I read an article today about one poor shmucks reasons for leaving WoW. It got me thinking about my own reasons for scorning Blizzard. I must say that I do agree with a couple of the authors points but others just make him sound like a Warhammer Online fanboy, namely WAR being the #1 reason he left WoW.
I didn’t leave WoW for any specific MMO but many individuals do. They have a “grass is greenier” outlook on the other games in the genre and are usually wrong. The reason so many games are called “WoW clones” or “WoW wannabes” is because the genre is pretty standard by now. Almost every MMO has the same basic formula and only minor adjusts are made between them. Gamers use WoW as the gauge because WoW is the largest, most widely accepted and profitable game and because WoW has implemented (or plans to implement) everything from every game ever made.
It’s what Blizzard does. They don’t have a creative bone in their body. But, they are extremely good at taking interesting and fun aspects of other games and melding them into WoW (sometimes outright stealing them and copy/pasting). In most cases, WoW is copying another game, like EQ2 for example. However, since 10 million people play WoW, most of them have only ever played WoW, and only 500,000 or so play EQ2 – the truth is flipped. “EQ2 is copying WoW”, even though EQ2 actually came out first and EQ2 is actually copying EQ1 . . . which is the same place WoW got most of its ideas.
I’m sort of rambling here now so I’ll just get right to the list.
#10 PvP Balancing
WoW has never been a PvP-centric game but they have been trying to wedge it in for quite some time. It all began with Battlegrounds and now Arenas. It seemed that WoW was actually afraid of Warhammer Online, since they’ve been pushing Arenas extremely hard since WAR was announced. PvP has, for the most part, been mostly detrimental to the game. There is a constant battle between PvP-balancing and PvE-balancing and usually no one wins. This has become more and more obvious with Arenas, with are actually #6.
#9 Achievements
Why would achievements be a reason to leave the game? Addiction. I’ve played WoW for over 3 years and I can honestly say that at least 75% of everyone I’ve ever played the game with has been (or still is) addicted to the game. Achievements in WoW is like heroin on top of crack. Get out now while you still can. Xbox Live is a perfect example of what happens to gamers with achievements. I’ve seen grown men suffer through the most unbearable Xbox 360 games on the market . . . just to get the Gamer Points. I can only assume this trend would continue in WoW. Instead of removing or fixing long, boring, annoying quests, instances, or game mechanics . . . just make them achievements and everyone will plug along doing them thinking they are “earning” something for their suffering. I can see the corporate power’s evil grin from here.
My advice is get out while you still can.
#8 Grinds
To be honest, every MMO has some form of grind. That’s the basis for MMOs. That would be like a shooter without . . . shooting things. However, WoW takes it one step further by making everything a grind. Reputation, PvP Honor, Arenas, Raiding, Soloing, Farming, Crafting. Literally everything in the game has become one giant time sink that requires nothing but massive amounts of willing time dedicated to achieve the goal. No skill, no forethought, no planning, no brain is required to do anything in the game. It becomes rather mind-numbing at points.
I always get responses to this that being “good” in any of those areas requires skill, planning and a brain, and that may be true (especially for Arenas) but the fact remains that the “time commitment” aspect remains constant, regardless of anything else. If you can’t put in the time, regardless of skill, planning, wit, experience, or anything else, you will not succeed in the game. Time or nothing.
#7 Raiding
Raiding is becoming more and more of “elitists only” in the game than anything else. This is changing in Wrath with everything being both a 10-man and a 25-man. The raiding scene is WoW, at this current time, is nearly dead. Every raiding guild has been hit by the “but Wrath is just around the corner” bug. “Experiencing the content” reasoning only goes so far. Players want to progress their characters in meaningful ways. Spending 6 hours a night for two weeks to learn and down a boss for an item they know, for sure, they’ll upgrade in a 5 man instance in the upcoming expansion just doesn’t do it for most people. And because raiding requires these people to function properly (it requires the entire group to be ready and able), raiding has faded away.
It also doesn’t help that literally every MMO has “raiding” (to some extent) and it is very alive and well in other games such as LOTRO and EQ2 even with both of their expansions coming up.
#6 Arenas
For me, personally, Arenas ruined the game. I was more of a casual player who PvPed on and off, but because I knew how to play (skill rotation, shatter combos, stun locks) and I spent the time to learn each class, I could hold my own in Battlegrounds and World PvP against opponents with better gear. Arena removed that ability. Resilience made anything besides Gladiator gear completely useless in PvP. It made any idiot who could press a few keys on the keyboard a PvP god against average players. It made early raid gear pointless, since you could just play 10 arena games and earn SSC/TK equivalent gear in two weeks. No one really wanted to spend a few weeks in Karazhan, learning the bosses and trash pulls and farming for epics, to be able to work up to SSC/TK/ZG when they could just do fast, easy, and fun Arenas for the same rewards.
The effort to reward ratio for Arenas made it the center of the game. It removed a big reason to raid and grind reputation and all the other PvE aspects of the game because it was so easy to get “welfare epics”.
#5 Friends and Family
You may not remember them, but people outside of WoW still exist . . . in real life (or IRL for you really hardcore guys). Sometimes the best thing you can do is take a break. It works for me, every time. I take a break from WoW for a few weeks, sometimes a few months. Sometimes I play other MMOs, sometimes I don’t. But, at the end of it all, I enjoy WoW more when I come back. There are usually a few new things for me to do and see. New things for me to talk about with guildies.
Playing other games helps to. Sometimes they make you appreciate the good parts of WoW and other times they make you realize the horrible parts of WoW. Either way, you’ll come away more knowledgeable and happy, either with your new game or returning to WoW.
#4 Lore
Warcraft has always had great lore. The only problem is that Blizzard constantly changes the lore to fit their hair-brained design ideas. Demon, paladin, shaman, hunter aliens from outer space crash their interdimensional space ship on Azeroth? Really? That’s how you explain your horredous idea to make Draenei a playable race as opposed to the countless other fan submitted (and already in the game) races.
For shame Blizzard, for shame.
Or the Blood Elves? Come on, this is getting ridiculous. Not to mention the fact that players can now slay Illidan, Archimonde, Kael’Thas, and banish Kil’jaeden and all in one expansion. Might want to save some of the biggest names in lore for some future content there Blizzard, like Arthas and Kel’Thuzad – oh wait.
Lore has been thrown out the window whenever it was easiest for the development team to do so. Why make sense when you can just rewrite the 15 year old story to suit your poor design decisions? Brilliant!
And what ever happen to Gilneas? Kul Tiras? Grim Batol? Uldum? Why isn’t Azshara finished 4 years later? Mount Hyjal (present day) is still blocked (even though I can still see the instance portal in Winterspring).
So many things left unfinished and so many new things added unnecessarily make any person trying to follow the lore completely lost and confused to the “new story” as it stands now.
#3 Other MMOs – LOTRO, WAR, CoH, EVE Online, EQ2
There are now a few MMOs that have “made it” or at least have enough numbers to sustain a fun and active community. Many of them have other things to offer that WoW just doesn’t have. EQ2 has 22 some odd classes (I’ve only played a handful of them myself). It is totally geared to hardcore raiding, instancing and questing. LOTRO has an excellent crafting system, interesting instancing scheme, traits, deeds, and the lore of Tolkien to back it up. CoH has super heroes, that speaks for itself. WAR has, supposedly, the best PvP in any fantasy MMO (EVE still sits on top for the best overall).
There are so many other games out there, it might be a good idea to try a few, even if just to gain a respect for the good parts of WoW and to make more informed suggestions for improvement to the development team.
#2 Time Frame for New Content
Blizzard’s time frame for new content releases is downright ridiculous. Years between expansions and months between even the smallest content releases is unacceptable. Even moreso when every single one of them is unfinished and buggy when it is first “released”. Other games release content so much faster, releasing more content and content of quality and do so with smaller teams and smaller budgets.
WoW is bringing in millions and millions of dollars, yet we really don’t see their output being higher, or even equivalent, to their competition. If you are going to claim to the best you have to act like it. The players should demand it, and sometimes they do.
Recently a player simply pointed out that Blizzard should push back the date of launch if things aren’t going to be finished. His comment was made in response to a Blizzard developer letting the community know that the new Shaman ability was going to be missing its sound and animation at launch.
Blizzard’s response to him? Permanent ban from the game. Not kidding.
I think he had a very valid point. Where is all my money going if you can’t even finish your shit on time given a whole year longer than other games (EQ2 for example) to output the same amount of content?
#1 Wrath of the Lich King
The article had this listed as a bonus reason and I have some agreement with his reasoning. The reason I have it listed, however, is because this gives you the perfect opportunity to justify purchasing and trying a new game. You are going to have to buy Wrath ($40) to continue to play WoW and, if you are a new 70 or haven’t reached 70, a reset on everything. You will have new reputations to grind, new gear sets to acquire, new skills to theorycraft over, new boss fights to learn. Basically, all the things you would have to do with a new game, only you get to do it over again in the same world with the same toon with 90% of the same abilities, the same mechanics, and much of the same everything.
On top of that, I would not advise to pick up and play Wrath right away. The developers have continually pointed out things that will not be ready for launch (the shaman talents for example) and other things that will probably be buggy and unfinished. And, everyone and their grandmother (literally in some cases) will be attempting to grind through the first quests in the expansion causing the massive lag, server crashes, and quest NPC camping that made the BC launch a nightmare.
Wrath is very much more of the same. And, because you have to spend the money, you might as well try something completely new.
