Originally posted by Cypryss

Stradden goes on and talks about how wonderful grouping in Wow can be. 3 people come back thinking wtf is this guy on?

You can add me to the list of people that believe guilds and grouping in wow for the most part is garbage and i use to be a officer of a top Uladar raiding guild.

 

Seriously does Blizzard not see this stuff or do they just turn a blind eye everytime someone doesn't agree with what they believe to be "WONDERFUL" ?

Yes it would be nice to have something more for guilds.  Not sure we will ever see that but it would be nice. It seems Blizz concentrates on PvP stuff more than PvE of late. Oh they have added some nice PvE content but just like with next patch they are adding yet another PvP area.

I don't conentrate on PvP I am a PvE player mostly. I do a bit of PvP but not much. I did arena before they changed and made it so that you have to do it all to get PvP gear which was how at one time I geared  my toon as I was on a server in a way diff time zone and was unable to raid. So when I could I transferred to a server in my time zone and began to raid.

Finding a good guild is hard and of late I have seen many guilds that were raiding picking up pug's to be able to do even 10 man.  I know summer and kids out of school is playing a big part in this but many are leaving the game due to boredom as well as issues like was mentioned about guilds. Having a good guild and peeps that work together and have fun doing it makes the game much more fun for sure.  WoW is and awesome game but like all others it is not going to please everyone.

Many had left and came back when WoTLK came out now I see the numbers slowing diminishing again. Not but so many tricks to bring peeps back. 

Excellent article. Very useful and helpful to  new  peeps and some of the older ones could learn a bit as well. Thanks

Bravo! Enjoyed this reading and am one that is loosing interest in WoW for those very reasons.

I used to do 2v2 in order to gear up as at the time was on a server that the time zone was not good for me to raid. Thus I missed out raiding  in pre lich.  Now I can raid but due to the pvp gear being available, or better gear, to only those that do BG's and areana it has given me no hope at earning points to get pvp gear now. I don't like doing all the BG's as many don't. I am a PvE player and pvp is just something to do sometimes. This aspect I see as Blizz forcing peeps to do PvP. I play on a PvE sever because I am not a PvP player. I know many that way.

The guild I am in now has done Naxx 10/20 till many just won't run it anymore which leaves those that need gear or want to do it stuck with pug groups or finding a guild that will. I have noticed many guilds are recruiting heavy on the sever I am on. My guild is one. I have also noticed the Naxx and even Ulduar pugs are not up as often and many times don't happen because can't get enough to fill them. Many guilds are looking to allying with others just so they can run a 25 man raid or even a ten. Peeps it seems are just loosing interest in the game and some aren't even hoping the next patch or even another expansion will make it better. As some have said they are looking for a game that they can play and enjoy and when they work for something they will get it once they have finally reached that achievement. 

I agee this has become a race to get their first and those left behind will never get it. Why? Suppose it is just like some of the other things if your not the first your not the best so therefore they don't care.

This is real nice for seeing the map of the zone and which way to go to what boss. It gives a brief who and why the boss is there. No info on what the boss does or strats on fights. Great map but have to go elsewhere for the strats guys/gals.

Well the contest has ended but there is no winner listed. Strange.

It is so true. Professions in WoW are just a way to spend money with no return. Oh you might sell something here or there but there is no real money to make in the Major Professions outside of JC or Ench.  Cooking can be useful and so can fishing for the daily quest, I do use the food I make on my characters, I have alts that do each of the major professions along with a gathering or skinning. There is more money to be made in herbing or mining and selling them. Alchemy has its uses but with the changes a while back you have to be careful what you use and it can get costly making potions if you don't herb. Inscription is handy but don't really make a killing off it. Some of the things don't even sell for 50s and the merchant only seems to pay 1s for most.

So unless Blizz decides to make these professions useful and profitable then they are really just something to do not something to make a living off of.

Leveling is not hard this is true. Do the quest and you can reach max level no problem. You don't have to do the quest that might require a group, although it would help.  However, to get better gear you will need to look at instances and raids. It is true that you can probably get pug groups and raids but you still have to do them for better gear. Once you could PvP and do battlegrounds to gain honor points and be able to get deceint gear, but with WotLK that is no longer the case unless you also do Arenas as it takes Arena Points as well. Why? Is Blizz now saying that if you don't PvP completely you can't have even deceint gear? Cloth wearers have always had a bit of a challenge but from what I am hearing now it is worse.  I haven't played any of my clothies yet so can't speak from first hand knowledge yet. I can say though that my honor from battlegrounds before has been wiped with the launch of this expansion. I suppose it doesn't matter as I would not have had arena points to go with them. I for one and not a hard core PvPer nor player and  the money I pay every month is not a drop in the bucket to those who are and who Blizz caters too. Suppose you can't blame them for those are the peeps that keep them going.

Yes WoW is a nice game, great graphics, nice story lines some fun quest(some not so fun) and nice interface. They allow the use of add on which really is useful in playing the game.  All in all I don't have the same lust for the game as I once had.  I began my gaming with Diablo and on to D2, EQ then WoW. Since WoW has geared more and more to the high end and hard core with PvP as well I have tried others like Archlord, Requiem, Shiaya and Atlanica. The latter being the one I most enjoy graphics aren't as beautiful as in any of these and story lines are not as complete but I can play and have fun and feel like I have to be a hard core player to do so.  No none of these will last as long as WoW but I am not paying $15.00 a month plus the added expansion cost to not have fun. Nice graphics and story lines are not going to last forever and even Hard Core get bored after a time. Many came back with this expansion but they will get bored again and they will wander again.

My gift at Christmas was a game card and the expansion I am not sure I will continue after my card runs out.

Oh there is nothing wrong with a gnome DK that is what I chose. Course be prepared to not be taken seriously due to your size. All I can say is dynamite comes in small packages.

Originally posted by mackdawg19

Originally posted by Stradden

Originally posted by demonic87

Easy to Play......

Thats one of the good points? The reason MMO's today are sucking so hard? Wow.... pretty low mmorpg.com..pretty low...

 

I think you may be confusing the term "easy to play" with "easy to master". There's a massive difference between these two terms. A game being easy to play means that in ordeer to pick the game up and enjoy myself with it, I really don't need to doa  whole lot. The barrier to entry is low. That's a near universal positive in the world of games. The bottom line is that if I pick up a game and don't nearly instantly understand the fundamentals, it's not a very well designed game.

Now, easy to master... that's a different story entirely. Games shouldn't be easy to master. There should always be ways to improve from the base. As in any good game, skill should develop over time, with practice.

Let's look at an example from the real world: pool.

Pool is one of my favorite real life games . It's something that I thoroughly enjoy. It's an easy game to play. You pick up a cue, you smack the white ball into another ball and hope it goes intoa  pocket. There is almost no barrier to entry in pool. You can pick it up and play the game. It's an easy game to play.

That being said, I rarely win at pool. You see, as much as I like it, I just don't have the opportunity to play it very often and so my skill level is rather rudimentary. I often get my butt handed to me by friends and colleagues. Pool is a difficult game to master.

While this argument isn't talking at all about the merits of WoW (I personally don't play it), it does point out a problem with the original interpretation of what the reviewer said.

The problem with MMOs right now, or I should say that the percieved problem with MMOs now as I haven't decided which side of the fence I am personally on on the subject, is not that games are easy. games should be, NEED to be easy to play in order to turn a profit on their multi-million dollar price tags. The barrier to entry MUST BE LOW. The trick is that easy to enter games should also be difficult to master which, granted, is not always the case.

Anyway, I hope that clears things up for you.

 

 

Stradden you almost basically said the same thing. Games are to easy these days, and World of Warcraft is by far, hands down, one of the easiest MMO's to play. For christ sakes, they have bots that could do almost everything you can think of in World of Warcraft.( if you cheated that is) Now that being said, the reason why games fail is because of what WoW is, an easy game. There would be no way in hell Blizzard could reach 11 miilion subscribers with a challenging game. People are just to lazy in this day and age. They don't want to suffer through 10 hr raids just to only kill one boss because its so freaking hard. They don't want to have to search for a quest, ala EQ. They want things given to them, like items. Look at Warhammer for instance. The one main thing that Mark Jacobs spits out of his mouth is items. He thinks thats what will attract more players. RvR screwed up? Oh well, lemme add more items and easier ways to get them. Theres your instant 1000 subs. The truth is, hes right. 

Think about it, you make a game and try to balance it out for a wider subscription number. You put all these idea's into the game and what do you come up with? An easy game. Now this isn't to say easiness is the only thing that ruins MMO's. But it definitly is one of the main reasons. This review was a bad review btw. Once the reviewer wrote this game is fucking awesome, he lost the review. I don't understand why you think its neccesary for your reviewers to put there own opinions into reviews. I mean seriously, how credible can you take a review that starts off with, "This game is fucking awesome". Does anyone proof read this shit? You don't see newsreporters running around ssaying "OMFG, Obama is here bitches!!!", do you? I know your free workers are not newsreporters, but if they want to be good writiers and move on to other writing careers, you need to correct that, or not care. I'll stop here, because I really enjoy this site sometimes. Good day!

WoW is a good game. Yea for the most part it is easy to learn and play at least for the most part, so yes I would agree on that. However, it is geared more to the high end/hard core player. Without being in a guild or finding good pug groups you are not going to have the best of equipment. Once you could at least PvP and gain armor by doing battlegrounds and gaining honor to obtain better equipment. Now that is out unless you also do arena.

I for one love to do trade skills but even that is obsurd in many ways with days for a cooldown and poor drop  rates for needed materials. Then most of the trade skills are really pointless because dropped gear is much better than anything that can be made so you are not going to get your money back by doing them or gain enough money to buy your mount or whatever in a real timely fashion.  There may be a few things with this expasion that are useful but the balance and use overall in trade skills is more for fun than making any kind of real money.

All the classes have their good and bad points but I really like the Deathknight. There is many nice things to the new class but I am sure there are some drawbacks as well. So far overal I am enjoying the DK. Are they OP not sure I have always thought the Druid was OP and the any of the Horde have a much better advantage in PvP because their racial traits are actually very useful in PvP where Alliance is not. I for one believe that is because most Bliz employees play a Horde. Thus the advantage.

As for the lag I for one can say it is awful since WotLK. It had began to be a bit of a problem before but yea it is a pain now. I have a cable connection and plenty of memory and a nice graphic card and processor. So you figure it out. I live in US so maybe that has something to do with it but I have Aussie friends that have the lag too. /shrug

Summoning it up yea the new expansion is nice(very nice) but some of the new things suck. WoW is more and more gearing to those hard core players and forgetting that they also have many that can't invest that much time into a game like it or not, RL does come first for some. Job means you got money to pay bills one of which is your lovely WoW account.  If you can spend plenty of time in the game and be able to raid/do battlegrounds and arenas you should be doing flips. If not you are probably like me and not overjoyed at many of the new things that are going to make it less fun to play.

Note:

I for one have not been in many of the instances (raid or otherwise) from the start; many quest are not complete and won't be due to RL and time. So I am sure there will be much of this expansion I will  never see, as I have not with BC or the original either. I am not the only one that hasn't and I realize for this game that will not change.

I suppose this will all be great for those hard core people who have time to raid and do all that is required for this new mount achievement. What about those who don't have all that spare time? I like the idea of items and gear for our mounts. At least something that everyone could have a chance at.

I didn't either but it has less issues than most do at this stage. Sure there are things to work on but that is what this is for.

Yes CB is due to close soon. However, that does not mean it will be ready to go to next test phase right away. It may take them a bit before it is.

We all hope it won't be too long though.

It is in CB at the moment.  I have been enjoying testing and at this point would not tell people not to play it.  In fact I would say give it a whirl when it is available.

Diablo and D2 are point and click which is where my gaming began. Then on to EQ and then WoW  with some LotR where it was wasd, which I love. Having arthrtis in my hands the point and click after playing for some time causes me problems. The wasd as stated above gives you more control over your toon and is awesome. There is a setting in WoW that you can choose to use the point and click but I seriously doubt anyone uses it or if they do that it is more effective than the wasd.

It is true that you can use wasd in Archlord. However, it does not work like it does in the above mentioned games. The sw moves you forward or backward but the sd does not strafe or move you with precise control while running forward. Using them your toon goes left or right but not the same as it does in games that use wasd or arrow keys.

Then again there is a great deal of lag issues in Archlord and sometimes point and click is the only way to even move if then.

Archlord is not a bad game and has much to offer but there are numerous issues (lag, connection loss, disconnect while speaking with NPC to name a few) that once they are addressed and fixed will make the game much more enjoyable. I find it hard to spend money in the Chantra shop for items when using the return scroll I get disconnected due to one of the many bugs and come back it is poof gone and /sigh the long run back to where I was. This also creates much frustration.

I don't know if it is lazy devs or lack of knowledge but if other games can have an option to use wasd or click and point I sure hope Archlord soon discovers how this is done and can implement it in the game. This will make both type game players happy.

Originally posted by warror

Yes they forgot the old content. They also forgot to add new content for the lvl 20 - 60 crowd. They should make new lands in Azeroth to get lvl 70s to mingle in the old world. I also had the idea of having a very small portion of outland for the lvl 40 - 45 group (something that is completely seperated from the 60+ Outland) but gets some of the lower lvls to sort of mingle with the upper lvls. I just think the two worlds should interact more.

I agree they have forgotten old content. Although there are many lvling alts there are new peeps as well. There are also many that still don't have have BC and the old content is old. The drops aren't that great either. This seems to be a failing in all games once expansions start.

Another failing is they target the high end/hard-core gamer and forget those who have real lives with work that just won't allow them to spend all those hours raiding. Thus those peeps are stuck and in time they loose interest and even quit games because the fun and joy is gone.

It would be great for them to go back up and spice up the old world and the idea of adding a zone for lvl  40-45 zone in or leading to Outlands would be great. Something to make the game continue for everyone not just the elites.

There are many things here I so agree with.

I for one really hate the fact that with crafting skills you get some nice items you can make but when you do it they are BOP which means you are the only one who can use it. Oh wait and you do blacksmithing and are a cloth, leather or other that can not use plate or an axe. etc. Oh and the crafting that  is so useless to anyone but yourself like engineering where you have to be an engineer of certain level to even use that item. Making engineering a useless craft except for bullets. Why? It would seem that games (WoW is where I am speaking of here) don't want you to have a craft where you can make money. They want you to play but they don't want you to be able to have any real use without questing and raiding.

Me I can't raid due to the time diff on the server I am on and my work. I like the people I have met and changing servers to one in my time frame I don't consider so I am not complaining just explaining why raiding is out for me and this leaves me as a casual player that doesn't experience the high end game and of course in time leaves me with little options.

Here is the link to where you can read about this

www.archlordgame.com/splash/index.php

Note : I put in Bold what I noticed. Bit confusing but it does state Expansion.

All New Totally Free Expansion

Episode II: Season of Siege is the first major FREE expansion for ArchLord, the only Free to Play MMORPG where one player can ‘Raise an Army and Rule the World'.

Do you have what it takes?

Prepare to take part in epic castle sieges and pit your skills against hundreds of fellow players in a race to capture one of Chantra's three immense castles as you seek to gain the greatest prize in MMO gaming…to become the ArchLord!

Win the respect and admiration of your fellow gamer and set about leaving your mark in history. With a range supreme ArchLord powers and fearsome allies to call upon, spread fear throughout Chantra and survey your land from your awesome flying dragon mount!

Episode II: Season of Siege will bring you all this and MORE!

The best part? It's all free! If you own a copy of ArchLord you will be one of the first to experience the awesome Episode II Season of Siege update for FREE.

However, this update will also be available to ALL new players of ArchLord as well. All you need to do is buy the box and that's it.

ArchLord is free to play so you will be able to play and get this extensive update all for free!

If I remember this game correctly it is somehow based on spending real money from real life

to buy items and things in the game. I did not try it because of this. I don't see paying money

daily to obtain things in a game; plus pay for it as well!  If I am remembering the wrong game

please let me know.