World of Warcraft

Cafe Society
1

I hope this is the correct forum…

My Other Half just bought World of Warcraft.

We’re going to try it out for a bit, but I’d like to know if anyone here has something to say about it.

I think the rationale here was that it would make happy both his PvP battle urges (he’s heavily into things like Unreal Tournament online play) and my liking of wandering around virtual environments and poking at things (I have the entire Myst collection, which is sort of the epitome of wandering around poking at stuff). Something about having a game we could both play.

Is it fairly easy to get into game play?

Any pitfalls to watch out for?

Does anyone have anything good to say about it? Other places I’ve look for info on various games seem to devolve into gripefests easily, at which point I’m wondering why these guys play games they hate so much.

2

There are different server types. PvP is for people who wanna fight. Any player from the other side (Alliance vs Horde) can whack you whenever the mood stikes them. On a PvE server you have to initiate any combat with another player. There are also role-playing servers (I believe RP servers come in both PvP and PvE flavors).

Also, on any type server, there are arenas that are PvP free for alls. Or so I’ve been told.

I got the game 2 Christmas’ ago and still enjoy the heck out of it. Be careful. It can be quite addictive. You might wanna check out some guilds. On Garona, I play with a Doper initiated guild (Horde side).

P.S., There’s a upgrade coming soon. Soon, they keep saying.

3

There’s a relatively recent feature that I absolutely love.

As Biggirl said, different servers have different rules. They also have different populations (usually skewed toward Alliance, but that may change now with Burning Crusade). In any case, it used to be that if you were in a PvP server, you couldn’t get to the first inn without getting either ganked by the other side or fighting your way through a ton of “duel invitations” (sigh, I’m level 1, you’re level 30, butt off). If you were in a PvE or RPG server and you got an attack of the PvP bug… it could be hours until a battlefield got enough queue to open.

So now we have cross-server battlefields.

A Battlefield is a PvP area. They are cross-server because each of them takes players not from a single server but from several, which are always mixed so that the same Battlegroup gets PVE, RPG, PvP and PvPRPG. So now you can be in a relatively “pacific” world, waving to the people from the other side and dancing in your underwear on top of tables… and when you feel like PvP, get into a Battlefield in minutes, with people that you don’t initially know but sometimes end up knowing.

Heck, i recently found out that the tauren with the Spanish name I’ve often slugged out with is a RL acquaintance of mine - he’s PvP all the way and I’m RPG, so if it wasn’t for cross-server Battlefields, we would never have run into each other. Quite literally, him being a warrior and all :smiley:

4

[QUOTE=Biggirl]
P.S., There’s a upgrade coming soon. Soon, they keep saying.
[/QUOTE]

January 16 is the official release date. Mine’s pre-ordered (I have such a wonderful boyfriend)…

5

To clarify a few things about PvP vs. PvE (Player vs. Environment), you can both play on the same server if you pick a PvE server (it will be called “Normal” in the server list). He can go around with his PvP flag on, you can go around with it off, and you both get what you want. He can do Battlegrounds (there are 3 of them right now, with an additional (high-level) one coming out with the expansion) as well. And the expansion will also have a new PvP venue, Arenas.

If you tend to quest or grind together, remember that buffing or healing him when his PvP flag is on will automatically turn YOUR flag on as well…

6

[QUOTE=jayjay]

If you tend to quest or grind together, remember that buffing or healing him when his PvP flag is on will automatically turn YOUR flag on as well…
[/QUOTE]

Usually, when me and my husband grind together, my flag is already turned on-- especially after I buff him. And he doesn’t play WoW at all.

7

[QUOTE=jayjay]
To clarify a few things about PvP vs. PvE (Player vs. Environment), you can both play on the same server if you pick a PvE server (it will be called “Normal” in the server list). He can go around with his PvP flag on, you can go around with it off, and you both get what you want.
[/QUOTE]

I play PvE, and in my experience anyone flagged for PvP is taken as an immediate threat and hunted down and killed with extreme prejudice, not only because they stick out and PvE players have an itch they don’t get to scratch as often, but because flagged players of the opposite fraction have a history of killing quest giving and other essential NPCs. They’re just annoying.

Frankly, world PvP (as opposed to controlled environments such as arenas and battlegrounds) is really just a license to act like an asshole. Activities like ganking players who you way outlevel and corpse camping aren’t exactly encouraged, but the are both condoned and considered normal for the game.

8

[QUOTE=Broomstick]
Is it fairly easy to get into game play?
[/QUOTE]

It’s remarkably easy, actually.

It’s fifteen bucks a month. That does add up.

WoW is the most popular online game there is, and is arguably the most popular PC games ever created, and it’s that popular for a reason; it’s a magnificent game, one of the best video games ever made for any platform. I’ve been playing PC games for 25 years and it’s one of the five best games ever made, if not THE best.

Speaking as a guy who’s tried pretty much all the online role-playing games out there, WoW is the best. Far and away. It’s elegantly designed, infinitely replayable, perfectly balanced and remarkably low on bugs and downtime. After coming from EverQuest and EverQuest II, the contrast could not be more striking.

9

[QUOTE=jayjay]
He can go around with his PvP flag on, you can go around with it off, and you both get what you want.
[/QUOTE]

PVP flagging yourself on a PVE server and playing a PVP server are different experiences. You can’t hunt people just because you’re pvp flagged, they have to be flagged too, and that’s not very common on a PVE server. You also make yourself a target, moreso than a normal PVP server. There are probably other factors at work.

For what it’s worth, I started on a PVE server because I got the game right when it came out, and I didn’t know the PVP rules, so I figured I’d play it safe while learning the game. Then I invested 20+ hours in the character, and didn’t want to start over, so I played that character mainly.

All the alts (alternate characters) I make are on PVP servers, though. It’s more challenging, and interesting.

Unfortunately, world (non-battleground) pvp in WoW is designed pretty badly. With no real overall goal, or achievements, or awards, you just kill pointlessly and get killed pointlessly.

It adds an element of unpredictability, and danger, and hunting people can be fun.. but the game does nothing at all to discourage asshat behavior. So it’s a very common scenario that someone very powerful goes to a zone designed for people 10 levels lower than him and just slaughters everyone. No challenge for him, no chance for you, just “OH LOOK AT ME I AM POWERFUL IN THE INTERNET WORLD MUHAHHAHA” stunted social development from the asshat. Unfortunately, it’s so common that it’s pretty much the default mode of PVP combat.

So, instead of PVP combat being a matter of strategy and skill, it’s mostly a matter of one guy having no chance against the other guy, and playing at maximum asshattery.

10

[QUOTE=Broomstick]

Any pitfalls to watch out for?

[/QUOTE]

Well, if you’re an even remotely addictive personality, it’ll suck you in like a thirsty black hole.

11

That game will be the death of my relationship with ‘im indoors. He’s ‘between contracts’ at the moment and is literally spending all day playing World of Soddin’ Warcraft. I’ll be prising the keyboard out of his cold, dead fingers.

12

[QUOTE=ScareyFaerie]
That game will be the death of my relationship with ‘im indoors. He’s ‘between contracts’ at the moment and is literally spending all day playing World of Soddin’ Warcraft. I’ll be prising the keyboard out of his cold, dead fingers.
[/QUOTE]

This behavior wears off with the novelty of having unlimited access— usually. It’s taken 2 years but now I play during playtime and I live my life during boring time.
I have even started a new Sim family and sometimes play that instead.
But, as someone said upthread, this game can be very seriously addictive. Even after all this time, on a Friday or Saturday I’ll go into that 'one more quest/level" mode. And it’ll be daylight before I notice.
As for PvE vs PvP-- I don’t know how anybody can get anything done on PvP. My son swears by it. He’s a snotty-nosed teenager, so there you go.

13

After playing City of Heroes for something like two years, Casa de Lightnin’ has decided to reactivate the ol’ WoW subscription. I’ve got a level 60 Gnome rogue, but I decided to start over on a server so I could join some old friends of mine. I’m now playing a Human Warlock. I’m having a lot of fun… but I really can’t wait 'til the new expansion comes out. I’m very curious about jewelcrafting.

The funny thing is that jewelcrafting has been coming out “real soon now” ever since the game started up. It’d better be REAL good.

14

It’s a very good game and very addictive. My wife and I resisted it’s call until last spring and it’s been virtually the only game we’ve played for the last nine months. We have two accounts so we can actually play together.

A few suggestions for a new player:

Alliance is a little easier to play than Horde.

Take two gathering professions (skinning, mining, or herbalism) to start out. The crafting professions are big money pits until you’re higher level. After you hit level 40 or so you can drop one of the gathering profession as start doing crafting.

Download a user interface mod called Auctioneer. (You can find it by Googling.) It tracks prices in the auction house, allowing you to get good deals. Unfortunately the creator of Auctioneer hasn’t finished updating it to be compatable with the latest patch, so the new version won’t be available until sometime after Christmas.

15

Yeah, but don’t tell everyone you meet about auctioneer (and I wouldn’t have mentioned it in this thread) - it seems like everyone who has auctioneer loves to tell other people about it.

But the way it works is that it tracks market value of items and finds items that are selling for below market value and lets you buy and resell them at a profit.

If a handful of people on a server has it, it’s great, you can make a ton of cash. But if a significant portion of the server has it, they both know how to properly price their items, and more importantly, find the same deals you do. By telling people about it, you reduce your advantage in the market, and make the program useless.

16

I dont understand all the pvp bashing that goes on and never really have.

if you play on a pvp server the other guys are your enemy. so you should expect them to want a fight. and you should expect to fight A Lot.

my personal rule is that if they didnt want me to kill them then they shouldnt have crossed my line of sight. (that said I am frequently attacking people higher lvl than me because I usually fight in zones that are a bit to big for me)

if you dont like pvp rules then do yourself and everyone on the server a favor and dont play there. No I’m not trying to be an ass here, its just that people who spend hours on a server whos rules they dont like and cry about it in game or on message boards are either masochists or morons.

if this kind of game is new to you then try out a pve server at first, if you feel the need for some bloodshed try the battle grounds (BG’s) these are available at around lvl 10 but you should hold off til closer to 19 (say 16-19) because each BG has a lvl range and if you go in at 10 you will be fighting a bunch of 19’s and life will suck.

if you like the BGs and feel you could handle the occasional corpse run from a jackass ganker then try the pvp servers.

because the flipside is that you and your friends can often gank the jackass would be ganker.

one huge tip. Voice Chat.

many players use Ventillo or teamspeak (me and my Rl friends just use skype) this lets you talk instead of type to other players and if you are hunting together life gets easier and your survival rate skyrockets.

17

[QUOTE=Critical1]
I dont understand all the pvp bashing that goes on and never really have.
[/QUOTE]

The reason I, for one, don’t like PvP is because PvP brings out the worst in people. I’ve been involved in the development of a game which features PvP as a core gameplay feature- and 90% of the gameplay problems were due to someone abusing the PvP features at someone else’s expense. Usually, the way we’d find out about a gameplay bug was when someone abused that bug to gank someone else.

When you get your enjoyment of the game by forcing someone else to entertain you at their own expense, that’s a problem.

Now, this is only true in a non-consensual PvP system. If your system is relying entirely upon consensual PvP, like dueling, your system is a lot less vulnerable to exploiting.

Basically, if the only way for you to have fun in a game is for you to force me to entertain you, then I don’t want to play with you.

18

Well, Critical, I think this:

and this:

Explains this:

quite eloquently.
We are advising Broomstick that IF she plays PvP, this is the attitude she’ll run into. That’s not bashing. That’s just telling it like it is.

19

[QUOTE=Critical1]
No I’m not trying to be an ass here,

[/quote]

Yes, you are.

No one started this thread to whine about anything. The person who started the thread wanted to know more about PVP vs PVE servers, and some people outlined some pros and cons.

You seem to have your panties in a bunch, because people actually posted the cons, which were asked for. I’m sorry we didn’t all say “PVP IS THE GREATEST EVER, ASSHATTERY IS #1!!!” to avoid triggering your “whining” reflex.

20

I have mixed feelings about WoW. I’ve been playing it for about a year now, and have played both factions and tried every job except druid. Right now I have a 30 NE rogue, which I am enjoying a lot. It’s a very easy game, a good introduction to MMORPGs. It’s not my first MMO, and it won’t be my last.

The PvP aspect is where it gets me. I like PvP. It’s assholishness I don’t like. I spent about 8 months on a PvP server and racked up a few HKs, and enjoyed it, for the most part. But I can’t take it as far as a lot of people do. I can’t kill lower-level players just because they are there. I’d rather /hello or /wave at them. I can’t go after players that are weak from mob battles. I’d feel like an ass if I did. I don’t have the strong us-vs-them mentality that this game fosters that makes players actually hate one another. So I found it difficult to understand when players 20-30 levels higher than me killed me, camped my body, and /spit after pounding me into the ground.

As a result of the immature PvPers on the server I was on, I quit the game for a few months. It wasn’t fun anymore. Eventually, I picked WoW up again, rolled on a PvE server, and have been more or less happy since. I only PvP when people attack towns or bully low-level players.

Broomstick, I would definitely roll on a PvE server first, and explore the game. Dabble in PVP on your own terms, and use your experiences to assess whether you have the temperament for PvP servers. In my experience, PvP on a PvP server isn’t something you can learn to live with. You have to be willing to do it all the time.