I need WoW info

[swiftdraw]

Been playing a lot of Warcraft II and III lately and a nasty little thought popped into my head that I might try WoW. First I need a general idea on things.

1) How bad is the player base in general?
2) How bad is it playing as Horde?
3) How easy is it to solo and just explore?
4) What how viscous are the PvP servers?
5) What is the newbie friendliness of the game now that it has 'matured' and has a lot of high level players?
6) What are the 'best' servers? Both PvP and PvE.
7) How bad is the grind? Something you do occasionally to level or is it all you do?
8) How good are the missions?
9) Do you generally feel it was worth you money during the time you play/played?

Thanks

[Ancalagon]

1) How bad is the player base in general?
Depends on where you play I would say. In general, I found most people nice, and it also depends on how you treat other people, strangely like real life.

2) How bad is it playing as Horde?
Dont think its any different. Some realms have more alliance than horde or vice versa. There is a site that lists the populations of the realms.

3) How easy is it to solo and just explore?
Very easy - just head off. People will sometimes request to join your group, but you dont have to. A recent patch even made it easier to do so.

4) What how viscous are the PvP servers?
No idea.

5) What is the newbie friendliness of the game now that it has 'matured' and has a lot of high level players?
Dont know about it compared to others, but it took me a while because I was used to Diablo II, where your hero could take on 15 monsters and win. Number 1 rule - dont draw aggro until everyone in your group is ready. Everything else comes afterwards.

6) What are the 'best' servers? Both PvP and PvE.
No idea.

7) How bad is the grind? Something you do occasionally to level or is it all you do?
I found the quests to be little better than the grind, seeing as quests usually involve grinding anyway. So, lots of grind, I found it unrewarding.

8) How good are the missions?
See above.

9) Do you generally feel it was worth you money during the time you play/played?
Yes, but I'm glad I only played for one month and didnt resubscribe. I'm glad I tried it out, not sorry I dont play it anymore. I feel that if I play a different game, I can get a good story, less or no grind, and not require an online fee. And personally I'm not crazy about the setting for some reason. On that note, I find Diablo II still provides me with everything I want in an action RPG (although I am a die hard D2 fan and am currently working on a mod for the game).

[The Continental]

1) It really varies, for the most part though they are your average online gaming population. You get the good and the bad. You just have to hang onto the good when you find them.

2) In general the earlier content for the Alliance is more polished than the Horde's but I found my time playing Horde to be more rewarding. The player base seems a bit more mature and in general a bit more cohesive.

3) Very easy, you could reach 70 having never grouped once.

4) Not bad, and the penalty for death in the game is a non-issue so it's little more than an inconvenience.

5) Couldn't tell ya, I quit pre-expansion.

6) The one with your friends playing on it.

7) There is no grind in the EQ sense of the word where you're killing monsters for no reason. Your time will be spent either questing or doing instances.

8) For the most part they're pretty generic. "Kill 10 of X", "Bring me 5 of Y". That sort of thing.

9) I met some good people playing WoW that I still keep up with to this day. As a whole though I wish I hadn't gotten as involved as I did and for the most part have trouble recommending the game to anyone without reservations.

[Lima Beans]

1) How bad is the player base in general?
2) How bad is it playing as Horde?

no idea what you mean by this. I have found Horde players to generally be more skilled, but probably just a server thing.

3) How easy is it to solo and just explore?

You can play to max level as a completely single player game without ever interacting with another soul if you choose. (Personally I consider this to be a downside).

4) What how viscous are the PvP servers?

Extremely tame.

5) What is the newbie friendliness of the game now that it has 'matured' and has a lot of high level players?

still very noob friendly. Especially if you get used to using external help like wowhead.com thottbot.com and wowwiki.com

7) How bad is the grind? Something you do occasionally to level or is it all you do?

Huge argument over this on this board. Personally, dont feel like I have ever grinded a single minute in WoW. Others consider the quests to be grinding and say there is too much. On none of my characters have I ever even *thought* about leveling, I just go out and do stuff I think sounds fun and my characters naturally hit max level before I do half the stuff there is to do. Your results may vary.


9) Do you generally feel it was worth you money during the time you play/played?

yup.

[Telefrog]

1) Depends on your experience with other games. I assume you've played Warcraft III online? There ya go.
2) Actually pretty cool.
3) Very easy. I've never joined a guild and have only been grouped three times so far.
4) Not bad. The areas in the game are set up so that roaming thugs will still have a hard time in many faction-friendly areas.
5) Very, very newbie friendly. This is arguably WoW's greatest strength.
6) Tough call. Do you want to group?
7) The grind isn't too bad, but then again this is an MMO. Not many have no grind at all.
8) Decent. They're not the best out there, but there's a bit of story to many of them and WoW makes it very easy to track your mission progress.
9) YES!

[Goronmon]

1) How bad is the player base in general?The bad side is exaggerated, IMO. You can avoid the worst pretty easily.
2) How bad is it playing as Horde?Horde rules. I have always enjoyed playing on the Horde side better. People claim Alliance has more "kiddies" but from experience, things are pretty even, especially as you get higher in level.
3) How easy is it to solo and just explore?The entire game before the raiding content at the end is built around being able to solo.
4) What how viscous are the PvP servers?Not very. Most of the "PvP" outside of the battlegrounds/arenas happens near level 70 and is either based around getting ganked while questing or running into people camping outside the raid instances.
5) What is the newbie friendliness of the game now that it has 'matured' and has a lot of high level players?No MMO comes close to the noob-friendliness found in WoW.
6) What are the 'best' servers? Both PvP and PvE.I generally prefer PvE. The main difference with PvP servers is that you get ganked while questing.
7) How bad is the grind? Something you do occasionally to level or is it all you do?Compared to non-MMOs the game is definitely a grind. Compared to MMOs it's less a grind than pretty much everything else out there. Just depends on how much you feel you are forcing yourself to play. Some people enjoy running quests, improving their characters, etc and some just don't.
8) How good are the missions?For the most part they are laid out well, with clear objectives, though there are definitely plenty of "Go here and kill 20 tigers." type quests.
9) Do you generally feel it was worth you money during the time you play/played?Yup. Whenever you don't feel like playing, just don't. The worst thing you can do is force yourself to play when you would rather be doing something else.

[Pigeon]

Been playing a lot of Warcraft II and III lately and a nasty little thought popped into my head that I might try WoW. First I need a general idea on things.

1) How bad is the player base in general?
2) How bad is it playing as Horde?
3) How easy is it to solo and just explore?
4) What how viscous are the PvP servers?
5) What is the newbie friendliness of the game now that it has 'matured' and has a lot of high level players?
6) What are the 'best' servers? Both PvP and PvE.
7) How bad is the grind? Something you do occasionally to level or is it all you do?
8) How good are the missions?
9) Do you generally feel it was worth you money during the time you play/played?

1. It's good, but it's better to go in with friends
2. It's fine
3. Soloing is simple, but you'll miss out on a lot if you don't group up.
4. Not as bad as the PvE'rs would have you think.
5. Not very noob friendly, just use web-resources and people will leave you alone.
6. Define 'best'
7. You never have to grind, although sometimes you may want to.
8. meh. some are good, others are a drag
9. Been hooked for nearly 2 years, been with a great guild.

[Deadend]

1) How bad is the player base in general?

Not that bad, not that much malicious shit going on, most of the time.

2) How bad is it playing as Horde?

Not bad at all

3) How easy is it to solo and just explore?

Every class can solo well enough to hit 70. Some classes like Hunter and Warlock do better at solo.

4) What how viscous are the PvP servers?

Ganktastic, don't do PVP your first time.

5) What is the newbie friendliness of the game now that it has 'matured' and has a lot of high level players?

Full of high level noobs. Some lower level alts running around, but getting a group for an instance below lv 60 is not going to be easy.

6) What are the 'best' servers? Both PvP and PvE.

Whatever server your friends are on.

7) How bad is the grind? Something you do occasionally to level or is it all you do?

Grinding is slower than questing and killing along the way. Seriously, grinding is a waste of time.

8) How good are the missions?

They vary from good to broken scripting and too hard.

9) Do you generally feel it was worth you money during the time you play/played?

Yeah, it's worth the price.

[OrangePulp]

2. Alliance outnumbers horde on all but a few servers, so keep that in mind.

4. Personally, only having played on a PvP server, I thought world pvp was bullshit. Most of the time it comes down to one player having a big advantage over the other (IE, one guy is fighting some mobs, and the other guy waits for him to get down to 50% life or what have you to fight him), and of course there's the whole high level gank issue. Obviously, this kind of shit doesn't happen all that often, as compared to how much time you'll put into the game. But I figure, with arenas and battlegrounds, why bother at all?

[digitalErich]

You can get a trial disc for $1.99 with 10-15 days of game play. Load it up and answer some of these for yourself as best you can, I say.

[Heretic Machine]

Been playing a lot of Warcraft II and III lately and a nasty little thought popped into my head that I might try WoW. First I need a general idea on things.

1) How bad is the player base in general?
2) How bad is it playing as Horde?
3) How easy is it to solo and just explore?
4) What how viscous are the PvP servers?
5) What is the newbie friendliness of the game now that it has 'matured' and has a lot of high level players?
6) What are the 'best' servers? Both PvP and PvE.
7) How bad is the grind? Something you do occasionally to level or is it all you do?
8) How good are the missions?
9) Do you generally feel it was worth you money during the time you play/played?

Thanks

Edit: Crap screwed up the

1) A little too hardcore and elitist, but mostly nice, personality-wise.

2) Horde tends to have an advantage in PVP battlegrounds.

3) The trouble isn't soloing; the whole game is oriented towards soloing. Good luck if you're like me and only have fun grouping, there isn't much content put towards that before the last levels, and almost no one uses the content that is there.

4) Dunno.

5) Meh, there are always new characters being made.

6) Dunno.

7) Depends on what you mean by grind. Most of the game was a grind for me, because it was all solo content. Grab a quest, do the quest, turn in the quest; most quests are basically the same, and they're usually a pain in the ass. If you only consider grinding to mean killing monsters for XP, you don't really need to do that, ever.

8) They're not; they are a pain in the ass more often than not. The most common two quests you'll run across are "Kill X of Y creature" and Y creature will be mixed in with a bunch of irrelevant mobs; or "Kill X type of creature, collect Y amount of Z loot" where Z doesn't drop off of X on every kill.

9) I don't feel I wasted money on it, except for the last month that I played when I went back. This was when I was in Outlands, which is just a shitty quest grind and boring as hell until 68. At the same time, my Draenei mage had hit the 30's, which just aren't a fun set of levels, so I had two characters wading through shitty content.



The game is fun, at times, for some people. It isn't for everyone, and even if you enjoy the game, it won't always be fun. I think it is worth trying, at least once. If you enjoy it, the experience will be well worth the money spent. If you don't enjoy it, there won't be very much money at all spent ($20 for WoW, which includes the first month). I'd predict that at least the first couple of weeks would be fun, especially if you've never played an MMO before.

[netcraazzy]

4) What how viscous are the PvP servers?

Ganktastic, don't do PVP your first time.

5) What is the newbie friendliness of the game now that it has 'matured' and has a lot of high level players?

Full of high level noobs. Some lower level alts running around, but getting a group for an instance below lv 60 is not going to be easy.


I've played Wow on and off since launch and just recently quit. I agree a lot with Deadends responses to your questions 4 and 5.

My opinion of PVP servers is that they are fun if you have several friends that you can play with regularly but like Deadend said, lots of max level people looking to kill low level noobs just for fun.

As for newbie friendliness, the game itself is very easy to pick up and very rewarding even early on. However, a lot of the early game dungeons and raid quests can become frustrating because there aren't nearly as many lower level players to group up with as there used to be. A lot of this can be remedied if you have 1-2 friends to play with that are similar level.

[Lima Beans]

I recently re-rolled on Malganis two characters, and one of them has levelled up to 60 so far doing 100% instanced dungeons. So on some servers at least its still pretty easy to get low level groups.

however, the level 60 dungeons (scholo/strat/ubrs) were completely empty unfortunately and those were some of my faves.

[AversionFX]

1) The playerbase is fairly good if you're playing Horde. Alliance players are known for being some of the dumbest, most petty people ever. Even then, you meet a mix of people with varying personalities. I've met some really good friends playing WoW.

2) It's rough playing as Horde, but if you actually want to meet and play with consistently more-mature people, Horde is your option. Most realms have a 2:1 population disadvantage for Horde, if not worse.

3) If you're on a PVE server, fairly easy. Hunters and warlocks make the easiest class for solo play.

4) PVP servers are so bad that the only players in Stranglethorn Vale are lowbies who have yet to be gangraped by 70s, lowbies being accompanied by higher level players, or 70s. You will be attacked sometimes despite being peaceful with players of the opposing faction. C'est la vie.

5) The game is, and always was very friendly to new players.

6) Depending on what you want in gameplay. If you want to be able to steamroll players at will, PVP is pretty fun. If you're casual and want to be left alone, PVE is better.

7) The grind is pretty nonexistent. I hit level 70 in just over two weeks (7 days played). The game focuses entirely on questing, not killing hundreds of the same mob over and over. In contrast, you could just get to your first inn, and stay the weekend, come back with a full bar of rest experience, and go slaughter some stuff mindlessly for an hour, return to the inn, rinse and repeat.

8) Quests vary pretty widely. Go find some dude's item in a mine. Go kill gorillas til you get their fabled sinew. Go kill boars, allow a felhunter to eat them, and search the droppings for a key. Use a trampoline to steal a large bird's eggs. Lots of different stuff to do.

9) 3,561 hours on WoW according to Xfire. I'd say I got a lot more than my money's worth of entertainment.

[Heretic Machine]

The playerbase is fairly good if you're playing Horde. Alliance players are known for being some of the dumbest, most petty people ever.

It's rough playing as Horde, but if you actually want to meet and play with consistently more-mature people, Horde is your option.

I hit level 70 in just over two weeks

This is the kind of person you want to stay away from, FYI.

[Drayven]

Basically both sides are about the same personality wise. I've played both, no real difference play what you want. Overall the playerbase is pretty good with a handful of jackasses here and there. Leveling is pretty easy these days and you can easily level just by playing a bit here and there. Pretty much up to level 60 it was about an average of 3 hours per level with rest xp. I made a new character and went from 1-70 in under 8 days /played but I also have a pretty good idea what I'm doing.

Basically if you're the least bit interested give it a whirl, it's a pretty cheap entry point.

[Chameleo]

i can send you a free trial if you want. i get 5 or something ...

roll horde on VASHJ.

we'll put you in the guild and you can see how you like it.

i think its very newb friendly - and the PVP servers add just a bit of spicy-ness that you dont get on the PVE servers. I'd rather play on the PvP servers as that tiny-bit extra of excitement is what sells the game for me.

[AversionFX]

This is the kind of person you want to stay away from, FYI.

:( Why!?

short message is not long enough!

[kid cabelgo]

This is the kind of person you want to stay away from, FYI.

Because of the third statement? He's right about the first two. 2 weeks to 70 sounds scary though. Took me about 3 months overall at least.

There's a palpable difference between the two factions. I enjoy the horde a lot more because they're the underdogs, yet they're generally far superior at PvP.

[Sl1pstream]

I just started on Vashj so if you're going Tauren, let me know.

[violentp]

Horde blow. They deserve to die. Their women, their children, every last one of them.

[swiftdraw]

Thanks for the response all. I might give it whirl here next month (ok, April, which may as well be next month now) when I'll actually have time (hellishly busy month in March, but much $$$) to sit, play, and have it budgeted in. Thinking of rolling a Orc Hunter or Warrior on a PvE server and see how it goes. Most MMO experience I have is playing in the Guild Wars beta so....

Anyhow thanks again.

[Murtaug]

1) How bad is the player base in general?
With anything the size of WoW, you are going to run into plenty of assholes. Find a small to medium size guild and you can make some really good friends. Generally people are pretty decent.

2) How bad is it playing as Horde?
Bad? There is no other way! I only ever played Horde, I felt like the Horde were the good guys, and the Alliance were the jerks. I assume the Alliance people felt the same, just the other way around.

3) How easy is it to solo and just explore?
Solo can be done pretty well. I pretty much did solo through seventy, though I did quest a bit with a couple friends and eventually guild members. That was really only 60-70 though, and those are the easiest damn ten levels in the game.. well, aside from the first ten.

4) What how viscous are the PvP servers?
Depends on the server I imagine. I played on Wildhammer, and for the first year it was quite vicious, then it tapered off until about a month before Burning Crusade. And actually, the first week or two, Alliance and Horde might as well have been on the same side in Outlands, people were just scrambling for all the greens and experience they could get, everything was so crowded. That is all over now though, I'd say PvP is the only way to play.

5) What is the newbie friendliness of the game now that it has 'matured' and has a lot of high level players?
Very newbie friendly. They seem to keep making it easier too, though I have not played in about three months. The high level people hit battlegrounds and raids and that is about it, most of the low level areas are pretty vacant (at least on Wildhammer) plenty of people around to quest and do instances with though.

6) What are the 'best' servers? Both PvP and PvE.
No clue. I only ever played on Wildhammer, with an alt on one other server that another friend had joined on and another for when Wildhammer was down; I barely played either. I would say pick a moderate population PvP, or wherever the EvAv people play these days.

7) How bad is the grind? Something you do occasionally to level or is it all you do?
It really depends on how you play the game and where you are at level wise. There are plenty of quests to do in the game, it will just take you a lot longer to level if you do no grinding at all. And you can argue that some quests force you to grind, it will feel that way at times. Endgame? Grind all the way, it is what keeps me from going back.

8) How good are the missions?
Some are lame, some are decent, some are good, some are great. There are some really cool quest lines in there, and some just overall good single quests. A lot are just gathering or slaughter fests.

9) Do you generally feel it was worth you money during the time you play/played?
At the time, yes... and no. I hated to love this game. Literally months of in game time have gone into this game. For that, I hate it. But I loved the game as just that, a game. It was a lot of fun, me and my buddy would spend hours just sneaking our way around areas we had no business being in at our level. Or going stealth and annoying Alliance in their cities. The game has changed a lot, but I remember hours spent just waiting for battlegrounds and the endless pub groups that would dissolve fifteen seconds after you entered an instance.

If you want to get into the game, level a bit, have fun but find a guild with some good people quick, that will keep the game fun a lot longer than it will on its own.

If I was going to be the decider on if you should start this game or not, I honestly would tell you to run far far away, the game has a grip that is hard to get away from. Once it grabs you, you'll fight to get away, you'll succeed, and then it will catch your damn pant leg and yank you back.

[Pigeon]

I played on Wildhammer, and for the first year it was quite vicious

Ha, awesome. I play alliance on wildhammer. Rockmcsmash

[bean19]

1) How bad is the player base in general?

It's like any MMO. There are mostly good people, but you notice the ones being asshats. If you want to avoid them, then choose the Normal servers as open PvP has no purpose and no rewards except in the Outlands areas and you can just toggle it on there. Make use of the /ignore function and find a good guild.

2) How bad is it playing as Horde?

It's great playing as Horde IMO. Depending on your battlegroup, that is. The biggest difference in gameplay between the two is really just how long you have to wait in the queue for battlegrounds. Most players know how to run raids and fight in BGs at this point. . . Horde had an advantage once upon a time in this, but honestly at the highest levels so many of the Alliance are veterans that it makes no difference.

3) How easy is it to solo and just explore?

Extremely easy and highly enjoyable. I'm not an "exploration" player, but there are tons of interesting things to see and find in WoW. It is #1 for a reason.

4) What how viscous are the PvP servers?

Depends on the server and the area. Again, there is no reward or reason to open PvP, and you will encounter highbies who ravage towns, kill quest givers, and camp your toon so closely that you have to log off if you attempt to level on a PvP server. Do it if you wish, but expect these things to happen. It only takes one asshole to shut down a lowbie area. A level 70 with level 70 gear wouldn't be taken down (if played smart) by even 50 level 30's.

5) What is the newbie friendliness of the game now that it has 'matured' and has a lot of high level players?

You can definitely get into the game and proceed to max level without feeling like a second class citizen. At max level, everyone is a second class citizen until they get their gear. If you like PvP, this means doing the battlegrounds for about two months to get some incredibly sick PvP gear. However, if you like PvE raids, then you need to go up the tiers of PvP raids in order to get gear that has +hit rating. This improves your accuracy so that you (and your guild) can progress to "harder" raids that have mobs that are so high level that you need that +hit rating to have a reasonable chance to hit them. They have designed it this way so that you can just PvP if you like, but if you want to see all the game's content, then you need to do the whole tiresome and terribly lengthy raid progression. It is still a raiding game too. They add new raids all the time, but there are only 4 battlegrounds since launch and arena matches (which are fun, but they are all straight deathmatch so there isn't much to them).

6) What are the 'best' servers? Both PvP and PvE.

No idea.

7) How bad is the grind? Something you do occasionally to level or is it all you do?

I never grind. Ever. I do quests that I enjoy or do raids that I enjoy. In the process, I gain levels. . . wait, actually in the 50s. . . I remember there being a lot of content still, but some of it was so spread out that it didn't make sense to mess with it. So I did grind portions of levels then, but the rest of the time it really feels like leveling is an extension of questing. I generally have a lot of quest xp.

8) How good are the missions?

Some suck and some are quite good. They are just MMO quests, of course. . . it's primarily "go kill X" or go to area with mobs and place an orb, or kill this named, etc. . . but there are some really interesting and cool ones - most especially in Outlands. Level 60-70 was a joy to play through.

9) Do you generally feel it was worth you money during the time you play/played?

Yes. WoW is by far the best overall MMORPG out right now. I am not playing currently, and I'm hoping Warhammer Online will best them (I love PvP when it is skill-based), but I had a wonderful time playing it and I highly recommend it to anyone who like MMOs or thinks they might like MMOs. If you have not played it and you are a former EQ, AC, or DAoC player, then you owe it to yourself to do so as it has completely changed player expectations for MMOs.

[Inspector Fowler]

Unless you plan on making PvP a focus, I think you are better on a PvE server. I played on Dark Iron, and I don't know how it is on other servers, but it was pretty bad there.

Very frequent ganking and camping during quests, and in any general neutral area. As you get higher ranked, your quests put you more and more in neutral and enemy territory.

One guy followed me for a whole escort mission. At the end, when the objective was in sight, he killed me and my wife, and then took off. Awesome.

I honestly can't think of a single night/day playing WoW once I left level 20 or so where I wasn't ganked at least once.

It keeps you paranoid, I can say that. Now that I play LotRO, I still pan the camera around when I'm questing, even though there isn't any open-world PvP.

[MegaChops]

oh oh i want to play!

1) How bad is the player base in general?
It really depends. I just started a Undead Warlock on Gurubashi and so far it's pretty good. I used to play on Warsong a long time ago which was heavily populated by russian and brazillian players so partying was a bit of a pain. I think it really depends on the server.

2) How bad is it playing as Horde?
I prefer it better than Alliance. This is my first EVER horde character i've leveled past 30 as I have 3 other alliance characters on different servers that are 65 to 70. I actually prefer playing as the Horde, for some reason I've found the horde player base to be a bit more mature and they know what they're doing more so than alliance players.

3) How easy is it to solo and just explore?
Depends on what class you choose. hunter or Warlock is very easy to solo. also depends on which server you choose.

4) What how viscous are the PvP servers?
meh not as bad as folks think it is. now a days most PVP is done in battlegrounds/arenas. some areas are pvp heavy like stranglethorn for example, others not so much.

5) What is the newbie friendliness of the game now that it has 'matured' and has a lot of high level players?
I find it pretty noob friendly. you have to realize the mass popularity of this game and that there are new people and new characters being started on a daily basis. some folks are jerks to new players, others are understanding.

6) What are the 'best' servers? Both PvP and PvE.
dunno, there are just too many. don't think it really matters.

7) How bad is the grind? Something you do occasionally to level or is it all you do?
with the recent changes I found the grind pretty easy and thus far have done most of my leveling by doing quests. every now and again I might find myself grinding to be strong enough to do the next quest but I've found if I get to that point I only have 2-3 more bars before leveling anyways.
8) How good are the missions?
pretty good. some are really fun, few are annoying.
9) Do you generally feel it was worth you money during the time you play/played?
yup. I took quite a bit of time off but now that I've started a new race and a new class it's like it's brand new to me again.

[bean19]

4) What how viscous are the PvP servers?
meh not as bad as folks think it is. now a days most PVP is done in battlegrounds/arenas. some areas are pvp heavy like stranglethorn for example, others not so much.

I think the point that the rest of us were making is that there are assholes that DO go to lowbie towns and camp their corpses for literally hours. It happens all the time. If you choose a PvP server, than realize that you are as likely to run into this guy as you are to simply get into some fun PvP with a level appropriate adversary.

My first character to 60 (back when that was the cap) was on a PvP server, but I rolled a new one to play with my brother and we played on a Normal server. What I do now is to simply turn on my PvP flag when I see an Alliance that is level appropriate and who could thus give me a good fight. If they attack, then great. If they do not, then I am okay with that too as I don't want to interrupt their play just to PvP.

Plus, there isn't a real reward for open PvP. The honor you get for kills is neligible compared to what you get for participation in BGs.

[Zabyx]

Been playing a lot of Warcraft II and III lately and a nasty little thought popped into my head that I might try WoW. First I need a general idea on things.

1) How bad is the player base in general?
2) How bad is it playing as Horde?
3) How easy is it to solo and just explore?
4) What how viscous are the PvP servers?
5) What is the newbie friendliness of the game now that it has 'matured' and has a lot of high level players?
6) What are the 'best' servers? Both PvP and PvE.
7) How bad is the grind? Something you do occasionally to level or is it all you do?
8) How good are the missions?
9) Do you generally feel it was worth you money during the time you play/played?

Thanks

The player base Alliance side is horrible, Horde side much better. That will give you an indication on playing Horde, too.

It's very easy to solo, but not as easy to explore.

PvP servers are incredibly vicious, just the way I like it.

The game is newbie friendly, but there are in fact many high levels.
There are no best servers, pick something with a medium population.

You grind every once and a while.

The quests are meh, but you'll need to them. Alliance quest design is generally considered better overall, mainly because of many awesome quest chains.

It is easily worth the money if you look only at how much you play.

[Savok]

1) How bad is the player base in general?
Very bad, in fact I hate each and everyone of them

2) How bad is it playing as Horde?
Not as bad as Alliance

3) How easy is it to solo and just explore?
Very easy to solo, explore it depends on what you're trying to explore and at what lvl

4) What how viscous are the PvP servers?
Ridiculous, don't play on them, ever, PvE gives you everything PvP offers only without random ganking

5) What is the newbie friendliness of the game now that it has 'matured' and has a lot of high level players?
Depends on the server, younger the server the more varied the playerbase

6) What are the 'best' servers? Both PvP and PvE.
All are awful, I can tell you one to avoid at all costs though, Dark Iron

7) How bad is the grind? Something you do occasionally to level or is it all you do?
These days you can go from 1-70 almost purely on quests

8) How good are the missions?
Varies, they generally quite good if they're not broken (don't expect GM help when they are)

9) Do you generally feel it was worth you money during the time you play/played?
It was one of the biggest wastes of time in my entire life, it's the sort of game you play when thinking about killing yourself, to make the choice easier

[Squidbot]

1) How bad is the player base in general?
Pretty bad on some servers. There are always morons, but then there are also people who you take to be morons at first glance, but are in fact just really lazy typists. You need to find the nice people, once you do you'll find a little sub culture of excellent players.

2) How bad is it playing as Horde?
Bad? What does that mean? If you mean the player base then the Horde generally has a more mature player base, but that doesn't count for a lot considering all the tools that play. I started as Horde, levelled to 60, switched to Alliance, levelled to 60, TBC came out, quit playing and now I'm Horde again and will never go back to Alliance.

3) How easy is it to solo and just explore?
Very.

4) What how viscous are the PvP servers?
Excuse me?

5) What is the newbie friendliness of the game now that it has 'matured' and has a lot of high level players?
Hmm, the learning curve and levelling are quite easy, however finding a decent guild is key to seeing the full depth of of the game, and all it has to offer. Many guilds won't accept a total newbie, whereas some guilds will welcome you with open arms and help you learn.

6) What are the 'best' servers? Both PvP and PvE.
There is no "best".

7) How bad is the grind? Something you do occasionally to level or is it all you do?
Pretty damn grindy.

8) How good are the missions?
If you liek WC lore you'll love it. Especially Horde side.

9) Do you generally feel it was worth you money during the time you play/played?
Absolutely. Still playing since Beta.

[Superman's Dead]

I didn't want to start a new thread when there's a perfectly good one right here!

I'm going to start up playing, at least for a little bit. What's the most cost-effective way to start playing WoW? 10 day trial, or this 'guest pass' account thing that I see on the website. And I'm gonna assume it's safer to buy each month with the pre-purchased cards instead of credit cards for easier quitting.

[grandepolloloco]

I didn't want to start a new thread when there's a perfectly good one right here!

I'm going to start up playing, at least for a little bit. What's the most cost-effective way to start playing WoW? 10 day trial, or this 'guest pass' account thing that I see on the website. And I'm gonna assume it's safer to buy each month with the pre-purchased cards instead of credit cards for easier quitting.

There is no quitting! Only Hiatus!!!

Both are exactly the same price unless you get a deal or cards are on sale. Regardless come join us on Vashj pvp server. PVP is not that bad and it sure does get fun later on slaughtering the Alliance. stupid gnomes.

[Superman's Dead]

There is no quitting! Only Hiatus!!!

Both are exactly the same price unless you get a deal or cards are on sale. Regardless come join us on Vashj pvp server. PVP is not that bad and it sure does get fun later on slaughtering the Alliance. stupid gnomes.

Thanks for the tip!

I'd join you if I could, but I'm pretty much doing this to win over my ex-girlfriend, who plays on a different PvP server as Alliance. And that's a choice...I just don't want to make. :)

[Mashidar]

Thanks for the tip!

I'd join you if I could, but I'm pretty much doing this to win over my ex-girlfriend, who plays on a different PvP server as Alliance. And that's a choice...I just don't want to make. :)

See if you really want to win her over you play on her server, but also play on our server as a horde. When the question is asked "Why are you playing horde on that server?" You can come back and say that you are doing it in order to know your enemy better and know where they like to hide and camp out! :D

[Ancalagon]

Thanks for the tip!

I'd join you if I could, but I'm pretty much doing this to win over my ex-girlfriend, who plays on a different PvP server as Alliance. And that's a choice...I just don't want to make. :)

Play as Horde and gank her as much as possible.

Chics love spontaneoity (sp) - she will dig stuff like that. They love little surprises.

Jokes, although I am curious as to how you want to get her back?

[Superman's Dead]

Play as Horde and gank her as much as possible.

Chics love spontaneoity (sp) - she will dig stuff like that. They love little surprises.

Jokes, although I am curious as to how you want to get her back?

I'm...y'know, if I knew, I'd tell ya. Right now I'm banking on just being around all the time and this really sweet package I sent her. And if that doesn't work, probably setting myself on fire.

I nabbed a trial account and started a character of Vashj, a Tauren hunter. Now how the HELL do I get in on this guild? :)

[cp#]

I think WoW is very fun but I did not want to put the time into it. There isn't too much of a "grind" until you are in high levels and as newbie I thought the beginning missions were fun (I was a gnome lock)

[grandepolloloco]

I'm...y'know, if I knew, I'd tell ya. Right now I'm banking on just being around all the time and this really sweet package I sent her. And if that doesn't work, probably setting myself on fire.

I nabbed a trial account and started a character of Vashj, a Tauren hunter. Now how the HELL do I get in on this guild? :)

Do a /who Evil Avatar and message anyone that comes up on the list to get an invite. We've actually had a whole lot of people on recently and we're really starting to come together.

[Sl1pstream]

I'm...y'know, if I knew, I'd tell ya. Right now I'm banking on just being around all the time and this really sweet package I sent her. And if that doesn't work, probably setting myself on fire.

I nabbed a trial account and started a character of Vashj, a Tauren hunter. Now how the HELL do I get in on this guild? :)

Excellent. I'm in Oggrimmar at the moment, still looking for people to do the first dungeon with. Can't seem to find anyone else.