11 months. Thats around how long I've been beta testing this up-coming MMORPG. That little game called World Of Warcraft, thats about to hit shelfs November 22nd or so. Open beta "stress testing" is about to come up as well. I'd have to say, that its time for me to give my final little thoughts and reflections on this game. Keep in mind, its from a beta perspective thats been going on for 11 months...I've seen the game go through many different phases. Everything from the horrible Push 3 , the crazy push 2, to the buggy push 4....I've seen and have experienced many things. I even know some parts of this world like the back of my hand....

My first beta impressions of World Of Warcraft....I was simply astonished. I was amazed. The world looked very beautiful, even when it was first being developed. The worlds were vast, detailed, great looking terrain that you could get lost into. Half of the fun I experienced in this game was simply exploring the world. Just seeing what was waiting out there, who was out there, and what could be done out there was great. You'd get experience as you explored as well, and you could find things like minerals and chests. I liked how exploring the world was not only fun to do, but rewarding at the same time. It's definetely something thats worthwhile and fun to do.

Then, the gameplay was something I admired. My first class to be was the Rogue class. I've always been a fan of rogues, ever since my early DnD days. I -loved- the combat system when I first tried it. The whole energy and combo system was very fresh and fun. Finally, I wouldnt be playing a class that used a boring mana bar. I'd be playing a rogue who'd have to manage his energy and use different moves to pull of combos to ultimately kick ass. I remember spending hours simply trying out different combos as I learned more moves. Starting out with the simple Sin Strike, Sin Strike, Gouge, Evis, combo in my early days....Now I have my great Ambush, Hemmorage, Rupture, Hemmorage, Slice and Dice, Hemmoragex3, Evis combos for normal mobs, and some crazy combos for more interesting situations. The combat was fast, and stealth added an interesting element to the whole mix of things. I had alot of fun being a rogue, even during the horrible Push 3 where rogues were gimped at all levels.....

The quests were your typical MMORPG type of quests. Kill 10 bunnies and show me their foots as proof of your deed, go to the mystical badger and poke it with a stick so I can give you the magic armor, Escort this poor sucker to safety, and go kill this one guy in a dungeon and bring me back his head. Typical MMORPG things, some of them were quite boring and repetitive. At lvl 16 you'll be killing 10 lvl 16 wolves....and then at lvl 20 you'll be killing 10 lvl 20 SPIDERS! World Of Warcraft does a good job at offering some very interesting quests. Mainly class specific ones that required one to use their class's abilities to a deep extent.

I remember the 3 special alliance rogue quests. They were extremely fun, the most fun I think I had in this game. The first one starts off simple. You'll have to go steal a map from a goblin, who'll be in a dock with a gaurd patrolling around. You'll have to take out the patrol (which takes alot of planning and timing), and then pick pocket the goblin, being careful he doesnt see or notice you. Then the quests where you go learn to pick locks is even funner, having to quickly hide yourself from the orc gaurd. And finally, the giant posion-learning quest that has you infiltrating a giant tower Metal Gear Solid style. You'll have to knock out gaurds, steal keys, open locks, and use every bit of stealth you can. It took me awhile to get it just right, but when ya pull it all off it just feels so good.

With a game starting off this good, you will be drawn in. After all, one can only expect things to be even better, and better, right? This is ultimately where World Of Warcraft falls short. The level cap ended at 60. My rogue was 60 when the beta ended, and was for about a month. You see, the innovative quests seem to end at around level 20. After the rogue-posion (which ends at level 20 - only takes about a week to get to), the game will simply pump out the same mediocre quests it always gives out. Collection, killing, attacking, etc. At first, I didnt mind so much as the combat was fun and interesting to do. I thought I'd never get bored of it, at all.

I was wrong. Very, very wrong. Currently, after level 40, your character will not learn any new abilities. All abilities you learn will be upgrades of previous ones, and they will be damn expensive. Top it all off with the over-priced 100 gold mount, you'll quickly find yourself with money strains without end. But of course, there are the instances that World Of Warcraft boasts about. Dungeons that only one group can enter, designed for a team of 5 players. Instances are pretty nice, and a nifty idea. Especially when you first enter them.

I remember running along in the Van Cleef instance. Prowling through the deadmines through the expertly designed dungeon, ending with a final showdown with Van Cleef on his big pirate ship. It was very, very fun. I couldnt wait to do the other instances, too....I figured if the first one was this fun, the others would get even better. Van Cleef will take a good group a hour to do, which is good as its a fun instance with a healthy supply of drops for everyone to have any love. It also gives a huge quest reward that'll boost you a level. A very worthwhile, and rewarding experience all around.

At level 60, I can officialy say that I hate instances. Sure, they start out great....but then they become repetitive. And Mediocre, and pointless, and LONG. The final instances, BRD, BRS, and Scholomance each take 4-5 hours EACH (Scholo can be done in 2, if you use a warlock bug exploit....). At first, Van Cleef was something that may have taken 2 or 3 tries to complete (simply because it was a first instance, and many players were getting used to the grouping system at this time). It wasnt too painful to complete, and once you were done with the quest you didnt have to go back to it. Now, you'll speed up a few levels ahead...and you'll find yourself being forced to farm these instances over and over again.

What is the main problem? A ton of items in the game are inbalanced. Before, you could choose as many professions as you wanted, and craft things at your own pace. Now your limited to two. To be self-sufficient, you'll probably have to fill one of the professions with a gathering skill that relates to the producing skill. Example - Miner / Blacksmith. Skinner / Leatherworker. Herbalist / Alchemist. Miner / Engineer. Etc...these tradeskills all have their own little purposes. Alchemy, Engineering, and Enchanting offer enhancements to your character, while Leatherrworking, Blacksmithing, and Tailoring offer your character to create their own armor. At the first few levels, you can easily use crafted / quested items to supply yourself and go along fine through the game. As you progress though, you'll find yourself with gear that wont do the job at all.

At level 40, unless you are a warrior, all crafted items become stupidily worthless compared to random drops and instanced loot. The difference is huge, and you'll be foreced to do MULTIPLE instance runs just to get yourself decent gear in order to do well. You'll be very dependant on your gear, and you'll always have to have the best. You'll also find that all the good gear is on instance bosses, who will take around 4-5 hours to reach...and on top of that, they'll have a big chance not to drop the item you'll need.

You'll also find that all instances are for plate wearers at the moment. Currently, the combined amount of warrior / paladin gear totals into the double digits in the three high-end final instances. Where as cloth and leather seems to be far, far behind. This means that unless you are a plate wearer, you'll be forced to do multiple instance runs and often end up emptied handed. It took me 8 BRD runs just to get my ghost shroud, which was something I needed desperately. You'll also find Staffs / daggers in very short supply, and as a caster you'll find that the items are completely imbalanced.

Speaking from a caster perspective, the final items really do nothing but offer a bigger mana pool. Your spells will always act the same way, cast at the same rate, and have the same affects damage wise no matter how many uber +int +spi items you equip. Right now, all caster items seem to do is let you do more of them. Compare this to a warrior who can constantly upgrade his weapon to do larger damage (even to an extent where he outdamages the mage), to the caster who'll always be stuck at his spells limitation.

Talents were also a neat idea in World Of Warcraft, but you'll find them very restricting. Some talents are extremely important in order for your class to be useful. Restoration talents for druids, Holy talents for priests, Improved sap for rogues, Mortal Strike for warriors....you'll find that some talents are absolutely necessary for grouped combat. It will restrict you into choosing one path, and should you deviate from it....you'll be gimped. Right now in Beta, it wasnt too much of a problem as we could change our talents on the fly. Though in reatail Blizzard has stated you wont be able to do that....which will be a big problem to those who make a slip up in their talent configuration.

While I'm thinking about group combat....I'll say that it is extremely boring. Each class will be stuck with doing the same type of rinse and repeat style. Warrior tank. Priest heal. Mage nuke. Druid Buff. Rogue stab. Repeat until monster dead, and pull the next group over. Grouping is so extremely boring, that most people will end up making mistakes simply because the repetitive loop is scarring away at their minds. You'll find yourself spending hours in instances, stuck in the same damn boring loop, and unable to play any differently. Why? Should you deviate from the loop, your party will end up wiping, and 4 hours of your life will have been wasted. It gets irritating, fast.

As far as PvP goes....its mediocre and nothing but mindless ganking. Most of the combat PvP wise boils down to "I Win". Whoever gets the first attack, wins. No skill required, no thought required. Also, there is absolutely no reason to PvP....besides E-peen size. If your insecure about your E-peen, you can do some nice PvP ganking to make yourself feel better....however, any actual reason to PvP is non-existant. You PvP just for the "fun of it". Blizzard does plan to impliment the Honor system and battlegrounds, which DO look interesting...but they havent been implimented, and may not even make release!

There are also no hero classes availble, so once you hit the level cap and spend hours of gameplay for the UBER ITEMS, you'll find yourself with nothing to do. Nothing to do besides mediocre PvP and endless instanced runs....

Overall, World Of Warcraft started out great. Fresh, new, innovative. Then the effect just wears off as you progress, and you soon realize its nothing but a Everquest 1.5 edition. After playing the game for 11 years, I can say with its poor itemization, repetitive gameplay, rediciously long instances that are required to do, and mediocre PvP, simply make World of Warcraft a game that isnt worth buying. I am not going to buy this game, and instead plan to play FFXI....because I hear good things about it.

I'm disssapointed with World Of Warcraft, for falling short and being rushed. The developers have seemed to have concentrated on trying to get the game out for the thanksgiving christmas rush....hell, Paladins and Hunters dont even have their talents yet, and most other classes arent even complete! Blizzard is taking the same course as SOE, and releasing the game UNFINISHED, trying to fix things as they go along....

If you feel like being a beta tester, and having to pay a monthly fee for imbalanced, repetive, and incomplete gameplay...then go out and buy World Of Warcraft when it gets released. As for me, I'll probably wait 6 months so the game can actually get completed, and offer the real goods...in its current state World Of Warcraft seems like a waste of money, and it probably will be come release.

Yeah... after talking to you, I think I'll wait awhile if I ever do get this game. Though I also understand no MMORPG is perfect, they're all going to have stupid people and some things wrong, but it's wither you can deal with that and still have fun or not. That's how to tell if it's good or not.

Well, that just took the bounce out of my steep. /cry I guess I also wait until later. It works out better this way anyway. :/

I think that WoW is a game you have to actually get into. A game, or anything for that matter, isn't really that good if you don't expect anything from it. The best thing about warcraft has always been the history and culture, what no other game (as far as I know) has done as good as Blizzard has. I don't remember who it was, but I remember talking to someone who said they're switching from FFXI to WoW for some similar reasons.

No other game has a good culture? Hmmm... Diablo, City of Heroes, the upcoming Matrix game, Phantasy Star, Ragnarok, and one other.. something to do with crystals... what was it called? Oh yeah.. Final Fantasy. Not like they invented summoners, crafted what a white mage was all about, and made monks with H2H combat really awesome. Oh wait.. that is exactly what they did. And airships... can't have a FF game without airships and a guy named Cid.

There was also a tiny little game called Star Wars Galaxys... it may or may not have had something of a fan base before it launched based off of its immersive history. I could be wrong.

Back to main topic...

The way you describe it, I am almost glad that I didn't get to BETA that thing. The stuff you describe is fairly constant over all games, though, as far as the exp gring.. though if any game does give you constant incentives to level, it is FFXI. From sub jobs at 18, advanced jobs at level 30, sace gear from 27-33, and class specific gear soon after. Plus, the ability to freely swap classes and unrestricted crafting.. well.. the game has staying power. Hell, I just got Halo 2 and Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate and I still like FFXI. I mean, if you ever get tired of the level 40-45 grind, take a break and level another job for a while. Go hunt a notorious monster, bake cookies, mine in a level that you are way to low for and thrill as a level 57 smoke dragon decides to have a seat by your mining spot... just as your sneak/invis spells start to wear off!

Oh yeah.. Shiva server rules!.. and nowhere else has the KittyKatGang!

I'm a -huge- Warcraft Fan. World Of Warcraft's story is set a few years after the big war in Warcraft 3. Everythings kinda settling down, and old tensions between alliance and horde are coming back. The game's story itself is very nice....and one of the main reasons why I even signed up for the beta was because I wanted to actually play in a world based on the story.

Still, even if the game has a damn great story, it doesn't save it from having horrible repetitive gameplay that bores the person to extremes! I definetely "got into" this game...playing for 11 months. As soon as I "got into" it, I wanted to GET OUT OF it. As I said before, I was very dissapointed with this game....I definetely was expecting alot from this game. Fast-acting combat, combined with a great world to explore, combined with top-notch storyline, combined with a unique tradeskill system, combined with tactical PvP...the list went on.

Then you find out the combat is pretty innovative, for a grand record of 2 weeks. After that, you'll find out that no matter what class you are, no matter what monster you face, you can do the same damn combination of attacks to win the battle. The world is fun to explore....for a record of one time. Once you actually get the know the area around you, the game gives you no reason to actually do anything else besides "Kill all the monsters who conviently roam around in the open field". Top-notch storyline? Too bad you'll never be a part of it, and you'll be restricted to being nothing but a grunt. There isnt any role-playing elements here, your restricted to following one path. Dont like the people who run the alliance? Wanna be a evil orc? Too bad! Your going to have to follow your faction to the exact letter, and you'll always have to be extremely hostile to the horde.

And please dont say "But if the alliance and horde allied with each other....that would RUIN TEH STORLYLINESW~!!!". If thats the case, I must've been playing a different game when I played WC3.....

Even with the "honor system", the gameplay PvP wise is very restrictive and un-interesting. Little to no rewards for an "honorable" kill, and the system itself does nothing to stop ganking. Gankers will still gank to their hearts content, and may actually give more incentive to continue because dishonorable status makes the game more "Hard-core".

Tradeskills are useless. What may take you months to skill up, you can get something three times better by spending 5 hours a day grinding away in an instance. Dont like spending 5 hours a day going through the same dungeon over and over to get the uber sword that you'll need in order to be any good? TOO BAD. The only worth-while items in the game are instanced loots....if you dont have that, you' wont be able to do anything.

Unless blizzard changes the game drastically in the next....10 days....I think alot of Warcraft fans will be hugely dissapointed. I'll say it once, and I'll say it again for all of you here....

THIS GAME IS BORING, REPETITIVE, AND ANNOYING. EVEN HARD-CORE MMORPG / WARCRAFT FANS WILL NOT ENJOY THIS GAME. ITS EASY TO GET TO THE LEVEL CAP, THE ITEMS ARE INSANELY IN-BALANCED, AND THE PVP SYSTEM IS A ROCK-PAPER-SCISSSORS JOKE. WORLD OF WARCRAFT WILL BE A WASTE OF YOUR MONEY, IF YOU BUY IT COME RELEASE. THIS IS COMING FROM A MAN WHO'S SPENT 11 MONTHS BETA TESTING. PLEASE, PLEASE SAVE YOUR MONEY!

Or of course, wait 6 months (at least) for the game to get fixed. Not only will the game be cheaper, but it'll be better....

Well I'm in the open beta on test server 20, and I find crafting really fun. I'm level 16 with level 137 skinning and 124 leather crafting. I'm actualy starting to have a hard time, by hard I mean vary long time, getting exp to level up.

As a Warcraft fan, I am kinda disipointed by the lack of story.
They should add a 'defect' just in case you Horde and all of your friends are Allience. If you ask me that would add more to the game.

The main thing I'm not liking if the lack of unity. Maybe it's just because I don't have a guild but i'm already bored...

The main reson I want to leave FFXI behind is becaue I don't have anyone to do things with. My linkshell/guild blows ass. (67 Red Mage, Haven't played in almost 2-3 weeks because of boredom)

Hmm, I see we have some people that don't really like this game. I also see that we have peoplet hat like FFXI a lot more. I see that people are talking about the beta a lot and no one has posted anything since it was released.

I played during the stress test and wasn't all that impressed. Then a bunch of my friends started to play it and I saw that a bunch of stuff changed. Over all I think that's it's worth getting if you're into MMOs.

Someone mentioned a bunch of other MMOs in this thread, and I just want to say, WoW and EQ2 are probably the two best MMOs out right now in terms of most advanced MMO systems and story and what-not.

FFXI was cool when it came out, but I thought is was just a "me too" game. Was jumping on the banwagon of MMOs. Overall solid game, though.

SWG...let's face it- it really sucks. All around blows.

Enter the Matrix- see SWG entry

Ragnarok Online- Collector's paradise, if you can stand the grinding. The horrible, slow, repetative grinding.

City of Heros- Good. Overall solid game. Nothing new or inovative about it, though.

Diablo- ...not an MMO

Phansaty Star Online- Also a collector's paradise. A little less grind, though, if you ask me. Quests are still repetative.

WoW- Backstory is good, great if you're a die hard Warcraft fan. Party, skill, leveling, anti-kill stealing fetures- all pretty good. Overall Solid game.

EQ2- Setting is nice, grinding sucks (though you can say that about any game), quests are good, party system I hate (though that's just me). Overall solid game.

I think my main problem with World Of Warcraft is that it fooled me into thinking that it was going to be different from other MMORPGs. I actually bought into the hype because I liked the RTS Warcraft series, and I liked the other games Blizzard makes (except for Diablo 2.). I seriously thought World Of Warcraft was going to offer something new and innovative, and not just another long grind of mediocre quests.

I was wrong. The game ended up being rushed. At the end of beta, all the cool and innovative things Blizzard promised to put in never even made it. It just felt like a polished version of Everquest, using the Warcraft lore and skin. I'm crazy, I know, but I was looking for a game that required skill and something more then just "Farm the instance for 8 hours to get teh ubar lewtz!!!1 AND TEHN PWNZOR GANK TEH NEWBZ IN PVP!!1".

Mind you, I haven''t touched the game after beta ended. Though I do have my information sources, and WoW -still- hasn't implimented the Battlegrounds, Honor System, or any other of that original game-defining end content that it was SUPPOSED to have at launch. In a sense it just became a game that's only good for people that like the generic MMORPG. I do like the Warcraft lore and background, but that enough isnt going to keep me playing.

I also tried FFXI, which alot of people here suggested. I'm not a social person. I hate grouping. I uninstalled the game within a week. The end. As for all the other MMORPGs....I'm not going to try them. I've wasted enough money.

You sound like the kinda guy that'd like Guild Wars. You should look into it. It requires skill to play, the classes are evenly balanced, and if you can't/don't want to find a group, you can get free npcs to join your group instead.

The PvP is encouraged, but not mandatory. You must enter an arena of sorts to PvP. No more walking through the forest and getting pawned by teh l33t st34lth3r.

Also, every class has skills that deal with other classes. Thus, if you setup your bar right, any class can take out any class. Equipment really doesn't matter all that much. a lvl 20 that has basic equipment and a lvl 20 (max) that has the best equipment in the game will still be a fairly even match, if they're at about the same skill level.

Oh yeah, and the best part is, it's free! Well, not totally. You still have to buy the software, but there's no subscription fee.

If you want to check it out, go to the Guild Wars homepage

Edit- they're still in Beta teseting, but I think it gets released in Feb.

I don't see why people like EQ, or EQ2 for that matter. I have a friend who is a longtime EQ fan and I saw EQ2, it's basically has everything WoW does, but not done right. Supposedly the graphics are supposed to be extremely good, but from what I saw it was equal with WoW.

I got into WoW really good and powerplayed it for a while, but now I play it about as much as I do any other game. Which I think if fare.

Yah and people say EQ's story is good, that may be true for the games, but I don't call a million year difference (or whatever) between the two games all that intuitive.

If you look at EQ2 with a top of the line gaming rig, at it's highest graphics setting, EQ2 does have better graphics. However, most computers cannot do this. WoW is designed for the average gaming rig, thus it looks better on most computers by comparison.