I will be canceling pretty soon. The 'new' devs doth suck.

Oddly enough I did the same exact thing 2 days ago.

2 level 60 chars and both just bore me.

The hunt for loot at 60 requires WAY to much time, and WAY to many lost efforts in instances that have less then 2% drop chances for peices i need.

Some day I'll go back to this game, but I'm glad to be out of it atm.

Yeah, I just found the WoW atmosphere boring. The hunt for loot is old like Destrox said...especially when it has a 1% chance of dropping and it takes 4 hours for one shot of it, not to mention any other people in the group that want it. WoW is definitely the "best" MMORPG I've ever played...it's the funnest...it has the best combat system...but the atmosphere simply sucks. I hate it. I like EQ-style worlds where the world feels like an actual place instead of levels. The gryphons in WoW ruined the world-experience by teleporting you from level to level instead of having to go across the world. The boats teleporting you is stupid too...the game just feels like a level by level videogame instead of a living, breathing world. EverQuest may be waay too harsh on dying and waay too harsh on leveling up but at least it felt like an actual world. WoW's superb gameplay kept me to almost two 60's...but now I'm realizing that my hatred of the atmosphere makes the game boring to me. Not to mention I REALLY REALLY hate how you can lose your PVP rank (which was basically the only fun I had in the game at 60).

-Lasereth

That complaint never crossed my mind. Atmosphere is one of the things I'd rank highest about WoW. I would HATE to have to run all over the place all the damn time. Talk about a waste of fucking time. Even with an epic mount, mithril spurs and the riding speed enchant, you're still talking an unbelievable amount of time you'd have to spend doing nothing but traveling. I mean, getting to Feathermoon from Auberdine on foot? Are you kidding? That's enough time to do a tribute run. Maybe even enough to do a baron run with a really efficient group. I always felt like the world flowed together really well, and even more so after I read the histories and had a better sense of the different zones.

The thing that makes WoW "unreal" to me is the fact that nothing in the game changes. The game world renews itself every few minutes and really renews itself once a week. Everyone does the same quests for the same people and the same "unique" monsters get killed over and over again. Before anyone jumps on me, I understand that it's not possible to have a videogame in which this isn't the case, but it just throws me out of the world when I think about it like that.

The 60 loot grind is a real bitch, too.

Whatever, I'm still having fun.

As requested, here's my levelling guide for mages (Human/Alliance) and talent progression. A quick note, you will NOT enjoy WoW at all doing this. In fact you'll be missing 99% of the quests and instances and you will never ever group with anyone. You will not explore anything, you will not get a good feel for the amazing environments that exist. This playstyle is meant to level you as fast and efficient as possible, not to enjoy the game (until 60). You will not waste time on travelling around, getting professions, hanging around Ironforge chatting. You will power level and that's it. The only time you visit a major town is to buy new skills and some new gear off the AH. I do NOT recommend first time players doing this.

1-12 Elwynn Forest

Regular lowbie quests in Elwynn forest. You usually run out of quests when you hit level 9-10 but just grind some gnolls/spiders/wolves etc until 12.

12-20 Westfall

Do the defias series of quests. Kill quests so you may as well get the bonus xp from the quest while grinding. At 14 start grinding Harvest Watchers lvl 15 (?) found on the farms. Do these until 18 when you can comfortably finish the last defias quest. As you're doing the last defias quest, don't stop until you're 20 and keep grinding those Highway bandits.

20-22 Redridge/Lakeshire

Tons of easy kill quests here and you should be able to get 2-3 levels off them alone. At 22-23 kiss this place good bye and move to my favorite zone in the entire game Duskwood.

22(23)-32 Duskwood/Darkshire

This place is grinding heaven at these levels. First of all you have the nighwatch line of quests, then you have the worgen quests, and sven, and the hermit and god knows what. Great great xp . If you find yourself "stuck" i.e. a level too low to do the next quest, just grind undead at Raven Hill according to your level. A lot of these quests involves running from Raven Hill back to darkshire and back again. A quicker way, if you are at Raven Hill and need to go back to Darkshire, is actually to run west back to sentinel hill in westfall and fly to darkshire and vice versa. Heads up, stay away from undead that put a disease on you which slows cast time, drain mana etc. Ghouls will usually give you this.

32-34 Arathi/Refuge Point

OK, these two levels suck. I'm not sure what is a good spot here. It used to be Yeti's in Hillsbrad, but then the honor system came and ruined that, and now we have BG's so Hillsbrad may be safe again. I don't know. To be safe, I just went and killed raptors around refuge point in arathi. You can also do Witherbark Village. Either way these two levels are relatively slow and painful.

34-38 Desolace/Naga Island (20-25k xp/hour)

An annoying run to get to Desolace but well worth it in the end.

Naga Island. This place is great. If you look at the map for Desolace you'll see an island in the top northwest corner. Swim out there. Here you'll find Naga's that little HP and die really fast. Also, you'll never run out of spawns if you grind circles around the island. I love this place. Heads up for the occasional horde and a level 40 elite giant that rumble accross the island sometimes.

38-39 Swamp Of Sorrows (20-25k xp/hour)

One more painful level here. There are lvl 35 green dragonlings in the southwest corner of the map. Grind those for one level and do some quests in this area.

39-43 Swamp Of Sorrows (20-25k xp/hour)

Swamp elementals, top northwest corner of the map. Elementals in WoW tend to have a weakness against fire so if you follow my talent build (See below) you'll gain xp very very fast off these. Usualy grind in a circle pattern works out well.

43-48 Feralas/Feathermoon (25-30k xp/hour)

Run south from Feathermoon until you get to the island south of...the island feathermoon is on. Isle of Dread I think it's called. Anyway, kill some naga's and make way to the cave. You want to grind the naga's inside that cave since they are the shammy/caster variety and have significantly less HP than the warriors outside the cave. They are also higher level, go figure. This place is the bomb. Fast xp, tons of pearls drop from the clams, lots of greens and in my case an epic as well, the gut ripper which promptly sold on the AH for 60g.

48-50 Tanaris/Gadgetstan (25k xp/hour)

Go to the southwest corner of the map, thistleshrub valley and kill the elementals here. Again, they are vulnerable to fire so you'll kill fast.

50-52 Un'goro crater (25k xp/hour)

Do the silly fedex quests available from the npc's at the top/mid map (forget what the camp is called). That should get you a quick 50k xp. After that perpare for fireball crit heaven. Tar elementals lvl 50-52. Believe it or not, these things are so vulnerable to fire, even if one fireball is resisted they STILL get a small DoT on them. My highest crit was 1362 at level 50.

52-60 Dire Maul East (50k+ xp/hour)

This is why everyone and their mom rolled a mage after the dire maul patch came out. Not only does it take you 2-4 hours to level, but the drop rate is supposedly great for epics and blues (I didn't find it that amazing). But let me tell you, there is much money to be made in these 8 levels from this place.

OK so basic idea is to aoe grind the 7 lashers right at the entrance. They are lvl 54 so at starting this at 52 proved more difficult that I thought at first. I actually had to repspec to get blastwave to pull this off at 52.

The build that worked for me in here at 52 was:

Arcane:

Arcane Focus 5/5
Arcane Concentration 5/5
Evocation 1/1
Improved Arcane Explosion 5/5

Fire:

Improved Fireball 5/5
Ignite 5/5
Flamwthrowing 2/2
Pyroblast 1/1
Improved Flamestrike 3/3
Burning Soul 3/3
Incinerate 2/2
Blastwave 1/1
Critical Mass 3/3
Fire Power 2/5

This worked fine for me. People also say a frost spec works wonders in there, but I never played a frost mage and probably never will so I played what was comfortable to me. Basic strategy was:

Flamestrike
Flamestrike (around you so it hits when they reach you)
Cone of Cold
Blastwave
Arcane Explosion until dead.

A few times at 52 I was forced to use a health pot if the initial flamestrike pull got messed up. This doesn't happen very often. At 54 and onward you'll have no problems. You will the bulk of your money during these 8 levels selling greens on the AH. Especially Living Essence which is required for Hide of the Wild epic pattern. I AH'd these for 5-10g a piece and they sell. Note, I killed nearly 7000 lashers during these 8 levels which means I reset the instance almost 1000 times. I used a macro for this:

/invite [nameofpersonalreadyinagroup]
/script LeaveParty()

This way you can do a /who molten core and a pick a person that is in an mc group (or other high end instance) and put that name in your macro. This will reset the instance for you and you don't have to bother with a friend accepting your invites. The person you send an invite to won't even notice that you are using him.

Total time /played 1-60: 7 days 20 hours. I'm sure it can be done faster.

Have fun!

--jaded

EDIT: Oops, forgot to include talent progression as you level. You want to go down the fire tree since that's where you most efficient dps is. Faster kills = faster xp. Here's how:

Levels 10-14: Improved Fireball
Levels 15-16: Flame Throwing
Levels 17-21: Ignite
Levels 22-26: Improved Arcane Missiles
Levels 27-31: Arcane Concentration
Level 32 : Evocation
Levels 33-34: Incinerate
Levels 35-38: Burning Soul
Levels 39-43: Impact
Levels 44-46: Critical Mass
Levels 47-51: Fire Power

52 Respec to DM aoe build (see above)

Before you go: What no Pyroblast? The spell quite frankly sucks in my opinion. 6 sec cast = 2 fireballs in the same amount of time. And when you're in a grind mode you don't want to be casting a spell for 6 seconds.

Woot reached 58 this morning, only 2 more levels to go!

Here's me a couple days ago rockin' out on not one, but two Noggenfogger's.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ckingmetal.jpg

I'm all out now, so any further pictures I post will be of a non-rockin' out night elf....

Until I go to Gadgetzan and buy some more.

Just got my epic mount today...

anyways, if any of you TFPers wanna come and make a character on Silvermoon, you've got a spot in our guild.. Brothers of the Snake

http://img247.echo.cx/img247/6383/wo...18107ei.th.jpg


Heres my Character on Stromreaver.

Halx, what side? Horde or Alliance?

I feel you Lasereth. At one time I was considering rerolling and playing "my own" game and not using the gryphons at all to extend the reality aspect.

Too bad you quit though. I finally rolled a priest on Bleeding Hollow to play with you and your bro. I actually found a guy that knows you IRL but he said you hadn't played in a long time..

If Monty Python were still together as a group doing what they do best, I know that they would do lots of takes on WoW ala Holy Grail and the "mechanical" nature of the quests.

I hate the traveling aspect of it, mounts or gryphs it's still such a long time to get from place to place, and maps aren't any help since each one is is it's own scale. I don't have infinite game time. I have plenty of other interests that take me outside of the house.

What I do like is that I can play with my wife and best friend who lives in LA.... and as time has come on... I've got 2 other old coworkers that have also jumped on as well.

hal you all use Teamspeak or a voice prog?

Since posting I travelled from Orgrimmar to Grom'gol (STV) and forced myself to walk to Stonard (SoS) instead of flying. All I was out to do was buy a Stonescale Oil recipe and I wound up ganking in duskwood and westfall for about 45 minutes, enjoying Elwynn nostalgia, and dancing with some alliance. It's funny how much more I immediately enjoyed the game from doing this and not skipping over the world. I think I'ma try to keep it up :thumbsup:

-T

We're alliance.. forgot to mention that.

Right now, we're too small to bother with TS.. we're growing though.

We're looking for casters.. mage/warlock/priest

Bah Halx... I've been a caster for too long. I've been wanting to make a warrior though. I can be persuaded to be a mage though, lol.

I'll roll a character on Silvermoon tonight when I get home from work. :)

There's no "too small to bother with TS." My guild has maybe 10 active members plus a few friends who join us. There are nights when it's just two of us chatting away on it. And it makes 5-manning the endgame instances SO much easier. Typing's just clumsy. Easier to talk.

just found out that Silvermoon is a 'Normal' server... sorry Halx, I need PvP. :( Why couldn't you be on a PvP server? :( :( :(

Halx didn't start on silvermoon. I did. I started there with a few other friends because I wanted to play the game without distractions of getting "mugged" or "ganked" when I least expected it to just play with my friends.

The PvP aspect of the game is interesting to me, but not a draw, the draw to me was being able to play with my friends in concert and a connectedness.

I was on SC but the game is not what I would say is a long term solution.

Lack of a true crafting system. It is a joke in the game. The best equip should be crafted not looted except for maybe trinkets and rings.

There is no end game content for the true causal gamer. MC is a huge time sink and so is the PvP system, which is horrible. There are no guild goals, which is a huge mistake not allowing guilds to go in as a 40 man group or what not.

I have a 60 druid (Tauren) since January, so it is not like I have not given the game a chance.

I will check back in 6 months and see what the hero classes look like and if they have done anything to make guilds worthwhile.


Art

I got a 37 mage but Im on a different server.
and also a 37 priest:)



So Halx if I start a char on Silvermoon what is your players name, so I can PM to add me to the guild?

my character is Halarkin - 60 NE Druid.. ask around, I'm quite popular :p

Ok might do that later tonight if I get time!

Hey Hal... I'm actually gonna be back on silvermoon tonite. I've got some of my scheduling and stuff finally worked out, so I'll be back. I'll shoot one of you guys a tell when I get on.

The job I got down here in austin is the bomb! I do have to say tho, even with all the bad rap Dell gets from IT people, it is an excellent place to work.

Hey . . . . .

Has anyone snuck into the unfinished zones like Mt Hyjal and Zul Gurub (sp)? I know it's possibly a bannable offense but I'm really curious about what's lurking behind those walls. The bottom half of Sithilus too. Cool stuff, I bet.

If you did - pique my curiousity!

Is it even possible to get in there?

I just came back from a couple month break. While I have some renewed interest I can tell I won't be playing much longer. The only thing that bugs me though is that Ive never gotten to max level on any MMORPG I've played (played 5). I always get bored toward midlate level (like here it was level 45ish). Not that it should matter, but I always feel a little sad leaving these games and not "finishing" them. Don't know why. :crazy:

It also kinda makes me feel like I somehow wasted all that time since I didn't finish it (even though i didn't because I still had lots of fun).

Anyone else like this?

Nope I still love the game:)

I think it helps to play with someone. If you have someone who you're measuring up against, you're always driven to get to the next level. You also have someone to pass the time with while the grind gets boring. That's why I think you should all come to silvermoon!

I have screenshots of Caverns of Time in Tanaris... what a wild place that was... simple bug got me into that place. now where did I put those shots...

That's awesome Cyn, ha.

Apparently you can Train, I have no idea how to do it though.

to leave you some surprise...

I reduced the pic sizes so that you get the idea... but the total wow factor won't be lost when you get there the first time. Also the people that brought me here... well they don't know I'm posting these snapshots.. so a little privacy for them too.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...205_131243.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...205_131232.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...205_131212.jpg

That's pretty badass Cyn.

I was once stuck in the zone behind Stratholme, to the north, after a really bad lag session. It wasn't exciting. Just flat lands with different textures.

Your screens = mucho badass.

I see that you're a hunter! As am I, sir!

Silvermoon is cool lots of people in the general chat........hell I got 11 lvls in 3 hours :thumbsup:

I wandered into the Caverns of Time as well, it's an awesome area. Very end-of-the movie Contact-style.

Ok, so technically, Blizzard can ban you for this, but Im about to cancel anyway. Is there a website or anyway to sell your account to somewhere else? I mean, I don't have a ton of gold (~65 if I remember right), mount, and my main char is at 40, but Im sure someone will find it remotely valueable.

Has anyone snuck into the unfinished zones like Mt Hyjal and Zul Gurub (sp)?

we went all though the tail end of windterspring at that elite demon area down there but never found a way into MT Hyjal..

I got into the souther part or was it norther part of silithus.. bleak and screams starship troopers.. heh

basicaly to get into any of those areas that arent instances you just run up the mountains.. sooner or later you find a glitch in the terrian. and off you go.

barrens at bramble scar at the mountain next to mulgore you can do this .. we slip over it to raid on Thunderbluff all the time. makes for a quick raid.. 90% of the time starting at northwatch hold which is friendly to alliance we can cut across the barrens and into mulgore with out a single horde knowing till they see us on the lift to TB.

after that its just a quick right following the path to the chiefs tent.

According to "sources," you can easily slip into Hyjal by dying at the gate and simply rezzing on the other side. For some reason, that seems entirely too easy to work. Which is why I haven't exerted the effort to try it.

That's a cool trick about Barrens/Mulgore. I might try that once.

someone come make a character on Mannoroth (PvP) server tonight, I'm getting bored by myself, hehe.

Speaking of bugs, I just had controll of a griphon! Was pretty cool. Never happened to me before, never even heard of it happening before. Sometimes lag will make you stand still but I actually had controll of it. Wouldnt give me any up and down movement though, so I kept rubber banding (not from lag) when I'd catch hills or fences. Took him from searing gorge to loch modan, went underwater, lost controll, went under the world, then it resumed its normal flight path. Had it under controll for like 10-15 mins though. Would have taken it to IF but it was really hard to control.

Now Im trying to view my screenshots of it, but can't figure out how to view them??

EDIT: Figured it out.

Just as a note, be really careful about going into unfinished areas, particularly repeatedly. That's a big no-no in the Blizzard books and they have and will ban you for it.

Seen it happen 2 times before....just lag!

No. I actually had controll. I took it through the tunnel from searing gorge to loch modan. I could stop it when i wanted to, and it lasted for 15ish minutes, no way it was lag.

It was like a mount right?


maybe it was a glitch.

I've had the gryphon thing happen to me a few times also. I drove one from Darkshire to Booty Bay once. :)

-Lasereth

I need some help...I checked the WoW main webpage and can't find any info on transfering a charter from one server to another.

(both servers are normal)

and one know?

1) griffin bug is a bug and yes you are riding the griffin and others see you
2) you can only transfer characters when blizzard allows it and from specific servers to specific servers. i don't think this services is active atm.

2 bad...its a normal to normal server so there shouldn't be much trouble!

It is actually. (though I dont know why)

Im confused :hmm:

You said that you didn't know why it was so much trouble to transfer characters from one server to another. Zeraph posted (correctly) that he doesn't know why it is so much trouble to transfer characters, either, but that he knows it is a lot of trouble.

Clear things up? :thumbsup:

Yeah, frosstbyte explained it right, complete sentences 4tw! heh

I just know that in every MMO I've been in (5 or 6) it was always a big ordeal to transfer characters, EQ you had to pay like 60 bucks, and in all the rest you either didn't have the option or it was only under special circumstances like WoW.

Just joined a new guild, Death Bringers on Bleeding Hollow, anyone know anything about them or is anyone in them? I like the few people I've played with so far.

Ugh, I'm having bad raid luck recently. I just did a baron run with Death and Taxes (a big guild on Shattered Hand) and they'd been weird about loot the whole time. The leader looted two BoPs using the dice after everyone else passed without asking. Then, right before we got to the baron I DC'd and they went and killed him in the one minute it took me to sign back on after losing my connection. I mean, come on, how much does it hurt you to wait an extra minute before killing the main loot person in a run if someone who has been there the whole time disappears? Thank goodness nothing I wanted dropped.

Oh the transfer charter option is closed right now....but it should be back open!

I'm just starting to hate windrunner!

Good news for most, the 1.6 patch notes say that PvP rewards are usuable based on highest rank in your characters lifetime rather than current! That means no more pvp item decay. You can become high warlord, get all your equipment and still use it as a private.

Tons of other good changes this upcoming patch as well. This has gotta be their best patch.

I'm waiting for 1.7 (or maybe 1.8). There are supposed to be some major hunter changes coming down the pipe, and I'd love to see what they're planning to do with my class. Hopefully we won't be nerfed even farther into oblivion.

The PvP rewards thing is uber, though. I'll never make warlord, but it gives me hope for completing my knight set.

Keeping your pvp gear even if you lose rank is the best thing that could happen to the pvp situation in WoW. I wonder if they were forced into changing it this way due to the numerouos bugs with the honor system (people not gaining rank, losing rank, not getting any any honor points etc)

--jaded

I stopped my subscription a week ago. When I heard of being able to keep your PVP gear now, I am going to renew. Blizzard really made a good decision this time around.

Really I was a knight then took a vacation came back and couldnt use any of my stuff that sucked. But now we will be able to keep our gear that rocks.

Any ideas on when this patch is supposed to come out?

Based on past scheduling, I'd guess two Tuesdays from now. Test realms just went live, so they'll probably give two weeks for people to rummage through and break stuff and complain and change and fix and blah blah and then release on the 12th of July. If we're unlucky, the 19th, but I'd guess the 12th.

On a side note, whichever moron decided to change the ancient bone bow from 87-88 damage range to 62-112 damage range is a horrible person and I hope they die in a grease fire. Why would you change a weapon whose only purpose was to put out consistent damage and threat? I swear.

I renewed my subscription due to the PVP honor items being permanent. :) The only downside to WoW right now is the removal of my favorite talent in the entire game come next patch. :( RIP Bloodthirst

-Lasereth

What PvP stuff do you get with a private rank?

A tabard. :)

-Lasereth

About to slaughter General Drakkisath (got his blood too gogo Drakefire Amulet)
http://mrflux.orcon.net.nz/wow/drakk1.jpg

About to go run Stratholme Undead side for set pieces... the server went down before we could start though :(
http://mrflux.orcon.net.nz/wow/lykaios1.jpg

Nearly 60....

Thats all..shitty.....but where do you get this stuff?

You get them from the Officer's Lounge in Stormwind or Orgrimmar, depending on faction. If you don't know where it is, just ask a guard.

5/8 beaststalkers. Voone dropped my gloves tonight. Also got Cape of the Black Baron last night. Four more drops (painweaver, head, chest, shoulders) and one more quest (mark of fordring) and I'll have everything I want for non-raid endgame gear. Woo!

Well of course it's shitty. You can get private by PVP'ing for an hour or less. :) The "good stuff" starts at Sergeant.

-Lasereth

Well my main mage is now lvl 38 might start going back to BG more and more :thumbsup:

Dave Chappelle praises WoW :thumbsup:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/06...s_6128319.html

I was looking over some preview patch notes at http://www.wowguru.com/#news_5368 and came across this at the bottom:

"-The Barrens should now feel more alive."

I don't think it was listed under any sub-secion of the patch notes, it's just a stand-alone comment they made and I have no idea what they mean by it, lol. Made me laugh though when thinking about Barrens general chat :)

People who have been playing around in the test realms can quite figure out what they mean by that, either. Oh well, I'm sure someone will find out eventually. Maybe they just added some new trees! Or...something...

I wonder if his toon name is Rick James or ImRckJmsBtch!

So I've always wanted to ride a wolf with my Tauren. I've been doing some research and found that I basically need to get the highest reputation with the Alterac Valley Faction to be able to purchase this, a Frostwolf Howler: http://www.thottbot.com/?i=40565

Proof that a Tauren can ride it found on a link from the same Thott page:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.gr/forum/...tachmentid=524

I hear the best way to gain faction with them is to play in AV BG games and loot as many corpses as possible. I think I might embark on this mission soon but I'm afraid that the AV BG on my server is horrid like most and has 4+ hour waiting lines so doing this will take forever. Do you guys know if there's any other ways to raise reputation with this group outside of the BG?

Thanks for any info.
-T

DING! 60 :D

http://mrflux.orcon.net.nz/wow/lykaios2.jpg

Got beaststalker's gloves today... 2/8 now haha.

Grats f00000000000!!

That looks like the Fenris wolf he's riding, that thing is massive.

And MrFlux, what UI are you using? Specifically, where did you get the DPS monitor for titan panel and what frames are you using for character info, if you don't mind saying.

The DPS meter for Titan Panel is the Recap plugin for titan (so you wanna get Recap and get [Titan]Recap).

For character info I use Minigroup can't remember which version

Then CTmod/buffmod/raidassist (<3 CTRA) and Atlas, gatherer, call to arms, lootlink (currently borked), auctioneer, sellprice, playerlinkmenu, MyInventory... and some others probably but I can't remember 'em all.

I would give a lot to be able to ride a wolf. That thing is fucking awesome. Stupid rams...who wants to ride on a big damn sheep?

My guildie says he has a "pony with horns"

I was thinking about buying WOW recently until I saw the price to use their servers: $15/mo, or $180/year! That's rediculous! Yes, they have server/bandwidth costs and need to charge for service, but given the large amount of people who pay to play, that number seems preposterous. When I buy a good game, I'll play it on and off for at least a year. Take San Andreas for example: Even after I beat it, I played it until the XBOX version came out, which I then bought and still play to this day. I sold the PS2 version for $40, so essentially I paid a total of $60 for a game I play on and off for a long period of time.

Given how WOW is probably a great game, too, I'd probably play it just as much as I play San Andreas. So, if it were an offline game, the most I'd expect to pay to play it is $60 TOTAL. The most I ever pay to play anything online is $5/month. So that's $60/year. That would be a total of $120 for the first year, and $60 for every year afterwards. Along with subcription costs, just to buy WOW it will cost you $50. So to me, Blizzard is overcharging an extra $95 initially (because the game comes with a month of 'free' play), and then an extra $120 for every year afterwards!

Sorry guys, but you won't see me on the WOW servers anytime soon.

I agree.. I'm cheap when it comes to playing games, in fact, $60 for a game is a way for me to for sure not buy it. I only buy games from the bargain bin my price point is $10-$20.

I also normally only play single player games. I don't play many online games, played Diablo II with the wife and another friend which is what made this game attractive. I don't like the price so much either, but in order to play with my best friend and wife all at the same time, nowhere on the planet can make that happen this cheaply. I think I play with a total of 6 IRL friends on the WoW.

Mind you too.. I'm paying DOUBLE since it's both me and the wife.

It's not for everyone, that's for sure. But for the average gamer it's a steal. You can think of it many ways, seeing two movies a month = about 4 1/2 hours of entertainment, or one movie at a month + popcorn, candy, and soda is about equal to the subscription fee. So 2-4 hours of entertainment a month for $15 for movies, or lets say about 30 hours for $15? 30 hours is only an average of 1 hour a day. Many of the types who play WoW will easily play that or more. Another comparision is drinking, you can easily spend more than $15 for one night alone.

While some games last off and on for a long time, their prime is usually done in a month. For many of my gamer friends they normally get 1 or 2 (new) games a month, but lets say an average of 1. So that alone is between $49-$60 per month.

Granted, not everyone goes out drinking, sees movies, or buys a new game every month, but for those that do, replacing some of those activities with WoW is a huge savings.

Awhile back I read an article about what that money goes toward, and almost all of it is used for upkeep. Also keep in mind you get free patches, updates with new content, occational events, and support as well. Bandwith takes up at least half of the cost, and paying for the current staff another significant portion. Part of the monthly payment, plus the initial investment of $40-$60 for the game can also be seen toward paying off their initial development investments (which is way more for an MMORPG than a single player game).

Also, after awhile (a year or so) the game will go down to about half its original price, so around 20-30 bucks for a game that is still pretty good. With EQ after it was out for a couple years, you could buy the original game, plus about 4 expansions for 30 or 40 bucks. That is a massive amount of content considering the price.

Actually I like the Rams. I like em all except horses (boring) and kodos (too bulky/ugly).

Troll's raptors are the best though.

I like the NE cats.

I personally think the Undead epic mounts are the coolest, but that's just me.

damn im so close to a mount with my mage...I will have pics up soon!

WoW is great for the first 10 or so levels, basically the first 2 hours of the game.

To me, every penny I spend/have spent on World of Warcraft has been worth it. I get to play with several good friends, I get to do something that entertains me, and it is cheaper than a lot of things other people consider fun.

Value is different for everyone :)

Thank god for automatic billing. I bet I might have quit a while ago if I had to write individual checks for $15 every month ;)

It's not the amount of money that's keeping me from trying WoW, it's the idea of paying any money at all to Blizzard and Vivendi. Plus it is nice to actually do something at night other than sit at the computer which I'm doing most of the day anyway.

But when I played EverQuest years ago, I definitely felt the monthly fee was worth it. (Though there has been quite a lot of inflation since the $9.89 days) You're not really playing anything else anyway, and there is (or should be, anyway) free content and support that has to be paid for somehow. Of course as time went on, SOE seemed to be treating it more and more like a cash cow with worse customer service and more expansions that had less content and were more expensive each time around. It's yet to be seen how Blizzard will handle their own money printing business.

I feel the same way!

Every dollar is worth it, and I get my moneys worth ;)

Well finally got to lvl 40 and got my mount

before mount(with dumb hat on):
http://home.cogeco.ca/~tylerdonlon/other/wow_021.jpg

On mount:
http://home.cogeco.ca/~tylerdonlon/other/wow_022.jpg
I that pic me and guild buddy where messing around in Goldshire (he is a lvl 60 gnome warlock) funny stuff!

Ah to be 40 again.

Ya it was a long haul to get there!

I haven't add much to this big topic here, so i figured i'd drop a few pics. This is like my 5th character, but none of the ones i have are 60. For some reason i love it all the way up to forty, then i get a feeling of accomplishment. This is my Orc Dezba. They are in a type of "letter box" thing because they are my desk top wall papers and screen savers.

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Me in scarlet just the other night.
http://mikeb.saturnvalley.net/WoW/Dezba_001.jpg

Me and my crew in Razorfen Kraul
http://mikeb.saturnvalley.net/WoW/Dezba_002.jpg

This is A friend and I soloing the easy part of scarlet. i hoped on his shoulders and cheered away.
http://mikeb.saturnvalley.net/WoW/Dezba_003.jpg

I traveled long and far, to hunt the ever so elucive "Hogger".
http://mikeb.saturnvalley.net/WoW/Dezba_004.jpg

Since i paid a visit to hogger, i made my way to goldshire, where i was greeted with some rude gestures and bodily fluids. Ohh how i wish spitting flaged you. . . ohh how i wish.
http://mikeb.saturnvalley.net/WoW/Dezba_005.jpg

I made my way to the undercity, I love the way the abomination on the left is looking around like, "get aload of this looser".
http://mikeb.saturnvalley.net/WoW/Dezba_006.jpg

SM Deluxe

If your in a non PvP server to get flagged type /pvp:)

and why are you doing the same thing in every pic?

I'm sure he meant he wished the people who spit on him got flagged.

I found a hookah in LBRS. Needless to say, I had to take a hit before moving on to Mother Smolderweb.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...kinginLBRS.jpg

oh LOL!




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more pics

http://home.cogeco.ca/~tylerdonlon/other/wow_023.jpg

http://home.cogeco.ca/~tylerdonlon/other/wow_024.jpg