Games for every day Joes and Janes, all day, like it's your job. Updated every Mon - Wed - Fri
Published on November 17, 2008 By DorkCoffeez In Gaming

Don't let the title fool you, WoW does matter. It matters to enough that if the people that play it all gathered in the same place you would have the 12th largest nation on earth by population (so says the latest data). The fact is that WoW redid the MMO genera and made it's own massive niche in the world of online gaming. But it has hit a lack luster feel to me and I used to play for days at at time. So why when the game came out, did I skip it and not reactivate my account? Easy, I was in the beta.

I don't feel that much explanation is required here because if you like WoW you are still reading and already know what I am about to say. If you don't like WoW it isn't likely that you made it to this paragraph. So for the purposes of educating my mother (whom could be the only person that remains) the WoW beta allowed me to mess around in the new lands and play the new Deathknight class. It was fun, but I quickly woke up to (virtual) reality.

The new continent is just that: new areas to do what I have always been doing in WoW. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it does not inspire me to purchase the expansion. What did get me going was the Deathknight class so I lept right on that content, having always played the undead in Warcraft3, like a ghoul in a candy store of dead peons. It was amazing fun to go through an evolving story that was, basically, an out door instance tailored to just you doing horrible things to your enemy, lots and lots of them. It does a good job to show off new mechanics, lets you get the story of the knights going, and understand how the very unique skill mechanics work. It also lets you see that a Tauren Deathknight looks just a bit more stupid than a gnome Deathknight.

 

Then they give you the reason to join the good guys by doing the whole "betrayal, we are bad but lets kick the crap out of the really bad guys" story line. After that you are level 58 with pretty great gear for the level and you go to the Burning Crusade expansion content to kick the crap out the Hellfire content.

Just like everyone else.

 

While I didn't have a problem with the fact that a full group of Deathknights (and only Deathknights) could complete the instance dungeons in Hellfire I began to consider what was going to happen from here on out. You will be surrounded by tons of the same class and pretty much have to grind like mad to catch up 10 levels behind the rest of your friends whom have already decimated the new content. I didn't join an online community to always play alone and it suddenly felt like a great deal of work.

The class is still great fun but when my perception of games becomes work; I bail. Perhaps in a few months when things calm down I will log in to play my DK. While I know that I could always break out past characters, I am pretty bored with that idea as well. What I do know is that any healer class that is just sitting at level 60 when they start to level in the first expansion content will be jumped with so much Deathknight love and adoration that it will be border line rape at the first hint of /shout "Level 60 priest,shammy,druid,pally" lfg.

 

See you in a few months.

Seabass


Comments
on Nov 17, 2008

DAMN IT!

on Nov 17, 2008

aren't there only about 11 Million subscriber or something?

12th biggest nation is germany and we have 82 million inhabitants. 11 Million is about 70th rank so you could populate cuba with them

on Nov 17, 2008

Oh yes by a large amount it was an exsageration. What bothers me most is that out of 11 million, or the some 6 million that are English speaking and I would be playing with, I have found perhaps .001% that I can have fun with. You would think it would be easier than that but I am pessimistic that way....

on Nov 18, 2008

yah there seems to be a physical law that the bigger a community is the worse it gets (not single members of it but overall), guess big communities represent the whole society better than niché communities like the one of Supreme Commander.

on Nov 18, 2008
on Nov 18, 2008

HA! I had forgotten that one Soul! Thanks!

on Nov 23, 2008

You are right about griding. Eventually you realize there's no true reward for it. Exploring is very exciting as long as you have something new to find, but there's a delicate balance that has to be maintained. Unfortunatly, you often end up with "more of the same" that doesn't add anything worthwhile to the game. Guild Wars experienced this as well (though in fairness it's target market was the PVP crowd, not the PVE crowd). It's a shame no one has tried to develop some kind of dynamic and challenging exploration game. Adding more complex environmental interactions would be a good start.

IMO The core problems with MMOs is that gamers often don't get alone. They're used to autonomy in games, so they act like jerks. Unless you have a herd of friends to play with (who have to speak to you the next day), you're going to be dealing with people full of a "win at all costs" mentality. Considering most gamers are introverts...well you can see the issue right? MMO RPGs are the worst of the lot because they rely on immersion. With a few players you can pull it off, but the more you add, the more they break the illusion.

Conventional story lines are also a problem. I would urge all developers to get out the sterotype box like the Witcher has already done. Gray morality with realistic consequences adds a lot of power and replay value to that game, and because there are no clear villians or heroes, you feel more inclined to explore all the possiblities. Conventional story lines are great for the kiddies, but when you're in your 30s and 40s, you've heard those stories a zillion times. RPG developers desperatly need to take on different stories, even those without happy endings....