World of Warcraft

First topic message reminder :

Seeing as the COD guys have their own thread I thought it was about time there was one for what is frankly THE best game of all time.
At present I'm levelling a goblin hunter (beast mastery and with a raptor pet) but normally I play a gnome frost mage.

There was a banner advert on this page earlier for WoW excelerator or something.

Its a guide to get you to level 85 legally and quickly.

looked really good.

Yeah it's called get a friend to sign you up and join their level 25 guild, that pretty much does it.

Undercity is a horrendous city. Stormwind and Ironforge are fantastic, in my opinion, though I didn't mind Orgrimmar too much.

All this talk is making me miss the game, am I going to have to level a new character?

I just found it too far from one end to the other in Ogrimmar, Ironforge is my fave with it being one level and circular.

Not too bad now with flying mounts, I guess.

Ah thats thing Fists you feel like that for a bit then you actually try to level a new char and find that those problems still exist or the after effects do anyway and the game has stagnated.

I'm just waiting on the next MMO to keep me hooked its currently SWTOR that has the title of my next MMO. Will see if that game can keep my interest for a few years or if I'll have to move onto another title.

I'm so tempted by that, but the missus has put a veto on it, telling me that I'll just end up getting addicted, therefore having no life and ignoring her.

Suits me!!

I'm a big Bioware fan so when who I consider to be the 2nd best PC RPG studio say they are making a (fully voiced) MMO I'm always interested. Will be interesting as Bioware are renowned for their story telling games so adding that experience into a MMO might actually make leveling fun for me.

That was a bit of a problem with WoW after around level 20 the quest stories got disjointed and just became walls of text.

The PvP mini games looked interesting, especially huttaball.

Who would say are the best RPG studio Dass? I'm a big fan of bioware myself.
I would say it's a close call between them and Bethesda for the best.

Did any of you play the Orignal Star wars MMO, it was really good to start out with but got ruined with time.

Played SWG for a short period, its biggest factor for failing was trying to change its gameplay from a sandbox type to themepark try and jump on the growing WoW bandwagon at the time. If they'd just stuck to their original concept it would have been a better success story though it would never have got WoW's figures.

I consider Black Isle to be the studio who belong at the top of the pile and at times Troika Games may sneak into position two. Its just a crying shame both studios are now defunct. I still hope that Obsidian can produce a game the obvious talent they have deserves, they just keep falling short for some reason or another so far.

Hmmm not a huge Bethesda fan, great world building abilities some of the worst character/story building I've seen. Did love Morrowind despite those flaws and hopefully Skyrim can do that again but wasn't a Oblivion fan at all. Their world despite being expansive and impressive is often very flat in terms of the characters that inhabit the environment, its like they are cardboard cutout placeholders.

I loved oblivion and the elder scrolls series in genral. Other than star wars, Skyrim is the game i'm most looking forward to this year.

Am i right in thinking Bioware and Black Isle worked togther on a few projects or am i getting my wires crossed.

No your right about Black Isle and Bioware used to work together with Interplay as the publisher. Black Isle was Interplays in-house studio at the time.

Bioware's ability to make good game engines coupled with Black Isles story telling was the perfect partnership. Was a Bioware game engine Black Isle used to create what I consider the best story driven RPG ever and just all round best RPG as far as I'm concerned.

Just found out Mila Kunis plays world of warcraft...that surely now makes her the perfect woman?

Is the game really that addictive? I really have always been intrigued by the game but never bit the bullet and bought it due to the stories you hear about how engrossed people actually become.

Would you all recommend I buy it, or stay well clear?

How good is your will power?

If it is decent, and you have plenty of things that keep you busy during the week then yeah go for it. However, if you literally sit in front of the computer most of the time then it could be dodgy haha. It is a fun game to play socially i.e. where you drop onto it for the odd couple of hours here and there, but if you really get into it, and begin the end-game content such as raiding in guilds then it can be so time consuming, and you end up being addicted to constantly improving your gear/stats etc. Great game, but yes very addictive.

Definitely one of those people that knows when enough is enough when it comes to gaming. So I think if what you said is true then I should be ok.

Are there demos available to download or do you have to go straight to the real thing?

Blizzard used to do 10 day free trials, been a while since I played but I'd imagine its something they still do.

Its a easy introduction into the MMO culture, its got one of the easiest learning curves while leveling I've ever seen so its quite easy to get going. Its Raiding later on that takes up your time and everything that surrounds the activity.

It also tends to be a addon centric game for a large chunk of the population at end game which becomes annoying especially when they ain't even needed. It will depend on who your raiding with but normally consist of the mid level guilds.

Good game and certainly worth trying to give you a taste of the genre.

They still do 10 day free trials, I used mine a few weeks ago.
Log into your account on Battlenet and you can activate it.
I play the game off and on, but as I need to be up for work early, I can;t really raid, and if I can't raid I get bored.

I was a warlock in Vanilla, a Hunter in Burning Crusade and a Elf Druid Tank in Ice crown, I still use my Druid tank as I can't be bothered to wait for the Heroic queues.
I'm on Thunderhorn EU as Bádbunny
I'm also on a break from the game though!

I installed it yesterday...still a few old mates playing it that I had a chat with! We went and hassled a few horde outside Orgrimmar before getting battered, and then ran Stratholme with our level 50's afterward. Great fun, but I'm definitely going to just play the game in that fashion, the odd fun hour here and there as opposed to getting back in to hardcore raiding.

Your getting sucked back in Fists.

Everyone says it will be only a few hours next thing your doing a quick raid as a favour for a friend. After that your free if they ever need back up on future runs and before you know it your doing casual raiding and the games sucked you back in.

You been keeping track of SWTOR by the way?.

About to download the game and have a try on the free demo.

AberdeenSteve wrote:About to download the game and have a try on the free demo.

How big is the download, I would imagine it will be around 13gig.
Have you got any friends who play steve? you used to be able to get quicker leveling and mounts if someone signed you up.

It is a 10gig download mate. I have a pretty decent laptop for gaming so I will be fine on that front.

No, I am the only of my mates (that I know of) that plays it. I am going in without a dam clue

Ahh ok bud.

You want to find a server that has a good population of people on it. Get you're self in a nice leveling guild. And there are always people who will help you out.

Dass wrote:Just made me remember another major gripe I had before I left and that was cross realm PvP that eventual encompassed grouping (I'd left by that stage). One of the most stupid and ridiculous ideas ever to come from Blizzard.

Completely ruined PvP and the point of actually having a realm.

True but it made PVE dungeoning a lot faster and more people do PVE than PVP.
Though Random Heroics with random people has become awful, it may be me, but it seems there are so many irritating, disrespectful people in the game these days. they also made the game so much easier now, with normal dungeons and heroics meaning it's easy to gear up, but harder to progress because you cant tell who the better players are.
I'm just glad I got to kill the Litch King before my credit ran out last month.

How do I get myself into a guild exactly?

I am a massive gamer, but I can see this being a challenge to begin with!

My internet is horrendous tonight, so taking an age to download.

AberdeenSteve wrote:It is a 10gig download mate. I have a pretty decent laptop for gaming so I will be fine on that front.

No, I am the only of my mates (that I know of) that plays it. I am going in without a dam clue

Try Thunderhorn EU, and ask to join cursedcrusaders, their a nice guild of mainly adults, my real life friend runs it.

Your best bet is to go a human, either hunter or warlock to start with to get to grips with the game. They are the easiest starting classes because your pet takes the damage while you attack, meaning you arent panicking about dying.
Walk up to a person with a yellow ! above their head, to get a quest, look on the mini map at the top right corner. read the quest and do what it says, it not difficult at the start, and dont worry about dying, you only lose a little bit of armour durability and can be easily and cheaply repaired.
The "normal" Thunderhorn server is a nice one, with a lot of friendly guilds in, you could try Dreamworkers their a levelling guild and pretty massive.

Dont race to the max level, just go slow and enjoy it, and learn about the lore and story arcs of the game, it's more fun that way.

There is a find guild Tab on the buttons at the bottom of the screen, once the game loads up. Just click on that and it will let you search guilds.

AlynDavies wrote:

Dass wrote:Just made me remember another major gripe I had before I left and that was cross realm PvP that eventual encompassed grouping (I'd left by that stage). One of the most stupid and ridiculous ideas ever to come from Blizzard.

Completely ruined PvP and the point of actually having a realm.

True but it made PVE dungeoning a lot faster and more people do PVE than PVP.
Though Random Heroics with random people has become awful, it may be me, but it seems there are so many irritating, disrespectful people in the game these days. they also made the game so much easier now, with normal dungeons and heroics meaning it's easy to gear up, but harder to progress because you cant tell who the better players are.
I'm just glad I got to kill the Litch King before my credit ran out last month.

But unless you are a tank or in some cases a healer, is queing for a random any quicker. As a DPS i could be waiting in line for anywhere between 30 mins to 1 hour to get in a dungeon. And then you get some idiot who thinks he can solo everything and cause many a wipe.
I do not bother going into them now, I would rather run raids and dungeons with my guildys who I know I can trust and have a good laugh with.

AlynDavies wrote:

Dass wrote:Just made me remember another major gripe I had before I left and that was cross realm PvP that eventual encompassed grouping (I'd left by that stage). One of the most stupid and ridiculous ideas ever to come from Blizzard.

Completely ruined PvP and the point of actually having a realm.

True but it made PVE dungeoning a lot faster and more people do PVE than PVP.
Though Random Heroics with random people has become awful, it may be me, but it seems there are so many irritating, disrespectful people in the game these days. they also made the game so much easier now, with normal dungeons and heroics meaning it's easy to gear up, but harder to progress because you cant tell who the better players are.
I'm just glad I got to kill the Litch King before my credit ran out last month.

Don't get me wrong there was supposed benefits of reduced waiting time by introducing the Xrealm idea but the negatives far out weighed those positives in my eyes. It completely ruined the idea of community interaction and getting to know the people on your realm add in the idea of people from different realms had no consequences to their actions during groups. At least on a one realm approach these people would build a reputation for bad gameplay and would have to reform or suffer for it and the same could happen on the reverse for better players.

It runined the aspect of PvP of having two sides and often you would get to know the opposing faction players and build up rivalries making the fights more meaningful after Xrealm everyone became a faceless avatar and that was lost. I'm not someone who RP's or needs loads of community interaction but there are some aspects of MMO's that I think require it and Xrealm destroyed that.

There are other negatives to the decision but the above are what I remember of hand.

Cheers Alyn, massive help that info. Can't wait to get stuck in!

I wasn't a fan of xrealm either, Dass. Pretty much for the same reasons as you.

Though I did once get put in a dungeon group with a member of Nihilum (before they became Ensidia).

Fists of Fury wrote:I wasn't a fan of xrealm either, Dass. Pretty much for the same reasons as you.

Though I did once get put in a dungeon group with a member of Nihilum (before they became Ensidia).

I'm sure to this date the member of Nihilum still tells the story of the time he grouped with you Fists.

The best bit about WoW for me was the min/maxing stats or reading up on ability mechanics for raiding (and PvP when I got the chance) purposes... sad I know.

randy-poffo wrote:But unless you are a tank or in some cases a healer, is queing for a random any quicker. As a DPS i could be waiting in line for anywhere between 30 mins to 1 hour to get in a dungeon. And then you get some idiot who thinks he can solo everything and cause many a wipe.
I do not bother going into them now, I would rather run raids and dungeons with my guildys who I know I can trust and have a good laugh with.

Waiting time as a tank for Random Heroics, erm about 2 seconds!

AberdeenSteve wrote:Cheers Alyn, massive help that info. Can't wait to get stuck in!

Your welcome, but remember it's only a game dont neglect your family, it can take over your life!

I did state that the wating time for tank had reduced lol.

Dass wrote:

Fists of Fury wrote:I wasn't a fan of xrealm either, Dass. Pretty much for the same reasons as you.

Though I did once get put in a dungeon group with a member of Nihilum (before they became Ensidia).

I'm sure to this date the member of Nihilum still tells the story of the time he grouped with you Fists.

The best bit about WoW for me was the min/maxing stats or reading up on ability mechanics for raiding (and PvP when I got the chance) purposes... sad I know.

Mate I spent many hours learning how to become the ultimate shadow priest, and in the end I was pretty damned good, so yeah, the Nihilum guy probably does look back at that group fondly

Its part of the reason I'm getting excited for SWTOR getting back into raiding a couple nights a week in a top guild, plus enjoying playing with other people and getting the banter going.

Pretty sure I'll be playing Empire come launch and most likely a tank as its my fav class in nearly every game I play.

Oh don't tempt me mate, I can't afford to get into raiding again. Up until a couple of months ago I was raiding 6pm - 11pm 2 nights per week in a very good guild. We were downing all the bosses on heroic, had some great gear and some crazy dps output, but had to give it in!

I used to Raid 3 Nights a week 8-12pm but never on a Fri or Sat as most of us wanted to go out or had other plans. For me 3 nights was good as I could balance my life around that especially since it was midweek stuff or Sunday.

Not did it in about 4yrs now but I've been away long enough now that I'm looking forward to getting back to it. a shame if you miss out on SWTOR as I've got the feeling you'd really enjoy it.

The reason i stopped playing was that people were taking it far too serious and getting annoyed if you were 5 -10 mins late. I am thinking of buying cataclysm as i need to save some money and stop drinking lol.

Are there still people going into the dungeouns to kill the lich king??

Might get the odd nooby group going for the Lich King, but for those of us that did it whilst it was current there is no need

Dass, we used to raid on Tuesdays 6-11 and Sundays 6-11. Decent raiding days, but still too much time out of my week to be sustainable really.

I quit playing before i even got close to facing the Lich King so i would like to go back and beat him as i bet they have made him easier now

Only back a few days Fists and already thinking of getting a couple of casual raids going.

Those raiding time are pretty good Fists, was it just two nights being to much or the fact the two nights were set on specific days?.

Never faced the Lich King myself as I never got that expansion.

It won't download dammit

Yeah they were good times, but it was just that I had to write two evenings off per week, not really plausible when you have a girlfriend, gym, football, squash commitments etc! Something had to give! Shame, but such is life.

It ok Fists I'll be here to let you know how much fun I'm having playing the game when its released, so even if your not playing you don't miss out.

Fists of Fury wrote:Yeah they were good times, but it was just that I had to write two evenings off per week, not really plausible when you have a girlfriend, gym, football, squash commitments etc! Something had to give! Shame, but such is life.

Stick to life mate, Wow takes over it and you can lose sight of whats important.

Is anyone going back to WOW when Mop is released next month. Im back on now and leveling a couple of alts.

So, so tempted.

How much does it cost per month now, randy?

I'm not sure whether I should (the mrs is against it!!) - it can become a rather vicious circle! Haha.