World Of Warcraft

[Seil]

I like reading the Warcraft book series. I haven't kept up with them, but they're fun for if you're in an airport, and you've got nothing else to do. I playedf WoW for a bit, after the urging of some friends, but left after I had to catch the bill for the second month. I decided I didn't want to kill X for Y. But after reading a few of my choice webcomics recently, I've considered starting to play Wow again.

Help me.

[rpgdemon]

You can get a significantly feature-nerfed trial account for free, indefinitely, while you stay below level 20.

In all honesty, I'd just avoid WoW. I quit a few months ago, came back since they gave me some free time, and was like, "Yeah, no, I totally don't enjoy this." Going on WoW actually actively depressed me, for how much I disliked it.

[Amake]

I went back to WoW last week. It lasted all of four hours. It's just not the least bit entertaining or satisfying anymore. It might be more my attitude that has changed rather than any updates to the game, but either way if you ask me the game is a waste of time. Not even any time you spend playing it, just downloading patches for ten hours is the biggest waste of time I had in months. And I've spent thousands of dollars on this game so you'd think I have a vested interest.

[Pip Boy]

While it definitely still suffers from the same core problems as any basic MMORPG (long ass grind times just to continue the same rinse-wash-repeat stuff), it has gotten like 10 thousand times more user-friendly than it was a year ago. Lowered level requirements for mounts, dual talent specialization, flying mounts in azeroth, the Dungeon Finder and the numerous updates it has gone through since its addition to the game, Recruit-A-Friend perks, guild perks, and reduced exp requirements to level up in most level brackets have all helped to make the game significantly less of a slow dull bluuuuuuuh than it once was.

Don't get me wrong, its still pretty bad, but better than it was.

EDIT: I mean really, back when I started WoW we didn't have no newfangled Dungeon Finder to teleport us to dungeons or even fancy-pants flying mounts to take us there. We had to WALK to our dungeons! Uphill both ways! In the snow! With no shoes!

[Amake]

Now that you mention it, that's what makes it this completely bland experience. Nothing you do matters, either way you basically gain levels by walking down the street. In those four hours I fought and defeated three red-leveled wolves simultaneously using a Healing specced Druid without breaking a sweat, sold a couple of mid-level glyphs for close to 100 gold and gained a level by gathering herbs as I went. The biggest decision I faced was choosing between travel form (instant transformation, +40% ground speed), mounting up (1.5 second summon, +100% speed) or taking a hippogryph (+400% speed, flies from town to town, costs money) as my mode of transportation. The game world has become smaller, less significant and most of all less challenging with each update, and it's now reached a critical mass of boredom.

[Krylo]

Don't get me wrong, its still pretty bad, but better than it was.

I don't know about that.

Some of the changes have really destroyed things that are kind of important in mmos. Like character customization/growth. The talent trees are so simplified now, and cross-builds no longer even possible, that they may as well not even give you talent trees. Just grant you powers on level up and give you a button to switch between tanking, dpsing, and soloing (or whatever three builds there are for each class).

Just as a for instance.

[Yrcrazypa]

Yeah, that was one thing that disappointed me when I came back to the game right before Cataclysm. The game didn't have a whole lot of customization to begin with, and that all went away when they forced you down one talent tree. I pretty much lasted just long enough to get two characters to 85 from 70 and 62 respectively, and then got bored from a lack of things to do. Raiding was all I didn't do, but I just don't have the time, or inclination to do it.

Also, unless you want to Tank or Heal, the queue times for the dungeons was a good 30 minutes or more, which is exactly the length of time for it to be too short to go off and do anything of consequence while waiting, but also too long to sit and wait for, unless you are really patient.

I would just avoid playing it unless you have the time to raid, and really like banging your head on your desk as you watch time and time again how people stay in the glowy shit that kills you, causing wipes.

[Azisien]

Don't play World of Warcraft it's fucking stupid.

[Revising Ocelot]

I don't know about that.

Some of the changes have really destroyed things that are kind of important in mmos. Like character customization/growth. The talent trees are so simplified now, and cross-builds no longer even possible, that they may as well not even give you talent trees. Just grant you powers on level up and give you a button to switch between tanking, dpsing, and soloing (or whatever three builds there are for each class).

Just as a for instance.

There were a lot of possible variations but for the most part they were ignored; all raiders would simply go onto their website of choice, locate cookie cutter build for raiding, and spec that until the next patch. But I don't get what Earl says by "long-ass grind timers" - have you ever seen a Korean MMO before?

Stopped playing early this year because I did all the (admittedly much better than vanilla/tbc quests) quests and lost interest. And also because £11 a month is really stupid & stopped me buying other games.

[synkr0nized]

I'm still playing.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

I have friends who are obsessed with this game. I still have no idea why.

[Terex4]

Yeah I have friends who are obsessed with it too and they keep trying to suck me back in. I honestly don't know if the game just sucks now with all the changes or if I just got bored after however many years I've played that damn game.

The best times I ever had with WoW were pre burning crusade. Not because of the updates, but because players actually went out and did things once in a while like raid a town for the fun of it, or battle over Stranglethorn.

[Jagos]

There were a lot of possible variations but for the most part they were ignored; all raiders would simply go onto their website of choice, locate cookie cutter build for raiding, and spec that until the next patch. But I don't get what Earl says by "long-ass grind timers" - have you ever seen a Korean MMO before?



Honestly, it's balls stupid. Why limit people to 1/4 of the levels, limiting their ability to raid or anything else? With a lot of people going to the F2P model, it's just a matter of time before Wow starts leaking even more. I dunno all of the problems with it, having not played myself but I'm sure that the combination of private servers, competition from F2P, and newer games is going to rock the giant.

Personally, I would rather play DnDO anyway.

Also, Ragnarok Online was a grindfest. EVIL,EVIL, grindfest, but it was more fun in comparison.

[Ryong]

Thanks to having played lots of Warcraft 3 before, I'm a sucker for reading the lore in WoW, but now there's a bunch of stuff I don't like and I just kind of gave up on that too.

Bobcraft was fun!

Semi-related: I'm looking for a free MMO to play. Any ideas?

[Jagos]

Spiral Knights

DFO

Mabinogi

[Seil]

I'd suggest Spiral Knights, 'cause it seems to be what the forum is doing when not playing TF2 or The Killing Floor, but it's not my thing.

Ragnarok Online, however, is pretty boss.

[EVILNess]

I quit WoW because I got tired of the people who play, not really for any fault of the game mechanics. I've been playing EVE instead.

I mean, at least the people in EVE are really honest about being jerks, and if I really don't like someone I can kill them in such a way that it will actually effect them more than a corpse run.

[Flarecobra]

I played a little before finances prevented me from playing more.

[Inbred Chocobo]

I play wow. Hell I'm in a hardcore raiding guild, got a pretty badass hunter too. There is some minor tweaking in the extreme parts of raiding at the highest level, what with reforging and talent selection, and I see a variance of the place, but yeah there is a major core in what you do want and what you don't.

Its a combination of enjoying making those minor tweaks and finding all the difference, and the group I am in that keeps me playing.

[Pip Boy]

The talent trees are so simplified now, and cross-builds no longer even possible, that they may as well not even give you talent trees.

I think that the new talents are a huge improvement over the old ones. Whereas in the old talents, a lot of specs were unplayable at most levels (arcane mages below 70, shadow priests below 50), leveling up in any spec is a much more smooth process than it was before because vital spec abilities can be given early on now without worry that people using a cross-spec will just take the best thing from each tree.

As for not having many choices for your spec, that really depends what class you play. Some specs still have a lot of choices to make in the new system, and even in the old system a lot of classes and specs had their talents pretty much limited to "pick these for PvE or pick these for PvP".

[Marc v4.0]

I am addicted to Rift

[Jagos]

But that ain't free. :)

[synkr0nized]

I quit WoW because I got tired of the people who play, not really for any fault of the game mechanics. I've been playing EVE instead.

How does one start playing EVE and not feel utterly crushed by the solid fact that he/she will NEVER catch up to players who've been at it for longer?



Also if you like huge shoulders in your armor WoW keeps pushing on that front. It can only get better for you!

[Revising Ocelot]

How does one start playing EVE and not feel utterly crushed by the solid fact that he/she will NEVER catch up to players who've been at it for longer?


He's in it for the $80 monocles, obviously.

[Jagos]

He's in it for the $80 monocles, obviously.

All that for a monocle smile?!

[EVILNess]

How does one start playing EVE and not feel utterly crushed by the solid fact that he/she will NEVER catch up to players who've been at it for longer?


I thought about this for a long time myself, and the truth of the matter is that you don't really need to worry about it.

While they look scary on paper, it really only gives them minute advantages on a battle field in a comparable ship. The highest levels of skills can range from 5 days to months to rain, but getting up to competency with a certain ship is actually a relatively quick process. Sure, they may be more powerful than you in the same ship, because honestly the minute bonuses do add up, but realistically its only a small boost between level 4 and 5 of a skill.

The big killer I find isn't how many Skill Points a player has. It's definitely experience.

The kind of experience that comes with showing your ass in a place you probably shouldn't be in and repeatedly pushing your luck until you know that you can go thaaaaat far before you explode. Those are the truly dangerous mother fuckers.

Also, I would rank financial power much higher than skills as well, because he who can replace more ships is always going to be the on top, and it doesn't matter what awesome shiny ships you can fly... if you can't afford it... what is the point? Especially since the entire player base looks at your shiny expensive ship and wonders if they can suicide gank it before they get killed by CONCORD.

So... Experience > Money > Skill Points

[synkr0nized]

I actually meant the money and in-world rep/exposure. I wasn't even really aware of the skill point system of the game beyond assuming it meant you could buy/make/use better ships. I just look at the few things I've bothered to read about folks in that game and how much money they've accumulated (I mean, the players ARE the banks and corporations and so forth) that it always seems to me like there are a bunch of veteran folks who basically, at least in-game, live in their above-the-rest cliques that new players could never hope to enjoy. Or that if you wanted to enter a market you'd have tons of people with the resources, invested time, and experience there to make sure you can't get into it or claim any portion of it.

Maybe it's not actually that drastic, though. I haven't actually played.


In any case it's a ridiculously large "world" with plenty available. And spacepships are always pretty cool.

[EVILNess]

Maybe it's not actually that drastic, though. I haven't actually played.


It is that drastic, but it really isn't as insurmountable as it seems. It just takes finding that group of people that will bear with you to teach you wtf is going on and support you during your phase of newbie-ness. For all the cut-throat and skulduggery the player base tends to nurture new players rather than call them faggots and then boot them from groups. (Well, mostly. Some of the players from certain European nations hate Americans.)

[Amake]

So... Experience > Money > Skill Points

All of that is less important than "having more friends than the other guy" though. If you want to get to the top of the game world, for whatever reason, numbers is all that matters.

But that's not a very good reason to play Eve if you ask me. The marketing is mostly focusing on "getting famous" as the goal of the game, but the great thing is you're not limited to that. You can do anything. My goals have included, at various times, making a photo album with pictures of every solar system in the galaxy, getting friendly with all four factions and doing all five "epic" missions, bringing peace to the game world as a demonstration for world peace, flying from one system to another without a jump gate, getting into a mothership without giving up my indie status, and being so funny in Rookie Corp chat that people would pay me to talk.

(I did that last one.)

It's true that the game environment is created and controlled by the players. But you get to decide what that means.

[PyrosNine]

As I understand it, to get good at EVE is the same as getting good in life: You actually have to apply for a position with an organization for training and to rise through the ranks. I can't do that in real life, so how am I supposed to do that in a game? And IN SPACE?

[Amake]

Yeah, Eve has a lot of similarities with real life like that. But as I was just trying to say, that's only the way you're expected to play. Perhaps unlike life, there's actually nothing forcing you to do those things. You don't need to have a career. You can be a space hobo without any of the real life hindrances like people spitting on you for begging and lacking access to showers. Or you can be a space pornographer and get paid to have cyber sex and upload dirty pictures. (That one's happened.)

I find it sad when people give up their indie status, irrevocably, because they think being in a corp is somehow necessary, like the equalient of having a job in real life. Imagine what someone with more imagination than me could conceive of doing with the game if they weren't busy running it like a real life life. . .

Stop the presses edit: I just now received an offer to get back to the game for five days free. Are they stalking me or something?