A few questions about WoW (not "can i run it" related)

Was just curious, I was gonna jump in and purchase WoW and give it a go. I was told I should get the "battlechest" package, which has WoW + Burning Crusade. Everywhere I've gone sells this for $40. Anyone know of any deals or specials etc?

Also I see you can pay via credit card subscription, or with pre-paid cards you buy at the store or whatever. Does anyone know of places that sell these cards cheap, or anything like that?

Since I don't know if I'll like this in the long term dont wanna invest too much $$$ rite off the bat, and I already did the 10-day trial but honostly 10 days isnt enuff time to get much of a feel for it IMO cuz I didnt know anyone. So suggestions?

 

if you buy the game you get a month free. that *should* be enough time to decide whether you want to keep playing or not. and it's only 15 dollars for another month after that. i don't know of any deals regarding getting the game cheaper, or getting cards cheaper. it's 15 bucks a month, some consider that steep.. but if you play the game a ton, how many subscriptions are there out there that provide hours upon hours of entertainment for only 15 dollars? unless you factor in things like the orange box, that provide hours upon hours of entertainment for a one time price of 50 dollars =p.

 

also, that game took over my life for a year+, it's highly addicting... i would suggest staying away from it. i gained 50 lbs and lost all motivation in life during that time. it's kind of like a drug addiction in a way, just less severe.

 

My suggestion is don't do it!

WoW has caused about 15million people to turn into losers, lose thier friends, jobs, and families.

It's also the leading cause of DEATH amung lifeless nerds. And I'm not trying to say everyone who plays it is like this, just most, and it HAS been known to kill people. Physically cause death.

 

IMHO you should watch the WoW episode of south park BEFORE you even consider playing it. It's the TRUE life story of 98% of WoW players.

 

Oh come on... while WoW has its downsides, its not that bad.

It's massively easy compared to any other MMORPG and thus it should be like playing in god mode on any other RPG.

Just like everything else, it's about moderation.

I couldn't stand WoW because of its extremely immature player base, being way too easy and the goofball 5-yr-old art.
However, the gameplay actually is fun and beating something down is good stress relief.

I suggest watching the South Park episode too... not because of any reality involved... it is funny though.

 

In all seriousness you should consider if you want to play an MMO, first. If you're ready to see if you like it, and possibly get addicted, go for it. Some people adapt to MMO's differently, I played WoW since the first stress test beta and once it was released and I haven't lost any friends, or gained weight. Though I did just quit because school is much more important.

Anyways, pertaining to your question...the battle chest is the best idea, since you'll get all the content. I know of no sales, and I doubt there will be any since Blizzard loves money. Pre-paid cards are all the same price, it's set by Blizzard and I don't even think the places that sell them make any profit. Unless you find someone broke, and in need of money with a lot of pre-paid cards, I don't think you'll get them any cheaper

 

I have to admit, I would definitely start playing WoW if I did not have to pay every 2 months... it's for my own benefit that i didn't start playing WoW after all.... One of my best friend started playing WoW about a year ago and he goes out with the rest of the "gang" 50% less than he used to...

 

WoW is fun, if played with a limit, and especially with friends. The community is often pretty large as well, there are a handful of idiots, and a handful of good people. It's just the luck of the draw who you get to interact with.


People often emphasize about WoW and everything, and while it is true to a certain point, its definitely worth the small fee per month, especially if you get into end game raiding. Most people who do talk bad about it usually don't know anything and are obviously influenced by media and word of mouth.

I admit that WoW can be addictive, so if you don't think you can take breaks or control yourself, then by all means don't even try it. However, it's a wonderful experience, for better or for worse.

As well, the people who say its expensive, wow, get a job? Let's assume that it is $20 per month(its $14.99~$15.99 per month I think? Less if you subscribe for more then a month at a time) and game cards are like $30(you can find it for less if you look around hard enough). That's less then 50 cents a day, and for the entertainment value, it's well worth it. With updates, patches and fixes every Tuesday as well as new contents, fixes, patches, new character content, new dungeons/raids and more every few months, it's very understandable. As well, if help is needed, contacting a GM usually takes less then a few hours and is often resolved very quickly.

 

The battle chest with both WoW and Burning Crusade is actually a deal itself because if you buy both games separately, you'll be spending $60 altogether versus the $40 battlechest. As far as the game cards go, I believe there is no deal or sale or clearance or whatever you can get with those because 1-month of WoW is $14.99 only, so the gamecard, which is for 2 months, is $29.99 wherever you go.

The game itself took almost a good year and half of my life, but even saying that is a little dramatic. I did play the game more often than not, but I did not become a loser, I did not lose any friends, I still went out, plain and simple, I still had a life. You'll only become a loser if you let it, so if you do decide to play, moderation is the keyword to remember. The thing I'd suggest to stay away from if you want to maintain your life is those hard-core guilds. But if you have no problem with going hardcore, then by all means, more power to you. I kinda still wish I play because I miss my old warlock ways, but oh well.

 

Well I have friends from other videogames on Xbox LIVE who wanna "help get me started" and give me nice crap so I dont hav to grind n can hang w/ them. At most id only play it when my living room tv w/ my 360 is being taken up by my roomate, and hafta go upto my office where my laptop is for gaming. Probably 10 hours a week max, but no more. So I think i'd keep a lid on it Ok

 

Well, a few things to think about:

1. A new expansion is said to be coming out - you might check into that and find out any promotions, pre-order sales, timelines, etc.

2. WoW can be fun, and neither the initial purchase price nor the monthly fee are prohibitively expensive for the genre.

3. Depending on how much you want to get into it, it can be immensely time-consuming. Part of the reason may be your own desire to get the next epic item, get more DKP, do the next raid, hang out with people, etc--these factors you can control yourself with enough discipline with varying degrees of success.

The other part of the problem though, is that to get the most "fun" out of the game, a player *needs* to put that much time in. It takes mere weeks to get to level cap, a bit longer if you enjoy the ride, but once you do, the endgame is basically composed of pking and raiding, both of which take blocks of time ranging from a couple of hours to day-long marathons. Now consider that a typical end-game guild does guild events at least 3-4 days of the week, if not more, and you've just suddenly found every minute of your free time devoted to the game. Of course, you can opt out of it, and some of the more lenient guilds will let you, but most of the more competitive guilds have their loot and raiding policies set up to reward attendance--so the less you play, the less opportunity you'll have to play in the "best" areas of the game in the future too. This means you'll have worse equipment, your chances to get loot will be lower even when you are there depending on the point system your guild uses, and you won't be able to pk as competitively either.

In other words, casual endgaming is simply not something that people will sustain for any length of time -- either they get bored and quit after a few months, or they sink into the whole endgaming cycle and spent way too much time playing.

This isn't a problem isolated to WoW - all MMORPGs that set up their endgaming around "epic' raiding and whatnot have this problem of balancing endgame content for players who play nonstop and casual gamers. In the end though, Blizzard has every reason to provide incentives for you to play longer and get more addicted and draw others in, and fewer to keep people who they know would stop playing in a month or two anyway.