Should I Buy WoW?

[thecoroner]

I'm relatively new to MMORPGs. After seeing a movie making fun of people who buy all their ranks and items on Ebay, I noticed how cool the game was. The graphics are great and there seems to be no shortage of players to converse with.

Right now, I'm waiting for Oblivion and this game seems somewhat similar to it. Unfortunately, I don't always have time to play games online. I usually clock in less than an hour of gaming a day, if anything. I could probably give an hour a day and 3 hours on a weekend day to this game.

Is WoW worth it for someone who can't play all the time? Will I find myself way behind everyone else who has time to play 10 hours a day? And besides that, what else can you do in the game besides combat with other players?

 

[Schadenfroh]

Yes

 

[Schadenfroh]

No, if you value your life, DONT DO IT!

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

If you have limited time, you shouldn't bother with any MMOGs. All of them are 'massive' time-eaters, even lightweights like Guild Wars.

 

[Mik3y]

is it really worth spending $16 a month to not have a life? 6 million people seem to think its worth it.

 

[dighn]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
No, if you value your life, DONT DO IT!

don't do it! it's a trap!

 

[Miklebud]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
No, if you value your life, DONT DO IT!

LOL

It's like cocaine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Tu13erhead]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
No, if you value your life, DONT DO IT!

QFT

 

[pontifex]

sigh....try the demo 1st, then decide.

 

[thecoroner]

What demo? Is there a demo I don't know about? Last time I checked the free trial was over .

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: thecoroner
What demo? Is there a demo I don't know about? Last time I checked the free trial was over .

oh, you're right, it is closed. didn't know that. sorry

 

[oogabooga]

You will be behind. That is fact. Even if you started right now and played 16+ hours daily - you will be behind for at least weeks and even then probally never catch up to the 'top tier'.

Playing from 1-60 is pretty fun. Lot of quests, and group contents. But if you join an older server you will find yourself hopeflessly behind the curve - have trouble finding groups for content your level, and have to deal with massively inflated economies.

It's a fun game and playing casually is possible, you just wont be anywhere near the top - and once you hit 60 there will pretty much be nothing left save endgame content that will recuire you to play more.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

ill hook you up if you join thunderlord, though you might want to join a newer server (not because there are too many high levels, just for connection issues. I have played casually for over a year. You "fall behind" but there are always new players or people playing alts. I rarely have problems finding groups with any of my alts. try and find some rl people to play it, the game is much more enjoyable

 

[mOeeOm]

Originally posted by: thecoroner
I'm relatively new to MMORPGs. After seeing a movie making fun of people who buy all their ranks and items on Ebay, I noticed how cool the game was. The graphics are great and there seems to be no shortage of players to converse with.

Right now, I'm waiting for Oblivion and this game seems somewhat similar to it. Unfortunately, I don't always have time to play games online. I usually clock in less than an hour of gaming a day, if anything. I could probably give an hour a day and 3 hours on a weekend day to this game.

Is WoW worth it for someone who can't play all the time? Will I find myself way behind everyone else who has time to play 10 hours a day? And besides that, what else can you do in the game besides combat with other players?

Don't do it if you don't plan on spending 5+ hours per day on it. level 1-59 is all wonderful, but at level 60 its all about raiding. 40 man raids...except you will have to raid ALOT, my guild raids everyday for 4 hours and on weekends 6-8 hours.

If you don't plan to raid, thats fine, just go pvp..but to get ranked up, you will have to pvp 5-6 hours per day to compete and get rank 14.

Thats all you can do, raid or pvp, theres nothing much you can do at level 60.

But you can have a lot of fun level 1-59, if you take your time like I did, I had 400 hours played when I hit 60, I am at 800 hours now and not at all bored. Theres a lot of raiding to be at 60 or pvp to get grand marshall.

I would buy it if you plan to dedicate some time to it, if not, stay away, you won't get far.

 

[CKent]

Originally posted by: Mik3y
is it really worth spending $16 a month to not have a life? 6 million people seem to think its worth it.

I could argue that those who don't play MMORPGs don't have a life; wasting hours sitting in front of a television which offers no social interaction, watching "good entertainment" such as people eating slugs, perhaps drooling a bit...

Regardless, you can have a lot of fun with WoW no matter how much time you have to play - if you just enjoy the experience for what it is. If you want to be level 60 ASAP and have all the nice purple gear you see people using, know that it requires a huge time investment. In addition, IMO the people for whom that's all that matters are missing the whole point of it. The "it's a journey, not a destination" idea applies heavily here.

Edit: The poster above me is FOS. That's how he has decided to play the game and far from the only option. My more casual guild has up to 3-4 raid per week with absolutely no attendance requirements. Even the folks who don't get to play much due to family / work have gotten some nice gear. If you choose to level to 60 (some people have fun playing a number of classes, none to the level cap) there are some very nice rewards to be had from PvPing rather little and from content which doesn't require a guild nor a large time investment.

All that being said, the game does have its problems. One big one is lag - it's absolutely awful; many servers have login queues of 30-60 minutes or more, mail & vendors take forever to use during peak hours, crafting does as well, PvP is ridiculous as players' positions aren't updated in anywhere near realtime, etc. You can choose a low-population server to avoid this, but chances are before long it will become a high population server, due to people starting anew on it or due to Blizzard opening up transfers to it from a high-population server. Once you get started and have a time investment in your character(s), switching servers will be a laughable proposition (but one which fanboys will suggest anyway, should you peruse the kiddy corner.. oops, I mean, the official forums) Another is bugs; rather, Blizzard's apathy toward fixing or even addressing them. Many are game-breaking; the evade bug, for example, can wipe a group or raid through no fault of their own. It has been live for ten months now. As bad as Sony was (they were awful; I'll never purchase another Sony product due mostly to my experience playing EQ), the longest they ever took to fix a truly gamebreaking bug was one month; longest on moderate-severe bugs was 2-3 months. Yet one more is the average low age/intelligence level of the playerbase, though most online games are no different, and many are probably worse.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: oogabooga
You will be behind. That is fact. Even if you started right now and played 16+ hours daily - you will be behind for at least weeks and even then probally never catch up to the 'top tier'.

Playing from 1-60 is pretty fun. Lot of quests, and group contents. But if you join an older server you will find yourself hopeflessly behind the curve - have trouble finding groups for content your level, and have to deal with massively inflated economies.

It's a fun game and playing casually is possible, you just wont be anywhere near the top - and once you hit 60 there will pretty much be nothing left save endgame content that will recuire you to play more.

thats a lod of BS.
if he starts on a new server or relatively new server, he won't be behind. plus there's always people starting alts on the established servers.

 

[ArmchairAthlete]

The game will be fun for several months with how much you play. Then post-60 it's all raiding and you'll have to either quit or maybe try a new character/class/faction.

Definitely go for a new server...

I heard they gave all accounts free trials to hand out, so ask people you know. I still have mine from the collector's edition but never gave it out.

 

[pontifex]

afaik, only the collector's edition had the free trial because my regular version didn't come with one (unless they did that later one).

 

[Fingolfin269]

Don't buy the game until Blizz is smart enough to create non-Raid servers. Kinda like DAOC's 'classic' servers. Until then WoW sucks for the majority of players.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Personally, I'd avoid MMORPGs unless you have a significant chunk to dedicate to them. You'll end up with a far richer experience from a good CRPG than you would an MMORPG.

If you have plenty of free time, an MMORPG can be an amazingly enjoyable and rich experience. That said, WoW is NOT an MMORPG......at least no more so than a moped is a motorcycle....i.e. "technically" but not really.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor
Personally, I'd avoid MMORPGs unless you have a significant chunk to dedicate to them. You'll end up with a far richer experience from a good CRPG than you would an MMORPG.

If you have plenty of free time, an MMORPG can be an amazingly enjoyable and rich experience. That said, WoW is NOT an MMORPG......at least no more so than a moped is a motorcycle....i.e. "technically" but not really.

I've played all of them, for the most part, and would have to disagree. I don't care for how WoW turned out compared to what the devs said prelaunch but I still think it's just as much an mmorpg as anything else.

I think you posted that as bait so I'm going to take it. Why is it only 'technically' a mmorpg? Because it seems more simple than games like EQ? Because the crafting doesn't require you to get carpal tunnel a la DAOC? Because you don't have to camp the same set of mobs for hours upon hours to get the next bubble a la almost every other mmorpg out there?

But, like I said, I don't play the game anymore so what do I care.

 

[Anubis]

yes its honestly one of the mos fun games i have ever played

if you arnt sure find a friend sho has that 10day trial that hasent been used

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: oogabooga
You will be behind. That is fact. Even if you started right now and played 16+ hours daily - you will be behind for at least weeks and even then probally never catch up to the 'top tier'.

Playing from 1-60 is pretty fun. Lot of quests, and group contents. But if you join an older server you will find yourself hopeflessly behind the curve - have trouble finding groups for content your level, and have to deal with massively inflated economies.

It's a fun game and playing casually is possible, you just wont be anywhere near the top - and once you hit 60 there will pretty much be nothing left save endgame content that will recuire you to play more.

thats a lod of BS.
if he starts on a new server or relatively new server, he won't be behind. plus there's always people starting alts on the established servers.

exactly, even on my server "chromaggus" which is listed as high pop on the realm selection screen but "low" on the realm status page from wow.com there are plenty of low levels, hell there are at least 30 in our guild that are lower then 20 and you can hit 12 in like 3 hours so its not hard to find people to play with

 

[erikistired]

Originally posted by: thecoroner
I'm relatively new to MMORPGs. After seeing a movie making fun of people who buy all their ranks and items on Ebay, I noticed how cool the game was. The graphics are great and there seems to be no shortage of players to converse with.

Right now, I'm waiting for Oblivion and this game seems somewhat similar to it. Unfortunately, I don't always have time to play games online. I usually clock in less than an hour of gaming a day, if anything. I could probably give an hour a day and 3 hours on a weekend day to this game.

Is WoW worth it for someone who can't play all the time? Will I find myself way behind everyone else who has time to play 10 hours a day? And besides that, what else can you do in the game besides combat with other players?

it's a fun game, but it will suck the life out of you.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: fisher

Originally posted by: thecoroner
I'm relatively new to MMORPGs. After seeing a movie making fun of people who buy all their ranks and items on Ebay, I noticed how cool the game was. The graphics are great and there seems to be no shortage of players to converse with.

Right now, I'm waiting for Oblivion and this game seems somewhat similar to it. Unfortunately, I don't always have time to play games online. I usually clock in less than an hour of gaming a day, if anything. I could probably give an hour a day and 3 hours on a weekend day to this game.

Is WoW worth it for someone who can't play all the time? Will I find myself way behind everyone else who has time to play 10 hours a day? And besides that, what else can you do in the game besides combat with other players?

it's a fun game, but it will suck the life out of you.

it will only do that if you let it, with some self controll its just like anything else, now i play wow more then many others but i dont watch television at all, its just replaceing 1 thing with another