Originally posted by zollen I hear some honest opinions but I also hear many emtional comments not necessary reflect the reality of WoW. Are these the kind of players I would have to deal with in WoW?
Would someone give me an in-depth, objective analysis to show me whether this game is right for me?
I think i was pretty objective
Of course it is silly to judge oneself, so...
Sadly with WoW it is really hard to get objective statements because any thread will invariably attract the fa/hatebois that seems have nothing better to do than praise/bash this game like is their personal crusade or something.
Does WoW offer any of the things that OP wants?
you just need to read my answer for that....
To summarize. Yes, it offer some of the things the OP wants, not all of them. Did you read my post?
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
Originally posted by mbblade WoW is a casual plaers HAVEN cuz its so easy, there is a lot of PVP and you can get items and what not very easily
Come now. The PvP is not for casuals unless you purposefully do not level your character to 60. And in that case you might as well play Guild Wars instead since its match play is better.
PvP at 60 as a casual player is one of the least enjoyable activities one can participate in across all of online gaming. Its like having multiple enemas.
1. I am a casual player (could spend 1-2 hours or less per day)
This will serve you fine - for a while. Once you reach the higher lvls, more and more of a time investment is required to complete the higher level instances. Beyond that - raid content and such, you will need 5 to 6 hours at a stretch typically with some sort of consistency if you expect to do the high end content in a guild that can handle it. This is not to say that as a casual 1 or 2 hours a day player you can't enjoy the game. You can. Also, with this little time investment you will probably 'extend' your enjoyment in that you wont reach 60 and be bored quite as quickly. However you will find that once you *are* 60 the amount of activities in which you can participate will diminish largely because the time it takes to find a team and execute the objective (instance, raid, quest, etc.) will be in more of the 3-6 hour range.
2. I love PvP and I love strategy games
This is going to depend a bit. If you play on a 'normal' server pvp is limited pretty much to the occasional skirmish or battlegrounds content which is fairly contained. If you want more pvp than that, you can play on a PvP server, which of course brings with it the usual frustration of being ganked by higher lvls while trying to xp and complete your quests, etc. However if you like that feeling of danger, then that may be better for you.
3. I love complex battle tatics
Most of the content in WoW that once required precise coordination and tactics has been nerfed pretty severely. Still however, there is challenge to be found in completing some of the quests/raids with less than the # of people it usually takes, or other such scenarios. As for character building - the only customization you get as far as your class is the 'talent' tree which tweaks a few of your abilities depending on which class you play but does not make the kind of significant difference from character to character as it does in other games where your 'build' is a big factor of your effectiveness. In WoW, you are more or less the same as everyone else with the exception of your gear (you can't choose where your stat points go, you get certain skills/abilities automatically as you level up - not by choosing them, etc. etc.) In the battlegrounds, assuming you can get the people of your realm to coordinate (which does happen, from time to time) there is a more tactical fight, but for the large part no, not really.
4. Dont enjoy too much about leveling (unless it is really fun to do)
Levelling in WoW doesn't take that long. As a completely new player investing 5-6 hours a day it took me about a month to hit 60 from scratch on my first character. Because of your more limited playtime this would be stretched out a bit more obviously. There are a lot of quests and this game I find to be less 'linear' than others, in that you can pick up many quests at once and choose which you want to do, also you aren't as restricted to certain zones. For example, if you start as a Gnome, you end up doing the low level quest lines in the Ironforge area ...but nothings to stop you from going to the human starting lands and doing those instead or in addition. WoW doesn't really have a 'grind' - it is possible to get to level 60 completely by yourself doing quests that don't require a team - albeit this is a bit of a slower process. Many of the lower level instances are really cool also and there are some nice rewards that you get in the process.
5. Good replayibility
Once you have a 60, pretty much all you have to do is raid, pvp, or make an alt. So in that sense yes, some replay, while using your higher lvl to finance your lower lvl can be pretty fun. You also know have the knowledge of where to go and what to do, so building a second character is pretty fun.
6. Perfer no subscription fees (but I would make an exception if the game is very good)
WoW does have a subscription fee. I found it to be worth the price, for the duration that I played.
7. I enjoy players/guilds politic and good players communities
Ehh, this one's a big No, unfortunately. There are a lot of really immature players in WoW, as is inevitable in a game with this sort of population. However it is possible to find a nice guild of people who are like minded, it just takes time. The community in general is pretty horrid, the general/broadcast channels are better turned to OFF most of the time -- however, there ARE people in this game that are willing to help and guide new players ...you just have to learn to visually ignore the majority of people you meet ;P
8. Good economical system (but optional, can do without)
The crafting isn't the basis of the economy. Dropped loot is. Find loot, put in auction house, some else buys it. Prices are relative, for 'non special' loot and random drops typically priced at slightly higher than they would get from an NPC (unless they are being downright silly). For really good items? Outrageously expensive. Player crafted items are too few and far between in tiers to make them a viable progression in equipment and the crafting system is such that if a player has enough money, they can go to max skill in crafting in a matter of a few hours. So don't think there is going to be a SWG like economy here. Its relatively stable, but you can't really influence it over much.
9. Good Graphic
Take a look at the screenshots. Graphics are decent and performance is pretty smooth with them. A bit cartoonish, but well, you've seen it. No wierd graphics glitches or animation glitches to speak of really, fairly well done.
10. Persistence PvP that have global effects (again optional)
Not at all.
11. Perfer skills over time invested, so I can stand a decent chance against a higher level opponent.
Time invested unfortunately is the big ticket here. Higher lvl, higher gear = they win. Granted, a lower level who is a much better player can still take down a high level person who doesnt know what they're doing, but the gear makes a big difference, and a lot of that gear is only obtainable via months of sitting in 25 to 40 man raid groups for 6 hours per sitting.
12. Good Lore (is a must!)
While lore does exist, there aren't epic storyline progressions or changes in WoW from month to month. The NPCs tend to talk about their past and their history, but nothing groundbreaking here or very profound. It feels more like you walked into a world that has a rich history and you hear snippets of it from time to time, rather than that you are making history as you go.
13. minimun down times (reasonable requirement)
I quit playing quite some time ago, and I hear that this has gotten a lot better. Weekly maintanence and then extended downtime once a month or so for the new content patches. In the past, the estimated downtime used to only be about half of what it actually was, but as I said, I believe that they've gotten this under control at this point.
14. I can have fun even I am on for a few minutes.
Provided you like doing things by yourself (or you choose to play a more self sufficient class, yes). Teams take a while to organize and a lot of the quests take more than a few minutes to do. But if you're more a community player, you could hop on and do a few things, talk to a few people, yes. However if you want to go to the battleground or complete a quest or join a team - a few minutes isn't really going to do much for you. You'll spend anywhere from 5-15 minutes just riding the griffons/taking boats to where you want to go.
I tried to be as objective as possible in answering your questions. I'm not here to bash WoW ( even though I, personally, wont go near it ). I really enjoyed it while I was levelling up, but as I invested a lot more time per day than you are planning to so after a few months I really was out of things to do and had all the sparkly pretty things a girl could want I think in your case, it would take you the better part of a year to feel like you've accomplished everything you could possibly accomplish with the amount you're planning to play. Watch out though, its very addicting, and two hours turns into eight before you realize it :P Then the alarm clock starts going off and ....well, yeah. ^^ So based on what you're looking for, I'd say it would be a reasonably good investment to try it out. Its a very easy game as MMO standards go, as far as playability/controls/etc. and the quests are pretty well explained and easy to figure out what to do.
Gaming? That's not gaming! That's just people sat 'round in costumes drinking...
I am surprise to see that different people offer a completely opposite conclusion even based on a point-by-point requirements. How logical these WOW players really are??
Well near the end of the game you would have to spend more than 1-2 hours playing because there are raids that you can do at high levels and they sometimes take a long time.
Comments
I think i was pretty objective
Of course it is silly to judge oneself, so...
Sadly with WoW it is really hard to get objective statements because any thread will invariably attract the fa/hatebois that seems have nothing better to do than praise/bash this game like is their personal crusade or something.
Does WoW offer any of the things that OP wants?
you just need to read my answer for that....
To summarize. Yes, it offer some of the things the OP wants, not all of them. Did you read my post?
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
PvP at 60 as a casual player is one of the least enjoyable activities one can participate in across all of online gaming. Its like having multiple enemas.
1. I am a casual player (could spend 1-2 hours or less per day)
This will serve you fine - for a while. Once you reach the higher lvls, more and more of a time investment is required to complete the higher level instances. Beyond that - raid content and such, you will need 5 to 6 hours at a stretch typically with some sort of consistency if you expect to do the high end content in a guild that can handle it. This is not to say that as a casual 1 or 2 hours a day player you can't enjoy the game. You can. Also, with this little time investment you will probably 'extend' your enjoyment in that you wont reach 60 and be bored quite as quickly. However you will find that once you *are* 60 the amount of activities in which you can participate will diminish largely because the time it takes to find a team and execute the objective (instance, raid, quest, etc.) will be in more of the 3-6 hour range.
2. I love PvP and I love strategy games
This is going to depend a bit. If you play on a 'normal' server pvp is limited pretty much to the occasional skirmish or battlegrounds content which is fairly contained. If you want more pvp than that, you can play on a PvP server, which of course brings with it the usual frustration of being ganked by higher lvls while trying to xp and complete your quests, etc. However if you like that feeling of danger, then that may be better for you.
3. I love complex battle tatics
Most of the content in WoW that once required precise coordination and tactics has been nerfed pretty severely. Still however, there is challenge to be found in completing some of the quests/raids with less than the # of people it usually takes, or other such scenarios. As for character building - the only customization you get as far as your class is the 'talent' tree which tweaks a few of your abilities depending on which class you play but does not make the kind of significant difference from character to character as it does in other games where your 'build' is a big factor of your effectiveness. In WoW, you are more or less the same as everyone else with the exception of your gear (you can't choose where your stat points go, you get certain skills/abilities automatically as you level up - not by choosing them, etc. etc.) In the battlegrounds, assuming you can get the people of your realm to coordinate (which does happen, from time to time) there is a more tactical fight, but for the large part no, not really.
4. Dont enjoy too much about leveling (unless it is really fun to do)
Levelling in WoW doesn't take that long. As a completely new player investing 5-6 hours a day it took me about a month to hit 60 from scratch on my first character. Because of your more limited playtime this would be stretched out a bit more obviously. There are a lot of quests and this game I find to be less 'linear' than others, in that you can pick up many quests at once and choose which you want to do, also you aren't as restricted to certain zones. For example, if you start as a Gnome, you end up doing the low level quest lines in the Ironforge area ...but nothings to stop you from going to the human starting lands and doing those instead or in addition. WoW doesn't really have a 'grind' - it is possible to get to level 60 completely by yourself doing quests that don't require a team - albeit this is a bit of a slower process. Many of the lower level instances are really cool also and there are some nice rewards that you get in the process.
5. Good replayibility
Once you have a 60, pretty much all you have to do is raid, pvp, or make an alt. So in that sense yes, some replay, while using your higher lvl to finance your lower lvl can be pretty fun. You also know have the knowledge of where to go and what to do, so building a second character is pretty fun.
6. Perfer no subscription fees (but I would make an exception if the game is very good)
WoW does have a subscription fee. I found it to be worth the price, for the duration that I played.
7. I enjoy players/guilds politic and good players communities
Ehh, this one's a big No, unfortunately. There are a lot of really immature players in WoW, as is inevitable in a game with this sort of population. However it is possible to find a nice guild of people who are like minded, it just takes time. The community in general is pretty horrid, the general/broadcast channels are better turned to OFF most of the time -- however, there ARE people in this game that are willing to help and guide new players ...you just have to learn to visually ignore the majority of people you meet ;P
8. Good economical system (but optional, can do without)
The crafting isn't the basis of the economy. Dropped loot is. Find loot, put in auction house, some else buys it. Prices are relative, for 'non special' loot and random drops typically priced at slightly higher than they would get from an NPC (unless they are being downright silly). For really good items? Outrageously expensive. Player crafted items are too few and far between in tiers to make them a viable progression in equipment and the crafting system is such that if a player has enough money, they can go to max skill in crafting in a matter of a few hours. So don't think there is going to be a SWG like economy here. Its relatively stable, but you can't really influence it over much.
9. Good Graphic
Take a look at the screenshots. Graphics are decent and performance is pretty smooth with them. A bit cartoonish, but well, you've seen it. No wierd graphics glitches or animation glitches to speak of really, fairly well done.
10. Persistence PvP that have global effects (again optional)
Not at all.
11. Perfer skills over time invested, so I can stand a decent chance against a higher level opponent.
Time invested unfortunately is the big ticket here. Higher lvl, higher gear = they win. Granted, a lower level who is a much better player can still take down a high level person who doesnt know what they're doing, but the gear makes a big difference, and a lot of that gear is only obtainable via months of sitting in 25 to 40 man raid groups for 6 hours per sitting.
12. Good Lore (is a must!)
While lore does exist, there aren't epic storyline progressions or changes in WoW from month to month. The NPCs tend to talk about their past and their history, but nothing groundbreaking here or very profound. It feels more like you walked into a world that has a rich history and you hear snippets of it from time to time, rather than that you are making history as you go.
13. minimun down times (reasonable requirement)
I quit playing quite some time ago, and I hear that this has gotten a lot better. Weekly maintanence and then extended downtime once a month or so for the new content patches. In the past, the estimated downtime used to only be about half of what it actually was, but as I said, I believe that they've gotten this under control at this point.
14. I can have fun even I am on for a few minutes.
Provided you like doing things by yourself (or you choose to play a more self sufficient class, yes). Teams take a while to organize and a lot of the quests take more than a few minutes to do. But if you're more a community player, you could hop on and do a few things, talk to a few people, yes. However if you want to go to the battleground or complete a quest or join a team - a few minutes isn't really going to do much for you. You'll spend anywhere from 5-15 minutes just riding the griffons/taking boats to where you want to go.
I tried to be as objective as possible in answering your questions. I'm not here to bash WoW ( even though I, personally, wont go near it ). I really enjoyed it while I was levelling up, but as I invested a lot more time per day than you are planning to so after a few months I really was out of things to do and had all the sparkly pretty things a girl could want
Gaming? That's not gaming!
That's just people sat 'round in costumes drinking...
Nope.. you havent and if you did was most likely the test realm.
Ive been to EPL many times on my grand marshal rogue looking for pvp , ive never been so alone in a mmo in my life lol , Thats his point lol
I am surprise to see that different people offer a completely opposite conclusion even based on a point-by-point requirements. How logical these WOW players really are??