Postcards from WoW, Part 6

By Shamus Posted Monday Aug 30, 2010

Filed under: Pictures 76 comments

It has finally happened. After more than nine days(!!!) of accumulated playing time, nearly sixty levels, a couple dozen dungeon runs, and countless hours of wiki-reading, I am at long last sick and tired of this damn game and all its crap.

wow_explore_kalimdor.jpg

This is actually a good thing. I needed to reach this point. As with Champions Online and Lord of the Rings Online, I find the writing flows better once I push through the initial obsession stage. As the charm wears away I’m more and more able to see the mechanics and the lore and find humor in them.

When I write a Let’s Play I do so by running through the same content again and again, so now that I’ve lost interest in my main character I’m mucking about leveling alts through the early game. Which leads to…

wow_bowhaver.jpg

My new hunter Bowhaver and his faithful tiger Eisenhower. Bowhaver is named after mister gun-possessor himself.

Shadowless, my recently-shelved main character, has pets with Old Testament names. (Aside from Eddie.) This one will have presidential pets. I really, really wanted to name my pet Nixon, but that name is verboten for some reason. Garfield would be better for a cat, but I’m sure that one will be forbidden for other reasons.

Of course if I get a bear I’ll name him Roosevelt.

Note to self: Get bear.

wow_crystal_cave.jpg

A crystal cave, which is located in Un’Goro crater. I love this place. I wonder how many people even get this reference. It borrows from Land of the Lost – the original Saturday-morning show from the 70’s, not the recent Will Ferrell remake – which was part of the Krofft Super Show, which I wrote about back in 2007. In both the show and the World of Warcraft zone, you’ve got this valley filled with dinosaurs, and a series of mysterious pylons that are controlled with colored crystals. In the show, the Marshal family gets stuck in the Land of the Lost. In WoW, the base camp is called Marshal’s refuge.

wow_smoke.jpg

I logged in last weekend to find the Goldshire inn filled with plumes of colored smoke. This place is usually filled with dueling nutters and people trying to roleplay. (Lots of overlap in those two groups.) But this time it was just smoke. I have no idea.

 


From The Archives:
 

76 thoughts on “Postcards from WoW, Part 6

  1. Jattenalle says:

    Did the smoke at least roleplay lesbian sex scenes?

    It just wouldn’t be Goldshire without that…

    1. Psychoceramics says:

      that smoke is actually what’s left of the duelers and roleplayers.

  2. Drew says:

    It’s a shame you’re not likely to ever reach the “second game” in any of these MMO titles (i.e., max-level gaming). The game changes substantially from exploration and hunting XP to generally working with other players to try to overcome challenges of increasing difficulty (that’s raiding, painted in it’s most optimistic light) or some kind of PvP oriented game. I’m not sure either of these would really appeal to you, but it would be fun to hear your assessment of the game at that level, just to see what kind of insight you’d have. Most likely you’d get bored when your raid wiped again and you had to stand around for 10 minutes waiting for everyone to get ready for another try at killing Boss X or some such thing, but they really are different games at max level.

    1. krellen says:

      City of Heroes doesn’t have a “second game”, though it is supposed to get something like one in the next patch. Still, six years without is pretty impressive.

    2. Ben says:

      Yes, I definitely would support this. You get a small taste of it with the dungeon finder, but it doesn’t really compare, since 10 and 25 man raids require much more coordination and preparation than the early 5mans.

      Unfortunately, I’m not sure it would be feasible to do it as a “wow tourist”, since the time investment is pretty steep. In addition to hitting 80, which would take another 3-4 days of gametime on your level 60, as well as purchasing both expansions (about $50-$60), it takes another 10-12 hours of running 5man content to get into your first 10man, unless you can find someone running older, easier content… but then it’s not very representative of the current game. The time required gets even worse if you are a dps and have to spend half of your time waiting around to get queued into a 5man dungeon…

      So, anyone have an inactive account with a geared level 80 they want to donate? :)

      1. Amarsir says:

        10 and 25 man raids require much more coordination and preparation than the early 5mansIsn’t this a drawback, not a benefit? Leadership is a skill not everyone has, and so I assume it tracks between real life and MMOs. So I can’t fathom why someone who manages a team all day would want to come home and do it again in a virtual world. Or why someone who takes orders all day would find it relaxing to have the guild leader boss them around for a while.

        1. Tever says:

          I can’t speak for WoW, but Mothership and Hami raids in City of Heroes are actually pretty fun. They usually require about 3-4 eight-man teams plus the usually cadre of soloing 50s. The team leaders give a basic rundown of what’s about to happen including the order we’re going to do things, and there’s not a lot of commanding after that.

          As a primary support, it’s usually my job to make sure my team stays buffed and healed first, and the other teams second. Things are usually crazy enough that no one even notices if I get overwhelmed and just focus of damage dealing for a while, so even characters with specific builds, like me, can just focus on having fun.

          It is quite a bit more intensive that an ordinary team, so there’s much joking and chatter, but at the same, there’s enough people around that if you get bored, there’s no pressure to stick around anyway. And I think our raids are shorter than WoW’s, too.

        2. Lise says:

          It’s no different than someone organizing, say, a weekend soccer team, or a bowling team. Also, who says that a manager in real life is the one that has to manage things in game? Probably the reverse is true – players who want to manage stuff in game don’t spend all their worktime managing things, so they find it fun to do so. Your intended point still holds, in that MMO end games are more work than play, lots of repetition, and for most people not so much fun (unless you find a group of people you really like, which is true for bowling and soccer too generally.)

  3. Jack says:

    Engineers get smoke bombs from outland recipes.

    Also, I tend to name my ingame pets after writers. The first pet I have in any game will always be called Dickens.

  4. Gahazakul says:

    But, at almost 60 you can go to Outlands and start the Burning Crusade stuff, wich is a big improvement over the base game.

    1. tremor3258 says:

      To be fair to WoW, the quests’ writing gets better each expansion (and it’s not really bad at the start, compared to THIS IS NO ORDINARY STORM, it’s quite good).

      1. Trix says:

        It’s not simply the writing that is tons better either. Outland and Northrend are much much smoother and nicer to level in than the old world.

        I’m not entirely surprised at a late-50s burnout though. The stretch from 55-58 is probably the hardest and most annoying part of the game to level through, although the dungeon finder greatly mitigates this nowadays.

        And of course, once you hit 58 you can hit outland and find yourself at 60 within an hour or two :P though 61 and on takes significantly longer.

  5. jdaubenb says:

    So this will be your next LP project for the Escapist, I take it?

    Personally, I got sick of WoW after getting yelled at one to many times by my pick up group for having the gall to have to drink after a prolonged fight of healing.
    WoW taught me that a) I probably just don’t know how to play nice with others and b) I should just stick to singleplayer. It is always good to be reminded of lessons one has learned 10 years ago.

    @Nixon: Is it possible that you cannot name your pet Nixon, because there is a clothing label (or something. As far as I can tell they sell hats and watches) with that name?

    1. Galenor says:

      That’s pretty much why I quit too. The problem with this Multplayer RPG is that it’s multiplayer. It might be my bad luck, but my PuGs have been obnoxious and irritating, my raids with a guild have been elitist and stressful, and my raids with a casual guild have been long and tedious when they keep banging their head against the first boss. Add all that to how people are judged by their Gearscore and not their personality, and I’m outta here!

    2. Ian says:

      Personally, I got sick of WoW after getting yelled at one to many times by my pick up group for having the gall to have to drink after a prolonged fight of healing.
      WoW taught me that a) I probably just don't know how to play nice with others

      The thing is that you typically shouldn’t play nice with others.

      I’ve been in 5-man groups where my mana reserve has been totally drained (the only time that happens is if the tank isn’t crit capped or they are doing something horribly, horribly wrong) and if they want to whine about me taking a quick swig after one of their awful pulls they can try healing themselves. If they want to pull after I repeatedly shout “OOM,” they can take the durability loss like the inattentive idiots they are while I flee from the dungeon. If the mage decides to spam blizzard before the tank gets a chance to gain some AoE threat, they deserve the durability loss.

      If you’re a critical role (i.e. tank or healer) you absolutely can’t take any undeserved crap from people in your party, especially when they screw up. I’d rather tell them off (very gently at first, with increasing aggression if they continue) and get booted (which hasn’t happened yet, since I don’t open my mouth unless I’m sure I’m in the right) rather than waste my time on trying to keep a fail group alive.

      It’s a nasty attitude, yes, but it’s how you have to be with some random groups unless you want them to walk all over you.

      1. John Lopez says:

        “The thing is that you typically shouldn't play nice with others.”

        And so it is finally spoken clearly why I hate MMOs outside running with personal friends.

        Given the choice between not playing nice with smacktards and simply not playing, I think not playing is the far less stressful choice. After all, my gaming time is about escaping the pressures of the day, not replacing them with Greater Internet F-wads.

      2. Trix says:

        Such behavior might be semi-effective, but it is entirely possible to run with decent/nice people on a regular basis…but I will admit that it probably requires you to have decent knowledge of the game and your class in addition to being a nice person. Too many people look at newbies and mistakes as if they’re the end of the world, which doesn’t promote nice attitudes overall.

      3. Lise says:

        It’s a game, played for fun, and as such there’s no benefit at all for nice people to not be nice to others, and expect that in return. Telling people that they should’t be nice just makes you look like a jerk and likely way too into the game’s epenis factor. Different MMOs have their own community behaviors, and unfortunately WoW’s, due to, as mentioned, gearscores and many addons aimed at measuring each other’s appendages (as well as being required for group content, which has to be harder to make up for the many addons), is fairly obnoxious compared to some others (compare to running PUGs in LOTRO – worlds of difference).

        1. Ian says:

          I think you missed the part in my post where I said that I don’t immediately go into “not-nice” mode. Go ahead and ask the DK tank that I helped last night when I was running Blood Furnace if I’m a jerk. I’m pretty sure he’ll tell you that I was extremely helpful and helped him improve.

          There’s a major difference between people who are new and people who are egotists. When I’m talking about people who need to be left to die, I’m referring to people who absolutely can’t be taught, not the newbie who doesn’t know any better. And I assure you, I’ve helped far more people that I’ve hurt in WoW, but you most certainly can’t please everyone.

          The people that I have no regard for are the DPS that overpull and blame the tank (even though it’s their own damn fault). The people who complain about specs even though I’m out-DPSing them or keeping the party at near full health at all times. The people who screw up over and over again despite being told exactly what they’re doing wrong. The tank that continuously pulls when my healer is OOM despite me telling him about that multiple times. The DPS that pulls targets that the tank isn’t even close to. Not one-off behaviors, I’m saying that this is just how these people play.

          This is not stuff that’s exclusive to low level dungeons. This is stuff that I see in endgame content. These are people who either don’t want to learn the game, or have delusion of grandeur and a massive ego despite not knowing how to play their class. They are the people that cannot be helped because they don’t want to be helped. Surely you aren’t expecting anyone to cater to their destructive behavior.

  6. merle says:

    I go for Shakespearean names; blame an early exposure to Onimusha for that.

    And though I wasn’t yet born when the 70s ended, I do remember Land of the Lost; re-runs of the show were a feature of my childhood TV-watching, along with Pirates of Dark Water and Fraggle Rock.

  7. Jarenth says:

    I, too, play like this. It’s a beautiful cycle, really: Starting Out, Infatuation, Obsession, Disillusionment, Boredom, Quitting. I’ve played around five or six of these WoW cycles (for around two to three weeks total played time), and a similar number of CoH ones.

  8. Greg says:

    If you’re over 55 in Shadowless and have the WotLK expansion, I strongly recommend doing the Death Knight starter zone. It is by far the best starter zone in the game, it only takes a couple of hours and when you’re done, you’ll be level 58 and ready to go to Outland, which is a much better place to quest in than vanilla WoW (at least until Cataclsym ofc).

    In Outland there’s much better quest flow, no more being sent all over the world by every other quest and, most importantly, FLYING!

    1. Shamus says:

      I did roll a DK on another server. I rolled Horde-side, which seemed like a good way to get some Horde characters rolling. Even if I don’t stick with the DK, it should be able to bankroll (say) a Belf if I wanted to play one.

      1. Ian says:

        I’m not sure how much you’ve played your DK yet, but be warned that they play quite a bit differently. Out of my three 80s (a shadow-turned-healer priest and a survival hunter), my DK has the most complex rotation and requires quite a bit of maintenance to keep up high damage.

        You’ll be able to handle a heck of a lot more with your DK than most other classes can (aside from pallies, which seem to be a pretty even match), especially with the rare gear that you get from the start.

        Basically, apply diseases, hit pestilence to spread them, and spam blood boil to apply hurtings (until your diseases wear off, then rinse and repeat). Try to make sure that you’re always doing some sort of special move at all times (i.e. when runes are on cooldown, use runic power abilities).

        Blood is probably the best spec when you’re soloing, since your self-heals are obscene. Unholy gets you a fully-fledged minion (who is controlled like a hunter pet) and some pretty incredible AoE DPS (I managed over 1K AoE DPS in instances at level 59) but I think the self-heals are more valuable in the long run, especially since the ghoul can’t exactly tank.

        And yeah, with a little bit of time in Outland you’ll be able to get gold nice and quickly. On my night elf, I managed to acquire about 350-400g in four levels without hitting up the auction house. I’d probably give the DK a good try before resigning him to a cash cow (heh, tauren). It took me some time to get used to playing a DK, but after I got used to it I found them to be incredibly fun to play.

      2. Trix says:

        DKs are certainly an easy way to avoid the horrible 55-58 leveling grind, since the amazing starting zone will pull you all the way to 58 and ready for outland anyways.

  9. Hal says:

    You’re sick of the game . . . so you rolled another hunter?

    I think I missed a step somewhere in there.

    1. Shamus says:

      Like I said, I’m sick of playing the game “for fun” and so now I can play it to write my LP, which involves replaying early zones. I’m playing a hunter again because that’s easy.

      1. Jack says:

        There are easier classes than hunters, especially for the first 10 levels.

        1. Shamus says:

          I need to go beyond level 10. And I’m familiar with Hunters. Maybe a druid (or whatever) is easier, but that’s no good if I have to learn a new class first.

          1. Ben says:

            Having played every class pretty extensively (7 80s, a 68, a 44 and a 35), I have to say that hunter is probably the best choice for what you are doing. No class should have any trouble for the first 10 levels, and once you have a pet, the only easier class is probably paladin, since they wear plate and have good self-healing. However, having a pet makes for much more interesting gamplay, whereas I always found paladin pretty boring.

            Druids, despite their versatility and self-healing, are actually pretty slow to level until you finally get all of your important cat abilities, which isn’t until mid-to-late 20s. This is one of the many things that is getting fixed in cata.

      2. Ian says:

        I’m going to echo everyone else and recommend that you give the Outland quests a shot before shelving Shadowless for an indefinite period of time. Hellfire Peninsula is kind of annoying (I don’t know why, that place just bugs me), but after you get past that, I think the game gets a whole heck of a lot better. After you manage to get to around level 62, the game becomes a story-driven breeze.

        1. Trix says:

          Hellfire is still better than all the zones before it IMO :)

          1. Ian says:

            Well no, let’s see…I’m sure there’s some zone in the old world that’s a breeze to push through. Hmm. Let me think.

            Crap, I think you’re right. :(

            That said, I rather enjoyed the quests in Mulgore. Then again, I don’t think we can really count the 1-10 zones.

  10. krellen says:

    Oh, by the by, the writing for the missions in the new City of Heroes expansion is really good, at least for an MMO. Praetoria almost feels like a single player game (if not for the public areas full of people.)

    1. Jarenth says:

      Damn you and your omni-present tempting me back to City of Heroes.

      I’m clean, I tell you! Clean!

      1. Sumanai says:

        Despite knowing what you mean, I can’t help but think “out damned spot!”

      2. krellen says:

        I regret nothing.

    2. tremor3258 says:

      Yeah, they managed to suck me back in. ‘Avid Reader’ is so meta I may keep it forever.

      1. krellen says:

        Go beat up a bunch of Destroyers. Best Badge Ever.

        1. Rick W says:

          No, that would be the one by the Praetorian tailor.

          Although I’m still pretty partial to Payoff, too.

    3. Tever says:

      Oh, yes, this. So much this. I played that game until I couldn’t stand to look at it anymore, and I was kicking myself for the weak moment that I decided to preorder Going Rogue. I wasn’t actually going to play, but I was so bored with Champions the other day that I decided to give it a shot anyway, and holy crap! Even the original games seem awesome again somehow.

  11. Henebry says:

    Love the Gunhaver reference. Shame the Bros Chaps appear to have ended their 10-year run. But life calls.

    1. Eldiran says:

      One of ’em had a kid, so they’re just taking a long break.

  12. RTBones says:

    Interesting that you finally hit your “limit.” As a solo player that typically gets all his XP via questing, I usually his a brief barrier in the 20-25 level area. Not that I’m done, I just usually need a break from the monotony of grinding and questing.

    I hit such a point this weekend at level 24. What’s the best way for me to get by such a barrier? Explore, naturally. More importantly, seek out flight points I shouldnt have at this level. Which I did. You know, make a run through Thousand Needles to Thalanaar. Via Shimmering Flats (with a jog to pick up the racetrack on your exploration list.) Via Gagdetzan. Via Steamwheedle Port. Via swimming…from Theramore. Via boat from Menethil Harbor. Thats my “normal route”. Which I did take.

    But I started way up in Auberdine, and decided to take – the long way around. So, as my rogue is an alchemist, decided I would run south along the shore, fishing as I did so that I could make some Swift Swim potions. Which I did. Went south as far as Blackfathom Deeps, where I was forced to fight a few mobs. Not a bad thing, as I am currently questing in Ashenvale, and have a quest to go get some of these mobs. But I digress. My fights didnt last long, and I continued south along the coast, occasionally venturing on shore to run (mounted). Then I crossed into the Desolace zone. Got a portion of the way by it, and got squashed like a bug. This turned out OK, as I ended up at the Kodo Graveyard spirit healer. Now, running through Desolace with a level 24 rogue is not the best idea to survive. But one corpse run later, I abandoned the swim and ran up the road into Ferelas. I thought to myself, “Stick to the path and you’ll do fine.” Except the explorer in me decided, on occasion (to my detriment) not to. Plan was to take the boat to Feathermoon Stronghold for the flight point and go from there. Unfortunately, took the wrong “exit” down the hill, got squashed again, and ended up at the Dire Maul graveyard. Which is fine, except there are mobs everywhere. And I was way under level. Several corpse runs later, made it to the road (sprint is your friend) and Feathermoon. After a heal and a long swim back to the coast (why I thought I could make better time swimming at an angle than taking the boat is beyond me) I got squashed a third time by some giant undersea giants…which had me spawn in a graveyard well south of Dire Maul, but in an an area with no apparent exits – and lots of mobs. At this point, hearthed back to Astranaar, gryph to Aubderine, boat to Menethil Harbor, and you know the rest.

    Except…

    On getting to Thalanaar, decided I would try to “stick to the road” to make it through Ferelas instead of going by air. Two deaths and several close calls later (there is a camp whose name I dont remember halfway across Ferelas on the road) I was back going into Desolace. Now, I could have stopped at Feathermoon and gotten the gryph back, but got the notion to try and make it to Nigel’s Point. On the north side of Desolace. “Stick to the path,” I said. “Explore,” my avatar implored. Two deaths and several close calls later (sense a theme here?) I made Nigel’s Point. At which point, I hearthed back to Astranaar.

    I think I’ll go back to questing for a while. :)

  13. Andrew B says:

    On the Nixon thing, I have seen it used as a euphemism for, well, a number two. (“I woke up, took a Nixon and brides my hair.”) Only plac I’ve seen this though is the Kinky Freidman novels, so I don’t know if it’s an actual genuine usage or a piece of personal style.

  14. Sagretti says:

    Interesting that it wouldn’t let you name the pet “Nixon.” Most of my World of Warcraft characters use names taken from the Nixon administration and the Watergate scandal (I also use Nixon related things for other projects of mine). Every time I try to make a character with the name Nixon, I’m told it isn’t available. Originally I thought this was because another person on the server already used the name, even though I could never track them down. After reading your experience, it seems that it is intentionally blocked for some reason. Glad that nobody at Blizzard has read or watched All the President’s Men, or I’d be out a lot of character names.

  15. swimon says:

    So you’re doing a WoW LP now? It seemed to have a question mark before so I’m curious.

    Is Wow the WoW quests really cracktastic enough for that? I usually don’t read them myself even though I play games mainly for the narrative. WoW never engaged me and it seemed to make it clear early on that “this game ain’t for story nerds” so I just never bothered. That said the few times I have read them they’re just uninspired RPG stock, is that really stupid enough to LP? I mean compared to not allowing civilians to enter hero HQ so they can die in the snow WoW seem almost Shakespearian^^.

    1. Shamus says:

      It is providing a unique challenge. Champs was a stupid setting. LOTRO was a Serious Setting with the occasionally silly MMO convention to lampoon. WoW is somewhere between those two. Not as craptastic as Champs, not as “scholarly” as LOTRO.

      Of course, new writing projects are always nerve-wracking. I was terrified that LOTRO would be unfunny before it launched. This might be my Next Big Thing. It might be… not.

      1. SatansBestBuddy says:

        It’ll be a “thing,” how about that?

      2. Will says:

        The low level story content in WoW is pretty much a joke, very bland, very boring.

        The story quality picks up hugely in Burning Crusade content, and then picks up another notch in Wrath. One of the reasons Cataclysm is going to explode all the original WoW content it is because Blizzard want to replace their bland original stories and content with better, more interesting stories and content :P

  16. Witteafval says:

    My hunter alt’s pet is a timberwolf named Strange, in honor of the childhood dog of outdoor humor writer Patrick McManus. I’ve thought about taming other pets and naming them after other McManus characters, though another goal of mine is for him to tame one of the devilsaurs from Un’goro Crater, so that he’ll match the one my wife’s hunter has. (I’ll probably name it Hades or Poseidon, to go along with her Zeus.)

    1. Jeff #3 says:

      Tame a bear and name it ‘Crazy Eddie’. That way he can supply his own bear grease.

      1. Witteafval says:

        I was thinking I’d name a bear either Goombah or Rancid, and that I’d find some weird creature in a swamp and name it Retch.

  17. Adamantyr says:

    I think sticking with the leveling/exploration angle of “Casual” WoW is the best thing to do for Let’s Play. That’s what 80% of the WoW playerbase experiences.

    I used to do PvP, and I did Raids back in pre-BC when they were all pick-up groups that hung around outside the Spire entrance. (Very funny, actually, Blizzard missed a great opportunity to plop down a traveling merchant’s cart who saw all the customers milling about and decided the heart of darkness in Azeroth was a place to make some money.) PvP was okay, until WotLK when they upped honor costs on all the gear to ludicrous amounts. When it went from spending an hour doing battle grounds to several, I quit.

    These days, raiding is no fun at all. I have no interest in doing voice chat with strangers, or installing mods that mess up my client, because a raiding guild demands it. I also have no interest in spending 4-6 hours a day playing just to raid and get gear to just do more raiding.

    Also, raiders are not a majority of the player base, just a very vocal minority. By the look of Cataclysm, it appears Blizzard has finally realized this and is focusing more on bringing in new customers. WotLK was focused entirely on end-game, and I think the results show… notice how Blizzard hasn’t posted any subscription counts in over a year? I’m guessing they hit a zero-growth point. (Okay, the fact that WotLK only recently got a China release is also part of it…)

    The dungeon finder is a great tool. My brother was as casual as you can get and hated doing any dungeon because it was “a waste of time” since it took hours to get a party together, and half the time it was ran by a max-level who just butchered everything for the lowbies. He was a total convert and advocate of the dungeon finder, and now he plays regularly. Blizzard really scored a big win there.

    If they could extend such tools to raids, then it may be worth doing. But doing so also means making raids so that they can be done without external tools. If fights require voice chat because timing is so critical, they won’t work in a pick-up group. Okay, “tank n’ spank” bosses get boring after awhile, but you have to work players up to more complex tactics.

    I think Blizzard made one critical error with Heroics as well. A lot of the “snare” tools like polymorph, sap, and shackle undead fail to work on over half the mobs in Heroics. The result is that the “assault” play style has trickled down into all the 5-mans. Every time I run a dungeon nobody bothers to mark, snare, or do anything that may come in useful later with fights where some tactics are called for.

    1. Sanguine says:

      Crowd control (Poly, shackle, roots, etc.) always work on heroic mobs, so long as the caster has sufficient hit rating, which they almost certainly will. The reason no-one bothers to mark or CC is because it is unnecessary – the content is too easy to require it, and it simply makes the dungeons take longer.

      I’d also be interested as to where you found the statistic that 80% of the player-base is casual – something which many players would consider a grave insult.
      :D

      1. Khizan says:

        Casual is considered an insult because all too many people consider casual to be an excuse for playing the game horribly. These are the people who respond to “Hey, Death Knights gem for strength and not AP” with “stfu these were cheapest im not some hardcore raider im casual i have a girlfriend who has sex with me and i make 5 million a year and i drive a ferrari so i have an rl unlike you hardcore nerd raider nerd.”

        You can play the game casually and still play it well. All it takes is a bit of time and effort to do the most basic research into your character mechanics. An hour or so of looking for guides and gearing and such on the internet is all it really takes.

        I raid for maybe ~3-4 hours one night per week with a group of friends, and I killed the Lich King a few weeks back with them.

        1. HeadHunter says:

          Yeah, but you’re missing the point that a casual player *shouldn’t* give a crap about what others think of the way they play.

          Playing the game the way others think you ought to is the first step to being a hardcore gamer, IMO. Raiding isn’t something that casual players do, let’s be honest.

          If someone is playing the game for their own enjoyment, it shouldn’t matter what others think.

          If someone is playing the game for the sake of *others’* enjoyment? Well, pardon me for saying so, but then they’re *doing it wrong*!

      2. Adeon says:

        Bare in mind that the people you see who use casual as an insult are a self selecting portion of the player base that doesn’t necessarily represent the player base as a whole.

        There are plenty of people who play WoW (or any other MMO) who never go to the forums, rarely (or never) read strategy guides and don’t participate in the various global chat channels. Those are the people I would define as casual players. Do they make up 80% of the player base? Honestly, I don’t know but it wouldn’t surprise me.

  18. A Chimendez says:

    I have to say, the Gunhaver reference is great… Always makes me smile to see someone make a random HR reference and Bowhaver is great.

    “WoW Commando’s, Rock, Rock On!”

  19. ngthagg says:

    Un’goro Crater is kind of a dumping ground for all kinds of silly references.

    Did you take the time to do any Burning Crusade content? Getting burned out as you approach 60 (or 58, I suppose) is typical, since that’s the stuff that used to be endgame content, back before the expansions. Once you get into new content, however, everything picks up again. Blizzard learned a lot about making the game fun between the first release and the expansion.

  20. SolkaTruesilver says:

    Shamus, don’t try to explain nor comprehend Goldshire.

    I think it’s an area that intersects with an alternate level of reality, with their denizens come and interacts together in this nifty zone. We are utterly incomprehensible to them, as they are to us. What you see is probably perfectly logical in their culture, and it’s our behavior which looks alien and silly.

    So, for the sake of your sanity, stay away from Cthushire.

    1. Michael says:

      One of these days I’m going to burn a WoW 3 day key just to see that damn place.

  21. Nathan says:

    I’ve just been playing WoW for the first time, so I suppose I am curious to see Shamus’s take on it. I can certainly think of a few things that could be complained about, though I suppose it would be hard for someone to do so in a funy way since so many people have already talked about them…

    Still, please make at least one quip about going out and killing a bunch of enemies for a quest, turning that quest in, and then finding out a minute later that a totally different quest line from a different part of the map is asking you to go right back there and kill those same enemies in the hopes that they drop some quest items you need. That is my #1 annoyance with the game so far. Curse you, Harvest Golems and Skeleton Horrors/Fiends!

    Random guys who challenge you to duels without saying a word and basically the entirety of the retcon-happy post-Warcraft 2 lore pretty much round out my pet peeves. Still, the game is a lot of fun.

    1. Tever says:

      He’s talked about that a few times, I believe. Go back and read the LPs for Champions and LOTRO.

  22. Velkrin says:

    You need to get an elephant (or WoW equivalent) and name it Teddy.

    1. HeadHunter says:

      Nah, I’d name it Shep.

  23. Rick W says:

    Two thoughts on the Garfield comment…

    1. My GuildWars ranger’s tiger is named Hobbes. Of course, the only one who ever sees that is me, because I don’t team much and when I do I don’t run a pet build.
    2. WTB? The main Wikipedia article for “Garfield” is about the comic, rather than a disambiguation page? Wow.

  24. SharpeRifle says:

    Oh great!…They finally decided to fumigate GoldShire.

  25. DM T. says:

    The only thing that actually helped me mitigate the current WoW leveling is getting a different game into the mix. This is where Stardock Elemental: War of Magic came in to the rescue.
    It’s still a bit buggy, but it’s a great game and over time it would turn into another addiction :)

  26. somecrazyfan says:

    At last!Maybe now it will end with WOW (gotten sick and tired of this) and fallout 3, that seems to be endless.Really, how many episoded does it have?
    And, the “ask me a question” page has like 30 questions, is it so hard for someone to answer one a day?

  27. Sean says:

    Really? You have a pet tiger, and you didn’t name it after an enlightenment philosopher? For shame.

  28. kmc says:

    nnooOOOOOOOO, you have to try Outland! I know everybody else on here has said this, but I have to say it too. Hellfire is one of my favorite areas in the entire game, and it starts going so much faster (basically, as fast or slow as you want). The first few quests replace pretty much all your gear to make up for the huge stat difference between old world and Outland, and the demons are pretty much my favorite enemies. Just give it a shot! (Even just a couple of hours.)

  29. Shrikezero says:

    I don’t have a naming convention in the sense of theme. I have a set of names I’ve grown to love over my years of gaming. Favorite tank, favorite pet class, etc. So a few years a go I started using them for specific class types. My mildy obsessive brain also requires I use specific color schemes for each… but that’s a different discussion.

    I use them this way so that when I switch games I can sort of reset my brain for the class type.

    Also they tend to be complete non-sequiters in terms of likely toon names. No one is likely to take them.

  30. OEP says:

    I also really think you should give outlands a try. The leveling pace is more akin to the early levels and the rewards are extremely nice compared to levels 1-60. You can go at level 58.

    Also at 68 head to northrend. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to get to 80.

  31. Falco Rusticula says:

    I might not have anything positive to say about Outland (blame Hellfire Peninsula), but Northrend -and especially Howling Fjord -are fantastic.

    Odd that I’ve been playing this game for two years and still like ambling through the quests…

  32. spiralofhope says:

    Ya know what makes the game re-playable and fun? Consistent grouping with the same people. Quest as a team. Even two people, with voice chat on, is so much more fun than you would think possible.

    But nobody wants to do this, not even with guilds. It’s always an erratic schedule and periods of mad powerlevelling.

    People have previously mentioned five paladins, five druids and even five warlocks or hunters. A theme is always cool, but building the “perfect group” really makes the game a lot of fun. Something like:

    paladin tank / healer
    priest disc / shadow
    mage
    warlock
    druid kitty / tank

    This covers all the major abilities, gives a little bit of shuffle if people get bored, gives you conjured food, teleports and summons..

    All kinds of good combinations exist. The important part would be staying together and being online together. Even playing repeat content becomes very fun.

Thanks for joining the discussion. Be nice, don't post angry, and enjoy yourself. This is supposed to be fun. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked*

You can enclose spoilers in <strike> tags like so:
<strike>Darth Vader is Luke's father!</strike>

You can make things italics like this:
Can you imagine having Darth Vader as your <i>father</i>?

You can make things bold like this:
I'm <b>very</b> glad Darth Vader isn't my father.

You can make links like this:
I'm reading about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darth_Vader">Darth Vader</a> on Wikipedia!

You can quote someone like this:
Darth Vader said <blockquote>Luke, I am your father.</blockquote>

Leave a Reply to jdaubenb Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.