One of the big things that's "wrong" with WoW

#0 - April 4, 2009, 12:44 a.m.

I was thinking today as I ran my warlock to dire maul for his doomguard quest, why this game can feel like such a chore sometimes. I realized that when I played EQ, traveling was always fun, and it was because practically every mob posed a serious threat to my safety. Exploring meant carefully weaving my way through deathtraps and trying to find a safe place with things that I could solo.

None of that experience is present in WoW. My characters today can take 3-4 mobs with relative ease, often times more. 90% of mobs are nothing but speed bumps, engaging them involves no risk. The vast majority of the content, the overworld questing, is filled with nothing but walking meatloafs that you have no incentive outside of quests to fight.

My personal feeling is that if every mob in the game was elite, it would be far more interesting. In addition, add a bunch more rares (TBC and EQ style, where they're more like mini-bosses), and increase the population density in some zones. It would make traveling from place to place more interesting, it would encourage grouping (while not requiring it like older games), and it would keep the overworld relevant after you hit the level cap.

I didn't post this in the suggestions forum because it's obviously an unrealistic idea, but I think that this would be my ideal MMO. The challenge and danger of old "hardcore" games combined with the storytelling and polish of WoW. I just wanted to see what other people think.

Crygil

#10 - April 4, 2009, 2:06 a.m.

Q u o t e:
I was thinking today as I ran my warlock to dire maul for his doomguard quest, why this game can feel like such a chore sometimes. I realized that when I played EQ, traveling was always fun, and it was because practically every mob posed a serious threat to my safety. Exploring meant carefully weaving my way through deathtraps and trying to find a safe place with things that I could solo.

None of that experience is present in WoW. My characters today can take 3-4 mobs with relative ease, often times more. 90% of mobs are nothing but speed bumps, engaging them involves no risk. The vast majority of the content, the overworld questing, is filled with nothing but walking meatloafs that you have no incentive outside of quests to fight.

My personal feeling is that if every mob in the game was elite, it would be far more interesting. In addition, add a bunch more rares (TBC and EQ style, where they're more like mini-bosses), and increase the population density in some zones. It would make traveling from place to place more interesting, it would encourage grouping (while not requiring it like older games), and it would keep the overworld relevant after you hit the level cap.

I didn't post this in the suggestions forum because it's obviously an unrealistic idea, but I think that this would be my ideal MMO. The challenge and danger of old "hardcore" games combined with the storytelling and polish of WoW. I just wanted to see what other people think.

It is a different philosophy than what we employ. We try to make the content of each zone fit the relative level of the individuals who will be passing through it. There are other games that have tried to go back to this model recently. Unfortunately, they did not fare very well. However, there are still plenty of places where you can feel the thrill of a challenge many of which you've experienced and many more upcoming in our next major content patch.

Other than that, it's always good to know what you like and don't like.