So I'm trying out World of Warcraft...

[Jife_Jifremok]

I'm downloading the free trial as I type this. I took a look at a couple of WoW gameplay videos and am not in the least impressed by watching characters just standing still and fighting in what appears to be typical inactive MMORPG combat. The only thing keeping me motivated to play this is curosity: Does this game really suck as much as it appears to? That, I'll feel good knowing that I've played the game whenever I feel the need to bash it.

So why am I ranting about this? Simple. I plan to keep a journal of sorts here as I go through a trial of WoW. If it weren't for this FREE trial, I never would have taken any measures to try this out. So, the above is my first entry. As you can see, it doesn't look at all favorable. But who knows, maybe ths game has a chance to earn a place in my heart. We'll see.

[Hrigg]

The game is great. If you don't wanna just "stand there" when fighting, don't pick a warrior or paladin, since their strat is mainly to run up and hit stuff.

If you wanna have to be a bit more active with the movement of your character try out a caster. Rogues are pretty fun too. <3 stealth

[CelestialBlade]

It's pretty boring, Guild Wars has a superior battle system. Why it's so popular I'll never understand.

[HUnewearl_Meira]

WoW isn't anywhere near as fast-paced as PSU. You should go into it with that in mind. That being said, it's also a very, very large game, with plenty of challenges to overcome. Every few months, I have a habit of opening up my WoW account and wandering around, finishing off quests for a bit, then I'll become bored with it, and just go see what I can sneak into without getting killed.

A free trial really won't give you an adequate impression of the game. Two weeks is not enough to really get into it; though I suppose that's probably one of the game's downfalls, as well.

[ABDUR101]

Though in two weeks, if you rush your way through you can easily make it into the mid-20's lvl wise. Just remember that its still just a hint of what the game has to offer. A trial is basically having you miss out on getting to know people, enjoying the scenery of the world and the back-ground story of everything around you.

Thats what I always liked about WoW, there's alot of story to enjoy; while most people bitch that its a boring game and mindless; well, there aren't many MMO's that aren't mindless hack and slash, and most others don't have as diverse a history as Warcraft.

I was personally thinking of breaking into EVE online for a month, since I was just offered a renewal for $10 to come back for a month. Though I'm way out in 0.0 space, I wonder if the Black Ops space pirate corp I joined is still operating in the area.

[RuneLateralus]

Unless you can power level the character to near end game, you really won't see what WoW offers.

I have played numerous MMOs. WoW, in my opinion, is the best one, which is why I have been playing it since launch. It can be played casually and still get to the end game. Yet, if you want to play it hardcore, you can too. And as for the boring or mindless stuff, you should really see how battles in endgame (such as Karazhan, Zul'Aman, and other raids) are like. You really have to pay attention to certain things otherwise the battle will go wrong VERY fast. Although, there are some very cool battles in the earlier dungeons (Scarlet Monastery is always fun, so is Maraudon).



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: RuneLateralus on 2008-01-17 11:02 ]</font>

[HUnewearl_Meira]

My brother-in-law (often known around these parts as "Dragoon") plays a tank (Night Elf Warrior), and from what I understand, he does the job rather well. In any case, while you end up running the same raids over and over to get the gear that you want (whence upon completing this, the only thing left for you to do is help other people get their gear...), the strategies and discussion regarding how to get through the raid can become really quite involving. There's a certain level of necessarily organized teamwork there, that I believe is really a big part of the game's draw.

One thing that I personally discovered, is that trying to do quests with friends while your character is drunk, can be rather frustrating.

[Shadow_Wing]

What MMO isn't mindless and boring?

Anyways WoW was fun for a while but I found it just too easy, but then what MMO is a challenge to me now a days, idk... Pretty much what it really comes down to is the people, no matter how amazing it may seem it does become mindless after a while and always comes down to the people you meet rather than the game itself.

@Meira, try it with a group of drunk or stoned people where you're one of the 5% of the group actually sober http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif and actually succeed, it's actually kinda fun lol. I like having surprises though but that's just me. (I do however have this natural ability to be a on the spot strategist, I'm able to give directions effectively and simply enough to people that we tend to win out in the end. Truthfully, it's the only fun I have in MMOs, when shit happens I like to fix it :3)

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Shadow_Wing on 2008-01-17 14:01 ]</font>

[HUnewearl_Meira]

On 2008-01-17 13:58, Shadow_Wing wrote:
What MMO isn't mindless and boring?

Anyways WoW was fun for a while but I found it just too easy, but then what MMO is a challenge to me now a days, idk... Pretty much what it really comes down to is the people, no matter how amazing it may seem it does become mindless after a while and always comes down to the people you meet rather than the game itself.



If you want a game that offers a more consistent challenge, consider Shadowbane (http://shadowbane.com/us/). It's not very pretty, but the PvE is basically meaningless, so all your real challenges come from other players. The game is heavily centric on PvP, and well-laid out for it. It's also free, so the only things you can waste are time and disk space.

[CupOfCoffee]

WoW has several distinct draws, each appealing to a different type of player. It's an extremely PVP-oriented game in many senses, and there are numerous different battlegrounds to play around in (Warsong Gulch is capture the flag, Arathi Basin is hold down more bases than the other team while constantly battling over all of them, Alterac Valley is killing the enemy boss before they kill yours while capturing towers and doing other stuff along the way for more points, and Eye of the Storm is kind of a mix between Arathi and Warsong), and at endgame, the Arena system is a pretty fun way to pass time and get cool gear. Arena makes for really intense, epic battles between the game's most skilled players, and there are some pretty awesome videos out there of the #1 ranked people in 2 vs. 2 battling it out for ages only to squeak out a victory at the last second. Plus, although it can be annoying to be routinely killed by a higher level players that happen to be passing by, playing on a PVP server is pretty interesting. Enormous brawls between the Alliance and the Horde often break out at various towns and places in the world, and can rage on for hours.

There's also a hugely vast PVE component, including endless 5 man dungeons and 10 to 25 man raids that are available throughout the game. As mentioned, Scarlet Monastery is a total blast and there are a few other standout instances, but really all of them are creative and interesting to play through at least once or twice. Only the most lifeless of nerds could ever hope to play for long enough to do everything there is to do in WoW, although there's also a virtually endless number of things you can quickly accomplish flying solo (you can level a character of any class all the way to 70 without every grouping up with anybody if you don't want to, so it's much faster and more relaxed feeling than FFXI's grind to endgame). Me, my favorite thing is the camaraderie. A lot of my friends from work also play WoW, and so we play 2v2 and 5v5 together (our Arena team name is "David Bowie Stole My Kid," haha) and just generally fly around, being awesome. Huzzah! (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v444/super_aurra/midnightmoon.jpg) Kapow! (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v444/super_aurra/sunsetflight.jpg) (ahem, yes. As you can see, I just got my Netherdrake mount and am feeling rather excited and screenshotty.)

There are also the dozens of novels' worth of Warcraft lore you can take in, if that's your thing, and the developers' sense of humor is often impressive. I've never found a game that takes quite so much pleasure in poking fun at itself as WoW. So yeah, use up your free trial and decide to hate the game based on the first 20 levels, but if you really want to see what it's about, track down some friend who's got a high level character and ask them if you can play around on it for a while. There's a lot more to see and do than you'll discover in two weeks, guaranteed. Also, with the endless sea of user-created interface mods available on the internet, many of the annoying "Jesus Christ there aren't enough buttons on my action bar" type things that seem like they can't be bypassed are quickly fixed with a little Googling.

I'm not sure why I wrote so much since you clearly stated that you're only playing the game so that when you bash it you'll be able to say you've at least tried it, but whatever. Enjoy your free trial!

[CupOfCoffee]

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: CupOfCoffee on 2008-01-17 14:48 ]</font>

[CupOfCoffee]

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: CupOfCoffee on 2008-01-17 14:47 ]</font>

[CupOfCoffee]

Holy crap quadruple post!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: CupOfCoffee on 2008-01-17 14:47 ]</font>