WoW, where's the love?

[Willeus]

Over my short time here on the escapist, I have already noticed an almost forum-wide hostility towards WoW. I mean sure, there's a handful of escapsists who love it (including myself), but the majority seems to feel otherwise. I was just wondering, what is it that makes people hate WoW? Is it a past experience they've had with the game? (IE: Played too much or simply didn't like it.) Or is it it's popularity that throws off our non-conformists? Now I must ask, what makes you hate or love WoW?

Personally, I love it mostly because its something to do when I have downtime. And as a junior in highschool, I have too much of it.

 

[SniperWolf427]

I played my share of WoW (about two years) and have no problems with it.

Last I checked, Blizzard was winning their round in March Mayhem. Not as many people hate WoW as you seem to believe.

 

[Shapsters]

I think it is a drug, and it drains peoples lives from them. I have heard more stories of people having absolutely nothing in their lives but WoW than people casually playing it and that is exactly the reason why I have not played it, nor will I ever.

 

[Daemascus]

Been playing for 2 years on my night elf warrior and I still cant get enought. And Cataclysm looks amazing.

 

[Angry Caterpillar]

I've been playing it on and off for a bit, my friend keeps dragging me back in. I'm alright with it, not my cup of tea.

But if you want game-hate, try mentioning Bungie or Halo in a positive light. They shall descend upon you like a pack of emaciated wolves looking for a meal!

 

[Amnestic]

Oh the people who like WoW are around, I assume many of them frequent WarCry more than the Escapist though. The people who like it tend to get drowned out by the people who don't really like it, but that's just the way it goes.

Or is it it's popularity that throws off our non-conformists?

While I certainly don't think that's all of it, I do think that is a factor in part.

 

[Random Argument Man]

I had some good times on it. However, I think it's time to move on. I have university. I started meeting new people. There's only that girlfriend issue to fix.

If I could replay my old experience, maybe I would. However, I have no plans for it right now.

 

[quiet_samurai]

Because it is a parasitical (I don't even know if that's a real word... but it should be)entity that steals your time, money, and health... the worst thing about it is that it's so damn fun.

 

[MisterShine]

I'd say the main reasons why people dislike wow:

1. Hype backlash

2. The community is god-awful

3. They just don't like the MMO design

4. They want back the time they spent playing it

I'd say that covers most of it. Also, put in descending order of frequency, in my wild imagination.

 

[Amnestic]

that steals your time, money

Can't have both. Either it's stealing your money because you're not playing enough or it's stealing your time and not your money. MMOs generally offer the best £:Hour ratio of any genre simply because of how much they're played.

Edit: And that's already accepting the caveat that they're 'stealing' something which you choose of your own free will to give them.

 

[Katana314]

I'm sorry if I come across as hostile talking about it. I think it's just as great as all other MMOs.

That said, all other MMOs are addictive wastes of time devoid of actual gameplay and requiring disproportionately low effort on the part of developers.

I've tried some MMOs, and I realize the only reason I'm completing the quest is to get XP and gold, which I'll use to gain levels and get stronger equipment so that I can go on harder quests to get more XP and possibly even join a guild so that I can spend time chatting about why that one guy's TeamSpeak is not working and the one healer has to be leaving to go to bed soon.

In full: Discounting the eventual goals, there is no pure reason of immediate "fun" to be playing an MMO. It is nothing but a progress quest.

Mowing down an enemy team as a Heavy in TF2: Fun.
Pressing the auto-attack button to start battle with your 40th grawlok to finish that quest: NOT FUN.

 

[Tharwen]

I've played for 4 years, but now I'm doubting whether I actually want to continue. I'll give it one more month, and then make a decision (I think that not having played due to term time for 4 months is a big factor).

 

[JWW]

Good things I have to say about WoW: Beautiful landscapes and textures, despite the engine being out of date; and a massively open world that gives a sense of awesome in the true meaning of the word.

Bad things: Needs to connect the quests into a few big ones that are less repetative; needs to let the player control each swing of a weapon/direction of a spell or arrow with the mouse; needs to have a singleplayer mode.

 

[Krat]

My life was set back a good few years because I played wow at the bleeding since Vanilla. Is it the games fault? No, that would be my own lack of discipline and self control.

Addiction is starting to become a get out of jail free card for our own failings.

 

[littlewisp]

I don't have hatred for WoW myself. I just became saturated with it, and rather than go into oversaturated nerdrage meter, I just simply stopped playing. I was to the point where I was rushing home for work to make it on time for raiding. Rather embarrassing, now that I look back on it. I moved on to Aion and lots of long, lazy days of grinding.

Ahhh, yes, just what I wanted. A more laidback way of wasting time.

 

[HontooNoNeko]

I rather enjoyed my time with WoW I rate it as my favorite game because of the time I spent on it. Can't say I agree with people saying its addictive I played for 5 years of my own free will and quit on a whim Because I decided its no longer fun. Its fine if people don't like it but I don't see how people can say its a waste of time/money on a forum about gaming.

However as I've seen the community can be somewhat anti-noob at times. I could try to defend it and say that there is a few realms that has a good community but honestly its pointless alot of the better communities have blocked themselves from the masses to avoid any possible corruption amongst them.

 

[Vitor Goncalves]

Good things I have to say about WoW: Beautiful landscapes and textures, despite the engine being out of date; and a massively open world that gives a sense of awesome in the true meaning of the word.

Bad things: Needs to connect the quests into a few big ones that are less repetative; needs to let the player control each swing of a weapon/direction of a spell or arrow with the mouse; needs to have a singleplayer mode.

I always thought of the single player mode, U got all in ur computer, u might aswell just explore the world on ur own with being harassed by gangs of twelve year old asking u to boost their lowbie chars, spammed by gold sellers and bullied by ur guild officers. The absence of that and was a mjor facture that lead me to quit the game.

 

[The Madman]

SHHHHH, there there, it's alright Warcraft! It's not because of you that I left, it was all me. Ya see, I've just all this stuff going on and money is tight and all that, you know how it is. We just needed a break from one-another!

Once I've cleared my head some and times aren't so busy I'll be back, don'tcha worry! I hear ya got that Cataclysm thing going for ya, that's good! I'm happy for you, really I am.

Anyway, yeah... guess I'll be seeing ya! Bye for now!

 

[ArcWinter]

I played it, and it was boring. The combat, the crafting, the quests. The graphics weren't too shiny (not that it really matters) and with most of the fun stuff coming at high levels (or so I have read) that I didn't have the will to achieve, it did not hold up to the hype, which has been described as "seriously addicting... a medical emergency".

Combat-wise, I'd say Guild Wars is better.
Cost-wise, I'd say DD:O is better.
Crafting-wise, I'd say Runescape is better.

What I'm trying to say is that it was boring and there are other games to play where I would rather spend my time, if I felt like playing an MMO, which I haven't for around 2 days.

 

[hyperdrachen]

Think this probably comes down to vocal minorities, it must given blizzards success. People that want to hate on it will, people that like the game just stay quiet alot of times. I've actually never played so I have no opinion at all.