-
Archives
-
Categories
- Anime (72)
- D&D Campaign (84)
- DM of the Rings (156)
- Escapist (319)
- Game Design (69)
- Game Reviews (314)
- Lets Play (78)
- Links (210)
- Movies (208)
- Nerd Culture (135)
- Notices (82)
- Personal (114)
- Pictures (114)
- Programming (21)
- Projects (88)
- Random Thoughts (123)
- Rants (149)
- Tabletop Games (62)
- Video Games (135)
-
RSS Links
-
Links
The Beginning of The End
Previous in Personal: Guild Wars | Next in Personal: PvP Posting |
I have now acquired the tool through which I may orchestrate my own undoing. Behold, and despair:
 |
After about four years of people badgering me to try this game, it’s finally happening. Every time I complain about an RPG I hear “You should try WoW”. Well, now I’m trying it. If it’s as addictive as people claim, then this website is probably doomed. Savor this post. It might be sitting here for a while.
I still can’t say much about the sudden change of heart in regards to MMO games, but it is related to the comics I’ll have coming out in a few weeks. And no, it’s nothing to do with the WoW comic contest. I’d enter that, but I’m not sure my particular brand of humor will tickle the funnybones inside of Blizzard when I aim it in their direction.
Joining this game is proving to be tougher than I anticipated. In Wow I have several people I consider to be personal friends who I’d like to play with, but none of them are on the same server. So choosing a server means, in effect, choosing between my friends. I suppose this is an appropriate beginning to a game famous for destroying friendships and ending marriages.
Previous in Personal: Guild Wars | Next in Personal: PvP Posting |
There are now 91 comments. Almost a hundred!
1
2
Next »
1
2
Next »
88 comments:
3 Trackbacks
-
[...] it was Guild Wars. It lasted a few days. Now he’s joining World of Warcrack… We all know this will not last just one [...]
-
[...] I joined the Kirin Tor Server after reading that Shamus Young was trying it (and if you read between the lines of his recent posts) liking [...]
-
[...] the place. He did ask me to play again and I was reluctant to do so. But a few posts from one of my favourite gaming blogs, and again from another blog that I religiously read (although his [...]
Leave a Reply
I have lost my brother. R.I.P He will be missed
Hehe…just a friendly reminder that Guild Wars doesn’t do that to yah ;)
You could always choose a server that none of them are on, just like you’re playing through GW solo.
EDIT: Damnit, and here I was thinking I’d have first comment for once. Bah.
Irk! Not another one lost into the depths of WoW! Have it any mercy?
From everything I’ve seen, WoW is cartoon-like (annoyingly cartoon-like) in graphics and is populated by bunch of people whose only goal is to be better just to be better, or so they can ‘pwn the noobs.’ I’ve met a person who played because he ‘pwned the noobs.’ No one is really there for fun or roleplaying. And isn’t fun the main aspect? I don’t see why people pay someone else to have a second job that doesn’t pay them, and has a chance of ruining any good friendships or relationships.
“Why is it fun? ‘Cause you can pwn noobs, and they get all mad at you.” He says. I wanted to leap over the desk and rip… I was incredibly angry.
I’ve been playing aimlessly lately. I’ll gladly join whatever server you are on if you ever feel like making it public.
If not, well I’d love to get that info by email. I’m uber casual and we could play a few quests in the early phases before your addiction sets in and you power level like the rest of us obsessive compulsive geeks.
Oh and Yay! I can’t wait to hear about your thoughts on this game.
If you end up deciding to go with a server that none of your friends are on, so as to not choose between them, make sure and post it here. There’s probably at least one of your readers on it.
The reason I say this is that if someone can just float you a few 16 slot bags as a newb, the game is more fun, because you’re not running back to town to sell quite as often. And you won’t be able to afford them by yourself until at least level 25 or 30, if you don’t get a leg up.
I got tired of WoW… Started playing LOTRO recently. I find the crowd there considerably more mature than I remember it on WoW. Course, I’ve never been a PvP person, and WoW seems to be half PvP for the people that keep playing.
So, when you first register, you’re forced to make an irrevocable choice of servers? Later on, you can’t migrate a character to a different server so you can play with friends or escape a bad player culture, etc.? That sounds pretty lame to me, but I’m a tabletop rpg player, mostly, so what do I know?
It’s not too late to try ‘Lord of the Rings Online’ instead…
Nope. you can make characters on lots of servers. I am assuming Shamus isn’t planning to roll a million alts on different servers though.
henebry:
You can make a new character on another server, or migrate an existing character to another server if you pay a fee.
Every once in a while Blizzard opens a period of free character migrations, usually to a new server from one that is getting crowded.
Shamus:
Try to join a guild that takes it nice and slow and doesn’t rush its members to level up to maximum and do group instances. I quit because I got sick of running instances at night and grinding money for potions and equipment repairs at day.
Plus, WoW suffers from a bad case of the ‘expand upward instead of outward’ philosophy you’ve talked about. I got frustrated when the quest line I’d spent months on was made entirely insignificant, because an instance had its entry requirements scrapped.
WoW is no different from any other MMO. It’s got the same grind, the same zero-XP issue, the same unintelligible gibber, and the same forced grouping. There’s nothing particularly special about it; it just happens to have hit all the pegs that made previous MMOs popular.
If you like MMOs, you’ll probably like it. If you don’t, you won’t.
I got back into WoW about a month and a half ago. It can be addictive, yes, but that’s not the effect that it has on everyone. Good luck, Shamus. If you’re having trouble getting into it at first, remember to plumb the depths of your comments for advice; sometimes there are easy little tricks that eliminate the tedium. For instance, my friend showed me a few little plug-ins that take the guess-work out of questing.
Also, your previous comment about a static world isn’t entirely true. Everything everywhere may stay the same, but if you follow the cues that the quest NPCs give you, you’ll notice that they’ve created the illusion of change and plot development. For instance, if you play a draenai character, you’ll start immediately following your race’s crash-landing on the planet. Your early quests will revolve around recovery from that crash-landing. When you finish all the quests in the starting area, you’ll be told to go to the next area, where you’ll see the draenai have begun to convert their temporary shelters into permanent residences. By the time you get to the Exodar, the draenai’s main city, your quests will revolve around establishing ties to the other Alliance races, who will at first treat you with suspicion. As you progess through those quest lines, the bond between you will have grown, and then finally when you’re done with the draenai-specific quests, they’ll send you off to help the night elves and the rest of the Alliance, with the ultimate goal of finding a way to lead your people back to their homeland (which is Outland, the level 60-70 area).
Each zone has it’s own story to tell, which will unravel as you complete all of the quests in that zone. I missed this the first time I played WoW, and I got bored rather quickly and eventually quit to pursue real-life endeavors. This time I have friends helping me if I get stuck, but I’m taking my time so that I can read all the quest text and take in all the little stories. The catch is that you can’t take in all the zones at the same time without a lot of pointless grinding (as by the time you go back and do those OTHER low-level area, you’ll be high level and the mobs won’t be worth any experience), so I look at that as re-play value.
They’ve modified the game considerably since I quit, too: the game is much more solo-able, which is great. If you’re looking to extract the story from this game, your biggest enemy will be all those 1337 power-gamers who will get impatient with you for stopping to take in the scenery and hound you. The only time I’ve found that a party is necessary is for the special instance dungeons.
edit: oh yeah, I’m on Suramar.
One thing I was worried about when I first played was the monthly fee. I’m opposed to the idea of paying per month to play a video game. I like the “buy it and it’s yours” model. What helped me get over that (and gives me at least the illusion that I’m in control of my playing habits) is to go to my local game store and pick up a two-month subscription card. You type in the code on the WoW website and they add two months of paid game time onto your account. When that two months expires, you have the choice of going out and paying for another two months or letting your account go gentle into that good night. It’s the same price as a month-by-month subscription, but since you have to go to the store to pick it up, it inserts a layer of complicity into your continued playing. Every two months you have to go back and decide if the last two months were worth the $30 you paid for them.
Oh, and the exploration can be very rewarding, too. There’s a lot of stuff out there to look at, and each zone is different from its neighbors. There are tiny little details in far-off corners of each area that you might not notice if you were playing through, but if you’re just wandering around for fun you’ll see them and think “wow, they really put a lot of thought into this”.
Of course, then a horde of high-level monsters come running at you because you’re in an area way above your means, and they rip you to shreds. But that’s fun in itself, too.
Good luck on the will save versus WoW addiction, Shamus. Remember where you came from and keep your wits about you, and they won’t eat your soul and condemn you to an eternity in MMO-Limbo, where advancement only begets more advancement ad infinitum nauseamque and you *never save the world*.
Heh, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet:
http://erudyne.wordpress.com/2008/06/21/fraulein-bosch-devau-trans-oh-im-doomed/
The problem with friends ending up on different servers is due in large part to the popularity of WoW. I just made a quick count of the US servers and got 226. So unless you consult with your friends before signing on, you are pretty much guaranteed to pick a different server.
The immaturity factor seems to come up, sometimes for WoW, sometimes for other MMO’s, but I have to say that I’ve only rarely run into immature players and never had a problem that an ignore couldn’t fix. I’ve only ignored 6 or 7 people total in WoW. I think the immaturity problem is a bit exaggerated. It’s like the internet in general. I don’t run into immature people on forums and such because I don’t hang out on forums that cater to the immature crowd.
Anyways, I second Chatty DM’s motion. Throw up your server and your faction and I’ll pop in and say hi.
Just thought I would suggest that you try Dungeons and dragons Online in your newfound MMO critiquing business. The first recent MMO I gave a real try was WoW and I was bored before the trial was over.
I have a friend that plays DDO so i gave the 10 day free trial a shot, and really enjoyed it. Some things i like:
-Quests are instanced – i.e. no one can take a quest item or disrupt your quest an any way.
-Grouping is very easy and has built in voice chat
- There are no “bring me 10 wolf pelts” quests
- Loot is preasigneed so no one can ninja your loot
- The player base, from my limited WoW experiance, is more mature than the WoW player base. A lot of long time pen and paper players on line.
- Graphics are quite good but can be player on older machines (mine is 3-4 years old)
Some thing I and you may not like:
-While you can solo most quests it is expensive and difficult for new players to do so.
- The area you play in is localized to one city so exploring the coutryside isnt really an option. There are instanced explorer area (like quests) though which fulfil some of that desire.
Most peoples complaint about DDO is that there is limited content. Bowever, I feel the quality of the quests is much better than WoWs. And again, the gamne is designed to be played in a group, as in pen and paper DnD.
Also, the game is set in Eberron so its not the classic Greyhawk/Forgotten Realms style setting. There are deviations from DnD (especially the new monk class) but it is farily faithful.
Just some food for thought. Its a free trial, what do you have to lose?
The solution for friends spread out on different servers is very simple, choose a completley different one from them.
For me it was easy, I wanted to play on an RP server, no one else did. And the roleplaying, was usually bad, but if you find a group of good people it’s possible to have quite fun.
I used to play WoW. One of the main reasons I left was that nothing ever seemed to change. It was like nothing you could you that would change the game world. That said the character class I had the most fun playing was a druid. Granted you weren’t the best at everything, but you could do a lot of things fairly well.
Right now I play EVE online, which is a space combat sim. In it they have done completely away with xp. Instead you learn skills over time. Each skill takes a certain amount of time to learn, ranging from a few minutes for basic skills to about a month for higher level skills. These skills train in real time, even when you are not logged on. So if you can only play on the weekends, you can set a 7 day skill and not have to worry about it during the week.
Another unique feature vs other mmos is that there is only 1 main server. I believe the current record for number of players at once is over 40,000. So you never have to worry about choosing between friends (unless said friends all play wow).
You’ll want to consider what *type* of server to roll on, too. You get to choose between:
Normal
PvP
RP
RP-PvP
On Normal & RP servers, you only engage in PvP combat with the other faction when you choose to, while on PvP and RP-PvP servers you’re liable to get smacked very often by high level characters who like killing new players. RP & RP-PvP servers have some additional rules meant to foster a roleplaying attitude towards the game. I’d heartily recommend an RP server, in particular the one I play on, Shadow Council. :)
You should also be careful in choosing what to play as for your first character, as a hunter is the most solo-able class in the game, wheras a warrior is probably the least solo-able.
Thats not to say you can solo as a warrior, far from it, but when you’re just starting out in the game, it’s not going to be the easiest class to play compared to the others.
I made a warrior as my first character in WoW and looking back, I really wish I’d made a paladin or hunter instead, as they’re much more forgiving to little mistakes.
Just a quick note, but I guess it’s too late for that now… the Blizzard Downloader is crap. At least it was for me, severely shrinking my download capacity. I’m not sure whether you pay for the download, but if you do, it’s much, much easier to just buy the game in a store. Saves you lots of time.
Greg: Funny you say that. I began as a warrior, when the game was merely 1 month old, and I soloed my way to 60th (with the occasionnal guild help)
I tried making a Mage alt, and solo with it. It was awful.. A priest was surprisingly easier (but not as easy as Warrior).
Warlock was the same level than the warrior, I think. But that’s my humble opinion. On another topic:
NOOO!! WE’LL LOOSE SHAMUS!!
I never got into WoW. I found it, like Guild Wars, much too boring. It’s hard to tell with any given game, some people will like it, some people will be bored out of their skulls.
City of Heroes, though, now there’s a fun game. Unfortunately, they recently imposed some restrictions on trial accounts because of spammers and RMTers (Real Money Transferers). Trials used to be completely unrestricted except in terms of time, but now the amount of influence/infamy (money) you can hold is severely curtailed, you’re limited to level 13 (one level before you’re allowed to have a travel power, travel powers being one of the nice things about CoX, hurtling about the city at great speeds), you can’t send private messages or speak in broadcast or join supergroups (guilds) or trade with other players. All these things were being abused. So it’s hard to find a team without putting ‘trial account, can’t respond to tells, send blind invite’ in your LFT notice. The nice thing is that since they instituted these changes the other day, spam has dropped to zero, which is very, very nice.
Of course, you can still access all the functionality of the amazingly extensive character customization system (with the exception of capes, which you unlock at level 20, and auras, which you unlock at level 30), which is still, even on a 4-year-old game, by far the best in the industry. I mostly spent my free trial making a whole bunch of new alts, so fascinated was I by the costume system. Then I tried playing the actual game, and I became hooked.
Make sure you pick up an addon like bagnon. It makes life a lot easier. By default your bags are all annoying and seperate, bagnon squashes them all together into one big bag.
The AceUpdater is also worth playing with.
Really, I would have stopped playing long ago if it wasn’t for addons…
I play the game WITH my wife, so no worries there. And we only play between three and six hours a week, so it isn’t like it’d be all that relationship-destroying anyway. (Though we have been playing since the game came out, so our experiences may not be indicative of a new player.)
Favorite addon is WoWMatrix. Not only can you use it to search for and install new addons, (it catalogs them from other addon sites) it also version-checks all of your current addons every time you start it up. (From outside of WoW.) You can then start WoW from WoWMatrix!
Jesus, God in Heaven, no.
Shamus, what in the world are you doing?
Ok, it’s not so bad. I managed to quit, so it is possible to stop.
Of course that had to be said first. My personal recommendation is to go Alliance, as their starting areas are a little more compacted and easier to navigate IMO. Your quest taking habits should be ok, as much of the early game experience comes from completing quests. I would start on a RP server, as my experience with both RP and regular servers indicate that you’ll at least get less annoying names and less random stupidity on RP servers. I heartily recommend avoiding PVP servers at all costs when starting, as those attract the “gank the newb” crowd like magnets.
…Damnit, now I want to play again. I’ve been clean for two years now, and still occasionally have pangs.
@noneofcon:
Yay, another EVE player!
Calling EVE a combat sim is a bit unfair, though. I haven’t fought a single player the entire time I’ve been playing. :P
I’ve just noticed the dice below the comments box, howcome they all have different numbers showing? I thought when roleplayers left dice lieing around they put them all on the highest or lowest number depending on their particular superstition.
Bizaare that a more natural way of seeing them lieing comes across as odd to me.
You poor, silly man.
I’d like to see your take on the PvP vs PvE server. Also, it sounds like a Role Playing server would be a better fit.
As for your friends, choose a server & tell them where you’re at – I’m sure they’d ‘roll’ some alts just to hang out with you while you level.
If you choose one of their servers, they’ll be giving you free gold & stuff & running you through quests & dungeons on their high level characters, and then what kind of scientific data would you get?
@ Ian
Calling EVE a combat sim is a bit unfair, though. I haven’t fought a single player the entire time I’ve been playing.
Well then how would you describe it?
One of us! One of us!
Ah, WoW. My drug of choice.
The separate servers can be kind of annoying, but it’s also sort of necessary given the size of the player-base and the non-instanced content. (This then gets compounded by the Horde/Alliance choice, but that’s also a big part of the fun of the game, even on a PvE server.) Unfortunately, server choice can make a big difference in play experience. The economy, whether there’s a critical mass of people either leveling or raiding, tone of chat, and so on can vary by both server and faction, and there’s not really an authoritative source of info on that.
Having high-level friends to feed you some money to get started can help a lot, but the game is perfectly playable from scratch.
If you have access to the Burning Crusade content, I consider trying a Blood Elf or a Draenei. Their starting zones are by far the best in the game, as they were made with the expansion and had the benefit of experience.
WoW is a lot of fun played solo as just a Diablo sequel with a built in chat room, but I recommend you try some group play. It usually isn’t hard to find a group for the lowest-level dungeons (Deadmines on Alliance side; Ragefire Chasm and Wailing Caverns Horde-side) and it can be a lot of fun. (It can also be horrific, if you group with the wrong people, but low-level dungeons are very forgiving of inexact play so it’s not as big a deal at that point.)
Although it’s a distant glimmer on the horizon, raiding – while not for everyone – can be a whole different level of fun. But, much more than anything else in the game, it depends on finding a guild that’s a good fit for you and praying that guild is stable and doesn’t implode.
And if you happen to be on Horde-side Ysrea and want to hook up with a guild, I’m with a bunch of nice people who are currently re-leveling. (We were previously an Alliance guild on Turalyon, which collapsed for fairly typical reasons trying to make the jump from 10 to 25-man raiding.)
Just a quick FYI. When I play myself, I generally go through periods of interest. For about six months I’ll play, enjoying the content, whether on a main character or an alt. Then I’ll yearn for single player games, and quit for a while. Then come about Halloween, I’ll be interested in WoW again.
Another brief note, I’ve played solo, and I’ve played in a fun guild, and I can say the experience differs greatly. Both are fun. When you solo, you can focus on exactly what you need. When you group, you can have fun just helping someone else. And then there’s raiding. I never got past Karazahn, the first raiding area. I barely had time enough for that. But it’s really fun to see the cooperation of players to take down really tough enemies. But that’s a ways off for you.
As far as leveling goes, the biggest advice I can give is be patient, enjoy the game. If one area gives you serious trouble, just go to another.
Lastly, people may be interested in a Twenty Sided guild. Obviously, you wouldn’t have to lead it, but it would be a way for the people who frequent this site could play together and with you. Just a musing out loud. Have fun, save your money, and don’t sell epic items without checking there price (a friend of mine did that, undersold it by 1/5th of its value.)
MMO gaming goes in cycles for most people. You play for a while, have a good time…then you decide that the burden of having to be on ALL the time, always having to arrange your schedule around the next raid instance will become too much and you’ll quit…eventually it comes around again.
At least if you have the MMO gene…which I don’t think I have because I’ve never lasted over a month in any of the ones I’ve tried.
Ah, WoW. I used to play back in the day, and I won’t lie, I enjoyed it quite a bit, mainly because I could play with a bunch of RL friends. I was playing on a PvP server, so it meant that there could be occasional bits of frustration. Plus, I was playing Warlock, which basically made me an instant target in PvP areas. However, as time wore on, I began to get the hang of the game, and I got better at spotting ambushes, and could in many cases give as good as I got, if not better. Eventually, I came to enjoy PvP, especially things like Battlegrounds and world PvP with even-level players, as it can be both challenging and fun. If you don’t have the patience for it, though, I’d recommend either RP or PvE, as all of the PvP options are there if you choose to take part in them, but they aren’t mandatory. Blizzard has also done a good job of allowing for multiple ways to experience the game, whether through solo grinding/questing, PvP (arena and battlegrounds), small group dungeons, or large raids. I’d advise you to try out each one at least a few times to keep the variety there.
Huh. I’d have thought the spyware would have turned you off to that particular MMO.
In January I wrote a series of blog posts about the addictiveness of WoW from a pastor’s perspective.
Introduction
Self-Reliance
Hoarding Money
Welcoming Weariness
Questaholism
Overly Social
I’m done with WoW now, but enjoyed playing one character to level 70. It was a nice type of entertainment during my wife’s pregnancy, when she was very tired and not quality company in the evenings but still enjoyed having me nearby for company and handy to spoil her with tea, foot rubs, or baking cookies.
Spyware? What spyware?
It was just a matter of time. :)
Terokkar-US is a friendly, moderately populated PvE server, for what it’s worth.
(Yes, I realize the topic here was World of Warcraft. But my train of thought is so short, it snagged on the comments instead of the article)
About Eve Online:
I had avoided that title for a long time, after reading an article on a PvP tournament. In a three or four page report on its progress, one _whole page_ was taken up describing how one of only a handful of capital ships in the game had been taken out in the fighting.
I don’t know about you, but when the endgame is so steep that only powergaming superguilds* can obtain it, it’s kind of intimidating. (What I’m apparently saying is, I’d rather they reward me for being a lazy gamer than those who actually put months of hard work and thousands of man hours into the game to obtain these things. Yeah, that sounds about right.)
Then I tried the game. It’s hard to put into words how great it was, but if it could get me to like it despite my massive reservations…
Just give it a try. The trial is for fourteen days. And if you’re into that whole ‘graphics bling’ thing, and if your computer is up for it, go to Options and download the (free) Premium content pack. It makes an already beautiful game even more so.
* And I wonder how that specific powergaming superguild took losing a massive investment like that due to a tactical blunder. I wouldn’t want to be that pilot.
Thanks for all the good reads Shamus. I’ll miss your blog…
Well, as a WoW vet busy reexperiencing the new 1-60 grind on an alt character, I want to give you my 2 cents on making the experience more tolerable:
Avoid PvP Servers: Does being ganked & camped for 30 minutes straight by someone 3x your level sound appealing? If not, avoid PvP servers like the plague. I would recommend RP servers instead; they’re like PvE servers without as many Lowest Common Denominator players.
Be Wary of RP on RP Servers: At best, RP on RP Servers can be entertaining and humorous. At worst, you have 2 godmodding emo elves trying to kill each other, another discussing their IC sex life, and 6 others arguing over whether they should try the murderers for their crimes. It is a game of Cowboys & Indians with no referees, no moderators, populated mainly by teenagers. It will never approach the quality of (most) tabletop RP. You have been warned.
Go Horde if You Plan to PvP: WoW lets you PvP in Battlegrounds (BGs), starting around Level 20, with games like Capture the Flag, Assault, or Node Control. If you plan on spending any time in BGs, go Horde. The Horde & Alliance’s PvE differences are nothing compared to their PvP differences. Alliance loses 90% of their BGs and play like unruly children or whipped dogs. Some will just idle outside the starting gates for free Honor & Tokens; most will just rush mindlessly at the enemy without even following basic strategy; the worst will suggest you give up to get the consolation prize sooner or chew you out for not being able to play worth a damn. I don’t know what PvP BGs are like on the Horde side, but they have to be better than the toxic Alliance attitude.
Find a Good Guild: Your enjoyment of WoW depends on how much you enjoy the people you play with. If the only socialization you do is in Pick-Up Groups (PUGs) and Trade Channel chat, you will grow to loathe WoW (and a vast majority of the public). They’ll ninja loot the bosses, flake out and quit your group 30 minutes into the instance, and enjoy annoying everyone else in the zone. It’s not that WoW is full of idiots; it’s that its decent players avoid PUGs and the Trade Channel like the plague.
Find a decent guild that will help you level and some friends to run instances with; the other players will make or break WoW for you.
Exploit the Buggered Low-Level Economy: Low-level items on the Auction House (AH) are not priced for complete novices like you; they are priced for alts of level-70 chars who can make 100+ gold a day and send it to their alts. You won’t be able to afford anything from it unless you make money from selling said overpriced items to said alts. I would invest in a gathering skill, like Mining (always lucrative); people will pay obscene prices on the AHfor raw mats they need to skill up professions.
Use the Burning Crusade Content: Original WoW was good; Burning Crusade is better. Even if you don’t play a draenei or blood elf, try to level up in their starting zones. Better aesthetics, better quests, better loot.
The Game Starts in the Outlands: Most of WoW’s best content was added in Burning Crusade via the Outland, the Level 61-70 zones. Levels 1-60 are boring by comparison. They’re also a ghost town compared to Levels 61-70. I wouldn’t blame you if you just tried to level up through them as fast as possible to get to Outland; Blizzard even increased your XP gain for the lower levels to help you do it.
WoWWiki is your Friend: The community has analyzed & picked apart WoW to death; the end result is WoWWiki.com. Use it, abuse it, love it.
The Company You Keep: WoW has a customer base that rivals casual games for diversity: there are the usual teenage munchkins, but there’s also a lot of college graduates, parents, and families playing it as well. There are oases of civility in there; put some effort into finding them and WoW will be much more enjoyable.
WoW is incredibly more fun if you play with friends, although personally I do play a lot solo as well. But the main reason I play at all is so that I have an activity I can do with the friends I have who live far away- and it is very, very good for that.
I would recommend a PvE server if you’re just starting out. The only thing a PvP server adds is lots of downtime when a vastly more powerful character kills you repeatedly–and this happens a lot, interfering with your questing.
On a PvE server, you can still do PvP in battlegrounds or even out in the world, but you won’t be FORCED into it like on a PvP server.
Might I suggest my server… Kilrogg? Old PST server (one of the originals at launch) but it’s stable, with a good player base and lots of people leveling alts that a new player can group with. :)
Noooooooooooo!
Hold strong, Shamus. May you emerge from the depths of WoW with your soul intact.
*bows head*
*dirge music starts*
The true test of friendship – start on a server where nobody else you know has a character and see who is willing to start up on *yours* ;)