My Warcraft Problem

[freeport_pirate]

When I got my first job working on a MMO four years ago at Flying Lab, I thought I should become more familiar with World of Warcraft because it was the clear market leader. WoW was and continues to be the standard, so I figured it'd help me in my job to be better acquainted with it. So I got the game and the latest expansion and spent the required

Comments

[heliograph]

You can't get the info you need from guides

[seannittner]

Sean's .02

[serpentstar]

I agree. Most recent MMORPG failures have been because someone (often at the last minute) decided it was an OK game but wasn't enough like WoW...

WoW has a horrible 1st Edn D&D-ish legacy, compounded with its own stupid legacy, all of which are holding it back, and by extension holding back the entire genre because other game designers want to copy WoW.

It makes big money not because it's a decent game, but because the designers include behavioural psychologists who have ensured that its players are condition to look for extrinsic rewards (gold, armour, weapons, level-ups, prestige gear, etc.) that they no longer care that the intrinsic reward (gameplay, aka killing 20 centaurs in the hope that might net you 10 ears) is so poor.

[notthebuddha]

One way to win might be to find a long-term, deep knowledge WoW-er buddy and pay them with swag to show you around. Someone like bruceb who is already an RPG peer can use that common base to bring you up to speed.

Then you have:

Not put any more money in the WoW coffers,

Much better comprehensive knowledge of WoW,

An informant who can keep you up on new WoW stuff as it comes out,

An asset in the WoW player community who can chat up opinion makers and fashion setters, or can just identify them for FLS to approach for betas or other opportunities.

[sadrx]

Don't bother. It takes the first 500 hours of game-play to get to the endgame content, which is where a large portion of their post-production development comes into the game. Many long term players dislike the leveling grind and stay only for the endgame. As someone who's reached that point, the first three months of my subscription were spent getting to endgame, and for the next sixteen months, I only played because of the endgame content. I'm not sure, however, what percentage of other WoW players are staying only for end-game content and what percentage have never reached it.