Cyrus Rex wrote:
In SWG it was the unhappy beta testers that leaked information concerning the game that had the best grasp on the product SOE was offering.
That's true and I think we can honestly rely on the current alpha and beta testers to be pretty blunt about the game. I remember the beta testers certainly were about SWG and remember very clearly how surprised the Beta community was when the release date was revealed.
Take a look at this thread from the World of Warcraft Community site. Alphas and Betas are dropping in with very brief but positive comments about the state of the game as it is. I didn't read all of the posts but this one caught my eye.
Quote:
It's hard to justify $12.95 to $14.95 for another MMORPG when we can play a game infinitely better for free
Hmm...
Anyway, to your questions:
- I would like to know what you see in WoW that you like better than SWG, and what you see in SWG that you like better than WoW.
1) Purely from a genre point of view, I'm kinda sick of sci-fi and am ready for some good ol' hack-n-slash!
2) As far as more concrete things, I'm very pleased with the level of communication I've seen from Blizzard that is, to hear the alpha testers talk about it, so much more than the devs nodding their heads and doing what they intended to anyway.
3) I have so much more faith in Blizzard than SOE. Their game philosophy puts fun first and they have an absolutely amazing track record in their games. Show me a Blizzard stinker.
4) Death Management: the way managing death is shaping up seems very positive to me. No item decay, no item loss. You basically have three options, none of which are absolutely terrible. First option (penalty is traveling back to your body - don't worry, it's not like a regular corpse run): Travel, in your ghostly form (they're hoping to even put a few missions in that can only be played by ghosts!) back to your body, reincorporate and you're back to normal, no penalties. Second option (penalty is resurrection sickness): Wait until a party member or generous player resurrects your body. If you are already enroute as a ghost, you may still be resurrected by simply agreeing to let the resurrection continue. Third option (penalty is experience loss): talk to a Spirit Healer and be resurrected by him. You get all your stuff back but lose a little XP. If you just achieved a level, you will not lose that level - you will incur an experience debt, which must be paid off before you can make progress towards your next level.
5) ... Ok...I'd better stop but having played a fair bit of EQ and SWG, there were a number of things that both games had wrong. WoW seems to have them right.
SWG pluses:
1) C'mon...it's Star Wars!! More on this later.
2) The variety of professions was impressive!
3) Graphics are beautiful!
4) Like Cyrus, I loved the powerful macros we have in SWG! From mounting/dismounting a vehicle to adding some RP flavor to slicing for customers, the macros in SWG could really deliver.
- I would like to know what races, classes, and play styles you are most interested in… and why.
I've always like the role and skill set of paladins and after reading a bit more about them I know that's the first class I will explore.
- Would you like to continue on as a crafter, as we were in SWG, or would you like to take on more of an Adventuring Role in WoW?
- If there is a Avian community carried over to WoW do you see it as needing to be more crafting focused, or more Adventure focused, of a balance of both.
- What fansites do you use for good information?
World of Warcraft Official site, World of Warcraft Community site, World of Warcraft Lands and Kingdoms of Azeroth. Oh...oops..."fansites." Bah, too much work to just delete it.
I mentioned above I wanted to follow up on my comment "C'mon...it's Star Wars!!" I'd like to do that now. Cool as it is, that we're running around in the SW world, I strongly suspect that contributed to some of the disappointment people felt with the game. I say that because of this: before SWG, our primary source of interaction with the SW universe was the movies and books, primarily. Some people played paper games and there were some awesome single-player (or at least small-scale MP games). So, that means the environment that we expected was defined by movie sets and actors and a whole lot of CG stuff. No problem. They have the look down very well in SWG, I believe.
However, one of the other ingredients we absorbed in the movies was the 'feel' of SW. While watching Han and Luke and Leia do their thing, wherever that might be, I was always acutely aware there was something bigger going on. I don't feel that in the game. In the past, I'd simply felt like I was some drone doing his thing to rack up the credits or XP or whatever.
I think bringing to life a universe that resembles that of SW really wasn't that difficult. But putting me in that reality, the reality previously defined for me through movies, books and games is nearly impossible. I mention games since in those games, they were able to focus on just a small slice of that reality and were able to pull it off. In SWG, they have to make that reality real everywhere for everyone all the time. I have the same fears and concerns for MEO.
Now...compare all that to WoW. How is WarCraft defined for us? Simply through games. We're assured there is a reality that exists beyond what we see in those games (cutscenes, storylines) but we're not immersed in it and therefore our expectations are more in line with what is possible for the developers to deliver.
Ok...I'll be done for now.