World of Warcraft: Current Year

WoW raiding is still fantastic, but the game has lost its edge in every other aspect. The game has slowly lost its "world" aspect, and doesn't really feel like an mmo anymore. Every patch they basically throw all the previous content in the garbage and you are confined to a new area. While I do enjoy the raiding, its no longer enough. I don't believe the people who work on that game really care about it either. All the stories you hear from Blizzard give the impression that anyone left working there is currently paid on the low end of the industry average. They also operate in a location that has a pretty high cost of living, so it's a tough situation for any employee there. At this point, any decent worker within that industry would have likely moved on from Blizzard.

Final fantasy has done a great job at creating an mmo that actually feels like a world. They also don't throw out their old content. Blizzard literally has 15+ years worth of content that has been made obsolete based on their own doing, which seems crazy to me. You also have to purchase books or novels if you want to learn the "WoW lore". If you have an in-game story and choose not to tell that whole story in-game, then what even is the point.

Not to mention WoW has divided their community into Alliance and Horde, and has been watching that imbalance grow larger for years without lifting a finger. In my opinion, WoW has gladly ignored their own community for years now and I don't think that will change. They are driving the bus, and if they want to drive it off a bridge then so be it. It probably took me too long to get off the bus as it is, but the raiding was fun, so I enjoyed playing it while it lasted. At this point Blizzard will have to admit that they have been driving in the wrong direction for years, and I just don't think we'll ever see them admit that.

Neranja said:

What broke all those WoW raiders minds was the fact that they could boost/level a character, and then were handed their crafted and pentamelded (think enchanting/jewelcrafting rolled into one) gear, which was optimal for the raids.

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All crafted and melded by players, players helping other players in an MMO... who would have thought that would work!

Ukerric said:

One of the reasons I loled in that "wow players get into ff14" video is that I could recognize myself as the cut-scene skipper.

"Wait, you skipped the dungeon intro scene?" "Yea, I'll probably get it later on youtube, don't want to keep you guys waiti..." "DO NOT!" "ABSOLUTELY" "ENJOY YOUR SCENES!" "Okay, okay, okay."

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Me trying out FF14 for 8 hours consisted of me starting at incredibly slow walking uncanny valley humanoids have incredibly badly-paced/translated conversations with each other.

FF14 sucks balls.

Early to mid ARR is clunky. Best way to describe it is patches 2.0-2.3 are like the 1st season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It's cheesy as fuck, you cringe more often than not, but there are a couple highlights that keep you watching.

It does get much better, though. They ease up on the "technobabble" and finally figure out what story they want to tell.

there's also a very real sort of optical illusion thing that goes on where you play wow, think it's beautiful , love the style. then get to FFand are shocked by the art style. The models are less brutalist and more skinny / animeish, and the diference between the races is way more subtle, with the diference between many being mostly around the face or posture.

a lot of people who pick it up and enjoy it, then go back to wow and are horrified by the weird jabberjawed cartoon ape men. It's just a whole other style that takes time to adjust too in both directions.

it's definately a teaste thing, but it's also a sort of being acclimated to one or the other. Pyroancer got a gshade mod to pop the colors a bit and it seemed to satisfy his wow eyes.

Big Phoenix said:

Ironically in not just wow but all Blizzard ips it was only men that are depicted in a unrealistic manner. In every game the male characters look as if they where breastfed pure testosterone from birth with their freakishly large arms, legs, chests etc. Seriously go watch the mop cinematic, the orc looks like the Hulk and the human looks like he has legs for arms.

Women have at most been portrayed as idealized but not unrealistic.

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All the human women are chubby and unattractive. At least they can be accurate when they want to be.

Big Phoenix said:

Ironically in not just wow but all Blizzard ips it was only men that are depicted in a unrealistic manner. In every game the male characters look as if they where breastfed pure testosterone from birth with their freakishly large arms, legs, chests etc. Seriously go watch the mop cinematic, the orc looks like the Hulk and the human looks like he has legs for arms.

Women have at most been portrayed as idealized but not unrealistic.

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ya. it's actually a strength that blizzard makes such a diversity of models (actual diversity I'm not talking about skin tone, i mean hulking tauren vs lanky elf vs a few flavors of furry). it must be extra fun to develop armor to fit all of them. But the style itself some can take a bit of getting used to after being in another art style so long.

I always sort of felt like in the original art of WC2. the orcs were built like the hulk, but then humans were the same 'size' but only in all that armor. I always thought they must be normal men underneath. but then come WC3 everyone was built super squat to fit the RTS style i guess? so even male humans in their skivvies were shaped like a pixar mom's ass.

the WoW females are more 'realistic' for sure. kind of like a literal cartoon aproach where cronk in the emperor's new groove is the size of a small car, but then the emperor, or the witch are shaped more like humans and coat hangars respectively.

sadris said:

Me trying out FF14 for 8 hours consisted of me starting at incredibly slow walking uncanny valley humanoids have incredibly badly-paced/translated conversations with each other.

FF14 sucks balls.

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You are 100% right but like others say, it goes from dogshit to amazing once you get out of the base game.

Skip all cutscenes unless you are in a zone called Coerthas as that is setting up Heavensward.

Once you do the Shiva trial at lv50, that's the start of the Heavensward story so start watching all MSQ from that point onwards, also watch the Crystal Tower raid cutscenes at lv50 when they make you do it as that is setting up the Shadowbringers story.

Shiva's phase 1 to phase 2 transition when she casts Diamond Dust and the music changes is the exact point where FF14 starts to beat WoW.

Neranja said:

It looks like they patched out major parts of the "story" without telling anyone. Personally, I like the "another Maw Walker." bit the most:

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Hahaha what the fuck is wrong with them?

People wanted an intro scenario skip for alts and cross account progression, not yet more content removals.

Neranja said:

It looks like they patched out major parts of the "story" without telling anyone. Personally, I like the "another Maw Walker." bit the most:

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The other Maw Walkers quit the game, so they have to retcon those that left the Shadowlands to become Warriors of Darkness.
Blizzard's like, "I know what you're thinking - you did those quests. You think you did, but you didn't."

I've never heard of a company laying off their playerbase before, but there's a first for everything in this new, glass ceiling shattering diverse Blizzard, I suppose.
Maybe if your character had colored hair... then Blizzard would recognize their deeds.

xmod2 said:

Damn, it's now canon that the PC has been cucked

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Always has been