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Return to WoW? Opinions please.
<Posted in General Discussion to get less biased opinions>
Hello everyone.
I, like many of you, have played many, many MMORPGs. And from this, like many of you, I have become very picky and particular as to what I want in my MMO ;p
A friend of mine who plays World of Warcraft has really wanted me to get back into the game with them, and Ive missed playing with them as well. My problem is that I have quite a few things I dont like about World of Warcraftand Im sharing with you the reasons why I left. Id like to know if any of this has changed, or if theres certain servers that dont seem to have these problems or what; basically
Should I come back to World of Warcraft?
Heres my list of (some) things I dislike about World of Warcraft
Lack of community and teamwork. The only reason people consider grouping is when they cant solo. As soon as the quest is done, they split. The only reason people dont KS is because of tagging, thank god. If a high level feels like farming or power leveling a friend/second account in a certain area that youre trying to level up or finish a quest in, too bad; log on some other time.
Lack of end game. Okay, you get to level 60 (or 70 after the expansion), now what? Oh, you kill monsters and get better equipment? That sound like what youve been doing for 59 (69) levels, doesnt it? When I left there was no PvP, and I understand some has been implemented. Im curious as to whether or not this is fun or balanced, but not curious enough to re-subscribe for that alone.
Lack of character depth. What makes you different from other people the same class as you? At low levels, probably nothing. At high levels, you MIGHT have different talents or equipment, but youre just slightly better at one thing rather than another. There is no uniqueness between classes (most MMOs fall victim to this, exceptions being Dark Age of Camelot and Guild Wars where one type of one class wasnt definitively better than another type of the same class).
Lack of quest depth. Even though therere tons of quests, they all boil down to the same basic elements of take this from here to here or kill X many of Y mob or collect X many of Y items. I understand its hard to come up with new ideas for quests, but in World of Warcraft if you arent doing quests then youre not gaining very much experience in comparison. Too much importance is placed into a part of the game that is repetitive and ultimately monotonous. I do like the escort ones though.
Immaturity of the community. When I played, I would be constantly annoyed by the maturity level and intelligence of players. I had to often turn off global chat because every 5 minutes someone would ask a question to the same quest like werz th e rapter nest?questions that would never happen if they would take the 5-15 seconds to read their quest description. If you have to have someone hand feed you all the information, why the hell are you playing this game? Almost never would I ever find someone considerate of other people, frequent complaining of trade ingredient theft (herbs, skins, metal veins), people rolling on absolutely everything they cant use (even bind on pickup!), even though someone else could most likely use it, and theres always that one person that jets as soon as they ninja loot their 10 <insert quest items here> and dont feel like helping everyone else. Positive player interactions are almost nonexistent in comparison. Im not sure why I experience this much more in World of Warcraft than anywhere else, but it might be because that since it has become so popular and looks so cartoonish (as well as the fact Warcraft and Blizzard games appeal to younger players) brings more young and immature people into the game. But I know that there are people in their 20s and 30s (and older) that behave like this, so I cant really attribute it to that.
Other minor things:
World of Warcraft is spyware (article came out about it recently). Its anti cheat protection (the Warden) is a form of spyware that reads the titles of all your programs open every 15 seconds. Im fine with stopping cheaters, but this is pretty much a violation of privacy. Id be wary if I did my taxes or finances on my computer.
Comments
I was just resently in the same situation as you are now. It was not really the game I missed it was my friends. So I decided "What the hell. I will reactivate. I do remeber it was a bit fun."
But sadly after 2 days I remebered why I quit, and did again cancel my account. The game has not changed.
EQ2 has proven to be a better joy to play. IMO that is. Im not saying you should play EQ2, just stick to something other then the awful disaster that is WoW....
I think WoW comunity only worsened over the time.
All the people that had same complaints as you left. And the people who had no problems with all what you mentioned (probably because they are the ones that are causing it) stayed.
As for content , there is really not much to do after the level cap. You can go on bashing monsters if you like to do it for no reward...that is about it.
PvP is largely useless. But if you are into PvP anyway , there are much better games.
So why return to WoW? It is still pretty damn good MMORPG. And honestly there is no MMORPG out there that is seriously better than WoW...not at the moment anyway.
Why not return to WoW? If it bored you once - that is pretty much it. The game is dead for you.
And Blizzard is IMHO a company that should be avoided as probably outstanding example of unethical buisness.
I really can not imagine myself ever again supporting their budget.
I recomend you to wait patiently. WoW would soon plummet from its throne.It is mather of few months...
"Before this battle is over all the world will know that few...stood against many." - King Leonidas
o.o you just described nearly every single mmo ever made:
Lack of Community/Teamwork: Only a few mmo's have gotten this worked out; and despite working out Community and Teamwork; end game is a huge level grind due to the fact they increase exp rates exponentially, but monster exp linerally. Probably the best title to achieve this is Ragnarok Online since it was concieved as a community game. Some other notable games that attempt to do this are sims like There, Second Life, and The Sims Online.
Lack of end game: Once again this is the trap many mmo's fall into. I believe this is done from a marketing aspect because, with a lack of an end game and large player grinds; the player will have a hard time leaving without feeling a sense of accomplishment. From what I have seen the only game to really end is Guild Wars; then after thats its all PvP.
Lack of quest depth: Worlds of Warcraft definetly has the most quests of any mmo to date, and you can practically get to 59 halfway to 60 purely off doing quests. Granted the bulk are collect so and so, or kill so and so; but some quests arent like this and chain maybe 10 times given somewhat of a story. If you look at mmo's today they would be lucky to get that much. Only a few mmo's have a storyline for the player to follow, like the rescently closed Asherons Call 2, and Guild Wars.
Immuturity of the Community: Due to the theme WoW portrays it would be almost impossible not to get immature players; especially since it is one of the most popular mmo's of today, and the most popular mmo in the United States.
Anti-Cheat Program: Naturally the anti-cheat program would do this. All anti-cheat programs do this to a degree. Its a way to quickly detect if any cheats are active. You have to remember a few things about anti-cheat programs, they are only active when the game is active; meaning the only way they can see you are doing your finances is if your doing them while in game. Something many people don't do. Also in order for them to be a commercial game they would have to make a privacy agreement in which they would not be allowed to use your personally information. There has only been one instance where an anti-cheat program was used to break a computer, and that was with the old gameguard; the only thing that could do is wipe your drive clean; and the issue was addressed with minimal hard drives being wiped.
So what I am getting at. Despite the flaws in the game, you would be damned to find a better mmo at this time. So you might as well play it if you want to play and mmo cause it isnt going to get any better with anything else. On the upside if you want a community game that plays like Worlds of Warcraft; I heard Gravity is trying to make Ragnarok Online 2 play like that.
Thanks for all the fair feedback everyone.
The funny thing is about MMO's is that some succeed where others fail...For example.
I really liked Dark Age of Camelot. It was fairly team oriented, decently fun PvE with sane amounts of equipment and really great character customization. BUT--Once you got out into the big boy Realm vs realm PvP, you find out it's no longer about skill or teamwork, it's about who brings the most players to the field. In the battlegrounds typically is was small group versus small group, usually ended up being a fun fair fight. But I think ultimately they tried to aim too big with gigantic realms...I think PvP is best when it's big, but it's fair. So large groups are fine as long as it's a reasonable cap for both sides. (Plus, I quit before the expansions, and returning would just seem like a pain in the ass to catch up with everybody. When I initially quit it was because our guild and server were in shambles from the release of the PvP servers.)
So my most recent experience, Guild Wars, made me very happy. I really like how the PvP is fair and about skill...Learning an enemies strengths and weaknesses and formulating a strategy to beat them. All characters are almost completely unique. BUT...the PvE is kind of bland, and I find it REALLY hard to get other people interested in it. Unless you have someone you know playing with you, PvE gets really boring very quickly.
Anarchy Online was interesting...It had a really nice community, but not very fun mechanics or combat (PvP or PvE). It was one of the few games I actually went to a in-game party in, with a cool streaming radio station and dancing. I played that for a good amount of time considering how repetitive that game was.
So if we could somehow combine the communities of AO and DAoC with the PvE of DAoC and the PvP of Guild Wars, I'd find myself to be fairly happy, hahahahaaa...
lol i reallly should copy this next statement seeing ive been using it quite alot lately :
go play EvE, SoR, or AC
these are about as good as mmorpgs get, and are regarded as some of the best mmorpgs out there @ the present. Do yourself a favor and try the trials of the first 2 both are 14 days in length as for AC bone up on the game learn about it visit some forums and check out the screenshots. Granted its not as informative as a trial would be but unfortunately no trial exists for it. Worse case scenario is u buy it dont like it cancel before 30days are up and move on.
But i really suggest giving these games a try.
To the OP->
Hi, it seems we're in pretty much the same boat. I quite WoW a couple of months ago and have been unsatisfied by anything I've played eversince. The only thing that I can enjoy for an hour or 2 nowadays is Battlefield 2. I've tried nearly every other game, from beta's to games outside the MMORPG genre. Nothing seems to appeal to me.
My 2 good friends (IRL) still play WoW. We had some good times together. They say, I'm always welcome back but its not quite the same as it used to be before.
The only thing that recently sparked my interest in returning to WoW recently was the news on the Expansion. Depending on the release date, I'd consider going back. However, I doubt it will be anytime soon. If it comes out next year, I definitely wont bother since the next gen MMOs will be nearing release and I might aswell wait.
Right now I'm pretty bored, I cant really find any games to play. Everything out now seems pretty dull or is a copy of a copy.
So if there ever was a reason to go back to WoW, the Expansion is it. However, dont expect a release anytime soon. So theres that idea out the window.
edit double post
I am another one of those who came back to WoW thinking Blizzard had inproved the game but I was extremely wrong. I paid one month and quit again. That game sucks, and most of the thinks you dont like about it (neither do i) are still the same.
Yes, I also got the impression that the WoW spyware runs constantly from the article--even when WoW isn't running it is sending all the titles of all your programs open every 15 seconds back to Blizzard HQ. That way even if someone was curious about a cheat program and looked it up, it would show up in the browser title and your account would be flagged for cheating.
Back on topic...About trying those other games...I played Asheron's Call 2 beta, and I didn't really find anything great about it. Never played AC1 though.
EVE online is the most boring MMO I have ever played, hands down ;p It ranks up there with...what was that other space one...I want to say...oh yes, Earth and Beyond. They didn't survive, hehe. EVE's only saving grace is that it looks pretty in my opinion.
Saga of Ryzom...haven't looked at that one at all. I'll check it out maybe.
I dont know what your guys' idea of community and story are, but from nearly all the mmo's I have played, none of them did a good job at emphasizing it; but maybe it is because I played community based mmos, and saw a never ending stream of mmos that are "Open Ended" and have no end.
Most mmo's basis of a good community is the fact that most of the players on have played for a couple years and are already addicted to the game. They become nicer to each other out of appreciation for the game; yet most games lack the qualities of a community driven game. Things to remember about community driven games is that they are based on a 3rd perspective view above the user with quite alot of zoom; this way it is easier to see who is talking and where they are talking from. Most mmo's today are in a 3d view at eye level, meaning chat bubbles will cross and the only way to tell who is saying what is to monitor the chat window (like how it is in Worlds of Warcraft). I think I will make a topic in the developers corner on how to destinguish community based mmo's from ordinary mmo's since the list is alot longer.
If you got bored of Eve you'll probably get bored of Saga of Ryzom, alot of fanboys plug these games down your throught like I plug some games. I really suggest waiting it out, the new generation of mmo's is about to hit Open Beta; they should be interesting for a while.
I just booted up my old wow subscription with two of my mates and were having a fairly good time so far. Started new toons on a new server on the horde side. The only problem is that i have this constant feeling that everything i do is utterly pointless in the end. I kill mob x to get a better weapon and more levels so that i can kill mob y. The pvp is the most shallow and pointless pvp ive ever seen in a mmo beside guildwars.
But hey, at least its polished and if all else fails, you could always run around and explore every nook and cranny of the world.
Wow will do for a couple of weeks, then its back to Eve for me.
_____________________
I am the flipside of the coin on which the troll and the fanboy are but one side.
guildwars pvp is...shallow?
Well i reactivated my account recently .
Well for community.Not much changed.Yeah many mmorpg have immature players but WoW really holds the crown
.However that said my guild was still well around and i only play with them who frown on immature behaviour or talk,
The biggest letdown was they added a new 15 vs 15 BG which is very small zone running around fighting over points for resources.Very Very boring.I always thought AV was too small and had too few players(40 vs 40),But this is much worse.
The buggest plus is the 60 content.They seems to be adding more content for 60s.
So currently just doing the PvE and totally ignoring the pvp.Hope that helps.
the new expansion is just going to cause more imbalance, and every horde char is going to reroll blood elf because of the racials. nerf!
spot on with the points. I'm playing it and enjoying it as a way of passing time at the moment but the points mentioned are spot on why really its not my preferred kind of mmorpg. Don't know if you should return but if you're bored, you could try either pvp, the rp server or try a new character.
I quit WoW after about a month, I had been given the game and had no knowledge of MMO's at all. I realised that it cost money per month and was weary.
I played the first week of the free month and just shelved it. I had the same problems as you, people were immature, stuff was boring and it felt like grinding! I also felt like if i wasn't spending every spare minute on the game then I was wasting money.
I went out the next day and bought Guild Wars, and haven't looked back. It's not for everyone but it was good for me, and free per month. Which means that you can leave it for weeks at a time and it won't feel like your wasting money (I mean I'm not exactly poor, but I don't like paying monthly for something that cost AUS$100 in the first place to buy...)
Recently I have felt like returning to WoW to see how it was going, changes etc. but after what you guys have posted I think I will give it a miss.
EDIT: I actually had a break from GW for about 2 weeks because I got bored, cam back the other week got in a good guild and now I am obsessed again. I think every game struggles to create a good community. The problem is that you usally have to go out nad find a nice liitle community for yourself, which can be hard.
Nope
Every reason you have listed for leaving WOW is still true. A Friend of mine let me borrow his account as recently as 10 days ago to see if I'd like the game enough to buy it.
It's still just as bad now as it was in beta. Except now it's got PVP so the kiddies can be even MORE annoying by badgering you to duel them over and over and over... I detest WOW's community.
Only fantasy MMORPG's worth playing right now, imo, are EQ2 and DAOC.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
Here's all I can say... with the new expansion coming out, if you aren't ready with full epic armor sets and at least 1 epic weapon, you won't be ready for the level 70 cap!!!
I mean think about it, if you're forming a group for the new Expansion dungeons and you had the choice of picking people that have full epics cause they had faith in Blizzard and have been grinding during all this time, or picking all these people that still have green items and a few blues cause they quit WoW awhile ago, who are you gonna chose???
The Expansion is gonna OWN!!! All you people that lost faith in Blizzard are gonna suffer like crazy and I'll laugh so hard at you cause you won't be able to find anyone to group with cause you're all rejected!
___________ ___ __ _ _ _
Stealth - Ambush - Hemorrhage - Sinister Strike x2 - Cold Blood - Eviscerate - Vanish - Preparation - Cold Blood - Ambush - ... you're dead! :P
Best regards!
MMORPG world
How, exactly, is the 'expansion' going to "own"?
The game itself is boring. Raising the level cap and adding some content is only going to add a few more levels to grind before you get bored again.
Unless you're saying they're changing the game intrinsically as part of the expansion to make it have more depth and bredth of interest? Because right now WoW is just a race to 60, at which time you suffer severe boredom. If they're just throwing in more dungeons how exactly is killing XYZ mob in 1 dungeon any different than killing xyz in another dungeon? Are they planning to make it slower to get to 70 than they did to get to 60? Because the inherant problem with WoW is that it's TOO easy to reach the 'end' of the game.
EQ wasn't any 'deeper' than WoW is but the journey was much longer so folks didn't get bored with the 'end game' as quickly.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
I'm playing on one of the best wow servers in the world (first server with 3 Nefarian kills worldwide). The community there is awesome, most people are 18+, they are mature, funny and friendly. A awesome bunch to play with. Most guilds on that realm have requirements like 18+. You are right about most grouping being to do dungeons and quests you can't solo. This is how Wow works. It's solo most of the time, unless you like to group very much. There are plenty of people that have that opinion. What you basicly can say about this is that if you find the right server the community in World of Warcraft is awesome. I suggest you ask longtime player if they know of a good and mature server.
Endgame now is about dungeons and pvp for those who want that. The dungeons is about getting good gear and killing the bosses. Pvp is about ranking. Get to rank 14 and you get awesome rewards. If you know about a game that doesn't have this type of endgame then pls go ahead. All I have played so far have it Eve, EQ2 and Daoc etc. The dungeons part of the endgame is about the giant endgame instances. That require 40 talented people to beat. New instances and raid encounters are added every content patch now. The Pvp is about battlegrounds, wich are instanced battlefields that makes you fight the other factions for strategic points and objectives. Or you can do some open pvp.
Each class has 3 talent trees. In most classes there isn't a giant difference, but there is a difference. I play a druid, wich is a very varied class, you can be spellcaster, dmgdealer or healer. After the latest talent remake they are all very attractive. Not all classes are where the druid is yet. But Blizzard is remaking all talent trees right now to give all classes more options. Next up is the Paladin I think.
I think the quests in World of Warcraft are great. There are few mmo's put there that have as much lore as Wow has (3 games, 2 expansion games, 4-5 books + alot of books in the works) Even if the quests are about bring x, kill y and so on the lore always shines through, wich makes them more enjoyable than in other games. Every few lvl's you will get across cool quests that are more than just killing. Specially the raid/dungeon quests are cool.
The wow anticheat program is not a problem. Wow haters and privacy maniacs seem to make it worse than it is. The program runs while Wow is running while Wow is running. It starts with the Wow.exe and closes with it. It looks if you are running bots while you run Wow, nothing else. It doesn't find personal information, nor does it send something. Noone has proof of it sending info to Blizzard. Then only thing it does if it detects a cheat is to flag your account. The flagged account is then banned or monitored by Blizzard personell. So there is nothing to worry about here.
First with so little known about the expansion it seems very pre mature to say it will own.
Secondly i never seen anyone say "looking for more for scholo must show gear before we take you".
If you are talking about raid dungeons similar to onyxia lair then realise this high end dungeons are raided by top guilds anyhow.
Pick up groups will careless what you wear(as always) as long as you are the class they want and u do your job.
Also by time they get level 70 up people will grind in the usual fashion.I doubt you see many going to MC for experiencing.Heck i bet first guys to hit 70 will not even step in a dungeon to begin with as happened with the first 60s who just grinded on regular mobs.
And you do realise a MC epic armor will have less stats then something you can get as a level 70 which is blue.
In short like EQ1 as the levels go up the gear becomes obselete.