Zardon

That people seem to start playing it and vanish for months on end?

Is it REALLY that good? I don't have time to sit and play those kind of games but I remember a few friends just vanishing for long periods of time playing it.

Any WOW fanatics in here care to explain the attraction?

Judas

I played it..... several times..

but it just didn't have the grab..

i know several people that have spent countless hours playing it day in and day out.... and then seem to vanish as they don't move from thier chairs at all.


IT in itself is NOT that great of a game, But with the FAD that it is, and i call it a fad as in as soon as another game that provides similare if not BETTER overall capabilities (AOC not included) that becomes the North american accepted king, people will jump. People are already jumping but not in mass yet.

I was hooked on LineageII for quite some time that i slinked back from playing even other games completely. Not logging on DH at all as often. Becoming the true light fearing mmo'er.

I've learnt that it was a horrible way to live.

I breath far more real air now though.

__________________

Zardon

Well thats a good thing.

I would like to stress, this thread isnt me preaching down on people who play it. I just really want to know why people seem to vanish when playing it for literally months at a time. I mean I like a good game myself but i tend to limit playing to maybe a few hours at a time a few times a week.

I think WOW is a bit scary if you look at the big picture. I think some dude even died playing the bloody thing because he forgot to eat. Seems the game must be a total masterpiece really.

Judas

Theres been a few reports and news articles stating people have been taken to the ER or have been found dead playing.... it isn't the games fault.. just the people playing it ....

I don't look down or frown at anyone playing like that though. (well if you died, obviously you aren't in the gene pool anymore thank you )

But alot of the WoW factor involves ALOT of time, Time put in provides rewards, the more you put in the more rewards you get from it. Obviously you'd think when you hit the ultimate top of it all, you'd start playing a little less with less things to shoot for, but alot of people find other things they can do to shoot for more goals... they get inventive.

__________________

Vikingod

It is a great game, and very addictive. I even got swallowed up in it for a year. it was practically the only game I played, though I didn't let it affect my personal life like some do. The big thing with it I think, other than the decent story and good RPG dynamics, is that its something where you can see progress from hard work imediately. It's very vast, but not overly so, and there is a good scence of grandure in the world. There is a gambling aspect to it as well that keeps people coming back (will I get that rare piece of armor this time?), which I think appeals to people of that mentality.

After a while though, it just got boring and I couldn't see spending 15 bucks a month for to just grind away. I play Guild Wars some nights when I feel like playing an RPG. Its a game that doesn't require the same dedication but offers a similar experience, IMO. Plus, I can put it down for three months and come back to it when I get the time, doesn't cost me anything either.

BlueMak

I installed and played the 10-day trial version of WoW. Very nice details in the world and a large world to explore. Combat is ok and plenty of people to talk to if that is your thing.
I stopped playing it after the 4th day if I remember correctly. Three main reasons.
A) I don't mind paying to buy a game, but to pay each month for as long as I play one game, forget it, no matter how cheap it is.

B) For roleplaying games I prefer single player games.

C) Even by the third day I could feel the game mechanics a bit too much. "Perpetualy" try to reach the next level,weapon, room with no real ending just so you can keep playing, and spend money on it. It just ruined it for me.
Same reason why I stopped playing Eve-Online that I consider the best of these types of games.
It just feels like no matter what character or game world I am playing in (in a MMORPG), my real name is Sisyphus.

From what I understand, some people actualy like this, so, to each his/her own.

EDIT: I guess it is similar to old school shoot 'em up games where even if you finish the game you keep playing to get a higher score etc.

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Mourgolikos

I played this game for the trial period. I have many friends with many 70 levels characters.
Personally i don't like the greeding so i don't like the game either.
I believe that the community and the enormous map with the high population are the best part of this game!
The graphics are just ok.
The quests aren't so innovative.
It's a game that you can learn it fast (nothing special just kill monsters to get great armors weapon and the combat is so simple as 3,3,4,5 -if you get the meaning)
The last point is that it has almost a solid gameplay, because of almost all bugs got fixed.
A game that you have to try, if you want something simple with many people to interact with while playing or in forums.


*All the above are my opinion through my trial period and my dialogues with my friends*

IEMC

I never understood it either.

Of course, I was minorly addicted to NWN multiplayer for a few months. Maybe I do understand it :P

__________________

kris23

my cousins play WoW like dang....

2 of them have one character and they take turns using it to keep it in play, like if one guy has to go to work, the other takes over and if the other guy has to go to school... then the other takes over....

kinda deal...

__________________

Zardon

You see this is the thing i dont really understand, how can something swallow your life up for a year yet it doesn't affect your personal life. Do you mean whenever the missus wasnt about you would sneak up to the room and play it or did she not mind?

DJ BIG T

its a great game ,but i dont like thAT once you turn lvl70 everything has to do with raids and gear and pvp..and yes you can make more charters but i got bored of it after a year and a half of playing it...

__________________

Vikingod

No, not at all. My wife was working third shift, so I had a lot of time alone in the evenings. I would play a few hours a week before bed when the missus was asleep/at work. maybe a bit more on the weekends when I didn't have to go to bed early for work.

It was just that it was the only game I played, and it might have effected other things I would do around the house in the evenings (like read a book/play music/watch movies). It didn't keep me away from friends/my kids/my wife, and it didn't affect my work or my health. It probably actually helped my social life. My best friend was really into it (he had a problem), so it was possibly the only way I could get to chat with him, saddly.

ExitiosuS

I've been playing WoW for about 3.5 years now, on and off. The game's great! I love it a lot. The only reason I quit would be to free up more time for my education.

I'd play games in between raids, lol... like, Hellgate London, C&C, Frontlines, Call of Duty 4, etc... but those games are more like, once you beat them you're done and they get uninstalled. But WoW kind of keeps a singleplayer ability, so to speak, as you can run around and never really interact with anyone but still profit from them being around (Like the Auction House, for example).

Raiding is one of the best aspects to the game, however, because it gets a person out of the whole, "I'm so amazing, I can do this!" because one person simply can't carry 24 other people. Everyone needs to come together, work together, to achieve a single goal; this is my favourite aspect. It forces you to think as part of a team, advancing the team -- when loot isn't yours, it's the fact that it betters someone in your team so that the next time it's downed, it'll be easier and potentially be able to advance to a more exciting point in the game.

No other multiplayer game really touches on that aspect quite as well, in my experience.

Also, the economy's fun to play, too. lol.

EDIT: I'd just like to add, also, that those who played WoW for less than 10 days (trial) really have no idea what WoW is about. WoW simply wasn't designed for the level 1-20 experience. lol, you don't get to touch on 95% of the game -- for example: pvp, raiding, instancing, AH manipulation, and profession profit. (There are more, but... eh, that's about all I spend my time doing anymore. XD)

Zardon

Nice to hear from a self proclaimed addict ! Interesting you say that, as I have a friend i haven't seen in 3 months who says the same thing. He almost deinstalled it after the first 2 days but stuck with it, then he vanished. He says he kind of wishes he had deinstalled it. He broke up with his girlfriend who he loves and hasnt hardly seen anyone.

As for the level limits - dont they normally extend those by 10 with every pack release? I never understood why they limit it ? Wouldn't it be even more addictive if they made a silly limit cap of like 500? surely it would keep more people playing it longer ?

I guess some people maybe find it more addictive than others....... don't around 10 million people play this? I hear its generating income of around 100 million each month. Thats a lot of dosh.

Neshi

Well, there is playing the game and playing the game, of course. I mean, if he knows he is susceptible for addictive games, wow is not the game to play. Or just be rough on himself and set a time-limit. I mean, he is ruining his social life for a virtual life and that's really not a good thing.

As for me, I've played wow for some time, and liked it. Got all the way to 70 with my warlock and even began raiding. But at the moment I'm at such a stage in the game, I have to go with hard-core raiding otherwise I won't advance.. All the 'casual' raiding guilds (the ones I like) aren't yet on the same level gearwise as me... So the game has no point for me anymore..
I hate grinding or farming, it's just so pointless... I like the interaction when raiding, the achievement of goals with a group and talking to eachother etc. That's the big appeal of the game to me..

__________________
If one does not attach himself to people and desire, never shall his heart be broken. But then, does he ever truly live?

Life is just too damn short for if's and maybe's

khelben1979

I myself has a second computer which is configured to notify me by voice when I need to eat. Works perfectly!

I have been playing WoW since february 2007. I think it's a pretty cheap interest when comparing to many other things one can do.

If people thinks playing computer games is something dangerous, they might have a point, however, there are so many other things one can do which is far more dangerous.

Callandor

I guess World of Warcraft just brought obsessive gaming to the masses (or converted normal people and some gamers into obsessive gamers thereof), a couple years I heard of a guy who died after gaming for 72hrs+ straight and needed to go to the toilet, he was later found dead in the rest room having just collapsed and died.

This guy has an interesting take on gaming and death concerning a dude who died in 07 after gaming for 3 days straight

Gizmodo UK : Chinese Gamer Dies While Gaming

__________________

SFOSOK

Sounds like a lot of people in here are in denial. Actually all of them that play it or played it for good amounts of time.


I think that's your answer Zardon, Denial. Allows you to play without taking responsibility for the effects that it has on your personal life.

Which this game has, small or big it takes a big steaming dump on your life.



everyone in this thread is in denial.


I will never play an MMO. Ever.

__________________
*Warning* - Explicit Content Preceeding



METAL!!

Neshi

I don't think you can judge over people in that fashion. I believe there are lots of people of the 10 million that play the game who can play it as a game, instead of a lifestyle. I mean, what's different between playing wow for X hour(s) a day or some random other game..
But if you already go that road anyway, you could say that playing whatever videogame takes a dump on your life..

I think it's possible to play wow and not lose your social skills, friends, family, etc.. It's just too bad some people can't seem to limit their playing time on their own.

__________________
If one does not attach himself to people and desire, never shall his heart be broken. But then, does he ever truly live?

Life is just too damn short for if's and maybe's

Cow_160483

Well i have never played the game myself but to me it seams to be one of those games that if you are not careful you will end up dead!!

Any way I dont mean to judge people, but i myself didnt know how much i gamed until i actually counted the number of hours i actually played and got the shock of my life , check out the thread i made and you will see what i mean. So guess what i decided to cut back and live more.

__________________

Decode!
Muhahahahah!

YAYitsAndrew

Just like any other successful virtual world, what makes people an addict is fame. The game mechanics has nothing to do with why people play the game so much. They play it because they're well known, well liked, and powerful; three things they probably don't have in real life.

In other words, playing WoW is escaping from the real world into another where everyone likes you, you have an easy time making friends, and girls will talk to you. If you think of all your friends addicted to the game, you will see how it is so hard for them to step away from this scene.

__________________
"It is because the resistance to paying for copyrighted material, although often characterized as arising from a supposed technical burden or principled concern for the public interest, arises rather from exactly the same segment of the brain that is dominant in shoplifters."
- Mark Helprin, Digital Barbarism
In other words, it's never okay to steal even if you think you have a good reason!

www.yayitsandrew.com

starboy

luckily its not that bad in my country. I did try out the trial version for WOW. I have to say this is simply long game for a beginner, not because of the leveling. its about the place is simply too big going through it. I dont know what you guys (WOW players) think. I think it just insane and I spent a hour looking for ONE shop. I remember it was my first time playing and its terrible experience lost count how many hours I am actually staying in WOW and really couldn't stop playing until my trial finished.

__________________
One Shall Stand! One Shall Fall!

Vikingod

SFOSOK, it's great that you can see you would become addicted to an MMO and therefore choose not to play them, I think that's a healthy choice. But don't project that same lack of control onto the millions of people that do play them.

In the end, it's just a game, no different than any other regardless of genre. Should a few rare cases exist of people who are addicted to it, i wouldn't say thats indicative of the entire population. My observation is that the vast majority of people who play WoW, or any other video game for that matter, do it within a healthy context, but they're not the ones who make news. Nothing wrong with taking a bit of time to relax and unwind, and I would imagine there are some health benefits to doing so.

The same argument could be made for activities like watching television, social drinking, working out, playing sports, using internet social groups, and just about everything people do for themselves in their free time. Sure, we all know people who take things too far to the detriment of their health and personal relationships, but that doesn't make the activity inherently evil or destructive.

Zelig

Pretty much, the original development, and continuing development efforts are focused on maximizing the number of new sign-ups, and minimizing the number of people who quit. (For $100 million+ per month, it would be stupid to do anything else)

Part of this involves making the game take large amounts of time to play. If people are only spending small amounts of time for a service they're paying for, they're going to start feeling it's not worth the price.

Blizzard is quite interesting as a software engineering study, they have smaller development teams (relatively, compared to EA, Ubisoft, etc.), and long development schedules,
Although they don't pioneer many new features in games, they perfect them for the masses.
Also, because of Blizzard's hugely succesful games (last non-hit was Justice League Task Force in 1995), they're lots of developmental freedom by Vivendi. (Again, who's going to complain with the income WoW generates?)

__________________
--

Neshi

You just said here what I meant to say.. but you did it a hell of a lot better then I did

__________________
If one does not attach himself to people and desire, never shall his heart be broken. But then, does he ever truly live?

Life is just too damn short for if's and maybe's

SFOSOK

Hmm, still smells like denial.



Go play some WoW, you'll be a lot happier.

__________________
*Warning* - Explicit Content Preceeding



METAL!!

BiGBrOwNPimpsta

I played it last year, its insanely addictive IF you let it take control of you. Like any RPG game, you get the feelings of "oh man, just 1 more lvl in 15 mins" or "omg, just 15 mins for this item!". 15 minutes turns into 4 hours. 4 hours turns into 24 hours. 24 hours turns into a week. Within this week, you meet people in parties and add them as friends possibly. Then they work with you to turn weeks into 1 month. 1 month turns into many months of grinding, questing to finally reach 70. 70 leads to raiding. [COLOR="DarkOrange"]Raiding leads to no life.[/COLOR] The cycle then restarts because you want to start a new character. In addition, patches sometimes add as much content as a service pack does to an OS. It might make or break your gaming experience.

see the addictive properties? I'm a warcraft fan (like most gamers), and found the game very interesting. I was sick at home all year last year, it kept me busy but I never let it control my life in any aspect (my health did that instead ahha). I have a level 70 warrior on the Ravencrest realm. I'm too busy right now to play it, and rather be active. In addition, the game is VERY WELL MAINTAINED. Patches add so much content, lots of support like Game Masters all day. I found myself wanting to reach the end game bosses like Illidan, but I never can or will. Its very difficult, requires a disciplined team to do so. In addition, I don't have the god damn time or life to make myself disciplined to a game. I have girls to meet, drinks to drink, books to study, health to take care of, family members to take care of, money to make! But I know lots of couples that play together (completely normal, even families! its a very social game.

and hell, its the Warcrcaft Universe!

level 70 is really just a number once you reach it... its your equipment that makes the difference. the developers did lots of research into what they thought would be suitable for players based on time and effort. give someone level 500, then a lvl 500 boss would be easy. fights are more like 5 - 25 lvl 70 players vs 1 level 300 boss. they have to end the level system somewhere like most all rpgs, or else everyone would be juiced up like on steiroids. Its the equivalent of lvl 99 in final fantasy or diablo. But to get to the harder parts of the game, you have to be level 70 to use the equipment that would allow you to withstand the dungeons (aka instances), which takes lots of time to find, buy or craft.

__________________
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music | Logitech Z-5500 THX 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers | 2 Lite-On 20x S-ATA Burners | Logitech G700 Mouse | Logitech MX5500 Bluetooth Keyboard

Neshi

Sounds like you just don't want to understand...

__________________
If one does not attach himself to people and desire, never shall his heart be broken. But then, does he ever truly live?

Life is just too damn short for if's and maybe's

SFOSOK

now your getting the idea

__________________
*Warning* - Explicit Content Preceeding



METAL!!

nuG

From what I think, The game wouldn't be as profitable. As of right now, leveling is a fairly casual process. You can get to the cap of level 70 in a month if you really wanted to. There is no way the game could keep up the fairly easy pace. If they had an unlimited level cap, sooner or later it would turn into a complete grindfest. This concept is not casual friendly to say the least, and most people that only play an hour or two a day would eventually get frustrated and quit. Not only that, but developing the shear amount extra content for the levels would come at huge cost, and in the end, most likely the profit margins would be lower. It all comes down to the casual player, since this makes up a large portion of the player base. The game has become excedingly more casual friendly since when it was released, and they have demonstrated time and time again that the game being as accessible as possible is their main goal nowdays.

__________________