A HUGE Thankyou to the World of Warcraft EU Forums!

And by that I'm not being sarcastic! So, here goes....

HUGE THANKYOU!

While this all sounds fine and dandy to those who know what I'm talking about, others may be confused. Don't worry, I would be too. So, here's the linky to my thread that has been answered to my liking,

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2868757021#1

There you'll find the reason of my happiness. Yes, I'm learning to Tank. I started recently, and can I just say it was bloody wonderful! I can? Then it was bloody wonderful!

Yes, crap actionbar bindings, etc. Hey, at least I've got "T" for Taunt. I mean, seriously, having to actually move ones wrist to click buttons?! Pfft! Wow, long caption.

Johnior, in all his glory(?), is pictured above, as Captain Looms. He's changed quite a bit since then (perhaps in level and in gear, who knows), and is a happy chappy. But in his first two dungeons (both Deadmines. It's OK once, but c'mon, not twice in a row!), he's learnt a few things:

1. If you've never done it before (in any game for that matter), it's hard work. Having to remember the buttons (instead of hitting "W" and "G" for Jewelcrafting and Mining, when I wanted "2" for Strike, or "R" when I needed my Taunt button) can be tricky in the heat of battle.
2. Taking aggro can be annoying when you've got Captain Megapull taking aggro for you (as polite as it sounds, it's not. It's annoying for us Tanks).
3. Playing Warrior has got to be my favourite thing so far. Not just for Tanking, but it feels comfortable in quests too.
4. It has raised my self esteem massively. Knowing that I can lead the charge and I haven't been blamed for anything yet - it feels great!
5. Hunters can be EXTREMELY annoying for Aggro!*

The thrill of Taunting, Rending, Thunderclapping, ???-ing, then Profiting is wonderful. I feel that I'm not just mindlessly spamming buttons, doing a Captain Faceroll (lots of Captains, aren't there?) and gawfering "trololololo", but actually doing something beneficial.

* = OK, allow me to explain. When I finally learn the keybinds for my character, make sure that the Rend is applied BEFORE Thunderclap and have around 200%+ aggro, guess what happens? Captain Arrows - 30 yards away - is pew-pewing shots, attacking different targets to me and gaining aggro wherever. OK, this only happened once. But who replaced him? Oh, it was Captain Looms and Captain Priest combined to make.... Captain-Discipriest-in-looms? But OK, it was annoying. I can understand you wanna get your DoT in before I get aggro, but please, take some advice from my main: Wait at least 1.5, perhaps 2 seconds before you go ape shit with your weapons. While you may think the Tank's got aggro, his percentage could be 90% and glowing orange. There's barely anything stopping that mob from turning around, killing you and then saying "ffs nub tank wtf".

So, that's my experiences for now. I have to admit, I'm feeling a lot better playing WoW. Perhaps, after some training, I'll go back to Resto Druidism, and find more joy in directly helping.

And back to the boys and girls of the EU WoW forums - thanks ever so much for helping me out - for the advice, the courage and perhaps a few peeks at your armor! Best of luck!

Johnior, Sindor'ei Warrior ^_^



World of Riftcraft: Similar or Copied?

Anyone who plays MMO games now will probably heard of a game called Rift. I remember hearing about it them moment it hit the Steam Store. I rushed onto the forums to see if it was worth getting. Now, being Steam forums and not the Trion Worlds (the makers of the game) forums, I was expecting there to be a lot of trolling and flame-wars. It was like looking at what was going to happen to Los Angeles in The Terminator. But I pushed all that aside and saw only people saying how great this game would be. But after looking at various screenshots, wikis and videos of sneak-peek gameplay, I couldn't help but notice that this game was very much like World of Warcraft, but at the time I was for Rift, rather than against it.

But why was I for this game? I mean, I bought Rift but I also had WoW. I guess it has something to do with the fact that I was bored of being a ginger Dwarf Hunter called McDipper. Don't get me wrong, I love WoW but it's just like every MMO on the market - Age of Conan, EverQuest, Aion, Final Fantasy.... need I go on?

In WoW it's all "go find this person" and "go kill [x] amount of [y]" or "collect [a] amount of [b]". As disappointed as I was, I still played the game and stopped complaining. I didn't like being a mage much in World of Warcraft, as it was too simple and I'd seen it all before. OK, it wasn't too different from Elder Scrolls games, but at least Bethesda did it right! Ah, the Hunter was the life for me, and it was the exact same thing on WoW as it was Rift.

I soon lost my nice opinion on Rift, as the game was exactly the same except for graphics. Here's how:

• There are two sides - the "good" and the "evil". They're not really good or evil, they just have similar ways of doing things. And these two teams are against each other. There's the "Alliance" who rely on magic and worship, and the "Defiant" who rely on "Technomancy" and clocks.
• The inventory system is identical to various other MMORPG's, and they couldn't think of anything original.
• The combat system is the same and therefore boring
• Classes have exactly the same names, icons, statistics as WoW
• The game practically begins with the same concept - there's a war, now do your part for it by killing these and getting these.
• Lots of enemies that have been seen and done before.
• If Trion added a "Dungeon Finder", we'd know they have nothing else to copy. Without it, they're screwed.

To be honest, I don't think Rift copied entirely from WoW, but there are many things that are the same, and they get repetitive and extremely boring. If I wanted to play Adventure Quest: Worlds, I would do. I don't need to pay £15/month for that, because it's free!

Look at LOTRO - that has quests which aren't too hard or repetitive. It has awesome raids and many things to bring people together. Out of all the MMO's out so far though, believe it or not Runescape is the best. Not an opinion, but a fact. There aren't a great deal of "kill these, collect these and talk to him/her/it" quests, and they're still decent. Runescape isn't repetitive - it changes all the time, and there's always something to do. If any MMO wants inspiration, turn to Runescape or LOTRO - at least they know what they're doing.

In the meantime, I'll let YOU make an opinion on World of Warcraft, Rift and other MMO's. ^_^