World of Warcraft

[Ash]

I ran into a few old friends the other day that I haven't seen in years.  It turns out they're pretty big into World of Warcraft and they told me that I should check it out.
I've never played WOW and I must admit, it does look kind of cool.  Ever since I was a kid I've liked that sword and sorcery stuff.



I was thinking of picking it up and wanted to know if any of you have played WOW?
Is it fairly easy to pick up and play?  Does the game have a pretty steep learning curve?
How much does its pay to play system cost per month?
Is there any other info you can share about it?

[Zapranoth]

Advice?   Don't do it.   Digital crack.   Stayyy awayyyyy.....

[Paquita]

It can be addictive but it doesn't have to be!  If you can control yourself and know how to prioritize you shouldn't have a problem.  I know some people will start playing and blow off all their responsibilities and anything else they have going on, but that's extreme behavior. 

You can download a free 10 day trial, but you can't do a lot of the things you can with the full version of the game, but you get a good enough taste of the game and any character you build you can keep if/when you decide to buy it.  There are 2 expansions now and if you want the whole thing, you're looking at spending $60.00 plus $15.00 a month.  However, the last expansion just came out so I'm thinking they might condense the main game and the 2 expansions in a new "battle chest" for cheaper (now you can get the main game + the second expansion for $30 in a battle chest instead of spending $50 to get them separately).  I would also recommend actually going to the store and getting the games instead of downloading so you can have the manuals.

It's a lot of fun!  My husband and I play a couple hours a night, like 9pm – midnight, AFTER we've done our chores, eaten dinner, had family time, put the baby to sleep, exercised, showered, etc.  It's basically just replaced a couple hours we'd spend complaining nothing is on TV.  We just play for fun – it's not a race to see who can get to the highest level first or a competition about who has more gold or better armor/weapons/mounts, etc.  We're not rushing through it and don't need to play every day.

It's really very simple to get into.  Before you start, make sure you find out which realm your friends are in – you can't converse with players in different realms.  You start out slow in a low-level area and work your way up. The max level you can get up to right now is 80, and getting to level 20 is a breeze.  I'd say the Hunter is probably the funnest class to start with because you can do both close and long range attacks and you get a pet that fights with you!

The part that I think sucks people in is doing dungeons or raids because they can take several hours and if you stop in the middle you have to start all over again from the beginning.  As far as I've seen though, running raids or long dungeon quests aren't a requirement for the game, so you can just avoid most of these if you don't have time for them.  People do them to get better "loot", but there are other ways of obtaining things.  Also, when you play with a group everyone has their own specific job to do in the group so you kind of feel obliged to play for hours on end when other players are depending on you – we just make sure we group with people that understand we can only help out for 30 minutes and may need to leave abruptly.

[Wag]

I was bought WOW for Christmas by my cousin (he wanted someone who plays games as much as him to play it with him, I think) and I was not really that impressed. It wasn't sufficiently story-driven for me and seemed kind of aimless.

My advice is to google Runescape and have a look at that - it is a sort of World of Warcraft lite that you can play for free online. I found that similarly frustrating and aimless, so it might give you a feel for if you like WOW before you part with your hard-earned.

[Zapranoth]

Ever play a MUD, Ash?

[Jim H]

None of the MMOs are addicting to me, thankfully.  In fact, I get pretty tired of them, and haven't play any of them in months.  Only graphical MMO I played for more than a few hours was City of Villains/Heroes.

Most of them are designed in a way where they minimize the influence skill has on gameplay (not entirely, granted), so time is the major thing you invest in it for your characters to grow.  But, in the end, for me at least this is very unrewarding, especially as there's no real storyline going on.  You gain power just for powers sake, there's no end goal.  But, I will say if you've got some people you know in real life to hang out with, they can be pretty fun at times.

[meQal]

I've been playing some form of MMO for about 10 years now. The past year it's been City of Heroes/Villians. I beta tested WoW and saw the direction it was going was not going to be one I wanted to follow. A lot of what I hear about WoW these days is mostly negative. Still, if you get into any MMO with a group of people you know, it can still be fun. Another thing that helps with MMOs is getting into a helpful guild (or super group as CoH/V calls them). If you get in one that is laid back and focused on helping new members as well as keeping things fun, even if you don't know anyone it can make playing any MMO a lot better.