WAR: Another Two Bite the Dust

Two real life friends have decided to take a break from WAR and return to play WOTLK.  *Sigh*  Their decision doesn’t have an immediate impact on my game play since they rolled Destruction and I rolled Order.  As it happens they rolled on my server thinking that they would run across me in game and gank me.  Too bad for them that even at my casual pace, I’ve out leveled their lame asses. *Kisses*

I’ve fallen a tad bit behind the guild crew that I’ve been grouping with when the opportunity presents itself.  I really enjoy their company.  We share similar levels of chattiness and can tolerate each other’s humor.  I would say enjoy, but I think a couple of them might simply be suffering in silence.  During the week they stay online later than I do.  Fortunately, they come on considerably earlier than the bulk of the guild.  The hour or so before they get on I can solo which helps to unwind from my day at the Funny Farm, before attempting to be social and civil.  If they happen to be on before me because I’ve worked late, I'm often greeted by a group invite the minute I materialize in game.  They are a great bunch which is one of the reasons I’ve been afraid of losing pace with them.  Now that we’ve hit Tier 4, I don’t have to worry anymore.  There are no other rank divisions that can bar me from playing with them.  *Whew*

90% of the way to Rank 32, I spend 50% of my time soloing chapters in Empire, 25% in Scenarios and 25% with a small group of guild members.  The Empire scenery is back to the architecture and climate that I enjoy most in MMOs.  I follow my buds to whatever zone they want to do for that session but I spend my personal time in Empire’s T4.  I can’t wait to begin leveling in Praag!  I want to hit that zone and never leave.  I don’t have any great pictures yet.  My visits there so far have been during Open RVR with little time for sightseeing.  I will definitely be taking plenty of pictures once I hit those content chapters.

We also did our first run of the T4 instance Bastion Stair.  Here’s a quick picture from there.  We’ve only started the first wing which was very cool.  I’ll do a proper post on it soon.

Comments

[JoBildo]

You know what I find most odd about that picture? That Thunda (Warrender) is into T4 with a second character already. Man's a machine.

[Jason]

Just quit Saylah.

C'mon. Do the WoWTooSee (Patent Pending - All rights reserved). All the cool kids are doing it. You wanna be cool, don't ya?

Jason (resident drunken idiot of Channel Massive)

[Saylah]

Warrender is crazy in a good way. :-) I teased him a bit about his leveling while we were doing Bastion. He has a method that is very efficient and it's clearly effective, but allows him to have fun. He's not rushing or intentionally racing past the content. It's just that his player style and self-management equal fun for him and very quick leveling.

I on the other hand am a tinkerer in most games except being less so in WAR to keep pace in the leveling curve. *sigh* I'll get back to my roaming ways on my alt.

[JoBildo]

I'd like time to roam... you know, I rarely make trips to Altdorf even? I don't play the AH or anything, because when I'm online I try to focus on actually playing the more fun parts for me (questing and whatnot). That and I seem to be making insane amounts of money off of just quests and junk drops.

[Saylah]

@Jason - You don't know the half of it. My nephew, whose accounts I maintain, asked me to re-activate his WOW and cancel his WAR account. *sad face*

If 2008 had been a different gaming year, I wouldn't mind purchasing another game knowing that I was only going to do the ride to max level. I know that it's a good ride to max playing WOW. However, I just don't feel like purchasing a game knowing that I'm bailing on the longevity because I have no intention of doing the WOW end-game. Been there. Done it for over 3 years. Not interested in doing it again.

I don't like that I've purchased several games this year times 3 that we didn't play beyond a few weeks. If they were console games that's what I'd expect but they weren't. For now at least, I don't see any reason to start something that I know I won't finish.

[coppertopper]

Glad you're having fun - missing the great guild experience, which is what really made WAR shine for me. Seems like WoLTK might have a couple months of fun content and would be worth it for the Disney-like experience. Personally I can't stop playing single player games right now. Fable 2, CoDWAR, Stalker Clearskies, and went back to Titan Quest to satisfy the loot whore in me : p. So much gaming goodness out there right now. Gives mythic a few months to flesh out WaR.

[Saylah]

@Copper - Yes, I'm still enjoying any and all of the content that I see. I can't imagine not liking the content. It's visually appealing and highly interactive. The implementation of some game mechanics need work - most sluggish combat I've ever encountered, weird lag spikes, invisible players in combat, bodies half submerged in the ground, inconsistent LOS requirements...things like that which are all just bugs needing to be fixed. Except the combat thing. I don't know how they missed how out of sync it is with what's happening on the screen.

So yes, the content itself is great minus bugs and lack of players.

[Khan]

I suspect that given the number of people that leapt into WAR, Mythic should have the money needed to make improvements to the game which may end up stopping (or reversing) the exodus if they do it right. If WAR is your thing, hang in there. MMOs launch with a basic game but need to improve it. WoW was there too. I think WAR has a good foundation to build on and its obstacles don't seem insurmountable (to me, anyway).

BTW, as a LotRO fan, I feel your pain. We're both fans of an underdog. I watched all my friends from WoW leave LotRO to go back. I stayed on though and it has made the difference for me. The game is better, more refined and, contrary to the opinion of outsiders, doing well enough on its own. The LotRO community, on my server anyway, has become tight-knit. We've been through the rush in and the rush out and we're stronger for it. The people that are there are the people that want to be there.

WAR launched successfully. Now it's struggling through a down-turn. If Mythic is smart, and I have every reason to believe they are, they'll turn it around again and WAR will be better and its community stronger for their perseverance.

Keep your head up!

[Saylah]

@Kahn - Thanks for the comment and I will be hanging in there. There very little that I really want beyond bug fixes is for them to implement something that helps small groups completed PQs to earn the chest drops. I can wait on the rest.

I love the Empire zones and have only scratched the surface. the T4 High Elf zone was beautiful too but not enough people to play with there unless you brought your own party along. So while it's a hotbed of RVR activity when there's RVR, I didn't quest there very much. I'm looking forward to doing that T4 zone on a different character.

I'm here to stay for a while. I have at least another run to 40 in me. If there's nothing much to do on a regular basis at 40 by the time I have two characters there, then and only then, I'll revisit my options.

I was never a WAR fanboi. I wasn't even monitoring it's progress after the first delay. For that reason, my expectations might have been lower than those who'd been anxiously awaiting it's arrival.

[Winged Nazgul]

Yeah, I didn't have much expectations about WAR either which is why I really haven't been disappointed. There's enough enjoyable content for me to digest at my own pace and the upside is incredible. So I'm here to stay as well for the foreseeable future.

And I really am taking it casually. It's the reason I decided to join the CoW's. You should've seen me in a more hardcore guild. :p

[Ysharros]

This is going to sound strange given that I haven't played WAR in a couple of weeks, but (to quote Syp), I feel I'm in it for the long haul too -- if only because of the insanely great CoW crew we have.

It isn't so much what I play anymore, I think, as who I play it with. ... When I play. ;)

[JoBildo]

Yep, I'm with Ysh.

I'm really digging WAR as a whole.

But with CoW I could even be convinced to play Hello Kitty Online seriously.

[Saylah]

I'm right there with you all. COW makes everything better. I can't think of a single playing session populated with COW members that wasn't fun.

You know, we have the kind of dynamic and rapport that would have made a great EVE Corporation! We have the explorers, crafting types, PVP/RVR hounds, grinders and leaders, along with good vent conversation and guild chat that would have brightened up the often solitary activities of deep space. Hmm, filing that thought for future reference.

[Ysharros]

I liked EVE, except for the whole flying around space thing that made me want to upchuck. :| Oh, and, sad but true, I missed a walky-aroundy avatar; I'm old-fashioned. Do file that for future ref though, it's a good idea!

[Winged Nazgul]

Ysh, I think you would be pleasantly surprised to see what CCP have in store just for folks like you:

Ambulation or Walking in Stations.

[Winged Nazgul]

I guess some links would help. :)

http://www.eurogamer.net/gallery.php?game_id=1676&article_id=312505

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=312618&page=1

[Saylah]

Thanks for the links. The pictures look great. The models look a tiny bit glossy but I'm sure they're still refining everything. I asked Letrange when he thought ambulation was coming and he though about this time next year!?! That's a long time. I was hearing about this last year and am surprised it's not coming in the upcoming expansion. :-(