I hear a lot of people say that WoW is easy and i don't full understand what they mean...

Do they mean that WoW is easy to learn?

In which case i would like to know which game is hard to learn?

Do they mean that it is easy to level up?

Again i would like to know about a game that is hard to level up.

Or do they simply mean that it is an accessible game and interface and in fact mean it as a compliment?

1)EVE

2)LINEAGE2

3)NO

WoW is very easy to pick up and play,within the 1st 5-6 levels you have passed the learning curve,Yes alot of games are easy but there are quite a few with harder learning curves.

Things like crafting are also very easy and take little thought unlike some MMo's like VG's crafting system that needs alot more thought.

Leveling in WoW has to be the easiest I have seen,you basically "follow the yellow brick road" go from quest hub to quest hub,If you die 20 times trying a quest*shrug* who cares,you are hardly crucified for dying in wow,You can be level 70 putiing the time in,in around 2-4 weeks.

None of this is a bad thing I guess and is what blizzard forseen and the numbers stand for themselves,so I guess the players like it this way.

 Basicly you will learn everything about the game in less than 20 lvls,the gameplay is "hold my hand while I go to the toilet" style,it's realy easy to lvl up.The hardships of the game come directly from the players you will group with (mostly kids) who will ruin your group fast.

Yes, WOW is very easy to learn, excellent interface and this is not a bad thing as many would lead you to believe, especially if you are new to the genre.

Hard to learn, EVE is right up there at the top, but by no means the only one thats more of a challenge than WOW. To some WOW's ease of play is a virtue, to others its a huge fault.

Yes, WOW is very easy to level up, certainly one of the easiest I ever played. 

On the opposite side of the spectrum is Lineage 2 or FFXI, but they are not necessarily difficult, you just have to have the patience of Job to put up with the horrific grinds they involve.  You could play Lineage 2 for 2 years and not have a max level, properly geared character. (unless you are willing to put in a ton of time or risk botting)

Yes, WOW's accessibility and UI are certainly its strong point, just some of us like more of a challenge in our games than it offers.  To take another example, I played LoTRO for 2 months, and I knew at that point everything I'd every need to know about the gameplay.  All that was left was the execution, and that was a terribly boring prospect to me.  Contrast that with EVE after 10 months, I am astounded that I still know less than a third (if I'm lucky) of the things that are available and I'll one day get around to learning.

Originally posted by airstrike

 Basicly you will learn everything about the game in less than 20 lvls,the gameplay is "hold my hand while I go to the toilet" style,it's realy easy to lvl up.The hardships of the game come directly from the players you will group with (mostly kids) who will ruin your group fast.

With all these fantasy games by lvl 20 you will have known all there is to know, EQ2, LOTR, etc etc.

Easy to lvl up means what? As the Quests in all these games are the same, ie go here kill 20 bears, or go to this guy and give him this and collect this and return it to me etc.

Or does it mean that there you get a lot of experience for doing very little?

What exactly do you mean "hold my hand while i go to the toilet" the gameplay style is exactly the same as all other MMO fantasy games that use auto attack>?

Originally posted by daylight01

WoW is very easy to pick up and play,within the 1st 5-6 levels you have passed the learning curve,Yes alot of games are easy but there are quite a few with harder learning curves.

Things like crafting are also very easy and take little thought unlike some MMo's like VG's crafting system that needs alot more thought.

Leveling in WoW has to be the easiest I have seen,you basically "follow the yellow brick road" go from quest hub to quest hub,You can be level 70 putiing the time in,in around 2-4 weeks.

None of this is a bad thing I guess and is what blizzard forseen and the numbers stand for themselves,so I guess the players like it this way.

I've played plenty of MMOs, there is no hard learning curve to them, just tedious mechanics or time sinks put in place of difficulty.

No crafting in any game I've played has been difficult or thoughtful.  Once again, tedious mechanics or time sinks are put in place of actual difficulty.

Once again, people think that investing more time than is healthy in order to progress a character, somehow increases the difficulty or complexity of a game, complete hogwash.  Still requires effort to progress a character in WoW, despite the reduction in overall time required to advance.  It's called streamlining, not simplifying.

That yellow brick road has many forks in it.  You may not like quests that give you directions to new areas, but there is certainly not one single path at any given level beyond your race's starting area.  Nothing says you have to do quest progression, you can still level quite nicely by just hunting or doing instances.

Hardcores love the tedious, time wasting mechanics of old school MMOs, thank gawd most of the rest of us are sane and won't put up with that kind of crap anymore.  Sadly, developers still pay too much attention to hardcore whiners on bulletin boards along with too many of them being hardcore themselves.

Diversity is a good thing, but it's becoming really irritating to see old schoolers coming into casual games and whining to developers to make the game more hardcore and make sure that the hardcore elements get rewarded better than any other play style.  They've done this in WoW (original concept was little to no raiding with status rewards, not best rewards) and are really ramping it up in LOTRO (really starting to focus on adding raid content and yet again giving them the best rewards). 

All of this crap about WoW being so easy is exactly that, crap.  There is challenge in the game and it's not just from raiding.  People die all the time, solo and in groups, that indicates challenge to me.  Forced grouping does not indicate challenge.  Death penalties do not add challenge.

I'll be a very happy camper when a development team with real backbone, makes a casual game that caters only to casuals and actually makes casual playing the most rewarding and ignores all the hardcore whining.

Eve is not necessaily harder just has more depth and content imho.

Dont do crafting but i imagine that in almost all games you get a plan and then get the materials and tput the two together and get a product, easy in all games i would guess.

Lineage 2 - Is grinding the opposite to being easy? In which case i would choose easy over grind every day.

Lack of content does not equate to Ease.

The arguements presented so far have not convinced me that WoW is indeed easy when compared to similar fantasy based MMOs as they all use the same basic formula, Quests, auto-attack, amor selection etc etc.

Originally posted by VultureSkull

I hear a lot of people say that WoW is easy and i don't full understand what they mean...

 

Do they mean that WoW is easy to learn?

In which case i would like to know which game is hard to learn?

 

Do they mean that it is easy to level up?

Again i would like to know about a game that is hard to level up.

 

Or do they simply mean that it is an accessible game and interface and in fact mean it as a compliment?

 

 

It is very easy to level up which is a good point because you can get to the end of the game quickly, you can fully enjoy the power of your character without waiting 2 years and it allows you to try and learn multiple characters.  In addition you can solo a majority of the first half of the game and any quests you come across excluding instances.  However this is also its downfall, There isnt much depth other than just questing to kill "x" things and getting 800xp plus the mobs you killed. BAM you leveled.  You reach endgame as someone said in about  a month, and instances are fun and all but how many times can you do them before you get bored.  Even if you play as other characters you reach endgame with that char the following month and now your doing the same instances you were last month you are just nuking as a shadow priest as oppose to tanking as a war.

I can from FFXI and it does not allow you to solo (much).  The game is primarily party based and requires players to time attacks to create skill chains and magic bursts.   Its not a "harder" game to play it just takes coordination, and as most of us know communicating with people usually poses a challenge.

In FFXI you level when you form a party.  And the party is formed when there is a tank, backup tank, healing, backup healer, DD, backup DD.  You need essentially that to formula to play (on average, this excludes mana burn parties etc).  Many of my friends quit FFXI because they were a warrior in the early stages of the game with 3 other warriors looking for a party and no healing to support any parties.

WoW is by no standards a bad game, it just is easy to level instant satisfaction.  I prefer games for mroe of the long run though.

Thanks Vrazule for expressing in clear terms exactly what i am thinking.

Originally posted by maltos

Originally posted by VultureSkull

I hear a lot of people say that WoW is easy and i don't full understand what they mean...

 

Do they mean that WoW is easy to learn?

In which case i would like to know which game is hard to learn?

 

Do they mean that it is easy to level up?

Again i would like to know about a game that is hard to level up.

 

Or do they simply mean that it is an accessible game and interface and in fact mean it as a compliment?

 

 

WoW is extremely easy. Like other posters have said you learn all your skills in the first 20 levels.  When you quest you are rewarded with gear that is suitable for your level so there is no need to purchase armor til about level 25-30.

I think with most MMO you learn "how to play" within the first 5 lvls. If you were not given armor then you would have to buy it, so you would have to use money to buy the amror so you would need to grind to get money. Grind does not make a game hard.

 

It is very easy to level up which is a good point because you can get to the end of the game quickly, you can fully enjoy the power of your character without waiting 2 years and it allows you to try and learn multiple characters.  In addition you can solo a majority of the first half of the game and any quests you come across excluding instances.  There is no instance in WoW that you can solo, unless you are grossly over the level requirements.

However this is also its downfall, There isnt much depth other than just questing to kill "x" things and getting 800xp plus the mobs you killed.

What do other MMos offer that is different to these type of quests?

BAM you leveled.  You reach endgame as someone said in about  a month, reaching the end game in a month is pretty hardcore and instances are fun and all but how many times can you do them before you get bored.  Even if you play as other characters you reach endgame with that char the following month and now your doing the same instances you were last month you are just nuking as a shadow priest as oppose to tanking as a war.

I can from FFXI and it does not allow you to solo (much).  The game is primarily party based and requires players to time attacks to create skill chains and magic bursts.   Its not a "harder" game to play it just takes coordination, and as most of us know communicating with people usually poses a challenge. Majority of the Quests in WoW are solo with only a few party quests, but i dont see how this makes it easier.

In FFXI you level when you form a party.  And the party is formed when there is a tank, backup tank, healing, backup healer, DD, backup DD.  You need essentially that to formula to play (on average, this excludes mana burn parties etc).  Many of my friends quit FFXI because they were a warrior in the early stages of the game with 3 other warriors looking for a party and no healing to support any parties.

WoW is by no standards a bad game, it just is easy to level instant satisfaction.  I prefer games for mroe of the long run though.

As far as i can see from the replies so far:

WoW is mainly solo, so you only need to group for instances, so you dont waste much time waiting for groups and can level at will.

WoW gives a lot of xp for kills and quests so you end up levelling quickly, and ultimately get to the end game quickly. At least it has a decently kitted out end game.

VG is the only game where there is experience lost when you die, out of all the game i have played(Eve too, if you do not have na up-to date clone).

Maybe it is easier to find a group in WoW then other MMOs, but surely this is a good thing.

All in all i have to agree with Vrazule and Wow is just as hard or as easy as any other game out there.