Howdy Internet Land - Tiger here, with a gamer-guy's confession. I don't "get" WoW. Sure, I understand the basics of how to play it (I mean, I obviously wouldn't get the more in depth stuff like the best way to kill certain enemies and stuff, because I don't have the experience) it's some of the less game-play oriented aspects of this World of Warcraft hoojiggy that just...well...cause me ever-so-much confusion and bafflement.
Now, this blog is not supposed to be a rant about why I don't like WoW - mainly because I could potentially enjoy WoW were it not for the following (which, as I stated above, I just don't understand.) World of Warcraft appears, to me at least, to be not so much about a fun story that I really become engaged in, and less about being a second job. A job that I have to pay for on a monthly basis.
Now, admittedly, there are story quests (and there are quite a number of them...) but people don't (as I have noticed) tend to particularly engage with the story (in something resembling: "Oh no! Larissa's father is coming for dinner, but he's bringing so many guys that she needs a whole heap of boar meat to feed them...I'd better go kill some boars for the lass!"). Rather, they seem to go into a kind of autopilot mode equating somewhat to: "NPC says kills boars. Okay, kill 10 boars. Go back to NPC."
Stemming directly from this seemingly mechanical way in which game-play occurs is the second reason I don't really find WoW enjoyable - I don't need a guy who thinks he's some kind of legend just because he managed to level all of his characters to 80 in two days yelling at me because I want to play the game my own way, and not have him dictate my every move. Nothing, for me, sucks the fun out of a game more than having someone shout at me because I wanted to appreciate the area I was in, and perhaps look around a little. Let me experiment, make my own decisions, and my own mistakes. I'm playing - not you.
After several attempts at playing WoW (three, I believe, spread over a couple of years), one shot at Guild Wars, and a loathing stare at the box for Aion (they were trying to make me give my credit card details over for the free trial - nuts to that) I had all but given up on enjoying any kind of MMORPG. It is to my great surprise, then, that I find myself exceptionally excited for DC Universe Online. For those not in the know about this game, it is basically a foray into the life of a comic book superhero (or villain!), but not one that anybody would ever have read about. No, instead you are your own super-person - new to the super lifestyle - and you create your story by doing missions and performing deeds and such.
Whilst DCUO is still a subscription service (being priced at roughly $15 per month to play) I'm still exceptionally excited about the opportunities that this game offers. Perhaps it's the fact that I will be able to interact with so very many comic book characters that makes this so exciting for me. Perhaps it's the new take on the MMORPG that is what makes it seem so shiny and new. Or, given that there are still raids and such in this game, perhaps it's a sense of naive hope that this, too, won't be filled by people who yell like whooping monkeys when something doesn't go their way. Perhaps I'm just getting soft...
Whatever the reason may be for my sudden interest in this genre of game, you can be sure that you'll find me inside DC Universe Online when it comes out, so look around for me and say "Hi" if you see me. I'll let you know what my character name is when I have one (duh) and I'll tell you my faction and everything. There are, at this stage, very very few days until it comes out (9 if we buy the UK version, 6 if we buy the US one...) so get excited people. This could be really fun.
squee
The moral of this story is that, up until I started writing this blog post, I did not realise that bafflement is not only a real word, but it actually means what I thought it meant. I suppose, if you wanted to take it another way, perhaps bafflement could be a countable noun that means something along the lines of "A piece of defensive architecture designed specifically to cause the enemy to wonder just what the designer was thinking when they created it" instead of either the countable noun meaning "An interference or blockage" or the uncountable noun created by simply adding the '-ment' suffix to the more common word 'baffle'.
You didn't say what you thought of the best mmo of all time! I am, of course, referring to EVE...
ReplyDeleteEvery MMO free trial wants your CC details. It's just the way their billing systems work. Unless they're free to play, obviously.
ReplyDeleteThe best way to avoid the grief of raid wankers in an MMO is simply to never do raids. Stick to the PvE stuff, find a story and follow it.
I had tremendous fun playing WoW until I ran out of story and only had raiding left, after that I quit (this was some time before the first expansion). Having played a little of the latest expansion (thanks Lydia & Alydd) I've been thinking about going back to it.
PS: I'm playing the DCUO Beta right now =P
You need to play new WoW.
ReplyDeleteSince Cataclysm the lore (I feel) is much stronger in the game than it was. It's always been there and it's been up to the player to find it. Now, the starting areas appear to have a bigger grounding in the who, what, why and in some cases, even the where. There's even a profession of archeology. I'm not sure what it's all about, but when I DO know, I'm sure it will have something to do with lore.
They have to be careful though that the story doesn't come off as too overpowering though. I think you'll find that with any game that has to have a mass appeal, there are people who just want to level up and there are those into the lore. The lore is often forgotten, I feel, so I understand why you haven't felt engaged in it.
I would suggest trying it out again (rolling a Goblin is by far the most fun I've had in the past few years of playing WoW). I think I have a guest pass for Cata included when I got the upgrade. It's a big file though and requires awesomeness of computery. So let me know.
As for the actual players-
There will always be leetist jerks.
There will always be some nub who runs into a mob and says "sorree guyz, ididnt notise the jiant dragoon"
There will always be a ninja who rolls need.
There will always be some nubknuckled hunter who spanks it and then can't tank it, while the healer is trying to mana up.
There will always be nerfs for everyone other than nubnuckled hunters.
There will always be that one rogue that you know you could totally take in real life, but they keep sapping you when you get near their enemy flag.
You just need to find a guild that has vent so you can, as a group, bitch about nubs, ninjas, nerfs and nerds who think they could take you in real life.
I've got a couple of people working on me to play WoW at the moment - so offers of Cata trials are flying at me like panties at Elvis (both before, and after he died...)
ReplyDeleteMostly from Spud (who I totally should have mentioned somewhere, but didn't...)
Anyway, I'll see how DCUO goes, because I'm more excited by super-heroes than by Tolkienesque mythos. But if it fails, I may...just may...go back to try it out again :O
Did you try City of Heroes / Villains? The whole create-your-own-superhero/vilain-MMO has been done before.
ReplyDeleteI never really got into it, but I'm not huge on the superhero/villain thing anyway. I found myself just trying to remake Auron from Final Fantasy X in CoH and got frustrated when I couldn't :P
I'm currently on WoW again, though will likely drop it eventually (probly not until I get crushed half to death under the pile of other games I've been neglecting)