Wednesday, November 28, 2007
World of Warcraft
Ooh, here we go again. I was deciding between blogging about Bao or blogging about Wao, and I decided to first blog about WOW before Bao. Don't worry, Bao update will come soon, and, I apologize in advance, it's gonna be preeetty long, but much more paragraphy and sense-like than the update about Wen...
So... I'd like to know why people play WOW so much. So I'd like to compare what I think of it, what I view it as, and what the rest of you think (Wen/Hawk included). I'll start with my own WOW experience... I bought WOW way after everyone else, and signed up for an account. I played for a month, and then pretty much stopped. Here's what I did:
I walked around by myself as a rogue, learned some skills, got to level 10. So I would approach an enemy from behind, go into cloaky mode, approach him slowly, and then try to strike him when he's facing away from me. I would attack him, then to maximize damage I'll wait for combo points to go up, and then press "3" to release an attack. I would level up, get higher numbers, and get better weapons that do more damage... I make more money by looting things and picking up items and selling them.
Sometimes I would send some mail to Ray and Duy and stuff, just to test it out... one time I partied with Jia and some random guy and we went to a cave and killed some guys and stuff, and we finished a quest together. That part was a bit interesting, since you partied with people and co-operatively killed some monsters. But then, eventually I got to level 12 or so, and I didn't feel like playing anymore.
I'd like to talk about Guild Wars for a bit. Bought it when it first came out, became a Necro/Warrior, partied with Jia and Ray and a bit of Ambrose and Jason. Duy tried it out too, but quickly went back to WOW. I must admit, at first, Guild Wars was fun. The combat was quicker than WOW, it was more combat oriented, and it was new so the story was new to all of us and it was fun going around together and doing quests and advancing the story. Eventually, I think I went on vacation and when I came back we lost interest in the game, and we stopped playing it.
Why did I mention Guild Wars? Because my critique of Guild Wars and WOW are similar, but I enjoyed Guild Wars, although getting back into it now would probably be hard and not as fun. So don't try to argue Guild Wars into WOW... so my critique... is still the same as it always was. Walk around, click on things, press different buttons on the keyboard, get bigger numbers, and so on. So that's my critique on the gameplay.
Another critique that applies to me is... barrier to entry. Just like how someone like Wen might have a hard time enjoying himself when playing SSB with us, I find it hard to play WOW or Diablo II with you guys. I tried Diablo II once with Jia and maybe Jason, I forget, it was really hard! So I'm new to Diablo II, and so we kill a guy, and so now I'm standing there, seeing if I should pick up items, and trying to pick them up, trying to learn the interface... and meanwhile, Jia and Jason are like 62 rooms ahead of me! For them, it's kill, check to see if they dropped any awesome items, run, kill, check to see awesome items, run... so they would go through 10 rooms while it takes me to pick up all the gold that the first guy dropped.
And when I played WOW, well, so I started at level 1, and everyone else was busy playing their higher level characters. I couldn't join them on quests, so I did everything quite solo.
Now, you guys would argue that WOW isn't meant to play solo, and that I should team up with you guys and whatever. Well, that's the thing. This might make me sound very baby-ish, but I think during that month that I played, there was some responsibility in you guys to foster my growth in WOW. Just like how I feel it's my job to "help" you guys like the things that I like (see "influential Bao" from a few weeks ago), it should've been your job to "help" me like WOW, if your mission is for me to like WOW and join you guys full-time. I have to say, it wasn't very welcoming. I played WOW Solo 90% of the time, and that was boooorring.
So, now I'll say, I played WOW for a month, and I didn't like it. And you say "well, you played it wrong" or "play another 6 months, then we'll all be at the same level and you can join us". HAH. There'll be none of that. So, I can't play WOW because I find it boring, I'm not playing Diablo II because it's not my cup of tea, and the little bit I played for it that day wasn't fun at all. I would walk around in empty rooms and pick up gold, or I would always be playing catchup, only for them to run away again.
Anyway, that's my take on WOW, and that's why I'm not playing WOW. Now I want to know, what do you guys do in WOW, and why? Let's talk about end-game first; before end-game, you are not highest level, and you are building your special character with special skills and whatever, and if it's the first time you are playing that particular race, maybe there's some story, I don't know. Later maybe we can talk about non-end-game, about how I don't care much for bigger numbers and clicking things in combat.
For now, I'm also making some unfair generalizations - I'm going to put you all in the same group as Duy. So when I say that you guys are doing something, it's because I see Duy do it and I will generalize. You might be a bit different than Duy, might not play as much as him, but I assume you guys all understand his mindset, so you'll be able to answer these questions, as if, you were Duy. So maybe my question isn't so much as "why do you play WOW" as it is "why does Duy play WOW so much?"
So, now every day, Duy wakes up, grabs a bowl of cereal, then goes to the computer and turns on WOW. He has about an hour to play before we go to work. Usually in the day, before 9:00PM, he would be solo and he would always be doing that quest with the musical notes where you have to remember the order... you know, that minigame that's in every game :P red - you press red - red, red - you press red, red - red, red, yellow - you press red, red, yellow - and whatever, but Duy's doing it every day. So i ask him, why is he doing that? It's part of a quest. And I suppose you do the same quest over and over for different pieces of armor or weapons or something. Why? Bigger numbers? Bao doesn't care for bigger numbers.
And then Duy and Jia are always talking about Honour. What is honour? And they're always talking about getting honour or something before Tuesday, because something new starts on Tuesday. Why? Is there some list on the internet that you can get on if you receive enough honour in a certain period? Why? Do I care? I don't think I would. A name on a list? A piece of treasure? Is it, like, the only piece of treasure in Azeroth, or would another 80,000 people also have that?
You know, it would be kinda cool to have a piece of treasure that exists only 1 of in Azeroth... like a sword of overwhelming, the strongest sword in the game... if there was only 1 of that, then that'd be neat. I doubt it though. So why? Why farm a quest over and over, why bother with weekly honour points? That's what I'm not getting.
Then there are the unique enemies, or whatever, or special 50-man raids. Often, Ambrose would come over on a Friday night, only to find that Duy and Jia are busy playing World of Warcraft, so Ambrose ends up cooking dinner and watching Hockey. So what is it about these 3-hour raids that Duy and Jia can't get out of to play with real people on a Friday night? This might go back to my take on WOW, where I don't think it's fun to click on things, even as a group.
Like, I also don't see the uniqueness of the enemies. In one dungeon you have to fight a dragon, in another you have to fight a golem. Is there a difference? I just see clicking and numbers. Is there a social experience going through a raid? It bugs me when they're raiding, and then they get to the last guy, get him down to 2% or whatever, and then they wipe - and then they decide to do the whole raid all over. So what was supposed to be 2 hours turns to 4. That bugs me.
And, if they do wipe, is the strategy different? Or do they do the same thing but only be a little luckier or change the fighting a bit during the last 3%? And what do you get for killing the boss? Special items? A name on a list?
Hmm... I guess PVP is okay, and games like capture the flag. Putting my whole "take" on the clicking and numbers away, I can see PvP and CTF being fun, team-based objective games are always good, whether they be real life or Halo or whatever. However, recently I haven't played Halo online, with strangers. It's a bit different when it's all strangers, it's still fun, but it lacks a level of personality... but I guess in WOW, those people in the group are always the same, so you do build a relationship with them? So I guess that's okay.
Anyway, I'm out of topic for now. For now, I'd like to know why this questing keeps happening, and let's not talk about the clicking and the numbers, or whatever. I guess in later discussions you guys can argue on how clicking on zerglings and then right clicking on a structure isn't too different than clicking on an enemy and then pressing numbers to do different skills, or how driving a car around a map in an offline game provides less value than anything in WOW, but we'll leave those for another update. Until next time...
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So... I'd like to know why people play WOW so much. So I'd like to compare what I think of it, what I view it as, and what the rest of you think (Wen/Hawk included). I'll start with my own WOW experience... I bought WOW way after everyone else, and signed up for an account. I played for a month, and then pretty much stopped. Here's what I did:
I walked around by myself as a rogue, learned some skills, got to level 10. So I would approach an enemy from behind, go into cloaky mode, approach him slowly, and then try to strike him when he's facing away from me. I would attack him, then to maximize damage I'll wait for combo points to go up, and then press "3" to release an attack. I would level up, get higher numbers, and get better weapons that do more damage... I make more money by looting things and picking up items and selling them.
Sometimes I would send some mail to Ray and Duy and stuff, just to test it out... one time I partied with Jia and some random guy and we went to a cave and killed some guys and stuff, and we finished a quest together. That part was a bit interesting, since you partied with people and co-operatively killed some monsters. But then, eventually I got to level 12 or so, and I didn't feel like playing anymore.
I'd like to talk about Guild Wars for a bit. Bought it when it first came out, became a Necro/Warrior, partied with Jia and Ray and a bit of Ambrose and Jason. Duy tried it out too, but quickly went back to WOW. I must admit, at first, Guild Wars was fun. The combat was quicker than WOW, it was more combat oriented, and it was new so the story was new to all of us and it was fun going around together and doing quests and advancing the story. Eventually, I think I went on vacation and when I came back we lost interest in the game, and we stopped playing it.
Why did I mention Guild Wars? Because my critique of Guild Wars and WOW are similar, but I enjoyed Guild Wars, although getting back into it now would probably be hard and not as fun. So don't try to argue Guild Wars into WOW... so my critique... is still the same as it always was. Walk around, click on things, press different buttons on the keyboard, get bigger numbers, and so on. So that's my critique on the gameplay.
Another critique that applies to me is... barrier to entry. Just like how someone like Wen might have a hard time enjoying himself when playing SSB with us, I find it hard to play WOW or Diablo II with you guys. I tried Diablo II once with Jia and maybe Jason, I forget, it was really hard! So I'm new to Diablo II, and so we kill a guy, and so now I'm standing there, seeing if I should pick up items, and trying to pick them up, trying to learn the interface... and meanwhile, Jia and Jason are like 62 rooms ahead of me! For them, it's kill, check to see if they dropped any awesome items, run, kill, check to see awesome items, run... so they would go through 10 rooms while it takes me to pick up all the gold that the first guy dropped.
And when I played WOW, well, so I started at level 1, and everyone else was busy playing their higher level characters. I couldn't join them on quests, so I did everything quite solo.
Now, you guys would argue that WOW isn't meant to play solo, and that I should team up with you guys and whatever. Well, that's the thing. This might make me sound very baby-ish, but I think during that month that I played, there was some responsibility in you guys to foster my growth in WOW. Just like how I feel it's my job to "help" you guys like the things that I like (see "influential Bao" from a few weeks ago), it should've been your job to "help" me like WOW, if your mission is for me to like WOW and join you guys full-time. I have to say, it wasn't very welcoming. I played WOW Solo 90% of the time, and that was boooorring.
So, now I'll say, I played WOW for a month, and I didn't like it. And you say "well, you played it wrong" or "play another 6 months, then we'll all be at the same level and you can join us". HAH. There'll be none of that. So, I can't play WOW because I find it boring, I'm not playing Diablo II because it's not my cup of tea, and the little bit I played for it that day wasn't fun at all. I would walk around in empty rooms and pick up gold, or I would always be playing catchup, only for them to run away again.
Anyway, that's my take on WOW, and that's why I'm not playing WOW. Now I want to know, what do you guys do in WOW, and why? Let's talk about end-game first; before end-game, you are not highest level, and you are building your special character with special skills and whatever, and if it's the first time you are playing that particular race, maybe there's some story, I don't know. Later maybe we can talk about non-end-game, about how I don't care much for bigger numbers and clicking things in combat.
For now, I'm also making some unfair generalizations - I'm going to put you all in the same group as Duy. So when I say that you guys are doing something, it's because I see Duy do it and I will generalize. You might be a bit different than Duy, might not play as much as him, but I assume you guys all understand his mindset, so you'll be able to answer these questions, as if, you were Duy. So maybe my question isn't so much as "why do you play WOW" as it is "why does Duy play WOW so much?"
So, now every day, Duy wakes up, grabs a bowl of cereal, then goes to the computer and turns on WOW. He has about an hour to play before we go to work. Usually in the day, before 9:00PM, he would be solo and he would always be doing that quest with the musical notes where you have to remember the order... you know, that minigame that's in every game :P red - you press red - red, red - you press red, red - red, red, yellow - you press red, red, yellow - and whatever, but Duy's doing it every day. So i ask him, why is he doing that? It's part of a quest. And I suppose you do the same quest over and over for different pieces of armor or weapons or something. Why? Bigger numbers? Bao doesn't care for bigger numbers.
And then Duy and Jia are always talking about Honour. What is honour? And they're always talking about getting honour or something before Tuesday, because something new starts on Tuesday. Why? Is there some list on the internet that you can get on if you receive enough honour in a certain period? Why? Do I care? I don't think I would. A name on a list? A piece of treasure? Is it, like, the only piece of treasure in Azeroth, or would another 80,000 people also have that?
You know, it would be kinda cool to have a piece of treasure that exists only 1 of in Azeroth... like a sword of overwhelming, the strongest sword in the game... if there was only 1 of that, then that'd be neat. I doubt it though. So why? Why farm a quest over and over, why bother with weekly honour points? That's what I'm not getting.
Then there are the unique enemies, or whatever, or special 50-man raids. Often, Ambrose would come over on a Friday night, only to find that Duy and Jia are busy playing World of Warcraft, so Ambrose ends up cooking dinner and watching Hockey. So what is it about these 3-hour raids that Duy and Jia can't get out of to play with real people on a Friday night? This might go back to my take on WOW, where I don't think it's fun to click on things, even as a group.
Like, I also don't see the uniqueness of the enemies. In one dungeon you have to fight a dragon, in another you have to fight a golem. Is there a difference? I just see clicking and numbers. Is there a social experience going through a raid? It bugs me when they're raiding, and then they get to the last guy, get him down to 2% or whatever, and then they wipe - and then they decide to do the whole raid all over. So what was supposed to be 2 hours turns to 4. That bugs me.
And, if they do wipe, is the strategy different? Or do they do the same thing but only be a little luckier or change the fighting a bit during the last 3%? And what do you get for killing the boss? Special items? A name on a list?
Hmm... I guess PVP is okay, and games like capture the flag. Putting my whole "take" on the clicking and numbers away, I can see PvP and CTF being fun, team-based objective games are always good, whether they be real life or Halo or whatever. However, recently I haven't played Halo online, with strangers. It's a bit different when it's all strangers, it's still fun, but it lacks a level of personality... but I guess in WOW, those people in the group are always the same, so you do build a relationship with them? So I guess that's okay.
Anyway, I'm out of topic for now. For now, I'd like to know why this questing keeps happening, and let's not talk about the clicking and the numbers, or whatever. I guess in later discussions you guys can argue on how clicking on zerglings and then right clicking on a structure isn't too different than clicking on an enemy and then pressing numbers to do different skills, or how driving a car around a map in an offline game provides less value than anything in WOW, but we'll leave those for another update. Until next time...
MY-ROFL-COPTER SCHWA SCHWA has left the channel