So I Finally Tried WoW...

[WitherVoice]

Played more or less continuously since day eight (sold out on launch day). Addicted? Meh. Wrong word. Obsession, sure. To be honest, though, it's probably one of the reasons I am still alive. Without it, the introspection likely to follow inactivity in my severe psychotic depressive state would likely have ended in suicide. WoW provided blinking lights, an endless supply of achievable goals, the chance to care about something that was, and is, ultimately of no real consequence. Tried some other MMOs, but my friends play WoW or flit from game to game at an infuriating rate, so I play MMOs with my WoW friends and tabletop RPGs with the butterfly friends. If my friends stopped playing, I'd be cancelling my account tomorrow.

I am a Horde player through and through, I raid 0-3 nights a week depending on whether I feel like it that week, I find PvP horrid and lame and only do it for achievements... oh yea. And I'm a massive achievement whore. My main is an Orc warrior, prot style. My guild is the oldest on the server, though not really among the MOST successful... we have gotten the content crushed under our mighty heels, though. I have 10 level 80 characters (look at the no life on that one!) on the same realm, and I've done a bit of multiboxing. Haven't bothered with that recently, though.

My take on WoW? It's the best MMORPG there is, and that will continue for a good while yet. The reason is that a lot of developers, even if they have the funds and talent to do good work (and several have), they still try to make WoW 2.0. Meanwhile, WoW itself is moving on to 4.0 and beyond fairly soon, there are literally hundreds of hours of content that is very well-written, and while the technology, graphics and well, the game experience in general is quaint and traditional, not really awe-inspiring in and of itself, it's polished to a mirror shine. And with StarCraft 2, Blizzard proved that they still release good, polished, and above all else FINISHED games.

I can't wait for Diablo 3...

 

[Blackality]

I'm obsessed with Monster Hunter Hunter (and more recently, Minecraft), so I kinda understand how people get addicted to WoW. But I tried to play WoW several times and I just don't get it, killing dozens of mobs with any challenge involved is not for me.

 

[Outright Villainy]

Well 2 things are stopping me from playing it: the huge amounts of grind and the fact that it's notoriously addictive. I've a pretty addictive personality, so I think it'd ruin my social life if I ended up enjoying it. Lose-lose situation.

I think that this can be a bit of a myth - I played Warcraft extensively (my acct is still active but I'm uninterested in it at the moment) and I routinely get bored of it. I enjoy the game, but there was nothing especially addictive about it. I got more hooked on pokemon when I was younger. I actually played Warcraft because it was one of the few games I have that runs in a window nicely, allowing me to continue to MSN between encounters, surf sites, etc. It was a nice 'idling' experience. I can see how people who plunge into the guild heavy endgame side get hooked, but what I've seen says that it's less an addiction and more a perceived obligation. Friends in the guild, turning up to talk to them, raid with them, etc.

Yeah, I suppose that makes sense. I just have a friend who was pretty much addicted, but he really didn't seem the type. I guess I'm wary of that game like a cult or something. I know I'm being a little overdramatic in my example, but you know what I mean. It seems very mysterious why people are hooked in droves...

It does seem to be very social though, which explains the obilgation to keep up if your friends are high levelled.

I have no such reason to be so addicted to tf2, just the sweet sweet feeling of headshotting/backstabbing/taunting/spamming "need a dipenser here".

Perhaps mine is a little more worrying...

 

[Krythe]

I rolled a Warrior for a while, but it's hard to level up as a tanking class - so I switched to DK and ground that to 80. (To take an additional piss on me, I hit 70 a week before WotLK was released.)

Wait so...what character did you hit 70 on?

As for me, yeah I play WoW, but all of my friends have abandoned it. We all played Horde but now I've started playing Alliance on the same realm as my step brother. I might have to pick it back up if I ever meet more people who play it.

Hit it on my DK - the warrior is still 56 sitting alone and unloved in Silithus - getting maimed by allied gank-squads every time I try to log in and do something with it.

That's an additional pet-peeve I have with WoW - the trolling. No small amount of high-end characters spend their days griefing players 20 levels below them. And if you don't have a guild to back you up, you're just screwed - they can camp you all day without fear of retribution or boredom, since these are generally the easily-amused sort of people who start gorno threads on 4chan.

The whole game reminds me of a bumper sticker I once saw that said "Please God, save me from your followers!"

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

I rolled a Warrior for a while, but it's hard to level up as a tanking class - so I switched to DK and ground that to 80. (To take an additional piss on me, I hit 70 a week before WotLK was released.)

Wait so...what character did you hit 70 on?

As for me, yeah I play WoW, but all of my friends have abandoned it. We all played Horde but now I've started playing Alliance on the same realm as my step brother. I might have to pick it back up if I ever meet more people who play it.

Hit it on my DK - the warrior is still 56 sitting alone and unloved in Silithus - getting maimed by allied gank-squads every time I try to log in and do something with it.

That's an additional pet-peeve I have with WoW - the trolling. No small amount of high-end characters spend their days griefing players 20 levels below them. And if you don't have a guild to back you up, you're just screwed - they can camp you all day without fear of retribution or boredom, since these are generally the easily-amused sort of people who start gorno threads on 4chan.

The whole game reminds me of a bumper sticker I once saw that said "Please God, save me from your followers!"

Oh I see. So you could make DKs before WotLK?

Ah I agree totally, back when my friend and all of his brother's friends used to play, I was on a human warlock on a PvP realm. Quit because I got the fuck ganked out of me.

 

[Red Rum]

If I ever try WoW, it would just be for the character creator. Horde.

 

[Krythe]

I rolled a Warrior for a while, but it's hard to level up as a tanking class - so I switched to DK and ground that to 80. (To take an additional piss on me, I hit 70 a week AFTER WotLK was released.)

Oh I see. So you could make DKs before WotLK?

Ah I agree totally, back when my friend and all of his brother's friends used to play, I was on a human warlock on a PvP realm. Quit because I got the fuck ganked out of me.

How did I not catch that during proofreading? Hur hur hur. Yes. I own a time-machine.

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

I rolled a Warrior for a while, but it's hard to level up as a tanking class - so I switched to DK and ground that to 80. (To take an additional piss on me, I hit 70 a week AFTER WotLK was released.)

Oh I see. So you could make DKs before WotLK?

Ah I agree totally, back when my friend and all of his brother's friends used to play, I was on a human warlock on a PvP realm. Quit because I got the fuck ganked out of me.

How did I not catch that during proofreading? Hur hur hur. Yes. I own a time-machine.

A-HA, confusion gone! ^^ Sorry, I wasn't meaning to sound like I was interrogating you, I was just so confused, hahah

 

[Lukirre]

WoW is a fun game to play when you have friends in it.

The raiding scene never really interested me; I always found a serious lack of "fun" in it. Not the raids themselves (Ulduar was an amazing raid), but with the people. No one wanted to just have fun with it, and it honestly killed the experience.

Had more fun leveling.

80 Arcane/Fire mage, 80 Fury/Prot warrior, 80 Holy/Prot/Ret Pally (could never stick to just two), 80 Elemental/Enhancement shamslam, and a 74 Sub/Mut rogue.

That over about two and a half years. Not too shabby.

EDIT: Alliance. Draenei, Draenei, Human, Draenei, and human. In that order. And there were a series of mid 40's. NE's and gnomes strangely. Couldn't level up those two races.

 

[ThaBenMan]

Hit 60 with my Shaman tonight after running Stratholme a few times. So I guess now I'm on my own leveling up to 80 (after I get the expansions, that is). And I still haven't even done the quests to get my wind and water totems, lol.

 

[ThaBenMan]

Krobesh (my Orc Warrior) hit 20 tonight - woohoo! And completely on my own (well, and playing a bit with one of my sister's characters of the same level). Tomorrow I can get my mount for him - a mount I really earned myself this time.

Yeah, I am feeling a hint of the addiction - at least as much as I've been addicted to any other game. I'll usually log on shortly after I get home and play until bedtime...

Not all has been kittens and lollipops, though - I also got hacked tonight. My account ended up getting banned, so sorting that all out was a pain. Everything seems to be in order now, and I ordered an authenticator right away.

 

[Naheal]

I used to play. Had a BE Pally on Twisting Nether up until Wrath. Rerolled DK. That worked well...

Seriously, though the best thing about WoW is the people. Without the people, my interest dropped.

 

[thedeathscythe]

IMO, it's really fun. It's the most flushed out, worked on MMORPG to this day. Others can come close but I think Blizzard nearly perfected the formula for a good MMO. That being said, it's community can be too hardcore for some people, myself as an example, since I play it casually. That being said, every game has it's hardcore crowd, WoW just has more players, and since it's P2P, the people that keep playing (the 11 million strong) tend to have a bigger percentage of hardcore players.

I'm not surprised you enjoyed it, I think it's got something for everyone, different play styles and interactions. It just depends if you get really into it and want to keep up with the big dogs. I kinda do a lone ranger since no one plays as infrequently as me and you can't join a clan when you play an hour every two days.

 

[Robert0288]

If your horde go to the barrens and make a chuck norris joke... I dare you.

 

[ayuri]

I just started 2 weeks ago got a lvl 26 tauren druid with my friend and got hacked (but blizzard is being very helpful)

 

[Tsunimo]

I used to be addicted.
But i ran out of money to pay... never going back...
None of my friends played it... although i did meet one awesome guy and his wife and they helped me level then gave me almost 20g for no reason

 

[Xrysthos]

I've been playing WoW pretty much since it was released, but it's been an on/off relationship. I can play for a few months, maybe more if there's new content or I'm levelling a new character, and then I'll take a break for a few months or half a year. I have a level 80 priest, rogue, warrior and mage, in addition to a level 60-ish warlock, the mage being my definite favourite.

I'm obsessive about all my gaming, but I don't find WoW to be more so than other games I like. There's just more stuff to do, and a social aspect, so it naturally takes up more of my time. I don't have a guild anymore, which is sad, and no friends playing on my server, so all this new GearScore and Achievement-requirements for raids annoys me, as I am first and foremost a PvE player.

Anyway, if you can enjoy it without going overboard, it's a great game, and I wish you the best of luck.

I play on Dentarg, EU, and I play Horde.

 

[Xrysthos]

If your horde go to the barrens and make a chuck norris joke... I dare you.

Where's makrik's wife? Anyone know? [http://www.wowhead.com/maps?data=17:493504246248246262246275246287246302246314220234233234242234262234251234272234290236291248291260291277291289291310291322299277310277319277332254332240332267332277332318334300369236370275371310410312398312387306379306369295370258378238388236380266393266401266398234411234430236430279431316431297431254441233459234466246461258455269445281455295466306475316505229503304503287503273505256516234511310520314549312515267527267534267528233540233549233430267505240579330579347579366572390562403549419519407588328612374612353607388602405595425589436575454582446531413538421569491514487527493549491511473512458516425558491601326585481567467615335608322577475531314538314452229512438536493577491]

South Barrens, I believe. Walk towards Camp Taurajo, and you'll find some tents along the road next to a bridge. There are some carnivorous ostrich-like creatures there, but you can dodge them. Mankrik's wife is in one of the tents. Unless this was a Barrens general chat joke that I didn't get.

 

[acklumos]

I started playing again after quitting for about a year a few months ago, and I'm enjoying playing again. My main right now is a level 56 gnome warlock. I'm not addicted, but I play for a few hours every 2 or 3 days.

 

[Vigormortis]

Sadly, I am in almost the exact same situation as the OP. Two friends. Married to each other. Addicted to WoW. Both trying endlessly to get me to play.

However, the key difference is, when I tried WoW, I hated it. I have never understood how grind-fests are considered fun, let alone addictive. For someone who has a job, you know, where one "grinds" in real life, grinding in a game seems to be the dumbest thing ever conceived.

As for the whole "social" aspect that I'm sure most people in here will undoubtedly try to explain to me, I get that from other games that are more fun and don't require me to grind. Left 4 Dead for example. I've made literally dozens of good friends through that game. Both on PC and Xbox360. Though we don't all play it as often anymore with each other, we still chat often. Keep up with each other via phone or social networks. (as much as I hate them. social networks that is.)

The same can be said for many of the games I play online. See, it's not the game that creates an environment conducive for social interaction, it's the players. The reason most people think WoW is so sociable and other games aren't is because they're not really trying to make friends in those other games.