World of Warcraft rants

[Andrew D. Gable]

My sole rant concerns some fine folks I grouped with on the Shadow Council server. I did the Deadmines quests (knocked both the Gnomish Sprocket and Van Cleef out on one go). At the very bottom of the dungeon, after killing Van Cleef, we were making our way to what I assume was the exit. We get jumped by a gaggle of high-level Defias, and I die, as do several others in my group. I ask our paladin for a resurrect, and everyone else in the group just leaves. Leaving only my dead body and another wizard, who is nearly dead. The paladin gives me some cockamamie story about how the resurrect on my body wouldn't take.

Finally I do a spirit resurrect and respawn at the Sentinel Hill graveyard along with the other mage, who died. So I'm complaining to him about how these people just ditched us, he's likewise complaining, and he tells me about how he wanted a specific wand or staff from one of the Deadmines mobs and, even after the rest of the party told him he could have it, the druid took it.

On the other hand, I was level 18 and that was the first I ever had to group.

 

[king_ghidorah]

I wouldn't say that problems with WoW are universal. For instance, I just don't have any problems running WoW on my crusty eMac with less than 1 gig memory and the bare minimum specs to run WoW. I only run into lag problems on visits to IronForge or when there is a lot of PvP going on. Dowloads of patches have been fast, stability has been excellent, and I have had no need to call tech support in the three or four months I have been playing.

I don't know if it's a matter of platforms or other issues, but my experience has been excellent, but that may just be that I have never had to deal with customer service.

Of course, my ISP is giving me a flaky network connection right now, but that's another issue altogether.

Damn... there's those kinda issues with WoW? I really really really wanted to play WoW, but there is no way I am paying $15 a month, hell even $10 a month is too much to play a game that ya gotta spend $50 on in the first place. I'd consider $10 a month if the game itself was free. If it was WoS (Starcraft) I'd definitely play it, but I always liked Starcraft better. ....

Anyway, you guys sure have a lot more patience than I, I must say. If I were paying $15 a month or however much it is and had issues such as you have posted, I do believe I might go postal!QUOTE]

 

[KenM]

Blizzard uses BIT TORRENT for their patch system. The essentially lets you get tiny chunks of the patch from all the other player's computers out there (and you are sharing little chunks too).

This is why the patch is so slow.

Also, around update time, you are going to run into a number of disconnects -- can't be helped. During the first few days of updates it is best to stay in safer areas, or just don't get on for a day or so.

I have played several other MMORPGs, and this is the best, hand's down. Sure, Wow has had it's server issues, but it is very rare (and even rarer compared to the early Ultima Online days).

Blizzard is also good with the apologies. I have about 3 weeks of "credit" on my account, because Blizzard gave them out due to server issues. And just a week and half ago, they gave out "Rest bonuses" for everyone... one full level worth.

Good stuff. I am in this for the long run.

~The Le, aka The Le Games
on Cenarion Circle as LE

WoW is the only MMORPG I like. I have tryed EQ and SWG, both of those have a much better patch delivery system. You log on and then it says "downloading patch" and you are done. the WoW patch system, in a word, SUCKS. They want me to disable my firewall for a faster download, I don't think so. The people at Blizzard need to learn that most people had they way it updates patches and fix it.
I was not aware that Tuesday is maintence day for the servers.

 

[Angcuru]

I only have three gripes about WoW.

1 - They can't leave the classes alone. Why the hell didn't hey get class balance straightened out in the BETA!?

2 - The patch system is teh suck.

3 - The new honor system does not penalize griefers. ARGH!

Other than that, I just found out that my convertible tablet PC can run it! Playing WoW on a touch screen rawks!

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

If you follow the directions on their tech support page and open a couple ports on your firewall rather than take the whole thing down, it cuts the download time for patches tremendously. Granted, you're cheating the torrent by taking in info without putting out any, but I figure that I'm paying them enough every month that Blizz should be footing the bill for the bandwidth, not dumping it over on their customers. In any case, I got the entire patch the other night in 9 minutes.

I shall endeavor to post said ports when I get home and have access to my notes.

 

[Aristotle]

I'm paying them enough every month that Blizz should be footing the bill

Excellent point. I can't pretend to know the exact costs of running an MMO but, with the success of this game and the rather high monthly cost of it compared to some other MMO's, I don't see why they can't make our lives a bit easier.

I am very happy with WoW. It's the first MMO I've really enjoyed playing and haven't gotten bored with after two months of play. It's the first MMO I've played where I actually want to play more than one character because I want to see how the other classes work and experience the content for different races or factions. But the game could stand a few improvements.

 

[The_Universe]

Lag on earthen ring was a dirty whore as well...and it's still a noticeable problem, even 2 days after the patch/scheduled server maintenence. VERY annoying.

On the other hand, the server maintenence happens EVERY Tuesday - so while they may not have announced it, at least you know that it's coming.

WoW is my first MMORPG, and I love it, so far...server issues and all. When it runs, it runs like a dream - and it's pretty and fun! Who could ask for more (other than stability! )

 

[kotik2]

I"m not having equipment issues, but my computer was new in January,.

I am having player issues. The ENWorld guild on Feathermoon is a group of great people. We've taken in a few strays as well, and likewise , great people.

The idiots dragging down the server spending all of their time raiding Tarren Mill are driving me nuts. They started in on Hammerfall today too. Can't find a decent group, and keep getting spammed with invites to join the raid - playing a priest most of the time now, and they can never get enough healers for that kind of raid.

The PvP Honor system is broken beyond words, judging from the mess that has stemmed from it's roll in.

There, rant done...

Sigh

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

...I shall endeavor to post said ports when I get home and have access to my notes.

Here are the ports. I always forward them to one of our computers right before downloading a patch:
3724
6112
6881-6999

I can't leave them open, because it messes with the gameplay connection for whichever computer is not getting them forwarded, but that's the only wrinkle I've encountered so far. If you've only got one computer playing, you can probably just leave them.

 

[Captain Howdy]

3 - The new honor system does not penalize griefers. ARGH!

How does it not penalize griefers? If anything, the way it is set up now is the only logical way of doing it. If you got dishonor for killing a player way lower than you, then lvl 60 pvp raids would bring a bunch of lvl 20s with them to grief the enemy. It would be similar to the Kazzak griefing that takes place now.
If ya ask me, the honor system does all it can to prevent griefing. You don't get honor points for killing players way lower than you, so anyone that does that is just a jerk and would have done it anyway, honor system or no.