I've played a shed load of MMO's but never WoW. I am an experienced gamer (harping back to my old eQ1 days). Is it worth me giving WoW a go? (I'm intrigued why they have so many millions of players, surely it must be a great game) or is it same-old same-old?

For a bit of background I have played eQ1, eQ2, Darkfall, Champions, EVE, Auto Assault, City of Heroes, Guild Wars, LOTRO, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Planetside, Vanguard.

Well they do have a trial, so giving it a shot wouldn't hurt. You may find it easy to level, lots of quests, 1-20 is pretty fast, lots of vanity type items, mounts start at lvl 20 and iyou may find it a bit fun for a while or you might just say screw it.

I've played WoW for 3 years. My advice, stay away if you can.  The game is soooo time consuming. Raids are usually nightmares and groups are pretty bad unless you are in a good guild. I guess i just had a streak of bad luck in there, but i had to cut myself off from the game.

Go for it. Leveling your first time through is pretty fun especially doing all the dungeons and such. Endgame raids are only easy if you are in a good guild. I don't suggest pugging anything but naxx and heroic 5mans. Give it a shot it'll be worth the money if you end of paying for it.

No. I do not think so, unless you are a type of guy that needs to play every MMO out there WoW offers nothing new in terms of gameplay ..

And I also think there is a problem being a newb in WoW based on empty starter areas etc, they will ofcourse remedy this in the Cataclysm expansion..

I do not think WoW offers an experienced MMO gamer as yourself a better or more fun experience than most of those games on your list..

But sure I can be wrong..

/junker

Try the trial but if you really played EQ for long it will look very similar to you apart of leveling speed.

I think you missed the hayday. In my opinion the game is mostly drivel nowadays. Nobody cares about anything but item upgrades. There are rare instances of good community and comaradarie, but for the most part its just the same grind as all the others.

The one thing I do like about WoW that separates it from most though, is the open PvP servers. Even though the developers try to herd people into instances for the PvP, WoW PvP servers have great potential for open-world PvP. There are no level or area restrictions. You can go anywhere and kill anyone. Which is nice in my opinion. It's just too bad most people can't be bothered with it, because they are too busy grinding honor for epics in the instances.

Quick answer no.

If you had never played a more modern MMO or other RPG for that matter, WoW is hands down the best MMO out there.  But you'll likely not get hooked for the same reasons I can't get re-hooked... its dated.

Really that simple, in much the same way exploring in classic EQ today gives you that "how the hell did I ever think this was immersive" you'll  feel that for WoW in the "how do 11 million play this and not think meh".

That said, WoW and I got along great in '05-'06.

If you have a way to get into a guild of competent, friendly players, maybe. Otherwise, not a chance.

The current state of WoW is not very good for a newcomer. People routinely expect a high level of knowledge about the current game mechanics and balance issues, yet a very low amount of actual playing skill. The game rewards this by making most of it a numbers game, or just an autowin.

As a veteran gamer, this plays to your weaknesses: You will likely be a better player in 1 week than the majority of level 80s, but you ll take time to figure out what is the currently best build, setup etc. for your class, and to acquire those items. You are pretty far behind the item curve, yet progressing along it is hard without guild help if you dont even get the entry requirements of items (because these already require people to take you).

Most random groups set gear standards to join them ABOVE or at the same level of the content they are attempting, because they have to make up for the poor coordination and playing skills by it. Which, in WoW, works quite well in many cases.

I always thought that the 1-60 levelling process on a fresh server is great fun, unfortunately that was gutted a while back too. The lower level dungeons are nice, the storylines behind some stuff (that ll soon be replaced unfortunately) are nice, just that the "magic" is gone with all the speed-levelling, and basically no groups anymore.

Check it out if you like, but I honestly dont think its a good MMO to join right now for anyone, especially not a veteran player.

Try it, it's a great game and compared to what people on this site say, difficulty of high-end PvP and high-end PvP is higher than most of other MMORPGs. Plus leveling for the first time will be a great journey. My advice is to find a guild that will help you with getting PvE gear when you ding 80. Alternatively, you can start finding a good partner and try arena PvP.

Originally posted by Thenarius

Try it, it's a great game and compared to what people on this site say, difficulty of high-end PvP and high-end PvP is higher than most of other MMORPGs. Plus leveling for the first time will be a great journey. My advice is to find a guild that will help you with getting PvE gear when you ding 80. Alternatively, you can start finding a good partner and try arena PvP.

Its a great game to someone new to MMOs but it really is quite easy compared to other MMOs... Depending on what your used to the graphics alone may very well turn you off not to mention the brain numbing never ending quests avialable to level 80. 

Oh btw! Make sure you compare every new MMO to WoW because no MMO is as good unless it has more quests and is just as easy to level to max level and get uber gear.  /end sarcasm

I'd stay away from it.  Everything you do and attain will be undone with a patch or expansion and you will be forced to do it all again.  People rush to the endgame instead of focusing on the journey.  It also looks like Blizzard is taking the first step to RMT+subscription and think this is just the tip of the ice burg.

Also in WoW you are funneled into certain zones.  You are in a heavily instanced world.  They have separate pvp areas called battlegrounds and arenas.  They reward everyone, so everyone is a winner.  A mean nothing death penalty.  Crafting is very basic.  It really is a hollow shell of a game.

But if any of this sounds good to you, by all means give it a shot.

Get the trial. See for yourself. With such hatred about it in here, they must have done something right :).

Originally posted by Ethian

Originally posted by Thenarius

Try it, it's a great game and compared to what people on this site say, difficulty of high-end PvP and high-end PvP is higher than most of other MMORPGs. Plus leveling for the first time will be a great journey. My advice is to find a guild that will help you with getting PvE gear when you ding 80. Alternatively, you can start finding a good partner and try arena PvP.

 

Its a great game to someone new to MMOs but it really is quite easy compared to other MMOs... Depending on what your used to the graphics alone may very well turn you off not to mention the brain numbing never ending quests avialable to level 80. 

 

Oh btw! Make sure you compare every new MMO to WoW because no MMO is as good unless it has more quests and is just as easy to level to max level and get uber gear.  /end sarcasm

 

Easy to get max level yess? But trust me, end-game hardmodes and high-end arena PvP isn't easy. And that's where you get the uber gear(everyone knows how "lol" are i219 epics, even if they are still epics).

I think if you are just interested now in what all the fuss is about, you should ignore WoW. In my opinion, if you didn't level to 60 during vanilla, you really missed out on the best times that game had to offer.

Not to say there isn't fun to be had- there are so many things to do, it's insane. But realistically, you are going to level up alone, and find it hard getting groups that aren't just alts who know their way around the game and expect you to, as well.

If you are a PvPer, you'll never have as much fun now as you could in STV, Hillsbrad, and even BG's back then. When Blizzard makes an expansion, they make everything that preceded it an afterthought. Leveling is a joke now. For me, part of the fun was ganking and getting ganked along the way.

If you are a PvEer, then I suppose it doesn't really matter what you play, there are stupid & predictable mobs to kill in any game. Play one with a good story. But my joking aside, this is really the bulk of what WoW offers. Just be warned- many players have 4 years on you in experience, and know all the quests and instances like the back of their hand. This means they are likely to solo alts without need of groups, and they prefer to group only with friends alts so they can blow through everything.

Not to say all of this is your destiny if you get the game- there are millions of players, hence millions of possibilities. There are some sparkling personalities that shine through in WoW, but as a whole, they aren't able to polish the turd of a community.

All this being said, as an experienced MMOer, you should at least give the trial a go. You should have tried it much earlier though. In my opinion, you aren't truly experienced until you have given a game like WoW (the most successful) a try. It will show you what you like and what you don't like about the genre. And it can make you appreciate certain things that other games offer.

It's like saying you are an experienced dragon killer, but you've only been killing drakes and babies. You've never tackled the biggest, meanest fucker out there.

Good luck in your quest, whatever your decision be.

If you are going to try it I'd wait till patch 3.3 comes out.  They are going to group the servers so when you go to group for dungeons there is a much larger pool of people to choose from.  This makes it much easier to find groups for lower level dungeons.   It will certainly seem more bland not being able to find groups for lower level dungeons if you are new before 3.3.   Getting into a good guild I think that's when things really start to shine IMO.  But I'm sure you've been there if you've played EQ. 

Originally posted by chamelean90

 I've played a shed load of MMO's but never WoW. I am an experienced gamer (harping back to my old eQ1 days). Is it worth me giving WoW a go? (I'm intrigued why they have so many millions of players, surely it must be a great game) or is it same-old same-old?

For a bit of background I have played eQ1, eQ2, Darkfall, Champions, EVE, Auto Assault, City of Heroes, Guild Wars, LOTRO, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Planetside, Vanguard.

Yes, it is worth it.

Mind you WoW isn't exactly a master piece, but it is very enjoyable for some time.

Like you I played MMOS since UO, and I am not exactly a casual player, but the positive thing about WoW is that everyone can play it, from hardcore to casual.
The best part of woW is levelling, very fun..........the end game is a little less fun and the community is shit.
But everyone who play MMORPGs have to at least try WoW once.......after all is the benchmark for any other MMO.

It wasn't the game for me.  The community was horrible.  Of course, I played on a PvP server with friends. 

The only one who can tell you the game is right for you....is you.  They have a trial.  Try it out.  See what ya think.  Be sure to come back and let us know what you thought of the game, but be fore warned, Zorndorf HATES this game and will discredit any positive thing you say about it....  =)

Good Luck.  I hope you find a game that is right for you.

With everything else on your list, its hard to imagine you've never given WOW a shot until now.

Jump in with both feet and who knows, perhaps you like it.  At the very least, its fun for awhile. (in my own case, about 18 months)

Originally posted by Reygar

I've played WoW for 3 years. My advice, stay away if you can.  The game is soooo time consuming. Raids are usually nightmares and groups are pretty bad unless you are in a good guild. I guess i just had a streak of bad luck in there, but i had to cut myself off from the game.

You call WoW raids time consuming?  Its not fair.  WoW has minimised the non gaming duration of raids.  For a 10man raid, you might need say 10 minutes to assemble your team, or 20 minutes to find people in dalaran.  In the meantime, 2 can fly into the instance (assuming 1 lock) or the meeting stone.  Within 1 minute of assembling the entire team of 10, everyone should be summoned into the instance or next to instance entrance.  Buffing, handing out fish dish and talking heal/tank assignments next.

Compare to EQ say aspect by aspect.  In EQ, if you need to find people, you have little hope of reaching out to more than a few tens.  You need your own friendlist or spam near zone entrance.  In WoW, you can get to almost every idle player, via the notorous trade channel, and the LFG tool.  In EQ you spend a lot of time travelling to the instance, or waiting for the last guy to arrive.  If one guy died on the way, you wait or move the army to help him recover body.  In WoW, there is no need to die on the way to the instance, unless you are careless.

In WoW you have your instance, just zone in.  In EQ, you need to fight and clear to a camp, and maybe you find the camp taken, then what?  try another camp.

Raids with PUG is always a source of surprise, good or bad.  I have cleared the worst achievement with a total PUG, hours after the server first by our server top guild.  PUGs can be very bad, but at least after a wipe, you only need 1 minute to run back from graveyard and start summoning again.  In EQ if you wipe ... lol good luck.

You need to cut yourself from a game just because of an acknowledged steak of bad luck.  OK, but your advice to stay away from WoW just b/c of that?  There are stronger objections to WoW than that I suppose.

As said by others wait till patch 3.3 lands ( in a few weeks ), or better yet as you've waited this long wait for the expansion.. its effectivly WoW 2.0 with loads of changes to the base game and a huge amount of people re-rolling.

I think you should wait for the upcoming expansion called Cataclysm. The current low level content for new players might look a "bit" old, and outdated, the expansion will be a revamp for these areas.
 

Originally posted by Zorndorf

Originally posted by cscurlock

If you are going to try it I'd wait till patch 3.3 comes out.  They are going to group the servers so when you go to group for dungeons there is a much larger pool of people to choose from.  This makes it much easier to find groups for lower level dungeons.   It will certainly seem more bland not being able to find groups for lower level dungeons if you are new before 3.3.   Getting into a good guild I think that's when things really start to shine IMO.  But I'm sure you've been there if you've played EQ. 

The above.
 

I'll level 2 new classes. One in patch 3.3 (to do the dungeons as a tank/later dps/tank) and one with CATA (as an easy/lazy huntard dps) to see the new content lvl 1-60.

.... because the grouping up will be a breeze through the dungeons and leveling process.

So wait 3 weeks for patch 3.3.

A guild is only needed for the end game really.

 For the most part guilds are really important in end game.  But a leveling guild can also be good especially one with a decent healer and a decent tank.   Makes PUGing much more tolerable.

Originally posted by coffee

As said by others wait till patch 3.3 lands ( in a few weeks ), or better yet as you've waited this long wait for the expansion.. its effectivly WoW 2.0 with loads of changes to the base game and a huge amount of people re-rolling.

Quoted for truth.  With the new patch it should be loads easier to find groups for all the low level instances.

Ignore the haters who overplayed the game.

To answer your question ..two words : HELL YEAH  

theres a free trial over at  trywarcraft.com