WoW pt.2

Alright, back to the subject! :) So I've explained some about races and classes, Now we'll talk about what you actually do when playing World of Warcraft, and what makes it so addicting.

When you first start out, you get the "starting quests," which basically shows you how to play the game. It teaches you some of the history behind each race, as long as you actually READ the quests. Most people read the quests the first time through with a character. Also, they will watch all the "video's" that go with the story line. After the first time, most people don't care anymore. Depending on which version you have, whether you have the first two, or the whole collection, depends on your level cap. With the full game, all expansions, the level cap is now 85. Original World of Warcraft the level cap is 60, Burning Crusade is 70, Wrath of the Lich King is 80, and Cataclysm brings us to 85. Also, if you are playing with only the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, then those who are playing Cataclysm, cannot help you out, as the world seen by those in Cataclysm is COMPLETELY different from Wrath of the Lich King. It is almost like a completely new game.

I realized this after getting the newest expansion for Christmas this last year. I had completely gotten rid of my old account, didn't even have WoW installed on my computer anymore, mostly because I had my son, and playing this game is difficult to do with a screaming baby around. I had more important things to do than play a game. So I left the game, said goodbye to all the friends I'd made and stopped playing for about two years. Now, I get the game back, with all the expansions, and I go to play my games, and was floored by how different the game was.

Now, to explain for those who don't know, MMORPG means Multi-Million Online Role Playing Game. As you can tell, from the words Multi-Million, there are Millions of players, online, who play this game. You can play Solo, however, Groups can be and are helpful in some situations.

There is also "Guilds" in the game, which is a bunch of players working together, helping each other out. When I first started playing, guilds were quite different, there was no rep (reputation) needed, and promotions were handled solely by the Guild Master (GM). The only time you needed to worry about rep, was with the different "factions" of the world. As well, Guilds never had levels before, as of Cataclysm, they now do, which gives you perks. A guild can get to a maximum level of 25. I'm still learning all the new changes in WoW.

They have Achievements, available to all players. If you finish certain achievements, you sometimes get some neat items, or a companion, or even a mount.

Here is a link to my character page, showing the mounts that I currently own: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/hakkar/Twylytejayde/mount feel free to look at the mounts to understand what I am talking about. You can look at those that have been collected, as well as those yet to be collected.

In order to get mounts of other races, you must have Exalted reputation with that race. It takes a lot of work, however it's worth it. Again, collecting mounts gives you achievements. I have earned one achievement for collecting 10+ mounts. I believe the next achievement is at 25 mounts, and then 50, possibly another at 100, however, I'm not exactly sure.

                                         Above: This flying carpet mount is available only to Tailors. In order to be able to use this mount, you must be a minimum of level 70, have your "flying license," and have a tailoring skill of 425. Any race may use, as long as they are tailors.

                                          Above: This Pinto Horse is usable by Alliance characters only, It is the mount for the Human race, so if you play anything other than a human character, you will need exalted reputation.

                                         Above: This Turquoise Raptor is a Horde only mount, and is the mount of the Troll race. If you want to have this mount you need to be either a Troll or have Exalted reputation with The Darkspear Trolls.

                                          Above: This is the mount of the Blood Elves. Personally my favorite mounts. The one I am showing here is a Swift Pink Hawkstrider, you must be a minimum of level 40 to ride this mount, and you must be Horde. If you are not a blood elf, you need exalted reputation to buy this mount.

Now, I've covered mounts, and reputation, as well as guilds. I'm not going into super detail, as I don't want to carry on on the subject of WoW for too many more posts. :)

Dungeons, also known as "Instances," are a group effort. There is now a way to "que" for dungeons, and battleground that was never available before. It use to be, if you wanted to run a dungeon, you would have to "spam" trade chat, or general chat, with something that looked like this: lvl 20 mage, LFG to do SFK! which in translation means: Level 20 mage, looking for group to do Shadowfang Keep. It used to take hours to get a group together to do one dungeon.

Now, there is an interface button where you can que to enter a dungeon, either by picking a specific dungeon, or by choosing a random dungeon. As you can see above, This is a picture of the Dungeon Finder, opened to pick a specific dungeon.

This is a picture of the Dungeon Finder opened to do a random dungeon. As you can see, it is profitable to do random dungeons, for at least the first 7 dungeons you do in a week. The item you get in the sack is always a blue or purple item, never green or lower, and the amount of gold you get changes the higher the level you are.

I also talked about "Battlegrounds" This is the Player vs. Player section of the game. Horde verses Alliance. This is where the game can get pretty nasty. You'd be surprised at how people react to a game. As you can tell, I have not played in any battlegrounds with this toon. I have been too busy leveling with this character.

Ok, so, I've covered a lot again in this part, yet I feel like I'm no where near finished. This game is a very in depth game, it has ruined relationships, it has ruined peoples lives. Blizzard Entertainment has a tip in one of the loading screens that specifically states : "Take everything in moderation, EVEN World of Warcraft!" That tip is not to be taken lightly. This is a highly addictive game. I stopped playing more than once, because I started dreaming about my characters, as if I was actually the character myself. A person could spend hours playing this game and not even realize how much time has passed. I know from personal experience.

Hope this has given you a little more insight into the World of Warcraft. I'm sure I'll be talking about this game more, as I said, it IS very addictive.

Peace out all! ;)