So, I bought WoW about a month ago (I know this because my free trial just expired), and I must say I have mostly mixed feelings on the subject of this game, and on MMOs in general; WoW has just reemphasized what I already knew about myself, my game habits, and the way MMOs tend to work. Interestingly, my opinion of the game cycles between love and hatred, which is doubly frustrating, since I can never decide whether I’m wasting my money on the game, or whether I want to get everyone else in on it. Let me explain my general problems with the game and why I alternately move between adoration and utter loathing of its designers.

Half the time, WoW can be pretty relaxing. It’s *extremely* repetitive. There are only about 3 types of quests in the game. Find something, report to someone, or kill lots of something. There are combinations of these, sometimes you have to find something and give it to someone, or kill things so you can find things then report to someone. Occasionally, you also have to make something, but that generally requires you either find something or buy something, then using a skill to make said things which you then deliver to another person. So in reality, it’s just another level of complexity on top of the “find something / report to someone” quest series.

I’m told this quest system is pretty standard among MMOs.

WoW makes things more interesting (thankfully) by giving a lot of the quests “evolving” plots. Quests can actually be part of a series and situations change, apparently through your actions (though not actually obviously). So that can increase the excitement of the quests, if you actually bother to read what people are saying to you.

There’s also a lot of ways to expand your character, and WoW does a great job of spacing out your abilities so you can advance and get new skills every 2 levels, and get really cool new abilities (new forms, new pets, etc) every about 10 levels or so. Get bored with that and you can switch classes or servers and meet new people. So it’s got a lot going for it.

So why do I occasionally just throw up my arms in complete frustration with the game and immediately quit (like tonight, which prompted this post)? Here are the things I generally don’t like in games, my biases if you will.

First, I tend to dislike mindless repetitive tasks, especially when I don’t feel things aren’t going anywhere, or (worse) they last for a LONG amount of time (say… a month). Combined with that, I hate having to keep track of a large amount of abilities, and combined with that, I always feel lost whenever I’m forced to do huge amounts of skill micromanagement and power leveling. Otherwise great games, like Final Fantasy Tactics and other tactical RPGs (X-Com being the exception), have totally made me loose interest simply because they require a great deal of class switching, micromanagement and otherwise leveling up. There are so many options in most of these games, and in some of them you’re just kind of supposed to “know” the best way to go (or consult a guide online). I don’t like this. I’d rather figure it out myself. The problem is, if you make a mistake in some of these games, you loose and have to start over. Better luck next time kid. I think this is the problem I’m currently having with my Druid in WoW. I’m almost positive I’ve got him “configured” incorrectly, which is making even the most simplistic quests relatively hard. I (for some reason) just can not do the damage I need to do, I’m agroing (basically getting things to attack me) way to much, and not stopping runners nearly fast enough. The end result is that I end up being attacked by a lot of guys simultaneously, for long periods of time, and I end up dieing, which is generally very frustrating.

Generally, I’d much rather have a simple set of skills and options that are combined in interesting ways: I think Beyond Good and Evil did this far better than many current games. There were many many times in that game where I was absolutely amazed at how the designers had taken a problem that emerged over and over again, but edited it slightly each time, forcing you to think of an interesting and clever answer to what used to be a very simple problem, but had suddenly become very complex. I not only marveled at their cleverness, but mine for being able to find the answer (even though my mind actually had very little to do with the situation).

Second, I consider a lot of my gaming a fairly private thing. There are games I like to play with other people, but generally I’d rather play face to face in that case, and against people I know pretty well. Friendly competition more than anything else. I’d rather play a few rounds of amplitude with Darius or Sweeny than play random people online. I’d rather immerse myself into Half-Life 2 for a few hours than play a few minutes of UT2k3, CTF, or Counter Strike. I know this puts me in the gaming minority, but hey, I never said I was a normal game player.

Last, I like plot in a game, and I like to think I’m actually affecting the plot somehow, even if I’m not. There’s a reason I spent a year and a half researching the subject (actually more, but I only got a year and a half of credit for it). WoW really breaks the whole “affecting the plot” thing when you either have to wait for a respawn of a “boss” or when you only have to kill 15 of a monster to save the area from their domination, and yet when you return later, there’s still the same amount, and they’re still in the exact same places they were 15 levels ago.

These three things generally don’t work in WoW. Granted, playing with people is pretty fun, and I’m sure would enhance my enjoyment of the game if some people actually played their characters on my server / side. Unfortunately, it doesn’t actually solve the three major problems I have with the game itself.

I guess I’m just not an MMO guy, and I don’t think I ever will be. That said, I’m considering logging back on to try again w/ my druid, and since I’ve paid for another 6 months, I’m going to try to get my money’s worth.

I know I promised an MDA article and a response to some GTxA stuff, but I’m beginning to think I should just stop promising. I’m hoping my displeasure with WoW will last through the weekend so I can get a little programming done and actually write those articles.