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buy wow gold Store, Open 24/7
A great game held back by Blizzard's lack of ambition
I have been playing WoW since beta, and just recently quit the
game for good. I have multiple level 60s, both Horde and
Alliance, on PvP and PvE servers. The game is a blast from level
1 all the way through 60. It is the easiest MMORPG to date to
reach the maximum level in. The "rested experience" received
from logging off in an Inn is great for casual players.
Depending on how long they were offline, they will receive twice
the amount of experience per kill for a while.
Each zone is unique, and all of them are fun to explore and
quest in. The graphics in WoW may not be high tech, but they are
unparalleled. The game just looks good. If you turn off your
interface in the game and take screenshots, they look amazing.
The five man instances that you encounter while leveling are all
challenging and interesting. They can be a fun distraction from
the level grind, and provide very nice gear for their level.
Combat is fun, every animation and sound effect is perfect.
Every class is unique and fun to play. The Diablo II style
talent trees are implemented very well, it's just to bad that
they lead to only three or four viable talent builds per class.
Trade skills in WoW are a breeze, straightforward and fun, at
least until you need to grind for reputation. The auction house
makes buying and selling easy as well, every MMORPG from this
point on needs to rip off the WoW auction house.
If it seems too good to be true, that's because it is. It will
take most people three or four months to reach level 60, and
after that it is an entirely different game.
Post 60 WoW is horrible. Progression consists of Diablo II style
farming on a large scale with 40 people. You kill the same
monsters, to have a chance at the same gear, over and over
again. What is the motivation to get said gear? To be able to
kill new monsters over and over to get new gear, it is
redundant.
These farming runs are called "raids" in the game and can take
anywhere from 3 to 6 hours to complete. In a standard raid
around 20 new items are distributed between 40 people (if you
are in a good guild). There will be many times that you receive
nothing for your time, and will have to continue coming on these
raids to obtain items. The concept behind these raids is absurd,
yet Blizzard keeps embellishing it. For some reason people find
it addicting, so it keeps the 15$ a month rolling in.
The dungeons themselves take little skill as far as “gaming” is
concerned. The real trick is getting 20 or 40 people to
cooperate. It's no fun. Yet 38 people want to make the game a
job for the leaders, and profit by just showing up and following
instructions. Yet show up they do, and spend countless hours to
obtain their coveted items. Thus they style themselves “hardcore
gamers” and look down on all the little people. This ties in to
the horrible PvP ranking system.
Blizzard made PvP as much a grind as raiding ever was! With the
current state of the game, PvP rank is no indication whatsoever
of skill. All it takes is an inordinate amount of time. There
are three battlegrounds in the game, and they are fun for a
time. But what FPS or RTS game expects it players to play three
maps for over a year? The way the ranking system is set up in
WoW, if you are not grinding away in one of these battlegrounds,
you have no chance to advance in rank. These battlegrounds have
degenerated into dungeons, with every game following a
predictable path.
Blizzard has proved they do not understand the PvPer. We don't
want rewards or rank, they are cool yes, but not what makes PvP
fun. There needs to be territory that can change hands, players
in certain zones need to be lootable on death. Rewards are for
PvE, consequences are what PvP must have.
I hang my head in shame when I hear the high ranking PvPers, and
geared out PvErs tout themselves as “gamers”. If that is what
the term has been reduced to, I don't want to be labeled one.
Yet Blizzard is only going to add more of the same, it is making
them rich after all.
In its current state it is my opinion that WoW is bad for
MMORPGs and video games in general. Such a monopoly on the
MMORPG community makes it hard for anyone to experiment with new
ideas. It is far to tempting to follow the template to monetary
success that Blizzard has laid out.
While the game is the best of its kind while leveling up, taken
as a whole it is a time sink, and designed to be one. I cannot
see how anything good for the players, or video games, can come
out of content that is added for the sole reason of keeping
people playing, and thus paying.
After my most recent level 60 I finally saw the light and
realized that Blizzard was never going to add substantial
content for me, and have kicked the habit. The world of video
games is wonderful; don't lose sight of it in this massive grind
fest. Play to 60 once or twice, and move on.
Gameplay - 8
Graphics - 8
Sound - 8
Value - 8
Tilt - 5 !
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