f13.net

Bored outta my gourd.
1:20am PST,

     I have a lvl 70 Human Holy Paladin on Coilfang USA server, but I can log in at this time and sit in LFG and even ask every tank online. I with about 80% certainty will not find a 5 man pug for any Outlands instance. Knowing that I am in the furthest progressed Alliance Guild on this server...What are my options. Sit around for the 2 or 3 hours I'm going to be online and pretty much quest solo for the 5,000 gold needed to earn my Epic flying mount. Do Battlegrounds which are fun for the game only not the Honor, because I detest welfare epics.
     On Coilfang I have 4 other chars, all lvl 5-7. Do play those characters to level them up and provide me with another option. No.

     I log onto Jubi'thos an Australian server in their primetime. Where I have only a lvl 15 Orc Hunter and a lvl 8 Tauren Warrior which I cannot play because its with my two other rl friends which none of the 3 of us have played in over 1 year about. So knowing I basically have no solid link to this Aussie server I still choose it over my main server. Oh yeah, while I'm typing this I'm sitting in a queue of 449. Now that's a full server. :) Lots of random chat, and lots of Barrens talk. Give me a sense I'm with other players.

     No real reason, Its just I am sick and fucking tired of Blizzard and their fucking allowing low population servers that are not MMO in anyway. Do not suggest a $25 transfer fee. Even if I did pony up the $25, I'll get stuck with a random name that has no meaning to me. Even if I looked up in the armoury say 7 names that I would like to rename my char to those names are already chosen yet they simply do not show up on the Armoury, speaking of Spirestone server which is a medium to high pop server. So those 7 names are simply names held by some account which in my guess is shut down and belonging to characters/account that was never logged in, yet Blizzard in all their brilliance will not free up those names for me to use even if I pay the $25 to transfer off a low population server.

     So I ranted enough I could go on, but no one really cares, I'm still sitting on a 192 queue as I end this.

     PS. Btw spell check does not reconize Orc and Tauren. *grins*

Doom!  Ah, who am I kidding, in the world of MMORPGs, WoW remains a blazing success.  Much like how, in the cellular world, a tumor is a blazing success. 

But I'm not bitter!  :uhrr:

Anywho, sounds like you're an awkward situation whose only real solution is to abandon a multiple server setup.  Yet, to pull something like Guild Wars, then you've got the "not MMO in anyway" problem again.  Is there a middle ground or are these expectations impossible?

So now its 3:39am PST as I logged off.

Couldn't find a Ragefire Chasm 5 man group. Guess what I at one point was in a group with mage,warlock,hunter(me) no tank or healer. :) Big Suprise there I know.

But it was so busy in the chat channels that it felt alive the server, I saw 70s in Tempest Keep, Serpentshrine cavern, Karazhan. On Coilfang no one has entered past Serepentshrine cavern, and then only one boss, well alliance side. Horde are far past alliance progression wise.

To the above post, you are right about selecting one server and sticking. Eh maybe tomorrow I'll list off which chars I have on what servers. In that I have gotten to max level on some servers. I'm sort of a re-roll addict, at least back when they were releasing new servers.

IMO it really is time to release a new server and shut it down six to 1 year later months later. Another topic of discussion that is.

Don't blame Blizzard for the population issues. Blame them for not solving the class-requirements thing we all sucked up and dealt with in EQ1. Yea, sure, they spread CC abilities around, but I'm sorry, the Tank role (whatever class) and the Healer role (whatever class, though mostly Priest) isn't as fun for nearly as many people as DPS. It just isn't or everyone wouldn't have the same problems finding Tanks and Healers.

That is the ultimate cock-block problem WoW has.

Actually, the low pop server problem IS blizzards fault, mainly because they keep adding NEW, empty servers for people to populate sparsely while there are STILL multitudes of very low pop servers out there.

What they need to do is do some heavy tweaking / locking on the feature that suggests a realm to roll on for new players.  Do everything in their power to direct new players to the lower pop servers to fill them up BEFORE opening yet more new servers to thin the population out even more.

Pretty-much all the Oceanic servers have queues now. I think us and Tichondrius are the only realms that still have large queues.

Blizzard has not added a new server since JAN07.

Anyone else read the thread title with Dragnet in mind ?

Yes. :|

It's better for them to send people to higher population servers than lower pop ones, because the latter feels empty, one of the problems Gumball has when considering rolling an alt.

The other problem Blizzard gleefully ignored, though most devs do, was the eventual emptiness in lower-level zones. DIKU is all about pushing onward, upwards, and outward. This is at odds with having compelling content for higher level players to return to, though that'd be the smart thing to do.

There should be better cross pollination between high level and low level players beyond just the commerce hubs. Bracketing people by their own level appropriateness leads to the emptiness and content cold war that eventually compelled them (and others) to buff the speed of XP gain and/or to add the /level command (which I predict will come to WoW before Christmas 2008).

The two problems Darniaq has outlined:

• Not many people want to be a tank or healer.
• Lower level areas eventually become a ghost town

It's interesting to note that these problems are a result of World of Warcraft's formula for success:

"Imitate the mechanics that work from other MMORPGs and streamline them to a fine point."

In other words, they crucified themselves on their own lack of innovation, but it seems that this does not bother most players.

You don'r change, eh ?

I am guessing this is aimed at the other posted Geldon, and my not being on these boards for as long as others, I fail to see this inside comment based on the other users posting history.

You're not missing anything :)

Well, looking at my comment without the past history of Geldonyetich v1.0 declaring WoW doomed, is that comment unreasonable?  This whole thread, including many of DQ's points, are heavily related to the idea that WoW hasn't innovated enough to avoid these kinds of problems.

I wish the companies I still have warrants/stock-options with were as doomed as WoW.

 :awesome_for_real:

This bit entertained me most. Your sense of entitlement, and the associated envy caused by the realization that other people may be having fun getting gear comparable to your 'hard earned' raid gear is not a problem with the game. It a problem with your psyche.

I don't see what's so bad about Battlegrounds. Being new to WoW, I've found them the best way to learn combat and healing mechanics. I usually drop in there to test out my new abilities as I gain them. If I fail on a rush or while defending, I can just respawn and improve on the next one. Granted, I haven't made it to the epic stuff yet (pushing through the 50s now) but I have a helluva time frustrating the opposition in Battlegrounds. Why not look at BG as a viable option when instance groups are not available? They're fun and if you're only going to be on for two or three hours at a time, that's a perfect window to get a few rounds knocked out.

I purposefully avoided the low population server which was recommended to me six months ago when I started playing just because I was going to pick a support class and figured I'd be grouped most of the time. I'm typically logged in for less than half an hour before players start asking me to join their instance groups.

Sounds like some one needs to roll a tank class.


 :awesome_for_real:

FIFY


There are a lot of games in this genre that have "failed to innovate", but it took me a little while to think of one whose developers actually "crucified themselves" because of it.

 :ye_gods:

There seems to be a lot of confusion here.
When I wrote this, I wasn't talking in terms of success.  That boat has sailed.   I was talking in terms of game design progress.  That should be self-evident by how i said, "it seems that this does not bother most players."

 :dead_horse:

hmm that catchy theme song comes to mind. Dum dum dum dum...Dum dum dum dum dum...
321 contact was it.  :awesome_for_real:

So, you log into the game and you can't find a tank? You know what you do at that point? Roll a druid. Druids are freaking EASY to get to tanking status and you can still DPS. Go do it.

Now if only i owned a second account, so i could transfer my druid to it so she could tank for the character i actually want to run the instance with...

This is foreign to me.  If I wasn't absolutely ecstatic to log in each time, I wouldn't do it.  There are other online games, other games, other recreational activities, other things to do in the world than accumulate pixels which (news flash) won't mean jack in a year.   Leaving aside how Blizzard obsoletes their old content with each expansion, when you click the cancel button (and you will, eventually), you'll have nothing left to show for those weeks, months, years of effort except (hopefully good) memories.

In fact if it wasn't so damn fun it would be the last thing that I do, because among things to do, playing online games probably comes in pretty close to dead last in the category of importance.

It's a legit complaint, but you'll grow cold in the ground before they do anything about that. The mechanics are what they are. If you have a tanking problem the only thing you can control is you. Besides, druids are probably one of the more fun classes in the game.

Its amazing to me actually, how much rudeness you find on this board, and lack of discussion.
The personal attacks, the go roll that class. If the people hadn't noticed I rolled the other class that is lacking.

The same people attacking this thread, I would guess are the same people that had never logged onto Coilfang nor understand the situation presented.

I see half the responses in this thread the same you'll find on a wow forum, and that includes someone with over 1900 posts on this board who uses the tactic in other threads of stating I have more posts on this forum than you do therefore I am right.


Now that  I have made the cardinal error, being a newer poster on these forums by attacking other members of this board. I expect my banning from these forums quick, being that the responses do not elicit any type of actual discussion of the matter.

I dunno, attacking other posters seems to be pretty standard fare around here.  Here, watch.

Wow.  Who said anything about post count?  I did a search for the word "post" and the only one who's used it in this thread is you.

I don't know if I'm "attacking the thread", but I do agree with your assessment that I have never logged onto Coilfang.

You should make that your avatar.

See?

Doh, someone interrupted my narrative.  :mob:

I love the martyr complex.   :awesome_for_real:

No, dipshit, what you've just experienced is the general tone and timber of these boards.  What, exactly, would you like us to do about it? Hold your hand, sing Kumbaya and pray for a mechanics change?

Discuss the emptiness of servers, for which there is a VERY simple remedy, or lobby Blizzard on your behalf? Poor you that we aren't gracing you with the font of wisdom and erudite discussion that your original post so tried to pull from us.  Oh wait, it didn't.

See, you're getting shitty responses because you blogged a random stream of consciousness out of boredom.

Careful there - you're pulling my aggro.

9:58am. AEST. Tuesday, 27th of November 2007.


fin.

Yep that was pretty much my feeling on the issue as well. I still say druids are fun though and they can tank. If he was a hunter, I think I might have just ignored the entire thing because I'd be happier if more hunters quit the game.

Fuck you and your hunter hate, you ass bag full of monkey cock.

 :grin:

Actually, it's usually not the original poster who gets the attacks, it's some wank who uses that post as some method to dredge up some forgotten bitch from some forgotten past ;)

As to your complaint, welcome to the veteran MMO community. We all like(d) WoW, but played EQ1 already, so have heard almost every single complaint numerous times before. Just replace the names. Your problem is neither unique nor new, sorry to say.

Blizzard did a lot right, and WoW is a solid game. The only people who are at fault are those who expect a game to be as fun for them on day infinity as it was on day one. Doesn't matter if a game extracts a fee. Nothing lasts forever.

I disagree with all of you. If AngryGumball had my postcount, people would listen.

I have absolutely no idea why, but that cat in your avatar looks Japanese to me. 

Because of the Japanese guy in the background?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ljMODw-fXaI (http://youtube.com/watch?v=ljMODw-fXaI)

Sometimes you just need to read between the lines. Gumball, what I read was people offering solutions and you bracing so hard for an attack that you took it as criticism. Roll with it. Roll a Druid. You're hardcore- it won't take you long to max out on a new server, especially with the new changes.

And BTW, at the end of your OP, you said that no one cares, so why get butthurt if no one does? I don't like to be an asshole, but there it is. Also, your sentence structure made it hard for me to understand your point.

Druids are fucking awesome. After 20 it's a breeze and after 50 (Mangle) it's a steady wind.

As if I could actually make out what that was in that tiny ass gif  :-P

You should have trained Eagle Eye at level 14.

In the end, I rolled a Arms warrior as my main and then flipped him to tanking at 60 like, 2 years ago? Objectively I don't understand why people wouldn't want to tank. It's the same way I don't understand why people like DPS. I've done that in groups and it's boring as shit.

I think what it boils down to is that if you like being in control of the situation you'll roll a tank. If you don't, then you'll simply have to make friends with one. And if you can't make friends, well, drink more often. It'll loosen you up a bit.

I haven't played for a long time, but I'd be surprised if Druid still isn't the most satisfying class for me. Self sufficient, and welcomed in any group. And having all of that variety kept me fairly interested in what is usually a very repetitive and boring game. One day I could tank, another day I could prowl around, and another I could hold asshole faction members hostage to my whims by not healing them.

Timbre.

If someone can develop an alternative game system that doesn't revolve around "aggro" and "tanking" it might be interesting, or it might be terrible. WoW has expanded the range of tanking possibilities by allowing Paladins and Druids to be effective in the role.

The tank shortage has a lot more to do with too many warriors speccing for PvP than it does with the issue of dps being more fun than tanking. I think they need to cut respec costs. I'd like to see last bosses of heroics dropping tokens for free respecs, and if they did, we'd have more tanks for heroics, Kara and ZA

If you only compare WoW against one game, perhaps you can claim this. However, crusaders, death knights, dark avengers, shadowknights, enforcers, sentinels, guardians, titans (spaceships) have all tanked in prior games. Paladins have tanked in other titles, druids too if you're prepared to look at prior Blizzard games.

I still think that the biggest problem with the lack of tanks is the "left behind" barrier to entry. If you get bored zapping shit with your geared up mage, you can run off and create a healer or another DPS class and be up and running in a fairly short order. You'll need to limit your role until you've built up gear, but the gear commitment is not as dramatic as it is for a tank, and if the encounters are not especially challenging you can come along for the ride with an experienced group and pick up gear. To tank in WoW, you must pass muster on gear for not only the encounter but also for your fellow party members. Letting a bunch of DPS warriors spec 41+ points into prot free of charge won't magically give them tanking gear. And DPS gear with a handful of entry-level tanking pieces doesn't cut it - tanking takes an ongoing gear commitment.

The number of people who play one class from the outset, and stick to it will diminish over time. Because the gear challenge for tanking rules out all but the more determined "switchers", it leads to a shortage of tanks.

Wouldn't it make more sense to have an AI that works something like people play in arena matches? I was going to point out that a mechanism that doesn't involve aggro or threat rankings would result in healers being gibbed left and right, but the mere fact that this doesn't arbitrarily occur in arenas seems to indicate that a player-like AI for bosses would be practical. Sure, they wouldn't be able to do a million damage like current bosses do, but I think the added layer of tactics that the PVE game would require then would more than make up for that. There's a chace to make a fight that's actually challenging, not merely rote memorisation and execution of sequences.

There is already one "boss fight" like this -- the BRD arena event, a part of the tier0.5 questline. The party faces a group of semi-random mobs that have about 2x the hitpoints of a typical level60 character, do comparable damage, but try to gank healers and squishy targets first, use crowd control, heal each other, etcetera. The AI isn't that good (the encounter is trivialized by bringing 3 or more crowd control classes + tanks/healers that can aoe fear), but honestly it's still one of the best ideas I've seen so far.

Too bad that it's a) unique and hasn't even been partially recreated since, b) a level 60 'old-world' encounter, meaning nobody knows how to do it / wants to do it and c) part of a questline 99.5+% (conservative estimate) of the playerbase hasn't experienced and very likely won't, either.


-- Z.

That BRD encounter was great.  You just gave me my only pang of nostalgia for the game since I quit 6 months ago.

I did that whole line, all the way through to valthalak. It took a couple of weeks to do the whole line, but it was well worth it, although Valth was pretty difficult, considering it was almost impossible to get a stable group to break him like you would with most bosses who get farmed. I still have the whole set, the banner, the brazier, the storybook and the bloodvine potions in a bag in my bank.