Forgotten Corners of World of Warcraft • Hacker News Board

Re: Forgotten Corners of World of Warcraft

#151

Post by FlannelPancake » Sat, Apr 25, 2015, 4:31 AM UTC

thret wrote: post #136

abakker wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good point - Silithus ALWAYS had a low population, because it sucked to get to, and sucked even more to level there. The quests are almost all formulaic, (kill 10 ant monsters, etc.) and there are few plots in any of the quests. Once you hit 60 in the original game, there was plenty to do in _any_ other area that made it worth leaving and never coming back. I did some leveling in all the areas that were available at…

Perhaps you only visited after the gate was opened? This zone was very busy on PvP servers, because of the horde v alliance competition to open the gate to AQ first. I thought the AQ raids were quite enjoyable also. When else has a warrior tank needed a frost wand?

Pre-AQ, he's absolutely right that the place was a dead zone and no 60 would bother spending any time there.

Silithus was really only busy for those 6 months between patch 1.9 and 1.11. Well, probably a bit longer than that I guess since original Naxx was such a shitshow. At most 10 months, though.

Re: Forgotten Corners of World of Warcraft

#152

Post by heidar » Sat, Apr 25, 2015, 5:19 AM UTC

I recall a poll on reddit where the question was: "If you could relive any experience for the first time again, what would it be?" Playing WoW for the first time was quite high on that list, and I think that would be my answer too.

Re: Forgotten Corners of World of Warcraft

#153

Post by topbanana » Sat, Apr 25, 2015, 5:51 AM UTC

prawks wrote: post #66

FlannelPancake wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're clearly correct about the game beginning at max level, but I don't think heirlooms or exp boosts changed anything. Even in vanilla, there were accepted "do this to level as quickly as possible" routes. No one really hung around silithus pre-AQ, with the small exception of people who chose to level there (and there were much better zones to do that). WoW and mmos in general just don't encourage explorat…

> unless you're really into just having fun - which the game mostly does not encourage This is the exact reason why, no matter how many times I tried over the years to play this game with friends, I could never stay attached for longer than a few hours. There seems to be less and less emphasis put on enjoying the experience of exploration and being in a space in modern online games, and more emphasis on rote activiti…

Which single player games do you recommend? Those that emphasise exploration sound really interesting

Re: Forgotten Corners of World of Warcraft

#154

Post by visakanv » Sat, Apr 25, 2015, 8:26 AM UTC

spiritplumber wrote: post #57

patio11 wrote: post #40

Interesting note: every ghost-town of a zone in WoW, and some of them were ghost-towns immediately, cost N fully realized software startups to develop. (Like, mid-single-digit million dollars per zone.) It's one of those things to keep in perspective when folks say "Why did anyone sink $1.2 million into $A_FIELD_I_DON'T_CONNECT_WITH?" I don't know, but that's literally less than it cost to put that mid-30s swamp leve…

Thanks, you are my deep revelation for today.

Yeah, mine too.

I was also thinking about how... if you've ever been invited to a rich-person's event, like a glitzy fashion show or something (I got a media invite for one once), there's all sorts of free drinks and food and chocolate and what-have-you.

But all that expense is justified because if they win you over and have you buying whatever they're selling, they recoup all their losses.

I suppose it's the sheer scale that's staggering. Some people are playing at much higher stakes, and it hard to really grasp how things are.

Re: Forgotten Corners of World of Warcraft

#155

Post by facepalm » Sat, Apr 25, 2015, 8:41 AM UTC

That made me sad. It seems to me that because there is no way to have a real impact on the world in most MMORPGs, there really is no point to visit those places.

Re: Forgotten Corners of World of Warcraft

#156

Post by fapjacks » Sat, Apr 25, 2015, 8:49 AM UTC

Ocerge wrote: post #71

prawks wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> unless you're really into just having fun - which the game mostly does not encourage This is the exact reason why, no matter how many times I tried over the years to play this game with friends, I could never stay attached for longer than a few hours. There seems to be less and less emphasis put on enjoying the experience of exploration and being in a space in modern online games, and more emphasis on rote activiti…

This exact reason is why EverQuest grabbed me so much harder than any other MMO since. Another huge reason is the danger factor. In WoW, there is effectively no punishment at all if you die, so there's no fear of exploring new places. In EQ, there are (or at least were) steep penalties if you die in the wrong place. Ignoring the fact that you lose XP that could amount to hours of lost progress, you may compound your…

If you want a truly punishing experience that gives a game exceptional gravity, try MUME[0]. Best PvP experience I've ever had.

[0] http://www.mume.org

Re: Forgotten Corners of World of Warcraft

#157

Post by vacri » Sat, Apr 25, 2015, 8:59 AM UTC

Ocerge wrote: post #71

prawks wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> unless you're really into just having fun - which the game mostly does not encourage This is the exact reason why, no matter how many times I tried over the years to play this game with friends, I could never stay attached for longer than a few hours. There seems to be less and less emphasis put on enjoying the experience of exploration and being in a space in modern online games, and more emphasis on rote activiti…

This exact reason is why EverQuest grabbed me so much harder than any other MMO since. Another huge reason is the danger factor. In WoW, there is effectively no punishment at all if you die, so there's no fear of exploring new places. In EQ, there are (or at least were) steep penalties if you die in the wrong place. Ignoring the fact that you lose XP that could amount to hours of lost progress, you may compound your…

steep penalties if you die in the wrong place.

Ah, the early days of EQ, when I couldn't figure out how people would drag their corpse to safety.

Re: Forgotten Corners of World of Warcraft

#158

Post by vacri » Sat, Apr 25, 2015, 9:02 AM UTC

swombat wrote: post #137

mikerichards wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you said and real nighttime in EQ. I remember being alone, a low level, lost in Karana as night was approaching. I knew if I died that I might not know where my corpse was for the corpse run, so I had real fear, and was real cautious.

And the final element missing to instil real fear? True PvP, where anyone might decide to betray you and kill you while you're resting to recover hitpoints or manna or whatever. It's only when loss is possible that you can truly gain. It's only when betrayal is possible that you can truly trust. It's only when your character can completely fail that you can truly enjoy success. Each of those are opposite sides of the…

PvP makes things interesting, for sure. I suck a PvP, but I'd never play on a non-PvP server because it adds that spice of the unexpected. If you want to farm mobs, you have to stay viable in PvP, just in case.

Re: Forgotten Corners of World of Warcraft

#159

Post by ryan-allen » Sat, Apr 25, 2015, 9:23 AM UTC

Ah, I have played this game a lot... I loved exploring all the zones and levelling up. It's not entirely true that all the game happens 'at the end' I think, there are whole arcs that happened with each expansion but that is lost for a brand new player. WoW caters for the lifers, I think.

Blizzard can solve the problem, they have the brains and the cash. I wish they'd make a new MMO with all their learnings! They could deprecate WoW and start all again. Every expansion you kind of do that anyway.

The thing about all the forgotten content is that at some point in time during some xpac, it was very pertinent and relevant. But now it's still there many xpacs later.

Re: Forgotten Corners of World of Warcraft

#160

Post by Syssiphus » Sat, Apr 25, 2015, 9:35 AM UTC

Ocerge wrote: post #71

prawks wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> unless you're really into just having fun - which the game mostly does not encourage This is the exact reason why, no matter how many times I tried over the years to play this game with friends, I could never stay attached for longer than a few hours. There seems to be less and less emphasis put on enjoying the experience of exploration and being in a space in modern online games, and more emphasis on rote activiti…

This exact reason is why EverQuest grabbed me so much harder than any other MMO since. Another huge reason is the danger factor. In WoW, there is effectively no punishment at all if you die, so there's no fear of exploring new places. In EQ, there are (or at least were) steep penalties if you die in the wrong place. Ignoring the fact that you lose XP that could amount to hours of lost progress, you may compound your…

Ah, the thrill of sneaking into Lower Guk as a Lvl 19 Bard, only armed with a flute, hoping that a group would camp the Froglok Assassin and they would allow you to loot a Mask of Deception drop.