Need some advice

[Shirewood]

Ok..

Like most of us... I just love this game. However, I'm really getting tired of the game lag and bug issues. Like I said.. I love this game. I'm trying to be patient for the day they get the game engine working with much reduced lag.. and bugs. I could handle no new content for a couple months or so... If this crappy lag and bugs that popup after every patch... I love this game.. This is how I feel..It's not my opinion.

I have lots of friends that have left this game for their own reasons. They are playing WOW and have been playing it for several months.

I love this game...

Could I get some of your imput on how you liked THAT game? I don't want rants.. and HZ & WOW bashing. I just would like some constructive opinions of that game.. and what you thought about it compared to this game.

I love this game....

I don't really want to quit this game.... I try hard to not be negative... I just want to have fun. If here is where the "fun" is... I'll stick around. If I can find "fun" somewhere else.... then I'm there!!

Thank you!

[Icabald Percival dragon]

Dear Shirewood:

I, too, love this game.

You are asking for an unbiased comparison with WoW . . . As an observer of a son and his friends using all 3 of our family computers to play the game, I would have to say that they find it to be very enjoyable. It has a lot of action, eye-pleasing graphics, interesting characters, AND I have yet to hear any complaints about lag or other technical difficulties. Crafting is not as multifaceted as in horizons, but it does offer wonderful animations of the crafting process.

So, if you are looking for trouble-free fun and a lot of adventuring mixed with very nice eye-candy, then I would suggest that you give WoW a spin. The only thing that I have not noticed in watching the boys play is a sense of community -- the very community that keeps me coming back day after day to Horizons for the last 20 months. (But then, my son was never one who cared much about interpersonal interactions in games.) Depending on what you are looking for, WoW may be an option for you to try.

Have fun where ever you are [:)] I wish you the best.

Icabald Percival Dragon
Proud Co-Guild Master of ElderSpirits and Mate to Aether Brace Percival
Order

[Crazyfingers]

Dunno Shirewood. I am in the same sinking boat. Dig many aspects of Horizons. Met lotsa cool folks. Had fun training my character and building plots. Then it just stops. I Want tobelieve that they can bring some fun back into the game. So if you are an optimist. I would recommend paying your 13 bucks a month in hopes that it will help a game that you like.

On the other hand, Its getting to the point, that maybe the only way Developers of Horizons will listen is if we all just quit paying subs.

Best of luck, itsa hard choice.

NimKhazad

[BKBanzai]

Only way for a game to succeed is to figure out what makes players quit versus bringing in/retaining existing, whichever quantity is the greatest, that is what you focus on.

Performance is a HUGE problem in this game.

I've heard all the arguments about this team working on content does not take away from the programmers working on performance.

What is the reality that I see? That each patch with "new content" brings down performance even more and we don't seem to recover from it.

Here's an example:

FORMULA BOOK.

What the heck happened to it? It used to be really good. Then it got all wierded out and stopped showing information a lot of times. Then suddenly the form book takes longer to load than our vaults did right after the server merge (exaggeration, but not much of one). The form book still sucks to open and it hasn't gotten any better in the past 3 months. How'd we go from a working form book, to one that drops information, to one that doesn't like being opened?

PLOTS:

They were weak to begin with, had issues. Permissions got fixed gradually over time. Additional features were added, plot planning stopped crashing people out. Now where are we? Hmnnnn...somehow structure deleting wiped out the entire plot, then that got fixed in a patch that also made the world cache reload every port. Then the fix for that gave us memory leak from hell. Now we're stuck in hell.

Performance in game is close to par with how it was after the merge, especially in multi mob combat. Mobs not rendering until you've passed through so many of them that you're a dead toon walking....The only thing better about the game than it was post-merge is that vaults don't take 45 minutes to load. Even town lag was better after the merge than it was after some patch in January to fix memory leak problems in towns.

Anyway, I agree that I'd rather NOT see ANY new content until performance gets fixed? Why? Because each patch seems to worsen things a bit more until enough people will give up in total disgust.

[IndyMan]

relatively lag free play, mounts, USEABLE loot that makes me smile, too many quests to get to them all, fast exp gains (until about level 45), crafting is not as boring as some games I have done it in, can actually make some nice items as you progress along .... they arent good for a level 40 when you are low levels but they are very nice for the level you are, many many people playing means easier to get a group, did i mention great loot ;- ) , nice looking graphics (even if they are a little cartoony), the low death penalty,

[Shirewood]

Thanks all for your input. I'd just hate to go out and buy a game that I may not like. From the sounds of it, I think my kids would love that game for sure. Perhaps just cancelling their account and setting one up for them in WOW. That way I can play both and see. I wish they had a better demo of the game. I hate wasting money! But, maybe the 1 wow account and 1 HZ accountidea will work.. If I like the game.. I can always get another cd.

Thank you all again.

[Jayne]

My son tried WOW while I was in Phoenix visiting someone.......

From what I saw and it was the second time I had seen it. I think kids like it because it is more quick in terms of doing stuff. Children for the most part would never craft to the extent that we do in HZ. HZ to me is for a mature audience. Whats turns me off to wow is visually it looks like I'm watching a cartoon like Shrek. And that too is why I think kids like it.

Jayne

[BKBanzai]

I know a number of adults that play WoW, ranging from 26 to 44 in age and they love it.

The graphics look cartoony for about 2 hours and then they lose that cartoon feel and are gorgeous. The content is well developed, the game platform is stable and it rolled out as a mature, non-beta game.

That said, I like HZ multiclassing and crafting....which are being reworked and I'm sure I'm gonna hate it so.....