WoW and should people play it.

[hannarr]

It's all personal responsibility.
I personally find enough time to successfully raid end game content and pass classes for my engineering degree so it's definitely possible to play in a self controlled way.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Of course an opinion can be wrong, if the opinion is made as a factual statement instead of a value judgment. If you had said "WoW isn't fun to play" or "WoW is too time-consuming for my tastes," well, how could I argue with that? "WoW cannot be played casually," on the other hand, I'm perfectly capable of arguing against.

I never said that WoW cannot be played casually; I said that it cannot be played casually and enjoyed, in my opinion. Just the same as how I don't like turn-based games, I don't enjoy WoW when you only play it by yourself because, as I've stated, it wasn't built around casual play. The only thing I did say close to that is "WoW isn't particularly casual friendly", and I'll try to prove that in this post. Note: Of course you can play it casually. You can play anything casually, but whether or not you'll be penalized for it or whether or not you'll have fun is another matter.

Given WoW's substantial playerbase, I'm fairly certain there are many, many casual players who disagree with you. Including the one you're talking to at the moment.

Especially since I rather doubt that all, or even most, of the 11.5 million players are compulsive raiders or the like, but go on.

I don't really get your point. I barely did raids on WoW, but that wasn't my point... WoW is known to have a horrid community. If you play another MMORPG for a few months, it's quite apparant. There are a lot of players, and considering there are more idiots in the world than smart people, the chance of having a bad community are increased. Games like Everqest 2 have really nice communities.

Nothing beats the community (or the devs) at City of Heroes, but that's beside the point. Having a much larger playerbase may mean you get more idiots, but it doesn't mean every person beyond a certain magic number are invariably twats. Once in the game, guilds are a potential major source of perfectly socially acceptable players, even to a asocial misanthrope like myself (let alone everyone else even just on this forum who plays the game for its social value). There's also the strong possibility, given WoW's mainstream nature, that a person has joined because they know people already playing.

And I brought up the unnecessary nature of raids because that was the one function of guilds that you mentioned, and I'd assumed you were one of the people I've seen who have this odd idea that the entire game is only at level 80. I was wrong on that, it seems.

Why should casual guilds do casual raids? Raids and PvP aren't the be-all and end-all of the game, there's still 70 or so levels before endgame content becomes a viable choice. The bulk of the game is in that first 70 or so levels.

As for the waiting, I've never actually heard that. People with really slow computers or something?

Er... there are casual guilds for people who can only play casually, but once again the game isn't nearly as much fun, in my opinion. That and these guilds are very hard to find. As for the queues, if a server has a very high server volume, you have to wait to join it. And when the game first came out over here in the UK, server wait times could be up to 45 minutes. From what I know, some of the servers are still like that.

Ah. I've never joined a server with a higher than medium base (I stay away from the normal and PvP servers, for the most part). Didn't know that could happen.

Of course you can. That's the wonderful thing about a mostly non-instanced MMO, you can easily pick up where you left off.

If you're on a PvP server, then leaving your character isn't really somethng you can do in the fray. On a PvE server, it's still a little dodgey leaving your character in the middle of somewhere, as you can get attacked by any random enemy around. And if the baby is crying, you won't have chance to even click logout, because you just have to go. And instances aren't gonna work at all if you can only play in non-consecutive parts. No group is gonna wait for you.

Luckily, the consequences of death are very low, as anyone who's been interrupted in play by something extremely important finds out. The instances can be a problem, but you're wrong that no group will wait. Wonderful thing about having a large and varied playerbase, you not only get people who can empathize with a given situation, but you can also come across those who can sympathize (I have, in fact, headed groups with members who had to stop for child-related reasons...and groups where members had to break for dinner, for that matter). Worst come to worst, instances can be avoided.

How about 5 or so non-consecutive hours a week? Nobody's forcing a casual player to play for

Once again, you can't really play like that and enjoy yourself, in my opinion. On TF2 you can jump on a random server, kill enemies for 20 minutes then disconnect and do something in your real-life. Then you can re-join or join another server when you come back. And, really, even TF2 isn't casual friendly, but it's still a heck of a lot more casual friendly than WoW.

Again, perhaps you can't. While by that standard, WoW certainly is less casual-friendly than TF2 (assuming, haven't played it myself) or City of Heroes, I can testify that it's still a game that can be enjoyed for short spells.

But this is sort of going off-topic now. My original point was that I think WoW could be bad for you if you get addicted. Of course, that's really up to you, but my other point was that Blizzard aren't helping because they make you want to play more. And why wouldn't they? The more you play, the more money they make.

Realistically speaking, no game is "good for you", as such. Sitting staring at a TV/monitor isn't gonna make you a model human, and unless you're stuck in the house for some reason or have trouble socializing with real people, games are probably bad for you. But that's a whole other kettle of fish...

I agree wholeheartedly on most points, although I'd like to point out that you're probably not giving Blizzard enough credit. They don't charge by the hour, after all. They have a vested interest in making sure their playerbase doesn't want to cancel their subscription at the end of a month, and that most certainly includes wanting them to live healthy, normal lives (given their admonitions during loading screens not to forget real life friends, or the increased XP reward for being logged out).

 

[Okami24]

hahaha omfg i rofl'd so hard.

 

[Eipok Kruden]

I play WoW while drinking...alone - I like to multi-task my addictions.

Actually bought a 2nd PC to encourage the Wife to play, but she lost interest back when I was playing it hard and probably because I demanded perfect healboting.

Serve her right, rolling a priest.

What happened to that EVE-Online sychophant? He's always lurking around trying to poach people from WoW.

Who? Me? I got bored of doing that. Everyone already knows my opinion on WoW by now, there's no point in ranting on any longer. That, and I now believe that WoW isn't as bad as I thought it was. I still think it's a bad, boring, repetitive, bad looking, unrealistic, addicting game that I just can't get engaged in, but I've finally come to understand that some people genuinely enjoy that crap. And you cannot say that it is immersive, engaging, or that it isn't repetitive. I'm sure that nearly everyone here can at least agree on that much.

 

[Chipperz]

People should not play World of Warcraft because World of Warcraft is a stupid game.

Aside from private servers, in order to play World of Warcraft you need to buy the game and/or pay a monthly fee.

This shows that you support stupid games.

OK, I'm loving this. So... People should show their support for games by not paying money for them? You are aware of how stupid this is on so many levels?

 

[ironmace2.0]

depends if you can stop I mean I played it for a few monthes and then it started to consume my whole life I had to buy a ps3 to stop! But I dont really care what people do so I say do whaterver the hell you want.

 

[Ezzay]

I DID fail because of it.

So short answer, no.

Long answer, noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

 

[MarsProbe]

In the spirit of joining the "stupid question" brigade.

Should people play WoW? Should they go and buy their lunch from Subway every day?

If they want to, then yes.

Actually, I used to get my lunch from Subway every dya during the week. Got boring after a while.

 

[Deadlydorito]

Blaming the game for failing a grade rather than a person. That's like me blaming porn for my chronic wank-ification.


Take responsibility.

He mentioned depression. That is a mental illness. I suffered it last year very severely and trust me it is a disabling illness.

 

[Cuniculus]

Depends. If you aren't into RPGs at all then this one has no shot. Hell, even if you are into RPGs, this one may still not hold your attention past level 15. I know I usually pick it back up every now and then, play until I reach 20 and then quit again. I can't stand taking half a day to get up one level.

 

[R.O.]

WoW sucks man. You gotta be really easy to please to fall for it.

 

[Credge]

Nobody should play any game. Ever. Not even Chess. We should all be outside doing physical things to keep our bodies in tip top shape in case of X bad thing.

So... no, nobody should play WoW ever.

 

[Gerazzi]

ehhhhhhhhh
no.
Hate it.
always will.
Grind =/= fun

 

[Srkkl]

Should people play WoW? If not why?
I personally hate it for stealing my life for a short period and making my friend almost fail a grade.

NO, the game did not do any of that, YOU did. Don't blame your problems on somthing that you choose to do. OT: I don't give a crap, if people want to spend 15 bucks a month to waste their life go right ahead.

 

[ShawnRiles]

The computer takes down on my grades alot, but I can keep them in the 70's.

Which is what happened this year for me.

 

[skitzo van]

WoW is less of a game and more of a lifestyle.

 

[Phlaren1]

Ugh, World of Warcraft. Played until like level 70, and completely regret it. That game made me waste 70 levels of bullshit in hopes that it would be good in endgame. It's not. There was never anyone to do anything with (instances, raids, etc.... Probably because they are boring.) I don't even see what's so great about it, right click big monster, start pushing buttons on the bottom of screen, repeat. I'd much rather play TF2 Or Left 4 Dead. Sure, they aren't rpg's, but at least they are fun. Come to think of it, they have a better game then WoW. Hmm what's it called? DDO? At least the dungeons in that game are more thought out then a cave with a shit ton of monsters inside. Another thing I hate about WoW is the amount of servers. There are like 50 goddamn servers, no wonder that they are having dead servers.

EDIT: Also I agree with a lot of these people. The game didn't do anything to your life. Sure you can regret playing it because something happened, but it's your fault for not taking it in a slower pace.