WoW: After one month

So my first post wasn't all that favourable of a review of WoW. That was after playing for about 10 hours. I've now put in a month of time so I can now speak of it a bit more knowledgeably.

Not that I'll necessarily speak more favourably, though. I still think that the start of the game is designed to be discouraging rather than motivating. Starting up a new character must suck, especially if you've done all those same quests previously and know the areas like the back of your hand. What's the incentive to start a new character?

Well, obviously Blizzard has been asking that question themselves because just this week they dropped the level requirement from 40 down to 30 and cut the cost for purchasing mounts (which increase your speed by 60%) in half. With all the new competition out there from Age of Conan and the upcoming Warhammer game, they really need a way to get players to want to keep playing and trying new things, which means creating new characters.

MMOs are great for their open-worlds, yes, but it also means that enemy density is much lower, so you have to travel much further between places to find the enemies (or cripple creatures by them not recognizing that their comrade 10' away has fallen in battle). This was especially noticeable given that the last game we played together had been Diablo 2. WoW isn't quite the action-packed game that Diablo is.

The travel has been the most frustrating part of playing. Thankfully, I chose to be a Druid which first gets a Cat-form (which goes a bit faster than normal) and then a Travel-form (which goes even faster than that). So while travelling back and forth has been irritating, I've been at least better off than some. And when we got the news that we could get mounts (we were already level 38), we jumped at the chance.

We don't play it constantly or consistently. There's just so much other stuff going on that's far more interesting, plus tons of NEW games to play and try out! I just can't see how anyone could be fanatical about it, playing it endlessly, the same thing, over and over again.

That said, I have added another month of paid time on. It's something decent to fill in that co-op gaming gap right now. Plus, like my partner says, it's like a casual game. It's mindless and easy, but can have an intensity at times too. It's methodical and routine, so you can get into a groove.