So worth the time to read. Love the post, Nab. Yes, actually, I found myself thinking "why does it take 20,000 hits to kill this guy?" in Heroic Nexus lol.Good job :D
I found it very rewarding reading it all the way through. Dare I say this is one the greatest blog posts? Ha this post is what keeps it immersive for me haha.
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Funny, but just a few hours ago I had a discussion (fight) with a few people, and was defending WoW as a very promising game. Oddly, those were people claiming that Warcraft 3 is epic, but WoW isn't.../shrug.What I pretty much said there, was that WoW feels complete. When I spend insane amount of time, slashing through members of the Defias Brotherhood, getting finally to the leader of the whole lot...well, I know that all my efforts, starting with Brotherhood of Thieves were not in vain. I have been the thorn in their bottoms for more than ten levels, and the feeling of accomplishment is great.And that is just the beginning. What about the quests involving Miniature Platinum Discs? I was sent to Uldaman, trying to find The Lost Dwarves - and all I get is that Uldaman is just a dig site overran by troggs. Then I learn that The Platinum Discs are created by the very Creators of Azeroth?? And now, two expansions later, I learn that not only Uldaman and Uldum were Titans' creations, but Ulduar's Halls as well? Woah! And not only that, but I get to fight a true Servant of the Titans, their Prime Designate, who is corrupted by an Old God! Now, that's a lot bigger than preventing an old little criminal from taking Westfall's farms for himself.See my point? WoW is just able to get the players to enter the world. To feel important to a certain extent. I guess that's what keeps me immersed. There is always a greater task to complete, a greater goal to achieve, a greater evil to fight. A greater victory to win.
I was laughing so hard during that depiction that I had to stop between sentences to catch my breath as I was reading it to a friend. Well done.One explanation I've heard is that HP isn't actually health, it's your ability to avoid the killing blow. When you run out of health, you no longer have any ability to avoid the killing blow, so it hits you and you die. A "healing spell" rejuvenates you, giving you the energy to avoid that blow. Stats like dodge and parry allow you to avoid attacks without effort. As you're fighting a boss, he eventually gets more and more exhausted. But that wouldn't be as interesting to watch.Or if you prefer, the Star Trek explanation. A single photon torpedo can destroy a ship in one hit, so why doesn't it? Because there are shields up. You need to hit a ship with many torpedoes until the shields are down and the next hit destroys the ship. When you're fighting a boss, you're whittling away on whatever force is protecting him from the killing blow. There are actually some enemies like this in WoW (those arcane elementals in Kara that only have 1 health but have a big mana shield up come to mind). But again, not as interesting to watch if EVERY enemy simply had a shield up.
Wow... This post was truly epic. It's fun to read, makes you think, but above all... it's true. The past few minutes that i spent while reading this blogpost have been an investment. You took something that we all find normal and take for granted, and pealed off it's skin. You made us see what is actually behind that which we all like so much. You took a miracle and unveiled the oddities and unperfectness that it holds. It's like being a christian for all your life and then someone tells you that it was all a joke. The entire world pretended that there's a religion called Christianity and they all did it just to make fun of you. Why do we take an item over another one? Is it the looks? Well sometimes it IS the looks. But in most cases, it's about the stats on the items. But really how can a pair of pants increase the amount of spirit that i have? That would mean that when i wear pants with +spirit, it would have the same effect as sitting next to a cooking fire... How odd is that.Or how can i take 80 x 20 = 1600 fish with me if i would clear out all my bags and equip a 16 slot bag in every slot. Imagine you fish up 1600x a 103 Pounder! That would mean that you are carrying 164800 pounds of fish with you! 74752 kg of fish! Good luck doing so in real life...Besides the actual purpose that you wrote this post for, you did something else... You made me add something on my "To-do list". And that thing is to write something, somewhere that is as beautifully written and as inspiring as this post was. Thank you very much for doing this.//Rycul
I got a solution for you that works perfectly: Quit the game. It isn't meant to have realistic or "epic" combat feel to it. That's hard to create in an MMORPG since it's always beating up the same monsters for gold or items.
Epic post.I believe you're right as to the epicness of a fight being improved by the amount of buildup leading to it, or simply the time spent making sure it can be done. For me, the true epicness of WoW isn't in downing raid bosses (although that's cool too), but rather in the completion on looong chains. Is the Wrathgate scene and the assault on the Undercity epic? I say it is. What about the whole thing with Thorim and Loken in Storm Peaks? Or even the Bronzebeard brothers in the same zone? This is when I am taken aback by the sheer awesomeness of WoW.
That's why I have Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones in my laptop, when I'm bored of the constant grinding of WOW, I switch over tot POP where the enemy actually die when you stab their fatal organs (Silent Kills anyone?) or when you finally slashed them in half (epic slow motion :D)Back to the topic, I agreed with what ArgentSun have to say, the batlles can be boring and repetitive, but its the storyline that keeps us interested, for example the quest in Hellfire Peninsula where you have to kill alliance ghosts, although it seems nothing more than repetitive grinding kills, who would have thought that from there we actually get into a proper storyline of helping to avenge those ghosts and formally challenge Urtrak and killed him with the help of those ghosts, which was rather cool, since we don't see it anymore until DK's skill of Raise Dead :DAll in all, PVE battles can get pretty boring (aside from the interesting story quests) which Blizzard carefully balanced with the intense, adrenaline packed PVP (to the point of cursing and banging the table for being defeated) which is a good stress reliever for most :D
The most immersive quest line I've encountered so far must've been the one in Sholazar Basin given by Freya, which eventually leads you back to Un'Goro. There's just something about things tying together with old places and the memories of playing there that really creates an immersive gameplay environment.The background story of the Earthen in the Halls of Stone / Lightning is also pretty impressively told and makes you feel part of it :D
There are a few things that bug me. One major issue I've noticed is how my draenei always seems to use her polearm like a big hammer rather than sweeping, slicing, etc. It's ridiculous looking.
I really enjoy the story that the quests lay out. You think of it as "hey, let's go kill x20 Scarlet Crusade mobs". I (and many other people, I am quite happy to say) see it as "these maniacs are gonna kidnap our friends and loved ones, then torture them! Oh crap, let's stop them!" You feel like you're accomplishing something. I want to be a hero, and if I think of all my quests as valiant efforts to vanquish fanatical fiends and whatnot, I feel like a hell of a hero.*cough* I have no idea if the Forsaken can actually attain the emotion "love". >.> Keep dreaming, dears!
Blizzard is really great at crafting storylines that suck you in if you let it. One of my alltime favorites is the questline in the Draenei starting area where you're vital in initiating contact between the Draenei and the Alliance. Later on, as I was running through Stormwind to turn in a quest in the Keep, I stopped at the Draenei advisor, and actually felt apart of the story. Even though millions of players before me had completely that same story, I felt as though I was the one that did it. Creating a character's personal storyline is what draws me in and keeps me immersed. A perfect example of what I mean happened to me last night. I'll admit...I wasn't really a fan of Outland. Way too outerspacey for me. But last night, as I was grinding out the last half-level needed to take my Paladin to Northrend, I did the quest in Shadowmoon Valley where you set off a bomb in the middle of Legion Hold. I remember stealthing my way in there, and standing next to the bit group of Infernals and...I dunno if it was the fact that I was really tired, or I really got into a Paladin frame of mine, but I looked at the assembled legion, Seal'd myself, and charged into the battle against the demons standing near where you set the bomb off, imagining my Paladin screaming some sort of war cry. "FOR THE LIGHT!" or something along those lines. And when I turned the quest in, and the questgiver thanked me profusely for stopping the army because "they would've crushed Wildhammer Stronghold on their way to the Black Temple", I felt a bit of pride.Then later, when I got to Valiance Keep and the guy at the desk assigning people jobs said, "Of course I've heard of you! I heard exactly what you did in Outland!", I'm sure Blizzard meant that to refer to downing Kael'thas or Illidan or Kil'jaeden or whatever, but I took it to refer to saving Wildhammer Stronghold.Long story short, its Blizz's great storylines yet freedom to create your own storylines that keeps me immersed.