roncli.com blog: WoW: wow.

I finally got around to trying World of Warcraft. After purchasing and installing the 5 disk set, I got to playing. My opening thoughts on this game: wow.

First of all, when they call this a massive multiplayer online RPG, they mean MASSIVE. This world is HUGE! I've been playing for three weeks now, and I've maybe explored 20% of the game. This has its pluses and minuses. The obvious plus is the fact that they can stuff anything and everything into this game, because they have the space to do it. The minus is that it takes for freaking ever to get anywhere. Even with the various methods of travelling, you're looking at five to fifteen minutes to get from one zone to the next, assuming you're not sitting around the gryphons the whole time. It's absolutely epic, though. The detail is astounding, the cities are very well designed, and the environments are very atmospheric.

Secondly, the combat system isn't just hack and slash (although some of the quests can make you think so), as much of the game is based on team play. There is some actual strategy required to keep yourself alive, you can't just go into an area and expect to kill everything just because you're five levels higher than they are. Chances are they're either elites, or there's a large group of them waiting to mob you to death. Further, there are "buffs" and "debuffs" that improve or hinder your character, and the debuffs may or may not be able to be cured. Debuffs include stunning, paralysis, freezing (so you can't move), chilled (so you move slower), and a wide variety of poisons, diseases, and curses. Now, it's nowhere near as extensive as, say, Achaea is as far as their dozens of afflictions, but it is more than just "I hit you for 20, you hit me for 6, etc. etc. etc.".

There are various professions that you can take up that you can use to make your character gold. It seems pretty boring, but you can get into the cycle where you do your grinding (WoW's term for bashing) and collecting, and then you do your creating, shopping, repairing, and all the other miscellaneous things you need to do while you're in a major city.

There's no player-driven politics, but they do have guilds where people can get together for chat, help, forming groups, etc. This can be one of the more rewarding aspects of the game, as you actually get to interact as part of a team, which is a lot of fun.

Overall, I find it fun to play, and haven't run into the negative stereotypes I've heard about the players. 99.9% of the players I find are fun to play with.

You can check out the information on my two characters on Thottbot.

Labels: Gaming, World of Warcraft

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