Thinking about giving WoW a try.

[Fat Lip]

I just ordered all the games for World of Warcraft, and I'll be installing them the middle of next week, but I plan on keeping my primary UO account open at the same time.

Wanna see what it has to offer, and UO is getting kind of boring - even with the new booster. So, I haven't quit, just checking out WoW for a while.

Does anybody else like World of Warcraft? I've never played it, but I see a lot of times when posting, people sometimes say "... well then, go play WoW" when people suggest something or get mad at a game mechanic. How does it compare to Ultima Online (immediately from what I've seen, it's got WAY BETTER graphics ).

 

[krvn97]

i got account on wow, i dont play it anymore. i just didnt care for the game that much. there are a lot of games out there that have great graphics but great graphics dont make a great game. give a try you might like it.

 

[Korik Bloodguard]

WoW is pretty fun, it certainly can be if you have friends there. I'd suggest talking to someone who has played for a while to help you figure out what class/race to be, the best mods, ways to level, professions etc...

Just stuff that makes your first experience that much easier (I'll answer any questions you have)

Edit: Right from the start you'll find yourself wishing UO had a clean quest system like WoW xD

 

[Llewen]

I played WoW for six months, and one morning woke up and realized, it just isn't fun. All the quests boil down to one of five things: 1. kill x number of y; 2. kill x and loot y; 3. find x and bring back y; 4. escort x from y to z; 5. deliver x to y. Hundreds of quests, and they all boil down to those five things. So you are basically doing the same five quests over and over and over again.

The crafting system is simplistic and uninteresting. I hate "soul bound" items. I hate class and level based character advancement. Eventually every character ends up being one of perhaps a couple of dozen basic characters that are identical in every meaningful way, even down to the equipment they wear. When you compare that with what UO has to offer in terms of variety and freedom, there simply is no comparison.

Yes, WoW is pretty in a cartoony kind of way. Yes it is a very "polished" product where just about everything works well and bugs are fixed quickly. The mob a.i. is also quite good in many ways. But when you get right down to it, it is safe, bland, and boring as hell and you end up spending all your time doing the same few things, over and over and over again.

I call it the "MacDonald's of MMO's". Billions served with the same salt laden, greese soaked, sugar coated, bland, boring, crap. It's addictive because it's designed to be, but it is ultimately soul destroying, and a killer of creativity and imagination.

 

[Gilmour]

just know that everything you can do in wow evolves around your character.

- no housing
- lot of soulbound stuff
- no style customization with clothing or accesories or colors

but if you can live with that, wow can be quite entertaining.

but basicly, uo is a sandbox, where wow is another case of a game giving you only a couple options on how to play.

 

[Trebr Drab]

I played WoW for six months, and one morning woke up and realized, it just isn't fun. All the quests boil down to one of five things: 1. kill x number of y; 2. kill x and loot y; 3. find x and bring back y; 4. escort x from y to z; 5. deliver x to y. Hundreds of quests, and they all boil down to those five things. So you are basically doing the same five quests over and over and over again.

The crafting system is simplistic and uninteresting. I hate "soul bound" items. I hate class and level based character advancement. Eventually every character ends up being one of perhaps a couple of dozen basic characters that are identical in every meaningful way, even down to the equipment they wear. When you compare that with what UO has to offer in terms of variety and freedom, there simply is no comparison.

Yes, WoW is pretty in a cartoony kind of way. Yes it is a very "polished" product where just about everything works well and bugs are fixed quickly. The mob a.i. is also quite good in many ways. But when you get right down to it, it is safe, bland, and boring as hell and you end up spending all your time doing the same few things, over and over and over again.

I call it the "MacDonald's of MMO's". Billions served with the same salt laden, greese soaked, sugar coated, bland, boring, crap. It's addictive because it's designed to be, but it is ultimately soul destroying, and a killer of creativity and imagination.

That's a pretty good break down. I'd add that you are put in a line and told where to go, all the way through. Your character not only is just like all the others, your game play is too.
But WoW does have a boatload of cool little things in it. It's an extremely well made game for that sort of game. That, coupled with the candycrack, and in a market where most gamers have never experienced anything other than the same game play in single player games, is why they have been number one.
But times are changing, lots of WoW players see now, after they've leveled up, that there's a big something missing. It's just that there is nothing out there in a newer game with all the 3D coolness and different game play (like UO) to go to. Except EVE, of course. But that's not a "complete" MMO, lacking "avatars on the ground" and "world".

 

[Sevin0oo0]

Our son plays it. It's very animated, has excellent in game help & account services.
Ultimate Trammalite game. Little tolerance for cheaters. I wouldn't play it.

 

[Babble]

Maybe it is me but after UO WOW seems the closest thing mmos have to offer in sort of playstyle variety.

Want to pvp - hop into a battleground
For PvE there are always NEW quests, no rehashed content as UO, though in the end quests are similar
Want to mine? Get out your pickaxe and wander around looking for stuff.
Fishing is something WOW lately checked out from UO as when you fish at the sea so you can and is not leveldependent. UO though took the thing where you fish in dungeons which wow had.
Crafting in WOW though sucks, though I don't really see that much difference in UO or wow.

If wow had pushthrough and if you could put down things on the ground then it would be really cool.

WOW stole the best things from all mmos around and implemented it.

 

[Llewen]

WOW stole the best things from all mmos around and implemented it.

WoW stole the safest things from every other mmo. Everything about WoW is bland, boring, and perfectly safe. Nothing bad can ever happen to you, you never lose anything. No one ever loses, and in my opinion, no one ever wins. It's just one big hamster wheel.

 

[KoolAidAddict]

Some like it and stick with it, obviously.
Some play for a couple months, find out its the same old same old and chuck it.
Depending on what happens, if you are the later type, once its in the heapster, might I suggest Guild Wars.
Its a great, long lasting fun game with its short comings of course, and yet, since its online free, its a great break from UO.
Halloween event this weekend, which is currently running the "pre" event stuff, and it offers a free trial.
Might look see.

Just so Im NOT out of line........anyone hear of uo's halloween event activities yet?

 

[Ashlynn_L]

WoW is also very much against exploration. You're always stuck in a zone of the appropriate level bracket and if you try going anywhere else, you just get killed by yet another variety of adjective-noun bear or something. It's very frustrating if exploring a gameworld is something you like to do.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

If you're thinking a level-based WoW type game, try free LotRO instead.

 

[Dakkon Blackblade]

WoW stole the safest things from every other mmo. Everything about WoW is bland, boring, and perfectly safe. Nothing bad can ever happen to you, you never lose anything. No one ever loses, and in my opinion, no one ever wins. It's just one big hamster wheel.

The developers of UO saw this and became angered, and they thought aha! we will pay them back a hundred fold for their treachery by implementing AoS and copying the item properties from D2 bwahahahahaha1!!11!!

And now the two games play about the same with a few small exceptions, UO is now wow if wow had been made in the 90s.

 

[Jackson]

...

If you're thinking a level-based WoW type game, try free LotRO instead.

I would suggest this as well.
Wow is a great game as well, I just couldnt get into as much I could in LotRO.

 

[Thrakkar]

I played WoW for six months, and one morning woke up and realized, it just isn't fun. All the quests boil down to one of five things: 1. kill x number of y; 2. kill x and loot y; 3. find x and bring back y; 4. escort x from y to z; 5. deliver x to y. Hundreds of quests, and they all boil down to those five things. So you are basically doing the same five quests over and over and over again.

The crafting system is simplistic and uninteresting. I hate "soul bound" items. I hate class and level based character advancement. Eventually every character ends up being one of perhaps a couple of dozen basic characters that are identical in every meaningful way, even down to the equipment they wear. When you compare that with what UO has to offer in terms of variety and freedom, there simply is no comparison.

Yes, WoW is pretty in a cartoony kind of way. Yes it is a very "polished" product where just about everything works well and bugs are fixed quickly. The mob a.i. is also quite good in many ways. But when you get right down to it, it is safe, bland, and boring as hell and you end up spending all your time doing the same few things, over and over and over again.

I call it the "MacDonald's of MMO's". Billions served with the same salt laden, greese soaked, sugar coated, bland, boring, crap. It's addictive because it's designed to be, but it is ultimately soul destroying, and a killer of creativity and imagination.

Are quests in UO that much different?

I.e. the heritage quests... collect x baubles, escort the stag, kill x wolves...

Quests always will be that way, no matter which game. It's all about presentation and story. And WoW hast quite some good stories behind it's quests. Especially the big quests chains are pretty cool and from time to time there's a major plot twist, you don't expect. I really like levelling in WOW. But I don't like the endgame. That's boring. Basically I pay about 2-3 months per year for WoW. Mainly when a new expansion comes out and the level cap is raised and from time to time one month during the year so that my chars won't get deleted and I can meet old friends.

And every MMO is a hamster wheel, even UO. Some have a bigger cage, some a smaller, but in the end you're always doing the same over and over again...

Try it and take a look for yourself. But please keep your UO-account

 

[Babble]

WoW stole the safest things from every other mmo. Everything about WoW is bland, boring, and perfectly safe. Nothing bad can ever happen to you, you never lose anything. No one ever loses, and in my opinion, no one ever wins. It's just one big hamster wheel.

WOW is a great theme park.
UO was a virtual world game once.

And how is UO not the worse hamster wheel (doom) than wow.
True if you want certain items the grind is the same, but with quests you know which items you get.

And the only one who wins an mmo is the one who quits.

 

[Kiminality]

Our son plays it. It's very animated, has excellent in game help & account services.
Ultimate Trammalite game. Little tolerance for cheaters. I wouldn't play it.

"Location: Future WOW Player"

 

[Charin]

Fat Lip, let me explain. I quit UO for wow and am back to UO. WoW has almost nothing you can do alone. WoW is a constant grind to do dungeons and etc. To do end game content or dungeons even at lower levels u need 5 or more people. WoW is drying up currently. I dont think wow will ever go away... but it will be.... all but dead after this expansion. We had 22 friends ont he beta test... because of what they have seen in beta they completely quit WoW.

 

[Aurelius]

Played WoW for a while, along with quite a few other mmos as well. They all do a bit of what UO does, none deliver the whole package.

Some do their bit very well - if you like the graphic style, and have a team who are similarly focussed on raiding area fairly repetitively for the 'special' loot drops, you'll love WoW. It covers that playstyle very well indeed, and since so many people clearly do love that, more credit to Blizzard for cornering it. They also have a very good customer services system, and I always found them pleasant to deal with.

LotRO, on the other hand, drops some of the 'raid based repetition' and search for the shiny item sets and inserts a more rounded background, with more chrome relating to character development and world 'lore', and goes for a more muted (to my mind more realistic and detailed rather than the sometimes 'cartoony' feel to WoW) graphic look.

DAOC, in it's heyday, was superb at capturing the team against team playing style, even for a non-PvPer like me there was still something fascinating and fun about their real combats. Pirates of the Burning Sea was a lovely idea, that fell a bit flat in initial implementation but again offered a very interesting 'team' PvP structure, albeit in terms of your side's group of boats and naval tactics rather than any character-driven combat.

But ... they all cover parts of stuff and really avoid touching anything outside their limited area of specialism. If you like depth, options and a huge range of alternative playstyles, then you'll be back in UO before too long.

 

[Gilmour]

many, especially adults (like myself), think wow is TOO animated in large doses.

you basicly cannot look anywhere except something is moving on your monitor, coming from uo this is a revolution where ppl complains about slight waving trees in 3d client lol

 

[Lorax_Pacific]

5 minute recall flight. If you need to travel go make a pot of coffee or dinner.

Resources and crafting is nothing compared to UO. Once you need the gems for your battle gear suit it takes an extremely large guild to go run an instance to get that one gem or set of gems to cut. That part of making a suit will become the impossible.

I do miss the battlegrounds with 40 ppl and arenas. The only reason to play is battleground and arenas in my opinion, but getting the right gems for the suit likely won't happen. The pvp was pretty fun where cities are taken over kind of goal based where you kill the cities boss. Sometimes the pvp was like going to the yew gate and messing around.

If your a crafter don't bother with wow.

-Lorax

 

[Llewen]

And now the two games play about the same with a few small exceptions, UO is now wow if wow had been made in the 90s.

Not even remotely close.

Are quests in UO that much different?

I.e. the heritage quests... collect x baubles, escort the stag, kill x wolves...

Quests always will be that way, no matter which game. It's all about presentation and story. And WoW hast quite some good stories behind it's quests. Especially the big quests chains are pretty cool and from time to time there's a major plot twist, you don't expect. I really like levelling in WOW. But I don't like the endgame. That's boring. Basically I pay about 2-3 months per year for WoW. Mainly when a new expansion comes out and the level cap is raised and from time to time one month during the year so that my chars won't get deleted and I can meet old friends.

I'll grant you, quests aren't UO's strength, but the difference is that the quests in WoW are the main event. Quests are a very small part of what you can do in UO.

And every MMO is a hamster wheel, even UO. Some have a bigger cage, some a smaller, but in the end you're always doing the same over and over again...

I know what you are saying, but in UO you really don't have to do the same thing over and over again if you don't want to. Yes, I've found a few things I enjoyed that I have spent many hours doing, but it isn't the same thing. In WoW you are basically doing the same limited things over and over again, from day one. And even the things that are different are just iterations of the same basic quest mechanics.

 

[Aran]

WoW is terrible.

 

[Dakkon Blackblade]

Not even remotely close.

Except it is close, you take out housing and skill based progression and what differentiates it from World of Warcraft? there are little details you can point to but as far as design and the feel of the game, at least again in my opinion it is just a very dated client that plays like wow.

Obviously some people will disagree and that's fine but if you like UO and you want UO with better graphics then you will enjoy wow OP.

 

[Nestorius]

Burning through levels in WOW feels like burning through years of real life heading towards an eventual death of the ultimate level when all the quests are done.

 

[Gilmour]

i much prefer skill based systems like in uo as well, makes for more customization and things like purebread crafters etc.

in wow any charecter can have 2 professions which you can only learn to max after reaching a certain level, kinda stupid.

another thing about wow is there is not really much you can do that doesnt involve fighting. of the top of my head i think the only exception is fishing.

 

[lance23]

I tried the three new games that out right now. Among the three, world of warcraft cataclysm is the most awesome one. I used to defeat unusual crazy monster character in WoW.

 

[Smoot]

I have a wow account, really wish i would have sold it when it was still possible, because my main character had the absolutely best gear you could get. (yes wow is driven by gear, theres little else to do except maybe make a pet collection, or just accumulate gold)
Anyway, i quit for a year, and of course my once elite character's gear was basically worthless. Thats the basics of wow, the endless search for gear, and then replacing that best gear when a new patch comes out (about every 3-6 months. Same with pvp. Wow is the ultimate gear based game.

On another note, theres been alot of changes since wow came out. Some of these were good, for example the quest tracker. I hated it at first because i had spent so much time actually figuring out where i was supposed to go, where the end of the quest might be, and now i just bring up my map and stroll on over to the end of the quest (no thinking required, be this good or bad)

The recent skill changes after 4.1 have made every class even more generic than what it was. Now im not saying that a rogue should be able to tank a raid boss (this was possible before diminishing returns were introduced) But you were still able to personalize your character just a little bit. Like, i could use that skill in that tree better than the one in this tree. So you could make a decent amount of different combos with the talent points you accumulated. In short, now you cant.

The dungeon finder system also made the game "easier" yes it was a pain to try to find a group for a dungeon for hours and hours. However, its so easy now that alot of people dont even quest anymore. I know i leveled a warlock to 55, questing hardly at all. I might do 1 or 2 quests per level.

Because the people you get poofed into dungeons with (no more actually having to go to the dungeon entrance) are usually not from your server theres little interaction. No one really talks. If someones from another server and i want a peice of gear that they need alot more, yeah ill just take it because ill never see them again.

Crafting is really nothing to speak of, its a cookie cutter grind.

Basically, wow is fun for some mindless repetition with bright lights. Like how so many have said, going on a disneyland ride over and over again. Its fun, but requires little thought or skill. Even the raids are so easy since the Wrath expansion that most just do them with random people. Its good that you have the option to do this, but really killed the need for guilds. You only need a guild untill you have killed a boss once, and then you can just link that kill and kill that boss with random people for the rest of the game.

So, give it a try. Like UO its not what it originally was, and it was never as complex as uo to begin with. Its brighter tho, and in 3d

 

[Taylor]

I've been playing Combat Arms the last couple of days. It's fun, it's free, and no one in the beginner servers have permanent gear. Most gear expires, so it never really becomes item-based.

 

[Smoot]

Except it is close, you take out housing and skill based progression and what differentiates it from World of Warcraft? there are little details you can point to but as far as design and the feel of the game, at least again in my opinion it is just a very dated client that plays like wow.

Obviously some people will disagree and that's fine but if you like UO and you want UO with better graphics then you will enjoy wow OP.

UO has skill combos. You cant make a chiv archer ninja tamer necro in wow. (yes i made that work effectively in uo) Although your gear still makes your character preform better in uo, you can make so many different templates in uo. That just isnt a part of how wow works.

 

[Fat Lip]

Its been a few weeks since I last posted about trying out World of Warcraft.

I love that game now; its so cool! The graphics are great, and the quests are fun. The monsters are interesting, and I'm really enjoying myself with it. I've let my UO account deactivate because I can only afford one game at a time. I'm glad that I gave it a try.

Just got to level 23 the other day, and bought a mount. It's a "Mechanostrider"; which is like a robot ostrich.

Doubt I'll ever completely give up Ultima Online, but I need a break from it. Two other things that I think is cool about WoW, is that:
- Haven't found any bugs yet.
-3D Terrain.

3D Terrain holds a special place in my heart because I like to make area maps in Neverwinter Nights 2. I got some cool ideas from seeing what they did with the terrain in WoW and learned a few techniques from seeing the areas in that game.

 

[Naisikras]

WoW is a great game, anyone who games should at least level to the cap once in that game. For me at cap, things really start to go in the wrong direction...

The big thing for me was you cannot do anything solo, between my wife and my baby I can't tell you if I'm gonna sit down for 30 minutes to play or 3 hours. Unfortunately, to progress your character you are going to have to rely on teamwork. In order to compete you will have to stay upgraded on your gear, and in order to keep your gear fine tuned you need to travel the most difficult dungeons, and in order to travel those dungeons you need to have a guild/group of friends who you hang out with because pugging a difficult dungeon can really be a hair puller sometimes.

If your progressing your character via pvp, imo it's even more of a commiment, you really have to commit to your partner(s) to put in the hours of practice if you want to do any progression this way.

tl;dr: if you can commit time to WoW, it is an extremely fun game, if you can't, you will find yourself always behind/pulling your hair out.

 

[Aran]

WoW is as fun as going to work at a job you hate.

 

[Taylor]

lol

 

[canary]

Ehn, both are good for their ow reasons.

I prefer a sandbox approach, however I'd love a WoW or LotR looking world to play in other than the '2.5D' we are saddled with now.

 

[Llewen]

Personally I'd love WoW's graphics and freedom of movement (flying), with UO's game system. That would be a dream MMO for me. The reason why I say WoW's graphics, and not the graphics of some other game engine, is the fact that WoW's graphics are so easy on hardware.

 

[Aran]

UO looks exactly how it should. Get out.

 

[Viper09]

Despite all the crap people give towards WoW, it is actually a pretty fun game. That is if you don't mind a game based on character leveling. If you can put all the graphic settings on max it looks nice too. If you want PvP they have servers for it. Not saying the PvP is the way it should be but they have it. However it's more lvl restrictive. Basically if you want to compete with someone you best be hoping you're at least around their level.

But if you're interested download it and give it a try for free.

 

[Cymidei Fier]

WoW is a big soulless leveling game but it has it's charms. To get to max level expect to do endless quests and grinding. Fortunately, WOW just redesigned the maps and quests, and lowered the experience requirements for leveling. Cataclysm has added many real improvements way too many to try to list them all.

Over all Wow is very well designed, nice interface, challenging end-game content and lots of add-ons to make game play even better. WoW is well worth playing in my opinion even if it doesn't have all the qualities that make UO fun.

If you get into a really good guild, it's just as much fun as UO. I think the fun of any MMORPG boils down to who you play with and your community. WoW definitely has some good players, don't judge the game by the guys who sit in the trade channel telling Chuck Norris jokes all day long; they are the WoW equivalent of Luna Bank Sitters...

 

[Neutron Bomb]

I played WoW from release for 3 or so years. At first the game is beautiful, and quite large but quickly become repetitious and devoid of fun. Guild are created, grow large and quite often disband without any real reason. PvP is horrible, with what once was pretty awesome. In the beginning the PvP was made up of people attacking towns or large cities. Now it's all of this mutual battle ground CRAPTASTIC way of playing. Really lame I say.

Plus there are many out there that actually do get drawn into this game for some reason, and rarely do they come out of their rooms NOT looking like Smeagol eventually.

 

[Taylor]

What other games do you play/prefer over WoW?

 

[Luvmylace]

....Each time someone posts this kind of message,the replying posts usually tell you leave ,or they thoroughly expound the pros and cons of the chosen game .
I propose that you try the free 14 day ,then come back and expound on the value and lure of the game that has everything! UO ! It has pvm,pvp, role playing ,housing,merchanting in game,imbuing,stealing, vendoring,auctioning,decorating,raiding,factions,treasure hunting just to name some .Just look into the UO Stratics Forums for the world of possibilities in this game.
rolleyes:Then look back and wonder why you ever left !