04-20-2005, 03:27 PM
Apologies ahead of time, this is going to be part rant, part opinion, part question. I'm posting this in the Lounge not because this is THE place where I'm seeing the behavior, but because this is probably the best place to have a discussion about the topic because of it's more adult audience. This is not a response to any individual on this forum, but more the world at large.
It seems like I keep hearing about how terrible all of the different aspects of WoW are. According to the forums, every class has documented Blizzards List of Sins™ against it, the game is not and never has been stable, crashes and kicks people out constantly, is unbalanced, completely favors the alliance, is horribly unbalanced in favor of the horde, the customer service is horrific, the patches don't come out fast enough, come out too fast, and even though they fix bugs they don't fix all of the bugs or the right bugs.
WoW seems like a horribly terrible place to be these days. Why am I having such a really great time playing?
Damned If You Do:
I keep reading these posts that tear into Blizzard in ways that don't make sense to me. For example, the patching. In the exact same thread people complain that Blizzard has clearly not put enough patches into the game, and then complain that the patches they put in aren't perfect. Testing and QA'ing a product take the exact same resources that build a patch. You can either be debugging the game or checking a patch for glitches. This is a nasty nasty trap. A thread full of people looking at a patch of gray complaining that it is at once both too white and too black... there is a contradiction here. And it really surprises me when I see both sides of the argument in the same post! Knocking Blizz for any and everything seems to be a weirdly popular past time.
Balance:
This is something that also gets me. Every class has this running gripe session about how they're the most put upon class. Rogues and hunters are the most popular class (depending on PvP vs. PvE/RP) because they're the easiest/most effective (overall) class to play and even these classes have running gripe sessions about how terrible it is to be the most effective class only some of the time and not being as overpowering at all times. WOW this one gets on my nerves. Yes, there are some legitimate issues out there (especially for Warlocks), but we get nonstop complaints such as Rogues complaining that despite dominating PvP, soloing more effectively than any class but hunter, being required in most instances for unlocking/sapping, etc. that there is ONE INSTANCE (MC) that they have to a bit more clever to be as effective... I've lost all sympathy and it's really starting to grate.
Do We Hurt the Ones We Love?
Is it because people like the game so much that it makes the little set backs seem bigger? Or maybe it's because we're so attached to our characters. Blizzard really has done a brilliant job on this game. The clarity of design and completeness of vision is great. And the little touches. My wife just started a Gnome Warrior. She's been walking around the house the last few days saying "I don't have enough Rage!" in a squeaky little female gnome voice. It's easy to get attached to these guys. Maybe that's why we hear all the complaints.
I just worry that we've created a culture where it's become socially acceptable to lambast the game over any triviality. What's the great big horrible hunter bug out there? Every once in a while I have to whistle for my pet because it fell behind. I can live with that.
It seems like I keep hearing about how terrible all of the different aspects of WoW are. According to the forums, every class has documented Blizzards List of Sins™ against it, the game is not and never has been stable, crashes and kicks people out constantly, is unbalanced, completely favors the alliance, is horribly unbalanced in favor of the horde, the customer service is horrific, the patches don't come out fast enough, come out too fast, and even though they fix bugs they don't fix all of the bugs or the right bugs.
WoW seems like a horribly terrible place to be these days. Why am I having such a really great time playing?
Damned If You Do:
I keep reading these posts that tear into Blizzard in ways that don't make sense to me. For example, the patching. In the exact same thread people complain that Blizzard has clearly not put enough patches into the game, and then complain that the patches they put in aren't perfect. Testing and QA'ing a product take the exact same resources that build a patch. You can either be debugging the game or checking a patch for glitches. This is a nasty nasty trap. A thread full of people looking at a patch of gray complaining that it is at once both too white and too black... there is a contradiction here. And it really surprises me when I see both sides of the argument in the same post! Knocking Blizz for any and everything seems to be a weirdly popular past time.
Balance:
This is something that also gets me. Every class has this running gripe session about how they're the most put upon class. Rogues and hunters are the most popular class (depending on PvP vs. PvE/RP) because they're the easiest/most effective (overall) class to play and even these classes have running gripe sessions about how terrible it is to be the most effective class only some of the time and not being as overpowering at all times. WOW this one gets on my nerves. Yes, there are some legitimate issues out there (especially for Warlocks), but we get nonstop complaints such as Rogues complaining that despite dominating PvP, soloing more effectively than any class but hunter, being required in most instances for unlocking/sapping, etc. that there is ONE INSTANCE (MC) that they have to a bit more clever to be as effective... I've lost all sympathy and it's really starting to grate.
Do We Hurt the Ones We Love?
Is it because people like the game so much that it makes the little set backs seem bigger? Or maybe it's because we're so attached to our characters. Blizzard really has done a brilliant job on this game. The clarity of design and completeness of vision is great. And the little touches. My wife just started a Gnome Warrior. She's been walking around the house the last few days saying "I don't have enough Rage!" in a squeaky little female gnome voice. It's easy to get attached to these guys. Maybe that's why we hear all the complaints.
I just worry that we've created a culture where it's become socially acceptable to lambast the game over any triviality. What's the great big horrible hunter bug out there? Every once in a while I have to whistle for my pet because it fell behind. I can live with that.