This will most likely get buried, but I want to put this out there. Like a message in a bottle or something. Before anyone says anything: This is not a rage post. I am not quitting or anything.
For the last hour or so, I have been trying to figure out what it was about some games that made me enjoy them as much as I did. What is it about a game like WoW or Team Fortress 2 that keeps me coming back, that keeps me playing for so long?
I started to think about what I enjoyed. I thought about the animations, the graphics, the sound, the music.
I realized I enjoyed it when the attacks my characters did had weight behind them. By that, I mean that when the animations played, I could FEEL them. Even though my mouse and keyboard don't exactly have rumble/vibrate features, I could feel the attacks hit. When I heard the sound and saw the animations, I could feel the attack execute. I don't know how else to put it. When the attacks didn't have that feeling, they were boring. In City of Heroes, for example, I could never get into the archery set. The sounds were too weak and the animations didn't translate into that feeling. However, I loved the Super Strength set. WHAM. WHOOM. SLAM. POW. Each attack was visually interesting, sounded great and let me feel it in my hands.
Then it hit me: Every single attack in WoW does this for me. Every spell, no matter how small does it. Even Water Walking for Shamans or Path of Frost for Death Knights. When my priest does Shadow Word: Pain, I can feel it. I can feel when my Warlock casts Agony. When my Death Knight hits Blood Boil I feel it. The sound and visuals are amazingly well done. Even when I have the sound turned off, I can picture the sound they make. I can still feel them hit.
About this time in my though process I decided to log in and tend to my WoW farms(5 90s to get through the sunsong harvest). While doing this I realized that everything in game was visually or audibly interesting in some way. Even doing things as insignificant as hovering my mouse over a selectable object made the object stand out slightly among the rest of the objects of its kind. They become slightly brighter, a little more interesting. Even when I'm not doing anything and my character is just standing there, they are interesting to look at. They sigh, they sway slightly, they look around.
Everything in this game is, in some way, interesting. Even the low rez floor textures. So, that's why I'm apologizing to you, Blizzard. I took for granted what you've created with this game. Even though I've got my complaints and will always have them no matter what you guys do, I just wanted to say all this. You guys did an AMAZING job with this game. From the most insignificant looking thing all the way to the top. This game has amazing visuals and sounds.
I'll end this little love letter to Blizz with the song that popped into my head when I realized how every little thing in this game is interesting in some way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aENX1Sf3fgQ
