Wakfu: or, Why I Don't Play MMOs Anymore

I played a lot of Dofus back in the day. One or two of you out there may reminisce along with me of the days when the game was still full of English errors, when we spent hours chasing Warchiefs with five Enutrofs in tow because it was the fastest way to make money, and when everyone was shocked to discover the level cap was not 100. After happily playing a couple of good years I called it quits, (I left a few months after the Pandawa class was released) mostly because I was spending upwards of four or five hours a day playing and my social life was waning.

Since then I've tried my hand at a few MMOs, but left them pretty quickly. They all seemed very samey with very little variety. They all followed the basic "tank 'n spank" gameplay of World of Warcraft, and I just couldn't get into mindlessly grinding away at the same mission for hours and hours a day. Right now a couple friends and I are trying out DC Universe Online, but it doesn't seem too good to me, either. The best part of the game is character creation. The fact that the majority of the playerbase seems to be under the age of 15 doesn't help, either. But I digress.

Years after my love affair with Dofus, enter Wakfu. An old friend and I caught up last summer, and he mentioned the game and we immediately reconnected over a shared enthusiasm for the world Ankama has so wonderfully built. Last February, I finally checked it out. After hesitantly prodding the basic game to figure it out, I dove headfirst into it after the Open Beta server wipe, starting at level 1 along with the veterans of Closed Beta. I spent more time at it than I would care to admit, gaining levels and gear faster than most of my server, culminating in two consecutive nights spent up playing two computers at once until 5 AM. The following Monday was a very depressed Monday indeed, and I decided (for my own health) not to play the game anymore. I logged on for about five minutes every day to keep my item-selling bags stocked in case I changed my mind, but after a week I didn't even do that. Last week I uninstalled the game from both of my computers.

This isn't to say Wakfu is evil in itself. It's a wonderful little game and should definitely not be dismissed for its cutesy art style or simple appearance. It has some excellent dungeons, a solid playerbase, and more depth than any other MMO out there (save for Dofus, the true king). For anyone who has not played Dofus or Wakfu and enjoys isometric tactical RPGs, you owe it to yourself to play them. Just pray that you don't love them as much as I do.

I played a lot of Dofus back in the day. One or two of you out there may reminisce along with me of the days when the game was still full of English errors, when we spent hours chasing Warchiefs with five Enutrofs in tow because it was the fastest way to make money, and when everyone was shocked to discover the level cap was not 100. After happily playing a couple of good years I called it quits, (I left a few months after the Pandawa class was released) mostly because I was spending upwards of four or five hours a day playing and my social life was waning.

Since then I've tried my hand at a few MMOs, but left them pretty quickly. They all seemed very samey with very little variety. They all followed the basic "tank 'n spank" gameplay of World of Warcraft, and I just couldn't get into mindlessly grinding away at the same mission for hours and hours a day. Right now a couple friends and I are trying out DC Universe Online, but it doesn't seem too good to me, either. The best part of the game is character creation. The fact that the majority of the playerbase seems to be under the age of 15 doesn't help, either. But I digress.

Years after my love affair with Dofus, enter Wakfu. An old friend and I caught up last summer, and he mentioned the game and we immediately reconnected over a shared enthusiasm for the world Ankama has so wonderfully built. Last February, I finally checked it out. After hesitantly prodding the basic game to figure it out, I dove headfirst into it after the Open Beta server wipe, starting at level 1 along with the veterans of Closed Beta. I spent more time at it than I would care to admit, gaining levels and gear faster than most of my server, culminating in two consecutive nights spent up playing two computers at once until 5 AM. The following Monday was a very depressed Monday indeed, and I decided (for my own health) not to play the game anymore. I logged on for about five minutes every day to keep my item-selling bags stocked in case I changed my mind, but after a week I didn't even do that. Last week I uninstalled the game from both of my computers.

This isn't to say Wakfu is evil in itself. It's a wonderful little game and should definitely not be dismissed for its cutesy art style or simple appearance. It has some excellent dungeons, a solid playerbase, and more depth than any other MMO out there (save for Dofus, the true king). For anyone who has not played Dofus or Wakfu and enjoys isometric tactical RPGs, you owe it to yourself to play them. Just pray that you don't love them as much as I do.

I agree, Dofus was an amazing game with its unique art style and combat system. Wakfu just builds upon that formula and makes everything top notch with the support from Square Enix.

Shame that you uninstalled because you enjoyed a game. Seems like you just went overboard. Why not just keep playing and limit yourself, that's what I do in DOTA 2 and each game is >50 minutes. You can do the math on the toll it takes on time.

So what you're saying is I should play Wakfu as long as I can keep myself from dying in front of the computer screen.
 
I'll take that as a mixed recommendation.

Enjoyed your perspective -- thanks.

To paraphrase.."I hate mindless repetition in video games..."
 
*Installs Japanese MMO on two computers to grind as quickly as possible*.
 
Health suffers.
 
As for "more depth than any other MMO out there", you're probably confusing depth with pretentiousness, and an overly complicated battle system.
 
But hey, I've never played the game, I just enjoy bashing pretentious JRPG games.

@Kirbydunker85 said:

To paraphrase.."I hate mindless repetition in video games..." *Installs Japanese MMO on two computers to grind as quickly as possible*. Health suffers. As for "more depth than any other MMO out there", you're probably confusing depth with pretentiousness, and an overly complicated battle system. But hey, I've never played the game, I just enjoy bashing pretentious JRPG games.

Dude. Wakfu is French. Squeenix is just putting its name on it. It's a sequel to Dofus, another French MMO I mentioned in the beginning of the post.