I’ve probably needed to do this for a long time. But in all honesty I really believed people knew me better and how I felt than they really do. So let me just say for the last time, I DO NOT HATE WARCRAFT!
Oh, I know you’re sitting there with god knows how many tweets of me spouting off on Twitter picking on WoW. Yes, I admit to calling WoW a Child’s Game and a lot of other not so nice things. So I can see why so many people would sit there and accuse me of being full of trollish hate towards this game. So here’s my official attempt to put the record straight.
First off, let me apologize to everyone out there who I’ve offended by my comments. You know, saying things like:
#Blizzard unofficially admitted that they are a child’s game w/ #MistsofPandaria. Be an adult and play #Rift! The #MMORPG for grownups! – Eddie aka Brigwyn, 10/21/2011
and
Woah! Blizzard states #WoW Subscriptions are at 10.3M that’s a -1.7M from their highest reported. WTG #RIFT! – Eddie aka Brigwyn, 11/9/2011
Though, I’m sorry that to have offended people and am saddened by the loss of some I considered friends by saying that. I won’t take back what I said. Soften it? Maybe say it in some less offensive way? Sure. But I stand behind my what I said then and my assertions now of not hating WoW.
How can I make such a claim? Well, pretty easy really.
First off, it would be impossible for me to look back at the 6 years I spent playing World of Warcraft and now say I hate the game. Oh sure, there’s many things I dislike about it. And to date there’s just nothing that Blizzard has announced or shown me that remotely intices me to go back and play it again. Honestly folks, I just don’t find the game interesting or challenging anymore.
See, somewhere along the way I just lost interest in the game. I’ve often said how the changes to the game and my favorite class (Which was being a Hunter in case you didn’t know.) caused me to no longer related to my ingame character. Brigwyn was no longer a vibrant, go get ‘em, stay up all night drinking mead then go out slaying threats to Azeroth, but kicking, skirt chasing Dorf. He just felt, well, like any other generic game character for any <insert name here> game. He just wasn’t me!
Now if you’re wondering what all this has to do with all the sarcasm, bad mouthing and admittedly wow bashing? Easy. One word, Rift.
See, when I started playing Rift it honestly felt like Brigwyn was reborn. I don’t know. Maybe it had something to do with the being an Ascended and brought back to life by the Vigil or something. What ever it was, Rift gave Brigwyn back what WoW had taken away. (I really wanted Handel’s Messiah to just play as you read this so you could really experience the HALLELUJAH moment. maybe click and read as it plays? *shrug*)
So here I am. I’m no longer Brigwyn, WoW Hunter Extraordinaire! I’m Brigwyn, The Rockinest Ranger in Rift! (Yeah, that’s corny, but let’s face it, so am I. lol)
Wanting to share my newfound gaming passion, I went off and created a new podcast and blog, Rift Riders. And that leads to the real reason for all the negative WoW comments.
It’s purely for promoting Rift. Honestly, that’s it.
I truly NEVER intended it to be taken that I, Eddie Carrington aka Brigwyn, personally hates World of Warcraft. Yes, I have ill feelings and some resentment for the loss of friendships that the game changes caused. But for the last time, I DO NOT HATE WORLD OF WARCRAFT.
Well, hopefully that ends that and we can move on and talk about other cool stuff. You know, things like “Why is Brig so tall and fat in SWTOR?”
So to paraphrase, “I don’t hate WoW… I just heavily dislike it, think it’s a child’s game, and believe it has lost everything that made it good.”
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the show?
Come on Eddie, you knew I was going to bust your chops on this one.
BITE ME!! >( LOL!! J/K
But yeah, in some regards your right. there really isn’t anything in the game that I can find entertaining. But there’s loads in Rift.
BTW – now that you don’t have your “But I’m left handed and can’t reassign keys in Rift.” excuse what’s your reasoning now for not trying Rift again?? Hmm?
I may play it again someday. For now though, WoW is like comfort food. Sure, it may not be anything fancy, but it’s familiar, so I can jump right in and start playing. Rift’s lore was already difficult to get excited about, and the ridiculous amount of content patches they’ve released since I left will only make that more difficult. Trion just doesn’t know how to be compelling.
Take a look at SWTOR’s cinematics… especially Deceived. My wife saw that sexy female Bobba-Fett and all but yelled, “Shut up and take my money!” Darth Malgus looks like a badass. You *want* to be on his team if you’re a Sith kind of guy. My point is, you can have compelling lore before the game has even been released. Trion just doesn’t have a grip on that yet, and it may be too late for Rift to catch up.
With WoW as my comfort food, and SWTOR early access starting in just a couple weeks, there really isn’t any room left for Rift.
Well, I’m not going to sit here and debate lore with the “LORMSTR” but I will go ahead and just say that I agree that Trion missed the boat on it. They really failed to understand the importance of story when Rift was first created.
Then again, both SWTOR and Warcraft HAD story lines already created and in place. Neither are truly starting from scratch. But meh, that’s another debate right? lol
As for WoW being “comfort food” and SWTOR being your preference for complex tastes, how can I argue with that? It’s true and I can totally agree with you on that point. And who knows, I may end up eventually playing SWTOR. If not for the game itself, for the people.
Eddie, why do you care what people think about your gaming preferences?! They’re your gaming preferences, and you’re allowed to like or dislike any damn game you want.
I sure as shit don’t hold back when I dislike a game, and if that means that people get offended because they are personally attached to said game, then so be it.
You didn’t insult anyone. You insulted a game.
Some may say that in so doing, you “implied” that those who played it were kids, as it is a kids’ game… but that’s not true. And if anyone believes it to be true, then they do not have enough confidence in who they are.
If you tell me right now that only simpletons enjoy SWTOR, I won’t take it personally. I enjoy it, despite its flaws. I’m secure enough to know I’m not a simpleton.
Likewise, if you say that WoW has turned into a kids game, folks should not take that personally… and if they do, that’s their problem.
Games are subjective. We’re all entitled to our opinions.
Don’t sweat the small stuff, chief.
Thanks Roger, and I really do see your point.
But at the same time, part of the human condition is showing remorse if we think we might’ve done something unintentionally causing ill will or pain. And by the constant stream of comments every time I sent a tweet promoting Rift over WoW using biting sarcasm, people responded as if wounded.
Now can we debate that maybe they take the game and it’s impact on them too personally? I’m sure we could. But that wasn’t my intention here.
I simply wanted to put on record my motivations. It wasn’t a personal statement about the game, but was intended to promote and support a game I enjoy.
I’m sure people will still hate me for it. C’est la vie. But when I’m asked the next time I say something that’s promotes Rift over WoW and why it’s a better game, I have a post that explains it all.
Roger… good grief.
You’re talking about criticism. We’re talking about trolling.
Whether or not someone actually offends you, you can still consider them a dick for trying.
No, I’m not saying Eddie’s a dick. Far from it. His recent comments though were beginning to seem more for the purpose of criticizing WoW players than WoW itself.
Personal confidence and attachment to a game had nothing to do with it. We respect Eddie; we’re going to say something if he seems hostile towards us.
Eddie, kudos to you for clarifying your point of view.
If you can’t promote a game by why it’s good and only by how you dislike it’s competitor and the childish people who enjoy it don’t be surprised if it offends people who still enjoy it.
When you nonchalantly tell people to shut up or GTFO (unfollow if you don’t like it) you are going to lose followers, even long time ones.
I grew tired of bad logic, subjective arguments, and funny math.
I am by no means a perfect person, hell most of the time I’m a jackass.
You went to far, in my opinion, and that’s why I only saw this postbecause it was retweeted.
Well I’m glad you decided to give the post a read then. Though I’ll respectfully disagree with your interpretation of my comments. (I never claimed the people were childish, just the game was.) I DO understand how what I said could be interpreted as such and cause offense.
Hopefully, we can have a better understanding of each other and we can move forward.
As for how I promote the game? We might not ever agree on that. But pointing out flaws in one’s competitor is a long standing tradition when promoting one’s preferences.
Thanks again for stopping by Bryter. Much appreciated.
I’d assumed that the wideness of your SWTOR character had something to do with bringing out your inner Dorf. Then again, he is pretty tall. He still does have the skirt chasing look though, so kudos on that!
Before I go into all of this, I’d like to preface it by admitting that I’m still a WoW player, but agree with a lot of your rips on the game. Really, I think all parts of the MMO market and any market really need some good competition so that they try harder. Now then, with that in mind:
Although I’ve known for a while that the tweets and other messages weren’t so much anti-WoW but pro-RIFT, I’m still not sure why you’ve gone to that particular method of discussion. I’m not much of a RIFT player (tried another trial weekend, can’t much seem to care about the world), but I do know that it has a lot of redeeming qualities. The PvP zones are awesome for one. For another, the dynamic talent system.
When you rip on WoW to promote RIFT, it not only makes it looks like you hate WoW, but I feel it also keeps a lot of those good qualities about RIFT from the forefront. Take your 10/21 tweet for instance. You mention that WoW is a kid’s game, following it with calling RIFT “a game for adults.” What makes it a game for adults? What makes it worth playing? To me, this argument comes across mostly as “Play RIFT because it’s not WoW” and not “Play RIFT because it’s an awesome game!”
To sum up…As much as ripping apart the competitor is sometimes necessary, I do feel that it hides what makes RIFT great.
To finish up my wall of text here (sorry about that) and because I’m feeling a spot sarcastic today, I’d like to reform that tweet in the way I would see it relating to other various topics:
Football Games – “#EA unofficially admitted #Madden is a child’s game w/ their superstar mode! Be an adult and play #TecmoBowl! The #Football game for grownups!”
Mountains – #PikesPeak unofficially admitted that they are a child’s hike w/ their new trail. Be an adult and hike #Kilimanjaro! The #Mountain for grownups!
Dates – “#Sarah unofficially admitted that she has bad taste by kissing #Ezekiel. Be an adult and kiss #Tim! The #rightguy for real women!”
Actually, I kind of like that last one, and may have to use it someday.
Hope all is well!
Anger you totally made me laugh with these!!
Thanks!
Oh yeah, point taken and thanks!
“To me, this argument comes across mostly as “Play RIFT because it’s not WoW” and not “Play RIFT because it’s an awesome game!”
I wish I had been as articulate.
There’s truth to what you say. When it all started at the release of Rift I was intending to play upon the “We’re not in Azeroth anymore!” theme Trion had set out. But then people started to respond with such vehement anger that it became too much fun not to push the issue.
Was it wrong? Absolutely! Perverse? Well, when am I not at least a little?
lol
But yes, your point it taken. It would be better to highlight the good features and fun instead of trolling.
And thanks again Bryter for being one of the ones to help bring this to the forefront and making me pause and think about not only what I was saying, but how I was saying it.
Dear Brigwyn,
Thank you for admitting that you have a problem :p. Im kidding. You are right that WoW has lost its “flavor”. It no longer has the draw that used to make me endure the many insults and harassing comments I received. WoW no longer has the effect of you are THIS character and you have the option of what you want to do. The game has divulged into “you have to do this or you cant do anything” and that is not the way an RPG should be played or kept as. WoW has turned their back on the core gamer to keep the hapless drones who overpay for Blizzcon tickets happy. Lest we forget they are now partnered with Activision so I partially blame it on them.
With that being said, none of your comments deserve to be followed with an apology. If someone gets upset because you called WoW childish they need to log out of the game and stop being afraid of the sun. Rift, WoW, SW;ToR, and any other MMO that is out or is coming out all have something to offer to their fan base and will always find something to piss off a bunch of players as well.
Play the game that you want to play. Be the character you want to play. Pay for the game that you want to pay for
Thanks bud. I appreciate the comments but as I told Roger. Sometimes it’s okay to realize you might’ve overstepped some bounds, ticked some people off and hurt some feelings, and apologize for it.
Also, as I said in the post. I apologize for the offense, but at the same time NOT for the sentiment. I do stand behind what I said, just maybe not the way I said it.
What’s a little silly Eddie, is your own opinion appears to have devolved. The whole “child” thing started when you skimmed the Mists of Pandaria announcement and declared “MoP looks like a kids game!” That then quickly devolved into “WoW is currently a kids game!”
Here’s the irony though…
The MoP presentation sucked. Not the game…. the presentation. As is, Blizzard has presented MoP as “An expansion about Pandas and Pandaria! Oh… and there’s also some war stuff.” The more I’ve looked into though, the more it seems the inverse is true, “MoP will be an expansion centering on the war between the Horde and the Alliance… Oh… there’s also some panda stuff.”
The irony? Lore-wise, MoP is potentially the most “adult” expansion to date. It’s also potentially the closest WoW has ever come theme-wise to WarCraft 1 and 2. And that’s a good thing.
About my comments devolving, yes it is that way. They had devolved. But it was was related more to what I had read and heard than anything. But that’s neither hear nor there. As I could’ve just focused on the whole pet battle being a Pokemon rip off. And how WoW players seem to focus more on distractions like fishing, pet collecting and shine mounts than new content and features that expand the overall experience.
As for the lore being more adult? Probably true. Focusing on the tension and battling between Horde and Alliance will be more adult. But it’s too late for that imho as I already have that in Rift.
As you said, WoW is your comfort food, like a good PB&J with a tall Rootbeer Float. And that’s awesome. But I want a nice T-Bone with some hearty Mash Potatoes. Still comfort food, but it’s something that you can only order off the grown-up menu.
lol
waits for SWTOR being filet retort
SWTOR = Filet Mignon.
Although Titan is the dark horse… it might be American Wagyu. Might also be gristle. We’ll just have to wait and see.