WAR vs WoW

Archaeden — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:43:34 GMT

I love the common complaint that Blizzard releases content too slowly. Given the massive compexity of the game, the excellent (no matter what some people would like to believe) balance present, the sheer volume of existing content to weigh against content soon-to-be-added and unsforseen future content, the development team's pace of content release is pretty ship-shape.

Major content patches (more than class balancing, bug fixing, and things of that nature) are such MASSIVE patches that they nearly qualify as minor expansion packs in and of themselves, yet they come "too slowly"? The average gamer's complaints of things coming too slowly shows the disrespect people have for developers who have the philosophy of "release it when it's ready". Though, they will crucify companies like EA for rushing a buggy product now and then.

And this is without mentioning the constantly-whining nature of PvP players who are distraught that a PvE focused game that shifted to a growing interest in PvP post-release and didn't do it quickly, smoothly, and with undiverted attention to their minority sect of subscribers.

So yeah, WoW is clearly inferiour to a game that's still in beta and hasn't experienced its first quarter of on-line operations. Clearly.

WAR vs WoW

Anoyarou — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:43:33 GMT

I don't buy Blizzard's "Quality over Quantity" argument.

Their basic mechanics are great, but their class and instancing mechanics have not been tested properly, nor have player input ever been implemented. Each expansion and level cap raise only serve to underscore these deficiencies.

Frankly, I think they should keep working on revamping and updating existing content to current gear and spec requirements before rushing to drop the next x-pac on players. The current complaint i hear more often is less about more content being available and more about not being able to access content because of over/under spec/gear/level requirements.

Then again, not really into the raiding scene, so...

WAR vs WoW

mrshadow116 — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:43:32 GMT

"Not too long ago Blizzard commented on it being quite the challenge to retro-fit WoW to be more PVP centered with the Arena and E-Sports."

Unfortunately some of us prefer PVE. If I wanted to play "Sports" I'd just go outside!

Please bring back the PVE! Bring back the complex organization and discipline!

Down with the reaction-based ADD gameplay!

WAR vs WoW

Archaeden — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:43:31 GMT

Their basic mechanics are great, but their class and instancing mechanics have not been tested properly, nor have player input ever been implemented.

Blizzard actually has an impressive history with taking suggestions, filtering them down to the base (i.e. "why" someone is suggesting what they're suggesting) and implementing a change that's suited to the overall design of the game. I think the best example would be hunters and how they've changed since release, the first round of hunter buffs (which was back in like... patch 1.1 or something. It was ages ago).

The buffs to Aimed Shot, Arcane Shot, and the ENTIRE Survival tree (the "support" DPS tree, what with Expose Weakness and improved CC abilities) were based off of the community's desires, and while not all (read "none") of the tweaks were dead-on produced from suggestions, Blizzard listened to what people didn't like and they changed that to something that was new/better, but still suited the existing design philosophy.

But yeah, no developer goes around implementing every other idea worth half a pittance puked forth by the community. If they did, they'd wind up with a game that was never the same patch after patch and couldn't be maintained as per the original design of the game.

WAR vs WoW

oopomopoo — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:43:30 GMT

hey, guess what? we will never know until warhammer comes out. "whats a better food? a hamburger or a feragiba? whats a feragiba? who the hell knows, but lets go ahead and try to compare it! ive never tasted a feragiba, but i will go ahead and make a comparison with it, ive heard things about it, good things, bad things, but i will never know what it tastes like until its in my mouth."

hmm thats actually kinda nice, ima use that for all wow - war comparisons
(i vote for warhammer, im a pvp type of guy)
edit - to clear things up because some may not get what i said, you will NEVER be able to truly compare wow - warhammer until you personally, have played both. you will like different features for a certain game, than that guy sitting next to you.
so srsly, these comparison forums are getting pretty annoying.. sure, like the game, enjoy the reviews, but keep it to yourself because there will always be Mr Right who thinks hes right about a game that he has never played or read anything about. seriously, i read a forum on wow that a guy was saying warhammer doesnt have pvp in it... and it wasnt a troll. -.-

WAR vs WoW

Snafzg — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:43:29 GMT

Thanks for noticing and writing about my article, Zyuu! :) FYI, I'm the original author of the post being discussed.

There are some things I'd like to clarify:

1) First and foremost, this isn't a full game comparison between WoW and WAR. In fact, it's merely a comparison of what they have said about their upcoming expansions. I paraphrased comments from WoW's lead producer for expansions, J. Allen Brack and several WAR devs, including general manager Mark Jacobs.

2) Let me paste a quote from the beginning of my blog entry: "This is by no means a fact-proven comparison because each of these producers might say one thing and do something else entirely, but it is based on what has been said in the public forum"

3) I'm really comparing apples to apples here because I've discerned some of the expansion philosophy these two companies have - not a released product vs. an unreleased one (as some people have misrepresented). It's a comparison of words, thoughts, ideas, and aspirations.

4) Even though my blog obviously slants/favours Warhammer Online, I don't believe I showed bias in this comparison. In fact, I probably pay WoW good lip service by saying it would be to EA Mythic's benefit if WotLK released afterward rather than before WAR.

In response to http://www.curse.com/articles/details/11396/#comment_366293, I think it would be to WoW's benefit if they released smaller, less time consuming (for the player) expansions of excellent quality every year rather than massive, very time consuming expansions every two years. It's been a year and a half since TBC released and many casual gamers still aren't out of Karazhan. To me, that shows they have made it way too difficult and time consuming for the majority of their player base.

What's wrong with putting out a patch every year that most casual gamers can "complete" within 9 months? Will that screw over the hardcore gamers? Indeed it will, so I believe there is a basic flaw in their overall game design. They have based the entire system around loot and once you've got your best set, there's nothing left for you to do. You could participate in PvP but it has no meaning in the overall world... heck, Blizzard even calls it an e-sport.

So basically, they're stuck in a trap of trying to make one huge grind for the hardcore gamers (5-10% of their total subscriber base), which unfortunately puts a giant, unreachable carrot on a stick for their casual crowd (the remaining 90-95%). This is the underlying reason I quit WoW and began to follow WAR.

WAR vs WoW

omnihk — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:43:28 GMT

WoW seems raher well paced, though there are some slow sections like the time between ZA and removing MH/BT attunement to get more people higher up. But if WAR is more PVP orientated, how can you add PVP content ? What is there to add frequently?

WAR vs WoW

oopomopoo — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:43:27 GMT

its not just about pvp, there are raids and progression in that area too, they just add pvp encounters and stuff along with it. they add battlegrounds, more gear, you progress through 80 pvp ranks, and you actually RAID other peoples towns, not the WoW raid of amg 20 people go pew pew orgrimmar, but an actual 200 people go into their city, pillage the buildings etc, for raiding a city you get additional quests, and access to their city dungeons, so it is not a purely pvp game, there is a lot of pve content as well.

WAR vs WoW

oopomopoo — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:43:26 GMT

if you were talking about my apple to whatever quote i said somewhere in there, im not really saying it for "this" specific article, im targeting every one that tries to compare wow and warhammer, it really annoys me how people are like "omg warhammers pvp looks so boring" when in actuality, they are watching a 2 year old video. why dont they go watch a wow video, 2 years before its release? ooh ooh i know, they dont want to because its TERRIBLE. (not saying wow is terrible, just saying during beta it was very boring)
so please, dont compare closed beta footage with what wow actually is... closed beta = not a reliable source of information, as it is closed therefore everything you see could very well be a lie.

WAR vs WoW

oopomopoo — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:43:25 GMT

WAR vs WoW

umforder — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:43:24 GMT

I would say the vast majority of players are getting exactly what they need as far as content release. Blizzard is looking at their player base and can see that only the top percentage of players are actually clearing all the previous content before new content is released. So in that respect, I'm happy that they are pushing for quality over quantity.