For a person considering WoW

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

I've a feeling I'm about to come across a healthy amount of cash (At least for someone without any of it in the first place) and I'm wondering if the monthly fee for World of Warcraft is worth it. Also considering burning crusade on top of that.

[Bouldering Jove]

If you do decide to try out World of Warcraft, don't buy Burning Crusade at first. It's primarily a high-level content expansion that you won't see for quite a long time in-game.

[Arlanthe]

Actually, buy TBC if you want to play a Blood Elf or Draenei, or be a jewelcrafter. It's worth buying.

I like WoW- best MMO so far, but now Vanguard is really playing well. I'll still play WoW a lot.

[TheChris]

If you do decide to try out World of Warcraft, don't buy Burning Crusade at first. It's primarily a high-level content expansion that you won't see for quite a long time in-game.

I disagree. Getting involved with WoW is a lot of fun and can be a great time. However, a lot of that was spoiled for me because I don't really like the horde races, and my entire guild is horde. However, I love the blood elves and when the expansion came out I picked it up. Playing the Blood Elves has been like playing my characters when the game first came out. It's true you don't need BC but if you want to do jewelery crafting or be a paladin for the horde or a shaman for the alliance, you kind of have to have it.

As for the money thing, a lot of people are down on that and I used to be one of them. Till you step back and think about the number of people that are needed to just keep the game flowing smoothly. Not to mention how they are adding lots of new content and fixing things that don't work. In my opinion it's definitely worth it.

However if you're just thinking about picking up the game, send me a PM. I have some free trials hanging around from when I picked up BC. That way you can figure out if you want to play the game or not.

[Jibar]

I'll warn you as well; this game absorbs you.
I've lost more time to this game than any other in the knwon galaxy.
You'll decide to pop on for 5 minutes to check who's online, and be playing for 8 hours and then agreeing to go on a raid before you notice the time.
I also whole heartedly ask that you join the Horde. Sure, we got the Blood Elves and Forsaken, but we are still the Good Races. Plus, Troll Females are a lot sexier than them stupid Night Elf Females.

[Kyrsis]

I enjoy WoW, I don't mind the monthly fee. I haven't been aborbed yet myself; it's still just a video game to me, even if it is a fun one.
I have given multiple MMO's a very fair chance and I like WoW the best; it's very user friendly.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

I enjoy WoW, I don't mind the monthly fee. I haven't been aborbed yet myself; it's still just a video game to me, even if it is a fun one.
I have given multiple MMO's a very fair chance and I like WoW the best; it's very user friendly.
This may have been the final straw that bought me over. :smallbiggrin: When I have the money it's likely I'll get WoW.

[Ego Slayer]

Plus, Troll Females are a lot sexier than them stupid Night Elf Females.
Ew, and no way.
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f85/EgoSlayer/Egos%20Avatars/egooo6bv-sneak.gif
:smalltongue:

[Crazy Owl]

Blood Elves are sexier than Trolls and Night Elves. I'm fine with glowing eyes and big ears but the purple skin. As for Trolls, they have tusks. Thats got to get awkward eventually.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

I'm gonna have to agree with blood elves being the sexiest, I mean
http://mmorpg.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/62457/Blood%20Elf%20Paladin_qjpreviewth.jpg

prrrrooowww...

[Ego Slayer]

Shmexxy.

Maybe when I've got money I'll get WoW. Its pretty. =P

[Fus.Weapon 1337]

Yea, and verily!

I have it. GET IT NOW!

[TheChris]

I think mine looks more cute than that one.


http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/2253/characterxf8.jpg

[Murongo]

If you want to diddle your time away in a bland repetitious world with a playerbase composed of not only your average internet morons, but average internet morons who are such crybabys that they report you to a GM for "ganking" them... play WoW.

If you want a game that rewards only how much time you sink into it and not how good you are at the game- if you want your importance and power to be strictly dependant on how much you're willing to give up your life and how lucky you are on a random dice roll... play WoW

If you want a game that is so restricted that you feel as if you're on a conveyer belt at all times, with no player owned territory, no faction unity or anything outside of creep killing and rinse-and-repeat consequenceless (be it good or bad) battlegrounds...

You get the idea.

And before you jump on the "you clearly haven't played it" bandwagon I was pressured by friends to play so long that I've played both horde and alliance characters to 60, I've completed Ahn'Qiraj and Naxxaramas, I've lead guilds and participated in them and in the end me and my friends realized...

We werent having any more fun than we would hanging out without the 15 dollar fee and the pointless time sink.

My second to last gripe, they ruined the Warcraft world by making formerly major antagonists and protagonists into rinse-and-repeat bosses that you farm for gear. Even Illidan is going to be a raid boss in outlands. They also made the world the size of a pack of gum. You can stand in one place and see snow on one side, forest on the other, and in the distance you can see tropical islands. Blizzard brags about how many servers it has because the world never grows, when theres only a few thousand people on each server, yea, you need a lot of them.

And my last note: Instances are the bane of open worlds. Gods forbid you get in trouble all you have to do is dissapear into your magic personal hole. Nothing you do lasts or is ever notable because everything in the world resets every 15 minutes.

You're better off with Vanguard. Better yet, play a game that requires personal skill and progression as opposed to avatar progression. My first suggestions are Counter Strike: 1.6 or source, starcraft, warcraft 3 or command and conquer: zero hour.

Commence flaming, oh so brainwashed masses. Because if I'm right, you've wasted a whole lotta time and money.

[NecroPaladin]

I was there for Warcraft right from the beginning. It's interesting how as the game's age increases the maturity level decreases. Exponentially. [scrubbed] I liked it when people didn't play the game just to be better than the other people who played the game.

My testimony to whether, at least as of now, WoW is worth it? Long live City of Heroes/Villains.

[Scrubbed]

[nightinverse]

I can't honestly recommend World Of Warcraft, unless you know that MMORPGs are the thing for you. I found it dull, repetitive and overhyped.

[TheChris]

The detractors here have spanned the gauntlet from well thought out replies to....well just the ones you kind of skim and hope that you don't remember anything that was in the bottom half of their posts....it all boils down to one thing. Do you like MMOs?

If you don't, Cool! Go get some ice cream! I don't like counterstrike so I don't play it and I don't really worry about it. If you like MMOs you'll, most likely enjoy WoW. I've played it since beta, and a lot of the reason I've stuck around in it is the people I play with. RL friends and friends make the game fun for me.

I've played games like D&D online, everquest, guildwars, city of heroes/villains, and eve and non of them seemed as enjoyable as WoW. But that's just my opinion. And in the case of games with monthly fees, free trials are the way to go. Better than purchasing the software and deciding you don't like it!

[NecroPaladin]

...hope that you don't remember anything that was in the bottom half of their posts....

I aim to please.

[Jibar]

It's a valid question. Besides, the Night Elves are the sole reason the Alliance outnumbers the Horde. If I must tempt them away with Troll booty, so be it.

We had a huuuuge argument about WoW in a different thread, so I'll not repeat anything said there in rebuttle, as there was a lot, but I will say this;
Roleplaying servers. As soon as you're out of the starting area the grand total of "lol wtfbbqzlol how I mine for fish?" is zero. They get shouted at so much they run away before level 10.

[NecroPaladin]

Roleplaying servers. As soon as you're out of the starting area the grand total of "lol wtfbbqzlol how I mine for fish?" is zero. They get shouted at so much they run away before level 10.

Or become Paladins.


I need to go to bed.

[Jibar]

I never played the Alliance past 14, so I'll have to take your word.
Damn...that sounds about right though, thinking about those paladins who always /taunt ed me.

[Crazy Owl]

...AVIDLY DEBATING IF THEY'D RATHER F*CK AN ELF OR A TROLL.


I was joking, mostly. And Murongo if you look then you will see that he has already said he will probably get the game so whats the point in starting an argument. I'm leaving for the week soon so I won't be able to see any of the charming responses to your post but first I'll point out one problem in your argument.

You say instances are bad but what if they weren't there. Instead of five adventurers going into a dungeon to kill the leader of a group of thieves you would instead be sitting, for hours waiting for your group to be the ones who gets the first attack while 10 other groups sit there with you.

I'll play Vanguard when it doesn't freeze every few minutes with the settings on low.

[NecroPaladin]

You say instances are bad but what if they weren't there. Instead of five adventurers going into a dungeon to kill the leader of a group of thieves you would instead be sitting, for hours waiting for your group to be the ones who gets the first attack while 10 other groups sit there with you.

EDIT: Ah I see that that was directed at Murongo. See, I don't carry these needless prejudices. I'm pro instance-rights.

Again, I don't hate the game, I hate about 5% (65% if you count alliance) of the population, which is still enough to turn me off the game when I could play a game with better gameplay and an equally crappy or better population. I hope you have fun in WoW, I hope whoever's gonna buy it has fun, and I know I'm not touching it without a Healing-spec priest handy.

[Crazy Owl]

By the way, I wasn't at aiming at you. Go read my post again, and slap your self on the face.

edit: Damn, you got there first.

[NecroPaladin]

edit: Damn, you got there first.

The post or the me slapping myself in the face? Because I needed to slap myself earlier for forgetting something...that's an odd coincidence. Again, enjoy World of Yourcraft not Mycraft and let's keep those pent-up hostilities to ourselves. Just because I had a bad day doesn't mean you should, and vice versa.

Granted: The design on Warcraft instances is usually spectacular, and my love of concept art sadly nullifies me to anyone who masterloots everything to himself. All the art in WoW is great. Even what would otherwise be rip-offs are made their own. If anything the art is what I would really recommend the game for.

[Crazy Owl]

The post. Yes some of the art is amazing.

[Wehrkind]

Of all the MMO's I have played, the only one I was able to stomach for a while was WoW. I have been playing since Beta, and I still enjoy it quite well.

That said, there are things that bug me. I wish the world was persistant, or that they would put in persistant events. I don't like killing the Baron of Stratholm, then going back, resetting the instance, then doing it again. On the other hand, if they didn't do that, I would never get to kill anyone, because I am not willing to play enough to do things first. I have people in my guild who, literally, play 18 hours a day. One guy didn't sleep more than 4 hours a night for a month to push to High Warlord. I really like the game, but I have other things I like too.

I wish the world were bigger. It would lend itself to more persistance (less density == more bosses and events per player I figure.) On the other hand, EVERY area is hand crafted. You don't get the "every instance looks exactly the same" like in City of X, and the little details and jokes you can find really make exploring worth while. Not really my thing, but it is fun to stumble upon them.

It is repetitive. Almost all the quests are either of the FedEx variety, or kill x number of beasties/gather x things types. There are little stories and stuff built into them though, and I found myself much more invested in why I was doing it as opposed to DDO where I just sort of skipped the text and went straight to "what do I kill?" Granted, I still do that a bit in WoW, but often it is interesting to read.

Itemization is a bit of a problem as well. Doing pvp without good gear can be frustrating, depending on class. PvE is easy, and getting to the top level is no problem, no matter what you have or do. What I recomend if you want to do pvp is get a character to 60 (not tough in a week or 2 if you push) then use him to farm equipment for a low level pvp character. I find warriors or mages are the easiest to farm instances with. A guild can help too if they are willing to run you through a few instances. If your pvp alt is in the 29 or 39 brackets (my favorites) the gear you need is very easy to get as a 60, and the twinks with ridiculous enchants are not as much of a problem.

All in all, I really like the game, though I do take breaks ranging from 2-3 days to a month. My fiance also plays, so it is a nice way for us to do something together, and she is apparently the love child of Alan Greenespan and... some female capitalist I can't think of, because she loves auctioning things and making piles of gold that way. So hey, worst case scenario, if you hate every other part of the game, you can play "Auction House Venture Capitalist" like she does.

Seriously though, play Horde. Alliance will make you vomit.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Horde sounds alot nicer...goodie two-shoes alliance.

[NecroPaladin]

Horde sounds alot nicer...goodie two-shoes alliance.

Now you're talking my language, bucko.

[The Orange Zergling]

*cries* Everyones biased against the Alliance... I swear, I'm the only person in the world who hates the Horde...

[Jerthanis]

Plus, Troll Females are a lot sexier than them stupid Night Elf Females.

When I was making my Horde character way back when I played WoW I chose Trolls because they were my favorite from Warcraft 3 and I liked the cut of their gib. I was resolved to make a male character (because my alliance character was female), but lost all resolve when I saw how cute Troll women were...

It just wasn't fair!

In reference to the game itself, it's an MMO, and that's what it is, no more and no less. If you like MMOs you'll almost certainly like WoW. If you don't, you probably won't.

I personally play City of Heroes, which cuts out a lot of the things I don't like about WoW, such as extreme delay on getting expedited travel, the difficulty of finding groups, the immature community, Micromanagement of equipment and inventory, luck playing such a large part in equipment drops, and the inability to look really unique. I really enjoy City of Heroes gameplay, as it deviates from normal MMO gameplay in a lot of ways. Also, as someone who spends more than 15 dollars a month on comic books already, the ability to take on the guise of a superhero of my own design and pilot him through his own story of masked heroism is really worth it. If you daydream about your very own accident involving cursed vats of radioactive meteorite and the ensuing superpowers, (and you want to interact with strangers and friends in a cooperative, team environment utilizing a semi-unique combination of powers to overcome vast hordes of do-bad-ers) CoH is for you.

If you sketch dragons and dwarves in the margins of your notebooks, think about what you'd do if you got magic powers, and if you think chainmail and swords are just about the coolest thing ever (and you don't mind the occasional internet-person spouting "noob" and so forth, and want to interact with strangers and friends in a cooperative, team environment utilizing a set combination of powers defined by your class and talent pool to overcome all kinds of fantasy creatures from gnolls to dragons) then WoW is for you.

[Arlanthe]

I personally play City of Heroes, which cuts out a lot of the things I don't like about WoW, such as extreme delay on getting expedited travel, the difficulty of finding groups, the immature community, Micromanagement of equipment and inventory, luck playing such a large part in equipment drops, and the inability to look really unique. I really enjoy City of Heroes gameplay, as it deviates from normal MMO gameplay in a lot of ways.


CoH has a few good points, but I find it is a major snorefest. CoH definitely has the best character customization, hands down, and it's worth buying and trying for a month just to make some nifty superhero characters.

But the game thoroughly lacks content. There are three types of quests: kill x# villains, kill the villain leader, and walk around. In the instances (where most of the action takes palce), there are a few "interactive" quests which consist entirely of clocking on boxes or people to open or free them. But if you play for a month, you've seen just about every type of content there is. After that it is more of the same. I typically active my account for one month every nine or ten months, play for three or four weeks, and stop and move on to a game with some significant content.

The lack of equipment and ways to really diversify character abilities and sub-classes or specifications is an extreme drawback in my opinion. Any gravity-radiation controller, with the exception of maybe a few separate abilities, is the same as any other gravity-radiation controller. “Micromanaging” inventory and equipment is a huge part of an MMO for many people, and “drops” that can be equipped, used in crafting, sold to vendor, or otherwise add depth to the game and really differentiate characters abilities and strengths. The slotted “inspirations” in CoH are exceedingly limited and just don’t cut it.

The slower transportation in MMOs I don’t mind- some time and distance keeps things from being over farmed, mitigates lag spikes, and adds yet again more depth to the game. Don’t get me wrong, CoH is worth trying, but after ten thirty to forty-five minute grindfest instances in a row, most peoples brains go numb.

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

Honestly, I think there are better games out there than WoW. My impression of WoW is that it's a really fancy hack and slash game, and that's it. I recommend NWN 2. With the updates that are out now, many of the initial bugs have been worked out, and it's real blast to play. The graphics/surroundings are very well done, and the main game is very well done. I hear that the original NWN is the way to go for online play still though.

[Arlanthe]

Honestly, I think there are better games out there than WoW. My impression of WoW is that it's a really fancy hack and slash game, and that's it. I recommend NWN 2. With the updates that are out now, many of the initial bugs have been worked out, and it's real blast to play. The graphics/surroundings are very well done, and the main game is very well done. I hear that the original NWN is the way to go for online play still though.

Oh, I like both NWN a lot. The second is great. I mean, the main storyline is grossly linear, but it's all about the toolset and creative community anyway, isn't it?

But NWN and WoW are different beasts. I disagree WoW is all hack and slach. That is CoH and EQ. My single MMO reating criterion is how many possible answers there are to the question "what did I do in my MMO today". WoW has a lot of answers. "Completed some quests, made some money by seeking materials and crafting, played the auction house, explored a new area, won a fishing tournament, engaged in huge PvP battles with other players, assaulted a city, earned respect with the Zandalar clan and got a new engineering plan, fought in the arena, slew a dragon, went raiding in a huge dungeon, managed some goofy seasonal quest..."

There are more possible answers to that single question in WoW than CoH or either EQ. The game has many facets, and only one is hack and slash.

[Wehrkind]

Yea I tried City of Heroes and City of Villains. I spent 90% of my time making new characters, and only playing them for a few hours before I got bored. My group of roommates had 4 total people who ran together all the time, and we just got bored with the instances that were all alike, and the fact you can complete 1 mission at a time only.

That and the fact the graphics gave my girlfriend a head ache for some reason meant we gave it up after about a month of dedicated play.

Granted, the battles were probably some of the most fun of any game, since taking out 5 thugs at once by yourself made you feel properly heroic (or mightily villainous), but in general there was not enough variety and depth to really keep you going. Nothing to achieve between levels other than "Ooh, another inspiration."

[Dausuul]

I don't play WoW, because I anticipate that I will react in one of two ways to it:

#1. I won't like it (I don't like most MMOs), and will have wasted my money.
#2. I will like it (I like most Blizzard games, including D2), and will have lost all my free time for months.

[Jerthanis]

CoH has a few good points, but I find it is a major snorefest. CoH definitely has the best character customization, hands down, and it's worth buying and trying for a month just to make some nifty superhero characters.

But the game thoroughly lacks content.


You have a lot of good points I suppose, and I tried to preface my statements in a way that made it clear that a lot of my comments were partially from personal experience and personal preference. The supposed lack of content is something I'm not sure I understand, because from my time playing WoW there were perhaps 4 types of quest: Kill X monsters and return, Kill monsters of type A until you have X number of their drops and return, Kill specific mob B and return, or kill all monsters in area C and return. Of course, I only played to level 21-23 or so. I'm sorry, but I might just not be clear on what you mean by "content".

And for the lack of equipment, once again, I don't feel that being lucky enough to get better equipment randomly is a good aspect of MMOs, and it is a huge part of MMOs that I do not like. As a function to differentiate two characters' abilities, it really is just a randomized "luck" stat, that you were lucky enough to get those boots from the carcass of that monster, and the other guy wasn't. With exceptions of course, equipment follows a very linear scale in WoW, that one set of chainmail is unequivocally better than another set, and thus the decision on whether or not to switch isn't really a decision. I just feel that it is an unnecessary complication that slows play down too much.

I honestly don't agree with you when you say that the slotting of enhancements (what you call inspirations, inspirations were the one-use temporary effect stat boosts or healing) aren't significant. While there are certain very straightforward powersets, that you'll always slot the same way, there are going to be some powers that will be significantly impacted by how you slot them.

For example. I have a Dark Miasma/Dark Blast Defender character. I have a power that can resurrect fallen allies while debuffing enemies at the same time. I didn't slot it for anything, and so I just use it to revive allies when they fall... however if I had chosen to slot it for recharge reduction, enhance tohitdebuff, accuracy and enhance disorient, I might use it as an occasional debuff to mix up my repertoire, which is useful when fighting, for example, Ghosts, who are highly resistant to some Dark Miasma debuffs, but can still be disoriented by that move. In ways like that, Enhancements have an enormous effect on how you play your character.

Also, while you may be correct in that a Gravity/Radiation controller will play very similarly to another Gravity/Radiation controller, I contend that is exactly like saying a Mage with specialization in the Ice talent pool plays very similarly to a Mage with specialization in the Ice talent pool. If you did Gravity/Force Field you'd play very differently. Also, by choosing nonstandard powers of a set you might find you are crossing into the domains of other archetypes and actually excelling. I've seen blasters with all the powers of their secondary pool played like scrappers, and I've seen it work. I've seen controllers beat out defenders for healing, I've seen myself act more like a controller than a defender at times, and back to defender when the party composition changes.

What I'm saying at the core, is that combat in City of Heroes is fun and varied enough to justify the time you spend doing it, where I did not find WoW's combat to be as much fun.

And as far as transportation goes... I couldn't stand holding the forward button for 15 minutes to get from my trainer in Stormwind back to my quest in Westfall. In City of Heroes, an experienced player can get to level 14 where they get their travel power within 9-11 hours pretty easily. How long does it take to get your Mount in WoW? How much holding forward to get back and forth between quest objectives and quest givers have you experienced by that point? Is it unreasonable to think that movement between objectives should take a smaller portion of time than actually completing the objective? Perhaps I'm an impatient person, but I can't stand long travel times.

Not to say that I outright hated WoW when I played it or anything, I just have a lot more fun with City of Heroes, and am to a certain extent, trying to defend City of Heroes for being the style of MMO that I like, that focuses on ease of play, fun action-y combat and an idiom that I like a great deal.

[Tengu]

And as far as transportation goes... I couldn't stand holding the forward button for 15 minutes to get from my trainer in Stormwind back to my quest in Westfall. In City of Heroes, an experienced player can get to level 14 where they get their travel power within 9-11 hours pretty easily. How long does it take to get your Mount in WoW? How much holding forward to get back and forth between quest objectives and quest givers have you experienced by that point? Is it unreasonable to think that movement between objectives should take a smaller portion of time than actually completing the objective? Perhaps I'm an impatient person, but I can't stand long travel times.


Ever heard of flight masters?

[Jerthanis]

Ever heard of flight masters?

Oh yes, so I could pay money to cut the travel time down to 5 minutes instead of 15, and not be able to afford the training when I got there, and then have to walk back and grind until I made up the money I had spent. No thanks.

[Reinforcements]

Oh yes, so I could pay money to cut the travel time down to 5 minutes instead of 15, and not be able to afford the training when I got there, and then have to walk back and grind until I made up the money I had spent. No thanks.
*boggle* You REALLY didn't play very much if you thought flight paths were insignificant and/or expensive. By the time you reach level 20, if the cost of flight paths is still meaningful to you, you're doing something wrong.

[Cubey]

Because I feel like chiming in into the discussion...

Actually, you don't have to press forward all the time. Just click on Num Lock and your character will run forward by her/him/itself.

Also, flightpaths are REALLY cheap and REALLY fast. It costs 1 silver 10 copper, or 99 copper with a discount, to take a griffon from Stormwind to Westfall, and the flight takes MAYBE 90 seconds. It takes less time than running from Old Town to Dwarven District in Stormwind itself. Definately NOT a 15->5 minutes time decrease.

Besides, big distances give you a feeling of space. I still feel WoW's a bit too small for an actual continent, but at least it balances on the golden mean between being claustrophobically tiny and so huge that going everywhere takes ages (The Barrens... *shudder*).

[The Orange Zergling]

Oh yes, so I could pay money to cut the travel time down to 5 minutes instead of 15, and not be able to afford the training when I got there, and then have to walk back and grind until I made up the money I had spent. No thanks.

Yea... the ratio has a larger difference than that. Besides, the walk to westfall from the SW gate is about... 7-8ish minutes, in my experience.

[Stormcrow]

If you want to diddle your time away in a bland repetitious world with a playerbase composed of not only your average internet morons, but average internet morons who are such crybabys that they report you to a GM for "ganking" them... play WoW.

If you want a game that rewards only how much time you sink into it and not how good you are at the game- if you want your importance and power to be strictly dependant on how much you're willing to give up your life and how lucky you are on a random dice roll... play WoW

If you want a game that is so restricted that you feel as if you're on a conveyer belt at all times, with no player owned territory, no faction unity or anything outside of creep killing and rinse-and-repeat consequenceless (be it good or bad) battlegrounds...

You get the idea.

And before you jump on the "you clearly haven't played it" bandwagon I was pressured by friends to play so long that I've played both horde and alliance characters to 60, I've completed Ahn'Qiraj and Naxxaramas, I've lead guilds and participated in them and in the end me and my friends realized...

We werent having any more fun than we would hanging out without the 15 dollar fee and the pointless time sink.

My second to last gripe, they ruined the Warcraft world by making formerly major antagonists and protagonists into rinse-and-repeat bosses that you farm for gear. Even Illidan is going to be a raid boss in outlands. They also made the world the size of a pack of gum. You can stand in one place and see snow on one side, forest on the other, and in the distance you can see tropical islands. Blizzard brags about how many servers it has because the world never grows, when theres only a few thousand people on each server, yea, you need a lot of them.

And my last note: Instances are the bane of open worlds. Gods forbid you get in trouble all you have to do is dissapear into your magic personal hole. Nothing you do lasts or is ever notable because everything in the world resets every 15 minutes.

You're better off with Vanguard. Better yet, play a game that requires personal skill and progression as opposed to avatar progression. My first suggestions are Counter Strike: 1.6 or source, starcraft, warcraft 3 or command and conquer: zero hour.

Commence flaming, oh so brainwashed masses. Because if I'm right, you've wasted a whole lotta time and money.

Amen Brother. Amen. So much wasted money. *shakes head*

[Wehrkind]

I am not really sure I understand where your problem with "equipment drops" comes from. Really, the equipment in WoW is pretty well devised (until the end game raid situations, which Burning Crusade largely removed.) You can do all your leveling with random crap drops if you want, and purchasing things off the auction house is easy if you need something particular.
Also, the different stats and uses of different equipment varies a great deal even within a class. When I respecced my shaman from melee to caster, I needed to get all new equipment to support that role. Warriors, rogues and hunters are a little more focused, but all the casting classes have a good deal of variation on what constitutes a "good set". Most characters I run have at least two outfits for various purposes, and my fiance's priest has a entire wardrobe of different gear for pvp, 2 man pve, instances, raids etc.

If you are looking at your gear and crying that it isn't good enough, you are either getting into serious pvp, or just need to find the right quest. You are much better off looking at equipment drops as the little bonus snacks between levels, and the occaisional end in themselves.

[Leon]

Auto Run - Numlock is the default key

[Arlanthe]

If you want to diddle your time away in a bland repetitious world...

Commence flaming, oh so brainwashed masses. Because if I'm right, you've wasted a whole lotta time and money.

This was a flame. So WoW isn't for you, that's cool, but eight million people like it, and don't think it is bland or repetitious, and appreciate instances.

I like Vanguard too- I think it is more innovative than WoW, but friend, your rant isn't "telling it like it is", it's really just sharing your personal preferences by angrily bouncing them off of WoW. Does it make you feel better to call WoW players brainwashed, since their behavior and success of WoW contradicts your personal preferences?