What Blizzard did right/did wrong with World of Warcraft
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There is a lot of people who do not like World of Warcraft. However, if you really press them, I wager the majority will admit that they, at some point in time, enjoyed this game.I honestly think WoW, when its broken down and objectivly and impartially reviewed is a damn good game. They did a LOT of things right.
However, I left WoW for several reasons and those reasons are things I now think about when I investigate and chose to play the next MMORPG coming out.
Below I briefly list some of the good and bad aspects of this game (My opinion only, however feel free to add yours).
It Took the standard MMORPG, and just made it better. There was nothing groundbreaking about WoW compared to other MMORPGs of the day (EQ, UO, DAoC). But Blizzard did its homework. It looked at each of the preceeding games, found out what worked, and what didnt. |
Mostly static world. Like most/all MMO's, things that started one way, stay that way for the remainder of the game. I know, this sucks, and I don't really have anything to say that makes up for it. But where WoW has disappointed is that it has spent time making new things better yet leaving the older zones to stagnate and fester. Many times they create new quests that involve older zones and areas, but its usually just a brief jaunt and you get the feeling that your almost being forced to visit. There is also a little too little variation in the enemies you fight. Most every trash mob can be recognized in at least 5 different zones. They take the same skin, apply different colors, or add a couple random things sticking out of it and change the name. Raid or Die. Everyone reaching for the same carrot, everyone running around in the same armor sets. One of the things that kept me playing WoW for a year and a half was the fact that from 1-70 you could progress through soloing, grouping, dungeon-crawling, world questing, you name it. Once you got to endgame, the only options were PvP or raid content. The raid affected most every aspect of the game. For example, in the end game there is no other means to advance a profession than raiding. In addition, loot from raids seemed to be better than anything that the player could make so there didn't seem to be much point in leveling up professions. This also led to a huge requirement for Guilds. And with that a hard core atmosphere developed in many. DKP, Raid attendance records and other player measurments were not invented by this game...but in WoW they were augmented 10-100 fold. Alas, World of Warcraft is a game that does not equate success with casual. In this game raid progress became a measuring stick of all guilds .....stagnation breed discontent ...and drama befiting the Lifetime/Oprah/and Hallmark networks was and still is prevalent. Group roles and forced grouping: Nothing possible without healers and tanks. You always need at least 1 tank and 1 healer (priest etc.) for bigger encounters (like 5 man instances, raids etc.). Especially for Heroic this is a pain in the butt for small guilds as the chars need to fill those roles somehow. No real possibility for groups consisting of 5 different classes unless someone has the ability to tank and another the ability to heal. Eventually all 5 man content falls under a familiar formula. Grindfest. If there is one word that epitomizes this game is 'Grind'. However, lets be honest ...WoW did not invent the grind. The XP grind to get from lev 1 to lev 70 is small when compared to other games which preceeded it (Anyone remember the good ol days of Everquest?). However, WoW incorporated multiple layers of grinding...specifically faction grinding. There are over a hundred factions in this game, each requiring a significant time to gain exalted status. Many of which are requirements in order to advance in the game and instances (I.E heroic instances and keying). When you step back and look from a distance...getting to level 70 was the easy part. Lack of meaningful PvP. PvP content is totally meaningless - it's all instances and affects nothing (except personal reputation). Nothing in WoW affects anything else, for that matter. In the end its all about bragging rights ..and you are completly unable to bragg in game because of the inability to speak to the opposite faction after/during the fight. You have to take it to the forums (where it is soundly diluted). In the end, the experience leaves you somewhat empty. The importance of gear. Blizzard made no apologies for this design. Nor should they. ..this game is a PVE game. Success in this game is measured in instances and raids. in the PvP and arena areas most players would like to value skill over gear, but in the end the gear itself can make such a huge disparity between players that players need only to know several tactics and not make mistakes to find the majority of wins. If you didnt raid or pvp grind then you were basically screwed no matter how well you knew your character because the person with the best gear won 97% of the time. For a long time PVE gear was far better than PvP/Arena gear...however this is being adjusted and they are now more comparible.
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Good luck out there.
Hope this helps
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