World of Warcraft

[Julius Seeker]

So I have a lot of friends who play this one. Apparently Blizzard has some demo thing going on for the game. So I started playing. So far the game seems very similar to all those free online RPGs I have played: Fly for Fun for example. I have 10 days to play, I am on day #2

Questing and acquiring ranks, quests are essentially "kill 10 of this" or "collect 5 of these" or "deliver this message to this guy" which is just like everything else. Graphically, the game is decent, but it is not much more (and in some cases less) advanced than the free ones. It doesn't seem like it will be long until free 3D online RPGs will have superior graphics.

I should also mention that the character customization options seem to be somewhat less than in some free games, but it could be that this is just in the demo version of the game.

I have noticed that player interaction within this game is among the lowest of any online RPG I have ever played. Fly For Fun, I remember after a few hours of play I had already met around a dozen people. Even in ancient games like Ultima Online, the character interaction seemed to be significantly higher. In World of Warcraft: everyone just seemed to be going about their own thing, I was invited into a guild (by the one who got me the demo), and no one seemed to talk much in that either.

Is there something about this game that I am missing?

Oh yeah, Fly For Fun: http://flyff2.gpotato.com/
I assume everyone who is interested in Online RPGs knows about Ultima Online.

[Eric]

You can ask Manshoon. I really hated this game when it first came out, I found it boring and a chore.

Then my toon kept geting new abiliites, and talents, and it became more fun, then I got into PvP zones and the fun doubled, getting my mount for transportation which nullified the ridiciulously slow travel times and all my complains with the game kinda died.

It grows on you really.

[Don]

On one of those free trial accounts you can only access the default channels in terms of chatting, but yes player interaction is probably as low as it gets in a MMORPG because there is very little class interdependence.

Nothing Blizzard makes is truly revolutionary. I feel WoW is more like a Diablo 3 than a MMORPG, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Diablo 2, after all, was a pretty fun game.

[Manshoon]

That's one of the things I enjoy about WoW -- there's nothing stopping you from soloing your way to 60 if that's what you want to do. Of course, if you want to get any decent gear for your character you'll have to run 5-man instances, and that's where you start getting to know people I think. And once you hit 60 the only thing left to do is run the high level instances, and then once your gear's good enough run the 20 and 40-main raids. There's also Battlegrounds and getting your PvP rank up, but don't even think about trying to get to the top rank unless you have no life (see here for details). As it is I gave up the game last year but then in the fall a friend got me back into it, and being able to talk on Skype makes it a hell of a lot more fun to play. I'd have quit the game for good otherwise.