Wow has lost its touch. Is cata responsible?

[tekac]

I totally agree with silencer, but I thought this particular sentence was worth the quote... may even make it my signature

I completely agree with this statement. Vanilla WOW was where it was it in regards to community. Mainly because of the huge influx from Everquest IMO. There was a wait period in between EQ and WoW/EQ2 coming out.

The community on Everquest still is amazing, it is such a HUGE difference its not even funny. I have been playing EQ for a few weeks and its astounding. I just got back into multiboxing and now have 5 WoW accounts and I don't feel like talking to anyone because its all hatred. Crap like "WTF U NOOB"

[Yahtzee]

I completely agree with this statement. Vanilla WOW was where it was it in regards to community. Mainly because of the huge influx from Everquest IMO. There was a wait period in between EQ and WoW/EQ2 coming out.

The community on Everquest still is amazing, it is such a HUGE difference its not even funny. I have been playing EQ for a few weeks and its astounding. I just got back into multiboxing and now have 5 WoW accounts and I don't feel like talking to anyone because its all hatred. Crap like "WTF U NOOB"

Not only that, people actually go out of their way to attack you (Verbally, not referring to PvP). I've had people just sit in a battleground and do nothing other than insult and call me down to the dirt. I used to get it here-and-there back in Wrath, but it has gotten so much worse in Cataclysm.

It really ruins the experience at times. For example, last week I was doing 5v5's (I quad-box with a separate person healing me) and knocked out 3 of the opposing teams members while still having everyone alive. The last two people alive were two rogues, and they would stealth around the map and grab the shadow sights and instantly restealth. Even if I got to knock them out of stealth, they would just cloak and vanish, so it was a cat and mouse game the entire time. Other members of their team would create characters on my server with offensive names and whisper obscenities to me, all the while saying they weren't going to let me win because I was boxing.

It was clear that what they were doing was harassment, so we opened a GM ticket and explained the situation. The GM watched the rest of the match (20-25 minutes worth) and seen the vulgar whispers I was getting but did nothing to intervene in the match, I was actually in awe. This team had successfully wasted 45 minutes of my night because they were vehemently opposed to my multi-boxing.

What really bothers me is.. the next day we opened another GM ticket for clarification of the situation and we were told they are in fact allowed to intervene in arena matches under those circumstances.

[Khatovar]

I find it kinda amusing seeing complaints about the community coming from people who pride themselves on being a one man army. I'll agree that the WoW community as a whole blows, but it's the very least of my concerns considering that ignoring and avoiding "the community" is one of the perks of multiboxing to me.

They're Just there for me to sell my phat lewtz overflow to, to make me cool addons and to do all the hard math stuff involved in theorycrafting, lol!

[Tonuss]

Blizzard built WOW, at least in part, on lessons learned from prior MMOs, particularly Everquest (IMO). It's possible that one lesson that they applied mistakenly was the rigid "our way or the highway" approach to rules and content that EQ had in its earlier days, where "the vision" was king and trumped everything. EQ had a great community, and part of the sense of community was from the feeling that it was us against the sadistic development team.

It does seem as if Blizzard took things too far in the other direction. They became allergic to the idea that they might not be responsive to every part of the player base. And with the incredible popularity of the game came the feeling that WOW had crossed into the mainstream, and that more and more of their players simply wouldn't tolerate not being allowed to have all of the available toys. So they gave it to us, and before long we were sleepwalking our way through heroic AOE-fests for dime-store epics.

I think what they realized (too late, I believe) is that if you simply give players everything that they want, they won't ever be satisfied.

[Mickthathick]

I think what they realized (too late, I believe) is that if you simply give players everything that they want, they won't ever be satisfied.

Actually, Blizzard know exactly what they are doing, and it all boils down to converting trail accounts into paying subs, by ensuring new players get everything that vetern players have.

I remember reading last year that less then 10% of trail accounts become paying subscripers. That is the market they are after, they care about the mature player base to a limited extent but their focus really is on getting new players hooked and hooking their friends using social networking.

[AgentSnipps]

Sure WoW has shit for a community but then again what MMO's have you guys played that didn't have a few turds in the punch bowl? (Wow is just a bigger bowl) I played for a good five years off and on and rolled three diffrent servers and for the most part the people where the exact same all I had to do is find a guild I got a long with and stick with them or just multibox and avoid the social part of the game all together.

The only game I found with a decen community was CoH but it wasn't a big community ethier and I mostly had to play by myself.

I love MMO's so I give everyone a go round when the release and I'm really looking forward to play the old republic and guild wars 2 but I have no hope taht the community will be any better/worse then WoW or any of the others games I've played but hey thats just me.

-AgentSnipps

[Ualaa]

Not only that, people actually go out of their way to attack you (Verbally, not referring to PvP). I've had people just sit in a battleground and do nothing other than insult and call me down to the dirt. I used to get it here-and-there back in Wrath, but it has gotten so much worse in Cataclysm.

It really ruins the experience at times. For example, last week I was doing 5v5's (I quad-box with a separate person healing me) and knocked out 3 of the opposing teams members while still having everyone alive. The last two people alive were two rogues, and they would stealth around the map and grab the shadow sights and instantly restealth. Even if I got to knock them out of stealth, they would just cloak and vanish, so it was a cat and mouse game the entire time. Other members of their team would create characters on my server with offensive names and whisper obscenities to me, all the while saying they weren't going to let me win because I was boxing.

It was clear that what they were doing was harassment, so we opened a GM ticket and explained the situation. The GM watched the rest of the match (20-25 minutes worth) and seen the vulgar whispers I was getting but did nothing to intervene in the match, I was actually in awe. This team had successfully wasted 45 minutes of my night because they were vehemently opposed to my multi-boxing.

What really bothers me is.. the next day we opened another GM ticket for clarification of the situation and we were told they are in fact allowed to intervene in arena matches under those circumstances.

I'd be very inclined to post their comments (screen shots) along with the GM responses that this is a valid tactic in World of Warcraft.
Make a post on a few sites, like MMO-Champion... to the effect, does Blizzard really want this in their game?

While a GM might think nothing is wrong with it, I can pretty much guarantee the higher ups in Blizzard don't want this kind of negative publicity associated with their game.

If it's okay now, it probably won't be okay in the future if you post it a bit, so potential customers don't want to play in an environment where this is explicitly allowed.

If it is okay for five players to do this to a boxer, it's also okay for five players to do this to another five players... so post this as a valid tactic on arena junkies.

[Yahtzee]

I'd be very inclined to post their comments (screen shots) along with the GM responses that this is a valid tactic in World of Warcraft.
Make a post on a few sites, like MMO-Champion... to the effect, does Blizzard really want this in their game?

While a GM might think nothing is wrong with it, I can pretty much guarantee the higher ups in Blizzard don't want this kind of negative publicity associated with their game.

If it's okay now, it probably won't be okay in the future if you post it a bit, so potential customers don't want to play in an environment where this is explicitly allowed.

If it is okay for five players to do this to a boxer, it's also okay for five players to do this to another five players... so post this as a valid tactic on arena junkies.

I'll try to put together a cohesive packet of screen shots and GM responses, I'm almost positive that I captured most of everything. I'll see if MMO champ is interested in posting it, too. It was definitely a frustrating situation that the GM was okay with just sitting there and watching it happen.

What's worse, the week after a different team 'tried' to do the same thing. They weren't quite as graceful though, and didn't waste too much time. I'm worried that this is going to become a problem week after week without a chance of recourse. ;\

[Anthrox]

Normally I'd be taking a break from WoW about this time, but the one thing that those sneaky bastards put in Cata that keeps me logging back in is the Guild Level. Leveling up a guild takes a while for a normal guild, but it's an insane timesink for a multiboxer. I just want to have the same benefits others get with a max guild level, so I grind every day.

I'm also thinking about doing a 70-74 arena bracket team -- leveling up team 4 now and that guild level 20 heirloom item is on my want list.

I'm making progress (will ding guild level 20 in a week), so I keep logging in. Once I hit 25 though, I think I'm taking a break.

[zenga]

It really ruins the experience at times. For example, last week I was doing 5v5's (I quad-box with a separate person healing me) and knocked out 3 of the opposing teams members while still having everyone alive. The last two people alive were two rogues, and they would stealth around the map and grab the shadow sights and instantly restealth. Even if I got to knock them out of stealth, they would just cloak and vanish, so it was a cat and mouse game the entire time. Other members of their team would create characters on my server with offensive names and whisper obscenities to me, all the while saying they weren't going to let me win because I was boxing.

It was clear that what they were doing was harassment, so we opened a GM ticket and explained the situation. The GM watched the rest of the match (20-25 minutes worth) and seen the vulgar whispers I was getting but did nothing to intervene in the match, I was actually in awe. This team had successfully wasted 45 minutes of my night because they were vehemently opposed to my multi-boxing.

What really bothers me is.. the next day we opened another GM ticket for clarification of the situation and we were told they are in fact allowed to intervene in arena matches under those circumstances.

The obscenities shouldn't determine the outcome of the match. Yet I agree obscenities should be punished, though people tend to have a different sensitivity meter.

Either way, let's say that the killed guys did not log on to your realm and whisper you. But the rogues would sitll play hide and seek, yet their motivation is still the same: you are a boxer and they don't let you win. Would you still consider that a 45m waist of your time?

In the end you are the boxer, you are the one who can't deal with 2 hiding rogues. Stealth, cloack of shadows, vanish are class abilities. You should know that the moment you step into arena. And if you disagree you could always forfeit the game.