Since I’m still unemployed, it means I can’t keep playing my MMO’s (thanks to no longer being able to afford their monthly upkeep) and I’ve had to go back to single player games. Many brand spanking new titles I can’t afford either, and they are now getting to the point that my machine can’t run them without some serious problems, so I’m living it up with all the best games I never played from the last 10 years.
Right now, I’m on Warcraft 3. This is odd for me, since I’ve never really been one to enjoy Real Time Strategy games, and the Warcraft series haven’t been as entertaining as Starcraft was for me. However, I’ve really got to say; this game is a lot of fun.
I’m not about to give it a review now, since many people last played this game a decade ago (and I’m not so low as to review old games out of a sense of nostalgia), but I will highlight some points I like about it.
- The graphics are much smoother than the previous incarnations of Warcraft. I remember this used to be a bad thing, as Thrall’s Chain Lightning would bog my brother’s video card down when it first came out. Now it looks very fluid.
- The storyline is very well conceived. They actually put a lot of thought into the story, the environment, the units, and the dialogue.
- I’m the only one playing it. I don’t have some level 70 shaman (being played by a 9 year old) hopping out of nowhere to gank me.
It got me thinking about my experience with World of Warcraft, and made me realize that I may not have been entirely fair with it. I had never thought that I’d be missing something from the whole WoW gaming extravaganza if I hadn’t played every previous game as well, but I think I was. With the story all buttoned up, certain things in WoW made more sense; the dreadlords, the litch king, and the optional side quests among them.
What I still don’t like about WoW will probably never be changed; the other people playing it. Warcraft 3 was really enjoyable because I was the only one in there. I wasn’t grinding small quests to level up, and I wasn’t having to deal with other people (who, let’s face it, can really ruin any experience). I was given an objective, and I had to do it. Then I was successful and I moved on to the next objective.
It’s that sort of linear gameplay that I think is purposely missing from WoW (and I can understand why). I don’t think it would hurt to try and reintroduce it, however; Warcraft and Starcraft are both games of epic battles between large forces. Why not try and level up your toon in WoW to join the NPC army for whatever side you’re on and take an enemy city? Why is all the fun action limited to instances that simply reset when you’re done with them (I mean, how many times can you really kill Hogger and still be entertained?).
I want to hear back from the WoW fans! Have I completely missed the mark? How many of you played Warcraft before WoW and what are your thoughts between the two?
Tags: mmo, real time strategy games, single player games, starcraft, warcraft 3, warcraft series, world of warcraft
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I used to be a big RTS fan but soon got tired of it. All of the games seem pretty much the same. Then I found Company of Heroes. That is a sweet, sweet game that could only have been conceived by a genius. You should give it a try.
As for WoW, I’ve never played. Between work, school, family, and trying to finish my basement, I just don’t have the time to play. Plus, I have a real problem with paying $50 for a game then having to pay $15 a month just to play said game. If I ever do get into the world of MMO’s, I’ll probably end up playing Guild Wars just because of the fact that it’s free to play once you buy it.
I’ve actually enjoyed single player games more than the MMORPGs. Granted my only MMORPG has been Pirates of the Carribean (which has a free mode if you need an MMORPG fix). In a single player game I am the hero. The whole story revolves around me. Plus when life gets busy, I put the game on pause and it waits for me to return. An MMORPG moves without me and I spend the time playing catch up.
I tend to revisit several old favorites. The NOLF series, Dark Forces, Tron 2.0, Diablo 2, Starcraft, etc. I remember the challenge of Warcraft I, II and III. I wonder if I still have the disks.
StarTrekOnline.com will probably be my next crack addiction if it is done right.
I’ve been playing WoW for about two and a half years now. I hit level 70 about 3 months ago, and have sort of been puttering around since then. I’ve known Zuke for close to fifteen years, and on this topic we haven’t always seen eye to eye. I think on a few of your points you have missed the mark. The graphics are clean and stylized. It’s not going to require Deep Thought to run the game, but that’s how they’ve managed to get over 10 million people to play it. The story is definitely something that you can get as deep, or shallow, as you want. If you want to find out the story of Azeroth, and learn every nuance of the Gnome people, you can. Or if you’re like me you skim past the boring exposition to find how many of monster X you need to kill for NPC Y, before he will give you reward $, and send you on to follow up quest Z. Most games are like this; see last years fantastic Assassins Creed, Bioshock, or Gears of War. Most games have you doing fairly repetitive things over and over till you can beat a boss, then move on to the next level. I have personally saved Princess’s Zelda and Peach many many more times than I’ve killed Hogger and it’s still fun. Yet we still love those games. Granted here a point could made for Nintendo beating that dead horse like it’s the national pastime. Though come to think of it as crazy as the Japanese can be with their entertainment it just might be their official sport.
What’s great about the really good MMO’s is the same thing that’s great about the GTA series, they let you play the game you want. My brother in law plays WoW likes it’s a mini stock market, hardly leaving the auction house. I know people who do nothing but PVP all day, cause they love the sense of large scale battle. Some want to embrace their inner Georgio Armani, and make new clothes and armor sets. I myself hardly ever group up with people I don’t know which allows me to mostly avoid the anti semetic 13 year olds, and thanks to the block option I usually don’t have to see them spamming the chat channels of Ironforge.
I have no problem paying a monthly subscription for WoW. This money goes not just to buy gold plated slides for everyone at Blizzard, but it maintains the servers, and provides new content, which Blizz have been really good about doing. Complaining about the monthly cost of an MMO would be like complaining to GM that you keep having to buy more gas to keep your car going. It should just keep running since I paid a lot of money for it. The car keeps providing new places to go, and so do Blizzard.
I realize that WoW is not the deepest of games, yes Zuke Eve: Online is more Graduate level gaming, however I would say without a doubt it is the finest example of an MMO currently on the market. You can’t really knock an MMO for having grinding when a) most games do, and b) that’s what an MMO is. It would like me ragging on Starcraft for requiring too much thinking. Or shouting down Postal for being to politically incorrect.
I haven’t branched out to many other MMO’s. I’ve made two failed attempts at Eve, I’ve tried free trials of Star Wars Galaxies, and City of Heroes, and neither drew me in. I’ve considered trying out Conan, but that looks a bit to much like WoW with more blood and cleavage. A Star Trek MMO sounds great in theory, but I think in execution it will fall a bit short. We all want to be Captain Kirk, no one wants to be Yeomen Johnson.
Stupid GM making me buy gas for my car after I bought it…