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.
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.