Worl Of Warcraft TOPIC!!!

Sinitron · August 22, 2012 05:19 PM

I am so Pumped for Mist's of Pandaria I replayed Warcraft 2 and 3 and found the Pandaren Brewmaster!!!!!!!!! Who else is excited to Crack Them Kegz and PWN in alcovision??? I Sure am >:------------)

psi43 · August 22, 2012 07:39 PM

on a more serious note, i was somewhat disappointed by the cinematic they put out for it. Usually I always love the WoW, Diablo and StarCraft cinematics but the new one was kind of shit compared to the others.

Sinitron · August 22, 2012 08:22 PM

uhhh on a serious note the cinematic was pretty good, what bothered you about it?

psi43 · August 22, 2012 08:36 PM

Quote from: Sinitron on August 22, 2012 08:22 PM
uhhh on a serious note the cinematic was pretty good, what bothered you about it?

action-wise and story-wise it was great, no doubt in my mind. It just didn't have that "epic" (and yes I know that word is heavily overused) feel to it than most other cinematics. Maybe that's because of me though; I have no idea who any of the people in that cinematic are so it may not have influenced me as much. Whereas Deathwing was my favorite WCR2 character and everyone who played WCR3 knows about Arthas as the Lich King and Illidan.

Another minor gripe I had was the visuals (as in graphics, not special effects). Comparing it to that Diablo 3 cinematic with Azmodan, they seem to have not put as much detail into the character models and all.

also don't get me wrong; when I said "kind of shit compared to the others" I actually mean "compared to the others". Compared to almost any other cinematic that other companies put out, it's still pretty brilliant.

cipher · August 22, 2012 09:32 PM

Yeah I didn't think it was bad, but not as exciting as some of the previous ones.

rtil · August 23, 2012 01:49 AM

it looked like a trailer for kung fu panda 3
does anyone here actually play that god forsaken game? i wouldn't touch it with a 50 foot stick

cipher · August 23, 2012 02:54 AM

I have in the past, and while I haven't played in many years, I can say that at least up to a few months after the release of the last expansion (2ish years ago), that it is an excellent and brilliantly designed game. The engine is pretty dated though, but I guess thats what allows them to get so many customers since older machines can run it. Anyways from a game design perspective, I'm willing to defend it if needed

I don't really know why it ever got such a bad rep to be honest, maybe its association with being really nerdy or something?

rtil · August 23, 2012 04:14 AM

all my real life friends who have played it describe it like this - basically they start playing , and at first it's fun. but then they have to join a guild to progress, and the game starts to become an obligation and farming for the best equipment. then you go on to the next place and do the same thing just to get better equipment. eventually it becomes a chore, but you do it anyway because you feel like you have to or your guild will get upset, so instead of hanging out with your friends on friday night you're going on a raid in WoW and you hate your life.

none of them play any more but many of them were addicted for years. doesn't sound like much fun to me.

cipher · August 23, 2012 05:25 AM

It's only like that if you want it to be. I played the game on and off shortly after it came out until, well a year and half ago or so. About half of that time I had zero contact with a guild and did things pretty much full solo. There's still a lot that can be done by yourself. And if you want to do some group stuff, then find a group and do it.

Basically what your friends are referring to is just the endgame system. That's when people get too committed to their guild obligations and end up playing waaay too much just because the want the best gear (which is ultimately meaningless since it will just get 1-upped by next raid/dungeons that are added). If you spend your time playing solo / small group stuff, you would never get the best of the best gear, but you'll enjoy your time playing a hell of a lot more since you can just do it at your own pace. Especially with the three expansions Blizzard has released, there has been a much bigger focus on solo / small group content, and getting better gear has become easier and easier (too easy if you ask me). Hell, Blizzard is even starting to include a lot of individual-based plot stuff. I know a lot has changed since I last played, but my point should be the same.

From a business perspective though, this model works incredibly well, and is one of the leading reasons WoW has [had] so many subscribers. I don't think WoW is best game ever, and probably wouldn't make my personal top 25 list, but from a design and business perspective I find it exceptional, and thus my reasoning for liking to defend it.

psi43 · August 23, 2012 03:37 PM

Quote from: rtil on August 23, 2012 04:14 AMbasically they start playing , and at first it's fun.

That's where it went wrong for me (or right, depending on your point of view). I tried playing it 2 or 3 times, every time I played for roughly an hour to 2 hours but I never really enjoyed it.

My brother describes the game in the opposide way. He says it starts out slow but once you get into a guild and all that it gets really fun. Although he was probably in a more leisure guild that didn't bitch at him for not being there all the time, cause although he was playing WoW and was high up in his guild, he had a private life. Looking at it that way, I think that it is possible to enjoy WoW without getting extremely hooked on it but it's really easy to lose the balance.

naturally · August 23, 2012 05:27 PM

i played wow up to about 60 or so solely due to the fact that all my friends played it and wanted me to play it too. i can honestly say that the times that i seriously enjoyed the game were few and in between. a lot of mmos have the problem with 'getting better later', (as wow does with hitting level cap) but that's always been a thoroughly flawed selling point in my eyes. i even have a few friends who would never try to recommend it for that reason alone. it's the same reason i rarely recommended people maplestory, because it's the kind of game only a certain type of person would enjoy. (it's absolute trash now, anyway) wow has never been able to hook me the way some other mmos have in the past, but unfortunately that's true for a lot of them recently. most of this is due to the rinse and repeat formula a lot of mmos have followed suit in using, and i've grown very tired of it despite being an mmo addict for a very long time.

guild wars 2 looks to be a promising deviation from that, though. i'm looking forward to it.

Sinitron · August 23, 2012 07:42 PM

tbh i thought the cinematic was pretty good and more or less up to par with past blizzard works, even many of the warcraft 3 cinematics - it doesn't quite stand up to the scene where arthas kills his father or the frozen throne intro, but it's better than the one where the demon lord whatshisface tears down a city using dumb dust and stuff or the ending cinematic for starcraft 2 and considering how badly blizzard have messed up their lore in recent years that's more than good enough and if kung fu panda was the same level of quality i might've considered watching it

as for the game itself it's nice and colorful shame the actual gameplay sucks dick LOL

rtil · August 23, 2012 09:37 PM

the endgame is the problem imo in that there really is no endgame. i don't like games that don't end. i tried it myself in dungeon defenders - a game you can play alone but is better with other people. i got pretty into it, and beat everything and got the best equipment. what do you do after that? you farm for even better equipment. then nothing in the game is challenging, so the developers release something much more difficult, which you farm for even newer and better equipment. this is still going on today. it got boring for me extremely quickly, and was a bit disappointing and underwhelming.

you can't really get better at these kinds of games. they value time over skill. the people who don't have a life or a job can sit around all day and get better stuff than you without even trying just because of that. it's a stupid way to set up a game.

cipher · August 23, 2012 10:26 PM

Well like it or not, if MMOs have no endgame system (usually in the form of more loot/gear to be gained), then business will not be able to support the game itself (see SW:TOR, Age of Conan(?), etc). People get super hyped, many buy the game, but then only play for three months, get the end, see that there's nothing to do and quit.

I think it's clear that none of us are really fans of end game loot farming in general, but it's a system that apparently works pretty well, and if you enjoy it, you can get a lot of bang for your buck, even if there is a sub fee.

rtil · August 23, 2012 11:06 PM

i'm not saying mmo's shouldn't have an endgame (?), i'm just saying to me they are boring so i don't play them.

creamcorn · August 24, 2012 08:15 PM

everyone knows guildwars 2 is where it at

Sinitron · August 24, 2012 08:17 PM

gw2 has some interesting features

i'm on the fence about it still

naturally · August 24, 2012 08:38 PM

from what i've played i've enjoyed it. i'd be more excited if i was actually able to play it in 10 hours like i should have been able to.

cipher · August 24, 2012 11:03 PM

Yeah I too am interested, the art direction also looks awesome. I plan on getting it, but I'm going to wait probably a few months or so. Unless you're really into it (or any upcoming MMO), I'm sure getting it day one will always be overly chaotic

ZennyPLUS · August 25, 2012 07:27 AM

Actually, I thought the OP looked fantastic.