G
Gadzooks
Talk me out of or into going back to WoW....
- Status
WoW can't love you back
I did the download and reinstall a couple weeks back. So far I've logged about one hour on the game.
C
Chibibar
Play DDO? 
soon it will be free but if you sign up now (for 15$ and no cost for software) you can get legacy VIP status which gives you 4 chara slots instead of 2 when you go FREE!
and 999 turbine points woot!
soon it will be free but if you sign up now (for 15$ and no cost for software) you can get legacy VIP status which gives you 4 chara slots instead of 2 when you go FREE!
and 999 turbine points woot!
This is my own WoW history:
- Three years ago I gave it a go. It sucked compared to Ultima Online, my favorite MMO at the time (and still is). I played for a month (my free month) and then left.
- Two years ago, I gave it another go. After all, that many million people can't be wrong, can they? Oh but they are. Same dull and repetitive grinding and quests, boring over-sized surroundings, takes ages to get anywhere thanks to the crap travel system, etc. I really felt I was wasting time playing this game.
- Last December, a close friend of mine asked me to play WoW with her. I caved in and every weekend we play for a few hours. Is it fun? Yes, but because we make it fun. Alone, WoW is a dull terrible game. Add friends and MAKE it fun, and yes, then it's fun. Despite its age, Blizzard still haven't fixed most of my annoyances with the game, though. Examples:
- no way to move the windows on screen. SERIOUSLY?
- opening a new window closes the previous one. SERIOUSLY?
- really bad auto-targeting at times
- the interface sucks ass
- cities are WAY too big and confusing - I'm in the Underworld right now, and it's a nightmare to find anything.
- the auction system is clunky and primitive
- if you use ranged combat and the monster runs out of range, you have to restart combat manually when it gets back in range. Combined with the terrible auto-targeting means it can get really really annoying.
- bugs. They're still there, oh yes. Oh, I see Briarthorn on my map! After fighting my way through a village, I discover it's INSIDE a tree. Great.
- and how about this: you're in a party with people, you start looting a corpse but, oh no, your inventory is full. You open your inventory, open your character window to see what you could keep and replace, and ... whoops, someone else has already looted the corpse because apparently, because the loot window closed, everyone got access to my loot
- etc.
If you consider that Everquest II is the same age of WoW yet looks a lot better and has none of these issues (except maybe the travelling part, but you get a horse early on), then it's really facepalm worthy to see how this ever got so popular.
WoW is like the Apple of MMOs. It's simple, primitive yet people love it for its simplicity but I prefer something with more flesh on it, to be honest. I think that WoW is like MySpace: despite it being mediocre and riddled with bugs & flaws, its popularity is what causes it to remain popular. And of course, the social aspect does too. As a game? 60% tops for me. Blizzard may have ripped off a dozen MMO's to make WoW (especially Everquest, which at least 70-80% of WoW is based on), but it's painful to see how little it tries to innovate. Standard Blizzard then?
If you want an MMO that runs circles around WoW, try EVE. No, it's not for the mainstream market. It's for people who are creative, inventive, smart, etc. If I was unemployed, man, it would be hard to pull me away from it.
- Three years ago I gave it a go. It sucked compared to Ultima Online, my favorite MMO at the time (and still is). I played for a month (my free month) and then left.
- Two years ago, I gave it another go. After all, that many million people can't be wrong, can they? Oh but they are. Same dull and repetitive grinding and quests, boring over-sized surroundings, takes ages to get anywhere thanks to the crap travel system, etc. I really felt I was wasting time playing this game.
- Last December, a close friend of mine asked me to play WoW with her. I caved in and every weekend we play for a few hours. Is it fun? Yes, but because we make it fun. Alone, WoW is a dull terrible game. Add friends and MAKE it fun, and yes, then it's fun. Despite its age, Blizzard still haven't fixed most of my annoyances with the game, though. Examples:
- no way to move the windows on screen. SERIOUSLY?
- opening a new window closes the previous one. SERIOUSLY?
- really bad auto-targeting at times
- the interface sucks ass
- cities are WAY too big and confusing - I'm in the Underworld right now, and it's a nightmare to find anything.
- the auction system is clunky and primitive
- if you use ranged combat and the monster runs out of range, you have to restart combat manually when it gets back in range. Combined with the terrible auto-targeting means it can get really really annoying.
- bugs. They're still there, oh yes. Oh, I see Briarthorn on my map! After fighting my way through a village, I discover it's INSIDE a tree. Great.
- and how about this: you're in a party with people, you start looting a corpse but, oh no, your inventory is full. You open your inventory, open your character window to see what you could keep and replace, and ... whoops, someone else has already looted the corpse because apparently, because the loot window closed, everyone got access to my loot
- etc.
If you consider that Everquest II is the same age of WoW yet looks a lot better and has none of these issues (except maybe the travelling part, but you get a horse early on), then it's really facepalm worthy to see how this ever got so popular.
WoW is like the Apple of MMOs. It's simple, primitive yet people love it for its simplicity but I prefer something with more flesh on it, to be honest. I think that WoW is like MySpace: despite it being mediocre and riddled with bugs & flaws, its popularity is what causes it to remain popular. And of course, the social aspect does too. As a game? 60% tops for me. Blizzard may have ripped off a dozen MMO's to make WoW (especially Everquest, which at least 70-80% of WoW is based on), but it's painful to see how little it tries to innovate. Standard Blizzard then?
If you want an MMO that runs circles around WoW, try EVE. No, it's not for the mainstream market. It's for people who are creative, inventive, smart, etc. If I was unemployed, man, it would be hard to pull me away from it.
Play if you want to play. Don't play if you don't.
WoW's not that addicting if you don't want it to be.
WoW's not that addicting if you don't want it to be.
C
Chibibar
easier said than done my friend. Like any addiction some people are weaker to their addiction than others.CynicismKills said:
like smoking (but that is chemical) or alcohol (another chemical)
but what about gambling? (psychological) so I guess WoW would be like gambling addiction
if you get hook too easy and spend a lot of time with it, I say... step away from it unless you have free time and your mate likes the game too
R
Rubicon
One of us...one of us..Shegokigo said:
There's candy on this side, join us..
Everything you've said is 100% invalidated by the fact that Blizzard outright promotes UI mods and is large in the UI mod community.AngelofBitterness said:
You can say "well the game shouldn't be judged with mods", but the truth is, THAT is why WoW is as big as it is. Everything you complained about is corrected with certain mods.
C
Chibibar
I have to agree. If you are just playing Plain Vanilla WoW, it is not that "awesome" in terms of UI interface. This is why Blizz open up the UI to the community. The community pretty much run with it and create literally hundreds of mods of pretty much anything to change from HUD display, inventory management, auction house, spell bar, UI display (Spartan is still my fave btw) map changes, color changes, quest data, crafting data, inventory data, and the lists goes on and on.Shegokigo said:
I know that some people would say that you can't include the mods as part of the review, but I say it is part of the game. There are some mods that some raid that you MUST have in order to even be IN the raid. These mods are so useful that makes you a better player (not to mention it add fun back into the game) Blizz are doing some UI modification and improvement, but nowhere near the level of the community IMO. I say check out some mods and test them out.
I highly recommend testing one mode at a time since some mod conflict with each other (i.e don't use TWO inventory mods)
It's not like modding the game is even hard, I know 9yr olds who do it on a consistant basis in a few of the guilds I've been in.
I would not count mods to the "review" of WoW if Blizzard was not such an active participant (even releasing game CODE to the public for mod useage after every patch) in the mod community.
I would not count mods to the "review" of WoW if Blizzard was not such an active participant (even releasing game CODE to the public for mod useage after every patch) in the mod community.
Shannow
Staff member
Played since beta vanilla...quit/banned a couple times. Went so far as to quit this past march and sell my then current raiding account.
I have a new account now, which I play extremely casually. Still havent hit 80 with it, though when I do, Imy guid will pull me back into 25 mans, shopuld I so choose.
Frankly, this time around, i just do not care enough, and it is now just another game on the side that is there when I am not doing other things. I like not having to go be ready for set raid times or playing multiple hours every day preparing for said raids. It is liberating.
I have a new account now, which I play extremely casually. Still havent hit 80 with it, though when I do, Imy guid will pull me back into 25 mans, shopuld I so choose.
Frankly, this time around, i just do not care enough, and it is now just another game on the side that is there when I am not doing other things. I like not having to go be ready for set raid times or playing multiple hours every day preparing for said raids. It is liberating.
I like that all the avatars in that game ended up looking like Master Billy Quizboy.Frankie said:
The technical artwork was good in EQ2 but the proportions of the bodies and heads looked too deformed.
S
Singularity.EXE
I too have gotten back into WoW. I took a summer hiatus because somehow I was more busy when I wasn't in school then when I have homework. The new dungeon is stupidly easy though, bordering on disappointing.
And the new BG makes me miss Warhammer's PvP, sigh....
But I still am having fun in the game, my little warlock continues to kick ass.
And the new BG makes me miss Warhammer's PvP, sigh....
But I still am having fun in the game, my little warlock continues to kick ass.
I have said many times that WoW, in the end, is just a game. You get what you want out of it. Don't feel forced to play if you don't want to play, don't get dragged into doing things you don't want to do. Just play at the pace you want.
If in the end the game does not have the magic you need to keep interested, then quit and find a game that does. Don't feel like WoW is trying to devour your soul, it's not, it's just a game. :toocool:
Anyways, right now is a good time to start again. They altered a lot of the content to make it easier for new players and casual players to feel like they are making some decent progress. I just recently broke the 30k health unbuffed mark on my alt protection paladin, something I didn't think would occur since I don't raid with her other then VoA.
Mods. Live them. Love them. I use a mix of the original UI with modifications to make it overall more friendly. This is why Blizzard opened up so much to the modding community, because they knew the UI they developed would not be favored by everyone in the world, so they let YOU choose how you will enhance it from that point. Some of my favorite mods are Mapster, Lightheaded, TomTom, Outfitter, etc.. you might want to give them a try.
Also, pretty sure you meant "Undercity"
Just be glad the bug you dealt with is minor, I have actually fallen through the world more times then I can count on my hands, appeared on the mysterious outland ghost ship, died multiple times to parachute lagout, and other things. I just brush off my shoulders, get up, and move on with my life.
I actually enjoy the under-world free falls, something comedic to me about falling into the endless void of oblivion. :toocool:
If in the end the game does not have the magic you need to keep interested, then quit and find a game that does. Don't feel like WoW is trying to devour your soul, it's not, it's just a game. :toocool:
Anyways, right now is a good time to start again. They altered a lot of the content to make it easier for new players and casual players to feel like they are making some decent progress. I just recently broke the 30k health unbuffed mark on my alt protection paladin, something I didn't think would occur since I don't raid with her other then VoA.
http://www.wowinterface.com
Mods. Live them. Love them. I use a mix of the original UI with modifications to make it overall more friendly. This is why Blizzard opened up so much to the modding community, because they knew the UI they developed would not be favored by everyone in the world, so they let YOU choose how you will enhance it from that point. Some of my favorite mods are Mapster, Lightheaded, TomTom, Outfitter, etc.. you might want to give them a try.
There are various methods that Blizzard developed to help with this. The largest is that you can talk to a guard, any guard, and they will lead you to the trainers, profession trainers, etc... giving you a little arrow on the mini-map pointing to them. Also, if you are looking for say, the Regeant Vendor, you can go up to that little magnifying glass icon on the mini-map and set the tracking to a regeant vender, viola, you are now tracking the regeant vender and he will appear on your mini-map when you get near him. Really, it's not that hard, and I like the fact the cities actually feel like cities.
Also, pretty sure you meant "Undercity"
Never really had this issue personally, but I am a click target, and don't like relying on the auto-targeting system. As for the ranged issue, never had any issues with it personally, and I play multiple ranged classes including the Hunter.
If you took a step back and realized how big WoW really is, you would know that not every bug can ever be squished. EQ1 has it's share of bugs when I played it, and even EQ2 during the small time I took part had bugs. Bugs are a fact of life with complicated software, and claiming any game is "bug free" is laughable.
Just be glad the bug you dealt with is minor, I have actually fallen through the world more times then I can count on my hands, appeared on the mysterious outland ghost ship, died multiple times to parachute lagout, and other things. I just brush off my shoulders, get up, and move on with my life.
I actually enjoy the under-world free falls, something comedic to me about falling into the endless void of oblivion. :toocool:
Might want to group with better people? They made the system so that when you group with someone, and you don't need to loot, it opens it up for the group can take it instead once you "back away" from the corpse. If you are looking for anything to loot higher then "trash" you should have a looting arrangement, like a rolling system. If an epic sword drops and you are looting, only to back away for someone else to loot, then something is wrong, because that means you are using a FFA loot system rather then a standard one.
I'm having fun playing DDO.Chibibar said:Play DDO?
soon it will be free but if you sign up now (for 15$ and no cost for software) you can get legacy VIP status which gives you 4 chara slots instead of 2 when you go FREE!
and 999 turbine points woot!
Started a monk, but quickly moved to create a wizard (magic users being my favorite class to play). Soloing dungeons is pretty slow at my level (3), but as we know, magic users ramp up in power pretty quickly once they get a few levels under their belt.
At the moment, I'm so with you on that. Not "having" to be ON WoW for a 5hr raid 5 days a week feels great, I probably still spend those 25hrs on WoW, but it's on my time, doing what I want.Shannow said:
Now I'm sure once I hit 80 again, and begin 10man Hard modes, I'm sure it'll be a bit stressful again, but nowhere near the same levels.
*shrug* All righty.
WoW is the ultimate case of percieved satisfaction. The reason that it's so addicting is that it, like most video games, gives you a sense of accomplishment. However, given that it's just a video game and that when you turn it off, there's no real sense of accomplishment given in your life, you return to the game to get that feeling of accompilshment again.
Therefore, it's just a life-sucking game with a false sense of accomplishment and satisfaction when you could be doing millions of other things more prodctuvie.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some Civilization to play.
WoW is the ultimate case of percieved satisfaction. The reason that it's so addicting is that it, like most video games, gives you a sense of accomplishment. However, given that it's just a video game and that when you turn it off, there's no real sense of accomplishment given in your life, you return to the game to get that feeling of accompilshment again.
Therefore, it's just a life-sucking game with a false sense of accomplishment and satisfaction when you could be doing millions of other things more prodctuvie.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some Civilization to play.
fade
Staff member
DDO looks cool. I'm a big fan of D&D over the alternatives. Plus, I love the D&D cleric. Always my favorite class to play. When I first tried a priest in WoW, I though, "whoa, this is NOT what I thought it would be". Then I quickly realized that the WoW paladin was probably closer to the D&D cleric.
This is how I play all the time. It is why I have so many alts. When I log on I play for me, first and foremost, and so I plan my playtime around what I want to do. Do I want to tank a bit? Log on the Paladin. Do I want to go farm some leather or DPS a raid? Get on the Hunter. Do I want to practice some healing or nuke stuff? Got my Shaman for that. Have my Rogue or Death Knight for some melee DPS action, and soon I will even have a Mage, my first high level clothie! :toocool:Shegokigo said:
The game should always be what you make it. Don't get stuck in never-ending raiding schedules if that is boring, annoying, or frustrating. That is my philosophy.
I could never do the "alt" thing. Every minute I'd ever spend not on my main I would think "you know, instead of this alt I could be getting a rep I don't have exalted on my main, or I could be farming for some more gold for my main." etc etc.
At my highest point, I had a raiding main and an "alt" lvl 80 for gathering skills for my main's profession.
At my highest point, I had a raiding main and an "alt" lvl 80 for gathering skills for my main's profession.
WoW isn't a very Alt friendly game. They keep pushing back the end game, so your main is never "finished", which means starting a new character isn't really helpful unless your trying to make a mule.
S
Singularity.EXE
Holy shit, I'm always amazed at how people go for such a busy UI. I'm a minimalist myself, Most of my screen is actually the game world, with only a smattering of necessary windows. I use a nerfed bartender with a max of 18 buttons since those are the ones I'll actually use.
Shannow
Staff member
minimalist here as well. less I see form the ui, the better. Keybinds, and only needed info are the way to go. I actually want to see the game. Only time there is some clutter is during full raids, and that is only to whats necessary for my role. And grid condensed a shit ton of that to save space when I customized it.
And can sr actually respond to a wow thread without a freaking novel? :bush: jesus.
And can sr actually respond to a wow thread without a freaking novel? :bush: jesus.
What I like is how mods can apply differently to different characters.
I like the minimalist look, so the only things my DPS DK really needs is Runewatch to keep an eye on his runes, Recount to make sure his DPS is keeping up, Omen to watch his threat, DBM for raiding, and BT4 to manage his bars.
My Lock doesn't need Runewatch, but he does need Necrosis and DoTimer to remain effective.
My Pally is currently being leveled, so he has QuestHelper, QuestGuru, TankPoints, and Healbot.
They all have Gatherer turned on. They all use a variety of castsequence macros to cut down on clutter and button use.
I like the minimalist look, so the only things my DPS DK really needs is Runewatch to keep an eye on his runes, Recount to make sure his DPS is keeping up, Omen to watch his threat, DBM for raiding, and BT4 to manage his bars.
My Lock doesn't need Runewatch, but he does need Necrosis and DoTimer to remain effective.
My Pally is currently being leveled, so he has QuestHelper, QuestGuru, TankPoints, and Healbot.
They all have Gatherer turned on. They all use a variety of castsequence macros to cut down on clutter and button use.
Everytime they push back the end-game, however, they lower the requirements to level. Going from 1-80 takes the same amount of time as going from 1-60 back in the original WoW. The new mount changes, plus Heirlooms, make forming alts a lot easier then they used to be. I had one friend level up his Druid alt in two weeks and that was before some of the more recent changes.AshburnerX said:
I never think like that, I just set individual goals for each character and push those goals. Like on my Paladin I told myself I would get all the Argent Crusade special items, like the Argent Charger and at some point the Squire, but as such I don't get those on other characters unless I really want them bad.
My hunter is the only character I did the Netherdrake Dailies, and my Rogue was the only one I did Horde Expedition dailies (for the Mechano-Hog schematic). I don't need to have one main with everything, because I am not that much of a completest, I like to spread my goals out in the interest of not having the same playstyle each time I log on, I get to pick and choose for them all.
S
Singularity.EXE
Well as a warlock there are only so many add-ons that I truly need. But I tell you what, I would allow the most obtrusive add-on in the world if it gave me a running calculator on soul-fire weaving. Shit like "Target's distance, current spell haste, and optimal distance with current stats."Shegokigo said:
I mean, most fights I can get a 1.1 ratio on Incinerate/SF casts, but gods it takes a while to find that perfect spot.
- Status