I have been avoiding World of Warcraft mostly because of a lack of free time and a lack of cash. However due to certain circumstances I now have more than enough of both (for now). I’ve always wanted to get addicted to an Everquest or World of Warcraft type game and now seems like as good of a time as any.
But I’m concerned that I’m going to spend alot of money to get my ass handed to me in a not so fun way. I got into half-life multiplayer too late only to find that there weren’t a whole lot of new people coming in and most of the regular players had perfected the art of whooping my ass.
So I’m wondering, is it too far along for a new person to join without getting frusterated by how everyone is so much farther along? Also I’m afraid that as soon as I join World of Warcraft 2 something new will come out and all of my new found friends will abandon me for the newest alternative. Is anything like that on the horizon, because if its coming out in the next six months or so I’d prefer to wait and get in on the bottom floor like everyone else.
You needn’t fear about being ganked by long time players; simply join a PvE* (ie not PvP) realm. No-one can attack you there, unless you switch yourself to PvP or wander into a home area of the other side (Alliance/Horde). In fact you’ll find higher players willl often be keen to help you rather than beat up on you. If you know anyone currently playing then joining the same realm as them is a good idea, then they can send you money or excess goods, take you on quests, and suchlike.
There is a constant flow of new players, about 5 new servers (realms) were commissioned just the other week to cope with them.
Can’t help you about what new things are coming; there is of course an expansion to WoW coming but I believe that mainly concerns players that have topped out at level 60 - it raises the cap to 70 and opens up new areas of the world.
World of Warcraft is still going strong, and the “next big thing” is likely to be its expansion pack, due out later this year. There are plenty of lower level characters around, and if you make a character on a PvE (or ‘normal’) server, you don’t have to worry about other players kicking your ass unless you specifically set your character to be PvP flagged. I play on the PvE server Elune (character name Otsana), if you end up playing WoW and on that server, send me a mail and I’ll see if I can help you out.
Seriously. Join a PvE server and go to it. There are many new players every day. I will suggest you try Horde first, as we tend to be a little more forgiving of newbie questions. I’ve had nothing but bad experiences with Alliance players.
And, RTFM. Many questions get asked that could be answered immediately by the little book you get with the game. You’ll get mocked (and rightfully so) if you ask something so easily looked up.
Persue worldofwarcraft.com. There are some really good player guides (to characters, races and professions).
I got into Guild Wars about a month ago. Very late in the game- so to speak. However, I got recruited into a great guild and so many of the guys are helpful with helping out missions or quests. Today two of my fellow guild member loaned me some kick-ass gear to help me. IOW, it isn’t to late. You can’t get jelous when you see people with better gear, but just know that in a short while you can be there too.
Elune is a good server, so is Cenarius and Thunderhorn … one caveat, several servers have closed to new accounts so if you have friends who play you might not get to be on their server. Example, Cenarius is a closed server, though Thunderhorn isnt, and I dont think Elune is. I have characters on elune and thunderhorn [alliance] and if you let me know in advance I can log in and help you out a little, though if you want horde on either of those servers, I can make a horde character and at least help you out - though my days for playing are pretty much restricted to tuesdays after server maintenance, and wednesdays [these days are my weekend]
If you’re really worried about falling behind (which you shouldn’t be, really…there seems to be a near-constant inflow of new characters (if not always new players)) you could join one of the newer servers. Usually they’ll have a “LOW” population on the Realm Selection Screen.
Always good advice, but my manual lied to me. It listed First Aid skill as a primary (of which you can only have two). It was changed to a secondary at some point (which means you can learn it on top of your two primaries).
I’d invite you over to Eonar (my server), but we are closed to new players.
It should also be noted that servers being closed to new players isn’t a snobby thing. It’s just that the Realm is already bursting at the seams and probably has hellacious queue times on log-in.
Thanks for the advice everyone, I suppose its too much to hope that SDMB has a Guild that I could join up with?? Because you can never have too much Straight Dope surrounding ya. (Plus everyone here is just great)
And your quest log. While some quests can be a little tricky to figure out, 99% of your questions will be answered there, and people tend to get snobby when someone asks a question that is answered in your log. (There are a few quests which regularly give players trouble legitimately though, no one will flame if you ask those ones).
As for Horde vs. Alliance–levelling I find is easier Horde side, the Alliance lands seem to have been designed with the higher playerbase in mind, so it’s more difficult to quest solo. Alliance are also a bit more likely to give newer players trouble (I once saw a mage first give this guy some ‘rare’ crystal water, saying it was worth a lot, and then one of her friends suggested he go to Gnomeregan to kill the dragon there–he was level 10, Gnomer is around level 30 (although there are level 7 mobs outside), and there is no dragon). However I also find that Horde tend to have a superiority complex (one thing which startled me when I switched over was the amount of Alliance bashing which goes on), and as many cracks as they’ll make about the kidlets Alliance side, I find Horde to be as bad or even worse for the maturity level. And we can’t forget Barrens chat (Alliance has Westfall chat, but it’s not as bad simply because there are fewer people there)
I’m on Blackhand (one of the oldest servers–I have no idea if it’s closed or not, but queues have gotten a lot better lately), both Horde and Alliance, but the Horde side of my guild isn’t recruiting ranymore, while the Alliance side is recruiting level 30 and up. There was a SDMB guild on Thunderhorn at one point, but it seems it’s broken up.
I joined in September, EU version - my bros gave me WoW when I got the current overseas job. Tried a few servers, ended up going PvERPG because
SMS-speak gets on my nerves
I dislike being asked to duel/group/join a guild out of the blue. I specially dislike it when that happens before I’ve even had time to look at my surroundings and talk to that guy who’s got a big yellow ? over his head. Seeing that the moron who asked my little level 1 ass to duel is a level 30 sends my eyes rolling of their own volition.
I found a guild which is very open, laid back, and apparently mature. We sometimes get a guildie who sounds young and they usually end up moving along but we stay friends - they say we’re “too grown up” for them, which leaves our long-timer teenagers scratching their heads in confusion. Funny how some of them get all worried that we’ll be angry if they leave or if they have an alt in another guild, but then, some of my alts have been invited into extra-clannish guilds. Whatever.
Horde usually has less population than Alliance, so it’s easier to get into Battlegrounds as Horde. My first char just had to be a dwarf though - I’ve been playing dwarves since my first run with a DnD GM who though that “girls have to be the cleric” (20 years later, I still haven’y found a GM who can refuse the Dwarven Cleric of the Local god of War her Big Bad Axe). Alliance auction houses tend to see more movement, again because of the higher population.
When the Spanish servers come up, I intend to go Horde in one of them
The expansion and the Spanish version are supposed to be around about Xmas if everything goes well, we’ll see. That’s another thing I like about WoW: they don’t sell you a new CD every 3 months! All the “expansions” so far have been treated as patches.
Yes! WoW has been live for a year and a half, and this upcoming expansion (at a yet undisclosed date, but hopefully sometime this summer) will be their first external update. Unlike Everquest, which was releasing a boxed expansion what seemed like every two months at one point.
I’ll be willing to make a new character on any server-- but I play Alliance (which seems to be anathema amongst Dopers). I already have a level 44 Pally on Ke’thira (or somesuch, not sure how it’s spelled) and a level 11 Warrior on Duskwood.
My playing hours are anytime during the weekend and after 7pm Eastern during the week.
Tuesdays is server update day. Must remember to never be sick on a Tuesday.
Yeah, I trained myself out of that a while ago. There was a point back around March of last year when my allergies were something awful and I’d wake up with nose stuffed and eyes watering and totally incapable of doing anything useful at work, call in sick before I went downstairs, turn on the computer, and realize it was Tuesday and I just wasted a sick day on server maintenance. Happened at least three times last year.
No, I have no idea why I always ended up feeling lousy on Tuesday morning…
If I were starting now, I’d go to one of the new servers. With everything starting up, there will be new guilds forming and more opportunities to find groups. My server (Frostwolf) was one of the originals, from the closed beta at least (and I heard from the alpha)… and it’s showing its age a bit. I’ve been on it since the day after it came out in retail.
On a new server, finding where you need to go is easy… just follow everyone else!
There are only two problems with a new server: EVERYONE is competing for those baby mobs, and nobody has any money to spend on the Auction House. Durotar, Teldrassil, Mulgore, Tirisfal Glades, Elwynn Forest and Dun Morogh on new servers are elbow-to-elbow babyn00bs and everything you need to kill is dead as soon as it spawns.
Incidentally, “the Auction House is your friend” is the best advice I have to give to a new player. Learn to love the Auction House. It will make you rich if you play it right.
But there is a plus side. Become a skinner and skin all those baby mobs. Even if no one has any money yet, you can vendor all your skins and get your skill up in skinning and be the one that can afford to buy something from the AH.
