Like another person who posted, i also specifically made this account for this thread. The discussion for both sides (RS/non-rs) has been riveting and literally had me reading every single post. (I particularly liked the circle jerk post) =D> As an avid WoW player i FULLY realize the lack-luster nature of many of their quests. Of the 3 releases of WoW, the first 2 are the ones that you guys are knocking so heavily, with the lack luster quests and the (nothing after raiding). In the latest advent of wow, Wrath of the Lich King, i mean.. while leveling i was BLOWN AWAY. The quests are immersive, innovative, and while there is definitely still a grab bag of "Go get crag boar ribs and bring them back for these terrible gloves." There are also new innovative engines in play, from disguising yourself, infiltrating an enemy encampment and uncovering their plans, to hopping on the shoulder of a storm giant and working with him to blow the crap out of anything in your way. As far as minigames go, they're pvp. I don't know how else to explain them... Minigames aren't a major selling point of the game.. it's not on the box.. they're just something to kill time from now and then. It only makes sense that they're lack luster compared to other aspects of the game. They could almost just be seen as an introduction to the end game pvp, getting you used to combat with other players and such. Runescape prides itself on it's minigames, thus there are tons and usually of high caliber. The "real" pvp in wow starts at 80, you make a 2v2, 3v3, 5v5 team, and you rank, there's real world tournaments, cash prizes, something to really get your blood pumping. When is the last time jagex offered a $5k prize for a clan wars tourny? As far as the end game content goes.. They're two ENTIRELY different spectrums of game. In Runescape, you spend FOREVER maxing out, then have nothing to do until the next update, which is one quest that you bang out in 2-3 hours, TOPS. In WoW, it takes a while, but not nearly as long to max your character, there's dungeons, heroic dungeons, raid, 10-man and 25-man, hard mode 25-man. The list goes on. My guildies and I mounted up and rode from the furthest north city on one continent to the southernmost tip, not exactly frolicking in meadows, but pretty close. Plenty of stuff to keep you going, as many players say, the game doesn't really even start until you you're level cap. WoW is an epic scale dungeon raider game, going back to its roots in 40-man raid parties, to it's current 10/25-man ones. It's BUILT around team-work and communication. The game as a whole is not meant to be played solo. The server hierarchy even works to this effect. Make a toon on a server, that server is it's own little world with a thriving population that can't just disappear. You make friends, enemies, join a guild, hell, i even got an in-game wife one time. (That ring was purty expensive.) The gameplay is engineered around these relationships, and paired with a simple-to-use and sturdy chat system, it's easy to maintain them. Runescape is meant to be played solo, or with random people on your CW/SW team. There's terrible support for clans, only a recently implemented(terribly flaky) clan chat system. Not one single thing comes to mind (except maybe chaos ele) when i think "team monsters in runescape". All others can be soloed, and, due to the nature of the drop system, usually are to ensure profit. There is a fantasy element to this discussion that also shouldn't be made light of.. A great number of wow players play for some sort of fantasy, the role-playing aspect. Be an orc, whose life has been ridden with strife from birth. A Forsaken, defected from the scourge and Arthas to work with Sylvanas and make a name for yourselves. How do you RP in RS? "Oh yeah, hey, I'm a human from... over there.." Comparing the 2 together is apples to oranges. I play RS and WoW, and am happy with both. What starts to ruin the game is when they try to be tooo much like others. WoW by dumbing down it's content to make it more accessible to casual players, and Runescape by adding multiple-player bosses and moving away from from improving skills (which hold all the games allure.) While it might be helpful to nitpick about differences in the similar aspects of the games, such as rs combat vs. wow combat or WoW professions vs. RS skilling, it is absurdly more helpful to look at the fundamentals of the game such as team-work vs. solo-play. BTW, sorry for writing a book, I've been a passionate gamer for the majority of my life and given my extensive experience with WoW AND RS, figured i'd throw it into the mix, what with all these 10-day trial players hopping on and saying they know what's going down in end-game. :P
