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Moriendor
Black Ring Leader
Joined: 19 Jul 2001
Posts: 1306
Location: Germany |
| WoW: Stress Test Has Ended |
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The 'World of Warcraft' stress test has ended last night and the forums have been closed. Check the <a href="http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/" target="_blank">official site</a> for more info. |
Tue Sep 14, 2004 1:47 am |
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Ammon777
Warrior for Heaven
Joined: 20 Apr 2002
Posts: 2011
Location: United States |
World of Warcraft is the greatest and best MMO experience i have ever had. GREAT GAME !!!
_________________
www.shadowpool.com
www.darkfallonline.com |
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Tue Sep 14, 2004 1:48 am |
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Test
Head Merchant
Joined: 04 Sep 2004
Posts: 67
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I actually have nothing negative to say about this one. It was better than I expected in a lot of ways. Plus, they still have a couple months of beta left to finish the class talents, and add some interesting stuff to pvp.
They have a winner on thier hands. I cannot ever remember a game that was as much fun to play in beta as WoW. |
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Tue Sep 14, 2004 3:06 am |
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Drakton
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 14 Oct 2001
Posts: 195
Location: Monterrey, México |
WoW is not the first MMORPG I try, but it's the very first that I play for more than 20 minutes. It had me glued to my computer for hours, using every minute of spare time I had. This game certainly has potential. If it convinced me, it can convince anyone, as I am a single player guy and very reluctant towards MMORPGs.
Kudos to Blizzard.
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"You may win a thousand fights, but you can only lose one" (Zaknafein to Drizzt - The Dark Elf Trilogy.) |
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Tue Sep 14, 2004 4:21 am |
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Chekote
Where’s my Banana?!?!
Joined: 08 Mar 2002
Posts: 1540
Location: Dont know, looks kind of green |
Any of you care to elaborate on exactly why its so great?
I have been very underwhelmed with most MMORPG's so I need a lot of convincing to try another one 
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IMHO my opinion is humble |
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Tue Sep 14, 2004 1:55 pm |
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Ammon777
Warrior for Heaven
Joined: 20 Apr 2002
Posts: 2011
Location: United States |
<sigh> Alrighty, here goes!
Ammon777's Review of WoW Closed Beta
World of Warcraft has state of the art graphics. Its graphics are similar to that of the Warcraft series, except they are in 3d this time. The colors and use of colors are amazing indeed. The variation of items in the game is astounding. You will rarely see the same person in the exact same gear. Also, the only thing missing graphics-wise are the weather systems, which might make it in before release anywayz. So, the graphics are really neat. Grade A+. I recall attacking a grizzly bear and it looked so real, despite the cartooniness of the style. It looked freakin realistic. Animations are very good for everything. The environments are pretty good too, of which different kinds: there are a ton. The worldmap is HUGE.
For the sake of clarity, i will compare this game with a single-player CRPG game like Morrowind. Morrowind has, with its expansions, what, hundreds of quests -- fairly decent quests with a sophisticated writing style and backstory. Well, WoW has hundreds more of mostly excellently written and some exceptionally designed quests, with an equally sophisticated backstory. At least a thousand quests in WoW i have read. Those are QUESTS, mind you. And then there are the monthly additions, every single month ten scores more. Morrowind is pretty big, landwise, but mainly because you are walking so damn slow at the beginning. Well, WoW is WAY bigger, with faster walking speeds. Morrowind has lots of dungeons, but they are small and look the same mostly. WoW has hundreds of dungeons that dont look the same, and are very well-designed. Some of the epic dungeons are so deep that they reach at least 5th level dungeon. Morrowind has a few major well-designed dungeons, but for the most, they dont stand up to even WoW's micro dungeons. And there are hundreds of micro dungeons. Cities -- the cities in WoW are spectacular. You will have your jaw drop the first time you enter one of them. They are so kewl. There are shops everywhere that each have unique items for sale, all sorts of items, from potions to reagents to clothing, to armor, weapons, shields, helms, to magical items to crafting items, et cetera. Ive played DAOC and AC1 and neither of them have even close to the selection of items that are in WoW, especially not DAOC. And these are just the NPC seller items. Many, many more items can be crafted, and still more can be found on creatures that you hunt. Then it comes to hunting. Morrowind has like 15+ different monsters, give or take. WoW has tens of scores of monster types.
Im getting fingercramp and mindrust (ive been up all night), so here is a run-down about what else is kewl about WoW:
-- you can get your own mount, and there are at least ten different kinds
-- many racial starting areas are at different locations with different quests
-- the classes can all solo and group, either one
-- the variety of skills is decent for each class
-- you can use different flying mounts tracked to locations
-- PvP warfare, clan invasions, guilds with tabards
-- an extremely intuitive and comprehensive user interface -- easy
-- tooltip explanatory popups for nearly everything in the interface
-- more content than SWG, DAOC, and AC2 combined... content galore!
-- umm, lets see, what else? (sry, its been a long night)
-- practically finished gameplay while in beta
-- FUN, FUN, FUN, the most FUN ive ever had in an MMO, honestly
-- more things to do than you will ever get done (adventuring, quests, crafting...)
-- it even has alcohol with its effects ...sic!
-- multiple languages that are translated into, say, dwarven speech if not known by the other player -- so cool
-- satisfying sounds, visuals, and motions in combat; it satisfies! ...sic!
-- excellent quest journal, in-game maps (even worldmap), and guild management
-- tons of high-level content
-- tons of low-level content
-- even more middle-level content
-- and even super high-level content!
-- believable A.I., though it could be better, imho
-- carrots! and bunnies!
-- there is more, i just cant think of them just now...
Any questions?  [/i]
_________________
www.shadowpool.com
www.darkfallonline.com |
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Tue Sep 14, 2004 4:07 pm |
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Chekote
Where’s my Banana?!?!
Joined: 08 Mar 2002
Posts: 1540
Location: Dont know, looks kind of green |
No offence but it just sounds like every other MMORPG I have ever played.
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IMHO my opinion is humble |
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Tue Sep 14, 2004 4:46 pm |
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Ammon777
Warrior for Heaven
Joined: 20 Apr 2002
Posts: 2011
Location: United States |
What exactly were you expecting ??? a miracle?
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www.shadowpool.com
www.darkfallonline.com |
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Tue Sep 14, 2004 5:31 pm |
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Guest
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Almost: Innovation. |
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Tue Sep 14, 2004 6:11 pm |
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Ammon777
Warrior for Heaven
Joined: 20 Apr 2002
Posts: 2011
Location: United States |
For innovation, check out Darkfall Online and especially Trials of Ascension.
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www.shadowpool.com
www.darkfallonline.com |
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Tue Sep 14, 2004 9:33 pm |
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Theron
Guest
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I played the stress beta...
Something worth to mention is that I didn't meet any "annoying battle net kiddies". Names were ok too, even if they are of course quite far from rpg names. That was an extremly pleasant surprise and my experience with DAoC was far worse.
When I first started the game I decided to make a dwarf hunter. I was totally bored, doing those deliver this, kill that quests. Sometimes I had to grind, searching and killing monsters over and over again to gain the next level and hopefully some skills which would bring some fun into the game.
The gameplay felt exactly the same as EverQuest and Daoc. Sure there are new graphics, new interface, cleaner quests but as said before...very little real innovation.
There are now whooping mounts, ridable griffons, pets for everyone, a clean quest journal, usable maps but if this is what defines a 2nd generation MMORPG then the developers totally failed.
When fighting I had exactly one button which I could click to make a small additional damage. Higher levels would allow me to have maybe a second or even a third button to click during combat.
When my server crashed I decided to make a mage. He felt much stronger and could kill monsters way faster than the hunter, with nearly no downtime.
I went back to my hunter though and got him up to level 10. Thats when they get pets and when I started to finally have some fun. Hunters can befriend any animals and even if it doesnt work the way it should they will be able to train them with various abilities.
I played until level 16 and wasn't able to see any impressive dungeon. Only overcrowded caves. Even much smaller than the old DAoC Dungeons. I traveled quite far for my level (even made it to the horde area) but I couldn't find any real dungeons. Maybe they only exist for higher level players.
Classes seemed totally unfinished and unbalanced. Many skills are missing still.
There are absolutley no skill and ability choices for developing the character. So all characters are exact copies of each other. Talents which are not implemented or finished for many classes should bring some variation in, but only in a way that you can reduce mana costs and casting time of certain abilities.
As said before, I had some fun after level 10 but overall not much changed from the first generation MMOs.
The game is quite dissapointing but will still be a major success. WoW will attract many people which never played a MMO before(the mass ammount of complaints about a naming policy which didnt exist in Counter Strike prooves it) and which will enjoy to grind for levels without much challenge. |
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Tue Sep 14, 2004 11:06 pm |
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Ammon777
Warrior for Heaven
Joined: 20 Apr 2002
Posts: 2011
Location: United States |
<sigh> whatever. obviously what we see in things are different. the VAST majority of players i encountered in closed beta loved the game.
_________________
www.shadowpool.com
www.darkfallonline.com |
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Tue Sep 14, 2004 11:48 pm |
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Theron
Guest
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You are totally right. Everyone there loves the game. Most are people which never played an online game before and only do it because it got the name "Blizzard" and "Warcraft" behind it. Only because of the brand they are willing to get over their "MMORPGs suc k" opinion and to try it out for more than 20 minutes.
They didn't spend 300 played days in characters from todays popular MMOs. For them its new and a heck of fun, and of course all these Quest and Interface improvements from WoW help unexperienced RPGer to get started and hooked up more easily.
But even old MMORPG players will have to enjoy because there is simply not much other choice. EQ2 or WoW...
I'm not trying to bash it. It's an excellent game overall and everything is well thought out and improved from older games. It will be a full success and even if I'm ranting(because of my dissapointment about innovations) I will probably buy it.
WoW will provide plenty of enjoyable hours for old and new MMORPGers. Blizzard will do anything to further improve the game and to make it more fun and they are good at this |
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Wed Sep 15, 2004 1:35 am |
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Test
Head Merchant
Joined: 04 Sep 2004
Posts: 67
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Innovative it is not. I don't believe that's in the description for this game anywhere.
However, it does most things that the current crop of games have better, in my opinion of course.
If you mix quests (which are very well written, some having many parts, and varied from fed-ex, to kill, to timed, to some combinations of all) in with your leveling, you will level faster than just grinding monsters and it will be definitely less tedious, grinding gets boring very quick. Although you may need to kill those critters to gather materials for trade skills..
The caves are just that.. caves, the real dungeons are instanced for the most part, i.e. you and your party enter your own copy of the dungeon. The one instanced dungeon I went through was simply amazing. The name was Shadowfang keep, on the hoard side, was for 20's level chars. It was better than anything I've seen in either a MMORPG or single player game. Well laid out, with multiple quests to complete inside. The level of detail though will simply blow you away if you haven't seen one yet.
All this would be moot if it didn't also have pvp, which they plan on giving several iterations of improvements, including land control and pvp rewards. |
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Wed Sep 15, 2004 2:28 am |
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Arma
Mysterious Lady
Joined: 24 Oct 2003
Posts: 1230
Location: in the middle of hell |
quote:
Originally posted by Anonymous
Almost: Innovation.
You actually expect innovation from the company that only takes already tried ideas, and then makes a seemingly perfect game from them? WoW. |
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Wed Sep 15, 2004 1:13 pm |
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