Originally posted by Beezerbeez

Best article I have ever read on MMORPG.com.  Well timed and well-delivered.  Bravo.

Really? 

O.O

:D

<3

Originally posted by zellmer

Tricked people into reading garbage about WoW by putting DOTA in the tag line..

I want a refund on my time...

My biweekly editorial is called "The WoW Factor."

I never thought it'd be pegged as trying to be anything else! D:

Originally posted by floreairfoot

Originally posted by Praetalus

I'm all in. Look, I would love to be more excited about tor, but it looks pretty much like star wars wow to me. I don't see many differences so far, but then again, this is based on coverage only as I have not played the game. I think wow has a lot to offer in terms of fun, thats why they gets me booty.

 

Think Star Wars wow, with less freedom and more voice acting (not really more story...).

And you know this, how?

I've beta tested TOR and without saying anything incriminating I thought it was awesome, it differentiates from WoW quite a bit and is very polished already.

Seems you are slandering something you don't know just to make a point.

Back to the topic, I think that WoW is going the wrong direction. WoW was the game to play because back in Vanilla and BC raid and arena in WoW was elite and exclusive and people want to strife for it, thus prolonging subscriptions. By making it casual and overly accessible over the years it is killing the market it created for itself. Blizzard's games has always been about competitive play. One of the reasons why Starcraft 2 does so well is not just because of the brand name that it built up, but it bring competitive play to the masses (with the Diamond league gold league crap) that even non-pros can strife for.

I'm afraid that MoP just just dumbing the game down way too much for the gamers, regardless of whether it is lore-complient or not. As another have said, it is starting to look like Free Realms. 

I love this post, didn't ready any comments cause I'm sure its doomed with all the haters... Thanks for providing a positive post. Look forward to the expansion!

I'm mostly excited for the Pokemon battles...

I think the author of the article drank too much coffee or something. 

Also, I laughed out loud at the picture of the Panda.  Take that as you will. 

And yes, the hatred is a concern whether mmorpg wants to acknowledge it or not.  I dont think WoW has ever seen anything like this until AFTER an expansion releases.   In fact the devs are already responding to all the hatred.  Read about it on Game Informer.  They're basically saying, "Well they might not like it now, but they will come around. " and thats almost a direct quote.  With other AAA mmos coming around the corner, this is not a good sign. 

I dont think this will kill WoW.  But it sure as heck isnt going to help it either. 

Also hunters have no minimum range now?  So I guess it sort of defeats the point of them learning melee skills?  I kind of thought that was important to a hunter and kind of mixed up the game play from time to time.  Ah well. 

Regarding so "important" updated "Not to mention the most important change of all, PvP updates! ": COULD NOT CARE LESS! :-) But love all the rest and I'm not sure how to survive until release of expansion. :-)) Well kidding but still barely waiting for release ... in meantime have Rift, will have Swtor (hope) ... and leveling other alts in wow (with all classes maxed out so far).

"It’d be even better if they tuned the battleground to actually require all three roles!  Imagine actually needing a warrior to tank that turret, and needing a support (with toned down heals obviously) to clutch heal people in a big fight at a base.  Imagine having the freedom to farm creeps for some goal that isn’t quite clear.  Imagine a PvE/PvP scenario that doesn’t suck!  EXPECTATIONS, MAKE THEM!"

Imagine waiting half an hour just to get a 5v5 going

I like the DOTA battleground, but not if they require a healer and tank to be viable. One great thing about MOBA is that, everyone is viable, you don't require a specific hero in order to win, same goes for classes.

...We shall see. -_-

only thing i disagree...alterac valley boring?? omg, i find alterac valley to be the best battleground i ever played in any mmo i tried.

Originally posted by aRtFuLThinG

Originally posted by floreairfoot

Originally posted by Praetalus



I'm all in. Look, I would love to be more excited about tor, but it looks pretty much like star wars wow to me. I don't see many differences so far, but then again, this is based on coverage only as I have not played the game. I think wow has a lot to offer in terms of fun, thats why they gets me booty.

 

Think Star Wars wow, with less freedom and more voice acting (not really more story...).

And you know this, how?

I've beta tested TOR and without saying anything incriminating I thought it was awesome, it differentiates from WoW quite a bit and is very polished already.

Seems you are slandering something you don't know just to make a point.

 

Back to the topic, I think that WoW is going the wrong direction. WoW was the game to play because back in Vanilla and BC raid and arena in WoW was elite and exclusive and people want to strife for it, thus prolonging subscriptions. By making it casual and overly accessible over the years it is killing the market it created for itself. Blizzard's games has always been about competitive play. One of the reasons why Starcraft 2 does so well is not just because of the brand name that it built up, but it bring competitive play to the masses (with the Diamond league gold league crap) that even non-pros can strife for.

 

I'm afraid that MoP just just dumbing the game down way too much for the gamers, regardless of whether it is lore-complient or not. As another have said, it is starting to look like Free Realms. 

 

I too beta'd ToR and imo, it is just like WoW, only with more voice acting and light sabers.  It had is strong points, but lacked imagination and originality as far as gameplay goes.  It truly is just, "more of the same."  But then, I'm not a star wars fanboy, so I was able to test without the "rose colored glasses".

As for the upcoming WoW expansion, I expect it'll be just another gear treadmill that grows weary very quickly.  I owe a lot to Blizzard for this game, (met my wife in Ratchet back in BC days), so I have a lot of fondness for the game, but I just don't see anything beyond a new coat of paint on the old treadmill here.

This panda nonsense sounds like the dying convulsions of WoW <end of the line>. Siriously - the Cataclysm was the last hope (though largely implementing the good staff from other MMOs like Warhammer, nothing new and brilliant, but it was a fresh blood for Azeroth and enough of it to keep the game running longer). Now there is no hope for it (asian market left behind). All the pikachu/pokemon staff is just not sexy enough  for the elder european/USA audience. I am nearly 30 y.o. guy with huge gaming experience, you can't expect me to like the kung fu panda &%$* made for the kids of under pubertal age. At first I thought this is some new joke form Blizz, but man - you can't be serious approaching the largest, most demanding, grown up market with THAT! I played Cataclysm, but now I quit WoW forever. The game which has leveling experience  1/10 as funny as in DCUO, convenience features and PvP largely copy-pasted form Warhammer and soon losing all it's sharm to pandas and all players going monks (since the class in expected to be good for all 3 core roles) is just not worthy any more.   You will see me in TOR next time, untill the GW2 comes out.

I personally really like Alterac Valley...But I'm certainly all for having another DOTA type BG to stomp around in.

The new Monk class and talent system were enough to get me hooked from the get-go but the pet-battle system, new explorable zones and dungeons, playable Pandaren, and these new PvE scenarios sound interesting too. Maybe if I manage to save up some money I might just spring for the annual pass since I was planning on getting Diablo 3 anyways and getting early access to the MoP beta would be pretty cool.

Originally posted by yarubpup

What's a DOTA and MOBA?

Yes, I was wondering the same thing. 

Originally posted by DaddyDark

This panda nonsense sounds like the dying convulsions of WoW <end of the line>. Siriously - the Cataclysm was the last hope (though largely implementing the good staff from other MMOs like Warhammer, nothing new and brilliant, but it was a fresh blood for Azeroth and enough of it to keep the game running longer). Now there is no hope for it (asian market left behind). All the pikachu/pokemon staff is just not sexy enough  for the elder european/USA audience. I am nearly 30 y.o. guy with huge gaming experience, you can't expect me to like the kung fu panda &%$* made for the kids of under pubertal age. At first I thought this is some new joke form Blizz, but man - you can't be serious approaching the largest, most demanding, grown up market with THAT! I played Cataclysm, but now I quit WoW forever. The game which has leveling experience  1/10 as funny as in DCUO, convenience features and PvP largely copy-pasted form Warhammer and soon losing all it's sharm to pandas and all players going monks (since the class in expected to be good for all 3 core roles) is just not worthy any more.   You will see me in TOR next time, untill the GW2 comes out.

 

Although English may not be your first language, this was well stated and exactly the sentiment going around the office where I work.

In all fairness to Blizzard, they are just doing what Sony Online has been doing with Everquest; releasing frequent expansion packs offering new zones or content. It's been working for EQ2 and it's working for WoW (for the most part). I just think Blizzard should be hesitant about including new playable races in every expansion pack.

Originally posted by Bakkoda24

In all fairness to Blizzard, they are just doing what Sony Online has been doing with Everquest; releasing frequent expansion packs offering new zones or content. It's been working for EQ2 and it's working for WoW (for the most part). I just think Blizzard should be hesitant about including new playable races in every expansion pack.

 

The difference is one still has 8 million subs they are panda-ering to, the other has less than half a million.  So when Blizzard makes an expansion, people that 'want' to like the game and return see the new pack and go 'really Blizzard... really?'  If nothing they are helping the next games coming out and get a foothold.  If these 'next-gen' (boy has there ever been a more over-used term) games make money the investors are more likely to gamble on the types of games us old school people want.  If SWTOR and GW2 fail however, it could be more WoW-clones in the forseeable future. 

SW:TOR has too much WoW in it for my taste but hey at least they're trying to add new ideas or old ones with new twists and GW2 seems to really be a next step game. 

This article sucks, if the author refers to himself as a journalist, he's kidding himself.

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Originally posted by Skuldin

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Originally posted by DaddyDark This panda nonsense sounds like the dying convulsions of WoW <end of the line>. Siriously - the Cataclysm was the last hope (though largely implementing the good staff from other MMOs like Warhammer, nothing new and brilliant, but it was a fresh blood for Azeroth and enough of it to keep the game running longer). Now there is no hope for it (asian market left behind). All the pikachu/pokemon staff is just not sexy enough  for the elder european/USA audience. I am nearly 30 y.o. guy with huge gaming experience, you can't expect me to like the kung fu panda &%$* made for the kids of under pubertal age. At first I thought this is some new joke form Blizz, but man - you can't be serious approaching the largest, most demanding, grown up market with THAT! I played Cataclysm, but now I quit WoW forever. The game which has leveling experience  1/10 as funny as in DCUO, convenience features and PvP largely copy-pasted form Warhammer and soon losing all it's sharm to pandas and all players going monks (since the class in expected to be good for all 3 core roles) is just not worthy any more.   You will see me in TOR next time, untill the GW2 comes out.  

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Although English may not be your first language, this was well stated and exactly the sentiment going around the office where I work.

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Originally posted by Senadina

With so many AAA MMOs on the horizon, I see Blizzard doing what George Lucas did with the later ( chronologically earlier), Star Wars movies: trying to apppeal to a younger demographic and get some new blood to prolong the franchise. Pokemon? Really? Meh to that. I think it just reinforces my hypothesis of Blizzard's intentions with this panda expansion.

 

I'll be blunt, the sentence "With so many AAA MMOs" is an oxymoron. The whole point of AAA was the best of the best. Not everyone can be the best. The whole grading is a relative scale.

AAA would be the 1st quartile of MMOs by quality and funding and it is down hill from there. So take the top 16 of those MMOs and pick the 4 best. Those are now the AAA titles. Feel free to grade the others as you see fit.