World of Warcraft Degens Unite

[unsane]

Surprised i could find no WoW thread even after extensive searching.

Anyways, yup i've re-subbed, as i'd been itching to WoW lately and some guildies have coincidentally restarted. Sargeras alliance, gonna try a druid for a bit, never played a healer. If i hate it, Plan B is to level my old 60 warrior to 70 and fool with him. Other than that all i really have is a 70 rogue on horde Shadowmoon that's on hiatus. I'm a stealther at heart i think.

I'm subbed on average about 3 months a year, but still have 3400 hrs played... I can only boggle at how many hours i'd have if i played full time.

Bring on the haters!

[Twiddle]

good luck playing a shitty everquest clone, which is kind of redundant because everquest is synonymous with shitty

[sven666]

but still have 3400 hrs played...

just think.. you could have been the worlds greatest dodonpachi player.. but instead.. nothing.

[jp]

3400 hours!?


Dude... help... seek it.

[unsane]

3400 hours!?


Dude... help... seek it.

LOL give me a break, that's not even very much. There's 8800 hours in just one year of your life you know.

[incognoscente]

There are also 1,440 minutes in each day. It seems you've managed to play World of Warcraft an average of 172 minutes per day since its release. That's about 1,504,165 minutes not playing it (321 days worth of not playing it annually) if you want to brag.

[P_HAT]

but still have 3400 hrs played...

just think.. you could have been the worlds greatest dodonpachi player.. but instead.. nothing.

Or even DDP DoJ

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

3400 hours!?


Dude... help... seek it.

LOL give me a break, that's not even very much. There's 8800 hours in just one year of your life you know.

Minus the average 3000 or so hours sleeping (if you get 8 a day), and you only have 2400 hours for everything else. If you work full time, that probably means that you get on wow the minute you get home and probably even at work.

Edit: was that in a year?

[unsane]

It seems you've managed to play World of Warcraft an average of 172 minutes per day since its release. That's about 1,504,165 minutes not playing it

Heh that sounds like more than i realized. So per day:
3 hrs WoW
8 hrs sleep
6 hrs work

That's 17, which still leaves 7 hours a day that i waste on things that aren't metered. That's much more worrying to me than 3 hours of WoW...

It's almost like since WoW has a /played command, it gives the impression that it's this terrible timesink. But what are the much larger timesinks that are leeching those other 7 hrs a day of our lives? I wish TVs had meters, i think we'd get a better perspective if we realized we've spent 20,000 hours watching tv/movies.

Edit: was that in a year?

No, since its release 3.3 years ago. As i noted in the OP, i'm subbed on average 3 months a year. So the math works out to playing it 80 hrs a week when i do play, and 0 the other 9 months a year.

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

It's almost like since WoW has a /played command, it gives the impression that it's this terrible timesink. But what are the much larger timesinks that are leeching those other 7 hrs a day of our lives? I wish TVs had meters, i think we'd get a better perspective if we realized we've spent 20,000 hours watching tv/movies.

WoW is a game I wish never existed. I have one of my best friends addicted to it and it has totally ruined his personal life. He

- Gets into frequent fights with his family because they tell him to get off that shit.

- Quit college.

- Can't keep a job.

- Is seen drinking a lot more than before.

- Hasn't visited my place in about ohhh two years.

- Can't stop calling me and wasting my time talking about WoW. Seriously, I don't have two hours a week to hear people talking about that shit.

He tries to convince me to play WoW all the time. I say no every fucking time, even though he says that, "you gotta play it to know what it's about." A lot of bullshit. I already now. I rather sniff crack all day.

[Ed Oscuro]

but still have 3400 hrs played...

just think.. you could have been the worlds greatest dodonpachi player.. but instead.. nothing.

There's no market for DDP medals, though

[Battlesmurf]

He tries to convince me to play WoW all the time. I say no every fucking time, even though he says that, "you gotta play it to know what it's about." A lot of bullshit. I already now. I rather sniff crack all day.
_________________

Lol..we we JUST talking about this the other day (me and my nearby friends). That is a perfect expample of why I choose not to play. I already spend waaay too much time on the internet (even more lately as I've not been feeling really well) - I can only imagine with a game like that. DEFINETELY not a healthy thing.


That being said- think of how much money the guys that made that are now

[jp]

It's almost like since WoW has a /played command, it gives the impression that it's this terrible timesink. But what are the much larger timesinks that are leeching those other 7 hrs a day of our lives? I wish TVs had meters, i think we'd get a better perspective if we realized we've spent 20,000 hours watching tv/movies.

WoW is a game I wish never existed. I have one of my best friends addicted to it and it has totally ruined his personal life. He

- Gets into frequent fights with his family because they tell him to get off that shit.

- Quit college.

- Can't keep a job.

- Is seen drinking a lot more than before.

- Hasn't visited my place in about ohhh two years.

- Can't stop calling me and wasting my time talking about WoW. Seriously, I don't have two hours a week to hear people talking about that shit.

He tries to convince me to play WoW all the time. I say no every fucking time, even though he says that, "you gotta play it to know what it's about." A lot of bullshit. I already now. I rather sniff crack all day.

MMOs in general have caused a lot of my friends to drift away as well. They'd rather get a group together of people they don't know and go kill some dragon than go to a movie or some shit. Its rather sad really.

The problem is these things aren't videogames. They're alternate lives, that people pointlessly pay these companies to live.

Yes, I'm sure it costs Blizzard $15 x 10,000,000 a MONTH to run this game. Sure, right, whatever.

MMOs are a plague on the gaming industry, and I really think we would've all been better off had they never been made.

[Shion]

MMOs in general have caused a lot of my friends to drift away as well. They'd rather get a group together of people they don't know and go kill some dragon than go to a movie or some shit. Its rather sad really.

The problem is these things aren't videogames. They're alternate lives, that people pointlessly pay these companies to live.

Yes, I'm sure it costs Blizzard $15 x 10,000,000 a MONTH to run this game. Sure, right, whatever.

MMOs are a plague on the gaming industry, and I really think we would've all been better off had they never been made.

Blame the player, not the game.

I'm also an active WoW player myself, even though I don't think the game is that great anymore. A lot of the recent changes have made the game go downhill, and the only thing that keeps me playing is the fact that my friends play it. This isn't a bad thing, as me and my friends are smart enough to realize that a game shouldn't take over your life.

When people start prioritizing WoW over having fun with friends in RL, then I think you can call it an addiction. But just because some of your friends became addicted doesn't make the MMO game genre a plague.

I mean, a lot of stuff is addicting. People can get addicted to alcohol, yet it is rarely called a plague, since everyone likes to have a drink now and then.

Of course MMO's are a lot more addicting than any other game type. In other games, you play, you loose or win, and you quit. When you start over again, your results of the previous play have been lost. In MMO's, you're constantly improving your character, which makes you want to play more. And there's the social aspect of course. This isn't a flaw in the genre, it's what DEFINES it.

And about the gaming industry... I think MMO's are one of the biggest things actually keeping the gaming industry ALIVE. I mean, who buys games nowadays when you can pirate them just as easily? Well, I know most people on this forum like to buy games, but in general, a large percentage just downloads new releases. This isn't possible with MMO's, since you need a subscription. This money isn't just for the devs, the servers WoW runs on are incredibly expensive to maintain. Besides that, they have an enormous team of support, game masters, and developers.

~Shíon, pro shadowpriest
(If anyone plays on EU-Karazhan Horde, say hi!)

[No_not_like_Quake]

I mean, who buys games nowadays when you can pirate them just as easily?

Ah fuck. Don't open up that can of worms.

[Twiddle]

Actually the profit margins for world of warcraft are estimated to be 80% and that's just from subscription fees.

MMORPGs have far, far less upkeep costs than you think they do in scale (the biggest profit reducer is really customer service), whereas games like Team Fortress 2 still have a team working full time to balance the game and that's only a "pay once" deal.

You're also not taking to account the lost productivity from those who play it obsessively. It is a definite negative impact on our economy, even if it is small, but somewhere in the realm of 30k workers who gave up their jobs for MMORPGs can put in a dent.

Piracy is also not as big of a problem as people say it is. People have finite amounts of money and time at any given time, and the fact that consoles have become increasingly more attractive than PCs for gaming over the last eight years has shown that. Sure, there are many people who will never ever pay for PC games, but there are cases where people have pirated a game and liked it enough to buy it, if only to avoid the hassle of finding a new crack after the new patch comes out. The console market is bigger than the PC game market, and it's going to stay that way until either PC hardware is competitively priced or standardized.

Or maybe it will be popular again in the unlikely event that the big-name PC game developers feel that they don't need to adopt a new graphics gimmick every six months and thus finally let the consumers catch up, which will never happen.

[bee-mangadrive]

This is ironic. I just joined this site today. The truth is I was a long-time WoW addict in between music. Life just allowed me to play it and still effectivly work so I did... for three years straight I did. I ran a guild, raids, etc. We tore up about everything. I did the high rank PVP before and after the honor system and then they did pretty much ruined it all by making everything too easy. You'd work for months on somethin then all of a sudden, oh you don't need the key anymore. Or 'oh you can get these by standing in town now'.. just enough to drive you mad. The PVP will NEVER be balanced and everything is the build flavor of the month, so I did what any self respecting WoW-player would do. I made almost 1000 dollars off my account and built a new computer for my studio and upgraded my game machine at the same time.

My guild wishes death upon me now and IRL, but life is SOOOOOOOOOOO much better. I just finished up the best production sessions I've had in months. I would have never gotten back into Shmups or any other games for that matter. I finished up Final Fantasy 12 the other day and started looking for new stuff and stumbled across this game called Soldner-X... which kinda sorta was like Einhander (which I LOVE), but more like everything was ripped off from In The Hunt's graphics base and the combo system was beyond broken... so BAM.. here I am.. finding games worth playing again.

Long live classic gaming and now I've found a few shooters that will take a while to master. You belive I've never played Ikaruga, Donpachi and Raiden Jet (etc. i just got well heavily stocked up thanks to people's recommendations and lists!) until yesterday?! I used to LIVE shmups. I still own Thunderforce V, Einhander.Raystorm and a lot of the PSX titles I bought when they were still in stores... thats what WoW does to you. It makes you OBLIVIOUS to life... never again.


Yes, WoW needs diaf with my BBF JILL

[PROMETHEUS]

but still have 3400 hrs played...

just think.. you could have been the worlds greatest dodonpachi player.. but instead.. nothing. :?

What he said. MMORPGs in general are almost 100% waste of time, because you're always doing the same simple actions without any serious skills involved in them : they teach you nothing. You could have done a lot of things in 3400 hours, from becoming really great at STGs to learning how to speak fluently in 3 languages or helping stop world hunger... Too bad ^^;

Then again you can choose that you don't care about learning things and improving or helping others in your life, and then you can consider playing WoW is fine for yourself I guess.

[unsane]

Then again you can choose that you don't care about learning things and improving or helping others in your life, and then you can consider playing WoW is fine for yourself I guess.

Basically. I'm amused by all the "you could have something to show for all that time". 3400 hours of shmups or WoW or creating music is all the same thing to me. Different ppl have different principles. I don't care about "developing skills". I just care about enjoying my life before it's over.

[DirtyMonk]

Different ppl have different principles. I don't care about "developing skills". I just care about enjoying my life before it's over.

This post really made my day. I just wanted to let you know.

[Aquas]

Heh, yeah, it's obvious MMOs are addicting. Few of my friends stopped playing recently and now are playing it again. Thing is, when they weren't playing it, they were telling me "Yeah, I'm done with it. Just a waste." or whatever, and then when I ask them why they went back to it, there's no real reason than simply it's what they enjoy. Personally, I can't handle that kind of stagnancy in a game. The social aspect is cool 'n' all, but I'd rather meet people IRL and play games with them or whatever, and if it's gaming we're talkin about'... I'd rather play different games and experience more of the gaming world.

For the record, I've played FlyFF, D2, and WoW as far as my MMO career goes. Didn't play any of them really excessively, and only made it to level 52 in WoW when the grinding was just ridiculously excessive at that point.

[BryanM]

Blizzard announced plans of releasing a classic server last year. I was rather shocked - never in a million years did I think they'd ever do this. Sit awhile, and I'll tell you why.

The fear isn't that it would be a failure or that no one would want to play on them. The fear is that it would be a success. Too much of a success.

Look at it from their perspective.

You're working at Blizzard. A company that can't release a commercial failure, thanks to the early brand recognition they manged to create. Making a six figure salary, or close to it. You're king shit of fuck mountain.

Classic server launches. It has roughly the same population, or even more, of the latest version of the game.

This is a very cold, objective measure that suggests, maybe, all the tens of thousands of man hours you and your friends have spent working on the game over the last decade haven't been making the game better. It's been making the game worse. And that your job is bullshit. That your entire life is a sham.

I don't believe this scenario is likely, because so many of this potential audience already play on Private servers and probably aren't interested in losing their progress and current social connections. But it's still a possibility that I hope comes to pass.

Because that... would be one entertaining as hell shit show.

[Blinge]

Blame the player, not the game.

Well ain't that reductive.
I disagree :<
Don't hate the player, hate the game mayyn

[MJR]

I will add my opinion as someone who started WoW as late as 2010 and quit just recently.
Legion is best form of WoW that it has ever been. I have zero interest playing the vanilla version, after everything I have read about it. I am sure it will be gobbled up by those who started playing it at launch, as you just can't beat the memories.
WoW is crack. It is distributed, sold and maintained like drug business. Getting in is extremely cheap, I think basic set is free already. When you start playing it, you get progress and new content and features so quickly in so huge amounts that you are overwhelmed. This is the stage where the addiction is created.
Once you get to the max level, in legion, there is so much to do with leveling your artefact, myriads dungeons and mythic dungeons and raids, weekly events, world events, etc that you get overwhelmed just with one character. This is where the addiction is sustained.
Eventually you get to a stage where you have to grind more and more to get any enjoyment out of the game; ie spend more and more time to progress - thanks to weekly raid locks and gated content and RnG legendaries, so that you will be grinding those same daily world quests forever in the hope of that 0.02% chance of getting that legendary rune kilt. This is the phase where Blizzard is finally milking you. They have crafted amazingly inventive ways to keep you in the game FOREVER, so that you will keep paying subscription. Just one character would give you more then enough to do, but try to level and max out all 12 classes or how many are there?
In short, you will either play WOW and nothing else, because WoW eats all your time. I got 7 years worth of console games sitting on my pile of shame, because I played WoW for seven years.
It is easily the best game I have ever played. But for the love of god, STAY OUT OF IT! It's like a black hole that sucks you in forever and you will never get out, ever.

[BIL]

Sheeit, that does sound suspiciously like... THA CRACK GAME
Now I know why them AZN cats be killin each other 4 golds
I ain't touchin this shit!
And I ONCE GOT SENT TO JAIL FOR HAVIN' ROCKS UP IN MY JEANS

[MJR]

Sheeit, that does sound suspiciously like... THA CRACK GAME
Now I know why them AZN cats be killin each other 4 golds
I ain't touchin this shit!
And I ONCE GOT SENT TO JAIL FOR HAVIN' ROCKS UP IN MY JEANS

What's with the sarcasm? Disappointed for the lack of new info?

[BIL]

Haha, sorry - wasn't being sarcastic, just shitposting. I genuinely find the nefarious Skinner Box / VIRTUAL CRACK aspect of MMOs fascinating. And undeniably morbidly amusing.

They're not my thing to begin with tbh, nor are most games set in larger-scale worlds. I prefer a tight, brutal set course to gradually improve my performance at, ie arcade stuff. Even if I was tempted though, I'd be wary of getting into them for that reason! Yo I pay you once muhfucka, then you GTFO outta my house!

[MJR]

Fair enough

I agree that arcade shmups are more my thingy as well, though now I've been delving into sweet worlds of PC-Engine Cd-Rom

WoW was good but NEVER AGAIN

[BryanM]

I genuinely find the nefarious Skinner Box / VIRTUAL CRACK aspect of MMOs fascinating. And undeniably morbidly amusing.

There really isn't much of anything to them. They're just remakes of Dragon Warrior 1 with a chatroom attached if you find anyone you feel like talking to. Hell, World of Warcraft actually rewarded you gloriously for not playing.

The gacha genre is by far more insidious. The levers give out food pellets much less frequently. Progression is heavily or completely tied to the date on the calender, not by how much time or skill you put into the game. A unique, time-limited event is firing off every week. Don't wanna miss it, do ya. Stamina is constantly refilling, you don't wanna waste that stamina, do ya?

Light weights, to get knocked over by Dragon Quest 1 With Instant Messenger. Absolutely nobody has spent $6,065 on one of those games. But $6,065 in one night desperately trying to roll one character in the slot machines of gacha?

Now that's a fuckin' evil game.

(Which has since reformed its ways, for even that proved too evil. $825 is now their maximum price tag.)

Some people are just like the guy explaining his thoughts on this Garfield strip for an hour.

[BIL]

There really isn't much of anything to them. They're just remakes of Dragon Warrior 1 with a chatroom attached if you find anyone you feel like talking to.

Ye I know! That's why I like it. Clickin' on gophers to get the magic sword to take down the mischievous Baron PumpenSchafte von PowerToppe - FOR REAL THIS TIME (until next year's PumpenSchafte no Fukkatsu expansion). But suddenly... lives ruined, and AZN cats wielding swords at each other IRL!

My guild wishes death upon me now and IRL, but life is SOOOOOOOOOOO much better.

Relapse... or reprisal?

Gacha stuff's too extreme for me to laugh at. I'm not a sadist. D: