Is WoW worth it at this point?

[KadMac]

I haven't played WoW in about a year in a half. When I did play, I was a very casual player. I only tried raiding once or twice. I couldn't commit to it though so I ran 5 man dungeons and quested. I played about 5-8 hours a week and I enjoyed it.

However, I don't think I will be returning anytime soon. Not at least until they update the old character models. I would be happy with just higher resolution skins on the models so that they match the new player races in terms of quality. I know Blizzard has made mention of that they are aware the old races need to be updated but...that is not good enough for me.

They simply just need to update them. Once they do that I will consider returning to the game.

 

[Huntn]

Personally I think game-play trumps skins in this case, but to each his own.

 

[dmr727]

I've been intentionally avoiding WoW websites and guides - this way I'll make mistakes and figure stuff out on my own. To me, it makes it more interesting. I'm sure there's a ton of information out there on how to make my specific race and class as powerful as possible and in as little time as possible - but if that's the whole point of playing, I can see how people would find it a grind.

Of course, this probably also makes me the crappiest mage on my server, but whatever - I'm having fun. And for the price of two drinks at a Hilton bar, it's a cheap occasional diversion.

 

[KadMac]

Personally I think game-play trumps skins in this case, but to each his own.

Yes, I can see that. Don't get me wrong, WoW is a fun game and I am sure Cata will be an excellent addition. But, the old player models not be updated has bothered me for a long time. I would rather Blizzard update that and remove a raid then let it go on as it has.

But then again, I am a casual player who doesn't raid so I think many players have their own area of the game they would like improved when expansions roll around.

 

[Plutonius]

I did manage to coop as an alliance player with a horde player once. We were in a bug hive (in Tanaris desert) each doing the same quest. We could not join the same party, or speak to each other, but by alternating who did the aggroing, we helped each other kill a ton of bugs. It started when I came across him fighting several bugs and I helped him kill it. Then he helped me and we just kept alternating.

On a normal server (as opposed to a pvp server), I have always had more issues with griefing if I'm questing or gathering. The people from the other faction can (and do) tag all your mobs (to prevent you from finishing your quest) and grab your gathering nodes and you can do nothing about it. On a PvP server, faction generally stay in their own areas with some overlap. Also, when two factions meet, they generally go out of their way to not annoy each other (the exception would be if one of the factions was out to gank another ).

Most people on a normal server do not have a true idea of a pvp server. If they had a bunch of playing time on a PvP server, they would never play on a normal server.

Note this was on a PVE server. As I recall Gagetstan (the main town in Tanaris) is Neutral? I'm trying to imagine how it would be to quest in this zone on a PVP server. For anyone who has the experience, are giant horde/alliance fights a regular thing or is fighting prohibited within the town's boundary? Don't remember.

You can fight but the guards will attack you if you cause trouble. Your rep will also go down. It's generally not an issue but, if you go AFK in town, you will probably come back to a dead character .

 

[Huntn]

On a normal server (as opposed to a pvp server), I have always had more issues with griefing if I'm questing or gathering. The people from the other faction can (and do) tag all your mobs (to prevent you from finishing your quest) and grab your gathering nodes and you can do nothing about it. On a PvP server, faction generally stay in their own areas with some overlap. Also, when two factions meet, they generally go out of their way to not annoy each other (the exception would be if one of the factions was out to gank another ).

I'll tell you honestly in 2.5 years of playing I've never run into this. For you guys who are thinking about starting, when a mob (ingame character= mobile, also called NPC= Non Person Character) is first attacked, the person who attacked first gets the credit and the drops no matter who attacks later or finishes up the attack unless the attack goes stale (the original attacker goes away and aggro times out.) There have been times when I'm questing for items, where the other faction has been around, but I've never got the feeling they were killing stuff just to mess with me and my quest.

On a PVP server I imagine you out there harvesting and the other faction appears. They start out harvesting too and the whole time you are waiting for them to come get you. I think the odds are if they are real life young and think they can take you, you will be attacked.

You used the word "nodes" are you referring to something like mining? As far as harvesting, I usually had a set route I circled and hit the nodes I could find. I knew where they all were, just looking for active ones. Sometimes there would be others harvesting too, but just because they are the opposite faction does not mean they are messing with you. They are making stuff too.

You can fight but the guards will attack you if you cause trouble. Your rep will also go down. It's generally not an issue but, if you go AFK in town, you will probably come back to a dead character .

So in a neutral town, if you attack NPCs your rep goes down, I could see that would be bad because eventually you won't be able to go in there without the NPCs automatically attacking you. But what if you kill opposite faction players, do the guards care?

 

[mynewromantica]

I was considerng starting to play wow but is it even plausible at this point? Mmos are tough to get into as they get older and wow has been out for a while. Anybody have any advice?

This has probably already been said, but, Was WoW ever worth it?

 

[Sun Baked]

From what I've gathered, the progression/leveling for all the races are different--different locales and quests. But it seems from what you said there, that at some point or in some quests, the races will have some shared questing experiences?

Once you get past the starting areas for the races and factions, most everything merges into the same zones, with the horde and allie towns being some of the hubs for their quests. Might see a couple/few quest different depending on race, faction, class.

Stranglethorn Vale is the first Neutral zone you'd likely encounter at lvl 30 if you are alliance.

There are a few NPC characters that set your PVP flag allowing others to gank you -- you quickly learn who not to kill.

There used to be people who had a lot of fun ganking allies in STV, and if they didn't kill you there, they used to get you on your first run into Swamp or Sorrows.

Sort of sad they don't have people squatting on these NPCs anymore, waiting for kills. Made life as a lowbie more interesting.

 

[rasmasyean]

By leveling through this dungeon finder feature, does that mean you won't be able to do some quests (do quests have level caps) or merely that you'll be too overpowered for some quests to be fun?



I do intend to see as much of the world as possible.

Oh I ordered the game yesterday, the WOW and Burning Crusade combo package (too bad there isn't one that includes Lich King too), so you'll all have one more feeble little fish to kill when you go PvPing soon.

Actually I haven't played in a long while. But the PVP has an "effiecent side". Like if there is a "world event" or something similar, you won't have to wait arround competing against the other faction players for kills. It's sometimes a matter of "whoever gets the bigger party gets first dibs". And it's fun to overwhelm your opponent and take limited (e.g. spawn) resources. This way at least somone gets scared and goes to another area instead of:

1) standing arround like dorks dancing and emoting to each other (you can't talk across factions)
2) sniping eachother back and forth sneakliy

It kinda forces you to play as a team sometimes, even in the world with strangers. You'd think that everyone keeps "calling their friends" until you have like some mass war going on...but that doesn't really happen. It's really huge and most ppl won't run to your rescue for stuff like that. It's just chance that many ppl of your similar interest are available atm.

But that said, I think this is a bit scewed toward Alliance because if I remeber, Alliance players are usually more abundant than Horde. Although many people claim that Horde are more organized and "better" in PVP. But zergs usually win if you have a lot more players on your side.

 

[Plutonius]

But that said, I think this is a bit scewed toward Alliance because if I remeber, Alliance players are usually more abundant than Horde. Although many people claim that Horde are more organized and "better" in PVP. But zergs usually win if you have a lot more players on your side.

Each server has it's own divisions of factions but in general, the alliance faction is larger on a majority of servers. The minority faction on a server is usually better in PVP since the minority faction has a lot shorter queue time for the battlegrounds so the minority faction gets more PVP experience.

 

[Plutonius]

On a PVP server I imagine you out there harvesting and the other faction appears. They start out harvesting too and the whole time you are waiting for them to come get you. I think the odds are if they are real life young and think they can take you, you will be attacked.

On a PVP server, the tendency is to avoid the other faction where possible while questing. In almost all cases when different factions (of the same size) meet each other while questing, they go out of their way to not antagonize each other unless they are looking for PVP. If one side outnumbers the other, they may attack if the smaller faction group is stupid enough to get close to the bigger group. Much of the response will depend on your class (some classes are hated) or if you belong to a guild with a bad rep.

You used the word "nodes" are you referring to something like mining? As far as harvesting, I usually had a set route I circled and hit the nodes I could find. I knew where they all were, just looking for active ones. Sometimes there would be others harvesting too, but just because they are the opposite faction does not mean they are messing with you. They are making stuff too.

mining, herbs, etc.

So in a neutral town, if you attack NPCs your rep goes down, I could see that would be bad because eventually you won't be able to go in there without the NPCs automatically attacking you. But what if you kill opposite faction players, do the guards care?

The guards do not like any fighting in the towns and attacking anyone is bad. One thing some people will do is to start a fight without being seen doing it and when someone responds, the guards kill them instead. It usually only takes one time before you realize that responding might not be a good idea. Also, healing someone being attacked by the guards is bad since it marks you as an enemy to the guards .

As a note, I have some mid level characters that have never been ganked and have only been successfully corpse camped twice in many years of playing (and in those, I ended up logging the character for 20 min and the people had left). Being aware of your surroundings is a big part of a PVP server.

PVP servers are not the scary things some people make them out to be and I highly recommend choosing a PVP server.

 

[rasmasyean]

On a PVP server, the tendency is to avoid the other faction where possible while questing. In almost all cases when different factions (of the same size) meet each other while questing, they go out of their way to not antagonize each other unless they are looking for PVP. If one side outnumbers the other, they may attack if the smaller faction group is stupid enough to get close to the bigger group. Much of the response will depend on your class (some classes are hated) or if you belong to a guild with a bad rep.



mining, herbs, etc.





The guards do not like any fighting in the towns and attacking anyone is bad. One thing some people will do is to start a fight without being seen doing it and when someone responds, the guards kill them instead. It usually only takes one time before you realize that responding might not be a good idea. Also, healing someone being attacked by the guards is bad since it marks you as an enemy to the guards .

As a note, I have some mid level characters that have never been ganked and have only been successfully corpse camped twice in many years of playing (and in those, I ended up logging the character for 20 min and the people had left). Being aware of your surroundings is a big part of a PVP server.

PVP servers are not the scary things some people make them out to be and I highly recommend choosing a PVP server.

I remember the days of roof-top camping. When you would get on the roof (or fight the other faction for the roof) where the guards weren't programmed to chase you up there. Then you can just nuke random ppl coming by and trying to interact with the NPC before they get killed!

 

[Libertine Lush]

Thanks to everyone for your info about questing differences amongst races.

A very important decision is to decide Alliance or Horde. This is a strict division within the game.

I've thought about that a lot; I'm thinking a lot as I'm reading the WoWWiki. However, there are some things I still have no idea about regarding the Alliance/Horde dynamic that I haven't come across in the wiki yet.

1) Be it Normal or PvP server, can you explore the locales/home cities of the opposing faction? I may go Blood Elf. Surprisngly, some of the most attractive home cities I've seen, based on screenshots are Horde, but some of the Alliance ones look scenic too. I just wonder how much freedom I have to explore or if there will still be some faction-based limitations, however slight.

2) When you're not doing PvE/PvP, where do players usually spend most of their time? In their home city, neutral cities, or is there usually one popular area for all races within their faction's lands? I ask because if I'm to be spending considerable time in a game like this, I'd much prefer to have something attractive to look at. It's one reason why I decided not to go Night Elf. After I saw what their home city looks like--what appears to be an entire world dyed in purple--I knew I wouldn't be able to tolerate logging into that every time. And their skin's all grape-colored too.

Not at least until they update the old character models.

What are the old character models? Does that mean all races prior to Burning Crusade? So the blood elves and Draenei have the better character graphics and home cities? I did read this, via IGN:

Reflecting the lessons Blizzard has learned over the years, the new player experience for the draenei and blood elves is much more polished than for any other race in the game. You can run through the first twenty levels without ever hitting a grind or facing lengthy travel times. Each group of quests in these early areas tells a complete and interesting story that reveals the background and current state of the world. Comparing these concentrated new player zones to those of the existing game reveals a much higher level of polish and presentation​

I remember the days of roof-top camping. When you would get on the roof (or fight the other faction for the roof) where the guards weren't programmed to chase you up there. Then you can just nuke random ppl coming by and trying to interact with the NPC before they get killed!

Oh geez, I need to try that. How do you get on roofs? With flying mounts I assume.

 

[Sun Baked]

Can't really explore the opposing factions cities, since their NPC guards run out to play with you.

In some areas simply clicking on them when you are close enough will flag you.

Then the hordies or allies can come out to kill you.

In STV, near the horde camp the guards simply just come out and whack you a few times leaving you a LVL 30-40 corpse.

Since this is also right next to the crock quest and some fishing nodes, it is a pain.

 

[Huntn]

Thanks to everyone for your info about questing differences amongst races.

I've thought about that a lot; I'm thinking a lot as I'm reading the WoWWiki. However, there are some things I still have no idea about regarding the Alliance/Horde dynamic that I haven't come across in the wiki yet.

1) Be it Normal or PvP server, can you explore the locales/home cities of the opposing faction? I may go Blood Elf. Surprisngly, some of the most attractive home cities I've seen, based on screenshots are Horde, but some of the Alliance ones look scenic too. I just wonder how much freedom I have to explore or if there will still be some faction-based limitations, however slight.

Not really. Unless you are in a neutral city, opposing faction NPCs will try to kill you whether it be in the opposite faction city or in roadblocks out in the country. For the latter normally you go around or make a quick dash through. However, you will find many Neutral Cities, like Gaget, Booty Bay, Shatrath, and Dalaran, where the opposing faction is in charge, but they won't mess with you regardless of PVP or PVE server. Here is a WoW City link if you've not seen it. This is just the major cities.

2) When you're not doing PvE/PvP, where do players usually spend most of their time? In their home city, neutral cities, or is there usually one popular area for all races within their faction's lands? I ask because if I'm to be spending considerable time in a game like this, I'd much prefer to have something attractive to look at. It's one reason why I decided not to go Night Elf. After I saw what their home city looks like--what appears to be an entire world dyed in purple--I knew I wouldn't be able to tolerate logging into that every time. And their skin's all grape-colored too.

Most of the time you spend out in the world in the current zone your are working on. The down time, time you need to sell or make stuff is mostly spent in one of the large cities that is closest to your current zone. Although I consider Darnassas, the Night Elf city to be beautiful, as far as having to hang out there, you don't have to worry about it. As having played several NE characters once you complete the NE starter area and basically out level Teldressil, the only reason you will go back there is to pick up and finish class related quests. As Alliance in the classic area, you'll spend most of your down time in Storm Wind City or Iron Forge. And you log back in from the physical location where you logged out at.

I'm not trying to cram Night Elf down your throat but they are not all purple. Here is an example. Jaquar has flesh colored skin. Although some prefer gnomes and dwarfes, I rate NEs as the sexiest female characters followed closely by Blood Elves. And besides Blood Elves, the Horde are mostly an ugly bunch. Yes I am partial.

BTW, for the most part zones are perishable in that you are just visiting to complete the quests offered. Then you will have out leveled the zone, completed all the quests and it's time to move on. In a way that is one of my disappointments with the game. I really hated leaving some of the nicest zones and there are so many nice zones. The main reason for returning to an out leveled zone is to harvest basic materials or visit a high level dungeon located within that zone.

What are the old character models? Does that mean all races prior to Burning Crusade? So the blood elves and Draenei have the better character graphics and home cities? I did read this, via IGN:

I started a Blood Elf and never got very far with it. Hopefully others can speak to this. My critique of the BE starter area is that it reminds me of Candy Land. I suspect questing is questing regardless of race, class, or zone. The IGN article speaks of the BE area being better designed. I would not dispute that as I am short on experience with that race. However, I think you'll find that questing is mostly the same type of experience regardless of where you start. And if you get into the story, although questing can seem very repetitive in nature as far as what you have to do, it offers an immersive reason other than simply kill ten of this, collect 20 of that, fetch this special item, escort this NPC from point A to B, etc. However some percentage of players don't get into story. They just do the quests.

Personally I don't think the graphic improvements, while good, make that much difference regarding enjoyment of the game. I really enjoy starting characters in classic zones, but they are all good. It's really amazing how good most of WoW's zones are and they keep coming up with more and more as they did in Outland and Northrend and I suspect they will with Cataclysm.

 

[Washac]

Just took a look at a video. Can't say it interests me. Sure the graphics are outdated, but the art direction is what really puts me off--I find it very unappealing. WOW certainly has modest graphics for 2010, but I'm okay with it since I think much of the art direction's quite attractive. But also the gameplay in Runescape looked very static and dull. Maybe I'm wrong, but just my impression from a quick vid. Thanks for the mention nonetheless.

Hi Ya

Runescape has hoards of kids playing it but they can be ignored so not really a problem, they are easily spotted and avoided.

Runescapes skills are far more addictive than WOW, and the quests also have far far more substance than WOW....

RS can be played for FREE if you like it then pay a very modest sum and open up the whole playing area, so much to do in
this game you will never do it all in a lifetime.

Flash graphics do not a good game make

 

[KadMac]

What are the old character models? Does that mean all races prior to Burning Crusade? So the blood elves and Draenei have the better character graphics and home cities?

The old character models entail the Night Elves, Dwarfs, Gnomes, Humans, Forsaken, Orcs, Tauren, and Trolls. In comparing them to the newest races that are to come with the next expansion (Cata), they are drastically different in terms of their detail and graphics. Just to give you an idea, the original models for the beginning races were made in 2004. The newest ones coming with the expansion are freshly made as of 2010. Graphics have come a long way in six years. I just would like them to all be the same quality.

For some, this doesn't matter and I can understand that. For me, however, its a really big deal. Building up my character is one of the big attractions to the game for me. I like them to look cool and having better graphics would really assist in that area. I just want to see higher resolution skins and it doesn't seem like that is such a big request. The druid characters requested this for years and finally got it with their druid models (bear, cat, ect).

 

[Huntn]

Hi Ya

Runescape has hoards of kids playing it but they can be ignored so not really a problem, they are easily spotted and avoided.

Runescapes skills are far more addictive than WOW, and the quests also have far far more substance than WOW....

RS can be played for FREE if you like it then pay a very modest sum and open up the whole playing area, so much to do in
this game you will never do it all in a lifetime.

Flash graphics do not a good game make

I went to the Runescape site and took a gander at the screenshots. Does the game take place completely in dungeons? I assume the screenshots they post are the best the game has to offer. No intention to offend, but my impression is this is quite a step down in environment as compared to WoW's modest graphics.

 

[LeeRain]

World of Warcraft is a very addicting game that has caught 10's of millions of people on all the time if possible. You never want to be obligated to a game that effects with your life. Like social life, and family , sport life. You should probably consider playing a game less addicting. Go on addictinggame.com , they have plenty of free games that you could play. I hope you don't play WoW :cool

 

[Libertine Lush]

Sunbaked, Huntn and Kadmac, thanks again for all the great info.

Can't really explore the opposing factions cities, since their NPC guards run out to play with you.

If your character's a super stud, or super woman, can you ever kill the NPC guards? By yourself or with a group?

Unless you are in a neutral city, opposing faction NPCs will try to kill you whether it be in the opposite faction city or in roadblocks out in the country. For the latter normally you go around or make a quick dash through.

Sounds like that's where a Rogue or Night Elf (with Shadowmeld) could be great fun, assuming that you're allowed to stealth in opposing faction territory. I was gonna go Rogue until I started reading more about Paladins. Think I'm gonna be a Retribution Paladin.

And besides Blood Elves, the Horde are mostly an ugly bunch. Yes I am partial.

They sure are. That's the downside if I go BE: when I go PvE- and PvP-ing, I may feel more inclined to kill my teammates.

 

[rasmasyean]

This has probably already been said, but, Was WoW ever worth it?

Personally, I found WoW defined the new standard in MMO's and perhaps even games in general. I tried other games and I would say that WoW made me "quit" a lot of gaming time because a lot of other games just seem bland after I've played WoW. It's like if you drove a ferarri for a while, and then step into a normal car...etc.

That being said, although when I did play WoW, I played only that and for a significant part of my waking life. I like never watched any TV at all pretty much during that time. Life was cheap because I didn't go out much. But after it got old (everything does), I tried other games and just can't keep an interest as I used to. I still play games, but not that many as I used to.

 

[rasmasyean]

World of Warcraft is a very addicting game that has caught 10's of millions of people on all the time if possible. You never want to be obligated to a game that effects with your life. Like social life, and family , sport life. You should probably consider playing a game less addicting. Go on addictinggame.com , they have plenty of free games that you could play. I hope you don't play WoW :cool

That media hyped story has been debunked. There are some like you describe, but Blizzard has admitted that the majority of players are casual. Heck with so many players, statistically, there will be some extreme story to publish...especially when everyone with an anchor fantasy is constantly keeping an eye on it.

Dungeons and Dragons created devil worshippers...kids kill their parents after playing that game. And I'm sure you can dig up a "cop shot because of GTA" story somewhere.

 

[rasmasyean]

Gadgetzan was the "rooftop camping" place. But I think they fixed that with guards that shoot fireballs or something. I forgot.

I notice a lot of requests and descriptions of details of the starting areas and whatnot. You can easily play both factions (on different servers) and races to see what you like and get the feel. The starting zones aren't that long and it's cool to get some background.

But here's my summary.
Alliance - more players, more children
Horde - darker storyline

Orcs = emacipated Klingonish slaves of human kingdom
Tauren = Native Americans with life-debt to orcs
Trolls = Jamaican voodoo ppl who have nothing better to do but follow orcs arround
Undead = zombies of free will led by night elf heroin who was turned into a banshee by evil prince (The Lich King)
Blood Elf = fallen night elves corrupted by magical addiction trying to fix their lives

Night Elf = tree huggers who think they are above it all because they've been around for thousands of years
Dwarves = drunk Irish ppl who like metals
Gnomes = silly retards...who like machinery
Human = proud civilization lovers
Dranie = Pius aliens

I think the Undead and the Night Elf zones are the best. The new ones look cool, but the overall lore and experience of it was not as good as the UD and NE zones, imo.

 

[Sun Baked]

If your character's a super stud, or super woman, can you ever kill the NPC guards? By yourself or with a group?

Yes you can kill them when you lvl high enough or raid, but since the entire time you are killing them a "Crossroads is under attack" message keeps popping up on the opposing factions screen.

Eventually somebody is going to log onto their super stud, and camp your corpse.

 

[Libertine Lush]

This is a strict division within the game. You can't even speak to the opposite side as it comes out as a foreign language they won't understand.*

I just remembered having read this in the WoWWiki a day ago: "Cross-realm, cross-faction, and cross-game chat is now live in Battle.net games as of Patch 3.3.5." That seems to say you can talk to the other faction, or does it mean something different?

Yes you can kill them when you lvl high enough or raid, but since the entire time you are killing them a "Crossroads is under attack" message keeps popping up on the opposing factions screen.

Eventually somebody is going to log onto their super stud, and camp your corpse.

Haha, well that's still good to know. And I will try it at least once.