A thing I don't quite get is how Pet Battles count so strongly into the Gameplay score. It's an entirely optional part with no influence whatsoever to the core gameplay... I would at least like to know what the score without Pet Battles would have been.
Other than that, I feel I agree with the tone of the review, but not the score. It's still too high at 8.1 over-all. I can't shake the feeling that it's either rated favourably because it's Blizzard, or because mmorpg.com can't shake its adherence to the four point scale (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FourPointScale). Personally, I would have rated MoP at around 7.0.
8.1 is fair. Its a very strong expansion. The new talent system drops it from an 8.5 to an 8.1.
Storm Legion should get about an 8.5 (however it better not get anything above a 6 in innovation either, getting kill 20 quests from mobs instead of NPCS isnt innovation)
Oh just you wait innovation on that will be 8 or 9 you MARK MY WORDS.....
You can tell which games are favored on here and which are not.....
Ever since TSW was given an 8 for longetivity becasue it has a, 'cash shop in place already' and GW2 was given a 10 for longevivity, (a game that's based around zerging events, pointless dungeons, and never ending WvWvW battles which gives nothing to aim for long term), and a social scroe of 8, (in a game were you don't need to interact with anyone through to 80 nor is there a need to), I haven't been able to take any reviews on here seriously.
This one just tops it off, it looks like the reviewer pretty much played some of the game and just looked at these forums for anything else they couldn't be bothered with, (clearly there seems to be no understanding of why the talent system changed yet again and whether those changes made it more interesting/fun then the previous system).
It might be best in the future if you publish what exactly your review standards are and how you judge every category objectively becasue it seems to change every review.
Ever since TSW was given an 8 for longetivity becasue it has a, 'cash shop in place already' and GW2 was given a 10 for longevivity, (a game that's based around zerging events, pointless dungeons, and never ending WvWvW battles which gives nothing to aim for long term), and a social scroe of 8, (in a game were you don't need to interact with anyone through to 80 nor is there a need to), I haven't been able to take any reviews on here seriously.
This one just tops it off, it looks like the reviewer pretty much played some of the game and just looked at these forums for anything else they couldn't be bothered with, (clearly there seems to be no understanding of why the talent system changed yet again and whether those changes made it more interesting/fun then the previous system).
It might be best in the future if you publish what exactly your review standards are and how you judge every category objectively becasue it seems to change every review.
It ALOMST seems like there is a tiered scoring system.
If you buy package X you scores will be between A and B and included heavy forum moderation.
If you pay Y your scores will be between C an D with less moderation.
I've been experiencing major lag during peak hours after CRZ was introduced. I played a while but I must admit not to liking Panda's. In fact I felt like I was playing a cartoon. The Panda's have become just another race to me, I still love Blood Elves but have ended my sub due to massive lag on EU realms. I have read others have experienced this problem, I am hoping it is because of CRZ and Blizzard scrap them then I may consider re-subbing as the lag will theoretically go. There are lots of other titles to consider now, WoW is by no means the monopoly it used to be.
First off in all the years of playing Warcraft and Wow, I never ever saw a panda, so it might have been in the lore, just not in the games. Panda's was all about the chinese preferences and of course the popularity of kung-fu panda. It was a real stretch if you ask me.
The changes in the talent system killed the game far as I am concerned. Everyone is a cookie cutter build now. Worst decision Blizzard ever made IMO. It adds nothing to the game and takes away alot. Anyone trying to argue there are more choices is wearing blinders.
They did a nice job on the expansion, but I would not rate it over 7.5, just really nothing new except for the monk class.
Did you not play Warcraft 3? The brewmaster was a popular hero.
Innovation is an overvalued score in games. It's about "fun" not "trying to be different". GW2 was different, but it forgot about or ignored true character progression. Rift should get an innovation score of 1 or 2 and that alone would cripple its score.
You can't accurately review or score MMOs in based on bullet point items. In the end it doesn't matter because I can't imagine anyone will decide whether or not to buy MoP based on this review.
It's an awesome expansion in nearly every fashion. I haven't regretted logging in yet, and there is at least 5x more content to do endgame than all of the previous expansion combined. The only problem I have is the way gear is being distributed this time around, as it appears to be even worse than the Burning Crusade Model, which was their original aim (I actually preferred the original vanilla model, even though all my toons had green gear except for my officer in blues). Now it's just a month grind of dailies to unlock worse items than what is in heroics, and they cost significant justice and valor to boot.
I tried accessing my old rift character in the open beta (well, I wasn't able to, but got a few premades from fluffy), but the combat in rift is so horribly bad that I had to quit after experiencing the main facet that interested me with the split dimensions. It just doesn't have any "umphf" in the spells or the attacks compare to WoW or even FFXIV (which is sad). Said combat is what keeps me interested in experience awesome new combat, but it just seems like a poor man's WoW system and that really turns me off; I forgot that that was one of the major turnoffs I had after I got to max level when playing with my associates in the past.
Hoping Neverwinter's combat is fun as the forge looks interesting as well. At least FFXIV 2.0 has much more entertaining combat to look forward to than its previous version had.
Due to frequent travel in my youth, English isn't something I consider my primary language (and thus I obtained quirky ways of writing). German and French were always easier for me despite my family being U.S. citizens for over a century. Spanish I learned as a requirement in school, Japanese and Korean I acquired for my youthful desire of anime and gaming (and also work now). I only debate in English to help me work with it (and limit things). In addition, I'm not smart enough to remain fluent in everything and typically need exposure to get in the groove of things again if I haven't heard it in a while. If you understand Mandarin, I know a little, but it has actually been a challenge and could use some help.
Also, I thoroughly enjoy debates and have accounts on over a dozen sites for this. If you wish to engage in such, please put effort in a post and provide sources -- I will then do the same with what I already wrote (if I didn't) as well as with my responses to your own. Expanding my information on a subject makes my stance either change or strengthen the next time I speak of it or write a thesis. Allow me to thank you sincerely for your time.
Funny how WoW can continue to receive these less-than-stellar scores and yet still be the #1 MMO.
While other MMO's such as SWTOR and GW2 receive higher scores, both of those games are dead or dying (active current players for GW2).
I suppose it's hard to find an unbiased reviewer, even if it is his job. We are all human, or at least supposed to be. I suppose since this site is the home of many anti-wow people, the review was aimed at keeping them happy. Way to go.
Going back on a recent ten day MoP trial it struck me after playing Rift , GW2 and Lotro just how easy it is to kill endagme mobs . Its still an undoubtedly polished game but as someone with an 8 year perspective of WoW it really lacks challenge now . ( yeah yeah I know theres some challenge endgame heroics but you have to wade through 90 levels of facepalm ease to get to them ) . For me there are better games out there now .Rift with its new expansion will offer a game world roughly the size of WoW in its TBC period it also has all the soul trees that you can tailor to your own hearts desire .
I seriously would love to see an updated episode of South Park focusing on WoW and how easy its become . Maybe along the lines of the Indiana Jones one . Wouldn't you just love to see Butters get his own back on Cartmen for teasing him about player Hello Kitty Island . Maybe call it " Warcraft what is it good for ? " along the lines of the of the Edwin Star song . ( hey that would be a great youtube video too ) .
Joking aside I still like the pvp in WoW still some of the best in any mmo .
First off in all the years of playing Warcraft and Wow, I never ever saw a panda, so it might have been in the lore, just not in the games. Panda's was all about the chinese preferences and of course the popularity of kung-fu panda. It was a real stretch if you ask me.
The changes in the talent system killed the game far as I am concerned. Everyone is a cookie cutter build now. Worst decision Blizzard ever made IMO. It adds nothing to the game and takes away alot. Anyone trying to argue there are more choices is wearing blinders.
They did a nice job on the expansion, but I would not rate it over 7.5, just really nothing new except for the monk class.
I agree that they're quite alien to the warcraft lore, but the pandas existed since Warcraft 3 (rts). The Panda Brewmasters were mercenary heroes you could hire.
i.e. Pandaren made their appearance in Azeroth 2 years before WoW and 6 years before Kung Fu Panda
That said, I don't really see how they blend with the lore and I also didn't like the way they dumbed down the talents
When I first saw the commercial for MoP I thought that they were going to introduce the Pandas as a Third Faction and that would be a totally brillliant move that would bring WOW gameplay up to date with all the other more recent games.
When it launched and I discovered that it was the same old Hoard/Alliance nonsense that has been around for 8-9 years I was seriously angry that their own commercial lied to me.
I think MoP was a serious disappointment and a major misstep on Blizzards part. They could have reentered the modern MMO world but they just threw it away. People say that only Blizzard can defeat WOW and they sure did it this time.
It's top dog because parents use it to babysit their kids..
Let the generalizations and 'wow is for kiddies' nonsense begin.
I was just wondering how no one posted it yet. Thanks for not dissapointing us.
You are very welcome It's my seven year old son's game of choice as well as his classmates.. "So easy a caveman could do it."
So your seven year old plays WOW and somehow it is top dog only because of these kids? think before you post. You are trying to imply that majority of people who play WOW are kids..based on what? your own experince with your son?
Not denying that kids don't play these MMOS., hell i have seen 10 to 12 years old in my previous GW2 guild. But without any repectable data stop using such generalizations to mock WOW player base.
Come on man you are grown up man with a kid. But you come across as very immature and childish when you say stuff like this. Now you will tell me that majority who play GW2 are grown ups. You seems to have acess to lot of internal data it seems.
yet again this site proves me that is anti-wow (who cares ?? )
i'm looking at twich tv and see after 1 month MoP is in top 5 with the most viewers snd gw2 has less then 1k (ha ha ha ha !!!!) so people are still interest in it. And aboust score it is funny because wow still has millions of players and those with hight scores are falling ):)) so the score doesn't matter only the fun factor
Got to say I think you guys do the best reviews of anyone as far as who I trust, but I do not agree with this score I think its a bit low. I am not super impressed with monk class and I have a 90, but the new content is alot, and its super polished. Only bad Community is still 50/50 meaning must pugs are going to be total jerks, but there are some good guilds just takes more looking around then in a game like say eq2 thats much more focused on social then most mmos. I would have gave it 8.8 score myself but thats just my two cents... Still well written review.
While I still recognize WoW as a great game and one of the best ever made... I haven't played MoP, and don't intend to. The main reason is that as someone who loves PvP, I'm disappointed that they've kept instances (arena, battlegrounds) as their focus. That doesn't cut it for me, and I will never buy an MMO that's PvP is instanced gear grinds.
I think Pandaren and some of the features added are pretty cool. But again, as someone who doesn't care much about PvE and really just wants PvP with a purpose (like DAOC), I have zero reason to play WoW.
"Blizzard never launches an unpolished product. Seriously, it doesn’t"
The writer actually wrote that with a straight face. Obviously the writer never played WoW at launch. It was FAR from smooth. And let's not forget about a lil failed game called Diablo III.
with a playerbase that large its no suprise it got so many hits.
WoW the mmo for the 8 year old and catering to the asian playerbase.
An honest set if questions for you Garret.
Did you did some battlegrounds lately ? more bots then players.
Did you level up profesions lately ? daily daily daily daily daily daily, twice as much if you also have an alt with profesion ragequit when you have all profesions.
Did you joined random dungeons with these wow kids ? getting flamed and griefed to death on the spot ?
Yet a positive number for social ? it should have been -10
Clearly you love wow for what it is now, an empty shell of a once epic game.
iam glad i dropped WoW last summer and havent missed it one bit.
The last 3 years i came back only to find i regret the decision the moment i stepped into a dungeon or battleground.
Even Rob Pardo was needed to start repairing all the damage caused by Ghostcrawler.
To each his own taste, but for me and many guildies MoP is a 8 yer old kiddo pack, nothing more nothing less.
Comments
A thing I don't quite get is how Pet Battles count so strongly into the Gameplay score. It's an entirely optional part with no influence whatsoever to the core gameplay... I would at least like to know what the score without Pet Battles would have been.
Other than that, I feel I agree with the tone of the review, but not the score. It's still too high at 8.1 over-all. I can't shake the feeling that it's either rated favourably because it's Blizzard, or because mmorpg.com can't shake its adherence to the four point scale (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FourPointScale). Personally, I would have rated MoP at around 7.0.
Oh just you wait innovation on that will be 8 or 9 you MARK MY WORDS.....
You can tell which games are favored on here and which are not.....
Pulling numbers out of ass = quality review!
This site has always been the place to come for anti-wow. Just have to realize that and do your best to ignore it.
It's top dog because parents use it to babysit their kids..
"You are all going to poop yourselves." BillMurphy
"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone."
Let the generalizations and 'wow is for kiddies' nonsense begin.
I was just wondering how no one posted it yet. Thanks for not dissapointing us.
Ever since TSW was given an 8 for longetivity becasue it has a, 'cash shop in place already' and GW2 was given a 10 for longevivity, (a game that's based around zerging events, pointless dungeons, and never ending WvWvW battles which gives nothing to aim for long term), and a social scroe of 8, (in a game were you don't need to interact with anyone through to 80 nor is there a need to), I haven't been able to take any reviews on here seriously.
This one just tops it off, it looks like the reviewer pretty much played some of the game and just looked at these forums for anything else they couldn't be bothered with, (clearly there seems to be no understanding of why the talent system changed yet again and whether those changes made it more interesting/fun then the previous system).
It might be best in the future if you publish what exactly your review standards are and how you judge every category objectively becasue it seems to change every review.
This looks like a job for....The Riviera Kid!
It ALOMST seems like there is a tiered scoring system.
If you buy package X you scores will be between A and B and included heavy forum moderation.
If you pay Y your scores will be between C an D with less moderation.
and so on.
Ah, so you agree with me that WOW is top dog then, i rest my case.
You are very welcome
It's my seven year old son's game of choice as well as his classmates.. "So easy a caveman could do it."
"You are all going to poop yourselves." BillMurphy
"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone."
That's actually a FACT.. Hard to disagree with that.
"You are all going to poop yourselves." BillMurphy
"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone."
Did you not play Warcraft 3? The brewmaster was a popular hero.
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
I don't hate much, but I hate Apple© with a passion. If Steve Jobs was alive, I would punch him in the face.
Innovation is an overvalued score in games. It's about "fun" not "trying to be different". GW2 was different, but it forgot about or ignored true character progression. Rift should get an innovation score of 1 or 2 and that alone would cripple its score.
You can't accurately review or score MMOs in based on bullet point items. In the end it doesn't matter because I can't imagine anyone will decide whether or not to buy MoP based on this review.
It's an awesome expansion in nearly every fashion. I haven't regretted logging in yet, and there is at least 5x more content to do endgame than all of the previous expansion combined. The only problem I have is the way gear is being distributed this time around, as it appears to be even worse than the Burning Crusade Model, which was their original aim (I actually preferred the original vanilla model, even though all my toons had green gear except for my officer in blues). Now it's just a month grind of dailies to unlock worse items than what is in heroics, and they cost significant justice and valor to boot.
I tried accessing my old rift character in the open beta (well, I wasn't able to, but got a few premades from fluffy), but the combat in rift is so horribly bad that I had to quit after experiencing the main facet that interested me with the split dimensions. It just doesn't have any "umphf" in the spells or the attacks compare to WoW or even FFXIV (which is sad). Said combat is what keeps me interested in experience awesome new combat, but it just seems like a poor man's WoW system and that really turns me off; I forgot that that was one of the major turnoffs I had after I got to max level when playing with my associates in the past.
Hoping Neverwinter's combat is fun as the forge looks interesting as well. At least FFXIV 2.0 has much more entertaining combat to look forward to than its previous version had.
Funny how WoW can continue to receive these less-than-stellar scores and yet still be the #1 MMO.
While other MMO's such as SWTOR and GW2 receive higher scores, both of those games are dead or dying (active current players for GW2).
I suppose it's hard to find an unbiased reviewer, even if it is his job. We are all human, or at least supposed to be. I suppose since this site is the home of many anti-wow people, the review was aimed at keeping them happy. Way to go.
Going back on a recent ten day MoP trial it struck me after playing Rift , GW2 and Lotro just how easy it is to kill endagme mobs . Its still an undoubtedly polished game but as someone with an 8 year perspective of WoW it really lacks challenge now . ( yeah yeah I know theres some challenge endgame heroics but you have to wade through 90 levels of facepalm ease to get to them ) . For me there are better games out there now .Rift with its new expansion will offer a game world roughly the size of WoW in its TBC period it also has all the soul trees that you can tailor to your own hearts desire .
I seriously would love to see an updated episode of South Park focusing on WoW and how easy its become . Maybe along the lines of the Indiana Jones one . Wouldn't you just love to see Butters get his own back on Cartmen for teasing him about player Hello Kitty Island . Maybe call it " Warcraft what is it good for ? " along the lines of the of the Edwin Star song . ( hey that would be a great youtube video too ) .
Joking aside I still like the pvp in WoW still some of the best in any mmo .
I agree that they're quite alien to the warcraft lore, but the pandas existed since Warcraft 3 (rts). The Panda Brewmasters were mercenary heroes you could hire.
i.e. Pandaren made their appearance in Azeroth 2 years before WoW and 6 years before Kung Fu Panda
That said, I don't really see how they blend with the lore and I also didn't like the way they dumbed down the talents
When I first saw the commercial for MoP I thought that they were going to introduce the Pandas as a Third Faction and that would be a totally brillliant move that would bring WOW gameplay up to date with all the other more recent games.
When it launched and I discovered that it was the same old Hoard/Alliance nonsense that has been around for 8-9 years I was seriously angry that their own commercial lied to me.
I think MoP was a serious disappointment and a major misstep on Blizzards part. They could have reentered the modern MMO world but they just threw it away. People say that only Blizzard can defeat WOW and they sure did it this time.
So your seven year old plays WOW and somehow it is top dog only because of these kids? think before you post. You are trying to imply that majority of people who play WOW are kids..based on what? your own experince with your son?
Not denying that kids don't play these MMOS., hell i have seen 10 to 12 years old in my previous GW2 guild. But without any repectable data stop using such generalizations to mock WOW player base.
Come on man you are grown up man with a kid. But you come across as very immature and childish when you say stuff like this. Now you will tell me that majority who play GW2 are grown ups. You seems to have acess to lot of internal data it seems.
yet again this site proves me that is anti-wow (who cares ?? )
i'm looking at twich tv and see after 1 month MoP is in top 5 with the most viewers snd gw2 has less then 1k (ha ha ha ha !!!!) so people are still interest in it. And aboust score it is funny because wow still has millions of players and those with hight scores are falling
):)) so the score doesn't matter only the fun factor
While I still recognize WoW as a great game and one of the best ever made... I haven't played MoP, and don't intend to. The main reason is that as someone who loves PvP, I'm disappointed that they've kept instances (arena, battlegrounds) as their focus. That doesn't cut it for me, and I will never buy an MMO that's PvP is instanced gear grinds.
I think Pandaren and some of the features added are pretty cool. But again, as someone who doesn't care much about PvE and really just wants PvP with a purpose (like DAOC), I have zero reason to play WoW.
"Blizzard never launches an unpolished product. Seriously, it doesn’t"
The writer actually wrote that with a straight face. Obviously the writer never played WoW at launch. It was FAR from smooth. And let's not forget about a lil failed game called Diablo III.
with a playerbase that large its no suprise it got so many hits.
WoW the mmo for the 8 year old and catering to the asian playerbase.
An honest set if questions for you Garret.
Did you did some battlegrounds lately ? more bots then players.
Did you level up profesions lately ? daily daily daily daily daily daily, twice as much if you also have an alt with profesion ragequit when you have all profesions.
Did you joined random dungeons with these wow kids ? getting flamed and griefed to death on the spot ?
Yet a positive number for social ? it should have been -10
Clearly you love wow for what it is now, an empty shell of a once epic game.
iam glad i dropped WoW last summer and havent missed it one bit.
The last 3 years i came back only to find i regret the decision the moment i stepped into a dungeon or battleground.
Even Rob Pardo was needed to start repairing all the damage caused by Ghostcrawler.
To each his own taste, but for me and many guildies MoP is a 8 yer old kiddo pack, nothing more nothing less.