World of Warcraft: Mac/Windows

...

expansion). I should know I went through the same thing and it was fun at first because my friends helped me learn how to play this game, but in my two years of playing this game I have learned its nothing but a bunch of lil 15 year old kids and immature adults doing but ripping on each other all night. Every single time I played this game I would hear the word newb about 50 times as after all that seems to be an elite WoWer's worst fear. Don't be fooled the word "newb" in this game has nothing to do wiht being but is a lame term everyone uses on each other in an attempt to insult each other's intelligence and you'll hear it every time you ask a simple question about the game when you're signed in. This is in addition to numerous racial comments and other forms of language and abuse of the policies that either don't get dealt with by the GMs or never get reported. Believe me, I've tried reporting as much harrassment as I can about this game but when it takes an average 4 hours to get a response for a single abusive player its hardly worth it. Once I hit max level I did get into raiding which took me an entire night and on rare occasions longer, but I never really got much of anything out of it. After all the time I've wasted playing this game and taking abuse from unruly players I only wish I could get my time back blizzard --- think I could get a refund? People, I know it seems like internet is the future of just about everything here but really there are so much better ways than this game to entertain yourself. Play basketball or a fun nintendo game with your friends, but don't join the bandwagon of teh 10,000,000 walking zombies that devote their life only to bettering their characters til the next expansion of this game. Its not worth it.

World of Warcraft: Mac/Windows

...

an awesome raptor for my troll. Once you hit level 60 your journey is far from over, there is PvP, raiding, professions and more. So there is something there for just about everyone, although I did a little of everything. I give you one warning, if you plan to get to 60 and make something of yourself like become high warlord or down Nefarion, prepare to take the time out of your social life. This game had a lot of heart put into its development and it shows, there's just some kind of magic to the game.

World of Warcraft: Mac/Windows

...

'ignoring' up to 100 players per day for almost 6 months we just got fed up and realized there were better and more productive ways to spend our lives. If you're a parent thinking about exposing your children to this world, I strongly urge you to pass it by unless you want your kids to learn how to be abusive and foul mouthed.

World of Warcraft: Mac/Windows

...

'ignoring' up to 100 players per day for almost 6 months we just got fed up and realized there were better and more productive ways to spend our lives. If you're a parent thinking about exposing your children to this world, I strongly urge you to pass it by unless you want your kids to learn how to be abusive and foul mouthed.

World of Warcraft: Mac/Windows

...

take a look at the Pros and Cons. They are divided into 6 categories: Playability, Graphics, Sound, Game Development, Player-versus-Player and Community.

Playability- PRO

WoW is very easy to pickup and play. Indeed, most WoW players will tell you they were hooked within hours of installing the game and downloading the necessary patches. The UI (User-Interface) is very easy to figure out. In short, you start out with a few skills. As you level higher you get more skills which you have to organize in a bar of buttons. You quickly figure out that arranging spells and attacks in order of use saves you time, saves your life and wins the fight. This very friendly learning curve definitely contributes to WoW's large fan base and its status as the Beginner's MMORPG.

Graphics- PRO

WoW features pretty but very catoonish graphics that look decent but manage to do so without stressing your video card out. While the graphics are beginning to look dated compared to other games out there, they are still a Pro for the game because that means most players will have no trouble loading the game up on their computer.

Sound- CON

WoW used to feature hardware accelerated sound. The sound was quite literally breathtaking and was so dependable and detailed that some classes even based their attack chains on game sounds. This has unfortunately gone the way of the dodo bird however. In a recent patch, Blizzard (the maker of WoW) removed hardware sound in favor of a software sound system. This change has angered many players particularly serious gamers but Blizzard has made it clear they don't intend to add hardware sound back. Many players now say they experience latency because their CPU (computer chip) has to process sound. Others report distorted sounds and missing sounds. This development forces sound to be firmly in the CON category.

Game Development- CON

While WoW does feature an astounding array of options for how to spend your play time, it all boils down to one thing: grinding. This grind isn't as noticeable to a new player but as one reaches higher levels and begins to think about end-game, it becomes quickly apparent that WoW is all about getting better gear. This gear then comes in two forms of rewards: PvE (Player-versus-Environment) and PvP (Player-versus-Player). In order to get this gear, players have to grind... and grind... and grind... and grind and grind and grind.

Most really good PvE items require running instances over and over until the desired item drops or they require reputation which in turn requires running the same dungeons and killing the same monsters repeatedly for days and weeks. Other items require special tokens as well that only drop in certain dungeons that require reputation with the right faction. This reputation comes from... you guessed it... grinding monsters and dungeons.

Even PvP isn't immune to grind. PvP rewards in WoW come not from killing enemies or amazing feats of daring-do but rather from running battlegrounds and arena over and over until you earn enough honor and medals for a reward.

Basically, having good gear in WoW is a sign of status because it means someone spent A LOT of time playing the WoW grind game. Quite frankly, this required grind puts a lot of WoW content out of reach for most casual and even many serious players. This reality places Game Development firmly in the CON category.

PvP- CON

WoW is famous for it's in-famous Player-versus-Player. A game based on a war to the death between mortal enemies would naturally include inherent, detailed and in-depth PvP situations... you would think. The reality in WoW is that most PvP was largely added well after the release date. At first, WoW PvP consisted entirely of griefing other players while they levelled. Later on, Blizzard added battlegrounds and PvP Arenas to try and appease serious gamers and PvP fanatics. However, these capture the flag, capture the spawn-point battleground situations are hardly the life and death struggle you might expect. The Arenas, while requiring a bit more skill, are little more than a mini-battleground with no flags or spawn points to fight over. Again, PvP in WoW seems very watered down for a game based on a life and death struggle between enemies. That makes it a definite CON.

Community- CON

WoW features nothing if not a vibrant community. However, the game's grind nature means that success in WoW depends on teaming up with other players and dedicating a massive amount of time to the game. This has created on many WoW servers a network of very elitist guilds that not only do not like to help non-guild members but who also genuinely look down on players who can't or won't agree to put WoW first in their priority list.

The elitist situation in WoW has a major effect on players. They have to choose: 1) Join an elitist guild and choose WoW over real life stuff or 2) Be part of a small casual player guild and accept that a lot of the content that Blizzard makes for you is out of reach. For a game that charges $15 a month to play, making customers choose the game over real life is never, ever a way to make them happy however they may feel about the other features of the game. This fact places Community in the Con category.

There are nice players in WoW but the nature of the game itself often makes them hard to find because they are scattered amongst the servers in thousands of small to medium guilds. Casual players don't always have time or the desire to surf all those options to find a home for themselves.

The Final Cut: 2 PROs, 4 CONs = 3 Stars

In the end, WoW isn't a bad game. Rather, it's a game that had/has a lot of potential which has been/is being wasted. For serious and casual players alike, it's easy to pickup and get addicted to. The game is very fun especially the first time through but it becomes tedious once you reach end level and once you roll more characters and realise you have to do all the same stuff again to level them.

Basically, WoW's biggest flaw is that it is little more than a grind fest. On the other hand, that may be the very reason it has 10 million players. After all, in a game where everything takes a long time an addicted fan will keep paying and playing until he gets what he wants. And he will get what he wants just in time for the next expansion/content patch. He will then have something else to want/grind for. Maybe they have it down to an art... who knows? 3 Stars for WoW from this reviewer.

World of Warcraft: Mac/Windows

...

take a look at the Pros and Cons. They are divided into 6 categories: Playability, Graphics, Sound, Game Development, Player-versus-Player and Community.



Playability- PRO



WoW is very easy to pickup and play. Indeed, most WoW players will tell you they were hooked within hours of installing the game and downloading the necessary patches. The UI (User-Interface) is very easy to figure out. In short, you start out with a few skills. As you level higher you get more skills which you have to organize in a bar of buttons. You quickly figure out that arranging spells and attacks in order of use saves you time, saves your life and wins the fight. This very friendly learning curve definitely contributes to WoW's large fan base and its status as the Beginner's MMORPG.



Graphics- PRO



WoW features pretty but very catoonish graphics that look decent but manage to do so without stressing your video card out. While the graphics are beginning to look dated compared to other games out there, they are still a Pro for the game because that means most players will have no trouble loading the game up on their computer.



Sound- CON



WoW used to feature hardware accelerated sound. The sound was quite literally breathtaking and was so dependable and detailed that some classes even based their attack chains on game sounds. This has unfortunately gone the way of the dodo bird however. In a recent patch, Blizzard (the maker of WoW) removed hardware sound in favor of a software sound system. This change has angered many players particularly serious gamers but Blizzard has made it clear they don't intend to add hardware sound back. Many players now say they experience latency because their CPU (computer chip) has to process sound. Others report distorted sounds and missing sounds. This development forces sound to be firmly in the CON category.



Game Development- CON



While WoW does feature an astounding array of options for how to spend your play time, it all boils down to one thing: grinding. This grind isn't as noticeable to a new player but as one reaches higher levels and begins to think about end-game, it becomes quickly apparent that WoW is all about getting better gear. This gear then comes in two forms of rewards: PvE (Player-versus-Environment) and PvP (Player-versus-Player). In order to get this gear, players have to grind... and grind... and grind... and grind and grind and grind.



Most really good PvE items require running instances over and over until the desired item drops or they require reputation which in turn requires running the same dungeons and killing the same monsters repeatedly for days and weeks. Other items require special tokens as well that only drop in certain dungeons that require reputation with the right faction. This reputation comes from... you guessed it... grinding monsters and dungeons.



Even PvP isn't immune to grind. PvP rewards in WoW come not from killing enemies or amazing feats of daring-do but rather from running battlegrounds and arena over and over until you earn enough honor and medals for a reward.



Basically, having good gear in WoW is a sign of status because it means someone spent A LOT of time playing the WoW grind game. Quite frankly, this required grind puts a lot of WoW content out of reach for most casual and even many serious players. This reality places Game Development firmly in the CON category.



PvP- CON



WoW is famous for it's in-famous Player-versus-Player. A game based on a war to the death between mortal enemies would naturally include inherent, detailed and in-depth PvP situations... you would think. The reality in WoW is that most PvP was largely added well after the release date. At first, WoW PvP consisted entirely of griefing other players while they levelled. Later on, Blizzard added battlegrounds and PvP Arenas to try and appease serious gamers and PvP fanatics. However, these capture the flag, capture the spawn-point battleground situations are hardly the life and death struggle you might expect. The Arenas, while requiring a bit more skill, are little more than a mini-battleground with no flags or spawn points to fight over. Again, PvP in WoW seems very watered down for a game based on a life and death struggle between enemies. That makes it a definite CON.



Community- CON



WoW features nothing if not a vibrant community. However, the game's grind nature means that success in WoW depends on teaming up with other players and dedicating a massive amount of time to the game. This has created on many WoW servers a network of very elitist guilds that not only do not like to help non-guild members but who also genuinely look down on players who can't or won't agree to put WoW first in their priority list.



The elitist situation in WoW has a major effect on players. They have to choose: 1) Join an elitist guild and choose WoW over real life stuff or 2) Be part of a small casual player guild and accept that a lot of the content that Blizzard makes for you is out of reach. For a game that charges $15 a month to play, making customers choose the game over real life is never, ever a way to make them happy however they may feel about the other features of the game. This fact places Community in the Con category.



There are nice players in WoW but the nature of the game itself often makes them hard to find because they are scattered amongst the servers in thousands of small to medium guilds. Casual players don't always have time or the desire to surf all those options to find a home for themselves.



The Final Cut: 2 PROs, 4 CONs = 3 Stars



In the end, WoW isn't a bad game. Rather, it's a game that had/has a lot of potential which has been/is being wasted. For serious and casual players alike, it's easy to pickup and get addicted to. The game is very fun especially the first time through but it becomes tedious once you reach end level and once you roll more characters and realise you have to do all the same stuff again to level them.



Basically, WoW's biggest flaw is that it is little more than a grind fest. On the other hand, that may be the very reason it has 10 million players. After all, in a game where everything takes a long time an addicted fan will keep paying and playing until he gets what he wants. And he will get what he wants just in time for the next expansion/content patch. He will then have something else to want/grind for. Maybe they have it down to an art... who knows? 3 Stars for WoW from this reviewer.

World of Warcraft: Mac/Windows

...

take a look at the Pros and Cons. They are divided into 6 categories: Playability, Graphics, Sound, Game Development, Player-versus-Player and Community.





Playability- PRO





WoW is very easy to pickup and play. Indeed, most WoW players will tell you they were hooked within hours of installing the game and downloading the necessary patches. The UI (User-Interface) is very easy to figure out. In short, you start out with a few skills. As you level higher you get more skills which you have to organize in a bar of buttons. You quickly figure out that arranging spells and attacks in order of use saves you time, saves your life and wins the fight. This very friendly learning curve definitely contributes to WoW's large fan base and its status as the Beginner's MMORPG.





Graphics- PRO





WoW features pretty but very catoonish graphics that look decent but manage to do so without stressing your video card out. While the graphics are beginning to look dated compared to other games out there, they are still a Pro for the game because that means most players will have no trouble loading the game up on their computer.





Sound- CON





WoW used to feature hardware accelerated sound. The sound was quite literally breathtaking and was so dependable and detailed that some classes even based their attack chains on game sounds. This has unfortunately gone the way of the dodo bird however. In a recent patch, Blizzard (the maker of WoW) removed hardware sound in favor of a software sound system. This change has angered many players particularly serious gamers but Blizzard has made it clear they don't intend to add hardware sound back. Many players now say they experience latency because their CPU (computer chip) has to process sound. Others report distorted sounds and missing sounds. This development forces sound to be firmly in the CON category.





Game Development- CON





While WoW does feature an astounding array of options for how to spend your play time, it all boils down to one thing: grinding. This grind isn't as noticeable to a new player but as one reaches higher levels and begins to think about end-game, it becomes quickly apparent that WoW is all about getting better gear. This gear then comes in two forms of rewards: PvE (Player-versus-Environment) and PvP (Player-versus-Player). In order to get this gear, players have to grind... and grind... and grind... and grind and grind and grind.





Most really good PvE items require running instances over and over until the desired item drops or they require reputation which in turn requires running the same dungeons and killing the same monsters repeatedly for days and weeks. Other items require special tokens as well that only drop in certain dungeons that require reputation with the right faction. This reputation comes from... you guessed it... grinding monsters and dungeons.





Even PvP isn't immune to grind. PvP rewards in WoW come not from killing enemies or amazing feats of daring-do but rather from running battlegrounds and arena over and over until you earn enough honor and medals for a reward.





Basically, having good gear in WoW is a sign of status because it means someone spent A LOT of time playing the WoW grind game. Quite frankly, this required grind puts a lot of WoW content out of reach for most casual and even many serious players. This reality places Game Development firmly in the CON category.





PvP- CON





WoW is famous for it's in-famous Player-versus-Player. A game based on a war to the death between mortal enemies would naturally include inherent, detailed and in-depth PvP situations... you would think. The reality in WoW is that most PvP was largely added well after the release date. At first, WoW PvP consisted entirely of griefing other players while they levelled. Later on, Blizzard added battlegrounds and PvP Arenas to try and appease serious gamers and PvP fanatics. However, these capture the flag, capture the spawn-point battleground situations are hardly the life and death struggle you might expect. The Arenas, while requiring a bit more skill, are little more than a mini-battleground with no flags or spawn points to fight over. Again, PvP in WoW seems very watered down for a game based on a life and death struggle between enemies. That makes it a definite CON.





Community- CON





WoW features nothing if not a vibrant community. However, the game's grind nature means that success in WoW depends on teaming up with other players and dedicating a massive amount of time to the game. This has created on many WoW servers a network of very elitist guilds that not only do not like to help non-guild members but who also genuinely look down on players who can't or won't agree to put WoW first in their priority list.





The elitist situation in WoW has a major effect on players. They have to choose: 1) Join an elitist guild and choose WoW over real life stuff or 2) Be part of a small casual player guild and accept that a lot of the content that Blizzard makes for you is out of reach. For a game that charges $15 a month to play, making customers choose the game over real life is never, ever a way to make them happy however they may feel about the other features of the game. This fact places Community in the Con category.





There are nice players in WoW but the nature of the game itself often makes them hard to find because they are scattered amongst the servers in thousands of small to medium guilds. Casual players don't always have time or the desire to surf all those options to find a home for themselves.





The Final Cut: 2 PROs, 4 CONs = 3 Stars





In the end, WoW isn't a bad game. Rather, it's a game that had/has a lot of potential which has been/is being wasted. For serious and casual players alike, it's easy to pickup and get addicted to. The game is very fun especially the first time through but it becomes tedious once you reach end level and once you roll more characters and realise you have to do all the same stuff again to level them.





Basically, WoW's biggest flaw is that it is little more than a grind fest. On the other hand, that may be the very reason it has 10 million players. After all, in a game where everything takes a long time an addicted fan will keep paying and playing until he gets what he wants. And he will get what he wants just in time for the next expansion/content patch. He will then have something else to want/grind for. Maybe they have it down to an art... who knows? 3 Stars for WoW from this reviewer.

World of Warcraft: Mac/Windows

...

Warcraft universe, and allow millions of players to run through it without ruining or dampening the lore that we all knew so well.

The game looks superb. The graphics aren't ultra-realistic, but why would they be? It effectively captures the style that the Warcraft games have been evolving for the last ten years. Every race has its own unique flavor in its armor and architecture. The world is vast and varied, showing different locales from snowy mountaintops to barren deserts. And flying between zones is breathtaking the first couple times you go somewhere new.

And the content! Blizzard has littered this game with quests to keep you busy levelling up to 60 (well, 70 now). While some fall into distinct patterns (kill X beasts/collect X items), others are interesting, challenging, and rewarding. But the real heart of the game's content, I feel, is in the instanced dungeons. The game shines when you get together with a party and take on one of these quests. And the implementation of instances lets your party, and your party alone, be the heroes of your own personal adventure inside the dungeon. So there's no chance of some jerks coming and stealing your kill after you've battled to the end!

World of Warcraft is the first MMO I've actually sustained an interest in past the first month of gameplay. And now that it's so cheap, you might as well give it a try! If you like Warcraft, play this game. Though, with 8+ million subscribers, you probably already are!