added new main story quest lines/instances/etc..
Anyways I don't mind the long wait. My play time is limited to this gives me lots of time for achieves and gearing up
so perhaps the new expansion will be here sooner than later and give us all something else fun to extertain us for a while.
Unfortunately not, Ghostcrawler will most likely strike again with this one and put it out in a years time thus negating the fun factor. It's amazing to me that after all this time that they can still have such a large audience playing their game but still maintain the long drawn out and disappointing content despite having 5 million subs in america and 10 world wide. Why they haven't learned from the examples of Trion and Arenanet when it comes to quality and content release times is beyond me. Trion released 6? new content patches since launch included their upgrades and inprovements to classes in those patches and didn't charge and thing. And then there's Anet, the list of improvements to gameplay alone should be a manual for every mmo designer and dev required reading in college before they are sent out into the field for just how a game should be before launch.
Your math is a little off there. Blizzard last reported just over 10 million active subscription. 5 million in America, and 10 world wide would mean 15 million total, which WoW was never even close to as the peak was 12 million.
By the way 7-8 million of those 10 million are from asia, the rest are from NA and EU.
The rest of your post I pretty much agree with.
I'd also like to add that Blizzard's highest revenue markets, NA and EU, are shrinking fast. The WoW asian market actually reported growth in the past year, which means the 800,000 net lost subs over the year were all in NA and EU, and very like exceeded that amount by a good bit. Though oddly these markets reported increased revenue despite the massive loss in subscribers -- the explaination being that of the people that are sticking with the game, there are enough of them that are stupid enough to buy multiple $10-25 virtual items in a subscription game.
WoW will likely still be around for a while longer... but the quality of the game is in a nose dive.
WoW will likely still be around for a while longer... but the quality of the game is in a nose dive.
How is the quality of the game in a 'nosedive'? It took a bump with the TiC patch. Then another bump with Cataclysm. Its the exact same game today as it was when cataclysm launched. In fact, its probably a little better than when Cataclysm launched. Quality certainly hasnt gone down within the last year so its not in a 'nosedive'
WoW didnt remove any challenge in 4.3, unless heroic DW is considerably easier than H Ragnaros (which was far, far from easy)
all outdoor nondungeon heroic quest content under 80 in BC / LK -- was nerfed to be solo player w 4.3
ALL quest elites in nagrand and other zones? are no longer elite thanks to 4.3
Ok, so the 'challenge' of finding a partner in lower level zones to do these quests is gone...Granted some people liked to push themselves to solo Durn (pallies could pretty easily) but this stuff was never difficult. If you did a group (x) quest with x number of people it was always easy.
from what i have been hearing on the forums ppl r VERY dissapointed in the final fight against deathwing....u dont actually fight him....u fight tenticles....what is this a japanees porno?
the game is unplayable. a treadmill. blizz has missed the FUNDEMENTAL essence of modern marketing. Variety. There is not the BEST tomato sauce. there are 7 best tomato sauces....extra chuncky, spicy, mushroom, extra garlicy, etc. But with WoW, you get the same thing from every server. There are two play styles. Raiding, which is only about memorizing a plan and pushing a button. Or pvp which is aboput collecting points in sterile little arenas. THEY DESTROYED the worlds they created.
Imagine if a PvE server had roving bosses that appeared in Outlands or Elwynn or Sithius. And that the best gear available came from these bosses.
Imagine if PvP servers had world pvp events. Capture Gadgetzhan or secure north Stranglethorn. And that the best gear available came from these events.
Imagine if RP servers had constant RP events that only through knowledge of lore, not the ablity to spam a button, gave rewards....the best gear available.
I never raid, let alone do heroic dungeons, but I Qed for heroics last night. Haven't played in months. Everythging is different, have no idea what rotation to use (which is disgusting that gameplay is broken down into a regimented set of actions repeated over and over----sounds like SCHOOL to me). I got booted because my dps was weak. I was booted because I didn't push the buttons they wanted me to push in the order they wanted me to push them. THIS is the failure of WoW.
I lol'd hard over this post and just had to log on for a comment.
You're kinda contradicting yourself here a bit don't you think? Saying there's no variety but at the same time everything has changed.
You never raid, let alone do heroic dungeons, yet you cry burning tears of hatred when you get kicked for being a bad. Without ever having raided or done any heroics how can you sit there saying there's no variety? This game, for quite some time now has been mostly about endgame content. Without raids or dungeons, what would you expect to be doing? Have you ever tried programming, 3d modelling or story writing? I don't think you have the slightest understanding in the massive amount of work that is required to generate new content in these games.
Oh and one more contradiction in your post : "Raiding, which is only about memorizing a plan and pushing a button" and "have no idea what rotation to use ".
I just don't know if I can stick to the daily grind anymore.
Dailies, Honor, JP, Valor.
Dailies, Honor, JP, Valor.
Dailies, Honor, JP, Valor.
That's what WoW amounted to for me last summer except replace honor points with raiding. I've never played a game where my time felt so regimented and compartmentalized. It was the same tired song and dance each and every day I logged in. The magic of returning to WoW only actually lasted about a week, and the only times I managed to break the monotony were the times where I ran an old raid for achievement points or something.
If I were to return for 4.3, I would imagine I would feel about the same. I'd be in love with the game for about a week as I run dailies, learn the new dungeons, and try out that new raid finder, but after experiencing the content, the game will become just as much of a job as it always was.
This is really the curse of all themepark MMORPGs though. After a certain point, you've seen all there is to see and all that's left is just repeating content on a daily basis. I don't suspect SW:TOR, GW2, or TSW will be much different. The meta-game that is raiding is fun for awhile, but it's too time consuming and life stealing to be something I can get into for long periods of time. Of course, EVE (the only sandbox worth playing IMO) is just as time consuming and life stealing in a different way.
Always wish I would have been able to play UO or SWG in their prime.
WoW will likely still be around for a while longer... but the quality of the game is in a nose dive.
How is the quality of the game in a 'nosedive'? It took a bump with the TiC patch. Then another bump with Cataclysm. Its the exact same game today as it was when cataclysm launched. In fact, its probably a little better than when Cataclysm launched. Quality certainly hasnt gone down within the last year so its not in a 'nosedive'
It may be the "exact same game" as when Catatonic launched, but it is in a sad state compared to when it was originally launched. In vanilla days, you had to actually work for your xp's, not pick a plant for them. Not getting mounts until level 40 (and, don't get me wrong....I do think 20 is much better) made you do more "work" because you had to run your little animated tail off. Regular instances now, are a walk in the park. In vanilla, they were a challenge....and yes, I have been around since vanilla...pre-vanilla in a way as I participted in some of the beta. There have been improvements in some areas, but overall imho it went from a fun and at times challenging game to the sad state it is today.
WoW will likely still be around for a while longer... but the quality of the game is in a nose dive.
How is the quality of the game in a 'nosedive'? It took a bump with the TiC patch. Then another bump with Cataclysm. Its the exact same game today as it was when cataclysm launched. In fact, its probably a little better than when Cataclysm launched. Quality certainly hasnt gone down within the last year so its not in a 'nosedive'
It may be the "exact same game" as when Catatonic launched, but it is in a sad state compared to when it was originally launched. In vanilla days, you had to actually work for your xp's, not pick a plant for them. Not getting mounts until level 40 (and, don't get me wrong....I do think 20 is much better) made you do more "work" because you had to run your little animated tail off. Regular instances now, are a walk in the park. In vanilla, they were a challenge....and yes, I have been around since vanilla...pre-vanilla in a way as I participted in some of the beta. There have been improvements in some areas, but overall imho it went from a fun and at times challenging game to the sad state it is today.
My memories of farming ubrs for a piece of drak and clearing strat with 5 warlocks disagrees with your assement that the instances were difficult.
The instances were longer, the fights in them tended to be less complex as well.
Comments
I played up to the first major patch in WOTLK and would say I would resub if they brought back servers based up to Burning crusade.. 2 would work. 1 PVP and other PVE. Let the ol timers play WOW the way we enjoyed it.
Just try any other MMO so you will realise you can't play WoW and pandas anymore :-) For me it was DC Universe online - was better than Cataclysm for me, man if you see how beautiful the models in DCU are you won't go back to WoW even though DC can't offer the full MMO experience (there is no crafting, very limited PvE ect., lack of end-game content) - but DC story is amazing, I've leveled 3 chars ot the end just to go through all the 3 possible story-lines for villians. And yes - I've palyed TOR beta - it looks pretty much like WoW in terms of game system ect. but it is fresh, good looking and easy. I mean it - easy to play. Stupid pointless grinding is still there but in a reasonable ammount and you enjoy it when taken with the SW story. You don't have to search for quest solutions ect. - you do them naturally. It's fun. To compare WoW always left me with the feeling of doing some routine (not to say anonismic) dirty job rather than having fun leveling.
I have been playing wow on and off, since the beginning, and have had several characters in the end game of each expansion. The bottom line is, i play to have fun. When it is no longer fun, i let my sub expire.. then 3 months.. 6 months etc, or a month or so before a new expansion drops, i hop back on, cause experiencing the new stuff is fun to me.
This time i have been away for quite some time.. prob close to a year... but i came back, checked out the new ZA/ZG, and have been gearing up in the new heroics, and LFR (got a few nice items so far) Recently joined a new guild.. and hopefully can start hitting the raid content.. but i don't see it being very challenging.. i mean with LFR so accessable, learning the base mechanics of the fights will be pretty easy. Sure normal and heroic modes will be harder and have a few extra mechanics to learn.. but the moment i step into normal 10/25 for the first time.. i will have a lot more knowledge then i did on the old style of raiding.
Heck i remember when i went into Naxx for the first time, way back when.. i had no idea what to expect... but now getting familiar with what is in store will be a lot easier. Resulting in hopefully a smaller learning curve and quicker results. but will esentially end up with me getting more even sooner.. but oh well.
bottom line is, play while you have fun, then find something else when your bored.. and come back when new stuff is added, so you can have fun again.
I was in well of eternity last night, (farming for the dam trinket i want off the final boss) hasn't dropped for me yet.. but heck my mage was blasting out 25k dps and i was loving it.
4.3 changed things.. and added new stuff, and it's fun to experience it.. but after you've see it for a while it does get old...and boring. so perhaps the new expansion will be here sooner than later and give us all something else fun to extertain us for a while.
changes nothing of the FACT that Blizzard removed challenge w 4.3
any mmo you can make your own fun .. big surprise
EQ2 fan sites
*Looks for what changes in 4.3* *Notices nothing really changes, just things get even easier* I thought something new would happen for a 'change' to be emphasized?
"World of Warcraft Column: 4.3 Changes Everything" First congratulations on a great advertisement title, way to try to get that blizz gold there. Second, let me just say as a player that sure they finally added cosmetics, updated the faire, and made improvements to the priest class. Here's all the things they didn't do that they should have: fixed pet combat, fixed trap launcher time to cast, added non-rep grindy items to engineering, added a strong solo epic storyline, improved looting, updated hunter pets so there are more then just two with AOE's both of which aren't even Ferocity pets, guild halls, added costume sets to crafting, still no random world events that matter pve or pvp, updated the alternate items one can obtain from fishing... my list goes on. Might wanna change that title to, 4.3 only changed a tiny iota of things.
Unfortunately not, Ghostcrawler will most likely strike again with this one and put it out in a years time thus negating the fun factor. It's amazing to me that after all this time that they can still have such a large audience playing their game but still maintain the long drawn out and disappointing content despite having 5 million subs in america and 10 world wide. Why they haven't learned from the examples of Trion and Arenanet when it comes to quality and content release times is beyond me. Trion released 6? new content patches since launch included their upgrades and inprovements to classes in those patches and didn't charge and thing. And then there's Anet, the list of improvements to gameplay alone should be a manual for every mmo designer and dev required reading in college before they are sent out into the field for just how a game should be before launch.
When lotro first came out they updated quite often with new "books" which added new main story quest lines/instances/etc..
Anyways I don't mind the long wait. My play time is limited to this gives me lots of time for achieves and gearing up
Perhaps it wasn't as obvious as I thought it was, but the part about WoW that 4.3 "changes everything" about is its story-telling potential.
I figured the article being focused pretty much soley on that fact would give that away.
Your math is a little off there. Blizzard last reported just over 10 million active subscription. 5 million in America, and 10 world wide would mean 15 million total, which WoW was never even close to as the peak was 12 million.
By the way 7-8 million of those 10 million are from asia, the rest are from NA and EU.
The rest of your post I pretty much agree with.
I'd also like to add that Blizzard's highest revenue markets, NA and EU, are shrinking fast. The WoW asian market actually reported growth in the past year, which means the 800,000 net lost subs over the year were all in NA and EU, and very like exceeded that amount by a good bit. Though oddly these markets reported increased revenue despite the massive loss in subscribers -- the explaination being that of the people that are sticking with the game, there are enough of them that are stupid enough to buy multiple $10-25 virtual items in a subscription game.
WoW will likely still be around for a while longer... but the quality of the game is in a nose dive.
WOW will be around for decades
EQ1 is still pumping out expansions, 10 years later (18th expansion was last month)
EQ2 fan sites
wait, so WoW removed heroic raids in 4.3?
WoW didnt remove any challenge in 4.3, unless heroic DW is considerably easier than H Ragnaros (which was far, far from easy)
How is the quality of the game in a 'nosedive'? It took a bump with the TiC patch. Then another bump with Cataclysm. Its the exact same game today as it was when cataclysm launched. In fact, its probably a little better than when Cataclysm launched. Quality certainly hasnt gone down within the last year so its not in a 'nosedive'
The business suits who run Blizzard can still take it to free to play model, and make their money by a full cash shop model.
...
all outdoor nondungeon heroic quest content under 80 in BC / LK -- was nerfed to be solo player w 4.3
ALL quest elites in nagrand and other zones? are no longer elite thanks to 4.3
EQ2 fan sites
Ok, so the 'challenge' of finding a partner in lower level zones to do these quests is gone...Granted some people liked to push themselves to solo Durn (pallies could pretty easily) but this stuff was never difficult. If you did a group (x) quest with x number of people it was always easy.
if you liked to solo group elites on your own (like the Corki elite Ogre)
- it wasnt hard but least gave some challenge/fun
I like variety in my mmos and commented on my dislike of 4.3 removing all outdoor heroic quests in BC/LK
EQ2 fan sites
from what i have been hearing on the forums ppl r VERY dissapointed in the final fight against deathwing....u dont actually fight him....u fight tenticles....what is this a japanees porno?
I just don't know if I can stick to the daily grind anymore.
Dailies, Honor, JP, Valor.
Dailies, Honor, JP, Valor.
Dailies, Honor, JP, Valor.
My blog --> http://www.supermassivepixel.blogspot.com/
I lol'd hard over this post and just had to log on for a comment.
You're kinda contradicting yourself here a bit don't you think? Saying there's no variety but at the same time everything has changed.
You never raid, let alone do heroic dungeons, yet you cry burning tears of hatred when you get kicked for being a bad. Without ever having raided or done any heroics how can you sit there saying there's no variety? This game, for quite some time now has been mostly about endgame content. Without raids or dungeons, what would you expect to be doing? Have you ever tried programming, 3d modelling or story writing? I don't think you have the slightest understanding in the massive amount of work that is required to generate new content in these games.
Oh and one more contradiction in your post : "Raiding, which is only about memorizing a plan and pushing a button" and "have no idea what rotation to use ".
Thanks for the chuckles baddie.
That's what WoW amounted to for me last summer except replace honor points with raiding. I've never played a game where my time felt so regimented and compartmentalized. It was the same tired song and dance each and every day I logged in. The magic of returning to WoW only actually lasted about a week, and the only times I managed to break the monotony were the times where I ran an old raid for achievement points or something.
If I were to return for 4.3, I would imagine I would feel about the same. I'd be in love with the game for about a week as I run dailies, learn the new dungeons, and try out that new raid finder, but after experiencing the content, the game will become just as much of a job as it always was.
This is really the curse of all themepark MMORPGs though. After a certain point, you've seen all there is to see and all that's left is just repeating content on a daily basis. I don't suspect SW:TOR, GW2, or TSW will be much different. The meta-game that is raiding is fun for awhile, but it's too time consuming and life stealing to be something I can get into for long periods of time. Of course, EVE (the only sandbox worth playing IMO) is just as time consuming and life stealing in a different way.
Always wish I would have been able to play UO or SWG in their prime.
yup, this why WoW is where its at now
It may be the "exact same game" as when Catatonic launched, but it is in a sad state compared to when it was originally launched. In vanilla days, you had to actually work for your xp's, not pick a plant for them. Not getting mounts until level 40 (and, don't get me wrong....I do think 20 is much better) made you do more "work" because you had to run your little animated tail off. Regular instances now, are a walk in the park. In vanilla, they were a challenge....and yes, I have been around since vanilla...pre-vanilla in a way as I participted in some of the beta. There have been improvements in some areas, but overall imho it went from a fun and at times challenging game to the sad state it is today.
My memories of farming ubrs for a piece of drak and clearing strat with 5 warlocks disagrees with your assement that the instances were difficult.
The instances were longer, the fights in them tended to be less complex as well.