What Exactly Is Wrong With World Of Warcraft?

[Asturiel]

Some people feel that it is a monopoly, and that people focus too much on how WoW is doing things, and are therefore upset that a standard for MMOs has been set that they find tedious, and it seems to permeate all other MMOs coming out now, mostly because they are trying to capitalize on WoW success and steal a piece of the pie rather than innovating and really differentiating between MMOs, besides the setting.

Although I don't disagree that WoW isn't a cash cow and a half I do find "It ruined the MMO genre with the clones" a bit odd. World of warcraft was a game made so that non-hardcore gamers and the hardcore could both play the same game. And to their credit I think this was done very well. Saying it's their fault because everybody is trying to mimic their success is just saying that nobody has the balls to make something different in the fear it won't make the money that WoW does. Thats an issue with MMO developers not taking chances, not the kings.

OT: Goddamit hate accidentally hitting post.

Anyway, I personally play it, raid with a cool group of people once to thrice a week. ICC is quite fun right now, but in my opinion WoW has become too easy. I suppose it's just my old classic mindset of how the game used to be but thats beside the point. All in all it's boring to play alone, play with others if you don't have the drive from loving warcraft lore/series(something I have fallen victim to). There are memories from raiding with Brotherhood of the Blade in Molten Core that will last me a lifetime.

 

[poet_lawreate]

I love WoW's graphics because, like someone else pointed out here (and was misunderstood), realism gets boring. Game after game after game where everything is a stodgy brown and green, even the MMOs, because 'this is what the world really looks like!'

TF2 is my favourite FPS not just but partly because it is not sludge-o-vision. It's fun. Games are unrealistic. The graphics should be exciting.

WoW's graphics are unbelievably pretty. I played DDO for a while before I returned to WoW, and I could not believe how much I'd missed those gorgeous colourful graphics and beautiful designs...

 

[McNinja]

There's nothing reall wrong with it persay, but it can get boring, and having to go from level 1 to level 80 (or level 85 come November) can be a daunting task. Heck, I got bored going from 55 to 80. It drains money, lots of money if you happen to want to switch the account the character is on, or if you want to buy a mount, or something like that. It can be fun, but it can be boring too. Unless you have friends playing with you. Then its pretty good.

 

[ffs-dontcare]

I like an mmo game where my character can be unique, where there are a billion variables that I can change and none of them will affect me in any perticular way.
I like it when people are like "so we should get zenfox3/funnydoody/noble/legend3/tenn/Ryan to join us, he has high attack and is fun to play with."
with WoW, its pretty much "pick this or that or we wont let you be part of our group"
and that makes me sad.
I like to be me in games, not "the tank" or "the healer", I like to play as I play, and not have to learn spell rotations so I can be like one of the other 10billion people who all picked the same class.

Definitely. As a WoW player, I can absolutely agree with this. It's disgraceful. The WoW community is what's wrong with WoW, as far as I'm concerned. The end-game community has sucked the customization out of it. Talents were supposed to be about customization but now if you ask for advice from some other players they'll merely point you in the direction of the class forums where everyone there will order you to re-spec to one of four or five specific talent builds crafted by Elitist Jerks or whatever. According to them, if you don't do this, you are bad and should quit the game. I hate these people.

 

[Tehlanna TPX]

Hee. I have that mouse And if it's not your cup of tea, it's not your cup of tea! I have a buddy who plays Aion.. and I think it looks like utter crap... but he doesn't rag on WoW and I don't poke fun at Aion.


...god I love that mouse /strokes it.

I wasn't "hating on" the graphics but calling it realistic, when it looks like loony tunes is a little wrong. I also prefer realistic looking games in general, like I haven't played borderlands 'cos I don't like the graphics (I know I am probably deriving myself of a great game).

It's a cool looking mouse, I was going to get it but I thought "I will never use that many buttons", so I got the diamond back instead.

Spoiler: Razor Diamondback

Oh I wasn't trying to insinuate anything by your comment. Sorry you got that impression. I have heard that comparison before: that wow looks very cartoonish. I've never really understood that, honestly... but then again I like cartoons and anime... and cartoonish to me makes me think of.. spongebob? Kids cartoons I guess.

I got the Naga because I'm right handed and actually am not big on keybinding to my keyboard. I don't like to use my left hand much except as a slave to chat typing. So the thumb pad is perfect for me .

 

[vivalahelvig]

people, because as yatzhee said "people are shit. Everywhere I go, i say to myself, look at all this shit around here, im shit your shit."

 

[Dendio]

WoW is a great game. I believe its one of the most social gaming experiences out there.
The developers communicate with the players on a daily if not hourly basis.
The game is constantly being tweaked and improved

Theres really nothing bad I can say about it aside from the fact that it demands a lot of free time. However the fact that WoW is an Mmo pretty much makes the time issue a no brainer.

In regards to the community bias here, I personally feel that there's a lot of Valve and Bioware supporters, but not many blizzard/activision fans.
Everyone has their opinions, so sometimes thats just how it goes depending on who you talk to.

To be honest Blizzard has a lot of fan-sites as well as its own main forums, so I imagine most Blizzard supporters frequent those sites as opposed to the more generalized gaming forum that is The Escapist.

 

[Kirkenir]

http://www.cracked.com/article_18461_5-creepy-ways-video-games-are-trying-to-get-you-addicted.html check it out. Scary stuff.

 

[Tony2077]

i like the game but its a money sink so i plan to stay away from it till i get a higher paying job

 

[csbears]

Wall - o - text!

( this is from a big WoW nerd so....wow talk included )

These are my personal ( and opinionated ) reasons for quitting after a five year addiction to the game are such... ( rage included )

1.) Maturity levels : Before i start i was an alliance and vehemently proud of it, borderline fanatic, and to admit to this makes me sad. I've personally grouped with some pretty cool ass kids on there but it seemed like most people i seen in Trade Chat, the main cities, or sometimes in party with couldn't keep their composure or any shred of dignity to their name. People would and still say that the Alliance was full of immature kids but really its the older people you really have to worry about imho.

2.) Lore : I was big on the WarCraft lore and the WoW lore that followed in every quest line ( going as far as to read the pages upon pages of shit on WoWwiki late at night with a energy drink in hand to admire it all ) and for me, just like how George Lucas slaughtered the star wars prequels ( starting with that joke ( some say insult.. ) of a movie phantom menace ) they just went to town butchering everything they worked so hard to preserve, just like Arthas did to Stratholme xD

3,) The easily accessible loot tables : Blizzards old stuff ( real dungeons such as Naxx or AQ or any 5 man ) MADE you be on top of your keyboard everywhere you went, even if you were just running a lowbie friend ( or someone that paid handsomely ) through the instance, because of how intense everything was and it made a real sense of accomplishment and a sense of pride when you were rewarded new gear ( like a badge of honor ) that you wore for the next month or more (if it was that good) around town and if you were to be so bold...or retarded as to try and run a group / raid through there without knowing whats around every corner you will inevitably die many many times and prolly disband the group / raid, it could be full of 80's and still wipe the floor with'um if you didn't pay enough attention.

4.) The amount of junk accessible to you : When i started playing this game five years ago they kept the numbers and values of the upgrades ( stats, crit %, spell pwr, ect ect ) on armor / weapons and gold amounts / prices were small and efficient without making them too ridiculous to get. For me it was like a apple on a tree you tried to jump up and attempt to get but always out of reach tempting them to venture further into the rabbit hole. Lately they have made everything so readily available to get ( mining minerals for lucrative amounts of gold or running one dungeon a hundred times ( the Crusade 5 man when I played ) ) without needing to go elsewhere or to know complex or interactive boss fights it doesnt feel a deep sense of reward. The instance Trial of the Crusader ( aka TotC ) they just scaled up the damage amounts so that anyone who could be CONSIDERED under geared or lucky enough to survive for the ridiculousness of the damage output the bosses incur might as well face roll their keyboard and go on hopes and dreams they needn't have to pay the 75+ gold ( i was a well established tank at the time ) in repairs after they're done the dungeon and hope their group understands this as well.

5.) Classes and PvP : Seemingly every SINGLE time blizzard buffs one class beyond "kitty" whipped too much ( Ret paladins, frost death knights, sub rogues, huntards, and all the rest i cant think of atm ) the forums are up in flame to cry out like a babe crying for their mothers milk for a good solid nerfing of said classes and blizzard complies and takes out anything and everything trying to keep the fan base at a low to minimum flame - age of any other class. Blizzard cant have PvP that's too different or someone might have to actually immerse themselves (not calling or txting during pvp sessions or alt tabbing out of a windowed wow to do something else) in the game or at worst learn how to play their class like they should have. To all you "may be" nay sayers I played a Warrior tank before it was faceroll 3 - 4 button easy sauce and you had to actually be involved in every single thing every single step of the way...and the way i learned my class was to PvP constantly as a tank ( playing defensively of course )

Personally i think blizzard has readily acknowledged the fact that the lower they set the bar with their consequence & retar...i mean reward system the more brain addled people can shuffle through the game like mindless zombies to sit in their main cities with their dumb vanity pets, easy face roll instances, easy daily grind quests, and the loot that's practically given to you as soon as you walk into the instance and the less work they have to do thinking that people like me wont see how much depth to the game, respect and admiration they had from their core fan base ( like me ) before / after they lost touch. To me i feel like they sold out to get more money...just like some would say Metallica ( for the longest time ) or Linken Park did. I loved the hell out of that game when it was in its prime but right now i have no interest in ever getting back on to talk to my ridiculous amount of friends on my friends list or see any new content cause it prolly wont meet my "high" expectations and I'm fine with that because I've moved on to other games.

hope ya'll enjoyed my post =D

 

[Silva]

That's a fallacious comparison that assumes that people have nothing else to buy, and that they'll immediately stop wanting other games simply because they play WoW. While this is true for the hardcore, it's hardly the only way that owning the game works out for people.

The point was that playing WoW is less expensive then playing other games or even other hobbys. I don't see how you buying other games somehow makes WoW more expensive. If you pay for a WoW sub and then on top of that buy a ton of brand new games then of course you're going to be spending a lot of money, but how is that WoW's fault?

Again, unless you buy only 1 or 2 videogames a year, WoW and mmo's in general ARE cheaper to play then other videogames.

I only buy 1 or 2, or maybe 3 if I'm lucky, video games a year. But then, I'm not a member of the upper class. Or a fool wasting more money on the habit than it's worth. The fact that you think that over $100 every year is a good price is ridiculous, and tells us just how bad industry practices and norms have become.

The new content simply doesn't cater to how much you're paying for it. I know that WoW is huge and all that, but the fact is that you're paying for a completely new game every two years, and do you get it? No, you get minor expansions, patches, and some glitch fixes, the last two of which should be free in the first place.

Blizzard is making more profit out of this than they should, so I stand by my comment about bad value for money.

 

[Phase_9]

Some people feel that it is a monopoly, and that people focus too much on how WoW is doing things, and are therefore upset that a standard for MMOs has been set that they find tedious, and it seems to permeate all other MMOs coming out now, mostly because they are trying to capitalize on WoW success and steal a piece of the pie rather than innovating and really differentiating between MMOs, besides the setting.

Although I don't disagree that WoW isn't a cash cow and a half I do find "It ruined the MMO genre with the clones" a bit odd. World of warcraft was a game made so that non-hardcore gamers and the hardcore could both play the same game. And to their credit I think this was done very well. Saying it's their fault because everybody is trying to mimic their success is just saying that nobody has the balls to make something different in the fear it won't make the money that WoW does. Thats an issue with MMO developers not taking chances, not the kings.

OT: Goddamit hate accidentally hitting post.

Anyway, I personally play it, raid with a cool group of people once to thrice a week. ICC is quite fun right now, but in my opinion WoW has become too easy. I suppose it's just my old classic mindset of how the game used to be but thats beside the point. All in all it's boring to play alone, play with others if you don't have the drive from loving warcraft lore/series(something I have fallen victim to). There are memories from raiding with Brotherhood of the Blade in Molten Core that will last me a lifetime.

I am not trying to say it is their fault. What I am saying is it is possible for people to resent them because of it. I personally have no real stance on the game, but some of my friends find it frustrating that its success has created a formula for MMORPGs that they dislike.

 

[Chipperz]

On topic. I haven't played it but looking at this,

I instantly see 80 odd boxes round the screen, which makes me think "I will need about 10 hands just to use all those (I am assuming) powers then an extra hand to move".

This guy has a VERY similar layout to me - in combat, he'll use buttons 2-5 (I use 1-4 and have Autoattack (which he has on 1) on Right Click, but other than that, it's the same). Everything else is situational, and the game gives you new abilities at a steady, but not overwhelming rate, so if you come up with a new challenge, you'll know what to use (Not that I haven't found anything that can't be solved with Rain of Fire or Death Coil).

For what it's worth, the main bar (that's accessed by numbers) are his attack powers, the row above are his debuffs and his Area attacks. From bottom to top up the side are his healing abilities, his enemy control abilities and his "miscellaneous" abilities (stuff like water breathing and armour spells). The greyed out section is his pet's abilities, all of which are used by the AI, but can be toggled to be used on a mouseclick (they're greyed out because he's on a horse, and therefore his pet can't attack).

To someone who knows what they're looking at, it's not actually that much information. I could probably label 90% of those abilities (he's an Affliction/Destruction mix, I'm Demonology/Destruction, so he has a few spells I'm unfamiliar with) and tell you when to use it, if you really want

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

I've heard it's grindtakular.

 

[acklumos]

I don't see anything wrong with it. I played for a few months and enjoyed it. No, the problem is people's willingness to pay to change servers. After my 5th or 6th group of friends changed servers ( which costs, I believe, $25) I said screw it, this isn't worth it.

 

[Kagim]

Alright... While a lot of good points have been raised about why some people don't like it there's a couple of counter points i would like to introduce.

"WoW took my friends away!!!"
Counter Point: Alright. I realize some people will get ocd over the game. Sometimes though its not the game. Its you.

My and my fiancee played the game for awhile same with three of our friends. We had fun, played on weekends and occasionally talked about it. Then there was friend... Lets call her Ann. Ann didn't like WoW and she refused to shut the hell up about it. If my buddy asked me a question about it in her presence she would start humming obnoxiously to drown us out. Or talk really really loud to my cat or inanimate objects. If she saw me playing it she would constantly rag on it and constantly insult it. Whenever she got a little nugget of bad information about it she would blurt it out the second she came over. She constantly called everyone who played WoW pathetic losers over and over again in front of us.

Suffice to say we stopped hanging out with her. We stopped inviting her over when we invited our other friends over on the off chance we might want to whip out WoW or one of us would want to talk about it. We didn't give two shits if she didn't play. She was just being irritating as hell about it. Now none of us talk to her. She thinks to this day we don't hang out with her because of WoW... Despite none of us playing for the last two or three months. The best part was when she e-mailed my fiancee about how the only reason why we even talk to anyone anymore is because of WoW and if it wasn't for that we would have no friends. It was funny because my fiancee got it while we had our friends over for dinner.

Long story short WoW didn't destroy our friendship with her. Her incessant bitching and trying to get us to quit did. I realize this isn't always the case, but i am sure it's not the only one.

"WoW is to expensive!"
Counterpoint: So is everything else.

Do you: Drink, smoke, drive a car, eat at fast food restaurants, have a secondary phone, do anything involving spending money on things not vital to survival? Then this complaint is null. It might not be worth it to you, but its not expensive. Can we please make this distinction?

"WoW is designed to be addictive!"
Counterpoint: And?

Seriously. Should they design a game that relies on monthly fees to be finished in one month? WoW is only as addictive as one lets it be. After all your not addicted to it now are you? Nothing evil or unsavory is being done to make it addictive. So please drop it. You sound like one of those nuts who thinks there's a subliminal message in the death ghosts voice.

"The game is to grindy!"
Counterpoint: A) its tame in comparison to others. B) its an MMO. That's like saying there's to much shooting in a FPS.

.... That's about it really. Nothing more to add to that one.

Wrapping this up now...

I am sure you probably have figured out i quit the game. So why am I defending the game? Because these are the complaints i here a lot. These complaints i have found to be annoying to listen to repeated. I understand if its why you don't like it but its not a flaw in the game. Its how the game works.

More to the point i am sick of people saying people who play WoW have no lives and that the game should be banned, canceled to make this people see the light of day again or whatever. While i played i hung out with my friends in real life often. I kept down a full time job as well. Yes there are people who get obsessed but i have seen the same level of obsession with sports, celebrities, music, movies, porn, drugs, alcohol. Its not the game its the player. If the game was as evil and mind controlling as you guys say it is how am i, all my friends, and you not playing it forever enslaved.

Its a question of will power people. If it wasn't WoW it would be some other game.

 

[Infinatex]

I don't see anything wrong with it. I played for a few months and enjoyed it. No, the problem is people's willingness to pay to change servers. After my 5th or 6th group of friends changed servers ( which costs, I believe, $25) I said screw it, this isn't worth it.

Wait so you will always end up on the same server if you don't pay more? How many people are on a server? I've played the trial version and I would have been lucky to see about 10 people the whole time I played... And I was expecting millions!

 

[Asturiel]

I am not trying to say it is their fault. What I am saying is it is possible for people to resent them because of it. I personally have no real stance on the game, but some of my friends find it frustrating that its success has created a formula for MMORPGs that they dislike.

True enough. It's the anger at something you can't actually get angry at, I can dig it.

Wall - o - text!

( this is from a big WoW nerd so....wow talk included )

These are my personal ( and opinionated ) reasons for quitting after a five year addiction to the game are such... ( rage included )

1.) Maturity levels : Before i start i was an alliance and vehemently proud of it, borderline fanatic, and to admit to this makes me sad. I've personally grouped with some pretty cool ass kids on there but it seemed like most people i seen in Trade Chat, the main cities, or sometimes in party with couldn't keep their composure or any shred of dignity to their name. People would and still say that the Alliance was full of immature kids but really its the older people you really have to worry about imho.

This is the same for both sides, but I can see where your coming from.

2.) Lore : I was big on the WarCraft lore and the WoW lore that followed in every quest line ( going as far as to read the pages upon pages of shit on WoWwiki late at night with a energy drink in hand to admire it all ) and for me, just like how George Lucas slaughtered the star wars prequels ( starting with that joke ( some say insult.. ) of a movie phantom menace ) they just went to town butchering everything they worked so hard to preserve, just like Arthas did to Stratholme xD

I can sympathize, it seems we both know way too much about the world of Azeroth and it's universe than any person of Earth should. However I didn't feel the butchering effect, I felt like I was in the world that those events created and while some events were dumb("...was merely a setback") others were really nice(Battling for Undercity). Although knowing that everything has to end up as it was so the game can progress can become frustrating.

3,) The easily accessible loot tables : Blizzards old stuff ( real dungeons such as Naxx or AQ or any 5 man ) MADE you be on top of your keyboard everywhere you went, even if you were just running a lowbie friend ( or someone that paid handsomely ) through the instance, because of how intense everything was and it made a real sense of accomplishment and a sense of pride when you were rewarded new gear ( like a badge of honor ) that you wore for the next month or more (if it was that good) around town and if you were to be so bold...or retarded as to try and run a group / raid through there without knowing whats around every corner you will inevitably die many many times and prolly disband the group / raid, it could be full of 80's and still wipe the floor with'um if you didn't pay enough attention.

I agree with you utterly here.

4.) The amount of junk accessible to you : When i started playing this game five years ago they kept the numbers and values of the upgrades ( stats, crit %, spell pwr, ect ect ) on armor / weapons and gold amounts / prices were small and efficient without making them too ridiculous to get. For me it was like a apple on a tree you tried to jump up and attempt to get but always out of reach tempting them to venture further into the rabbit hole. Lately they have made everything so readily available to get ( mining minerals for lucrative amounts of gold or running one dungeon a hundred times ( the Crusade 5 man when I played ) ) without needing to go elsewhere or to know complex or interactive boss fights it doesnt feel a deep sense of reward. The instance Trial of the Crusader ( aka TotC ) they just scaled up the damage amounts so that anyone who could be CONSIDERED under geared or lucky enough to survive for the ridiculousness of the damage output the bosses incur might as well face roll their keyboard and go on hopes and dreams they needn't have to pay the 75+ gold ( i was a well established tank at the time ) in repairs after they're done the dungeon and hope their group understands this as well.

This caused the previous, as well as other things, well it didn't help in any case.

5.) Classes and PvP : Seemingly every SINGLE time blizzard buffs one class beyond "kitty" whipped too much ( Ret paladins, frost death knights, sub rogues, huntards, and all the rest i cant think of atm ) the forums are up in flame to cry out like a babe crying for their mothers milk for a good solid nerfing of said classes and blizzard complies and takes out anything and everything trying to keep the fan base at a low to minimum flame - age of any other class. Blizzard cant have PvP that's too different or someone might have to actually immerse themselves (not calling or txting during pvp sessions or alt tabbing out of a windowed wow to do something else) in the game or at worst learn how to play their class like they should have. To all you "may be" nay sayers I played a Warrior tank before it was faceroll 3 - 4 button easy sauce and you had to actually be involved in every single thing every single step of the way...and the way i learned my class was to PvP constantly as a tank ( playing defensively of course )

Personally with my little bubble of knowing how to play my class and the occasional info I get from reading some MMO champion I don't think I can give you a good response here.

Personally i think blizzard has readily acknowledged the fact that the lower they set the bar with their consequence & retar...i mean reward system the more brain addled people can shuffle through the game like mindless zombies to sit in their main cities with their dumb vanity pets, easy face roll instances, easy daily grind quests, and the loot that's practically given to you as soon as you walk into the instance and the less work they have to do thinking that people like me wont see how much depth to the game, respect and admiration they had from their core fan base ( like me ) before / after they lost touch. To me i feel like they sold out to get more money...just like some would say Metallica ( for the longest time ) or Linken Park did. I loved the hell out of that game when it was in its prime but right now i have no interest in ever getting back on to talk to my ridiculous amount of friends on my friends list or see any new content cause it prolly wont meet my "high" expectations and I'm fine with that because I've moved on to other games.

Its starting to feel like this more and more, the celestial steed mount should not have made as much money as it did...

hope ya'll enjoyed my post =D

I did, impressive first post there mate, welcome to the Escapist(although you likely stalked the forums for a while already), just be sure not to go into the basement and follow proper post etiquette(as you did here).