07-30-2004, 05:39 PM
Are we halfway through the beta process? Could be, could not be. But we've been at this now for quite a few months - since March! (Where does the time go?) Forget alpha stages - even in beta, the changes in flow and feel to the game have changed significantly. I was thinking earlier today about how in phase 1, nobody even had hearthstones. If you weren't a mage player, and you got halfway in to a Van Cleef instance and suddenly had to leave, you really had no choice but to die and take the experience hit. Things have changed a ton since those days.
There are lots of things that WoW does very, very well. And although I haven't played any other MMORPGs, I know from things I've heard that are so annoying about the genre that WoW avoids almost all of them.
1) Grinding isn't required. There are SO many quests, *SOOOO* many quests, that you will never NOT have anything to do quest-wise. If you feel like you can't find any quests, you're not looking in the right place, and it's time to explore. As a result...
2) The feeling of being on a "treadmill" just isn't there. Sure, you ARE on a leveling treadmill, but it's "hidden" from you by the sheer number of quests and activities you can undertake. While many quests are of the "kill x number of x and come back" variety, there are enough other quests with good plotlines or actions to take that you wonder what they'll come up with next. Some (not all) of the quests I've enjoyed the most:
a) the "Ghostbusters" quests of both sides, which are mage-specific
B) The Stalvan line of quests in Duskwood, which have you play semi-investigator, tracking down clues to discover the identity of a killer
c) The Defias Brotherhood line of quests, leading up to the assassination of Edwin Van Cleef
d) The Absent Minded Prospector quests - protecting and aiding a bunch of brilliant but REALLY obtuse scientists
e) Gnomeregan quests, due to humor value all over the instance
3) Instanced dungeons, which no longer require a guild to camp a spawn for days to get a high level kill - and also let you and your buddies game in more difficult areas without others coming in and screwing it up.
4) The ability to jump on the server, play for 30 minutes, and feel you actually did something.
5) The fact that every class in the game can solo effectively. It's not the most efficient way to play, but it's entirely possible and I do it all the time. From my experiences, I believe the best way to play WoW is in a 2-player group of different classes at all times, if you're into efficiency at all cost (i.e. fastest levelling).
6) A casual gamer can play 5 hours a week and not take over a year to get a good character. This game is much more "Diablo-ish" than other MMORPGs, but don't ever mistake it for the action-fest that is Diablo. Much of the strategy interest in the game is the setup BEFORE the fight (75%) compared to the actions taken during the fight (25%). As an example, our Van Cleef fight yesterday took less time than the discussion of the proper execution of the fight we had beforehand. When we engaged, we carried out our plan of attack with precision and it was extremely easy due to everyone knowing and then following their role.
There are also some things that WoW is doing wrong, and might or might not fix yet (keep in mind, the beta is far, far from over):
1) Instances are a blessing, but they're also a curse. Because the uber-bosses spawn infinitely, the items and loot they drop ALSO spawns infinitely. As a result, the economy tends to get wrecked by "instance farming," where players who are sufficiently high in level can just wade through an instance over and over to get the phat lewt inside. There have been a number of suggestions flying left and right on the Blizzard forums about how to fix this problem.
One might argue that the economy doesn't matter to them, but they're thinking in terms of Diablo II. In a MMORPG, the economy affects all players, as things can become devalued so quickly that even a player at the level cap is using things considered to be "junk" and are untradeable. It all trickles down.
2) Requiring players to log out at an inn to build up rest state. While everyone here knows I like the rest state system, I don't like how it requires a gamer to come to an inn to log out in order to be able to rebuild their rest state significantly enough to matter. This reduces the ability for you to jump on the server and game for a few short minutes, as you may under certain circumstances be forced to run back to the inn.
3) If you're in a rested state, you're technically only building up skill points at half the speed of someone playing in a normal state. Skill points are accumulated from experience gained by killing monsters, and are counted against the experience gained from the kill, NOT the rest state bonus. A level 20 player who has always played in a rested state will have far fewer skill points than a level 20 player who has always played in a normal state. Hopefully Blizzard will correct this later and it was just an oversight. Currently, casual gamers are punished somewhat by this, especially players who need to use skill points to equip weapons (i.e. Warriors).
4) PvP has a bunch of issues, including the discrepancy between the Horde and the Alliance in terms of development. Blizzard has said that much of their attention is now shifting to the Horde zones since the Alliance (especially human) lands are just about locked-in polished. It's quite evident, too, as you play - the Human lands of the Alliance (Elywnn Forest, Westfall, Redridge Mountains, Duskwood) have the best overall design, polish, quests, layout, etc. As they bring the other lands up to speed, this game is going to ROCK in terms of its replayability for all the races.
5) The huge number of quests are a blessing, but they're also a curse. Due to the fact that you're always questing in this game, groups tend to be very short. You do not develop the comraderie that you may in other MMORPGs, because groups form, do one or two quests, and then disband. There's always another quest to do, and everyone in the group winds up having *different* quests to do. This is a large fundamental design problem in the game, and there's no simple solution. Being in a guild like the one we have in beta really helps, since there's enough of us to be able to find groups fairly easily if you really want to. But solo players won't have that luxury, and will find themselves moving from pickup group to pickup group. Finding friends to play with is thus difficult.
6) With no information about the "Hero class" released yet, it remains to be seen what will keep us all playing once we hit the level cap. And players will hit the level cap much faster than they do in other MMORPGs, as you level up at a good pace in WoW.
7) A point of worry is server stress. The servers do not seem like they can handle extreme load yet, but that IS what a stress test will be for later on.
If the game were released RIGHT NOW, would I buy it? Of course not, it's woefully unfinished, and I'm not dumb enough to pay a company so I can beta test a "live" game (cough, Star Wars: Galaxies). Ask me again in 4-5 months. This game has a *lot* of potential.
-Bolty
There are lots of things that WoW does very, very well. And although I haven't played any other MMORPGs, I know from things I've heard that are so annoying about the genre that WoW avoids almost all of them.
1) Grinding isn't required. There are SO many quests, *SOOOO* many quests, that you will never NOT have anything to do quest-wise. If you feel like you can't find any quests, you're not looking in the right place, and it's time to explore. As a result...
2) The feeling of being on a "treadmill" just isn't there. Sure, you ARE on a leveling treadmill, but it's "hidden" from you by the sheer number of quests and activities you can undertake. While many quests are of the "kill x number of x and come back" variety, there are enough other quests with good plotlines or actions to take that you wonder what they'll come up with next. Some (not all) of the quests I've enjoyed the most:
a) the "Ghostbusters" quests of both sides, which are mage-specific
B) The Stalvan line of quests in Duskwood, which have you play semi-investigator, tracking down clues to discover the identity of a killer
c) The Defias Brotherhood line of quests, leading up to the assassination of Edwin Van Cleef
d) The Absent Minded Prospector quests - protecting and aiding a bunch of brilliant but REALLY obtuse scientists
e) Gnomeregan quests, due to humor value all over the instance
3) Instanced dungeons, which no longer require a guild to camp a spawn for days to get a high level kill - and also let you and your buddies game in more difficult areas without others coming in and screwing it up.
4) The ability to jump on the server, play for 30 minutes, and feel you actually did something.
5) The fact that every class in the game can solo effectively. It's not the most efficient way to play, but it's entirely possible and I do it all the time. From my experiences, I believe the best way to play WoW is in a 2-player group of different classes at all times, if you're into efficiency at all cost (i.e. fastest levelling).
6) A casual gamer can play 5 hours a week and not take over a year to get a good character. This game is much more "Diablo-ish" than other MMORPGs, but don't ever mistake it for the action-fest that is Diablo. Much of the strategy interest in the game is the setup BEFORE the fight (75%) compared to the actions taken during the fight (25%). As an example, our Van Cleef fight yesterday took less time than the discussion of the proper execution of the fight we had beforehand. When we engaged, we carried out our plan of attack with precision and it was extremely easy due to everyone knowing and then following their role.
There are also some things that WoW is doing wrong, and might or might not fix yet (keep in mind, the beta is far, far from over):
1) Instances are a blessing, but they're also a curse. Because the uber-bosses spawn infinitely, the items and loot they drop ALSO spawns infinitely. As a result, the economy tends to get wrecked by "instance farming," where players who are sufficiently high in level can just wade through an instance over and over to get the phat lewt inside. There have been a number of suggestions flying left and right on the Blizzard forums about how to fix this problem.
One might argue that the economy doesn't matter to them, but they're thinking in terms of Diablo II. In a MMORPG, the economy affects all players, as things can become devalued so quickly that even a player at the level cap is using things considered to be "junk" and are untradeable. It all trickles down.
2) Requiring players to log out at an inn to build up rest state. While everyone here knows I like the rest state system, I don't like how it requires a gamer to come to an inn to log out in order to be able to rebuild their rest state significantly enough to matter. This reduces the ability for you to jump on the server and game for a few short minutes, as you may under certain circumstances be forced to run back to the inn.
3) If you're in a rested state, you're technically only building up skill points at half the speed of someone playing in a normal state. Skill points are accumulated from experience gained by killing monsters, and are counted against the experience gained from the kill, NOT the rest state bonus. A level 20 player who has always played in a rested state will have far fewer skill points than a level 20 player who has always played in a normal state. Hopefully Blizzard will correct this later and it was just an oversight. Currently, casual gamers are punished somewhat by this, especially players who need to use skill points to equip weapons (i.e. Warriors).
4) PvP has a bunch of issues, including the discrepancy between the Horde and the Alliance in terms of development. Blizzard has said that much of their attention is now shifting to the Horde zones since the Alliance (especially human) lands are just about locked-in polished. It's quite evident, too, as you play - the Human lands of the Alliance (Elywnn Forest, Westfall, Redridge Mountains, Duskwood) have the best overall design, polish, quests, layout, etc. As they bring the other lands up to speed, this game is going to ROCK in terms of its replayability for all the races.
5) The huge number of quests are a blessing, but they're also a curse. Due to the fact that you're always questing in this game, groups tend to be very short. You do not develop the comraderie that you may in other MMORPGs, because groups form, do one or two quests, and then disband. There's always another quest to do, and everyone in the group winds up having *different* quests to do. This is a large fundamental design problem in the game, and there's no simple solution. Being in a guild like the one we have in beta really helps, since there's enough of us to be able to find groups fairly easily if you really want to. But solo players won't have that luxury, and will find themselves moving from pickup group to pickup group. Finding friends to play with is thus difficult.
6) With no information about the "Hero class" released yet, it remains to be seen what will keep us all playing once we hit the level cap. And players will hit the level cap much faster than they do in other MMORPGs, as you level up at a good pace in WoW.
7) A point of worry is server stress. The servers do not seem like they can handle extreme load yet, but that IS what a stress test will be for later on.
If the game were released RIGHT NOW, would I buy it? Of course not, it's woefully unfinished, and I'm not dumb enough to pay a company so I can beta test a "live" game (cough, Star Wars: Galaxies). Ask me again in 4-5 months. This game has a *lot* of potential.
-Bolty
Quote:Considering the mods here are generally liberals who seem to have a soft spot for fascism and white supremacy (despite them saying otherwise), me being perma-banned at some point is probably not out of the question.