WoW's real problem is that it is seven years old...

[LonestarHero]

I took a two month vacation from WoW and played SWTOR.

Upon returning to WoW and starting anew on a different server type and faction and a PVP focus, I found that my eyes were straining just trying to read the chat window and navigating the onscreen map looking for quest givers and quest returns. It's going to take me about a week to adjust my eyes to tolerate the hazy graphics resolution.

Even though in my humble opinion, WoW is superior to SWTOR in just about every way in terms of gameplay, the graphics engine is showing its age. Blizzard could get do the impossible by pleasing everybody in the way of gameplay/balance/endgame/PvP/story/etc. but when the graphics physically annoy eyes accustomed to higher quality graphics from just about any other game released in the last two years, new players will not want to play the game.

Sure Blizzard can make graphical tweeks every expansion and improve some things, but there are only so many face-lifts that one can endure before looking like a cat or fish woman.

[Jaylock]

I took a two month vacation from WoW and played SWTOR.

Upon returning to WoW and starting anew on a different server type and faction and a PVP focus, I found that my eyes were straining just trying to read the chat window and navigating the onscreen map looking for quest givers and quest returns. It's going to take me about a week to adjust my eyes to tolerate the hazy graphics resolution.

Even though in my humble opinion, WoW is superior to SWTOR in just about every way in terms of gameplay, the graphics engine is showing its age. Blizzard could get do the impossible by pleasing everybody in the way of gameplay/balance/endgame/PvP/story/etc. but when the graphics physically annoy eyes accustomed to higher quality graphics from just about any other game released in the last two years, new players will not want to play the game.

Sure Blizzard can make graphical tweeks every expansion and improve some things, but there are only so many face-lifts that one can endure before looking like a cat or fish woman.

Entitlement of the wow community is one of the major problems now. 7 year old game is as well. People getting burned out, especially the vets and the hardcore players.

[Peyj]

What? I think you need to turn your settings up, or something. I have my settings up high and yeah, sure, the graphics remain "cartoony" (which I actually like), but they're certainly not hazy or make your eyes hurt.

I regularly switch between games (including those that have only been released very recently) and I've never struck anything remotely like what you're describing.

[Intropid]

Well....It's actually not the graphics.
It's the actual engine the game runs on.

The engine WoW currently plays on...couldn't handle the SWTOR, or GW2 graphics.

[redruMPanda]

Gameplay>graphics

If I cared about graphics I would've quit WoW a long time ago.

[Malthurius]

WoW has problems, but it's aging engine isn't one of them.

WoW still has a decent aesthetic, plays well, and can run on plenty of systems. If you're having problems reading text in the game, chances are you have the resolution a bit too low. I can't read anything in WoW if I have my in game resolution any lower than my computer's resolution.

WoW's biggest problems lie in it's design choices and philosophy.

[Intropid]

Also...updating WoW's graphics....would take a long time.
It's not something you just /lol copy and paste

It would take a long time...and a lot of money.
It would take an entire new engine, and lots of developing and what not.

[Nadja]

What? I think you need to turn your settings up, or something. I have my settings up high and yeah, sure, the graphics remain "cartoony" (which I actually like), but they're certainly not hazy or make your eyes hurt.

I regularly switch between games (including those that have only been released very recently) and I've never struck anything remotely like what you're describing.

Yeah I've never seen this issue, especially with the text. You can change the font size of the chat window without making the "UI" bigger. Or grab some addons to customize all text, as it seems you may be having some kind of problem?

Or actually I think I know what OP is talking about - try a different resolution size? Sometimes things look more blurry if I set my res wrong.

[skidmarksteve]

if you have a decent computer and your settings set correctly there is no reason for it to be hazy...

[Drihan]

WoW beats SWTOR on class balance and story?

Blizzard constantly pushes out TONS of class balance changes, it seems like they keep classes unbalanced just to have something to do at this point. SWTOR has pushed out a total of maybe 8 or 9 class balance changes since launch, I'm too scared to think about the fixes Blizzard tossed around at launch.

WoW's representation of "story" is quest text and 6 cutscenes through the entire game. SWTOR has cutscenes for every quest, dungeon and raid, voice overs, dialogue options, it even has reports for each quest you have ever done where it says who you talked to, who you killed/saved (DS/LS options), which part of the quest you chose to do (save a village from a bomb, or kill the invaders in the village, and the like) and the outcome.
WoW has done 3 cutscenes in Dragonsoul, 2 quest cutscenes in WotLK and the LK kill cutscene. THAT'S IT. Fail for Blizzard though to put in more cutscenes right after BioWare launched SWTOR where there are tons of them, what a coincidence!

[LonestarHero]

WoW beats SWTOR on class balance and story?

Blizzard constantly pushes out TONS of class balance changes, it seems like they keep classes unbalanced just to have something to do at this point. SWTOR has pushed out a total of maybe 8 or 9 class balance changes since launch, I'm too scared to think about the fixes Blizzard tossed around at launch.

WoW's representation of "story" is quest text and 6 cutscenes through the entire game. SWTOR has cutscenes for every quest, dungeon and raid, voice overs, dialogue options, it even has reports for each quest you have ever done where it says who you talked to, who you killed/saved (DS/LS options), which part of the quest you chose to do (save a village from a bomb, or kill the invaders in the village, and the like) and the outcome.
WoW has done 3 cutscenes in Dragonsoul, 2 quest cutscenes in WotLK and the LK kill cutscene. THAT'S IT. Fail for Blizzard though to put in more cutscenes right after BioWare launched SWTOR where there are tons of them, what a coincidence!

I said gameplay.

In the department of spending an arm and a leg on voice actors that will for the most part be space-barred through, SWTOR has the upper hand. I did enjoy the class quest cut scenes.

I can't really speak for class balance as I have never PVP'd seriously in WoW.

In regards to SWTOR gameplay the inconveniences at level 50 made the game a chore and not fun to play. Having to endure five loading screens to do daily quests is ridiculous. The lack of dual-specs made me not want to do flashpoints. Although there is no dungeonfinder, a galaxy-wide chat channel for flashpoint grouping would have taken minimal effort to implement. I'm sure better design will come, but in the meantime I can play a game that already has its act together.

[Twilightdawn]

Entitlement of the wow community is one of the major problems now. 7 year old game is as well. People getting burned out, especially the vets and the hardcore players.

<- Vet, Not burned out, no sign of stopping.
Its a release, as long as its here for me i'll be playing, unless it gets too ridiculous

[Xzan]

I took a two month vacation from WoW and played SWTOR.

Upon returning to WoW and starting anew on a different server type and faction and a PVP focus, I found that my eyes were straining just trying to read the chat window and navigating the onscreen map looking for quest givers and quest returns. It's going to take me about a week to adjust my eyes to tolerate the hazy graphics resolution.

Even though in my humble opinion, WoW is superior to SWTOR in just about every way in terms of gameplay, the graphics engine is showing its age. Blizzard could get do the impossible by pleasing everybody in the way of gameplay/balance/endgame/PvP/story/etc. but when the graphics physically annoy eyes accustomed to higher quality graphics from just about any other game released in the last two years, new players will not want to play the game.

Sure Blizzard can make graphical tweeks every expansion and improve some things, but there are only so many face-lifts that one can endure before looking like a cat or fish woman.

Had exactly the same experience a day ago. Subbed back, felt like leveling a rogue. Logged in, started walking around - first thing to hit me was the sudden lack of auto-transparent map (could be solved by addon, but cba honestly ). And well, after 15 minutes I just couldn't take the looks anymore. The WoW models just started to be outright unpleasant to look at.

Loved the game, had a blast back in the days, but it just ain't cutting it nowadays. It's got old. Time to move along.

[Mormolyce]

WoW's representation of "story" is quest text and 6 cutscenes through the entire game. SWTOR has cutscenes for every quest, dungeon and raid, voice overs, dialogue options, it even has reports for each quest you have ever done where it says who you talked to, who you killed/saved (DS/LS options), which part of the quest you chose to do (save a village from a bomb, or kill the invaders in the village, and the like) and the outcome.
WoW has done 3 cutscenes in Dragonsoul, 2 quest cutscenes in WotLK and the LK kill cutscene. THAT'S IT. Fail for Blizzard though to put in more cutscenes right after BioWare launched SWTOR where there are tons of them, what a coincidence!

BW positioned SWTOR as a "story-based MMO". Given its heritage - KOTOR was massively plot-oriented - this is natural for them, but bear in mind it's pretty unique for an MMO. No kidding there's a lot more voice acting and cutscenes and things, that's SWTOR's whole thing.

[mvaliz]

So, explain to me why "Seven" is the magic number for burnout? Why not 2 years? or 5 years? or 3 years? or 12 years? Why is Seven suddenly the magic number that causes "sudden onset boredom"?

Sorry son, it's Cataclysm's game design pure and simple. Don't believe me? Look what happened Q3 in China. Prior to Q3 numbers, all wow fans were expecting a massive BOOST to WoW subs thanks to Cataclysm being reliesed in China Q3... then BLAM - not only were the numbers a massive loss, but the majority of the 800k who un-subbed was from CHINA. the very place Cataclysm was LAUNCHED that quarter.

Does it not strike you the slightest bit odd that every time Cataclysm gets launched in a particular region - that region's audience suddenly gets afflicted with "Suddeon onset boredom"?

I mean, really?

[toletthemdecide]

So, explain to me why "Seven" is the magic number for burnout? Why not 2 years? or 5 years? or 3 years? or 12 years? Why is Seven suddenly the magic number that causes "sudden onset boredom"?

Sorry son, it's Cataclysm's game design pure and simple. Don't believe me? Look what happened Q3 in China. Prior to Q3 numbers, all wow fans were expecting a massive BOOST to WoW subs thanks to Cataclysm being reliesed in China Q3... then BLAM - not only were the numbers a massive loss, but the majority of the 800k who un-subbed was from CHINA. the very place Cataclysm was LAUNCHED that quarter.

Does it not strike you the slightest bit odd that every time Cataclysm gets launched in a particular region - that region's audience suddenly gets afflicted with "Suddeon onset boredom"?

I mean, really?

Seeing your signature, it was clear you supported WotLK. That my friend, is what caused this huge loss. How? Oh, well simple. WoW should have NEVER had gotten to as many subscribers as it did. Almost everybody was able to reach the highest level raid without effort and gearing was a joke. So many casuals joined up and played the game because it was easy and allowed them to be the best in this virtual world without any brain power. Then what happened? Cata came back. And it with it, some measure of difficulty. All the epeen stroking casuals suddenly lost the umph in there epeens, and left less motivated because they weren't at all qualified to even clear the heroics...

[LonestarHero]

So, explain to me why "Seven" is the magic number for burnout? Why not 2 years? or 5 years? or 3 years? or 12 years? Why is Seven suddenly the magic number that causes "sudden onset boredom"?

Sorry son, it's Cataclysm's game design pure and simple. Don't believe me? Look what happened Q3 in China. Prior to Q3 numbers, all wow fans were expecting a massive BOOST to WoW subs thanks to Cataclysm being reliesed in China Q3... then BLAM - not only were the numbers a massive loss, but the majority of the 800k who un-subbed was from CHINA. the very place Cataclysm was LAUNCHED that quarter.

Does it not strike you the slightest bit odd that every time Cataclysm gets launched in a particular region - that region's audience suddenly gets afflicted with "Suddeon onset boredom"?

I mean, really?

I'm afraid all I can offer you is some arm-wavy hair-brained conjecture regarding what makes seven the magic number:

There really isn't anything magical about seven years. It's just now that I'm realizing the repetitiveness of the endgame gear/rep/currency grind of modern MMO's.

When I first encountered the grind in WoW it was fresh and new to me. It kept me interested in WoW and while other MMO's were out there, I was not interested.

I've had about three burnout periods with WoW though I kept up my subscription:

1) After Ruby Sanctum in WOLTK (resulted in me taking up Starcraft 2)
2) Four months in to Cata when I found out there was no new raid content with patch 4.1 (resulted in me taking up RIFT)
3) The release of Raidfinder (I was going to try SWTOR anyway)

It was not until RIFT came out that tried the competition. RIFT had the same grind, so I tried SWTOR when it came out. It also had the same grind except executed poorly.

With the more experienced batch of MMO players nowadays, I would say now that the time for boredom is much less than seven years. I would probably say three to four months.

[Saeran]

God how many more threads will there be of this... /yawn

[LonestarHero]

God how many more threads will there be of this... /yawn

Until Titan is released.

[Deleted]

The engine doesnt limit also the graphic, it limits also the potential innovations that could be implemented in the game. So yeah, the aging engine is a pretty significant problem.

---------- Post added 2012-02-16 at 12:03 AM ----------

WoW beats SWTOR on class balance and story?

Blizzard constantly pushes out TONS of class balance changes, it seems like they keep classes unbalanced just to have something to do at this point. SWTOR has pushed out a total of maybe 8 or 9 class balance changes since launch, I'm too scared to think about the fixes Blizzard tossed around at launch.

WoW's representation of "story" is quest text and 6 cutscenes through the entire game. SWTOR has cutscenes for every quest, dungeon and raid, voice overs, dialogue options, it even has reports for each quest you have ever done where it says who you talked to, who you killed/saved (DS/LS options), which part of the quest you chose to do (save a village from a bomb, or kill the invaders in the village, and the like) and the outcome.
WoW has done 3 cutscenes in Dragonsoul, 2 quest cutscenes in WotLK and the LK kill cutscene. THAT'S IT. Fail for Blizzard though to put in more cutscenes right after BioWare launched SWTOR where there are tons of them, what a coincidence!

I thought that class balance changes were a good thing.
And btw cutscenes and voiceover don't equal a good story, while you can have a good story delivered in quest texts if you bother to read them.