Review
World of WarCraft (Hybrid Windows/Mac)
Will 10 days of World of Warcraft cure my hate?
by Jpage0024
So, for those of you that know me you probably know my stance on World of Warcraft is generally very negative. However I had never really sat down and interacted with the game beyond watching my friend's level 80 shaman rape and pillage. So he offered me a chance to try it using Blizzards new "Recruit a Friend" promotion.
According to this promotion, as long as he and I both played at the same time near each other we could level up 3 times as fast which would get me out of the boring, monotonous level grinding of the first 10 levels. So I bit my tongue and accepted the challenge.
I started the game as a Tauren Hunter and I spent the first night leveling up to about level 4. The only reason I was alone was because he wasn't able to play online that night. So the next evening he created a Tauren character and we started having a blast. For the first time ever I could admit that the WoW experience was fun.
Days 3, 4, and 5 were spent alone by myself leveling up to about 13 and this is where I began to understand what really annoyed me about it. Running around with my friend was great because he taught me a lot and we leveled quickly, however once he was off working in the real world I found no human interaction other than stale NPCs and animal enemies. And any players I came across were constantly "AFK" while fishing.
Finally he got on again one night and we played through a low level dungeon and he showed around the parts of the world that I could go to without getting my ass kicked, such as Booty Bay (thats him and I in the picture below). Again another fun time. But after that I was back to basically single player, and I stopped playing.
So my assessment of the game is this:
It is a really neat experience and a fun game. However that all hinges upon whether or not you have someone to play with and show you around, because otherwise (during my free trial at least) you will spend time asking random people to join your party and they will generally ignore you at least until you are leveled up enough to get to the major cities. Even in Orgrimmar no one would even bother to join up to fight in the dungeon with us at level 15.
And if you cant get someone to join up with you, its basically a very large, very frustrating, single player experience; where you almost always end up dying when you fight. I have a lot of friends that play WoW and all they ever tell me is "give it a chance" or "it kinda sucks in the beginning until you're level 20". Now don't get me wrong I understand RPGs, and I love em, but if the first 20 levels are going to be excruciatingly frustrating then what reason is there to play further? Especially when everyone else in the community is too busy to bother with a new player's questions.
If a game sucks right when you turn it on, generally you only keep playing out of general curiosity of what crappy event comes next. Otherwise you return the stupid thing and get your money back. I find this to be the case with WoW. If it didn't cost monthly to level up to a position where the game becomes tolerable and exciting, then I would be all over it.
Maybe it's just the attitudes of the higher level players. I actually have sat and watched my friend get yelled at by his guild leader because he was one-minute late to a raid party. And my friend sat there and took it with an attitude of, "well I shouldn't have been late."
All in all, its just a video game and in the end whenever Blizzard finally stops supporting the WoW community and moves on to other projects (which I don't see happening anytime soon), all the level 100+ players will possibly have a chance to spend a little more time with other hobbies. WoW is important to people. I don't understand it, but I respect it. And now I've played it. And most importantly...
I wont be buying it.
Comments
Nice assessment. I'm a recovering MMOer so I could rant and rave all day about WoW. But my bottom line has always been, World of Warcraft is an excellent game, unfortunately, so much of the community forgets that it is indeed a game, and not work. And that is a problem.
I can't begin to tell you the level of freedom I felt and the amount of weight lifted off my shoulders when I quit my WoW account. It was liberating.
Heres the thing about the free trial though, you cant join a guild with the trial period. Im not knocking the community as a whole, but I agree with the way loltim put it. It is just a game, not a job.
I don't knock my friends for playing it, and they have met many good people on there, but as a person that put away all his past judgments of the game to give it a chance, I felt that all of those things you've listed, didn't happen. I spent hours in the starting areas and thunder bluff, and no player over level 20 would even bother responding. The only person who gave me the time of day was my friend who sent me the invitation and his brother if he wasn't raiding with his guild. He started a new character just to play at my level and we had a blast.
These guys had been dying to get me to join the WoW train, and I gave it a good chance. As a game its fun, but other than that it is nothing more than a game. WoW on dude. :)
Mikhailov:
I've been hoping that my friend would stop after 4.5 years now, but even when we get together to hang-out, he acts as if he has to obey his guild's time slots. Not that I care really cause I just turn on the 360 and play something else, but it would be nice to fire up his 64 and rock some goldeneye, if only his guild would let him.
I seriously listened to this 32 year old guild leader tell my buddy that they had to have a serious talk after the raid due to his tardiness. UGH. That kind of attitude in WoW is what really turns me off to the game, especially after playing. In a way I don't wanna level up to 80 if all Im gonna do is raid for treasures and equipment for the next, biggest raid. Getting yelled at for not showing up is not my kind of gaming. haha
I never really got into playing WOW a bunch of my friends tried to get me to play and i couldn't see paying for the games and then paying per month to play it. i wouldnt be able to play it enough to justify paying the monthly fee.
The price is an issue for me as well, but if I really like the game then I probably wouldn't mind it. However I did calculate that if it costs around 15 a month and my friend has been playing for 4.5 years it estimates to about $800 dollars.
By the way... Sons of Anarchy is badass!
Jpage: I agree. These guild leaders are the kind of people who have no jobs yet pull off just enough money to pay for the monthly subscription.
I won't even get started on the guy with 35 computers and 35 accounts on WoW so he could raid with himself. True story.
When I played, I made my own guild with a friend of mine. I enjoyed playing for awhile, and I have about 7 characters (including one level 80 paladin). I never raided. I mostly quested and ran instances. My epic gear is mostly blacksmith made (and then I only have about 4-5 pieces). I never saw the virtue in raiding, and I never wanted to spend that much time on the game. Even without raiding, the demands the game put on my time were ridiculous. I find playing games on my DSi or my XBox (as well as the occasional Guild Wars mission) much more fun nowadays.
I also had a friend that would absolutely have to be home by a certain time so he could do things with his guild. Needless to say me and him aren't friends anymore. A game should never impact your real life to the point where you have to rearrange your schedule because your guild leader is a jerk.
I like your assessment, and it seems right on from what I can remember from my MMO days. It seems like you gave it a fair chance--you went in expecting to hate it, but had some fun when your friend was around.
For me, if a game can't be enjoyed alone, that's a problem. I need to be able to sit down and just play when I want to without worrying if other people I know will be able to join me. If they can, great! That makes it even better, but for the most part, I need a game with a decent solo experience.
I've stayed away from WoW too, and I think it's for the best.
Im more of a single-player gamer also, only because of the way I play. It has to be boring to watch or be around. I usually get way into the single-player mode and spend too much time on side quests. So when I had to rely on other people and they weren't there to help then I got frustrated.
Sooner or later the world will move on from WoW and I can only hope they don't replace it with another super addictive MMO.