WoW Update

[octothorpe]

Just so people know, I'm "Visigothe" Dwarf Paladin playing on Gilneas.

So after day 2, I have some thoughts on the game. It's fun, and not as tedious as many such games are, but it still has its share of *massive* tedium. Unlike in offline RPGs, you don't gain experience by killing random monsters (well, you do, but it's paltry). You seem to make the most XP by doing quests, something that in offline RPGs is purely optional. I suppose this is to make the world seem more like a world, and less like a hunting trip. It also encourages grouping, aiding the social aspects of the game. It is however, *really* hard to remember what to click/keys to press just to talk to someone. I still haven't figured out how to talk to someone who isn't in your party (and isn't in your immediate field of view).

The really ugly part about WoW is the mapping. Is it so difficult to have a "live" map with all the places you've been, and markers to where you need to be (assuming you've been there, or have been told where something is)? The tolkein-esque maps are almost entirely useless, as they are waaaay too zoomed out for me to figure out how to get back to where I need to be. Is this universal suckage, or am I missing the "make everything suck less" key command?

Is there a penalty when you die? I've died twice, perhaps 3 times, and I don't believe I've lost anything (money, XP, items). Does this hold true for the higher levels as well? If there is no penalty for death, why don't I just pkill people, and gain XP?

It sucks that trial accounts can't receive items from people. I had a bunch of loot I wanted to give to vishanti, but no soap.

I thought WoW had an in-game voice-chat option. I haven't figured out how to make that happen.

Big ups to bigsabu for hopping online and grouping with me last night.

Comments

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info. I used to play MUDs, so I am familiar with the whole level grind thing. I love the fact that death isn't so bad, save a lot of running. When I was playing Deku MUDs, I'd lose HUGE amounts of XP, and that got old *really* quickly, especially considering p-killing didn't have any restrictions.

[jeffinthebox.livejournal.com]

What level have you managed to get up to? What village is your guy parked right now.

I'll get a toon up to your level and park myself in the same place so I can join you tonight.

What time do you play?

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

Good to see you this evening! We did the whole leper gnome thing, so now we're around 11-12.

[stormecho.livejournal.com]

To me, WOW will always stand for Whip-em Out Wednesday, when DJ's Opie & Anthony tried to promote flashing.

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

They still have it (they're on XM).

Yeah, it's a guilty pleasure. They're *so* bad, but sadly, they're better than everything else that's on the radio, save some NPR programming.

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

hehehe. Yeah, I tried to get on your server when I started, but it said it was full, so I chose the other one that a lot of LJers have.

Hmm... perhaps we should start an LJ clan?

[piratechan.livejournal.com]

To talk to someone not in your field of view, use /w and then the name you want to speak to, to "whisper" someone.

I dunno what to tell you about the maps. I find them to work fine for me. I think the lack of markers is to encourage exploring. I dunno. Portions of the map (there are 3 levels of map, immediate area, continent, and world, and I dunno which ones you're seeing or not seeing) do reveal themselves after you've explored them...

There is in fact a penalty when you die. Your armor loses durability. Eventually, after enough deaths, you have to spend money and repair your stuff, cause when it is broken, it is uselss until you repair it. This gets costly at higher levels and for better levels of gear.

WoW does not have an in game voice chat. Most people use Ventrillo or Teamspeak servers to cope with this. Having heard Gabe's Blackwing Lair raid over Teamspeak, I really don't care for voicechat (although it's prolly much nicer with friends). Somebody in his raid had a really awesome Austrailian accent though!

I'm still glad you're giving it a try. ^_^

[schwarzedrache.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear you're giving WoW a try. You should make a toon on Proudmoore- it's the unnoficial gay server- all the kiddies in our mutual friends list that play WoW are on it. Also check out The Stonewall Champions" (http://www.stonewallchampions.org/) guild if you favor the Alliance, or the The Spreading Taint (http://taint.dkpsystem.com/news.php) if you favor the horde. Its fun to make twink jokes in guildchat, and not have to use gender neutral pronouns or get into a long discussion every time you need to take a bf break from an instance run. Send me a mail at schwarzedrache at gmail dot com, and I can hook you up with the minimum level of mods and a quick primer in game.

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

At this point, I am still in the trial mode, and to be honest, I donnow if I will actually plunk the cash. It's fun and all, but I don't think it's $12/mo fun.

Thanks, though. The idea of "The Spreading Taint" is simply too brilliant to ignore ;-)