I've seen little in WoW that has surprised me. There are a few things here and there, but it really is a game copied from another game that, that game copied from yet another and then they polished it. And..as The Mythbusters proved you can polish a turd; so taking this old-outdated-prehistoric-you-get-the-point concept of go fetch times 5 per level and go gather times 5 per level plus the times 5 per level go kill stuff -- this is WoW's main feature o'fun and is the core to leveling.

The items are okay, some quests are awesome: there's a Plants vs. Zombies type quest that is well done and VERY refreshing, some of the NEW new newbie areas (goblins and furry humans) have great opening quests and have "phases" which are essentially instances "on the run" -- you don't notice it load and others don't know your in it unless they're grouped -- essentially a personal instance, there are a few "red pill" vs. "blue pill" such as making you realize you need to jump off a cliff to complete it, some of the class specific are great due to their obvious care and attention to detail in teaching you how to play your class effectively (the rogue has some of these that are a joy to play), etcetera -- oh wait, there isn't really much beyond that except instances, raids, and "PvP".

Instances can be great with your buddies and when the group size is a nice manageable size, but the fact they don't have randomized group size and level based dungeons is ridiculous, with this much time having passed. The fact that some of the boss fights start of at super hard and never bother to ramp up is stupid (as wiping should minimized to affect only idiots; trust me it doesn't matter if everyone has l33t gear, everyone should have the chance to have a character they feel is special and a force to be reckoned with). Where the hell are unique, non-soulbinding items; i.e., there are these "named" (I know they've made a few, laughable, *requires a raid* to get the guild leader the super item, which means you've got a better chance to win the lottery if you're an average player ) items that could be made into the thousands available (non-soulbinding so that they can be sold on the auction house -- which would fight gold-farmers and allow ANY player to get: THE GOODS) that drop once per server and have a 100% chance of being found for everyone...?

I could go on, but I think my point is made. There is little thought going into game creation and mechanics. Everyone stole from the MUDS, Ultima Online, and what little originality Everquest had; and no-one ever looked back. I know it will take some hard work to make a NEW TYPE of MMO that isn't guaranteed to be a slight upgrade in graphics, item crafting, or *pick your one "special" thing* the next MMO does...

So many of the current crop of MMO's have their own original and great ideas. If it would be sifted through and made into a "best of all worlds" (which is what WoW did, but they left in aggro which is a HUGE disservice to ALL players) we might get something unique and great; it would only need expansions as the core would not need much change ever (unless the engine becomes the "hindrance" to development).

Right now the aggro system n e e d s t o g o . It's archaic and mystifyingly still used though it was made for games that couldn't handle AI running (Ultima Online, Everquest,etc...) full-blast. But, with the power servers have available plus the bandwidth and the users' computer this should be a very easily solved or solvable issue. Second, comes two things that walk hand in hand: dungeons and loot. I addressed both above and what I propose should solve a lot; but imagine semi-random dungeons created that lead to great cities (very doable just from what I've seen in Warhammer and WoW's "phasing"), think: D&D's Forgotten Realms - Undermountain™, anything approaching something that massive would be equal to creating a dungeon the size of the world map, but every-time you enter you procedurally move forward to a new creation (so if you join a party your "dungeons" join to make a "seed" that is unique to those to characters. I'll stop there as it would into full-on programming techniques that aren't used either because of the complexity, non-skill, or doubt that they can make a "performance" acceptable version. Items have just as much ability to be enhanced (their own level-ups with skills, AI weapons, vehicular type, etc...).

Quests are the last concern. Fetch should only be around if you're character is going there anyway. Collection type quests should ONLY be used if you are keeping some of said items and are useful in some way. Hero quests do need to teach you to be a better "x = your class + type of class + modifiers", using instances or "phasing" (which I like more as I hate load screens). Quests need to have an main-arch that branches, but it needs to available to even the solo player; not the 60 man raid (which is a joke in the first place). Quests need to be rich in diversity: send, fetch, lead, fight, find, steal, games, test, challenge, dungeon, redemption, vengeance/wrath, ability, skill, un-lockable/lockable, class, species/race, race/time, item, creation, destruction, defend, follow, help, should I keep listing....?

I hope the programmers, I don't really care who hits the trump card first (although a low monthly cost team would be nice), figure this out. As it is getting boring even though there is "more" to do, how it's presented in WoW makes me less inclined to get involved, because it requires dedication and at that point, as he pointed out is almost as fun as shooting yourself.

As @MilkmanDan points out there is a lot of content that I don't use and at the lower levels I believe this to be fine as you'll make a mage, a shaman, a warrior, etc... Doing the same quest over and over is terrible. However, much of the high level content you CAN see, but you'll never get the riches (lottery again) and doing THE SAME EXACT DUNDEON 30 times to find that one head piece is ridiculous -- that is their idea of fun "high-end" content. F*%K YOU! This is all due to the notion (and I believe you see this in action at the auction houses, if you can compare the past to present) of inflation; the numbers go higher for the sake of going higher -- if it's higher it's better, right?!?. I'm better due to a number increase and I'll add to that number continually, mainly, because as is said above I'm now level 10 and no longer 5. I want the numbers to be in a "set" range so that you know, whenever you find or get something new, immediately how this new addition (or subtraction) will affect you. (Ultima Online got that partially correct and it made fighting on their a unique experience, STILL, although Warhammer Online uses a set number of action points instead of mana so it has a fun PvP experience, but ultimately fails due to the level problem. Oh and PvP is a joke as level and gear are the deciding issues in battle (which is funny as the winners get the better gear, thus making them win more and you can see where that goes...) and as long as you aren't stupid your talent specs (you really can't screw this up anymore as Blizzard decided that you can only go down one tree at a time rather than all three, until you've got talent point 32).

I'll stop there as I'm getting nauseated talking about this much (which is a lot). But, this is my view point on almost any RPG. Why is it so hard to make a fun system -- it seems obvious how to go after these issues. I think they're (the programmers and publishers) are lost in the woods with 100 foot tall pines and I'm on a outcrop that can see over the forest -- I see them occasionally, but even if I yelled (and I've made some of these points before) they'd still never gather a clue of what I mean. Or as it's usually said at this point:

"I'm afraid you can't see the forest for the trees."...

Damn, that was long, phew (hopefully a programmer reads it -- or I'll just cut & paste ) !

Get into a team sport. Dress up, get together on the weekend, spend some quality time together, build a social network. You even get some workout done in the process. Much healther, less bullshit.

Or join the mafia. Join the armed services. Join a gang bang. Get into fight club - but don't talk about it. Or start playing an MMORPG. Or Dungeons and Dragons. Become a regular at a whore house.

Plenty of opportunities out there, man. Pick your poison.

Ultimately the main thing I didn't like in Oblivion were the dungeons and ruins (pretty much everything could be changed with mods to my liking). Many people say that they were procedurally generated and that's why they suck (like in Daggerfall), but unfortunately they were lazily hand built with just a few pieces. Having played Minecraft I know that proper procedurally built dungeons would have been better. The dungeons are my main concern for the new game. I trust that Bethesda and the modding community combined can take care of the rest.

Still, until they release a game with realistic scale and including every territory mentioned in the series (gradual upgrades, naturally) it's all just a waste of time really. The Imperial Bridge should be 14 miles long at the bare minimum, and should take an appropriate amount of time to cross. That's why quick travel and horses exist.

Throw in some random videos from a basement dungeon and he could almost review movies.

Why am I not at all surprised Dungeon Keeper is one of his favorite games.

I for one am looking forward to Diablo III more than Cataclysm... sort of. I have more or less stopped playing much WoW until Cataclysm comes out as I am tired of questing and I don't enjoy dungeons (I don't like others counting on me, too afraid I'll be a failkin lol) or PVP. If I could solo the dungeons that would be different, or some AI help. In other words, I wish there was less of a social aspect to WoW... which is sort of against the whole point of an MMO.

>> ^Enzoblue:

Seems funny to me that no one mentions Everquest any more. Now it's like WoW is the only mmo that ever was. Everquest was the first online game to have an economy larger than some 3rd world nations. I played it for 3 yrs or so and I still miss it sometimes.


I'm right with you there! The economy was much more player driven in EQ, without limits/restrictions put in place such as Bind on Equip/Soulbound armor (the most epic of the epic stuff was indeed non-tradable). Once you were done with a piece of armor you could easily resell it to another player. It was really fun to haggle with people/search for deals and just upright barter.

The whole game in general was just more player driven, and less rigorously structured around soloing: especially the PvP servers, with the pro-PK vs the pacifistic non-PK guilds, waging war and providing either their protection to newbs from highway thieves or pillaging certain zones of all players and looting the spoils. Not to mention all the social intrigue of player alliances, betrayals, guild spies and secret plots to overthrow/assassinate and usurp leaders, bounty hunters, and tests of loyalty to your compatriots. Such a dynamic has never existed in any other MMO, to my knowledge. It was a hard, unforgiving place where loyalty was worth more than any piece of gear.

If you're interested in revisiting Classic EQ PVE progression for FREE (Kunark is being beta'd atm and then Velious) I'd check out Project 1999, the finest private server available for purely Classic EQ, no custom modifications just the real deal. I have a level 37 Darkelf necro and have been playing fairly regularly, the server population is pretty good and everyone is friendly, helpful towards newbs as well. You wouldn't believe how happy I was when I discovered P99 and ended up seeing a few people I remember from my dear old Quellious server. It really is everything one could ask for considering Live EQ1, at this state, is an abomination. Well, there it is. Try it out, I'll help you get started right! PM me if you decide to come back to Norrath, this also goes for anyone else on the Sift who would try it/return. It really surprised me how harsh they start you out in that game after years of WoW, one needs all the help they can get.

Great WoW trailer as well, and I love Blizzard, but I just can't get back into the game despite my attempts to literally will myself into playing. I really feel as if I'm just being touted around, top-down style, by Blizzard to do this dungeon or that. My choices feel like they have no real impact on the game world, my actions rarely end up having actual consequences, besides maybe a momentary invconvenience. It's just too damned safe to be exciting! Raids are easy mode, though from all the impressions of Cataclysm is seems like they're trying to return to form of having the content be much more stimulating, brain intensive. If raiding becomes more like pre-BC/BC then I will return. I will most definitely at the very least try Cataclysm and see what happens.

Shut your face and get back in the dungeon. *slaps*
>> ^Payback:

>> ^gwiz665:
It takes a certain kind of asshole to beat up someone he loves. /spits

Personally, I feel that even when the other person "likes it" eg. extreme s/m, it is still abuse.

>> ^arghness:
I can imagine that feeling in your stomach when you realise you've done something silly and lost hours of work.

That eventually happens anyway whne you realize you've spent countless person-hours building something virtual that has no value whatsoever.


I'M LOOKING AT YOU, DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS!

woah, thats nifty

up next, the Dungeon Family, covering Dr. Dog's - 'Strange Days' ...

Yes! Loved Dungeon Keeper.

@radx - Imp slapping sounds euphemistic.

>> ^radx:
I loved to bitch slap my imps all day, every day.


Who doesn't?

The title isn't "they're" for the context of the title, replace "Epic" with "Stuff" and the sentence structure should make sense to you.

And westy.. WoW definitely does not lag.. and it's really not a giant grind. I played it for years, you level stupidly fast through quests, and there's generally more then enough of them to get you a level, ESPECIALLY now that they've implimented cross-realm dungeons, so that you don't need to skip instance quests.

That being said, I don't actually play WoW anymore, but I do admire blizzard for their sense of humour.

I remember growing up and films JUST CAME OUT. And you went to see them and bought some tie-in products. These guys are spoiling things for themselves with that need to know all. Also the article does suggest that the geek opinion-makers are bought and paid for and co-opted into each film's marketing efforts. Which is totally unsurprising to me. You give something to someone and it creates an obligation - classic psychology.

I do applaud the geek but they need to reign in that enthusiasm and directors shouldn't kowtow to Comic Con just because they've got a superhero film coming out.

Actually the clip above is quite fun. It's pure pantomime and if you know the people involved I'm sure it's enormous fun.

>> ^raverman:

@<a rel="nofollow" href="http://videosift.com/member/Deano" title="member since April 30th, 2006" class="profilelink">Deano : have to disagree...
Entertainment / Celebrity Goss based on mainstream cinema is a global billion dollar industry. Morons of the world are desperate to find out the latest on Tom and Katie / Brad and Angelina. It's completely acceptable to fawn over actors who are overpaid 'buy the numbers' with pretty mediocre talent.
Being a geek or nerd used to be an insult and something to be mocked and bullied for. Now geeks run your IT, and your Internets, fix your computers, and make the App's and games for your iPhones.
We're allowed to get excited about entertainment tailored to our interests.
...now you'll have to excuse me, I have a D&D game to Dungeon Master....

@Deano : have to disagree...

Entertainment / Celebrity Goss based on mainstream cinema is a global billion dollar industry. Morons of the world are desperate to find out the latest on Tom and Katie / Brad and Angelina. It's completely acceptable to fawn over actors who are overpaid 'buy the numbers' with pretty mediocre talent.

Being a geek or nerd used to be an insult and something to be mocked and bullied for. Now geeks run your IT, and your Internets, fix your computers, and make the App's and games for your iPhones.

We're allowed to get excited about entertainment tailored to our interests.

...now you'll have to excuse me, I have a D&D game to Dungeon Master....