World of warcraft for beginners (World of Warcraft (PC))

Member Name: Kibbster

Product:	World of Warcraft (PC)
Date:	20/03/09 (110 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Huge open world with a massive variety of options and gameplay, really well polished game

Disadvantages: Can be a little daunting to new players and sucks time like well... lots really!

It's hard to know where to start with an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online RolePlaying Game.) as they tend to be huge, indepth and thoroughly scary to a new unitiated player or Newbie as new players are referred to in online games.

This review I have to admit is pretty huge but then so is World of Warcraft, I just wanted to cover some of the most basic things that might give people who are new to Online roleplaying games an idea of what to expect and to try and tempt people to give it a go.

You never know the next few number of years of your gaming life might be taken over in a way you had never dreamed possible!

The basics:
The game is just over four years old now and as with all MMORPGs it has had regular tweaks, additions and updates over the years so there are now two expansions as well as the original vanilla World of Warcraft game.
You don't need both of the expansions at the start to play the game but you will need the data contained in them so you can interact with other players that do have both the expansions.
I'd recommend buying the original game and both The burning Crusade and Wrath of the Litch King expansions so you minimise the downloading of patches to bring you right up to date before you can log in and play.

Costs:
World of Warcraft carries a subscription based charge so once your first free month of gametime is up you will then have to pay to continue playing - this was a big sticking point for me, I thought the idea of paying to play a game every month was wrong.
But here I am four years later, still paying and still playing.
The monthly fee is about £8.99 a month which makes WoW one of the cheaper monthly MMOs.

So what do you get for your money?
A game that runs with or without you 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Online in game support from gamesmasters who are Blizzard employees there to help resolve problems.
Regular free updates with new items, dungeons, quests, tweaks and changes.
MMOs don't stay the same for very long so if you tried it a few years ago but stopped playing for whatever reason it may be worth you taking a look again because a lot has changed.

There are a lot of other options to spend money on like Character name changes, gender changes and server transfers which all incur an extra one time fee but they are voluntary and not something a new player will have to worry about.

With the number of servers that Blizzard maintain and the number of Blizzard employees involved in the product it's easy to see where the money goes.

So ok, you know the financial costs now the other final cost... and this is the one that will possibly have the most impact.

Time...
Warcraft can be very addictive, the game is slick and paced in just such a way to make you want to do just one more quest, just one more level, just one more battleground.
At low levels the pace is fast, you level quickly gaining new skills within a few minutes.
Higher levels can take a few hours to a few days.
Once you start getting into the social part of the game and join a guild and start raiding or maintaining a Player Vs Player arena rating then you are looking at a serious time commitment.
Just one thing to bear in mind before you start to play, WoW does require a time commitment and the more time you put in, generally the more rewards you can get.
You may even end up realising that WoW is about the only game you ever want to play for a long time.

Interface:
The game is actually very streamlined and for an MMO, pretty easy to get into and start playing.
The interface is simple and very adjustable with extra free downloaded addons, you can make your interface display pretty much anything you want and no two players UIs (User Interfaces) are exactly the same.
It'll take time but you'll find out what suits your playstyle and how and where you want info displayed on screen.
Just do a google search for WoW addons - Curse gaming is generally a good site.

Graphics:
World of warcraft uses a fairly basic 3D engine by some games standards but what it lacks in polygons it makes up for with art direction.
The game visually looks stunning when you get over the slightly blocky textures.
The last expansion added realtime dynamic shadows and lighting on the characters which has made a great visual improvement but at a cost of needed a slightly more powerful PC to run the game.
But it will still run and look great on old hardware so it's a great game to play without needing a mega expensive shiny rig!
The zones in game are all varied and once again have some of the best design and art direction of any game, there are areas with mountains and snow, deserts, swamps, medieval cities, space age cities, tribal red Indian type areas and so on, you name it there is a zone like that in game.
Some of the areas are beautiful and you feel uplifted when entering them, others are oppressive and dark - they all ooze atmosphere in a way that only Blizzard can do, every area feels alive and real even for a fantasy game.

Spells are colourful and some pretty spectacular in battle, monsters are all quite varied and plentiful and the dungeons are pretty unique and often quite entertaining.

Armours are in theory very varied with an obvious difference between cloth, leather, mail and plate - the downside is most players know there are certain armour sets that are best for their class so everyone aims to get them, this can end up with lots of players looking very similar.
Over-all though the armour looks vibrant and quite bright, some sets look great for certain classes.

Sound:
The sound in WoW is superb, every action has a sound even if it's a failed action.
You don't actually need to look at the screen to know exactly what's going on.
All in all you will be treated to a cacophony of noise, shield blocks, Steel clashing with armour, grunts, yells, fireballs, explosions, dragons, demons etc.
Plenty of variety for sound lovers, also the hardware 3D sound support is very good.

The music is also excellent and every zone has it's own theme which adds to the atmosphere and (for me anyway) doesn't get on the nerves.
I challenge anyone to run through Ashenvale without feeling like a child running through a magical elven forest for the first time!

Gameplay:
This is where Wow shines and also frustrates.
The good part of the gameplay is that the game can be played how ever you see fit:
Solo, group, instances (dungeons) Questing or grinding - it's upto you.
The game can easily be played solo from level 1-80 if that's what you want, I think it's nice you don't HAVE to group to play the game.
At the top level there are a few options on how to spend your time, you can either raid dungeons in groups of up to 25 people to try and get the best epic level items or you can battle other players in small teams in the arena for Epic Player Vs Player armour and items.
You can even spend all your time in the more casual Battlegrounds engaged in Player Vs Player (PvP) but not have to worry about ratings and just jump in and bash some skulls!
There are also achievements for you to complete for nothing other than bragging rights or for your own amusement, although some harder to earn achievements might give you a special pet, name or mount.

All in all there's no lack of things to do, hence the time commitment thing.

The basic gameplay types have their own servers that you get to pick when you create your first character.
PvP - Player vs player servers, once you are out of the low level areas (1-20 roughly) you are open to world PvP at all times.
Some might find this the most exciting type of server, some might find it frustrating as you can and often will be attacked just when you have no chance to defend yourself, either by a much higher player or a group against you or when you are struggling to kill monsters - either way it's kill or be killed on PvP servers!

PvE - Player Vs environment servers are you Vs monsters, no other players can attack you unless you want them too, you can still do arena and battlegrounds same as all servers but if you want to level and quest in peace then this is the server type for you.

RP (PvP and PvE) - Roleplaying servers are for people who like to roleplay, if you like acting and talking like you are that character or sitting around campfires and talking in character then RP is for you.
If you aren't interested in RP then stay away from the RP servers - nothing upsets RPers more than a naked Gnome called "IpwnU" jumping around and laughing when they are trying to have a good RP session round a campfire!

So there are plenty of gamestyle choices and don't fret, if you feel you have picked the wrong one but feel you have gone to far to create a new character then you can transfer to a different server (for a fee of course.)

You can have up to 50 characters across 10 different servers so you can have characters on all the different type and play which ever takes your fancy at that time.

Characters:
There are two factions to choice from, Horde or Alliance.
Neither is good or bad they just have their own agendas and quests as well as cities and races.
People from different factions on a PvP server can attack each other at will apart from in a couple of sanctuaries and the lower level areas.
You can't communicate with the other faction to stop the worst of the bad behavior that can fill the chat channels during PvP, this even applies to PvE or RP servers - if your friend has rolled one faction you have to be on the same server and in the same faction to talk to them!

Within those two factions there are five races per faction to choose from, this is where you decide if you want to be a gnome, or Orc, undead or Human etc - each race has different attributes but they aren't generally enough to make much of a difference so just pick the one you like the idea or look of the most.
Once you decide your race then you pick a class.
There are nine classes and one hero class the Death Knight.
Death Knights are only for people with the Litch king expansion and who have a level 55 character on a server somewhere.
For all new players you have the choice of the other nine classes that may change depending on what race you want to be.
From magic dealer to healer to up close and personal melee damage the choice is yours.
Within all classes level 10 brings talent points, one per level till maximum level, you can put your talents into improving existing skills or is some cases giving new skills from a choice of three talent trees per class.

I'm not going to go into the ins and out of the classes as that's worth thousands of words alone and is open to opinion on what are best or most powerful - suffice to say the World of Warcraft website should give an idea on what the different classes do and you may as well try all nine of them anyway and see what you think for yourself.

The community:
The final part of this mini-epic review (thank God for that I hear you say!) is the community and this is what really makes any MMORPG for better or worse - other players!
WoW has a huge playerbase of around 12,000000 active players!
Not all of them on one server luckily but there is still a good mix of genders, nationalities and ages within the community.
With that many people playing you will get a few idiots and some very immature people but they aren't generally the norm.
Eventually you'll build up a friends list and possibly join a guild of like minded players and hopefully you'll find the social aspect of the game very engrossing.
If you do meet an idiot you can add them to your ignore list, or if you meet someone nice you can add them as a friend then see whenever they are online and send a message to them (whisper) or invite to a group.
It is the social aspect of the game that tends to be addictive, you can easily leave a game but it's harder to leave friends and in your adventures you should hopefully make lots of good friends.

Well this has become a mammoth review because there is so much to World of Warcraft - how else would I have been playing it for four years!
But the game is pretty straight forward to get into and you can often find help in game so if in doubt send a polite whisper to someone higher level than you and ask for help, or send a ticket and ask a GM for assistance (technical problems only not gameplay assistance)

To sum it up, be what you want to be and do it the way you want to do it - just be prepared to be amazed at the vastness of the game and just how quickly the hands of the clock hit stupid hours in the morning!

Summary: Oh is that the time - Just one more hour!