World of Warcraft players:

[Nebben]

I've some questions to ask.

I'm considering playing WoW, despite my better judgment.

- Is it possible to play the game for 1-3 hours a day at most, not be part of a guild, and still have fun throughout the entire game?

- Is PvP any good, or is it like EQ (a quick thing thrown in at the last second with no real depth, level/class/equipment determine everything, and no real strategy involved)

- Is it full of moronic 13 year olds like Diablo was? Not to say that all 13 year olds are morons, but you get what I mean.

 

[Schadenfroh]

- Is it possible to play the game for 1-3 hours a day at most, not be part of a guild, and still have fun throughout the entire game?

You can solo easily past lvl40 and into your 50s. To get good drops you will need to group to do dungeons and its a good idea to be in a guild to avoid ninjas.

- Is PvP any good, or is it like EQ (a quick thing thrown in at the last second with no real depth, level/class/equipment determine everything, and no real strategy involved)

They have PvP in WoW and things called Battlegrounds. Classes are not balanced and blizzard tends to break a good deal of abilities with each one they fix, if you want to hear the worst pot of whiners in the world, check out the WoW PvP forum. Guild Wars has the best implementation of PvP of any fantasy RPG i have played, but not so great in terms of the PvE content.. If you want to start a character out at max level and do nothing but pvp all day, buy guild wars. WoW added battlegrounds which is similar to the arenas in Guild Wars.

- Is it full of moronic 13 year olds like Diablo was? Not to say that all 13 year olds are morons, but you get what I mean.

Yes, if you dislike them, do not join alliance or a PvP server (for worst combination join alliance on a PvP server, visit Elwynn forest or night elf starting zone). The most mature and best people i have ever met in WoW was Horde side on an RP server. Guild Wars is even worse, but in both you will find that people will be dancing naked in the streets of the major cities, talking in 1337 speak.

In otherwords, /ignore is a great thing.

 

[Stangs55]

Originally posted by: Nebben
I've some questions to ask.

I'm considering playing WoW, despite my better judgment.

- Is it possible to play the game for 1-3 hours a day at most, not be part of a guild, and still have fun throughout the entire game?

- Is PvP any good, or is it like EQ (a quick thing thrown in at the last second with no real depth, level/class/equipment determine everything, and no real strategy involved)

- Is it full of moronic 13 year olds like Diablo was? Not to say that all 13 year olds are morons, but you get what I mean.

#1. Yes, definatly.

#2. It's the best MMO PvP I've come accross.

#3. Yes. But you'll never find a game that isn't. It also has a large amount of mature, older players. They usually find each other very quickly and are able to minimize contact with the "others".

 

[magomago]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Yes, if you dislike them, do not join alliance or a PvP server (for worst combination join alliance on a PvP server, visit Elwynn forest or night elf starting zone). The most mature and best people i have ever met in WoW was Horde side on an RP server. Guild Wars is even worse, but in both you will find that people will be dancing naked in the streets of the major cities, talking in 1337 speak.

In otherwords, /ignore is a great thing.

Oh now that is not fair!

I have a level 32 Human Holy Preist on DragonMaw, and haven't had problems like you are saying. The worst would be VC instance since its the first (meaning idiots in general can do it) and I always get idiots who insist that they can take on the whole team, or idiots who run to every single chest because they want it. But these are immature people you get in EVERY MMORPG...just level high enough to get above the restards and the idiot 13 year old hunter that thinks him and his bear can take on the world. But aside form that my experience has been GENERALLY ENJOYABLE.

In fact about two weeks ago my friends persuaded me to join them on Gurubashi for Horde, and I went as Undead Preist (going to spec holy again). But as I'm walking through areas, some people just don't know how to shut up! 13 year old leet kids were harassing a player on general chat, and it was ridiculously stupid! I traveled to the Barrens with my friend because tehre are many quests there, and after five minutes someone on general chat is adverstising cyber sex for money. Oh, and might i add doing RFC I ran into an idiot Warrior who didn't understand when your part is all level 15 that aggroing 4 level 15 elites isn't a happy thing. Though it doesn't mean much to me, because just like playing Alliance, you need to get past the first instance or two before you escape the pool of idiots

I'm level 17 now on that characater and have experienced more "l337 kiddy" problems than all of my time on my 32 Human Priest...and I'm levelling a LOT faster this time around.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: magomago

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Yes, if you dislike them, do not join alliance or a PvP server (for worst combination join alliance on a PvP server, visit Elwynn forest or night elf starting zone). The most mature and best people i have ever met in WoW was Horde side on an RP server. Guild Wars is even worse, but in both you will find that people will be dancing naked in the streets of the major cities, talking in 1337 speak.

In otherwords, /ignore is a great thing.

Oh now that is not fair!

I have a level 32 Human Holy Preist on DragonMaw, and haven't had problems like you are saying. The worst would be VC instance since its the first (meaning idiots in general can do it) and I always get idiots who insist that they can take on the whole team, or idiots who run to every single chest because they want it. But these are immature people you get in EVERY MMORPG...just level high enough to get above the restards and the idiot 13 year old hunter that thinks him and his bear can take on the world. But aside form that my experience has been GENERALLY ENJOYABLE.

In fact about two weeks ago my friends persuaded me to join them on Gurubashi for Horde, and I went as Undead Preist (going to spec holy again). But as I'm walking through areas, some people just don't know how to shut up! 13 year old leet kids were harassing a player on general chat, and it was ridiculously stupid! I traveled to the Barrens with my friend because tehre are many quests there, and after five minutes someone on general chat is adverstising cyber sex for money. Oh, and might i add doing RFC I ran into an idiot Warrior who didn't understand when your part is all level 15 that aggroing 4 level 15 elites isn't a happy thing. Though it doesn't mean much to me, because just like playing Alliance, you need to get past the first instance or two before you escape the pool of idiots

I'm level 17 now on that characater and have experienced more "l337 kiddy" problems than all of my time on my 32 Human Priest...and I'm levelling a LOT faster this time around.

I have a lvl 41 pally on a PvE server (alliance), Many lvl 40+ on a PvP server (bloodscalp, horde side, had its fair share of smacktards), lvl 39 (alliance PvP server, never have I seen such a cesspool of ninjas, smacktards, 1337 dudes, etc.), lvl 49 and lvl 30 (RP, horde side),. I am posting my observations from what i have seen on these 4 servers. Why horde seems to be more mature... I do not know. They have their fair share of 1337 dudes and morons but not nearly as many as I have seen on that alliance PvP server. I guess it is the pretty player models that attract them. But the PvE allliance server had a great group of people on it and they seemed much better than those on the alliance PvP server, so I dont know, maybe you also have to throw in the ability to gank and "pwn" others into the mix along with the pretty player models to get the best concentration. For I would dare to say, that the Alliance PvE server had about the same maturity level as Horde PvP if not slightly better.

 

[jelkukipik]

- Is it possible to play the game for 1-3 hours a day at most, not be part of a guild, and still have fun throughout the entire game?

Yes.Its what i am doing.You can easily solo threw lvl 60.Regen of life and mana is like 10x faster than in eq where it take you 10 min to complete heal back(if your not a healer)

- Is PvP any good, or is it like EQ (a quick thing thrown in at the last second with no real depth, level/class/equipment determine everything, and no real strategy involved)

Yeah its good.You have the battlegrouds who are a capture the flag.And when you play on PvP sever, expect to get ganked .But tis fun.No having the most uberist equipment doesnt mean anything, im lvl 54 with my pally and i owned some lvl 59-60 rogues and a few lvl 60 hunter, because i know how to play my class.

- Is it full of moronic 13 year olds like Diablo was? Not to say that all 13 year olds are morons, but you get what I mean.

Yes.You also have those ninja looter kids.But its not only kids playing this game.You have adult crowded also playing this game, like eq, who are doing raids.



I have played eq1 for like 4 years, and honestly, it reek now.I cannot just stand ANOTHER expansion of this compagny and the game itself is getting very old.I didnt played eq1 for like 8 month now and it doesnt miss me at all, WoW is just a better experience.

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: Nebben
I've some questions to ask.

I'm considering playing WoW, despite my better judgment.

- Is it possible to play the game for 1-3 hours a day at most, not be part of a guild, and still have fun throughout the entire game?

- Is PvP any good, or is it like EQ (a quick thing thrown in at the last second with no real depth, level/class/equipment determine everything, and no real strategy involved)

- Is it full of moronic 13 year olds like Diablo was? Not to say that all 13 year olds are morons, but you get what I mean.

1.- To an extent, yes. The game has a 'rest experience' system, in which you accumulate experience when not playing if you log out at an inn or a big city. When you have 'rest experience', you earn 2x the experience you normally get from killing mobs. That helps to catch up if you don't play that much, or if you play every other day. You can solo about 60% of the quests, but many of them (the ones with the best rewards) necessitate groups (they are called elite quests because you battle enhanced mobs, called 'elites'). Dungeon instances and raids of course need full parties and are in my opinion the best parts of the game. Pick up groups can be problematic because that increases the probabilities of grouping with 'nija looters' or people who simply don't know how to play their class or work as a team. I strongly recommend that you join a good guild. Personally I dislike soloing, and I always have much more fun grouping with guildies than just playing this as a massively single player game. Classes complement each other nicely and it always makes the game much more interesting with a well played group.

2.-I love PvPing (but I wouldn't play in a PvP server because of the gankfest that it can become). PvP is a large part of WoW, but it's pretty much optional in a PvE (normal) server. Like Shadenfroh said, the Battlegrounds were released last patch and are basically instances designed for PvP. There are two at the moment: Warsong Gulch, which is a 10v10 game of capture the flag, and Alterac Valley, which is a capture the base game of 40v40. Both are incredibly fun in my opinion.
As for the balance, some classes seem to be more suited towards 1v1 PvP, like the Shaman, the Rogue and the Paladin (because of their durability), but everyclass has a shot. Though it's not perfectly balanced, PvP is definetly not a slapped together afterthough.

3.- The community depends on the server. I think PvP servers have the worst community and the atmosphere can be somewhat toxic there, because of all the ganking. They also have the least mature playerbase, it seems. I play in a RP server (Silverhand) which is a normal (Player vs. enviroment) server with a RP ruleset. Though we have our share of idiots, the population (at least in the horde side) seems to be older / more mature. I was lucky enough to be in a fantastic guild with great people who are also great role players. But regardless of the realm, you'll fill both your friends and ignore list pretty fast.

I personally love WoW. I have been playing since mid february and I get more addicted every day. A lot of people complain about Blizzard's CS, but I personally haven't got any problems at all. I only wish they were a bit harsher in enforcing the RP ruleset in the RP realms, because a lot of bored PvPers create toons in the RP servers just to annoy the Role players.

 

[Litchfield285]

1) Yeah it is, some classes are harder than others to solo with. Hunters, imo, are the easiest class to solo with since our pets dont become worthless until 50+.

2) Now that the latest patch has brought Warsong Gulch back from the dead (/cheer battlemasters) PvP is fun again. Alterac Valley is a zerg and really isn't fun, but WSG takes strategy and teamwork. Each player actually can make a difference and that makes it a lot more fun, plus you can get a ton more honor from WSG than AV.

3) Every game has kiddies, some more than others. WoW does have it's share but the higher you get the more mature people become, and if you join a great guild it makes your experience a ton more enjoyable.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: Nebben
I've some questions to ask.

I'm considering playing WoW, despite my better judgment.

- Is it possible to play the game for 1-3 hours a day at most, not be part of a guild, and still have fun throughout the entire game?

- Is PvP any good, or is it like EQ (a quick thing thrown in at the last second with no real depth, level/class/equipment determine everything, and no real strategy involved)

- Is it full of moronic 13 year olds like Diablo was? Not to say that all 13 year olds are morons, but you get what I mean.

Yes, until you are level 60, then a guild is pretty much required to to raids with any level of effctiveness.

Yes, the PvP system is pretty well ironed out in the battlegrounds, NOTE: The pvp system on the pvp servers SUCKS, its just a giant 12 year old grief fest. I reccomend going on a PvE server and using the battlegrounds for your PvP enjoyment, so you can pvp when you want, and not get griefed by people 30 levels higher than you while you are leveling or travelling.

Yes, it is the worst problem with the game in my opinion, there is a horrible number of immature players and it gets extremely annoying over time.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: Noema
I only wish they were a bit harsher in enforcing the RP ruleset in the RP realms, because a lot of bored PvPers create toons in the RP servers just to annoy the Role players.

Agreed, they will come onto the RP server with names like Omgwtfbbq. They will start saying how lame roleplaying is and that we are all carebears, geeks, etc. for playing on an RP server. Happens all the time in the newbie zones.

 

[ArmchairAthlete]

Originally posted by: Nebben
I've some questions to ask.

I'm considering playing WoW, despite my better judgment.

- Is it possible to play the game for 1-3 hours a day at most, not be part of a guild, and still have fun throughout the entire game?

- Is PvP any good, or is it like EQ (a quick thing thrown in at the last second with no real depth, level/class/equipment determine everything, and no real strategy involved)

- Is it full of moronic 13 year olds like Diablo was? Not to say that all 13 year olds are morons, but you get what I mean.

1) Yes, for a few months. You can solo to max level (60) no problem.

2) PvP is quite good with battlegrounds now. Then there's dueling. There are PvP servers too if you want some non-consensual pvp.

3) There's some. Use your /ignore or even /leave 1 when needed. Getting in a guild of non-retards is good.

 

[Wingznut]

I am in your shoes. I play about 10-15 hours per week, at the very most... And I love this game!

Don't shy away from guilds... Just find one that is laid back and isn't going to berate you for not joining in a high-level raid every single night. They aren't hard to find.

 

[Oakenfold]

I miss boxing from EQ, I really enjoyed manning a few accounts using eq windows, had a full group going with one other person, made it through a good ways into GOD. Playing WoW is easier on the bank account (I don't have several EQ accounts to pay for heh) and it allows me enough time to play BF2. My brother in law raids fairly frequently and I have never really had any desire to get involved in stuff like farming shards for VT again.....

 

[Velk]

Originally posted by: Nebben
I've some questions to ask.

I'm considering playing WoW, despite my better judgment.

- Is it possible to play the game for 1-3 hours a day at most, not be part of a guild, and still have fun throughout the entire game?

Absolutely. Currently that timeframe will bar you from raiding the molten core or blackwing lair, but you can do anything else in less than 3 hour blocks with pickup groups. ( Note that doesn't mean that you *WILL* find pickup groups at times that are convenient for you, just that you can )

- Is PvP any good, or is it like EQ (a quick thing thrown in at the last second with no real depth, level/class/equipment determine everything, and no real strategy involved)

There is a heap of strategy and tactics, quite a bit of depth in the form of pvp faction rewards, pvp ladder rewards etc.

Is it full of moronic 13 year olds like Diablo was? Not to say that all 13 year olds are morons, but you get what I mean.

Yes, absolutely packed with them.

 

[fatetheory]

Yes you will easily be able to play for 1-3 hours each day except high level instances.

PvP is quite good I think, though I dont like it that much.

Aagrammar isnt packed with 13 year olds, I usually never notice people my age playing it.


I would reccommend joining a guild it adds alot of involvement into WoW. Its a fairly social game.

 

[skace]

Originally posted by: Nebben
- Is it possible to play the game for 1-3 hours a day at most, not be part of a guild, and still have fun throughout the entire game?

- Is PvP any good, or is it like EQ (a quick thing thrown in at the last second with no real depth, level/class/equipment determine everything, and no real strategy involved)

- Is it full of moronic 13 year olds like Diablo was? Not to say that all 13 year olds are morons, but you get what I mean.

1. It is possible to play for 1-3 hours up until 60. Then you become extremely limited in what you can do in 1-3 hours. But at 60 you could consider it gameover, as it will take you several months to get there and you will most likely be ready to move on.

2. PvP is still having some issues, mainly balance for CTF. But it is far more balanced and though-out than EQ PvP. EQ PvP was a bit of an afterthought / a joke.

3. There are plenty of moronic 13 year olds. There always will be. They are part of the video game demographic. The trick is to simply lower the ammount of time you spend dealing with them. If you enter a group and it even appears like they are dumb kids, just drop it and walk away.

 

[Sunner]

Coming from a fellow casual player...

1: Surely, though I'd avice you to find one anyway.
Don't rush though, as you go along you'll meet people you enjoy playing with, and some of them are bound to be in guilds, so you can always ask them what kind of guild it is, and if it sounds good, they can probably get you in.

2: I love the PvP system.
I play on a PvP server, while there certainly is ganking going on, I still can't see myself playing on a PvE server, even though I don't even gank myself
Oh and PvP is very much skill based, while you'll have a hard time against someone 5 lvls above you, especially if he's got better gear, it's very possible to win against people who "should" beat you by simply handling your toon better.

3: Yes, the easiest way to avoid this is to go back to #1, join a guild and you'll have good people to play with.
I'm in a great guild now, pretty laid back, doesn't accept just anyone in, and we try to keep ages above 18, though if there's a 15 year old who's proved to be mature and a good player, he's of course more than welcome.
I've nearly completely stopped doing raids with people outside the guild(save for a few guys I've met and played with previously) and it's great.
Finding a good guild is a very good thing as you'll eventually discover.

The only bad thing about WoW is the lack of technical quality, too many bugs, and above all, Blizzards very lackluster handling of communication with their customers.
Still very worth it though as the game itself is extremely enjoyable.

Oh and I agree with Schadenfroh about Alliance vs Horde, don't know why but in my experience there are definitely more kids on the Alliance side, I guess they just love Nightelves, human chicks with skimpy armor, and the dwarves Scottish accent
A priest that I used to play alot with left the horde side to join a bunch of Ally friends on the same server, one week later he came back citing "Alliance is just full of kiddy paladins and morons".

 

[Reddale77]

Originally posted by: Nebben
I've some questions to ask.

I'm considering playing WoW, despite my better judgment.

- Is it possible to play the game for 1-3 hours a day at most, not be part of a guild, and still have fun throughout the entire game?

- Is PvP any good, or is it like EQ (a quick thing thrown in at the last second with no real depth, level/class/equipment determine everything, and no real strategy involved)

- Is it full of moronic 13 year olds like Diablo was? Not to say that all 13 year olds are morons, but you get what I mean.

1- Yes it is possible. Especially in the upper levels you can complete a dungeon in this time frame. Now the Upper Raid areas like BWL and MC I cant comment on those cause I havent done em yet.

2-PVP is night and day different. You have a "war" like instance and a capture the flag instance for PVP. I have been to the Capture the flag one which is like mixing a EQ aand Quake like thing in one. Lots of fun.

3- Morons wherever you go. They will never go to bed. They just dont seem to be as abundant as EQ was. Others may disagree with me however..

 

[Concillian]

Originally posted by: Nebben

- Is it possible to play the game for 1-3 hours a day at most, not be part of a guild, and still have fun throughout the entire game?

I'm not sure about that actually. IMHO, playing like this instances tend to not be very fun and skipping instances will stick you with sub-par equipment and pretty repetitive questing. You CAN solo to 60, but I'm not sure you would continue to have fun. Social interaction is a major component to the fun IMO, and without a guild your (enjoyable) interaction will be limited. I'd try to find a guild with people who have similar goals as you. You'll find there are probably a few guilds with a reasonable roster of folks who have fairly limited amounts of playing time, spouses, children, and jobs.

- Is PvP any good, or is it like EQ (a quick thing thrown in at the last second with no real depth, level/class/equipment determine everything, and no real strategy involved)

DUELING level/class/equipment/talent build determine a LOT.
ZERGING is almost a pure numbers game (he who has the most wins) and there isn't much of a point to it either, as there is virtually no penalty for death.

However, much of the PvP in WoW now is more than just dueling and zerging. Warsong gulch is a 10 on 10 capture the flag instance where strategy will outclass a well equipped team. But class makeup of the teams is still somewhat important, and gear is still important. If you have a group with no healers (or nobody willing to play a support role) you will go down no matter how good your gear is. But if you have resonably equal tactics and both teams have reasonable party makeup, gear does become more important.

The CTF instance is seperated every 10 levels (21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60) so there is a lesser impact of levels, however 1s and 2s are certainly going to be contributing less than 9s and 0s. Pick up groups here can be pretty successful in the <51 level range. When you get to 60 your pickup group can be faced with an equally skilled pickup group or with 10 guildies on teamspeak, outfitted in epic level equipment, and who make a job of getting through CTF matches very quickly.

The Alterac valley instance is a 40 vs. 40 instance that won't even let you in until there are 30 people in queue on both sides. On some servers this is a significant issue because there are not enough horde to even open the instance more han a couple times a week. These battles require significant strategy and are a combination of PvE and PvP. There are PvE objectives within the instance, and the PvP generally involves PvE opponents at the same time (which are often more important targets as they will either respawn much slower than the 10-30 seconds it takes for PCs to respawn, or they won't respawn at all)

- Is it full of moronic 13 year olds like Diablo was? Not to say that all 13 year olds are morons, but you get what I mean.

It is nowhere near AS FULL of these types as Diablo II was, but they're definitely present. I think others have commented adequately on this.

 

[Indigopeacock]

I played on a pvp server for a while as a night elf. Sure there were many younglings looking to pick a fight, but there were also pleasant people. I switched to a different server and played a horde character. As far as general chat is concerned it went downhill, way way down. I am not saying there aren't many capable, nice people, but so far my general impression is that there are more younger people playing on the horde side.

 

[Nebben]

Thanks for all the replies guys.

To clarify: I won't always be limited to 1-3 hours, and sometimes will still probably do the all-night stretches that EQ was full of at high levels. I just wanted to get some opinions on the viability of casual playing because I don't want to invest a ton of time into a game that will leave me sitting in one spot for 12+ hours or else force me to be left out of the final part of the game. I loved EQ for the first year after release, and then it steadily went downhill for me, with some exceptions. My favorite part was forming a small guild with about 10 really close friends that were awesome players and were like-minded in that we were all sick of the BS politics that has consumed the endgame. We had more fun raiding Hate with a group of 4-5 than we did sitting around in the high-end Velious zones. After Velious we all quit, one by one.

I actually did end up going and buying the game this weekend. I've played a bit and it's kind of shocking how fast leveling is so fast. I'm at level 10 and have only played two nights of a few hours, fairly casually. So I guess the PvE game isn't going to be as long and involved as EQ (which is good and bad). I'll probably be going to a PvP server at some point, but for now I'm playing on a normal server. The CTF/Battlegrounds stuff sounds really awesome.

So far my experience on the PvE server has been good. I played on Burning Legion for a few minutes to find some level 9 guy walk up to me immediately upon entering the world and challenging me to a duel, then typing 'lol' 10 times in a row. :/

Hopefully I just got a bad first impression

So am I right that PvP seems to have pretty much no death penalty? Seems you get killed and nothing of consequence happens, other than a bit of a jog. I guess that can be good or bad, but I think I'd rather see something more than that. The early EQ system where you kill someone and you get to loot ANY one item was not so good because you'd just have a bunch of naked casters running around ganking people. Man, balancing stuff like this out is tough.

 

[Concillian]

Your assessment of the death penalty in PvP is accurate. If you get killed by a mob, you experience a 10% durability hit on your items, but killed by a player and you do not get the penalty on death, aside from the walk back to your corpse. In battlegrounds you have to wait for the 'respawn timer' and spawn at a graveyard similar to Battlefield type gameplay. This is why PvP in the outside world is largely pointless.

Leveling will start slowing down soon. Level 20 is reasonably easy to do in 20 hours playtime, but level 40 will be closer to 4-6 days total playtime, and level 60 is more in the 9-16 days of total playtime range. The beginning does go quick though, as a guildmate quipped after starting an alt... "Ding! Level 2 in 7 minutes of /played. By my calculations, I should be level 60 by tomorrow!

On the ruleset differences, about the only difference PvP servers offer is the ability to gank/be ganked because you're constantly flagged. Inside the PvP instances of Warsong Gulch and Alterac Valley, the ruleset is exactly the same whether you are on a normal or PvP server. I would make my decision on PvP vs. normal ruleset based on whether you like the idea / tension of being able to be attacked at any time by someone of opposite faction / attack anybody at any time of the opposite faction. Personally, I chose the normal ruleset, but there are plenty of people who enjoy and swear by the PvP ruleset.

 

[Velk]

Originally posted by: Concillian

Originally posted by: Nebben

- Is it possible to play the game for 1-3 hours a day at most, not be part of a guild, and still have fun throughout the entire game?

I'm not sure about that actually. IMHO, playing like this instances tend to not be very fun and skipping instances will stick you with sub-par equipment and pretty repetitive questing. You CAN solo to 60, but I'm not sure you would continue to have fun. Social interaction is a major component to the fun IMO, and without a guild your (enjoyable) interaction will be limited. I'd try to find a guild with people who have similar goals as you. You'll find there are probably a few guilds with a reasonable roster of folks who have fairly limited amounts of playing time, spouses, children, and jobs.

There are no single group instances that can't be tackled in less than 3 hour blocks. The ones that would take more than that to do all of them are segmented into different portions. Probably the longest level appropriate run is going to be killing eranikus, which is why the sunken temple has almost zero popularity 8)

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: Nebben

I actually did end up going and buying the game this weekend. I've played a bit and it's kind of shocking how fast leveling is so fast. I'm at level 10 and have only played two nights of a few hours, fairly casually. So I guess the PvE game isn't going to be as long and involved as EQ (which is good and bad). I'll probably be going to a PvP server at some point, but for now I'm playing on a normal server. The CTF/Battlegrounds stuff sounds really awesome.

That leveling rush is misleading, like Concillian said. It will slow down progressively until it reaches a grinding halt by your mid 30s. I'd say power levelers take about 9 days of /played to reach 60, which is about 20 days of real life time (but they play 12 hours a day). I play about 20 hours a week and it took me almost 5 months to reach 60...granted, I am a very slow leveler, and I like to smell the flowers along the road. I've also spent a lot of time with my professions.
Leveling slows down a lot later because quest XP rewards (which are massive during the first 20 or so levels- about 10-15% of the XP you need to level), don't grow exponentially with respect to what you need to level later on, as well as mob XP. By the time you are 55, for example, quest rewards XP is so minimal compared to what you need to level (you get 5000 or 6000 XP per quest, when you need 200,000 XP to level) many choose not to do quests anymore, and grind instead though some of them have very nice rewards. PvE IS quite involving and is still the meat of the game, though PvP has become very important too.

Originally posted by: Nebben

Hopefully I just got a bad first impression

Don't worry. The quantity of idiots is indirectly proportional to the level of the zone, so newbie zones (lvl 1-10, starting areas) have all the kids who get bored in a week and go back to Halo 2. That doesn't mean there are no retards in later levels, but seeing stupid names and so much AOLsque past 40 is not as common, and people generally are more serious about what they are doing.

 

[Concillian]

Originally posted by: Velk

Originally posted by: Concillian

Originally posted by: Nebben

- Is it possible to play the game for 1-3 hours a day at most, not be part of a guild, and still have fun throughout the entire game?

I'm not sure about that actually. IMHO, playing like this instances tend to not be very fun and skipping instances will stick you with sub-par equipment and pretty repetitive questing. You CAN solo to 60, but I'm not sure you would continue to have fun. Social interaction is a major component to the fun IMO, and without a guild your (enjoyable) interaction will be limited. I'd try to find a guild with people who have similar goals as you. You'll find there are probably a few guilds with a reasonable roster of folks who have fairly limited amounts of playing time, spouses, children, and jobs.

There are no single group instances that can't be tackled in less than 3 hour blocks. The ones that would take more than that to do all of them are segmented into different portions. Probably the longest level appropriate run is going to be killing eranikus, which is why the sunken temple has almost zero popularity 8)

Except that without a guild you may have to factor up to an hour or more just to get a group together, and add time because half the people don't know how to properly deal with aggro in a group, etc... About the only instances that can RELIABLY be done in less then 3 hours with a PUG is the various SM instances. And for me, the fun level is not very good when I'm in an instance with a bunch of people who don't know their role in a group.

I was not debating the possibility, I was arguing that it can be done, but it may not be terribly fun, as part of his question involved the aspect of having fun.