Quote: "But I found WOW pretty easy to get into and rather enjoyable."
I honestly never got the attraction of it, and why so many are now addicted to it. While yeah it's a fun and fairly easy mmorpg, problem is that's about all it is.
I mean there's nothing really unique that stands out about it except that it is set in the Warcraft universe. There was so much that it could've been in development, and after playing the final product it really never changed that much.. which in all was a great shame. It's like Star Wars Galaxies, or Earth & Beyond. Where they start out as great ideas and on initial release (or first play) yeah they're great, but eventually somewhere down the line someone on the dev team does something monumentally stupid that just makes it pointless.
More than anything else that realistically puts me off wanting to play it on a regular basis is more the community that WoW has than anything else. It's fully of mostly crazed people, most of whom will never leave you the hell alone in-game.
Once had some guy follow me for about 2hours sending me constant "party requests", you'd think he'd have got the hint after the first 10 declines; but no, he just kept doing it. Eventually I lost my rag and told him to do something quite innopropriot with a pinapple, a gopher and his mom.
I got a nice black mark for that and temporary ban for being "abusive"... which to a degree sure I was, but honestly if the ****wit had got the hint the first few times and wasn't so damn dense and void of life that he could follow me about then a know it would never have come to being the way I was.
This is something that really lets down many mmorpg games that while most will have their niggles it's the no-life gamers that need desperately to be loved by some random person across the world who doesn't really give a flying rats ass what new medical condition or whatever is wrong with them apart from needing some serious therapy wouldn't atleast help to tone down and get them to turn off the computer once in a while as to meet REAL people ... them I firmly believe that more gamers would be inclined to atleast try out some decent mmos or not be driven away by the retarded communities that follow them.
The only mmorpg I've played, and still play after 5years on a regular basis.. is Final Fantasy XI. You know why? Because the social structure in the game is a lot like living in a major metropolis like London or Los Angelos.
Simply put, you need actual understanding of how to socialise with people to get a response. Most of the time people will leave you to your own devices on a day-to-day basis. There are really idiots shouting out "how i mine 4 f15|-|!" .. and talking to those who do not speak my native language is also a damn sight easier with the keyword translation system that contains over 2,500 words, and places which are specific enough to construct relatively understandable sentances with.
What's more is the game is constantly being rebalanced monthly. There's no ridiculous thing of the basic armour costing more than a newbie can possibly afford. There also isn't a case of the game curve suddenly dropping when you reach a certain level or have certain spells, or the monsters alternatively just getting so ridiculously difficult you can't go where-ever the hell you like.
Yeah the game is online only, and an mmo.. but honestly to play it feels a lot like a single player game with more intelligent npcs that will respond to you. It isn't without it's flaws, but seriously it is about the best damn mmo out there; which incredibly while it might not have the 9million users that WoW has.. still has a community of 5million, and aspects for every gamer with fairly large additions to content every-year. Not just a couple new quest or such... but an entire sodding additional storyline with craploads of quests, jobs, etc. added to increase the playability again all of which being very well balanced.
You have the longevity in there, without the worry that it eventually all comes down to constant farming to achieve anything.
When there is finally another mmo that doesn't just promise, but delivers something similar (like Tabula Rasa looks like it will) then I'll find something else to play long-term... until then though I firmly see games like WoW as some sort of gaming crack that we all know is bad and luckily some of us have a built-in immunity to.
