The new World of Warcraft?

Got involved in the open beta.  Enjoyed it enough to preorder so I could be in the Head Start launch ... and to be honest kinda bored ever since.  Not real excited to log in ... not like I used to be with Everquest and World of Warcraft.  Did I grow up somehow? (Shudder I hope not) or is the game just not interesting enough?

Anybody else trying it?

Queshank

I play MMORPG's because at 15 dollars a month (30 for me and my wife) it's a month's worth of entertainment at my fingertips ... for less than the price of one night at the bar.

Also because I don't watch television.  Most people watch 2 hours of TV a night...I play 2 hours of MMORPGs developing strategies and tactics to take down raid bosses with 10 to 20 other people online ... sharpens my problem solving skills ... or so I tell myself  

But your concern is valid ... I've seen what they do to some people.  It can be amazing how addictive the mental puzzles can be.  

My wife put together a research paper for a Social Psychology class at the local university.  Studies have been done which actually showed college students who spent the most time playing MMORPGs were actually more socially adjusted (MMORPGS are very social games) and were the highest achieving students on campus ... overall.  

Yeah there were casualties.  

But to be honest the casualties I saw when I was a crack dealer (I owned a software store and sold the first copies of Evercrackin my town) ... were casualties before they ever logged into the game.  I think you'd be fine if you gave it a try.  Mainly because you are worried about it.  The people who fell off the deep end didn't give a shit what happened to their lives before they ever played the game.

Hmm. It could be interesting to share stories about the casualties here on the Video Game forums.... some people here might not even be aware of how addictive and destructive these games can be.  It's like alcohol or drugs ... they can be a dangerous mix with the right person.  (Then there's people like me and my wife and some of our friends .... who actually drink WHILE playing ... with other people who are drinking while discussing encounters in Ventrilo...)

Queshank

Rabbit_Reborn wrote on Mar 4^th, 2011 at 11:23am:


10 to 12 years ago I almost became a casualty.  I'm an obsessive personality as well.  It took some adjusting and self discipline to allow me to play these games in moderation, and I went through some long benders myself ... still do.  I've spent 20 hours playing on a Saturday with bags of oreos and bottles of wine (yeah yeah I don't drink beer I drink wine).  And in fact I look forward to doing it again.  Just gotta exercise restraint on when I allow myself that kind of freedom.  I went so far as to call in sick to play Everquest a few times back in the day.  I didn't see any judgment in your post.  I saw legitimate concerns about the destructive nature of obsession. 

I remember playing Genghis Khan for somewhere near 36 hours years ago.  I don't think I've managed that kind of marathon session in a loooong time tho   My EQ record was 28 hours farming a rare drop.  Ah lower guk.  Those were the days.  A part of me misses it.  Made a lot of good friends and had some very good times.  These games are TOO damn fun sometimes.  You develop a circle of friends who go from game to game exploring them together.  And then when you do get together to goto the bar, or meet with those French speaking Canadians you've been hanging out with for two years, you're sitting and talking about what you did in the game and laughing years later about it.  It's kinda pathetic.  But then again when I get together with my buddies from high school that's all we do too /shrug so I'm not as embarrassed about my secret life as I used to be

Queshank

Vahvuus wrote on Mar 5^th, 2011 at 6:47pm:


WOW is definitely a better game for the new initiate.  It has kind of a comic book lore and feel to it that's very entertaining, light and appealing.  I'll never get tired of saying "Zug zug" to my kids and chasing em around the house.

Questing bores me, whether it's in WoW or Rift, so hard to judge whether they're good or not.  It's always the same thing ... "Go forth young elf, and slay me 10 Goblins and bring me back their buttholes as proof of your conquests!" or some derivative thereof.  I prefer the military tactics involved in dungeon encounters, so I'm a bad one to ask about lore.  I click past quest windows and never read them.  Questing is a leveling tool to get you to max level where you can start to enjoy the real game  

One thing I do like about Rift is you can quest or fight invasions and close rifts.  You can take breaks WHILE questing and run over to a recently opened rift to fight off the invaders.  It's a nice change that makes quest grinding tolerable for me.

I'm not sure what can be exploited in Rift that you're referencing.  The game is more closed than WoW as they don't currently allow community made mods like WoW does.  But I'm sure glad they modeled their UI after WoW.  DC Online tried a new UI and it was so bad it's the reason I never played the game past the free 10 days my buddy gave me to try it out.  I actually didn't even make it the full 10 days.  Interesting game.  Very pretty.  Horrid UI.  Different for the sake of being different is just ... being different for the sake of being different /shrug.  

Queshank

Vahvuus wrote on Mar 10^th, 2011 at 3:11am:


Ah I see what you mean.  Not a game exploit as in bug exploits but rather class balance issues you're worried about?

Rift has the same issues WOW has in that regard.  A rogue who takes the bard soul can heal.  But nowhere near as effectively as a cleric who takes warden, sentinel and purifier souls.  The rogue as bard is a healer in the same way shadow priest in wow is a healer...a portion of damage done is transferred to heals to the group.

And a rogue can tank...but nowhere near as effectively as a warrior in plate armor who takes the paladin, reaver and warlord souls.

You need all 3 souls or at least 2 to be effective at a given role.  A mage can take chloromancer soul and heal but nowhere near as well as the cleric class.  Just like a cleric can take inquisitor and cabalist souls to dps but can't push the single target dps a pyromancer/elementalist mage can, because the inquisitor is a single target dps soul and the cabalist is a AOE soul.

The 3 soul system just gives you more flexibility.  In WoW all fire mages are played the same.  All ice mages are played the same.  In Rift ... every mage can be completely different based on how you stack your souls.  You can still take the high dps pyro and elementalist souls...but you can compliment that with the dominator soul for crowd control or the chloromancer soul for backup healing the group.  Which still leaves you limited by your mana bar and "charging up" with dps spells.

That's probably the nerdiest post I've ever made on Liberty News Forum.  But it felt so so right...

Edited for some clarity.

Queshank