WOW - Not My Cup of Tea

I had been playing City of Heroes(a different MMORPG) for almost 3 years solid and was growing a bit bored of the game. An old college buddy suggested I try out World of Warcraft for a change of pace. He and a couple of my other friends were already playing the game and I thought it would also be a cool way for us to stay in touch since we live 12 hours apart now. After doing a little bit of research on the WOW website, http://www.worldofwarcraft.com I decided to get the game.

The newest expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, was not yet out so I picked up the Battle Chest at Walmart that contained the Warcraft game along with the Burning Crusade expansion pack that added two new character classes and new quests. I have been playing WOW for almost 2 months now and I am let down a bit by the game. I knew going into it that it is a very time consuming game and I've heard all of the horror stories about people quitting their jobs and all this other craziness to play the game 24/7. I can see why though now, I would play for 2-3 hours a night and sometimes for 4-5 hours on the weekends and just couldn't seem to get anywhere with the game, it really does take up a lot of your time if you want to level and advance. Anyways, here is my review of World of Warcraft.

The Game Itself
World of Warcraft is a Massive Multi-player Online Role Playing Game or MMORPG for short. In the game you can choose to play for one of two factions, the Alliance(good) or the Horder(evil). Whichever faction you choose has a bearing on who you can interact with in the game and each faction has different character races and classes that you can choose from such as Elves, Dwarves, Humans, Undead, Trolls, etc. The faction difference is mainly for PVP(player vs. player) purposes and also gives players the option of being good or evil. Both factions have access to the entire world map, but there are certain zones that are Alliance and Horder specific where you can be attacked by players of that faction if you are on a PVP server.

You can also select from different server types. There are role-playing servers where players act in character in chat and in game-play. There are also non-pvp and pvp servers. In a non-pvp server you basically can go into the opposing factions territory and not have to worry about being attacked, but on a pvp server, opposing factions can engage eachother at will regardless of what area they are in. Non-pvp servers have pvp battle grounds and other places where you can battle against the opposing faction.

After you choose your faction and your character race, there are different skill sets or archetypes you can choose from. These are Warrior, Paladin, Hunter, Warlock, Druid, Mage, Priest and Rogue. There is also a special Death Knight class that comes with the Wrath of the Lich King Expansion and cannot be unlocked until you acheive level 65 with one of your other characters. Each race is limited to a different number of classes, but each class is the same for all races. For example, Humans cannot be druids while Night Elves have access to this class. However, a Human Mage will have access to the same skills as a Night Elf Mage, etc. The class you choose will determine what weapons and armor you can use at the start of the game, but you are not limited to only these selections. Throughout the game you can visit weapon and skill masters to learn new weapon classes and abilities to give your character some variety. There are limitations on weapon usage though, for example a mage can learn to use swords, but cannot learn to use guns. Paladins are able to start off the game using Mail armor, but can upgrade to Plate armor at level 40 once they learn the skill.

The WOW website is fantastic for reading up on all of the skills and weapons, races and classes and I strongly suggest you visit the website if you are considering buying the game or before you play the game. It has a lot of information that can be helpful in choosing your character. Once you hit level 6 you can also choose two professions from a list of several unique professions. Some of the professions are Jewel Crafting, Mining, Herbalism, Alchemy, Engineering, Leather Working, Tailoring, Enchanting and Skinning, just to name a few. Some of the professions such as Herbalism and Alchemy, Skinning and Leatherworking, etc. go hand in hand so this is something you should research and think about before choosing your professions. Some professions such as Herbalism and Mining are gathering professions where you will find the materials on the world map and will need to extract them. Other professions like Alchemy and Tailoring require that you have certain items in your possession to make potions or pieces of armor. Overall the profession system is very unique and gives you access to create different items that can help you in the game. It also gives you another unique way to set your character apart from others.

The basic premise of the game is pretty simple. You explore the world map and find certain NPCs(non-player characters) that will give you quests to complete for experience. You can also just hunt in certain areas and defeat enemies for experience. You will normally receive rewards for certain quests and these can be anything from food that gives you hit points to powerful weapons and items that will improve your combat abilities. There are also instances and dungeons that you can explore to find unique items and enemies, but these almost always have more powerful enemies and you will need to find a group to enter them with. Teaming is fairly easy in WOW, you just cannot team with someone from an opposing faction. You can also join a guild, which is a large group of players that unite under a common banner.

The world map is very expansive and new zones and areas are added with expansions of the game. There are different ways you can travel around the world, the most common being on foot. You will travel on foot for the first 30 levels or so until you gain access to a racial mount. Mounts are specific to each race and can range from elephants to dinosaurs, depending on what race and faction you are a part of. Alliance characters cannot get access to mounts that Horder characters have. However you can get access to the mounts of different races of your faction, you just have to increase your reputation with that faction by completing quests for them until it is high enough for them to allow you to use their unique mount. Once you get a mount your travel speed increases and you can get around faster.

There are also boats and air-ships, as well as Gryphons you can ride to different areas of the world. Boats and Airships are used to go from continent to continent and gryphons are used to fly to different zones within the same continent. You will not have access to all of the locations at first, but as you visit each area you can unlock flight access points that will allow you to travel much faster. Both Horde and Alliance characters have access to the same areas of the world map.

Likes and Dis-likes:
WOW was pretty fun for awhile, but I soon grew tired of the overall gaming experience. The things I did like were the details that the game went into with regard to how you could equip your character and improve their skill sets and professions and also the fact that world was so large and there were lots of different ways to explore and get around. The professions are really neat because you can create items to sell to make more money and you can also create items that help you in battle and throughout the game. The game world is very expansive and detailed with areas ranging from snowy mountain peaks to burned out forests full of dead trees.

Now on to what I didn't like about the game and what has me considering cancelling my account already. First the game is very repetitive in what you have to do. You are basically going from town to town, picking up new quests, defeating enemies, going back to town to turn in quest, rinse and repeat. This is fine and dandy at the early levels when experience flows in like water, but once you get past the first 20 levels or so, the experience curve flattens out a bit and questing becomes very tedious, especially given the fact that the NPCs will send you all over tarnation to get the items needed to complete the quest. There is also a lack of content for lower level characters. The higher level characters between levels 60-80 have access to different zones and can partcipate in raid parties, giant monster attacks, and several other different instances and dungeons that aren't available to low level characters.

This really was a let down because in City of Heroes there is an abundance of content regardless of what level your character is. In WOW you get more of a feeling that it's a race to the end game just so you can participate in the content of the game. This can cause you to miss out on the gaming experience and the story line of the game, as most players are just in a rush to get leveled up so they can play the end game content. The other thing that got me down was that you have to actually buy the expansion packs at the store as a whole new CD-Rom package. With other MMORPGs you are normally able to download a new patch at no charge. You pay a monthly fee for WOW as you do with other MMORPGs, but most of those other MMORPGs do not charge for the new content expansions as WOW does.

This game is also very time consuming. Unless you are able to devote several hours of your day to playing the game, it will take you awhile to level up your character and learn your professions, as well as advance your abilities in other areas of the game. The storyline of the game also seems to borrow from other games and movies in popular culture. Almost every area of the game could be compared to the Lord of the Rings series in terms of the town and city designs, as well as some of the zones. For example, the starting city for the Human race is Stormwind City which is built into the side of a mountain just like Minas Tirith in Lord of the Rings. There is a zone called the Burning Steppes which might as well be Mordor because it looks just like it. Also in the new expansion, the Wrath of the Lich King, the new NPC Lich King looks just like the Witch King from Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. I think they could have been a bit more unique with the storyline of the game, instead of copying off of other games and movies.

Overall:
So overall I am probably going to cancel my WOW subscription. I have enjoyed my time playing City of Heroes much more and will probably go back to playing that game instead. WOW is just not as enjoyable for me as there is a lack of lower level content and thus it is hard for me to keep interest in the game at the lower levels. Also several of the servers that are available to play on appear to be lower population and it is next to impossible to find teams or groups to play with. Teaming is one of the main things I find attractive about MMORPGs and I just haven't had a good experience with it in WOW.

I would still suggest this game for any fan of MMORPGs, as it has several strong points. I just do not feel like I have the time to dedicate that this game requires to be successful in. If you are a fan of the Dungeons and Dragons genre or Lord of the Rings, I think this game will be right up your alley!