To WoW or not to WoW...

[ffs-dontcare]

I love how a few people in this thread are implying that WoW is to blame for people's lives being ruined.

As someone who's been playing on-off since early 2005, the game is quite fun most of the time - at least in my experience. Granted, it's not as social as it was back in vanilla, although it has only just recently regained some of that "socialness" with the rebirth of Azeroth, so depending on what server you're on, you can expect to be invited into a social guild with names such as "GOODBYE HORSES" and "Exalted With Mcdonalds" within 30 minutes of leaving your starting area. Blizzard also reduced the grind aspect a fair bit by making it so you don't have to kill as many of the same thing over and over, and by upping the variety somewhat. For example, I had to kill 11 sea elementals which is exactly what you might expect from vanilla WoW, but this time around, when I ventured over to the beach to kill them, there were fallen soldiers lying everywhere, waiting to be rescued so I did that at the same time.

I play WoW while listening to music like trance, Turquoise Jeep and 100 Ways To Love A Cat. When I get bored of questing, I go do achievements. When I get bored of that, I go do PvP stuff. There's not really much of a shortage of things to do, depending on what you want to get out of the game. Sometimes I just sit there in one spot engaging in some very entertaining conversations in guild chat. Not to mention some of the quest dialogue is hilarious and/or amusing. For example, Thonk the orc quest giver.

That being said, I don't raid. The only raids I've ever taken part in was when seven or eight of us did a quick Molten Core run pre-Cata and I took part in a Black Temple raid filled to the brim with level 80 people but the Reliquary of Souls encounter got bugged and we all just called it a night.

 

[Loonerinoes]

I work for Game (The UK version of Gamestop for the transcontinental) and as such, I have learned alot about Cataclysm. In short, I am intrigued. I have always avoided WoW and have never really been too interested by it. I don't hate it, nor am I against it, I was just never that fussed, until recently.

My boss has been playing WoW, literally since day one and he sells it very well, obviously.

So I put it to you my fellow escapists, is it worth (or even wise) to get involved with World of Warcraft?

Having spent the last six years on the outside, is it (forgive the pun) too late in the game to join?

It's never to late to join obviously. Heck, with Cataclysm here, this might in fact be the perfect time to join, given how they've revamped the starting areas and quests nicely.

That said however...and as one who's played it since its inception in Europe...I've recently felt it's had its time really. Even were the promises of other MMOs like SWTOR not looking moreso attractive, I've been on a 1-year hiatus recently that ended only because I've decided to give WoW one last chance with Cataclysm...and now that I'm back the only thing that's keeping me tethered to the game really is its community...and that can be made elsewhere too, not to mention that I've kind of outstayed my welcome with it to boot.

So while I feel that you'd be wise to give 1 or 2 other MMOs a shot before WoW...I'd say it's up to you obviously. Just get ready to have it consume a fair portion of your spare time, that's all the warning that needs be said really.

 

[spartan1077]

The answer to your qeustion is TO WoW!

 

[Jake the Snake]

I don't want to be mean, but WoW...it's best you not go there.

You say you won't get addicted. You will.

You say it won't become a huge thing. You will.

You say you're just playing it to have fun. You won't, you will play it because you're scheduled to raid.

You say you won't make a ton of characters. You will.

And what happens? It about of year or two you get burnt out, and you quit. You've wasted a heaping amount of time you could've spent actually enjoying something else instead of grinding (and it is still full of grinding, I know, I've played the beta) and you'll be down quite a bit of cash.

Seriously. It's not worth it. It's just not worth it.

 

[archvile93]

That depends, do you like games that pretty much play themselves for you, and do you have fifteen dollars (or it's equivilent in other currency) at the end of every month?

 

[King Kupofried]

Watch extra punctuation episode: the skinner box:
Warcraft is 100% repetitive clicks with diminishing perceived reward, and my bother missed a family meal for a raid, nearly punching another relative in the face when this was pointed out.
That, and it takes around two hours plus per day to make it worth playing.

Yeah I wowed for six months and I say: it's not horrible, but hanging about on facebook + playing proper games is 1000 times better. (I dont mean facebook games, I mean do the two separate actions simultaneously)

Hehe too bad Extra Credits missed out the fact that exploration and defeating players in PVP is much more rewarding than any item in game.

Also its not the game, its your brother.

You dont have to raid, you can do whatever you want in the game, and it will be worth it.

Coming back home every day, to have your guild greet you and chat, while doing a few quests and finding stuff is all some people need.

World of Warcraft is not 100% repetative clicks unless you make them out to be.

PVP = roll a rogue/DK/pally, mash the same two number keys and occasionally right click something, repeat against the same people on the same battlefield with the same objectives.
Play on your console online, it's infinitely more varied, yet you still get the satisfaction of defeating 12 year old norwegians, and the frustration of being defeated by 12 year old norwegians.
Also it doesn't cost 2/3 bargain bin games per month to play.
The social aspect? I'm getting my fix right now. on facebook. as I've already said. That, and I have friends with skin and eyes and laughter and accents.

.... I wasnt implying at all that WoW was a social replacement, i would never testify to such things, but guilds are still nice and friendly.

As for PVP i can argue in the same way that you aim for head and click to kill in FPS, or repeat build orders within strategy games.

But im not ignorant enough to do so. WoW PVP can be quite diffrent, ive had diffrent situations, and you dont have to roll Rogue/DK/Pally for PVP. Have you acctually played the game?

Other genres have infinitely more tactics you can employ, and if you want to know if I play READ MY FUCKING POSTS. ignorant fanboy.
And guilds are only friendly as long as you do as they say.

Im a fanboy for my opinion? I havent played the game since 08, but i didnt find anything repetative, my experiences in the game were simply diffrent, because i approached it diffrently.

Also acussing me of ignorance when:

Other genres have infinitely more tactics you can employ, and if you want to know if I play READ MY FUCKING POSTS. ignorant fanboy.
And guilds are only friendly as long as you do as they say.

Blatant claims without logical backup.

It depends on which guild you join, and i would not compare WoW tactics to other game tactics, simply because its vastly diffrent to RTS and FPS, while FPS and RTS are vastly diffrent from eachother.

I found WoW quite tactical at some points of the game. It was my experience with the game.

There is no need to be a douche.

No reply to my 'read my fucking posts' comment? Well, yes I guess I was right, thanks for backing down when you know you're wrong.
Whatevs trevs, fact of the matter is, everything in wow requires right-clicking things, and pressing a couple of number keys. I never said it was shit so dont get so defensive, i just said theres better (and far cheaper) things out there.
And yes. Yes you are a fanboy. Defending something with vitriol rather than reasoning, pretending that it's just to defend it, and calling anyone who doesn't love the same shit as you ignorant defo makes you a fanboy.
I still dont hate wow, but now I hate you.

But it's perfectly okay to call anyone defending a game you don't like a fanboy, yes?

I can't say I understand any of your points myself.
When I played I used several different classes and by the time I was half way to the level cap each time I would be utilizing two or three full hotkey bars worth of abilities, all with their own utility ranging from spell interruption, debuffing, DoTs, stunning, weakening, chasing, healing, etc. Many of which I would use in most common enemy battles. In PvP what abilities I would use would greatly vary depending on what sort of opponent I was facing or what they were doing, attacking me, attempting a point or flag capture, attacking a healer.
This certainly kept my hands much more busy commonly beyond you claimed "Right clicking and pressing a couple keys", many battles feel very engaging when you actually use your abilities to their fullest. Of course I can't exactly say what you claim is completely incorrect, but it's almost rather inane.

What if I were to say
All FPS require nothing more than WASD and clicking on enemies.
All RTS require nothing more than clicking+drag then click on enemies.
You may not be outright saying "It is shit" but you are certainly trying to paint it in a light of being far more simple than it actually is. I mean, that's all an FPS is right? Running around and shooting things. It's not incorrect, but it doesn't give any real information because there is still much more than that.

You can go ahead and dislike it, that doesn't bother me, but at least put a bit of effort into expressing why you dislike it instead of dumbing down your view of it and spreading misinformation.

 

[DarkPanda XIII]

I'd say not, but because I try to avoid it like the plague, despite how much I loved the Warcraft Mythos. I tried o listen to the stories and found myself annoyed...and pretty much said I wouldn't play it until they get the Goblin Race as playable..
..
..
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..And then Cataclysm came out, I was amused, but annoyed at the same time, I heard the classes and found myself annoyed by the way they built each of them, and couldn't find myself a class that * wanted * to play. And yet watching both the Goblins and Worgen, I'm interested, yet I don't want to play.

 

[Veldaroth]

Try this first http://allods.gpotato.com/
It's a lot like WoW except it is free. Granted there are less races etc, but it has a similar feel and the controls are the same.
I personally wasn't all that impressed with WoW so I am not willing to spend money I don't have to play it, so I don't mind cheep ripoffs.
Also, a lot of people talk about getting addicted and all that, but if you've never gotten obsessed about an online game before, this one won't be any different. I don't know why people always assume that everyone who so much as tries it out will immediately become hooked and unable to stop.

Fuck that game, the pretty much ruined it when they didn't allow raid kills to be shared. I got stuck at lvl 28 in that main Pvp area getting ganked constantly. That and making incense a necessity.

Yeah, well, what do you expect for a free game? It still has a similar interface and can be a good example for those thinking about playing WoW, so it's fine for that. Not my favorite either but then I don't really like WoW either.
Rohan will always be my personal favorite. Probably more grindy, but I like the play-style and interface more.