Curse

SebaZ · Jan 06, 2011, 05:09 PM // 17:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nash Vegas

Take that WoW!

http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/01...lts/#continued

Guild Wars - Best MMO of the decade

Guild Wars 2 - 2nd most anticipated of 2011 (SW:ToR is #1)

Arena Net - close behind Blizzard for best developers studio.

GW:EotN - Best expansion of the decade

Guild Wars is also the best community (as voted)

As someone that has played GW more than anything, I'm still gonna call these awards a joke. As a MMO GW is pretty mediocre, if you can even call it a MMO.
And GW:EotN Best expansion of the decade? I finished the whole storyline in less than a day, and the dungeons are a joke.

*lemming* · Jan 06, 2011, 08:22 PM // 20:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by gremlin

I am not sure what a properly conducted poll is or if this was one.
Polls are usually done by direct questioning of individuals face to face.
If they are polling women under 30 they don't ask me because I am not a woman or under 30.
You cannot easily poll all gamers or all mmrpg gamers as most magazines and websites have a bias, this has already been mentioned.

Indeed, which is why it's fairly laughable to take these awards seriously.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gremlin

I suppose the success part comes in large from being an all powerful high lever wow character and able to walk over loads of monsters makes some people feel really good.
GW 2 will have a level of 80 so maybe in a couple of years it will start appealing to the same players wow does.

WoW probably has more casual players who've never reached max level than GW has players.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ErrantVenture

You've never heard of izzy's secret balance forums that were around back in the 2006-2007 era did you? It's where izzy brought in members from all of the top guilds to hear what the players thought was necessary to fix PvP. Unfortunately EVERY player thinks different changes are necessary to fix the game and will always support changes that fit their own style of play.

Even when people agreed on things (for example, that both the 40 elite updates were going to ruin the game), it didn't have much of an effect.

Bassma · Jan 06, 2011, 10:24 PM // 22:24

lol who the hell is massively.com? hahah they don't rate anything. MMO of the decade would have to come from WELL KNOWN publishers like Gamespot or Gamespy or PCgamer, RPG-Codex those nationally and worldly known review sites. I've been gaming and rpg gaming for 20 years and I've never even heard of massively.com hahaha Someone independent might just as well put up a site and claim GW is game of the century as it wouldn't make any difference it can never come close to WOW, WOW's income and WOW's content and WOW's player base.

Xiaquin · Jan 06, 2011, 10:39 PM // 22:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by dancing gnome

Opinions and voting in polls are free, buying and subscribing to a game for 6 years is very expensive and a true indicator of which MMO was offering the most addicting experience.

Success and popularity (or the number of active players) doesn't mean something is proportionally that much better in quality. Someone can be a longtime WoW player, but it doesn't mean said person thinks it's the best MMO. That logic doesn't work, and there is no logic in a fan poll. That's all I have left to say.

Jarin · Jan 07, 2011, 01:10 AM // 01:10

So, if this is all accurate... MMO's haven't been around all that long (Air Warrior being the first in 1986) wouldn't this make Guild Wars the MMO of the century? Then millennium? Of all time maybe

Ka Tet · Jan 07, 2011, 01:37 AM // 01:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by ErrantVenture

You've never heard of izzy's secret balance forums that were around back in the 2006-2007 era did you? It's where izzy brought in members from all of the top guilds to hear what the players thought was necessary to fix PvP. Unfortunately EVERY player thinks different changes are necessary to fix the game and will always support changes that fit their own style of play.

I should have highlighted the consistent and intelligent balances part of my statement. This is the key to it all.
Almost any time you make changes, there will be unintended consequences. The trick is to fix those problems quickly.
Balancing isn't a once-and-done deal. It's a constantly evolving process.

Lemming's statement covered a lot of the other things I would say here.
Asking for input with the intent of ignoring it and doing what you want to do anyway just so that you can say you had the community involved is not what I had in mind.
Beyond that, it would be relatively simple for a person who truly intended to create a consensus to cull the objective suggestions from the nonobjective and proceed from there.

Vodevil714 · Jan 07, 2011, 06:56 AM // 06:56

I played GW for about a year and half when my guild decided to try out WoW for a change. About 10 of us migrated to WoW and played for about 4yrs. Slowly the people that all went to WoW began to quit playing and a few came back To GW. I came back about a month ago and I'm wondering why I ever quit.

WoW does have some really cool things for you to do. But, It is all a mindless grind to get anywhere. I really hated the thought of the new expansion coming out and having to start over again. Like an early poster said "Blizz knows how to keep you addicted". It felt more like a chore to get to where you wanted to be rather then good gaming fun.

As far as the community goes.. I find GW a much more helpful and friendly place to play. People in GW have a much more positive attitude about things. My last 6months of playing WoW i spent most of my time playing the ah and that ment sitting in town for hours on end. The people there were just plain rude most of the time. You couldn't ask a question in general chat without getting a tyrade of rude comments or being completely ignored. I do see the same in GW. But, not even close to what goes on in that other game.

Blizz also claims to have 6-8 million player base.. But, They have also said that They have a couple million bots, gold farmers that they are counting towards that total.

So, overall I would say that GW provides much better gaming atmosphere then other games and I'm really glad I've come back

Gratz GW

ruk1a · Jan 07, 2011, 08:15 AM // 08:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by thedeadlyassassin

Well deserved awards. I myself being a gamer, I have played WoW and RuneScape.

-mod edit - snipping for space-

Sorry for my WoW rant, but I'm basically trying to explain how Guild Wars, even being way less known, won these awards and how WoW is basically just a big giant cigarette.

at first i was like tl;dr but then i was like, lol holy shit spot on brother. i currently play WoW and like you, i realized long ago that it's actually an extremely boring game with a grindset attitude, nothing is fun because like you said if you wanna pvp, i hope you like dying because you will be farming those random battle grounds for gear and die about 10,000 times in the process while having shitty nerds /lol at your corpse, sounds fun right? anyways i don't wanna add onto your extremely long wall of text but simply agreeing with you.. i play WoW because guild wars won't give me a decent update, at least blizzard does that once in a while. give this man a cookie

btw i'm quoting this and putting it on the WoW forums when i get unbanned there.

Verene · Jan 07, 2011, 03:18 PM // 15:18

Most people play WoW because Blizzard is a master of the "carrot on a stick" thing. Keep that shiny thing everyone wants juuuuust out of reach, and people will keep grinding away to try and get it, even if they're not enjoying themselves at all.

gremlin · Jan 07, 2011, 07:32 PM // 19:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Verene

Most people play WoW because Blizzard is a master of the "carrot on a stick" thing. Keep that shiny thing everyone wants juuuuust out of reach, and people will keep grinding away to try and get it, even if they're not enjoying themselves at all.

There is also the idea of seeing how much you have invested in the game in cold cash.
Once you start playing you don't want to do anything else because you already paid for the time.

I guess that's why I never really got into the wow thing because I like playing a number of games but I would resent time away from wow because the clock it ticking down towards my next monthly payment.

Heck imagine you had 4 or 5 games on your computer all with monthly charges, you would go nuts just trying to play them all to get value for money.

If I ran a game company I would want all games paid for monthly as a gamer I want the whole idea of payments to be scrapped and the companies involved to go bust.

distilledwill · Jan 07, 2011, 11:33 PM // 23:33

Hell yeah baby!

Verene · Jan 07, 2011, 11:48 PM // 23:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by gremlin

There is also the idea of seeing how much you have invested in the game in cold cash.
Once you start playing you don't want to do anything else because you already paid for the time.

I guess that's why I never really got into the wow thing because I like playing a number of games but I would resent time away from wow because the clock it ticking down towards my next monthly payment.

Heck imagine you had 4 or 5 games on your computer all with monthly charges, you would go nuts just trying to play them all to get value for money.

If I ran a game company I would want all games paid for monthly as a gamer I want the whole idea of payments to be scrapped and the companies involved to go bust.

I'm the same way, with the payment thing. If I were playing WoW or some other subscription-based game, I would feel obligated to play it else I'm wasting my money (and having to do something that you're doing for fun...isn't). GW is nice in that if I take a break from it, I'm not losing out on anything at all.

Swingline · Jan 08, 2011, 05:10 AM // 05:10

*cough*meaningless*cough*

Bassma · Jan 08, 2011, 05:23 PM // 17:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by gremlin

There is also the idea of seeing how much you have invested in the game in cold cash.
Once you start playing you don't want to do anything else because you already paid for the time.

I guess that's why I never really got into the wow thing because I like playing a number of games but I would resent time away from wow because the clock it ticking down towards my next monthly payment.

Heck imagine you had 4 or 5 games on your computer all with monthly charges, you would go nuts just trying to play them all to get value for money.

If I ran a game company I would want all games paid for monthly as a gamer I want the whole idea of payments to be scrapped and the companies involved to go bust.

Yeah and tell me you don't have cable or direct tv and tell me you don't have cell phone which you pay a lot more in monthly fees than you do in WOW and tell me it bothers you that you aren't watching the tv or talking on your telephone cause the meter is running?

I get a laugh out of those trying to justify why they play WOW like they HAVE to because of the monthly fee. What a joke and a laugh when I know the majority of them have pay tv and high monthly cell phone bills and some even land line bills to boot. It's a copout and just a lame excuse about the monthly fee of WOW or any other MMO that charges one.

thedeadlyassassin · Jan 08, 2011, 10:37 PM // 22:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coraline Jones

I do not know how Eye of the North won for best expansion. It went against everything that Guild Wars said that it would be from the beginning. It has so much inherent grind in it that it is not even funny. It is also very obvious to me that it did not sell well and the only reason why people want it is because of the hero unlocks and the broken PvE skills.

As for the WoW argument, I only have a few things to say. I don't own WoW nor do I want to play it, ever. However, I knew of many fans that quit WoW and went to GW when Prophecies was still considered fresh and innovative. Then after a time, they found out that GW didn't provide a better experience and they went back to WoW.

WoW is one of the few MMOs where people quit and then they later return to the game months later because they get interested in the new content. I had at least 20 friends that played GW at the time of the game's launch. Since that time, every single one of them except for one person has quit the game and moved on to other, more popular MMOs. Or I should say, MMOs that provide a closer relationship with their fans.

You can dump on all the other MMOs that you want, but you can't deny that ArenaNet doesn't implement any fan suggestions until its months (or even years) after people wanted it. I know that people wanted a Pet Stable six months after the game launch, but ArenaNet waited three years to implement a Zaishen Menagerie. By that time, people get tired of waiting. If you disappoint them enough times, then they will just leave. I've seen so many game forums where people literally beat up developers because after 30 days, non-critical but annoying bugs in the game aren't fixed. How long does it take for a skill balance to arrive in our game?

In addition, Guild Wars is one of the few games where the fans are expected to police the game themselves. This means that the game is effectively a lawless land where you can do anything you want with little (if any) punishment. It is so obvious that exploits are being used every day and nothing is done about it. I mean, take a look at the Challenge Missions. There's scores in some of the missions that would take somebody 10 hours of play to obtain, so you know that an exploit, a bot, or some other AFK method is being used. The high scores are posted with the character names right there for everybody to see, so it's not like you can't tell who's doing it. These missions pay money rewards so even if it takes hours to earn anything, they're earning about an ecto for running the computer while they sleep.

Guild Wars doesn't offer the replay value that WoW has. That is one of the flaws in being able to just play the campaign as one class, see what the game has to offer, and having basically everything unlocked.

However, I preordered EOTN and say the game is well worth it. Where do most people spend their time? EOTN. Where do most people go to farm? EOTN. Where do most people go to face PvE challenge? EOTN (besides UW/FOW/DOA). I'd say people bought EOTN more than just the added heros and "broken" PvE skills. In fact, when I preordered it, I had no idea there were going to be "PvE" skills and more heroes. I expected that to be a NF only thing. I bought it for the content it provides, the content PEOPLE ASKED FOR, which you later complain about in your post.

One thing I tell people all the time and they seem to ignore is that just because they think something has an obvious solution doesn't in fact mean it has an obvious solution. Every move any game makes will have both positive and negative reaction, because it effects the game positively and negatively both ways. Believe me, it's a lot easier to say "hey do this it fixes this!" then actually doing it. One reason, especially with guild wars, is when a skill is fixed, people still find ways to abuse it. Shadow Form took a big hit, but it is still very popular in farming builds, and most people thought the SF nerf would absolutely kill the game, yet people still use it in popular farming builds. There is a lot more to just adding a skill into a game and fixing it by clicking a button. You may see things instantly added in games like WoW right off the bat, but then you see people constantly abusing it. If you ever went to play WoW, you would see that there are maybe 2-3 classes that dominate out of 8 in every new expansion. I don't know about cataclysm since I threw WoW out of my life (except bashing it :P), but in TBC it was Rogues, Druids, Warriors. Everything else was considered shit, or you had to be uber pro to have a chance. In WOTLK, Locks became the new overpowered thing. And the funny thing is, most of the content people ask for get added into the game. Hey guys, how do you like having double barrelled shotguns and motorcycles with tauren rockets in a fantasy game! Honestly, if you saw a charr charging after you on a motorcycle of hot rod you'd probably call Anet a bunch of crack addicts. That is what WoW does. I'll take the quality of fixes over quantity any day, because the more time fixes aren't properly "fixed", the worse things get, and the more people bitch about it.

One flaw in Guild Wars, as I said, is it has no replay value. I bought this game at launch, but I haven't played it consistently. I just returned after Christmas (like the day after) because I heard GW2 was coming in 2011. I am just now seeing all the trailers and gameplay that was posted in August. It doesn't surprise me that people leave Guild Wars because Guild Wars isn't as addictive as WoW. I could sit here and do what I did in my previous post and explain how WoW is just a giant drug that people play because they want to achieve, and as someone said, Blizzard continues to push their "Max status" back even more so people continue to play (or, as some of us like to say, AFK in the capital cities and sit around looking for shit to do until your guild wants to raid or your arena partner wants to PvP to get gear). Guild Wars doesn't have that achievement status really. I mean, they have titles, but are the titles worth getting? To some they are, but for players like me, I think we prefer to get an object at the end. Most titles don't give you an object except a statue or something for Guild Wars 2. Hey, it got me playing again! I'll probably stop when I get 50/50 in my HOM, or even 30/50 to get all the items since I couldn't care less about titles (in case you're wondering, I'm 25/50 atm). WoW has that way of keeping players playing, just so that players feel superior. You can't really get that with GW because, oddly as it sounds, it's one of the most balanced games.

As for policing the game. Please tell me one online game that doesn't have a report system. As for challenge missions, I once held the daily best. I tried to go for it and succeeded. I see actual players there trying to get the hero armors all the time. Would really suck if someone was pro enough to actually get a high score and get banned because you claim they're botting. Ever occur to you that some of the people actually did play the game and got those high scores and consistently do so? And which Challenge mission requires you to play 10 hours? The ones I've seen have a time limit, and unless you're REALLY good, you won't even be in there for 20 minutes.

Swingline · Jan 09, 2011, 04:43 AM // 04:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by thedeadlyassassin

Guild Wars doesn't offer the replay value that WoW has. That is one of the flaws in being able to just play the campaign as one class, see what the game has to offer, and having basically everything unlocked.

However, I preordered EOTN and say the game is well worth it. Where do most people spend their time? EOTN. Where do most people go to farm? EOTN. Where do most people go to face PvE challenge? EOTN (besides UW/FOW/DOA). I'd say people bought EOTN more than just the added heros and "broken" PvE skills. In fact, when I preordered it, I had no idea there were going to be "PvE" skills and more heroes. I expected that to be a NF only thing. I bought it for the content it provides, the content PEOPLE ASKED FOR, which you later complain about in your post.

One thing I tell people all the time and they seem to ignore is that just because they think something has an obvious solution doesn't in fact mean it has an obvious solution. Every move any game makes will have both positive and negative reaction, because it effects the game positively and negatively both ways. Believe me, it's a lot easier to say "hey do this it fixes this!" then actually doing it. One reason, especially with guild wars, is when a skill is fixed, people still find ways to abuse it. Shadow Form took a big hit, but it is still very popular in farming builds, and most people thought the SF nerf would absolutely kill the game, yet people still use it in popular farming builds. There is a lot more to just adding a skill into a game and fixing it by clicking a button. You may see things instantly added in games like WoW right off the bat, but then you see people constantly abusing it. If you ever went to play WoW, you would see that there are maybe 2-3 classes that dominate out of 8 in every new expansion. I don't know about cataclysm since I threw WoW out of my life (except bashing it :P), but in TBC it was Rogues, Druids, Warriors. Everything else was considered shit, or you had to be uber pro to have a chance. In WOTLK, Locks became the new overpowered thing. And the funny thing is, most of the content people ask for get added into the game. Hey guys, how do you like having double barrelled shotguns and motorcycles with tauren rockets in a fantasy game! Honestly, if you saw a charr charging after you on a motorcycle of hot rod you'd probably call Anet a bunch of crack addicts. That is what WoW does. I'll take the quality of fixes over quantity any day, because the more time fixes aren't properly "fixed", the worse things get, and the more people bitch about it.

One flaw in Guild Wars, as I said, is it has no replay value. I bought this game at launch, but I haven't played it consistently. I just returned after Christmas (like the day after) because I heard GW2 was coming in 2011. I am just now seeing all the trailers and gameplay that was posted in August. It doesn't surprise me that people leave Guild Wars because Guild Wars isn't as addictive as WoW. I could sit here and do what I did in my previous post and explain how WoW is just a giant drug that people play because they want to achieve, and as someone said, Blizzard continues to push their "Max status" back even more so people continue to play (or, as some of us like to say, AFK in the capital cities and sit around looking for shit to do until your guild wants to raid or your arena partner wants to PvP to get gear). Guild Wars doesn't have that achievement status really. I mean, they have titles, but are the titles worth getting? To some they are, but for players like me, I think we prefer to get an object at the end. Most titles don't give you an object except a statue or something for Guild Wars 2. Hey, it got me playing again! I'll probably stop when I get 50/50 in my HOM, or even 30/50 to get all the items since I couldn't care less about titles (in case you're wondering, I'm 25/50 atm). WoW has that way of keeping players playing, just so that players feel superior. You can't really get that with GW because, oddly as it sounds, it's one of the most balanced games.

As for policing the game. Please tell me one online game that doesn't have a report system. As for challenge missions, I once held the daily best. I tried to go for it and succeeded. I see actual players there trying to get the hero armors all the time. Would really suck if someone was pro enough to actually get a high score and get banned because you claim they're botting. Ever occur to you that some of the people actually did play the game and got those high scores and consistently do so? And which Challenge mission requires you to play 10 hours? The ones I've seen have a time limit, and unless you're REALLY good, you won't even be in there for 20 minutes.

EOTN could have been a much better game. Remember EOTN was not the intended expansion but it was Utopia. EOTN was the end result of ANet dividing its resources so it could focus more on GW2 so its not surprising people think EOTN is shit because it is kind of half assed. To me EOTN could have been better if they nerfed the perma sin fully so there would be some variety in people doing the dungeons of EOTN which is a big part of the game. They never touched the perma sin because all the permas at the time would have raged like 12 year old girls and shoved a direct tv remote up their butt so shadowform never received the full nerf that it deserved. Same could be said for NF, I and so many other people seriously hated NF. The whole problem here is GW2 is taking so long to release, it should have been out by now and there is just no more content to keep players busy as they wait for the few morsels of content for gw1 Anet has spread out over long periods of time till GW2 is released.

Moving on to the point that WoW is better than GWs is just based on pure opinion. I played WoW for 4 years and yes it was fun as hell... at first. The reason I quit WoW completely and sold my account is WoW never changes in its content and the end of the tunnel keeps growing longer like its a cruel dream. WoW offered some minor new things but was still the long grind it had always been and lets also not forget about the massive guild drama in the hardcore raiding guilds. My point is both games have their good and bad sides and the more money you spend the more content you get. Also some people have been paying Guild Wars since 2005 because they find the replay value in it themselves and not let the game devs give it to them by patching in mindless quests and raids to grind out for shinny objects to make your e- peen look big. So if u want this tell ANet you want to pay them $15 dollars a month.

The only solution here is GW2.

TheGizzy · Jan 09, 2011, 05:47 AM // 05:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bassma

Yeah and tell me you don't have cable or direct tv and tell me you don't have cell phone which you pay a lot more in monthly fees than you do in WOW and tell me it bothers you that you aren't watching the tv or talking on your telephone cause the meter is running?

I get a laugh out of those trying to justify why they play WOW like they HAVE to because of the monthly fee. What a joke and a laugh when I know the majority of them have pay tv and high monthly cell phone bills and some even land line bills to boot. It's a copout and just a lame excuse about the monthly fee of WOW or any other MMO that charges one.

Can't speak for the person you quoted, but I know in my case - no, I don't have cable, I don't have Direct TV, and my cell phone is a pre-paid with the absolute minimum minutes possible.

I canceled my GameTap subscription because neither I, nor the friends/family I made sub-accounts for, was using it. Same thing with Rhapsody... not using it, I'm not paying for it. I got rid of my land in Second Life because I wasn't using it enough to be worth paying for. I would pay to play Guild Wars because I'm using it, but I'd only go on a monthly payment plan because no, I don't like paying for things I get no use out of... and if I got bored with Guild Wars, I'd hate knowing I'd paid for a 6 month access and only used a month of it.

My best friend pays to play WoW... he gets on it once a week with another friend of ours (who pretty much plays it whenever he's home/awake)... and part of why he keeps playing is because he's paid for it... not because he sits there thinking, "Gosh, WoW is such fun, I can't WAIT to get logged on." He's bored with it, he got the expansion because his guild did, and he keeps playing because he doesn't want to let our other friends down. And I highly doubt he's the only person playing WoW for the same reason.

GW he can come play when he wants, and otherwise leave it be... it's not going anywhere, and it's not costing him any money... which do you think he thinks is "better"? Hint: It's not WoW. But with all the time and money he's invested in WoW, he's reluctant to abandon it completely, even though it's NOT giving him the pleasure it SHOULD.

I know many people who feel the same... they keep going because they don't want all the past time/money to go to waste, NOT because they're enjoying what WoW has to offer.

Maybe GW isn't the best MMO of the decade, but neither is WoW - and if you think for one second that Blizzard doesn't have an entire segment of their staff devoted solely to the task of a) marketing and b) using psychological tools to influence people to continue paying and playing no matter what, then I've got a bridge to sell you... really cheap.

People keep playing WoW because they've been manipulated into it... and most of them don't even realize it. They're sheep who think they're lions, because Blizzard told them their bleat sounds like a roar.

Swingline · Jan 09, 2011, 08:03 AM // 08:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheGizzy

Can't speak for the person you quoted, but I know in my case - no, I don't have cable, I don't have Direct TV, and my cell phone is a pre-paid with the absolute minimum minutes possible.

I canceled my GameTap subscription because neither I, nor the friends/family I made sub-accounts for, was using it. Same thing with Rhapsody... not using it, I'm not paying for it. I got rid of my land in Second Life because I wasn't using it enough to be worth paying for. I would pay to play Guild Wars because I'm using it, but I'd only go on a monthly payment plan because no, I don't like paying for things I get no use out of... and if I got bored with Guild Wars, I'd hate knowing I'd paid for a 6 month access and only used a month of it.

My best friend pays to play WoW... he gets on it once a week with another friend of ours (who pretty much plays it whenever he's home/awake)... and part of why he keeps playing is because he's paid for it... not because he sits there thinking, "Gosh, WoW is such fun, I can't WAIT to get logged on." He's bored with it, he got the expansion because his guild did, and he keeps playing because he doesn't want to let our other friends down. And I highly doubt he's the only person playing WoW for the same reason.

GW he can come play when he wants, and otherwise leave it be... it's not going anywhere, and it's not costing him any money... which do you think he thinks is "better"? Hint: It's not WoW. But with all the time and money he's invested in WoW, he's reluctant to abandon it completely, even though it's NOT giving him the pleasure it SHOULD.

I know many people who feel the same... they keep going because they don't want all the past time/money to go to waste, NOT because they're enjoying what WoW has to offer.

Maybe GW isn't the best MMO of the decade, but neither is WoW - and if you think for one second that Blizzard doesn't have an entire segment of their staff devoted solely to the task of a) marketing and b) using psychological tools to influence people to continue paying and playing no matter what, then I've got a bridge to sell you... really cheap.

People keep playing WoW because they've been manipulated into it... and most of them don't even realize it. They're sheep who think they're lions, because Blizzard told them their bleat sounds like a roar.

Completely agree. I have direct tv but bc I actually watch tv when gws gets boring and I probably pay a lot less then you think for it. I have a very low cell phone bill bc I also have the least amount of minutes I can get on a phone plan and that's it. The whole thing about paying the WoW subscription is that it adds that extra $15 to the stack of monthly bills and I say this bc the addicts think of WoW as a necessity. I finally knew I was being manipulated into playing that retarded game when my ICC guild raged at me for being 5 minutes late bc I got stuck in traffic. The next day I found myself guildless. Many ppl deserve to be manipulated bc they are so ignorant its not even funny. Its hilarious bc they are probably turning into golum while killing pixels in their moms basment. warcraft... my... precious... lulz

Verene · Jan 09, 2011, 04:47 PM // 16:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheGizzy

Can't speak for the person you quoted, but I know in my case - no, I don't have cable, I don't have Direct TV, and my cell phone is a pre-paid with the absolute minimum minutes possible.

I canceled my GameTap subscription because neither I, nor the friends/family I made sub-accounts for, was using it. Same thing with Rhapsody... not using it, I'm not paying for it. I got rid of my land in Second Life because I wasn't using it enough to be worth paying for. I would pay to play Guild Wars because I'm using it, but I'd only go on a monthly payment plan because no, I don't like paying for things I get no use out of... and if I got bored with Guild Wars, I'd hate knowing I'd paid for a 6 month access and only used a month of it.

My best friend pays to play WoW... he gets on it once a week with another friend of ours (who pretty much plays it whenever he's home/awake)... and part of why he keeps playing is because he's paid for it... not because he sits there thinking, "Gosh, WoW is such fun, I can't WAIT to get logged on." He's bored with it, he got the expansion because his guild did, and he keeps playing because he doesn't want to let our other friends down. And I highly doubt he's the only person playing WoW for the same reason.

GW he can come play when he wants, and otherwise leave it be... it's not going anywhere, and it's not costing him any money... which do you think he thinks is "better"? Hint: It's not WoW. But with all the time and money he's invested in WoW, he's reluctant to abandon it completely, even though it's NOT giving him the pleasure it SHOULD.

I know many people who feel the same... they keep going because they don't want all the past time/money to go to waste, NOT because they're enjoying what WoW has to offer.

Maybe GW isn't the best MMO of the decade, but neither is WoW - and if you think for one second that Blizzard doesn't have an entire segment of their staff devoted solely to the task of a) marketing and b) using psychological tools to influence people to continue paying and playing no matter what, then I've got a bridge to sell you... really cheap.

People keep playing WoW because they've been manipulated into it... and most of them don't even realize it. They're sheep who think they're lions, because Blizzard told them their bleat sounds like a roar.

I'm the same way. No cable TV/direct TV/any of that because I don't watch TV. I have high speed internet but I'm online all the time - I do work as a graphic designer, so I'm at my computer a good chunk of the day. My cell phone has a small plan on it (except for texting and data - because unlimited was a better deal, relatively speaking, and I use them both very frequently). I only pay for my Xbox Live subscription when there's something out that I want to play online, which is rare.

And of course Blizzard has a huge marketing department. Every company has some sort of marketing department, and with them being as big as they are, they'd have a rather large one. Though, frankly, they don't really need it. You say "Blizzard game" and everyone goes "Where?!". And personally, I think they're banking too much on their reputation these days.

Mangione · Jan 09, 2011, 05:01 PM // 17:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheGizzy

My best friend pays to play WoW... he gets on it once a week with another friend of ours (who pretty much plays it whenever he's home/awake)... and part of why he keeps playing is because he's paid for it... not because he sits there thinking, "Gosh, WoW is such fun, I can't WAIT to get logged on." He's bored with it, he got the expansion because his guild did, and he keeps playing because he doesn't want to let our other friends down. And I highly doubt he's the only person playing WoW for the same reason.

Same experience here. Do we share the same friends perhaps?

That is pretty much what is happening to some of my old friends (whom I don't meet anymore mid-week, since they always have some raid or other WoW-related crap to do, and when they meet on saturdays they just keep rambling on their lvl60 shamans/warlocks or whatever).

I'll add here some of the /facepalm interactions with some of the "WoW-addicts" during last Christmas holidays.

"Wanna go to the pub/club/pickupgirls tonight?"
"hmmm... well I have this raid, I have to be there"
"dude, yesterday you were on another raid, come on..."
"yeah I know, I would like to come, really, but there's [insert WoW stuff to do]"
(why am I not surprised he is still a virgin at the age of 32?)

Another one, while I was showing him the great deals on steam winter sale told me "Oh my gosh... all those games are great, I would really like to play them but, you know, I don't have much time for other games, how could I? I am already paying for WoW."

And another one
"Wanna try Borderlands? We are having lots of fun over teamspeak while hunting for the Vault on Pandora."
"Do you have a fixed day you play?"
"No, we are just casual... if two of us meet online on the steam chat client, we phone someone else and get a party going..."
"I am already paying for WoW, I don't want to pay for another game and I can't manage it timewise" (Borderlands was on sale with a price tag of about 8/9€)
"Well, I have a spare copy on Steam, I'll gift it to you we rarely play more than once every ten days, you can spare an hour every ten days, do you?"
"I don't know... I'd have to juggle between raids and other stuff, and besides that, if I miss a raid, I'll be left behind from the guild"

No wonder that they are slowly alienating all the other folks we used to hang out with, and the girls in our social circle taunt them, but that is beside my point.

My point is: do you see the trend? They never speak about FUN or ENJOYMENT, but always mention WoW as "something they have to do", and is something that gets in the way of things that are more fun (and healthy).

Only one of the WoW players I know personally told me once "I had fun playing WoW the other day". Only one.
And even then he left WoW after paying for 6 months, logging in only on Saturdays, he left because he got bored.
So, in the end I see people in two categories, the ones that play it and act like in an addiction, and the ones that don't play it anymore and have unpleasant memories about it/feel they wasted money/time/both.
GW is not like that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheGizzy

GW he can come play when he wants, and otherwise leave it be... it's not going anywhere, and it's not costing him any money... which do you think he thinks is "better"? Hint: It's not WoW. But with all the time and money he's invested in WoW, he's reluctant to abandon it completely, even though it's NOT giving him the pleasure it SHOULD.

I know many people who feel the same... they keep going because they don't want all the past time/money to go to waste, NOT because they're enjoying what WoW has to offer.

QFT.
That sounds pretty much like all the WoW players I know.
(One is delaying his marriage because he won't be allowed to play by the wife, another one refers to WoW as "that black hole that killed three years of my life")