A great game held back by Blizzard's lack of ambition
I have been playing WoW since beta, and just recently quit the game for good. I have multiple level 60s, both Horde and Alliance, on PvP and PvE servers. The game is a blast from level 1 all the way through 60. It is the easiest MMORPG to date to reach the maximum level in. The "rested experience" received from logging off in an Inn is great for casual players. Depending on how long they were offline, they will receive twice the amount of experience per kill for a while.
Each zone is unique, and all of them are fun to explore and quest in. The graphics in WoW may not be high tech, but they are unparalleled. The game just looks good. If you turn off your interface in the game and take screenshots, they look amazing. The five man instances that you encounter while leveling are all challenging and interesting. They can be a fun distraction from the level grind, and provide very nice gear for their level.
Combat is fun, every animation and sound effect is perfect. Every class is unique and fun to play. The Diablo II style talent trees are implemented very well, it's just to bad that they lead to only three or four viable talent builds per class. Trade skills in WoW are a breeze, straightforward and fun, at least until you need to grind for reputation. The auction house makes buying and selling easy as well, every MMORPG from this point on needs to rip off the WoW auction house.
If it seems too good to be true, that's because it is. It will take most people three or four months to reach level 60, and after that it is an entirely different game.
Post 60 WoW is horrible. Progression consists of Diablo II style farming on a large scale with 40 people. You kill the same monsters, to have a chance at the same gear, over and over again. What is the motivation to get said gear? To be able to kill new monsters over and over to get new gear, it is redundant.
These farming runs are called "raids" in the game and can take anywhere from 3 to 6 hours to complete. In a standard raid around 20 new items are distributed between 40 people (if you are in a good guild). There will be many times that you receive nothing for your time, and will have to continue coming on these raids to obtain items. The concept behind these raids is absurd, yet Blizzard keeps embellishing it. For some reason people find it addicting, so it keeps the 15$ a month rolling in.
The dungeons themselves take little skill as far as “gaming” is concerned. The real trick is getting 20 or 40 people to cooperate. It's no fun. Yet 38 people want to make the game a job for the leaders, and profit by just showing up and following instructions. Yet show up they do, and spend countless hours to obtain their coveted items. Thus they style themselves “hardcore gamers” and look down on all the little people. This ties in to the horrible PvP ranking system.
Blizzard made PvP as much a grind as raiding ever was! With the current state of the game, PvP rank is no indication whatsoever of skill. All it takes is an inordinate amount of time. There are three battlegrounds in the game, and they are fun for a time. But what FPS or RTS game expects it players to play three maps for over a year? The way the ranking system is set up in WoW, if you are not grinding away in one of these battlegrounds, you have no chance to advance in rank. These battlegrounds have degenerated into dungeons, with every game following a predictable path.
Blizzard has proved they do not understand the PvPer. We don't want rewards or rank, they are cool yes, but not what makes PvP fun. There needs to be territory that can change hands, players in certain zones need to be lootable on death. Rewards are for PvE, consequences are what PvP must have.
I hang my head in shame when I hear the high ranking PvPers, and geared out PvErs tout themselves as “gamers”. If that is what the term has been reduced to, I don't want to be labeled one. Yet Blizzard is only going to add more of the same, it is making them rich after all.
In its current state it is my opinion that WoW is bad for MMORPGs and video games in general. Such a monopoly on the MMORPG community makes it hard for anyone to experiment with new ideas. It is far to tempting to follow the template to monetary success that Blizzard has laid out.
While the game is the best of its kind while leveling up, taken as a whole it is a time sink, and designed to be one. I cannot see how anything good for the players, or video games, can come out of content that is added for the sole reason of keeping people playing, and thus paying.
After my most recent level 60 I finally saw the light and realized that Blizzard was never going to add substantial content for me, and have kicked the habit. The world of video games is wonderful; don't lose sight of it in this massive grind fest. Play to 60 once or twice, and move on.
Gameplay - 8
Graphics - 8
Sound - 8
Value - 8
Tilt - 5