The Way Back Machine - WoW's First Impressions
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.
Column By William Murphy on March 05, 2011
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. So for this week's Wayback Machine, I thought it might be interesting to go all the way back to 2004 and read up on our site's initial First Impressions of WoW's beta. It's interesting to see Richard Duffek's thoughts on repetitive "kill X rats" quests even then, as well as the standard hotbar combat. Basically, Richard was calling out for innovation and change upwards of four years ago, stating that while WoW was bound to be fun for droves of people, he felt it could have done much more to innovate. It's interesting to me because a lot of the comments he has for WoW and what kind of game it is, echo the sentiments years later about another newly released fantasy MMORPG. Dig in and read up... if nothing else, it's interesting to remember what WoW was like long ago.
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I've been a part of the World of Warcraft beta for some time now. I originally wrote this Preview LONG ago, well before the Stress Test took place even, but due to several mishaps, the biggest of which being a Hard Drive crash, its publication has been delayed quite a few times now. So here I am, rewriting it after losing it in the crash, and updating it to be a bit more current. As with any review or preview I write anything expressed herein is based solely on my own opinion of my own experiences while playing the game.
Graphics
Easily one of the most fought about aspects of the game, Blizzard has decided to take a unique approach to the graphics in World of Warcraft. Most companies these days are trying to make their game as realistic as possible, both in environment and in character models. Blizzard has stuck to the true feeling and look of the Warcraft game world from the RTS series. They've given it more of an artsy cartoon feel that most people who have played any of the Warcraft games from the past will instantly recognize and feel at home in.
Even though they're not my particular taste in graphics, I have to admit the graphics in World of Warcraft are extremely well done. Everything from the player characters to the bosses to the lowest level monsters to the world around you is very bright and colorful and visually stunning. There are great amounts of ambient touches throughout the world also. In the savannah there are random packs of gazelles and giraffes and such just running around. Small touches like this REALLY go a long way in bringing the world alive around you.
The world around you is stunning. The cities are very well done and definitely do not have a cookie cutter feel to them. The differences between one town and the next are some of the best I've ever seen. From the towering steppes of Thunder Bluff to the arid desert wastes of Crossroads. You never get the feeling that you're just in another copy of a previous town you were in. There are plenty of NPCs in the towns and they definitely do their part to help make the towns feel alive.
Sound
There's nothing really to complain about in the sound department. Nothing overly worth getting worked up over either. It's well done for what it is. It serves its purpose and isn't obtrusive or annoying. If I were going to be playing WoW for any extended amount of time I would more than likely end up turning it off and booting up my mp3 player. Not really because there is anything WRONG with the sound in the game, but more because there's nothing really to it to keep me interested in it. Like I said, it's done well and serves its purpose, but it's not impressive in any way in my opinion. I guess this could be considered a good thing in its own right, because if it doesn't stand out at least it isn't standing out in a bad way, but to me it just means I'll be listening to mp3s while I play.
But truth be told, this isn't a problem with World of Warcraft as much as a problem with the genre as a whole. Just by the nature of the game you spend FAR more time playing MMORPGs than you do standard single player games. Single player games have the luxury of knowing when and where you'll likely be at any given time. They can spend so much more time making those specific areas look and sound perfect. And once you're done in that area you're likely to move on and never come back. Overall you spend FAR less time in each individual area of a single player game than you do in the areas of a MMORPG. Because of this the music and sound effects in a MMORPG are bound to get old eventually. I can't think of a single one that I've played where I didn't eventually switch over to my mp3s.
Gameplay
The game definitely plays smoothly. It plays just like you would expect a MMORPG to if you've ever played one before. It is very easy to just sit down and start playing. 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. WoW is a prime example of "if it isn't broke don't fix it." Rather than take a chance on more innovative features like some games in production are doing, Blizzard took the safe route and stuck to things people know and are used to.
The quest system is nicely done, if a bit repetitive at times. A lot of bragging has been done about the massive amount of quests in the game. One of my biggest problems with the MMORPG genre is the inability of most games to differentiate between "Quests" and "Tasks". To me a quest is something I have to think about. Something with a lot of story behind it, that spans several areas; something that I have a sense of accomplishment when I finish it. To me going and killing 5 rats is NOT a quest, it is a task. Delivering a letter from NPC A in one town to NPC B in another town is NOT a quest, it's a task. Taking this philosophy into account WoW has FAR fewer quests than they advertise. I can't count how many times I had to go kill X things, or take something to some random NPC. I know this isn't just a problem in WoW but in the genre as a whole, but most games out there don't brag about their quest system to the extent that WoW does. I was expecting so much more because of this and was so severely let down.
And to make matters worse they would string several of these "quests" (read: tasks) together and try to play it off as a quest storyline of sorts. For example, I had to go kill 5 of a certain creature. Upon getting back to town, I was informed that I then needed to go kill 10 more or something. So I go do that, then go all the way back to town, and am informed I need to go back and kill a certain named version of said mob. Whew! Let me tell you my legs are killing me at this point from all the running back and forth! But none the less I make my way back out there, because surely this is a vital quest which is important to my kingdom! Anyway, I find the named bugger and dispatch him and make my trek back to town. Guess what?!?! I get to go back and kill ANOTHER named variant of the same mob... Anyway, you can see where I'm going with this. And this isn't a lone example; I did that same basic storyline with quite a few different mobs as the targets. Basically it's around 5 different "quests" which could easily all be accomplished in one go. The NPC coulda just told me "Go kill 5 of MOB A, 10 of MOB B, named MOB C, named MOB D and named MOB E then come back for your reward." And yes, I know for a fact this is possible in the game mechanics because there are several "quests" like that in the game.
Even though they can get a bit repetitive at times, there are a lot of quests, and some of them are very nicely done and are a great story to follow. Almost all of them give really nice rewards and are worth the time spent doing them. And having a lot of quests is a good thing in the aspect that it helps alleviate the grind of a lot of other games on the market. You can knock out a good sized chunk of the experience needed for each level through quests, thereby decreasing the amount of time you need to spend just out grinding out the rest of the experience for the level.And while there are indeed many of the repetitive task like quests in the game, there are a couple that have really well done and immersive storylines as well, particularly as you get into the higher levels. Also of note there are quite a few "special" quests that are a kind of new idea. Some quests are "started" from a rare drop you find off of a mob, or can only be done at certain times of the day, etc. These do a bit to help break the monotony and add some variety to the quest system.
Combat is pretty much what you'd expect it to be. It is pretty much what has become the typical form of combat in MMORPGs. Some people call it "sandwich" style combat, meaning hit auto-attack and go fix a sandwich, come back and loot the corpse and move on to the next target. Granted, much like any other game out there you have your special attacks and abilities that you can hit during combat to expedite the target's demise. Once again, there is nothing new or innovative here, if you've played DAoC or EQ or just about any MMORPG on the market you'll feel right at home.
Customization
Character customization in WoW isn't bad. Given games which have been released recently with outstanding customization though, WoW isn't great by any means. They offer enough options to keep most people happy, and it is definitely better than some games which have released lately which should have been titled "Attack of the Clones" or something. Personally I just feel that games like CoH and SWG have raised the bar on character customization and now games should strive harder to reach that bar if not surpass it. It totally destroys the immersion levels of the game to come across another player whose character looks exactly like yours.
As for powers and abilities and skills and such there's some variation here. You can customize you character to a certain extent as to what he's good at, what weapon he uses, etc. Talents will go a long way in adding to the chances that two Warriors of the same level won't be spec'd the same way. But this is a PvP game, and as with any PvP game you're going to end up with the "ultimate template" for each class. Or at the very least you'll have the "Flavor of the Moment" templates that will prevail until the nerf bat begins swinging. If you've ever played Shadowbane or DAoC you know what I'm talking about.
Tied in with the customization of skills are the tradeskills. There are plenty to choose from here and it's very easy to over extend yourself and try to take on too many things. Luckily in beta you can just untrain things and get all your skill points back, because being the crafter at heart that I am I went hog-wild with tradeskills. ;) I wanted to try everything I could and I did. Eventually I settled on a couple I preferred over the others though and untrained the rest.
Community
Considering the game is still in closed beta and the community is nowhere near its full final potential yet it's hard to judge this one. However I will say that it definitely seems that WoW is drawing a younger crowd than previous MMORPGs. More than likely it's the followers of the RTS series coming over. There have been several times ingame that I've been grouped with people who could not have been more than 12 or 13. And if they were older than that, they sure didn't act like it. Also if you've been to the official forums you can see this in action there too. I can't imagine what it's going to be like once the game goes live and there are thousands of people on each server... Hopefully there will be some RP specific servers as these tend to attract an older or more mature player base.
Role-Playing
While the ability to RP is definitely available in this game I really don't see it happening much at all. Especially if they don't provide RP specific servers. I don't feel that the community is of the nature to really support a lot of RPing on the normal servers. This is something we'll just have to see when the game releases though, who knows, maybe I'll be proven completely wrong. I hope so, but somehow I just don't see it happening.
Fun & Value
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 my opinion at this stage of the MMORPG evolution you have to be innovative to some degree. Granted you don't take the whole mold and throw it out the window. You keep some stuff that has worked in the past and you mix a couple new innovative ideas into the recipe. But this is based on the fact that I've been following the genre as long as it has been around, I'm constantly looking for new ideas and features in games as they come out. I love when I'm playing a new MMORPG and discover some new feature or idea and am pleasantly surprised.
But like I said, I feel that the game will be fun for many people out there and well worth the money. A lot of the customers the game will attract will be new to the MMORPG genre, coming over from the Warcraft RTS series. Therefore they won't have the problems with the game that I do. If you're looking for a solid well made MMORPG this is definitely the game for you. On the other hand if you're looking for something new or innovative then I'd suggest looking elsewhere. As well made as WoW is, the biggest reason for that is because they really took no risks with the game, they stuck to tried and true methods and systems. For most people this isn't a negative aspect of the game but a positive, for me however it was a negative.
One of my biggest complaints in this category would have to be how easy the game seems. Leveling is quite fast. The death penalty is almost non-existent. A lot of people complain about the grind in most games; however I think that World of Warcraft has gone too far in trying to alleviate that grind. In my opinion it just seems like it's too easy to level up and basically max your character, leaving you only the options of starting another character or continuing to use that character in PvP battles and such.
Summary
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. Most people out there will be very happy with the game. It is easily one of the most well made games to come out in a long time, if not ever. But coming from Blizzard you really can't expect less, they've built a pretty solid reputation on releasing well made games.
So in the end it comes down to what you're looking for in a game. If you're looking for one of the best made MMORPGs to hit the market, if you're looking for a game you can just jump right into and not have to learn about new features and such, World of Warcraft is definitely the game for you. If you've been around the genre for quite a while like I have and are looking for a game that's going to revolutionize the genre and introduce tons of new features and innovations then you'll be better off looking elsewhere.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
This review is pretty spot on with how i remember seeing it as a WoW Beta tester myself. I too didnt care too much for the graphics, outright hated the armor looks when the game was released. My friends can easily attest to this as I voiced it many times over. But thats not the thing I find the most humerous about this review. That being if you replace the term WoW with Rift, you have a copy of half a dozen current reviews on that game, as its being released, by Beta testers. Ironic dont you think, that the game everyone is calling a WoW clone has a clone for a review even. And we can all see how it turned out for WoW 6 years down the road, I wonder if Rift can do the same.
I remember when I played in the WoW beta. It was my first MMORPG, and a friend gave me the client on CD, because her english skills weren't good enough. At first I thought "pfff, paying monthly for a game? The hell I will". But then it sucked me in quite quickly, though I was annoyed a lot about some bugs that were not fixed until quite some months after release (like that trying to harvest certain nodes would bug you up).
I guess the releases of WoW and Rift are in some ways familiar. However, with WoW, all that stuff was new to me, fascinating, a whole world to explore. But with Rift, I just look at the map and see the boundaries. I get a quest and don't read the text because I know it's just generic stuff and doesn't matter. I pick a class and any talent trees, because I know early on they are quite similiar, and later on I can still change them when I want to.
WoW might have picked up a lot of stuff from games like EQ but it gave its own twist to most of them and some of them were vastly improved. WoW's hugest addition was the questing system. Every MMO since WoW included this system. Even EQ started to adopt some of the features/philosophies of WoW later on in its life.
Rift is an exact copy of WoW. However, they do have RIFTs and the soul system which is a unique thing to RIFT.
"looking for a game that's going to revolutionize the genre and introduce tons of new features and innovations then you'll be better off looking elsewhere."
Ironic as it was the games success that stopped innovation in its tracks.
I still see no innovation at all from any new or older MMOs. This game survived on sheer numbers alone. They have an awesome marketing dept. Do you realize if the supposed sub numbers are true that blizzard makes 180 million dollars a month! And that not counting people who have to purchase each xpac just to play new content.
All that money and they can't even balance a druid class! they rehash all the dam armor and weapons and crafting is so tedious. I mean you can't even sell half of what you craft due to it be BoP. It's insane they make so much money for a game that so full of fail and boring that it makes a person wanna punch his scrotum. But don't get me wrong I'm not nerd raging I'm pretty excited rift which is wow 2.0 is here. I like to see large corporations sweat a bit. Wow will die due to blizzards greed and lack of vision. Rift may be old news in a few months anyways,But sure is nice to see blizz sweat.
As others in this thread have shown you, your opinion that the article writer is biased is not theirs, in fact most of them found it moderate and that he highlighted pros and cons. This should tell you something.
I agree though, that to a WoW fan that loves WoW - which you cannot say that you aren't - his article may seem not positive enough, and therefore "biased".
Interesting read. I've never played WOW and once in a while I wonder if I have missed something enjoyable. It must be great to play a game you love playing that just keeps going.
Just a comment on musical score.... In GW I never tired of the score. It just seemed to fit the situation so flawlwsly it was part of the scene or fight.
On longevity... Folks were claiming WOW was failing and would soon join the heap of used to be MMOs when they were at 10 million players a year or 2 back. Plus 2 million at 12 million sounds like a healthy game to me. How may new games dream of a total base of 2 million? WOW has grown by that in a relatively short time.
Prediction: WOW will be around for a long long time unless someone gets into a senior management possition and move in a hugely wrong direction.
Gottqa try it! Someday....maybe
So what the point of this article is is to make the suggestion that Rift isn't as bad as it all seems because even the mighty WoW seemed like it lacked innovation? That's what I'm reading out of it. I mean the following statement has to be pointed.
"It's interesting to me because a lot of the comments he has for WoW and what kind of game it is, echo the sentiments years later about another newly released fantasy MMORPG."
I'm sorry, but I was never a huge fan of WoW but I managed to play it for infinitely longer than Rift because it had freedom. Sure WoW was quest driven, but there were a number of zones in which to quest drive. Sure WoW had less of a challenge but there were more dungeons and more freeform dungeons.
WoW was a shade of EQ but Rift is so far from what EQ was that it may as well be a new genre entirely. Rift has two cities, so few zones that there's maybe two levelling paths to take in the higher levels (only 2 - 1 for each faction to begin with) and quest-driven content so boring and simplistic that a 2 year old could play the game.
MMOs have changed for the worse in so big a way and Rift is right at the bottom in terms of innovation. As much as I might slate WoW for changing the genre which I love, I will stand up and testify that it never sunk to the lows that Rift does.
What do you mean by questing system? The ! indicators? The fact that leveling was done mainly through quests? The quest journal? Im not sure how much of an addition this was for WoW when a game that released at the exact same time (well, 2 weeks earlier) was nearly identical.
And the Rifts in Rift are just a rehash of WAR PQs, and the soul system is a variation on WoWs 3 tree system. Its ultimate effect is allowing you to build, say, a Prot Warrior/Blood DK/Ret Paladin character or maybe a Destor Lock/Fire Mage/Shadow Priest mix. Just not as powerful as those options sound. Its a cool system but underwhelming in practice with respect to how it sounds.
The fact that every game on there can be replaced with another modern game is a bit depressing to me. WoW with Rift. DaoC with War. Etc. We havn't changed one bit. ?_?
PS: "I will say that it definitely seems that WoW is drawing a younger crowd than previous MMORPGs"
Lol, He called it
You know, if you took out all Warcraft refferences and changed the name to Rift you could probably run it as newly written. :)
Great nostalgic read.
back when we still had hope for a great mmo. that's why people's opinions didn't reflect wow's future success. The genre just kept going in a downward spiral. Now they are so bad that vanilla WoW seems great.
Even though this game is taking a look backwards, and on most points he was very much correct whether or not you actually like the game, I have to wonder what the future holds.
I remember when WoW and EQ2 were about to release (along with Horizons if anyone remembers that). EQ2 had a rocky start, while WoW was polished and (for all intents and purposes) complete. Now we have Rift, GW2, and TOR. I think the outcome will be very different. Many are saying that the genre hasn't changed, and in some respects, those individuals are right, but I argue that games like Horizons, Vanguard, WAR, and most recently, FFXIV taught us a valuable lesson. We all know what that lesson is by now, and it is my sincere hope that it will foster a new age of MMO gaming in which the player actually has viable choices of what to play. Six years from now, we'll all be reading the old review about TOR or GW2 and reflect in similar ways I suppose.
Um, EQ2 had an IMMENSELY better start. EQ2's launch was near flawless. WoW had loot lag that made the game unplayable. EQ2 had two things that majorly hurt it: It was not designed for an average PC, WoW was designed for an average PC from two years prior. Also EQ2 was slower paced with a group focus, WoW was fast paced with a solo focus.
But from a technical standpoint EQ2 was the better launch. Hands down. The game was complete and free of major bugs and stable.
You have to be kidding me. EQ2 was a complete mess at launch, it ran like the absolute crappy unoptimized POS it still is, but much much worse. Not only that, the devs of EQ2 have constantly doubted themselves and their original vision. When EQ2 launched there were harsh penalties... if some idiot Wizard in your party spam nuked the mob that your tank wasn't on and died, the whole party got an exp debt. Definately not a good innovation, but at least it was original. Look at EQ2 now. It still has that horrible engine, it still runs like crap on even the best computers in the world 7 years later, and it has sold it's soul and anything that made it unique to be just like... you guessed it. Wow.
Hahaha I love responses like this one.
Its exactly like....except for this and this and this.
Yup, that would make it exactly the same!
No it wasn't. Read the first paragraph.
I find the quest versus "task" idea to be very accurate. Most MMOs have devolved into a task based game instead of questing game. In Everquest there were quite a few quests that were highly involved and complicated that required, luck, effort, perserverence and not a little bit of thought. Getting your epic weapon being one of them.
Sadly, I'm not sure people have the patience to do questing like that any more, certainly not for the mainstream give it to me now type of gamer.
Are you for real?
WoW did not bring anything new to the table, they just shaped it up before they launched it and had a well known RTS to back it up.
And Blizzard only copy/paste, I'll give you the examples if you can't figure it out yourself.
Basic game = EQ style game
Warhammer is released, and Blizzard adds XP to battlegrounds and Achievments, a complete Copy/paste
SWTOR get's announced and their plans to turn quests into stories, and Blizzards make Cata questing one big story telling on rails.
Rift get's launched, and Blizzard announces all new guild quests.
The list goes on, the only thing Blizzard made up themselves are the LFD tool, which havent done the game any good, infact it turned a childish community into a complete nightmare.
Lol yup.
Rift is exactly like WoW, except for the different graphics, Lore, soul system, Rifts, towns, races, combat style, armor looks, quests, raids, dungeons etc etc etc.
Rift and WoW has few things in common.
The only place where I see Rift borrowing ideas from WoW is the bg system
It's hilarious how a person who claims that Rift is a huge WoW ripoff, can't accept that WoW is a copy/paste game itself, Blizzard did not create the mmo style that they made WoW with, nor did they take it apart and made it 1mill times better, compare SWG crafting to WoW "crafting" they dumbed it down to a level where my 8 year old son is an auction house tycoon, heck imo they put a stop on a mmo scene that could have evolved into way better games.
Instead they showed gaming companies, that they never had to put much thought into their games, just make them easy to learn and play and polish their product before shipping it
There is a pretty big difference. here is a challenge to you: Play DAoC and EQ1 for 2 hours each. Then play WoW for 2 hours. Then play Rift for 2 hours. Then come back and try to tell me WoW is an EQ clone to the same extent Rift is a WoW clone.
EQ2 still has quite a bit of that questing. Heritage quests, signature quests, and of course epic quests.
Wow was a pain in the beginning but I think it was more fun when it was harder. EQ2 could have easily been in the same league as WOW with numbers if they only marketed the game better and added a PVP aspect to it. I am not sure they knew WOW was going to dump so much money in its marketing campaign. I totally enjoy the EQ2 community but WOW has an easy play style to it so its nice to hop in and hop out. God bless and happy gaming. :)
EQ2 needed to be marketed better? No way. They had tonsd of advertising and even had Heather Graham and some other Hollywood guy doing voiceovers. My wife and I and all my friends got EQ2 collectors editions. We were all so stoked. Out of the 10 of us, no one lasted more than 3 months. It ran like crap, had horrible character models, and horrible systems. Locked targets and group exp debt among them.