This week in the Way Back Machine, MMORPG.com lead writer Bill Murphy takes a look back on Richard Duffek's September 26th, 2004 article on his first impressions of playing World of Warcraft.

It's often talked about how the olden days of World of Wacraft were far more appealing that what the game's become today with over 12 million worldwide players.  People like to fondly look back on Azeroth's fledgling times as though there was nothing better in life than strolling about Dun Morogh when Gnomes were still hangers-on and Trolls didn't have a home.

Check out the whole read here.

We all know that WoW stood the test of time. The real question now is how much more time dose WoW have?

First

Originally posted by Isturi

We all know that WoW stood the test of time. The real question now is how much more time dose WoW have?

First

Well, considering that there are several old games that didn't have WoW's numbers and they still exist, I would say that WoW has quite a few years ahead of it.

Remember, EQ had a large amount of players. Might not have the same amount now but it's still being developed.

WoW is here for years to come. Will it be the same juggernaut it is now in 5 years? probably not but you never know.

Amen

Originally posted by Isturi

We all know that WoW stood the test of time. The real question now is how much more time dose WoW have?

First

EQ and UO are still around so I would say at least another ten years.

I think that if WoW starts to dwindle to a Low amount of players [1000's] then Blizzard unlike a lot of companies will bring it to an end, they do not need to hang on by their fingertips.

They have another game in the pipeline which hopefully will release within about 3 or 4 years.  By then they will know how WoW is going - I believe it will probably still be popular enough to keep going at that time.  But if the new game proves to be another Winner - which knowing Blizzards ingenuity, it will - then a lot of WoW players present and past will migrate to the New Game and WoW will probably be brought to a close, Like I said - Blizzard do not Need to hang on by their finger tips till they bleed.

Having been an avid WoW player in the past, and still having fond memories of what it used to be, this article is very interesting to read.  Hard to believe that the largest/most successfull MMORPG of all time, wasn't thought to be that at the time. At least from this writers perspective.

Of course if my memory is correct, EQ2 was launching at the same time, so i'm going to guess that the majority of MMO players back then, were awaiting that much more than WoW.  I wouldn't know to be sure though, i was too young and my computer was on dial-up internet.  How things change =)

OMG, I liked this citation :

<<I can see that Blizzard is planning on a lot of their customers coming from the Warcraft RTS series and having never played a MMORPG before. If you've played just about ANY MMORPG out there then you'll do just fine in World of Warcraft. There's nothing new here. Basically they've taken things that are known to work from previous MMORPGs and put them into the game>>

guees what? Blizzard didnt create the MMO genre...still people are calling every new game a WoW clone :P

Originally posted by Sidereus

OMG, I liked this citation :

<<I can see that Blizzard is planning on a lot of their customers coming from the Warcraft RTS series and having never played a MMORPG before. If you've played just about ANY MMORPG out there then you'll do just fine in World of Warcraft. There's nothing new here. Basically they've taken things that are known to work from previous MMORPGs and put them into the game>>

guees what? Blizzard didnt create the MMO genre...still people are calling every new game a WoW clone :P

 

Of course they are. Doom didn't invent forst-person shooters but everyone still called them all doom clones for the next 5 years or so. Remember that? Heh. I used to get so annoyed ( I was a huge Wolfenstein 3-D fan) but whenever I called someone on it I'd get "Wolfenwhat? Everyone plays Doom, who cares about your old nazi-killing game:P"  Used to irritate me greatly.

"WoW is a prime example of "if it isn't broke don't fix it.""

LOLOL I only wish they still retained this mentality.

So this was the review the game got when it came out? I am at a loss for words.

This game was critically appraised everywhere. Period. The game did so much so much right. But in this review all you have is negativity against the game. This is biased beyond belief. I mean he's only complaining about the game and downplays most of the stuff in the game. I don't see him praising the game at all for anything. 

He says they just copy pasted everything from other games. Blizzard never just copy & paste. What they do is compile stuff and make it a million times better than the original version. WoW improved so many features from past MMOs. Not just copy paste. Improved. The genre was shaken to its very foundations when this game came out. 

So you get this review, which could pass as a review for some indie MMO, and you have reviews from huge gaming reviewers who tag the game as "this is the game you should play no matter who you are".

Don't you start to sound a little biased yourself now, mate? Relax, it's just his opinion, no need to feel all indignant or hurt about it if he doesn't share the same high adoration you feel for a game. Tastes and opinions differ.

I  have 2 active accounts on EQ1 and none on WoW.  Played WoW for 6 months about a year after Lich king came out.  Will never play WoW again no mater how many free trials of Cataclysm they e-mail me or how many free authenticators they send me. I found WoW easy and very boring repeating the same dungeons and PvP dailies after Lvl cap.  And rolling alts was even more boring. And a class that starts at lvl 60 or whatever it was was the lamest.

Originally posted by fivoroth

So this was the review the game got when it came out? I am at a loss for words.

This game was critically appraised everywhere. Period. The game did so much so much right. But in this review all you have is negativity against the game. This is biased beyond belief. I mean he's only complaining about the game and downplays most of the stuff in the game. I don't see him praising the game at all for anything. 

He says they just copy pasted everything from other games. Blizzard never just copy & paste. What they do is compile stuff and make it a million times better than the original version. WoW improved so many features from past MMOs. Not just copy paste. Improved. The genre was shaken to its very foundations when this game came out. 

So you get this review, which could pass as a review for some indie MMO, and you have reviews from huge gaming reviewers who tag the game as "this is the game you should play no matter who you are".

 

This review 100% nails everything.  He is completely spot on with just about every sentence of this.

He didnt personally like the style of the graphics but noted how very well done and full of little details everything was.  In fact he was gushing about the graphics despite not really liking the style.  I started off the exact same way but eventually grew to like the style.

He said the game would be fun for a LOT of people, and the people who have never played an MMORPG before wouldnt care that there was nothing new.  Again, spot on.

He criticized the game for lackluster quests saying they were more like tasks than quests.  Again, this is 100% accurate.  Too easy?  yup.  Where was he remotely wrong anywhere here....

Originally posted by teakbois

Originally posted by fivoroth

So this was the review the game got when it came out? I am at a loss for words.

This game was critically appraised everywhere. Period. The game did so much so much right. But in this review all you have is negativity against the game. This is biased beyond belief. I mean he's only complaining about the game and downplays most of the stuff in the game. I don't see him praising the game at all for anything. 

He says they just copy pasted everything from other games. Blizzard never just copy & paste. What they do is compile stuff and make it a million times better than the original version. WoW improved so many features from past MMOs. Not just copy paste. Improved. The genre was shaken to its very foundations when this game came out. 

So you get this review, which could pass as a review for some indie MMO, and you have reviews from huge gaming reviewers who tag the game as "this is the game you should play no matter who you are".

 

This review 100% nails everything.  He is completely spot on with just about every sentence of this.

 

He didnt personally like the style of the graphics but noted how very well done and full of little details everything was.  In fact he was gushing about the graphics despite not really liking the style.  I started off the exact same way but eventually grew to like the style.

 

He said the game would be fun for a LOT of people, and the people who have never played an MMORPG before wouldnt care that there was nothing new.  Again, spot on.

 

He criticized the game for lackluster quests saying they were more like tasks than quests.  Again, this is 100% accurate.  Too easy?  yup.  Where was he remotely wrong anywhere here....

I'd love to see links to other reviewers that said "this is the game you should play no matter who you are." because I don't remember those reviews AT ALL.

I recall many reviews that are very similar to the one posted on MMORPG.com, some also discussed the controversial Rested EXP and "repair" gear rather than EXP loss.

Both of which were VERY unusual in the MMO market when WoW launched.  A lot of people were saying it was way too carebear when Classic WoW hit the market.

At first I played WoW because I seriously loved the big areas to explore, the quests and the social aspect. Then I got seriously ill for a couple of years and couldn't do much. But WoW was still around and when I logged into WoW I didn't have to worry and think about being sick, hospitals, operations and God knows what.

We all play games for a reason. Today I'm not sick anymore and I still play WoW because it's a fantastic game. That doesn't mean I completely dismiss playing other MMOs but bany of those I've bought the last 2-3 years are either gasping for air or already dead. WoW is still around.

I remember being annoyed as all hell that there was no 'true pvp' servers.

I remember not liking the graphics, thinking they weresomewhat lower quality than the likes of Planetside and thinking the stylization took too much after the RTS counterpart in ways that didn't benefit a close third person style.

I remember disliking the combat system, summarizing it as 'slow'.

I remember getting annoyed at waiting on the server lag to pick up loot.

I remember having a blast playing a holy priest on the Feathermoon RP server.

I remember running down a dastardly orc hunter ten levels above me as a retribution paladin because his failed attemt at ganking me.

I remember chilling with some undead as a human during beta and chatting it up with them.

I remember raiding the Scarlet Monsatry as a party with those undead, still on a human paladin.

I remember hating not having a mount as a paladin and being 'the slowest class', then loving a free mount.

I remember being able to weild greatswords as a mage during early beta, and whining when that quickly disappeared as the skill system was changed.

In general I remember enjoying a lot about how the early game mechanics for characters and community, though never loving it's aesthetics or disconnected way of interacting with the game world.

On release I was pushed in mild disinterest because the game had gottem considerably more strict in class function, the combat became more formulaic as a result, and I still didn't like the graphics.

All my friends had started to play it and I only had one friend that played Planetside with me(who also happened to start playing WoW when it came out too) which meant if I wanted to play with them, I'd have to play WoW.

In the end I gave up on enjoying the gameplay or graphics (or the game in general) itself and instead just enjoy it for it's lore, storyline and community in RP.

When the community started to decay and the lore writers got stupid, I lost any remaining attachment or reasons to play, and as such went back to more PvP oriented games while hoping for a good PvP/RP combo and seeing a depressingly nonexistant offering.

It had it's good times. It had it's bad times. In the end I never thought much of the game, but that doesn't mean I hate it.

Originally posted by Laughing-man

Originally posted by teakbois

Originally posted by fivoroth

So this was the review the game got when it came out? I am at a loss for words.

This game was critically appraised everywhere. Period. The game did so much so much right. But in this review all you have is negativity against the game. This is biased beyond belief. I mean he's only complaining about the game and downplays most of the stuff in the game. I don't see him praising the game at all for anything. 

He says they just copy pasted everything from other games. Blizzard never just copy & paste. What they do is compile stuff and make it a million times better than the original version. WoW improved so many features from past MMOs. Not just copy paste. Improved. The genre was shaken to its very foundations when this game came out. 

So you get this review, which could pass as a review for some indie MMO, and you have reviews from huge gaming reviewers who tag the game as "this is the game you should play no matter who you are".

 

This review 100% nails everything.  He is completely spot on with just about every sentence of this.

 

He didnt personally like the style of the graphics but noted how very well done and full of little details everything was.  In fact he was gushing about the graphics despite not really liking the style.  I started off the exact same way but eventually grew to like the style.

 

He said the game would be fun for a LOT of people, and the people who have never played an MMORPG before wouldnt care that there was nothing new.  Again, spot on.

 

He criticized the game for lackluster quests saying they were more like tasks than quests.  Again, this is 100% accurate.  Too easy?  yup.  Where was he remotely wrong anywhere here....

I'd love to see links to other reviewers that said "this is the game you should play no matter who you are." because I don't remember those reviews AT ALL.

I recall many reviews that are very similar to the one posted on MMORPG.com, some also discussed the controversial Rested EXP and "repair" gear rather than EXP loss.

Both of which were VERY unusual in the MMO market when WoW launched.  A lot of people were saying it was way too carebear when Classic WoW hit the market.

There you go.

http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/572/572070p1.html < you can find the quote i mentioned here

http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/worldofwarcraft/index.html?tag=result;title;0

http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/pc/world-of-warcraft/571585p1.html

@teakbois. 

I will not waste my time going through his review and analysing. But simply by pulling out the first sentence of every section you will see what I mean. He. for the most part, writes in a negative way. This is the way to talk about the cons of the game. But even when a feature is fine or even good he still uses negative expressions.

You can tell he didn't like the game at all and thus did not mention any of the improvements the game did. I am not saying there are no downsides and that they shouldn't be pointed out. But this is not the way to review a game, or anything for that matter. You always start with the pros and then go into the cons. He seems to have gone only into the cons and made some of pros into cons or simply downplayed most of them. e.g. Does he prefer grinding hours on end for no other purpose than to bump up one level to these "tasks" which I would call quests. Tasks were EQ2 noticeboard quests. Did he mention all the improvements the game did? Nope.

I won't waste my time ( even though I did it again...) on this any longer. I have only read posts full of hate or downplaying when it comes to WoW on this website. I will just ignore these posts altogether from now on.

Originally posted by MMO.Maverick

Don't you start to sound a little biased yourself now, mate? Relax, it's just his opinion, no need to feel all indignant or hurt about it if he doesn't share the same high adoration you feel for a game. Tastes and opinions differ.

I don't feel hurt. He's a reviewer he's supposed to limit bias as much as possible. But in this case he's consistently negative about the game throughout his review and doesn't acknowledge any of the ups of the games. It's like there aren't any.

We are not talking about high adoration he doesn't give any credit to the game. His view of the community was that of and elitist MMO "veteran". 

I read that as a lot more moderate than what you seem to interpret as.

Like this.

'I can see World of Warcraft being extremely fun for a LOT of people out there. It is an extremely well made game. It succeeds very well at what it's trying to do. Unfortunately, in my opinion it's not trying to do enough. It really brings nothing new to the table.'

In a nutshell he acknowledged it's value and also noted it's most glaring flaw.

The fact that he follows that up with saying this...

'Overall World of Warcraft is an extremely well made game. Technically and artistically speaking there is little to nothing to complain about here. If you've been following along you should have noticed all of the things I listed as "problems" were only really problems to me based on my own preferences in a game.'

Kind of reenforces that factor. It's in general a rather rational and fair review and really doesn't sound negative to me.

Why it does to you, who knows, and perhaps that's why the likes of Maverick(who I tend to think posts fair minded comments) would assume you're placing bias due to some form of adoration.