So, we cancelled our World of Warcraft accounts over the weekend. All three of them. Two of them were collector’s edition accounts.
WoW just falls to bits at 60. I know that’s got to sound weird since they have over five million subscribers at this point, but it’s true. My wife went back to Dark Age of Camelot briefly (she got into that waiting for WoW to come out) and noticed that when she does her artifact raids in DAoC, she’s guaranteed to get the item she needs if she completes the raid…unlike WoW’s “there’s a .03 percent chance for the item to drop and then you have to roll against everyone else in the raid to get it” bullsh- er, crap.
Now, my wife is a hardcore MMORPG player. She started with Ultima Online and progressed to Everquest, Star Wars Galaxies, Dark Age of Camelot and World of Warcraft, and she’s tried many, many more. And since she’s staying home with our young children right now, she’s got a whole lot of time to throw at these games.
And even she eventually got sick of WoW’s “Better luck next time, try again” gameplay at 60.
Now, sigh, yes, we will probably go back at least temporarily when Burning Crusade comes out, but it’s going to take a lot to bring me back into WoW permanently. Basically, it’s going to require 60 casual content, which WoW doesn’t have at all. Once you get to 60, you raid or you farm faction. That’s all you have to do. No quests – you’ve done them all (except for raid quests that get you the keys to new dungeons). No more getting better armor and weapons from world drops – now the only way you can improve your armor and weapons is by raiding. Basically there’s no reason to log in unless you’ve got a nice three-hour chunk of time and you’re ready to raid. And you’d better be willing to do it every night of the week or you still won’t get anything.
Yeah, I’m bitter. And yes, I keep harping on this. I can’t help it – the game was so damn good until 60. It just hurt when I realized that gosh, there’s nothing more for me to do in WoW now.
I totally agree. While my WoW account is still open, I hardly ever play my lvl 60 mage. Because, like you say, the only things to do are faction grind and raiding, and I don’t have much time or patience for either.
About the tier equipment, once the expansion comes out and they raise the level cap to 70, won’t that mean that a lot of the drops we’ll find (like say, a lvl 70 chestpiece) will surpass the tier gear that we’ve worked so hard to get?
And assuming we actually play enough now and are lucky enough to get a full set of tier gear, what next? There is ultimately no point in getting a full set of the best gear other than to say “look at me, I’m cool”.
Blah. I wish WoW was more about the Alliance vs Horde conflict. The problem with MMOs in general is that the players cannot have any sort of true effect on the world. Nothing they do ultimately matters, or makes any difference whatsoever.
I think there’s a way to make MMOs interesting and have an effect on the world, but I think, in general, in order to make sure that everyone is having a good time, that effect will ultimately be shallow. In the end, MMOs suffer from trying to please everyone all of the time, leaving a watered down experience that might be fun, but is shallow.
Have you tried Guild Wars? I hear good things about it and I don’t think there’s a subscription fee associated with it.
Sounds similar to an effect I had when playing MajorMud along time ago (a MUD you played on galticomm’s (MajorBBS) bbs’ way back in the day ) — But for me it was getting to the point of diminishing returns. You’d fight monsters, you’d get gold and experience, you’d level up, get better armor, go after bigger monsters, maybe in a group. Eventually you’re just doing the same thing day in and day out, and it just got plain boring.
I realize it’s not exactly the same thing but it’s close. This is the reason I wasn’t into rpg’s really ever. Never could get into one.
You’ve got to couple that mechanic with a compelling story to make a really good game…at least, in my opinion.
I think you’ve also got to use the mechanic for things other than combat. Put some “adventure” into it.