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Official WoW Expansion Talent Information
smartidiotaz writes "Blizzard has finally released more information about the talent trees after leaks broke out over the internet. " As typical, every class thinks every other class got a better deal, but the Pallies get to mean it ;)
You got it right, you did the grind.
As such you would be clueless as to why people continue to play the game. See, they are playing a game. You were in a race, with what no one knows, but obviously you did not come to play. First and foremost, you cannot win at a MMORPG, so where is the rush?
Apparently the MMORPG crowd you hang with is a minority. Then again people with your mindset normally are. Do you jump from game to game? If you only spent a month in WOW I can't see how you spend more in any other.
Yeah this borders on bashing but if I had a PENNY for everyone who claims WOW is dieing or that everyone they know doesn't play it I would be so rich it would be silly.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
You shouldn't have rushed to get to level 60. I played for 4 hours a day at a slow pace, enjoying the storyline, getting to know the game world, learning (and changing!) professions, participating in roleplay events and PvP, helping other players inside and outside my guild, doing lots of non-experience rewarding quests (the gray ones) etc., and by doing so I reached level 60 after eight (yes, eight) months. It was much, much more enjoyable than going the "power leveling" path.
:)
And since I reached 60 I'm still playing the same character, slowly acquiring gold to purchase my epic mount, trying to get some end game gear but not being obsessed with it, going in some raids with my guild, fine-tuning my addon collection, and so on and so forth.
So, I'd say that WoW is kinda like a Mac: an integral experience. If you focus on a single aspect of the game it gets boring pretty fast. If you try to do all it allows you to do, then there's almost no limit to what you get from it. I am very far from getting bored, that's for sure.
Conservatism: (n.) love of the existing evils. Liberalism: (n.) desire to substitute new evils for the existing ones.
Many of us are still there. Not necessarily with our original characters, but still
Myself, I played from beta onwards. Not continously, I've taken multi-month breaks. Early on I spent most of my time exploring the 1-60 content, most of which is soloable or doable in five-man groups. Then I spent much time exploring the pvp aspects. Most recently, I've taken to the end-game (i.e. "raid") content, which is more challanging, but only by virtue of there being little room for error (and learning techniques for getting 40 people to deal w/ some rather intricate encounter mechanics).
Why do I continue with a game that is considered rather pedestrian by the hard-core mmorpg crowd? Mostly, I suppose, because I don't like mmorpgs, and wow doesn't "feel" like one (in the traditional sense). It's fast paced, you kill quickly and you likewise can die quickly. But more than that, buried behind the accessibility of the game that has made it so popular is a rich and sophisticated set of mechanics. These mechanics were originally designed to create as much diversity as possible between the different classes (although I fear those responsible for this design are long gone, as the trend has definitely been towards homogenization). Each class has a significantly different feel to it and requires a different playstyle in order to excel, while simultaneously retaining class-specific complexities. These traits don't usually become fully apparent until one has reached the higher levels with a given class.
While these sophistications certainly exist in WoW, the other edge of the sword is that, quite obviously, mass accessibility was a primary design concern; meaning that while you can become very good at the intricacies of a particular class and playstyle, it's not exactly required in order to experience all the content. The fallout from this is that the majority of the (very large) playerbase isn't terribly good at playing the game (and there exists little incentive for them to improve). Similarly, with a small group of proficient players who have mastered these intricacies, one can easily move through late/end-game content that most players would consider very difficult (without high-end "raiding" gear itemization).
I know a lot of MMORPG players and not one of them are still playing WoW - which is strange because the sampling of the people I know has pretty well tracked player populations for every previous MMORPG over the past six to seven years I've been playing them.
Where are all these WoW players and what are they doing while they are logged in all these months since the game went live?
I play WoW in a decent sized guild. A solid 50% of them are not gamers. My brother is the perfect example. He plays two games on the computer - WoW, and a poker tutorial game.
Which may suggest the answer to your question: You know a lot of hard-core gamers, to whom WoW may not be attractive. It is EQ easy-mode, after all. But, to a great many people like my brother who grew up with video games but were never hard-core about it, WoW is a pleasant distraction for an hour or three a week.
I was once a hard-core gamer, but I got distracted by other shiny things along the way. Now I play WoW a bit, and it's fun. Hard-core me probably wouldn't have liked it much - there is too much chance, not enough reward for mad skillz. Casual me finds it to be just about right.
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