Anyone have World of Warcraft?

SPOOFE · Post by **SPOOFE** » 2004-12-12 03:57pm

Q2 looks like a real game and not cartoonesque like WoW

It looks like a real game.

Right.

As if there's a narrow margin in which "real games" can fit.

WoW has what is called "style", bub. A style that's been with the series since the original Orcs & Humans. Exaggerated characters, fantasy-esque settings, idealized and colorful environments, BEAUTIFUL landscapes...

EQ2 just doesn't look interesting. Period.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2004-12-12 09:44pm

Butterbean569 wrote:I've heard all types of rave reviews for WoW, from many game review sites and this forum. One thing I haven't heard too much about, though, is the economy. I dunno why, but I'm always interested in the economy of these games and how intricate it is. Maybe it's cuz I'm and econ major...I dunno lol

Anyway, how does the economy work in WoW? Is it pretty robust, based upon PC crafters? Or is it more of a mix of NPC's and PC's? While I don't think SWG is up to where it should be, I think that it's economy is pretty awesome. Just about everything someone buys will be due to the work of another player, as opposed to some NPC. The economy is my favorite part of SWG....does WoW have a comparable one?

WoW's economy is a blend. Mobs do drop some money, and also items, many of which are components for building things. All characters can learn fishing, first aid, and cooking, as well as two "jobs" (forget the proper term...professions?) such as leatherworking, mining, smithing, engineering, tailoring, and enchanting. You can sell items to the stores, or put them up for auction at auction houses, or trade direct p2p. You also get paid for doing quests, either in money or goods or both, which makes sense since it's usually the governments of the cities that put up the main quests (which tend to pay money) while "lesser" quests are done freelance (and tend to pay in goods). IMO, it's a low-money system, where gold is valuable and most low to mid level players are happy to find silver rather than just copper.

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2004-12-13 12:35am

Is there a trial available, or any sort of 14 day buddy program?

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2004-12-13 02:40am

I think the collector's edition came with something like that, I wouldn't know though, I'm not a rabid fanboy.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2004-12-13 03:05am

Spyder wrote:Is there a trial available, or any sort of 14 day buddy program?

A copy comes with a free month.

I'm scared. I played it at Uts' house this weekend... for like 12 hours. And I hate MMORPGs.

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2004-12-13 03:51am

DPDarkPrimus wrote:
Spyder wrote:Is there a trial available, or any sort of 14 day buddy program?
A copy comes with a free month.

I'm scared. I played it at Uts' house this weekend... for like 12 hours. And I hate MMORPGs.

I don't know if I want to pay full price for a 30 day trial.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2004-12-13 08:03am

I'm talking to you guys from both sides of the fence, I have a lowbie on WoW, and a lvl 27 fury in EQ (I'm one of the higher levelled guys on my server, so much so, that many of the access quests I do, it's the first time anyone enters the zone) me and a buddy of mine are also the only two guys on the server who speak orcish. Which is insanely useful for talking about people behind their back right in front of their faces.

I like the look of WoW better. freeport and queynos have nothing, and I mean NOTHING on the sheer scale and grandeur of Ironforge. when first I walked into those giant halls, I literally went "Holy Shit" out loud. It was awesome in scale, and honestly it made me feel very small and scared. But at the same time, It's bright and friendly, if that is possible. The music even, is positively stunning and appropriate. In EQ2, I have all music off. There is not a single place in all of norrath that I have been to that even comes close to the beauty of the forest where the night elves hang out (Forget the name) When I first made my nightelf rogue, I spent about 30 minutes just looking aorund. At the canopy, the beautiful, coloful foliage, the animals, the delightful animation.

By contrast, you have Everquest 2, where the environs are about what you would expect. Not shocking or stunning in any way. Qeynos looks like a medieval city, Freeport looks like a medieval shithole. The only thing shocking about it is that Christopher Lee's voice is the one welcoming you to FP. To be successful in EQ, you have to be a Master of the XP grind™. this means, you get a group, beg them to kill your quest mobs, and hope they don't say "Fuck you." For me, EQ is fun sometimes. SOMEtimes. Others are just aimless wandering through 1 of 4 landscapes.

1. Grubby, nasty cities.
2. Desert. Grubby, nasty deserts.
3. Dungeons. If I wanted that, I'd fucking play diablo. It's ridiculous the amount of time you spend dungeon crawling in this game.
4. grassland/forest. Either way you look at it, it's the same. Nektulous forest is broken down and shitty. The Thundering steppes (Formerly Rathe Mountains) is garbage, too.

Overall, everquest tries very hard for realism. Too hard, IMHO. Now, I understand that EQII is set after a veritable apocalypse, but goddammit, it's a fantastic, mythical land, it should fucking look like one. I don't want shit to look like fallout 2 c.1200. This is the biggest area where EQII falls short. I play EQII and I feel dirty. Sure, that may have be the gritty, harsh reality, but fuck reality, Goddammit. I'm carrying a staf that somehow makes a person wiser, stronger, more sgile and helps me to resist fire. Nothing realistic about that. Make it purdy, SOE.

Azeroth, OTOH, is wow (Get it? wow? Play on words there.). Feels clean. in the mountains, when walking through the snow, travelling to...umm...thessalan, or whatever it's called, you can almost feel the bite of the cold upon your face, breathe the crisp, clean air, feel the breeze blowing your hair back. when in the forest, you can smell the sweet aroma of rotting underbrush. You know, earthy. The city near where the night elves live....forgive me, the name eludes me once again. is amazing. Huge, monstrous anciet treant looking things called protectors stand watch, and they look fantastic. Absolutely over the top. The first time I saw them, it stopped my toon in her tracks. I mean, just...wow. the buildings, temples, and trees were....geez....the layout of said cities are somewhat bloated, but the eye candy they offer more than makes up for any confusion. In summary, it's a PLEASURE to be lost in Azeroth. it's a goddamned pain in the ass to be lost in EQII.

In conclusion, I give you, Bullet points.

EQII Pros

-revolutionary game engine. Character models are realistic and highly customizable.
-Economy; remember when a gold piece was worth something? Welcome to norrath.
-realism; if you ever wanted to get dirty this is the game to do it in. Not since fallout has a nasty, dirty, environment been so faithfully recreated on your PC screen.
-variety of mobs; EQII doesn't rely too heavily on the "Same model, different name, more/less HP" method. Each type of monster is quite unique to the area of the game in which you find it.

EQII cons

-Revolutionary game engine; DIE VIDEO CARDS! DIE I SAY! Don't believe me? Be a fury, as I am. you get several full group affecting spells. Heals, mainly. when you are fighting a big, bad caster with AoE spells, and he nukes your whole group, it is insanely useful to blast everyone with a sylvan wind, healing 300 HP per shot, and then using winds of renewal to heal them over time. Necromancers love that spell. But hoo boy, is it a bitch when you do it. FPS before spell-20-30ish, I suppose. During spell? MAYBE 4-5. This is a bad thing™ when in the middle of the fight. This high-resource game will bog down even the most advanced video card setups. you thought Doom 3 was bad? EQII spits on Doom 3.

Environment- Nasty. I play EQII, and I feel like I've contracted cholera. You can almost imagine the human effluent in the streets, dumped out into alleys, in the gutters, you name it.

Tradeskills-good luck with this one, folks. If you want to be a dedicated tradeskiller, you better have about ten billion hours to invest. It's not too awful expensive to start up, or even get to an appreciable level, but it takes ALOT of time. I mean ALOT. By the time you've made yourself that spiffy new set of armor, people in the real world (out fighting and questing) Have already gotten better gear, and have outlevelled the hell out of your sorry ass, and that's not even taking into account interdependencies. For example; In EQII there are severfal levells to every spell. Apprentice I, II, and III; Adept I, II, and III, and master I, II, and III. Adept I drops alot from monsters, but adept III is crafted. BUT, the components to make an adept III spell (One of the components, anyway) Are uber rare. An example? To make just about any adept spell you need Suzuri ink. Which is made by mining coral. Coral is a rare find from any rock node in the commonlands or in antonica. I have 120 Mining skill. To get there, i've literally had to hit rocks THOUSANDS of times. I've never, ever, not one single solitary time, found a coral. EVER. has everything to do with luck, and nothing to do with skill. the other day, I actually saw a coral for sale on the market. For 9 fucking gold pieces. 9 gold pieces. I have yet to accumulate that mush money in TOTAL in all my 27 levels.

I'm at work now, I'll write some more later.

Aeolus · Post by **Aeolus** » 2004-12-13 09:42am

Chardok wrote: There is not a single place in all of norrath that I have been to that even comes close to the beauty of the forest where the night elves hang out (Forget the name) When I first made my nightelf rogue, I spent about 30 minutes just looking aorund. At the canopy, the beautiful, coloful foliage, the animals, the delightful animation.
.

Darnassus

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2004-12-13 10:14am

Chardok wrote:[Snip]

So, am I right in assuming you feel WoW is an appropriate Christmas gift?

Aeolus · Post by **Aeolus** » 2004-12-13 10:18am

Master of Ossus wrote:
Chardok wrote:[Snip]
So, am I right in assuming you feel WoW is an appropriate Christmas gift?

oh yeah

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2004-12-13 02:58pm

Well, Game Revolution likes it. Yet another GR review I agree with.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2004-12-13 03:26pm

I played as an Undead. Entering the Ruins of Loerderon... man, that's an experience. You want atmosphere? Walk the very hall that Arthas did in the cutscene of Warcraft III... and hear the ghostly echos of the bell and the cheering crowd...

Meest · Post by **Meest** » 2004-12-13 05:29pm

EQ = a job, WoW = a fun game (with nice fluff addictions to make it feel real but not tedious).

Marksist · Post by **Marksist** » 2004-12-13 06:07pm

I just recently quit EQ2 and FFXI. I was going to be a Fury like Chardok, but, I just didn't want to do the XP Grind again like in FFXI (I had already maxed out FFXI as a level 75 Summoner). So to those who have leveled quite a bit with WoW, how is the XP system, how is the "grind?" And as a lot of people said here you can solo, but I actually like partying with others--one of the main things I liked about FFXI was the forced partying, if I wanted to play solo, I'd play a regular RPG. So are the parties shaping up well for XP in WoW? Also, is the party build system working pretty well?

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2004-12-13 06:59pm

Marksist wrote:So to those who have leveled quite a bit with WoW, how is the XP system, how is the "grind?"

I haven't been able to clearly remember what a 'grind' was like ever since I quit halfway through BH in Galaxies. I might take a minute or two to kill extra mobs on the way to do my quest, and I might spend a litle while killing beasts for extra leather and meat, but I've gotten to level 27 almost exclusively on quests.

And as a lot of people said here you can solo, but I actually like partying with others--one of the main things I liked about FFXI was the forced partying, if I wanted to play solo, I'd play a regular RPG. So are the parties shaping up well for XP in WoW? Also, is the party build system working pretty well?

There's a lot of quests that work better with parties and Elite quests alll but require them. Furtunately they're easy to form, and a lot of times I'll just group with the people I find in the area of the objective and help out, but you can also form parties anywhere else and just share the quests you all are interested in doing. I'd say the XP shared in parties isn't that impressive, but parties allow you to complete quests quicker and with less hassle, and you still get full quest xp and rewards when you finish. but then again I'm really big on soloing; it actually annoys me when people ask to group with me when I just want to do stuff on my own.

Butterbean569 · Post by **Butterbean569** » 2004-12-13 07:12pm

I'm tempted to switch from SWG to WoW.......but I'm having a ton of fun with Jump to Lightspeed. Plus, I already have so much time and money invested into my character....argh, the plight of MMORPG's

Tatsumi · Post by **Tatsumi** » 2004-12-14 11:37am

I prefer Guild Wars to WoW...
1. its free
2. its made by the original makers of the diablo/warcraft series
3. There is no 3
4. Id rather play Diablo 2 than WoW
5. Any game that is called "WoW" is just begging for attention...possibly because of something it could be lacking...

Butterbean569 · Post by **Butterbean569** » 2004-12-14 12:13pm

Ummmmm....it's not actually called "wow". You know this, right? lol

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2004-12-14 02:34pm

Now this is hilarious.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2004-12-14 03:38pm

DPDarkPrimus wrote:Now this is hilarious.

ROFL!

Is "Stitches" some kind of summoned critter? How did they create him?

Sriad · Post by **Sriad** » 2004-12-14 03:57pm

Master of Ossus wrote:
DPDarkPrimus wrote:Now this is hilarious.
ROFL!

Is "Stitches" some kind of summoned critter? How did they create him?

Stitches is the quest... "reward" for a mid/highish allience quest, where the guy you're running errands for is really a necromancer set on revenge; when you finish his quest he creates Stitches, who tries to kill everybody. Lots of the quests in WoW are great... when I was a little level 7 Undead I had to steal pumpkins from the Alliance farmers!

Spyder wrote:Is there a trial available, or any sort of 14 day buddy program?

If you know someone who bought the Special Edition they'll have a ten day free trial, but they might have used it themselves.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2004-12-14 04:00pm

Sriad wrote:Lots of the quests in WoW are great... when I was a little level 7 Undead I had to steal pumpkins from the Alliance farmers!

MWAHAHAHA! You are SO evil.

Meest · Post by **Meest** » 2004-12-14 04:21pm

Tatsumi wrote:I prefer Guild Wars to WoW...
1. its free
2. its made by the original makers of the diablo/warcraft series
3. There is no 3
4. Id rather play Diablo 2 than WoW
5. Any game that is called "WoW" is just begging for attention...possibly because of something it could be lacking...

Guild Wars is a different animal, and can barely be considered a MMORPG, it's a FPS with non twitch controls. Guild Wars is going to satisfy my Player vs Player game while WoW for epic persistant world. Unless they really expand the scope of Guild Wars I don't see it being a replacement MMORPG but more of a compliment to them. When WoW is slow hop on to Guild Wars for some instant action type deal.

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2004-12-14 05:00pm

DPDarkPrimus wrote:Now this is hilarious.

I have *got* to get my brother to d/l that guy's video clip. I wish people on my server worked to do hilarious stuff like that. It's funny to see people complain about it supposedly attacking people who didn't want to fight it when there's so many people willingly calling its attention by fighting it there's no way it'd go after someone avoiding it.

And in other news, evidently the Alliance on Hellscream can't fight for crap. I helped a crossroad guard take out a lvl 36 (9 levels over me at the time) hunter's pet, and my friend and 3 other people were taking on a group twice their size and ~5-10 levels over him (one was about his level, though) outside of Splintertree.

And I learned that my favorite word in Commonspeech is 'bur'. 'Bur odes mod. Bur bur bur!!'

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-12-14 05:13pm

Utsanomiko wrote:
DPDarkPrimus wrote:Now this is hilarious.
I have *got* to get my brother to d/l that guy's video clip.

Done.