Curse

Mordakai · Jan 04, 2008, 03:30 PM // 15:30

I've just started playing WoW after picking up the Battle Chest for $30. Couldn't pass it up.

What follows will hopefully be a currently updated diary of things I like about WoW, things I dislike, and hopefully will spawn some conversations about MMORPGs and RPGs in general.

Day 1: Created a Dwarf Hunter on Skywall Realm named Lugh. Did beginning "kill X to collect y" quests. Not as annoying as you'd expect, it goes fast, and is very similar to Pre-searing. No arrows on mini-map to guide you to quest points, but directions in quest lead you to the general area. Killing creatures is slow at first, but picks up as you get better gear from quests and drops.

Day 2: Died for the first time in a cave. When you die in WoW, you can either rez at the Graveyard (not recommended), or become a ghost and walk to your corpse. Rezzing at a graveyard takes a toll on ALL your equipment (equipped or not!), which decays by 25%. When equipment reaches 0 durability, it's useless, and time to repair or find a new piece. This really isn't as bad as it sounds at low levels, it's costs a few copper to repair, and you're getting new equipment all the time through quests and drops. At higher levels I expect this becomes more expensive.

Even becoming a ghost and walking to your corpse, costs a 10% hit to your Equipped items only. BUT you rez near your corpse, which means if it was a spot that is "over your head", you're going to have to either fight your way out, or Hearthstone to your local Inn.

Hearthstones are the WoW equivalent of mapping, except it takes a long time to activate, is interruptable, and has a hour long recharge. In other words, not like mapping at all! So, yeah, GW has WoW beat on ease of transportation. But, there's not XP loss for dying or anything like that, so it's not as bad as some other MMOPRGs out there.

I also picked up Engineering and Mining professions and started leveling those skills. You can only have 2 Professions, so it's important they have some synergy if you want to save money: Engineering requires metals, so it made sense to take Mining so I wouldn't have to buy a bunch of materials everytime I wanted to craft something!

Day 5: Today I got my first pet, a boar. Pets are awesome in WoW: animations seem better, they have their own skill bar and some pets have unique skills. I picked a Boar which has both Charge and Goar for added damage and speed. You also have a stable, which can hold 3 pets (costs some silver for 2 slots, 5g for 3 slots). A note about money: I currently have 7 silver, so 5g is a lot. Skills now cost 3 silver where I am, so I won't be buying too many of those...

You need to keep one space open if you want to keep a pet and train it skills from another pet. (You learn higher level skills by having a pet and using it's skills). Alternatively, you could just keep taming higher level pets I suppose!

I also crafted a gun with my Engineering skill which I had been advancing by making dynamite and ammo. Also finally made it to Ironforge. Holy @#*$! The place is HUGE.

I really get what people are saying about WoW art design being "better" than Guild Wars: it's not that the graphics are better, I still prefer the realistic look of Guild Wars.

But everything is alive. Gnome tunnels move. There's an underground subway. All sorts of people from newbies like me, to level 70s with epic mounts and Tier 6 armor running around the place. It feels like real city.

Day 6 Last night I got a little sick of crafting. Here's my main beef:

Everything you craft has a little timer bar. I can't help but think this is just a ruse to make the game take longer... after all, Blizzard is getting paid by the hour. Case in point: After finishing some quests in a Quarry, I had about 30 copper ores. Smelting all those into copper bars so I could use them took some time, enough time for me to get up, take a bathroom break, come back and still be smelting.

Now, I like the idea behind crafting and getting several components to build things, but there is NO reason there should be a timer to craft each bar. If Blizzard has to simulate crafting time, couldn't they at least make a stack take as long as a bar? Or go faster the higher level you are?

The other "problem" is that I've already gone past the point of copper advancing me any more levels. So, while before each bar smelted gave a satisfactory click to my Mining Level, now it's just watching numbers change from Ore to Bars. Not what I would call exciting gameplay.

Then there was my first Griffin flight. This more than made up for the smelting fiasco, with awesome real-time views of the countryside. However, I noticed there was no way to skip this beautiful, if railroaded, experience. While I can see this being fun to watch for short trips, I can't imagine staring at my screen while a Griffin takes me all across Azeroth.

To be clear, I still had fun last night, or I wouldn't have played for 4 hours. But I'm starting to notice some cracks in Blizzard's masterpiece.

Earth · Jan 04, 2008, 03:35 PM // 15:35

You seriously make me want to play Wow <3 Too bad I can't afford the monthly fee x.x

Issac · Jan 04, 2008, 03:39 PM // 15:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by X Earth X

You seriously make me want to play Wow <3 Too bad I can't afford the monthly fee x.x

That makes 2 of us lol.

Etta · Jan 04, 2008, 03:46 PM // 15:46

That was how I feel when I first started Wow. My first time in Stormwind was just great, the city does feel alive, people walk, ride, fly pass you by etc. I stop playing around lv 39 though, just doesn't feel like fun anymore at that point.

Fril Estelin · Jan 04, 2008, 03:46 PM // 15:46

Thanks for this. I will read your diary as you go, as I started doing on the GW-WoW comparison thread. Though I'll never play Wow, I'll read with high interest.

Cheers!

Steboy93 · Jan 04, 2008, 03:52 PM // 15:52

Sounds like good fun, i'll make sure to read your diary as you add more to it.

Etta · Jan 04, 2008, 03:53 PM // 15:53

You should give it a go, Fril. It's pretty fun for awhile. The patching system is rubbish though.

I pwnd U · Jan 04, 2008, 05:31 PM // 17:31

Day 10: Well I have quit WoW. Too many n00bs and QQ'rs, plus I am tired of having to pay the monthly fee. And what is with the stupid raids? It's like all we seem to do, is raid. It really bores me. Well good by WoW, hello Real Life.

Okay just kidding, but seriously I don't think I could ever play WoW for a few of those reasons. But meh, nice journal though.

Bryant Again · Jan 04, 2008, 05:49 PM // 17:49

Nice, boars are pretty good pets for the simple fact that they have the "charge" ability : ) makes things go a bit faster. Pretty cool read so far!

Abonai Laguna · Jan 04, 2008, 06:24 PM // 18:24

Nice post,
I have played WoW on the european realm called Sylvanas (replaced my char to frostmane lateR), I was a level 70 night elf hunter.
In total, spreaded over 2 accs, i have 5 level 70's all trained myself.

KycooGhost · Jan 05, 2008, 12:51 AM // 00:51

Keep up with the diary. I enjoy the comparison. Anet might also look at this and take some of the things and add them into GW2. I have heard that they will make GW2 less instance based so it'll feel more like WoW in a way... kinda.

any way keep it up i like reading it.

MrSlayer · Jan 05, 2008, 01:02 AM // 01:02

It's not a bad game...I haven't logged in for a while, but I really should go work on my Shammy some time...

Spike · Jan 05, 2008, 04:14 AM // 04:14

You mean they paid you $30 to take the box off thier hands

Because othwise you've been well riped off

I hope anet never put ANYTHING form that POS game in GW2. There is nothing good about wow never has been or ever will be.

Mordakai · Jan 05, 2008, 02:20 PM // 14:20

I'll be adding new entries as posts, and then repeating them in the OP. That way the diary remains readable w/o having to scroll through the whole thread...

Day 6 Last night I got a little sick of crafting. Here's my main beef:

Everything you craft has a little timer bar. I can't help but think this is just a ruse to make the game take longer... after all, Blizzard is getting paid by the hour. Case in point: After finishing some quests in a Quarry, I had about 30 copper ores. Smelting all those into copper bars so I could use them took some time, enough time for me to get up, take a bathroom break, come back and still be smelting.

Now, I like the idea behind crafting and getting several components to build things, but there is NO reason there should be a timer to craft each bar. If Blizzard has to simulate crafting time, couldn't they at least make a stack take as long as a bar? Or go faster the higher level you are?

The other "problem" is that I've already gone past the point of copper advancing me any more levels. So, while before each bar smelted gave a satisfactory click to my Mining Level, now it's just watching numbers change from Ore to Bars. Not what I would call exciting gameplay.

Then there was my first Griffin flight. This more than made up for the smelting fiasco, with awesome real-time views of the countryside. However, I noticed there was no way to skip this beautiful, if railroaded, experience. While I can see this being fun to watch for short trips, I can't imagine staring at my screen while a Griffin takes me all across Azeroth.

To be clear, I still had fun last night, or I wouldn't have played for 4 hours. But I'm starting to notice some cracks in Blizzard's masterpiece.

bhavv · Jan 05, 2008, 05:25 PM // 17:25

I'm downloading the 10 day trial to give it a go. In 8 hours its downloaded 55% of the whopping 3.16 GB, but you can stop and restart it wherever you like so thats a relief.

I spotted the battlechest and a 60 day time card together on amazon for £35, so will buy that if I like it.

Do you get any days included with the standalone game like when I tried DND online it came with 30 days included, + my 10 day trial, so I played it for 40 days then didnt bother anymore.

So if I get the battlechest together with a 60 day card will I only have 60 days or more included with the battlechest?

Fril Estelin · Jan 05, 2008, 08:01 PM // 20:01

Ah ah! It seems that WoW's armor is cracked!

More seriously, gogogogo Mordakai

Accursed · Jan 05, 2008, 08:56 PM // 20:56

wow nice... keep 'em coming Mordakai!

Bryant Again · Jan 05, 2008, 10:15 PM // 22:15

Have you flown over Burning Steppes yet, Mordakai?

A Perfect Slayer · Jan 05, 2008, 10:59 PM // 22:59

Ironically out of the infinite number of servers i played last month for the first time also on the Skywall server. I played it for about a month got my human warrior to lvl34 and stoped playing to come back to gw. I might play again but for now i'm still enjoying gw

Omega X · Jan 05, 2008, 11:11 PM // 23:11

Wow will start to lose its luster between lvl 30 and 40 unless you find someone to play with. That hump is not a kind one to get over. But that might have changed since the level rate increase in patch 2.3.