WoW and the hate towards it

[TOGSolid]

Did you ever stop to wonder that maybe your friends would rather play WoW and chat with people on WoW than hang out with you because it's funner?

Then someone in this link is amazingly socially inept. Either yourself for being that big of a bore to be around, or your friends for being lardassed, basement dwelling twits who the closest they'll ever get to a vagina is when they browse 4chan.


My only problem with WoW is that it is a very shallow game. Grind for levels, then grind for gear. Woooo that's really fun *eyeroll*. Last time I checked playing a RPG involved doing more than just grinding characters, something a lot of RPG developers have forgotten. The minute you slap a leveling/attribute system on your game it's like you're given carte blanche to label your game a RPG all you want.
You can't actually effect any real changes on the WoW world on your own. The "quests" add up to absolute fuckall. They're just a way to help you level up faster and dole out some gear to help keep your character going along the way.
Anyway, I'm sure the rants have been heard more than once, so all I've got left to say is:
Eve Online > WoW any day of the week.

 

[ImStarKiller]

WoW is an addiction because of the feeling of obligation most people get to the game, not all people but many of the release players. The game raises anger due to the fact that anybody can and does get epics, thus epic gear is more like blue and legendary is more epic. The game lacks drive, people sit and wait around six months for a new patch with some new content, or in the BC Xpack case years. It's not bad as a game but most people make it there life or job.

 

[gibboss28]

What ??? WoW is nothing but addictive !
You start you lvl your like:hey cool
you lvl again : oh new skills ill test these out then ill do somthing else
You lvl while messing about : sweet ill just lvl again to see the new skills

now youre hooked ! you follow this pattern till you hit 70 when you do its all about new gear !
when i had a go at WoW i dint see the point ? no story like ? no direction ? nothing but i still got hooked for a week or so till lvl 43

so whoever said its not addictive is just blind or ignorant ( no offence )

-Jindrax

So because when you level you get new skills thats how its addictive.

And theres no story to it? There is A LOT of storyline in WoW through the hundreds of quests that there are, through the many events that have/will happen through the bosses and alot of the major NPCs in the warcraft universe there is storyline.

Please stay away from me... for I fear you have the dumb.

 

[Kraj]

On the hate-side, have you ever seen the psychological breakdown of wows system? It uses gambling laws, which are random reward-based quests, if you've taken psychology you know exactly what i'm talking about. its built to captivate the addictive personality.

on the love side, wow is more about mindless repetitive tasks as an excuse for socialization.

on the even side, i play oblivion and then go out with my friends. -_-

 

[Xvito]

I've never really understood WoW.
The first time I played it, I played it for an hour and all did was going around clicking on things 'til they died.
Doing that for 70 levels is not my idea of fun.

 

[magicmonkeybars]

I don't play wow never have never will.
anything can be addictive it doesn't need to be a mmorpg but mmorpg do seemingly require alot of time in game to get anywhere and not playing lets the people you play with down.
people are social creatures and given the social part of wow it is easier to abandon the real world social network for the wow social network.
while a civilization addict will at some point crave human contact the wow addict won't because they have human contact in game, wow is too much a supplement for real world interactions leaving people bound to the compuet desk without a reason to leave it.
I don't hate the game, I don't care about it at all, if people want to spend there lives grinding away in a fictional world then all the more power to them, at least they're not out in the street killing people or something like that.

 

[Alex_P]

The design is more focused on creating addictive behavior than consistently fun play. Fighting monsters is like playing slots: the action itself is horribly boring to the point of being downright robotic, but the rare payoffs -- the good loot, which drops -- keep people engrossed (also there are flashy colors). Pretty much all MMOGs work this way.

Likewise, like many games, particularly in the RPG genre, daydreams of what you could be are often much more satisfying than what you actually are in-game. A lot of the players are sitting around dreaming about how awesome their characters could be, but that awesomeness will never come because it just doesn't exist. It's kinda like a dysfunctional D&D campaign in that respect. "Maybe after I level I won't be doing humdrum stupid bullshit!"

-- Alex

 

[Lt. Sera]

The hate mainly comes form the first time MMO'ers hitting the max level and then burning out after finally realizing they don't have the time, or the determination to keep up the end game (grind, or instance wiping). The reason you see so many is because for the first time, MMORPG gaming has hit the big time: The more people that play, the more that complain.

At least that's my theory.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

WoW to me has this kind of demented balance:

Good things: It is inarguably the best MMORPG ever made, and ass-rapes any other MMORPGs taking a shot at that particular genre (this is not fanboyism so shut up). The game has a colorful variety of enemies to fight as well as class abilities, mix'n match professions and blah blah blah...

Bad things: It is, as we all know, a soul-devouring moneywhore. There's an overfocus on PvP and there is just way too many retards going around in-game ruining the fun for serious players. Oh yeah, and the never-ending grinding, don't get me started...

 

[Drmortuss]

I was playing the game on average about 5 hours a night in order to clear Black Temple, Hyjal, SSC, and TK then still have the weekend and Friday nights off (I know it sounds like a job, but I was actually having fun clearing all of those instances).

After the Sunwell patch the guild I was in (Aristoi) broke apart because we were tired of having to progress through new shit every other week it seemed like, we busted our asses to be top guild Horde side and what did we get? A steaming shit of an instance, so we all said to hell with it, some people moved to Conan but others like me said fuck MMOs in general and went back to real life.

Funny thing is I made some life long friends from basically hanging out with them for 5 hours 4 days a week, I began to know those people better than some of my real life friends because of that...
But not I'm Warcrack free for 5 months, sold my account and everything so I don't go back either.
Point I'm trying to make is no, its not the game, it actually is the player. If someone chooses to spend hours on that game, for what ever reason its their choice not the game making it for them.

 

[Ronmarru]

I don't like it because it's not fun. It just didn't click with me. The main problem being the incredible time investment to be only average. With other games the more you play the better you get, with this game if you stop playing you'll fall behind.

 

[Necromaniacal]

Lol the warcraft discussion ill say what ive said over and over, WoW isnt nescerserily and bad game, its just people take it to new extremes, personally i would sit their (dont play anymore) and say "right today im getting to level 30!" then id proceed to complete this aim, if i didnt, meh, it will still be their tomorrow, and ill do it tomorrow, i never once thought, "fuck it ill ring in sick and play WoW all day lol" or not go and see my mate for the fear of not being able to grind all night.

Addictive things arent at fault for being addictive, its the fault of the user for becoming addicted, I dont understand the hate of WoW, but I do see what would probbably be more accurately described as "Concern" about its effects on people, but thats what the account managment page is for, think your playing to much? limit your gameplay.

 

[Gotham Soul]

I'm not going to rant as to why I'm actually for World of Warcraft as an incredible social experience and a good game. My reasoning can be explained by this presentation by John "Total Biscuit" Bain from WCradio.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5327497459334792260

 

[[zonking great]]

We have a very cheap starter set here, you can pick it up for a euro or 2. I tried it. It wouldn't even start, as it pretended to need more and more disc space every update.
As for friends getting hooked..I've seen them. Now they're going for Age of Conan.
Weee. Bandwagon!

 

[DerGermanGuy]

I played WoW for quite a 1 1/2 year. I made some raids and stuff. But it came to the point that it was just grinding gold and stuff to go raiding for better equip...
It took me 3 month of that and then I lost my motivation to go on. i liked it and played few classes but in the end its just hunting for equip which is 2% better then what you have right now.

I payed some money for some haapy hours of gameplay which I miss a little bit because the gamemechanics are aproved and well ballanced in my opinion.
Nowadays I spend my time in RP-games like Hellgate or Diablo II... (I'm not cured from the grinding-virus )

 

[tobyornottoby]

I certainly hate it for what it has done to some people... maybe wrong, but you don't wanna accept the truth sometimes

 

[bassie302]

please do inform us of this 'truth', as you've at least peaked my interest...

outside of that, I find myself recently not as much playing WoW because I have to play it, and indeed because (everyone tells me) I'm addicted, but because I want to hang out with my friends. Perchance I've never seen their faces, but I don't need a face to know someone... I've been talking to them more then long enough to know what kind of people they are.

I find myself not much of an addict, though whenever I'm on holidays I do not miss the game itself, I miss my friends. Now when talking about this concerning 'real' friends, nobody thinks of this as strange or addicted. But mention the word WoW once and suddenly you're branded as addicted since you're online friends aren't real, but imaginary somehow, and used by that evil corporation to keep you hooked to their game.

Also, on several occasions I used to be complimented on teamwork skills by teachers. Now I generally answer them that I have experience working with groups, since I do. Once however I made the mistake of telling them these groups were mostly raid groups in WoW, at which point I literally got laughed at. I had to spend half an hour explaining that though it is a game, teamwork is vital for raiding, and then having to ask "what would you have said if I never mentioned the raid part?" before finally getting through to him.

In my opinion the thing that made WoW (and MMO's in general) big is the social aspect. You can get to quite a bit on your own, but at some point or another, you have to start grouping up. This evolving into getting in touch with people you like, getting in a guild with aforementioned people and doing things with those people, be it raiding, battlegrounds or stomping on a tauren's face in the Barrens... You don't keep playing it because of the divine and perfect gameplay (there are plenty of flaws to rant about, each MMO has it's own), but because you're playing it with others.

On to the topic of the hate towards WoW (and maybe MMO's in general), I would guess it's because it's relatively new (at least big enough now for media attention) and never done before. "An online world where one can roam about freely, doing as he likes and have contact with other people from cultures he never knew existed? This must be dangerous or evil. This can only be the work of the devil" Okay, maybe I'm taking it too far, but the same reactions were made against things like rock music or the GTA series or even the first FPS-games. Yet all of those are commonly accepted these days, and I see no reason why MMO's shouldn't be.

 

[Spleeni]

*shudder*
My best friend since Kindergarten has been playing WoW since '05. Ever since then, he greets people by backstabbing them, talks about hamstringing when he wants someone to stop, and loads of other things that freaks me and everyone else out.

WoW must DIE.