Poll: This is why I don't like World of Warcraft:

[Kukakkau]

What turns me off any MMO is monthly fee's, and I feel that if I join, I would be pretty useless, since I don't understand most MMO terms, that and from what I hear it takes ages to get to a level where the game begins to be fun.

This. Blizzard has more than enough supporters to lower the monthly fee and thus attract more potential players to the game since fees are the biggest turn off.

Another thing I dislike is that they don't put the patches on their expansion discs - which leads to hours of downloading patch after patch just to catch up on the game. Seriously you probably won't even get to play it on the day you get it with all the installing and downloading

I just see the game as impossible to get into now - you've got around £60+ of discs to buy to be up to date, about a day of patching and monthly fees on top of that. I don't know how much they accelerated leveling but back when I played it would take around £100 worth just for a casual player to hit 70 with all that

 

[Kurokami]

First of all, if you love World of Warcraft - good for you. I'm not saying you're wrong or that you have bad taste or anything negative about you personally. If you like WoW, this poll and thread really aren't meant for you.

But there are a lot of us out there for whom WoW just isn't our cup of tea. I've played most MMOs that have released in the last 10 years or so, with varying degrees of interest and commitment. My favorite was Dark Age of Camelot during the brief period of time before Trials of Atlantis had become too big for its britches, and just after New Frontiers had reinvigorated large scale realm vs. realm PvP. This just happened to also be the period of time just before the release of World of Warcraft in 2004.

Since then I've had trouble finding a long-term home for my leisure time in the MMORPG market. I think this is mostly due to the fact that I played WoW when it first released, didn't like it for various reasons, and ever since then I've been frustrated to find that all the things I dislike about WoW have permeated the MMORPG market. The most egregious example of this is Warhammer Online, where they took a great setting and IP and turned what could have been the premiere PvP title into a poorly designed WoW clone. But most MMORPGs released since 2005 or so have been guilty of some degree of WoW cloning.

I re-activated WoW earlier this year and managed to get a Druid up to about 74 before I just got plain bored of it. I really, really tried to give it a chance this time. But the kid-friendly art design, the dumbed down gameplay, the lackluster PvP, and what I found to be a toxic community just ended up turning me off again. I suspect I'll give it another shot after the furor over Cataclysm dies down, perhaps this time with a group of friends in an established guild. It seems like its the kind of game where its flaws become less apparent if played with good friends.

In any case, I know that there are many gamers like me that just never got the WoW spark. If you're one of those gamers, what is it that turns you off of the game?

And if you are a fan, keep the hate down to a minimum. No game is flawless, and I think the options I've listed are understood even by those who have dedicated the last 6 years to this game.

I dislike grinding and I dislike relying on lots of other people. I tend to play games to be the one cog or the guy who controls most the cogs. And the only way for me to feel extremely special seems to be to hit max level and take the same bestest skills and look for the same bestest loot as everyone else, doing the same quests and yada-yada, it just doesn't make me feel 'special', which would be fine but I don't really feel any sense of accomplishment.

I prefer to be the one spinning the cogs in games, not to be one of the cogs too, so when a game tells me I need to 'socialize', by which it means look for people I don't know and invite them to join a party and later forget about them, to be successful, that's not my deal. The only MMO's I play are for Roleplay, which may sounds lame, but is a hell of alot of fun because its one big powerplay for me and it actually feels like you're achieving something beyond what everyone else before you has, or after you will.

 

[El Poncho]

I may pick it up again some day, but I don't know what to expect as I have been gone so long. From my limited experience with MMO's, it's been my favorite. Honestly, my favorite part of WoW was just how impressive the world was. My fondest memories involve my guild and I doing random, irrelevant shit around the world from running to Hope's Chapel from Trisifal Glades with fresh characters to raiding Northshire Abbey with a pack of naked undead warriors with macros like /y BRAINS. I loved the excitement and danger that came with exploring every nook and cranny of Azeroth. If Blizz can't manage to allow me to recapture that feeling, I'll have a hard time getting hooked again. Also, I enjoyed the art style. The world was beautiful.

Well the whole of Azeroth is different now, even if it's only slightly different in some areas. Northshire Abbey is being attacked by orcs, Trisifal Glades has had some building updates, plus undead starting quests have changed and one of them relates to what the game was like previously which I found amazing. Undercity is being guarded by Orc's now because Hellscream the new Warchief doesn't trust them etc.

Travelling through lands I loved and seeing what Cataclysm had done to them, changing the quests around them, makes levelling fun again

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I'm the kind of guy who likes paying for the product once and for all and never giving another cent to the developer until the sequel or another game. I just can't afford an MMO and most have just never appealed to me.

Well, EVE appeals to me but that is my inner sci-fi nerd talking and not the common sense Redlin.

[sub]Common sense Redlin is such a buzzkill....[/sub]

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

I selected "other" in the poll.

The lack in quest variety and bad community turned me off, but mostly lack in quest variety.

IT'S ALL THE SAME QUEST OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

It doesn't need a deep story but seriously guys, some variety would have been nice.

I hear that in cataclysm the quests will be updated and changed and there will be "quest chains" to follow and complete. Does this mean that the quests have gotten any better? Anyone tried yet?
Has anybody noticed an improvement in quests?

I also hate the combat system, a fable the lost chapters system would have been much better, not this nerdy boring system.

I've played Cataclysm so far from level 1 to 65 on my priest and I'll say the quests are full of much more variety, Granted the same kill x amount of y quests are present, and in cataclysm some have been modified to accommodate new mechanics into that already aged formula.

I'm a WoW veteran and a big fan of the game as a whole. But even I know that the quest variety and zone re-vamp was necessary and the game is a lot better for it.

Until you hit the content from the first Expansion, then it's back to boring kill x amount of y quests again for 10 levels.

Also, 'Quest chains' have existed in WoW from the start, they're just a succession of quests that eventually lead to a greater reward at the end.

The mechanic for the quest chains however has changed, wherein you no longer have to walk back to the quest giver to complete your quest or start the next one, you get a prompt upon completion and then can start the next part from where you're standing.

I don't know about anyone else, but I find it extremely helpful.

Ah fantastic, I might just try it again.

Back on topic.

I also think that the monthly fee is unnecessary and just put there because blizzard is greedy, they have enough money and keeping a server up is NOT EXPENSIVE ENOUGH TO NEED A MONTHLY FEE.

 

[SadisticPretzel]

I've been playing since 05 and honestly, I'm ready to quit.

The redone world is beautiful, I'll give it that.

My issue with the game is that it won't just let me play my characters. Between the vehicle rides, gimiky vehicle quests, CONSTANT and unskippable cutscenes, and NPCs just jerking you around, I've spent more time lighting myself another ciggarette than I have playing. (I've leveled to 71 in the new-old world and my second 85 just dinged. So I know it's the entire game now.)

I play WoW to build my characters...To role play. Go out and have adventures, save the world and make sure my main's little herb shop in IF is constantly stocked. But WoW nowadays seems to be more about the game playing my character for me. That's a deal breaker IMO.

 

[Timberwolf0924]

My addictive and obsessive personality means I stay well away from WOW.

Both me and My Room mate tried to stay away. He got the game and gave me the one month free. I'm almost lvl 85 now.... Tis a sad.. sad day..

 

[Trilbi]

Other.
I hate the way Blizzard is using WoW to monopolize pretty much the entirety of the MMORPG market, not leaving room for any truly great games. Instead we have what I think to be a very mediocre, time consuming game. I guess that's two reasons, actually.

 

[Jaranja]

*snip*

If it makes you feel better to call those who disagree with you fanboys, by all means, go right ahead...

I'm pretty sure that bit was a joke.

 

[Durgiun]

The subscriptions. I can understand buying the game so you own it, but why in the nine circles of Hell would I need to pay them to get their holy, powerful permission to PLAY the fucking thing.
It's just retarded, in my not-so-humble opinion.

 

[Aeshi]

Other.
I hate the way Blizzard is using WoW to monopolize pretty much the entirety of the MMORPG market, not leaving room for any truly great games. Instead we have what I think to be a very mediocre, time consuming game. I guess that's two reasons, actually.

Maybe if said "great games" actually bothered to do something different to WoW they wouldn't be such failures.

I selected "other" in the poll.

The lack in quest variety and bad community turned me off, but mostly lack in quest variety.

IT'S ALL THE SAME QUEST OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

It doesn't need a deep story but seriously guys, some variety would have been nice.

If all the quests had to be different there would have had about 5 quests in the whole game.
How many different types of quest can you come up with without repeating any?

I also think that the monthly fee is unnecessary and just put there because blizzard is greedy, they have enough money and keeping a server up is NOT EXPENSIVE ENOUGH TO NEED A MONTHLY FEE.

Server maintenance? (Servers don't last forever and crashes aren't a one-time thing.)

 

[Grounogeos]

I still enjoy WoW, but I do agree that it's been dumbed-down too much and that the community can be a bit asshole-ish at times.

Other.
I hate the way Blizzard is using WoW to monopolize pretty much the entirety of the MMORPG market, not leaving room for any truly great games. Instead we have what I think to be a very mediocre, time consuming game. I guess that's two reasons, actually.

Maybe if said "great games" actually bothered to do something different to WoW they wouldn't be such failures.

That's actually how WoW started out. Pretty much everything other than the game's lore was basically copied (and improved) from other MMOs. But at least Blizzard made improvements to those things instead of just copying them.

 

[Max_A_Buck]

When I play a game, I play it until the end. If a game doesn't end, I don't want to play it.

 

[The Funslinger]

I played WoW a little. Problem is, it felt like I HAD to play, which put me off.

Also, I have lots of sad... not friends, but people I'm required to interact with daily. They kept insulting me for not playing obsessively and reaching level 50 in a week, like a true sad-ass. Then one got RSI in his arm from playing too much. Ah, justice.

 

[Diligent]

I don't hate WoW, so I didn't vote in the poll, but I felt like adding my 2 cents.
I no longer play the game, I enjoyed it, and it was made much more enjoyable by the fact that my sister who is on the other side of the country and myself leveled our characters to 80 cooperatively. It was a good way of keeping in touch a couple times a week.
What spoiled the game and turned me off of it was the "payoff" of raiding at the end-game.

On top of my bad guild experience which involved lots of stupid in-fighting and ridiculous drama which I took no part in,(it's a fucking game people!), for a raid you are pretty much required to know what you're doing before you've ever done it. How many guilds require you to watch videos of boss fights or tricky sections so that you're prepared? I understand the purpose - you want people to be ready as not to have a couple people single-handedly halt the dungeon for 20 others...but when you have a fucking homework assignment for a video-game, there is a pretty big problem there in my eyes.
Make sure you know this fight. Make sure to have these add-ons. Make sure you have these complex macros set up. Get this UI overhaul. It's all silly bullshit.

I would love to be able to play the game, and experience the raids fresh and new, and discover the boss fights for myself or as a group, but that's not something you can do unless you play on the test realm and do this stuff before it's released. Who cares if the group wipes a couple times? The fun should be in figuring out how to best the bosses as a group, and the joy and camaraderie that is felt when you do. It should not be about memorizing your positions, and going through the motions, and getting angry when somebody makes a mistake.

Anyway, that's my rant from a former player. I actually rather enjoyed the experience up until raiding.

Other.
I hate the way Blizzard is using WoW to monopolize pretty much the entirety of the MMORPG market, not leaving room for any truly great games. Instead we have what I think to be a very mediocre, time consuming game. I guess that's two reasons, actually.

I don't know that you can really be mad at Blizzard or WoW for that. They made a very successful game that everybody wants to try and emulate. If other companies could figure out that they're not going to compete directly with the WoW formula, and maybe try to create something fresh and different, we wouldn't have that problem. Guild Wars 2 for example seems to be realizing this.

 

[teisjm]

I think Extra credits encompassed a lot of the things i dislieked about WoW better than i could myself, http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2487-The-Skinner-Box

But yeah, The repetitive grindy combat, and the vast majority of gameplay in WoW is combat, the repetivite grindy rescource gathering and crafting. The only thing that didn't feel grindy to me was PvP, and PvP just wasn't that exciting when compared to other non MMO games focused around it (love DotA/HoN for instance)
I love the whole lore part of WoW, while the story more or less is "yet again a bad guy bigger and badder than the previous apears, and the countless heroes grind their way through hordes of mobs to get good enough gear to beat him" the deep whole world and athmosphere is enthralling, and the way it can be explored in an MMO more than makes up for what the story lost in the transition from RTS.

But still, athmosphere isn't enough to warrant a monthly fee for me, i'll skip athomsphere for gameplay, and could find other games with great athmosphere that had more enjoyable, less grindy gameplay.

The whole social element is easily something i can do without, since i'm already on vent with my friends while gameing, even when playing different games, obviously we don't disturb each other when playing something that demands concentration, but often we talk whilegameing, both whose of us in a agme together and whoever is on vent but in anotehr game.

 

[vivalahelvig]

Because the free private server i played on went down.

 

[Aeshi]

"repetitive and grindy" can be applied to just about every MMO game (that you don't like) in existence.

 

[pejhmon]

moooneeeey needs to be in the op's poll xd

I think money would fall under having no interest in any MMORPG. Although seriously, a normal game is $60 new. That's 4 months of World of Warcraft right there. With the inclusion of game-time cards 'money' isn't really a great reason, you can easily get more content out of 4 months of your typical MMO than you would out of all the content in a typical new release.

But at least with non-subscription games you can just wait a bit then the price goes down. Besides, you still have to buy WoW before you start the joys of subscription fees and at the moment buying the game with all expansions costs ~£46 which is about $70. Water's seeping through your argument mate unless you consider WoW to be equivalent to 2 games over 4 months play.