World of Warcraft – Start Anew

I’m going to try something new today, in terms of game reviewing, since the regular deal just won’t do when it comes to a game as well known as World of Warcraft. Just the other day I has a friend asking me the usual question: “How’s the game?” I found it rather hard to answer, because I always get lost in useless details and he would most likely become bored and look for another MMO to play. So presuming you’ve never experienced World of Warcraft firsthand, I’ll lay it down for you nicely.

Taking about two years in the making, World of Warcraft was released in November 2004 and quickly became the most popular pay-per-month MMORPG in the western world. So if you’re a RPG fan not into the Asian animation techniques or Sci-Fi, then you’re probably interested in neo medieval fantasy games. World of Warcraft took the existing elements seen in pioneer titles as Acheron’s Call or Everquest and brought them further, being the first MMORPG done “the Blizzard way”. This means developers were extra careful on game glitches and bugs. My WoW rarely, if ever, crashes and I haven’t experienced a game bug in a very long time. Then we have in game support through Game Masters, which is featured in most online games, but here, you get a quick response even at 2am in the morning. Although it may not solve the problem on the spot, it’s great to know that you’re not ignored and will receive feedback no matter what. In Warcraft3, patching the game every month with balance chances between the existing races was a recipe for success, keeping their player base intact and gaining new adepts. Blizzard learned from this success and did the same thing on a grand scale with WoW. Every two months or so there are patches that take care of that imbalanced Hunter skill everyone hates, or buffing the Rogue class for added survivability and the rest. There are also client and world fixes, as well as content updates, providing for new zones to explore and items to acquire, all for free. There are MMORPGs out there with 9 expansions already, and you have to pay for each and every one of them in order to compete with other players your level. That’s not the case here and it’s one of the main reasons players stay hooked to WoW, it’s harder to get bored.

There is a choice in playing on a PvE (player versus environment) server, where battling other players is only consensual. You can also go straight for the big boys’ playground, the PvP (player versus player) realms, where every step past level twenty-something can be your last, or your enemy’s last. If you’re new to MMORPGs and can’t take competition, it is suggested you start playing on a PvE realm, because creating alternative characters on the same PvP realms is highly encountered and their experience playing the game might put you in a bad situation. There is also the third option of RP (role playing) servers, where you can really get inside your character’s skin, think, act and evolve as your avatar should. Once you create the first character, you find yourself in the Warcraft world of Azeroth, ready to play your part in the battle between the Alliance and the Horde. More or less you have the regular fantasy races encountered in Warcraft, all in all eight choices evenly distributed between the two enemy factions, with different bonuses and abilities which won’t make a huge difference in your gameplay. My advice is to play the race you like best in terms of looks and lore. As usual, class wise you can be healer, damage dealer, tank or hybrid, depending on your aptitudes. Warriors and rogues take it up and personal in melee range, hunters and warlocks deal damage having the extra control given by their pets, mages hurt you from a safe distance while paladins, shamans, priests and druids can either heal or do damage in different ways. If you’re new to the game, it’s a good idea to get player-friendly class which can handle itself properly against creatures. I’d advise hunter, warlock or rogue. As true hybrids, capable of tanking, dealing damage and healing, all at the same time if needed, Druids come first to mind and maybe Paladins too. While leveling, class is not that important, but you might want to look ahead and decide what role you wish to fulfill in raids and the general scheme of things once you reach the maximum level. Be aware that the game changes and it’s basically a new beginning at level 70. Also, more than 50% or WoW players are already level 70 and even if you’re completely new at this, somewhere in the next four months you will get there.



But what’s different about WoW? For once I must agree God is in the details. Developers took everything the MMO scene had to offer, adapted it and did it better. The world is huge and it’s non-instanced, meaning that if you get a means of flying transportation from Undercity to Booty Bay, you’re going to see the players below you in real time, as well as the surroundings. When you do it for the first time it’s breathtaking. Blizzard struggled to make WoW load-free, and tried to make map transitions seem natural, as in reality. After all, you don’t see a loading screen while buying from McDonalds in real life, do you? Of course, there are instanced zones too, where you can fight harder monsters which drop rare loot, but you need a five man team to get in there. While the point of MMOs is to get players to fight between themselves or cooperate for greater glory, WoW did the smart thing of not forcing you to go either way. It’s entirely up to you if you’re going to quest alongside two other players of just solo the place by yourself. I for one love the freedom of movement and choice.

People enjoy WoW for different reasons. There is great room for socialization, making friends with other players, also for the sense of achievement when you just soloed a high leveled creature of killed a raid instance boss with help from 24 more guys in your guild. There are countless machinimas on the net, player made videos of WoW footage that have a story and soundtrack, turning their creators into virtual film makers. There have been weddings inside WoW, role playing raids on the opposing faction’s towns, and fishing contests. If you want fast paced PvP action you can get that regardless of your realm type by joining the queue for the battlegrounds. They’re instanced small to medium maps where you team up with players belonging to your faction and try to eliminate the opponent team. It’s either capture the flag in Warsong Gulch, domination in Arathi Basin, king of the hill in Alterac Valley or a mix in Eye of the Storm, games within the game, not far from their FPS counterparts. You can also go for organized small team play within the arenas, where you can create a group with help from your guildies or friends and match up against others with similar power and skill. Blizzard even has a ladder system where you can see daily rating changes and ranks, in a fight for the #1 spot or just for fun. I can say from experience that this kind of play rekindled the flame inside many Starcraft and Warcraft 3 players, as the system resembles the Battle.net ladder. Honor points gained through battlegrounds and world PvP will gain you access to a wide array of epic items that will make you life easier, just as well as arena points can get you unique and powerful armor sets. Level 70 life usually revolves around high end instances where you need 25 players to help with a boss kill. This will add depth to the game, because you need people to be online, a good class setup as well as predetermined roles in the upcoming encounter. Additional traits required are tactics and coordination, so everyone must do a good job in order to be successful. It’s more than just slashing away at a clueless pack of mobs.



WoW breeds a stable economy on each realm, entirely ruled by players through the rule of offer and demand. At some point people will need decent amounts of gold in order to get better gear. You can say having a knack for manipulating the Auction House prices is a skill not many possess. Just get in there, set up your item for a starting price and wait for another player to buy it from you. Some also buy cheap and sell high in an instant, so say goodbye to the old model where you were needed to idle around for hours in a town and spam the chat with “Want to sell” messages. This is important since all MMORPGs have that which is called “time sinks”, the many little yet useless things you are forced to do in order to get ahead, thus wasting your precious time on things that are not fun, like grinding the same mobs for cash. It’s not that far from having a bad job in order to get the money for survival.

Overall, there is plenty of casual and hardcore content to keep you busy for a long time. There are also bad things about WoW. The maximum level population is so great that all content add-ons regard level 70 players specifically, which will send most newcomers in a rush to level faster. Thus finding people to level with, quest and do the natural game progression through the lower levels is difficult. I advise you playing on a relatively new realm, one which Blizzard kindly recommends you on logon. There you’ll meet more players ready to share your experience, which in turn means they are less knowledgeable than a band of low level alternative veteran characters. There is currently a dispute regarding the time involved in gaining the PvP items through points. Some think they are too easy to obtain, thus making it useless to go through the usual instance runs and reputation gains at level 70 in order to get geared up appropriately. Many low level characters, or newcomers, complain that life on a PvP server is hell while leveling to 70, since being killed by a character ten times more powerful than yourself is possible and represents a major dent in your morale. There are also benefits from this system, because you’ll feel just as good when your successful riposte kills an enemy player of your appropriate level range.

There is a lot more to be said, but this resembles the overall view. You can get a clue about the graphics by watching the following pictures and should you be interested, Blizzard is always giving away free trials for the game here.

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