User talk:Toxik

Welcome
Welcome to the GuildWiki, Toxik. Your userpage is coming along very nicely (it's very neat and very straight-foward...I love it).-- Jack (talk|contrib) 09:59, 14 January 2007 (CST)
 * Thank you, Jack, it's good to hear. I'm amazed at how easy and flexible Wiki markup is. I just need some inspiration for my intro. The only thing I don't really understand yet is how to respond on talk pages. Should I just use the edit button (like I'm doing now) or use the plus sign? --Toxik 10:13, 14 January 2007 (CST)

I used the "plays all 3 campaigns" box from your page. Not sure if you created it, but I'll give you credit for now, at least. :) -- Peej 01:51, 27 January 2007 (CST)
 * Yes, I created it. Feel free to use it, I'm glad you like it :) --Toxik 03:47, 27 January 2007 (CST)

World of Warcraft
It's not about good game design, it's about good marketing. What broke the cycle for me was the fact that I couldn't play with my friend(s) because they were always higher level (strangely, my buddy who worked 2 jobs & went to class played more than I did). That, and I like making a variety of characters, and WoW doesn't foster much character creativity - so I wound up remaking characters constantly, and never getting much farther than 20. I quit at the 4 month mark. GW fits me like a glove. I can alter my characters on a whim, and the low level cap means it takes maybe a day or two of effort to get to the same point as my buddies. Craw   11:09, 15 January 2007 (CST)
 * You hear it's good, you spend $80 on it.
 * Then for the first month or two, you can't quit - you spent $80 on it and have barely played, right?
 * After two or three months, you can't quit - you spent $80 plus another $30-$60 and you're still not level 60!
 * After half a year to a year, you can hardly quit, right? Almost $200 and a few months of your life invested.  Quitting now would be throwing all that time, money and effort away.
 * That's what I'm talking about, Craw. When it comes down to it, the greatest difference between the split Blizzard teams seems to be that one of them actually cares about giving players a good time instead of taking their money. But money isn't even the biggest issue here. The saddest thing is that I never get to see or even speak to my friends that started playing World of Warcraft anymore. They quit school and gave up their social lives! Anyway, thanks for giving your view. I like your user page and the idea for the grayed out icons - I might start using them myself :-) --Toxik 11:46, 15 January 2007 (CST)
 * Blizzard's support was awful, too. It was shocking to go to Guild Wars and see skill fixes coming in effect within a week of the problem arising.  Compare that to World of Warcraft: The warrior's main attack skill, Heroic Strike, was actually detrimental to the user - you wound up doing less DPS by using it than if you'd just attacked normally.  Time to fix?  Six and a half months post-release.  And there were many, many more.  I hear they're getting a bit better, but still...
 * I too, have lost friends to WoW. Let us take a moment of silence...
 * Personally, I'm very interested in all things related to creativity, game design not the least of them. Magic:The Gathering has an interesting design philosophy (interestingly enough, it also has a lot of parallels with Guild Wars).  The designers of MTG break gamers into three categories:
 * Timmy is the guy who plays for the game experience, be it exploring, hanging out with friends or just having fun.
 * Spike is the guy who plays to win. Not necessarily 'you win', but goals, accomplishments, titles, status.
 * Johnny is the guy who plays for creativity. Character design, skill combinations, style, etc.
 * WoW appeals to the first two with an expansive, popular world and many goals to accomplish. The reason it didn't appeal to me is that it doesn't appeal much to the creative player, unless that player has it in them to get further into the game.
 * GW, on the other hand, offers something to all three categories, though in the long term, Spike may run out of stuff to do.
 * That's why I think GW is the better designed game, even if some aspects of it (magnetic boots) are a tad clunkier. Craw   16:13, 15 January 2007 (CST)
 * The way you describe it, I guess Spike is the main reason for expansion packs, even if they add a lot for the other two guys as well. Personally, I like how things are done in GW. I didn't like a lot of things in Factions (I really hate the Assassin), but Nightfall makes up for everything. Great new characters, heroes, and a very balanced feel to every aspect. --Toxik 11:49, 16 January 2007 (CST)
 * For GW in particular, the expansion backs offer a lot to Johnny, and even something to Timmy. In the end, it's Spike who winds up complaining:

Yeah, I do think Nightfall had a lot to offer. Heroes are a good concept. Want to hear something funny? All my friends who played WoW? They're quitting now that the Burning Crusade expansion is coming out. You finding anything similar? Craw   16:59, 16 January 2007 (CST)
 * Johnny gets about 300-350 new skills with each expansion pack. That, and two new professions, new armors - that's a lot of looks, a lot of skill combinations.
 * Timmy gets a whole world to explore, new gametypes (AvA)and more.
 * Spike is just motoring around, working towards his FoW armor & Rank 15 HA title.
 * Yes, they're especially complaining about the new level cap and a few of them are actually quitting as well. --Toxik 17:44, 16 January 2007 (CST)