I finally broke, the pressure of WoW

[vegeta11]

After eons of time where I declared I would never play WoW, I finally cracked. All my friends at my job have been hammering at me and another associate for the past three months and we always had other stuff to do, but the funny thing is we both cracked on the same night, unbeknownest to each other. I joined the horde and have to say that against my better judgement I am enjoying myself. Anyone else play MMOs or is everyone consel players?

[SpaceButler]

Anyone else play MMOs or is everyone consel players?

I played FFXI since it came out in the US till about 2 months ago when I gave my account to my linkshell on there.

I think MMOs suck ass because of the damn chinese money farmers. That's the reason I quit FFXI. I just killed me how long it took to make money in that game if you actually were an honest player. Though, if what I was told is correct, WoW that isn't as much of an issue, because all the good end-game armor is drops. I dunno if that's true or not.

But ya, after EQ then FFXI I'll prolly never play a MMO again. (unless they make another FF one or say...a DQ one! :sd: ) They took up way WAY WAY too much of my time. I lost sleep because of MMOs, I almost failed my World Civilizations class cause of a MMO and I lost two jobs cause of MMOs(That's not as bad as it sounds, both were pretty shitty jobs...they were fastfood jobs). I just can't control myself with those kinds of games.

So um ya, MMOs are/can be cool, but not for people with addictive tendencies like me.

[FigNewton]

Played EQ for 5 years, 3-4 of which were endgame raiding.

Took a break, about a year, before WoW came out.

Played Wow for almost a year exactly, about the last 3 months were end-game raiding. Burned out, haven't been back except for a few minor excursions when some friends wanted me online for something.

My life just isn't conducive to the raiding game anymore.

[FigNewton]

Though, if what I was told is correct, WoW that isn't as much of an issue, because all the good end-game armor is drops. I dunno if that's true or not.


Yeah that's true. In the endgame, nothing can touch the dropped armor which is bind on pickup. Of course to get it, you have to sell your soul to nightly raids that last 4-7 hours depending on what your guild is working on. It was worse time-wise than EQ was for me.

[Skywise]

Of course to get it, you have to sell your soul to nightly raids that last 4-7 hours depending on what your guild is working on. It was worse time-wise than EQ was for me.

Switch guilds. Really - if the guild is setup that you have mandatory attendance and the like that you spend that much time on it, it's time to change over to some other guild that doesn't. You can raid and be more casual about it - it's up to you how you spend time in-game, not blizzard.

[Chacranajxy]

I'm not a console gamer exclusively, but I definitely don't like WoW or MMO's in general. Too much monotony and I don't like playing with a bunch of pricks in order to accomplish anything... that and there's no ultimate goal in these games.

[GHardin]

I played WoW for a couple days, then ran the rest of my trial month out. That was a regrettable mistake on my part, but for some reason, I just wasn't in the mood to play...for two to three weeks... :sd:

[SpaceButler]

I don't like playing with a bunch of pricks in order to accomplish anything...

Ya that is a big downside to any online game really, and a big part of the reason I don't wanna play MMO anymore. People take that shit way to seriously man...

[FigNewton]

Switch guilds. Really - if the guild is setup that you have mandatory attendance and the like that you spend that much time on it, it's time to change over to some other guild that doesn't. You can raid and be more casual about it - it's up to you how you spend time in-game, not blizzard.

The problem for me is a more casual raiding guild is too slow and doesnt go through content fast enough for me (assuring I'm 1-2 tiers behind the current gear and content). And places like Naxx seem completely prohibitive to a casual guild that isn't over leveled and over-geared by the coming TBC expansion.

Neither situation is ideal for me. Some people can hang in the casual raiding atmosphere, some people can make with the nightly obligation.

[GHardin]

Too much monotony and I don't like playing with a bunch of pricks in order to accomplish anything... that and there's no ultimate goal in these games.
Well, the first and last points I can't really argue with, but I can't help but to feel that you're generalizing everyone a little too much with that middle point. Of course, there are plenty of assholes out there, but there are plenty of people worth playing with...then again, finding those people proves to be a headache sometimes. :D

[CrazyAsano]

Too much monotony and I don't like playing with a bunch of pricks in order to accomplish anything... that and there's no ultimate goal in these games.
Well, the first and last points I can't really argue with, but I can't help but to feel that you're generalizing everyone a little too much with that middle point. Of course, there are plenty of assholes out there, but there are plenty of people worth playing with...then again, finding those people proves to be a headache sometimes. :D

That and in order to be part of a guild large enough to do any raiding you're required to hang out with pricks.

[FigNewton]

That and in order to be part of a guild large enough to do any raiding you're required to hang out with pricks.

Agreed. In every guild large enough to raid I've ever been a part of there have been at least a handful of them that make their voices heard all to often.

[Azumangaman]

I played (emphasis on -ed) Guild Wars, but now it sits on the desk. The box is nice after all. The only reason I bought Guild Wars is because:
i)I had interest
ii)FREE Online Play

But my reasons for playing are basically a fancy combinations of Chacrana's and Space Butler's thoughts. Besides, MMOs are kind of a waste of time IMO.

[Skywise]

You won't be first no, but nothing says a casual raiding guild can't do naxx. The guild I'm raiding with clears MC (alts run) and BWL once a week (2hr 30 min), AQ40 up to huhuran, and was working on naxx one day. That's 4x 40 mans a week, all of them optional. In naxx we'd cleared razuvius and anub, and were working on faerlina. Sure, we're about 4-5 months behind the curve, but we actually started much later than other raiding guilds as well.

[Super Saiyajin Joshua]

Though, if what I was told is correct, WoW that isn't as much of an issue, because all the good end-game armor is drops. I dunno if that's true or not.


Yeah that's true. In the endgame, nothing can touch the dropped armor which is bind on pickup. Of course to get it, you have to sell your soul to nightly raids that last 4-7 hours depending on what your guild is working on. It was worse time-wise than EQ was for me.

It was the nightly raiding and politics of being in a guild that killed WoW for me. You want to have an edge? Gotta raid. Wanna raid? You gotta be in a guild. Will that guild let you raid with them? Maybe. Even if you do raid will you get what you need? Someday. The process of it all got to me pretty quick.

[Lego]

The only MMO I've ever played is Asheron's Call. Say what you want about it, I really enjoyed it. I played it for 5 and a half years, and enjoyed every minute of it. Sure it wasn't state of the art, but I loved the in game lore and my monarchy was like a family. Now I'll play a game or two online, but no MMORPG's for me at the moment.

[Arcturus]

I really liked WoW, but the game became too much of a time sink for me, and the gameplay just became too stagnant.

It looks like the expansion will shake things up a bit, which is good, and I may return to the game at some point, but it won't be happening right now.

[Kellory]

I pretty much only play MMORPG's. I do some console and PC gaming, but few games can hold me. MMORPG's have the advantage of having a large community to play with. Even online games like Halo cannot hold me really since you are only working with a small group of people and it isnt persistant. I love persistancy in a game.

WoW is incredibly easy compared to the harder MMORPG's like FF Online and Everquest. This is both good and bad. It is very very good if you are casual. That is 5-20 hours a week max. You can level easily enough and do quite a bit. You will do neither in Everquest with those kinds of hours.

Now personally I play Everquest. WoW, and all other MMORPG's simply cannot hold my interest in the long term. I simply level up and am done with the game within a few months. I spent 6 months in WoW playing my usual 20-30 hours a week and finished 3 characters to max and did most dungeons. It was fun for the first few months and then it steadily went downhill as I realized there was nowhere near the lore or the adventure potential of Everquest.

The key in any MMORPG, however, is to find a good guild. If you are into raiding, then you are pretty much screwed. Your guild will suck. You will eventually burn out and you will leave on bad terms. A few dont, but 98% of all raiders eventually burn out and flatline. I much prefer more casual raiding guilds that are family oriented.

And they are out there. Guilds in each MMORPG that stress discipline and coordination and teamwork that can do 90% of the content. My own Everquest guild fields about 1.5-2 groups a night on average and we can do everything but the top zones in the newest expansion. And we could do them as well if we wanted to put in the kind of time necessary to finish up keys and equipment necessary to efficently kill there. The key to most content on most MMORPG's these days is teamwork, not simply numbers. I've yet to see the MMORPG that you cant take half the numbers of most guilds and still do the content. Other than the very top end zones where DPS (Damage Per Second) is everything. In pure burn encounters, numbers are everything, but for the most part strategy and teamwork counts for much. Most raiding guilds simply zerg based on numbers rather than technique.

So take some time and do some research into your guilds on your server. Find which ones your friends are in. If necessary perhaps even encourage them to all get together and form a single guild. You do not always need numbers for everything or even most hard things.

[FigNewton]

You won't be first no, but nothing says a casual raiding guild can't do naxx. The guild I'm raiding with clears MC (alts run) and BWL once a week (2hr 30 min), AQ40 up to huhuran, and was working on naxx one day. That's 4x 40 mans a week, all of them optional. In naxx we'd cleared razuvius and anub, and were working on faerlina. Sure, we're about 4-5 months behind the curve, but we actually started much later than other raiding guilds as well.

I quit the game when we were working on Nefarion somewhere around mid Nov 2005. Since then I've only kept up with it really through my friend who joined Surreal when our guild blewuptuated. All I know is that they worked on Naxx for a long long time. As in 6 hour nights, 5 nights a week, some weeks 6, for a couple months. As I understand it, the first couple bosses are loot pinatas.

By the time you get to Sapphron you'll be screaming from 450 frost damage to every person in the raid every second, and dodging blizzards that do 3500 per tick. Then after you get that down you get to spend time learning KT, Phase 1 is pretty straight forward, phase 2 you're fighting KT directly, he's MCing your main tanks, he's doing AE frost bolts for 2500 damage to everyone in the raid, and he's doing direct damage to his target for 10k (that's interruptable). But you can never tell if he's casting the AE or direct damage he also does Frost Blast that is a targetted AE that does 25% damage to everyone within 10 yards of the target every second for 5 seconds. He drops shadow fissures that instakill people that stand on it once it procs 5 seconds after it drops (the purple aura thing you see). At 40% he spawns adds, 6 of them. They can be shackled but once they reach a certain size, they dish about 2000 damage per hit. Oh and when a PC is MC'd they do 250% damage output

Now, granted, after they got their first KT kill, they were able to get it down to 2 6 hour nights. But getting there is no easy task. And if you were to split it up to more nights, the total hours would likely add up to a good deal more than their sum of 12, just by virtue of splitting it up.

Burning Crusade comes out in 3 days. By the time you and other casual guilds get there it will be like I said, with over-levelled, over geared players, so I guess we'll never know how well you'd do there anyway. And at that point the drops will be obsolete anyway, so I'm not sure why you would.

[Skywise]

And your point is?

[FigNewton]

And your point is?

>_< That it takes very dedicated hardcore guilds a a lot of time to get it down. The time and difficulty involved does, like I said, seem prohibitive to a casual raiding guild without being overlevelled and over-geared from TBC.

[Ty]

I tried WoW once for about an hour or so running with some people I knew and simply couldn't fathom why it's so beloved by people. I found it boring and pointless, and before anybody says anything I'm very well aware I didn't give the game enough of a chance. The fact that it didn't appeal to me right away was all I needed to step away though since I didn't really have the time for it.

[Soulblazer]

There are a good number of decent people, but World of Warcraft definitely has the largest percentage of assholes of any MMOPRG that I have played.

[jecca-neko]

I stand on the anti-MMO fence. I don't care if people I know play MMOs, but I'm not going to play them. Thus I've had people bug me to play World of Warcraft, City of Heroes, Guild Wars, Final Fantasy XI, etc but I just don't do it. It's not the PC gaming factor as I do play PC games occasionally. It's the whole dealing with stupid people factor. I'd rather play by myself or play multi-player only with those I know.

Thus I'd play a game online if and only if I could just play with my friends and no one else was around to ruin the experience for me.

[GHardin]

I could agree with that logic...the only game out of that list I really only play with friends is Guild Wars. It may be a negative to some that the game separates the towns and the actual game worlds, but it's nice to know that other asshats can't ruin it for you...unless you randomly play with others. :sd:

[jecca-neko]

I could agree with that logic...the only game out of that list I really only play with friends is Guild Wars. It may be a negative to some that the game separates the towns and the actual game worlds, but it's nice to know that other asshats can't ruin it for you...unless you randomly play with others. :sd:

True... but there's also the fact that MMOs can't truly end. There is no way to beat them, per se. I'd prefer to keep my soul, not have it eaten by an MMO. Especially when I work 40+ hours a week and do 9+ credits per semester at college. :P

[GHardin]

I could agree with that logic...the only game out of that list I really only play with friends is Guild Wars. It may be a negative to some that the game separates the towns and the actual game worlds, but it's nice to know that other asshats can't ruin it for you...unless you randomly play with others. :sd:

True... but there's also the fact that MMOs can't truly end. There is no way to beat them, per se. I'd prefer to keep my soul, not have it eaten by an MMO. Especially when I work 40+ hours a week and do 9+ credits per semester at college. :P
Well, that's the great thing about GW, seeing as it really isn't an MMO! :P One of these days, I will get to the end of one of the chapters (come close, but everytime, I either burn out or get burned by school. :sd: )!

[Kikaroo]

I pretty much only play MMO's these days, used to be much more into console gaming though. But since ~2000 (when I got my house and a cable modem!), I've spent most of my free time in some game or another.

I've played EQ (~4 years), FFXI (couple of months), SWG (a month?), CoH (couple of months), Guild Wars (off and on), EQ2 (couple of months). And, WoW. Probably missed something, but that's the gist of them.

EQ I didn't start until after RoK came out, but I ran a guild for most of my time there so I kept busy. Didn't particularly like the game itself after a year or so though, so the guild is what kept me playing.

I like FFXI, played at release with a few friends. Friends didn't like it, so we all ended up dropping it. I so wanted to go back when I heard they can raise chocobos though....

SWG was one of those "hubby bought me the game to play with him" things, but he ended up disliking it more than I did. Was sad, considering how huge a SW fan he is.... He's tried to go back a couple of times, but it just isn't what he wants in a SW game I guess.

CoH I found terribly boring. Played at release as well (was on the fence, and I found a copy on my desk that night when I got home :D ). Got a couple of friends who like it enough to still play and they say the recent upgrades have improved things, but I have no time to go back (sounds too much the same for me).

EQ2 I tried about a year ago. Liked the crafting, but the rest of the game? Not so much. I know they've done some upgrades, but I just don't feel like touching EQ stuff again. (Though I did enjoy what little lore was in EQ1.)

Guild Wars doesn't really count to me, since I just play it when the hubby feels like doing something on it. But that's pretty rare.

WoW however, eats up a lot of my time and has since it's release. I love the casual atmosphere, I love having the option to solo or find a group at my leisure. And I'm a big fan of Blizzard and the lore behind Warcraft (even the few ops they've had recently with the lore have worked out alright). :nervous: I got to check out the beta of TBC and I must say I can't wait for it!

[MegsLeigh]

I do think that a good guild is key. I'm in a fantastic Alliance guild on Dethecus in WoW and it has made playing a lot of fun even though I've been level 60 for several months now. I'm going to get my copy of BC at midnight tomorrow night. :neko:

[GyBaNO]

Too much monotony and I don't like playing with a bunch of pricks in order to accomplish anything... that and there's no ultimate goal in these games.
Well, the first and last points I can't really argue with, but I can't help but to feel that you're generalizing everyone a little too much with that middle point. Of course, there are plenty of assholes out there, but there are plenty of people worth playing with...then again, finding those people proves to be a headache sometimes. :D

That and in order to be part of a guild large enough to do any raiding you're required to hang out with pricks.

My guild is full of them (myself included, partial guild leadership for the win!). We've been pretty much regulated to the 20-man content as of late because we can't keep enough people in the guild to put up with us. We always use to get a bunch of assholes using us as a loot stepping stone and moving on to an even bigger guild. We put a stop to that prior to the PVP patch in December and we've been small time ever since as a result.

I'm glad the new content raids got pushed down to 25-man, cuts down on a lot of that behavior, allows us access to the good dungeons without the head count requirement, and its easier to keep the monkeys in line over vent.

Blizzard FTW!

Getting the expansion tomorrow (slow ass shipping, ugh!)

My rogue(Assassination) is ready and has been.

My shaman (Enhancement) is almost ready (level 59)

And my warrior (Arms) isn't yet. Poor little level 55 midget can't get through the portal yet. :(

[FigNewton]

I broke down and got Burning Crusade. I am weak. And now I don't have any clue where to spend my talent points on my rogue for 60-70 levelling after a year of not playing. I would like to go combat swords for levelling because that would require me replaceing my daggers (was raid daggers specced when I quit). I've spent an hour and a half trying to decide what to spec. :(

[vegeta11]

I'm working my way through the balanced tree for druids and when I'm done there I'll spend my points on feral probably. Got to love the Moonkin.

[GyBaNO]

I broke down and got Burning Crusade. I am weak. And now I don't have any clue where to spend my talent points on my rogue for 60-70 levelling after a year of not playing. I would like to go combat swords for levelling because that would require me replaceing my daggers (was raid daggers specced when I quit). I've spent an hour and a half trying to decide what to spec. :(

If you have the swords go combat, man. I would on my rogue but my shaman is already an auto-attacking stormstrike/windfury champion and I don't want two characters of mine playing similar to one another. So I specced 41/0/10 and I'm having a blast and a breath of fresh air. Mutilate is a damn powerful PVE and PVP talent from what I've used it for thus far and it exceeded my expectations by a large margin.

Combat daggers what?

I miss Blade Flurry though. :(

[Dylonius Funk]

I miss Blade Flurry though. :(

Will you miss it so much when you run into a reflective Shielded shadow/disc priest? :) Makes me wish i still had my account i could finally get some nice payback on those frelling rouges

"Oh you want to stab me. Ok then you do that. Oh wait better stun lock before i....uh oh to late i got reflective shield on. Now i'm absorbing your attacks and doing half back onto you. Hey why you stabbing yourself Mr Night Elf Rouge huh? Come on stop stabbing yourself dummy" :cool:

[GyBaNO]

Never had that happen to me to be honest. :sd:

[Dylonius Funk]

Never had that happen to me to be honest. :sd:
New priest talent. When used in conjunction with Power Word Shield, Reflective Shield relfects 50% of the damage done back on the attacker. And it reflects both magic and melee damage, thus my little example with the sneaky rouge, trying to backstab the helpless clothie priest.

[FigNewton]

If you have the swords go combat, man. I would on my rogue but my shaman is already an auto-attacking stormstrike/windfury champion and I don't want two characters of mine playing similar to one another. So I specced 41/0/10 and I'm having a blast and a breath of fresh air. Mutilate is a damn powerful PVE and PVP talent from what I've used it for thus far and it exceeded my expectations by a large margin.

Combat daggers what?

I miss Blade Flurry though. :(


Unfortunately I mistyped that. It should have read "I'd like to go combat swords BUT..." Because I don't have the swords. The best sword I have is a Krol Blade I got right before I was able to start using it, and replaced it with MC daggers a couple months later. For now I just stuck with combat daggers to keep blade flurry, but will likely go to a mutilate build when I have enough points to spread around to get a couple basics from Combat and Sub.

[GyBaNO]

Unfortunately I mistyped that. It should have read "I'd like to go combat swords BUT..." Because I don't have the swords. The best sword I have is a Krol Blade I got right before I was able to start using it, and replaced it with MC daggers a couple months later. For now I just stuck with combat daggers to keep blade flurry, but will likely go to a mutilate build when I have enough points to spread around to get a couple basics from Combat and Sub.

Gotcha, man. Well I'm going back to combat until I raid again at level 70. These damn mobs here in Outland are resisted a lot of my stuns making it hard for me to position my rogue for a mutilate. Very annoying.

Replaced some of my T1 and T2 already too. Plus my buddy slapped some powerful enchants (24 atp on my bracers, wow) on my new gear already. the gear level change in this game is a trip so far. Already replaced the blue pvp set on my shammy with level 60 greens, which is good because the blue set sucked balls for enhancement.

Blood Elf paladins are a blast to play as well. Their racials adds an amusing twist to the level up game and is quite different from what I experience getting my dwarf pally to level 24 (highest level I got, was bored that day with no work)

Lots of stray cats in their starting area as well. Seal of Righteousness+Stray cat+Judgment=Twisted fun.

:>

[Kikaroo]

The gear upgrades are great in Outlands. My group is lucky to get 5 people on with a few hours to spare any given night, so we obviously never really raided much (at least not in WoW). Some of us have gotten some really awesome upgrades within hours of zoning in and that's been pretty cool.

Thing is, I love doing the quests/quest lines for the old dungeons (lore junkie) - I'm a bit concerned that my alts that aren't already 60 will never get to complete some of that stuff due to general lack of interest. :(

I find it silly that people have already blown through to 70 though. Within a week no less! Why even bother playing a game like WoW? It's easy, sure, but it makes me wonder how long it'll be before they complain that they're bored again....

[Pachi]

I've started into Guild Wars in the past month, but this is only because my brother bought it for me as a Christmas present. Before now, I wasn't even much of an RPG guy, but he's trying his hardest to get me into it.

Everyone I mention it to always seems to say, "Bah, Guild Wars sucks, WoW is much better", though. But I'm enjoying it well enough. It's helped in giving me something to do when I'm bored. I'm in my brother's guild, too. (he pretty much just added me in right away after I made my character) Though, one flaw I find in Guild Wars is the story. A couple weeks ago I decided to read on the backstory in the booklet that came with the Prophecies version of the game, and all I can think of to describe it is "bad online fanfiction". :sd:

[GHardin]

Everyone I mention it to always seems to say, "Bah, Guild Wars sucks, WoW is much better", though. But I'm enjoying it well enough. It's helped in giving me something to do when I'm bored. I'm in my brother's guild, too. (he pretty much just added me in right away after I made my character).
Yeah, I've been playing GW for quite a while, if only because I'm too cheap to pay for WoW on a monthly basis. :sd:

But I'm not playing this as "the alternative" per se; I'm enjoying the hell out of it. It's much nicer when you play with others, though Nightfall makes it more accommodating for single player play with the introduction of heroes.

Though, one flaw I find in Guild Wars is the story. A couple weeks ago I decided to read on the backstory in the booklet that came with the Prophecies version of the game, and all I can think of to describe it is "bad online fanfiction". :sd:
Frankly, I can't think of any online games that have a real convincing storyline - it's all a setup to run back and forth and slay everything in your way. ;)

[Pachi]

Everyone I mention it to always seems to say, "Bah, Guild Wars sucks, WoW is much better", though. But I'm enjoying it well enough. It's helped in giving me something to do when I'm bored. I'm in my brother's guild, too. (he pretty much just added me in right away after I made my character).
Yeah, I've been playing GW for quite a while, if only because I'm too cheap to pay for WoW on a monthly basis. :sd:

But I'm not playing this as "the alternative" per se; I'm enjoying the hell out of it. It's much nicer when you play with others, though Nightfall makes it more accommodating for single player play with the introduction of heroes.

Yeah, I reeeeeally need Nightfall. Right now all I have is Prophecies. If not just for the Heroes, but for the better skills, too. I'm Level 20 now, but my brother and his friends are a lot better because they all can use Heroes and have Nightfall skills. Henchies are just plain unreliable at this point, even when THEY'RE Level 20. :sd:

But I don't do too bad on my own or when I group up with them either. I've got a Warrior/Elemental build going that utilizes knockdowns. Earth Quaker is pretty nice, but it needs a wider radius. Sometimes when I use it, it seems like only adjacent enemies who are practically TOUCHING the enemy I use it on fall. >>

[AbeChinchilla]

I bought WoW this afternoon, and finally installed it. Even though there's at least one minimum requirement that I don't meet, I was still able to get the game running.

I'm actually having fun. I had a friend of mine help me get started.

Only problem is that about after 10-15 minutes of playing, my screen goes black, goes to the Desktop and I get an error about a display "failing." I'll probably write down the error message down next time, but basically it reverts my display settings for Windows XP to 4 bit (!!!) color and 640x480 resolution, and I can't revert back unless WoW is closed. Do I need to upgrade my video card or something?

[GHardin]

I bought WoW this afternoon, and finally installed it. Even though there's at least one minimum requirement that I don't meet, I was still able to get the game running.

I'm actually having fun. I had a friend of mine help me get started.

Only problem is that about after 10-15 minutes of playing, my screen goes black, goes to the Desktop and I get an error about a display "failing." I'll probably write down the error message down next time, but basically it reverts my display settings for Windows XP to 4 bit (!!!) color and 640x480 resolution, and I can't revert back unless WoW is closed. Do I need to upgrade my video card or something?

What kind of specs does your computer have? Are your video drivers up to date?

While I didn't care for playing WoW when my friend got it for me, I'm glad that I decided to give it another go around with a timecard...problem is trying to NOT spend all day playing it! :sd:

[AbeChinchilla]

What kind of specs does your computer have? Are your video drivers up to date?

The only "requirement" that I was made aware of (by the game disc) was that I don't have 512 MB RAM (gasp). But it actually runs just smooth as I may have said.

It hasn't happened as often today. I was able to play for about three hours, no problem. Until my PC just restarted on its own.

I doubt my video driver is up to date, and I was thinking about getting a new one next payday (I'm broke right now, just got a cellphone, got a 60 GB hard-drive and paid some bills). I was also considering getting RAM, but if it's soley the "display" problem, it is probably something with the video drive.

A friend linked me to a site, telling me I should look into having a "gaming" PC built... and now I kind of do want to do that (going to start saving). :P

I'm having fun with WOW though, if I keep having problems, I'll probably stop playing after my free month (taking as much as I can to my advantage) and wait until I'm set to go and will probably buy time cards.

[GHardin]

The only "requirement" that I was made aware of (by the game disc) was that I don't have 512 MB RAM (gasp). But it actually runs just smooth as I may have said.

It hasn't happened as often today. I was able to play for about three hours, no problem. Until my PC just restarted on its own.

That sort of reminds me of what happened when I tried playing FEAR on my old Gateway. I met all of the requirements and had a GeForce 6800 GT hooked up, but in the middle of a game, it would more or less lock up, causing me to go so far as having to switch the power strip on and off. I never did find out what happened, but I'd have to believe it was insufficient RAM that caused it to crash repeatedly (I couldn't even put the game on the pause menu for more than 5 seconds, or it would automatically lock :sad: ).

I doubt my video driver is up to date, and I was thinking about getting a new one next payday (I'm broke right now, just got a cellphone, got a 60 GB hard-drive and paid some bills). I was also considering getting RAM, but if it's soley the "display" problem, it is probably something with the video drive.

A friend linked me to a site, telling me I should look into having a "gaming" PC built... and now I kind of do want to do that (going to start saving). :P

This is where knowing how old your computer is might be a little help. If the specs are out of date, you may just want to get something that's just adequate...getting a stronger card won't really help compensate for other things. But you did say you met most of the requirements, save for RAM, so you might be fine...I guess it all depends on how much into PC gaming you are.

I'm having fun with WOW though, if I keep having problems, I'll probably stop playing after my free month (taking as much as I can to my advantage) and wait until I'm set to go and will probably buy time cards.
I still feel sad that I pretty much wasted my free month. I played it for a week, then stopped for the remaining 3 weeks. Kind of made me sad. :P But no more! :D

[AbeChinchilla]

This is where knowing how old your computer is might be a little help. If the specs are out of date, you may just want to get something that's just adequate...getting a stronger card won't really help compensate for other things. But you did say you met most of the requirements, save for RAM, so you might be fine...I guess it all depends on how much into PC gaming you are.

So it might just be the RAM? Well, if funds are okay, I might get both. But before I buy anything, I'll probably research and find out what exactly the problem is.

Thanks for the help.

[GHardin]

So it might just be the RAM? Well, if funds are okay, I might get both. But before I buy anything, I'll probably research and find out what exactly the problem is.

Thanks for the help.

It might be more than the RAM...I'm not exactly the tech wizard here (far from it... :P )...a little RAM goes a long way, but it shouldn't keep you from playing. It might be a combination of the above...

You could always try the requirement tests at System Requirements Lab (http://www.srtest.com).

[Raye]

Commenting about the original post, I just have to say that two of my friends tried to pressure me into jumping onto the WoW bandwagon. I refused, since my computer can barely run The Sims 2 and don't want to pay a monthly fee. Besides, I barely have enough time as is with all of my other games, anime, and manga.

When I was in the 7th grade, MMORPGs and MUDs almost ruined my chances to get into high school. I started neglecting school, like I wouldn't bother with my homework and didn't study for tests, figuring I could cram everything in the next morning. Never again...

Although Graal was really fun. I don't know if anyone remembers that game, but it was based off of the SNES Zelda system.

[AbeChinchilla]

I refused, since my computer can barely run The Sims 2 and don't want to pay a monthly fee. Besides, I barely have enough time as is with all of my other games, anime, and manga.

This is actually basically the same reason I never checked out WoW. But now with the time cards, I was pretty much in the "oh, all right" side.

But yeah. It's a bummer. I rememebr going out of my way to track down The Sims 2 DVD edition, and then only actually playing it for a few days when I decided that it simply could not "run" well on my PC. Still have it, in the event that I would be able to run it, or get a gaming PC.

[AbeChinchilla]

You could always try the requirement tests at System Requirements Lab (http://www.srtest.com).

Thanks for the link.

It's definitely my video graphics card and RAM that need improvement. Although I think I can survive with below-minimum RAM, so I'll worry about getting a graphics card next payday.

[evilarrex]

One of these days, I will get to the end of one of the chapters (come close, but everytime, I either burn out or get burned by school. :sd: )!

You haven't finished any of the 3 Chapters in Guild Wars?
Drop me a line if I am online if you need any help. Happy to help you get through any of the tricky missions. (We'd do it honestly with no shady tricks :P)
I have at least one of each of the core occupation characters at the end of each of the Chapters of Guild Wars (Prophecies, Factions & Nightfall) so getting someone to you is no issue.

I tried WoW for a little and settled with GW. Its a more restricted game but the ability to take it in "bite sizes" of 1hour or so is pretty attractive. For larger longer "raids" the optional elite missions in Factions & Nightfall provide ample opportunity to add to body count. :sd:

I don't do PvP very much but that aspect of the game works immensely well.

At the moment I'm just adding to my characters death counts in the optional Nightfall area the Gate of Anguish (aptly named)

[malazar]

I have been playing WOW since it came out in mostly hardcore raiding guilds. Like some others said, the politics and such involved with raiding (especially now with 25 man raids) can be ugly. When I was the priest class/over healing leader for my old guild, I found it overly annoying dealing with the egos involved even if most of the people were decent sorts.

So I resigned from that post and moved on to another raiding guild where I could be a mere member of the crowd and found it much more enjoyable since I didn't have to directly deal with the officer end of guild relations anymore.

Doing high end raiding really doesn't require much more time than non-high end raiding guilds tend to put into it. These sorts of guilds just tend to use their time more efficiently. Nevertheless, I am feeling burned out on it now since TBC came out. It is tough to maintain raiding 4 hours 3 weeknights and then 6 hours on the weekend when you work 60 hours most weeks. Sometimes I wonder how I did that AND grinded to field marshal when it was still hard to do so before all the good competition was gone. At any rate, we generally accomplished a lot more in 18 hours than some other guilds I knew of that raided close to 25+ hours.

It passes the time. It's cheap entertainment. It stops you from spending money on other things. It is bad for stuff like book and anime backlogs though...very bad. As I begun to partake of those pleasures more frequently in the pre-expansion dead time from December until mid-January, I am now doubting whether I want to return to hardcore raiding as it does take up a good part of my free time.

[Pachi]

One of these days, I will get to the end of one of the chapters (come close, but everytime, I either burn out or get burned by school. :sd: )!

You haven't finished any of the 3 Chapters in Guild Wars?
Drop me a line if I am online if you need any help. Happy to help you get through any of the tricky missions. (We'd do it honestly with no shady tricks :P)
I have at least one of each of the core occupation characters at the end of each of the Chapters of Guild Wars (Prophecies, Factions & Nightfall) so getting someone to you is no issue.

I still need to finish Prophecies, too. After I got Nightfall, I've only gone back to Tyria a few times recently to do minor stuff. (cap an elite, do some PvP) Currently I'm sitting at the first mission of the Fire Islands. And I think I'm afraid to move forward. X3 Granted, having Heroes now should make things easier, but still.

My brother and his friends always are trying to help me too, but at first I kept going "No, I'll move up in the world on my own like you did!" Now I've realized you should take the help when you can. :P Just recently my bro found a green hammer in Elona that had the Furious effect (I rely heavily on adrenaline) and handed it off to me. I will miss my old hammer which had Sundering, but unfortunately you can't have both. *sigh* Furious Sundering........sounds nice, huh.

[evilarrex]

You are a brave man that uses a hammer! ;)
I've normally always used a sword or axe with my Warrior (He says staring at the unused pile of green hammers in his warriors stash) :sd:
I've finished Prophecies, NF and Factions with 2 Monks, 2 Eles, War, Sin, Ranger, Mes, Necro. I have a Ritualist making her way through NF atm (done Prophecies n Factions with her), made up a Paragon and Dervish but cant really get excited about the NF occupations.

[Pachi]

You are a brave man that uses a hammer! ;)
I've normally always used a sword or axe with my Warrior (He says staring at the unused pile of green hammers in his warriors stash) :sd:
I've finished Prophecies, NF and Factions with 2 Monks, 2 Eles, War, Sin, Ranger, Mes, Necro. I have a Ritualist making her way through NF atm (done Prophecies n Factions with her), made up a Paragon and Dervish but cant really get excited about the NF occupations.

Yes, well, I orginally started with swords of course. After a little while, my brother suggested I switch to hammers if I wanted to do more damage per hit, so I tried 'em and ended up liking them. The only time I don't use hammers is in PvP. For me, that's strictly sword. You'd have to be a hammer master to PvP with one and do well.

[GHardin]

One of these days, I will get to the end of one of the chapters (come close, but everytime, I either burn out or get burned by school. :sd: )!

You haven't finished any of the 3 Chapters in Guild Wars?
Drop me a line if I am online if you need any help. Happy to help you get through any of the tricky missions. (We'd do it honestly with no shady tricks :P)
I have at least one of each of the core occupation characters at the end of each of the Chapters of Guild Wars (Prophecies, Factions & Nightfall) so getting someone to you is no issue.

Oh, I don't doubt that... :sdsmiley:
It's pretty funny when people try to use every little trick to go far...it sort of makes one wonder, "Why bother?" :P

It's just that by the time the next campaign comes, I get that, and end up playing that and neglecting the previous campaign. It's pretty funny, really.

I tried WoW for a little and settled with GW. Its a more restricted game but the ability to take it in "bite sizes" of 1hour or so is pretty attractive. For larger longer "raids" the optional elite missions in Factions & Nightfall provide ample opportunity to add to body count. :sd:

I enjoy the scope of WoW, but I like how much more focused GW is with regards to quests. WoW just gives you a very vague hint as to where you're supposed to be going, while GW gives you a marker of where you should be. It makes things a little simpler for the better.

[GyBaNO]

Since I'm a huge fan of screen shots and some others around here may be as well, I'll post a bunch a screen caps I took a couple weeks ago that amuse me. :)

Midgets in Darnasuss (http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/594/lum1os0.jpg)

Um......okay. I went to go get a drink and came back to this. Freaked me out. (http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/3839/lum2ny0.jpg)

Dark Portal (http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/9738/aakri6sg9.jpg)

Thrallmar alchemy/whatever tower (http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/1003/akari5tq0.jpg)

WTF! (http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/7061/akari4sm4.jpg)

Fel Reavers! ANyone else kite these back to Honor Hold, Thrallmar, or Falcon's Rest? Funtimes I assure you. (http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/184/akari3na9.jpg)

The sky in Nagrand at night is my favorite. (http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/7042/akari2rx6.jpg)

Some lore stuff going on in Garadar with Thrall and Gromscream's son. Cool stuff. (http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/3489/akari1lu6.jpg)

Enjoy, I'll post some more in the future.

[Captain Impulse]

Two of my favorite screenshots:

Superman? (http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b144/Bandit_DM/Superman.jpg)

Staredown. (http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b144/Bandit_DM/Piggy.jpg)

[CrazyAsano]

Two of my favorite screenshots:

Superman? (http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b144/Bandit_DM/Superman.jpg)

Staredown. (http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b144/Bandit_DM/Piggy.jpg)
How many times must superman die?