your take on WOW

[FPAlpha]

I have WoW, and I've never installed it. I've taken it out of the box. I've looked at the discs. I've thought about it. I know what sort of character I would play. I know what his name would be. I even think I know how he'd look.

But, I also know that I'd give up everything to play this game. I'd dive off into the deep end, and my life would become WoW. I'd be like the friend of mine who got forty hours of gameplay in by the end of the game's first week of release.

So, yeah, I'm not going there. Yet.

The only way I would play? since I am lazy? Is if I won the lottery. I would pay big bucks to get someone else's character who was powerful and could kick ass. Yeah, I know..lame...but I hate to lose!!!

Rob
Scorpio

Ooooh.. you better not meet some of my friends or colleagues who play WOW.

These players rank barely above serial rapists in their view.. people who pay for fully developed characters are apparently universally derided and looked down upon.

Me i understand why someone does this.. not everybody has the hours and knowledge to get a fully developed character and if they can afford it why not.
Some just want to have a little fun now and then and the full options of the game and if paying money which they can (or can't) afford they should go for it.

Shoulda seen the evil looks i got when i told my friends this

 

[RobertScorpio]

I have WoW, and I've never installed it. I've taken it out of the box. I've looked at the discs. I've thought about it. I know what sort of character I would play. I know what his name would be. I even think I know how he'd look.

But, I also know that I'd give up everything to play this game. I'd dive off into the deep end, and my life would become WoW. I'd be like the friend of mine who got forty hours of gameplay in by the end of the game's first week of release.

So, yeah, I'm not going there. Yet.

The only way I would play? since I am lazy? Is if I won the lottery. I would pay big bucks to get someone else's character who was powerful and could kick ass. Yeah, I know..lame...but I hate to lose!!!

Rob
Scorpio

Ooooh.. you better not meet some of my friends or colleagues who play WOW.

These players rank barely above serial rapists in their view.. people who pay for fully developed characters are apparently universally derided and looked down upon.

Me i understand why someone does this.. not everybody has the hours and knowledge to get a fully developed character and if they can afford it why not.
Some just want to have a little fun now and then and the full options of the game and if paying money which they can (or can't) afford they should go for it.

Shoulda seen the evil looks i got when i told my friends this

Yeah, I could see why some would hate that. But they would never know...and that would be the fun of it...

Rob

 

[FPAlpha]

The only way I would play? since I am lazy? Is if I won the lottery. I would pay big bucks to get someone else's character who was powerful and could kick ass. Yeah, I know..lame...but I hate to lose!!!

Rob
Scorpio

Ooooh.. you better not meet some of my friends or colleagues who play WOW.

These players rank barely above serial rapists in their view.. people who pay for fully developed characters are apparently universally derided and looked down upon.

Me i understand why someone does this.. not everybody has the hours and knowledge to get a fully developed character and if they can afford it why not.
Some just want to have a little fun now and then and the full options of the game and if paying money which they can (or can't) afford they should go for it.

Shoulda seen the evil looks i got when i told my friends this

Yeah, I could see why some would hate that. But they would never know...and that would be the fun of it...

Rob

Actually i believe any experienced player could spot you if you begin talking WOW and why you skilled the way you did. Sooner or later they would "corner" you and "expose" you.

Sometimes it's frightening how detailed some people can talk about minute details of the game and how long they can go about it.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Ooooh.. you better not meet some of my friends or colleagues who play WOW.

These players rank barely above serial rapists in their view.. people who pay for fully developed characters are apparently universally derided and looked down upon.

Me i understand why someone does this.. not everybody has the hours and knowledge to get a fully developed character and if they can afford it why not.
Some just want to have a little fun now and then and the full options of the game and if paying money which they can (or can't) afford they should go for it.

Shoulda seen the evil looks i got when i told my friends this

Yeah, I could see why some would hate that. But they would never know...and that would be the fun of it...

Rob

Actually i believe any experienced player could spot you if you begin talking WOW and why you skilled the way you did. Sooner or later they would "corner" you and "expose" you.

Sometimes it's frightening how detailed some people can talk about minute details of the game and how long they can go about it.

Oh, I could never talk about WOW with people in real life. But in the game? I'd just be one of those silent deadly types. Better yet, I'd pay someone to play for me, and tell me what to 'say', mixed in with my own level of talking...

Rob

 

[LitmusDragon]

Lately I play about 3-4 hours a night, and much more on the weekends. It's what I'm into right now. I will probably play at this rate for about another year then move on to something else.

It's an amazing game. Simple to learn, difficult to master every nuance. You can log in and play for half an hour and accomplish something, or you can play a raid dungeon with ten or twenty five other people and play for five or six hours straight. You can play largely in groups, or you can play entirely on your own. You can immerse yourself in the game lore and premade/scripted quests, or log into battlegrounds or arenas and engage in player versus player combat. You can get fully immersed into the gameplay mechanics and tweak every aspect of your character, or you can collect pets and outfits and treat the game as a glorified instant messenger. The reason it's so successful I think is because it takes each aspect of what an MMO can be about and makes it fun and worth exploring. A dozen different people might play the game in a dozen different ways, but they're all playing the same game.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Lately I play about 3-4 hours a night, and much more on the weekends. It's what I'm into right now. I will probably play at this rate for about another year then move on to something else.

It's an amazing game. Simple to learn, difficult to master every nuance. You can log in and play for half an hour and accomplish something, or you can play a raid dungeon with ten or twenty five other people and play for five or six hours straight. You can play largely in groups, or you can play entirely on your own. You can immerse yourself in the game lore and premade/scripted quests, or log into battlegrounds or arenas and engage in player versus player combat. You can get fully immersed into the gameplay mechanics and tweak every aspect of your character, or you can collect pets and outfits and treat the game as a glorified instant messenger. The reason it's so successful I think is because it takes each aspect of what an MMO can be about and makes it fun and worth exploring. A dozen different people might play the game in a dozen different ways, but they're all playing the same game.

This friend of mine got his car stolen last weekend. He just bought a $10000 used BMW (nice car). But he had to test drive it last night, and missed his 'raid' party or whatever. He was telling me today how he is dreading going online tonight so as to hear the wrath of his teamates for missing the game...

But..he did get his car...Will be fun to hear how it went tonight, tomorrow...

Rob

 

[Arrqh]

Actually i believe any experienced player could spot you if you begin talking WOW and why you skilled the way you did. Sooner or later they would "corner" you and "expose" you.

Sometimes it's frightening how detailed some people can talk about minute details of the game and how long they can go about it.

How is this different from, say, a significant number of threads on this forum?

 

[The Evil Dead]

Half a dozen or so friends play, they are the only reason I log in at this point.

 

[TheBrew]

I'm a huge gamer, but WoW was not something I could get into. The appeal of the game is playing for hours on end to get better loot, better levels, and better stats. I'm the type of gamer who would rather have a weak character to increase the challenge of the game, so spending hundreds of hours building up a fictional character doesn't interest me in the slightest. I do understand the appeal of the game, but it isn't for me.

The challenge (and joy) for me is learning the fights and working smoothly with a group of people. If my friend didn't recently get back into the game, I would have stopped playing because I don't really want to hard-core raid (which IMO is SSC-TK and up) anymore. It does require a good amount of dedication that doesn't interest me anymore since I moved back to CA.

As an aside: my friend and I did the "refer-a-friend" thing, but he wanted to roll Horde. So my 70 Drenai Hunter has been unplayed for months now and is pretty useless. And he has some really, really good gear too. Maybe I should sell him.

 

[Lowdarzz]

I've been playing WOW for a little over a year now and its only for a few hours a week. I've got three characters and none of them are in a guild ( a group of players who do quests together) so that mean I solo most of the time. All my characters are in the pvp realm Garithos and they are all Horde. DEATH TO THE ALLIANCE!!!

My characters are a level 62 Elemental Shaman, a level 37 Protection Warrior and a Level 12 Mage. Two taurens and an undead.

The game was pretty addicting when I first bought it but over time I've mellowed. I just play when there is nothing else to do.

 

[CaptJimboJones]

I love videogames, but I would never, ever have 3-4 hours per day to play an MMO like WOW. I'm lucky to squeeze in 15-20 minutes of gaming here and there between work and family (that's life when you have a toddler and a newborn at home!) I just bought Fable II this week for my 360 and haven't even had time to take off the plastic, despite my intense desire to check out the game. So it's hard for me to even comprehend the idea of spending 20-30 hours per week on a game.

That said, at least WOW seems to have a point. I've known people who have lost their lives to Second Life, spending an unbelievable amount of time with it, even though there's no real point to the game and it's basically just a big graphical chat room, from what I understand. I have a friend who has become obsessed with his Second Life "girlfriend" (and refuses to believe me when I assure him that it's almost certainly a guy, or perhaps even a teenage boy, on the other side of that relationship ... real women would never dress their characters or behave that way). He has detached from many of his actual relationships and spends nearly every available waking hour on Second Life.

That's not to dis Second Life fans, but I just never have been able to understand the game's allure.

 

[Garrett]

I've played WoW off and on since November of 2005. I currently have a troll mage on Icecrown. I'm in a T6 raiding guild (not that that matters right now). I probably spend too much time playing the game, but I've found that my playtime simply replacing other time wasters. Instead of lounging on the couch all night, I lounge in the front of the computer. If I had a family or other obligations, I would play less. I've also never worried about just not logging in for long stretches if I find myself getting too obsessed, or if it's getting in the way of real life.

I also don't force it on other folks. If I'm talking about WoW with someone, it's because they brought it up. It annoys me as much as anyone to be around that guy who can't discuss anything else. There was a guy at my last job that was obsessed with Star Wars Galaxies. The thing was, he sprung it one everyone who worked there. It wasn't long before people were making fun of him for "stealing Darth Vader's ship" and other exploits he had in the game.

As for why I like to play, it's a lot of fun. I enjoy raiding with "friends". Learning the boss fights and being able to down the difficult ones. It's the same as learning any game, with the added difficulty of getting a number of folks to coordinate their efforts. As much as it doesn't mean anything to most folks, there's an amount of in game pride in downing certain bosses like Vashj and Kael'thas that many other guilds couldn't do. There's also a bit of competitiveness. Gearing up and respeccing and hearing others jokingly cry when you beat them on the damage meters. There's a lot to the social element to the game. Playing with folks around the world that I might not have encountered otherwise. Much the same as when I started IMing a number of people that I met here at this message board.

The lingo and everything isn't particularly odd. I have a similar disinterest in things like sports that people would have in WoW. My eyes glaze over when people discuss how Star Trek engines work the same as yours might if I were to discuss the hit cap change this last patch.

 

[ialfan]

I played for a week. After day two I was bored because it's the same thing over and over and over and over again just harder. The ONLY reason to keep playing is because of the other people you meet during the game.

 

[TrekNut87]

I don't play myself, and really have no interest in starting to either. I just don't have time. I do have a bunch of friends that play and most of them are addicted to it. Honestly, I've never seen the appeal.

 

[cardinal biggles]

My knowledge of WoW is pretty much limited to the spambots we used to get around here posting links to websites where you could buy "WoW gold."

 

[Manticore]

I played it for a while, off and on from launch until mid-06. After that, I just sort of stopped playing. I played Dungeons and Dragons Online for a couple of months, and then I got a beta invite for The Lord of the Rings Online and I haven't looked back. It's a fun game, similar to WoW in several respects, but I prefer the more understated art style--the armor and weapons are much less oversized than in WoW--and I feel that the storylines and writing on the quests are significantly better. Also, their worldbuilding and art teams are extremely talented in general.

The LOTRO team is releasing the Mines of Moria expansion pack next month, and I'm going to be plunking down ~$80 for the collector's edition. Definitely looking forward to it...though since I'm in the beta for it, I already know that it's awesome.

 

[WeAreTheBorg]

I've played WoW for 4 years. For stretches its 5+ hours a day, for stretches its 1 hour every 3 days. I've never quite got bored enough to totally quit, and when i'm into I'm really into it.

 

[darthraidr]

just as a heads up to the WoW players... there is a zombie plague event going on right now. it's pretty chaotic.

 

[SalvorHardin]

My take on WoW is simply...meh

I've played it for several months, not religiously, i managed to get a lvl45 character and was a member of a nice,helpful guild but by that time I was bored to death and stopped.

I started fresh a few months later managed to get to lvl 37 and stopped again.

Overall, I prefer single player games with a story, a beginning and an end.

 

[JonathonWally]

As far as my guy in WoW,

He was a horde raiding Main Tank, so that makes me the worst kind of elitist in the game their is

I'd argue that tanking is the hardest part of the game, but for people like me, the most fun. I'm sure main healers would disagree with me on the "hardest" part.

It becomes a position of leadership because we set the pace and give the strategy.

An example. DPS classes have to worry about collecting gear with the most +dmg stats possible, and in a fight just have to do damage while managing not pulling aggro.

Healers have to anticipate how much damage their heal assignment will be taking and how to conserve mana to make sure that person doesn't die.

The main healer on the main tank needs to know the fight just as well as the main tank does, to anticipate hits. And damage spikes.

As a Main Tank, on my gear I have to worry about so many different stats it's not funny. Then I have to know the actual math and mechanics of the game and how the "dice roll" attack tables work. I have to know positioning, which of my moves to use when. For example, I could miss 1 button press and kill me entire raid (which has happened more than once) I have to keep an eye on my cooldowns whole watching the thread meter and anticipating the next attack or phase in the fight.

Ok, I've geeked out way too much already.

If anyone reading this wants Tank advice or just wants to chat about it, feel free to hit me up, PM and my aim and msn are posted too.