Once more unto the breach, dear friends…

Grappling with my urge to resubscribe to WoW or stick it out for a month before Aion finally came to a close.  I decided to resubscribe for one month and see if I could get back into World of Warcraft.  I listed the pros and the cons in order to finally make this decisions.

Pros

  • I have nothing better to do in the pockets of free time that I’ll have this coming month including no other games that I’m interested in playing.
  • A good friend is playing and has offered to introduce me to his friends and guildmates.
  • I’m behind the curve, so I have no pressure to stay ahead of it.
  • My DK is already level 80 and geared enough to do some stuff.
  • New content recently came out making it easier than ever to get the gear necessary to have fun – in my case, the gear necessary to see and do the content with friends (all that I care about).
  • Arthas is going to die, and I want to be apart of it.


Cons

  • It will inevitably by the same gear grind/treadmill/steps/etc.
  • Costs money.
  • It’s a shot in the dark whether or not I actually find a group of people like me to finally settle down and play the game how -I- want to play.
  • Potential for burn-out pre-Cataclysm which I want to avoid at all costs.


I decided that the Pros outweighed the Cons.  I took the plunge and I’m now gradually easing back into the game on my 80 DK (Morkeen) on the Suramar server.  Thanks to my friend (Wickidd, he comments here often) and his guild I have already visited the 5-man normal and heroic versions of ToC.  In my first run I received four upgrades and on my second run I received another four (Half DPS, half Tank stuff). You were right Cuppy, this place is a loot pinata.  I’ve since run the instance a couple more times and won another upgrade. I know that a lot of people hate that ToC gear is so good, but without it then someone like me would stand no chance if returning to the game.  

The gear is nice, but it’s not everything. The dungeon (ToC) is quite fun.  It’s actually right up my alley and offers me exactly the type of WoW-type raid I want.  It’s quick, to the point, drops loot, and it’s fun.   Trial of the Champion starts off (at least the 5-man’s I’ve done) in an arena with everyone on a special jousting mount with a lance.   The goal in the first phase is to use the jousting system to beat 3 waves of personal guards for these bosses/champions.  It’s simple, but it’s fun.   The second phase it to fight these guys once you’ve knocked them off their mounts; it’s random which 3 bosses you get.  Beating them drops a chest which gives epics.  The next phase sends out another champion (I’ve seen a Paladin guy and some priest lady) that are fairly tank and spank in the 5-man’s.  They go down quickly and drop more loot.  The final phase is this agent of the Lich King who flies in and has 3 phases of his encounter.  More loot.  The whole process is under 30 minutes – can’t beat that.

Overall, I’ve enjoyed what I have seen so far.  I haven’t really “raided” at all, but I’m not ready to either.  I need to continue to do some heroics with friends at a casual pace until I can afford to buy (with tokens) some gear or get some drops.  I don’t mind the “grind” for tokens if I’m doing it with friends.  For example, we ran Old Kingdom and the entire time it was nothing but a pleasure even though I’ve run it a dozen times.  To me, that’s exactly what it should be about.

If I can keep myself in check, avoid looking too far ahead, avoid allowing my eyes to get bigger than my playstyle, then I’ll okay.  The deciding factor will be how well I can transition into my friend’s guild and begin doing stuff with them.  I’m giving myself one month to decide whether or not I am having continual fun – not fun 2 days a week or fun on occasion, but fun all the time that I play.  If it’s not fun then I will quit immediately.

I’ll keep you guys updated on my progress.

Oh, and the betting pool for how long I last better go to charity.

Tags:

  • I went through exactly the same thought process about a week ago. Resubbed to WoW just to see how I would feel… although I’ve preordered CE Aion.

    Can’t say I have the same enthusiasm as you though, my urge has sort of dissipated.

  • Grappling with my urge to smoke crack or stick it out for a month came to a close. I decided to smoke for one month and see if I could get back into crack. I listed the pros and the cons in order to finally make this decision.

  • Glad you’re having fun 🙂

    I’m a bit saddened by the fact that WoW can’t make me happy anymore. But I shall not digress and run off in a tangent…

    Aion needs to hurry up and get here 🙂

  • MMOs are all about Playing with friends. My problme is, the friends I got are mostly all in a annoying guild wich I dont want to be part of anymore :(.

    Ill see what happens after Aion hits the shelves.
    Still got my Xbox (Worms2, Fallout 3, Tales of Vesperia) to slap some hours in.

  • I’m back into WoW too hehe. Playing WoW is like taking a bath – just warm and relaxing with no real stress or pressure. I’ve decidd to go the other way and start up an alt. My problem is that I can’t decide between Shaman or Hunter. I’ll probably start both as alts and play them up at see how it goes.

    I really hope Cataclysm doesn’t take too long to come out. If only they’d surprise us and we could see it released this year. Unlikely I know…

  • There is no way cataclysm comes out this year, i wouldn’t even make it a lock for next year. for starters, we haven’t even seen Arthas in the current expansion yet.

  • About Cataclysm release, They have been working on it even before WotLK was released. So I´m almost certain they are way ahead of what people might expect. I´d see a launch somewhere between february and june happening without problems.

    3.2.2 in Nov, 3.3 in Dec(PTR late nov/early dec, release either just before or just after new years eve), 4.0 feb/march, with Cat coming in April. Just some wild guesses :P.

  • “It’s a shot in the dark whether or not I actually find a group of people like me to finally settle down and play the game how -I- want to play.”

    Keen, can you elaborate more on this statement?

  • @ Keen

    The bottom line here is you’re having fun. As long as you enjoy the experience I say stick with it and enjoy. I would suggest trying to keep your play time down to avoid end game burn out.

  • I would have to agree with Pepz on playing something other than a DK. They are very much overpopulated at the moment and at a downward swing from recent patches in both PVP and PVE.

  • I give you a month and then you will be bored again Keen. Sorry to say but you seem a lot like me (two years ago) in terms of maintaining interest. I’m more jaded now and you will get there. The sameness of it all…

  • Good to hear you’re giving it a try again, Keen. My plan to avoid burn out is to just play it casually. I’m splitting my playtime between that, Battlefield 1943/Bad Company (great game, btw), and Batman: Arkham Asylum. Until Aion comes out, just focus on having fun your way. Even if you leave early, you’re all the closer to Aion’s head start!

  • i joined a casual raiding guild when i went back, dropped my old hardcore guild.

    new guild raids 3 nights a week, spread out thru the week, its awesome and im having fun, dont feel like its a job anymore to login

    splitting my time between wow and champs.

  • I think you should play a DK, keen. you should play what you enjoy. don’t listen to the haters 🙂

  • I just signed up for WAR again instead (only played a couple of months back when it was new, but I was too MMO-burned to really enjoy it.) Hey, this is a pretty fun game!

  • I resubbed Friday night after playing WAR for 6 straight months. It’s like night and day. I didn’t stop playing WAR because I was frustrated with the game, I just got bored of it.

    However now looking at the two side by side at a point where I don’t really feel addicted to either one, WAR doesn’t compare to WoW on so many levels. In a way I feel I should apologize to the pro Aion people leaving WAR for Aion. Compared to a really high quality MMO WAR has terrile performance. When you only ever play WAR you don’t fully realize this.

    The PvP in WoW is more fun, and more difficult. In WAR I had tanks dedicated to protecting my healers or as a tank I had abilities to protect people. In WoW it’s all about kill them before they kill you and defending yourself. Not having auto face or big icons near your group mates or targets and not having a friendly target makes WoW much more difficult. In a way WAR’s PvP would be considered more ‘carebear’ than WoW’s.

    That being said I still love WAR. It has alot of really fun features and anyone not tired of WoW should pick it up… however if you are thinking of trying WoW again after 2 days I would say give it a try. Even if just for the month before Aion.

  • Bleh… I want to add.

    WoW’s PvP is almost all solo orientated, even on my Disc priest. It’s a do it yourself playstyle while WAR is very much team orienated. You live or die in WAR based on how well your team works together, in WoW it’s pretty much all up to your skill.

  • I just canceled my WOW subscription in anticipation of Aion. I haven’t seen the game yet at all…so at least I have a few days of open beta to mess around with – that should keep me busy (plus a trip to Germany!)

  • @Dread: I found one spelling error. I wrote this quickly in a pocket of time I found yesterday *shrug*.

    @Anti-DK people: I don’t have the time really to level anything else, or the desire until Cataclysm, so I’ll just play the one character that I have geared up as an 80.

    Between school, an attempt at a social life, and rl obligations… I only have a small window of time to play.

  • If your bored and looking for something to do…How about that podcast that’s coming soon?

    Sorry had to go there…

    I recently resubbed to WoW a month ago. I quit WAR in March and was waiting for Champions. I did the DDO unlimited Beta, some Ruins of Magic, and WOTLK trial. Made a Deathknight did about 5 quests and just wasn’t feeling it. My last few days of the trial I made a toon on another server to say hi to some ex-WAR guildies. from there i resubbed. We are a non raiding guild of about 5. I made a Ret Pally and have just been BG’ing it. I’m only playing a few hours here or there, I’m actually movin quite slow since i refuse to do anymore questing. But I’m enjoying nothing but BG’s and crafting my gear for it.

  • @Wart

    How do you feel the leveling is in BGs now? Are you leveling at a pretty good rate? I have a lvl 71 pally that I just can’t quest with, and was planning on BGing to level. I just need to give it a shot and see if the level gain is viable.

    Also anyone have a review of the new BG…any good?

  • @HowdyDoody

    Currently, leveling up in the high brackets (such as your level) is too good, and leveling up in the lower brackets isn’t good enough. Blizzard has already said that they are keeping a close eye on everything, so I would expect adjustments soon, but for now take advantage of it.

    You should be able to get to 80 by doing nothing but AV (the most over-inflated xp gains of them all) in just a few days.

  • I hated RPGs with a passion. I’d given up couched based D&D with drunk and/or obsessive dungeon masters in the 70s, played FPS games exclusively amd thought every game was redundantly instanced. My first taste of a persistent world was Freelancer and its many mods, especially Ioncross Total War. Sure there could only be 64 on a server, but it felt immersive and our early Ventrilo server gave us a social community. The irony of course, is that Freelancer had most of the RPG elements with FPS style combat. At least in our mod we had reputation and drops, gear and weapon leveling, questing etc. As my obsession waned, all our group searched for other games to play. I nearly gave up RPGs completely after being forced to play NWN and then I discovered WoW.

    I still didn’t know what all the numbers on people’s heads meant but luckily some of the Ioncross members had already started so there were companions available.

    Four years later, I’m still playing WoW and our guild is around 130 people of all ages and sexes. There have been times when the guild was 2 people in Silithus and sometimes it’s been so boring that I’ve considered leaving. However, the persistent, immersive world has kept me there and the constant improvements and realising that, at least within WoW, boredom is usually the result of not exploring options.

    I play on a PvE server and have avoided PvP for most of the time. I currently have 3 80s, a druid dps/healer, mage dps and a pally tank/healer. I’ve played most of the classes and the varied gameplay is one of the methods for preventing boredom.

    I’ve enjoyed the quests and storyline much more in Wotlk and have worked through the endgame, Naxx and the first few bosses of Ulduar and am currently doing the Argent tournament heroic instances and finding them fun.

    One of my deepest regrets has been buying an epic flyer (very fast and expensive mount) for my level 70 hunter, who has been languishing in the starter zones for Northrend, because I couldn’t face levelling another alt after the first three and anyway I was enjoying the new content on my other toons. Northrend enforces a level 77 flying restriction and running around everywhere is slow.

    With the latest content patch came some welcome changes. I had already been able to purchase bind on account gear for my lower level characters (essentially gear that automatically scales with character level, gives you an experience bonus and can be traded between your various toons) to ease the levelling process, but the latest patch allowed me to purchase a flying instruction tome that I could send to my poor hunter and let him fly immediately. With the freedom of flight, I’ve moved to 78 in a few weeks and started to do battlegrounds.

    I jumped into the new bg just to check out the scenery. I’d avoided PvP because of my FPS history. A few times in Warsong Gulch showed me it was another clone of 2Fort in Team Fortress except really, really, slow combat and I preferred a daily dose of TF2 for my PvP. The other problem was twinks. These were highly geared players who stayed just below the level cap for a battleground, who professed a quest for excellence, but in reality spent most of their time clubbing baby seals in the form of other lower level and normally geared players.

    Two things made me change my opinion of battlegrounds in WoW. The new Isle of Conquest (and to a lesser extent the older Strand of the Ancients) and the removal of twinks from the battlefield. The second change was extremely simple. You now gain experience in battlegrounds. If you decide that you want to continue playing as a twink and eschew experience, then you get whisked away to your own battleground of similar twinks where you can enjoy excellence to your heart’s content.

    I’m enjoying the new battleground due to the variety of options available to me. Yes I’m still capturing territory, but it’s so I can generate and use siege engines or jump on the airship for artillery or a parachute drop. With a huge area and a fortified castle to take down, as well as defending your own, there’s lots to keep you amused. The other benefit from the bg XP gain is that I can level my character though battlegrounds, which gives me an alternative if I find the quests a little deja vu.

    I’m now enjoying PvP so much I’m even considering Arena next 😉

    The problem with hating WoW is that your usually hating a moving target. WoW is constantly improving. The new phasing, class changes, collapsing stats, dual specialisation, ui improvements, shorter raids, daily quests and more content are all making the game more enjoyable and making it less likely I’ll cancel that sub.

  • @TonyMcS

    Well said.

    Let me ask you (or others) since i haven’t been playing since January, how have they changed the battlegrounds? I remember stopping off and getting ravaged by opponents with 3 to 5 times the hitpoints i had, making Battlegrounding completely pointless as i leveled.

    I read something about gaining XP in the battlegrounds.. is it a viable way of leveling now? could you stay in the BG 10-80 or would that be too much effort?

  • Glad to hear you’re enjoying it. ToC really isn’t my cup of tea design wise, but if you like that style, more power to you – I think it’s great that they have a loot vending machine that resets the curve part way through the xpac, since as you say, it allows you to jump right back in without facing a huge grind.

    As far as I’m concerned, gear is there for the feeling you get when you progress your character, it should be easy to get, and be about making choices as to how you’d like to itemize, not creating a stratified player base around how many hours you have to play. Anyway, that’s a rant for another day.

    GL Keen, hope you enjoy yourself!

  • “The problem with hating WoW is that your usually hating a moving target. WoW is constantly improving. The new phasing, class changes, collapsing stats, dual specialisation, ui improvements, shorter raids, daily quests and more content are all making the game more enjoyable and making it less likely I’ll cancel that sub.”

    This is exactly why I will never play this game again. Different strokes…

  • It’s all about progression and I don’t mean raid or guild progression, but the progression of the MMO. WoW is a unique opportunity to refine the MMORPG due to its huge user base, deep pockets and I believe, the committment of the game designers to continuous improvement.

    Of course that is going to leave some people on the way, as we all don’t react well to change, but the richness of the story and lore in an MMO is its own trap. Once you’ve played the story once, it becomes boring to do it again and again and while phasing (essentially you will see and interact with a different environment at the same physical location depending on your choices and progression) can show us the world changing from our decisions, it doesn’t help with repetition. The end-game story can move on, but old Azeroth and Outlands (the intial Wow and its expansion) have become deserted as the many methods introduced to improve levelling have seen new and old players going through them as a blur until they reach the new content.

    I imagine its frustrating for designers to see so much content to go to waste – especially since many of us saw very little of the dungeons in the original WoW due to the time, organisationl and gear requirements. It’s also been obvious that Blizzard has shifted to giving the majority of its subscribers more access to raid content in the new expansions.

    The coming Cataclysm expansion provides the expected new content, but in a surprising way. It moves the story on and in doing so, changes all the old content. This means that levelling from 1-85 becomes a new experience as you move through once familiar lands changed by the event. In addition, the usual ways of making the game more interesting, such as new races and areas are also there.

    As to the game changing, I would see them as improvements dictated by the designers having time to reconsider their choices, look at a huge amount of player feedback and add-ons, as well as their internal statistics and also reflect upon the lessons they’ve learnt. There are enough new games being released that show the results of hasty decisions and marketing hype and Blizzard is in the valuable position of being able to take their time and learn from their mistakes.

    The move to simpler stats has been great IMHO and it will continue with talents and gear. While some may enjoy visits to Elitist Jerks, talent calculators and endless forum and blog posts to set up their character or doing the math for your spellpower, hit, defense etc after a gear change, I prefer playing with friends and blowing things up 😉 The latest patch now shows you the changes that will occur if you select an item as well as its relative item level, and future changes will decisions easier for you and the rest of the raid waiting to see if you REALLY want that item 😉

    As well as some of the big changes in WoW there are thousands of little UI and gameplay changes that constantly improve the game. Blizzard may not have done it first, but there’s nothing wrong with standing on the shoulders of giants and they have the good fortune to be able to keep changing the game.

    WoW may not be your cup of tea or you may long for the purity of old WoW, but it’s worth checking out every six months or so to see if you like what they’re doing at the moment 😉

  • Keen

    Can you describe the current WOW landscape now ? im also thinking of resubscribing , i havent bought WOTLK and from WOW and TBC veteran (lv1-70) what can i expect when i returned ?

  • @TonyMcs – you should really be getting paid for these happy write-ups. I am amazed at the level of dedication you have put into them.. what amazes me ieven more is that you played DND in the 70’s. Your post strikes me as someone nearer the age of 19 with good writing skills.

    Did you miss UO and EQ in your life timeline somewhere?

    “The move to simpler stats has been great IMHO and it will continue with talents and gear. While some may enjoy visits to Elitist Jerks, talent calculators and endless forum and blog posts to set up their character or doing the math for your spellpower, hit, defense etc after a gear change, I prefer playing with friends and blowing things up The latest patch now shows you the changes that will occur if you select an item as well as its relative item level, and future changes will decisions easier for you and the rest of the raid waiting to see if you REALLY want that item ”

    I don’t have any problem with you and many others liking this in a game… but please don’t be preaching that this is the way MMO’s need to be. I understand for many playing WOW, you really are just looking for a step-up from the FPS world frame. Why don’t we just hafve 2 stats? offense and defense.. it would make gear REALLY easy to compare.

    WOW has become the Disney of MMO’s which is fine, but let’s all just look back in 10 years on the Jonas Brothers shall we?

  • Comparing WoW to Jonas Brothers is a bit much but TonyMcs is an example of a valid point. MMO’s are changing. They are being gradually homoginized(spelling?) into console action games. The old school RPG elements are all virtually gone other than a few core mechanics. The actual gameplay is more akin to Crash Bandicoot than say Final Fantasy Series or other classic RPG’s and MMO’s.

    Are they still RPG’s if they don’t play like classic RPG’s? Do you just need character progression via stats/levels to be a RPG or is gameplay a factor in that label?

  • I can’t believe I let myself get sucked in to this dead horse of a discussion…

    You are both absolutely right. I will now bow down to WOW, please forgive. There will never be a complicated ‘niche’ game for adult (or advanced) RPG hobbiest’s again.

    PONG 2010 FTW

  • “I can’t believe I let myself get sucked in to this dead horse of a discussion…

    You are both absolutely right. I will now bow down to WOW, please forgive. There will never be a complicated ‘niche’ game for adult (or advanced) RPG hobbiest’s again.”

    Well that’s a tad immature, don’t get off track and become another mindless person that complains without reason or an intelligible response.

  • @Silverfly

    Wow not sure where that came from. If you are new to the MMO industry maybe check out EVE, DFO, or MO for something different than WoW…

    I never said WoW was the way GAMES HAD TO BE. I said it was the way most MMO’s are going. Before you get all but hurt about originallty how many of those “niche” MMO’s have you tried? I played EVE, DFO, and already bought MO.

  • Oh come on.. this whole post unfortunately begs the question. Tad immature? Mindless person?

    It was only a matter of time before the fanboy comment changed the trajectory, as you know as well as I that this comment sits much better in an mmorpg.com flame war post. It becomes easy to to see where you fall on this issue.

    Like I said, I genuinely regret taking the bait, but it is follow up comments like yours that compel me.

    It also touches on the greater discussion of blog echo chambers, which I was honestly trying to counter. I found it really surprising that somebody who played DND in the 70’s with alcohol involved would have a posting style of a much younger person, a generational mindset if you will.

    As I have posted before, the phenomenon that is WOW does very much encompass a specific generation, and as is often the case, such generational views are often blind to what is outside their immediate vision.

    I think it is accurate to say that the MMO persistent world action game is on the rise. I think the sooner we stop calling these games mmoRPG the better, as there IS a huge market for a more complicated game, and WOW is a great gateway as certan gaming segments mature.

    The thing right now is we are stuck in a lazy limbo of interaction with the environment. Despite all the other advances it comes down to essentially 3 ways, unchanged from EQ, and far far simpler than pen and paper DND: gather for crafting, static spawn combat, and ! questing being the only way you really interact with your surroundings.

    So when I see a post about how clever and brilliant WOW designers are, it really does cut, as for their resources, they are incredibly conservative and re-cycle content at a nausiating rate(IMO). Certainly not something to be given kudos for.

  • “how many of those “niche” MMO’s have you tried?”

    I wanted to resond to this as well, as this really is the crux of it in my opinion.

    At this point many of the companies with a reasonable budget have tried to dumb down their own games to attract more of the ‘casual WOW player’, (bacause obviously this is why WOW is so succesful (sarcasm)), doing it rather poorly, then wondering why they are considered such epic fail.

    No game comes to mind more than WAR in this regard. Talk about squandering a complicated and immersive IP.

    Look we all know WOW can be highly enjoyable, but innovative and cutting edge it is not, except in how it has taken ideas from other games and maximized them for their own content.

    And in the interest of full disclosure.. yes I am very old school, I was one of the 5% in old world naxx. Wotlk for me was my nostalgic trip back through Azeroth, and it was enough. And I always put the 3-some ahead of the raid.. even when it cost me dkp.

    😉

  • @ Silverfly

    “It was only a matter of time before the fanboy comment changed the trajectory, as you know as well as I that this comment sits much better in an mmorpg.com flame war post. It becomes easy to to see where you fall on this issue.”

    I’m not a fanboy of WoW. I guess me explaining how WoW and current MMO’s work can be missrepresented as liking it. I’m falling to your bait I guess as much as you fall to mine.

    I like some of what has done, ironically it’s not the major game designs of theirs. I like the ease at which you can navigate the HUD/UI and how well it runs. I hate how WoW has evolved it’s raid encounters. I despise them honestly.

    ““how many of those “niche” MMO’s have you tried?”

    I wanted to resond to this as well, as this really is the crux of it in my opinion.”

    It’s funny because you didn’t actually reply to that. You come off speaking so subjectively of WoW but give no real insist into how you’ve attempted to play or support anything other than WoW.

    Congratulations on being old school WoW. I was old school EQ, but lets not try to enter a epeen contest because no one will win.

    If you are going to talk about the tragedy of innovation it would help to atleast try some of the games that are trying to be innovative. It doesn’t matter how long you, or I, have been playing games. If we don’t try and support new idea’s we are just as much a cause for the WoW machine as anyone.

  • “It was only a matter of time before the fanboy comment changed the trajectory, as you know as well as I that this comment sits much better in an mmorpg.com flame war post. It becomes easy to to see where you fall on this issue.”

    Yeah… No.

    I think I can see what kind of person you are now.

    I have an equal respect for all games, as ALL games believe it or not, are very unique. If there was a “fanboy” on here, it would be pretty clear who he was. Since there are none, then you have no right in saying so.

    Having a high amount of respect for a company doesn’t make you a fanboy.

  • to close this out…

    My original comments were to TonyMcS, and I was not actually attacking him as a fanboy, it devolved to that.

    @nobs – It is in throwing around the word ‘niche’ that got me in trouble… but people like to put a negative spin on this word, so I was using it sarcastically. There was a time not too long ago when all MMORPG’s were niche.

    I dislike the epeen comment, because I was only stating where I was coming from the gaming world of WOW, not to hide behind the veil, though obviously it opens one up to attacks. Honestly I have probably been more hardcore with WOW than any other game. Though I loved EQ, in that the game was much more hardcore.

    Talking recent innovation.. I actually enjoyed AOC, I didn’t come in with any expectations. I did with WAR, big mistake. I liked a small (now failed) game called Fury. I am not going to throw eve into this mix because it is such a different game.

    @ Hazzerd – Your defenses were up too early, so now everything I say will fit a certain mold for you. That is fine. I can be very sarcastic when posting, so I can take it.

    If you read the earlier posts I think you would have a better understanding.

    On to the new post!

  • @Silverfly

    Sorry for assuming you were calling me a fanboy then. AoC was a good game up until you ran out of content. The epeen comment was that some people will use 40 man WoW raids as creditinials to comment on what hardcore is. I was just trying to counter with another type of hardcore raiding, essentially to wash the comment out by matching it.

    Anyways no harm no foul. I agree with some of what you said.