10 Questions ABout WoW...

Octavarium

Hey, I've been lookin' into playing WoW for a while now. It looks absolutely amazing!
But just to seal the deal I have some questions.

1.Are there Guild battles in WoW? Or does the PvP system support any form of mass-scale battles (i.e. 40v40)?

2.What's the community like? Noob-haters or helpful?

3.Which is in more demand, Alliance or Horde? I would imagine most people go for the Alliance because they contain all of the stereotypically heroic and "good" races. Is this so?

4.What classes are most in demand? (i.e. Are Paladin's in short supply, and everyone wants to find one?)

5.How big is Azeroth? (if you could draw a comparison with say...Tyria, from Guild Wars, I could get a good idea).

6.Is leveling really tedious?

7.I've noticed that RPPvP servers (which I plan to join when I buy WoW) are in the minority. Is this because people in general just prefer not having to play a role...or does noone actually obey the role-playing policy?

8.What are the system requirements like? What quality of play would I get, using these specs...?
XP Home Edition
Intel Pentium 4 Processor
512MB RAM
Intel 82915G/GV/910GL Express Chipset Family-128MB RAM
1MB Broadband Connection

9.Are the pre-pay subscription cards available in Ireland? My folks are pretty strict on using credit cards etc. to buy stuff off the internet. I'm from Wexford and there's a GameStop in town...surely I could buy one there...?

10.Can I buy the free trial, decide I like it, buy the full game, and keep the character I created during the trial? Or would I have to create a new character when I buy the full version?


Whatever's said here, chances are I'll buy the game anyway, so be honest...don't be afraid of putting me off the game.

Thanks for readin', any help would be really appreciated.

Octavarium.

Gummy Panda

1. I'm on a pve server so can't really comment. check out the WoW funeral vid for your own comparsion

2. A bit of both depending on the person. I found a lot of helpful people. though like i said, depends on the people on your server.

3. Depends on server aswell. Both are good. Though the horde smell

4. Lots of shaman alliance now that the burning crusade has launched. Go with what you want to play as. If you want to be able to smacks to the head and laugh in your enemies face, choose a warrior (though too many smacks and you'll be dead). If you want to be all sneaky and deal damage, choose a rogue.

5. Its big!! three big main land mases now. The third is only lv 58+.

6. Not at low lvs. High lvs it might become a little depending on the area quests. With a friend its always fun. Some of the dungeons are great like Scarlet Monastery

7. Never interested in that aspect of the game

8. I use a Mac. Though broadband would be your best bet for connection especially with the size of patches.

9. Gamestop and Xtra-vision sell the cards. Don't know about GAME.

10. I think so. The full game is only 20 euro and you get a month free.

Hope this helps!!

swiss

I broadly agree with Gummy Panda, I just thought I'd give my own take.

1) Guild battles in WoW are not supported to the best of my knowledge. You can have team based battles against other players, but it's more or less a random pairing. Of course the recently released expansion may have changed this, I haven't followed the PvP mechanics of that expansion too closely.

2) Like Panda said, a bit of both, like most communities. Many of the reputable guilds have a very helpful player base.

3) It depends somewhat on the server, but in the main you're right, there is a general bias towards alliance. Probably for the reasons you mention. Also, horde rule.

4) The most in-demand classes would be the ones in shortest supply generally, so it depends a little on the server. However, healers, particularly priests, are always in demand. Most groups will also want mages and warriors at later levels, though warriors are usually readily available. The most overplayed classes (IMO) are rogues and hunters and so may not be in so much demand at later levels unless you plan to PvP a lot. However the most important piece of advice I can offer you is to pick a class that suits your play style. Don't be afraid to experiment with more than one.

5) I've never played guild wars but I think azeroth is large. Theres certainly enough in there to keep you occupied till you hit 60 or 70 (if you have the expansion), and beyond.

6) It can be, yes. Particularly in the later levels. Most quests are a variant of "kill x number of these enemies until you hit a limit, or something drops from them". Repeat ad nauseum.

7) I've stayed away from them, because I don't think wow needs to bill itself as being more immersive. Think about RPPvP server policies. You need to stay "in character" pretty much all the time, and contend with opposing players trying to kill you in contested areas. It's for more hardcore players who are into the whole 'role play' meme. Is that you?

8) You may need to notch the graphics settings down, but you should be fine to play it. More RAM would help, you'll encounter some lag in heavily populated zones, but nothing crushing.

9) No idea.

10) Probably. I would be very surprised if you couldn't.

Smellyirishman

1. I am not totally sure, I know the battlegrounds allow for larger PvP fights and your guild could just decide to run over to enemy territory and attack thier cities (of course, on an RPPVP server people would have to initiate the conflict. Or you could organise a PvP fight and meet up in a contested zone I guess. I don't think there is strict guild PvP, but it can be accomplished I think.

2. Community, as with any MMO, is hit and miss. The majority of responses will be helpful if you ask a question and if someone tries to mislead you there is generally someone willing to correct him. With teams, you get asshats and you get nice friendly people, such is life, virual and real.

3. Largly dependant on server. Check here for a break down of each servers current standing.

4. I don't know.

5. Em, big enough?

6. Much more tedious than GW. But with some friends and not worrying just about XP, I guess it's OK. It's no everquest/FF struggle anyway.

7. RRPVP is not as popular, less servers, simple supply and demand. Don't worry about it.

8. You should get away with those specs. The game is not exactly a visual masterpiece.

9. Dunno. Have a chat with your parents or get your own CC .

10. Free trial. Yes you can keep the character, check out the "What do I need to play" button, then "Can I continue to play at the end of the trial".


I am by no means a veteran of WoW, infact, I am quite distant from it, but I know about the game and have played to mid 30s. That should give you a rough idea anyway, along with the previous posters.

{EDIT} Realised I had left the bottom end of the OP in my post >.<

NotMe

Octavarium wrote:

1.Are there Guild battles in WoW? Or does the PvP system support any form of mass-scale battles (i.e. 40v40)?

There's 10v10, 15v15 and 40v40 man battlegrounds. The 10 and 15 man ones you can make a group and join up together. The 40 man you join solo and play with randomers. Then there's the new Eye of the Storm battleground... I don't know the details of that one.
Outside of battlegrounds there's nothing to stop you making a 40 man raid group with your guild and attacking some town or whatever.

2.What's the community like? Noob-haters or helpful?

Generally good. The server I'm on (and probably most servers) has their own community forums so people can chat there with friendly and enemy players when they're not playing (ie. at work ). Of course you get the spammers, scammers and general idiots aswell but that's what /ignore is for.

3.Which is in more demand, Alliance or Horde? I would imagine most people go for the Alliance because they contain all of the stereotypically heroic and "good" races. Is this so?

Alliance usually outnumber Horde. On my server its 3 Alliance to 1 Horde. This means long battleground queues for Alliance and practically no queue for Horde Also it's generally accepted that there are more kids playing alliance probably because they are the "good" races. The alliance who are smart usually end up switching to horde side so ya might aswell choose horde to start with. (me biased? no way)

4.What classes are most in demand? (i.e. Are Paladin's in short supply, and everyone wants to find one?)

Paladins... no. Also elf hunters and undead rogues are common as muck. I dunno depends if on the server I guess.

5.How big is Azeroth? (if you could draw a comparison with say...Tyria, from Guild Wars, I could get a good idea).

Couldn't say, haven't played any other MMORPGs.

6.Is leveling really tedious?

No not really IMO. Although I used to like leveling through battlegrounds a lot but you can't get XP there anymore. Still there's plenty of quests and instances to do.. I wouldn't say it's tedious.

7.I've noticed that RPPvP servers (which I plan to join when I buy WoW) are in the minority. Is this because people in general just prefer not having to play a role...or does noone actually obey the role-playing policy?

I prefer to play a game where I can chat with real people about real life things. Not "hello brave knight... what brings you to these lands? Could you help me slay the evul dragon over yonder?" But hey I guess some people are into that.

8.What are the system requirements like? What quality of play would I get, using these specs...?
XP Home Edition
Intel Pentium 4 Processor
512MB RAM
Intel 82915G/GV/910GL Express Chipset Family-128MB RAM
1MB Broadband Connection

I've played on worse but I would REALLY recommend 1GB RAM at least.

9.Are the pre-pay subscription cards available in Ireland? My folks are pretty strict on using credit cards etc. to buy stuff off the internet. I'm from Wexford and there's a GameStop in town...surely I could buy one there...?

probably

10.Can I buy the free trial, decide I like it, buy the full game, and keep the character I created during the trial? Or would I have to create a new character when I buy the full version?

Yeah I think you can keep the character. You can download the trial here:
http://teaser.wow-europe.com/



Also look for your server here:
http://www.warcraftrealms.com/eu_realmstats.php
and it will tell you the horde:alliance ratio and the how many of each class.

BKtje

Right some of what i say will be a re-hash of what others have said so apologies in advance.

1: There are no guild battles as such. The game, history and lore is based more on the Horde vs the Alliance vs $rand bad guys. The new PvP system (the arena) allows team battles of 2v2,3v3 and 5v5 in set grps. I guess this could be classed as guild battles(or wow's version of) as the teams are set and are unchangeable after they are created. It will/is a ladder system with a minimum number of matches a week iirc. For general battle ground info you can read other replied above.

2. Newbies are enouraged, helped and generally given as much advice as they can handle if they are politely/sensible questions. Who you ask is of course hit and miss. Noobs (difference is that they are generally not new players but refuse to learn so seem like new players) are looked less kindly upon. Muppets are quickly ignored/flamed. The official forums are full of muppets and realm forums (3rd party ones) are hit and miss depending on how heavily theya re moderated. Overall the community's within the community are excelent, just need to find one

3. The faction divide is shrinking somewhat. Initially horde were heavily outnumbered but a lot of the more experienced players are switching to horde from alliance to get the full experience of the game (can't really know the game totally if you haven't done quests etc on both sides). Horde are still in the minority atm as they are not a "beautiful and good" race(funny thing is that the alliance were actually more "evil" than the horde), this may change however with the introduction of Blood Elves to the Horde. My server (before realm transfers, i dont know now) was about 2-1 in hordes favour. Its more even now and possibly back to alliance favour.

4. This changes from server to server but druids are generally fairly rare. This will probably change however with the increase in their power and roles.

5.I never played Guild wars but to walk from one end of a continent to the other would probably take a few hours (and there are now 3 continents). Ofc getting around on foot is not generally recommended for long distances

6. There is quite a large number of quests (more than enough to level to 70) and while many are the same kill x or collect y, the differences in each zone keep it from getting really tedious. For a first timer it wont be tedious. I only found it so on repeatingly lvling chars to 60/70. There are some very fun quest lines however.

7. I've never played on a Role play server but i believe it that these servers are generally used by more mature players(tho you'll always get muppets thinking they are funny). The naming scheme i do know for these servers is stricter but apart from that im unsure.

8.You'd not have many problems with those specs. Just don't have too much running in the background or use to many 3rd party user interface modifications as they take up a chunk of memory. More memory is always better however

9. Pretty sure you can get them but i have no idea where really.

10. I'm pretty sure you just upgrade your account...which means you'd keep your character. That said i've never done it and probably get a quick answer if you google it.


Welcome (possibly) to the game

nesf

RP servers are not the things being described above. Essentially, RP like PvP on a PvE server is consentual. You can if you want get into it but for the most part it's not really that different to standard servers except that there are roleplaying events held, roleplaying guilds etc etc. Think of it as 'turning on your RP flag' rather than being forced to RP constantly. The chat rules aren't enforced unless people are taking the piss either, which is nice. Or at least that's what it is like on Argent Dawn.


The RPPvP servers are rarer because CS/Warcraft 3 kiddies tend not to understand that textspk is not 'roleplaying'

They didn't offer them originally for whatver reason (possibly the above from what I can make out, but then roleplaying was always marginalised due to demand (2 RP servers versus the multitude of PvE and PvP servers when the game launched). Though, the only real difference is that PvP is consentual on PvE and non-consentual on PvP servers.

koneko

The last class that is in demand right now is Paladins . There seem to be plenty of them on Alliance side on every server I've played on, and on Horde they were just introduced along with the blood elves, over half the people in the BE starting area on my server are Paladins! No shortage of "Loladins" there. Priests always seem to be in demand, but are slower to level in my experience, and not necessarily the class to pick if you want to be on the frontlines hacking away at the enemy, once you're a high level you'll get whispers all the time, "We need a priest for <instance here>!!! plzzz help!". It's a good class to pick though if you like to feel wanted

As far as the trial goes, when you're finished with it you can buy the full game to upgrade your account (I think), so you keep the character you made. There is a level cap (20 IIRC) on the trial. You can get prepaid cards in game stores in Ireland aswell.

The community in WoW is so huge that you'll find both sides, the helpful people, the angry haters, the noobs, everyone. Just find a forum you like (like this one ) and you'll be fine, just avoid reading the official forums for long periods of time, heh.

Your system specs seem okay, though I would consider adding in a better graphics card at some point, especially if you have say a 19" monitor and need to up the resolution.

Dubhthamlacht

the folks here have pretty much summed up things well.

Guild pvp is accessible through
- Warsong Gulch - a 10 man team capture the flag game.
- Arathi Basin - 15 person team. More of a Battlefield 1942 "hold resouces" type game
- Eye of TheStorm - 15 person team. It's a mix of the above two.

All 3 allow sign up as a pre-made guild team.

Also new is the new Arena pvp system which is more based on short skirmishes between 2, 3 or 5 players. You can form teams for this and compete in the seasonal ladder.

Alterac Valley is 40 v 40. But that is random teams.

The only other MMORPG I've played is City of Heroes and the world size of WoW absolutely dwarfs the world in CoH but i can't compare to guild wars as i have not played it. Also the zones in WoW are incredibly varied.

Leveling for the first time is one of the most fun aspects of the game. Don't get bogged down on the "OMG I have to get to 60 (or 70 now) ASAP!!!". Take your time and enjoy the journey. Stick to the quests and dungeons. Sticking to grinding monsters for experience will bore you to death.

I do agree that druids are probably the class least in numbers now. And they are always in demand. But really pick a class you want to play the most and go that way.

And the lads are right when they say more kids play on alliance side. Horde still has it's fair share of assholes but generally older players tend to go horde.

nesf

Dubhthamlacht wrote:

And the lads are right when they say more kids play on alliance side. Horde still has it's fair share of assholes but generally older players tend to go horde.

From Daedaleus etc, more kids play alliance than horde, more teenage boys play PvP than PvE, thus:

Age = e^PvE(PvP-1)/(Male-Female)

=>

General is more idiotic and annoying in Stormwind on a PvP server.

BKtje

Nothing is as bad as barrens chat tho!

Smellyirishman

That surprises me actually, I would have thought the asshats/kids would go Horde so they could be "evil asshats" and call it RP.

Octavarium

Wow! (if you'll pardon the pun!)
I just got home from evening study to this huge response!

Anyway, thanks everyone you've been a big help.
I'll definitely be buying WoW in the near future.

Thanks again!

Octavarium.

nesf

Smellyirishman wrote:

That surprises me actually, I would have thought the asshats/kids would go Horde so they could be "evil asshats" and call it RP.

See, I thought the same but in surveys etc it seems to be the opposite. The majority of kids want to be the stereotypical 'heros' apparently. I think it assuages their concience when they go a ganking in the noob areas with their tier 3 L60 warlocks...

Owen

Octavarium (I can only assume with that name, you're also a Dream Theater fan!), I just started the Trial version 2 nights ago, and I'm mildly hooked. Yes it can get boring just killing things, but it's always a different quest, so it's different from ... let's say Project Gotham Racing where you're always racing. There's a bit of strategy involved too.

Another n00b question here ... in the Southpark episode (Make love, not warcraft), the lads were using Headsets and 'teamspeak' ... do people use this in the game? Is it even available? I was well chuffed to see my G15 Keyboard screen show my stats after I fired WoW up though!

Smellyirishman

ned78 wrote:

in the Southpark episode (Make love, not warcraft), the lads were using Headsets and 'teamspeak' ... do people use this in the game? Is it even available?

Any guild worth thier salt will use TeamSpeak or Ventrilo. You won't find many PUGs using it, unless your doing an instance when some might decide to use a server.

{EDIT} PUG = Pick-Up Group. (IE, random people)

Spyral

I tried the trial.. suxxy graphics and grindy gameplay. Its basically Lineage 2 in a different skin.

BKtje

Most people don't play MMORPG's for the graphics...and this one is already 3+years old.

Yes it is grindy gameplay if thats how you play it. I wouldn't have thought you'd have to grind much in the lower lvls but at higher lvls most things outside the large raids/pvp is grinding.

Jim

Spyral wrote:

I tried the trial.. suxxy graphics and grindy gameplay. Its basically Lineage 2 in a different skin.

The graphics are toned down to make it accessable to as many people as possible and to also allow for huge landscapes with many player with little lag (in theroy....)

OctavarIan

Spyral wrote:

I tried the trial.. suxxy graphics and grindy gameplay. Its basically Lineage 2 in a different skin.

You only tried the trial, which pretty much never lets you out of noobville, so you can't really comment on the game It's like listening to one song off an album and saying the entire album is crap.

DarthWraak

Gummy Panda wrote:

check out the WoW funeral vid for your own comparsion

Thats pretty funny, but this is EPIC...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x_WLbjNDcg

carpenoctem

I tried the trial.. suxxy graphics and grindy gameplay

If the graphics were sucky then either you don't have a ghood enough graphics card or you didn't turn up the graphics to a better level if you do have a great graphics card. I just upgraded my PC to a gaming specced one and can for the first time have all the video options set to max with all the shading and weather diefferences and everything - and the game world looks amazing. Sure, there are places where there are some design glitches, but mostly it's enjoyable.

To OP - when you create the free trial you will need to put in credit card details - you create your actual account at this time. VBlizzard will not charge that credit cards and the details will be removed when you add your first game card, but as far as I have found creating the accouint needs a credit card. Once you buy the actual game you just register the verification to your account and it will be upgraded to a fully playable account.

Note that a trial account is only playable to lvl 20 and cannot use any kind of player-to-player trading including mail, trade windows and the AH so it doesn't really give you the best feel for the game, but it will let you see if your computer will run the game with descent graphics...

As for class/race, pick one you feel comfortablke with. Don't be afraid to drop a caracter and start a new one (you can have max 30 characters per account and 10 per realm/server) if you're unhappy with your original character. I think I went through 5 or 6 toons before I found one I was happy with.

Although certain classes are in demand at different times, the thing that is most in demand are characters played by people who know how to utilise all the tricks of that class. So it's important that you pick a character you like and feel happy playing and that you make your goal to play your character well instead of just levelling as fast as you can to 70 (this will obviously make the game more enjoyable too!).

The same rule goes for your server, mostly everyone is helpful but there are a few servers that seem to have a higher level of scumbags than others, unfortunately...