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Review of World of Warcraft, Second Time Through
nickelpat
Member Posts: 661
Some of my friends nagged me into coming back to WoW, I finally fell in and resubbed for one month. Think maybe I was wrong, maybe the game can be fun. Yeah... right.
Start off with the obvious, the graphics. For being four years old it's really not too bad. I can't complain too much, I mean, I can't expect everything game to be really pretty. I can tell the objects from each other and the bright colors make it easy to see. Although my issue with the graphics/visuals is the fact that on my rig (2.4 quad core proc, 8600GT OCed, 6GB DDR2 800 RAM), it still manages to be laggy. This same rig can run LOTRO at full settings, it can run Crysis at High and Fallout 3 at high. The WoW engine needs to be updated to take advantage of multi-core procs and soon. There's no excuse for this.
Another thing that erks me is how laggy these servers are. I play on a US West server (I live in the Western US) and I still get bad lag at times. I played the US East server of Tabula Rasa with no lag. I can play the European servers of Priston Tale 2 (an FTP game still in Closed Beta mind you) with no lag. There's no excuse for a company that claims to have 11 million active subscribers paying 15 dollars a month, plus the fact you have to buy The Burning Crusade to play Wrath of the Lich King, and they claim they've sold 4 million copies of WoTLK. So... 365,000,000 that would 365 million dollars taken in this month. The equation is here:
15*11,000,000 = 165,000,000 = 20+30*4,000,000 = 200,000,000 = 165,000,000 + 200,000,000 = 365,000,000
It is a lot of money. With all this money, they should be able to do the following things:
- Improve the engine to work with multi-core procs
- Improve the servers
- Get some moderators to stop the idiots in Trade
- Make some free patches that do more than fix a bug and nerf a class.
- Buy the North American continent
But they don't. The game continues to have laggy servers, and an engine lacking improvement. What does this tell me? The dev team doesn't give a crap. There's no excuse for it, none at all.
Moving on, the sound. It's bah at best. Grunts, whacks, occasional decent music track. Voice-over every now and then (on seemingly random NPCs). Nothing special at all. Nothing horrible.
The gameplay, the meat of the game obviously. I'll break this up since there's a lot of crap (no really, crap) to go over.
Combat, it's slow. Not that the spell recharge times aren't way too fast, but the combat is just damned slow. The combat is subtly turn-based. And the turns take FOREVER. At least when trying to pass for real-time. I shouldn't be left waiting after my opponent's attack animation is over and I receive damage. To be fair there shouldn't be turns at all. But if there are, make them quick. Like LOTRO, it has turns but it made them fairly quick. By the time my opponents animation is done and I get damage it's my turn, no waiting.
Crafting, not bad really, but most of what you craft is rubbish and easily beaten by anything from a dungeon run, which doesn't take long and isn't hard. There's no customization to what you craft either. Apart from tinkerers whose gear can't be looted easily, there's no point to crafting.
Fishing/Activities, again, nearly worthless. You loot a ton of food. The only reason to fish is to feed your pet. The first aid is worthwhile, but that's really about it.
PvP, it's all gear based with little skill involved. It's that easy. Twinks WILL win unless they're total idiots or you have numbers/back-up. Nation vs. Nation is stupidly all consensual. Kind of takes out the whole "Two nations at war" feel that is the point of NvN PvP.
Questing, this where the meat of the game is supposed to lie. But there's no/little/crappy story anywhere. Quest chains are generic at best. At worst they're just crappy writing with bad attempts at humor. The only DECENT story arc is that of the Death Knight, which was just copied and pasted from Warcraft III. I know it's based on Warcraft, but we don't want to go through the same story again.
Balance, actually, the balance between classes is good. I must give a little kudos there.
Content, it's quantity over quality. Lots of land made of the same tiles with little difference in the way things look. Get's boring quick. Plus there's no bonuses or rewards for adventuring.
Community, it sucks. It's horrible. Pathetic. Full of idiot teenagers and total idiots. I don't care if only the retards talk in Trade and on public chat, they're the ones I gotta listen to and I'm not blocking them all or a whole channel. Get mods. And tons of gold sellers. Not saying there's not some awesome people, but the majority of the ones that talk public are... just not nice.
Overall, lackluster at best. Horrible at worst. 3.5/10
__________________________________________
Please, challenge the money numbers. I mean this seriously, I have little faith in my calculations.
Otherwise, this is my opinion. I do not know if anyone else shares it. If you disagree, go ahead, tell me why. If you're a fanboi and feel you need to flame me, have fun, I want to try out my new Nomex anyways.
Thank You,
- Eric
____________________________
Telthalion Rohircil - Guardian - Elemandir - Lord of The Rings Online
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== RIP == Torey - Commando - Orion - Tabula Rasa == RIP ==
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Jordaniel Torey - Navy Megathron, Active Armor Tank - Tranquility - EVE Online
---
Torey Scott - Rifleman - Fallen Earth
____________________________
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but I know World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." - Albert Einstein
Comments
You really wasted alot of time there trying to discredit WoW. It's obliterated the competition since the day it launched.
My youtube MMO gaming channel
... Your math is WAY off... its 365 MILLION not TRILLION.
365 TRILLION is 5 times the WORLD gdp..
And taking that into account, your post is made with fail.
I'm not trying to discredit it at all. Sure, it obliterated the competition because it's highly accessible. Kudos to Blizzard for the marketing ploy to make it that successful. I'm giving MY review of the game, without looking solely at numbers.
____________________________
Telthalion Rohircil - Guardian - Elemandir - Lord of The Rings Online
---
== RIP == Torey - Commando - Orion - Tabula Rasa == RIP ==
---
Jordaniel Torey - Navy Megathron, Active Armor Tank - Tranquility - EVE Online
---
Torey Scott - Rifleman - Fallen Earth
____________________________
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but I know World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." - Albert Einstein
Thank you for correcting me, I'm sorry I missed a few zeroes. Yes, I know it means it a lot even being a few numbers. Equations have been fixed.
____________________________
Telthalion Rohircil - Guardian - Elemandir - Lord of The Rings Online
---
== RIP == Torey - Commando - Orion - Tabula Rasa == RIP ==
---
Jordaniel Torey - Navy Megathron, Active Armor Tank - Tranquility - EVE Online
---
Torey Scott - Rifleman - Fallen Earth
____________________________
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but I know World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." - Albert Einstein
WoW was amazing for its time, I guess. But now, If you come from a game like LoTRO or one of the newer mmorpgs, Even some of the Free 2 play mmorpgs like, Guild wars, or Perfect world Runes of magic, WoW will not seem like such a big deal, I think If WoW was your first mmorpg I can see why you love it.
And If you only played MMORPG's that came out before WoW then got into it I can see that as well, But I honestly Can't see how people who played some of the newer games, that do what WoW does, Just makes it look and feel better, I don't understand how you can go back to WoW personally once I tried LoTRO I was done with WoW sold my account, Made over 600 bucks for it, Basically got my 2 years subscription and games moeny back from it. I was done, and that was last year, I haven't played WoW in a year, I quit LoTRO about 2 months ago, am back to my First mmorpg I started on back in 2003 -- FFXI, and playing GW on the side... anyways
WoW is still a solid good Pay to play mmorpg, But now there are so many mmorpgs that do what it does, I really think the reason its continued success is because of its mass appeal, easy game play and the money they can trow out with advertisements, and also word of mouth means a lot as well. I won't go play it again, since Iv upgraded, but I guess the same reason tons of people still play L2 and L1 is the same reason tons of people still play WoW for when they started playing, when it came out it was the peek and it continued to be the best for a few years, money hype and development really helped out as well.
I fully agree. It may be a 'solid' game, just now something worth paying all that much for. Yes, I do play LOTRO actually, great game.
____________________________
Telthalion Rohircil - Guardian - Elemandir - Lord of The Rings Online
---
== RIP == Torey - Commando - Orion - Tabula Rasa == RIP ==
---
Jordaniel Torey - Navy Megathron, Active Armor Tank - Tranquility - EVE Online
---
Torey Scott - Rifleman - Fallen Earth
____________________________
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but I know World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." - Albert Einstein
I fully agree. It may be a 'solid' game, just now something worth paying all that much for. Yes, I do play LOTRO actually, great game.
Play it sell your account make your money back, Its what I do.
It may be my internet, but others I have talked to experienced the same lag. My point with TR and Priston Tale 2, is with the little money they get they keep well run, smooth, quick servers. WoW's seem a bit sluggish most of the time.
____________________________
Telthalion Rohircil - Guardian - Elemandir - Lord of The Rings Online
---
== RIP == Torey - Commando - Orion - Tabula Rasa == RIP ==
---
Jordaniel Torey - Navy Megathron, Active Armor Tank - Tranquility - EVE Online
---
Torey Scott - Rifleman - Fallen Earth
____________________________
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but I know World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." - Albert Einstein
Honestly, I can speak from personal experience because of actually doing the same thing you did. I gave World of Warcraft a second chance as well and returned for a couple of months. Reading your review, I have to say that was a good and fair review I believe. I did not feel that it was false or made up, only to discredit the game with some kind of prejudice or personal discrminating animosity. I could relate to many or all of the issues you were refering too, such as the gameplay, crafting system, questing, pvp, and community. You spoke the truth about it, at least how I felt about the problems with it. I even felt 3.5/10 is relatively a good score to give it at ths point.
So no complaints here, Nickelpat. Good job and I rate your review a 10/10!
Honnestly, I'm not really sure what you're trying to prove with this. you are wrong on certain issues First Aid is far from worthless and World of Warcraft is not turn based, just because the combat is not fast paced doesn't mean that it's turn based. You can have a fast paced turn base dgame and a slow paced real time game and honnestly, I'm not sure how you can complain about WoW being "slow paced" and yet still argue Lotro is a good game when it's combat pace is nearly the same and it's design philosophy is exactly the same as WoW's.
If you want slower paced combat than you can pick a mage or paladin, if you want faster, more action paced combat than a class such as the Rogue is for you.
About lag, well it's hard to comment on that. on the European servers (which are just as crowded as the US ones) there is little lag, and i'm connecting to servers located in foreign nations. I'm going to assume your ISP or connection is the issue, rather than the games servers.
But really, what are you trying to accomplish with this little review?
www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/534914.asp
The reviews obviously show you are wrong. And no, don't give me that crap "but it's just my opinion!!!11!" because opinions can be wrong. You clearly lack a sense for quality and honnestly, you probably shouldn't be reviewing games in the first place.
In fact, it's quite funny how many of your complaints are also present in Lotro, which according to you, "is a good game". The real reason for your score just comes shining through: Bias.
I know this may come as a shock to many, but hating on World of Warcraft does not make you look more informed about the genre, it does not mean you suddenly know the ins and outs of the genre and it definitly doesn't make you look cool.
I am trying to show you my opinion of the game. You're right, opinions can be wrong, but who's to say my opinion is wrong and your's is right? I actually said First Aid is the only skill of the such that is WORTH something, not worthless.
Nor do I think hating it makes me look cool or know more. Nor do I really 'hate' it. I simple think that 4 years ago it may have been inovative, now, it's something fairly basic and people need to move on with their games.
And truly, LOTRO only shares a few of these complaints, in fact, why do I just go over it know:
- The fishing and a lot of other activites are entirely usless to progressing in the game, except the fact you can pick of different food items. Although you can mount trophies of fish in your house.
- The combat can get a little slow if you're not playing certain classes like the Warden.
- Not much PvP, although what's there is quite nice.
- Not a whole lot of gear to choose from at early levels.
Not so much biased, LOTRO is just better
.
And, if you top auto attack and just watch, it's quite clear each character has a pre-defined turn, even if you use an attack you'll see it won't activate until you're next turn.
And LOTRO's design philosophy differs quite a bit from WoW. As LOTRO focuses on story, immersion and lore. Three things WoW obviously doesn't.
By the way, notice the date on those reviews?
Thank you very much for the compliment Jadedfire.
____________________________
Telthalion Rohircil - Guardian - Elemandir - Lord of The Rings Online
---
== RIP == Torey - Commando - Orion - Tabula Rasa == RIP ==
---
Jordaniel Torey - Navy Megathron, Active Armor Tank - Tranquility - EVE Online
---
Torey Scott - Rifleman - Fallen Earth
____________________________
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but I know World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." - Albert Einstein
I'm not trying to discredit it at all. Sure, it obliterated the competition because it's highly accessible. Kudos to Blizzard for the marketing ploy to make it that successful. I'm giving MY review of the game, without looking solely at numbers.
Just for example, saying that the death knight questline is "copy and pasted from WCIII" really made your post look ignorant. That's not looking at the numbers either.
My youtube MMO gaming channel
I'm not trying to discredit it at all. Sure, it obliterated the competition because it's highly accessible. Kudos to Blizzard for the marketing ploy to make it that successful. I'm giving MY review of the game, without looking solely at numbers.
Just for example, saying that the death knight questline is "copy and pasted from WCIII" really made your post look ignorant. That's not looking at the numbers either.
I know it's based of Warcraft and what not, but why would I want to go through something I already went through just in a different perspective? What's the point? If I'm shelling out 40 bucks for an expansion I want something I haven't experienced before.
Now may I ask you, why are you wasting all this time trying to discredit my review?
____________________________
Telthalion Rohircil - Guardian - Elemandir - Lord of The Rings Online
---
== RIP == Torey - Commando - Orion - Tabula Rasa == RIP ==
---
Jordaniel Torey - Navy Megathron, Active Armor Tank - Tranquility - EVE Online
---
Torey Scott - Rifleman - Fallen Earth
____________________________
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but I know World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." - Albert Einstein
“Marketing ploy”? That’s an Interesting choice of words. I hear Beethoven was popular in his day. His music must have been a marketing ploy right? Guess that goes for the Beetles too ehh? In fact why don’t we just call everything that’s popular a marketing ploy? I would have tended to think the product must be good to attract 10,000,000+ players and be #1 in its class for years running, but what do I know.
It's obliterated the competition, but in doing so Blizzard had to dumb down and make MMOs kiddish. A Monkey could be taught to play WoW. Could the MMO developers please get back to the way things were going when EQ and DAoC were top dogs. That direction had a much better outlook, instead of the road MMOs are going down now.
It's obliterated the competition, but in doing so Blizzard had to dumb down and make MMOs kiddish. A Monkey could be taught to play WoW. Could the MMO developers please get back to the way things were going when EQ and DAoC were top dogs. That direction had a much better outlook, instead of the road MMOs are going down now.
First off why would a company want to make less money on their product? Secondly EQ was really not any harder to play than WoW. It was harder to level but the game mechanics wer simpler.
I'm not trying to discredit it at all. Sure, it obliterated the competition because it's highly accessible. Kudos to Blizzard for the marketing ploy to make it that successful. I'm giving MY review of the game, without looking solely at numbers.
Just for example, saying that the death knight questline is "copy and pasted from WCIII" really made your post look ignorant. That's not looking at the numbers either.
To Chieftan:
Okay, so from what I gather about the way you speak on this subject, you are all about numbers and what the "majority" are doing to prove something. So basically, if people are not the "follow-the-crowd" types, then that means their opinions are wrong or as you put it, "look ignorant"?
Well, excuse me if some of us choose not to be a little lemming and just follow the crowd, who inevitably may just be heading for a huge drop off and fall on their faces off a cliff. I feel that the OP and his review was merely stating his OPINION about his experience with World of Warcraft. I believe he even stated those words himself.
Edit: Infact, I really like the words wrote by Nickelpat himself... "I am trying to show you my opinion of the game. You're right, opinions can be wrong, but who's to say my opinion is wrong and your's is right?"
Tabula Rasa = little money they get. You need to do some research, there haven't been many recent MMO's with the resources Tabula Rasa had available....Warhammer is probably the only one close, maybe AoC.
But NCsoft generally runs their servers well...Lineage 2 is 5 years old, it has some of the biggest (players connected) servers of any MMO still..common for servers to have 5000 people online, and they are always lag free. They also put servers in different regions of the US...ie: you actually connect to a server near you, unlike WoW where a central server just means that people from central US connect to it, the server could be anywhere.
And LOTRO is just lol...what are these new games? There havent been any solid, long lasting, good games that can keep their players active and happy for months or years since WoW, L2, EVE, SWG, FFXI, etc...The last 3-4 years have been a **** era for MMO's, we now have some new big titles out/coming, AoC, WAR, TCoS, Aion, JGE, Darkfall, etc...so far the first 3 out have been total fails...however I know Aion won't, since I played its beta, and am following it through Korean retail, and have friends playing korean retail...I'm confident JGE will be a great game, only problem is codemasters, and Darkfall will be hit or miss...it doesnt appeal to me the slightest, I wont even try it out.
Wow. Your post was truly original and insightful. Nothing like it has ever been seen before on mmorpg.com. I'm glad you posted this in the pub forums and not the WoW forums.
Other than the fact you know nothing about the game, or that multi core processors will never be much use to gaming, or the fact that the majority of WoW players do no pay US $15 a month you were spot on.
Fishing provides the fish for cooking. Cooking is required for any raiding as a buff. First aid max is also required for ANY class in any decent raiding guild. I know plenty of people who play without lag. Maybe its your connection?
WTF is "spell recharge"? Are you talking about cast times, global cooldown? And if you're using LORTO as an example of a great PvP game ... ugh.
WTF is a tinkerer? Blacksmith? You sure you were playing WoW?
Class balance? Right now class balance hasn't been as bad for at least 3 years in WoW. The only thing you say good about WoW is the thing that has gone out the window. Which just makes me conclude you probably played the game on a free trial account to lvl 20.
Challenge your numbers? Do you not know how a business is run? It takes employees which take paychecks, it has ultilities to pay, fees to pay, so you cant really run real number without taking those into account. Sorry but you failed. Also you say the DK quest chain is based on warcraft 3(wait isnt the whole game based loosely on warcraft and more on the warcraft universe?) So im kinda confused on where u want this to go.
Also you cant really expect to be taken serious when you come in with a baised opionion already formed can you?
The author of the topic claims that combat in WoW is slow and turn-based, that balance is great at the moment, that professions (such as cooking and fishing) are worthless, and also that the Death Knight chain quests are copied from Warcraft III. Common sense dictates that the author has never gotten past lvl 20 or that is judging the game based on hearsay.
Even though that op post doesnt seem to be well informed.
It is true that the devs could give frre content and at least make decent expansions. They do make an incredible ammount of money. Hell if daoc managed to hange its engine why doesnt wow try it.
Sure blizz is making a new mmo but they should stop milking its subscribers and try to make this game decent.
I'm not a no life that sits in front of his computer all day long, I'm an intern that sits in front of his computer all day long.
Most of the people who would post positively on WoW are too busy enjoying the game they love. That is my theory on why this web site has historically been so negative on WoW.
I am trying to show you my opinion of the game. You're right, opinions can be wrong, but who's to say my opinion is wrong and your's is right? I actually said First Aid is the only skill of the such that is WORTH something, not worthless.
Nor do I think hating it makes me look cool or know more. Nor do I really 'hate' it. I simple think that 4 years ago it may have been inovative, now, it's something fairly basic and people need to move on with their games.
And truly, LOTRO only shares a few of these complaints, in fact, why do I just go over it know:
- The fishing and a lot of other activites are entirely usless to progressing in the game, except the fact you can pick of different food items. Although you can mount trophies of fish in your house.
- The combat can get a little slow if you're not playing certain classes like the Warden.
- Not much PvP, although what's there is quite nice.
- Not a whole lot of gear to choose from at early levels.
Not so much biased, LOTRO is just better
.
And, if you top auto attack and just watch, it's quite clear each character has a pre-defined turn, even if you use an attack you'll see it won't activate until you're next turn.
And LOTRO's design philosophy differs quite a bit from WoW. As LOTRO focuses on story, immersion and lore. Three things WoW obviously doesn't.
By the way, notice the date on those reviews?
Thank you very much for the compliment Jadedfire.
You do realise that eating food will give you buffs and regenerate your health faster right?
Who am I to say your opinion is wrong? Well not only are 11 million people playing it, the game has received a huge amount of awards, higher ratings than ANY other mmorpg to date including Lotro.
If every professional critic disagree's with you, you're the one thats wrong.
And please, PLEASE stop acting like you know what makes a game turn based because you clearly don't. WoW is not turn based. Roll any class which uses skills, such as the mage or rogue. Notice how you can cast a spell or use a skill whenever you want? that's not turn based. Only some skills activate on your next auto attack strike but this is for balancing reasons. Most of them are instant and ignore your auto attack pattern (some might reset it though). Go play a game like Fairyland or Atlantica, THAT is a turn based mmorpg.
Also, stop trying to make excuses for being biased.
- Lotro's combat pace is the same as WoW's.
- Lotro's areas aren't any more diverse than WoW's.
Lotro's design philosophy doesn't differ from WoW's. Lotro doesn't have any more lore in the game than WoW has (Notice I said IN THE GAME, not outside of it). The only difference is that WoW doesn't enforce it on you as much as Lotro does. If you don't want to have anything to do with the WoW lore, than you don't have to. Wrath of the Lich king now even added small cutscene that progress the storyline and lore of the game.
Yes I did notice the date ont hose reviews, here you go:
www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/942519.asp
Every single installment in World of Warcraft is rated higher than Lotro.