A couple of days ago I wrote about the dance killing WoW. Today I am going to let you in on my dirty little secret. I really, really want to play WoW again. But I don’t want to play Cataclysm’s version of WoW. So I am waiting, waiting for the developers to get it right.
When I jumped ship to Rift, I wasn’t sure what I was looking for. I knew exactly what I didn’t want (the dance) but I had no real idea what it was that I wanted. I was searching for something; I just didn’t know what it was.
I can tell you that Rift’s – Telara kept my attention for awhile. A new world to explore is always cool. The new graphics and character models also helped to keep me logging in. Also the challenge of playing the underdog healer in the game helped a bunch. Then it happened – we came face to face with ‘the dance’.
Once again I saw a situation where it didn’t matter how good 7 out of the 10 players were. If number 8,9 and 10 failed at the dance, wipe it up. Attempt after attempt the frustration mounted and soon I was logging in less and less. After awhile I was only logging in for raids and then eventually other things began to take priority over the game.
One of the absolute biggest frustrations for me was when I watched Razor get a late start in the game, compared to most of the guild members, and then out perform them all. Oh and did I mention that he switched main toons during that time? That’s right, he was behind the curve, switched mains and still out performed our ‘raiders’ in his first raid. While it says a lot about Razor, what does it say about the others?
Why would I be frustrated by all of this? Because not only did he out perform them, he was better geared than they were as well. He did all of this without ever stepping into a raid and had not completed most of the 5 man instances normal or epic. So Razor walks into his first raid geared to the teeth and we had ‘raiders’ that were still wearing greens.
Now add all of this to the frustration of the dance and what do you get? Kauzmo no longer plays Rift. So the question becomes, why I am I not playing Rift or WoW? Because the fun factor in each game is far less than the frustration factor. And to think that it all boils down to the current end game theory of both companies is a bit saddening.
Do you know what my biggest complaint about WoW was in vanilla and the first expansion is/was? Raid size. That’s it, raid size. It was and still is difficult to get 40 people on the same schedule. I never felt the game was not fun; I just disliked the raid size. It just so happens that I was not alone.
I have a feeling that sooner or later one of the two companies is going to get it right. I am putting my money on Trion only because they are extremely efficient at pumping out new content. But if Blizzard gets it right first I will be shaking the dust off my feathers and jumping in with both feet.
If WoW was actually fun again I could live with the cartoon style graphics. I also have a gnawing suspicion that there are millions of others who could too!
If WoW was actually fun again I could live with the cartoon style graphics. I also have a gnawing suspicion that there are millions of others who could too!
My sentiments exactly.
I started playing WoW just before TBC launched, so I have absolutely no idea what classic endgame was like, but I would like to see something like that again, but in a 25 man version.
If one of the few legitimate complaints about classic WoW raiding was raid size, why not scale the fights down from 40 to 25?
I have to say, coming from a similar situation myself I agree on many of the points you made. Even in the review I did of Rift I admitted it had a lot going for it, but in the end was too much like WOW for me to make the switch. And as more and more news reaches me I continue to be intrigued by things the company is adding, like solo content (I had a joygasm when I read that) which was something I and many gamers had been asking for since EverQuest.
The dance has been around (in WOW) since C’thun certainly, executing that encounter at 60 was an art. And though I felt a great sense of accomplishment and camaraderie with my guild when we FINALLY downed the fucker, I didn’t want to repeat the process over and over with different bosses. I think that ICC in a lot of ways was a good balance, the instance offered you the dances progressively, with some variety. Cataclysm however has gone just a bit far with the concept.
There are certainly other issues, definitely plenty that make me feel like the game just isn’t being made for me anymore. But “the dance” is definitely one of the big ones. The devil’s in the details, and frankly I think Blizzard’s been focused on the wrong ones lately. Here’s hoping that somebody can coax me back into raiding at some point, for now I just don’t see it happening.
One caveat however before I leave, the issue with Razor makes me think of those discussions about how people didn’t feel the need to min/max etc in Rift. Imo, when that feeling is the norm, that people are liberated from idea of “optimization” , the result is people who are performing below what someone who considers optimal behaviors, like Razor. I’m of the opinion that if your guild is going to have a series focus toward an aspect of the game, be it raiding, PVP, RVR, whatever… then there have to be established minimums. If standards are not set, it will lead to all manner of undue frustration on the part of the leadership.
heres a good read http://games.ign.com/articles/120/1200005p1.html?_cmpid=ign18
I get back and it’s like episode one of The Walking Dead. I wake from my RL coma and everyone is gone. I’m still playing. It’s still fun for me, but to be honest, I’m a different kind of MMO player. When I played EQ, sometimes I would just run around to admire the sights. I sat once and watched the moon. In WoW, when I got my very first mount, I rode across every continent. I like the lore, I still love the game. It’s a solo game for me now, but at least I have a guild tag so I can do my own thing and not be hounded by guild invites.