As expected, the Wrath of the Lich King expansion has broken all PC game sales records, as did the previous expansion to World Of Warcraft.
It’s easy to see why WoW is the most succesful PC game of all time. It combines a very friendly and fun user interface and vast world of soaring scenery, intricate plotlines, and dazzling graphics with an achievement-oriented gameplay style that is highly addictive (the game is set up to constantly tickle the part of our brain responsible for a sense of accomplishment) . And with 11 million users, there is quite a bit of player interaction, of both the friendly and combative varieties.
Personally, I enjoy the player-versus-player fighting more than any other facet of the game. Some find organizing or participating in a large raid group against a computer-generated foe more rewarding, but for me nothing compares to the digital glory of utterly pwning an opposing team on a virtual field of battle. So if you’re on the Vengeance Battlegroup and you see a human warlock from Draka called Wärlockdäve, be sure to say hi — unless of course you’re in the Horde faction, in which case you’ll already be dead.
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Yeah, I’m a WoW addict. I love the WOTLK expansion. I completed the Azjul-Nerob (sp?) dungeon last night, that’s one creepy place!
I agree with your comments about WoW, except on the PvP part. PvP is fun, and I love it (although I am not yet geared up enough to brag about "pwning" anyone, right now I’m more frequently the "pwnee" than the "pwner") but the universe of PvP is very tiny when compared to the universe of raiding. Both appeal to me, the PvP part appeals to my natural competitive nature, and the raiding and dungeons appeal to my vicarious desire to explore and advance plot elements. Which I like better has a lot to do with what mood I’m in.
So, have you created a Death Knight yet?
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I’m not into the PvP thing in WoW. It calls for too much scrounging around to get the best armor stats. Perhaps the fact that I play a Hunt(ard)er has something to do with that, I’ll admit. : )
I do like the PvE experience though. There’s wit and cleverness shown in the design of the various Qs that amuse me.
I ordered WOTLK only to discover that there’s something seriously wrong with my PC. My optical drive won’t recognize the DVD and my external optical (USB-connected) not only won’t recognize it, but freezes my computer to the point where a hard power-off is needed. That sux.
For Christmas, I want 5% of Blizzard.
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I find WoW PvP to be contrived at times but still fun. I haven’t tried the expansion yet and probably won’t until mid-December. The expansion looks really cool and my Warlock will probably have to be totally redone since they changed the talents around. Man, there’s a lot of people that play. I try other MMO’s and while some of them I like, I always crawl back to WoW in the end.
It’s all a matter of preferences.
I don’t get into pwning my friends, or anyone else. I do enjoy the analytical approach of figuring out what needs to be done to defeat the NPCs in the PvE environment.
That being said, I would disagree with my friend from Colorado about the size of the PvP population in WoW. Especially after taking into account the overlap between PvP and PvE players, the relative population of the two camps is, IMNSHO, much more balanced than Cosmic believes.
Played WoW for about a year, and unlike you found its storyline to be about the norm for Knaak. Some decent ideas, but too much mishmashed. I will agree that the class balances are fairly decent though.
For me, I’m addicted to EQ2. And am enjoying its new expansion.
Boyd:
I wasn’t referring to the population of the two camps, I agree with you that the PvP population is huge.
I was referring to the PvP battlegrounds and arenas which get pretty dull and repetitive after a while. I mean I have literally run through Warsong Gulch hundreds of times. I’m pretty sick of the place.
 I’m on a "normal" server which means there is not very much actual PvP in the "real world." If I were on a PvP server I might feel differently.
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Jon:
I was an EQ2 player but frankly I found the skill leveling up to be so pathetically slow and cumbersome that I eventually just gave up on it and that was in part why I quit playing. I played EQ1 for a long time, and in some ways I liked EQ1 better than EQ2.
The graphics in EQ2 were unreal though. I doubt even today I have a computer that can do them justice.
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CC:
As a player who’s spent a good deal of time on both PvE and PvP servers, I can assure you that PvP servers are mostly annoying to play on. That’s because they’re filled with people who get their kicks ganking people who have no chance of defending themselves. At least in the battlegrounds you’re slotted against people of a similar level or can choose when you want to PvP; no such luck on PvP servers where you’ll get killed while trying to complete quests. You’d find it quite frustrating I think. I only play on one because that’s where my group went after they took a break from the game a year ago.Â
Ironically I play WOW and hardly ever do any PvP intentionally. I’m on a PvP server, and my experience with PvP is being attacked by players who I don’t have a chance of winning against, I have more or less avoided PvP altogether.
If I didn’t have several characters and real life friends on the server, I would have switched to a PvE realm a long time ago.
I probably will pick up the expansion this weekend though I haven’t decided for sure.
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I’ve thought about playing on a PvP server. I think I have a compatible personality for it. In fact I initially did create a character on a PvP server, but the folks I play with are on a "normal" server so I have spent virtually all of my time there.
I do like PvP, I get far more satisfaction out of defeating another human being than I do in defeating a programmed opponent. And I think I do OK really, when I’m on an even par in terms of equipment, I usually win more than I lose. I had a "twink" rogue in the 30-39 and 40-49 brackets (same twink, different levels) and once I had fully equipped her out, I was typically in the top three for damage, honorable kills and killing blows, frequently #1, and that was even without some of the "required" enchantments (like Mongoose). So I think I hold my own pretty well.
But I have not done arena. I’ve more or less been told that until you are equipped totally and speced properly you won’t survive any arena encounter. One of these days I’ll do arena.
I spent about two months doing pretty much nothing but battleground PvP, and I do think that’s a whole lotta fun. But it does get boring, and eventually you buy everything you can using the honor and tokens you get from PvP and then it becomes just an exercise in ganking folks, and that also gets boring to me.
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