Comments on: Does WoW see wrinkles when she looks in the mirror?

By: Shut Up We’re Talking #30 « The Ancient Gaming Noob

Shut Up We’re Talking #30 « The Ancient Gaming Noob — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:02:48 +0000

[...] Long in the Tooth? – Brought up by Tipa’s post about how well (or not) WoW is aging, since it is starting to get up there, at least in MMO [...]

By: Tipa

Tipa — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 03:06:40 +0000

Well, at least for WoW, I felt I had beaten it. I had done everything there was to do aside from BWL, and I didn’t feel like raiding anymore. Aside from running UBRD and Scholo and Strat over and over and over again, there was nothing to do, so I quit.

The moment I decided to quit? When I was told all the different factions I would have to grind for BWL. As a holy spec priest, that was more time than I was willing to spend. I didn’t feel like farming for potion components. I didn’t like waiting three days between making more mooncloth. I had MAYBE 30 gold after paying for raid supplies and repairs, so my epic mount was never going to happen. Everyone I knew who had played the game while I leveled up had quit or moved servers. As a priest, I was targeted for instant death on the battlegrounds, so soloing was tedious, faction grinding was tedious, and this was before the honor revamp so BGs were entirely pointless. Yeah, I can say with finality that I finished WoW, and I haven’t been tempted to return since.

Game just frustrated the heck out of me.

By: Cow Nose the 50 Pound Cat

Cow Nose the 50 Pound Cat — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:13:35 +0000

One thing I would like to mention (this is MMO metaphysics here) is that an MMO, in the true spirit of how I envision it, is more then a game but a world to itself that offers limitless adventure. Just as you can never “beat” an MMO, an MMO can never truly end! The best MMOs, the ones that fit my ideal of what MMO is, is the game that never ages and continues to grow and improve. EQ is still doing it! And EVE does it too, both these games have a lot of life left.

By: Tipa

Tipa — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:35:07 +0000

While I play EQ2 and generally like the game. I don’t consider it very influential. There are no EQ2-likes. For better or worse, WoW is the marker for that generation of MMOs.

A lot of us EQ players thought EQ2 would be a lot more like EQ, just with all the tech improvements the devs were telling us were impossible with the EQ codebase. I enjoyed EQ2, but soon went to WoW. I was lured back by all the changes and improvements they had made. I group it in with the other WoW-likes, even though it was developed in parallel. Give it a cartoony art style and you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between the games in general mechanics.

By: Toldain

Toldain — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:21:20 +0000

The one thing missing from your narrative is the efforts by SOE to have it both ways with EQ2. There was the game you knew and loved, and the new sexy one that seemed to promise a fix to all the stuff you hated about EQ. You know, no massive zerg-like raids, no griefing. You would be able to accomplish something in a two-hour time span, etc, etc. More complex and interesting tradeskills.

Of course, most of their ideas turned out to be extremely unpopular with the players. Combined with WoW’s strategic decision to go with very low system requirements, and make solo play easily, EQ2 was sunk. Major revamps of nearly every aspect of the game. Only me and about 10 other people kept playing, I sometimes think.

By: Tipa

Tipa — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:18:15 +0000

Lots of games have ease of entry, new player friendliness and all that — Wizard 101, my current crush, has all that and more. You can teleport to anyone on your friends list. So if they’re in over their heads, trying to solo a boss, they can just send you a HELP!!! and in two seconds you’re there, standing beside them, spells at the ready. I have one particular friend who is always asking for help, and so I always go :) it’s fun. Sometimes I teleport to friends just to see what they are up to, and if they’re fighting, I join in because grouping is AUTOMATIC. Grouping does not take away from the experience or loot you get from a kill. But if the sides become unbalanced, other monsters may join in to even it up.

And W101 is hardly the only next gen game out there, just the one I happen to have found most recently. See, that’s the thing. Aside from the WoW-likes, the MMO world is moving on. Now, because there are so MANY WoW-likes, someone might get the impression that WoW is the state of the art, but it’s not. It is an old game now. Other games have become the innovators.

By: rmckee78

rmckee78 — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:58:32 +0000

I will be interested to see if the 3rd generation of 3D MMOs (I consider all of these games coming out now to be the end of WoW’s generation 2) has a backlash against the more isolated single player feel of the second generation. Of course it may all continue further bown the route to Diablo 2 too.

By: Cow Nose the 50 Pound Cat

Cow Nose the 50 Pound Cat — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:30:57 +0000

Awww omg thank you for the mention Tipa!! Well, I’m something of a game-hopper and really no game is off-limits for me. I just love to explore new places and new worlds, and WoW’s world is as fun (and easy) to explore as any others. I would probably play EQ if it wasn’t so group-dependent. (from what I can tell)

Some games do age with time, but I still play Ultima Online now and then. It really is just as fun as I remember, just the interface feels a bit clunky. I have been really impressed with WoW, it is a beautiful game. Stay tuned for my next blog, which will have some of the best screenshots yet!

By: stargrace

stargrace — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 13:21:06 +0000

The same reason all those new people have joined up with Nostalgia in EQ1 who never played the game before (and we had quite a few).

By: Openedge1

Openedge1 — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 13:19:22 +0000

Simple really.
People can just get in and play. A large player population also helps as new subscribers can get their questions answered easily. Also, take into account a low cost entry, low system requirements, a huge word of mouth.

I cannot see anyone NOT playing this game EXCEPT the long time player.