I enjoyed it when I had a group of friends playing once per week. We had all worked together in the past, and started a Tuesday night conference call to play together. Once people started dropping out (we lasted a couple of years), I stopped playing. It truly was a social game for me and some friends.
My kids play, and enjoy the achievement aspect of levelling up. My 7 year old likes to grind (his brother bribes him), and my 15 year old can get a little too into it. I control access, which is helpful at times.
I googled “wow average age” and some sites came up saying surveys have shown the average player age is 28. 84% of players are male (this information could be out of date) and female players tend to be slightly older, with an average age of 32. I’m female and 33 so I’m right around the average.
Yes, it’s an RPG, but it’s not even remotely D&D. WoW has an absolute TON of content, the world is enormous, there’s a ton to do, but it’s not D&D. Others will explain more about WoW, I’m sure, but if you want to know about an online game that is based on D&D, check out Dungeons and Dragons Online. (Wikipedia article)
There is on-screen chatting, there is usage of VoiP while playing (the game has its own system, but people often use other programs), there is each person sitting in his house but everybody playing not just WoW but the same piece of WoW (think of a group of adventurers going into a dungeon in a pen-and-paper RPG, only instead of all the players being around a table we’re in different computers) and there are occasional LANparties.
billfish, the mohawk grenades actually were in game for about a week. You had to find the elf and do a task for him, then he’d give you a pack of grenades.
I’m 42, female. My guild is about 50% female, as most of my other guilds have been; the oldest guildie I’ve had was in her 60s. The youngest person in my guild is 11, his mother is also in the guild. We have several couples and other parent-children groups.
Nethack is single player. Oh, you get a pet to start with, and potentially you can get more, but you surely won’t get the interaction between players or players and DM. And that’s where the fun really is. For instance, in my last campaign, I was an elf (odd for me, I usually play dwarves), and after the party had completed a mission, one of the other PCs asked my elf for a big favor, involving the elf’s family, with absolutely no benefit to the elf. My elf and the dwarf had been at odds during the whole mission, by the way. In what everyone recognized as the best roleplaying ever, my elf looked at the dwarf and said “You. Are. A. Dwarf.”, inflicting 10d6 of cold damage with each word. My elf did eventually do the favor, but only after extracting similar favors from the dwarf, including a promise to bathe at least monthly if they were going to adventure together again. The dwarf’s player thought that this was hilarious too, so there were no hard feeling among the players.
It’s also fun to think up a way to solve a problem or quest that the DM hasn’t thought of. With any computer game, you can only do what the program allows you to do. In a tabletop game, I can give the DM a pounding headache by insisting on communing with the fallen paladin we’ve just killed and asking the spirit if it will agree to a geas to restore its paladin statues if I raise it.
Don’t get me wrong, I play Nethack and I enjoy it. But it’s no substitute for a tabletop game.
Example of light “roleplay by text”, of the kind that happens often at the start of groups (it is generally considered impolite to start asking personal questions, specially without volunteering your own info):
Dudemaxxx: “So where are you guys from?”
Aitana: “Dun Morogh” (the starting area for gnomes and dwarves)
Pippin: “Same”
Biggun: “I was born while the Exodar was in-flight, but originally my family is from Zangarmarsh.” (Draenei, aka spacegoat)
Dudemaxxx: “Ooooh, how cute, so we’re doing RP instead of killing?”
Aitana: “What is this arpee you speak of?”
Longbeard: “I believe it must be a human custom, they seem to mention it a lot but they never explain”
Pippin: “Sounds dirty!”
Biggun: “A gnome warlock should know about dirty, I imagine”
Pippin’s succubus, smacking her own ass: “Aaaah!” (computer generated at random)
Agreed, nothing beats getting together with friends face to face playing a RPG into the wee hours of the morning eating junk food and rolling odd looking dice.
Whenever people describe a video game as an RPG, I think to myself I don’t think so.
Apologies if I’m repeating anything that’s been said before–I just wanted to share my own impressions.
WoW is an MMORPG: a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. This means that you customize a character and then control it in a world where hundreds or thousands of other people are online at the same time. Note that WoW is divided up into many, many servers called “realms.” Generally speaking, each realm is its own version of the WoW world, and you can only interact with people on your own realm.
However, realms are also collected into larger gatherings called Battlegroups. Instanced PvP and random PvE dungeons are formed by gathering players from across all realms in a battlegroup. However, there is no way to choose whom you will be matched with for these cross-server groups, and there is currently no way to interact with* characters on other realms outside of these randomly matched groups, short of rolling (creating) a character of the same faction on their realm.
*Blizzard has recently introduced the RealID system, which does allow cross-realm chat between people who friend each other. However, there are some massive privacy concerns, namely that (a) your real name is displayed for the person, as well as for any friends-of-friends and (b) for someone to add you as a friend, one of you has to share the email address you use for the account, which is a potential security risk.
The setting is a fantasy: you wear armor and hit things, or you wear robes and cast spells, and you fight big-ass evil monsters. And the game is an RPG from the sense that you select a race, class, and spec within the class that will determine what attributes and abilities your character has, as well as what role it will fill in a group.
As for actual role-playing, that varies from person to person. Some servers are designated as RP servers, which is where almost all of the RP happens. And even on RP servers, there are a lot of players who refuse to RP.
Inside the game, there are many things you can focus on. Endgame (maximum level) play these days tends to split into two main camps: PvP, in the form of Arenas, and PvE, in the form of raids.
Arena PvP involves teams of two, three, or five players fighting each other. These teams can be randomly created, but most people form permanent ones.
Raiding involves teams of 10 or 25 players fighting hostile NPCs, focusing on defeating boss-level monsters with very large health pools, attacks that cause a huge amount of damage, and special fight mechanics, such that a smaller group of players could not defeat them.
Both Arena players and raiders range from the very casual to the very hardcore.
Some people choose to focus on content that can be completed on their own, or in smaller (five-man) groups. Some people focus on collecting vanity items like pets, mounts, tabards, or titles that are displayed along with your name. Some people get obsessive about crafting professions, hunting down obscure recipes. Some people go after some of the more bizarre Achievements. Some people will create their own set of restrictions for how they want to level their characters–such as the person who decided to level without killing anything. The game is reasonably sandboxy, and as the saying goes, “It’s your $15 a month–do what you enjoy.” (With, of course, the caveat that if you’re participating in group content, you need to at least be able to fill your role adequately for the caliber of group you want to play with.)
Personally, I’m a hardcore raider. That means that I get together with a bunch of other people from my guild (~24) four nights a week, for anywhere from three to four hours per night, and work on the hardest content. I’m responsible for researching fights, knowing what equipment will be an upgrade for me, knowing what are the best enchantments to put on my gear and gems to put in my sockets, knowing what the best talent spec to use is, knowing what’s the best priority order or rotation of abilities to use in combat, etc. etc.
Everyone plays on their own computer, almost always. (The few exceptions are usually for people with physical limitations who play collaboratively with spouses or close friends.) While you play, you connect with other people via in-game text chat channels, and optionally by voice chat (either using the built-in program or a third-party application like the popular Ventrilo, AKA Vent).
WoW characters can resurrect an infinite number of times. In fact, death is one of the primary ways you learn in the game. Someone had a few seconds of fame a while back by leveling a character all the way to 80 without dying once. (Of course, it seems they did it by doing very, very boring things, such as never entering an instance.)
When you die from anything but another player (a hostile NPC kills you, you fall to your death, you drown, etc.), the items you equip take durability damage (10%). When an item reaches zero durability, it becomes effectively useless, i.e., as if you had nothing equipped in that slot. However, all items can be repaired for a fee by specific NPCs. The fee scales based on the level of the gear. To repair a full set of equipment on a low-level character might cost a couple of copper; one death on my main character (max-level and outfitted in endgame raiding gear) costs about 10 gold. (100 copper = 1 silver; 100 silver = 1 gold.)
There are four ways to return to life after you’ve died:
1.) You “release” your spirit from your corpse, which teleports your ghost to the nearest graveyard. You then run back to your body. Once you’re within a relatively close radius, you’ll be given the option to resurrect (“rez”). If you die a number of times in quick succession, a timer will be added, with a maximum of (IIRC) a six-minute wait before you can rez.
2.) Either before you release, or after you release but before you rez, a friendly player* (i.e., one from your faction) can cast a resurrection spell on your corpse, which will return you to life at the postion where they cast the spell, though with only a portion of your base health/mana. Most of these spells can only be cast out of combat, with the notable exception of the Druid spell, which is usually called a “battle rez” or “b-rez” because it can be used while fighting.
*Or, in one very specific instance, a friendly NPC.
3.) If a Warlock has put a Soulstone on you and the effect has not expired or been wiped by a previous death, you will be given the option to return to life immediately upon death. Warlocks can Soulstone themselves or any player in a party or raid with them. If you’re a Shaman, you have the ability to return yourself to life (with a cooldown).
4.) If you can’t find your body, it’s in a particularly inconvenient spot, or you’re just feeling lazy, and there’s nobody around to rez you and you can’t rez yourself, the final option is to have the Spirit Healer resurrect you. There is one at every graveyard, and you can only see them when you’re dead. This easy rez comes with a cost, however: you will take an additional 25% durability hit on all equipment you have, whether equipped or in your bags, and after a certain level, you will also be afflicted with up to 10 minutes (scaling by level) of “Resurrection Sickness,” which lowers all your attributes, damage, etc. by something like 75%.
Female (if you were curious about that), and I’ll be 27 in exactly three weeks.
At a minimum, you need to buy the original game (probably as cheap as $10 or so, depending on the source) and pay a monthly subscription fee after your first free month ($15 if you pay by the month; potentially as low as $12 or $13 if you buy larger chunks of time). Note that you can suspend your account at any time by simply stopping the monthly payment; as of right now, your account is permanent, and you can regain access to it at any time just by starting up payments again. Unless Blizzard changes the way they do things, your characters will never be deleted.
However, the first game will only let you get to level 60. To get to 70, you need to buy the first expansion (The Burning Crusade); and to reach the current level cap of 80, you need the second expansion (Wrath of the Lich King). You must purchase all three in order to play a maximum-level character; you can’t just hop in by buying the latest expansion. The third expansion, Cataclysm, is due later this year and will raise the level cap to 85.
DDO is still an MMO, and, as such, will probably be much closer to WoW in execution than a traditional tabletop RPG, simply because you won’t have your own DM designing adventures just for you and your friends.
Not even close. Nethack is an exercise in masochism.
The game is a MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). Its $15 a month to play. The game is never ending which is just pouring money into blizzards bank. Once you actually get to the level cap which right now is level 80 you are not able to do all of the raids like you think you can. A raid is when a party where they go into a dungeon which can range from 1hr to 4hrs long. At level 80, your player status is based off of what kind of gear you have. Getting into a group for a instance that people don’t play often is kinda frustrating sitting in one area for a long time waiting for a group to get started. It you like your life the way it is, and enjoy the (boyfriend/girlfriend) that you have don’t bother picking this game up. Not to mention if you start playing now you well be far from the gear curve you will be force to suffer a long ass grind to get where you want. I would wait until September when the new Star Wars mmorpg comes out. If you want to know anything else just let me know. If you are going to start playing this game remember to keep it in moderation. This game is very addicting!!! You have been warned!
Depending on your play style, the game can be like a set of chatrooms cobbled together. You can log on and do a few quests to unwind in the evening, and shoot the breeze chatting with your guildies (fellow guild members) at the same time.
Some quests need to be done in small groups (two to five). You can find strangers to group with over the chat channels. Even though the group you form might only be together for a few minutes, that’s enough time to crack a few jokes. Come to think of it, it’s a lot like Chatroulette, except with monster slaying instead of people tricking you into watching them masturbate.
Yes, but you’re getting something in return. *All *forms of entertainment (or even basic sustenance) can be described as “pouring money into [the vendor’s] bank.” So, the question becomes, are you getting $15 worth of fun per month? I know I am–more than, even.
Why would anyone think that they could *immediately *access *all *content right away? If there weren’t a progression curve, what would be the point? Right now, once you hit max level, it’s very easy to get yourself geared to the point where you’re qualified to step into casual endgame content. That’s pretty huge.
Not true. *Through badges alone *(and you get at least four Emblems of Triumph per Heroic dungeon), you can equip yourself in gear that will qualify you to start raiding the 10-man version of ICC, which is the endgame instance of Wrath. (Not counting the one-shot boss of the just-released Ruby Sanctum.)
And that assumes that someone is even *interested *in endgame raiding–I know plenty of people who aren’t.
It only takes a couple weeks to a month of playing at 80 to get prepped for raiding. Compared to the time it takes to actually level a character to 80, that’s nothing.
A tank who’s willing to chain-run Heroics (or someone who can get a tank to run with them for the >5 second queues) could gear up in *less *than a week.
Really, the *biggest *problem with raiding quickly would be learning how to play your class and spec in a raid role. And there are always other new people to learn with, and tons of amazing resources online.
Wow! Thanks everyone, for spending the time to give folks like me a rundown on this game.
One thing that is clear from these posts: I would have to learn a new vocabulary. There were many posts that made little sense, but I guess playing the game would expose me to some of the terms, names, characters, etc. required to understand how to play and what people were talking about.
Of all the posts, this one struck me the most.
three to four hours a night? Four days a week? Ouch. That’s a major commitment of time. For the rest of the WoW players reading this thread, is this in sync with your experience, above average or below average?
I can’t imagine working a full-time job and dedicating that kind of time to ANY game. And I’m guessing that the other 24 or so people of your guild commit the same amount of time, (or they wouldn’t be in your particular guild), so that’s pretty amazing to me.
So, B1rdM4n2113’s, warning of the game being addictive is a very real possibility…
If I wanted to, could I play the game by myself, without any guild, and just put in as much time as I could spare? Or is that unrealistic?
Oh, and one other question: what do the acronyms PvP and PvE stand for?
You pick it up as you go, pretty much, and there are great resources like WoWWiki where you can look things up that you’re not sure about.
That was my post, and I can tell you that’s a very above-average time commitment. That’s why I described myself as a hardcore raider. WoW is my one big time suck–I don’t watch TV or spend much time playing other games. Endgame raiding is my passion–I think of it like being in a sports league. Only, y’know, we kill internets dragons.
A hardcore raiding guild will usually have three to five scheduled raiding periods a week, with three to five hours per raid. For a guild primarily running a single 25-man team, there will probably be anywhere from 25 to 35 active raiders. IME, most guilds have around 75% required attendance.
Absolutely! That’s how a lot of people play. I was just giving you a window into my own personal way of playing, which involves a lot of dedication.
PvP = Player versus Player. You’re fighting characters controlled by other people.
PvE = Player versus Environment. You’re fighting NPCs (Non-Player Characters) controlled by the game AI.
Because of balance issues, some mechanics work slightly differently for PvP and PvE.
Further note I was going to add but got sidetracked by some actual work:
Our raids, while they’re scheduled for later, usually run from about 7 p.m. server time to 10 or 11 p.m. server time, Mo-Th. And as we progress further through the content and get more bosses on farm status (i.e., easy kills that usually go down the first attempt), it’s not unusual for one or more days in the week to be free days, especially Monday, which is the “end” of the raiding week (lockouts reset on Tuesdays at around 3 a.m.).
Someone had a few seconds of fame a while back by leveling a character all the way to 80 without dying once. (Of course, it seems they did it by doing very, very boring things, such as never entering an instance.)