Molten Core was totally the height of my experience in WoW.

And no, I'm not really kidding. I had a load of fun in there. Kharazan was the only place I had nearly as much.

it's just like Michael Jackson, while he lived he was heated and all news sites and everything were like omfg evil sick pedo.

The very second he died the VERY SAME SITES AND REPORTERS, praised how amazing of person he was and how bad it is that he died and how his death is the worst death ever!

enjoyed it when it first came out. didn't combust with rage in 05 though. kinda just moved on. the sweetspot for me i guess was around the time that jtl came out.

There's plenty of new. Look at City of Heroes.

A massive character generator, first time we really saw that. Collision detection all through the game. Sidekicking. Difficulty slider. Spawns based on team size. Massive use of the Z axis.

That's a lot of innovation.

"There is never anything new!"

Sure, and there's only so many building blocks of matter you can make an atom with, but the way those atoms combine can...surprise, be greater than the sum of their parts. The holy trinity and MMORPGs are not joined at the hip. Their co-existence is not necessary.

As for post-Vanilla catering to the casual? That's like saying there's been no good video game since the existence of "easy difficulty". Suck it up and switch over to hardcore, even if you have to endure one quick clear on normal mode. Heroic Al'akir took 6 times longer to clear than Kel'thuzad.

It's ridiculous to say that no MMO has ever done anything new, because there is never anything new. Everything adheres to tropes. Fantasy MMOs form a memeplex with common themes like faux-medieval settings and healer/dps/tank triumvirate. The stuff I listed was relatively new.

If Jedi (or rather, being "just like Luke Skywalker!" Nine iconic professions anyone?) was what anyone played SWG for, pre-NGE especially, then you missed the point. It embodied what an MMO should be like, community-focused, less reliance on NPC's, "raids" and "phat lewts" to keep players going.

Oh god I remember that place. I remember half the raid playing poker during trash pulls and dragging new guild members through even though everyone hated it. And the community was sooo amazing. I loved how other guilds would poach tanks and mudsling in trade for hours on end. Nostalgia is a bitch.

[url=#user_comment_100692]@Mikael[/url] This means that even including playable Jedi at all was already close to ignoring Canon, hence why it was difficult to become one. However, when the NGE was released, it pretty much flipped off the Canon and decimated it with an a-bomb.

[url=#user_comment_100692]@Mikael[/url] The problem is, Star Wars Galaxies was set between the events of Episode IV and V, in which the only remaining Jedi were Luke, Obi-Wan, and Yoda. Even then, people capable of tapping into the force were still pretty rare.

[url=#user_comment_100656]@Drakon[/url]: And that's what has me confused, people didn't like that change? The old system sounds horrid, being a jedi should be as easy as picking the jedi class not take a year, and losing the char on dead... yuck.

WoW died when BC came out. Alternatively, it died when Vivendi/Activision(the game killer) bought them. Vanilla WoW was beautiful and a did not cater to the casual gamer in any way shape or form. Casual gaming removes the majority of grinding, but also gives you instant gratification. Sad. :(

cool, will the next comic be about the ques to get into the swtor servers?

"A more elegant weapon for a more civilized time?Well guess what-Times have changed!"
Delta squad leader,upon finding a dead clone trooper with a lightsaber-SWRepublicCommando

I dont know why, but the dialouge in the last one reminds me so much of that.It also applies to the situation,doesnt it?

[url=#user_comment_100627]@Nerfnow[/url]: I would like to point out narbacular drop was made by the same guys who made portal, and if wikipedia is correct, without narbacular drop, there would be no portal.

[url=#user_comment_100650]@Brigitte[/url]: WoW really hasn't done anything new, ever. What Blizzard did was take an idea, in this case an MMO and make it better. That is all they ever did. I can't say that they ever did anything new, but they always polished things which gives a better experience.

Our only hope lies with the swg emu!

You never really appreciate something until it's gone.

[url=#user_comment_100651]@Mikael[/url] Before the NGE came out, becoming a jedi was, in a best case situation, a full year to do, and if your jedi died, you lost the toon. No bacta tank regen like everyone else, Jedi died and they were dead. Then, the NGE hit, and everyone could be jedi, easy like.

Didn't play SWG so I'm kind of out ouf the loop on this, what did the NGE do that was so bad? I know they let you play as a jedi which is the only reason I'd ever bother with a star wars mmo personally, don't know what else they changed though...

What did WoW do that was relatively original? Implement open world optional PvP on PvE servers for one. Another was minimal death penalties. A few quality of life things like Real ID, LFG and the rest is prettier Skinner boxes for more efficient social control while we ignore starvation.

People's nostalgia glasses often skew their perspective. The first version of Ragnaros was the hardest boss in the game in terms of time taken to kill (skipping C'Thun, which was bugged): he lasted seventy five days. Follow that with four horsemen at 55... Al'akir heroic, A'lar, under 40.

[url=#user_comment_100627]@Nerfnow[/url]: My point was not about who did it first, but that pointing out that someone did it before doesn't mean that someone else hasn't found a way to do it better.

Actually WoW has mostly been orthodox in terms of adherence to the strategy games: almost slavishly so. There are a few minor discrepancies over what happened out of sight and Draenei, but their next expansion is solely rooted in the RTS games.

What? Really? I always thought people HATED SWG because the developers tried to make it a WoW clone.

Xenosphobatic, just about everything you did in Ultima Online in 1997, others were doing in text-based MUDS years before.

There has been much "innovation" in terms of graphics since the MUD era; a small amount in terms of loot tables.

But other than that? Nada.

I played WoW since vanilla, and have enjoyed all the different expacs, and imo its just got the right "mix" which is why its so popular. be it lvlin, raidin, PvP, lore (tis blizz's game, n they can do what they want to the lore etc as long as they give good enough explanation), its all fun.

I would never claim Molten Core as an apex, but BWL was definitely up there. Killing Nef for the first time while it was current content felt like one of the greatest possible achievements in gaming.

[url=#user_comment_100625]@Xenosphobatic[/url]: It's not about doing it first, but about being the one which made it "right" and sold 1 bazillion copies. Portal was not the 1st game with portals but do you think people know about Narbacular Drop?

@Andrew Hall: In addition, if you wish to say "THIS OLD MMORPG IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN THIS NEW ONE" everything Everquest did, Ultima Online did before it, including property ownership.

@Andrew Hall: WoW redefined MMORPG's in many ways aside from the graphics. Individuals have better options for obtaining loot, players have better access to higher tier goods without having to literally live and center their lives around the game.

Just about every MMO of the modern age is a MUD with better graphics. There hasn't been any real "innovation" to speak of in the form since 1999, or so.

Why is it people have this idea that World of Warcraft "redefined what an MMORPG" is? I love your strip, Josue, but WoW is Everquest with better graphics and a flashier loot table. It isn't faithful to the Warcraft lore; it's not innovative. It took Warcraft 3 and deformed it into hideous shapes.

[url=#user_comment_100598]@Godot[/url] Methinks you don't pay attention to fandoms very often. That can be said to describe pretty much any fandom. Look at sonic for example. Or even the WoW comments in this very comment box. Hell go check out No Mutants Allowed- the best fallout fanbase ever.

You will never find a whinier, bitchier, more unpleasable or more nostalgic fandom than the Star Wars fandom. The new will always be met with howls of rage and despair, and the old will always be treated as sacred and pure; age alone dictates quality in this fandom.

[url=#user_comment_100565]@Laserwulf[/url]: In fact, Uru: Ages Beyond Myst is doing just that.

As horrible as Molten Core was, there was something special to raiding with 40 other people, even though most of them were total idiots.

SWG was a flawed yet different game in its original form. Those flaws were acceptable and could have been fixed. Then some soulless suits decided they'd make more money with an Everquest clone. I gave it a chance even after the first round of bullshit called Combat Upgrade, but it went too far.

Setting aside matters like mechanics and such, Rag and Ony were an experience, sensationally speaking, that I don't see being matched. I'm not saying vanilla was well-done or even GOOD, I'm just saying it had the epic sense. No world event has come close to the grand-scale vibe of the AQ gates.

I think adding space and ships MADE SWG awesome. it was the only thing that stayed pure post NGE.

they do have the SWGemu which essentially is SWG preNGE which everyone can love.

What I'd love to see is an MMO that's at the end of it's life to be released into the public domain, so what few fans that remain could maintain their own private servers. Of course, that would never happen unless the developer was getting out of the MMO business and didn't need the source code.

2003: No spaceships, vehicles, mounts or Jedi! This game is stupid!

2005: WTF Spaceships, vehicles, mounts and Jedi ruined the game!

I'm the middle guy.

fuck sony.

[url=#user_comment_100533]@d[/url] Vanilla WoW was ass and everybody who isn't blinded by nostalgia knows that. AV was just about the only thing that was better back then. The rest was all community and the times. TBC was better in every respect except arenas and resilience. Which while a terrible price, I'd say was worth it.

wow is just crap now....
back in the days where we played days for one alterac and raided mc all day that was when it was fun.
Back in the Day having an epic WAS WORTH something. Today ist just facerolling. nor exlporing the game yourself anymore...

It's funny how a game about star wars got bad when the Jedi came into it :D .

SWG skill tree is something I will miss forever.

Ignoring the words looks like pimples Mc'nerd cleanse his skin through taking lasers to the face, sadly he how has vision impaired and now need Pink tinted glasses to see.

Isn't those who praise it the guys who stuck with it?
and those who said it's not WoW enough left for WoW shortly after? Way to generalize the fandom JO.

Unless someone got proof of this happening?

I think i spend more time decorating the house than leveling up when i tested the game.

So many great ideas were lost with closing of SWG. like player made towns.. you could put your house practically anywhere with enough space for it.. and not only that but you could freely furnish.. miss my medics hospital.. full of body parts on floor and nice painting on walls and so on.

when wow falls it will be like watching an old decrepit house fall brick by bloody brick, What im saying is its guna take a lognt ime and bliz is gunna fight tooth and nail to save it. but lets face it eventually f2p is gunna get the WoW killer right cause p2p cant kill wow, well mayb if WoW2 is p2p

The only people who liked Molten Core were playing classes that had barely any responsibility (Hunter) or there were so many of them in the raid that they could afford to slack (Rogue). 5 minute blessings, constantly having to dispel, 30 second silences that also drained HP and confused.. not fun.

Meant to say "The major problem with SWG was SoE". Not that it didn't have other issues, but not copying a game that didn't exist yet was not one of them. Also all the people bitching about jedis being rare are faggots. How they were selected was dumb, but force users are supposed to be uncommon.

Galaxies would have been awesome with mounts and ships, tha doesn't mean it wasn't great or thar TOR is better just for having those.
And those that wanted it to be wow like tor aren't' the same mourning it now.

Then SoE came in and demanded the developers "polish" the game for release. And by "polish" I mean they literally made them remove or dumb down over half of the current content. Which of course obviously only created an insurmountable number of bugs as well. They literally RUINED that game.

The major problem with SWG SoE, as is pretty much any game made by them. That company really doesn't know what it's doing and it makes huge sweeping retard moves like the NGE patch. A similar example is DCUO. Game was doing good in beta, had some issues but it was being worked out.

Star Wars Galaxies biggest fault was being a terrible Star Wars game that didn't really understand the appeal of Star Wars. And later patching it into something that was just a terrible game, period.

nice touch, those glasses

And that is why I fucking hate nostalgia.

[url=#user_comment_100488]@Neocow[/url]: When SWG was launched there was no WoW, but after it, the pressure to change the game started which, imo, made SOE do the NGE patch.

Oh man, if I designed an MMORPG and people started complaining that there were no "mounts" or "raids", I'd be fucking pissed. Maybe I don't WANT to create a WoW clone.

Well, Galaxies came our before WoW. I think you meant Evercrack.

I can't wait until they close down the WOW servers.

Because at the very least, then it'll mean there'll be WOW 2 or something else.

Classic Obi-Wan quote. I want to go watch that movie now.