World of Warcraft: Worth Going Back After Two Years?

WoW has been getting more and more appealing after I was disappointed with Age of Conan and Warhammer Online just isn't very good. While WoW might be four and a half years old, and can addict you to it like no other game, plus the playerbase is half children/half adults, it's a hard decision to come back. I have looked over what was added to the game since the Burning Crusade, I'm still not sold on coming back. Going back to it will probably feel more like paying for something I've already played. I did quit at level 40 two years ago, but I am thinking of coming back. It is the #1 MMORPG for a reason. Man, Age of Conan had so much potential. If only the time was put into it to make the game get better as you play through instead of worse, plus it just doesn't feel like it's meant to be a MMORPG most of the time.

Maybe I'll check out the trial for WoW when I have the time to get in enough hours to decide if it's worth resubscribing. By the way, I'd assume that the Windows version of WoW runs better than the Mac version? Do both versions look exactly the same (even including small particle effects, shaders, etc.)?

 

Having quit at level 40 (current level cap is 80), and over 2 years ago, I doubt it will feel like a game you've already played. Gameplay changes substantially when you cap, where you pretty much do 3 things:
1) Raid
2) PVP (or what passes for it in WoW)
3) Farm in preparation for #1 and #2

While those 3 activities don't appeal to everyone, you're missing out if you don't at least try them to see if you enjoy doing those things.

Plus, over the course of 2 years, a TON of new content and features have been introduced, such as the Death Knight class and the dual skill system.


That said, I personally would rather just hold out and wait for Aion or something, maybe playing Jade Dynasty while waiting.

 

NO DON'T GO TO THE DARK SITE!
PLEASE STAY AWAY!
I have had 4 good friends go through addictions and can't get off of it...

I beg you don't play it

 

the trial for wow wont do you much good. the old content is pretty much the same, with some tweaks. they increased the exp so getting to 80 is quicker, so you inevitably will have to get the expansions.

i just resubbed since two of my cousins are playing and im working my way to 80 right now.. (almost 75).

im having fun so far...

i feel the game has come a long way and it id say it is worth the money if you can afford it.

 

My take on WoW is that it is certainly worth the money, which most people can afford (the cost being fairly reasonable even for people of modest salaries), but it is not worth the cost in time, which is prohibitively high. Of course, this is true with all MMOs which base their endgame around raiding.

Even a "casual" raid devotes at least 2 days a week to raiding, and of course serious raiding guilds spend a lot more time. If you really want to keep up with the endgame, these events are essentially mandatory.

You can always opt out of the whole raiding thing at endgame, and there is some content (PVP, etc.), but when it boils down to it, WoW is a raiding MMO.

It's still not anywhere near the time sink that FFXI is though

 

i would agree. it is a raiding MMO...just about all of them are regardless of which you pick. even darkfall...the endgame is raiding for cities etc.

its all going to be what you want to play....pvp or pve.

there is a lot of pve content, and the endgame is all raiding.

pvp content i think is just limited to world PVP (pvp servers), battlegrounds, and arena

 

Is it just me, or does the way that the Mac version is rendered look different than the Windows version (based on videos and images I've seen)?

 

I found the gameplay in RoM to be more superficial than WoW though. Sure, having a subclass adds an extra layer to the choices you make, but I found the classes themselves were rather bland, and the number of skills to be low.

Generally, when I played it, I felt - if I wanted to play a WoW clone, I might as well just go play WoW again...


One game I think everyone should at least give a shot is FFXI though. It's nothing like any other MMO out there, and even if it's very dated, it's still got more depth to it than any other MMO. If you're looking for something novel, it's something worth checking out.

On the other hand, FFXI is the most time-intensive MMO out there. Everything must be done in a group (with a few exceptions). Most MMOs sort of just assume your character is strong enough to fight/grind/kill any normal same-level mob it meets. This is not the case in FFXI - even if you manage to kill it, you'll be so drained that you'll end up resting for ages just to recover, and the exp you get is virtually nil.

Getting exp requires finding a group, careful coordination of everyone in the group, precise timing of your attacks, while paying attention to even the time between mobs and pulls (and yes, it will take a full party to kill mobs 1 at a time). There's no such thing as mindless grinding (at least compared to other games), because you'll need to be awake and alert.

The premium on equipment and skill is high too - even for just an exp grind party, you'll be expected to go in wearing insanely expensive gear (which takes some effort in getting), or chances are you'll be dragging the group down.

The storyline is second to none, as well - if you imagine the epic feeling in WoW when you marched into Stormwind after killing Onyxia for the first time, or after you first killed Illian, well...pretty much every storyline quest is like that in FFXI (although there are long periods of idleness between those moments too).

There was very limited PVP at the time I played, but the PVE elements were so enthralling that this wasn't a huge problem for me (and you could still PVP if you really wanted to - just at set times and places).

...

..
...

somehow this turned into a promotion of FFXI...but anyway, go try it out...it's more fun than WoW ever was imo

...it's too bad the graphics look so dated though

 

LICH KING HAS NO CONTENTS!
leveling up and raids are too easy.
and no one is going to bgs anymore.
arena is down in teh gutter(located under the dalaran sewage).
wintergrasp is full of bugs.
the only wow contents is worth playing is from lv1-60 the original vanilla wow.

 

That's one man's opinion. The three friends of mine who play it say the content is fantastic, expecially with the new patches, and haven't mentioned any bugs.

 

Graphics do look a bit dated though, especially compared to AoC, Aion, or even PW.

 

Why not w8 for Aion: Tower of Eternity. It is going to be a great game, and I have already pre ordered it and tried the Chinese trial. Its was a great addicting game. I recommend you look it up on youtube, just search for HD AION Gameplay. Even watching the videos is addicting. Trust me you will LOVE the game just by looking at the videos and looking up the great lore. It has GREAT PVE and PVP content in one game.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!AION!!!!!!!!!

 

It's going to be a long wait though... for the longest time Aion was the 2nd closest thing to vaporware after Darkfall (which did eventually end up releasing after all heh).

Aion beta releases in Japan in July. Then they'll do a release in Taiwan. And then, they'll open up the NA/EU servers to beta.

Definitely something to look forward to though.

 

I always liked FFXI and thought of it as a good alternative to WoW if your just not quite sure of WoW, its more grown up to me.

But both WoW and FFXI demand too much time to fully enjoy for me, the best MMO for a casual player I found was the Phantasy Star Online series.

Aion looks pretty good, reminds me of Guild Wars in how it looks, a very popular game but I couldnt get into it at all for some reason.

 

ummm 1-60? you must be kidding, the only fun is when ur the highest level and you can go gank low lvl alli. or go to raids.

and with patch of the lich king 3.1 theres a lot more things.

I stopped playing it a month after lich king came out. Got to lvl 80 and then came out to africa, and theres not well internet out here so dont play.

 

A few things:

- I feel there are still things to do online outside of raiding. However, that is my personal opinion, despite the fact that I raid weekly.

- If you do come back, find a friend, even if they have an account already. You can set up Refer-A-Friend that gives you 300% XP from both mobs *and* quests. It greatly accelerates leveling. There is also the Scroll of Resurrection that gives some in-game bonuses for reactivating an account.

- At 80, you can go back to TBC and experience a lot of the older content nearly on your own. Almost any class can solo TBC heroics at 80. (Ony is also soloable at 80)

- If you use an addon such as TourGuide, you can ignore a lot of the time consuming and/or tedious quests to level. Blizzard added a lot of XP bonuses for leveling, so it takes insanely less time.

- Once you reach level 55, you can roll a Death Knight. After doing some "starting area" quests, you head into the "normal" Azeroth world at ~58 with a full set of gear and a bunch of XP. At the very least it's worth experiencing (however, you need Wrath for that option).


I recommend you at least purchase a month of service to experience it again. Since you finished at 40, there is more than enough for you to do for a month to let you decide whether it's worth purchasing both expansions and moving forward.

 

I can say that WoW is turning into a bad game all around. I have played since classic and all I can say is the game gets worse and worse with each patch. I havent logged in in ~1.5-2 months and Im glad. Now I certainly miss my friends alot, but thats what ventrillo is for.

 

I had been played wow about 3 years now, since when it just released. but i quited the game nearly a year ago. I got tired on pvp, those unbalance class, spelling setting have never been solved ( well some people said such a huge game is hard to get balance class and so on... ). well i just got enough for it. i had been live in WoW too long time, i need get out of there . currently, i am played my another favorite game Guildwars. it is great in pvp. and waiting for Diablo 3 .

 

I may come back one day who knows, but here is my fear.

First of all I hated how itemized WoW is, seems PVP and many other things are way more gear dependent than skill.

If you sold your soul to play BG constantly or raiding constantly and got the gear, in just a few months time your hard earned epics are soon replaced with new expansion greens and blues....

Plus now that the level cap is higher and there are new areas, its probably harder to find a group or a raiding guild for that now mid game content.

When I played retail our weekend raid was always molten core, in the private server I played on it had the first expansion and since the gear was faster/easier to get from the new raids and also better people just skipped places like MC.

Also they nerf clases and boost classes too often.

My first character was a (at the time) max lvl hunter and I owned all, and then one day they nerfed me so bad that I couldnt stand my class.

I rolled warlock and got to max level, and it was like 3 days after that they nerfed the living daylights out of Warlocks....

Also with a new class I bet there are way too many people using the new class since its the only new one.

 

MICHAELSD01, it's just like getting out of prison. It's a whole different world out there now.

 

I'm trying to keep this post from turning into a WoW defense, so I'm going to say here that I recommend trying the game out again if you have the time to do so; and not just rely on what others are saying.

It's true. TBC green gear is far better than even BWL epics. It was true for Wrath, but to a MUCH lesser extent. Tier 6 gear (for those that had it) made it all the way into Naxx before it was replaced.

Regarding raids: Blizzard took a different stance with raid content in Wrath. They want everyone to experience the content at some point. As a result, some Ulduar (the new dungeon) bosses have already received multiple nerfs. Expect nerfs to other bosses in the future. Naxx was puggable before the latest content patch. It is even more accessible now, and many guilds are still running it.

For progression raiding, the new "thing" is to add Hard Modes, which basically rewards you for killing a boss in various situations (e.g. the order adds are killed, lack of a buff, etc.) and not just "kill this guy in under 3 minutes. GO!"

PvP got a big overhaul with the Arena / rating system. BGs are still around and populated, but the higher tiered gear requires Arena rating to get them.

The Achievement system that was added in Wrath also gave a lot of new life to Vanilla and TBC content. People are returning to old instances to get Achievements or to get various titles/mounts/pets as the rewards from those Achievements.

Also, the power of most classes at level 80 allows nearly every class to solo old content, which can be entertaining for some. ZG (a 20-man Vanilla instance) can be soloed now even by Hunters.

Blizzard is continually tweaking classes, so that will never change. They appear to be listening to the community more regarding certain parts of various classes, but of course there are never any promises. You pretty much accept your class will change by playing the game.

A "dual spec" system was added in the most recent content patch that allows any character of appropriate level and after paying the gold, to swap to another pre-set spec any time they are out of combat. So for example, a priest can be Holy for a given encounter and then spec Shadow for another without having to port out to a major city to do so.

Finally, yes, gear loses value over time. Blizzard wants you to keep playing so that you keep paying your subscription. Therefore, they have to dangle carrots of multiple varieties to keep you interested.

 

For the Horde!!!

 

The game is a joke now. They use one raid with 2 modes to "add content" and pvp is broken more then ever. Blizzards concept of balancing is to homogenize classes so that there really isn't a distinction in some effects. Lets face it certain skills should only be done by certain classes, and blizzard just adds skills and abilities cause the situation to become even worse then it was rather then just address the issue and fix it right the first time.

I have been raiding since classic and as time has gone by in the past 3+ years of wow play I have noticed that the game takes less and less skill as time goes by. I find myself doing more while playing then I did 6 months, 1year or more ago. The game is turning into a zerg fest, where epics are even easier to get then in TBC. 2 years ago I was really upset that I had epic sets for all 3 druid specs within a month of hitting 70, now I have more even faster. Epic wasnt epic in TBC and now it has the feeling a green did back in classic. Its a shame 'cause in classic if you were in mostly blues your were considered pretty geared for a fresh or semi fresh 60. In TBC if you weren't at least half epic you were undergeared as a fresh 70, and now even if you are epic'd out in gear made for your spec that doesn't mean you aren't undergeared and or "bad".

I could go on for hours and hours posting my gripes with how they are ruining my favorite MMORPG so that lazy people enjoy the same things hardcore players work for and so cry babies stop complaining. Yeah there were some issues with classic and how they handled things, but nothing like 2.0 on. I realized ~2 months ago that I stopped enjoying the game after the 2.0 patch came out and that I was really only on for friends.

 

I'm always a bit amused whenever someone parades the "hardcore gamer" tag around - as if that was something to be really proud of...

And perhaps I'm a bit biased, since I've been on both sides of the coin over the years...


Well, I understand you might be pissed that people who won't "work" as hard get to enjoy some of the same advantages as you, but why assume non-hardcore players are simply "lazy"?

From a different point of view, those non-hardcore players can't devote the same time because they're actually engaging in real "work" that actually puts food on the table and probably contributes to society in some tangible way. When Obama finishes a hard day of work, he probably has very little time left to do raids

Sure hardcore gamers might have spent time and some amount of effort (but let's be realistic..the actual effort and skill involved in progressing to the top in WoW is nearly nonexistent--even in the original + BC days, not to mention now in Wotlk--it was merely a matter of time), but is that really "work"? Of course not--it's just play and required very little mental or physical exertion.

From that point of view, aren't the casual gamers more deserving of content than the "hardcore" gamers? They are the consumer base that is most likely to cancel if they get no content (whereas Blizzard can be assured they won't lose their "hardcore gamer" customer base unless they seriously mess up), and therefore the demographic Blizzard should focus their time on most to maximize profit at a time when the game is pretty stable right?

 

hardcore gamer or casual gamer, blizzard does not care.

they only care that they get their monthly payment from you.

and you are actually comparing the president of the united states of america to a hardcore gamer. you are kidding right?......right?

i do not agree that casual gamers should get the easy route. just like life, the harder stuff is never easy to achieve.

or i guess, according to your logic...arent hardcore gamers more deserving of more content (in life, not wow) than you?

 

It generally takes a lot more for a hardcore gamer who's invested years into the game to quit than for a casual gamer who reaches 80 and finds there's nothing to do given her limited time. Blizzard should care to the extent that if each subscription brings in the same amount of money, and it's not very likely to lose the subscription of someone already addicted to the game, then it should focus on keeping the subscription of the person who's not addicted to the game. Sure, even hardcore gamers will quit, and they often do, but Blizzard has a lot more room to maneuver in that area.

Of course I'm kidding when I threw in the Obama line... but the point is, if hard "work" is the standard, then why not open the universe to the range of possible "work", instead of looking only at efforts within the closed universe of the game? I seriously question whether anything that's done in WoW could be considered "work". There's one exception for guild leaders and raid leaders, who spend a lot of time dealing with organization, planning, drama and complaints. But on the whole, most people wouldn't consider anything you do while playing a MMO real "work". After all, if that was the case, why would they play?

The general idea is, you get what you deserve, and you deserve what you work for. That's fine--and people who don't invest as much time in the game shouldn't get as much as people who spend their lives in the game. On the other hand, that doesn't automatically mean that the casual players are "lazy" by any means--since it's just as likely that the "lazy" casual player is spending most of his time doing real "work".

As for your last point--clearly not, if we were to look at the entire range of "work", then an objective standard would be the total societal contribution created by that work, which would include any utility you derive from doing that work. Investing time in gaming, other than its hedonistic aspects, isn't really productive except indirectly via contributing to the market as consumption and perhaps keeping people from going insane.

 

I think you meant 3.0, not 2.0.


To the OP, I still recommend you try it again to see if the changes to the game will keep you interested enough to keep playing. If you can get a few friends together, it may be better if you all roll new characters and level together. It will be fast and you can all enjoy it together.

 

you get out of life what you put into it.

you get out of a game what you put into it.

you get out of anything what you put into it.

same concept, and yet you want the people who don't work as much as someone else to gain the same as them, with less requirements.

it does not work like that.

 

By that premise, then people who devote the majority of their time to nonproductive activities (i.e. gaming) should not be able to get much out of life? By this definition, then wouldn't it be the hardcore gamers who are "lazy" since they put less into productive activities?

Sure, but only if you're willing to read the scope of the whole "just deserts" premise narrowly to only the closed universe of that game. On the other hand, that premise doesn't really apply that well when it's not really "work" you're doing in the first place. But the original post was talking about people being "lazy", which is a personal trait of the player itself, not just as applied to the game.

This is only true if that "anything" isn't fungible. Once it is, then you're better off maximizing your comparative advantage in the overall scheme of things and then simply trading (minus transaction costs) to come up with a net gain.

I never said that actually. I only made the point that non-hardcore gamers are not necessarily "lazy", and in the broad scope of things, it's more probable than not that it's the "hardcore" gamers who are "lazy" by spending so much time on nonproductive entertainment. I also pointed out that it's a wise business investment for Blizzard to cater to casual gamers, which is an entirely different issues.

 

I can only speak for myself but I really see no point in going back. The game has only gone downhill ever since Vanilla (in my opinion).

They constantly nerf the content so that it will be avaible to everybody so if you're a "hardcore" gamer looking for some exitement and a challenge then you either need to be in the testing of the new patches or clear all of the new content the first week.

The attempts at World PVP like Winterspring only work on small servers since on large ones it's more about who can actually move without disconnecting than it is about strategy or skill.
The Arena system is basicly about setup and gear, although you can have alot of fun with friends running odd setups.

But then again, maybe I'm just an old grumpy "vanilla" wishing it was more like in the beginning. When having even a few epics meant something, when epic mounts were special and when you actually felt like you accomplished something when you downed a new boss.

In short:
If you want a challenge at all then you should look elsewhere, if you're looking to just play with some friends and hang around, playing casually then sure give it a shot.

 

I was just trying to say that people who log on for a few hours a week should not have the same gear level as those who work harder. That was what seperated people in elements gear(t0 blue set from classic) and those sporting ten storms(epic t2) or earthshatterer( epic t3). I had five thunders which was an upgrade derivation from t0 and that showed my effort in WoW. Now its totally different, I became more hardcore and had full t7.5 gear right before ulduar launched and people playing alot more casually could easily get and/or had the same level of gear. Just doesn't make sense imho. /endrant

 

My problem with Wow now is it is so big I dont even know where ot start going in with my 60's

If I started a new char it may be easier, not sure.

Its just going to take too much time off my hands, but I think I may give this new MMO comming up a shot Aeion

 

Two things (this is directed to anyone in general with a similar issue):

1) Get TourGuide and TomTom. They've done the work for you.

2) In short, after level 58, go to Outland (TBC). Everything there is very linear, and you'll only have to progress through 3 or 4 zones before you get to 68 and can go to Northrend.

 

Here is your plan to get to 80 from 60:

1.) Do All Hellfire quests
2.) Do all zangermarsh quests
3.) Do all terrokar quests
4.) Do all Nagrand quests
**By now you should be 68 or higher, and once you hit 68 northrend is where its at**
if (level != 70 && northrend)
5.) Do all borean quests
6.) Do all dragonblight quests
7.) Do all grizzly hills quests
8.) Do all sholzar basin quests
**You should be 77-79 at this point**
9.) Do storm peaks quests til you ding 80
else if (level != 70 && !northrend)
4.5.) Head to netherstorm and you should grab 70 easy
**now start at 5 and go down and youll hit 80 very easily**

This is the way that I did 60-70 for 4 70s in TBC, and how I got 2 80s from 70 and 68(druid and DK).

 

Don't bother. WoW is still the same tired MMO that it was two years ago. The expansions are nothing more but grind fests through the new levels and content, and while Blizzard has made the game more "accessible" to players that cannot dedicate eight hours a day to it in pursuit of phat lewt, they've really dumbed down the content and the encounters, no doubt to appeal to their much larger kiddy-base.

Personally, I feel as though Blizzard sold out on WoW. The commercials, the marketing, everything feels contrived and extremely forced in order to get people to play the game. WoW was a good MMO when it first arrived on the MMO scene, but after awhile it became yet another plodding, boring game in which there was no real creative content, everything "new" was just re-hashed content that was painted over.

No, I'll be waiting for STO or KOTOR Online to come out before I go back to WoW and waste my money on that lumbering piece of crap.

 

Where can I download the Lich King trial client for old subscribers without registering for the trial? I want it downloaded and installed before I register for the trial and my ten days starts. Do I already need WoW installed to install the Lich King trial or does the client install everything necessary? I think that the client is only seven gigabytes, which obviously doesn't include the original client.

 

Let me put it to you this way....

WotLK put a motorcycle into the game. A freakin' MOTORCYCLE!

Need I say more? (rhetoric)

 

I just took five minutes to walk around with my old main character. There's definitely a lot of deja vu going on, it just feels really weird to be back. I think that the Mac and PC versions look different, is there any comparison? Isn't vertical sync supposed to set the maximum framerate at 60 (it's setting it to 30 for me)?

 

WoW ? wow....no thx

 

I just started playing WoW last month. IMO its one of the best games i have ever played. True there are some annyoying ppl, but mostly i have met kind an helpful people.

 

Agreed. But I would have to say the helicopter and rocket from TBC did it first for me.

 

It's been about a year since I last played WoW but my boyfriend went back a few months ago. I was watching him play last night, and can I just say these new quest mods are ridiculous? I stared at this arrow that points you to quest locations, and I felt something inside me die when I thought about all the time I spent back when it was first released hunting for some out of the way quest object with poorly written directions.

Sorry I just felt the need to share, lol. The game has DEFINITELY gotten--what's a nice way to say this--more accessible for the casual user .

 

i miss the friends in my server...
i don't quite miss the game... tho i have to say, i truly enjoyed being MT in my guild for a short time...

yes, new quest mods... ensuring that our idiotic youths will also remain illiterate...

 

Then Lord of the Rings Online (>WoW, imo) will come across as a glee club in friendliness.

 

honestly.

the amount of fun you will have depends on a number of things.

the biggest thing is if you have real life friends/family that play.

the second biggest thing is how good of a guild you have that meets your goals.

also, if you have both of the above, and still just hate the game, or it feels more like a job then it does feel FUN, its just not the game for you.

personally, i play wow on and off throughout the year. i get burnt out after awhile, and stop playing for a month or two, and then later on start playing again. seems to do the trick for me.

 

Don't do it!!!! I played for 3+ years. I earned the title of Merciless Gladiator in Arena Season 2, I was in a guild ranked top 25 in the U.S.A.. I even quit for months, went back, leveled two characters to 80 and got back into the game but finally realized that it was just a never-ending spiral of mind-numbing boredom. Whether or not you, or anyone else wants to admit it, half the time you sit online in WoW, you're not actually doing anything productive. Go live your life. Once you quit WoW, you should NEVER go back. It's not worth it.

 

Lol yeah thats quest helper. I found out abt it on lvl 20, and it took me half the time it took me to get to 30 than it took me to get to 30. Made the game way too easy, i dont even read the quest anymore. M gonna try to stop using it though

 

Extremely true! Well said. This could be attributed of all MMO's to be perfectly frank.

 

See I took some breaks here and there and I mostly go back. But I think this time I may not come back, its been over 2 months and I have no urge to come back.

 

What I don't get is - ok, call me a member of the I-want-it-now generation, but jesus christ, if you have sit and amuse yourself for 20-60 minutes while a raid assembles, you're missing the point of gaming!

I've got a mate who plays, and probably 30-40% of his time is spent standing still. When you factor in the time that's spent waiting/vendoring/handing quests in, not to mention the endless "kill/collect x of monster/item y for NPC z", there's not that much time left for actual fun...

Either have a true RPG like morrowind, where your huge open world is detailed and characterised enough to make travelling/finding people and places interesting/worthwhile, or have a true hack-and-slash like diablo where your killing-sh*t to micromanaging ratio is closer to 20:1

Life's too short to sit around doing nothing (says he who routinely formats and fresh-installs his laptop every six months).