I have not played the game in at least a year, but I liked it for a couple different reasons. I liked the lore first and foremost; the game is just FILLED with backstory and lore for each faction, subfaction, and major characters. Stuff like the fall of the blood elves and the transformation of Sylvanas into the banshee queen just fascinated me.
Some of the games areas are quite atmospheric too; dark,foggy forests. Blistering badlands with vultures circling up ahead, sweeping vistas and vast tundras. Spiney, jagged canyons filled with ogres. The game had a lot of different environments to it.
While it does have a lot of "kill this, collect that", there are quite a few quests that break up the monotony. Like riding a giant killing hundreds of undead, or manning a spear gun to gun down giant vikings riding on top of drakes. The game devs know a lot of the stereotypes that surround WoW, I mean hell, they have an entire questline (which someone linked above in a video) about YOU being a questgiver, giving out quests to unsavory people. I mean one of the npc's in that quest literally says "are there not bear asses to collect?!" when you tell him you have no more quests to give him. So while most of the quests are MMO standard fare, there are quite a few that break it up, especially in the revamped 1-60 leveling areas.
Aside from the lore, I think what I liked most about WoW was the raiding. I just loved the feeling of teaming up with 10-25(or 20-40 for the old days)people and killing huge and terrifying creatures that you would not be able to face on your own. It was especially excilerating when some of these bosses were people or creatures that were important in the lore of the overall game. Killing Illidan or the Lich King felt meaningful, especially if you were a lore nerd like me.
I also loved the races you can play. While there are standard fare orcs,elves, and humans, there are others like trolls, goblins, Worgen(Werewolves) and Tauren(bull people). I also liked how each of these races were given their own culture and value system which makes the world feel more alive.
The Tauren are very tribal and respective of the earth and are druidistic.
The undead care for pretty much no one but themselves and the people they can use for their own ends; they are especially interesting when you realize some of them were just humans from the opposite faction who were raised from the dead.
The blood elves seem very pompous and arrogant, but are very good with magic. They value the high life, but are suffering from a crippling magic addiction and the near extinction of their race from the Lich King.
Gnomes are curious sorts who are often inventors and engineers; they, along with goblins, pretty much are heading the industrial revolution of Azeroth(the world the game takes place). They were kicked out of their home city by a disaster and invasion, now they reside with the stereotypical dwarves.
The orcs were a race of people on another planet that were corrupted thanks to a powerful demon. Corrupted by an old god, a mage summoned the race of orcs, and had them rampage through azeroth, killing everyone and everything till finally most of them were defeated or imprisoned. One orc who sold his clan's freedom to the demon redeemed himself by killing it, ending the corruption of his race. Unfortunately, the past sins of his race cannot be forgiven by the humans, and other races of the alliance, as many of their kind died from the horde of bloodthirsty orcs. So now the uncorrupted orcs live in a world which does not like them, and have to fight to keep the very land they live on.
Those are some of the reasons why I like the game; it tends to use old themes and concepts, but does something different with them. So as a lore junky, I pretty much played the games to raid, and see new things, places, and races.
WoW is not for everyone, but I do think it has gotten a bad rep because it was/still is popular. There are legitimate grievances with the game of course, as it is a traditional mmo and it plays like one. The writing can be quite laughable and voice acting is hit or miss. I personally stopped playing because I got burnt out from playing it for 9 years, but if anyone is interested in playing, I suggest you try the free trial; it plays up till level 20, and by then you can probably figure out if you like the game or not.
Some of the games areas are quite atmospheric too; dark,foggy forests. Blistering badlands with vultures circling up ahead, sweeping vistas and vast tundras. Spiney, jagged canyons filled with ogres. The game had a lot of different environments to it.
While it does have a lot of "kill this, collect that", there are quite a few quests that break up the monotony. Like riding a giant killing hundreds of undead, or manning a spear gun to gun down giant vikings riding on top of drakes. The game devs know a lot of the stereotypes that surround WoW, I mean hell, they have an entire questline (which someone linked above in a video) about YOU being a questgiver, giving out quests to unsavory people. I mean one of the npc's in that quest literally says "are there not bear asses to collect?!" when you tell him you have no more quests to give him. So while most of the quests are MMO standard fare, there are quite a few that break it up, especially in the revamped 1-60 leveling areas.
Aside from the lore, I think what I liked most about WoW was the raiding. I just loved the feeling of teaming up with 10-25(or 20-40 for the old days)people and killing huge and terrifying creatures that you would not be able to face on your own. It was especially excilerating when some of these bosses were people or creatures that were important in the lore of the overall game. Killing Illidan or the Lich King felt meaningful, especially if you were a lore nerd like me.
I also loved the races you can play. While there are standard fare orcs,elves, and humans, there are others like trolls, goblins, Worgen(Werewolves) and Tauren(bull people). I also liked how each of these races were given their own culture and value system which makes the world feel more alive.
The Tauren are very tribal and respective of the earth and are druidistic.
The undead care for pretty much no one but themselves and the people they can use for their own ends; they are especially interesting when you realize some of them were just humans from the opposite faction who were raised from the dead.
The blood elves seem very pompous and arrogant, but are very good with magic. They value the high life, but are suffering from a crippling magic addiction and the near extinction of their race from the Lich King.
Gnomes are curious sorts who are often inventors and engineers; they, along with goblins, pretty much are heading the industrial revolution of Azeroth(the world the game takes place). They were kicked out of their home city by a disaster and invasion, now they reside with the stereotypical dwarves.
The orcs were a race of people on another planet that were corrupted thanks to a powerful demon. Corrupted by an old god, a mage summoned the race of orcs, and had them rampage through azeroth, killing everyone and everything till finally most of them were defeated or imprisoned. One orc who sold his clan's freedom to the demon redeemed himself by killing it, ending the corruption of his race. Unfortunately, the past sins of his race cannot be forgiven by the humans, and other races of the alliance, as many of their kind died from the horde of bloodthirsty orcs. So now the uncorrupted orcs live in a world which does not like them, and have to fight to keep the very land they live on.
Those are some of the reasons why I like the game; it tends to use old themes and concepts, but does something different with them. So as a lore junky, I pretty much played the games to raid, and see new things, places, and races.
WoW is not for everyone, but I do think it has gotten a bad rep because it was/still is popular. There are legitimate grievances with the game of course, as it is a traditional mmo and it plays like one. The writing can be quite laughable and voice acting is hit or miss. I personally stopped playing because I got burnt out from playing it for 9 years, but if anyone is interested in playing, I suggest you try the free trial; it plays up till level 20, and by then you can probably figure out if you like the game or not.
