Originally posted by Digi
Well, part of the hundreds was because there's ever-expanding content. Those hours are stretched throughout years of playing.However, part of the fun for me was actually testing rotations and skills, either in practice or in raids, and being able to break down the data to improve my performance. Few games give you the intense data that allows you to do this, but WoW always has. I like being able to outperform someone not because I can twitch my finger faster (though button mashing to account for latency is a valid tactic to improve performance) but because I had out-prepared him on an intellectual level. I could look at a hunter's data after a raid and instantly tell him the 1-2 things he could do that would increase his dps the most. It was cool.
Because really, the "grinding" happens while leveling, which was maybe 5% of my total WoW experience. There's a small bit of it at the beginning of each expansion to level professions and such, then the rest is spent however you want (questing, PvP, raiding, etc.). I was playing 2 or 3 nights a week for a few hours, no more than many games, and consistently cleared endgame content before new content came out.
Oh yes, I am well aware of the intricacies of WoW. I work in IT with a bunch of 20-somethings. I was the odd man out when it came to WoW. The would talk to each other and me for hours. I am speaking in past tense because they have moved on to the new "WoW in Space" (if you know which game I am talking about...it should prove my point).
For me, everything you describe ruins the fun. It is because of what you described that takes away the fun of the game. If it takes longer than 30 minutes (max) to figure out all of the game math (assuming you're not just having a brain fart and forgot which formula or concept to use...like I did in the OP of my "Game Math" thread), it is just not worth it for fun. This is my opinion, of course, not a fact. I have a low tolerance for extreme geeking in games. Skyrim cuts it close with this in the potions/enchanting/smithing stacking and it is part of why I have not bothered to try that stuff out, yet.
I also hate the fact that you pretty much have to be in a guild/group in order to really have some "fun" in WoW with the raids. Of course, "PvP, man" is not what I had in mind, either.
WoW, to me, is a 100 hour game, at best. It gets far too repetitive to be enjoyable beyond that.
Again, these are my opinions.
Skyrim is a bit different but it is also a 100 hour game to me. I like the individual quest lines as they are varied enough to keep me interested. It could use a bit more 'uniquenes'. One thing I do enjoy about WoW is the lore.
I have not played a single moment of WoW. I have watched others play for hours (when no systems go down but you still have to work, you find things to do at night). One thing I wish is that Skyrim had a Gears of War Co-Op type system. I would love to complete quests with just a friend. Online is fine, too.
It would be cool if the system gave each person credit and items for the quests so that each person would complete it...just like GoW does.
They actually just introduced a cross-server raid finder. I know guys who have cleared the current endgame with total strangers. It's not a perfect game, but Blizzard does really listen to its fans. The game has improved slowly and steadily on many fronts.
But then, it's not your type of game. I didn't think it was mine either until I played it. Micromanaging my hunter to crush damage meters never stopped being entertaining.
I'm rather curious as tow whether anyone else has done the crimsoon nirnroot side quest? You end up spending a lot of time in Blackreach (
Spoiler:) and I just finished that quest today and I was hugely impressed with the setting of it. WHen I first went through it, I didn't explore much and I just assumed most of the area was set pieces. I found out, however, that it is huge and very well detailed and I ended up exploring places I knew did not have any nirnroots, but just to see more of the area.
an area underneath Skyrim which houses a good number of Falmer
I have not done that quest, yet.
****Read this if you have the PC Version!!!*****
You can speed up the game by pressing "ctrl" and "print screen" at the same time. It does not take away achievements or anything and it is not cheating. It doubles the speed, basically (which means enemies move and attack at double speed). It can cause problems with dialogue trees (only with the audio) but the additional speed puts the game at about "normal" levels to me. You run faster, heal faster, magica replenishes faster, etc. It basically "x2" the game clock. Wait times are much faster.
Yes, I figured this out today when taking a screen shot. If everyone already knew this, I hate you. 😐 But I thought it was awesome and now I only play on x2 speed.
A friends review:
This game at a glance.The main plot was a joke, some side quests are very broken, navigating through the mountains is about the most goddamned annoying thing on earth, leveling isn't just simplified it's stupefied, the ability to rather find stones than just be born under one sign allows you to try out different things and I do like it but it just feels wrong, it doesn't feel elder scroll-ish at all.
Cinematic one hit kills are a double edged sword cause in case you get mobbed by several bandits at once, (and it happens) and one of them pulls a cinematic back stab or over the head neck breaking sludge hammer to the dome, and you don't block at the exact right instant then regardless of what you had going on you are as good as ****ed ( not like sex with a super model, more like with Bubba from cell block D) since you can't access the menu to use potions while caught in a cinematic loop all you can do is watch yourself die violently, and the sudden jump from 1st to third while executing these kill attacks actually kind of annoys me.
I have the PS3 version and found out that "In the PS3 version of the game, no amount of waiting seems to re-spawn Shadowmere, but after 15 or so days the body will disappear."
so immortal horse my dick!
Escort mission are probably the bane of any video game genre but in Skyrim its even more fun than in Metal Gear Solid 2 Escorting Emma Because 90% of the retards you have to escort seem to fancy themselves as the right hand of god and regardless of their class, healer, fighter, thief, douchebag citizen, they charge in flailing their dagger and shouting words of discouragement. It isn't like they wait for you to engage either they like to run ahead and get first blood (usually last if you don't keep up with them, cause their defense rating is in comparison with a wet paper bag.) To add to that the missions in which you are supposed to follow a target to your destination are ridiculous not so much because of the danger that said target character might zag left to take on a bear, pack of wolves, saber cat, giant, or all of the above, no it's annoying because they take fifty years to old lady walk to the destination.
Spoiler:
The Thieves guild actually offers less benefits, rather than being able to go to them to clear your bounty or crime sheet you instead join the guild and after a while get the option to pay 300 gold for a guard to go away instead of arresting you even if your actual crimes bounty is 10 gold. You do get some nifty gear from the quest line but unless you plan on sneaking around pickpocketing everyone it isn't really worth it. You do eventually get the skeleton key but they actually expect you to put it back because if you don't the thieves guild will be cursed with bad luck forever. Also after completing the thieves guild quest line a part of which you get betrayed (surprise surprise) and thus are excommunicated from the guild during this time you can no longer say "I'm with the guild go away" and after becoming the leader of the guild I saw no return of the ability to bribe guards like that. The guild offers soooo many bs quests it isn't even funny and over all did not impress me you don't even need them for a fence if you get your speech craft high enough.The Dark Brotherhood is as it always is... sort of you get shadowmere and you even get to summon the ghost of Lucien from oblivion (actually really handy) you get some nifty gear, you get to kill an emperor and the satisfaction of being betrayed (see a pattern here?) eventually you become the leader of the brotherhood but the perks pretty much stop at shadowmere and Lucien.
After completing the main quest I found myself being attacked by dragons almost every damn time I go outside, it gets ****ing annoying especially during sensitive quests, such as stealth required missions or escort missions.
If you fancy being an archer or a mage **** off you better invest in a big ****ing weapon or stay the **** out of dwemer ruins btw half the damn map is dwemer ruins. I have a decently leveled character my archery is all maxed out my destruction is almost maxed, ultimately there isn't any living being I can't **** up pretty good, yet running into just one of These ass holes! brings a shit storm down on my otherwise nice day as my arrows do jack and magic is a joke too. So I leveled my one handed and my block and still found fighting these pricks is difficult, finally I leveled my two handed weapon and found I can hulk smash these pricks pretty easily with a two hander.
The daedric influence is pretty much the same as always only Azura's Star has a nifty trick up it's sleeve if you do the quest right.
Black soul gems cannot be created only purchased or found on necromancers, this can prove annoying at times for serious.
the landscape at first appears beautiful until a few hours of trekking through the wilderness to discover a lot of brown and grey... and more grey... and some more brown.... and oh look you went the wrong way up the mountain and your target is actually on the other side so you can try to ride your horse back down but he will probably fall and die, or you can try to go over the mountain and work your way down the other side but he will probably fall and die. (but in skyrim horses can run straight up a mountain on a completely vertical incline)
you can buy houses, invest in businesses, cook food (which is useless you gain no exp for it and there is no cooking skill), get married.... wait am I playing Fable or Skyrim?
I know there is no reason to fault the game on this but item duping especially on a console is well fun and I'm a bit upset that no real good glitches other than stashing your money in a container before its removed from your inventory when you buy something, duping a book infinite times to sell it for cash or duping one single wardrobe item on a manikin since it will only dupe the first article of clothing placed on it ever... wait a manikin? That you can dress up in armor.... *cough*fable*cough*
Enchanting sucks big dick, you no longer can choose the values of beneficial abilities it is instead based on the average of your combined skill level in the beneficial spells school of magic, your actual enchant level, and the size of the gem used.you no longer get greaves and can only wear one ring reducing the amount of beneficial enchants you can have, not to mention many of the more useful spells for armor have been removed.
Honestly I expected a lot and got a little, to dumb down the leveling system to be modeled after modern warfare to better accommodate the uprising in simplified stupidity is just an insult, having classes, signs and creating your own character based on a score sheet was part of the allure to the game. Personally I loved custom classing and distributing points accordingly but alas that was too hard for the new age...... seriously..... **** off elder scrolls
Thoughts? 🙂
^*^ Skyrim isn't the best game I've ever played but it was fun overall and did take a good week out of my college time. Still can't see how this was hyped for the life of me though. 🙁
Dude sounds like they has a personal vendeta against this Elder Scroll though the bugs and crashes annoy the everlasting shit out of me. I also have the PS3 version of this game so I can kind of feel their pain on certain things.
I also don't lke how nothing is really expanded upon such as the regions like Cyradil or the Red-Guard homeland. Even it the game has Skyrim in the title, that's still too much of a tease for me. I did go the extra mile and fill all the blank pages on the map so quests usually ending with me fast travelling to the destination.
Originally posted by Nephthys
A friends review:Thoughts? 🙂
I agree with some of it (the enchanting probably the most, I also find it strange he doesn't lack spell making given he is partly magic specced) but else I don't agree with a whole lot, but then again I play on PC, and have a entirely different approach because of what was promoted on Tesnexus in regards to Oblivion.
It's weird. I can look at the same things - travel, for example, is like a fun mini-game to me. I'll often ride between places instead of fast traveling. Or enchanting, which doesn't really affect my enjoyment like it seemed to for the reviewer.
I also got attacked by a dragon once when trying to be stealthy. It was fun, because it was a new challenge.
So the review isn't wrong necessarily, it's just coming from a perspective of someone who apparently wants to be playing a different game.
I didn't like traveling in Skyrim as much as I did in Fallout 3.
It's probably because I find the wasteland much more engrossing than the lush forests of Skyrim. It was interesting to see a broken down car factory then another cave.
I'm currently replaying Fallout 3 and I'm just exploring the area and having a blast. I think it also helps that Fallout 3 area is much smaller than Skyrim and New Vegas so it doesn't feel overwhelming.
I dunno. Early on I was trying to travel to each city, and the northern ice areas became a challenge unto themselves. Once or twice I couldn't find a second way around something, but a monster I seemingly couldn't beat was blocking my path. It was awesome figuring out how to beat him and/or avoid him. Or happening upon a citadel of some sort and thinking "time to clear this m----f---er out with only a bow!"
I also enjoy just finding some woods and hunting.