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World of Warcraft Gamespot GOTY 2004 211

Posted by Zonk from the for-gnomeregon! dept.
Gamespot's annual awards have drawn to a close, with the Reader's choice awards finishing up tomorrow. Announced on Wednesday, Gamespot's Game of the Year for 2004 is World of Warcraft. Relatedly, there is an interview with the WoW composer at World of Warcraft Guru, and a piece on Wired.com about Virtual Trade and Blizzard's efforts to combat the trend. Finally, Blizzard's annual holiday festivities have resulted in a hilarious holiday mp3 being made available on the official World of Warcraft site.
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World of Warcraft Gamespot GOTY 2004 More

World of Warcraft Gamespot GOTY 2004

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  • oh well. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jokumuu ( 831894 ) on Friday December 24, 2004 @04:36PM (#11178062)
    I suppose that given the on average quite bland year of games (most being second, third or so on parts of precious games) WOW would have a change. I so hope we could get some orginal and good games on top at some point.
    • I remember playing a game called Warcraft 3...

      Yeah, that was a RTS, an this is an MMORPG (gotta love the acronyms), but new content is not.

    • Re:oh well. (Score:2, Flamebait)

      by dnoyeb ( 547705 )
      As much as I love Blizzard, for WOW to get game of the year, coming out at the end of the year just smacks of payola.

      • Re:oh well. (Score:3, Informative)

        by Phosphor3k ( 542747 )
        The public has been playing the beta for the better of the year. Granted, the open beta only started 6 or 8 months ago.
        • No, the open beta was only a couple weeks before release. You may be thinking of the first stress test, which was only for a week or two earlier this year.

  • Trade is interesting (Score:3, Interesting)

    by useosx ( 693652 ) on Friday December 24, 2004 @04:39PM (#11178074)
    The Virtual Trading is one of the most interesting aspects of online gaming. I'm sure books have been written about it, but it sort of points to the economic cancer of modern industrial societies. Killing that could kill a large part of the interest people have in it.
    • It's a sign of our modern culture. Instant gratification. Too many people don't want to work for what they get, they want everything handed to them. They think, I have money so I shouldn't have to spend the time building my own character up.
      • it is not about only instant gratification. It is how you use your time. I happen to enjoy games, but I do not have the time to play full time like some people seem to. Since too many of these online games seem to ge catering to the "allways logged in" crowd, I do not think I would advance in a speed I found fast enough, because they have to build it for "slow" advancement. My solution is to not play them, but if I did play, I might be intrested in some "reasonably" priced things to help me along, as they w
      • Is it "instant gratification" if you had to go to a job for 40+ hours a week to earn the money used to buy the virtual items?
        • Yes, it is, because the rules for acquiring the virtual items (in the case of World of Warcraft, anyway) specify that you aren't allowed to use your hard-earned cash to purchase those items. You're supposed to put effort into the game itself in order to reap the rewards, and it certainly does qualify as "instant gratification" to use external means to acquire the rewards without the requisite effort.

          Besides, it doesn't make any sense to say that it's not instant gratification for somebody with a job to bu
      • The majority of people generate income by exchanging time for money. There's no real reason why the inverse shouldn't be true (indeed, a business owner is essentially trading his money in exchange for employees' time, so that s/he doesn't have to do the work)
        • But what do you get in exchange? If you are level 30 in the game and it's so non-fun that you would pay money to advance, what are you advancing to? You hit things for bigger numbers and they hit you for bigger numbers--its still going to be non-fun.

      • Too many people don't want to work for what they get, they want everything handed to them.

        Is someone handing out real cash to these people? If so, where's this happening because I'd sure like to get in on the "free money" action!

        They think, I have money so I shouldn't have to spend the time building my own character up.

        Look, they're already paying for the game and then paying monthly fees to play it. There is no isolated game economy where you can build up people from birth without spending

    • Directly from eBay(TM)..
      The latest pricing for virtual money to a few games:

      (As with all games , you can always squeeze down per batch-price if you buy loads of it)
      10million in-game gold [Ultima Online] : $75
      10million ISK in-game ISK [EVE-Online] : $5
      10million credits [Anarchy Online] : 3$
      10 gold pieces [Everquest 2] : $1

    • Re:Trade is interesting (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Uhlek ( 71945 )
      It's an interesting concept, but it's one that can get game developers in a hotbed of legal problems. Basically, it means that the in-game data constitues something of value to the players. If a game company encouraged virtual trading using real-world dollars, it is conceivable that the game company could be held liable to maintain that value for the customer.

      Take that to the ultimate extension. You're a player with enough in-game assets to constitue hundreds of thousands of dollars were it to be liquid

    • What good is a game where you can simply buy your way to the top? It's pointless. There's nothing to distinguish the players from the poseurs, and that makes it a game not worth playing.

      Take Lineage2 for example. I was totally drawn in by the artwork and the breadth of the overall environment. It's one of my favorite games in this regard. However, it's a game I no longer play, because I don't think it's fair. Anyone who has played Lineage2 knows about excruciatingly long hours required to level up a charac
      • What good is a game where you can simply buy your way to the top? It's pointless. There's nothing to distinguish the players from the poseurs, and that makes it a game not worth playing.

        Yeah cuz you can't buy your way to the top in real life.

  • Time is Money (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ignipotentis ( 461249 ) on Friday December 24, 2004 @04:40PM (#11178078)
    In its announcement on the World of Warcraft community site, Blizzard stated its policy against the buying or selling of the game's objects for real-world money. Its goal, which many MMO developers share, is keeping the game pure from an inflated economy and from players who buy game attributes rather than earning them. And they often claim that such objects have no real-world economic value.

    The old saying "Time is Money" works well here. These objects cary real-world economic value if they are required to get to the next level, and the individual playing the game doesn't have the time to find them, but would like to "level-up." In this case, the real world price he pays for said item would have to be worth less than the time it would take him to find said item. In some of these games, the time to level starts to expand exponetialy. This is what I think draws the secondary economy to the game.
    • Seems to me if they really do want you to EARN your items, you wouldn't be able to obtain them in any other way. When the user gets creative I guess its easier to make policy than to fix programs. The newly released game doesn't work as desired, but it's the customers fault. Par for the course these days.
      • I don't think it's that as much as trying to keep the playing field level. Being able to trade items in general is pretty important to the game, especially the social aspect, which is the sort of the whole point to a game like this.

        Keeping it fair is part of keeping the social interactions civil. Allowing people to further their in the game character by actions outside of the game can be unfair, because the developers don't have any control over individual's resources outside of the game.

        An example is if

    • Re:Time is Money (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Dachannien ( 617929 ) on Friday December 24, 2004 @06:23PM (#11178534)
      Well, that quote gives a horrible explanation of why selling items/accounts is bad. Why is it bad?

      One, people who sell items or accounts tend to try to farm them incessantly. This leads to perpetually-camped spawns dominated by one person, along with unfair play tactics against others who want to come in and take their turn. Now, this is much reduced in WoW because of the way loot occurs in the game, but in many other games (EQ, for example) it can be a pretty severe problem.

      Two, there is a great potential for fraud when items/accounts are sold, because there is no secure transaction between the exchange of money and the exchange of the account, and because the seller can usually keep themselves anonymous. Admittedly, this lends some support for these transactions taking place at large sites like eBay or IGE, where their reputation is at stake whenever a fraudulent transaction takes place, but "for-sale-by-owner" accounts are still not uncommon.

      Three, inexperienced players driving experienced characters leads to grief and annoyance within the high-level community. The level and gear of a character are supposed to be a reflection on a person's experience at playing the game, not just some number which affects the character's abilities. Sometimes, eBayed characters stick out like sore thumbs as they ask stupid questions (e.g., 57th level night elf druid yells, 'omg how do i get 2 teh boat in darnasuss!!!'), but in other cases, it takes several bad play experiences for the eBayed character to build up a reputation as being played by an inexperienced player and thus get blacklisted.

      Four, some eBayed characters already *have* a reputation as a bad apple. Somebody with no consideration for other people - but with some skill at the game mechanics - levels up a character, but then can't get a group in the high-level instances to save their life. So, they sell the account and start over, pocketing some money in the process. The problem is, the unsuspecting buyer logs in for the first time and is greeted by rude tells and harassment because the character has a reputation of being a complete ass. What's more, nobody will believe them when they say they bought the character (choosing instead to think it's the original owner trying to lie his way out of the situation), and the admission of being eBayed brings down one's reputation further.

      By the way, there are other reasons related more to fairness that I'm not really going into detail on here (such as the concept that every player should put equivalent effort into the game, or that success should not be based on one's RL means, since this is a game).

    • And that is why I will never play this game. I know opinions may differ, but any game that comes down to figuring out the most efficient way to level or gain items or gold and coming up with equations and all that to figure it out kills the game for me.

      Its why I quit Kingdom of Loathing, EQ, WoW, etc. I want a game that is FUN. Where all you care about is gameplay and not how much time it takes to do something and whether that is the best use of that time.

      • And that is why I will never play this game. I know opinions may differ, but any game that comes down to figuring out the most efficient way to level or gain items or gold and coming up with equations and all that to figure it out kills the game for me.

        If you're not into roleplaying, then all that's left is a grind and item hunt. Maybe some PvP'ing, but you'd probably enjoy Jedi Academy or Counterstrike where everyone's equal and it's your own skill that determines your success.

        But if you are into rolep
    • the individual playing the game doesn't have the time to find them

      If the process of acquiring these items isn't fun, then the game is a crappy game and the individual shouldn't be playing it. If earning items is fun, then the person is pretty much paying to avoid having fun. Either way, it doesn't make much sense.

    • Yes, but also keep in mind that blizzard can nerf items that people who sell them for real world cash will farm by making them more common. They have no real world economic value because Blizzard can at any time make that +50 sword of asskicking that you paid $50 on ebay for attainable through an easy quest or make it commonly drop from monsters. The value of the item is wholly dependent on how hard Blizzard makes it to get, and they can (and do) arbitrarily change this. It has value, but that value may be

  • Blizzard is known for it's festivity! (Score:3, Informative)

    by ShallowThroat ( 667311 ) on Friday December 24, 2004 @04:44PM (#11178090)
    Blizzard's annual holiday festivities have resulted in a hilarious holiday mp3 being made available

    Not only that, Blizzard has also made avaliable many in-game festivities, such as snowmen and snowballs. Perfect for whiping at the neighbouring horde villages. :)

  • "from the for-gnomeregon! dept." (Score:3, Funny)

    by Phosphor3k ( 542747 ) on Friday December 24, 2004 @04:44PM (#11178091)
    It's spelled "Gnomeregan".

  • WoW is excellent (Score:3, Interesting)

    by grasshoppa ( 657393 ) on Friday December 24, 2004 @04:46PM (#11178094) Homepage
    I am not an avid gamer, by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I was playing xcom2 right up and to the point I bought WoW.

    It is truly an excellent game. The graphics are very consistent ( instead of blah here, WOW here, blah here ) and look great. On top of that, my old(ish) system can usually push 30-40 fps where ever I am. More than smooth enough for me.

    Beyond the graphics ( which aren't all that important beyond the immersion factor ), the audio is excellent. Very well done score. But what really grabs you and holds you tight is the gameplay. Very addictive. Blizzard must have spent months working on the questing system, which is unbelievably detailed.
    • I was really looking forward to WoW until I got to play the beta. It became obvious in the beta that WoW was almost the same crud as every other MMORPG. There's still no overarching plot that MMORPG players can participate in and affect. I certainly wouldn't give out Game of the Year honors to a game with only some refinement on previous games and nothing innovative in it.
      • When you write an overarching plot that 3000 players can all participate in and affect at the same time, let us know.
      • You're seeking a quest, you say? Well, I have been having some problems with Slashdot trolls. Go out to the nearest section and kill 10 trolls, and bring me back their first posts as proof of your deed. As a reward, you will recieve one of the following:

        1) OOG's mallet 2) Karma stew

        Would you like to accept this quest?

        (X) Accept (X) Cancel
  • Gamespy GOTY 2004 was Halo2 and IGN PC GOTY was HalfLife2. You've got to thank slashdot for their impartiality... >:E Flame: Gaypot blows compared to ign and gamespy, and to think they make you pay to download compared to free fileplanet is laughable.

  • Blizzard did it right (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Holdstrong ( 647528 ) on Friday December 24, 2004 @04:54PM (#11178136)
    For years I have been playing MMORPGs.... and I come away from every single one of them (Ultima Online, EQ, and SWG were the ones I played) saying to myself, "jeez, ya know this game would be sooo much better if they just did X, Y, Z." Well, Blizzard actually DID the X, Y, and Z. It is almost like they were eaves dropping on the conversations of all of us gamers over the past 5 years. Everything we have been saying about these massive online games over the years they have addressed in one way or another. They took the bad parts and either dropped them, or made them good. They then went ahead and added all of the obvious features we have all been asking for and wondering why they havent been around. Its a gamers game. One that if I had the ability to make my perfect game... it would have been this. It really is fantastic. Blizzard might not have put out a groundbreaking new genre game here... but they did somethng even better. They took an already existing genre and finally did it right.
  • As someone who's played WoW religiously (2 lvl16 characters on Shattered Hand), I think it's a truly awesome game. It's gigantic, first off, and it's extendable. I like most of the stuff Blizzard comes out with so that may be a bit of a bias. MMORPG's are fun, some of them...I'm really excited about Matrix Online but this is the same thing that happened when SWG came out...Can we have *one* good Sci-Fi MMORPG please?!?

    • Re:WoW (Score:4, Informative)

      by Teckla ( 630646 ) on Friday December 24, 2004 @05:23PM (#11178252)

      As someone who's played WoW religiously (2 lvl16 characters on Shattered Hand), I think it's a truly awesome game. It's gigantic, first off, and it's extendable. I like most of the stuff Blizzard comes out with so that may be a bit of a bias. MMORPG's are fun, some of them...I'm really excited about Matrix Online but this is the same thing that happened when SWG came out...Can we have *one* good Sci-Fi MMORPG please?!?

      You might want to check out Anarchy Online [anarchy-online.com]. It's a sci-fi based MMORPG, and they're currently offering a free client download and free year worth of online play. You don't even have to give them a credit card number.

      • "You might want to check out Anarchy Online [anarchy-online.com]. It's a sci-fi based MMORPG, and they're currently offering a free client download and free year worth of online play. You don't even have to give them a credit card number."

        Looks neat. Does it run on Linux? Can't find any system requirements, read all through the faqs..

    • Religously? Hardly.. I got the game around December 3rd and have a level 36 and level 12 on Burning Blade. :)

  • Doom 3 isn't in the FPS section... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Dreadlord ( 671979 ) on Friday December 24, 2004 @05:00PM (#11178166) Journal
    ... WTF? I mean why is PainKiller there and Doom 3 is not?

    I can understand having HL2, FarCry, and UT2K4, but PainKiller doesn't really offer the revolutionary gameplay to deserve being there, while Doom 3 doesn't.

    • Re:Doom 3 isn't in the FPS section... (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Many people found PainKiller to simply be more fun.
    • Doom 3 was a tech demo, not a game. The only revolutionary thing about it was the lack of duct tape.
    • Doom 3 is a terrible, terrible game. It's pitch black 99% of the time so you can't see what's going on or what's attacking you, the suspense is poorly manufactured, and after about 20 minutes, you'll be pointing to spots on the wall and saying 'a monster is going to jump out of there' with 100% accuracy.

      id software says they lost millions to piracy of Doom 3. The reason they did is because everyone realized it was terrible before it hit the shelves. I know I played a pirated copy, but only for about 10 min
    • Painkiller was a hoot, and the most fun i've had with a FPS since Quake 2. It's a great game, and from what i've seen, sadly unappreciated.

      I *DID* love Doom 3, but in a different way. Painkiller is simply more fun to play.

  • Half Life 2 (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Castaa ( 458419 ) * on Friday December 24, 2004 @05:01PM (#11178174) Homepage Journal
    WoW over Half Life 2? I'm not so sure about that. HL2 is more ground breaking than WoW, IMO. WoW is a very polished MMO. But what is new about it?

    HL2 is breaks new ground of because the environments are more than pretty window dressing. One is constantly challenged to look at the world and think about what is available to allow the objective to be accomplished more efficiently. This in addition to HL2 being a very polished FPS.

    • Re:Half Life 2 (Score:5, Insightful)

      by cowscows ( 103644 ) on Friday December 24, 2004 @05:19PM (#11178244) Journal
      I'm all for innovation, but really, "breaking new ground" is not the most important part of making a fun game. Not to take away from HL2, cause I know lots of people are having lots of fun playing with it, but even if you think it has more new ideas than WOW, that doesn't mean it has to be a better game.

      I could design an new, innovative racing game that you control with your computer's microphone by yelling TURN LEFT when you want to go left, or BRAKES! BRAKES BRAKES! when you want to stop. I doubt anyone's done that before. Of course, no one's done it before because it's a stupid idea.

      Innovation is vital to the game industry, but gameplay is even more important. And gameplay can sometimes take a lot of iterations to get right. WoW is an impressive example of learning from previous attempts and really getting a lot of it right. And that's what makes a fun game. The word "polish" I don't think helps, because gameplay is more fundamental then all the details.

      • Back Seat Driver: The Game

        sounds good to me, should sell well to mother-in-laws and wives.
      • Why not?

        You *COULD* make something of it you know!

        Call it "Back Seat Driver", stick it in a box, include a mic and sell it for 39.99 a pop.

        Team fun for all the family. Let you all take out your rage shouting stuff at the computer.

        Make it respond better the louder you shout.

        Theres enough people out there who will buy it ;)
      • There was a game called Echelon that was released for the C-64 which included a headset microphone. Whenever you shouted something into it (and an outdoor voice was indeed required), it effectively pushed the button on the second joystick.

        Now *that's* innovation.

      • Re:Half Life 2 (Score:4, Funny)

        by Lord_Dweomer ( 648696 ) on Friday December 24, 2004 @08:08PM (#11178956) Homepage
        "I could design an new, innovative racing game that you control with your computer's microphone by yelling TURN LEFT when you want to go left, or BRAKES! BRAKES BRAKES! when you want to stop. I doubt anyone's done that before. Of course, no one's done it before because it's a stupid idea."

        They could call it "Back Seat Driver". My Jewish mother would LOVE it!

    • Re:Half Life 2 (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Minna Kirai ( 624281 )
      One is constantly challenged to look at the world and think about what is available to allow the objective to be accomplished more efficiently.

      And if you find an alternative solution, and go do it... the game magically prevents you from straying from the official path. For example, there are many situations where you can see the next area across a low fence between buildings. Stack up a few cans, and you can build a staircase to get over. But, AFTER you do all that work collecting physics objects, you
      • Aaaaahhh... Trespasser!

        Oh, how even now, years later, my skin rankles with cold chills at that awful, awful game. I was trying to talk about it a few weeks ago (perhaps even here) and I had completely blocked the name of the game in my mind. I looked for it online but could only find links to Turok.

        For people who don't remember the game, you play the part of a pale disembodied arm which is either drunk or suffering from a loss of coordination caused by earlier methamphetamine abuse. Your goal is to push

    • Re:Half Life 2 (Score:2, Insightful)

      by lewp ( 95638 )
      HL2 hasn't been touched since I started playing WoW. Neither have my copies of GTA:SA, Metroid Prime 2, Doom 3 (which doesn't even belong in the same breath as the rest of these, sorry id...), Halo 2 (ditto), or any of the other supposed blockbusters this year. "Ground breaking" doesn't mean anything to me when I'm choosing what game to play. WoW is a better game than any of them by a mile.

      Now if only they could keep the servers up.

      I wouldn't think anything short of the extinguishing of all life on earth
    • Perhaps, but after you've used the gravity gun to pick something up and throw it, you've pretty much explored the entirety of the environment. After I was finished with that, I went back to regular weapons to beat the game, and didn't notice any usefulness of the environment afterwards.

      HL2 is certainly a very polished FPS, but does that really break new ground? If you take away the fact that you can lift and move things, it's basically HL1 with new weapons and textures, and lifting and moving things got ol
    • I haven't played WoW, but I don't think Half-Life 2 deserves an award. The physics thing was a nice idea, but in reality, you are bound to a single path. You can't use the physics to proceed down different paths depending on how you choose to solve a puzzle.

      Next is the fact that it requires online activation for offline play. That really killed it for me. If you don't have an Internet connection, you can't install the game. I know a couple of guys who got burned. They returned the game, and chose to get s

  • Not bad, not good, just over-hyped (Score:3, Insightful)

    by canofbutter ( 843238 ) on Friday December 24, 2004 @05:18PM (#11178238)
    Games like HL2 and Doom 3 were not what I would call "bad" games (though, I was really disppointed in Doom 3 especially), the main problem is that they were all overhyped (and this is what I feel is the reason for the disappointment on many people's part). How many years had we been hearing about Doom3 and how revolutionary it would be only to get something that really lacked gameplay and had graphics that (although good) didn't live up to the hype? WoW on the other hand was IMO as good as advertised and deserves this.

  • Best multiplayer game? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Ice_Balrog ( 612682 ) <ice_balrog@NOSpAM.netzero.net> on Friday December 24, 2004 @07:08PM (#11178740)
    What really boggles my mind is how Halo 2 won the "Best Multiplayer Game" catagory over Unreal Tournament 2004. Yes, Halo 2 does have good multiplayer, but I have yet to see a game that can touch UT2K4 - especially when you factor mods in. UT2K4 simply has better weapons, better vehicles, and better gameplay modes (Onslaught owns all!).

  • How can a MMORPG be GOTY? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by __aailob1448 ( 541069 ) on Friday December 24, 2004 @10:31PM (#11179374) Journal
    MMORPGs are a seemingly great concept on paper but then again, so is communism. Neither works well in the harsh, unforgiving real world we live in.

    "How could this be?" You ask. A massive virtual world where a player can live out a fantasy. Be a Tolkien Wizard or Camelot knight or a Marvel superhero. A world where every character is intelligent , A world where you can form parties, fight epic battles and duels, explore and interact with beautiful and surreal locales. A world constantly changing and evolving where you can make friends and enemies, A world where you can ride Dragons, fly or teleport to distant places. It's like a dream come true.

    Two reasons:

    1- These games are made by companies who want to make money.

    2- These games are populated by humans.

    A few major issues with each:

    I- Company side

    Because the companies want to make money, they have to ensure that a majority of players will play their game as long as possible. This inevitably leads to "THE GRIND".

    No matter what mmorpg you are playing, you will end up spending more and more time performing repetitive, unrewarding tasks to accumulate "points". Points can be Exp, Gold, Traits, Armor, Abilities, Completing certain quests,etc. Whether it's fishing moat carps in FFXI or making potions in WoW or defeating 10 Thugs in City of Heroes.

    The Grind is usually not very apparent at first, But as the months go by, You will end up spending the HUGE majority of your time performing these menial tasks (or if you figure out how, scripting them). Out of 8 hours of play, you might spend an hour doing something new, exciting and fun. This is a fact.

    II- Player side

    Because the world is populated by humans, your fantasy world will be a dump. I'm not just talking about beggars, griefers, cheaters and assholes. Those are but the tip of the iceberg.

    I'm talking about people who talk and shout Out Of Character AOLspeak/leetspeak, about people who think there is fun in the race to get to Lvl 99, people who inadvertently start WORKING in the game instead of having fun. I'm also talking about the idiots. The huge number of idiots populating the world. Allakhazam forums are ripe with complaints about this or that class of idiots. Many of those who complain are idiots themselves.

    The same way communism ideals did not survive to greedy politians, powerhungry generals, lazy coworkers and overall human selfishness, MMORPGs ideals do not survive to companies and players.

    Gozu, former MMORPG player of FFXI, CoH and WoW fame.

    NOTE: None of what I said necessarily applies to text mmorpgs (MUDs).

    • Because the companies want to make money, they have to ensure that a majority of players will play their game as long as possible. This inevitably leads to "THE GRIND".

      So far, I've only seriously played two characters in World of Warcraft, one Undead Warlock and one Troll Hunter. So far, I've managed to spend over fifty hours with EACH character without spending any real amount of time in the same area with one character that I did with another character. That's already more unique gameplay than I've gott
      • Maybe the 3 of you who answered understood me wrong. I'm pointing out the fact that the GRIND becomes unacceptable after 1000 hours of play or so. Depending on how much you play, that's somewhere from around 2-3 months to a little less than a year. If you plan on playing less time than that before dumping the game, you'll probably get your money's worth. But a vast amount of people stay much past that. Because they are attached to their character, their guild and their ingame friends. Don't forget that th
    • The only WoW "grind" experience that I've felt is when my Cooking was sub-par due to the fact that night elves didn't have a lot of opportunities to practice, and I found myself returning to earlier areas just to get Small Spider Legs, but Blizz fixed this in the recent patch and made those more frequent drops.

      Pretty much the whole rest of the game, though, is designed for you to be able to practice your other abilities WHILE you are on a quest.
    • Nice try.

      1 - Greedy company. Well, Blizzard is refunding days when their servers are crapping all over the place. They're actually giving up money, when they do a poor job.

      Every game ever is a "grind" game, when you come down to it. Frogger - you had to keep making this frog jump across a street. Pac Man - keep making this weird yellow circle eat these dots. Doom 3 - keep opening doors and shooting zombies. The whole point is: is it fun? If you're having fun, then play the game - if you're not, the
  • "industry" when a title that will cost me $200 a year to play is GOTY? It's truly a big business now, which explains why so much marginal content fills the shelves and innovative games get ignored.

  • WoW Christmas Carol (Score:3, Interesting)

    by AntonVoyl ( 125030 ) on Friday December 24, 2004 @11:40PM (#11179543) Homepage
    You know a game's good when people are inspired to adapt Dickens [gamespy.com] to it.

  • My Pick (Score:3, Insightful)

    by wobedraggled ( 549225 ) on Saturday December 25, 2004 @12:13AM (#11179618) Homepage
    Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Great atmosphere, good tough game, and a visual feast to top it off. Too bad hating Nintendo is "cool" right now, and everyone was playing the overhyped peice of junk that is Halo2. Happy holidays anyway, and if your smart you'll pick up this game and a cube if you dont have one. to see what your missing

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