World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor

[Ithekro]

Considering that many of the servers meld in groups when there isn't enough people in a zone, I don't see much cause for looking for a balanced server these days. But then I'm not into PVP anyway. The Combined Arygos-Llane servers are likely balanced now. Arygos was an alliance PVE server when I joined it during TBC. Though there were still battles between Southshore and Tarren Mill from time to time, as well as sometimes a Horde raid on Goldshire or Westfall. The eventual response would be sacking Undercity, and then sometimes Orgrimmar, if everyone got in the right zepplin. Otherwise it end because Stranglethorn's base guards had massive knockback when you try to come off the zepplin.

There is/was a plan for a 100 vs 100 battleground for the Tarren Mill vs Southshore wars. An effort so simulate the old days plus maybe a but of old AV as well.

 

[Amaris]

I'm guessing Redridge mountains are no longer contested territory? I just arrived at the watch tower, as a level 14, and I'm still alive. There also doesn't seem to be any kind of warning that my character will surely die at the hands of a couple of smart-aleck level 90s.

 

[SPCTRE]

It was so much fun when meeting people used to mean something. When you could actually have a reputation based on your actions on your server. Then again, having anonymous people that you likely will never meet again running around in your world thanks to server grouping as opposed to completely depopulated, barren servers is probably preferable. Still, I'm glad I don't play anymore.

WoW outside of organized guild activities seems very isolated and un-communicative now.

 

[Ithekro]

A lot of contested territory that is still generally one side's questing zones are phased. Thus gankers can sit and wait and never see the noobs running by because they other side only has one one the phases, and not all the little ones the noob has to go through. I went through Hillsbrad and didn't see all that many Horde because of the phases. The CATA revamp used Phasing tech a lot and made ganking much more difficult. I'm not even sure if anyone can gank in North or South Stranglethorn these days.

On the other hand, the phasing and cross-server solution means that you will run into people on your side while questing, unless the story is suppose to be a personal experiance, that it will be just you and the NPCs running around you in your own personal phase.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Yeah there are pros and cons. It is good to see people in less popular zones, same thing happened in GWII and it revived the race specific cities. That has happened with WoW to a lesser extent. If you are on a RP server there are a lot of people in the non-main cities.

After two years I recognized quite a few folk running around in Ogr, plus my guild was all still there.

They got rid of guild levels which will make the push for mega guilds less useful, which is great for smaller ones.

SPECTRE I don't find it isolated or uncommunicative, but you do have to work at getting a bunch of people you somewhat know on your O list.

You should come baaaaack SPECTRE...

 

[SPCTRE]

SPECTRE I don't find it isolated or uncommunicative, but you do have to work at getting a bunch of people you somewhat know on your O list.

Yeah, it seems to me like meeting people randomly out in the world and working together, making friends etc. happened more often and more organically back then. Of course it could be a huge timesink having to get a 5-man group together to do Deadmines or SM, having to go to a capital city on foot (no mounts before level 40, remember?) and LFGing without a dedicated global LFG chat, but I feel there was value in the amount of social interaction required to do harder group quests (remember epic mobs/subzones?) and instances.

And as I said, I miss the comparatively tight-knit server communities, having to worry about your reputation because you actually met people more than once. People who were dicks in instances felt a social pressure to not be dicks anymore if they wanted to do group content, etc.

(I realise a lot of that has to do with nostalgia and I'm aware that their server merging policies were virtually inevitable to avoid dead servers.)

You should come baaaaack SPECTRE...

One of us, one of us!

Yeah I really don't have the time anymore, maybe when I've had kids, raised them and got them out of the house and am starting to reduce work hours in preparation for retirement - I'm sure WoW will still be around by then

 

[Ithekro]

^....25 years later....^

World of Warcraft: Return to Argus

"Honey the kids are gone, want to fire up WoW and own some high school scrubs. with our level 300s? The Barren's War Party is on tonight."

 

[SPCTRE]

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

SPECTRE I don't find it isolated or uncommunicative, but you do have to work at getting a bunch of people you somewhat know on your O list.

Yeah, it seems to me like meeting people randomly out in the world and working together, making friends etc. happened more often and more organically back then. Of course it could be a huge timesink having to get a 5-man group together to do Deadmines or SM, having to go to a capital city on foot (no mounts before level 40, remember?) and LFGing without a dedicated global LFG chat, but I feel there was value in the amount of social interaction required to do harder group quests (remember epic mobs/subzones?) and instances.

And as I said, I miss the comparatively tight-knit server communities, having to worry about your reputation because you actually met people more than once. People who were dicks in instances felt a social pressure to not be dicks anymore if they wanted to do group content, etc.

Yeah I remember the drama, the gossip, the hatefests at one person or guild, the rumours, the ninja accusations and counter accusations, the internecine guild politics with ragequits and people poaching and bank stealing, the goddamn beggers in Stormwind that everyone knew by name, the trade chat troll that reinvented himself for years always building up slowly to something horrific (usually racist) that got him banned until next time. In fact that server, my original one, was nicknamed Drama'Remar. Now it's all smushed with another server, I did log on to a trial account after that happened because the trade chat wars going on between the servers were hilarious.

 

[Ithekro]

On launch day for WoD there was a lot of spite going on between Arygos and Llane over which server was causing the lag spikes and massive queues in city chat.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

haha as if it would ONE server and not the bulk weight of two servers. Yeah it's amusing though my original server is still dramatically more juvenile than any of the other ones I've been on.

So far I'm really happy with WoD, good story, great to see Thrall's parents and other Warcraft luminaries in action, wonderful to see Draenor before it fell from the sky and became BC Draeonr. Time travel was inspired IMO.

 

[SPCTRE]

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. Press Release:

11/19/2014

WORLD OF WARCRAFT® SURPASSES 10 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS AS WARLORDS OF DRAENOR™ LAUNCH BEGINS

New expansion achieves day-one sell-through of more than 3.3 million copies

IRVINE, Calif.—November 19, 2014—On November 13, millions of Azeroth’s champions enlisted for the war against the Iron Horde with the launch of World of Warcraft®: Warlords of Draenor™, the fifth expansion to the world’s #1 subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game.* Blizzard Entertainment today announced that as of the first 24 hours of the expansion’s availability, more than 3.3 million copies had sold-through† and the game’s global subscriber base had passed 10 million, with growth across all major regions.

The release last week in North America, Latin America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia brought some technical and demand-related issues that made the first few days especially challenging for many players. To address the issues, Blizzard worked around the clock to roll out a series of updates and increase realm capacity across the board, and performance has remained solid since then. The expansion launched today (November 20 local time) in South Korea, mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.

 

[sojourner]

They shouldn't be celebrating how tall and pointy the peaks are. They should be worried about how deep and wide the valleys are.

 

[SPCTRE]

They shouldn't be celebrating how tall and pointy the peaks are. They should be worried about how deep and wide the valleys are.

We're still talking about subscription numbers, right?

 

[Amaris]

I bit. I subscribed, and I did it because they offered everything up to and including Mists of Panderia for $10. I couldn't pass up that deal, because even if I can't sub next month, I can always come back and I'll still have all of my stuff. The downside? I still have to wait 72 hours before everything updates and I can use all the stuff I couldn't while I was under the trial account. Urgh.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

TEN DOLLARS?!!!! wow that is incredible.

And J you will not regret it. Logging in on WoW's 10nth anniversary (which they are graciously extending to January even though today is the actual date) will give a very sweet, sweet reward. NO ONE SAY WHAT IT IS! Let peeps be surprised.

I figure it's very cheap entertainment. Last month I bought was 16 dollars. That's the cost of a movie here or a nice lunch. Definitely get your money's worth in entertainment value.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I'm thinking now.. ten dollars.. who can I convert. How long is that for?

Okay looked it up, not in the blizzard store. Still 25 bucks. Was it a special offer?

 

[Amaris]

TEN DOLLARS?!!!! wow that is incredible.

And J you will not regret it. Logging in on WoW's 10nth anniversary (which they are graciously extending to January even though today is the actual date) will give a very sweet, sweet reward. NO ONE SAY WHAT IT IS! Let peeps be surprised.

I figure it's very cheap entertainment. Last month I bought was 16 dollars. That's the cost of a movie here or a nice lunch. Definitely get your money's worth in entertainment value.

I'm thinking now.. ten dollars.. who can I convert. How long is that for?

I don't know. I only got the offer when I would log in. If I clicked on the link in the Battle.net app instead, it would ask for $19.99, but logging in it would give me a quick pop up window asking if I wanted to upgrade for 50% off. I went ahead and took the deal. I didn't even know it was for MoP until it said I was good up until Level 90, and the account status registered as "Mists of Panderia Access".

I think it will run for a while yet, so if anyone is on a starter account, it's $10 and you gain access to 90 levels, and yes, I'm having fun so far. So much has changed since I last played! I got a mount at level 20. Level 20! And the cost was only a couple of gold!

I was also shocked to find that neither Duskwood, nor Redridge Mountains are contested territory anymore. I can play in those levels without being assaulted by Horde.

That said, I will be making a Horde character as well, because Horde. I'm thinking a Tauren Shaman, just like I had all those years ago.

Also, yeah, $15 a month is a deal, all things considered, and again, if I realize I can't swing a month, I can let it go and come back later, and all of my stuff will still be there. I may want to invest in an authenticator, though. I remember my account being stolen years ago, and I figure it has only become worse since then.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I've had an authenticator since they first introduced them, then it was free. Still works. Never had a problem. I've also heard that they are pretty good with hacked accounts, they get most of your stuff back and fix you all up pretty well. You just have to be patient.

That's a great, great deal. Plus it's not like they introduced any new races with WoD so you miss out on nothing! Other than the last ten lvls which will take a while to get to anyway.

If you make a Horde char let me give a shout out to Nesingwary which is a very nice server

 

[Amaris]

I'll keep a look out for it!
BTW, If anyone is an Ally on Moonrunner, let me know!