Question about WoW: MoP

[Martinus]

Here's an article from kotaku that describes exactly the feeling I have been dreading had I returned to WoW:

With Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's Age Is Starting To Show
Kate Cox View ProfileEmailFacebookTwitterGoogle PlusRSS This morning, I got up early and sat down to a freshly-patched World of Warcraft to play a brand-new Pandaren. I still don't love the WoW art style—I never have, it's just personal preference really—but even I had to admit that the vivid blue streak in my panda's pigtails was kind of cute. And if I didn't love the way she ran, well, at least I could get used to it, and the vivid colors of the vistas she merrily stabbed her way through were worth appreciating. The experience started out smoothly, if a little on the slow side.

About half an hour in, I made my first mistake: I tried to throw a dagger while running toward my target. Red error message text popped up across the top of my screen, helpfully reminding me that I couldn't cast while moving. I stopped dead in my tracks and threw my dagger once again, hoping that my target would then run to me, and waited patiently for it to lope within range of my other combat arts.

My second mistake was trying to dodge the kicks from the ghost of a Pandaren monk. I ran around, looking like a fool dodging for position, but there's no way to avoid the attack of a mob that has targeted you. I couldn't tuck, dodge, or roll, and, once again, I couldn't attack while in motion.

My third mistake was hovering over new weapons and armor in my inventory and in the character screen, desperately willing them to show me tooltips comparing the stats of my currently-equipped gear with the newly-acquired gear in my bags. Alas, none appeared.

After an hour of play and a helpful cup of coffee, I finally realized that all the silly mistakes I kept making, all the ways I kept anticipating the game would behave, were because I've been playing Guild Wars 2 for a month, and other, newer MMORPGs like The Secret World before that.

World of Warcraft, alas, doesn't behave like Guild Wars 2; it behaves exactly like World of Warcraft. Had I not been playing at the slow hour of 7:45 a.m., I no doubt would have made an ass of myself by stealing someone else's kill, item, or node without meaning to. I would have been a jerk not from malice, but from a lack of habit. Newer games have taught me not to wait my turn, but to dive right in and help.

The general feeling I have picked up from my first, brief, newbie foray into Mists of Pandaria this morning is that even in its newest content, World of Warcraft remains a product of its time—a time that now feels archaic. WoW itself did not invent the MMORPG, but when it launched in 2004 it refined the genre in such a way that it became a juggernaut, an unstoppable snowball of popularity. In the years since, every new MMORPG has faced accusations at one time or another of being a "WoW clone."

For a player who never really had a World of Warcraft heyday, though, the little ways in which the genre and industry have moved along and evolved in the last eight years highlight how hollow that accusation rings. The static combat of the WoW era has been replaced with more dynamic, fluid motion in newer games.

Isolated, clannish ways of moving through the world as quickly as possible have shifted into a more participatory sense of space in GW2. A hundred players could stand together on the Wandering Isle of Pandaria, and yet each of us is concerned only with the bubble of our own quest log. If I pay attention to other players at all, it is because they are a hindrance; the game provides no real mechanism through which we can help each other, at least not in the low levels.

I can travel off the beaten path in Pandaria if I want, but there is no real reason to do so. I will find no vista points to show off the lavishly-constructed views; I will find no collectible nuggets of lore buried beneath the leaves. Falling off the road doesn't tumble me into a new and exciting adventure here; it just means I need to find a way back up to the road while having irritating monkeys nip at my heels.

After a month in Guild Wars 2, Mists of Pandaria feels like a time machine that shows me how far the MMORPG has really come—and how far back the innovations World of Warcraft once boasted now stand. The king of all online games is getting old enough that it could really stand to take a cue or two from its upstart younger siblings.

[Caliga]

I can travel off the beaten path in Pandaria if I want, but there is no real reason to do so. I will find no vista points to show off the lavishly-constructed views; I will find no collectible nuggets of lore buried beneath the leaves. Falling off the road doesn't tumble me into a new and exciting adventure here; it just means I need to find a way back up to the road while having irritating monkeys nip at my heels.

While I feel no particular desire to defend WoW/MoP, this part of her article is patently untrue.

[Eddie Teach]

WoW was always about the pvp and dungeon crawling for me, all this talk about how dull questing in the world was is both true and irrelevant.

[Sophie Scholl]

The writer of that article is an idiot.  I'm glad they're sticking to Guild Wars 2 or whatever other flavor of the week they are so I never have a chance of running into them in game.  If you consider yourself an idiot, Mart, then by all means follow the writer's advice and "insights".  If not, give it a trial run and see what you personally think of it.  I think you may just surprise yourself with actually enjoying it.

[Martinus]

Well all he says is true for GW2 and it is an amazing game. Since MoP, by many accounts, seems to be more of the same, I will pass. Especially as GW2 is starting to have its first content patch later this month.

[frunk]

While I feel no particular desire to defend WoW/MoP, this part of her article is patently untrue.

It might not be entirely true, but GW2 is filled with hidden things all over the place to an extent that most other MMOs aren't.  It rewards wandering about and discovering the world both with bits of xp/money and the fun of finding something new.

[katmai]

Yet still doesn't make Caliga's post wrong

[Sophie Scholl]

Well all he says is true for GW2 and it is an amazing game. Since MoP, by many accounts, seems to be more of the same, I will pass. Especially as GW2 is starting to have its first content patch later this month.

Well, at least you answered the question I posed.

[katmai]

So anyways Marti hadn't responded yet and you've already pulled the trigger, but here it goes.

I liked looks of GW2, but left as the social aspect left me wanting more.

Bought MoP and played it, the new continent looks nice as do the new models for the Pandaren and the creatures that inhabit the expansion.
I've just this last week decided to cancel my account as my favorite part of the WoW is raiding and circumstances within Guild that i've belonged to since  just before Cata (It's all CC"s fault!) make it that only able to pug raids or do the LFR raids which are tuned to be way more forgiving than regular that they are kinda boring.

The game has added some nice elements but after 3 months of playing it is just a more polished 8 year old game.

As it stands no MMO are enticing to me and hence why i'm now back play WoT, over GW2, SW, Swtor and the others.

[Martinus]

What question?

Anyways, I gotta say raiding is probably the part of WoW I have always enjoyed the least - it just felt like such a frustrating waste of time to try to kill the same boss for two hours and wiping because someone forgot to do something (including myself). I enjoy the dynamic group events in GW2 much more, as even if you die, you can always resurrect and run back (not to mention, if you are near death, you can be revived by other players) and it has much more arcade feel to it, as you have to keep dodging and avoiding special attacks.

[crazy canuck]

Sorry to hear the old guild isnt viable anymore.  But I think that has a lot to do with WoW raiding/grinding losing its appeal.

[katmai]

Sorry to hear the old guild isnt viable anymore.  But I think that has a lot to do with WoW raiding/grinding losing its appeal.

It's mainly all your fault, we lack healers to raid, and oh so fun trying to pug them But yeah the amount of people who have left since even i joined is pretty dramatic.

Most of them if playing anything are in GW2.

[katmai]

What question?

Anyways, I gotta say raiding is probably the part of WoW I have always enjoyed the least - it just felt like such a frustrating waste of time to try to kill the same boss for two hours and wiping because someone forgot to do something (including myself). I enjoy the dynamic group events in GW2 much more, as even if you die, you can always resurrect and run back (not to mention, if you are near death, you can be revived by other players) and it has much more arcade feel to it, as you have to keep dodging and avoiding special attacks.

[Grey Fox]

Don't want to give Tera a try, Katmai?

[katmai]

Don't want to give Tera a try, Katmai?