Too late to jump into WoW?

[nrdstrm]

Been having a blast with Vanguard. I like it for many of the same reasons as Magus. I also enjoy the graphics (incredible if you can crank it up to high/ultra high)...

As to WoW, it's really never too late to get into wow...I mean you can max a character really fast wich some people like...I prefer a bit more of a challenge to my games, rather than play an MMO on "easy" mode :p . That said, all those millions of people playing it at the moment must like something about it...I guess there is something to what Brad has been saying (Owner, Sigil Games) about how there are casual players (WoW) and core gamers (EQ/Vanguard/etc). I guess core gamers just prefer more of a challenge...

[Xion X2]

I also enjoy the graphics (incredible if you can crank it up to high/ultra high)...

I completely agree w/ you there. The game looks great, IMO. Volumetric clouds are awesome, rock textures are the best I've seen next to Kameo on the 360. Ground textures are good.. and I love the thickness of the grass that waves in the wind.

Specular effects are also great.

[ThornRage]

Started playing WoW in Apr of 06. Once I reached 60 I suddenly got bored and left the game for a month. That was my fault ... I didnt seek out a guild. Then a friend of mine told me about a guild and I came back and was accepted. It was a new guild that was farming ZG and working it's way to MC and Ony. So I was able to get in before they got too heavily geared. It was then that I discovered that the lvl'ng to 60 was not the game, that was just the preparation ... once you hit 60 you were suddenly in the real game.

Now with Outland, most of my guildies are still lvl'ng. I am at 70 working on my keys. Going from 60-70 was fun but now that I am at 70, I know the real fun begins once more guildies catch up. We have over a dozen there now and we are using GEM to plan instances and events.

I have played several MMOs such as Star Wars Galaxies, Guild Wars, City of Heroes, Auto Assault, etc ... WoW is the game that has been the most fun.

As for Vanguard, I got into the beta several months back ... I left after 3 weeks of constant playing ... I was not impressed.

[Son Goku]

Only bad side, when you get a number of new players in an area are:

- When I went to lvl my first Draenie, it took litterally an hour to complete a quest as we all had to compete over respawns. Someone came up with 1,500 people all on Azuremyst isle. On another server which holds my horde chars, the Blood Elf starting zone was just as bad. Nothing could spawn fast enough to let anyone, do anything...

- My Draenie warrior is a miner, and now with everyone hitting the mithril deposits, ugh. Up to 257 mining now, but with 236 BS, I still need the stuff. And some cut throat price sharks are trying to charge > fel iron prices for the stuff now.

Way outa whack for anything that was ever charged in the past, and up to 5x (or worse) the money that could be recovered in selling the items made from it. No one providing trade items, would bother, when the cost of materials out-strips the money that can be made by 500% or worse :eek: I'll just get to fel iron and say good ridance to anything low lvl until the market rebalances. Someone wants? Get your own mats, or tough... Just like the enchanters started doing ages ago.

- Ninjas, ninjas, and more ninjas

All said however, there are people beginning/leveling alts. There are people in the factions trying other classes (alliance shamys and horde palys), and quite a bit goign on. Oh, and when leveling the mains, hmm....

This friend and I 2 manned all the silithid hive quests in Silithus (only getting owned on Natalia) the Monday before Burning Crusade came out, with our 2 hunters. Should he get back (was on a couple days ago, don't know now); would be interesting should we both hit lvl 70 and get equiped. I wouldn't mind trying to 2-man BRD (which many say is quite doable now); but even head into ZG.

Perhaps not Hakar, but might be interesting to what a couple lvl 70s in all new gear could do there. Hell, some people didn't think 2 hunters could do the silithid hive quests by themselves; and were a lil surprised we pulled it off, and without dieing a lot, in old Azeroth gear (of course) at lvl 60...

[UDawg]

Started playing WoW in Apr of 06. Once I reached 60 I suddenly got bored and left the game for a month. That was my fault ... I didnt seek out a guild. Then a friend of mine told me about a guild and I came back and was accepted. It was a new guild that was farming ZG and working it's way to MC and Ony. So I was able to get in before they got too heavily geared. It was then that I discovered that the lvl'ng to 60 was not the game, that was just the preparation ... once you hit 60 you were suddenly in the real game.

Now with Outland, most of my guildies are still lvl'ng. I am at 70 working on my keys. Going from 60-70 was fun but now that I am at 70, I know the real fun begins once more guildies catch up. We have over a dozen there now and we are using GEM to plan instances and events.

I have played several MMOs such as Star Wars Galaxies, Guild Wars, City of Heroes, Auto Assault, etc ... WoW is the game that has been the most fun.

As for Vanguard, I got into the beta several months back ... I left after 3 weeks of constant playing ... I was not impressed.
Take a break from WoW until your buddies get up to 70. That is what I am doing. Then the game will be fun again. Taking those breaks is such a good thing.

[Tygerwoody]

Take a break from WoW until your buddies get up to 70. That is what I am doing. Then the game will be fun again. Taking those breaks is such a good thing.
Udawgs "taking a break" = "Playing Vanguard instead"

:D

[Monolyth]

Well about 2 weeks after BC came out, my buddies were all "C'mon man, come play again." (I had been on break from WoW for a few months and was unsure if I would want to play BC). Well I bought it and in 10 days I had my 60 Orc rogue up to level 70. But for the first 2 weeks after that point...nothing. Couldn't do many instances, etc. My guild had not gotten enough people to 70 to start running instances nonstop, didn't have keys for Karazhan yet etc.

So those 2 weeks I farmed gold for my epic flying mount. So now I'm instancing pretty much nonstop (we ran Shattered Halls 4 times in one day, w00t for Thrallmar rep). And just last night we burned our first boss in Karazhan and are set up and ready to rock n roll on our next scheduled run.

Things are really going to start clicking too once we have the 10-15 stragglers get to 70 (we now have about 20-25 members keyed for Karazhan).

And on the note of old instances, we went back and did a Scholo run to help some guys out...yeah...I tanked everything in there on my rogue, rarely required any heals, and rarely used any of my heavy specials (evasion, adren rush, etc.) So BRD would be super easy (why you would run it...eh, I mean I guess if it's fun, all the power to you).

[UDawg]

Udawgs "taking a break" = "Playing Vanguard instead"

:D
Damn straight. I am having fun with it. Vanguard is no where near as good a game as WoW but it is fun. This evening I will be leveling up my black smithing.

I don't care if I go back to WoW. I'm just chilling until Warhammer and Age of Conan come out.

[Tygerwoody]

Damn straight. I am having fun with it. Vanguard is no where near as good a game as WoW but it is fun. This evening I will be leveling up my black smithing.

I don't care if I go back to WoW. I'm just chilling until Warhammer and Age of Conan come out.
I knew you would come to the dark side :D

Yea, last night I was having one of those Udawg moments "I hate these death penalties!!!!". I died a good 20 times just last night :p . I got over it though. I think I'm going to buy a camel tonight :D

[UDawg]

I knew you would come to the dark side :D

Yea, last night I was having one of those Udawg moments "I hate these death penalties!!!!". I died a good 20 times just last night :p . I got over it though. I think I'm going to buy a camel tonight :D
Seriously, the death penalties are stupid. Sure, break your equipment but why take a xp hit? that is friking insane. Oh another thing that bothers me is PUBLIC DUNGEONS! The argument here is that it is more "real". MORE REAL!? WTF!? How real is it to stand in a cave with magical halflings waiting for a boss to respawn. REfrikingSPAWN! How many things in life do you know that "respawn"? I know of NONE and I certainly have NEVER ran through a field chasing goblins for reputation or a broken tooth. More real my ass. Just admit it. They don't want istances becaus they don't want to pay or more servers and a more robust network. It's a game, just have fun with it.

LOL! Ok I feel better. (nana2) I do really like the game. I just love to complain about the stupid stuff in it....like jumping. BAHAHAH come on, you know that is bad. Every time I jump I am waiting for my Pally to cry out "ZOMG I SLIPPED A DISK!" LOL It looks so painfull.

You are going to buy a camel? So if horse shoes make the horses run faster then do camel toes make the camel run faster or do they just invite 14 year old perverts to stare?

[Tygerwoody]

They don't want istances becaus they don't want to pay or more servers and a more robust network. It's a game, just have fun with it.

No, they don't want instances because the majority of their players HATE instances. I can't stand instances and will never play an instanced mmo ever again.

[UDawg]

No, they don't want instances because the majority of their players HATE instances. I can't stand instances and will never play an instanced mmo ever again.
Yeah cuz boss camping for days on end is sooooo much better

LOL

[nrdstrm]

No, they don't want instances because the majority of their players HATE instances. I can't stand instances and will never play an instanced mmo ever again.

QFT...Camping is fine as long as it's not out of control...VG seems to either A) spawn a final boss mob due to a quest or B) Respawn the mob fairly fast. So I don't really think that's an issue Udawg...Personally, I won't play a game with too much instancing....

Take all that with a grain of salt, since I hanv't experienced "RAID" mobs yet (5 dots yeah, but never 6)...

[Epyx]

Man after having played on a high level guild in EQ from launch to about 2003 I would ask why would you never play an instance MMO? EQ was absolutely brutal for non-instanced grinding and camping..Sky for necro epic etc.

I hated camping mobs, doing rotations, server schedule politics etc etc

WoW at launch was a refreshing change as you could pretty much always find something with rewards to do.

[nrdstrm]

Because with no instancing, things seem more special. For instance if it's going to take you days to get a high level item in a game, it's going to mean more...If I can run the same dungeon 3 or 4 times in a night to try and get it...I dunno...It just takes away from the feeling that I've accomplished something. KNOWING that I'm in the ONLY group on the server about to kill a high level raid mob gives me a sense of accomplishment...It's alot different if I know there are 20 other guilds killing the same raid mob at the same time I am...Perhaps someone else can explain it better...

[Tygerwoody]

Because with no instancing, things seem more special.
That basically sums it up. Instances take away the "alive" aspect of the game.

When you go to an amusement park and you see a roller coaster ride you REALLY want to get on. The wait in line is an entire HOUR. You want to ride it really bad, so you wait in line anyway. By the time it gets to be your turn you are SOOOO excited. So excited that while you are waiting, you start up a conversation with the people around you, making new friends. You get on the ride and soak in EVERY BIT of it. You know your time for riding that ride again may NEVER come any other time in your life so you enjoy it while it lasts. While you are on the roller coaster you know that only you and the ones with you are the ONLY people in the world enjoying the ride. A group of people to share the experience with. You had a great experience you will remember for a long time and met some cool people.

Now imagine you hear about this awesome roller coaster at another side of the park. You walk there are see 20 roller coasters side by side, all identical. You look and there is no line, noone really to talk to. You simply hop on board whichever one is closest to you. While you are on your roller coaster with a handful of people that you don't talk to, you look into the distance at the 20 other roller coasters, all which are about as vacant as yours. You don't really feel special. There are 20 roller coasters with people doing the exact same thing. Your entire experience lasts a minute. You had fun while it lasted obviously, but after you are done your excitement level is about the same as if you were to have just gone into a drive through car wash.

Does that make sense? I know it might sound crazy, but the fact EQ was not instanced is what made the game so great. You had to work for what you got. Some nights you would spend 5 hours just fighting through a zone only to get to the end and finding out the main God boss was killed just yesterday(which alot of times God respawns were a week plus). Its a "bad" experience, but once you DO get to fight that God boss it makes it all worth it. On EQ there were mobs that only SPAWNED once a MONTH. Once a month. Thats it. The person who got the item from that mob was ONE COOL DUDE for the entire rest of the game(feathered pegasus cloak anyone?). Anyone who see's that guy KNOWS the mob spawns once a month and feel priviledge to talk to someone who was lucky enough to get the cloak drop.

Wow being instanced fits some people's personalities, just not mine. I like to feel like I accomplished something. I like to be in a world that feels "alive". Instances make it impossible to feel that. Also the lack of players(ala Vanguard) makes it impossible to feel alive as well, but thats another story entirely. ;)

[Tygerwoody]

Semi back on topic. The failure of EQ2 was due to the graphic requirements set too high and the fact the game felt so bland/unalive which was mainly due to INSTANCES. If you enjoyed the instance aspect of EQ2, give WoW a try. If not, try out Vanguard. Despite its share of problems, Vanguard is a GREAT game. Its biggest problem with Vanguard right now in my opinion is simply the fact that the world is TOO BIG.

[arioch21]

having no instance wouldnt work in WoW, there is just too many players in each server, I remember camping all day just for 1 item in EQ, and clerics having to go 5+ days without logging off their characters just to get their epic items, there's just no way I could go back to that, give me an instance and give me my item ;p

Dont get me wrong, I met alot of friends because of no instance in EQ, you cant build the same community in wow because you only hang around people for a very short time, not long enough to get to know them. But with the amount of people within wow servers, it just wouldnt work having no instances for dungeons, you wouldnt be able to get quests or items in good time, and I just dont have the time to sit at my comp for hours on end to get something done, I have a life.

[vampireuk]

There were a lot of acomplishments back in the early days of WOW back when you had only about one guild per server capable of pulling off 40 man raids, which I was lucky enough to be part of. Taking part in Molten Core and Onyxia raids even when you get wipe after wipe learning the bosses is part of a great acomplishment for early instances. Back when I was playing wow I was the first on the server to get the Arcanite reaper, to start collecting the might set from MC and to obtain Quel'Serrar from Onyxia. However since the game is getting on now everybody is getting hold of these once extremely hard to get items.

[Tygerwoody]

having no instance wouldnt work in WoW, there is just too many players in each server, I remember camping all day just for 1 item in EQ, and clerics having to go 5+ days without logging off their characters just to get their epic items, there's just no way I could go back to that, give me an instance and give me my item ;p

Dont get me wrong, I met alot of friends because of no instance in EQ, you cant build the same community in wow because you only hang around people for a very short time, not long enough to get to know them. But with the amount of people within wow servers, it just wouldnt work having no instances for dungeons, you wouldnt be able to get quests or items in good time, and I just dont have the time to sit at my comp for hours on end to get something done, I have a life.
Not necessarily. Just lower the amount of people on each server and instances are no longer needed. Still be that as it may, WoW players probably wouldn't like this. For the players WoW targets, instancing is perfect.

[Epyx]

Hmmm I kind of understand where you guys are coming from but then again...isn't it just a longer dangle of the carrot? I mean on one hand sure the game might feel more alive non-instanced in that you are competing with other players but we are still dealing with NPCs and Mobs that respawn on set timers...

A real non-instance dungeon might drop an item for a week and then never again period...but how much work would that be? :)

I dunno...time is a lot more limited for me nowadays then it was when I played EQ...never again do I want to camp a mob for 96 hours straight...to me that just wasn't fun...it was torture lol :)

[Tho Jo Smale]

I think that FFXI is the best eva.


Easy to get killed, hard to level.


Not dumbed down for kids like WoW.


FFXI FTW!!!!!



JC

[winton]

a mob that was "easy challenge" for me kicked my ass. I stopped playing FF XI after leveling to 25 a good 6 times because I lost levels getting my butt kicked by mobs that were supposedly easy to kill.

[Tyr-Sog]

I stopped playing wow back in August and just started playing again with a fresh new account(sold my old one). The communities are still thriving and low zones are still heavily populated with either new people or people starting alts(at least on my server).

IMO, the game is just really fun. It just seems to have the right amount of balance in every catagory to make it stay interesting. I can see how ever die hard mmo'ers finding it a bit on the shallow/easy side though. It is pretty easy to lvl and the trades are just as easy to lvl.

Ok just to update.

I'm bored as hell of the game again. In the end the game is just to simple a repetive. PVP is a mess and is nothing but a 2-3 shot bore fest imo. Same old BG maps(well eos now, yay/yawn) and 2 lousy arna maps just dont cut it. Just no depth in about ever catagory.

Quit playing a week ago after a couple weeks of the old log on log off syndrom and my account expired yesterday. I have no interest in renewing and most likely will ebay this account like I did my first.