WoW and the hate towards it

[SenseOfTumour]

Yeah, it does bug me how wow is the current whipping boy.

'lol wow sucks all you do is grind'

In that case 'all the mario games all you do is run and jump'
'halo was just shooting stuff'
'All the metal gear games were just hiding'

I'm not knocking any of these games, just making a point you can pull one thing out and pretend that's all there is quite easily.

Is quite easy to dismiss a game you either don't like or haven't tried.

One of the big reasons wow is so huge, is because its so huge!

There's so much to do, and if you can find good people , a nice online social feeling to it too.

No it's not for everyone, its too slow for some, too casual for others, and yes, boring to some too. but really I don't think anyone is an idiot for enjoying the game, perhaps its a victim of its own success, its easy to have a go at.

As for addiction, I'm with one of the above guys, in that, if you get into it, you'll get to a point where your guild or friends need you, and suddenly you're letting real people down by not joining in. At that point there's a certain level of need to play.

 

[Simski]

I dislike the people in here who says that 'it's not the games fault that people become addicted, it's the gamers fault for not turning the game off'.

It's like saying that it's not the drugs fault that people become addicted.
Wow is a bit like Marijuana, it doesn't contain any actually addictive ingredient, unlike cigarettes.
However people become addicted to marijuana becuase they love the feeling it gives them.

So if you think that WoW is not addictive, then neither is marijuana.

(I'd like to say that some users have a stronger resistance against becoming addicted than other users though, some probably just don't enjoy it as much)

So because they become addicted to an item that has no real addictive qualities its the mediums fault?

Would you say a slot machine or marijuana can't be addictive?

Mjeh, to be honest I don't feel like havng this discussion with you guys anymore.
Have you ever seen forums dedicated to weed?
They defend it just as much as you do, well they do it alot better to be honest.
Hell... I'd rather try weed than WoW.

 

[Simski]

It's like saying that it's not the drugs fault that people become addicted.

So you put blame on an inanimate object? Wow, that goes a bit beyond personification.

Well hurr hurr to you too.

I'm saying that it's the game that's addictive, it's not just the player who is addicted to it.

 

[gibboss28]

Would you say a slot machine or marijuana can't be addictive?

Mjeh, to be honest I don't feel like havng this discussion with you guys anymore.
Have you ever seen forums dedicated to weed?
They defend it just as much as you do, well they do it alot better to be honest.
Hell... I'd rather try weed than WoW.

I didn't say that weed isn't addictive. re read what i said. I know that you can get addicted to the feeling ya get from weed I am more than aware of that. What i am saying is that placing the blame on the medium and not the person is without logic.

If that person is not aware of what can happen/has happened to other people and still they choose to go ahead with their actions then they have no one but themselves to blame.

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

Well hurr hurr to you too.

I'm saying that it's the game that's addictive, it's not just the player who is addicted to it.

I know what you said, and my statement still applies. It's a game, there's nothing addictive about it on a literal level. There are people though, who have addictive tendancies who will probably become overly invested into the complex system of rewards and incentives designed to encourage further play.

Though the game is designed to optimize those incentives it is still an internal issue of the player who is mindlessly acting upon their pavlovian reward pathology without regard to the consequences.

You are basically blaming the game for being fun and rewarding the player. What should blizzard do instead? Make their games less fun with less rewards?

 

[Alex_P]

You're basically paying a monthly fee to hang out in front of the auction house while being spammed by gold farmers.

In Guild Wars you can do that without a monthly fee.

Well, the "auction house" itself (in so far as one even exists) is crap, but the naked dancing and spam is basically the same.

-- Alex

 

[Digikid]

Simply put...WoW is a bad game. Boring and quite repetitive. Why people continue to waste their hard earned money to play bad games like this is beyond normal human comprehension.

 

[Crunchy English]

I think people generally resent WoW because of the elements which falsely lengthen the game. More than one person in the thread as mentioned travel time as a obstacle to enjoyment. Grinding of course, is universally reviled. But all those are, are "speed bumps".

It's like if you were paying a contractor by the hour and he kept sitting around giving lame excuses why he wasn't finishing the job. Obviously, the parallel isn't perfect, WoW offers replay value to a point and expansions help. But at the end of the day, you're renting a virtual world from them on a monthly basis. It doesn't seem on the level to keep slowing the game down artificially without creating geniunely new content.

That might not be how most people feel I guess, but it does make a kind of sense.

 

[Alone Disciple]

will i dont "hate" WoW iv played it for 3 1/2 years naw and to me it the stame shit over and over agin endgame raind arnt 20-40 man like they use to and its all about the gear now

Good Lord man....Perhaps you should be play Mavis Beacon typing-based games instead.

If you play WoW with a keyboard, I can understand your pain now.

 

[Jindrax]

What ??? WoW is nothing but addictive !
You start you lvl your like:hey cool
you lvl again : oh new skills ill test these out then ill do somthing else
You lvl while messing about : sweet ill just lvl again to see the new skills

now youre hooked ! you follow this pattern till you hit 70 when you do its all about new gear !
when i had a go at WoW i dint see the point ? no story like ? no direction ? nothing but i still got hooked for a week or so till lvl 43

so whoever said its not addictive is just blind or ignorant ( no offence )

-Jindrax

So because when you level you get new skills thats how its addictive.

And theres no story to it? There is A LOT of storyline in WoW through the hundreds of quests that there are, through the many events that have/will happen through the bosses and alot of the major NPCs in the warcraft universe there is storyline.

Please stay away from me... for I fear you have the dumb.

Shush fanboy !

Obviously ur already addicted lol and theres no point telling a coke addict that hes qn addict... If by story line u mean the half assed bored beyond redemption text that pops up when you take a quest that people only read to find out what they have to do... then you may aswell nominate the intro's of soul caliber 4's story mode for an oscar...

 

[Mojotusks]

World of warcraft killed my father and raped my mother!

 

[Zukhramm]

Why I dislike World of Warcraft? Because it's boring. Leveling is not fun, neither are the instances. Getting loot is not adictive or rewarding at all. And I dislike the way aggro works, it makes the combat look boring. And also, if I enter a room, and my enemies are standing on the other side, starring at me, there's no reason they shouldn't run for me just because tey're not in aggro range.

 

[Mojotusks]

What ??? WoW is nothing but addictive !
You start you lvl your like:hey cool
you lvl again : oh new skills ill test these out then ill do somthing else
You lvl while messing about : sweet ill just lvl again to see the new skills

now youre hooked ! you follow this pattern till you hit 70 when you do its all about new gear !
when i had a go at WoW i dint see the point ? no story like ? no direction ? nothing but i still got hooked for a week or so till lvl 43

so whoever said its not addictive is just blind or ignorant ( no offence )

-Jindrax

So because when you level you get new skills thats how its addictive.

And theres no story to it? There is A LOT of storyline in WoW through the hundreds of quests that there are, through the many events that have/will happen through the bosses and alot of the major NPCs in the warcraft universe there is storyline.

Please stay away from me... for I fear you have the dumb.

Shush fanboy !

Obviously ur already addicted lol and theres no point telling a coke addict that hes qn addict... If by story line u mean the half assed bored beyond redemption text that pops up when you take a quest that people only read to find out what they have to do... then you may aswell nominate the intro's of soul caliber 4's story mode for an oscar...

LOLZ U R FANBOUY COZ U DNT AGREU WTH ME ON SBJCT.

yeah thats you. I play WoW. I've raided the black temple and got arena raitings. I consider my self one of the elitests in WoW. Have i sacrificed anything for it? yes i have its £9.25 a month, thats all i sacrifice. I am not addicted, i play for social aspects. I get to play with people i cant see anymore due to distance.

That is WoW. Yes it can addict you but only a few have been addicted so bad i know someone who lost his GF, job and house to WoW. Hes back on track now but the main issue is this. It is a game where you level up and you can get addicted, HOW EVER, it is stupid addiction that only a few handful of people out of millions have succumbed to.

 

[tobyornottoby]

Well hurr hurr to you too.

I'm saying that it's the game that's addictive, it's not just the player who is addicted to it.

I know what you said, and my statement still applies. It's a game, there's nothing addictive about it on a literal level. There are people though, who have addictive tendancies who will probably become overly invested into the complex system of rewards and incentives designed to encourage further play.

This. It's a combination of the game and the person, so maybe not all the blame on 1 of them

I think it's better to compare with slot machines than weed btw, the first 2 have no 'physical addiction', pure in the mind

 

[Krystallkitty]

right...

Honestly... if you like the /idea/ of an MMO with DND-like style... play neverwinter nights. srsly. It's free, except for the cost of the diamond disk which is only 20 bucks max (and has all the expantions and really nice single player campaigns)

 

[Telekinesis]

I hate it for being overrated.
I tried playing it and instead of "the promised game", I got an average grindfest with meh graphics.

Also, it means Blizzard are busy milking it instead of making Warcraft 4.

 

[Kaminobob]

i hate WoW without playing it for one very hippie reason: it's size.
the way i see it, WoW is everything that is mediocre and average about MMO's today. the fantasy setting, the epoch-spanning grind, the meh graphics. if it were any other game, i wouldn't hate it, i would ignore it.
but it isn't any other game. it's WoW, and it's goddamn huge. it takes up so much of the market share and media attention that it has become the comparison point for all MMO-dom, to my rage.

imagine if you were a car lover, and 95% of cars on earth were honda accords. so when you talk about your vintage mustang or whatever, the person you're talking to always, every single time, replies "so, is that like an accord or something?".

and that is my relationship with WoW. i can only hate it for its success, as it smothers innovation in its sleep.

 

[Haelin]

I have really enjoyed playing WOW until recently (when Bliz decided to open Russian realms and my guild transfered >.<). I'm playing reasonably end game content, MH + BT, and I'm not addicted like some people, I can easily raid for 7 hours or go look round the shops for new shoes. But I agree that some people do take it as an addiction, and take it too far!
But unfortunately the game is gradualy being changed to apeal to a bigger money base...I mean fan base with some interesting additions in the up and coming expansion pack WOTLK, such as the ahievements thing, which just hurts my brain.
WOW as it is now, is a great game if u like it, and it's not going to hurt you by it's exsistance if you dont

 

[Katana314]

I will put it honestly before I start: I have NEVER specifically played the game World of Warcraft. However, I have played other MMOs, I've been in guilds, and I'm pretty sure I get the idea.

World of Warcraft is different from most games in that it gives you a persistent profile. When you log off and go to bed, you come back the next day and it's the same puffy-cheeked gnome you had yesterday. Well, this happens quite a lot in Single-player games like Oblivion, so perhaps we should elaborate a bit more. (Or maybe not, because Oblivion itself is quite addicting)

There's always been the feeling in this type of game that you're making progress, and accomplishing something. It gives you a reason to keep playing in order to do something that will be etched in stone upon PlayerNum53235632.profile. This sort of record-keeping stuff is a big deal everywhere: Everyone in TF2 wants to get all the achievements, everyone in Portal wants to beat the challenge chambers, everyone in Mario 64 wants to get all the stars, all the yada yada yada.

But see, World of Warcraft, and many other MMOs, sort of undermine their achievements in that they aren't as deliberate. Each quest is a permanent achievement, but can many people say it was fun getting there? Often when I did quests in an MMO, it was the feeling of progressing toward a goal. On some subconscious level, I think I might have felt I was getting closer to "beating" the game. But you don't beat the game. Every time I gained a level in those games, it was an instantaneous feeling of accomplishing something, but then I asked myself: Now that I'm level 22, what was I going to do? I'm sure there was some ability, or something...

What I notice most is when abilities come in tiers of 5 levels. Not that it happens in WoW, but some games do. And I think...if that's the case, what's the point of the other 4? Are those just there to give the game a higher level number? I'm sure some people were pretty put off by Guild Wars when they heard it only had 20 levels. Maybe if they made it 100, and had "sub-levels" inbetween where you got a nice message, people would be more enticed.

But that's not just a case example of a gameplay decision that makes no sense. That is the entire concept of giving players a feeling of accomplishment where there really is none. I feel like I want to do something semi-productive when I'm gaming, and I've tried to do this by getting achievements in TF2, or leveling up in COD4, or, as it applies here, leveling up my character in an MMO. But when I inevitably disconnect my account at some point, you have to realize that all that stuff you did matters for NOTHING anymore. In the end it's all just stuff inside PlayerNum53235632.profile that many other people have probably done. This wouldn't matter as much if it were a small, manageable accomplishment like "Save the princess from Bowser". But WoW's world was made to be so massive that players can always feel that pseudo-accomplishment. It doesn't always even have a great level of gameplay design to it; it's just stuff.

Let go of all that "stuff". If you are not actively having fun in the very thing you're doing at one moment when you're playing, then it's not a game and you definitely shouldn't be paying for it.

 

[KenzS]

anyone who plays WoW will try to disagree that WoW players must have little or no social life, but the reality is it's true, at least for hardcore endgame players.

I was in an endgame guild, doing raids every night i could, but the raids would go every night from 8 till 3 in the morning. I could'nt spend that much time in the game, I had too many other things to do. So i tried to squeeze in 2 hours a day, and my entire guild thought I didnt spend enought time raiding with them and thought i wasn't fit to play with them.

So after me endlessly insulting them for the jerks they are, i finally made them realize that all of them had little or no social life. Honestly, spending every night on your computer is evidence enough.