WoW: Should I Buy It?

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Nightfall84

Gawd
Joined
Jul 19, 2004
Messages
568
I'm really thinking about buying and playing this game. I've never played a MMORPG before (Everquest, DAoC, etc.) and just wanted everybodys opinion on several topics. This may also help other people deciding wether or not to purchase and pay each month to play.

1)Balance. Is one class godlike while another sucks?
2)Server issues. Lag? Down? Or are they for the most part stable and maintained?
3)Gameplay. Basically, is it fun?

Anything else you can think of that would influence my decision would also be helpful. Thanks in advance :D
 
1) Well balance on the whole is pretty decent. Rogues are a tad overpowered over all the other classes, but all in all it is pretty well balanced.

2) Well, this is WoW's biggest problem at the moment. Login server downtimes have been fairly frequent lately. Lag is more of a problem with the auction house and mail system but it is getting better. A couple more months they should have most of the problems hammered out I am guessing.

3) Yea, the game is fun. It's not perfect, but it is indeed fun.
 
Thanks for the input :D

Also, regarding the logon issues; how long do they last on *average* hours or days?
 
1)Balance. Is one class godlike while another sucks?
2)Server issues. Lag? Down? Or are they for the most part stable and maintained?
3)Gameplay. Basically, is it fun?
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regarding:
1.) I find that the classes are balanced HOWEVER some classes level much more quickly than others because they can effectively grind with almost no downtime. Paladins being one.

2.) Lag can get bad, downtime can get bad, there are bugs abound though. Numerous quests are bugged.

3.) I'm just about level 28 and most likely going to cancel :\ It's DAoC with more quests/fluff and a cartoony world but less PvP.
 
InternationalHat said:
regarding:
1.) I find that the classes are balanced HOWEVER some classes level much more quickly than others because they can effectively grind with almost no downtime. Paladins being one.
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What is grinding?

So you conclude that it is a mediocre game and that I would be better off with DAoC?
 
my lvl 60 frost mage kicks the crap out of rogues all day long, so i dont see them as being overpowered at all
 
Nightfall84 said:
What is grinding?

So you conclude that it is a mediocre game and that I would be better off with DAoC?
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Grinding - essentially killing mobs for exp trying to level.

The grinding in WoW is almost nill with the sheer number of quests to do. If you're grinding anything, it would be for items for crafting or money. If you're grinding for EXP, then you're doing it wrong in WoW.

And IMHO, it's far from mediocre...if you love the warcraft environment you'll be right at home. I've only played SWG and this so my opinion is jaded since SWG was horrible. (IMHO of course :p)

Edit: Let me rephrase the grinding definition in WoW, to me it's not as noticable since you're killing mobs for a purpose for quests. There's really very rarely a time you are killing mobs for the sheer point of killing them. There's typically a point to it, so you don't notice it as much.
 
Game is fun but still a little buggy. But well worth the money. After work i rush home just to play it. I recommend it
 
Well no, daoc certainly isn't better, daoc is much worse now.

I would say it's a GOOD game, but it does nothing new for the genre which is what I personally need to keep me interested in another mmorpg. You will probably find it incredible if you aren't burned out on the mmorpg levelling mantra.

And about grinding, if you're not grinding... well you're not doing anything right or wrong for that matter. You can grind faster than you can quest(yes this is true, my friend and I ran parallel for a while to test it).

The Quest system is good if you like questing(honestly I'm sick of collecting junk that monsters drop). It's a bit sparse however and later on you'll be stuck with 19 elite quests that you don't want to abandon. but you can't really finish without a good group.

You can't have any real impact on the world or its events which is a shame, everyone does the same quests and while the world feels big it doesn't feel as huge and epic as daoc first did. Your levelling options are somewhat limited to 2 areas at the most usually unless you go into enemy lands and there's nothing outside a narrow level range in those areas. The areas all feel a bit small with terrain forms and mountains taking up VAST amounts of real estate.

Instances are neat at first, but they're generally just loot hunting/big questing trips. Some of them are great and a lot of fun(deadmines) and others feel REALLY CHEESY(gnomeregan).

The talent system is done quite well and allows you to customize your character a bit but it's inevitable that there will be cookie-cutters in the near future.

However, if you're not tired of the general "problems" plaguing the genre, this is THE mmorpg to get.
 
I think i'll buy it, thanks to everybody for the input. At the cost of sounding cheesy I think that the [H] forum is a very friendly place with friendly people that help everybody out, when asked. :D
 
Nightfall84 said:
At the cost of sounding cheesy I think that the [H] forum is a very friendly place with friendly people that help everybody out, when asked. :D
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Eat me







:D
 
seems well balanced to me, as long as when you do pvp you get in a group/guild with some ppl of each class then everyone has a purpose, they balance eachother out very well.

there have been downtimes and stuff, but not much. i get item lag sometimes and broken quests, but nothing that i don't expect from any game, especially an MMO. this mmo is so much better than any other i've ever played. it's very easy to pick up, there isn't anything confusing to get you lost in different wierd skills and stuff. also, this is the only mmo where i've still been playing after the first month, so i bought a gamecard a few weeks ago, first time, after owning planetside, city of heroes, and playing free trial tests for anarchy online/everquest.

very fun. it has it's moments of downtime, like waiting for a boss to spawn, or having to corpse jump out of a hard area, that sucks, but in this game it's not as bad is in other mmo's.
 
Nightfall84,

Part of the WoW experience can be the guild you end up with (although you can solo many things, a guild can help in big ways). If you end up on the Gorefiend server as an Alliance character give me a shout. I run a guild and would be happy to show you the ropes. My main char is Homerr (two R's).
 
Just like above, the thing that I love about WoW is the community. Most everyone is willing to help or show you the ropes when it comes to learning the ins and outs of the game. Yeah there have been bugs and downtime, I really haven't experienced lag that much, but you shuold try it out and see if you like it.
 
i've never played a MMORPG before WoW. as a first person snob, i looked down on all that "Dungeons and Dragons" crap that i thought i outgrew when i was twelve. but WoW changed my mind. after reading some good reviews and the fact that i loved the RTS warcraft series, i took the plunge and boy am i sold.

now i know why they called everequest "evercrack". well, WoW should be called world of Warcrack. :D

i disagree that the world is small. it takes me forever to get from place to place and unless you spend 20 hours a day on it, there's no way to explore everything and do every quest in a few months. plus, the replayabilty of starting over with a new class/race adds to the value.

so , yeah, just go get it
 
The honest truth about WoW is that it's very easy. It's basically designed for people who have never played an MMORPG and never thought they would want too.

If it weren't for the massive amount of hype it's getting being a Blizzard title it would probably die off within a year or two.

I am not saying WoW is bad.. After all it is a great way to introduce people to MMORPG's since it is easier to understand initially than many others. It's just way too easy and so the large number of high level people with a lack of things to do will cause a higher turnover than more challenging MMORPG's usually experience.

So if you are looking to get started at MMORPG's I would not be adverse to recommending WoW with the caveat that you understand WoW is to EQ2 as slow pitch softball is to baseball... It's much easier to play and about anyone can do it, but if you wan't to be challenged, and become skilled, then you need to play the real thing.



PS... EQ2 is to EQ what baseball is to professional baseball, and if you could go back in time then modern EQ is to the first year of EQ what professional baseball is to professional baseball being played at night in a stadium with only one light working.
 
arentol said:
PS... EQ2 is to EQ what baseball is to professional baseball, and if you could go back in time then modern EQ is to the first year of EQ what professional baseball is to professional baseball being played at night in a stadium with only one light working.
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But what is the second year EQ if only one light is working for first year EQ? Would professional baseball be where it is without lights at all? EQ2 is not here now because Wrigley Field installed lights. If one light is working for 1st year EQ than I would want to play a 35th year Professional Baseball game during daylight. Baseball to EQ2 is what EQ is to playing a night with 4 lights but with heavy winds but a cool beer in hand. Not to say a professional baseball game needs beer but that is like saying 4th year EQ doesnt need baseball like EQ2 year two would need lights ( atleast 5 lights that is ) .
 
EQ2 SUCKS! Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise... if they do, they're somehow justifing their puchase.

WoW is a great game. Its great for people who've never tried MMOs before, and love Blizzard games. The only people complaining are people who are seasoned MMORPGers who find enjoyment knit-picking the flaws of a great game.

Anyone can play this game, and its extremely fun.

It didn't win GOTY over all catagories and consoles/pc's for nothing. Buy it.
 
I love world of warcraft. I dont play a ton but I already have a lvl 30 warrior and every time I log on I cant make some kind of progress. Its a GREAT game. Granted I am a blizzard !!!!!! but I really enjoy it. The graphics are gorgeous.

There are bugs, and lag, but that is standard with any new MMO. There is alot of cool stuff coming down the road too. Im excited :)

Worth 50cents a day imo.
 
theNoid said:
WoW is a great game. Its great for people who've never tried MMOs before, and love Blizzard games. The only people complaining are people who are seasoned MMORPGers who find enjoyment knit-picking the flaws of a great game.
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I wasn't going to post, but I saw this and felt compelled. This was my first mmorpg, I played during the betas and I can think of a number of things that detract from the game. It is fun for a while, but eventually you'll notice that you're just killing the same 5 monsters and doing the same quests over and over again. PvP is a joke and joining PvP servers will introduce you to "griefers" by level 20 or so. It's absurdly easy to solo grind to 60.

Still, go ahead and try it. You should get 3 months or so of intersting play out of it, more if you play very casually.


edit:
Mr_D said:
There are bugs, and lag, but that is standard with any new MMO. There is alot of cool stuff coming down the road too. Im excited :)
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Perhaps this should be another thread, but why is it considered acceptable for a company to ship a buggy, laggy and incomplete product? Aren't those sorts of issues (bugs and lag) supposed to be fixed during beta testing?
 
I'm one of the few people who absolutely love the game. MY advice is: Get it if you can find it. I live in Lewiston, Idaho, and I had to drive to Spokane, Washington, to find the damn thing. 'Course, I'm devoted, and a two-hour drive is nothing for a game to me.
 
It all boils down to what attracts you, what game style.

If you like mediocre (cartoony) graphics, have little patience, and don't mind playing with some immature gamers, then WoW is probably for you.

If you like very good graphics, feel self-rewarded from being challenged to level, and want to play with mostly mature gamers, then EQ2 is probably your ticket.
 
Badger_sly said:
It all boils down to what attracts you, what game style.

If you like mediocre (cartoony) graphics, have little patience, and don't mind playing with some immature gamers, then WoW is probably for you.
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cause wow is like that...

I've also heard that even though the graphics in eq2 are more realistic, the layout of the world is just bad and everything looks bland compared to wow
 
theNoid said:
EQ2 SUCKS! Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise... if they do, they're somehow justifing their puchase.
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...Says the guy justifying his purchase of WoW.

WoW is a great game. Its great for people who've never tried MMOs before, and love Blizzard games. The only people complaining are people who are seasoned MMORPGers who find enjoyment knit-picking the flaws of a great game.
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So your saying the people who have lots of experience with MMORPG's aren't worth listening too but total newbs are?

Anyone can play this game, and its extremely fun.
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The EXACT same thing applies to EQ2. I would say (and I can say because I have both games) that EQ2 is about 10% harder to pick up.... And that is only because you have more freedom to chose how to do things, how to setup your interface, and more choices in what to do with your time.

It didn't win GOTY over all catagories and consoles/pc's for nothing. Buy it.
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Since there are anywhere from 5 to 10 GOTY's each year (since every magazine choses it's own) I am rarely impressed simply by the fact a game won GOTY.

In all honesty there is no way WoW should be GOTY simply because of it's failures in so many technical categories..... The installation from the CD's takes many people over 10 minutes per disk.. for no apparent reason. The patching system is literally the worst in of any MMORPG ever created (even worse than the crappy low budget MMORPG's!). The number of bugs and server stability problems is far greater than in any major MMORPG release since Asheron's Call. The graphics are highly inconsistant in quality. The character appearance design system and choices are the worst in any major MMORPG since the original Ultima Online. The longterm playability of the game is very questionable. The challenge level of the game is virtually non-existant.

WoW is still not a bad game. It's just not as good as EQ2. I would say WoW is only for you if you score atleast 6 on the following test:

Are you a total MMORPG newb? If yes add 1 pt.
Are you a PC RPG newb? If yes add 2 pts.
Do you have a really crappy PC? If yes add 2 pts.
Do all your friends already play WoW? if yes add 5 pts.
Do you like to be challenged by games at all? If no add 2 pts.
Do you have the patience to withstand inexplicably long install and patch times and deal with many bugs? If yes add 1 pt.
 
This applies to all MMORPG's.

When an MMORPG comes out. It's better to wait a bit before joining in. You're technically a beta tester the first few months while they iron out the gameplay. Patches are gonna be frequent and game balance will be repeatedly changed as they get feedback. Imagine toiling, leveling your character to a very high level, then a patch comes out that makes your build totally useless. The chance of this happening the first month is pretty high.

Perhaps this should be another thread, but why is it considered acceptable for a company to ship a buggy, laggy and incomplete product? Aren't those sorts of issues (bugs and lag) supposed to be fixed during beta testing?
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It's an accepted part of MMORPG's. You're dealing with hundreds of people and balancing the gameplay is more critical than most. Make one character 0.1% more powerful, and everyone will shift to that class. Make one moster give 5% more EXP than a monster of that level normally should, and that area's gonna be swamped with players. Leave a loophole in your system that 'might' make the server crash, it is guaranteed to crash as resources are stretched (I noticed Moors Law tends to work overtime for MMORPG's). That's why every MMORPG has you downloading updates every week.


BTW, Saying one MMORPG is better than another is kinda pointless. We all have our own opinions, different kinds of gameplay that suits us, etc. That's why we have variety.
 
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