WoW: Could 11 Million People be Wrong?

[The Blue Mongoose]

I agree with the OP. I found WoW monotonus and boring. I started playing because my friends said it was awesome, they helped me level, but I never got past 35. Personally I find solitare more fun... also it's a lot less expensive.

 

[asinann]

Your title is misleading. I thought you where going to prove Blizzards account count number wrong. Lawl, not voice your opinion on the game. I could care less. I think it is a great waste of time.

It is wrong, the number dropped to 5 million after they lost the Chinese provider.

But if you think the grind sucks on WoW, go play Everquest for a few weeks. You need 85 levels and a few hundred "aa" before people consider you viable to go on a raid. Add to it that WoW is so simple that it puts people who played older MMOs to sleep.

The game can be fun for a while occasionally, but I don't understand how people can sit and play that game for months straight, the longest I've ever been able to play is through a 60 day game card, and I was bored by about day 20.

I find a great deal of newer players grow to hate the game because they don't truly play it. It's a sad fact that majority of the player base is of a higher level, so for a social game many players see it as pure grind, which the game really isn't. There is so much to do in WoW, so many ways to play, that no one person can ever fully explore the full range of options. Between the professions, the many different battlegrounds and arenas for PvP and the utter ocean of PvE content, any person who is given the right opportunities is bound to find something they enjoy. It's a shame, and a problem Blizzard needs to address, that the current low-density population in the starting areas is giving so many players the wrong impression.

On another note, keep in mind when calculating the cost of WoW that the time spent playing is often allocated leisure time, rather than time detracted from more financially profitable options. It may equate to over a grand in terms of man-hours, but it's unlikely those hours would have been spent on work anyway. if not, then WoW is the least of your problems.

If anyone wants to give WoW a shot and see the better side of it, i'm always eager to help never players whenever I can, as well as some other players that frequent the Escapist. You're right to get bored with the game you're playing, but that game probably isn't really WoW.

Unless you're a filthy Alliance.

Sony is actually trying to address this issue in EQ by making lower levels go faster and opening a server where you start at level 51 instead of level 1. Seems like small things, but if you pulled the faster leveling thing in WoW, higher level players would flip. They would have in EQ if the whole player base wasn't just leveling alts using the faster xp anyway, I don't think EQ has had a real new player since 2004.

 

[halfeclipse]

Everyone needs their dose of simple mindless fun from somewhere. Perhaps you like watching T.V. or going to a sports game or going to the movies or reading a book or even making posts on a discussion forum. Other people will think those activities are wastes of time however you don't see complaining about them, instead they generally go about their business doing what they enjoy.


If you don't like WoW or EvE or WAR or Runescape or any other MMO then good for you, no one is standing behind you with a gun forcing you to play to to even acknowledge the game exists if you chose not to. However clearly some body else in the world does and likes doing so.
Go do something you like and leave them to enjoy their game, if its a stupid way waste of time its still their time to waste.

 

[Casual Shinji]

After having spent a fair deal of time in Azeroth, I've come to one conclusion: World of Warcraft is a mediocre game.

Class balance has NEVER been entirely sound. As of now, there are nearly double the number of Paladins and Death Knights on any given server in comparison to every other class. Since its release, this "Flavor of the Month" phenomenon has been constant. At least for me, this takes away from the feeling of picking a class to genuinely bond and become committed to as you delve deeper into everything they have to offer.

Tied into my first point, leveling has become less of a journey and more of a task. No longer is it a monumental achievement to reach 80, but rather you just "join the group", literally. What sense is there in restricting so much content and enjoyment from the player until they've shelled out roughly 8 - 12 days of their lives? Of course, money is the answer, but isn't that a bittersweet realization? 8 days equates to 192 hours, which translates into $1392 at minimum wage. I'm not poor nor do I needlessly tighten my belt, but that's a fair chunk of change to be charged just to get to the real game. And what's the deal with gear? Does it really make sense to base so much of your total experience on whether you've obtained a certain status based on hours played?

Probably the largest grief I have with the entire way things are set up is in how much drudgery there is to go through in comparison to the moments that really make the game worth playing. Kill 10 boars. Kill 10 magi. Bring me 8 Cheetah livers. Bring me a bunch of pages to a manual I happened to loose because I can't afford paperclips... Come on! So much of what Blizzard has in the game is bland. Sure, there are those truly great times when you conquer a new dungeon or drop a boss after having spent the day planning a raid, but are those moments really worth it?

Then there's the community. It's become increasingly difficult to find decent guilds that aren't plagued with "12 year old syndrome". In general, people tend to be rude, obnoxious, and impatient. You can always argue that this varies depending on any given server, level bracket, etc. but this is what I've experienced more often than not.

In summary, the game is severely imbalanced from patch to patch, time consuming and "expensive", and has one of the worst communities who's only rival would be pug's on Xbox Live. With all this, I guess you still get to wear your epixs in Ironforge though...

I tried out the free-trail(since I'd ever pay for something like this) and all I've been doing is collecting furs and bandanas and claws to complete quests. Is that really all there is?

 

[Cowabungaa]

The problem is that level 80 is the "fun" stage, Blizzard had put so much energy into making the highest levels the most fun, while letting lower levels wallow in a bland purgatory of grinding. It feels just like the inventive innovative "game" we thought we were buying is completly locked until we reach level 80. That being said Blizzard has proven themselves capable of doing innovative things, they have a whole boss battle that you do on vehicles for instance, they just didn't give the middle levels any reason to play besides get to level 80.

Mate, that content hadn't even been thought of back when the level cap was 60. Even back then the emphasis was that fun comes at "end-game". Only Twinking was a reason to keep a char low. Also now, you can pretty much cruise past most of the vanilla instances and head straight for OL and Ramparts, hell even skip those and get to NR. Have you tried doing a DM run at 60 in blues and greens? I doubt it.

Those areas are old and redundant now that WoTLK is out, just as BC made the original. The only thing Blizz has done so far to encourage people to return is the achievements, but most would rather grind dailies, Uld/Naxx etc than getting some flashy text.

It's indeed a damned shame to see all those old instances almost abandoned. But even so, I very much enjoyed my road to 70, and when WotLK came my road to 80. Especially the latter. While my guildmates rushed to level 80, I took my time and enjoyed every minute of it. Took me twice as long as the next slowest guild member. I didn't care, I enjoyed the game. If you see it as a chore, you're playing it wrong.

 

[asinann]

After having spent a fair deal of time in Azeroth, I've come to one conclusion: World of Warcraft is a mediocre game.

Class balance has NEVER been entirely sound. As of now, there are nearly double the number of Paladins and Death Knights on any given server in comparison to every other class. Since its release, this "Flavor of the Month" phenomenon has been constant. At least for me, this takes away from the feeling of picking a class to genuinely bond and become committed to as you delve deeper into everything they have to offer.

Tied into my first point, leveling has become less of a journey and more of a task. No longer is it a monumental achievement to reach 80, but rather you just "join the group", literally. What sense is there in restricting so much content and enjoyment from the player until they've shelled out roughly 8 - 12 days of their lives? Of course, money is the answer, but isn't that a bittersweet realization? 8 days equates to 192 hours, which translates into $1392 at minimum wage. I'm not poor nor do I needlessly tighten my belt, but that's a fair chunk of change to be charged just to get to the real game. And what's the deal with gear? Does it really make sense to base so much of your total experience on whether you've obtained a certain status based on hours played?

Probably the largest grief I have with the entire way things are set up is in how much drudgery there is to go through in comparison to the moments that really make the game worth playing. Kill 10 boars. Kill 10 magi. Bring me 8 Cheetah livers. Bring me a bunch of pages to a manual I happened to loose because I can't afford paperclips... Come on! So much of what Blizzard has in the game is bland. Sure, there are those truly great times when you conquer a new dungeon or drop a boss after having spent the day planning a raid, but are those moments really worth it?

Then there's the community. It's become increasingly difficult to find decent guilds that aren't plagued with "12 year old syndrome". In general, people tend to be rude, obnoxious, and impatient. You can always argue that this varies depending on any given server, level bracket, etc. but this is what I've experienced more often than not.

In summary, the game is severely imbalanced from patch to patch, time consuming and "expensive", and has one of the worst communities who's only rival would be pug's on Xbox Live. With all this, I guess you still get to wear your epixs in Ironforge though...

I tried out the free-trail(since I'd ever pay for something like this) and all I've been doing is collecting furs and bandanas and claws to complete quests. Is that really all there is?

Pretty much, you just kill and collect different things over and over until you hit level 80 and can actually get a group (because nobody will group with you under that level and some dungeons actually REQUIRE you be level 80 to just get in the door.)

 

[Amarok]

WoW doesn't have 11,000,000 subscribers - It's dropped to 5,000,000. I think I read that off a news article in this site, in fact

 

[similar.squirrel]

A simple answer: yes, yes they could.

EDIT: Although there's no objective 'right', so..Let them get on with it.

 

[shroomie]

I play WoW and am growing slightly bored of it now, except for the weekly raid there is nothing left to do and I cba to lvl a new character cos its really boring and no way am I making a DK cos I hate their guts. Also to answer the title question, yes 11 million people can be wrong, look at every major world religion (possible exception of Buddhism)

 

[Syntax Error]

I find a great deal of newer players grow to hate the game because they don't truly play it. It's a sad fact that majority of the player base is of a higher level, so for a social game many players see it as pure grind, which the game really isn't. There is so much to do in WoW, so many ways to play, that no one person can ever fully explore the full range of options. Between the professions, the many different battlegrounds and arenas for PvP and the utter ocean of PvE content, any person who is given the right opportunities is bound to find something they enjoy. It's a shame, and a problem Blizzard needs to address, that the current low-density population in the starting areas is giving so many players the wrong impression.

So many MMO's offer a ton of ways to play the game, but will force you to gain good old xp through Wild Boar Genocide in order to progress your character. Is WoW any different?

 

[Joos]

Can 11 million people be wrong? Well, if we look at these statistics, yes:
http://www.havocscope.com/opiumheroin-market-value-and-users/

Funny and not a little ironic how the heroin users and WoW player headcount roughly aligns.

 

[Xbowhyena]

I play WoW. I've played since classic, I've leveled a few toons, I've had fun with it, I like the game. The classes are actually very tightly balanced, you just have to know what you're doing. Wrath is excellent in my opinion, fun quests, fun raids, fun instances. The thing about WoW is that it is a very selective MMO. You can't just go out and buy WoW and expect to be at the raiding level in 3 weeks. WoW takes time, and money. If you think it's a bad game for THAT reason, F off. If you don't like it just because you think it's boring, sure. I feel like it's worth it to play, because it's fun, I have the money, and I have the time. This game and the entire company is by no means going down the drain any time soon. Actually Blizzard is in the near drawing board stages of making a new MMO, with some of the original creators of EQ. As far as PvE MMOs go, WoW is the best. PvP I hand that easily to WaR, but that's beside the point here. If you don't like MMOs, don't throw hate at them; that means you just don't like them. No one can change my view on WoW no matter what they say, because I know why I spend $15 a month and hours of my day playing this game. You can share you own views, but they won't change any avid player of WoW's opinion.

 

[cas]

I think I saw one of those subscription charts that wow is back down to the amount of people playing as they had in 2006.

I know a lot of people personally who are very tired of the game. Myself included. I don't hate it or anything I just lost interest in it

 

[Kuchinawa212]

Nope, I doubt so many people can be wrong. Maybe a tad weird for playing that game for so long, but not wrong

 

[NoSlottedToaster]

well American idol is televisions highest rated TV show so yes, yes they can be wrong. WoW is one of those my friends are doing it so I should too things, that's how I was sucked in but my interest in the game only lasted me until level 30-something (not even the promise of a mount could sway me into staying) and once I stopped playing the game I never really understood what I saw in it in the first place and realized how much time I wasted. All of my friends (except one of them... sad man) has moved on and gotten married and started families and gave up WoW in exchange for another game, its called full time job and I am level 85 in that game (the level cap in real time job is a bajilllion) and as far as the "12 year old syndrome" its obvious ,to me at least, that 80% of the interweb in general is infected with it.

 

[The Cheezy One]

more wrong then 1 person
11million times as wrong
or, if half the people are right, its still 6.5million times as wrong

 

[Zer_]

I've played World of WarCraft for many years now. I've cleared every raid in the game including Ulduar (Save for some 25 man Hard-Modes, I quit raiding before I was able to achieve it all along with my guild).

World of WarCraft is probably one of the best created games in history. Having played through the older WarCraft games, and read the books I felt that WoW was just well done. There are places in World of WarCraft that have a ton of lore and history behind them. The Lore aspect of World of WarCraft is fantastic.

As far as reaching the maximum level, well it's easy. 1-60 is most definitely the worst of it all since the quests are old. The older quests tend to follow the older MMORPG mechanics. The quest flow was rather disjointed and you had to fly everywhere to complete a few quests here and there. Blizzard has increased the amount of experience you gain from the low level quests, and getting from 1-60 is rather forgiving even for a new player... provided you use QuestHelper at least.

It gets better from 60-70. The Burning Crusade brought us more linear quests and some rather long quest chains that bring you from one area to the next. Quests were not nearly as disjointed and generally you found yourself staying in a certain zone for several levels as opposed to moving around. Quests in the Burning Crusade were also a lot more fun, many quests had a few quirky little mechanics here and there. You found yourself in the thick of a war. It felt really neat.

Wrath of the Lich King totally revamps the quest system. Your actions actually have an impact on a certain zone through a system known as "Zoning". Basically there are several layers to each zone. That means that when you complete certain quests in an area, the area changes based on the quests you have completed. It's very cool and it really adds that sense of you actually doing something. Quests in the Lich King are also very compact in the sense that you will have a handful of quests in one small area and another set of quests elsewhere. You'll get other quests that link all these small quest groups together. Quests like the Wrath Gate and the Attack on the Undercity are prime examples of wonderfully crafted quests. Lich King raised the bar for questing for all MMORPGs and in my time with MMOs, I have never seen a system so robust as that of the Lich King.

Once you've reached level cap the real game begins. It becomes time for you to choose a path. I chose the path of raiding and I have raided for a long time. Although I found some raids to be better then others, they were rather varied and some fights were quite memorable. Wrath of the Lich King raids ups the ante with some interesting mechanics. Of course there will always be the tried and true "don't stand in that fire" mechanic. I quit raiding because it was most definitely a time consuming endeavor. My guild raided four times a week for four and a half hours. Many times during progression we found ourselves going on for five hours. Eventually that did take a toll on me and I quit raiding.

All in all World of WarCraft is a game crafted with immense attention to detail. The balance is not nearly as bad as people say it is. More recently Blizzard has been commited to constantly fine-tuning and tweaking the balance and so far during Wrath I haven't found any overtly overpowered classes remain overpowered for long. It is a definite fact that most people who play WoW do not experience the game to its fullest. My suggestion is that you buy the WarCraft novels and read them while you're not playing the game. It may seem like a geeky thing to do but I found that it really got you that much more into the game. It was always awesome for me to stumble upon an area in the game that had some connection to a novel. You find yourself in Azshara where the world literally split in two. You find ancient ruins of the ancient elves. World of WarCraft has its faults, but to me looking at the game made me see that this was a game crafted by people who love the game.

 

[AmrasCalmacil]

Unless you're a filthy Alliance.

For the Horde! I hate most of the Ally's on my server, bunch of opportunistic gank-bags the lot of 'em. Then again - I'm leveling a DK. At least I'm not a 3-button Pally! Hate those guys.

Don't you have some healer plate to be rolling on?

I kid, I kid.

And it's totally five buttons.

 

[Sipo]

i used 2 LOOOVE wow....but now i jus wanna stab myself in the eye when i think about it