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World of Warcraft

List price:	~~$49.99~~
Our price:	$44.99 that is 10% off!
Manufacturer:	Vivendi Universal
Release date:	23 November, 2004

Average user rating: Average user rating: 2.5

motnhly fee????

To be honest I didn't purchased the game although I am a Blizzard and Warcraft fan (I played even the first Warcraft!) But this 15$ fee!!! It doesn't make any sense, after you pay like 50$ to the game. If they don't change this they will kill World of Warcraft. I was planning to buy this game but after I saw the Guild Wars (Free online play) I purchased that and I am happy with my decision. 15$ monthly fee? How long they will keep this fee after a year or so will they find anyone to pay this fee? And if they decide to remove the fee what will the players say who paid the fee till then? They are just helping the makers of the games like Guild Wars.

Very mediocre in the long run

I have been playing WoW for 5 months now, ever since its opening release in Europe on the 11th of November. To start off with it was an awesome gaming experience. There were tons of players. The only things which truly bothered me was that you couldn't personalise your characters much, and many towns were very laggy to enter (even though I have dsl and a 3ghz comp).

But then the game's flaws became more noticeable. The lag from cities which I thought was only because of the large number of starter players was persistent even at night when they were empty. I had chosen a human warlock which the Blizzard website assures is an excellent soloing class but for which I was constantly dependent on the generosity of passers-by to complete many quests.

I found the quests extremely repetitive after a while... when you level up the quests don't change; you always have to kill the same number of beasts that are roughly the same level to you.

I reached level 60 in mid-April, and right now most people are 60. Once you are unable to level up you get bored easily. PVP is EXTREMELY repetitive after a while. To get into a battleground there is sometimes a half-an-hour waitlist, even though on the WoW box it says that there is "No Waiting".

Raids are the one thing that Blizzard really could have done well, but they are essentially pointless. EVERY raid ultimately fails, and nothing is ever gained. It would be awesome if the Alliance could actually capture Ogrimmar instead of just conducting miserable raids that amount to nothing.

I started several other characters, only to abandon them a week later. There are no people starting new players anymore, so there is no one else to quests with which is extremely boring.

They make new dungeons every few weeks but again, they are all the same. The only point in doing them is to win the odd piece of armour that is of any value, but for which you often have to roll for.

This game started off with so much potential. Why did they stop the leveling at 60? Eventually everyone will look the same. I have stopped playing now as I am bored. I was never ever bored of playing Starcraft online until Warcraft 3 came out several years later. I have gone back to playing War 3 which is more fun in the long run. Sure WoW has pretty graphics but the gameplay is unbelievably repetitive.

No one will be playing this game in a year's time, unless Blizzard make some serious upheavals.

Enjoyable, but not perfect

While the game is not without its flaws (lag in busy areas, the infuriating patch system, some bugs that are not important enough to fix), it is nowhere near as bad as some people have complained. I am a relative newcomer to the game (early June), and some of the more severe server issues were addressed before I began playing. The servers are not as stable or well-run as the original Asheron's Call servers, but I've only been dumped out of the game twice since I started playing. Lag is usually only a problem in the larger cities (where it is often terrible). There is a nice separation of normal, PvP, and role-playing servers, so that those who are interested in a particular aspect of the game can find a server that suits their wants.

Gameplay is relatively straightfoward, which is both a blessing and a curse. The relatively uncluttered combat interface is also far less engrossing, and (for magic-using players) the variety of spells is far smaller than for other games. Additionally, there are no allowances made for different types of damage (it doesn't matter whether one uses a sword, a mace, or a dagger, the damage done is the same, unlike other games where the type of weapon makes a difference on how much damage is caused). However, the learning curve is also much lower, which allows new players to start combat right away. The low-level quests in the starting areas are also well-designed, albeit a bit too obvious as "newbie" quests, with rewards appropriate to starting players.

Another nice feature is the way the various regions are laid out; each zone features creatures that are all within the same general range, with no low-level or high-level anomalies to surprise the unwary. The quests give players a gentle push when it's time to start moving up to the more difficult territories which surround the starting zones, and after a while, no experience is given for killing significantly weaker opponents.

For those who are willing to dig, there is a background story. (I had never played any of the original WC games, so I was not aware of the history until I started visiting the libraries and reading the books which give a glimpse into the back story.) It is not as constantly evolving as the Asheron's Call story (with a plot which strongly affected the game), but it does help understand what drives the gameplay.