Burning Crusade and it's B-.

[Lethean]

I can't believe you gave it that.

Seriously.

Everyone else has given it much higher grades...

...And they must be on crack.

I'm one of those WoW players who plays it alot, and has since about a month or two after launch. I even redeemed my BC collector's edition cd-key instead of making a few hundred dollars off of it on Ebay. Crazy, I know. But one thing about WoW, is it has many fanboys and people who do not see it's flaws.

At day one of launch and even a few months after it was great, Blizzard also kept a steady stream of content.

People however overlooked the fact that the world to explore was slightly small scale compared to other mmo's, the crafting system was and still is a joke, and once you hit 60, if you were in a hardcore raid guild fine, if not, you're left with nothing to do after a few instances. A deeper crafting system, player housing and even player cities would have helped that greatly.

I've come to accept however that WoW is not mad for the hardcore player, but the mainstream audience. Hence the 8 million subscribers.

But the expansion pack...

A game we've been playing for what....Two years and a few months now...A game where we were told we'd get hero classes in a year's time, and sooner than later player housing...And we get the expansion. I admit, I like the expansion. It's a lot of fun. However...No new classes? 49.99 or 39.99 if you're American? I think that's a joke.

There is no graphical overhaul, with 8 million subscribers the price point is too high imo, and it didn't even come with WoW standard. Let's look at previews MMOs and what the expansions offer shall we?

Star Wars Galaxies expansion packs were for the most part average priced, but Jump to Lightspeed offered almost an entirely new game! And then when Rage of the Wookies came, you could get both expansions and the game for a relatively low price. People can argue they had no subscribers pretty much however so let's look at EQ2.

EQ2 - It's probably the third most played MMO save for Guild Wars I imagine. It might just fall under Lineage 2 which has 1 or 2 million subscribers. And before WoW's time, having 600k subscribers is a success, it still is in my opinion. The expansion pack, Kingdom of Sky, was 29.99 and it came with EQ2 itself. That's a a pretty good deal I'd say.

EvE - Expansions are free, visual overhaul. Nuff said.

So while I like WoW, and I'll maybe even get flamed by the fanboys for this topic, I want to commend you on giving the expansion a good grade. In fact if you were to review WoW itself now, I'd hope that after a year or two of playing it would get a lower grade.

But like all other drugs, even if it's bad it sure feels good.

 

[TheNesMan]

I personally didn't like the grade, I can see why it was given a B- though. I still love tim <3.

 

[Tyrranis]

***WARNING: EXTREMELY BAD PUN ALERT!!!***

So, you're basically saying that WoW has lost that 'wow-factor'.

 

[LinksOcarina]

I think the grade is fine, but so is the game. Wow does a lot right for a MMORPG, and has a lot of room for improvement easily. I predict that it will get better soon, and with 8 million subscribers, how can it not really? It's simplistic graphics and style are good enough for the general public, and the game has great controls, and is, despite periods of redundancy, is still fun!

 

[Lakerol]

I think the grade is fine, but so is the game. Wow does a lot right for a MMORPG, and has a lot of room for improvement easily. I predict that it will get better soon, and with 8 million subscribers, how can it not really? It's simplistic graphics and style are good enough for the general public, and the game has great controls, and is, despite periods of redundancy, is still fun!

I've played the game for a short time, and I never really got into it.

But, i've never been much of an MMORPG fan.

I can understand the B- rating. For being an MMORPG.

 

[malakian]

I cannot begin to describe how amazed i am at how popular WoW is. Lineage 2 was such a memorable game experience for me, with it's epic music and downright artistic visuals...WoW was a bit like a cartoon with an AOL chat room.

 

[Icepick]

I'd also like to point out a few things in regards to WoW being seen as the best mmorpg

it ain't, I said it, is it an enjoyable game? of course, but when it's so easy to hit 60, why does one care anymore?

Take lineage 2, free patches (they release chronicles, from release right to the 12th one, all will be free, and these add massive content, not just a new race that can play, or a new level cap, castle sieges anyone?) and constantly add to their story line

crafting wise you're getting nowhere in L2 unless theres a handy dwarf on speed dial, when certain items are only craftable the economy of the game takes into effect

did I mention castle sieges?

plus l2 already had flying mounts

 

[-FCM-]

Honestly, holding back most of the vulgarity I would like to spew about SOE right now, it is the biggest piece of shit ever to somehow get a hold of rights to a game. They asked us what we wanted, we told them what we wanted, they gave us something we DIDN'T want, and we dealt with it. Then we begged them for what we had been asking for for 3 years, and they dumped the NGE on us.

It's like we had a muddy color blue, and we wanted it to be bright blue. We told them, and they gave us a weird cerulean. Then they saw WoW over there, which is red, and went "Hey, maybe if we turn OURS red, everyone who is completely satisfied with that game over there will come to ours. You know. All 6 million of them. Based solely on the fact that it's Star Wars." Meanwhile, we all went "fuck this" and they lost 100,000 subscribers and I hope they're feeling it. Fucking bait-and-switch assholes finally getting what they deserve.

Not to mention the reports that are coming out about conversations in the developing room. Supposedly the producer (John Smedley I think), commenting on how the game had to be trashed and built from the ground up 6 months or so within the release date after a couple years of development, said "It's okay, they'll buy it because it's Star Wars and we'll fix it over the next couple of years."

My point is, I don't care how good SOE's SWG expansions were, we didn't fucking want them. I don't know if they do the same for EQ2, but you can't heal wounds by dressing the victim up in pretty clothes, you need to give them a fucking bandaid. Jump to Lightspeed was great, but it really had nothing to do with the ground game. And after all the time I spent grinding to get Jedi, to make it easier to get, and then to make it a starter profession? It's almost as desperate as the 800 commercials I saw shortly after I quit.

I loved that game. But now it needs to be put out of its misery. It died a long time ago and now its body is being used as a money puppet. I sound so dramatic about all this because the game failing will not be enough for me. A major news site, I can't remember exactly but I think it was NBC, is taking notice of the horror stories of subscribers and workers, and they themselves are surprised that there has not been a class-action lawsuit against SOE. They used bait and switch tactics, which are ILLEGAL, among many other things.

Anyways, I see no problem with the way Blizzard runs things. Maybe it's because I have abused Jedi syndrome.

PS: Oh, and that last expansion. Yeah they waited until shortly after we bought it to announce the new system. As in, they announced the new system like 3 days after it came out, no exaggeration.

But hey, why should you guys care, it's just SWG, not that big a game. Then again, SOE is a huge company, running EQII and EQ. And really, it didn't fall far from the incredible-fucking-douche tree as far as its father company, Sony, goes.

 

[Lethean]

So you don't see any of those flaws I mentioned with WoW?

Despite how much SWG sucked in the end, you can't deny the amount of depth it originally had.

And JtLS did NOT displease fans. The CU and everything after that did.

 

[LinksOcarina]

Yuo got to remember though. WoW has a large mythology following it, one that has not only been fleshed out recently, but is growing every day. Sure Star Wars Galaxies had a large mythology, but that failed mainly due to production problems and framerate issues. WoW is popular because of Blizzard's hands on approach to their franchises. It's like Nintendo, what they make is either good, real good, or excellent. WoW is real good, borderline excellent.

 

[Joe_Dodson]

Don't let the fact that WoW isn't as impressive two years after its launch fool you into thinking it isn't an excellent game. Two years is enough time to make a good game irrelevant and obsolete, and two years later WoW is still the most popular PC game in the world. I just wish Blizzard would put battlemounts and gnome launchers into their game. Especially gnome launchers. Can you imagine shooting a gnome warrior at someone?

 

[Tim_Tackett]

Can you imagine shooting a gnome warrior at someone?

That'd be great, maybe I'd be useful in PvP. Kidding. Sort of. :wink:

 

[Lethean]

Don't let the fact that WoW isn't as impressive two years after its launch fool you into thinking it isn't an excellent game. Two years is enough time to make a good game irrelevant and obsolete, and two years later WoW is still the most popular PC game in the world. I just wish Blizzard would put battlemounts and gnome launchers into their game. Especially gnome launchers. Can you imagine shooting a gnome warrior at someone?

To me though, WoW wasn't an excellent game right at launch either. Well...Perhaps at launch, but after when the hype settled and you got to 60 and realised how little depth there was for an MMO, it ceased to amaze me.

It's still fun though, and what Blizzard does, they do well. Which is creating a mainstream MMO.

I just get tired of the fanboys who can't see the flaws which are many, and think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, and perfect in every way. Unlike bread...Which can taste bad and have gross crust.

Anyone else have their crust cut off their bread when they were like....Four?

Anyways....Yeah. Good review.

I'm going to go level my paladin.

 

[-FCM-]

So you don't see any of those flaws I mentioned with WoW?

Despite how much SWG sucked in the end, you can't deny the amount of depth it originally had.

And JtLS did NOT displease fans. The CU and everything after that did.

Oh no, don't get me wrong, the game was wonderful. When it first came out, that Summer...man. Hanging out in Anchorhead, the incredible social aspect. Everyone knew each other, hanging out in the tavern, messengers coming in while everyone's talking screaming about a raid and everyone running out to defend themselves from the Bestine-dwelling Imperials. Star Wars Galaxies wasn't given nearly enough credit when it first came out. No offense to GR, but I feel if people sat back, relaxed, enjoyed themselves, and looked at it less like a game and more like a life in the Star Wars world, it wouldn't have gotten a C+.

And yeah JtLS was fine. I just don't think anybody really cared that much. There were other issues.

 

[Frozen]

You know I think the grades on WoW and SWG should've been switched. I would've given the original WoW a C and SWG an A-, or possibly a B-. I enver saw what was so special about WOW... to me it just seems like a huge questfest that gets boring fast. I dont even like upgrading my gear fast. In SWG I wore the same stuff like just about the entire time I played the game (well except for switching to composite for hardcore stuff) and I wasnt peanalized for it. It made my character feel like me and not just another guy in this world, which is the feeling I get with WoW. To me MMOs arent just another game, they are worlds that I want to immerse myself in. WoW feels too much like an amusement park for me to do this.

And yea... as for the expansion (so this post will look somewhat on topic), the Draenei kick ass. Too bad I am already starting to grow tired of my shaman and he is only level 19.