I have a few words for you, World of Warcraft. They aren't pretty, and you won't like them. If there are any fanboys out there, you probably won't be too happy with these words I have for WoW either.
First of all, let's talk concept. Warcraft was taken from something, namely, Warhammer. Now feel free to criticize me on this, but Warcraft and Starcraft are both bastardizations of that universe. Good ones, but hardly original. I love universes, like Star Wars, Forgotten Realms, and Lord of the Rings. They have this continuity to them that makes the world so much easier to believe, and draws readers in. Warcraft has had that for a while now, but with the advent of WoW, it's slowly been dissolving. I could give examples, but I don't want to come off like a sniveling fanboy, so I'll leave it at "things are beginning to change from what you expected them to be like coming out of Warcraft 3."
That consistency falls apart every time Blizzard puts out a patch, as well. Shamans were, rightly so, the most powerful class in Vanilla. Some toning back in that regard was called for, but it seems the longer they go, the more they neuter the most fun spec, Enhancement. Only with enhancement do you get to watch as people soil themselves on seeing two giant bloodlusted wolves attacking from across the map. After screwing with their shocks, completely changing Wind Shock, neutering their damage, neutering the totems, screwing with some other spells, and making the spec basically inferior to elemental in every way, there is almost no worthy reason to play enhancement in, for example, arenas, or PvP, which is the growing focus of WoW now, since it seems to want to be WAR. The constant changing and rewriting of classes makes me feel that the game was incomplete. That it still is. While yes, that's technically true, I plan to do minimal patches to any MMO or game that I make. I want to spend enough time in QA to figure out most of the huge imbalance problems before the game ever goes to the floor. Patches shouldn't be major, because of what it suggests. The constant changing of the game also reflects how Blizzard treats its fanboys. They listen to the loudest whiners, and cater to them. A lot of the loud whiners being people who have jobs there that aren't so good at the game and things.
Paladins have been going through this a little, but they have been growing into the 'easy mode' class of the year. One spec for paladins, you have a three spell rotation. Healing as a paladin has been described to me as binding half your keys to Flash of Light, the other half of them to cleanse, and placing your face, fist, or dog on the keyboard, and pressing down repeatedly until the raid is over. Protection is the most complex spec, with a whopping 5 spell rotation, if you get creative. I understand that the game needs to be friendly, but in my opinion, there shouldn't be any one class that's easier to play than another class. They should all be somewhat technical, with spell/ability combos that progress, many cooldowns to manage, kind of like rogues. I don't open up a game to click on something once and wait for it to die, I do so to entertain my mind and actually play a...you know...game. Preferably not whack-a-key either.
I have played a variety of MMOs recently, and I have this to say: The only reason WoW is surviving is because it already has a healthy fanbase. If they were to try to come out now, between Champions, Aion, Star Trek Online,and the ones coming very soon, like Star Wars: The Old Republic, it wouldn't stand a frigging chance.
A game needs to be more than bringing pelts to dudes in towns. It needs to be more than fetch quests, hunt quests, and level grinding. There needs to be more than just doing the same dungeon over and over and over killing the same damned bosses to get better equipment to kill them easier at a later date. The combat system needs to be more than hitting a bunch of keys in sequence and waiting for things to die. I may play most games on easy, but a game should require at least some skill. WoW has effectively ruined Warcraft for me, by making it mainstream. They've gone the way of Nintendo, leaving their hardcore fanbase to go appease the casual.
I only ask this, Blizzard: Please, please, please don't let this happen to Starcraft.
Oh! News update: UNREAL ENGINE 3 IS NOW FREE!!!! I can develop using the everything engine for something less than $15,000!!!
