Why the hate against WoW?

[Xbowhyena]

I am a casual player of WoW, and I'm asking the question, why do so many people on Escapist seem to dislike WoW? I don't raid, I don't pvp, I just level characters for fun. It's well worth the money I put into it, and I don't sit on my computer for hours on end playing WoW, I get outside the World of Warcraft, I have friends, a life, ect. I've seen a lot of hate against Blizzard on these forums, and it seems like Valve is worshiped on this website, but hey, I'm down with that, Valve makes good games. I've seen on so many threads, things about how WoW players all must play the game for at least 15 1/2 hours a day, have no social lives, pay way too much for their "drug", are lazy and don't work, fail college, and hey, in a decent number of cases, this is pretty much true. I just roll with a good casual group of guys, some of them raid, some are just in it for the friendly atmosphere. I don't feel that $15 a month is bad really, WoW is a fun, expansive, very open game with many options for gameplay, leveling one toon will never be the same as leveling another, granting exceptional gameplay. Maybe $15 a month, the game, and two expansion packs seems retarded to some people, I see it as virtually limitless content to explore. Why all the hate? WoW isn't the only MMO in the world that constantly sucks money from your wallet. It's not like this is a new thing. Why is all this hate directed to this exceptional game?

 

[VitalSigns]

Why do you care?
if you like it play it.

 

[Xbowhyena]

I don't like it when something I like is taking flak. Would you like it if I just came up to you and said, "Dude your GF is a whore, but you like her so it's fine," what would you do? I'm not saying that, she is probably very nice

 

[Nouw]

I don't hate WOW but be thankful my friend isn't on the forums. He hates it so much that I think he's in a I hate WOW clan in Xfire. The only thing I dislike about WOW is the graphics.

 

[Quadtrix]

Same reason many hate Satan; the stealing of souls.

 

[Bakutakamine]

Because, WoW involves no strategy,no clever gameplay, no story. All it is is grind, grind grind grind grind grind. Only people who have never played a good game before get addicted to WoW.

If someone wanted to play a good RPG play Diablo II, it's even by the same people except it involves thought and is actually fun.

 

[dontworryaboutit]

Killed my dog.

 

[Zobers]

Because WoW, isn't rally much of a game. The reason it became so popular is because it was the first of it's kind, was addictive, and was time consuming.

 

[OneKlicKill]

ya the reason i hate wow is because it took up 2 years of my life back when it first came out. that was of course until i realized how much i ruined my real social life being such an obsessed player. i quit and now when i look back i hate it mostly because I used it to waist 2 years of my life.

 

[Xbowhyena]

I have both games, and Starcraft (I'm a total Blizz fanboy lol...) I dearly love both of them, but Diablo is more of a button mash really. WoW has a lot of strategy to it, especially in higher end raid instances such as Ulduar. No MMO has ever pulled off a good story in my opinion, but WoW was by far closest, having the backing of many previous titles. And as I've said, all I do is level characters, I enjoy the grind. Though pvp in WoW sucks.

 

[freakaknight]

I think that WoW is shunned so bad for many reasons, one of the bigger ones being it's addictive nature and it's links with crime. A friend of mine refuses to play it for the fact that people were in slave shop like things mining for gold... *shrugs*

Personally WoW is an all right game.. but it's not as good as it's hyped up to be, Graphics, gameplay etc. I personally believe there's better games and better mmorpg's out there. That and i'm not personally keen on mmorpg's, i prefer offline where you're not hassled by noobs or doing the same repetitive thing and the fact you don't have to pay monthly, i find that as a reason to 'HAVE' to play it and as gaming should be a leasure thing, i don't like that.

What i'm trying to say is in this insane hour, is that most people hate WoW because so many people worship it, over-hyping it to an extreme which makes everyone else want to smash WoW players' faces in lol.

(oh and also i know of many cases of people neglecting children and families due to WoW...heh)

 

[Xbowhyena]

That's not WoW's fault.

 

[DrWilhelm]

It's very comfortable to assume that there must be something wrong with people who enjoy something that they themselves don't enjoy. I frequently find myself slipping into this mindset, especially when the topics of Football, Gangster Rap and Twilight get mentioned.

I used to play WoW but quit shortly after WotLK when the game started crashing regularly. Originally I intended to come back once I fixed whatever the problem was, but I realised that the game had become progressively less fun for me over the past few months, which isn't especially surprising considering I'd been a fairly regular player since about a year after it was released. I might give it a shot again after my exams to properly explore the WotLK content but I doubt I'll stay for long.

Oh and for the fools who love clinging to the belief that WoW is as addictive as heroine, I had no problems quitting the game despite having a fairly addictive personality and being prone to rapidly changing emotions.

 

[BolognaBaloney]

I hate Wow because it steals my friends lives away, and turns them into a husk of a man, more machine than man.

 

[quack35]

Because Yahtzee tells them to.

Morons.

 

[DrunkWithPower]

I don't hate it, I find it more entertaining the millions of people are sitting in dark rooms for hours and hours, crying about their lvl 40 Icy staffs of ice that shoots smurfs that sing "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" to the musical toon of wookie mating screams from Endor about how much Marvin Gaye is overrated compared to Al Green, then Klengons attack the rebel alliance for not sending enough space cookies through the fusion cannon that actually shoot live puppies that transform into giant fire breathing dragons that Gary Busey tamed... which isn't actually taming, it's more hating Michael J. Fox. Anywho, it's the fact (for me anyway) that instead of curing cancer (or anything of equal or less merit), they play, pwn, complain, and blog about their lvl 62 elf riding a bear.

 

[Aur0ra145]

It stole 3 of my friends.

 

[NeutralDrow]

1. Gameplay: Yes, the game is interesting. But all it is an ultimate grind session. It becomes tiring and feckless work. The true reward, from what I heard, doesn't start until lvl 60. By that point those with nerves of steel would stick around. I tried the whole grind thing and I lost interest. I was rich, but I just lost interst.

Those people are idiots. If you didn't enjoy the game before level 60, getting to level 60 would have been a waste of time.

2. Crafting: Crafting was by far the coolest thing I've done in that game! It was simply awsome and great in the beginning and good money making! Thing is though, when you get enough money or a higher level the things you'd craft become obsolete to the stuff in the shops or in the raids. I feel like my armour or weapons are only stepping stones to the nice shiny shiny at the end of a raid, and who wants that? The crafting system was good, yes, but wasn't important and made you feel like you were going through transition to a raid.

Bah, I just crafted stuff for myself. Thoen again, as someone who started with Engineering, that's probably because I quickly got used to never, ever making things anyone else could use (and thus were worthless to sell).

6. Story: I felt like there was no plot or story to the game. What main quest I've done an hour ago soon loses relavence an hour later. The plot never felt coherent for me and so I felt loss as to what was going on in the story. Thus I felt that what was going on around me didn't matter and I felt no real connection to the world, and I stopped caring why I was killing bears.

I'm actually kind of sad to hear that, though it's understandable.

7. Quest Drop Ratio: I'm sorry, but this is annoying. How many times does someone have to whack their giant sword or cast a spell on a mind numbing amount of monsters, more then you should, just to pick up one item...out of 5 more you need to get?! When does that ever become fun?!

That's really my only problem with the game. I still remember having this exchange over broadcast.

Other Player: "I've killed ten tigers. Why do I only have three pelts?"
Me: "The others were secretly made of felt."

I think I'm done. In conclusion I never enjoyed WoW because I never felt a connection to my player or the world around me. My actions felt like they would go unnoticed in the story and no matter what profession I took it wouldn't matter because it would only be used for that raid item. The game only got better around lvl 60 from what people are telling me and I keep saying that the game should be good around lvl 1, but I'm guessing from their faces that it was too much to ask. Also, the PvP aspect was horrible. I play to fight!

It's weird. I've noticed a lot of the same things, but I don't mind them as much. Perhaps it's because I play just for myself, but then I'd have to come up with a way to explain that...

 

[Brickcups]

I don't think it's really anything about WoW. It's just a lot of people who play it don't know how to manage their time and things tend to spiral out of control. Whether it's a sudden drop in real life social interaction or massive weight gain over a short period of time; it's easy to see how WoW manages to garner so much "hate" from both the gaming and non-gaming community. But hey, at least it's better than the people who get so into a game that they forget to eat, and DIE.

All in all, it's about self control.

 

[NeutralDrow]

I am a casual player of WoW, and I'm asking the question, why do so many people on Escapist seem to dislike WoW? I don't raid, I don't pvp, I just level characters for fun. It's well worth the money I put into it, and I don't sit on my computer for hours on end playing WoW, I get outside the World of Warcraft, I have friends, a life, ect. I've seen a lot of hate against Blizzard on these forums, and it seems like Valve is worshiped on this website, but hey, I'm down with that, Valve makes good games. I've seen on so many threads, things about how WoW players all must play the game for at least 15 1/2 hours a day, have no social lives, pay way too much for their "drug", are lazy and don't work, fail college, and hey, in a decent number of cases, this is pretty much true. I just roll with a good casual group of guys, some of them raid, some are just in it for the friendly atmosphere. I don't feel that $15 a month is bad really, WoW is a fun, expansive, very open game with many options for gameplay, leveling one toon will never be the same as leveling another, granting exceptional gameplay. Maybe $15 a month, the game, and two expansion packs seems retarded to some people, I see it as virtually limitless content to explore. Why all the hate? WoW isn't the only MMO in the world that constantly sucks money from your wallet. It's not like this is a new thing. Why is all this hate directed to this exceptional game?

Beats me. Maybe they just don't believe people like us exist.

I am a casual player of WoW, and I'm asking the question, why do so many people on Escapist seem to dislike WoW? I don't raid, I don't pvp, I just level characters for fun.

Especially this. I do the same thing (eight characters, only one above level 20 so far).