"It's the beginning fo the World...of Warcraft."

[Words_on_the_Interweb]

The Horde are carrying their underdog badge from beta, when Horde really was less developed and had a lot of red-headed stepchild issues. Population disparity started early in beta when Alliance was the only faction available for play; when the game went live, I think a lot of beta-players wanted to recreate their beta characters and encouraged friends to join them. The underdog complex has carried over, but these days Horde/Alliance differences are purely in population and flavour - sure, Durotar may look more rugged than Elwynn Forest, but growing up in either area is largely the same.

I have more 60+ characters than I care to admit, and recently cancelled my account. The game changes a lot at 70, when questing ends and progression is largely raid-based. Still, there are a lot of hours to be spent in WoW - if I’d started later and not chewed through content faster than Blizzard could release it, I’d probably still be playing. Those of you just starting out, take your time and enjoy, there’s a lot to be seen on both factions.

[Lady_of_the_Lake]

@Miller

The people sending you random group invites don’t want to play with you. They’re trying to sell you gold.

And now I’m sounding idiotic, but what? confused They’re trying to sell me gold for what - real money or something like that?

[Biggirl]

@Lady of the Lake

And now I’m sounding idiotic, but what? confused They’re trying to sell me gold for what - real money or something like that?

pats noob consolingly on the head

There, there. Azeroth is a hard, cruel world. You wouldn’t believe what some people would do for some gold. I mean, really do. For real. They’ll ask on craigslist.

[Sierra_Indigo]

@Miller

The people sending you random group invites don’t want to play with you. They’re trying to sell you gold.

Don’t scare the n00b!

It’s not all that bad. if you get a random group invite from a guy who’s been running around the baby zone and killing the same mobs as you, fair bet is that s/he can see you’re both on the same quests and thinks it’ll just be quicker and easier if you both join up (so you’re not trying to kill the same mobs, having to wait for respawns etc.)

If you get a random group invite from someone whose name is something like “XYZZY” and they’re not even on the same side of the map as you, that’s a fair bet that they’re trying to spam/sell you things.

But yes, people will buy and sell gold on eBay and Craigslist. You’ll get spam for gold farmers in your mailbox. For any player-economy game it’s a common occurrence.

[Darkhold]

@Lady of the Lake

And now I’m sounding idiotic, but what? confused They’re trying to sell me gold for what - real money or something like that?

Type in WOW gold on google sometime you’ll be surprised how many sites come up.

As for the craigslist comment there’s a somewhat infamous story where a girl offered to have sex with anyone that’d give her X amount of gold. Supposedly she got an offer and went through with it and everyone was satisfied.

[Biggirl]

@Darkhold

Type in WOW gold on google sometime you’ll be surprised how many sites come up.

As for the craigslist comment there’s a somewhat infamous story where a girl offered to have sex with anyone that’d give her X amount of gold. Supposedly she got an offer and went through with it and everyone was satisfied.

She did it because she wanted a mount.

Seriously.

[Miller]

@Lady of the Lake

And now I’m sounding idiotic, but what? confused They’re trying to sell me gold for what - real money or something like that?

Yep, real money. A whole sub-industry has sprung up around MMORPGs that involves selling in-game items, gold, sometimes entire characters, for real world cash. There are, essentially, “Warcraft factories,” (by stereotype, located in China, but there are domestic operations as well) where people spend all day playing the game for a paycheck, turning over the money and treasure they accumulate to their employer, who then re-sells them to real players for real money. This is against the terms of service of virtually every MMORPG out there. Anyone caught buying or selling in-game objects for real money will have their accounts suspended or deleted. Blizzard has instituted a number of measures to make it harder for gold farmers to spam other players in-game. Of course, every time they figure out a way to stop the spammers, the spammers figure out a way to get around them. The latest incarnation of this is the random group request. If you get a group invite from someone out of the blue, type, “/who” followed by the guy’s name. If he’s a first level character on another continent, it’s not someone who wants to adventure with you. It’s just the virtual equivalent of a telemarketer.

[Lady_of_the_Lake]

:eek:

[Lady_of_the_Lake]

Okay, I’m done sputtering, but grouping should be for grouping. If a person doesn’t have enough to worry about with ingame etiquette. Previously I worried ‘am I fighting in this other guys area and taking his monsters?’ and now I need to worry ‘are they trying to get money?’.

And the craigslist thing…my husband uses craiglist to sell ‘fish tank parts’ all the time…hmmm…he spends *hours * on it…

@Miller

The latest incarnation of this is the random group request. If you get a group invite from someone out of the blue, type, “/who” followed by the guy’s name. If he’s a first level character on another continent, it’s not someone who wants to adventure with you. It’s just the virtual equivalent of a telemarketer.

And here I thought I was popular…what friendly people I thought…(though a bit persistant.)

I figured out the /who for my zone last night, now I’ll use it for individual people - that’s helpful!

[tanstaafl]

@Revenant Threshold

The common theory is that it’s due to the Horde races generally being uglier, with the kids tending to pick the “hot female avatar” side. Hence we got Blood Elves and Dranaei to try and redress that balance.

Or, this could happen.

[Words_on_the_Interweb]

@Lady of the Lake

Okay, I’m done sputtering, but grouping should be for grouping. If a person doesn’t have enough to worry about with ingame etiquette. Previously I worried ‘am I fighting in this other guys area and taking his monsters?’ and now I need to worry ‘are they trying to get money?’.

Don’t worry about it; if someone gets you in a group and is spamming (or just being an ass), just leave the group (right-click your portrait by your health bar and select the leave group option). There are no “camps” in WoW, really, so don’t stress on fighting in someone else’s area. The general etiquette is if someone is clearing to a named monster or an ore or herb node, you don’t take the named or the node (if it’s a named you need for a quest, you can offer to group for shared credit). Otherwise, just try to be aware of players around you and if someone is going for a monster, don’t grab it out from under them. Sometimes, you’ll have situations where your nuke goes off just as someone else attacks, that’s okay, as long as you aren’t following someone around doing it repeatedly.

[Yesterdog]

Here is the deal with WoW, myself being a hard-core player, waisting way to much of my life. I have 3 70’s, my main being a druid with 4 complete sets of gear - boomkin, feral tank, feral dps, and healing tree.

Read the WoW forums. Then go to www.worldofraids.com and read their forums, then go to some guilds websites and read their forums like Death and Taxes, www.hellmonkey.org, www.valhalla-guild.us. Read read read.

The game is great, but you must get in with the right crowd. If you don’t, you will end up not enjoying the game.

Oh, and PvP is the ONLY way to go.

[Revenant_Threshold]

Just to add to WotI’s list, don’t take the contents of chests that people are clearing to, either. And the term for this is ninja-ing, making MMORPGs probably the only place where being called a ninja by kids is a bad thing.

If you’re interested in Team PvP, best thing to do is play Horde (at least on my server). They’re both in the minority (meaning you’ll get into games quicker) and generally more organised/less idiotic (meaning you’ll probably win).

[smiling_bandit]

I admit, I’ve got a hot female night elf to go with that red-vbeared dwarf warrior.

But, c’mon, the Horde races really do look hideous, as well as every last friggin male model in the game. They’re not just ugly, they’re actually painful to look at. And this gets repeated over and over again in every MMORPG (although not most single-player games, where I generally pick male models given a choice). Heck, even the dwarf women are easier on the eyes than, say, night elf men.

Let’s just say I just don’t want to look at that butt for the next 700 hours. :eek:

[Gary_Robson]

@smiling bandit

Second, they seem to be interesting stat-wise, having more mana than most and less health.

I really wouldn’t worry much about starting stats. Once you get out of the beginning levels, it really doesn’t matter that much. Racial bonuses matter more.

@smiling bandit

What is the Alliance side short of? Priests? Mages? Anything appropriate for a Draenei?

Whenever we put together a group, we seem to have the hardest time finding a good tank (generally a warrior or a druid, sometimes a paladin) or a good healer (generally a priest, paladin, or druid). Every server’s different, of course, but we seem to have no lack of mages, warlocks, paladins, and rogues. And I never hear groups saying, “gee, we need a hunter or a shaman.”

If you are a good tank or healer, you will be in great demand.

@smiling bandit

In a larger sense, are there more playaers capable of not accidentally killing the party with incompetence? I’ve been in too many frustrating MMORPG’s where one idiot player repeatdly gets everyong killed. Is there more leeway for people on the lower levels?

Yes, an idiot can cause a wipe. The way WoW tends to work, though, is that you connect with a guild and learn who knows how to play their class and who doesn’t. When you form a PUG (pick-up group) for a lower-level dungeon or quest, remember who the good ones are, and talk to them later for the tougher runs.

When you get an idiot on a run, dump him. We were doing a run the other day with three priests and a warrior. The holy priest healed, the shadow priest (me) did damage, and the third priest pinch-hit whereever she was needed. The warrior simply refused to wait for us to regain mana between battles. I tried to explain that “healer out of mana = dead warrior” and he still didn’t get it. Next time he charged into battle when we weren’t ready, all three of us left the group and hearthed out, leaving him in there alone.

@smiling bandit

Likewise, how is grinding for XP?

It’s all a matter of finding the right spot. Buy large bags and good gear and plan ahead: go out with your bags almost empty, plenty of potions, good scrolls to buff you up, and get quests in the same area where you’re going to grind. The great thing in WoW is that any class can grind solo.

You will probably end up respeccing at least once. For example, shadow priests solo better and level faster than holy priests, but holy priests are in more demand in higher level dungeons.

Sometimes, respeccing makes it feel like you have a whole new 'toon, with different play style and strategy.

A final tip: you may be encouraged to get a mod called “damage meters.” Do not use it as anything other than a rough guide to performance, and especially don’t trust mages that talk of nothing but how they did on the meters. A warrior doing his job doesn’t have to cause much damage–he just has to hold the aggro. A mage should be doing crowd control (sheeping, freezing, slowing, counterspelling…), which doesn’t cause damage. Ditto with a hunter setting his traps.

[Ferret_Herder]

@FlightlessBird

I do the same thing. I like the early areas best. Although I haven’t built up too far, my main is a lvl49 Paladin, but I have a bunch of 15-20s. I’ve avoided buying BC, but at some point I will and then I can start a few Draenei toons.

On Sen’Jin.

Sen’Jin represent! (I’m Horde though…)

@smiling bandit

But, c’mon, the Horde races really do look hideous, as well as every last friggin male model in the game. They’re not just ugly, they’re actually painful to look at. And this gets repeated over and over again in every MMORPG (although not most single-player games, where I generally pick male models given a choice). Heck, even the dwarf women are easier on the eyes than, say, night elf men.

Haven’t looked at the Blood Elves, I gather. And come on, the Horde aren’t models, but they aren’t all that horrible either. You can even find cute orcs and trolls, the tauren are just big cow people, and even some of the undead aren’t that bad.

[Gary_Robson]

@Yesterdog

Oh, and PvP is the ONLY way to go.

Incidentally, PvP and PvE might as well be two completely separate games. You’ll find different types of people to group with, and entirely different attitudes.

As to horde v. alliance, I think the old saying applies well on my server: horde has fewer idiots and alliance has fewer jerks. Horde always seems to be better organized for PvP–at least on our server. If you want to play PvP heavily (and win), you’re better off horde.

The roleplaying servers are also a lot of fun, if you just learn to ignore the non-roleplayers that didn’t pay attention to what server they were signing up with.

To enhance your experience with WoW, learn the /ignore command and use it. It will make use of things like the trade channel much more pleasant. There’s also a mod (I can’t remember the name of it) that blocks all tells from level 1 players. This removes virtually all of the spam from the game.

[H3Knuckles]

@Yesterdog

Here is the deal with WoW, myself being a hard-core player, waisting way to much of my life. I have 3 70’s, my main being a druid with 4 complete sets of gear - boomkin, feral tank, feral dps, and healing tree.

Read the WoW forums. Then go to www.worldofraids.com and read their forums, then go to some guilds websites and read their forums like Death and Taxes, www.hellmonkey.org, www.valhalla-guild.us. Read read read.

The game is great, but you must get in with the right crowd. If you don’t, you will end up not enjoying the game.

Oh, and PvP is the ONLY way to go.

This is exactly the kind of player you need to completely ignore if you want to enjoy the game. Blizzard has gone out of their way to make WoW playable in just about any fashion you want. It’s soloable all the way to 70. PVP can be fun, but getting whacked by a bunch of higher level players from the other side because you were in a contested zone when you’re just doing quests or farming for gold/experience is BS. PVE servers allow you to PVP whenever you feel like it, without that added frustration.

If you want to get into the multi-hour long raid groups, or do hardcore PVP, great for you! There’s a ton of depth there and it requires lots of research and minute planning to get the most out of your character.

If, however, you like soloing, grouping with friendly people, or better yet know some people outside the game who also play, take it easy, relax, and just have fun.

Oh, and of course, if you want to make up little stories about each of your characters and share them with people, give the RP servers a try. While I like to make backstories for my characters, they weren’t for me, but lots of people enjoy them.

PS. I play Horde on Duskwood, Alliance on Eonar. I PVP as Alliance on Dark Iron, and RP (PVE) as Alliance on Kirin Tor. I’m an altaholic with 16 characters all told (7 on either side PVE, 1 each for the other types). Most of my characters are between 15-25.

[H3Knuckles]

Oh, and ftr, I’d like to advise against going to the WoW forums unless you really, really need help with something. The screaming wall of noise that jungle of internet bandwidth produces makes it difficult to get any meaningfull interaction out of it. I know I sound harsh, but put simply, if the SDMB is one of the best boards on the net for it’s moderation, and for the behavior of it’s posters, the WoW forums are nearly the polar opposite.

The one thing both boards have in common is the glut of repeated arguments-turned flame-fests. WoW has it’s self-proclaimed persecuted messiahs who have the true vision to resolve this or that percieved issue (real or imaginary), if only everyone would listen to them. Every class, class-build, faction, race, and profession has it’s own legion of false prophets who desperately struggle to amass a cabal and bend the developer’s ear to follow their holy writ. And they eagerly seek your response so their righteous cause doesn’t get bumped off the first page of their respective forum. For the SDMB equivalent of this, I’m referring of course to the constantly re-hashed thread topics in Great Debates and the BBQ Pit were people argue over and over about the same things incessantly, and which often drag posters into antagonistic personal arguments.

…sorry, got carried away there. Basically, WoW is so hugely successfull, that it’s player-base reflects almost the complete demographic-range of the internet, and so many of the forums posters are, or at least behave like, ignorant a-holes. It can be the haven of screaming, insecure people who compensate by abusing anyone who listens to them on the net (see the youtube video linked by Sierra Indigo for an in-game example).
However, there are also a large number* of perfectly reasonable people who are fun to play with, and besides, you shouldn’t let the jerks discourage you from an awesome game. Just take my advice, you want to make your trips to the forum precise surgical strikes to accomplish specific goals, not drawn-out quagmires.

*10% of ~8,000,000… heh, j/k.

[tanstaafl]

@Darkhold

As for the craigslist comment there’s a somewhat infamous story where a girl offered to have sex with anyone that’d give her X amount of gold. Supposedly she got an offer and went through with it and everyone was satisfied.

FOR THE WHORDE!

(Sorry, sorry. Couldn’t resist. And she was actually playing a nelf IIRC.)