Blizzard engages in mental torture.

[Sparrowhawk]

So did I. Alas, all those WoW players will have to keep waiting to have another ten levels or so to grind, along with a couple of new battlegrounds and maybe some new races/classes to engage in repetitive combat with...shame.

Only 5 levels in Cataclysm

As for the "repetitive combat"...what do you suggest as a better game? After playing WoW for far too long, and far too many hours, I am open to suggestions.....what is a similar style game but "better" in your opinion?

[action=Sparrowhawk][/action]

[Elok]

There are powerful economic factors making MMOs repetitive grindfests. I don't play the things so I can't say if there is such a game, but it would probably help a lot if combat were less automated; combat in WoW is (or was, when I watched my college roomie play it) a matter of watching your character hit the enemy--occasionally pressing a button to make him heal when health ran low, or use an ability to hit a little harder when mana/rage/energy permitted. The strategy didn't vary in the slightest depending on enemy as far as I could tell, it was just a matter of being strong enough for your battle-pattern to endure beyond your opponent's. The only real strategy was outside of battle, altering the build to alter your pattern.

Now, if you had to actually become involved in battle, somewhat closer to a fighting game or even an FPS...aside from being more fun, it would have the added effect of causing eventual mental fatigue and keeping people from hypnotically playing the damned game for marathon ten-hour runs without any performance decreases. Which, in turn, would make the in-game content last longer without the need for padding with eighty kills' worth of EXP per level.

[Felch]

After playing WoW for far too long, and far too many hours, I am open to suggestions.....what is a similar style game but "better" in your opinion?

The problem is that the style of game itself is bad. If you're solo grinding missions out, then you (for example) aggro a single bear, kill it, find out that it doesn't have any of the "bear paws" you were sent out to gather, look for another bear, and repeat. Elok pointed out the combat, but the missions themselves are generally pretty dull. At least for the first hundred hours or so of the game. Then I hear it gets interesting.

Borderlands has relatively interesting combat, but the rest of the game has problems. It's just difficult to make an interesting skill tree and balance that with playing something in real time. Borderlands worked around that by making only one ability active, and everything else you spent points on was a passive boost. That's good and fun, but it won't ever give you the depth of WoW. Making combat interesting would get me hooked on MMOs. As it is, I can't really stay involved for long.

[Asher]

Age of Conan has a real-time combat system that is far more interesting than most games. Unfortunately, the game itself isn't very good and they had an abysmal launch which is why the game is rapidly spiraling towards doom.

[Elok]

Does AoC's system have the general effect I predicted, of discouraging marathon gaming?

Felch, are there MMOs that have banned the "collect **** for me, bring me ten and I'll give you a trinket and some EXP" quest from their repertoire? To be fair, it is a step up from the old-school RPG "run around in circles fighting crap till you gain a level" mechanic, even if it does suck. Also, is that the obverse of the MD state seal in your avatar?

[MrFun]

There are powerful economic factors making MMOs repetitive grindfests. I don't play the things so I can't say if there is such a game, but it would probably help a lot if combat were less automated; combat in WoW is (or was, when I watched my college roomie play it) a matter of watching your character hit the enemy--occasionally pressing a button to make him heal when health ran low, or use an ability to hit a little harder when mana/rage/energy permitted. The strategy didn't vary in the slightest depending on enemy as far as I could tell, it was just a matter of being strong enough for your battle-pattern to endure beyond your opponent's. The only real strategy was outside of battle, altering the build to alter your pattern.

Now, if you had to actually become involved in battle, somewhat closer to a fighting game or even an FPS...aside from being more fun, it would have the added effect of causing eventual mental fatigue and keeping people from hypnotically playing the damned game for marathon ten-hour runs without any performance decreases. Which, in turn, would make the in-game content last longer without the need for padding with eighty kills' worth of EXP per level.

But there is a little strategy involved in instances in playing WoW. When you've formed a group/party to go through an instance of elite mobs and bosses, members are assigned specific roles such as tanking, DPS, healing, crowd control, and so on. Then there are a few situations where mobs or a boss attack in such ways that you briefly have to go over the enemy's mode of attack, then quickly decide how each member in the group will play their role to ensure a more successful battle.

I'm a fan of WoW, but I won't argue against your point that combat outside of instances is simplistic. But simplistic is not always a bad thing - I want a game that is challenging but not so drowned in details of real-time more sosphisticated combat that there is no fun factor in the game. In other games, you might spend more time trying to master real-time combat than actually playing the game, and making progress.

So for people who want a more detailed and sophisticated battle system, they will not enjoy WoW. But for others such as myself, who have no problems with a more simplistic battle system, WoW is a game that is more on the fun side than on side of in-depth challenge. But, maybe if I try a MMO game that does have a more sophsticated battle system, I may change my opinion.

But in meantime, I will stick with WoW.

[MrFun]

Someone in one of the WoW forums through Blizzard's official website has speculated that Cataclysm is like to be released before September!!

[DrSpike]

Then it must be true.

[MrFun]

right

[Felch]

Felch, are there MMOs that have banned the "collect **** for me, bring me ten and I'll give you a trinket and some EXP" quest from their repertoire? To be fair, it is a step up from the old-school RPG "run around in circles fighting crap till you gain a level" mechanic, even if it does suck. Also, is that the obverse of the MD state seal in your avatar?

None that I know of. RPGs are best when they encourage thorough exploration, but don't force you to cover the same ground over and over in a silly grind. In that sense it pretty much inevitable that they're going to have something like that, since it's an easy way to get you to run around and explore the world they built for you. I just get tired of it when that seems like the entire game.

And yeah, it's the obverse

[Heraclitus]

There are powerful economic factors making MMOs repetitive grindfests. I don't play the things so I can't say if there is such a game, but it would probably help a lot if combat were less automated; combat in WoW is (or was, when I watched my college roomie play it) a matter of watching your character hit the enemy--occasionally pressing a button to make him heal when health ran low, or use an ability to hit a little harder when mana/rage/energy permitted. The strategy didn't vary in the slightest depending on enemy as far as I could tell, it was just a matter of being strong enough for your battle-pattern to endure beyond your opponent's. The only real strategy was outside of battle, altering the build to alter your pattern.

Now, if you had to actually become involved in battle, somewhat closer to a fighting game or even an FPS...aside from being more fun, it would have the added effect of causing eventual mental fatigue and keeping people from hypnotically playing the damned game for marathon ten-hour runs without any performance decreases. Which, in turn, would make the in-game content last longer without the need for padding with eighty kills' worth of EXP per level.

There is actually a game that tried to do this. I think it was called Darkfall. Some realism nerds love it. The original Eurogame reviewer hated it so much he only played for a few hours and then wrote a incoherent rant complaining it was not like WoW.