World of Warcraft

[Prometheus]

Figures that the servers would go down right before our scheduled meeting time. Aren't stress beta tests wonderful?

[Mr_Pleasington]

I think what this thread boils down to is one thing and that is: Should I buy this when it comes out?

I love the setting of WC, I love the graphics, I like the fact you don't have to spend hours competing for rare drops. Anything else I should know that isn't obvious from the coverage out there?

[Spriggan]

Do I think this game is worth getting when it comes out?  No.  It's not complete yet, in 3 months maybe, it just depends on how far along the game is.  Of course if you're not going to play many hours a week or play the horde you wont notice since all the unfinished parts deal with the Horde and high level areas.

I like the fact you don't have to spend hours competing for rare drops. Anything else I should know that isn't obvious from the coverage out there

this isn't realy the case.  While it's true that WoW prevents camping of the same mob, all the good items are from instaces.  And you'll spend hours at a time just running through these instances to get that one item you want, and then you have to roll on it to see who actualy gets it.  If you're a person that cannot commit to 3-4 hours in one sitting you'll never be able to get into a group for any of these instances.  Also you cannot buy the best items becasue they're soulbound on pickup, meaning once the item goes into your invintory you cannot trade it.

It's not nessacerly a bad thing since you do have a chance unlike the stanard system of trying to be the first person out of 20 to kill the monster (like FFXI, I'm sure you heard me talking about that), but that dosen't mean it isn't time consumeing.

[Prometheus]

Spriggan has a good point about the amount of time needed to get to many of the good rare drops. I've gone through the Scarlet Monastery a couple times now, and I'm still missing many of the things I would have liked to get. It's still a huge step up from waiting around though. With instances, you're still fighting, enjoying yourself (at least potentially) and profiting in experience and item drops. It's rare that I'll go a few hours in an instance and not have a shot at picking up something that will help out my character, even if it isn't one of the boss drops that you go there for.

As far as Mr. Pleasington's overall question about whether the game is worth getting at release...I think I may skip out for a little while, but for different reasons. Even with all the game's faults, it's still fun to play, and I find that a more compelling argument than any notion that it's not finished. (As Spriggan pointed out, I haven't played high-level Horde, but whatever. To my knowledge he hasn't played high-level Horde in a little while either.) At the same time, I'm not feeling completely burnt out, but I do have a sense that taking a break would be nice after the beta ends sometime in the next week or so. My NaNoWriMo project could certainly use a little extra time and attenion anyway.

We ought to give a TWG WoW open beta party another try, though. Since I'm more available than some people, I'll let someone else choose the time. My Orc Hunter is at level 11 now and ready to help out.

Oh, also waiting on getting the game will make it a great Christmas gift from my brothers.  

[Fellfrosch]

I'm a very non-hardcore player when it comes to MMORPGs, which means that the nitty gritty balance issues and the unfinished high-level content are complete non-issues for me. I like the game because it's beautiful, it has a great UI, and it's very fun to play. I like to run around and see the places and monsters I know from WC3, and (as I have said many times) I like being able to play undead. I also think that WoW has the best questing and the best crafting system I've ever seen.

In short, even if it takes them a year to finish the high-level content, it will take me even longer to get far enough to need it. I'll be quite happy just killing things with a skeletal warrior, or skinning boars with a dwarven hunter.

[Mr_Pleasington]

Sprig and Prometheus's comments had me convinced not to buy it, but dang you're persuasive Fell.  I'll probably get it after I'm done with Boards in December.  You and I look for the same thing in this game, Fell.

So now I have to decide... I really want to play undead.  But I also have this crazy fascination with snow and ice in video games and would like to start in a winter area.  I'm guessing I'm going to have to go Dwarf to do that....

[Spriggan]

Dwarf or Gnome, but be farwarned if you ever play a Gnome or think of playing a Gnome I'll send the full wrath of the ninja monkeys at you.  Dwarfs are cool though.

I'll say one more thing here, once you get to lvl 30 the game dosen't change anymore as is.  That's when you stop getting new abilites, unless you're a Warlock.  It's so bad that most people do not learn the higher level versions of their abilites since they don't improve significatly in any way.  The caster classes are a little better since their damage scales better then the melee's abilites.  Blizz has allready said they plan on redoing all the 40+ abilites.

I got to 56 on my Rogue, and frankly lvl 50+ was nothing but boredom pure repetition.  All you do at that level are the same instance runs over and over and over and over again.  I made a new character and found myself enjoying the game again because the 1-30 level zones are so much better, you're again useing a class that gets more powerful and you're not as affected by the "If your character isn't wearing at lest 5 blue (rare) items you're not fighting at 100% of what your chactecter should be".  Eventualy Blizz will be adding battlezones and more rade instances, but don't look for much until after christmass.

Again it depends on how much you're planning on playing, I played for about 20-25 hours a week and after about 4 months I hit the point of tedium.  

[Fellfrosch]

Up to 400 hours of play before you hit the point of tedium? Where do I sign up? I recognize that there are several people, a very large group of them in fact, who will play that much or more--but my style of play, as described above, is more than happy with 400 hours of non-boring play.

Dr. P, not only do we look for the same things in a game, we look for it in the same places--my two main characters are an undead and a dwarf. I'm so proud.

My intent is to buy this on or soon after release, and to jump into the lowest population RP server I can find--probably something in the Mountain Time area, but they don't have an RP server there yet. I've never played RP in a MMORPG, but I've always wanted to and I think that WoW would be a good place to start (especially given that the world and character are the primary reason I'm playing the game). I'm also banking on the fact that RP servers, on average, have slightly lower populations than normal servers. If anyone is interested in playing together I invite everybody to join me--we can scout out a server we like and start up at least one Horde and one Alliance character each.

[Skar]

What's an RP server as opposed to a regular server?

[Spriggan]

Just being honest Fell, especialy since I seam so negative at times about WoW.  I thought if I was going to talk about hitting the point where the game stalls I should say how long it took me to get there.

As for a server, I don't think they're planning on adding any mountain times at relase, but I could be wrong.

What's an RP server as opposed to a regular server?

Well IF WoW had roleplaying servers (which they don't) the difference would be you're restricted to what you can say in general chat, you allwayse have to speak in chracter ect.  Supposedly GM's and other (regular) players would keep tabs of anyone not following the rules and if you have enough offences you get banned from said server (with out your charcters getting moved).  That it in theory, but people rarely follow the rules, I played on a RP server in DAoC and the only actual rule they enforced was a name one (which WoW allready has across the board).  It too much of a hasle and annoyance to monitor everyone.

[Skar]

Ah, I see, so no 133t sp33k and so on.  What about words like "dude"  or phrases like, "hey man"  those allowed?

[Fellfrosch]

The Open Beta lists a handful of RP servers, but I haven't tried any of them so I don't know how strongly they enforce their rules. I know that they don't mention them on their website, which is a bad sign.

They're description of PvP (player vs. player) servers sounds kind of fun, though. I haven't heard how well it work in practice, but the ability to take and hold parts of the world for your faction is very Warcraft-y.

[Spriggan]

Just noticed that they did actualy add 2 RP servers which comes as a pleasent surprise since before the answer was a definate 'no' and they even went as far as to ask people to stop posting about RP servers for relase.

Now one thing I'm definatly going to do my best to stop you from doing is joining a PvP server.  They're horrible messes right now, and frankly theres only one difference between the PvP and the PvE servers, and that's consentual PvP.  PvE is all consentual, you turn on a PvP flag so you can decide when you want to fight.  On the PvP server you have that flag on no matter what (except when in starting areas).  You cannot play on the PvP server if you solo becaue you'll be griefed to no end.  Its very common to get killed by people 20+ levels higher then you and then have them "camp" your corpse where they just kill you every time you rez.  The only thing you can do about it is deal with it, if you complaine about it at all you'll get no sympathy.  Also there are no PvP insentives in the game yet to convince all the 12 year olds not to grief.  This isn't DAoC, there's no safe areas to level after lvl 15.  While on the PvE servers it is, and eventualy they'll be adding battleground which will work like the frontieers in DAoC in many ways.

[Mr_Pleasington]

Up to 400 hours of play before you hit the point of tedium? Where do I sign up? I recognize that there are several people, a very large group of them in fact, who will play that much or more--but my style of play, as described above, is more than happy with 400 hours of non-boring play.

Dr. P, not only do we look for the same things in a game, we look for it in the same places--my two main characters are an undead and a dwarf. I'm so proud.

My intent is to buy this on or soon after release, and to jump into the lowest population RP server I can find--probably something in the Mountain Time area, but they don't have an RP server there yet. I've never played RP in a MMORPG, but I've always wanted to and I think that WoW would be a good place to start (especially given that the world and character are the primary reason I'm playing the game). I'm also banking on the fact that RP servers, on average, have slightly lower populations than normal servers. If anyone is interested in playing together I invite everybody to join me--we can scout out a server we like and start up at least one Horde and one Alliance character each.

Fell, I think I'm with you on this.  Keep me posted.  I'll pick it up after Boards and we can start as Dwarves, Undead, both, or whatever.

[Spriggan]

Ah, I see, so no 133t sp33k and so on.  What about words like "dude"  or phrases like, "hey man"  those allowed?

depends realy on how strict the rules are.  Generaly its when you're in general chat you cannot talk about things out of character, so no talking about your car, or your real life family, or things like "the servers are acting up again".   Usealy it dosen't limit your mannerisms.  Though when you're in guild chat or party chat you don't have to follow any rules, though a guild may require people to do so, same with a party leader.