posted
I know we have some people here playing it. How are you enjoying it? How does it compare to EQ/DAOC/SWG, etc?
I'm not going to be playing EQ2 because I don't have broadband, my video card sucks, and it doesn't have PvP.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
My brother beta tested it. He is a big DAOC fan because of the realm vs. realm fighting. You can PK, storm keeps, or stay in your safe country doing quests. He likes that DAOC is dark and striving to be realistic. He is a big fan.
He thought World of Warcraft was too cartoony. He was not impressed with the PVP set up--according to him, DOAC has the best concept.
Based on his opinions, I have decided not to buy it.
He surprised me yesterday by telling me he bought it.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because the player controls are so easy, and it is so fun that I quickly forget I don't like the graphics or the PvP element."
He recognizes the the cartoonyishness of it is on purpose and many people like it.
The feedback I am hearing is that player control is very user friendly. People seem to have fun.
posted
The guys here at work are totally addicted to it (this is PC Support, so they are all computer geeks). Some of them spend 5-6 hours a night on it after leaving work. (poor families).
I can't afford it yet, and my home dial-up connection won't be good enough to run it anyway. Otherwise, I would get it.
At $15 a month for one account plus the cost of the software, it is just too expensive for us. We use at least two accounts when we play these things, and that adds up. In fact the only reason I let myself get drawn all the way into it was because I knew that the door would shut for me.
That said:
Dying is cooler. If you can't be rezzed, you wake up in a shadow world in the closest cemetary and have to run to your corpse. There is a little orange arrow in the minimap telling you where the corpse is.
But it also sucks. You rez with lower life, and if you got yourself in a nasty place, you are still there. The only option, sometimes, is to simply rez as close to safe as you can, and then run while getting hit. Yeah, you were probably with a group that got you there, and the group sucked, and now you gotta die/rez about 3 times.
Graphics are beautiful. In the opening, you switch from the 'movie' to flying over the world to come down where you will spawn. You realize as you get closer that this is real game time. You see the other players as you come down to spawn. That was a pretty good first impression. When you get to be a bit higher level, you can experience that again with the flying transportation. Yes, flying. Instead of horses, you get a gryphon, or hippogryph, etc depending on what race you are. You can look wherever you want as you fly.
As you surmized, that adds up to needing a great video card.
One thing that sucks about the flying transportation, is that you have to have actually gotten to the connecting point on foot or by some other means before you can use it. This is probably to prevent low levels from getting to a place that would be impossible for them. There are a couple of other options: an underground tram from the main human to the main dwarf/gnome city. You can do this at any level. And there are ships to islands where the freaky long eared elves and orcish races dwell. Didn't get there before the beta stopped.
Experience
Not bad. Easier to experience solo even if you are a mage or healer. But it isn't anything spectacular. I think I may have liked the DAOC system a bit better.
However, a big plus is the bonus in experience gains you get after having logged out for a significant enough amount of times. Gives those people with a life a little bit more on the experience scales than the hardcore players who are able to level so much faster. Also, resting in an inn or being in a city will give you a small boost in experience gained in your next couple of kills.
Skills
Very well set up. The secondary skills are cool, especially first aid. As a mage, I couldn't heal anyone, but I could give them a bandage that would give them some help.
There are also secondary professions that are pretty cool, you only get two though. You can do smithing, tailoring, mining, etc. Many are complementary to each other, like mining and smithing. I chose herbology and alchemy. You had to actually look for herbs in the world, then you would need to gather them to create your potions.
Questing
I consider it a lot better than DAOC's quests. Less back and forth delivery boy, more kill tasks. What little bit of errand running was pretty much one way, seemed to be to help you explore the world, and tended to lead to a kill task at the end. For all of this, you usually got pretty decent experience. Unfortunately, I wasn't there long enough to get very far into the epic quest, but it seemed like it was working up pretty good.
Grouping and socializing
DAOC's system was definately set up better, both for distribution of experience, quest items, and chatting. The chat window was set up very poorly, and poorly navigated though.
Other stuff
World of Warcraft experiences its time in real time with your world. I like this a lot more. It makes it better to keep connected to the flow of time in the real world.
The minimap is great. Arrows on the outer circle show the direction to the cities you are near, and if you ask a guard for directions, a gold arrow will appear. Resources for those gathering them appear on the map itself as yellow dots. There is also a big map you can switch to, showing exactly where you are in the area or on the continent with a zoom out. It shows the detail of all the areas you've explored. If it had added the location of mobs, you could do away with maps altogether.
I hadn't experienced PvP yet.
Overall, I liked it better than DAOC. But my husband likes DAOC more. I think a lot of this has to do with the emphasis our gaming takes. I like well done quests, and acquiring skills and he likes raids and PvP. The poor chat window I think would diminish the effectiveness of raids. However, I think as a higher level once you got into enemy player lands, it would get a lot more interesting than the set up battlegrounds of DAOC.
I haven't played EQ so I can't comment on those differences, but I hope it gives you an idea.
Posts: 3495 | Registered: Feb 2000
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Blizzard is still pounding out some server issues, but they're becoming a rarity now.
The only MMORPG I played in addition to WoW was FF XI. I could honestly never get into it enough to warrant buying it and its subscription (played on a friend's machine for a week or so). I was drawn into WoW instantly, and it seems to be fairly intuitive. I suppose that's particularly true if you've plaed WC III and Diablo before.
I've heard a few people complain about insufficient video cards, but mine isn't awe-inspiring, and plays it splendidly. I've also heard people praising Blizzard for designing it so they can play with 56k dial-up connections. I'd rather not do that, but it seems to have been done.
The PvP is, well... interesting. I'm still low level, so I've been run over by high-level raiding parties a few times. But I'm looking forward to the day our guild is high enough to either raid, or defend against raids. That seems to be a massive draw to the game (most the new servers they've added have been PvP, which you don't have to play).
By the way, anyone who is starting up. Feel free to join the Eastern PvP Server: Shattered Hand. I'm running around there, and need to know more people on both the alliance and horde sides. (alliance so I can get items from alliance cities, and horde for killing alliance).
posted
I think CoH and WoW dual citizenship (assuming you can afford it) is the perfect mix of all that is decent in MMORPGs. CoH is twitchier, more straightup comic book action (basically you play to save the day, over, and over...), while WoW is a little more "world immersive". WoW get's the PvP edge, at least until CoV comes out next year.
Except for the WoW's interface, which sucks (but Blizzard exposes a UI interface so people can modify it to some semblance of usefulness, and the major server issues WoW is having (that CoH never did).
MMORPGs I've played/beta'd: UO, AC1, DAOC, WWIIOL, AC2, Shadowbane, CoH, WoW. Plus assorted MUSHes (I'm not a fan of MUDs, for some reason).
Amka: The ghost thing was done in UO back in 1997
-Bok
EDIT: Me and some co-workers are starting out (all lvl10-15 right now) on Magtheridon, an Eastern PVP server.
posted
World of Warcraft is by far the funnest mmorpg I have ever played, and I've played quite a few. Thats all I can really say without repeating a lot of the things everyone else has already mentioned.
Posts: 1753 | Registered: May 2001
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My husband and I quit EQ1 for this game, and I'd have to say both of us are thoroughly hooked.
Good things- The environment is beautiful even though it is cartoony (which doesn't bother me at all) and the lack of zoning and load times is very immersive. The quest system rocks. I love being able to walk into a town and know instantly who has a quest for me, I love the quest window so I can keep track of them, and I especially love that the quests are very worthwhile in terms of exp, money and items gained. The UI is intuitive and was very easy to get used to, and you have the options to customize it to your liking. The tradeskill system is nice, not very click intensive or a major timesink. I almost died when I was able to tell it to "create all" while making bars of copper. I very much like the auction house in the way it frees me up to go do other things while my stuff is being sold. I've never been much for PvP (I'm on a PvE server) but I do enjoy helping to defend my home from the invading Alliance scum. Death is not as hard to recover from, you can run your ghost back to your body and rez there, choose to be rezzed at the Spirit healer (if you died in a bad spot) or a player can rez you. It doesn't cost exp to die, the only effect is some rez sickness and loss of some item durability, which can be easily repaired by a armor vendor. Instanced zones are very cool, you and your group get the whole place to yourself to accomplish your quest goals. Every time I've been in an instance my group always comes out at least 1 level higher with bags full of loot. I could keep going and going... suffice it to say I love this game.
Bad things- Blizzard didn't anticipate the popularity of the game and is having probelms with overcrowded servers. The CST servers are crashing and laggy on a semi regular basis. I think one of their biggest mistakes was to group servers by time zone. People who crossed over from other games brought friends from many different time zones, and rather than separate they all chose to be on Central servers. As a result, the CST servers have the highest population and the worst problems with lag and crashes. Blizzard is now urging new subscribers to choose servers not in their time zone. I think they should do away with grouping them by time zone altogether. There are still some bugs- problems with instances kicking you out, quests not quite working, guild creation is bugged, and I have problems sending mail to my friends. However most of these problems, while sometimes irritating, do not hamper my enjoyment of the game. This launch has gone smoother than any EQ expansion ever did, and I'm confident that the problems will be fixed as Blizzard adjusts to the overwhelming mass of subscribers.
Feel free to look me up, I'm on the CST server Whisperwind on the Horde side. My character's name is Anzha.
Posts: 262 | Registered: May 2004
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I got my first semi-bugged quest last night. I never got to finish it because the quest person wouldn't talk to me, and the quest disappeared from my quest log.
I got my wolf though (my final pet will be a turtle though).
posted
Right, figured bumping an existing thread would be a better choice...
I've always loved the Blizzard Cinematics for their games, but how in this world is this a good idea? I think the concept of it being live action bothers me the most...
Final Fantasy (theatrical release) wasn't... well, a total bust at least. Dungeons and Dragons certainly was. Is there good precedent for this?
EDITed to add that is seems to have been picked up by Legendary Pictures (see here )
Posts: 1368 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Well, the lore is there to make a decent story, I guess. Same could be said for Everquest or EQ2, or. . .well. . . most MMO's have a lot of backstory.
Personally, I never got into Warcraft. The RTS format of game never appealed to me. as a rsult, I never player Warcraft 2 or 3 and don't really know the lore. I was talked into buying WoW a couple of weeks ago, but I've already canceled my account. The game was. . . *yawn* as far as I'm concerned. I got 2 characters to 14th level and. . honestly I didn't want to get either of them even that high, but kept at it for my friend's sake trying to see if I'd like it more later. But I didn't, and she's not *that* good a friend that I'll be bored online for hours on end to play a game with her.
As to the movie. . . I think I'll see it, just 'cuz.
Anyone heard anything about the Runelords movie? The website is shut down, so I'm assuming it didn't/isn't going to happen, though imdb says it's still scheduled for a 2007 release. Anyone know more?
Posts: 1323 | Registered: Aug 2001
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If the movie is a theatrical length CCG movie on par with the quality of the WOW opening cinematic, I will DEFINATELY go see it. I enjoyed FFVII: Advent Children ALOT, and I still think a movie done with the technology is very viable.
I don't think they mean live action as in a LOTR style movie, though that has possibilities as well. Who knows, I really think its doable though.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:If the movie is a theatrical length CCG movie on par with the quality of the WOW opening cinematic, I will DEFINATELY go see it. I enjoyed FFVII: Advent Children ALOT, and I still think a movie done with the technology is very viable.
I don't think they mean live action as in a LOTR style movie, though that has possibilities as well. Who knows, I really think its doable though.
"Live-action" is only used to describe movies where actors are on screen, not animation (which Advent Children, Spirits Within, Pixar movies, etc. still fall under), so...I think they do, in fact, mean a LOTR style movie.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:The hugely popular "Warcraft" video games have inspired plans for a live-action feature film set in the epic fantasy universe of orcs, trolls, elves and the undead.
Doesn't "live action" mean "with actors" and therefore not cgi?
Edit: Doh! Ersomniac beat me to it!
Posts: 1323 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I wonder what director will be willing to pick up this beast. Will the orcs sound like the games? I wonder if it will take place after the events of WOW or if it will precede the games, or will it just take place somewhere in the middle?
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote: I wonder what director will be willing to pick up this beast. Will the orcs sound like the games? I wonder if it will take place after the events of WOW or if it will precede the games, or will it just take place somewhere in the middle?
I think it's likely that, in order to make the movie as pallatable as possible to as wide an audience as possible, they'll either retell the story of one of the games or write a new one that isn't directly related to any of the games.
Then again, WoW had (and continues to have) such immense popularity that they may very well do a continuation. Blizzard also has a record of producing excellent stand-alone stories even in their sequels (e.g. Warcraft II or Warcraft III storylines did not require knowledge of the previous games to be immersed; a backstory summary was sufficient, at least for me). The combination of those two factors might be enough for them to release a followup to WoW.
A prequel might also be doable, although given the storyline of the existing games, a prequel couldn't feature both orcs and humans.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Numinor West: I've never played WoW online, neither do I have plans to become addicted. I am weak. If I played, I would soon lose all touch with reality.
The family that crushes orces together, stays together, or something like that...
I split the boardgame with a friend and we enjoyed it quite a bit. Its VERY time consuming though, I would set aside 3-5 hours for the first game if you have 4 players since it takes some time to get the rules and battle procedures down. At first you are often so engrossed in your own turn that you ignore what others are doing during theirs. Eventually you will be more quick with your turns and you can socialize better with your other players. Its an expensive game, but its fun IMHO.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Thanks for the review BlackBlade! We already have Heroquest and I assume this is similar in gameplay to that. I know what you mean about time consuming, but its something we can do together as a family so its worth the time and money.
Posts: 90 | Registered: Apr 2006
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I think this whole movie idea is BAD!!! Its being spearheaded by blizzard who have no experience making movies. Historically movies based on video games have failed miserably. The only exception I can think of is Tomb Raider.
But with WoW's popularity it will most likely draw a crowd. So as a business decision it might be sound. If you are looking for a good movie that you would enjoy I doubt it.
Thinking out loud here as it comes to me, I might be concerned at Blizzard that a flop of a movie might dilute WoW's powerful brand name.
Posts: 375 | Registered: Mar 2005
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One slight saving grace from Blizzard's end is that they have yet to release an inferior product (buggy as all get out yes, inferior no). They've pulled the plus on two fairly major game investments of their recently (The RPG Warcraft game and now Starcraft: Ghost) simply because the games were no longer meeting their expectations. No doubt the games would have sold regardless, but it wouldn't have had the typical Blizzard popularity.
Now, will WB - Legendary allow them that much input into the project or into the final go - no-go decision? Movies are indeed an entirely different realm.
Regardless of how bad it looks, if it's released in any form I'll go see it. Blizzard has earned enough of my trust in their ability to create stories and have a vision. The live-action thing still bothers me though, particularly as impressive as the WoW opening was with CG.
quote:Originally posted by Architraz Warden: One slight saving grace from Blizzard's end is that they have yet to release an inferior product (buggy as all get out yes, inferior no). They've pulled the plus on two fairly major game investments of their recently (The RPG Warcraft game and now Starcraft: Ghost) simply because the games were no longer meeting their expectations. No doubt the games would have sold regardless, but it wouldn't have had the typical Blizzard popularity.
Now, will WB - Legendary allow them that much input into the project or into the final go - no-go decision? Movies are indeed an entirely different realm.
Regardless of how bad it looks, if it's released in any form I'll go see it. Blizzard has earned enough of my trust in their ability to create stories and have a vision. The live-action thing still bothers me though, particularly as impressive as the WoW opening was with CG.
EDIT: Spelling, as usual.
Very true, I was very nervous about how good SC:Ghost would be, and I was VERY impressed that Blizzard still had the balls to postpone it indefinately. Their policy of only releasing solid products made them famous, I wondered if they still held to it.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
I'm still puzzled as to how one videogame can be more addictive than another. But I suppose it's like snack food. It's not a matter of someone sitting down and saying "how can we make this more addictive." It's an organic process of variation, propogation, and replication. Anyway, it's not like anyone I knew who was purportedly addicted to WoW didn't have obsessive tendencies. But WoW took over all their other obsessions.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
An interesting question pooka, regarding what constitutes an addicting video game. I don't have particularly addictive tendencies, but I can seriously and constantly lose myself in video games (and books, and music). But not all, currently only Civ 4, Sim City 4, and WoW have that ability at the moment. I've played other games that were supposed to be as or more addicting, and was unimpressed enough to set them aside after a week or so (Halo 2 and Elder Scrolls: Oblivion being the latest).
Posts: 1368 | Registered: Sep 2002
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quote:I think this whole movie idea is BAD!!! Its being spearheaded by blizzard who have no experience making movies. Historically movies based on video games have failed miserably. The only exception I can think of is Tomb Raider.
Resident Evil? Final Fantasy VII: The Spirits Within? Mortal Kombat? I think the evidence suggests that movies based on video games fail about as often as other movies do.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Silent Hill debuted as the #1 movie in the US three weeks ago. I can't say it was good or not, as I haven't seen it nor played the game. I don't know that that's the best metric for a movie's success or failure, so take it as you will.
posted
Heh, actually check the dates for that question. It started before GW was even out, I just picked a WoW thread to post the movie info on today.
Posts: 1368 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
I loved WoW up until level 55. Until that point I could solo a lot, or find small groups, or group with friends, and I could get a lot done in an hour or two of play.
After lv. 55, you need at least 15-20 people to get much accomplished, and you need several hours. Once you hit 60, you're at end-game content, and that's 40 people and 3+ hours every time. Fun for me a few times, but not my cup of tea.
Anyway, I had tons of really fun play time on several different characters. I highly recommend it as a MMORPG. It's definitely the most fun of those that I've played (EQ, DAoC, a few others briefly and during beta testing).
I really enjoyed the PvP of WoW as well. I think it is pretty well balanced now, and once you learn your character, it can be a lot of fun. Just get into a guild that focuses on the aspects of play you enjoy and join a medium to medium-large population server.
High-pop servers are laggy, low-pop servers you can't find a group or crafters and the auction house (AH) is either empty, or someone has complete control of the market and you can't get anything for a reasonable price.
Posts: 3950 | Registered: Mar 2006
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quote:Originally posted by MightyCow: I loved WoW up until level 55. Until that point I could solo a lot, or find small groups, or group with friends, and I could get a lot done in an hour or two of play.
After lv. 55, you need at least 15-20 people to get much accomplished, and you need several hours. Once you hit 60, you're at end-game content, and that's 40 people and 3+ hours every time. Fun for me a few times, but not my cup of tea.
Heh, for better or worse, they changed this. Now from 55 - 60 it's pretty much all you and 4 (hopefully) good friends to finsih things up. I'm up to two 60's now, and can count on my hands the number of times I've done the deaded 40-person raids. I don't enjoy it much, but if you're around people you like there are things that can be done that aren't quite so tedious.
I've tried FF, GW, and WoW now, and WoW is still the only one that's holding my attention. Warhammer Online could be interesting competition though. The real debate is wether or not to put WoW on hold until the expansion rolls around.
Posts: 1368 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Whoa that was an old post, didn't expect to see that pop up again.
Still playing WoW, same character. The endgame is enjoyable if you find a guild with decent people who are motivated. I love the teamwork of 40 people coming together to clear Molten Core or drop Onyxia. But then, I'm a tanking warrior so I get the fun job. Posts: 262 | Registered: May 2004
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I think technology has gotten to the point where there's no reason they couldn't do a CG movie, especially for material like WoW's. Just take a look at the cinematic trailer for Warhammer: Mark of Chaos. Watch the warrior priest's face. Amazing.
Posts: 254 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Death is not as hard to recover from, you can run your ghost back to your body and rez there, choose to be rezzed at the Spirit healer (if you died in a bad spot) or a player can rez you. It doesn't cost exp to die, the only effect is some rez sickness and loss of some item durability, which can be easily repaired by a armor vendor. Instanced zones are very cool, you and your group get the whole place to yourself to accomplish your quest goals. Every time I've been in an instance my group always comes out at least 1 level higher with bags full of loot. I could keep going and going... suffice it to say I love this game.![[Wink]](wink.gif)
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