World Of Warcraft?

[Jetfire]

I haven't played since Jan...but I notice some comments on various sites that the game graphics are showing their age and in general people are tired and moving on to things like 'Rift' and I am sure when the Star Wars MMO comes out more people will leave WOW.

I have generally enjoyed the game and when I can play(pay for a month) make the most of it...I enjoy the races and the lore...my question is; Should Blizzard rebuild WOW from the ground up as a new game? Instead of just adding expansions on top of expansions. I don't know what the future of WOW is so forgive if there is news and info making this thread irrelevant.

[edit] I should add...I do think the graphics should be updated a bit and I really wish the character creation was expanded...I mean there are free MMOs that have more options.

 

[Davros]

It was just never as much fun as City Of Heroes/Villains. But I don't see a restart of WoW as that much of a great Idea. Better to go with World Of Starcraft.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Well, they are working on another MMO, so it remains to be seen whether people go with that.

 

[Bishop76]

They didn't do a COMPLETE rebuild, but they did redo all of the 1-60 content that was in the original game. Some of it's the same, but most of it has been changed. So in a way, they did do a rebuild. I'm not sure why people are migrating to Rift because it's basically the same damn game with some minor differences and an inferior look... Maybe those minor differences are enough, I don't know.

I do think there's some definite WoW burnout going on though. I think TOR is really going to get a lot of players who are just looking for something new and not necessarily in a fantasy setting. I know I wish Star Trek Online had been more fun, but alas, it wasn't. I'm MMO-less right now after cancelling my WoW account a couple months ago and I know I want something, but Rift just ain't it.

Edit: Oh, and they have stated time and again that their new MMO is NOT World of Starcraft. It'll be interesting to see if that holds true or not, but I don't think they'll go that route personally.

 

[FordSVT]

The new MMO is estimated to be a FPS, likely with a futuristic setting, but not related to Starcraft. They have said in the past it's a new IP.

People have said that WoW looked "out of date" since about five years ago. The creativity and the style of the art keeps it looking good to my eyes. If it looked a lot better, fewer people would be able to enjoy it due to hardware limitations. It also looks a lot better since Cata than it used to, they've upgraded the engine in a lot of ways over the years.

WoW has 12 million subs, Rift has a few hundred thousand at the moment. It seems to be doing just fine, and the more the merrier, IMO. They've certainly had a better, more complete and stable launch than most MMORPGs do. I don't think many people have cancelled their WoW account to try Rift though. I also don't think many people who've played WoW for years are going to think Rift is fresh or different enough to jump ship for and play long term, it's certainly not that different.

My prediction is that SWTOR will top out at about a million subs, Rifts will be lucky to hit a million, and WoW will stay at 10 million + for the next expansion or two.

 

[Jetfire]

From what I have seen(videos), Rift looks pretty good...the character creation looks great...but the lack of more unique races is a bit disappointing.

Unless I was really bored and actually had money to blow on Rift...it doesn't really excite me.

If it looked a lot better, fewer people would be able to enjoy it due to hardware limitations.

True. I play Allods Online and it looks better than WoW to me in alot of ways and it's free...but in many ways it is still inferior to WoW with it's graphics and game play.

 

[Bishop76]

From what I have seen(videos), Rift looks pretty good...the character creation looks great...but the lack of more unique races is a bit disappointing.

I played the beta for a bit and the character creation isn't very spectacular. At least I wasn't impressed with it any moreso than I was with WoW. There are a few improvements, but everyone kind of ends up looking the same. If only more companies would go with the Cryptic character design. Cryptic doesn't do much right, but they're very good at character creation.

The stylized "cartoony" world of WoW looks tons better than the "photorealistic" look of Rift, in my opinion. Rift may be technically superior, but I still think WoW looks better.

 

[Jetfire]

^
Yeah I personally never had a problem with the "cartoony" look of WoW. My biggest gripe and it really isn't a deal breaker because I do play WoW when I can...is the character creation...I just wish it was more expansive and I am sure there are alot of people who feel the same way. I am not sure how hard it would be for Blizzard to upgrade the character creation to have more options...but if anything that would be a BIG improvement...to me any way.

 

[Bishop76]

I was hoping when they redid the world with Cata that they'd add at least a few more options to the character generation, but alas...

I do think FordSVT is crazy though for thinking TOR will only hit 1 million subs. It may not have staying power and it may not unseat WoW, but I'm guessing that it has a huge subscriber base at least for those first few months. If it's good enough, it'll only grow from there.

 

[Jetfire]

^
I wanted to give STO a try...but much like you...my brother has it and says it really isn't much fun to him...he's been meaning to give me his copy of the game...still waiting on that.

 

[Bishop76]

Yeah, it's really really mediocre. There's some fun with the ship stuff and maybe even the ground stuff for the first 5 or so levels but then it gets REALLY boring. Not a lot of variety.

Character creation is great, though!

 

[Jetfire]

I know some people want more classes and races in the next WoW expansion...but I do think expanding character customization is the way to go...I really don't see a need for more races and classes seem fine right now...I am sure there is room for improvement on that front though...but I can't really think of anything off hand.

 

[Bishop76]

I think they need more high level content with the next one. I know they redid the whole of old Azeroth, but I really got tired of the new stuff extra fast this time. Though that's in part because doing heroics was a nightmare as a DPS... I cancelled a few months ago and don't really miss it yet. I'm sure by the end of the year or by the next expansion I'll re-up, but I'm just MMO'd out now.

 

[Itisnotlogical]

I think WOW's fine just the way it is. Anybody who complains about the graphics is too picky; it makes it easy for older computers to play the game without an upgrade every time there's a patch or expansion.

 

[Showdown]

Here's a picture of all the playable races in Booty Bay.

http://www.sector2x.com/wow/wow_bb3.jpg

It's a fake. A couple of friends, my brother, and I took shots of a couple of us at a time, then combine them all together.

 

[Jetfire]

^
That is pretty cool Showdown.

I re-downloaded it again. I purchased vanilla many years ago and have that under my main account...have done a few trials of BC but I really haven't taken advantage of BC and hopefully later in the month I can fully upgrade to BC & WoTLK...which of course haven't taken advantage of that either. The plan is get BC & WoTLK and hopefully after that do a trial of CAT once I have exhausted trials of everything else. I am currently back to a trial of BC...so I will play that until it runs out and not to long after get full BC & WoTLK. I know I am behind a bit. It should give me something to do for a month.

 

[LitmusDragon]

I have generally enjoyed the game and when I can play(pay for a month) make the most of it...I enjoy the races and the lore...my question is; Should Blizzard rebuild WOW from the ground up as a new game? Instead of just adding expansions on top of expansions. I don't know what the future of WOW is so forgive if there is news and info making this thread irrelevant.

I'm one of those playing Rift. Rift has some enhancements over WoW but the major thing for me is that it feels like I imagine vanilla WoW must have felt- everything in it is something new to explore.

I bought Cata the day it was released and leveled one toon to 85 and then I basically never played again. This is from someone who has 6 level 80s during Wrath.

This might sound weird but I think part of what killed the fun for me in WoW is having too many options? Or too many developed options. Let me clarify that. Do I go for end game raiding? Do I level up my alts? Which alt do I level up? Do I roll a goblin to check out the new starter zones? It got to the point where I was spending so much time thinking about these things that it took a lot of the fun and spontaneity out of the game for me. Whereas with Rift I just log in and play my ONE character.

Then there are the many changes from late Wrath and early Cata that I disagreed with- like the Dungeon Finder, which I liked at first but then seemed to start a snowballing trend of anti-social behavior which has only gotten worse- to the decision in Cataclysm to make raiding only for serious people again. I for one liked being able to face-roll Naxx in quest blues without putting too much time or effort into it.

Then there's the fact that I have somewhere between 100 - 200 days /played across 6 toons ... think I may have just played myself out.

I'm not at all certain if I'll be switching to the Star Wars MMO when it comes out or not. Something about the idea of 40 lightsaber-wielding jedis taking down a raid boss just seems ridiculous to me. That and the only thing I know Bioware from is Baulder's Gate which I never got the appeal of. Yes, I realize I am in a tiny minority, most people love Bioware.

 

[Jetfire]

Something that needs to happen and probably won't is find some way to get more traffic to the Draenei & Blood Elf starting & surrounding areas. Silvermoon is a ghost town most of the time and it is probably my favorite city next to Darnassus...which is also empty most of the time.

I despise Stormwind & Orgrimmar.

 

[sojourner]

^That's easy, just add what those cities are missing, zone portals (this mostly), barbershops, etc...

 

[Jetfire]

^ True.



I think I can work out something and as I explained before I am behind with the upgrades...but I am getting BC & WoTLK...but do BC first and do a 10 day trial of WoTLK and then upgrade to WoTLK and do a 10 day trial of CAT??? I just exhausted my trial of BC. The only other thing I can do this month is BC & a $30 game card. Thoughts? I don't know if they come with 30 day free game play.