This was our weekend to play around with World of Warcraft a bit, as a couple.
Margie’s key impression: “It’s Disney LotRO.”
Which has a lot of truth to it, except, of course, that given the order of release one should instead characterize LotRO as “Tolkien WoW”. That said, there are a lot of similarities between the two games in terms of engine and screen layout and mechanics and all. The art style in LotRO is a lot more realistic, and the Tolkien-based storyline lends a bit of panache to the proceedings, but …
(Margie is suggesting I give LotRO another try.)
So Les and I leveling up characters to 15 in two decent-length sessions were one thing. When Margie and I tried it, we ran into immediate problems with limits on Starter Edition (F2P) accounts. The main problem being: Starter Edition characters can’t initiate groups. So if you have two Starter Edition people playing, they have to play as solo characters running around together. Which makes mission completion more lengthy and complex, and creates real problems when you (virtually) turn around and you can see where the other person is.
Only the fact that we were in the same room made it feel viable.
I’m sure Blizzard has good reasons for the restrictions, given the attacks and hacks and exploits that Black Hats have had, but it did make it more difficult.
Also, we have problems in Panderia, with both of us phased separately on the same server, making it even less viable for us to play together.
That led to a decision Friday evening to go ahead and upgrade my account to a paid subscription — $20 gets the Battle Pack with a couple of expansions in it (handwaves specifics), and a month of play. With that, I could take on the “mentor” role that Les did for me, and we figured at a minimum we’d get $20 of entertainment for the two of us.
Well, one fly in the ointment. Blizzard / Battle.net immediately charges your card, but doesn’t immediately make you a subscribed member. They claim it can take up to 72 hours to validate that you aren’t an Evil Spammer or Despicable Gold Farmer or something.
So we spent Saturday and Sunday doing awkward paired solos, running a pair of humans up to 8 or 9, and then a pair of night elves up to 11. It was only on late Sunday night that I was able to invite Margie to a team (though some of the other features had kicked in before then).
Net-net, I had a good time, and I think (glances her way) that Margie did, too. The starter realms seem to be fairly linear in their quest paths, but it seems there is plenty to do after getting out from that. The biggest problem I see if we move forward is figuring out which of the very kind guild offers we’ve received from various friends to take advantage of.
Meanwhile, now that I’m a paying player, I’ve been able to formally invite Margie in (using a different email addy), which means that I can take advantage of those “recruitment bonuses” that Blizzard is offering. Which means rerolling the toons Margie was already playing, but that’s just a weekend’s worth.
So, for the moment, WoW seems to be on the play list. Still other games out there we want to try, however.
You really ought to look at GW2 next weekend.
Y’know, I really have no desire right now to give NCSoft any of my money.
“They claim it can take up to 72 hours to validate that you aren’t an Evil Spammer or Despicable Gold Farmer or something.”
Actually, if it wasn’t for gold farming, WoW wouldn’t exist…
Y’know, I really have no desire right now to give NCSoft any of my money.
Ahhh, I guess that makes sense, but WoW?
Well, I’m having fun with it. No accounting for tastes, I suppose.
Sheesh BD, what horrible experience did you have with WoW to generate such hostility to it? Or is just the fact that it’s the most successful MMORPG ever?
I’ve played just about every MMORPG that came along prior to WoW, including City of Heroes, and a few after it came out to boot (e.g. the original Guild Wars). None of them have held my attention as long as WoW has, which I’ve been playing since launch. The only game with a similar track record has been Civilization.
Is it grindy? It can be. Does it still make use of well-worn tropes? Absolutely. Is it still as fun as when I started playing? Without a doubt. In part that’s because it hasn’t remained static over the years. With each expansion the game has improved. The release of Cataclysm in particular reinvigorated the game by applying the lessons learned during previous expansions to the original game world. The recent release of Mists of Pandaria completely revamped many long-establish systems in the game such as the Talent trees which had always resulted in cookie-cutter specs in past versions.
For a game that’s 8-years-old, it is often stunningly beautiful. The story line in the latest expansion has been as enjoyable as anything else I’ve played recently. Prior to this latest release I had brought 5 characters to the level cap (85) on the Alliance side with the lowest level character sitting at 72. On the Horde side, which I don’t play as often, I had 1 at the level cap and several others spread out over the range. I’m pretty easily bored so it’s a testament to how much there is to do in the game that I’m still a subscriber.
I can understand that WoW is not everyone’s cup of tea. Some folks feel it’s too cartoonish or the anachronistic melding of fantasy with steam-punkish elements and current pop culture references is too silly, but there seems to be a trend among some gamers to hate WoW for no reason other than it’s popular. It’s kind of like how some folks think they can’t like their favorite band anymore if they suddenly enjoy mainstream success. “Their latest album is hugely popular? It must suck then. Can’t believe I used to listen to their music.”
@Les
Nope, played it, found it to be not as good as CoH, AoC, CO, EQ2, STO, and SWTOR. I played CoH and EQ2 for about 5 years. CoH, there was nothng to do but start new toons, which is fine, and EQ2 all there was was raiding, which to me does not a game make. While some raiding is fine, that every MMO since EQ1 has decided that all end game is is more raiding, I tend to quit games one I have a chance to do a successful run of each of the raids. But, I have to say that WoW has taken raiding to a silly extreme with almost a religious fanaticism where unless you have X build and are willing to completely redo your tonn or else you will not be allowed to raid. I do not consider gaming bullying to be fun, and to me that is all WoW is, High School that you have the privledge of paying $15 a month for.
Played a Barbie Elf Ret Paly to, what at the time was, level cap as well as an Orc Hunter and a cow druid (if I remember correctly) to level 20 until I became bored with the sameness of it all.
The game is the least pretty game I have ever played. Really, it is the base line for bad graphics for me.
It is even more grindy than EQ2, which I did not think was possible.
Really, the only things that was cool about WoW a) unleashing undead to eat a Alliance city, b)Ninja Dinosaurs and c) exploding sheep. Everything else has been done better in some other MMO that WoW has ripped off.
Well, fwiw, @bd, when it gets too grindy for me or requires me to go a-raiding, I’ll drop it. Neither particularly appeals.
That’s a problem with certain guilds, not with WoW in general. WoW does require certain gear levels for certain raids, but that’s about the only restriction the game puts on it. The guild I’m in will happily take me on raids whenever I feel like doing them regardless of my build.
Just because some of the players are assholes doesn’t mean all 9 million of them are.
Really? Well, considering beauty is subjective I won’t bother to argue the point. Suffice it to say that I disagree.
If you say so, that’s not been my experience at all. WoW rewards XP for pretty much everything you do these days. I know folks who do very little questing once they hit level 15 and just do repeated PUGs and level up that way or repeated PVP and level up that way. Hell, technically you could level all the way up just by mining and herbing, but that would indeed be a very grindy and slow way to do it.
If you found it boring then I can understand why you don’t play, but you seem to have an outright hatred for it that I don’t understand. Especially in comparison to games such as EQ and EQ2 which suffer from many of the same flaws.
The game never requires you to grind or raid if you don’t want to. You can solo the game from 1 to 90 without ever doing a dungeon or a raid or PVP.
@bd – The game is the least pretty game I have ever played. Really, it is the base line for bad graphics for me. I disagree. But, then, I’m one of the few folks who like the graphics in Champions Online, too. I think the graphics in some of the older areas / races are not great (Humans and Tauren come to mind offhand), but the the new Panderan stuff is lovely, and I like the Night Elf realm as well. The more animated look doesn’t bother me.
@Les – “Hell, technically you could level all the way up just by mining and herbing, but that would indeed be a very grindy and slow way to do it.” Wasn’t there an article a while back about some guy who’d level capped while never actually killing anyone/thing?
@Dave, yep. It was a Night Elf Druid by the name of Everbloom. PC World did an article about it. He did it by grinding gathering professions.
There was another fellow that Cracked wrote about who did it via questing, but only quests that didn’t involve killing.
My biggest problem with WOW is travel time. I feel like I am crawling across the landscape. This is most evident when you have to trot back to the contact to turn in your mission. LOTRO has the same problem for me, but is mitigated by my account-wide horse I got with the $20 Mithril addition. Starting at level 5 my speed increase by 63%. That is no where near the great travel speeds that you get with COX travel powers, but it helps a lot.
In both these cases, I know that the speed and mission logic is linked to the immersion in the realm. But it just feels like they are intentionally slowing me down so it takes me longer to play. The fact that you can get horses and return to marker power and in the case of WOW frick’n autogyros increases that feeling.
Well, if you subscribe and pay for an added month, then I’ll be able to turn into a flying mount for you. Problems solved. 😉
No, I agree, the jogging about can be a bit much, though it really seems to vary by zone / race. I hardly noticed it in Panderia. A bit more in the Night Elves realm (depending on choices made). A lot more with the Hoomans.
I don’t seem to notice it quite as much as I did back when I was playing LotRO. FWIW.
See, Everbloom’s player is just plain crazy. 🙂
@Margie: The travel time improves considerably by level 20, earlier with certain classes. At level 20 you’ll get apprentice riding skill which gives you +60% travel speed, at 40 you get Journeyman for +100%, level 60 gives you Expert and access to flying mounts for +150% in air and +60% on ground, level 70 brings Artisan for +280% flying speed and +100 on the ground, finally level 80 allows you to purchase Master riding skill for +310% movement speed in the air.
A couple of classes get movement increasing abilities prior to level 20. Hunters get Aspect of the Cheetah at level 16 that gives them a +30% boost to speed while in use (but if attacked while active he/she will be dazed). Druids get Travel Form, also at level 16, which is a +40% speed increase without the Hunter’s daze effect if attacked. Other classes have talents that provide speed boosts when mounted as well.
tl;dr: Things improve at level 20 or 16 if you’re a hunter/druid.
@Dave, while you will get that mount, you probably won’t gain any benefit (other than carrying a passenger) prior to level 20. Not sure, but that’s usually how it works.
Yeah, I was just looking at stuff about mounts (and buying them outright) and it looks like you really can’t do anything with them until 20.
This is true, but getting to 20 is pretty trivial these days. We got to 15 in two play sessions. And if you’re doing the Recruit a Friend and group up then you get Triple XP for 90 days which makes it that much more ridiculously fast.