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World of Warcraft will WOW you.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 22, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I've played several MMORPGs on both the PC and the Mac. Most, except Shadowbane, do not have ports for the Mac platform. Blizzard has always supported both users with an equal quality product. Shadowbane, the only commercial scale MMORPG for the Mac is rather buggy. Those who play it will find WoW to be a refreshing, superior choice. The graphics hold a cartoonish World of Warcraft feel carried over by their RTS titles, it's actually very beautifully done. The environments have a ton of detail, they're quite simply put -- great. The music and sounds are also wonderful; and each race/sex has their own little voice overs you can use to call out for healing, help, flirt or just be silly and tell jokes.

In WoW you can start out as one of over 8 popular warcraft races (human, dwarf, night elf, gnome, tauren, orc, troll, and forsaken [undead]). Depending on your race you can become any number of classes: paladin, shaman, warlock, mage, hunter, rogue, druid, warrior or priest. What is great about this game is that when you start out as a certain class you are immediately empowered as that class. You don't have to reach lvl 10 and then determine your profession (as in other games). So you get to have fun right from the start, avoiding that grind to lvl 10, to get to be the thing you want to really be in the first place. Also all, yes ALL, the classes are viable for soloing; although there is more fun to be had in groups (as well as XP bonuses) -- even a priest though can solo quite effectively.

Each race has their own unique racial abilities. All night elves can stealth (shadowmeld), and the forsaken (undead) can become immune to fear/sleep type spells or canabalize dead corpses, as examples. [Just as they do in the RTS game].

You can play the game doing quests or just killing mobs for XP - although you get a lot more done questing (as it awards high XP bonuses, and often special quest-item loot and money). You can also PvP on both the PvE server and PvP servers. Alliance and Horde can fight more easily on a PvP server (anyone in a neutral or enemy zone can be attacked without question); but even PvE has a variety of ways conflict can arise (but is always consentual).

WoW supports parties of up to 5 individuals, and "raid groups" of up to 40 individals (8 parties of 5). Raid groups are used during special circumstances when 5 just isn't enough (either raiding enemy territory or special raid instances, like fighting a dragon or titan). The game also supports instanced dungeons, which means your party gets their own private experience -- eliminating camping or the need to wait in line, to get your shot at a dungeon quest. They are also quite immersive and fun. I played the popular Van Cleef instance (which is about the 5th and final quest in a chain of quests) -- it takes about 2 hours to run through the whole thing and it's great fun with a group of 5, and it's totally private.

There are somethings that arn't in the game yet that will be introduced over time: housing is a possibility, weather effects, and Battlegrounds (which will be a special PvP area much like how they exisit in DAOC).

With Blizzard you know you're getting a great product, and this is just the beginning. As time goes on you can expect some cool expansions, more content and quests -- this is just the beginning.

Where are my kids??

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: July 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I purchased this game for both of my boys ages 10 and 14. I swear that they would play it 24 hours a day if I'd let them. All I've seen of it are the beautiful graphics and some of the special features the boys want to share with me, like their person dancing or something like that, or the fireworks they had for Independence Day.

It's definitely like being in another world, and I just need to keep reminding my boys that there's more to life than W-O-W? At this point I believe they'd beg to differ.

Over time, it becomes an unreasonably demanding time sink

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: August 11, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I played WoW off and on for a couple of years, with one year in between where I had quit playing. My game play was sporadic at best, and I had a bad habit of restarting characters or switching servers because I had friends who played and did the same thing, so in my efforts to stick with them, it took me longer to max a character. Initially, I found the game incredibly fun and engaging, from level 1-59. It didn't take a massive chunk out of my day to level my character, or level my skills/crafts, or to locate items and materials I needed for my professions. At the time, it was the perfect game for me- I could play 1-2 hours a night, and still get up for work/school in the morning, without any problems.

My error was assuming that end-game content would require the same amount of time, and would allow me to play WoW in the same manner I had during lower levels.

Once I maxed my first character, I soon found that I was dead wrong.

Once you have reached max level, it's almost as if you're not even playing the same game anymore. At this point, the only viable way to get new, better items is to go on "raids", or join 25 (it used to be 40) other people in brining down a huge boss in a dungeon. Trying to get 25 people together can take untold hours, so waiting for everyone to get ready already takes up a huge part of your day/night. Then the actual raid takes place, which, depending on what happens, can take any number of hours. It is not uncommon for people to raid 6-8 hours a night, if not longer.

Don't want to raid for hours on end? Too bad, it's the only option this game gives you to get the best items. Yes, you can get good items through PvP or professions/crafting items, but raid items are always better.

Ultimately, this game turns into a job. Raids become scheduled, and require you to sign up for raid events. If you sign up for a raid, and fail to show up, you lose points that are tallied by your guild that you would use to bid on items that drop in raids, which you earn by showing up to raids. So, if life happens (you know, that thing that's more important than WoW?), and if your guild/raid leaders are jerks (mine weren't, but I know most others were), you're out of luck.

Blizzard has everyone played. You buy this game, and pay the 15 bucks per month to play it. If you have a life, it takes you longer to level a character. During this time, you're earning money, which will ultimately go to them. Because it takes you longer to level a character because of your job, Blizzard makes more money off of you because you're enjoying the game, since the way it's designed doesn't require you to devote your life to it. Once you hit 60 a few months down the road (some need more/less time to do it, depending), you realize you don't have time for it anymore, so you quit. By this time, Blizzard has already made its money off of you, so in the end, they ultimately win.

Poorest Servers, and Customer Service

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 10 / 22
Date: April 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Worst Customer Service, Broken Servers

Since the Day of release , the servers that people play on have experienced horrible lag , noticable in the eveningings when most of your community logs on. Over time blizzard eventually decided it would be a good idea to take servers down every tuesday morning to do , what ever it is they do. Supposingly after the 6 to 8 hour down time every tuesday the servers are supposed to be more stable, but their not. Their worse actually.
For the 2 or so years this game has been out blizzard has been promising us better hardware. Well the servers are still horrible then ever, no new hardware.
To add fuel to the fire, when you want to complain about your server crashing all the time, or being disconnected, they delete your thread , and ban you from the forums. Blizzard has been the WORST customer service and its game World of warcraft
is on the worst quality servers known.
This Game rakes in Multi millions each month and yet they cant even give their customers top of the line servers to play on. The game is easy exploitable with Hack programs, and blizzard fails to do anything about it.

The game has good graphics, and leveling up from 1 to 60 keeps you involved. Lots of places to explore and things todo.

Severe Server Issues, i.e. Crashes, disconnects, server lag, loot lag, rez lag, encounter lag, casting lag, melee lag.
Poorest Customer Service in any MMO. Make a complaint on their forums and you get it deleted and banned from the forums for 1 day. They dont listen to their community, and insist everything is ok.The game is easy exploitable with Hack programs, and blizzard fails to do anything about it.

This game would be awesome if the servers at blizzard worked.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 12 / 29
Date: July 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game has some awesome things going for it. Lots of fun to play when it works. The downfall is the technical problems with this game. Very laggy, and the servers crash consistently. You pay about $50 for the game, $15 a month, and countless hours leveling a character. You hit level 60(max level), and are able to do the harder quests. You spend for example two hours working on this quest(instance), and the server crashes right before you kill the last boss. I personally after playing for 7 months have had enough of the terrible customer service, and server crashing multiple times per day. No point in having an awesome game if it doesn't work. I don't recommend this game.

Very well designed

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I played Diablo II for many years and was reluctant to switch to a subscription-based RPG. However, Blizzard did not disappoint. World of Warcraft is by far the most well-designed game I've played. While it lacks the high-definition graphics of some other titles, the gameplay is unbeatable. I've read complaints from other reviewers that it is slow. Though it may seem that way to new players, the level progression is actually much faster than in other MMORPGS such as Everquest. Blizzard consciously made an effort to cater to a casual as well as a hardcore public, and they did a fine job.

There is a large variety of classes and races to choose from with many fun "secondary" professions like Cooking and Fishing. Lots of things to do to pass the time.

Highly recommended for any gamer.

You're gonna need a 12-Step after you start this game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 20, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I just completed over 3 weeks of beta testing and stress testing the WoW game and I'm hooked. I'm a serious older gamer and a professional. I can only play late at night or on the weekends. From the moment I created my character in this world I got caught up in the whole world of Warcraft. First of all, character creation is just too darn cool. Picking the race, the hair, the color. Reminds me of Ultima Online, but this was so much better! The whole concept of playing for quests and joining guilds is easier, more fruitful and the game itself is so much fun to play! Granted, there were many things unfinished in the game when I played. I myself got "stuck" in the game when I jumped off a cliff to see what happened and got lost in the Sea and unable to find my body and unable to escape from the sea. A GM had to come and rescue me which he did cheerfully. Someone mentioned earlier it took them three days of "casual" play to level up to Level 17. That guy must be some kind of genius or I need to redefine "casual." I played for approximately 1 to 2 hours in the evening and possibly 5 to 6 hours on the weekend for 2 and 1/2 weeks and leveled up to Level 16 but I was playing as a loner and some of the quests really do require you to have help from others. Joining up with a group of people - even if only for a short time in order to complete a specific quest - is highly recommended.

I like how you can choose to PvP or not. One of the reasons I quit playing Ultimate Online and Diablo was because I got sick of the Player Killers killing me and looting all my stuff. When I ressurected I would be berefit of all goodies I had collected. In this game, when you die, you can't be looted and any creature you kill can only be looted by you or a member of your group. I especially appreciate that while questing with a group you share in the booty and the prize is universally there for all to collect once the quest is complete! No one person grabbing the treasure and running off and then the others have to do the quest again for each member of the group. I never played Everquest but I played Diablo and UO and it was so annoying how you would lose things when you died. Here you die, spawn at the nearest graveyard and if your go collect your body you lose nothing. If you decide to let a spirit healer heal you, you do so knowing you lose XP but its your choice. This is the coolest part of how this WoW works. Dying isn't this frustrating ordeal. How many times did I die as a ghost and have to travel all the way back to a healer or to town and then go back to where I died so I can get whatever is left on my corpse back. Yuck! There were still a few bugs in the system when I played and I'm looking forward to the finished version. Can't wait.

This game is so much fun I can't rave about it enough!

Little fun for a ton of headaches

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 12 / 30
Date: November 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I have several issues with this game. They load SPYWARE (a program called Warden) to monitor ALL the processes you are running on your computer. It digs through your address book, looks at info in your system windows, and scans all your running processes (most of which have nothing to do with them or their game.) This spyware downloads and activates at random the entire time you are playing the game. This causes lag spikes and character death with little ryme or reason.

Large down times with little feedback from management, time wasted programming expansions when there are still a large number of broken gameplay elements is another problem I have with this game.

I have been playing this game for a year now but would not recommend it until they fix several in game and privacy issues.

An excellent game, but...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: March 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I've played a lot of Blizzard games, Diablo, Diablo II, Starcraft, Warcraft III, etc... I've also played Guild Wars and Lineage II. World of Warcraft is, let me get this out of the way - a great game. It's not without some flaws. However, these flaws can be overcome.

First of all, the graphics are a matter of personal preference. You either like the cartoony look or you don't. I think it's very well designed and stylish and everything meshes together so well it's real in an unreal sort of sense. I play on a PowerBook G4, with a Radeon 9700 Mobile. With the Mac OSX, this is basically the only game worth playing (other than WC3 and SC). I have a PC as well, but I prefer my Mac for it's artistic applications.

Let me say that most of the queue issues have been resolved. They are being alleviated by allowing people to transfer characters from overpopulated realms to new realms as they come up. I wish there was more leniancy in where to transfer to, but for now it does help. I played in the Beta tests, and the queue then was horrible. But it was no worse than the Lineage II queues in Beta. I agree that limiting character creation in some realms during peak hours seems stupid, but the simple answer is - if you're just starting a new character, start a new character on a new server. It will be easier. On my first time around, I played on Illidan, one of the most overpopulated servers now, no doubt in part, due to the name. I did, as some other people have noted, get bored with the quest and the difficulty to progress past level 40. However, when I started playing again, I chose a new server - Wildhammer. Not only have I experienced no queues at all, I've had very little trouble with farmers, and I have made significant progress through the game while having fun.

Part of my experience may have been due to class choice. Being a Light specced priest on an overpopulated server doesn't help. This time around I went Warlock and went Affliction/Demonology to level to 40 and respecced to Destruction. I'm currently 44 and still going strong, with no signs of getting bored.

I think a large part of my problem on Illidan was due to overinflated auction house prices. It happens when you get too many people on a server, not enough money sinks, and people farming and buying gold for money in real life. Wildhammer prices are kind of high, but not unreasonably so, which makes getting items, both for your character and for tradeskills a much easier and less ardous process.

I can definitely see how some people could have bad experiences with this game, due to queue times or repetitive quests, or other developer related frustrations. However, the game itself is golden. Yes, there are so horribly time-consuming quests, but on my second time through I simply skipped them, for a much more rewarding experience. In fact I've leveled up almost twice as fast, and made about 3 times more gold on the way. Finding a good class or character guide is highly recommended if you're new to MMORPGs. Maybe not a step by step, but definitely a player written tips guide.

World of Warcraft is a great game, especially among MMORPGs, but you should join a fresh server. I play on PvP servers, which makes it all the more interesting, even if it is a bit frustrating sometimes.

Battlegrounds are another interesting aspect of the game. The first one is available relatively early, but it won't be worth your time until at least the mid-40s, which results in about 4 to 5 days of play to get that far.

But that's to be expected. If you don't like the idea of that, this isn't the game for you, nor is any MMORPG. The long play time is supposed to be a plus, the idea of a persistent, ever-growing world and character is the main draw for me. If you don't want to spend a long time to develop a character, then don't play - this game isn't even aimed at you.

Another point for those just starting out. Get UI mods. A lot of them. Blizzard has made changing the user interface and creating helpful modifications very easy and there are literally hundreds out there to make your life and gameplay experience easier and more fun. www.curse-gaming.com is a good site. Maybe it should be fun right out of the box, and really, it is - but adding touches of your own and having some experience with MMORPGs helps tons.

The quests can be repetitive. To remedy this, put on some music or watch TV if you're soloing. If you're grouping, it's not repetitive at all, if you can get some good chatter going, either through party chat, guild chat, general chat, or even Ventrilo or TeamSpeak (microphone based chat applications) if you so prefer. Also, assuming you find a good group - which is entirely based on the players, not the game.

The depth to character design and customization is amazing. Not in appearance, though. Appearance is moderately customizable, and your outfits will look terrible and mismatched until you hit at least 30. The gem here is the core of your character. The abilities you gain, and the tradeskills and most of all the talents. I can think of 5 or 6 completely different ways to play my Warlock, depending on talents, and have tried 3 of them. Respeccing your talents is a good idea. It's like playing a new character, but saving all your progress and it keeps you from getting bored.

This is a fairly open-ended game. You don't have to do any quests if you don't want - but grinding isn't really a good alternative, it is one. So much of this game is based on your ingenuity as a player, whether it be finding new applications for spells or new talent builds or simply playing the market (I.e. buy low, sell high), much of this game depends on you. There are good players and there are bad players, and I guarantee that almost all your gaming woes will come from bad players. If you've got friends who will start playing with you or who already play, this game is completely golden. Playing by yourself can be a bit tough, as is finding in-game friends and guilds but it can be done.

Do you like downloading patches?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 16 / 45
Date: June 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I started installing this game three hours ago. I am on my third downloaded patch (I think it does something to the druids). If you have less than 18 hours a day to devote to gaming, this is not the game for you. Go outside. Get some sunshine.

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