Is WoW still working checking out?

[Blastin]

Just made up a Hobbit hunter on Imladris. How do people on the server actually contact wach other?

 

[JRRNeiklot]

I tried LotRO, wanted to like it, but it has this annoying camera bug where the camera swings around my character, goes a little too far, then centers back on him. Almost like the camera is drunk. So annoying it was a dealbreaker. I really wanted to play, too.

 

[ancientvaults]

Just made up a Hobbit hunter on Imladris. How do people on the server actually contact wach other?

You can look people up if you know their names in the Social panel. My two main characters are Knoli and Kraki on Imladris (I have a third slot for being a premium member and that is my experimental slot). I will be playing Thursday-Sunday from 10.30pm-4.30/5am (Pacific time) for the next two weeks and then every night at that time after that for quite a while.

I haven't had any of the camera issues that people have had, but then I just started in October and there was a major update in November that opened up a lot of areas and made a lot of impresive character changes.

If you need any help, just message me in game. I have a mount for each character and I can travel around pretty quickly.

 

[Spatula]

My significant other and I are looking for a MMORPG to join for some cooperative fun-time after the kiddies are settled in for the night. Our first thought was to join WoW, however, neither of us have played it before (our last joint effort was Ultima Online) and don't know if playing WoW is still enjoyable for late-comers such as ourselves.

Does anyone have advice related to this topic that they would care to share?

Thanks.

There's no real penalty for coming in late. Since they just revamped all of the low-level content, you should have plenty of company as you level up. And the levelling up experience is quite fun. Finding a friendly guild can make it much more so, but that's tough when you're low level and don't know anyone.

If you want a relaxing time, avoid PvP servers.

Do some research and pick a server that has a healthy population.

Consider your faction choice carefully. On PvE servers, the alliance side is generally more populous, which makes grouping easier, especially in the late hours. But IME there's a lot more obnoxious immature loudmouths on alliance than there are on the horde side.

If you and your wife pick different races, I would suggest picking two that can easily get together. It wouldn't be much fun to be playing a dwarf and a night elf and not getting to meet up until later levels (or making painful runs across higher level territories, or begging higher level PCs for a teleport).

 

[Felon]

I always wondered how the Alliance came to dominate the servers when the Horde had more distinctive races. I mean, Horde gets blood eleves, Alliance gets some goofy blue dudes. Horde gets goblins, Alliance gets "Worgen". Who doesn't want to play a goblin?

If they could just get their rates down to $10/mo, I would consider coming back.

 

[Spatula]

It's probably mostly inertia at this point. Back in the beginning I would wager that it was a combination of "the alliance must be the good guys", "the horde races are ugly", and "I want to play an elf." It was always perplexing to me, as well.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

It's probably mostly inertia at this point. Back in the beginning I would wager that it was a combination of "the alliance must be the good guys", "the horde races are ugly", and "I want to play an elf." It was always perplexing to me, as well.

Perplexing? I don't know why it would be. Why is it so hard to believe that despite all the choices for wierd, exotic, funky, hip/cool races MOST people still just want to play humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes/halflings?

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

I always wondered how the Alliance came to dominate the servers when the Horde had more distinctive races. I mean, Horde gets blood eleves, Alliance gets some goofy blue dudes. Horde gets goblins, Alliance gets "Worgen". Who doesn't want to play a goblin?

The factions aren't that terribly unbalanced.

As of 8/26/2010, per this handy datamining site, Alliance had about 52% of all max-level toons, and Horde about 47%.

Hopefully the guy'll update soon. Maybe in about a month or so after everyone's mains have hit 85, and people who're going to have the new races as their mains will either have changed over* or leveled up. I don't think the overall balance will change, though of course the individual races will likely change (dwarves and trolls, in particular, are likely to go up in numbers).

Now, individual servers can be and often are unbalanced. My server, Malygos, has about a 3-1 Alliance v Horde ratio, which made the open battleground, Lake Wintergrasp, rather unbalanced until Blizzard changed it to a 1-1 entry ratio. PVP servers tend to be fairly even, though if one side gets a significant numbers advantage, that advantage often snowballs pretty quickly.

* - For a fee, you can change a character from one race to another, as long as the new race can be the same class as the old one. For example, I could change my dwarf paladin to a blood elf, human, or draenei, and after the most recent patch, to a tauren. However, I could not turn him into a night elf, worgen, or gnome, since none of those races are allowed to be paladins at this time. Interestingly, while questing, I have noticed a few worgens who'd obviously race-changed, I do not recall seeing any goblins.

Brad