WoW review
Jan. 13th, 2010 04:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pandora_parrotI've been playing WoW for several months now. I figured that I would take some time and write a review of it.
One of the things that has historically turned me off to this sort of game is the repetitive aspects of it. From what I could see, most of these games came down to: "Go kill 10 boars. Gain 10 XP. Get level. Go kill 10 bats. Gain XP. Get level" repeat ad nauseum. There's no fun in that. Sure, you might get a slightly different environment to do things in, but really, you're doing hte same damn shit in the same sort of area. It's annoying and pointless and unpleasant. After doing this grinding for a while on any given MMO, I just gave up. There didn't seem to be any payoff except higher levels and slight variations on level design.
Maybe I just didn't stick with most of those games long enough. Because Wow is totally not like that. Quests are different and interesting. There are common themes, but there is still quite a bit of diversity. The process of doing quests and gaining XP and levels doesn't just lead to a higher stat next to my name, but grants me access to new areas and experiences. Those new areas and experiences aren't just slight variations on past areas, but in many cases are actually full of interesting geography and art. The game actually produces an excellent balance of work vs. reward. I put in a bunch of time, doing fun quests and stuff, to be 0rewarded with something new and interesting.
Let's look at some examples:
Quest Variety:
You've got a lot of the sorts of quests that you'd think are boring in a lot of ways. There's "Kill n creatures" quests, "Kill as many of creature X as you need to retrieve n of item Y" quests, "Kill boss monster X" quests, and similar. Those sound like they'd be boring, but they're actually quite fun a lot of the time, especially if you're playing with friends. Hunting down the locations of the creatures in question, figuring out tactics to use to fight them, running around in their environments. It's really fun.
But then you have all sorts of other interesting quests. I had one where I rode a gryphon over this army and had to drop bombs on them. Another quest required me to sneak around an enemy encampment to find a special item needed to take out the major boss monster. Another required me to read a treasure map and find the right place to go. Another had me hunting for someone in a strange alien bug place.
Environmental variety:
I've come across fantastic things while playing this game. Wandering through a dense tropical jungle, I came upon a strange, almost alien landscape filled with giant bugs. It looked like they were transforming the land into some sort of hive. It was alien and fantastic.
Another time, I was wandering through the mountains above Hillsbrad and came upon the ruins of an old city. But the ruins only seemed to be a small portion of the city, as where the bulk of it would have been was a massive crater surrounded by an eerie glowing purple light. The ruins of Dalaran.
When I first travelled to Outworld, I had to walk through this massive portal to another dimension. The portal was easily several hundred feet tall. Upon stepping through, I was transported to a fantastic broken landscape. Bits of rock and rubble floated in the air, and the land was slanted at odd angles, as if the world itself was crumbling into pieces. Right in front of me a massive battle was going on, and as I stared, several enemies broke through the front line and came after me.
I love the sheer variety of environments. Beautiful mountains, deserts, dense tropical jungles, ordinary forests that could be found in the hills of California, fantastic forests with trees thicker and taller than any Earthly redwood, rolling grassy hills covered in farms, swamps, icy tundras, rolling plains, etc. All of it dotted with locations both beautiful and fantastic. There's even a place called "Shimmering Flats" that looks for all of the world like the salt flats of Utah or the Black Rock Desert where Burning Man takes place.
Despite having gotten through all of the "vanilla" (pre-expansion pack) content, I find that Blizzard continues to take my breath away all of the time. I constantly find myself gasping at the architecture of a dungeon instance, or blinking into a sunset as I crest a hill overlooking the village of Lakeshire, seeing the sun reflected on the shimming waters of the lake. They did an *incredible* job with the art and design in this game. I feel like I play the game in part just to experience all of the wonderful places they've created, both mundane and fantastic.
They also did a great job with travel. When you first start, you're slow, traveling everywhere on foot. As you progress, you're granted faster and faster mounts that you can ride to and fro. When you hit 60 and enter the expansion pack content, you find yourself with the ability to fly all over the place, a breathtaking experience. It's fantastic to see the cities, mountains, and places of this world from the air. In Zangarmarsh, I just love the look of flying through this entirely alien landscape covered with giant mushrooms hundreds of feet tall, fading off into the purple haze of this bizarre place.
Here are some pictures of some of these places:
The mushroom forest of Zangarmarsh
The ruins of Dalaran
The exterior of the city of Ironforge
The jungles of Feralas
I'm hooked. If only on the artwork, I'm hooked. They've done a great job of providing a wide variety of experiences, and have really done a lot to remove the tedium that I've come to expect of MMORPGs. Progress forward, especially when using Refer-A-Friend, is fast, and you quickly get to see all sorts of new and wonderful places, having all sorts of new and interesting experiences.
One of the things that has historically turned me off to this sort of game is the repetitive aspects of it. From what I could see, most of these games came down to: "Go kill 10 boars. Gain 10 XP. Get level. Go kill 10 bats. Gain XP. Get level" repeat ad nauseum. There's no fun in that. Sure, you might get a slightly different environment to do things in, but really, you're doing hte same damn shit in the same sort of area. It's annoying and pointless and unpleasant. After doing this grinding for a while on any given MMO, I just gave up. There didn't seem to be any payoff except higher levels and slight variations on level design.
Maybe I just didn't stick with most of those games long enough. Because Wow is totally not like that. Quests are different and interesting. There are common themes, but there is still quite a bit of diversity. The process of doing quests and gaining XP and levels doesn't just lead to a higher stat next to my name, but grants me access to new areas and experiences. Those new areas and experiences aren't just slight variations on past areas, but in many cases are actually full of interesting geography and art. The game actually produces an excellent balance of work vs. reward. I put in a bunch of time, doing fun quests and stuff, to be 0rewarded with something new and interesting.
Let's look at some examples:
Quest Variety:
You've got a lot of the sorts of quests that you'd think are boring in a lot of ways. There's "Kill n creatures" quests, "Kill as many of creature X as you need to retrieve n of item Y" quests, "Kill boss monster X" quests, and similar. Those sound like they'd be boring, but they're actually quite fun a lot of the time, especially if you're playing with friends. Hunting down the locations of the creatures in question, figuring out tactics to use to fight them, running around in their environments. It's really fun.
But then you have all sorts of other interesting quests. I had one where I rode a gryphon over this army and had to drop bombs on them. Another quest required me to sneak around an enemy encampment to find a special item needed to take out the major boss monster. Another required me to read a treasure map and find the right place to go. Another had me hunting for someone in a strange alien bug place.
Environmental variety:
I've come across fantastic things while playing this game. Wandering through a dense tropical jungle, I came upon a strange, almost alien landscape filled with giant bugs. It looked like they were transforming the land into some sort of hive. It was alien and fantastic.
Another time, I was wandering through the mountains above Hillsbrad and came upon the ruins of an old city. But the ruins only seemed to be a small portion of the city, as where the bulk of it would have been was a massive crater surrounded by an eerie glowing purple light. The ruins of Dalaran.
When I first travelled to Outworld, I had to walk through this massive portal to another dimension. The portal was easily several hundred feet tall. Upon stepping through, I was transported to a fantastic broken landscape. Bits of rock and rubble floated in the air, and the land was slanted at odd angles, as if the world itself was crumbling into pieces. Right in front of me a massive battle was going on, and as I stared, several enemies broke through the front line and came after me.
I love the sheer variety of environments. Beautiful mountains, deserts, dense tropical jungles, ordinary forests that could be found in the hills of California, fantastic forests with trees thicker and taller than any Earthly redwood, rolling grassy hills covered in farms, swamps, icy tundras, rolling plains, etc. All of it dotted with locations both beautiful and fantastic. There's even a place called "Shimmering Flats" that looks for all of the world like the salt flats of Utah or the Black Rock Desert where Burning Man takes place.
Despite having gotten through all of the "vanilla" (pre-expansion pack) content, I find that Blizzard continues to take my breath away all of the time. I constantly find myself gasping at the architecture of a dungeon instance, or blinking into a sunset as I crest a hill overlooking the village of Lakeshire, seeing the sun reflected on the shimming waters of the lake. They did an *incredible* job with the art and design in this game. I feel like I play the game in part just to experience all of the wonderful places they've created, both mundane and fantastic.
They also did a great job with travel. When you first start, you're slow, traveling everywhere on foot. As you progress, you're granted faster and faster mounts that you can ride to and fro. When you hit 60 and enter the expansion pack content, you find yourself with the ability to fly all over the place, a breathtaking experience. It's fantastic to see the cities, mountains, and places of this world from the air. In Zangarmarsh, I just love the look of flying through this entirely alien landscape covered with giant mushrooms hundreds of feet tall, fading off into the purple haze of this bizarre place.
Here are some pictures of some of these places:
The mushroom forest of Zangarmarsh
The ruins of Dalaran
The exterior of the city of Ironforge
The jungles of Feralas
I'm hooked. If only on the artwork, I'm hooked. They've done a great job of providing a wide variety of experiences, and have really done a lot to remove the tedium that I've come to expect of MMORPGs. Progress forward, especially when using Refer-A-Friend, is fast, and you quickly get to see all sorts of new and wonderful places, having all sorts of new and interesting experiences.
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-14 12:43 am (UTC)Zangarmarsh is my favorite zone in the whole game.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-14 12:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-14 12:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-14 01:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-14 02:39 am (UTC)And I'll tell you a small secret...there's something really cool to be unlocked for completing enough quests in Dragonblight in Northrend ;)...
no subject
Date: 2010-01-14 02:45 am (UTC)The only hope I see for me at endgame is the PVP aspect. If I get into that, then this will remain fun. Otherwise, I expect that my interest in Wow may wane.
Then again, there may be other things waiting for me. :)
no subject
Date: 2010-01-14 01:16 am (UTC)There's a term in D&D - min/maxing. The meaning is pretty obvious, and I think that's been my mindset in playing WoW lately. Seeing it again through your eyes makes me want to go log in now!
In fact... gotta go. :)
no subject
Date: 2010-01-14 09:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-15 02:12 am (UTC)