Good MMORPG to start for n00bs ?

[SH64]

1) If someone's about to start playing a MMORPG for the first time , what game do you suggest to start with ?

2) Also i'd like some bits of info on MMORPG's in general .. like what are they all about (lets take WOW for an exmaple) ??

3) Whats the minimum connection reuqired for MMO's to get comfortable gameplay ???

[glObalist]

1) Although many here will disagree, WoW is currently the end all be all of all the MMORPGs out there, very noob-friendly too, plays smooth and looks fantastic unless you hate the art style.

2) It's about owning everyone and becoming the uberest on the server, simply put. :D To expand, and although it is really an unreachable goal for most, you do this either via your PvP or PvE achievements, your l33t gear, having great reputation/fame among other players, etc... But the most important thing is to have fun with the game, of course.

3) I'd say 128kbit down/16kbit up is all you'll ever need for this.

[Hambone]

1) If someone's about to start playing a MMORPG for the first time , what game do you suggest to start with ?

2) Also i'd like some bits of info on MMORPG's in general .. like what are they all about (lets take WOW for an exmaple) ??

3) Whats the minimum connection reuqired for MMO's to get comfortable gameplay ???

1) Hopefully you have broadband.. If so I'd get trial keys of WoW and EQ2 and give them both a try first. Walmart even carries $14.99 trial copies of WoW (a disk with a trial key).

2) Any MMORPG is about what you make it about. Maybe in WoW you like running instances with guildmates only and don't PVP, or maybe you only like to PVP. Maybe in EQ2 you like to spend a lot of time decorating your house or working on very lengthy and rewarding Heritage quests.

3) There are people that play even EQ2 "ok" with a normal dialup connection. I doubt I could stand that. MMO's use barely any bandwith at all. I can download movies while playing and only leave about 5% of my 600KB/s DSL pipe open.


WoW probably has something like 8 Million players while most other games like EQ2 probably have about 225,000 to 500,000 players. Real subscription numbers by any company are closely guarded secrets (except for WoW that likes to brag about it).


WoW:
-Lots of ANNOYING 13 year olds (or younger)
-Hardly any debth or lore or anything to do a max level aside from PVP or raid for gear - or faction grind
-NASTY ugly playstation 2 looking crap graphics. I can not stand to look at WoW. It would be an insult to my computer to play it.
-Great and fast PVP
-Great 3rd party addon support (which is a big disadvantage in PVP unless you have all the best and most up to date ones and spend all day customizing them and learning how to use them)
-Did I mention thousands and thousands of annoying 13 year olds?

EQ2 (and to a big degree Vanguard which is very similar):
-Less players
-More classes to play, More races to play
-More mature players
-Very high graphics requirments (which to play on average now would need an 'average' computer)
-Not as fast of combat as WoW
-PVP sucks compared to WoW
-Tradeskills are about 10 times better than WoW (to hard on release - good now)
-About as easy to level in as WoW now
-Alternative Advancement that allows you to customise any class the way you want and gives you something extra to do at max level if you didn't max your AA experience/levels.
-HOMES! In EQ2 (unlike wow) you have instances houses - with guild levels and personal status you can rent bigger homes. You can fill those homes with hundreds of different pieces of furniture as well as special items you get from completing special quests (etc).
-Guild banks (not in WoW)
-Guild's have a "guild level" just like a player level, members can do special quests and some other things to give their guild experience. A higher level guild will allow it's members to buy some really nice things like faster mounts or bigger houses
-Many other fine details about guilds that WoW does not have
-Probably ten times the land mass of WoW
-AMAZING amount of things to do at max level (PVP, Raid, Legend and Lore quests, Heritage quests, Signature quests, language quests, home decorating, faction griding, guild writs).



Basically WoW is a fast kiddie game with no debth but good PVP. If you don't mind 12 year olds, don't want to think much and like to fight other people. WoW is the game for you. If you want debth and a better communtity with 10x as many things to do EQ2 or Vanguard.

The last Exapnsion for EQ2 - EOF (Echos of Faydar) doubled the size of the game. If you buy it ($39.99) it comes with two DVD's that include the full game and the other two full expansions - all in one for a good price.

[UDawg]

Although EQ fans complain about WoW and its younger community they don't tell you that WoW is much more friendly when you are out in the world. People always help you when you are question. The place WoW gets a bad rap is in the chat channels and forums. Leave those chat channels and don't go near the forums and the game is fun. EQ players are no where near as helpfull.

The biggest differences between the games is EQ2 is more like a job. WoW is more like a vacation, sure you have your kids along with you but you are still having fun. :D Man I should paten that quote. LOL

[Hambone]

Although EQ fans complain about WoW and its younger community they don't tell you that WoW is much more friendly when you are out in the world. People always help you when you are question. The place WoW gets a bad rap is in the chat channels and forums. Leave those chat channels and don't go near the forums and the game is fun. EQ players are no where near as helpfull.

The biggest differences between the games is EQ2 is more like a job. WoW is more like a vacation, sure you have your kids along with you but you are still having fun. :D Man I should paten that quote. LOL

You're pretty wrong on both points.

EQ2 players are by and large more helpful, it just may seem more so in WoW because there are more people playing it so getting help has better odds.

Explain exactly how EQ2 is more like a job? (wait, any MMORPG is part fun, part job - EQ2 no more so than WoW)

Explain how one of the 3 or 4 things left to do at max level in WoW is to faction grind and how that is not like a job.

WoW a vacation my Arse

[SH64]

Thanks for the information so far guys :thumbsup:

[Hambone]

Thanks for the information so far guys :thumbsup:

You know really the best advice anyone could give you is to run like hell from any MMORPG. hehe

[UDawg]

You're pretty wrong on both points.

EQ2 players are by and large more helpful, it just may seem more so in WoW because there are more people playing it so getting help has better odds.

Explain exactly how EQ2 is more like a job?

Explain how one of the 3 or 4 things left to do at max level in WoW is to faction grind and how that is not like a job.

WoW a vacation my Arse
LOL! another Defensive fanboi. :D

You can get into arenas, PVE, PVP, grind for more rep and do 25 man instances and heroic instances. There is plenty to do and they don't have to do with killing the same mobs over and over. The PVP alone is so much more fun than anything in EQ2 IMO but if you like EQ2 thats cool.

EQ2 is like a job by the constant grinding.

[NrGx]

1) Hopefully you have broadband.. If so I'd get trial keys of WoW and EQ2 and give them both a try first. Walmart even carries $14.99 trial copies of WoW (a disk with a trial key).

2) Any MMORPG is about what you make it about. Maybe in WoW you like running instances with guildmates only and don't PVP, or maybe you only like to PVP. Maybe in EQ2 you like to spend a lot of time decorating your house or working on very lengthy and rewarding Heritage quests.

3) There are people that play even EQ2 "ok" with a normal dialup connection. I doubt I could stand that. MMO's use barely any bandwith at all. I can download movies while playing and only leave about 5% of my 600KB/s DSL pipe open.


WoW probably has something like 8 Million players while most other games like EQ2 probably have about 225,000 to 500,000 players. Real subscription numbers by any company are closely guarded secrets (except for WoW that likes to brag about it).


WoW:
-Lots of ANNOYING 13 year olds (or younger)
-Hardly any debth or lore or anything to do a max level aside from PVP or raid for gear - or faction grind
-NASTY ugly playstation 2 looking crap graphics. I can not stand to look at WoW. It would be an insult to my computer to play it.
-Great and fast PVP
-Great 3rd party addon support (which is a big disadvantage in PVP unless you have all the best and most up to date ones and spend all day customizing them and learning how to use them)
-Did I mention thousands and thousands of annoying 13 year olds?

EQ2 (and to a big degree Vanguard which is very similar):
-Less players
-More classes to play, More races to play
-More mature players
-Very high graphics requirments (which to play on average now would need an 'average' computer)
-Not as fast of combat as WoW
-PVP sucks compared to WoW
-Tradeskills are about 10 times better than WoW (to hard on release - good now)
-About as easy to level in as WoW now
-Alternative Advancement that allows you to customise any class the way you want and gives you something extra to do at max level if you didn't max your AA experience/levels.
-HOMES! In EQ2 (unlike wow) you have instances houses - with guild levels and personal status you can rent bigger homes. You can fill those homes with hundreds of different pieces of furniture as well as special items you get from completing special quests (etc).
-Guild banks (not in WoW)
-Guild's have a "guild level" just like a player level, members can do special quests and some other things to give their guild experience. A higher level guild will allow it's members to buy some really nice things like faster mounts or bigger houses
-Many other fine details about guilds that WoW does not have
-Probably ten times the land mass of WoW
-AMAZING amount of things to do at max level (PVP, Raid, Legend and Lore quests, Heritage quests, Signature quests, language quests, home decorating, faction griding, guild writs).



Basically WoW is a fast kiddie game with no debth but good PVP. If you don't mind 12 year olds, don't want to think much and like to fight other people. WoW is the game for you. If you want debth and a better communtity with 10x as many things to do EQ2 or Vanguard.

The last Exapnsion for EQ2 - EOF (Echos of Faydar) doubled the size of the game. If you buy it ($39.99) it comes with two DVD's that include the full game and the other two full expansions - all in one for a good price.

Way to be bias. EQ2 has nothing on WoW. Not being biased here but it's the truth. Having played both, I have to say that EQ2 has no PVP content and the content itself isn't too deep anyway.

Did I hear Warcraft has no lore? Please tell me I didn't.

Also, 13 year olds? Ok, there are a few (this supports the noob friendly attribute of the game) but overall the community is very helpful and mature. How else do 25 man raids get carried out?

The items and the general depth of the game are unparalleled. Sure it doesnt have the crafting system that EQ2 has, but I find I never needed it.

AMAZING amount of things to do at max level (PVP, Raid, Legend and Lore quests, Heritage quests, Signature quests, language quests, home decorating, faction griding, guild writs).

That means grinding btw.

The only critisizm I have is that to truly have fun, you need to get to a high level...which when plaing a game you shoud aim for anyway.

Wow is not a game for those without dedication. However, if you give it time you will realise why it is the most successful game of the past few years.

EQ2 isn't even in the same league.

Nrgx.

[Ninjaman09]

WoW:
-Lots of ANNOYING 13 year olds (or younger)
-Hardly any debth or lore or anything to do a max level aside from PVP or raid for gear - or faction grind
-NASTY ugly playstation 2 looking crap graphics. I can not stand to look at WoW. It would be an insult to my computer to play it.
-Did I mention thousands and thousands of annoying 13 year olds?

Basically WoW is a fast kiddie game with no debth but good PVP. If you don't mind 12 year olds, don't want to think much and like to fight other people. WoW is the game for you.
This is all complete BS, SH64, with the possible exception of the graphics. The endgame is very robust and there's plenty to do. This guy has obviously never played WoW for any significant period. The player base is huge but contains significant amounts of mature, friendly, helpful people. Ignoring the kiddies is easy enough (though I hardly ever run into them). To say the game has no depth shows a complete lack of experience with the endgame, making it kind of hard to take the guy's comments seriously. Honestly though the comments about the "kids" thing is simply a generalization people use to attack the game, and it's baseless (there's kids in every MMORPG).

(which is a big disadvantage in PVP unless you have all the best and most up to date ones and spend all day customizing them and learning how to use them)
I had to point this one out in particular - it doesn't even make any sense. I slaughter people in PvP and barely use more than the default UI. I suppose poor players need loads of obnoxious addons but most people can get on perfectly well with just the default UI.



I had to step in and dismiss this idiotic, poorly thought-out, and baseless critique of the game. The fact is that WoW is a fun game which offers a great deal for the subscription fee and has plenty to offer at the endgame. If you more interested in hardcore-style play then there is a huge raiding endgame for you to enjoy, if you prefer more relaxed gameplay you have 5-man dungeons. PvP offers something for both. And you can create a new character to try out a new class and experience the entire questing game in place any time you want.

I will refrain from attacking other games as I have little experience with them. I can say though that I have no desire to play any other MMORPGs as WoW is still my favorite game to play, having been playing it since release. Now...to answer SH64's questions!

In case you couldn't tell, my answer to your first question would be WoW. MMORPGs in general are basically grinding-type games at their cores. What each game offers is a framework to support this base - in WoW, there are quests, 5-man group instances (instances are areas of the game which when entered are unique to your party), world PvP, organized battleground PvP, arena-based gladiator-style PvP, and endgame raiding (reputation grinding is also part of this but is generally blended into with the other elements). WoW's endgame allows you to choose between PvP and endgame raiding to advance your character through gear upgrades, though you could conceivably do both if you have the time (loser :P). To a lesser extent 5-man instances are a viable alternative to raiding though you mind find they can become stale once you've thoroughly farmed them.

As far as minimum connection, any basic broadband setup would probably be the lowest you'd want to shoot for.

[Tygerwoody]

My opinion on MMORPG for a "noob"

Don't play EQ, WoW, or Vanguard(and for god sakes not Guild Wars). Start with a free MMORPG. There are loads out there. See what you like and what suits your interests. Then decide from there.

Reason I say do this is because a player who is use to a game like EQ or Vanguard gets absolutely bored with WoW. On the flip side, a WoW player going to Vanguard/EQ will hate it because there is "too much grinding". Guild Wars isn't even up for debate because its not even an MMORPG. It will skew what you believe is an MMORPG and you will end up hating them all together.

So again, I would try to find some free MMORPG. RYL2 is a decent one. Its not great, but it will give you a taste and it is free.

A good "neutral" pay MMORPG that isn't as spoonfed as WoW, but not as much grinding as Vanguard is a game called Lineage 2. You would have to pay for it, but it would at least give you a taste for what you like. If you play it and think "man, there is too much grinding in this game" then maybe you should play WoW. If you get on the game and think "man, these kids are annoying the hell out of me and this game is too easy", then maybe you should try Vanguard.

[Xion X2]

I would disagree that anyone who's played Vanguard would find WoW boring.

I love Vanguard, but all of the rampant bugs lately have forced me to look elsewhere until they get them fixed. I bought both EQ2 and WoW to fill the void, and EQ2 didn't make the cut. Runs horrible on my system for such an old game. It's also a slight bit too "cutesy" for my taste with all of the fairies, frogmen, mushroom patches and everything else. Not a total turnoff, but less appealing to a guy my age than either Vanguard or WoW.

WoW, on the other hand, runs perfect and plays as smooth as you could hope for. It's more of a beginner MMO which fits me better since I just started on them a month ago. And I don't find it boring at all so far. The art and atmosphere is completely different from Vanguard, so it feels like an entirely different game. It's more fast-paced than Vanguard is, and mobs aren't nearly as much of a pain in the ass to kill. Overall, it just seems to be a smoother experience. And most importantly.. NO BUGS. No bugs when you're trying to group with people, no bugs when you're trying to bind equipment, no bugs that crash you to the desktop in the middle of a large group quest, no item bugs.. no bugs of any kind so far. And though I know eventually that I'll run into one, it sure is a nice change from Vanguard.

The downside to WoW is that the audience is a lot younger and more immature.. no matter what someone may tell you. I've only been playing it for 4 days now, and already I've ran into two very unique characters. One was a kid that logged in as a female character under the name "buttsex" and shouted over the chat "who wants to *@(! me in the *@@ for 5 dollar??" over and over for about 5 minutes until he was banned. I never saw that kinda stuff on Vanguard after even hundreds of hours of play. You also get a lot more people talking like: "y r u afk.. lol dont u kno we r tryin 2 group???" which gets under my skin for some reason.

They each have their positives. Vanguard looks a hell of a lot better, is a deeper, more wide-open and much larger game, has a mature audience, but is filled with so many bugs it'll have you pulling your hair out in no time. WoW is a much younger audience but has gameplay much smoother than Vanguard, runs much better, and is for the most part bug-free.

I think for the beginner, WoW is a better choice. I started out with Vanguard, and it was like being thrown into the Lion's Den. If I wasn't such a stubborn, dedicated person then I may have given up after my 164 deaths the first two weeks I played it. :p

[Monolyth]

Having played EQ (back in the day), DAOC, SWG, FFXI, & Lineage II, and WoW since beta, I would have to say that EQ won it's fame back in the day because it was a first, DAOC got it's fame for a solid release and development. WoW got it's fame for a solid release and for being the first 'casual' MMORPG.

Lineage II & EQII are NOT casual MMORPG's. WoW accomplished the casual status by instancing important/high level content and providing 'noob' zones for leveling, not to mention noob servers. Blizzards fast implementation of new server types brought in even more types of players.

WoW, however, receives it's fair share of immature players, but as long as you /leave General when you are in the Barrens, you'll be just fine. ;) I would recommend WoW over Lineage 2 to start out, with the large community you will have more support in finding information you need. Give the WoW trial a go, if you know friends in the game try to hookup with them, that will make you get into the game so much more. ;)

But know that once you go into an MMORPG and meet up with another MMORPG'er IRL you will be able to successfully carry on a conversation that no non-MMORPG player will understand at all...

My brother & I both play WoW and at the latest family birthday gathering, we talked for like 30 minutes all the while our family looked around aimlessly wondering if we were suddenly going to jump up on our chairs shouting LIGHTNING BOLT, LIGHTNING BOLT!!! ;) ;)

[Ninjaman09]

The downside to WoW is that the audience is a lot younger and more immature.. no matter what someone may tell you. I've only been playing it for 4 days now, and already I've ran into two very unique characters. One was a kid that logged in as a female character under the name "buttsex" and shouted over the chat "who wants to *@(! me in the *@@ for 5 dollar??" over and over for about 5 minutes until he was banned. I never saw that kinda stuff on Vanguard after even hundreds of hours of play. You also get a lot more people talking like: "y r u afk.. lol dont u kno we r tryin 2 group???" which gets under my skin for some reason.
Hey now don't overestimate older gamers...plenty of guys in their 20s will do stuff like that for kicks. ;)

/leave general FTW!

The first major goal you should set for yourself in WoW is to find a guild that caters to the kinds of people you want to play the game with and just stick with them. Your experience will be greatly enhanced.

[Xion X2]

So /leave general will still allow you to see guild invites?

It's not so much the joking around that gets to me. I actually laughed at that.. especially since the character was standing right next to me and it showed him cupping his hands to his face and shouting everything he was saying in the little white space above his head. I mean, you're looking all around you at this magical, innocent, fantasy world and you see that and it stands out to say the least. :p

It's all the kiddie talk that drives me crazy. The "y do u runn 2 ther? y wut quest r u on?" I just get tired of reading through kiddie-speak constantly. It feels like I'm playing with a bunch of eleven year olds.

[mcolbourn]

The first major goal you should set for yourself in WoW is to find a guild that caters to the kinds of people you want to play the game with and just stick with them. Your experience will be greatly enhanced.

Yep I will agree with that when I started off playing WOW i made sure I found a nice guild, even got my IRL friends to join it too. It made the game much more fun. We also used SKYPE which made teaming up much more fun. You could end up with 4 of us on SKYPE and then a random and they always wondered why we worked well together when running instances.

I do miss WOW (been off it now for 6 Months and won't go back) as it does take over your life a bit.

[Tygerwoody]

And most importantly.. NO BUGS. No bugs when you're trying to group with people, no bugs when you're trying to bind equipment, no bugs that crash you to the desktop in the middle of a large group quest, no item bugs.. no bugs of any kind so far. And though I know eventually that I'll run into one, it sure is a nice change from Vanguard.

To be honest, the only "bug" i have seen is crashing to the desktop. Most any major MMORPG has that problem within its first few months. Hell Morrowind is how many years old now? That game constantly crashes to the desktop even to this game.

Anyway, I'm still having fun with Vanguard. :D

[Ninjaman09]

So /leave general will still allow you to see guild invites?
90% of the time, you don't want to join a guild that advertises in /general. You meet people as you go, through the LFG tool, or maybe just running into someone by chance. General is not a good tool to use for this, strange as it sounds. This is not always the case, but if idle pointless banter annoys you then /general is the last place you want to be.

It's not so much the joking around that gets to me. I actually laughed at that.. especially since the character was standing right next to me and it showed him cupping his hands to his face and shouting everything he was saying in the little white space above his head. I mean, you're looking all around you at this magical, innocent, fantasy world and you see that and it stands out to say the least. :p
It sounds like you might like a RP (role-playing) server more. While it certainly won't prevent you from EVER seeing that kind of stuff, there'll certainly be less, and more than likely you'll find that you run into people with a similar mindset as yours. However you will be made fun of for being a dork, dork.

It's all the kiddie talk that drives me crazy. The "y do u runn 2 ther? y wut quest r u on?" I just get tired of reading through kiddie-speak constantly. It feels like I'm playing with a bunch of eleven year olds.
Plenty of adults use this terminology as well. The descriptor you're looking for is "lazy" not "kid", though the two certainly aren't mutually exclusive. Remember that the mass appeal of WoW attracts people who aren't typically the sort you'd expect to see in a fantasy game setting, so most couldn't care less about attempting to properly spell their words. This kind of writing is AOL-speak.

[Xion X2]

To be honest, the only "bug" i have seen is crashing to the desktop. Most any major MMORPG has that problem within its first few months. Hell Morrowind is how many years old now? That game constantly crashes to the desktop even to this game.

Tyger, I like Vanguard a lot, but I've seen every bug under the sun w/ Vanguard so far. For example:

I've gotten the "crafting bug" where my character will finish a "Highly Impossible" classified work order with a 100% grade A without a single complication, and then struggle like hell to finish a "Moderate" work order with a C grade the very next time I attempt to craft. It's too inconsistent, and you never know what to expect. Your guy may craft a moderate w/o with ease on one occasion and then not be able to finish with a C grade the next--causing you to run out of action points early and losing all XP in the process. Extremely, extremely aggravating.

I've gotten the "group bug" tons of times when you're trying to form a group with someone and it says they're already in a group--even if they're not. The only way to fix it is for the person who has it to re-log--only you never really know who has it, so usually everybody ends up re-logging. This is most aggravating.

I've gotten the "loot bug" where you or another in your group is trying to loot a corpse and it says "someone is already looting that corpse"--even if there is no one else touching it. This happened on a recent mission at the ToD with six of us grouping together.

I've gotten the infamous "crash to desktop" bug a zillion times--usually in the crafting halls of Hathor Zhi, but it's happened all over the world map.

I've gotten the "memory leak bug" that causes your game to suddenly drop to a slideshow out of nowhere. Most of the time "/flush" has fixed this; sometimes it hasn't.

I've gotten the "corpse bug" where you're trying to recover your corpse and it isn't there.

I've gotten the "compass bug" that has marked locations on my compass completely bass-ackwards from where they really were, and I've had to turn around and travel the completely opposite direction and retrace my footsteps to get to the right place.

I've gotten the "binding bug" where I have bound an item in my inventory and it repeatedly unbinds itself for no explainable reason. This happened with some chest armor I purchased off the broker recently.

I don't think there are many parts of this game that haven't been bugged so far. Given all of this and much, much more.. I still love the game. But there comes a point when you just want to play something that works instead of beta testing all the damn time.

[Xion X2]

90% of the time, you don't want to join a guild that advertises in /general. You meet people as you go, through the LFG tool, or maybe just running into someone by chance. General is not a good tool to use for this, strange as it sounds. This is not always the case, but if idle pointless banter annoys you then /general is the last place you want to be.

Got it, thanks.

Plenty of adults use this terminology as well. The descriptor you're looking for is "lazy" not "kid", though the two certainly aren't mutually exclusive. Remember that the mass appeal of WoW attracts people who aren't typically the sort you'd expect to see in a fantasy game setting, so most couldn't care less about attempting to properly spell their words. This kind of writing is AOL-speak.

Ninja, nobody talked that way on Vanguard. And I'm not exaggerating, either. Over hundreds of hours I've never seen anyone on Vanguard talk like that.

It may be a form of "AOL" speak for some, but there's really no excuse in talking like an 8 year old most of the time when others have to read it constantly.

[Ninjaman09]

Ninja, nobody talked that way on Vanguard. And I'm not exaggerating, either. Over hundreds of hours I've never seen anyone on Vanguard talk like that.

It may be a form of "AOL" speak for some, but there's really no excuse in talking like an 8 year old most of the time when others have to read it constantly.
Again, with a much larger subscriber base and an easier learning curve, not to mention the powerhouse franchise it's based on, WoW attracts people that Vanguard probably wouldn't.

My point is that equating lazy typing to immaturity is fallacious because it relies on the assumption that to type "aol speak" means you are necessarily young and/or immature which in many cases is not true. These are people who simply don't care whether or not their spelling, grammar, or punctuation is proper because they just want to communicate quickly and with little effort. I've personally encountered plenty of people who type this way yet on Vent or Teamspeak are clearly intelligent, older, mature people.

It seems Vanguard lacks these kinds of people because it attracts people that wish to take the game world itself more seriously and share this desire with the vast majority of the players (given you and Tyger's accounts).

[Athena]

For a noob I would go with the original Guild Wars or the Good Vs Evil edition of City of Heros. The games are more PVE then PVP and there are tons of helpful people out there to help you get going.

Also City of Heros is easily played on a 56K modem connection if you connect over 38 kbps.

[Xion X2]

My point is that equating lazy typing to immaturity is fallacious because it relies on the assumption that to type "aol speak" means you are necessarily young and/or immature which in many cases is not true.

Yet in many cases is, which was my point. I never meant to imply that everyone who talks like that is "immature," so if you took it that way then I apologize.

And I was never basing my "immature" comment on speak alone, anyway. Aside from the "buttsex" guy/girl, there have been lots of people who never bother to say one word to me or introduce themselves or anything and send me a group invitation all of a sudden. On Vanguard, characters will walk up to you and wave or bow and ask you if you'd like to group first. They don't do that as often on WoW.

Something else, too, is I'm playing as a chick Night Elf and getting hit on by guys left and right. One Night Elf dude was flirting with me, and his pal standing next to him told him "Dude, you can't seduce her like that." Another girl character I ran into stripped naked in front of me and started dancing in nothing but a bra and panties. No lie.

Although I never played as a chick on Vanguard, I find it hard to believe things like that would've happened as often as it has on WoW so far. And while both were funny at the time (especially for the fact that I'm a guy in real life), it only goes to show that the age group/maturity level on WoW is leagues behind what is on Vanguard.

These are people who simply don't care whether or not their spelling, grammar, or punctuation is proper because they just want to communicate quickly and with little effort. I've personally encountered plenty of people who type this way yet on Vent or Teamspeak are clearly intelligent, older, mature people.

I'm sure sometimes that's the case, but it's still annoying.

It seems Vanguard lacks these kinds of people because it attracts people that wish to take the game world itself more seriously and share this desire with the vast majority of the players (given you and Tyger's accounts).

I think that's true, and I'd much prefer that type of atmosphere. It's one of the things I like most about the game, in fact.

When I first started playing Vanguard, I expected a lot of the "lol..u got pwned!!11 r u rdy 4 dis nxt quest??" kinda speak, and I was really pleasantly surprised that it wasn't like that. Turned out to be the complete opposite, and it makes for a much more believable game world--not to mention better overall communication among players. I don't know about you, but I find it really hard to read stuff like that sometimes.

[Ninjaman09]

Yet in many cases is, which was my point. I never meant to imply that everyone who talks like that is "immature," so if you took it that way then I apologize.

And I was never basing my "immature" comment on speak alone, anyway. Aside from the "buttsex" guy/girl, there have been lots of people who never bother to say one word to me or introduce themselves or anything and send me a group invitation all of a sudden. On Vanguard, characters will walk up to you and wave or bow and ask you if you'd like to group first. They don't do that as often on WoW.

Something else, too, is I'm playing as a chick Night Elf and getting hit on by guys left and right. One Night Elf dude was flirting with me, and his pal standing next to him told him "Dude, you can't seduce her like that." Another girl character I ran into stripped naked in front of me and started dancing in nothing but a bra and panties. No lie.
I don't know what else to say other than that you're taking what in reality represents a very small portion of the player base and magnifying it tremendously as if it represents the average player.

If all else fails there is always the /ignore function.

[Xion X2]

Ninja, I get the feeling you're being awfully defensive about this, and you don't need to be. I already said that I like this game a lot; I'm just pointing out some things about it that have jumped out at me so far as being different from what I'm used to w/ Vanguard. Heck, I even said I've gotten a laugh out of a lot of the stuff that's happened. If you'll look in this forum, I've posted a lengthy summation about the game on the WoW thread on which I praise the game on many levels. The only thing that's really, truly bothered me about it so far is the kiddie-speak which, based on the actions I've seen from many so far, does stem from an overall less mature audience than what you'd see on Vanguard.

Have you even played Vanguard so that you can get a proper perspective on this?

Anyway, I think WoW is a very good game and am about 40-45 hrs into it already, so I've seen a good bit of what it has to offer so far. I've grouped with lots of people and seen the way they act/talk plenty of times. Perhaps things get a lot different once you join a guild and spend the majority of time with them instead of random people. If so, great. If not, then I'll endure it, because I still like the game a lot.