To WoW or Not to WoW?

[karpiel]

if you had asked this question in 2005, I'd say totally go for it, but the game kinda jumped the shark when they started doing expansions.

 

[Alkestes]

cataclysm is going to make it a hole lot better as a lowbie, there going to rework the hole game as well as all the zones 1-60, every thing from 1-60 is still for the most part vanilla wow.

but if ya got the money i say give it a go, can start pvping at 10, and doing dungeon runs at 13, made it a lot funner to level alts.

and you don't need to buy cataclysm to experience the changes coming up in cataclysm.

The Dungeon Finder is levels 15 and up, not below. But yes, you can queue for battlegrounds from 10 onwards, and you get exp for them too now, so it's a lot faster to get into Outlands.

 

[x0ny]

The subscription fee is relatively cheap when compared to my current gaming budget. I buy a new game every month, although second hand. A second hand game costs as low as 11GBP, but subscription is only 9GBP a month. Go for it, as it's unlikely you will be playing anything else since all your time will be devoted to WoW.

 

[John Funk]

I love WoW. I think it's one of the best games ever made.

Waiting to Cataclysm might not be the worst idea, though. Blizzard's eye for designing quests has gotten much better over the past five years; doing old-world quests is all but physically painful to me now.

 

[Wolfram23]

I recommend you not to do it. I wasted a few years in WoW and while I had plenty of good, fun experiences, I also have spent hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours doing basically nothing. Stick to games you can just pick up and play, and also quick save and quit. Then again, if you're a completely hopeless loner with zero desire to have any sort of social life, and have no need for income maybe you should just jump in and live in the virtual world...

toll... whether you played wow or not you can't just judge every single person that plays wow as a loner with no social life/need for income

Please reread what I said. In no way have I inferred that all WoW players are loners. I'm saying that for someone debating to play it or not, if he is in fact a loner then he has nothing to lose and will probably greatly enjoy himself. If he's not a loner, which I can only assume most people are not, then he has lots to lose. Refer to my further explanations and also neon007's post.

Hey, maybe video games DO in fact lower people's reading skills, if this thread is any way to judge.

 

[Reg0]

your not missing anything i drift ni and out of the game now, ive stopped caring for the grind

 

[Mortons4ck]

Don't do it.

There is so much else the world has to offer.....


....like other video games.

 

[DragonChi]

I can't help but give a biased opinion on this game.

but in all honesty, after playing this game since beta...you can do better with your time on money game wise. you really can. there is so much bullcrap that goes on in that game, all sorts of drama, assholes who think they know everything but in reality doesnt know squat,..list goes on.

i'm not saying that No fun can be found at all, that wouldnt be fair to say. but its difficult to find amongst all the crap. its totally unbalanced.

 

[Jasper Jeffs]

Um you seem to miss where I say it "can bring it to a halt" it "can make your gf leave" the point is some of these things have happened to me, but also to some of my friends, and also to thousands upon thousands of others who's stories I've read and heard (Ok I've personally read of dozens but it's not like 11 million subscribers are telling their WoW life stories). But thanks for pointing out the obvious that it doesn't happen to everybody, but I'm pretty sure I covered that too with the whole playing solo taking your time leveling etc etc

No, I'm not. I'm saying that's what happened to me and that's what happens to a lot of other people. There's a difference between saying it's what DOES happen and what CAN happen.

I'm quoting you...

WoW will make that nearly impossible. Because it's all you do. Some few people can keep it to a bare minimum, but usually they don't "get into it" and never reach end game anyway.

Where are you even getting these figures from? You claim there are thousands upon thousands of other people who have had their social life ruined from WoW, or had their girlfriend leave them because of WoW, and that there are "some few" people that can control themselves. How do you know this? I've reads articles in newspapers and online, but they only provide information about as trustworthy as yours.

Why do you immediately assume that masses of people have had their life ruined by WoW because you've read dozens? How do you know they're true?

I've personally read a few addiction stories, they're quite funny. You must be pretty weak willed to get addicted to a video game. Drugs, sure, I can understand that. WoW? That's adorable.

And if you really play WoW, just check your friends list or guild list and tell me how many people seem to be on all the time? Or just everyday for a few hours? I'll bet at least 25% if not more, because the game is as addicting as a game can be.

I just checked on my lv.80. I was the only one online in my guild, with the last guy being logged in 5 hours ago, and 1 of my 2 friends were online. He plays it quite a lot, but that doesn't mean he is addicted, he really enjoys playing the game and going up ranks in the arena.

NO, he's addicted. Get the fucking hammer and break his PC. Quick! His girlfriend is leaving!

Just like you, without having "real life" plans I'd just log into WoW because there's not much else to do, or at least nothing I'd rather do with my spare time. You don't think pretty much everybody "does something else" when waiting?? Hello get a clue. And I didn't say anything about not being able to quit.

You said you were addicted. Surely you wouldn't be able to quit if you were addicted. You're not addicted just because you spent a few hours on WoW. Are you just claiming the title and waving it around so all the weak minded individuals dance around you with flowers telling tales of how the big bad Wolf killed the monster that is WoW?

If nothing's going on and I've wasted an hour or two trying to get a group going and can't, then I too would quit and go do something else. But that's still an hour or two absolutely wasted, I might as well have spent it staring at a wall for all the good having music or a tv on did me.

Also, grinding: this is fun? Time well spent? I and pretty much EVERYBODY who played in BC did dailies.. blah blah epeen +1.. Yea it was fun and I was only burning a fraction of the time I would spend trying to get groups together or doing dailies but still, complete waste of time, really.

You're not very fun, are you? Why even listen to music, or watch anything on TV, or play video games, or live for that matter? It's all pointless in the end anyway.

What the fuck are you doing on this board about video games, then? They're for enjoyment, if you don't enjoy playing them, fuck off and get a different hobby. I enjoy doing dailies, and it takes on average about 8 minutes to get into a group for a HC now. I'm usually in a dungeon before I can even finish one daily, let alone all of them.

Again, I said it CAN happen not that it always does "like it's a fact". Learn some reading comprehension please.

How many normal, socially well-adjusted WoW players are there for every nerd that can't pry himself away from it? I'm sure exponentially more. Just like the fact that the amount of people that get hit by a bus each day is exponentially less than those that don't. Yeah, it can happen, but the chances are slim, and your post is filled with: "WoW can *insert negative effect of WoW here*". All you've said is stuff it "can" do. Do you wander through life telling people not to eat just in case they choke? Have some quality control with the shit that dribbles from your mouth. Say relevant, or likely outcomes to situations, not the minuscule chanced ones that take insane precautions to avoid. This is a perfect case of media influenced opinion, and the stereotypical image overruling fact. The media only write about what sells, and unfortunately your view and the misguided stereotype of WoW players is what does, thus strengthening it.

Maybe you're spending too much time in WoW and not enough reading books or doing your English homework hmm?

What the fuck was that?

Ok I'll give you that, there's some max levels who just play occasionally. But that doesn't detract in anyway from my point: WoW is among the most addictive games you can possibly play.

That's propaganda. You're giving no sense of perspective. Ben Nevis is the tallest mountain in the UK, but when compared to the tallest mountain in the world its size is negligible. See what I'm getting at? Case in point, WoW is confined to the game category so by saying it's the most addictive game isn't saying much at all. It belongs in the paddling pool of addiction, not the ocean. It's like being called intelligent by a moron, or being the nicest looking turd.

Good day.

Fuck your passive aggressive tone.

 

[Darchrow]

Well my personal experiences with WoW was that I had a massive amount of fun playing it and raiding but there were times at which I was playing it just for the sake of raiding. I was going at the raiding schedule of about 4-6hours 4 times a week. It got to the point for me in which I just started to log on because I had an obligation to go, I was enjoying it but it definitely wasn't as fun as when I was instancing with my friends.

I stopped for a while because of school commitment and when I started playing again in WOTLK I somehow ended up raiding again? It is probably just me but I couldn't play WoW casually and it ended up in me just waning away on the computer screen. Sure I play games now but not to the magnitude of WoW.

Not everybody's experience in WoW is the same but my one was definitely not a happy relationship and even-though it was my own fault I never really got to sorting out my problems like losing weight, which is something I've just started doing after having a massive time gap not playing games.

 

[dasUnbekannte]

Um you seem to miss where I say it "can bring it to a halt" it "can make your gf leave" the point is some of these things have happened to me, but also to some of my friends, and also to thousands upon thousands of others who's stories I've read and heard (Ok I've personally read of dozens but it's not like 11 million subscribers are telling their WoW life stories).

Sorry your girlfriend broke up with you. As a woman, I can tell you that she wouldn't have broken up with you over ONLY WoW. Likely, it was just the least painful thing she could tell you.
Not that I'm saying you suck or anything (I can see how it might come across that way), but as someone that's ended several relationships the reasons you STATE are rarely the actual problems.

To the OP: The best thing you can do if you've decided to play WoW is to find some friends (preferably local ones), because otherwise you're playing a multiplayer game... by yourself. Which doesn't make sense to anyone.

 

[Talshere]

The leveling content pre wrath is pretty crap tbh. Go here kill X go back. And while it doesnt change much in wrath you actually felt like there might be a REASON to kill X of this mob rather than some guy wants it dead. Much more story behind it.

Generally the game at 80 for PvE isnt too bad. It can be very time consuming as, while the content itself on normal mode isnt to challenging, your unlikely to complete it without joining a guild. And to be guaranteed a spot to raid when you want to raid this means you prob be HAVING to raid like 3 pre set times every week. And while skipping it once or twice a month most guilds dont mind providing you tell them, anymore than that and your risking being kicked or at the very least taken of the raiders list. This is mostly ok providing your not particularly spontaneous, but tell your mats for the 3rd time in that week you wont be joining them at the pub cos you have to raid is a mite depressing.

For PvP Im afraid its very much unbalanced. Its dominated depressingly heavily by those who are willing to raid in PvE, with ALL classes optimum gear loadout containing at least 2 items of PvE gear and some getting as high as half of there items. Grinding honor to get pvp items is still one of the single most depressing aspects of the game due to the shear time it takes (your looking at 3 games on average in an hour at apx 1.2k honor a game, so 3.6k honor an hour and your average item cost is 50k honor for one). While the 3.3.3 patch coming out in a month or so will increase the rate you can get honor I doubt the difference will be profound.

Arena is fun providing you enjoy a highly competitive environment but while many will tell you its balanced quite simple they are lying through there teeth. If you roll a feral druid for example, you will spend a fair amount of time in pvp feeling like you should have rolled a rogue, and just being hard countered (hard counter is apx 10% change to win or less in a fair fight). My brother plays feral. He just quit over this particular aspect.

Also you'll fine many classes can kill people using 3-8 buttons in no particular order. While others have complex rotations to get optimum damage.

All aspect of Wow requires copious amounts of gold. Now providing you are lucky getting patterns for your profession, or have a knack for playing the auction house gold isnt too hard to come by. Otherwise, and always to begin with to get your proofs to max level in the first place, you will have to grind dailies. While these arnt amazingly hard, they are time consuming. And unfortunatly, because many people have been lucky or have sold out to gold sellers, prices are very very high, and youll find every time you get a new item of gear its costing you 300-1000 gold (depending on slot) for all the enchants and gems needed to kit it out. Since dailies grant you only 150 gold or so a day this can be very very frustrating at first. Also, there is no viable way to get gold in pvp. So even if you only pvp you will be forced to pve for this aspect of the game. (Jewel crafting is still the single best money making tool in the game but it costs a fair bit to level up as well)

In short, the game when you first take it up is very very VERY time consuming. And thats just to get gold. Raiding and Pvp is extra.

While this eases off somewhat once you have maxed proofs, and have a healthy cache of gold, say in the 10k+ region, you can ease off the dailies to when you wana do them rather than being mandatory. But for PvE your 3 nightly raiding will still be pretty much mandatory.

For PvP it eases off a lot, especially if you know your arena partners in real life as this means you dont have to afk in the game to wait for your partners, you can just ring em and ask. In fairness many long term team mates give out numbers anyway for this exact convenience.