Circuit
11-30-2005, 11:52 AM
I haven't really played that much during my 14 day trial to make a final decision, but I'm starting to like WoW. I haven't been all that impressed with my Hunter Elf so far, who's level 7, but Ned and I started a Dwarf Warrior and Gnome Mage last night and it was pretty fun. Even though a bit cartoony, the game has great atmosphere and the world seems very deep. I'm usually not into the whole fantasy thing, but there's a lot of personality in this and it's starting to grow on me. I'm not sure I like the interface, but I don't know if the clunkiness is just because I'm not used to it yet.
My dilemma lies in the fact that I'm still really into CoH/CoV and don't really have time for both games, nor do I want to pay a monthly fee for two different games. A lot of it also hinges on which game Ned ends up gravitating towards since he's primarily who I play all my online games with because he's like my bestest gaming buddy evar. Also, since so many of you MC guys are already so deep into WoW, I can't imagine many of you wanting to pull away to play with lowbies very often. And no offense to anyone is meant, of course. Ned and I just tend to get the same type of enjoyment out of these games. The look and actions of the characters we make is oftentimes more amusing than actually playing the game. Although, maybe he just merely puts up with my immaturity prior to getting down to business like an adult patiently waiting for a child to stop putting the soccer ball in his shirt before a game. :)
The other big thing is my complete and utter lack of desire to ever wait even a minute in a queue to get into the game. I'd love to level up a character and play with some of you veteran WoWers, but it looks like Arthas is full pretty much all the time. I think one of the restrictions of the 14 day trial is that paying subscribers get priority in the queue, so it may not be as bad as it seems.
One thing I'm curious about, also, is whether or not I'll be able to have any fun later on in the game if I'm not in a guild and probably unable to coordinate playing with large groups of people at certain times of the day. Judging by a lot of what I've read, you pretty much have to be in a large group to even see a lot of the content. So what will be my experience with the game if I mostly play in very small groups? Would I be wasting my time? And what if I only have a few hours a week to devote to playing?
For a bit of perspective, City of Heroes is my first and only MMORPG and the only reason I got into that was because it involves superheroes doing superhero things. Had I not gotten into the beta early on, I probably never would've played that, either. But the combat character customization were what hooked me, both of which are considerably superior to WoW so far. WoW feels deeper and more alive, but there's just something missing in the combat and how your character interacts with enemies. Neither you nor the thing you're fighting seem to react to the attacks at all, aside from inflicting damage or losing hitpoints. Especially in the melee attacks, I have a hard time telling if I'm connecting because of the nearly nonexistent visual feedback. CoH's combat just feels so much more visceral and solid. A huge part of the game to me is seeing enemies go flying into the air from an uppercut or get trapped in a block of ice. Saying nothing of WoW's battle mechanics, fights just seem to be made up of me and my enemy attacking in various ways until one of us falls over dead. It's just a stat battle, which granted is the same as CoH in the end, but the way it's presented and how it feels is just not as good in WoW. On the other hand, WoW does seem to have a ton of other things going for it to make up for the lackluster combat.
So my early impressions are mixed. I'd say they're leaning more toward "good" than "bad", though, but I'll need some more time and perhaps more persuasion to get me to play. I'm just torn. I've put loads of time into CoH/CoV and would hate to give it up, but I just don't have the time to play two games that require a decent amount of devotion to enjoy. Plus, having both would mean paying $30 a month. I'd then be spending twice as much money for the same amount of play time split between two games and just don't think I want that. I R CONFUSE!!
My dilemma lies in the fact that I'm still really into CoH/CoV and don't really have time for both games, nor do I want to pay a monthly fee for two different games. A lot of it also hinges on which game Ned ends up gravitating towards since he's primarily who I play all my online games with because he's like my bestest gaming buddy evar. Also, since so many of you MC guys are already so deep into WoW, I can't imagine many of you wanting to pull away to play with lowbies very often. And no offense to anyone is meant, of course. Ned and I just tend to get the same type of enjoyment out of these games. The look and actions of the characters we make is oftentimes more amusing than actually playing the game. Although, maybe he just merely puts up with my immaturity prior to getting down to business like an adult patiently waiting for a child to stop putting the soccer ball in his shirt before a game. :)
The other big thing is my complete and utter lack of desire to ever wait even a minute in a queue to get into the game. I'd love to level up a character and play with some of you veteran WoWers, but it looks like Arthas is full pretty much all the time. I think one of the restrictions of the 14 day trial is that paying subscribers get priority in the queue, so it may not be as bad as it seems.
One thing I'm curious about, also, is whether or not I'll be able to have any fun later on in the game if I'm not in a guild and probably unable to coordinate playing with large groups of people at certain times of the day. Judging by a lot of what I've read, you pretty much have to be in a large group to even see a lot of the content. So what will be my experience with the game if I mostly play in very small groups? Would I be wasting my time? And what if I only have a few hours a week to devote to playing?
For a bit of perspective, City of Heroes is my first and only MMORPG and the only reason I got into that was because it involves superheroes doing superhero things. Had I not gotten into the beta early on, I probably never would've played that, either. But the combat character customization were what hooked me, both of which are considerably superior to WoW so far. WoW feels deeper and more alive, but there's just something missing in the combat and how your character interacts with enemies. Neither you nor the thing you're fighting seem to react to the attacks at all, aside from inflicting damage or losing hitpoints. Especially in the melee attacks, I have a hard time telling if I'm connecting because of the nearly nonexistent visual feedback. CoH's combat just feels so much more visceral and solid. A huge part of the game to me is seeing enemies go flying into the air from an uppercut or get trapped in a block of ice. Saying nothing of WoW's battle mechanics, fights just seem to be made up of me and my enemy attacking in various ways until one of us falls over dead. It's just a stat battle, which granted is the same as CoH in the end, but the way it's presented and how it feels is just not as good in WoW. On the other hand, WoW does seem to have a ton of other things going for it to make up for the lackluster combat.
So my early impressions are mixed. I'd say they're leaning more toward "good" than "bad", though, but I'll need some more time and perhaps more persuasion to get me to play. I'm just torn. I've put loads of time into CoH/CoV and would hate to give it up, but I just don't have the time to play two games that require a decent amount of devotion to enjoy. Plus, having both would mean paying $30 a month. I'd then be spending twice as much money for the same amount of play time split between two games and just don't think I want that. I R CONFUSE!!