World of Warcraft

[red5]

Think I'm bored of this again.  Firstly, Si and Sam seem to have buggered off.  Secondly the raids are all a bit dull, as it's mostly fairly straight forward tank and spank.  I think it needs to be because it's massively aimed at PUGS now, but it's not that challenging.

 

Also Timeless Isle has got to be the worst zone in the game ever.  It looks like it was designed on the back of a fag packet, and has THE single worst idea in the game ever, ie turning it into a FFA zone where members of the same faction can kill each other.

 I am still around - got a bit on atm, and coming back at end of expansion seems to be a no-no for anything really..

[The_Rev]

Sam, do you think the guy in the back at the middle looks like a young Simon Bonnick? 

 

 

You may need to click on the image to get the full effect. 

Edited January 5, 2014 by The_Rev

[MCU]

Hit 90 the other day on my first character. Well pleased. Just getting pissed off now with the honor grind in random battlegrounds for my PvP gear. Constantly getting pummelled by full geared players is a bit of a put off. 

[walesavfc]

I did all the LFR on my hunter, so I've seen that content. I'm not a fan of LFR, because it's all nerfed, and I'm playing with strangers. I'd rather do guild runs, but my server is Horde dominated, and the Ally on it is mostly PVP.

 

Looks like I'm gonna xfer my toons to a better balanced server with more PVE.

 

Thats about where i am, server seems dead  (Alliance/Anachronos) so have stopped playing again for a while 

Edited January 27, 2014 by walesavfc

[maqroll]

Hit 90 the other day on my first character. Well pleased. Just getting pissed off now with the honor grind in random battlegrounds for my PvP gear. Constantly getting pummelled by full geared players is a bit of a put off. 

Yea, it's a shame they can't figure a way to scale the BG's to make things more balanced.

[Designer1]

Re-subbed again for a month.

 

Gonna get as much gold as possible before the XP hits and get some prof levelling done.

[Risso]

When's the expansion due?

[maqroll]

I've heard June

[Designer1]

You were right about Enhancement DPS Riss, very nice indeed.

 

Very similar play style to Frost DK too, which is a bonus for me. 

[The_Rev]

I noticed I had a ten day trial when I played Hearthstone. 

 

 

So I logged in and it took me five minutes to figure out how to dismount. The places were familiar but the people weren't, I doubt anybody recognised me or any of the guilds I was in. 

 

Conclusion: This is probably what it feels like when you get out of prison.   The Alliance were attacking Undercity though, which is kinda cool. 

[villarule123]

In a weird way I hope they release it on the PS4 and start from scratch, as I do miss the glory days.

 

Then again, I'd probably quit after a week.

[maqroll]

What really bothers me about WoW now is how they make even easy things easier. Like putting flightpaths at every bend in the road. Why is there a flightpath in Goldshire, FFS. Also, old group quests are mostly all solable now. And newer quests will too often have some npc helping you either get to where you need to be and/or help you fight, etc. 

 

So much of the charm of the game is in the atmosphere of the terrain. The music, the little details that roped us all in. So much of that is gone. Exploration is shot to hell because leveling is so easy. You can level a toon without seeing half the world. Summoning stones were FUN. Meeting up and probably fighting opposite faction while waiting for everyone was great. Now you just sit in a city and auto-queue. Sad.

 

And the destruction of random world pvp. Why did they destroy SS/Tarren Mill? It was the best. 

 

Now its all BOA gear with xp boosts, blasting through auto-queue dungeons without hardly stepping on ground. 

 

I'd like to think someday they tweak things to fit a more retro feel. Plenty of nostalgia types who would love it, I'm sure.

Edited February 24, 2014 by maqroll

[villarule123]

Only a 1-60 server would solve it, I really hope they do it someday. Time is running out though

[nobler]

Of course it's all opinion and you have absolutely every right to say things you believe Maqroll but I can't agree with a few things. The art direction and serenic atmosphere of Pandaria is nothing short of remarkable, imo. If you go back to some of the shoe horned wastelands of Vanilla WoW such as Desolace, Westfall, Badlands, Deadwind Pass they just aren't comparable. Also, the recent music across Cata and MoP has been absolutely beautiful, some of the finest musical scores I've heard in a video game.

 

The levelling thing is a difficult subject and one I think Blizz have had trouble balancing themselves. Every player that lands in Azeroth has the freedom of the world to play how they like, but ultimately WoW is and always has been all about end game. A very, very small amount of players play the game just to simply level a character. First time you level a character is magical, second time is ok, third time is the biggest chore in existence and a large amount of wow's subs have multiple characters. If levelling a character for the fifth time took 2 months the game just wouldn't be appealing to an incredible amount of people. A new player without heirlooms, guild exp bonuses and general game play experience will still get to see the majority of WoW's extremely large world and enjoy its experience. 

 

The game now gives you choice that you simply didn't have back in vanilla. If you want to speed through the zones you can, if you want to do every single quest and really follow the lore you can. If you want to jump into random generated dungeon groups you can. Or if you want to join a guild of friends and meet at summon stones, manually grouping from dungeon to dungeon in each zone, you can. Nothing in the game stops you from doing that. People say WoW is too easy but heroic raids/challenge modes still provide some of the most challenging content on the planet. Do I think all this choice has ruined the game's charm? I'd say yes, I probably do, but for WoW to keep the absolutely mind boggling amount of subs it has 10 years down the line, I think they simply had to open the doors to a wider audience. I don't blame them for that. 

They've always delivered with absolute top quality content, the budget spent on artwork for raid content, armour and weapons just gets better and better and is just the best around, imo. We all miss the TBC days, an absolute golden age but I think people look at the game with nostalgic eyes and miss a lot of the great work they've done to make the game a joy, keep it fresh and push boundaries. That said, I can agree with the world pvp thing, they opened a can of worms with flying mounts but the recent connected realms have seen an absolutely amazing rebuff of world pvp in 0-60 zones. It's actually ridiculous.

 

On a personal level, as I got older I'm now unable to sit and raid for hours on end or spend 7 hours wiping in Blackrock Depths so I've been quite thankful for the LFG services as a quick log in, do two or three dungeons, build some tokens towards gear, then log out and get on with what I've needed to do. I've enjoyed watching WoW's progression over a 7-8 year period and I really believe that you can still do virtually everything in the game you did back in the old days if you wish to do so. 
 

Last auto saved: 22:16:50

Edited February 24, 2014 by nobler

[The_Rev]

Well said, and while it's clear WoW has changed it's easy to forget we all have too. 

[maqroll]

Good post, nobler, I agree with much of what you say. There are some throwaway zones in Vanilla, and while none of the zones in Cata were that great, Jade Forest is an absolute stunner. I can't really say the other MoP zones are particularly mind blowing though. 

 

But to your larger point, yeah, you're right, players can choose to play however they like. I love the idea of traveling to a summoning stone and doing it old school. Problem is, just about nobody else would find it fun! Most people will take the easiest possible option. And I understand that. 

 

I suppose for me it probably boils down to not being able to recapture that feeling when I first started the game. No matter if it's a new expansion, cool content, new challenges, nothing will compare to being a low level noob learning the game one mistake at a time with a fun group of people. 

 

Waxing nostalgic over here...

[The_Rev]

Good post, nobler, I agree with much of what you say. There are some throwaway zones in Vanilla, and while none of the zones in Cata were that great, Jade Forest is an absolute stunner. I can't really say the other MoP zones are particularly mind blowing though. 

 

But to your larger point, yeah, you're right, players can choose to play however they like. I love the idea of traveling to a summoning stone and doing it old school. Problem is, just about nobody else would find it fun! Most people will take the easiest possible option. And I understand that. 

 

I suppose for me it probably boils down to not being able to recapture that feeling when I first started the game. No matter if it's a new expansion, cool content, new challenges, nothing will compare to being a low level noob learning the game one mistake at a time with a fun group of people. 

 

Waxing nostalgic over here...

 

 

In the really old days there never even used to be summoning stones. 

[Daniel]

I used to love the chaos outside instances.

[Designer1]

As brilliant as Vanilla WoW was, it had massive issues.

 

The best thing about the game at that time was that it was fresh, fun and it was most peoples first look at an MMO.

 

Above all else though, it was the fact you could log on at most times of the day and there would be 3-4 (minimum) other people from VT online who you could group up with. We had some great times.

 

I've re-subbed / quit numerous times now but the first few times I quit it was mostly because I thought it had lost the allure those first 6 months / year had. Eventually though, I came to realise that time will NEVER come back (in this or in other MMO's) and you either accept the game for what it is today or you quit for good. I've found since accepting the Vanilla days are long gone, that my enjoyment of the game has increased.

[maqroll]

 

Good post, nobler, I agree with much of what you say. There are some throwaway zones in Vanilla, and while none of the zones in Cata were that great, Jade Forest is an absolute stunner. I can't really say the other MoP zones are particularly mind blowing though. 

 

But to your larger point, yeah, you're right, players can choose to play however they like. I love the idea of traveling to a summoning stone and doing it old school. Problem is, just about nobody else would find it fun! Most people will take the easiest possible option. And I understand that. 

 

I suppose for me it probably boils down to not being able to recapture that feeling when I first started the game. No matter if it's a new expansion, cool content, new challenges, nothing will compare to being a low level noob learning the game one mistake at a time with a fun group of people. 

 

Waxing nostalgic over here...

 

 

In the really old days there never even used to be summoning stones. 

 

I'd love to hear more over a few goblets of mead.