WoW and the hate towards it

[Aries_Split]

All you people that say this game has corrupted one of your friends or yourself, shut the fuck up.

If you are captivated by a game, or gambling, you are a weak willed bastard, and according to Darwin, YOU must die by starvation and dehydration, slowly wasting away in front of a computer screen. Your friends and relatives will give up on you, and it will take weeks for them to even realize your dead. The cops will find your corpse in your Computer Room, drenched in the stench of Energy Drinks and hot pockets. Your glasses have slid down your face, and you are an unrecognizable mess. After a few tests, they will list you as dead in a small section of your local obituary, you will be buried without a funeral, and the media will proceed to rant about how video games kill people.

That is your fate if you get addicted to an OBJECT.

 

[Gotham Soul]

I'm a little tired of hearing the rather lame argument, "World of Warcraft sucks! All you do is grind." To judge a game based on the core principle of the genre can and will make any game suck, as SenseofTumour stated in an above post. Observe.

"Halo 3 sucks! All the you do is point at something you want dead and hold down a button."
"Guitar Hero sucks! All you do is hold down buttons and flip another button up and down."
"Starcraft sucks! All you do is select a bunch of guys and tell them to kill things."

To rip on a game simply because it is following the core of its genre is NOT good criticism.

Moving on.

A majority of the hate towards World of Warcraft is its popularity. Ten million subscribers with Blizzard being so pumped full of money that they could buy the moon of Europa. Its natural for society to lay the blame on something bigger than they are. Bark at the bigger dog, so to speak.

On another note, what is your opinion of what a "social life" is? Does the fact that you are speaking to real people through a technologically advanced medium of communication make them less of a friend? Does having seen one's face in person determine whether or not they are your "friend"?

The people you interact with on WoW can be called your friends. You know them, you've talked to them, either in the game or over VoIP. You know where they're from, you know what they like, you know your personalities. To state that one has no social life simply because he or she interacts with real people in different ways does not hold any weight behind it. That's like accusing a student of mental retardation because he or she writes on paper instead of typing on a screen.

Judging from what I've seen, the majority of human society believes that you must fill a list of requirements to establish "friendship" with someone, or to call someone a "friend". Because most of the people who accuse WoW players of having no social life believe that the ones the players are talking to are obviously just very, very advanced AI with distinct personalities and can't possibly be other humans. Blizzard must have the best artificial intelligent programmers in the fucking world, then.

At this point, saying one is addicted to WoW is like saying one is addicted to making new friends through a new, advanced method of communication that has never in the centuries before us been achieved until now, communicating with those friends and doing activities with those friends, even if its just in a virtual world. I can say right now, that 99% of those players play World of Warcraft because of the social interaction and the community that inhabits whatever realm they play on.

The only thing I will agree with is that every player needs to learn balance, lest they let down the immediate people around them. Its much like being a part of multiple groups of friends; rest assured, you neglect one and that group will most certainly feel betrayed in some way.

 

[Alex_P]

I'm a little tired of hearing the rather lame argument, "World of Warcraft sucks! All you do is grind." To judge a game based on the core principle of the genre can and will make any game suck, as SenseofTumour stated in an above post. Observe.

"Halo 3 sucks! All the you do is point at something you want dead and hold down a button."
"Guitar Hero sucks! All you do is hold down buttons and flip another button up and down."
"Starcraft sucks! All you do is select a bunch of guys and tell them to kill things."

To rip on a game simply because it is following the core of its genre is NOT good criticism.

If repetitive play is the "core" of the MMORPG genre, then I guess frenetic clicking is the "core" of the RTS genre and $40 music packs masquerading as full games are the "core" of the music game genre.

In my previous post here I said that the worst thing about WoW is that the designers embraced its predecessors' legacy of shitty design instead of throwing the then-prevailing MMORPG conventions in the gutter. I'm going to reiterate that because I think it needs saying.

WoW is a good game. But it's basically an EQ clone. Its success means that most MMORPGs for the next decade to come will strive to be "WoW killers" and thereby end up as EQ clones. That's definitely poisoning the well as far as the genre is concerned.

-- Alex

 

[squirrelman42]

it's attacked because it's the best. It sells the most because of how easy it is to learn and people stay with it because of how much there is to see and do. I've been playing almost since day one and I still have things I'd like to see. To me the gear is a means to an end and that end is as much endgame as I can see.

I play it, but I do other things too, it has not stolen my soul. Whenever anyone blames a game, they are just trying to shift the focus from theirselves to something, anything, not them.

 

[Tiut]

The main reason I hate all MMORPGS: Grind.

 

[Berkll]

i hate WoW without playing it for one very hippie reason: it's size.
the way i see it, WoW is everything that is mediocre and average about MMO's today. the fantasy setting, the epoch-spanning grind, the meh graphics. if it were any other game, i wouldn't hate it, i would ignore it.
but it isn't any other game. it's WoW, and it's goddamn huge. it takes up so much of the market share and media attention that it has become the comparison point for all MMO-dom, to my rage.

imagine if you were a car lover, and 95% of cars on earth were honda accords. so when you talk about your vintage mustang or whatever, the person you're talking to always, every single time, replies "so, is that like an accord or something?".

and that is my relationship with WoW. i can only hate it for its success, as it smothers innovation in its sleep.

I understand what you mean with this. I myself started back with Everquest 1, before any expansions. And whenever I mention this aspect to someone I meet who is a wow player they act like, "LOL WHUT? I SAW DAT EEN A MEWZEUM WONCE"

WoW has made MMO's mainstream, something no other one has been able to do so far on this magnitude. We should actually be happy about this because this encourages many people to create their own MMO's, though sadly 70-90% of them are WoW clones. But there are those that are coming up with creative new ideas slowly but surely, ushered on by the success of Blizzard.

I have to say something about WoW. It isn't that innovative, there haven't been many things that WoW has done that someone else hasn't done before, BUT what they do they do damn well. They've managed to learn from other companies what the target audience wants, mash it all up into a nice package, and then perfect those elements. If it's your cup of tea, awesome, if not, please realize that WoW cannot be "OMG T3H WORZT GAME EVAR" if it makes more than every single person's lifetime income combined on this board, in only one year, obviously they're doing something right.

And on the money subject about the game. I do understand the bad rap it receives for it's subscription payment. Supposedly it's there so that we can fund further development of the game and improve so we can have a better experience.
Con: When they DO actually accomplish this goal, they do it well, but they do it so damn infrequently it annoys the bejeezus out of me. Really, an expansion only once every 2 or so years? People max out in a month or two of the release of the game, and then they distract them like little children with new shiniez that they'll only receive after raiding the same content for half a year earning their dkp until they release, *gasp* another raid zone or faction to spend WORKING towards. Burning Crusade was great, until yet again you grind the same stuff for over half a year.
Pro: If you do enjoy MMO's, the monthly subscription is actually quite the money saver. 15 dollars a month, think about this. You go to the movies, depending on location, anywhere from 8-11 dollars just for the movie, then popcorn, 5 dollars, and a drink, 4 dollars. My friends, you have just spent 17-20 dollars on 1.5-2 hours of entertainment. At bars the bill will get even higher. IF you enjoy games, this will actually save you money, though the trade off is you should spend at least 10 hours a week to really make this worth it. If not, don't walk this path, lol

I played WoW until 60, then raided a bit, hated the grind, and quit until BC. Played again, maxed out, got my epic flying (before dailies, ***** of a thing to do), kara epix, gruul epix, ZA epix, and badge epix. I finally perma-quit this game realizing to myself that it wasn't a game anymore and that I had a job that I was paying someone else to do. When it is fun, it's fun, when you hit 70... Well, that's depending on your point of view, but it looks like I got hired to pay Blizzard for my time at that point.

 

[KittywifaMohawk]

I don't hate it, I kinda like it.

I don't play it but my brother does, and he's been trying to get me to join. I would accept for the fact I have no money, it actually looks like a fun game.

 

[tenk51]

I like the game because it lets me talk to my friends that i don't get to see much anymore. The actual game part of the game though... its really boring. The quests are getting better with the new expansions but a large portion of them are like " go get 8 bear teeth" or "go kill 20 trolls" so what you end up doing is killing the same enemies over and over again for a long time, and its not like your even really in control of the action, it feels more like your telling your character what to do, instead of you being the character. Even pvping isnt all that fun because you cant even talk to the people on the other side. the game lacks an overall feeling of emersion if you ask me, and i honestly can see how anyone could get addicted.

 

[Berkll]

I'm a little tired of hearing the rather lame argument, "World of Warcraft sucks! All you do is grind." To judge a game based on the core principle of the genre can and will make any game suck, as SenseofTumour stated in an above post. Observe.

"Halo 3 sucks! All the you do is point at something you want dead and hold down a button."
"Guitar Hero sucks! All you do is hold down buttons and flip another button up and down."
"Starcraft sucks! All you do is select a bunch of guys and tell them to kill things."

To rip on a game simply because it is following the core of its genre is NOT good criticism.

Moving on.

A majority of the hate towards World of Warcraft is its popularity. Ten million subscribers with Blizzard being so pumped full of money that they could buy the moon of Europa. Its natural for society to lay the blame on something bigger than they are. Bark at the bigger dog, so to speak.

On another note, what is your opinion of what a "social life" is? Does the fact that you are speaking to real people through a technologically advanced medium of communication make them less of a friend? Does having seen one's face in person determine whether or not they are your "friend"?

The people you interact with on WoW can be called your friends. You know them, you've talked to them, either in the game or over VoIP. You know where they're from, you know what they like, you know your personalities. To state that one has no social life simply because he or she interacts with real people in different ways does not hold any weight behind it. That's like accusing a student of mental retardation because he or she writes on paper instead of typing on a screen.

Judging from what I've seen, the majority of human society believes that you must fill a list of requirements to establish "friendship" with someone, or to call someone a "friend". Because most of the people who accuse WoW players of having no social life believe that the ones the players are talking to are obviously just very, very advanced AI with distinct personalities and can't possibly be other humans. Blizzard must have the best artificial intelligent programmers in the fucking world, then.

At this point, saying one is addicted to WoW is like saying one is addicted to making new friends through a new, advanced method of communication that has never in the centuries before us been achieved until now, communicating with those friends and doing activities with those friends, even if its just in a virtual world. I can say right now, that 99% of those players play World of Warcraft because of the social interaction and the community that inhabits whatever realm they play on.

The only thing I will agree with is that every player needs to learn balance, lest they let down the immediate people around them. Its much like being a part of multiple groups of friends; rest assured, you neglect one and that group will most certainly feel betrayed in some way.

I really like the point you make here about the social "requirements" for having a relationship. I've known several "socially unaccepted" beginnings to relationships that friends and family have had that led to love and marriage.

Example 1: Girl's sister gets married and moves to another country. Whilst in that country the sister meets a guy who she would think would be a fantastic match for her sister, gives him her address and he writes her a letter. (This is before the internet guys, don't freak out on me)
She surprisingly receives the letter, reads it, and replies. Over the course of a year or so, (I don't remember the exact time), they write letters which led to phone calls, which then at the end of that period led to them meeting in person as he bought a plane ticket to visit, then eventually they marry and many years later are still smiling and happy enough to relate the story to me while they cuddle together on a couch.

Example 2: I began playing Everquest when I was 12, at 14 I joined a pretty well established guild doing the beginning of end game content. In the guild I had a friend who was like a "big brother" to me from England. He in game married a guildie of ours and they fell in love through EQ. They emailed, talked on the phone, and eventually my big bro flew from England to Florida to meet her. He proposed and she said yes, 7 years later I receive an email from the guy and they're still fantastically happy.

Both cases fell in love before they even met the person.

What do these two have in common? When these people told their friends and family about this, they were met with surprise, bewilderment, and even disgust. I was told of how so many told them "How can you fall in love with someone you've never even met?"

WoW is a medium of communication just like any other. Physical contact, phone, instant messaging, letters, MMO's, and text. Did not having the person directly in front of them prevent having a real honest relationship? Actually, the relationship they developed was even stronger than many people who met immediately.

I myself have a best friend I developed through WoW. We've discussed life, love, vidja gamez, hate, and we both even migrated to Age of Conan together. Just because the relationship was developed through a game didn't mean that he wasn't as good of a friend as my "IRL" best friend. I'm a pretty social college student that goes to parties, clubs, the mall, my friend's houses, and many other things, but I play video games in my spare time, and one of the most meaningful relationships I've developed was through WoW.

So don't just bash on people for having their social lives through the internet or a game. For some it means so much more to them, WoW just made it fun for those people to get to know others, and horrible once you meet t3h 13wt wh0r3z.

 

[Thesreyn]

Play WAR Online.

 

[tobyornottoby]

In another note, what is your opinion of what a "social life" is? Does the fact that you are speaking to real people through a technologically advanced medium of communication make them less of a friend? Does having seen one's face in person determine whether or not they are your "friend"?

The people you interact with on WoW can be called your friends. You know them, you've talked to them, either in the game or over VoIP. You know where they're from, you know what they like, you know your personalities. To state that one has no social life simply because he or she interacts with real people in different ways does not hold any weight behind it.

(too) short answer: getting laid

(don't use your own mental model of the concept 'social life'. You'll have to use the one from those who will say you have no social life)

 

[Mojotusks]

Play WAR Online.

No thanks i have dignity.

In another note, what is your opinion of what a "social life" is? Does the fact that you are speaking to real people through a technologically advanced medium of communication make them less of a friend? Does having seen one's face in person determine whether or not they are your "friend"?

The people you interact with on WoW can be called your friends. You know them, you've talked to them, either in the game or over VoIP. You know where they're from, you know what they like, you know your personalities. To state that one has no social life simply because he or she interacts with real people in different ways does not hold any weight behind it.

(too) short answer: getting laid

(don't use your own mental model of the concept 'social life'. You'll have to use the one from those who will say you have no social life)

you think just because you cant get laid on the internet its stupid to meet a girl there? your retarded.

 

[khululy]

world of warcraft... you pay to waste your time...
don't get me wrong I love gaming and so on. but WoW forces you somewhat to buy online time to make your character better and better.
If I buy a book something I don't want to pay for extra ink to fill the pages with words.
just let me play online for free
Diablo 2 FTW

 

[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.

Shush fanboy !

Obviously ur already addicted lol and theres no point telling a coke addict that hes qn addict... If by story line u mean the half assed bored beyond redemption text that pops up when you take a quest that people only read to find out what they have to do... then you may aswell nominate the intro's of soul caliber 4's story mode for an oscar...

Go away. Thats all i can say to a stupid douche such as yourself.

So because i stick up for something using what people call logic I'm all of a sudden a fanboy. Jesus H Tapdancin' Christ... please...go away

 

[PhoenixFlame]

This really depends on what you mean by "WoW hate", because there are two distinct areas from which it stems.

The first is what you were describing - either the people on the fringe who haven't played it or played it for very long, but have heard every horror story in the book about it, from raids to breakups of marriages, to the "Battle.net kiddies" forum area, and beyond. There's some hate coming from here mostly because of not understanding or disliking the gameplay, but also of the addictive design element that, more than any other potentially addicting game out there, makes attempts to hook you and keep you hooked. Some would call this good business practice, while others would go so far as to call it amoral for the sake of making a buck.

The second is from MMO players, not many of whom I see in this thread. The ones who are ex-WoW players who have been totally turned off from it and seek any other MMO's success to stake a claim about WoW's flaws - because it does have them. Sometimes this hate is justified - after all, if another MMO delivers on what you failed to find in WoW, then you really have solidly confirmed that leaving it was a good decision. But some of it smacks of the same kind of fanboyism you see in the console wars, or to defend popular games (Halo or GTA come to mind), or any of that other nonsense.

I understand the reason both type sof this hate exist - because of an ingrained need, justified or not, to ensure that people know a product that is touted to be universally loved is not.

Where do I fall? I played WoW for 2 years, and was through just about all of Naxxramas pre-BC. I was a senior officer and a raid leader, and it became a chore and a job. When I realized this, I had to quit, especially in light of the fact that my friends, which are the real reason I played so long, could not experience the content I did without also compromising their time. I'm an MMO player, and realize why people like WoW, but I do make it a point to tell people that despite it's heavy subscriber numbers and huge success, it isn't perfect, and it isn't for everyone. I don't "hate" WoW - but I certainly dislike it for some of the fundamental reasons why some people continue to play it.

 

[Ionait]

Poof

 

[Gotham Soul]

If repetitive play is the "core" of the MMORPG genre, then I guess frenetic clicking is the "core" of the RTS genre and $40 music packs masquerading as full games are the "core" of the music game genre.

In my previous post here I said that the worst thing about WoW is that the designers embraced its predecessors' legacy of shitty design instead of throwing the then-prevailing MMORPG conventions in the gutter. I'm going to reiterate that because I think it needs saying.

WoW is a good game. But it's basically an EQ clone. Its success means that most MMORPGs for the next decade to come will strive to be "WoW killers" and thereby end up as EQ clones. That's definitely poisoning the well as far as the genre is concerned.

-- Alex

In my belief, repetitive play is the core of the MMORPG genre, or in any case, its the core of it now. That was my point. And that's also why I believe that criticism against it is not very convincing. You go out, get quests, kill things, come back and advance. Kill everything you see to level up, get new skills, and magical weapons and armor so you can more efficiently kill everything you see. Rinse and repeat until you've hit the level cap, and then you start doing quests for money and you run dungeons over and over again. There are only a few exceptions (that I can think of) that deviate from this "formula" that supposedly makes an MMORPG what it is.

However, I will most certainly agree with you on that last point. The fact that everyone wants to be as successful as World of Warcraft will definitely limit the new ideas and concepts that could possibly save the MMORPG genre from the oh-so dreaded grind.

(too) short answer: getting laid

I do hope you realize how blatantly misogynistic that statement is, but I'm not going to deviate from the topic.

 

[Asehujiko]

theirs a WoW Rehab clinic in Holland now.

Which requires you to sign a NDA about your treatment as well as a contract that you won't "slander" them and charge upwards of 250 euro's for 30 min of talking to other people who also got ripped off(by the clinic). Why not join the Co$ immediatly? they also offer salvation in the form of a DC-9 for roughly the same conditions.