Thinking about trying WoW.

[Cintirich]

No I make sure I read all of it in every game. A storyline to me consists of a plot, climax, ending. And what are the storyline's like in WoW. Kill 6 boars so I can get 6 boar ribs, and rhapsoby malt, for the Inn Keeper. Kill 12 leper gnomes for parts for a machine. What a story. WoW to me is clearly not a game for questing. For killing stuff as I mentioned before.

I know I havn't played enough it to get a bigger picture, but from what I did play, is the bigger picture much different?

All I really hear/read is, once you get to higher levels you can raid? That's all?! That's what I get to look forward to, is raiding consistently for $15 a month?

Just my complaint, I know any WoW fanboy will say I'm wrong, but I'm looking at the game from a non bias stand point.

There's literally thousands upon thousands of quests in the game and of course some are going to be very simplistic, i.e "kill 6 boars" or "gather 10 peices of scrap metal" because the designers are trying to give you something to do rather than just grind mobs all day, which was mostly the case in EQ when leveling. I'm not hating on EQ - I played it for years and loved it, but leveling was a chore, to put it nicely.

Some quests, especially as you get higher up, do have interesting and more involved back-stories, if you choose to read the quest text. The actual actions you need to take to complete the quests may not be that different, but like I said, at least the stories are interesting.

As far as paying $15 a month to raid at max level, while it's certainly your choice to do so, there are other things to accomplish.

• There's all sorts of different tradeskills you can get into.
• There's an achievement system that many people like working on.
• There's PvP. I haven't actively PvP'd since the Lich King xpac was released, except for the occasion particiapation in a Wintergrasp battle, but some people like that aspect of the game.
• Some "completists" like doing all the quests they can find.
• There are many 5 man dungeons to do at 80 and groups are very easy to find with the new LFG tool.
• If you are into raids, getting into a dedicated raiding guild will give you access to high end raids (hardmodes/heroics) that the "general" WoW population mostly won't attempt.
• If you don't have the time to dedicate to a raiding guild, you can still raid with a more casual guild or even PUG (pick-up group) most raids these days. You may not clear every dungeon, every week, but you'll still see all the content available, which wasn't always the case.
• You can level an alt or two (or more) to experience how different classes feel, or try out a different role (tanking, healing or dps) that you may not have tried before.
• You can do any combination of the above.

WoW is certainly not everyone's cup of tea, but it does have enough to keep most people busy, whether you're casual, hardcore, or somewhere in between.

 

[Justinimcool2001]

No I make sure I read all of it in every game. A storyline to me consists of a plot, climax, ending. And what are the storyline's like in WoW. Kill 6 boars so I can get 6 boar ribs, and rhapsoby malt, for the Inn Keeper. Kill 12 leper gnomes for parts for a machine. What a story. WoW to me is clearly not a game for questing. For killing stuff as I mentioned before.

I know I havn't played enough it to get a bigger picture, but from what I did play, is the bigger picture much different?

All I really hear/read is, once you get to higher levels you can raid? That's all?! That's what I get to look forward to, is raiding consistently for $15 a month?

Just my complaint, I know any WoW fanboy will say I'm wrong, but I'm looking at the game from a non bias stand point.

Non-bias stand point? You spent the second have of your initial post trying to recruit for Runescape.. I think that is a bit of a bias.

However, not bashing you. WoW is a bit difficult to get into much like any MMO. I started to really enjoy the game the more I chose to immerse myself in it and learn. Reading the forums, learning my class, getting better skill wise (not gear wise) made me enjoy the game even more. It's all personal preference, some will like it, some will not.

 

[zoobaby]

*snip*
Let me put it this way ... I don't think anyone "likes" leveling... especially after your first character or two, it takes time and effort and you don't always want to run the same content just for another class. That aside, if you otherwise enjoy the game, you'll probably really like raiding. To me, the game really does start when you hit 80.

As for the quests, personally, I *HATE* Outlands... for whatever reason it just doesn't do it for me. Northrend (the 68-80 area) I enjoy much more. The zones and quests just seem designed better.

I find leveling kind of fun and somewhat rewarding. It gives me a chance to explore some of the quest chains I never completed. It also gives me a chance to interact with folks that have never played and help them out.

Example: Taking someone through the 40 to 44 Tanaris quests that didn't know about the pirate cove quests. Getting them all the ZF quests, and grouping with them for a ZF run. (Even better was the guy had never been in a dungeon.) Also working with them on their class spec, spell usage, and what gear/stats they should focus on.

I actually like the Outlands. Hellfire gets old though and Zangamarsh can have you running around a lot, but Nagrand is fun. Shadowmoon Valley and Netherstorm are well done as well. With the new leveling changes (and +xp gear) , I went from 58 to 68 pretty fast. I did almost all of Hellfire, skipped most of Zangamarsh, skipped all of Teracone forrest and bone wastes, did half of Nagrand quests, and now ready to go to Northrend at 68.

 

[wtburnette]

The game is great. There's good and bad like any game, but if you liked Diablo/DII, you have a good chance of loving WoW. I was very hesitant to get into the game but once I did I've found I enjoy it a lot. I only play when I have time and have a lot of fun with it. I have several characters at 80 and am slowly gearing up on the heroic dungeons in Northrend. I have mostly solo'd, but recently I've done a ton of heroics with PUGs through the new Dungeon Finder tool. I'm gonna PM you some more info...

 

[spugnor]

Couple of quick points:

There is a raid search tool, it just does not have an icon. Type /LFR in chat and it will open a window just like the LFG window and you can queue for raids.

Also, like any MMO, you get out of it what you put into it. If you are trying to "win the game", you will fail. If you are playing to have fun, and enjoy what the game offers as fun, then you will enjoy it.

For instance, just recently i decided to get the "bloody rare" achievement, which is easier than it was, but still challenging. Just finished it a week or two ago, and it was nice.

I also spend a lot of time in game chatting with friends and others in my guild while doing some of the "boring" maintenance work (I.E. Daily quests for badges, money, crafting materials). To me, i'd rather spend an hour working on daily quests for gold and chatting with my friends than sitting in front of the TV.

And someone else stated that they had to "schedule their life around WoW." Well, sorry to say, anything that requires multiple people to get done is going to require some amount of scheduling. My guild has a weekly raid that starts at 8PM Sat-Sun, and runs 3 hours each day. Yes, if i want to attend, i have to set that time aside. But if i was going to a movie, or a play, or "game night" at a friends house, the same thing applies.

Simple way to do it, is try the trial and see if it is right for you. Some people are just not going to enjoy an MMO. Some people are just not going to enjoy WoW's take on the MMO concept. YOU have to figure out if YOU like it or not.

 

[gamz247]

And someone else stated that they had to "schedule their life around WoW." Well, sorry to say, anything that requires multiple people to get done is going to require some amount of scheduling. My guild has a weekly raid that starts at 8PM Sat-Sun, and runs 3 hours each day. Yes, if i want to attend, i have to set that time aside. But if i was going to a movie, or a play, or "game night" at a friends house, the same thing applies.

There's a slight difference between getting into a raid 2 nights a week, and being a designated raider in a guild, where most likely you will have an attendance requirement that you will be expected to meet in order to be eligible for loot. This is why people say they schedule their life around WoW; they've decided that getting this loot is important to them, and therefore they have to be there so they have a chance at getting it.

 

[Gambit]

True, but they're *choosing* to schedule their life around it so they get that loot. Guilds can run from very strict, to very lenient. Still, some guilds just use an EPGP system. Doing things such as attending raids, downing bosses, etc earn you experience points or EP (this is not character experience), while looting particular gear (generally epics from the raid) get you gear points, or GP. EP / GP = Priority. The person with the highest priority on an item gets first dibs. The reason this is important is it rewards those who regularly come to raids, etc. and prevents one person from getting the gear or losing the gear to a bad random /roll The EPGP system makes sense. If you sign up for a raid once every week or two, do you really think it's fair to get gear as fast or faster than someone who consistently puts in the effort?

 

[Intel_Hydralisk]

I tried WoW over break, played it for about 5-6 hours total. Got to around lvl 12, and was already a bored. At least for me the quests were extremely lame. No kind of story behind the quests what so ever. Every single quest I did required me to go kill a certain amount of creatures, collect an item, or bring an item to them.

There are professions which to me were difficult to level (smithing, mining) and they didn't seem like they were of great benefit. With mining (unless I missed something) consisted of running around the map with the "Search with Minerals" on and hope you come across some randomly placed ore deposit. Lame to say the least.

When I think of Wow, the first thing that comes to mind, is how all I did was kill a creature. Seriously kill kill kill. Also how I talked to maybe three people. Called an MMO, but no interaction with people? There isn't a tutorial, rather annoying pop-ups appear while you play the game. Around 5-10pm (Central Time) there was a long waiting line. I was number 650 in the waiting line, and since your a trail player, you can get bumped up every once and awhile.

I really don't know what the big hype about it is, which is the reason I tried it. I probably needed to play longer, but not going to for $15 a month.

I've played Runescape for the past 5 years, and at least for me is defiantly worth it over playing 5 years of WoW. You can easily get to the max level in wow in a month, while I'm still not there in Runescape. Items are actually worth it, and there's more to do. Not everything is based on killing. There's 24 skills, with another coming real soon. Players of old will say the graphics stink, however they have been updated. Not the greatest but not an eyesore. Plus, I really hate how WoW is like playing a cartoon. There's a free version to try it out for as long as you like. The membership is $5.90 a month. I would give it a try.

So in conclusion, I was disappointed and didn't understand what keeps people playing (and paying) for years.

I'm sorry but leveling to 12 in 5-6 hours is no way indicative of an MMORPG experience. There really isn't meant to be a straightforward plot. Of course professions blow at level 12. The real impact of professions can be seen at the level cap. Most people don't bother leveling any professions up until level 80 anyway since a lot of times it costs a lot of money / effort to do so.

What else would you do besides kill mobs? There are errand quests if you really like those where you just run from town to town delivering stuff. Although personally I found those rather retarded. The queue for your server is likely your own fault. Join a server with less population. They make it clear cut when you first select your server about which servers have high, medium, and low pop.

Obviously you won't understand why people at the level cap keep playing when all you did was play a level 12 character. The game doesn't even begin until you hit the cap. This is an MMORPG, not a game where you can just pick up over the weekend and finish.

 

[Gambit]

I agree with Intel.

Other than PvP, I'm not quite sure what you were expecting as far as how you would go about gaining experience. Quests in MMO's *ARE* to go kill a certain amount of creatures, collect an item, or bring an item to them, it's not a WoW thing, it's an MMO thing... hell, I'd go so far as to say that's an RPG thing.

Professions weren't of break benefit? 1. They're meant as a side benefit, not character defining. 2. You're all of level 12. Hell, you only just arrive at the first major city around then...what did you expect?


<sarcasm>I played Runescape for 30 minutes, it sucked. It was stupid, I ran around and just didn't get into it. WoW is much better </sarcasm>

 

[gamz247]

True, but they're *choosing* to schedule their life around it so they get that loot.

I don't see how that's much different from a job. You're choosing to schedule your life around work so that you get money.

If you sign up for a raid once every week or two, do you really think it's fair to get gear as fast or faster than someone who consistently puts in the effort?

That really comes down to the philosophy of the guild more than anything else. In my current guild, we used a loot council method of distribution for when we started in Naxxramas, but eventually moved to EPGP as we hit Ulduar. If a guild decides that everything that drops can be rolled on by anyone who wants it, then that's how loot gets distributed. It might not be "fair" to people who think that performance and loyalty should matter in these decisions, but then someone who thinks that way probably isn't in a guild that doles out loot by free rolling.

 

[Gambit]

I don't see how that's much different from a job. You're choosing to schedule your life around work so that you get money.

That's exactly my point and why I think it's kind of a stupid comment. You could easily apply that to *anything* that takes time and matters to you. "I think going to the gym is stupid. I know so-and-so that scheduled their life around going to the gym so they could get in shape." Does that suddenly mean that the next person has to schedule their life around the gym just because they want to work out? No. The other person will probably get more out of it, especially for the time invested, but that doesn't mean everyone has to.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

The problem lies in the thinking. Would anyone honestly believe that at one point in the game they well say "Great! I got the best gear in the game! Now I'm going to just stand around feeling awesome about my accomplishment"?

thats because to get the very best gear requires MANY hours of end game grinding and grinding and grinding with tiny drop chances and large parties you need to do the same thing over and over. That's precisely the whole sales model behind the game, Blizzard don't want you to reach the end of the game and then simply quit, they want you to keep paying subs month after month. So its best to ween your players onto a system where they get some kind of misguided reward for their efforts and keep playing for reward rather than because they actually like it. It's a big exploit of all the OCD gamers out there who need to achieve perfection in their character, like getting all the achievements or unlocks for something. I suffer from it partially myself although I'm a bit more concious of it.

WoW is not a serious investment of any sorts. No one in the right mind will put that much value in a video game as to consider it an investment. It seems that a lot of the former hardcore players have come to terms with that and play the game because they enjoy it for what it is, not what kind of "payoff" they'll get in the end. That's what a video game is, money spent to entertain you. I mean, there are people out there that actually play the game because they enjoy it and can't wait to see where it'll go next. Does that sound too unthinkable?

I don't agree, my experience with the game has shown me what the hardcore players are basically addicted to the game in a very OCD kind of way. Don't get me wrong the singleplayer portion of the game is pretty reasonable and there is a few good moment with groups along the way as long as you're on a high pop server or play with a bunch of same level friends.

You seem to be contradicting yourself here... in the first half you're complaining that most of the dungeons are left empty, then you say "why would people bother grinding for level 60 gear when even the most basic level 60-70 gear is a lot better". You're right... there is no point in running those dungeons... why would people grind out dungeons for bad gear? It just doesn't make sense.

How am I contradicting myself? Im saying people don't bother grinding low level dungeons for gear because first of all the expansion pack dungeons have better gear. Because of this there is hardly anyone actually running them, they're just skipped.

In that case if you actually want to run them out of interest, it's practically impossible even on a high pop server, this essentially forces you into buying the expansions all the way up to level 80.

Granted they've tried to solve this problem with cross server instance queuing, I've not subbed since then so I can't comment on how good this is or what waits are like for dungoens which were previously empty. But the fact that they have to impliment this feature really just highlights my original point, the game is broken, they've destroyed a good idea with expansion packs, kind of like Planetside did.

 

[Intel_Hydralisk]

That's exactly my point and why I think it's kind of a stupid comment. You could easily apply that to *anything* that takes time and matters to you. "I think going to the gym is stupid. I know so-and-so that scheduled their life around going to the gym so they could get in shape." Does that suddenly mean that the next person has to schedule their life around the gym just because they want to work out? No. The other person will probably get more out of it, especially for the time invested, but that doesn't mean everyone has to.

The problem with that is in this case the Gym is a WOW Raid. Instead of going by yourself, there are 24 other people that dictate when you do this. Instead of 1 hour, it takes 4-5 hours (donno how long current raids take, but 4-5 hours a night 5 times a week was the norm when I played). The results: Getting in shape vs. Virtual Loot are in the eye of the beholder so I'm not going to comment.

Comparing this to other games... it's just not even close. Right now I game when I have free time and everytime I game I at least go in with the mindset of enjoying it (whether or not that new game is enjoyable is a different story). Back when I logged onto WOW to raid, it felt like a chore.

The raids themselves weren't all that enjoyable for me. Ultimately what ruined the game wasn't the game itself but the people who played it. When raids devolve into a depressing exchange of blamestorming, it's no longer fun. People who PvP'd only knew how to complain about other classes being overpowered and their class being underpowered. WOW Arenas as an esport was laughable. I realized that the only thing I did was walk around town with my super cool mount and uber gear and get PM'd by noobs expressing their admiration. That's when I decided I had enough.

 

[Yoshiyuki Blade]

thats because to get the very best gear requires MANY hours of end game grinding and grinding and grinding with tiny drop chances and large parties you need to do the same thing over and over. That's precisely the whole sales model behind the game, Blizzard don't want you to reach the end of the game and then simply quit, they want you to keep paying subs month after month. So its best to ween your players onto a system where they get some kind of misguided reward for their efforts and keep playing for reward rather than because they actually like it. It's a big exploit of all the OCD gamers out there who need to achieve perfection in their character, like getting all the achievements or unlocks for something. I suffer from it partially myself although I'm a bit more concious of it.

Sure it requires a lot of time to make these in-game accomplishments, but when people start thinking they've worked hard enough, reached the age of retirement and can start living their lives without having to work, they've made a grave mistake of comparing WoW to real life. No *serious* investments have been made, and when players pretend that they've invested so much time with no payoff from a video game, they've shot themelves in the foot. Anyone who've played WoW through *two* expansions should have realized it by now. I still see a lot of the same faces from classic WoW on my server, always with some of the upper-end raiding gear. Needless to say, they aren't expecting a payoff at this point, but just want to excel in what they like to do best.

This "sales model" only really applies to the vast minority of the WoW population. I certainly can't imagine the casual playerbase wanting to deal with that kind of style, and the average player gear reflects it. Random dungeons is where it's at. Almost completely predicable upgrade path, doesn't require a lot of time to reach. Pretty much the opposite of what the hardcore raiders do.

 

[Vorret]

I didn't read every post but someone saying the WoW story line blows is completly retarded.
There's books everywhere you can read, awesome quests that if you actually read the whole thing really explains most of what's going on.
(IE : The Scarlett Monastery part is awesome).

I haven't touched WoW in over a year but I have some really awesome memories from it... first time we did the Cathedral (SM again) and it bugged so we couldn't pull anything without pulling the whole floor was just epic.

We didn't know what the hell we were doing and everything was new.
There's some really cool places to explore and see even though the GFX isn't "real life like" it's still a beautifull game, very colorfull, it's not dull, there's some really different zones, etc.

All in all, if you've never tried it I'd just do the 1-80 at least once to see what it's about or at least do most of the old world, that's where (I beleive) the game is at it's best.

 

[XvMMvX]

Thanks for all the replies on this thread, it has given me a lot of information.

The problem with that is in this case the Gym is a WOW Raid. Instead of going by yourself, there are 24 other people that dictate when you do this. Instead of 1 hour, it takes 4-5 hours (donno how long current raids take, but 4-5 hours a night 5 times a week was the norm when I played). The results: Getting in shape vs. Virtual Loot are in the eye of the beholder so I'm not going to comment.

Intel,

Your quote above is EXACTLY what I do not want to do, and mimics all of the things i have heard about wow. In Diablo 2 (for example) I can jump on bnet, find a game, run baal 4 or 5 times and jump off and spend about an hour playing. 4-5 hours a night 5 times a week and I still have the roll for the gear...just does not sound pleasing, sounds like a job (which I already have monday-friday 8-5).

Looks like I will be passing on WoW again.

 

[gamz247]

Your quote above is EXACTLY what I do not want to do, and mimics all of the things i have heard about wow. In Diablo 2 (for example) I can jump on bnet, find a game, run baal 4 or 5 times and jump off and spend about an hour playing. 4-5 hours a night 5 times a week and I still have the roll for the gear...just does not sound pleasing, sounds like a job (which I already have monday-friday 8-5).

Looks like I will be passing on WoW again.

What you're talking about only exists in the context of hardcore raiding. If all you want to do, when you reach level 80, is hop in the Random Dungeon queue and run heroic instances for an hour or two, then do that. What you get out of the game is pretty much dependent on how much time you give.

 

[wtburnette]

Whoa, the thing is you missed a lot of posts saying you DON'T have to spend that much time in the game. You can play the game an hour a day if that's all you want to do. You're not going to level fast or get the uber gear that way, but you can play, level and have fun. If you don't have that much time to invest, it sounds like you need singleplayer game like Torchlight...

 

[zoobaby]

Thanks for all the replies on this thread, it has given me a lot of information.



Intel,

Your quote above is EXACTLY what I do not want to do, and mimics all of the things i have heard about wow. In Diablo 2 (for example) I can jump on bnet, find a game, run baal 4 or 5 times and jump off and spend about an hour playing. 4-5 hours a night 5 times a week and I still have the roll for the gear...just does not sound pleasing, sounds like a job (which I already have monday-friday 8-5).

Looks like I will be passing on WoW again.

Raiding 5 nights a week is hardcore raiding, I did it too. Then I got burned out and quit for 9 months. I am playing again, but extremely casual. I may raid one night a week or I might not raid at all and just do some heroics or goof off on some alts. Or maybe PVP some, because if you need to bail it is easy to /afk out.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

Sure it requires a lot of time to make these in-game accomplishments, but when people start thinking they've worked hard enough, reached the age of retirement and can start living their lives without having to work, they've made a grave mistake of comparing WoW to real life. No *serious* investments have been made, and when players pretend that they've invested so much time with no payoff from a video game, they've shot themelves in the foot. Anyone who've played WoW through *two* expansions should have realized it by now. I still see a lot of the same faces from classic WoW on my server, always with some of the upper-end raiding gear. Needless to say, they aren't expecting a payoff at this point, but just want to excel in what they like to do best.

This "sales model" only really applies to the vast minority of the WoW population. I certainly can't imagine the casual playerbase wanting to deal with that kind of style, and the average player gear reflects it. Random dungeons is where it's at. Almost completely predicable upgrade path, doesn't require a lot of time to reach. Pretty much the opposite of what the hardcore raiders do.

The serious investment is time, you should see the /played of some of these end game grinders :}

By definition the sales model is aimed at the majorety of players, its fundamentally how the game makes money long term, sure lots of people quit after a few months but the majorety of players have at least 1 character at the end game.

 

[Ocellaris]

Thanks for all the replies on this thread, it has given me a lot of information.



Intel,

Your quote above is EXACTLY what I do not want to do, and mimics all of the things i have heard about wow. In Diablo 2 (for example) I can jump on bnet, find a game, run baal 4 or 5 times and jump off and spend about an hour playing. 4-5 hours a night 5 times a week and I still have the roll for the gear...just does not sound pleasing, sounds like a job (which I already have monday-friday 8-5).

Looks like I will be passing on WoW again.

Wow is NOTHING like this. Most of the raids are quick and can be rapidly banged out, even in PUGs. You might have a few wipes here and there, but with competent people and appropriate gear, its not bad. Unless you are doing Hard Modes, there is no "4 to 5 hours a night, every night" raiding any longer. That style of play died when WoW 3.0 came out and has never returned.

I have a bunch of friends that play an hour or two here and there, and they have successfully PUGed all of the raid content in the game up to this point. With somewhat regular play and motivation, you can see everything you want. The game is designed for this style of play right now.

 

[Yoshiyuki Blade]

The serious investment is time, you should see the /played of some of these end game grinders :}

By definition the sales model is aimed at the majorety of players, its fundamentally how the game makes money long term, sure lots of people quit after a few months but the majorety of players have at least 1 character at the end game.

The grinders just put as much hours as they can allocate each month. In the end, everyone's paying their ~$15 a month. Don't forget that casual players can just hop in a few Heroic dungeons a day or week and still make some tangible progress. I think that's where the real sales model is. Giving the majority of players something to work towards without having to "invest" astronomical amounts of time that hardcore raiders put in.

 

[Xeero]

i played wow for a few years and recently quit. here are a few things to keep in mind

- the majority of the meat is from end game
- you have to cooperate with a lot of people to get pretty good loot
- in my experience, when there's a lot of people involved there's bound to be conflict drama etc
- luck and time invested determines the rate which your gear will improve
- a lot of people like to improve their gear as fast as they can so they invest more time and schedule their lives around the game (i also fell into this trap)
- getting to a decent pvp rating requires findng a partner and practicing with your partner (practice=more time invested)

all in all, the game has the potential to be a huge time sink

however, you dont have to do anything i have listed above. it's your $15/month.

 

[Intel_Hydralisk]

i played wow for a few years and recently quit. here are a few things to keep in mind

- the majority of the meat is from end game
- you have to cooperate with a lot of people to get pretty good loot
- in my experience, when there's a lot of people involved there's bound to be conflict drama etc
- luck and time invested determines the rate which your gear will improve
- a lot of people like to improve their gear as fast as they can so they invest more time and schedule their lives around the game (i also fell into this trap)
- getting to a decent pvp rating requires findng a partner and practicing with your partner (practice=more time invested)

all in all, the game has the potential to be a huge time sink

however, you dont have to do anything i have listed above. it's your $15/month.

That pretty much sums it up and describes my experience of the game.

Ultimately I had to ditch my RL friends and go further in PvP / PvE by joining a hardcore raiding guild as well as being on gladiator caliber teams.

To be casual meant to be mediocre at something that I played every single day. To me that was unacceptable.

 

[Mesquite]

Everyone on these types of threads seems to want to either bash the game or try to "sell" people on it.

I have played the game since release, 5 years now, on and off mostly on. I have several characters, only one 80 that I play almost daily. I have over 100 days played with this one character. I raid between 3-4 nights a week for around 4 hours a night. I have pretty good gear, I have alot of achievements and just cool stuff in general.

I did go through the addiction phase back when the cap was 60 and raiding was a painful time-sink. It is not bad now. I think gamers can get addicted to any game, this is not a WoW only problem.

I have had my back and forth battles with myself on whether or not to play this game. I am a husband, father of 3 and have a career. I sometimes have trouble balancing everything and WoW can feel like a job from time to time.

I play it and stick with it because I am a gamer, have been since I got an Atari back in 1980something, I WILL be playing some game. If I dont play WoW I will play something else.

It may sound stupid, but I really like seeing my time gaming resulting in something in that "gaming" world of mine, that I will be in with WoW or not. At least with WoW I can see something out of the time I invest in it in the game.

 

[HHunt]

Mh, one thing MMORPGs have over many other games is that putting more time in gains you something concrete - in WoW PvE, it opens new raids and difficulty levels, not to mention the debatable joys of 25-man guild raids.

I suspect that's one of the things that makes it somewhat addictive ... compared to an FPS (especially one where you don't have the RPG-like elements of unlocking stuff whle playing online), there's a stronger feeling of work/reward.

 

[Ritorix]

Any thoughts or suggestions?

This game appeals to me because I loved Diablo II and going on MF runs and such. I like the idea of questing for new gear and building a character.

The game does have a free trial. Start there. At worst you wont like it. Or maybe at worst, you will like it.

With the new Dungeon Finder the game is a lot more playable now, especially at low levels. Its really added a lot to the game and brought back all the old instances that no one ever ran. I logged on my 60ish troll priest last night and ran a few dungeons. He was my first 60 and such an old character he still has gear from Molten Core when the game was young. I got groups instantly (zero to up to a 3 minute wait), and poof you are teleported to dungeons with a full party from various servers. Its breathed life into old characters I had abandoned.

WoW was dragging tail for a few years there, but the simple addition of instant dungeons really changed the experience. You no longer have to walk out to Scarlet Monastery as alliance (a long trip), or take a boat to nowhere to do Razerfen Kraul. Instant access to everything within your level, with a guaranteed group and rapid replacements when someone drops out.

 

[Biggrich76]

With the new Dungeon Finder the game is a lot more playable now, especially at low levels. Its really added a lot to the game and brought back all the old instances that no one ever ran. I logged on my 60ish troll priest last night and ran a few dungeons. He was my first 60 and such an old character he still has gear from Molten Core when the game was young. I got groups instantly (zero to up to a 3 minute wait), and poof you are teleported to dungeons with a full party from various servers.

Be prepared for long wait time is you're playing DPS though. If you want to tank or heal, you will get groups almost instantly but there is a large population of DPS.

Your best option is to find someone who's already playing and wants to level an alt. Have them use the recruit-a-friend to sign you up, then you will both gain triple experience for 90 days (assuming you stay within 4 levels of each other).

 

[Krenum]

Did you make amends with your friends when you quit? I hope so.

 

[wtburnette]

Be prepared for long wait time is you're playing DPS though. If you want to tank or heal, you will get groups almost instantly but there is a large population of DPS.

Yep, it's 5 - 20 minutes on my realm for DPS. Still a very worthwhile tool, but tanks and healers have it made over us DPS...

 

[Ragenrok]

wow really? For <80 instances ya sure theres a 5-10 min wait, but for heroics its 1-2 min for DPS (even had a few instant) for my server.

 

[[F8]]

I recommend if you want to play you do refer-a-friend with someone who can show you the ropes, lend you some gold, etc. With refer-a-friend you get triple the xp while you are grouped, which allows you quicker leveling time, and you can try out a few classes to see what you like. It is addictive, I have a buddy that has like an 80 of every character.

 

[wtburnette]

wow really? For <80 instances ya sure theres a 5-10 min wait, but for heroics its 1-2 min for DPS (even had a few instant) for my server.

The average for heroics on my server is 10 minutes. If we already have a pally in our group it's always instantly to a minute or two. Pally's make a HUGE difference. Thankfully my guild has become more active and I've been grinding a whole lot more heroics lately

 

[zoobaby]

The average for heroics on my server is 10 minutes. If we already have a pally in our group it's always instantly to a minute or two. Pally's make a HUGE difference. Thankfully my guild has become more active and I've been grinding a whole lot more heroics lately

About a 10 min wait as dps, if tank queuing with you, almost instant. As a healer, instant to 2 minutes.

At lower levels, (60 to 70) I am seeing 5 min wait as a tank and 10 minute as dps. So not too bad. On weekends, when many folks are on alts, both are almost instant.

 

[TheToE!]

OP, if you liked D2 I cannot recommend Guild Wars enough.

No monthly, which you already stated was the reason you never tried WoW.

Much more tactical. Can be had for cheap. Better graphics in my opinion too.

 

[Tudz]

If you aren't into MMOs, I'd avoid them They are grinding games... spend a lot of time for little gain.

If you've got a lot of time to waste and dont want to get much done in that time, go for it

 

[HardUp4HardWare]

As DPS I wait maybe 10 minutes. Sometimes longer, but I usually don't mind. I do my dailies, check auctions, dance in main square nude. You know, the basic stuff.

WoW is so much fun for the casual player after the latest patch. It really doesn't have to consume your life to be very fun.

However, most of the negatives people say are generally true, not just about WoW, but about all games. Every game you play alot is going to suck sometimes, is going to suck time to get good at, is essentially pointless and expensive.

 

[Inu]

If you want to experience the best part of the game first you have to ask yourself. Are you prepared to invest 3-4 days a week of 6 hour play sessions to do it? Only to then get bored to tears afterwards? The only plus is that after your guild has content down well is that those 6 hour play sessions become 4 hour play sesions 2-3 days a week. Then you get bored even more and you don't want to leave your guild because you feel as if you owe them and don't want to leave them in the dust. Then you don't want to leave your character because you've invested 100's of hours into him / her.

So is it worth playing?

Not nearly worth it for me. Its GREAT for killing time tho i log on do a random heroic, and some arena with my friends. So far with the new LFG system ive become geared enough for 10 Man ICC (the last raid content easy mode) without even raiding on my ret paladin, soon here i'll get to experience the rest of the end game content without even having to do dedicated guild runs. However you can do the HARD mode, same content, same fights, same lore, just harder. Thats what the first paragraph explains basically.

 

[Superfly3176]

If you want to experience the best part of the game first you have to ask yourself. Are you prepared to invest 3-4 days a week of 6 hour play sessions to do it?

Not nearly worth it for me. Its GREAT for killing time tho i log on do a random heroic. So far with the new LFG system ive become geared enough for 10 Man ICC (the last raid content easy mode) without even raiding on my ret paladin.

Not sure what guild you're in that raids 4 days a week and 6 hours a night. Mine raids 3 or 4 days a week and 4 hours a night. Nor do they require 100% attendance etc.

 

[Inu]

Not sure what guild you're in that raids 4 days a week and 6 hours a night. Mine raids 3 or 4 days a week and 4 hours a night. Nor do they require 100% attendance etc.

Sorry i had redone my post a bit, but thats mostly in reference to hardmode grinding. People going for server firsts, it really IS the most thrilling part of the game, you'd never catch me doing it after classic WoW though.

The even hardcore'r guilds will go 5 days a week 4-6 hours.