Rant time. The state of WoW. This game lacks severely in many departments. What keeps me going? My friend or two that actually plays, and the fact that there is NOTHING BETTER. Lets evaluate.
EQLive: Yes, Everquest 1. A game that was amazing when I played and now its turned into shit. EQ is only good if you’re still currently in one of the top 3 guilds kicking ass with awesome people. Coming back to the game is like calling up an ex-boyfriend who cheated on you so that can get cheated on again. Fucking ridiculous. The UI is ancient, the models are asstastic. C’mon SoE…hire a fucking designer to revamp your models, it hasn’t been done since Luclin. And who wants to wait 5 min in between every mob to med up before you can kill again?
EQ2: My the disappointment that is EQ2. They just took another giant nerfbat to the combat system, so the game just feels lost. Even the designers don’t know where they’re going with it. The game is trying to fit into a world that doesn’t exist anymore. 2 million subscribers don’t lie, the world wants casual gameplay more than the raiding game. I like a mix of both, which WoW has not done very successfully. If you’re going to have a casual leveling rate and soloability then you need to have a decent end game. Everquest 2 is like scratching your nails on a chalkboard when it comes to the exp rate (although it has been tweaked now with Vitality and ‘bonus exp weeks.’) The end game supposedly isn’t *too bad* with EQ2 but who has the patience to get there? I mean talk about monotony. The graphics are nice in EQ2, but the negatives far overshadow the good. The models suck (though Half Elf piercings are sexay), the UI is horrid, the map and the world is ridiculous. Who honestly thought of having two completely divided cities and a total of like 4 zones you can exp in. Plus, if you have to instance your exp zones you’re doing something wrong. I don’t care if you have the ’server technology to create instances on the fly’…its assinine and its not the immersion and community aspects that people play an MMORPG for.
WoW-
The leveling system was great. It kept you entertained and the quest lines were mostly fun (although run here and then back and then run ALL THE WAY BACK again quests are lame.) The classes are amazing in WoW. I think they did a great job with class balance although most others will disagree. But think about it, how many times have you heard “OMG, warriors mortal strike is so overpowered”..or “Holy shit, frost shock FTW, shamans need to be nerfed.” You can literally say that about everything, revamped dru cat form, priests fear, warlock’s fucking felhunter that owns me in duels, rogue’s ambush…whatever. If every class needs a fucking nerf, then the GAME IS BALANCED. Quit bitching.
MC…c’mon..the instance is pretty boring. There are some decent encounter designs for a few of the bosses (Domo and Rag ftw) but for the most part its a boring instance. The clearing is very dull. Remember Vex Thal, the bosses that had like a bajizzillion HP? That was frustrating and MC is the same way. And BWL….man I really like the Razorgore encounter design…its shitty for repair costs but its a damn good design. Although I don’t like their Sony view of cockblocking with the first boss and then the following bosses be substantially easier. That’s just delaying progression, bottom line.
I love what WoW did with priests though. GJ making the main healing class have a decent amount of damage output and versatility. Too bad our healing tree is so fuckin gimped. Trispec FTW.
WoW just has a great ability to leave people hanging. Never have I see an MMO that really has such a low amount of character attachment. Everyone wants alts, alts of their alts..and then more alts. Because, there’s nothing to do but run pickup groups of the same instances over and over again and raid with your guild. But what to do when your guild is not raiding? Do a profession that will cost you a ridiculous amount of gold for no reason? I just end up talking to people and then logging off. And supposedly there is not going to be an expansion for over a year. What is this shit? And ZG comes out and its like a fucking 8 hours instance. I don’t have the time for that shit…I just want content that’s not so easily devoured that displays some element of game design skill and tests the abilities of the players. Not their ability to sit in the same place for 8 hours, but their ability to strategize.
I’m done ranting. But my bottom line for WoW. Its a great game to level to 60, then stop and level again to 60. I think the exp level needs to be slowed and the end game needs to be buffed up a bit. But that’s asking a lot of a company….companies want money, not to please me.
Tami Baribeau is the Associate Producer for Metaplace, Inc, currently working on Island Life. She is also the Lead Editor of feminist gaming blog The Border House, and the National Facebook Games Examiner for Examiner.com. She can be reached on Twitter or by email.
