World of Warcraft: Why is it hated by so many gamers?

[Tranka Verrane]

OK I haven't read through every single post here but I play Eve and not WoW (and yes I have tried it) and here's why:

1) Cost: With WoW I have to buy the game, then pay a monthly subscription, all the while that next time an expansion comes out I have to buy it all over again.
With Eve it is free to start, then a monthly subscription, and once I got good at it I was able to start playing for free, paying with ingame currency, without breaching the terms of the game subscription.

2) Social: I live in the UK. The vast majority of WoW English speaking subscribers seem to be in the US. Therefore I have to either log on at off-times to my friends or log onto a European server where a goood 50% of the people you meet don't speak to you, and can't understand you.
Eve is primarily English-biased, and even those not in English speaking countries tend to understand it. Plus it's all run from one server, so I can chat and play with anyone I wish, anywhere.

3) Age: The difficulty levels and the fact it is so text based tends to push the average age of Eve much higher than the apparent age of WoW players. The Eve EULA specifically gives 13 as the minimum age for playing.

The only reason I have to wish I could play WoW at all is the roleplay element, which in Eve is sadly underplayed. Crossing fingers this will be sorted a little when ambulation comes out.

 

[Bagaloo]

A few things about WoW, as both a player and a fan of the franchise:
1) Yes, its pay to play. However, in my case, £8.99 a month for a game that I routinly get many hours of play out of is a good deal. I could buy a new game each month, which could cost anywhere from £20-£50, and some of them wouldn't last me the entire month.

2) It does reward skill, just not the same sort of skills everyone seems to associate with gaming. WoW rewards forethought and planning, good use of strategy and good reactions, which is notable in the PvP side of the game. Just because there is no 'twitch', or other skills that might be required for different genres of game does not mean that it requires no skill to play.

3) Addiction. WoW can be about as addicting as any other game, depending on your personality. I refer now to an early post in this thread about the Fallout 3 / Fable 2 / Oblivion completionists. Yes, some people put a lot of time into WoW. Some people also put a lot of time into various Final Fantasy games. The point is, stop stereotyping us. WoW players are not all automatically addicts who live at the computer and don't go out.

I know this post isn't going to sway a lot of you to liking the game, but it was never meant to. What it basically boils down to is that I'm getting fed up with the amount of abuse people can receive for playing World of Warcraft, and I'd like to see a little more toleration.

The bottom line: stop stereotyping WoW players, and if you don't like the game thats fine, just don't hate on other people because they do.

 

[Sir Pysco Sexy]

Its good when you're into it and enjoying it... but really you're only prolonging the painful extraction of this addiction from your soul... all for the better mind. Now you can... actually do stuff with your life, instead of spending literally MONTHS of your life sat... playing... ONE game.

Can we please drop the 'WoW players do nothing but play WoW and are addicted' stereotype its boring and wrong.

Whilst I agree that stereotyping generally isn't useful or helpful to any discussion. I was just offering my opinion post 'my-WoW-days'. I think that looking back I was addicted, and that I had to sacrifice too much time to get to play the better part of the game. The comrade-spirit and teamwork element was the best part of WoW for me. But its messy, you can't deny the fact that there are players in their thousands if not millions that don't do much else OTHER than play WoW. But thats for another thread?

 

[bad rider]

I think we're basically in agreement on the whole racial thing, yes it's arguable that horde racials can be better, it's all a matter of opinion. 10% ap to beasts? come on, 1% health regen... seriously? +5% int doesn't help a rogue, warrior, or DK. sure 1% crit to guns and bows is cool but that still doesn't matter too much in the long run.

Back to the topic. IMHO WoW is hated because it is so popular. Popular things are usually hated by a large group of people because they don't understand it, are jealous of its success, have a bad taste in their mouth from being a part of it, and several other reasons. Mostly, because it's popular. You can't hate something you don't know about; but like Yahtzee said, "Sometimes popular things are popular for a reason, because they're good..." 11 million think the game is fun, and you can't say it's a bad game with those numbers, you can say you don't like the game, and i respect that.

Most people don't like WoW because of the former, YOU don't like WoW because of the latter.

Don't you think It has some thing to do with the amount of grind involoved? Either you like grinding or you don't, the fact it's popular makes the majority of the large grinder population get drawn to it.

 

[Hamsterlad]

people are just mad because it is the best MMORPG there is and there game has been overshadowed my it.
personally i love the game so meh

 

[Marowit]

After going through a lot of these posts it seems that the main reasons why people don't like the game is that

-It's addicting
But this is obviously more defendant on you personality, and less on the game.

-It has a monthly fee
$15.00 isn't all that much if it's the only game you play, but can add up when you play other games.

-It doesn't overtly exclude people
This seems to be an unstated reason why a lot of people dislike it, but one of the most pervasive. It's probably the first MMO that has allowed the *majority* of players to advance their characters to 'epic' gear, and probably the main reason it's been so great at openning up the genre. But, for most old-school MMO'ers the ability to have gear that others *couldn't* was the reason to advance your character. So through exclusion, usually based on time constraints, most players were unable to advance and left the genre.

EvE is a current example of a MMO that puts people off before the trial is even over. I know An hour into the tutorial I put it down and never came back, but a lot of people seem to love the game. Though, I am sure this is the reason why those who stick around love it.

 

[DizzleMcSizzle]

i hate it because its just one long epic grind

 

[Abedeus]

people are just mad because it is the best MMORPG there is and there game has been overshadowed my it.
personally i love the game so meh

Best MMORPG? Opinion.

Maple Story has more players, it's just not a P2P MMORPG.

-It has a monthly fee
$15.00 isn't all that much if it's the only game you play, but can add up when you play other games.

$15 is here half the price of a new game (like Fallout 3, for example, or GTA IV).

Although, yeah, tons of people hate the grind, if that's the case, than it isn't that WoW isn't for them, it's that MMOs aren't for them.

I'm so sick of that argument. 3 of 7 games I have currently installed are MMOs - Guild Wars, Ragnarok Online, City of Heroes.

Some games can get grind done right, some can't. WoW couldn't.

EvE is a current example of a MMO that puts people off before the trial is even over.

In my case, WoW put me off after 3 hours of trial and 7 hours of private servers. I dare to say I've spent more time downloading the game than playing it.

 

[Teachingaddict]

Ok one ex-wow addict here. I quit three times - first time because it affected my relationship, second time because of course reasons and third time ---because getting to level 75 and reasliing it was the same shit different day. I have recently begun to play EVE Online --- im truly loving it so I will compare both to give an example. I warn you this is very generalistic

1)Gameplay

WOW - level to 80 as quick as possible, choose either PVP or Raiding, fight for best gear, finish, do other parts (e.g. Raid --> PVP) when no content left, rinse and repeat

EVE - no level, no endgame, do what you want as and when you want to, PVP, Build, Run a corp, contracts, hunt pirates, PVP

2)PVP aspect

WOW - ok some skill to this I admit, but generally, choose the right tactics, or fight against a nub and win

EVE - this is the games main stay --- to those that say WOW needs tactics, you should try this one out for size, battles can take months to plan, every fight is different, tactics are a MUST as is the selection of the right equipment.

3)Longetivity

WOW - yes ok you have your achievements, geenrally though you can be done with all content within three to four months if good enough.

EVE - years, and yes I do mean years.

4)In game or off game

WOW - WOW requires you to be logged on to gain any form of reward, thus demanding time and commitment.

EVE - log on once a day for five minuts and you are done, skills are real time based, there for you can set a skill and then not play the game for a few days should you require or need a break.

5)Difficulty curve

WOW - I think WoTLK blew this out of the water, anyone who can press a button can gain high rewards in this game, and no im not generalising here, a trained monkey could do PVP and still get good gear.

EVE - Extremely difficult, gets rid of the nubs straight away, but gives a nice challenge, a challenge you feel is more than rewarding when you get to various points.

6)Player base

WOW - ok RP or not, the servers where always FULL of idiots, spamming chat, sending threatening messages, giving LOLZ etc etc, clans where nice but some demanded you take WOW as a second job.

EVE - similar this one, some corps require time and commitment, some do not. However, I have not come across one "numpty/nub/noob/idiot/flamer/troll" yet, yes there are corp wars, and yes you can getr ganked, but the majority seem to be more "mature".


Thats it for now, but I hope i've put across why I will not be returning to WOW ever again, and why the new main stay for me is EVE.

 

[Abedeus]

WOW - I think WoTLK blew this out of the water, anyone who can press a button can gain high rewards in this game, and no im not generalising here, a trained monkey could do PVP and still get good gear.

Ding ding ding.

If a monkey blindly smashing keys (even on a well-build character) can win with a human (even stupid ones), something is wrong.

 

[GothmogII]

I used to be a big WoW addict, until just before the expansions started coming out... I bought both the expansions but stopped them after a month of gameplay... I guess once I had reached the max level (60 at the time), i just couldn't be arsed to redo missions like "kill 12 boars, collect 52 venom patches..." Also the fact that most of the people I played with had stopped pretty much killed the game for me.

Wait what...if you only got to 60 why'd you stop once you got the expansions? The level cap was 70 in Burning Crusade and 80 in Wrath. So either you my friend are a telling a teeny little lie there, or you wasted your money on two expansions which you did nothing with. -_^

 

[ui264]

I used to be a big WoW addict, until just before the expansions started coming out... I bought both the expansions but stopped them after a month of gameplay... I guess once I had reached the max level (60 at the time), i just couldn't be arsed to redo missions like "kill 12 boars, collect 52 venom patches..." Also the fact that most of the people I played with had stopped pretty much killed the game for me.

Wait what...if you only got to 60 why'd you stop once you got the expansions? The level cap was 70 in Burning Crusade and 80 in Wrath. So either you my friend are a telling a teeny little lie there, or you wasted your money on two expansions which you did nothing with. -_^

I agree. the next level cap brings more dungeons, lands, monsters, etc. Find an active guild and go raid with them. it's very fun. (PvP rocks too)

 

[timmytom1]

Well, I dislike it because because of it, we may never see Warcraft 4.
and I really don't like paying monthly for a game I already bought.

This

 

[Lukeydoodly]

The only reason I do not want to play WoW is because I WILL get addicted to it.

Other than that, seems pretty good if you have some friends who play it with you.

 

[Archemetis]

I'm not a hater, but i've been off it for months now, and i haven't really even fully considered going back to it, I've got it installed on my PC and my characters are still around, but i'm just not actively involved in the game and haven't seen fit to renew my subscription to it for around... a month after Wrath came out.
I played my Death Knight it was fun until I hit 64, i couldn't be arsed to level my Mage another 10 levels to grind shitless for end game I probably wouldn't get invited to, So i gave up.

But having it installed is a good reminder. It's like people who quit smoking but still carry a pack of cigarettes on them, it's just there as a reminder or just in case.


But as for the Hate, I am willing to agree the gameplay which is only really present in the latest expansion is repetative at best and hardly worth the time, really.
I can say this from the perspective of someone who did achieve the level cap for the last expansion and there was no fun waiting for me at the end, the game does not 'start' when you max out your levels, it merely get's more tedious.

Leveling, in all actual fact is the only part I actually had fun with.

PvP, hate it.
PvE, it was fun, provided I was invited. (I wasn't a bad player, but at the same time I wasn't the greatest either)
RP, Yeah I like developing complex characters and stories, but unfortunately the people on the reciviing ends are usually idiots unless you're on a good server.

So yeah, for me at least, leveling is the only fun.

And collecting shit. (My character still has a rotting bear carcass in her bank.)

 

[Xanadu84]

Some people hate it because it does the MMO thing. Repetition, variable reinforcement scheduals, Social Faciliation, community, and a sense of achievement that can be compared to many others, while remaining accessible. Its not everyone's thing, and is pretty illogical when you think about the grind. But for some people, some games do a good job of hiding the weaknesses. A lot of people either don't mesh with MMO's, or happen to not mesh with WoW in particular. And given the illogic in all MMOs, when you don't happen to mesh with it, it just looks stupid.

There's also a bit of elitism. Lots of people play WoW, including lots of stupid people. Also people who are casual gamers, and are seen as inferiors because they arn't old school/don't appreciate the games pedigree (take your pick). Its nice to be part of an elite group, and WoW breaks that sense of community because EVERYONE seems to play it.

And there's plenty of nit picks that make a game just not your thing. Graphics are easily rendered by any computer/aren't at all technically impressive, Story is entirely a matter of taste, and maybe the barebones of game play just isn't your thing.

 

[EgoDeusEst]

World of Warcraft: It's a treadmill that makes you fatter. Bet you've never heard that one before /sarcasm
Don't argue with it, because it certainly doesn't make your health any better.

My problem with World of Warcraft is simple: It's not interesting at all. My friends have tried getting me to play the game many times, and it never caught on. I hate MMORPGs because they're boring, repetetive, timeconsuming and addictive. I guess it's like when Jehova's Witness or the Christian missionaries knock on your door and you just want to tell them to bugger off.

People not wanting to pay monthly fees are not cheapskates; they're just being reasonable. Imagine buying a CD and still pay for it every month.

The social aspect of it is a cheap shot and can be easily replaced by.. you know, going outside. Last month I bumped into Chanology at random, protesting outside the Scientology HQ in Copenhagen and joined them. That's just one way I've met new people. And it's free. It's cold, but free. And you get to slay some non-digital monsters

Plus, there are the times when someone just won't stop jibbering on about their WoW equipment.

By the way, if you want to play a free online game with a community that takes up your time, I suggest oGame. No actually don't, it's very addictive.