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Amazing Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 21
Date: September 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I've been playing in the stress test over the Labor Day weekend and I must say, I am most impressed. I went into the game as a skeptic, thinking the graphics looked dated and the gameplay was not open ended, but I come away with an addiction an no place to get a fix. I was wrong about BOTH of my assumptions.

To start with, the game loads AMAZINGLY fast. You are immediately creating your character then on your way. There are 8 races to play (4 alliance and 4 hoarde). Alliance: Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes, Night Elfs. HOarde: Orcs, Trolls, Tauren and Undead. There are 9 classes to play. They are Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior.

Not only that, you can pick up other skills. During the test, I stumbled across an Herbalist Trainer. I thought, why not. Then I found an Alchemist Trainer and these two are a great combination. As an Herbalist, I'm able to gather wild herbs for use in Alchemy. I can make powerful potions for healing and protection. I can sell these potions for currency (gold, silver and copper pieces) or I can use them or give them away. The more you craft, the better you get and the more choices that become available.

The limited time I had to play the game did not allow me to explore as much as I would have liked. I will say this....the world is enormous. On my first journey off the main island, I was easily outclassed by the wild creatures I found. I was an 11th level Druid and could shapeshift into a Bear....which was very cool....but I was killed quickly by some of these creatures. It will take a long time to explore all the lands.

The quest system is really good. The quests tell stories and are often times multi-staged. Unlike many MMORPGs, the best loot is in the quests, not in the mindless slaughter of creatures. I got some very powerful items in my time and I was not all that powerful...compared to some people. The same goes for experience points. I made more running quests than I did fighting. However, if you don't want to do quests, you are free to ignore them and simply explore at your leisure. It's completely up to you.

I did a little PvP, basically dueling, and it was ok. Since I'm a Druid, I was easily defeated by warriors, which do a lot of damage per hit. However, you don't die when dueling. You battle to a stunned state and the first person there, loses. You are free to rest then go at it again, but there's no death in dueling. This is ok but it would be nice for the victor to feel like they won something. As it is, when you win, it's not much better than when you lose.

I've read that the devs are working in PvP right now. The is supposed to be active upon launch. From what I've read, the idea is if a Hoarde character enters Alliance lands, they are immediatly attackable by all Alliance players. Opposing factions can attack and eliminate all the NPCs in the town, effectively taking over that city. You get warnings on the global defence channels, and can rush to aid those cities.

Now the bad.
LAG - Yes, this is a stress test and noone knows what the devs are doing on the other end to test the game. With only 4k ppl on a server, it was lagging pretty badly but it was still playable. I hope this was just due to the stress test but time will tell. With only 1500 ppl on a server, it was silky smooth - very little lag.

INVENTORY - It is amazingly small....12 slots to begin with. You can loot or buy additional storage, but they are very expensive and you need that money for buying spells, weapons, armor, etc. I would really like to see this expanded because there were many times I ran out of space.

BUGS - There are SOME and these will most certainly be addressed while still in testing. I was very impressed though...there didn't seem to be very many bugs in my time there.

SKILL POINTS - These come from fighting and fighting only (1 sp per 600 combat xp) making it difficult to be a pure crafter because you need SP to advance.

PLAYER HOUSING - I didn't see an option for this at all and I have not read anything about it. I would hope this is going to be addressed and allow the placing of guild halls, housing and other player structures.

All in All, this game is in GREAT SHAPE right now. I've beta tested many games that were less stable, and more bug ridden than this game is now. This is sure to be a smash hit of a game and with Blizzard's well deserved reputation for fun and exciting games, THIS IS A MUST BUY FOR YOU GAMERS OUT THERE.

Official Website

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 21
Date: January 21, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Some of the information in these pre-reviews is either wrong our out of date. Try http://www.blizzard.com/wow for Blizzard's own description of the game.

Tester

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 23
Date: October 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I was part of the testing for WoW, and I have played Everquest. As much fun as level-grinding and mindless, no-skill required games sound, I'm not so into Everquest 2. Everquest was fun for about the first week, but then after dying at level 6 (which they did finally fix) and having to kill 30 rats to level again, I guess I just got bored. WoW has much more action while still maintaining the MMORPG classic theme of running around and killing. In higher end of gameplay for Everquest (which I need to say takes EXTREMELY too much from a person's life) there is too much required to level and constant long downtime. What I liked about WoW was that not only was the gameplay constant, it was more quest-based--the way MMORPG's should be. Everquest only rewards the customers that pay more, and that isn't where the true heart of gaming is. Sure, server maintenance costs a bit, but the prestigious "Stormhammer" server from Everquest was outright ridiculous. The graphics will also eat most computers alive. Constant new system requirements and necessary updates to my computer was never fun. If you like a company that will rape your pocketbook for as little actual quality and gameplay as possible, go with EQ2, but if you are a true gamer at heart, you will enjoy WoW.

Outstanding...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: November 22, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I played the beta for several months, and then the open beta. I have not found a single MMO that addresses so many issues plaging MMO games today. For myself, the CORE issue WOW addresses is downtime. When playing DAOC, after a particularly hard battle, you could spend 5-7 minutes healing up if you didn't have a healer, or a spellcaster could take longer to get mana back. In WOW, the food system allows you to keep your downtime to under a minute. If you are near death, but out of combat, you have a seat, break out some food/drink, and you wait between 12-30 seconds, and your at full strength.. If you get up or are attacked during that time you don't reap the whole benifits of the meal. This however has the effect of allowing you to quickly get back on your feet and slaying anything in your way. This methodology more than anything was what has me buying WOW. They respect my time, I get mabey 4 hours a week to play, sitting around healing is kept to an extremely fair minimum.

The quest system is wonderful, visual cues indicate who you have to talk to or can talk to about your quests. Quests are also worth your time to complete, they give healthy experience and reasonable monetary reward. The quests also draw you into the content, that is wonderful. You have a reason to get into the world!

Mounts are handled very smoothly, taking ships, or flying beasts are smooth transitions when you remain on continent. If you go across the see, you will have to load a new zone, but it goes quickly. Otherwise you transition between lands and areas seamlessly, you don't even know your doing it. THere are some "instance" spawn dungeons, where you and your party are spawned a dungeon where only you are in there. This is also a nice feature.

The crafting system is kept simply, but not blithering idiot simple. It requires work to accomplish anything, but there isn't alot of wasting time and materials and countless hours of grinding.

PVP is also fun, you can duel your local players, or strike out and conduct gurrilla operations in enemy terriroties, killing enemy NPC's and ambushing other players marked PVP. You don't have to participate in PVP if you want to avoid it, at no time did I find sometime when you HAD to PVP.

WOW did leave a few things to be desired, the map system, while adequate and functional could use some work. There are some class balancing issues during my beta testing that I was unhappy with as well. I expect balancing issues with any MMO game, its part of the nature of MMO gaming.

Otherwise, I am dropping all other MMO's for WOW. WOW is exciting, graphically appealing without straining your computer, it respects the time I have to play, and the other gamers seem more mature than other games.

Fun... for awhile...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 14 / 16
Date: October 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

World of Warcraft is a fun game for a first-time MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) player and for certain kinds of gamers. We'll refer to World of Warcraft in the abbreviated form "WoW" from here on out.

Before examining the Pros and Cons of WoW, there are a few things to keep in mind. First of all, know that WoW is not accurate when it comes to Warcraft history and background. This probably doesn't matter to the casual player or to younger gamers but to fans of the Warcraft RTS (Real-Time Strategy) series it can be very irritating. Second of all, keep in mind that WoW is very much a beginner's game in the sense that it's the first MMORPG that most people play. As such, the game includes a lot of children, teenagers, casual gamers and a higher percentage of trolls (griefers who like nothing better than to bother other people) than other games do. In short, the percentage of serious gamers is a bit lower than in other games in the genre. That having been said, we can take a look at the Pros and Cons. They are divided into 6 categories: Playability, Graphics, Sound, Game Development, Player-versus-Player and Community.

Playability- PRO

WoW is very easy to pickup and play. Indeed, most WoW players will tell you they were hooked within hours of installing the game and downloading the necessary patches. The UI (User-Interface) is very easy to figure out. In short, you start out with a few skills. As you level higher you get more skills which you have to organize in a bar of buttons. You quickly figure out that arranging spells and attacks in order of use saves you time, saves your life and wins the fight. This very friendly learning curve definitely contributes to WoW's large fan base and its status as the Beginner's MMORPG.

Graphics- PRO

WoW features pretty but very catoonish graphics that look decent but manage to do so without stressing your video card out. While the graphics are beginning to look dated compared to other games out there, they are still a Pro for the game because that means most players will have no trouble loading the game up on their computer.

Sound- CON

WoW used to feature hardware accelerated sound. The sound was quite literally breathtaking and was so dependable and detailed that some classes even based their attack chains on game sounds. This has unfortunately gone the way of the dodo bird however. In a recent patch, Blizzard (the maker of WoW) removed hardware sound in favor of a software sound system. This change has angered many players particularly serious gamers but Blizzard has made it clear they don't intend to add hardware sound back. Many players now say they experience latency because their CPU (computer chip) has to process sound. Others report distorted sounds and missing sounds. This development forces sound to be firmly in the CON category.

Game Development- CON

While WoW does feature an astounding array of options for how to spend your play time, it all boils down to one thing: grinding. This grind isn't as noticeable to a new player but as one reaches higher levels and begins to think about end-game, it becomes quickly apparent that WoW is all about getting better gear. This gear then comes in two forms of rewards: PvE (Player-versus-Environment) and PvP (Player-versus-Player). In order to get this gear, players have to grind... and grind... and grind... and grind and grind and grind.

Most really good PvE items require running instances over and over until the desired item drops or they require reputation which in turn requires running the same dungeons and killing the same monsters repeatedly for days and weeks. Other items require special tokens as well that only drop in certain dungeons that require reputation with the right faction. This reputation comes from... you guessed it... grinding monsters and dungeons.

Even PvP isn't immune to grind. PvP rewards in WoW come not from killing enemies or amazing feats of daring-do but rather from running battlegrounds and arena over and over until you earn enough honor and medals for a reward.

Basically, having good gear in WoW is a sign of status because it means someone spent A LOT of time playing the WoW grind game. Quite frankly, this required grind puts a lot of WoW content out of reach for most casual and even many serious players. This reality places Game Development firmly in the CON category.

PvP- CON

WoW is famous for it's in-famous Player-versus-Player. A game based on a war to the death between mortal enemies would naturally include inherent, detailed and in-depth PvP situations... you would think. The reality in WoW is that most PvP was largely added well after the release date. At first, WoW PvP consisted entirely of griefing other players while they levelled. Later on, Blizzard added battlegrounds and PvP Arenas to try and appease serious gamers and PvP fanatics. However, these capture the flag, capture the spawn-point battleground situations are hardly the life and death struggle you might expect. The Arenas, while requiring a bit more skill, are little more than a mini-battleground with no flags or spawn points to fight over. Again, PvP in WoW seems very watered down for a game based on a life and death struggle between enemies. That makes it a definite CON.

Community- CON

WoW features nothing if not a vibrant community. However, the game's grind nature means that success in WoW depends on teaming up with other players and dedicating a massive amount of time to the game. This has created on many WoW servers a network of very elitist guilds that not only do not like to help non-guild members but who also genuinely look down on players who can't or won't agree to put WoW first in their priority list.

The elitist situation in WoW has a major effect on players. They have to choose: 1) Join an elitist guild and choose WoW over real life stuff or 2) Be part of a small casual player guild and accept that a lot of the content that Blizzard makes for you is out of reach. For a game that charges $15 a month to play, making customers choose the game over real life is never, ever a way to make them happy however they may feel about the other features of the game. This fact places Community in the Con category.

There are nice players in WoW but the nature of the game itself often makes them hard to find because they are scattered amongst the servers in thousands of small to medium guilds. Casual players don't always have time or the desire to surf all those options to find a home for themselves.

The Final Cut: 2 PROs, 4 CONs = 3 Stars

In the end, WoW isn't a bad game. Rather, it's a game that had/has a lot of potential which has been/is being wasted. For serious and casual players alike, it's easy to pickup and get addicted to. The game is very fun especially the first time through but it becomes tedious once you reach end level and once you roll more characters and realise you have to do all the same stuff again to level them.

Basically, WoW's biggest flaw is that it is little more than a grind fest. On the other hand, that may be the very reason it has 10 million players. After all, in a game where everything takes a long time an addicted fan will keep paying and playing until he gets what he wants. And he will get what he wants just in time for the next expansion/content patch. He will then have something else to want/grind for. Maybe they have it down to an art... who knows? 3 Stars for WoW from this reviewer.

My first MMORPG and I'm hooked!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 15 / 18
Date: May 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

In looking to join the online gaming community I wanted to play a game that I knew would be fun and could stick to for a long haul and not regret paying a monthly fee. In watching reviews on X-Play and other G4TechTV shows as well as reading ones online I came to the conclusion that World of Warcraft was a good, solid choice for my first MMORPG.

I have been playing for almost 2 months now and I and my housemate are hooked. In fact if we don't get him his own computer soon it's gonna get ugly.

I have found WoW to be a most enjoyable excursion into online gaming. After setup and character creation you get right into the game and you level up pretty fast for the first few levels. There is an instant sense of feeling like you accomplished something and that it isn't a grind. Eventually you can't complete some of the tougher quests on your own, but that is why this is an MMORPG - there are other people there in the same situation and can help you, just ask. It has been fun meeting new people from all over the world, joining a guild, getting together with people on quests and raids, etc. The absolute fun I had going to Gnomeregan for the first time by myself and dying and then hooking up with a group and immediately going back in was phenomenal. It's crazy down there! (such a sad story for the gnomes, though)

All of the landscapes are gorgeous and much care went into the detail. Take your first flight on a gryphon (or wyvern or zeppelin) and you will see what I mean. Oh the vistas! I appreciate the artwork. Some have labeled it as "too cartoony" but I have absolutely no problems with it. If the elven city of Darnassus was real I would want to live there.

The majority of my characters are on PvE or Normal servers (Player vs. Environment). I wanted my initial experience to not be filled with the stress that a PvP one could possibly create (Player vs. Player)- meaning that you have to always be on your guard for other players as well as creatures. Eventually I would like to see what it's like since I have had the time to get used to playing the game. I've only just started playing on RP (role-playing) servers since I wanted to see what staying in character in a computer game would be like.

On the technical side, I do have to eventually get a graphics card that can better support the needs of this game. Though I have the resolution set to the max and the graphics look great I think that a dedicated card would help not only the game look better but also to handle the graphic information and lag that occurs when you enter a major city such as Ironforge (a very lag-filled place but it's understandable since it is a hub and the auction house is there). Service updates are once a week so servers are down for a few hours. Not a big deal since I'm at work anyway. Besides we all need to take a break from gaming anyway and also want our money's worth, so time is needed for Blizzard to upload patches and new content.

Playing this game and getting involved in its world and storyline has made me want to seek out Warcraft III and the novels to see what has gone before.

I highly recommend this game to anyone, especially if you're new to online gaming. You get into it very quickly, it's user friendly and above all fun. You can try on many different character combinations to see what works for you. My main character is a Night Elf Druid with Alchemy and Herbalism as main professions and Cooking and Fishing as secondary. You may not want to take on as much because it's expensive to have to pay for not only your class training but also your profession training and gathering coin is not always a fruitful task especially when you are partied up and have to share.

Also make sure that your computer meets (or better yet, exceeds) the system requirements before you buy the game. If you go to the official game website they have a section that will help you determine if your computer can handle the game.

Ok enough of my blabbing. Go and play and "Keep your feet on the ground!"

Awesome fun but slow decline

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 15 / 18
Date: October 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I am a long time veteran of World of Warcraft, following and playing it from Beta. I have to say that from the start I absolutely loved this game.

Pros:
The cartoon graphics are loss at first but you quickly realize and appreciate the genius of their low requirements to your system. The game, even on extremely old systems runs exceptionally well allowing for an impressive experience without the constant fear that you might have to update your computer to fully enjoy this product. The world is also astounding, easy to follow, and at times, breathtaking.
The map system IS fairly primitive but is an almost unnecessary feature. Quests are extremely straight forward, providing an extremely straightforward description of where to go and what to do almost every time. Travel time is reducible by flight paths that are acquired through the game and various (very functional)means: speed buffs, mounts, potions, etc). Combat is combined with very little lag as well as extremely enriching creature and environment models will almost surely drive you to want to play this game more and more. After defeating a creature you are even able to loot it for fairly worthwhile return. Gameplay is extremely intuitive and non-intrusive tip pop ups over spells, items, and mobs make the game simple while the diversity of abilities and gameplay allows for combat to not get boring. It is also possible to solo through the whole game regardless of class.

Cons:
Over the years I leveled to 60 and now 70 quite a few times. The game has continued to provide nearly endless satisfaction. Yes there were bits and pieces here and there that always nagged throughout the whole experience from even day one; the constant change and incredible diversity of the game long forestalled its impact however.
The fact is though, over time the game does indeed get taxing. This I (personally) attribute to a lack in expansion by the developers. Grouping is limited to 5 players, unless one is in a raid which can then be limited to 10,15, or 40 players. This in itself proves to be a hugely positive thing as there rarely are more than 5 people looking to group for any one particular thing even with 8million players (there literally are that many). The problem that comes up is that grouping rarely pays off. The experience is amazing while grouped and the system for dungeons is interesting. However, most veteran players will tell you that if you are truly looking to level fast that you will want to solo and even just grind. Dungeons and grouping generally SLOWS gameplay considerably. For instance, you may join a group to do a dungeon and find that it took 1-3 hours to get through it, even for low level dungeons. Further, the loot received is almost insulting and after you have gotten another character fairly high level (which is easy) you really start to loath this.
The game really starts to fall apart in this area and progresses so. Dungeons become time sinks for the only source of truly worthwhile items: especially as you level past 40. It is also the case that as you level past twenty, you'll be changing equipment fairly regularly. So the shiny new axe you just got after god knows how long from this ridiculously long and unchanged dungeon is now nearly as good as a common drop and you're setting your eyes on something else. For the first time through the game and even the second or third this isn't all that frustrating. However, by the third time around pretty much everyone agrees... the game is starting to slack.
By the time one reaches 70 one is acutely aware of these faults but may or may not be bothered by them. However, max level is a whole new game. Where before you were grinding your way through dungeons and mobs through a really impressive world, you now enter into an arena environment. To really get anywhere you'll be putting 3 hours a night into the game for any kind of character advancement and if you aren't in a good raiding guild the chances of your character's improvements are slim. Further, the loot system drops only rarely drops more than one type of relevant item (worthwhile item) per boss per dungeon. So even if you are in a good guild you'll be fighting with your guild members over it. This leads into a guild squabbling and a general gnashing of teeth between all members and high level players as a whole. A common term to describe end game WoW is "ever grind" because there is no chance to rest and enjoy the incredible game it COULD be. From 1- 70 it is a rush to the top and a fight to even stay above the water.
The final two points I would say are incredibly important are community and sexism.
For women I would say to you to find another game. The community of WoW and WoW in general has a passive sexist attitude that really just brings the whole game down. Woman where exposing clothing in even the most powerful suits of armor and the bitterly laughed at example is that some of the best WARRIOR armor for women is a steel thong. You'll be running around nude alot and it is very common to have a male player run up in your face and /dance which looks as if they are doing very perverse things to you. Blizzard does uphold a very strict harassment policy however, which is curious given the latter. Further, within guilds there is a kind of shunning of having many women within guilds as the entirely game just breeds elitism (women somehow being excluded in this) and it is typical to find only two or three guilds per server that are even reasonably respectful of women.

Finally, as a whole, the general populous of WoW is equally passively rude and obnoxious. This is largely attributed to the massive number of children from 13 to 17 that play the game. For the rest ... most people (newbies) do not start out this way. Rather, slowly having played through the game the general bitterness from all stated above tends to wear down on EVERYONE playing and once one has had a few months of play the generally pessimistic feelings of those around you becomes palpable.

Neutral Points:
Pvp is both exceptional and not. While diverse and providing many rewards, the rewards often out shined by dungeon loot.

There is a definite balance problem that is just sickening as one reaches into the 70s that really only is apparent in PvP of any variety. Dungeon equipment being superior (typically) to PvP equipment, can still be worn in pvp and has a rather devastating impact. Warlocks and Hunters are also (even relatively poorly equiped) demoralizingly powerful in pvp situations leaving further gaps in player vs.player combat balances. While this can be avoided by joining the vast number of PvE servers available, a huge and very fun chuck of the game is lost: pvp.

For Married Couples... this game is for you in alot of ways. Almost everything from 1-70 can be accomplished in a two person group. However, do NOT add a third member to your parter or you exp for fighting will be woefully dismal. That's true for everyone by the way.

Equipment gained outside of dungeons is largely horrible compared to what is gained from raiding. This seems not so until one really sits down and does the math. Very truthfully though the difference may be as much as 400 damage out of 1000 in difference. So it's very impacting.
This is balanced (kind of but not really) by the variety of skills that one uses and how adept you are at playing your class. A skillful play is often able to defeat and entirely overpowering (by equipment) character simply because they know what they are doing. However, in reality the chance of meeting a skillful AND overpowering character with 8 million people playing a game is about 50 / 50. This makes pvp the very difficult to judge.

Lastly, I would bring up the time constraints. Blizzard literally BUILT time into the game. Everything that you do is perfectly calculated so that, regardless of how hard you grind, (unless you never sleep) the average time it takes from 1 - 60 is roughly 14 days. REAL TIME DAYS... so if you are working a lot or care to have a social life but enjoy gaming... this game really will tax your time.

I hope this gives a better view of wow as a whole. It's an amazing game, immensely flawed, subtly sexist, and disbalanced... but you won't find one that runs better on any computer nor many as stable and reliable to be the same game the next day you log in.

Maybe not perfect, but close...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 13
Date: March 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I could spend a lot of time echoing the good others have said about this game. The graphics while not completely realistic, are beautiful. Play is never boring. Death is handled well. Quests are often integrated into a larger storyline, which might be integrated into an even larger storyline. All in all, I find it an amazing game.

But I'd like to address a couple of the negatives that people have brought up.

First is server downtime. The last significant server downtime I experienced was on Dec. 22. I can't remember anything since then. I know that some realms have been down for service, so maybe I got lucky, but I feel that the problems are far overstated by many.

The second is server response, or lag. I experienced some really horrible delays while playing, especially when going into areas heavily populated by other players. I tried everything I could think of on my end, and nothing worked. Finally I read a review that said that the game used a lot of memory. Considering I had 512M, that wasn't something I'd considered. I jumped my machine to one gigabyte of memory and my "lag" problems ended. That's a lot of memory to expect for most users, so I expect most users are seeing something they feel is lag, when it's actually (in computer terms) their own computer swaping memory on/off of disk.

So here are some suggestions if you do buy the game:

1) Install as much memory as you can, or be prepared for jerkiness and delays when you enter cities and towns.

2) You'll be selecting a realm. Select one with as low as usage as you can -- how to do this will be obvious.

3) Quest, don't just kill monsters. Following the quests will get you into the right places for your character at about the right time.

Enjoy.

Good addictive game.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 18 / 24
Date: November 09, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I like this game a lot. You can play it however you want, although it does mostly sadly caters to hardcore games, rather then casual gamers. It is still really good.

Graphics-wise its looks decent, not the best, and not the worst but decent. Community-wise i have found all depends on the individual. you have to make things happen, you also have to work to make a community in the game. Gameplay-wise i think it is a little on the easy-side but a lot of fun.

To respond breiefly to the guy talking about Guild-Wars.

"a.no fee"
If 15 a month is a problem for you, get a better job or stop playing the game.

"b.better story"
Only your opinion, which is as valid as mine. I like the storyline in WOW.

"c.less cartoonish"
Again, your opinion. While I would like it to look a little more realistic, I don't view it negatively that it is not.

"d.no fee"
Get a job, or quit playing.

"e.better community"
Not from what I've seen. But thats all perspective.

"f.and other stuff"
Meaning nothing.

Anyway, to conclude. My biggest problem with the game is how addictive it tends to be. I use to run home from work, and play the game 4-5 hours a night. Now I am down to 1 hour a day, which is where I will stay with my playing time. I guess that is a good sign that it is a really good game.

I highly recommend this game, just watch your usage of it as its addictive.

Easily Game of the Year

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 15
Date: January 05, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I'm a moderate gamer. I tend to stay away from MMORPG games because I don't want to spend massive amounts of time on them. I don't like to feel stressed about not logging in every few hours to check on things.

That said, World of Warcraft has seduced me. I have been enticed by her prettiness, her wits, and her charm. And she has not taken advantage of it. *happy sigh*

I played this game at my SO's house for several hours. I am currently awaiting a shipment of some little things like a new mobo, CPU, GeForce, etc. Yes, I am actually building an entirely new box just for this game. (Unfortunately, my old system is, well, too old for it.

For the level of stability and service Blizzard provides, I'll be more than happy to pay the monthly fee. In fact, I'm going to buy several months ahead. Might as well get the discount. I know I'll play the whole time.

I have to say this: To the other reviewers that give the game a low score because of the ongoing costs: What did you think? That this would be different from all other games of its type that charge? If you didn't know what it was, what were you doing buying it? Okay, I'm done with the rant.

The classes are well-done. I think the Druid is my favorite, with both short and long-range damage abilities, buffing spells, and healing spells. Well-balanced overall. The other classes are pretty much what you would expect.

Leveling up is not incredibly difficult. I did most of mine on my own. In fact, you can mostly play on your own, but I also enjoy the teamwork. EXP gains are balanced whether you're alone or with a team. The quests give you EXP more quickly than just monster-killing. In fact, the game is mostly quest-based (with storylines behind the quests), but there will plenty of monsters to deal with while doing the quests.

Death is handled well. You don't take a hit on EXP, just time. Your spirit spawns at a nearby graveyard and you run back to your corpse. Sometimes this can be a long way, but never so far taht it's outrageous. You can never loot another player's corpse, thank goodness. Imagine losing half the items you just bought at the auction house. *shudders*

Quests are varied. Sometimes you'll have to find a person. Sometimes you'll have to kill creatures. Sometimes you'll have to find items. Some quests are compound, building along each step, with another level of complexity each time you complete a requirement. Most quests you can do alone. For a few quests, you will be hard-pressed if you don't team up. I would venture to say that a few quests are not possible to do alone at the levels you are granted them. If a quest is labeled "Elite", you almost certainly need to team up. Also note that there will be some quests which you should not accept. Use your judgement and pay attention to what the NPCs tell you. You may need that information later to make a decision. If you do a quest that you shouldn't, you may lose reputation with the people of various places. You're taught a lesson early on if you don't pay attention to this.

Blizzard has taken care of most sources of annoyance. If there are annoying n00bs on your server, do not fear! The ignore list is here! ;) You can place people on your ignore list. Also, you cannot be attacked by another player who is on the same side as you if your PvP setting is disabled (default). Nobody can come along at the last second and kill a creep you've tagged to get the loot. Once you've tagged it, it's marked as yours and only you get to loot the corpse. (Leatherworkers can still skin a corpse they didn't kill, however.) Basically, you can play mostly harassment-free. I have yet to have any real issue with n00bs.

I love the way you are encouraged to explore. I've been to nearly every nook and cranny of a few areas and I've found interesting items. Just because you haven't been told to head north is no excuse to not do it! I've come across plants and other objects that, when I reach them, trigger a quest because, say, my character thinks someone else should see the fruit of this unusual plant, or somesuch.

Some say that the game isn't visually beautiful. I was stunned. I love the uses of color and beautiful architecture. I love the various NPCs with their strange and beautiful clothing. Perhaps it's just because I'm coming off playing Wind Waker that I haven't noticed any "cartoony" look and feel to the world. *shrugs* I do note that some objects do have that angular, polygonal look to them, but in such a huge and complex world to render, that's not unexpected, is it? Please note that I saw this while using a graphics card that has only marginal support for the game, so it couldn't render the world in full detail. (Looking forward to new graphics card!)

Gameplay is fantastic. You have to use strategy, which you quickly discover. The strategies you will use change as you learn new abilities and fight different creatures.

Overall, this is one of the best games I have EVER played. ^.^

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