mikailborg (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mikailborg) wrote2005-08-04 02:06 pm
mikailborg) wrote2005-08-04 02:06 pm
Entry tags:
Like, WoW. This is a bit of a pain...
As I mention many posts back, I'm playing World of Warcraft with some of my free time these days. I was thrilled with the execution of the game when I began playing it, and loved the way it sucked one in early on. The fact that it ran well on my older-but-upgraded Mac was a real plus, too.
I'm beginning to have a few problems with the game, however. I've reached level 23 with my mage, and I solo a lot. Not because I don't know others who play, or even because I don't belong to a guild, but because I'm online when I'm online, and for only an hour or maybe two at a time, and it just seems rude to keep asking people to drop what they're doing and help me with my quests. It doesn't make it any better that the experience rewards drop dramatically when one has help; and the monsters I am capable of killing, even with assistance, don't provide huge experience rewards to begin with.
Add that to the fact that the game is expensive. Repairing all one's gear after being killed costs money. Learning spells costs money. Travel, unless one's willing to hoof it for hours, costs money. Learning to cook, or deliver first aid, so one's character recovers health faster, costs money. My savings are steadily eroding, and that's even including my repeated (expensive) trips to the (single) Auction House on the continent to sell a few items at above vendor price. Sure, there are quests with money rewards, but they usually barely pay for themselves in terms of character expenses. Honestly, I'm not sure what I'll be doing about my backup character who is on the wrong continent for her faction's Auction House.
WoW has a color-coded system for rewarding experience; critter levels are marked in grey if they are so pathetic they won't reward you, green if they are somewhat below your level and provide sparse experience, yellow if they are close to you in level and provide moderate experience, orange for above your level and high experience, and red for "you'll die, but if a miracle occurs, the experience will be excellent". The only problem with this system is that in actual practice, with a mage character, I have an excellent chance of being killed by a yellow, and the greens give me very little... so I must spend hours upon hours upon hours accepting tiny rewards to get anywhere. Otherwise, it's back to the graveyard for me, and another expensive trip to the armor repair guy.
Again, I could party up, and be confident of killing yellows (unless we accidentally attract more than one at a time, in which case I'm dead again), but the party system reduces my XP award to the point where I might as well go back to soloing greens. I know this, because I've been trying it.
*shrug* I'm not trying to say that this game sucks, or that Blizzard doesn't know what they are doing, but I'm beginning to wonder if it's going to continue to be as fun for me as I thought it would.
Oh, and anyone playing a MMORPG should read about EVE Online's The Great Scam. After investing massive amounts of time in this game playing fair, only to be continually sent back to square one by people playing pirates and Player Killers, a player resorts to unsavory methods to beat the game. While I can't approve of his methods, I have some sympathy for his frustration. I don't think it's practical to have law-abiders and law-breakers as characters in the same online-universe. In any game universe where the law-breakers are attractive to play, they will have the advantage; and by natural selection, the law-abiders will dwindle away and leave for other games.
I'm beginning to have a few problems with the game, however. I've reached level 23 with my mage, and I solo a lot. Not because I don't know others who play, or even because I don't belong to a guild, but because I'm online when I'm online, and for only an hour or maybe two at a time, and it just seems rude to keep asking people to drop what they're doing and help me with my quests. It doesn't make it any better that the experience rewards drop dramatically when one has help; and the monsters I am capable of killing, even with assistance, don't provide huge experience rewards to begin with.
Add that to the fact that the game is expensive. Repairing all one's gear after being killed costs money. Learning spells costs money. Travel, unless one's willing to hoof it for hours, costs money. Learning to cook, or deliver first aid, so one's character recovers health faster, costs money. My savings are steadily eroding, and that's even including my repeated (expensive) trips to the (single) Auction House on the continent to sell a few items at above vendor price. Sure, there are quests with money rewards, but they usually barely pay for themselves in terms of character expenses. Honestly, I'm not sure what I'll be doing about my backup character who is on the wrong continent for her faction's Auction House.
WoW has a color-coded system for rewarding experience; critter levels are marked in grey if they are so pathetic they won't reward you, green if they are somewhat below your level and provide sparse experience, yellow if they are close to you in level and provide moderate experience, orange for above your level and high experience, and red for "you'll die, but if a miracle occurs, the experience will be excellent". The only problem with this system is that in actual practice, with a mage character, I have an excellent chance of being killed by a yellow, and the greens give me very little... so I must spend hours upon hours upon hours accepting tiny rewards to get anywhere. Otherwise, it's back to the graveyard for me, and another expensive trip to the armor repair guy.
Again, I could party up, and be confident of killing yellows (unless we accidentally attract more than one at a time, in which case I'm dead again), but the party system reduces my XP award to the point where I might as well go back to soloing greens. I know this, because I've been trying it.
*shrug* I'm not trying to say that this game sucks, or that Blizzard doesn't know what they are doing, but I'm beginning to wonder if it's going to continue to be as fun for me as I thought it would.
Oh, and anyone playing a MMORPG should read about EVE Online's The Great Scam. After investing massive amounts of time in this game playing fair, only to be continually sent back to square one by people playing pirates and Player Killers, a player resorts to unsavory methods to beat the game. While I can't approve of his methods, I have some sympathy for his frustration. I don't think it's practical to have law-abiders and law-breakers as characters in the same online-universe. In any game universe where the law-breakers are attractive to play, they will have the advantage; and by natural selection, the law-abiders will dwindle away and leave for other games.
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