Id like to point out all the USELESS crafting recipes were out when TBC went live and now all the TBC ones that are going to be worthless now that LK is in full swing. AND IMO Ultima Online had everything.  Oh also on a side note the in game voice thing sucks pretty bad and the calendar isnt anything huge. Dont get me wrong i played wow back when BG's werent around and the cool thing was to PvP between SouthShore and Tarren Mill. Did the TBC thing and quit a bit after. Glad the OP is enjoying tho and hope you continue to have fun:)

The calendar was a big help for our roleplay guild.  Everyone can schedule events, write details, set a time and get confirmations.  Since then we went from having one event per quarter (because it's hard to get word to everyone constantly) to one per week.  Voicechat isn't really a roleplayer's tool and don't know anyone who does voice-acting with it, so for that one I give a "meh" but know why it's important in a raid.  Looking forward to the battleground with vehicles since I really really like the flying mounts.

Originally posted by donjn

Originally posted by MindTrigger

Originally posted by donjn

Originally posted by MindTrigger

Sounds like someone has been playing too much wow, and just needed some new content.  I doubt the gameplay has changed at all, and I know they did nothing to enhance the social features or crafting, so it's still the same old game.  The expansion might be pretty, but it's still just WoW.

Nope. Been playing AoC, Warhammer, Ryzom for free, etc, etc. I am not a hardcore WoW player at all.

 

You obviously have a level 70 toon though, right?  So did they enhance the game play at all with new concepts?  Did they add more social or non-combat features.  Did the expand their weak excuse for a crafting and resource system?  If not, it's all just visuals.  The shine will wear off after you get used to it.

Name a game out there right now with a better social system, non-combat features, crafting and resource system. DONT mention one category, your example must be better than WoW's in ALL above mentioned categories. Yes WoW has some failings in those areas, but no-one can do all of those things perfectly.

and speaking of Ryzom as you did.........

Originally posted by Ihmotepp

A big part of the "immersion" is the graphics. WoW graphics just dont' work for me. I find them jarring because they are so colorful, cartoonlike, and I don't particularly care for the artwork.

That is purely preference, and someone else might feel completely the opposite.

I did alot of thinking on this a few months back. I was beta testing both WAR and WotLK, so I had the chance to look at them both side by side.

One thing puzzled me. Both games have fairly similar character races, with character designs that are not too far apart. WAR has the far supperior graphics engine. Yet for some reason WoW's cartoony characters seemed to feel more alive. WAR's felt like manequins. It took me awile to figure out why.

In addition to using the capabilities of their lower end engine to its max, Blizzard does alot of tricks with art design to really mask any short comings. One of the most basic ones they do is subtle character animations and stances. WAR's characters always seem to have very rigid stances. And what little animations they have are very obvious. But look closely at WoW's avatars. THEY BREATHE! your character inhales and exhales. They have very relaxed neutral stances with a whole host of subtle movements. Most of these aren't things that you readily notice, but your brain picks up on it, and it makes the WoW characters feel much more alive.

And I agree with the OP. My experiences in the DK starter area were pretty much the same. It was just absolute fun.

I quit WoW because of the horrible direction PvP was going. I was absolutely insulted that end-game PvP Amounted to nothing more than group duels in a box. Not like any Warcraft games I played at all. In almost 5 years they still only have 5 Battlegrounds. They add 1 new BG with every new expansion. That simply is not enough to keep me playing. And I flat out refuse to participate in the janky cheat-infested Arenas. There is no War in Warcraft. Everquest had better PvP than WoW does.

WotLK means dick to me.

Originally posted by donjn

Originally posted by MindTrigger

Originally posted by donjn

Originally posted by MindTrigger

Originally posted by donjn

Originally posted by MindTrigger

Sounds like someone has been playing too much wow, and just needed some new content.  I doubt the gameplay has changed at all, and I know they did nothing to enhance the social features or crafting, so it's still the same old game.  The expansion might be pretty, but it's still just WoW.

Nope. Been playing AoC, Warhammer, Ryzom for free, etc, etc. I am not a hardcore WoW player at all.

 

You obviously have a level 70 toon though, right?  So did they enhance the game play at all with new concepts?  Did they add more social or non-combat features.  Did the expand their weak excuse for a crafting and resource system?  If not, it's all just visuals.  The shine will wear off after you get used to it.

Name a game out there right now with a better social system, non-combat features, crafting and resource system. DONT mention one category, your example must be better than WoW's in ALL above mentioned categories. Yes WoW has some failings in those areas, but no-one can do all of those things perfectly.

 

You just illustrated my point.  WoW has very little in the way of social features, non-combat systems, and the crafting is pathetic.  Every game that has come out since WoW is trying to carbon copy WoW's success suffers from the game lack of innovation.  Games that are 90% combat and 10% everything else will always bore me and many other people to death.  WoW is my main example of what is wrong with MMO's today.

I played through to 70, then left.  I had a decent time, but it certainly wasn't a memorable experience.  I found the whole game to be shallow, and everyone was sort of disconnected.  All the other new MMO's are the same way.

Yet you didn't answer my question.

Look up the theme song from "The Spy Who Loved Me"...

You asked me to name a current game that is better than WoW in those categories.  Everything to come out in the past few years has either failed outright, or is a clone of wow's gameplay.  They are more or less the same. This doesn't  make wow the best game out, it makes it the pioneer in yawn-inducing mmo play.

SWG still, even in its currently torn up state, has better, deeper, and richer crafting and non-combat gameplay elements than any other game on the market, WoW included.  This is still true now, even though most of the game was *removed* when SOE tried to turn SWG into a WoW-clone.

The fact that they removed so much from SWG to make it more like WoW speaks volumes about the depth and gameplay of WoW by comparison.  Imagine a game with 26 (!) professions/classes that gives you the ability to mix and match skills from mutiple classes to create your own path through the game.  None of the current game developers have the ballsack to even break out of the standard archtypes, let alone create 26 of them.  Many of the non-combat professions in SWG were complete gameplay paths that were independent of combat.  Show me a game like that today.

Originally posted by donjn

A quick note to the mods: please dont place this in the forum for the MMO I am going to mention. I want people who dont play this game to read this, and not have it stuffed into a specific forum. Thanks!

No such luck. :)

Originally posted by faefrost

 But look closely at WoW's avatars. THEY BREATHE! your character inhales and exhales. They have very relaxed neutral stances with a whole host of subtle movements. Most of these aren't things that you readily notice, but your brain picks up on it, and it makes the WoW characters feel much more alive.

Not only that, but when they're in the cold snowy lands of Dun Morough, you can see a little white puff of breath coming from their breathing.  Oh, and your little vanity pet cat, you can see his breath too.  Attention to details...

Your post is so cute donjn

Next time OP, go easy of the caffeine.. j/k

I am just curious why do older gamers go into a post and state their age and a old mmo for credentials.

Anyways, not to sidetrack the OP, its great that you got your itched scratched from WoW once again, however the only game that could do this for me would be.. Star Wars Galaxies (2003 SWG to be exact)

WoW is a fun game for millions, but very linear and predictable like the rest of the mmo's out there. I blame WoW for making mmorpg's simplistic in nature (but thats a good think now, the more user friendly the game is, the more ppl like it).

Why I mentioned SWG is because it was a sandbox mmorpg with the best social atmosphere the best crafting system ever conceived in MMO history and had a Star Wars lore where even your grandmother new what Star Wars was. Talking about getting pulled to a different universe everytime you log in.. This game had it with great immersion.

Unfortunately I think the game (SGW) now is a POS compared to what it once was and it uses the linear formula like every other mmo on the market. As once person said.. Smedley = PURE EVIL..

I left SWG and went to WoW, had my great times back in 2004 - 2005 with WoW, but it did'nt give me that same feeling SWG once did.

To OP:

I'm glad you find your death knight quest experience epic. I also hope most of the 11 million other epic death knights will find their experience epic as well. I salute Blizzard for being able to provide this epic experience to all those people. It would have been nice to at least give another 1-2 alternative epic experiences (meaning other hero classes) after those 4 years of development, but hey, being a death knight is really epic so who cares, right?

And besides 150 mil $ per month really isn't enough to develop more than one class after 4 years.

Oh, and you can change your hairdo as well which really is a truly epic thing. It's nice seeing all that subscription money I spent over all those years go for a good cause. It makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

Originally posted by markoraos

To OP:

I'm glad you find your death knight quest experience epic. I also hope most of the 11 million other epic death knights will find their experience epic as well. I salute Mythic for being able to provide this epic experience to all those people. It would have been nice to at least give another 1-2 alternative epic experiences (meaning other hero classes) after those 4 years of development, but hey, being death knight is really epic so who cares, right?

And besides 150 mil $ per month really isn't enough to develop more than one class after 4 years.

Oh, and you can change your hairdo as well which really is truly epic.

Umm..

You are forgiven.. but.. eh.. IT's BLIZZARD. NOT MYTHIC.

To the OP:

The gameplay mechanics didn't change.  It's more of the same. 

Crafting in WoW is a joke, an afterthought.  You claim to have played UO and you think WoW has solid crafting? 

Games like Pre-CU SWG and UO had crafting. WoW does not.

It's good that you are enjoying yourself, it really is, but don't you think your post is a bit overboard?  I enjoyed WoW for a few months and then it got really stale.  Too restrictive and too linear. 

Unless this expansion added freedom and consequence to the game (which it really did not) then it's hard to take your post that seriously.  It's really just more of the same, which is very disappointing from a company who has revenue to the level that Blizzard does, from this game.  After all this time Blizzard should have something remarkable and innovative in WoW, and they do not.

Originally posted by SupderD

Originally posted by markoraos

To OP:

I'm glad you find your death knight quest experience epic. I also hope most of the 11 million other epic death knights will find their experience epic as well. I salute Mythic for being able to provide this epic experience to all those people. It would have been nice to at least give another 1-2 alternative epic experiences (meaning other hero classes) after those 4 years of development, but hey, being death knight is really epic so who cares, right?

And besides 150 mil $ per month really isn't enough to develop more than one class after 4 years.

Oh, and you can change your hairdo as well which really is truly epic.

 

Umm..

You are forgiven.. but.. eh.. IT's BLIZZARD. NOT MYTHIC.

Lol, heh might be a freudian slip. :)

Made an ass out of myself now didn't I? Doesn't change the point of my post anyway... With the amount of money they got over all those years the additional content in WOtLK is pitiful and frankly insulting. I gave too many years to Blizzard hoping they'd make some substantial changes and improvements to their game but they were content to sit on their $$ pile. Now when some competition is knocking at the door they decide to add some of the things players have been clamoring from day 1. I don't like their business practice - they're penny pinching while making a kiling. As a customer I don't like being treated like that.

/oh and changed the slip :)

Originally posted by markoraos

To OP:

I'm glad you find your death knight quest experience epic. I also hope most of the 11 million other epic death knights will find their experience epic as well. I salute Mythic for being able to provide this epic experience to all those people. It would have been nice to at least give another 1-2 alternative epic experiences (meaning other hero classes) after those 4 years of development, but hey, being a death knight is really epic so who cares, right?

And besides 150 mil $ per month really isn't enough to develop more than one class after 4 years.

Oh, and you can change your hairdo as well which really is a truly epic thing. It's nice seeing all that subscription money I spent over all those years go for a good cause. It makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

Hehe, dripping with sarcasm...A little quote for truth aswell, cause compared to what Blizzard earn on WoW, what they give back to the player is almost nothing. 1 heroclass in almost 5 years now, and that cheapass copy/paste shit they did with TBC. Yep, that's totally worth 5 years of development. Even CoX gives out more content for free.

8 months since i played WoW, and wow, what a smack down wotlk (good way, so you don't misunderstand it) was to me, it was really great, well i didn't expect any less from blizzard, so cheers to them.

I did indeed start a death knight, my favourite hero in warcraft 3, and boy do i wish my old warrior was this fun, i mean this amount of abilities at your hand is insane, to say the least, at least for my unholy spec'd Death knight. There are like 5 Aoe spells alone to be used in 2-3+ pulls, and just for the single attacks there are at least 3 chains to go through, i really like how they have made the death knight this way, the disease powering up others and how they do fatal damage, when you got as many diseases on the target and plow a scourge strike in their face or erupt all diseases with blood boil, not to mention how death strike leeches even more health with it, blood strike which is like mini version of scourge strike but also turns blood runes into death runes (with talents).

This class is really fun for those players who don't want only 4 attack abilities they use all the time, the death knight have a nice amount of different combo chains according to which enemy you have or how many.  If there wasn't a global cooldown Death knights surely would be overpowered.  =P

I hope blizzard will keep this up and hopefully make all other classes have such nice new chains of power surges.

The new event system is really great too, i never thought this system would make the whole gaming experience that much more interesting, really shows how far mmorpgs can go, no more static envirements.

Now i wish i had more sparetime to actually play this game more often.   Wish i had a 10th of bill gate's moneys  xD

Wow, lots of hate going on around here. I will answer a couple of points that stood out.

Older gamers like to list credentials of age and what they played because they feel they have the expereince and have seen more than younger gamers. Call it elitism if you want, but most of the time it's true. My personal reasons are because  I hate being placed into a certain "fanboi" category (ironically I was called one in this thread) and posting my expereince I would hope would  yield less fanboi comments because of my wide range of expereince..

As for people wanting to change gameplay mechanics? NGE anyone? With 11 million subscribers, why would you take a risk and change the gameplay mechanics? This is an insane commentary by whoever mentioned it in this thread. And by gameplay mechanics what do you mean by changing them? Make combat more AoC twitch based? Need more examples.

Originally posted by donjn

Originally posted by MindTrigger

Originally posted by donjn

Originally posted by MindTrigger

Sounds like someone has been playing too much wow, and just needed some new content.  I doubt the gameplay has changed at all, and I know they did nothing to enhance the social features or crafting, so it's still the same old game.  The expansion might be pretty, but it's still just WoW.

Nope. Been playing AoC, Warhammer, Ryzom for free, etc, etc. I am not a hardcore WoW player at all.

 

You obviously have a level 70 toon though, right?  So did they enhance the game play at all with new concepts?  Did they add more social or non-combat features.  Did the expand their weak excuse for a crafting and resource system?  If not, it's all just visuals.  The shine will wear off after you get used to it.

Name a game out there right now with a better social system, non-combat features, crafting and resource system. DONT mention one category, your example must be better than WoW's in ALL above mentioned categories. Yes WoW has some failings in those areas, but no-one can do all of those things perfectly.

i'll name 2, SoR and Eve.

Originally posted by markoraos

To OP:

I'm glad you find your death knight quest experience epic. I also hope most of the 11 million other epic death knights will find their experience epic as well. I salute Blizzard for being able to provide this epic experience to all those people. It would have been nice to at least give another 1-2 alternative epic experiences (meaning other hero classes) after those 4 years of development, but hey, being a death knight is really epic so who cares, right?

And besides 150 mil $ per month really isn't enough to develop more than one class after 4 years.

Oh, and you can change your hairdo as well which really is a truly epic thing. It's nice seeing all that subscription money I spent over all those years go for a good cause. It makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

Blizzard has provided more free content than just about any other MMO company. Based on the amount of free content if this was Everquest, they would have been on expansion number 6 by now. Picking out "hairdo" and leaving out all the other additions since the game's inception is a real head scratcher.

Originally posted by Salio69

Originally posted by donjn

Originally posted by MindTrigger

Originally posted by donjn

Originally posted by MindTrigger

Sounds like someone has been playing too much wow, and just needed some new content.  I doubt the gameplay has changed at all, and I know they did nothing to enhance the social features or crafting, so it's still the same old game.  The expansion might be pretty, but it's still just WoW.

Nope. Been playing AoC, Warhammer, Ryzom for free, etc, etc. I am not a hardcore WoW player at all.

 

You obviously have a level 70 toon though, right?  So did they enhance the game play at all with new concepts?  Did they add more social or non-combat features.  Did the expand their weak excuse for a crafting and resource system?  If not, it's all just visuals.  The shine will wear off after you get used to it.

Name a game out there right now with a better social system, non-combat features, crafting and resource system. DONT mention one category, your example must be better than WoW's in ALL above mentioned categories. Yes WoW has some failings in those areas, but no-one can do all of those things perfectly.

 

i'll name 2, SoR and Eve.

I might give you Eve but not SoR. SoR has the best crafting in MMO history and the RIng was pretty nice but I dont think there is not enough meat on that bone for me.