I caved in. I've ordered WoW

[Drasca]

Two day shipping from amazon.com, arriving wednesday presumably. It'll arrive right after my first wave of exams.

I couldn't help it. I had a female friend in texas who loves the game and is now constantly playing at level 20 with a Rogue Troll. I want to spend time playing with her, and I'll certainly have some catching up to do!

Already downloaded the alpha Cosmos UI, and read Mongojerry's links. Oh god... the calamity. I'm already wishing Gnomish Paladin combination was available. That'd rock!

But, I'll more likely be something available--like an Orc warlock. Not the smartest idea you say? Probably, but I'll stand out (hopefully). Maybe I'll be the next Ner'Zhul. I just hope i'm not

[Kandrathe]

I bought it at release, but I just installed it Feb 1st.

After the initial release I talked myself out of jumping in due to all the other new players, and I imagined a glut of new players all standing around the quest points waiting for a hapless monster to respawn, only to be pummeled into paste by the waves. And, then the masses of new player questions that would be answered if only they read the quest notes, or the manual, or the WOW site, or just played the game. Then the holiday season came and I suspected all those wrapped WOW boxes under Johnny and Susies tree, and so again I waited until the holiday glut had passed.

February. Nothing happens in February here. It is as if the frigid arctic air of January has encased our lives in an icy glaze of house arrest. I figure all those new players have either moved on, or dropped out by now. Weekends seem a little more crowded, but still fun.

Yesterday I had my first ad hoc party experience with Axelina at Furlbrow's Pumpkin Farm in Westfall trying to kill things 3-4 levels above my mage. Solo play so far has been workable, with particular elite quests needing a party, or a few levels to handle. For instance, I took out the Collector, and Hogger (higher level creep) alone with my Mage with a combination of frost nova and polymorph to keep their minions at bay while focusing fire power on the boss alone.

The only thing totally unexpected that has happened was that a marauding Lvl 44 troll rampaged through Goldshire and killed most of the NPC's and while valiantly trying to defend my Mage trainer, by using my newly learned polymorph (into a sheep) spell, I too died.

So far I've built 4 experimental characters;

Stormrage
Slyshengyrl -- Lvl 12 Undead Warlock, Alchemist, Herbalist, Cook, Firstaid

Silver Hand
Celestarian -- Lvl 10 NE Rogue, Alchemist, Herbalist, Cook, Firstaid
Kandrathe -- Lvl 8 Human Paladin, Miner, Blacksmith, undecided
Axelina -- Lvl 14 Mage, Enchanter, Tailor, Cook, Fisherwoman

[SoulEdge]

Europe WoW Final Beta ended today, I was playing it for a couple of weeks, it's an addictive game, or maybe it's just a new game for me, or both.

Played a human mage to 26, a human paladin to 11, a dwarf hunter to 14, which is really not much. Started initially with the mage, all was fun until I hit the Elite quests that were simply impossible for me to solo. While there were good and sensible players that really made team play a joy, I could only stomach so many randomly picked up group members that charged blindly, played as if they were the only ones who matter in the group, and those really horrible players. And since I had too many mail armour pieces that I just could not bear to sell, I started the paladin, which solo reasonably well since being able to tank better and heal, much less down time. But melee is not really my cup of tea, and I wanted to try something with a pet or minion, hence the dwarf hunter, he used a gun and sent his bear to tank for him, worked pretty well, very little down time if any. But then again, the paladin and the hunter were really just baby characters at easy area.

Went back to the mage, since I wanted to find out more about the game, exploring different parts of the world, and checking out the higher level of professional skills (was alchemist/herbalist + fishing, cooking and first aid), hit the journeyman cap of 150 in all of them, so had to get the expert rank, all but herbalist trainer were not within easy reach, I managed to get to the alchemist and cooking expert level, but lack the time and money for the rest.

It was addictive, it was overall fun, but boy all those time sinks, down times and the grind.

At level 26 my mage could solo normal mob a few level higher with no problem, as long as I had room to work with, but it got to a point that after each battle I had to sit down to eat and drink to top up the hp and mana because I like to play it safe and I knew that if I pressed on to pull another mob, the game would surely make an add joined the battle, and spawn another add on me when I polymorphed the initial add, and the new add would resist my frost nova and score critical hits on me. Oh, and then killed me. And I would have to run a few minutes over half the map to recover my corpse, and more down time to get all the buffs on and top up mana and hp. Yes I could play in easier area where all mobs are a few levels below me but that's just not challenging enough, and hey, the last thing I did before I finished my beta session was to try to do the elite quest with elite mobs 7 levels below me, there were places that I simply had no room to work with (narrow tunnels, respawns at cleared area), simply could not pull a mob on its own (closely packed), and could not morph the elite add(s) that came with it (not polymorph-able race). With no way to retreat, I simply had no chance.

I thought I was supposed to be able to solo the game with any class.

Numerous quests packaged the grind to make it fun and less tedious, but it's grinding nevertheless. Traveling was a boring chore to me, even when flying on gryphon once the initial thrill wears off. A couple of minutes flying from one place to another when I could do nothing, after a few times the scenery got boring. Traveling on foot through explored areas was simply mind numbing. And I could do without all those down times.

I guess all those time sinks are standard MMORPG practice so the game company can get your monthly fee. Not sure I subscribe to that, paying for all those time sinks that's not fun. The Europe release is this Friday, and I am still undecided.

Besides, gaming time is ever so limited nowadays, perhaps I should just save it for Guild Wars.

[Drasca]

That's what I expected. Time sinks, grinds, many little things that I don't like... but there's one positive (personally) that overwhelms all that. Spending time with my friend Michelle.

Guild Wars is definitely for me. How much time will I invest in WoW? ... Don't know, but I will try to avert falling in the power-hungry trap. Not too much investment. I may let subscription drop and come back later. This subscription is primarily for quality friend bonding time.

Guild Wars definitely acts like one of those companities where the focus is innovation over squeezing a large profit margin. They're willing to risk and dare. I want to support that with my time and interest, since they have the skill to do an entertaining job that doesn't play underhanded tricks like downtime. Downtime? GW? What downtime? Non combat status = healed. Travel time non-existent. There's only one problem, and that's inherent in all games. Organizing good parties.

How to keep GW entertaining? That's up to the people of Arena. Its a challenge, but they're up for it. I want to see what happens.