Thread: What makes WoW so damn addictive?

Originally Posted by SniperSAS

i might not be right on this but apparently guild wars has added an entire new continent

I do believe that's a whole new $50 you have to pay to get that continent, correct? Looks like they just paid a 3 month subscription.

the ability to attack other players on 3 different settings? my god this is revolutionary

God, pay attention. I never said it was revolutionary. I said
it was additional content that was provided and was included
in the subscription fee.

Besides, as far as MMORPGs go, WoW PvP is pretty unique. WoW
is, in my opinion, the best team-oriented PvP game ever created;
including any FPS game you can name. Everybody has a job.
Healers, warriors, flag runners (I'm a druid! ), rogues. They all
have abilities that add more depth to a game of CTF or Capture
and Hold.

Also, the monthly fee for WoW keeps most of the annoying
kids away. The majority of people I've met online are in their
20s. Most successful guilds don't even recruit people under 18.

This Shaman kicks ass. I want a shaman, too.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...7&q=shaman+pvp

Sniper, you sound pretty ........ed off and jealous while at the same time showing very little knowledge about the game that's the topic here.

Just for your information, because I guess you never made it into a guild that is experiencing the end game of WoW:

You cannot go "LFG MC/BWL/AQ40/NAXX" in a city. You will never get forty people organized out of the blue. Even if you did, they'd never have the prequests. You need a real world organization called guild or raid alliance that manages the real world people behind WoW. Our guild consist of 80 people, all having jobs, family and other things todo. It is a real world challenge to get 40 people playing at the same time and it is a leadership challenge to have them do as you say. If you deny this, then you have probably never tried.

Having 40 people in a TS channel is social. You can like it or hate it, but it's the same thing as a 40 people telephone conference. My personal guess from your ........y attitude is that you have never experienced a TS server going down in flames because 40 people wildly cheering at the same time when they got a personal first kill on a hard boss. Yes, it's just bits and bytes. It doesn't matter. It's fun. The same way that pushing a vaguely round shape of air-filled animal skin across a line does not matter really. And yet, it's fun. The way you play MMORPGs may not be social. But that's not my problem.

You call me an idiot because I'm paying 15$ a month ? Maybe when you start actually earning money and buying the games you play, you will notice that 15$ a month is still cheaper than buying a new game four times a year.

All in all, I think you don't even know what you are talking about. Either you never had the money to spare to buy an account, or you were kicked from your guild before the game really started.

There is no need to like WoW. I know enough people that "don't have the time to spare" ( instead hanging out in front of the tv, go figure ), that don't like the comic style graphics or who'd rather pirate the games the want to play and hate that there is no way to do this in WoW and actually would have to pay. All more or less legitimate reasons. Your reasoning and attitude just says one thing: "I'm jealous".

As far as I'm concerned, my dislike from game the likes of WoW where social interaction is a large and fundamental aspect for the enjoyment of the game (and you can put in here all MMORPGs, MUDs and a large variety of online game), is exactly the fact that they end up providing life-like experience in which I have to put up with the "worst" our society has to offer. Whinning kiddos, rude and abusive people, ignorant brats, delusional admins, tyrannic and outright evil players, attention seekers, etc...

It goes without saying that other players may look at me and think that they will have to put up with my holier than thou attitude. I concede.

Regardless, I avoid all of the above types in real life. Thus, it is hard for me to actually draw any enjoyment from these games and conceive having to actually spend money for this. My personal experiences have been always a mixture of swooning over success, and aggravation over the idiocy that generally populates online gamming communities in large numbers.

I find online games where social interaction is not a premium factor, to be much more enjoyable. Online strategy and war games, and PBEM games have been my favorite types. Here players make a much better effort in concentrating on what matters, the game itself. Even in strategy/war games where diplomacy plays a major role the interaction is usually stripped of any social context.

However, this is obviously both a matter of personal taste (I always prefered strategy and war games), but also probably a matter of some social inepcy on my part when it comes to online gamming communities (trust me I'm otherwise perfectly normal in real life).

It's a shame this discussion got drifted towards this, though. It was becoming interesting when the argument was this notion that people are starting to find perfectly natural to pay regularly to keep playing a game. Especially considering that what is being offered is really not much different from what has been offered in the past at no additional cost.

It concerns me that this widespread acceptance is not being matched with trully innovative in-game technologies, but insteady simply the providing of more game elements. It's a gold pot for game developers and it adds nothing trully interesting for the game community, that hasn't been offered before for free.

Especially considering that what is being offered is really not much different from what has been offered in the past at no additional cost.

I have a long history of MMORPGs back to the date when 10 players meeting in a 2D pub that even I could have painted with Windows Paint was considered "Massive". As with all software there will always be some products that are free and some that cost money. The free products will always have the hidden cost of manpower while the subscription based products always dominate with their ease of use and noob-friendliness.

Name a game ( present or past ) that has the same features as WoW and is free of charge. I cannot name one. WoW is not perfect, I think the crafting/resource system of SWG was waaaaaay superior. But I don't think there's a free, legal alternative.

But please don't suggest one with half the featureset. I know that a car with four wheels costs money and I will pay even if I could get one with only two wheels left from the thrash for free.

The cost btw. is negligible. 15$ per month ? I spend more going to the movies just once. Alone.

I've been trying to avoid drawing comparisons between offline and online games. But more than that I've been trying to avoid drawing comparisons between other enjoyment levels.

Using your arguments I could perhaps state that a day at the beach or around a table playing with my daughter and wife is cheaper than playing an online game. However, I don't believe that would make a good argument, for the same reason comparing an online game money expenditure with a movie doesn't.

What I do say though, is that once the game is created and the online game community established, money still flows towards the gamming company and the only thing it provides to its players is new game elements (new areas, items, PvP choices, etc...). This is not any different from what has been done in the past for free.

This is not any different from what has been done in the past for free.

Source ? Name one MMORPG that did or does the same for free.

This thread has been... intriguing. Educational.
I'm not going to say much since I've hardly played any RPG (let alone MMO) except Oblivion (which I'm loving).

Originally Posted by nvoigt

Source ? Name one MMORPG that did or does the same for free.

What do you mean name one MMORPG?

Runescape, Guild Wars, Rubies of Eventide. Or do you want a list of free MMORPGs?

That's it! I'm reactivating my druid!

Originally Posted by Mario F.

What do you mean name one MMORPG?

Runescape, Guild Wars, Rubies of Eventide. Or do you want a list of free MMORPGs?

Tell me you didn't just say Runescape... that game has about as much depth as a centerfold's bio sheet. You can't possibly even think of comparing this to WoW.

Guild Wars, I've said about a million things about and won't repeat myself and Rubies of Eventide, around four months after release, has already taken flack for its lack of gameplay.

None of those games are comparable to WoW and won't last half as long.

It's like a free sample in a mall... just because people stop and take a piece doesn't mean they would prefer it over the expensive brand, it just means that it's free...