World of Warcraft

[Interest]

Hi there all. With the new "MMO Gaming" subforum taking off I thought it'd be appropriate to have a thread to discuss one of the largest MMORPGs for awhile: World of Warcraft, set in the Warcraft universe that has been created by the RTS series of the same name.

Skepticism aside, I'm sure there has to be more who played/play the game than me, right? There's even a new patch out and all, so I'm sure there's plenty to talk about.

Might list some Battletags here on the off chance someone's still playing:

Edited September 23, 2013 by Interest

[Elli]

Well as you know I am no longer a wow player all I could talk about it past experiences lol and things that I did know about the game.

[Interest]

Well that's what the tag is for ;P

[Parrhesia]

Lich King was a great expansion. Cataclysm wasn't. And now there's Fucking Pandas, who were literally an April Fool's joke only a few years ago, with a precedent of One Tavern Hero And Some Creeps.

Fucking hell.

[Raven]

I played WoW around the time they started the "free to play up to level 20" thing then dropped it. The Cataclysm expansion was the newest one at the time. I quite enjoyed it, but in all honestly it wasn't enough to make me start paying for it, since I knew I'd not get my money's worth since I can't play as often as I'd have liked to.

[RJWalker]

Gaemplay is great and all but they butchered the story of the RTS games and ruined great characters like Illidan, Kael'thas, etc. And Blizzard falt out stated that they don't care about retconning the story to suit the gameplay anymore. When the company itself outright says that it doesn't care about the story consistency, you know you're in trouble.

[Integrity]

Lich King was a great expansion. Cataclysm wasn't. And now there's Fucking Pandas, who were literally an April Fool's joke only a few years ago, with a precedent of One Tavern Hero And Some Creeps.

Fucking hell.

Same boat, pretty much. I never gave a shit about the "plot" of Warcraft so any retconning didn't bother me as long as I was having fun - and I did all the way from Wrath's release til my shit got hacked.

Then I sort of lost interest, then Cataclysm was underwhelming so I never bought it, and now here we are.

[Karasz]

I used to play WoW very religiously, from a little after the game's launch until the end of the Burning Crusade days. Now that it's free-to-play, I'll go back every once in awhile and play the game if I have nothing better to do. While Cataclysm wasn't as great of an expansion as I thought it would be, I did enjoy the fact that they brought in Worgen as playable characters. But Mists of Pandaria...that's just completely botched and everyone knows it.

*sigh* The game is going downhill these days. It's too bad that Blizzard isn't really seeing that.

[Shahrivar]

I stopped playing WoW at 5.2 - Rogue balance went rollercoaster, my guild went derp and 8 years of WoW ( 2 half a year breaks at the start of TBC and WotLK) were a long time.

IMO TBC was the best addon, followed by WotLK - MoP is still better than Cata, but (after all this years) I'm done.

Edit:

In addition: Screw the shop. Monthly fees + most of the new (and special) mounts for real money is expecting too much.

Edited September 23, 2013 by Assurhaddon

[Raivix]

I stopped playing WoW at 5.2 - Rogue balance went rollercoaster, my guild went derp and 8 years of WoW ( 2 half a year breaks at the start of TBC and WotLK) were a long time.

IMO TBC was the best addon, followed by WotLK - MoP is still better than Cata, but (after all this years) I'm done.

Edit:

In addition: Screw the shop. Monthly fees + most of the new (and special) mounts for real money is expecting too much.

Given that there's something like 6 mounts available from the b.net store, and something like 125 available otherwise in-game... really? What a lame reason to hate the game.

I really don't understand the MoP hate either. For all the griping people have about Blizzard fucking with lore from the RTS series, it seems really odd that there's so much flak for Pandaria and Pandaren as a race. I mean, Chen Stormstout was probably the most well-known hero in WCIII aside from Arthas, and on top of that they did an excellent job in not just making the game a 10-year-old's dream. There's a lot of very deep, compelling story in Pandaria, and most of the actual dungeon content is quite good. People are just looking back through Rose-tinted glasses and whining because things are different.

Is MoP my favorite expansion? No. Is it a bad expansion? Absolutely not. Anyone who says so is just being disingenuous with themselves.

[Shahrivar]

Monthly fees and shop items are the problem. Not to forget, most ingame mounts are recolors anyway. Who cares about 10 serpent recolors if the only bat mount is available at the shop? Blizzard got greedy, no game should require a monthly fee and still withheld items/mounts/pets/whatever from it's customer. Just my opinion, I don't like WoW's business model since WotLK.

It's not my only reason to dislike WoW, in addition the ilvl is out of control with 5 (or even more?) different gearlevels per tier, balancing in MoP was bullshit and 8 years of the same character models and abilities becomes annoying.

It's fine if you disagree or this things don't bother you - but imo they're bothersome.

I don't hate MoP. I think that it's not as great as TBC but at least it isn't bad like Cataclysm. Too many dailyquests though, too much reputation grinding. And bad balancing.

[Tryhard]

I gave up at Cataclysm. My dad still plays it.

[Interest]

Gaemplay is great and all but they butchered the story of the RTS games and ruined great characters like Illidan, Kael'thas, etc. And Blizzard falt out stated that they don't care about retconning the story to suit the gameplay anymore. When the company itself outright says that it doesn't care about the story consistency, you know you're in trouble.

Sounds like Riot, and honestly, I didn't have a particularly giant issue with Burning Crusade lore. If anything from the RTS got butchered, it was probably Thrall during Cataclysm. Mary Sue OP. Wrath was perhaps a little bothersome in the sense the Lich King behaved like a generic villain too, though at least they came up with an excuse as to why the Lich King kept letting the heroes get away with their shit - too much pride op.

I used to play WoW very religiously, from a little after the game's launch until the end of the Burning Crusade days. Now that it's free-to-play, I'll go back every once in awhile and play the game if I have nothing better to do. While Cataclysm wasn't as great of an expansion as I thought it would be, I did enjoy the fact that they brought in Worgen as playable characters. But Mists of Pandaria...that's just completely botched and everyone knows it.

*sigh* The game is going downhill these days. It's too bad that Blizzard isn't really seeing that.

It's not really F2P, unless you're counting the Starter Pack of the 1000000 offers Blizzard keeps sending unsubscribed players to get 7 free days every half year or so.

Also Mists isn't particularly bad, unless you wish to elaborate on your reasoning on why exactly Mists is bad (because Cataclysm was honestly an actual cataclysm to WoW's subscriber numbers for all the wrong reasons).

balancing in MoP was bullshit

Now THIS I can strongly agree with, and I play a Hunter (a class that hasn't exactly been in the OP spotlight in terms of competitive PvP since probably some point in Wrath at best). I would almost go as far as to say PvP got seriously screwed this time around because of all the various changes (PvP Power, base resilience that had to keep being increased to account for heightened power, gear scaling...)

I don't hate MoP. I think that it's not as great as TBC but at least it isn't bad like Cataclysm. Too many dailyquests though, too much reputation grinding. And bad balancing.

Also agreeing here, and I'm that guy who has a ton of dailies under his belt. I guess generic kill quests can get boring, yes?

At least there's Timeless Isle now so you can skip all that shit.

In addition: Screw the shop. Monthly fees + most of the new (and special) mounts for real money is expecting too much.

I have yet to purchase a single one of those mounts with real life money. The only thing I got using real money was probably the 2-person rocket (bought some extra copies of WoW for some RAF crap)

At least the in-game stuff from the Blizzard Store for WoW is completely optional. It's not like it makes your character more powerful. Diablo 3's RMAH, on the other hand, is a totally different story.

Edited September 23, 2013 by Interest

[Shahrivar]

Now THIS I can strongly agree with, and I play a Hunter (a class that hasn't exactly been in the OP spotlight in terms of competitive PvP since probably some point in Wrath at best). I would almost go as far as to say PvP got seriously screwed this time around because of all the various changes (PvP Power, base resilience that had to keep being increased to account for heightened power, gear scaling...)

As Rogue - no changes in 5.0, becoming freaking underpowered. Buffs in 5.1 and 5.2, becoming OP (noone wanted that either), some nerfs in 5.3 and buffs again in 5.4. Neither me nor my Rogue classmates (they're still playing) understand what Blizzard is thinking.

I have yet to purchase a single one of those mounts with real life money. The only thing I got using real money was probably the 2-person rocket (bought some extra copies of WoW for some RAF crap)

At least the in-game stuff from the Blizzard Store for WoW is completely optional. It's not like it makes your character more powerful. Diablo 3's RMAH, on the other hand, is a totally different story.

It's not like any of you have to agree.

But if I have to pay monthly fees, I want to have access to all of the content. I didn't buy a mount in the shop, too, still I wanted a bat for years.

[Interest]

As Rogue - no changes in 5.0, becoming freaking underpowered. Buffs in 5.1 and 5.2, becoming OP (noone wanted that either), some nerfs in 5.3 and buffs again in 5.4. Neither me nor my Rogue classmates (they're still playing) understand what Blizzard is thinking.

I honestly have no idea what Blizzard was doing with Rogues in general this time around. I do know they were kicking ass in PvE but eh...I wasn't a big fan of Rogues for this expac. I'll level mine eventually.

Edited September 23, 2013 by Interest

[James Bond]

Started it a year before Cataclysm was announced.

IMO Cataclysm really wasn't that bad...I mean currently Mists is even more boring...And generally the game is just repeating itself after some point (capping level 90) so it is not as fun anymore, most annoying thing was the repeatable quests requirement to be exalted with the new factions. And what is even worse is the fact that the character models (those before Cataclysm to be more precise) and everything are so "yesterday"...I am not really interested in joining raids and battlegrounds either the way things are, especially because of how seriously people are taking the game (and yes they tend to be really immature.)

[Mew]

Ahaah I'm glad there's a WoW thread. My perspective is a bit different, my problems with the game aren't about Blizz being greedy or one expansion or another. I think the game has always been pretty fun in a group setting and what kept me coming back was the people.

I played for a bit, started at the end of TBC and played/raided hardcore all throughout WotLK. Did a bit of Cata but didn't have people to play with anymore, and since then I've been coming back every few months or so, levelling an alt or grinding out achievements, then getting interested in different games and unsubscribing again. I feel like the sense of community died when the dungeon finder stuff got added, and got even worse with the addition of raid finder. Additionally, rewards for getting a guild to level 25 and for having a hueg guild being added have ruined the sense of exclusivity and guild pride. There are total benefits to these systems but when I try to strike up conversation and actually have fun it's rare that anyone besides IRL friends/people I knew beforehand participate. Echoing what was said before, everyone is serious business for some reason when WoW isn't serious at all lol.

My beef is not at all with the monetization, it's definitely more with the decisions they've made that have helped to destroy the community feeling. They can ask for money all they want, I won't be impressed when some dude has enough money to buy a bat because who cares. It might have irked me if they were offering gear equivalent to raid or PvP gear, but they aren't. I feel like they may eventually, because the game is getting less popular and making less money.

WoW was a fun social environment for me, and now I find it much harder to get that kind of interaction when every server has turned into a big mess of people so there's no longer server/guild identity. Everyone just wants to get their loot and be done, which kind of confuses me, since loot isn't even worth all that much, it's just replaced with the next patch/tier. XD My current enjoyment with the game stems purely from messing with people in low level instances since it's the only damn thing that makes them talk

edit: damn this post was long oh well hope there are more long time WoW fans who understand what I'm sayin

Edited September 26, 2013 by Mewiyev

[Interest]

So that means you still play? ;o.

[Parrhesia]

Chen Stormstout was probably the most well-known hero in WCIII aside from Arthas

Muradin, Illidan, Kael'thas, Jaina, Thrall, Grom, Uther, Cairne, Rexxar, Kel'Thuzad...

[Primefusion]

All this complaining about doing daily quests for rep.

That stuff's been around since TBC. Isle of Quel'danas anyone? No?

Come on folks that were on PvP servers. You know what I'm talking about.

[Interest]

All this complaining about doing daily quests for rep.

That stuff's been around since TBC. Isle of Quel'danas anyone? No?

Come on folks that were on PvP servers. You know what I'm talking about.

I legit only ended up doing bombing runs for Shattered Sun after some point. I guess even back then kill quests got a little boring.

Though to be fair, it was less stale back then before the quest design was used for the umpteenth time by Mists (it also helps that there wasn't particularly a lot of innovation for certain reps or dailies).

Edited September 27, 2013 by Interest

[RJWalker]

Arthas's death was one of the few things I really like about the story.

[Raivix]

Muradin, Illidan, Kael'thas, Jaina, Thrall, Grom, Uther, Cairne, Rexxar, Kel'Thuzad...

Sure. All great lore figures, yet not nearly as popular as far as playable heroes went in The Frozen Throne. Didn't hurt that he was broken as hell for ladder play.

[Shahrivar]

All this complaining about doing daily quests for rep.

That stuff's been around since TBC. Isle of Quel'danas anyone? No?

Come on folks that were on PvP servers. You know what I'm talking about.

I see many differences. The area wasn't too big (smaller than Isle of Thunder), the gold income was great (the gold gained from daily quests did hardly increase at all in 3 addons) and BC's PvP actually was great.

Isle of Thunder was okay, but the 5.0 MoP daily quests were/are an insolence. Cloud Serpent , Tillers, Anglers, Golden Lotus, Klaxxi, Shadopan and August Celestials, you could do dailies for half a day.

[Primefusion]

I don't really see any differences. Dailies are dailies no matter how you slice them.