Lago PARANOIA wrote:...using money to buy magical items ... was directly ported over from the dumbass Wizardry and Final Fantasy and Gold Box and Baldur's Gate videro james.
Nitpick: I have played almost every gold box game in existence. Magic shops are very rare and the useful stuff they stock amount to a couple of magic user scrolls. I mean, potion of healing? Wand of magic missile? +1 magic crap at the end of the game when my party is already decked out in win and awesome? Dart of Hornet's Nest? These take up backpack place like whoa and it's just one dart per character action anyway; you'd better off shooting (two arrows, three darts), stabbing (darts are close-range) or casting magic missile. The really good stuff was mostly found in treasure caches and occasionally picked up after major battles. Since enemies
dropped their actual equipment to the point that if you procrastinated and they shot a couple of arrows, you'd get that fewer arrows - no sprites here, sir!, spotting these required Detect Magic initially and just a plain sharp eye in later games. And even when you were level 30 and everyone and their mom dropped +1 underpants, you'd still be hard-pressed to locate a magical underpants shop.
All in all, the general uselessness of money and the absurdity of hauling enemy equipment back to town to sell was very clear in gold box games. I mean, they even had some semblance of market economy: a particular vendor started giving lower prices after you hauled in yet another pile of scale mails.
/end rant
ScottS wrote:If I'm a hypothetical gamer coming over from WoW to 4e, what am I supposed to be getting in return for giving up on anything resembling a real-time, exciting combat?
Nothing, except possibly hanging out with friends face-to-face, but since 4e doesn't come packaged with new friends and you have to provide your own, nothing at all.
Crissa wrote:[*]...In WoW, vendors don't sell anything you want except food. Vendors that do sell what you want are limited to barter. 4e doesn't do that. See drops.
[*]Resale... I don't even know how this is like WoW at all.
Vendors have craft and spell ingredients, mounts and whatnot. They also repair stuff.
Resale: vendors paying a very small percentage of item price (like, Atiesh used to cost 25 gold - I think it can no longer be sold now, I may be mistaken). In WoW, it encourages trade. In 4e, it is utter shit.
magnuskn wrote:Since when do WoW mages need some sort of Orb/Rod/Dildo to cast spells?
Since the beginning. Phat lewt gives stat increases.
Shameful note: if I were twelve, I'd wet my pants with excitement over playing a blood elf. The average D&D fan > me > 4rries. I think it was Tempest Stormwind's rant that vaccinated me for life. Funny that as I'm now googling the exact quote, all I get is WoW.