Urbin
1/4/2011 8:10:00 AM
On Tue, 04 Jan 2011 00:53:16 -0500, ToolPackinMama wrote:
> On 1/4/2011 12:35 AM, ToolPackinMama wrote:
>
> > For me, what makes WOW the best is all the little things.
Well, it seems we set our priorities differently.
> > 1) You can JUMP. Incredibly, there are many games where you can't jump.
Allowing for those annoying bouncy characters in pugs that can't stand still
for two seconds when waiting for something in an instance. Boy would I love
if WOW didn't allow jumping.
Of course, jumping is handy if you need to get up onto something :-)
> > 2) You can SWIM. Amazingly, many sophisticated games don't allow swimming.
Well, if there is stuff that needs to be done underwater, there needs to be
swimming. If there were no treasures, nodes or quests that are underwater,
the only reason swimming would be good for, would be exploring, but I don't
do a lot of that at 66% speed.
> > 3) You can AUTOSHOOT (auto-attack) effortlessly. I can't believe this
> > ability isn't universal, but it isn't.
Ah, as a hunter, I'm absolutely with you on this. Now my mage wants auto
frostbolt ;-)
> > 4) You can go off the trail. Holy COW there are lots of games that
> > hardly ever give you a chance to explore, or randomly pick your own path.
Total agreement. The incredible game world is a big part of why I like WoW
so much.
> > 5) You can forge your own destiny.
To some extent yes, and I like it.
> > Unless you are locked into a phased area, you can do quests in any
> > order, or skip many of them if you choose.
Well, since Cata, this possibility has been vastly reduced, see Burt's
threads on linear questing.
> > 6) If you are a hunter, you can tame many pets, and you can name your
> > pets. I am afraid I must inform you that hunters in other games don't
> > have such joys. Even games that let hunters have pets won't let you tame
> > many.
Yes, that is nice and I got used to having a pet for those almost six years.
Though I don't know how badly lacking it would be if as a hunter I had never
had a pet. The reason why my first character was a hunter was because I was
looking for some kind of ranged combat/Aragorn type ranger character. The
pet was not a deciding factor.
> > And sometimes the pets don't level with you in other games like
I tamed the green-orange tiger in Felwood the other day. Boy, did they
improve pet levelling. It took me half a heroic instance and a couple of
dailies to bring the pet from 82 to 85. I remember where my pet would catch
up to my level briefly before I reached the next level, back in vanilla.
> > 7) You can ride a mount. You can ride a flying mount. OMFG why are there
> > any games anywhere that won't give you a freaking mount? I mean, it's
> > not like WOW hasn't shown that it is feasible and desirable.
I guess it all depends. Of course, having a mount is cool because it gets
you to places faster. But whether that is absolutely required depends on the
size and setup of your world. I agree, that with the size of WoW, a mount is
definitely desirable and I'm glad we get them at level 20 now.
And of course flying mounts are *truly* cool, it gives you a whole new
perspective for the world and combined with the ability to explore, I really
love them.
> > 8) You can actually sit in the fricking chairs. I can name a new MMORPG
> > that doesn't even let you do that. I kid you not.
Meh, so what. A bit of flavor, I wouldn't even have noticed if you coudln't.
> > There are many other little things that set WOW apart and above.
>
> I am hoping some of you will chime in.
Well, for me, it's more the "other big" things that set WOW apart (but then
it's the only MMO I've ever played, so maybe I'm a bad judge of things).
The great things about WoW are the versatility of what you can do, the
ability to solo play, group randomly, raid, do PvP, engage in guild
activities, chase down achievments, max out your gear, twink to your heart's
content.
But I do agree, that all the little things definitely add flavour and make
it a more enjoyable experience. Some to add:
9) there is a lot of humour, be that pop culture references, be that
references to how WoW was before Cata (a lot of new quests take the piss
out of the same NPCs and what they used to do; has anyone talked to
"Pretty Boy Duncan" lately?), be that funny things to do, the dwarven
flight masters telling you to "keep your feet on the ground" and lots
more
10) the Lore. I didn't pay enough attention to this during Vanilla, but
starting with BC I've begun to carefully read the quest texts, read in
game books and stuff and this is just so amazing, it's like
participating in a fantasy novel
11) the critters
> > In my opinion: no game that is available now or in the future should
> > deny players such basic things. If you can do it in WOW, you should be
> > able to do in in any game, from this day forward, FOREVER.
The question is, does every game *need* all this. I can nicely do without
sittable chairs, I only need a mount if the game world is big enough for it
to matter and there are no other convenient methods of getting around etc.
But I do agree, that WoW gets these things pretty much right, even if their
importance to me is not as big as to you.
> I admit I haven't played EVERY GAME, but the fact that hugely hyped NEW
> games like Aion and Star Trek Online fail in these areas tells me we
> have a long way to go before WOW is actually outdated.
Not having played Aion, WAR, LotR etc, I have still followed what people
wrote about them. My impression was that they failed because of lacks in
game play (questing, pvp, end game) and bugginess, not lack of jumping and
swimming.
Cheers
Urbin
--
Dun Morogh-EU (PvE) | Juran (65), Druid
Urbin (85), Hunter | Surana (70), Mage | Greeta (62), Rogue
Mymule (80), Warlock | Kordosch (75), Deathknight | Gera (26), Paladin
Sunh (80), Priest | Taalas (73), Shaman | Vargal (14), Warrior