I have played this game for around two years and have multiple level 70 characters and thoroughly enjoy it. However the game is broken (as of october 2008) and unplayable at the moment due to horrendous lag issues and server shut downs.

My advice is avoid this game and the new expansion pack Wrath of the Lich King like the plague until the game becomes playable again. Just thought I'd save you some dollars and whole bunch of frustration.

The game is, generally speaking, a good MMO and very enjoyable as you attain higher levels and begin participating in instances.

Eventually, and this happens sooner rather than later, the game becomes a series of grinds and treadmills designed to bleed as much time out of a human being possible - all while repeating the same exact activities.

For example, PvP. This takes place in one of only 4 battle grounds (closed, instanced zones) or the arenas (smaller, more organized instances). The only real advancement here is gear acquisition: play more PvP, eventually get better gear. The problem is that each piece of gear requires a substantial amount of "points" (earned in PvP by killing people and participating in the matches), tokens which are rewarded when you finish a particular battle ground, and even arena points and a specific arena ranking (you must wait a week for your rank to kick in - I.E. a built-in additional time sink). To get one piece of gear which is a modestly incremental gain, you have to grind for the better part of 5-20 (depending upon how successful you are) real life hours.

The end-game raiding is even worse. You have to invest three to four hours a session killing the same content, and there's no guarantee that gear you can use will even "drop" (be on the corpse of the bosses you've slain). Oh, and it takes between 10 and 25 people to perform, so that level of coordination between people with lives and jobs is usually impossible.

World of Warcraft hearkens back to older, less sophisticated days and expects too much time and grinding from the players. I'd recommend passing.

I did the 10 day free trial just recently and I have played about 3 days. The game is very repetitive. I played 3 different races and each of their quests was pretty much the same: go kill so many of these monsters, go retrieve this item, collect so many of these items, collect so many things by killing these creatures. I saw quiet a few 70th level characters just standing around. I will probally take it off my computer in a few days. I like my Rpg time sinks with more of a plot. The graphics are really cool though. If you want a good storyline try scrolls of morrowind III or dragonquest 8. Single person games. If you like running around and killing things play Diablo 2 or the doom or quake series. If you like a hundred different players trying to fight the same quest and causing you to wait around until monsters respawn so you can finish your quest the WoW is for you. Plus I can spend $20.00 on a game play it for 60-200 hours and be happy I am done with it and have a sense of accomplishment that I won the game and have no monthly fees. WoW I can see being some form of self inflicted torture that you cannot escape.

The problem with Warcraft is that you have to deal with loads of immature players. Some go far out of their way to make things hard for others, just because its fun for them. This kind of behavior is technically against the rules, but reporting them never accomplishes anything.

I made the mistake of prepaying my account for six months or so, and I'll keep playing until then (even I'll admit its pretty fun at times), but I'm not renewing after that.

I bought this game for my teenage son. He says he just loves it. It is the most fun game ever. He plays it all the time when he's not in school or doing chores or homework. He says it is the best game he's played.

Hello folks!! here's how to enjoy this wonderful game(advice from an advanced player with several classes)


1.Choose ONE class and a race and a nice name for the character, choose any you like take your time and remember there is no wrong choice!!
For the moment while exploring the world of warcraft stick to one character as it will ease your time management.


2.keybind all your spells and abilities. What i mean is use your keyboard to perform tasks and also to fight instead of using your mouse to click the visual indicators on screen.use your mouse to move your character. open your spellbook using the "p" key and drag skills/spells to your action bar and hit the corresponding key on the keyboard to activate the skill/spell. For example if you need to shoot a fireball , hit the fireball key instead of clicking the fireball button on the action bar ..this will help you in the future.

3.To talk in the open for everyone who is close beside you type a slash then a letter "s" i.e "/s" before anything you want to say.

"/1" to talk to talk to everyone in the general channel of the area you are in.
"/2" to talk to everyone in the trade channel in the major city you are in

"/g" to talk to those in the guild channel(if you are in a guild)

and of course "/hi" when targeting a friend or enemy will automatically pass a hearty hello to the target if you press enter

4.when you get time,go to the nearest major city and ask to join a guild for new players and make sure it has many players...usually at least over 30 active players.

Finally if you need more detailed help visit the nice people on the official "welcome to wow" forum at this link

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=69356

There you go!!!all set to explore!!!! don't forget to be social make friends ,talk to your guild members and most of all have fun!!

I thought about getting WoW from amazon but my friends told me they go to this site and fill out a couple simple surveys and within like an hour or so you can get this game for free. its so easy i did it and the game arrived in 2 days. just go to this link and sign up. then check out the FAQ and the tips. im tellin ya, it works like a charm. i also got time cards for WoW doing this too. they email the codes right to you.
http://www.prizerebel.com/index.php?r=510865

Its a fun game to play with some friends but dont get too hardcore into it because it will take over your life.

The graphics are beautiful but the game is oddly devoid of certain kinds of content, in my opinion. It became like onerous work to train my characters by attacking monsters non-stop, and there seems to be little else involved in the game. I am a company shareholder so I want the game to do well, and I realize it is immensely popular. I guess I am lucky not to be so into it.

I played WoW off and on for a couple of years, with one year in between where I had quit playing. My game play was sporadic at best, and I had a bad habit of restarting characters or switching servers because I had friends who played and did the same thing, so in my efforts to stick with them, it took me longer to max a character. Initially, I found the game incredibly fun and engaging, from level 1-59. It didn't take a massive chunk out of my day to level my character, or level my skills/crafts, or to locate items and materials I needed for my professions. At the time, it was the perfect game for me- I could play 1-2 hours a night, and still get up for work/school in the morning, without any problems.

My error was assuming that end-game content would require the same amount of time, and would allow me to play WoW in the same manner I had during lower levels.

Once I maxed my first character, I soon found that I was dead wrong.

Once you have reached max level, it's almost as if you're not even playing the same game anymore. At this point, the only viable way to get new, better items is to go on "raids", or join 25 (it used to be 40) other people in brining down a huge boss in a dungeon. Trying to get 25 people together can take untold hours, so waiting for everyone to get ready already takes up a huge part of your day/night. Then the actual raid takes place, which, depending on what happens, can take any number of hours. It is not uncommon for people to raid 6-8 hours a night, if not longer.

Don't want to raid for hours on end? Too bad, it's the only option this game gives you to get the best items. Yes, you can get good items through PvP or professions/crafting items, but raid items are always better.

Ultimately, this game turns into a job. Raids become scheduled, and require you to sign up for raid events. If you sign up for a raid, and fail to show up, you lose points that are tallied by your guild that you would use to bid on items that drop in raids, which you earn by showing up to raids. So, if life happens (you know, that thing that's more important than WoW?), and if your guild/raid leaders are jerks (mine weren't, but I know most others were), you're out of luck.

Blizzard has everyone played. You buy this game, and pay the 15 bucks per month to play it. If you have a life, it takes you longer to level a character. During this time, you're earning money, which will ultimately go to them. Because it takes you longer to level a character because of your job, Blizzard makes more money off of you because you're enjoying the game, since the way it's designed doesn't require you to devote your life to it. Once you hit 60 a few months down the road (some need more/less time to do it, depending), you realize you don't have time for it anymore, so you quit. By this time, Blizzard has already made its money off of you, so in the end, they ultimately win.

First of all.... this game is Evil... 100% pure evil. Its way to addicting for your own good.

That being said, Its a really fun game :D
Theres is a HUGE online community to play with and lots of cool and continually updated content. Really fun to play with people you know.

Buy, and Enjoy!!

MMOs are the future of entertainment. WoW has been one of the big innovators in this field.

Consider the price of the monthly subscription relative to the price of a movie these days. (Hours entertainment per month)/(Monthly subscription... WoW wins. I play an hour or so nearly everyday and get more fun from this then any other game I have (PS3/Xbox360 owner.) For a relative small price, you get to "play" in a large, complex fantasy world with a good deal of activities, as often as you care to.

Best PvP system.

I think many of the complaints about this game tend to be the "this isn't an RP game" (You can completely ignore the RP content and play). Perhaps a better description is MMORPGE (E=Ennvironment).

MINUSES?

This can be a huge time sink of a game. Much more so then others. I mean, no one is saying "Give us your money" but understand if you are looking to be a serious WoWer, you'll be spending a good amount of time parked in front of your screen.

If you are a parent, be mindful of your child's playtime; it's a fast paced game with a hyper reward system which encourages a player to continuously strive to "improve" one's character. This game really has no end, which is good for value, but not so good for moderation. Also, your kids will be hanging out with adults in a non supervised environment.

If you read the message boards on the official site, there seems to be a lot of complaints about the bias towards Player vs Player (PvP) content. I would say these complaints are unfounded; the PvP content is minimal relative to the other areas of the game. However, no other MMO has it beat yet.

My only "real" complaint is the graphics. They should be better considering average present day computing power. Graphics are slightly cartoony, especially considering other current MMOs. No, it doesn't get in the way of game play; I've played some of the other more recent ones and better graphics = more fun.

All in all: Good, cheap fun.

After eleven months of playing WOW my thoughts on it are somewhat mixed. Although I've enjoyed playing and developing a character, I'm starting to look to other games like Guild Wars and Lord of the Rings.

One of the biggest downsides to this game are the other players. I've met very few "casual" players. Most people I've interacted with range from immature teenagers to people so obbsessed with the game the suck all the fun out of playing. At lower levels there seems to be an abundance of people begging/mooching for money, water, supplies etc. At higher levels other players think they're so much better then you because they're five levels or so higher. And for a game with 8 million players you would think that it would be easy to find four other players for an instance. If you want to do an instance, just trying to get a decent group together can easily take an hour. Then you have five people doing an instance that can take a few hours to get a sword or some piece of equipment from a boss that has a 25 percent chance of dropping it in the first place. And if you get lucky enough for the boss to drop it, you have a one in five chance of getting it away from the other people in your group. That's pretty much the only way for you to get the good equipment.

I was in a guild that wasn't too bad. The people were pretty mellow considering some of the other hardcore players on the server. Then I find out the one day someone was stealing from bank which caused a HUGE fight between the guildies which split up the guild. I recieved a four page email from the guild leader pouring his heart out to me about how the other people from the guild are harrassing him and taking his loot everywhere he goes(I didn't think harrassment was possible in this game because of the "ignore" feature, apparantly I was wrong). For some reason he still had to change his name and pretend like he was someone else to avoid all the harrassment he was experiencing, despite whatever blizzard had built into the game to avoid that kind of nonsense. The guild that was formed out of that one was terrible. The people were such snobs because they were higher lvls then me. I then decided to start my own guild with two friends of mine, which is cool if we were going to be the only ones in the guild. But, trying to recruit people into the guild is extremely hard as I had to pay people just to sign the charter. Trying to get reasonable people in the guild is impossible(people just to bs with and be social).

Don't get me wrong it's still a good game. But be careful what kind of people you get mixed up with and what you say to them. And DON'T let it take over your life, because the fact that this game is addictive is both a good and bad thing.

Scroll through the 1/5 star ratings here, and most of the complaints are regarding how the game requires too much of your time once you get to level 60. How could you possibly play ALL THE WAY to level 60, yet still call this a 1 star game lol?

It doesn't get any bette then WoW. What Seinfeld was to sitcoms, what Star Wars was to sci-fi movies... Warcraft is to video games.

Ok, there's bad parts: you pay per month so this game will end up costing you a LOT of money. The game is designed to be addictive (just like cigarettes were)... it can be hard to stop playing. Ok, some people feel that way about games in general, but this game goes beyond that. I've heard people say with a straight face, "I don't think I'll ever stop playing WoW." And I'm talking about grown adults with kids and jobs and real lives.

This game is so far beyond any other online multiplayer RPG game it's not worth comparing them. And if the idea of playing with thousands of other people that know way more about the game and have been playing it much longer scares you, don't worry. The experts have no interest in picking on "noobs" and they are prevented from getting in your way or harming you by clever well done in game limits and controls.

That's not to say that people can't grab something just as you are about to pick it up, etc. But that's part of what makes it feel like a true virtual world. The virtual world aspect is empowered by a huge selection of fast easy ways to "express" yourself to others in the game in addition to voice and IM communication. This game takes the community aspect of 20th century online services like AOL and put them into a beautiful, fun, and incredibly huge 3D virtual world. The game has built in mail, auctions (like ebay), IMs, and chats, plus plenty of public meeting places in the big cities. You can walk, ride horses, travel on boats, fly bird-back, ride trams, fly in helicopters, swim under the oceans, climb the tallest mountains, you name it.

It will take you weeks to even start to understand how "grand" things are in this game. As you explore you will discover more and more aspects of the game that add to it's realism. The game does a very good job of introducing them to you slowly so as not to overwhelm you while you're getting up to speed with the way things work.

If you were curious enough to read this review, just buy it. You will not be disappointed. I've never heard anyone say, "I tried WoW but I didn't care for it."

I'm going to get straight to the point about this game. At first, I thought it was pretty fun because there are plenty of quests to do, new things to get, etc. But after a day or so, the game becomes as repetitive as a damn wheel on your car. The same things happen over and over again. For example, you'll have a quest at level 5 or so telling you to kill someone. Later, at level 6 you'll get another quest asking you to kill someone. But, Blizzard reuses many of their graphics like simple dungeons in which they just change the color and add some rocks in. Basically, you're running around in the same rooms you ran around earlier. Sounds interesting? Along with this, you have to deal with some real **tchy people who blame their non existent social life on you. They will spend hours making stupid rascist jokes, and calling you a "noob" to make themselves feel a little more powerful. (Don't take this as a generalization as there are some decent people out there) To be honest, if you really want to play this game then just buy this CD, install it, then go on some website and download a server. This way you don't have to pay the dumb monthly fee of $15. Of course, this is assuming that you want to play at all.
I highly recommend that you do not buy this at all. Firstly, I don't know why but some people are as addicted to this game as they can be to drugs. Why? Don't ask me. And if you ask some of those people, they will not give you a reason. Try it out and save your own life or someone else's by not getting this game

Not necessarily a huge gamer (or at least not in the last 20 yrs), but this game is definitely a great one...

This game is amazing! I have played it for a little while now and although people say that the subscription fees are and that guild wars is better I say that in comparison to other MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games) it is seemless and well worth the subscription fee of $15 a month. When you put this game side by side with other MMORPGs you realize that WoW (World of Warcraft) is seemless. Other games have loading screens and combat is laborious. From the MMORPGs I've sampled WoW has the best PvP (Player versus Player=combat with people other players in the game) system I have seen. From first glance it might not appear as graphically impressive as other games. It completely makes up for this with its beautiful and expansive world design.

The bottom line is if you want to get the most bang for your buck world of warcraft is the place to spend your buck! So come on and join the WoW world and encourage your friends to play to because in the long run WoW is a game that relies on human interaction online. So pick your race, grab your sword and shield and join the Alliance or the Horde in glorious online battle!

I jumped onto the WoW bandwagon just like everyone else and at first I thought it was the greatest game ever. However, I quickly found that after the first few days of leveling a character, it all starts to just blend in.

The world itself has the potential to be quite immersive. However, due to all the kids playing the game, you constantly find that the chat channels are nothing but one underage minor arguing with another, not just talking like kids do, but using profanity, telling racist jokes, Chuck Norris jokes, etc. This goes on and on. I am an adult, and while profanity does not offend me, it gets tiring when little Johnny is on night and day talking trash and pulling you out of the experience.

For the most part, glitches and game problems are relatively few and far between. When you put in a request for help from an administrator they are usually quite quick to respond and help.

My complaint comes in the repetitve nature of this game. After about the first 15 character levels you begin to realize it is repeating the same quests over and over. One NPC will ask you to go kill 15 of this monster, and another will ask you to go kill this other type of monster in order to collect something it randomly drops (for example kill dragon whelps until you collect 12 scales, which drop occasionally, so you may have to only kill 12, or 50 of the whelps!).

These quests repeat over and over. The actual target of the quest is different, but it is the same type. Every time you enter a new area, you have to kill X amount of these guys, and collect X amount of these dropped items. Over and Over. All the way from level 1 to 70. I have 3 70's on different servers. My complaints are not from a quick sampling of the game, but rather from spending a long time playing, and finding the issues that annoy me the most.

When starting a new character in a new area the game is quite fun. That fun however turns to boredom as you must spend an insane amount of time leveling a character. Whereas in most games you can sit down and play for 45 minutes, and feel like you accomplished something, in WoW you can play for several hours a night and not even level your character up any. This wouldn't be a problem if the game was fun, but it isn't for long. It just begins to get very tiresome.

WoW certainly is not a BAD game, but it requires a horendous investment of time (money also, since you do have the fee to deal with) and in the end, the reward just isn't that great. I'm sure my complaints probably mirror the complaints of other MMORPGs, but as this is my first (and feels like last) I have no basis for comparison.

I have played almost every MMORPG that has come out and I have to say that this is of the highest quality. I am not saying it is my favorite game because I enjoyed Asheron's Call over 10 years ago far more. However, for players on large this is the most user friendly, understandable, and entertaining game to date. There is almost no learning curve at all and plenty of people to play with in the game. There is no wonder why WOW is the biggest mmorpg ever. Oh and its fun too lol!

The game came in fine condition, but the license was was already used, so the game could not be registered and played. An online game is pretty useless without a license. I assumed that if it was for sale, it had some value, but I was wrong.

THIS IS ABSOLUTELY THE BEST GAME I HAVE EVER PLAYED IN MY ENTIRE LIFE! THIS GAME IS SO ADDICTING I AM READY TO KILL MYSELF OVER IT! YOU WILL NEVER MAKE A BETTER PURCHASE IN ALL OF YOUR LIFE!!!

Wow is a fun game if your 12 years old.The graphics are to cartoonish,game play to easy.Plus the main reason i don't like WOW is that the players are rude and obnoxious.Final Fantasy XI is a much better game with more story and variety that WOW could never have.I played WOW for 2 hours on friends account and fell asleep right away. WOW = BORING!!!
Another thing about is that your stuck with one job too!! ;; At least in Final Fantasy XI you have a subjob that helps alot and one character has access to more then 15 jobs as well as keeping all your rank points and everything! WOW sucks!!! NUFF SAID!!!!!

My friends had played this game for a month or so, and I finally gave in. So there I am, a tiny little level one without the slightest idea as to what the hell I was supposed to do. Luckily, the beginning levels do a good job of teaching you how to play the game and at the same time make you feel important to the workings of the world. That's part of what makes this game so great, you feel like an important hero, but at the same time know you're not the only one out there. In fact, the farther you advance in the game, the more you start to work with those other people, making you feel more and more like a soldier or drone than a hero, which kind of took away from the fun of the game for me. Also, the world and scenery are perfect. Its familiar enough for you to relate to it and make it believable, but different enough to make you feel like you're in a whole new fantastic world. They also give you enough rewards along the way to keep you leveling to 60, like my favorite, the mounts. i had 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.

Interesting game at certain levels. At low levels this game can be very fun. lots of people and easier leveling make it very entertaining. And then it stops... there is a pretty large gap in people and grouping from the low levels about 30ish until your level 70. The game has become a solo grind until you get 70 because a majority of the game content is written for level 70 or is so outdated that its not useful or even possible to get people to explore the content on most occasions. Once a character reaches level 70 it is pretty much a requirement for a person to devote themselves to either pvp which then is mostly a solo act again unless you happen to find an active pvp guild which can be very challenging and on a whole is a very limited experience. pvp requires that you grind for the gear that make a character able to compete with other characters. very little of the pvp system relies on a players skill. The other major option is to engage in PVE which the player can experiance a wide range of content. this can be a very interesting way to explore wow though once again very quickly it becomes a limited venue do to the social demands of guilding and gear that are required to continue to explore the content. Months can be spent to gain a new item that is only marginally better than a previous one and one that could be replaced in days if a player was willing to devote their free time and suffer the whims of a higher ranked guild.

All for all.. if your a new player expect at least a couple of months of solo grinding to get your character to a point that you will be even socially eligible to be able to enjoy the majority of the content of the game. If your willing to do that the game can be very fun.

I used to play almost exclusively on Xbox 360 only using my cpu for surfing, documents, and the occasional trist in the world of Sid Meier's Civilizations. Over my Christams-New Years break I was introduced to this game by some friends I was visiting. The Xbox is now in a closet, the PC hooked up to the LCD TV, and I am hooked.

Since I started playing I have noticed a few things that people may want to consider before buying the product.
1) It is extremely beneficial to buy guides of some sort, so once you decide that you're going to play this game prepare for another layout of some bucks and also I recommend having a computer that can flip between windows as you may want to consult a website to help you get through some of the tougher quests.
2) If you like the game and can see yourself playing it for at least 6 months at a time go for the longer time option. 6 months at (I believe) $77 or so.
3) Most of the people on here seem to talk about PVP only servers where you are always flagged for PVP. There are also PVE servers where you can enable and disable PVP meaning you can quest without higher level players jumping you and basically play against the environment (although much of the really good equipment is only available through earning it in pvp arenas or battlegrounds).

4) The game is very addicting and time consuming. My highest charachter is at level 65 and I have already invested 12 days (288 hours) of time into building him (there are guides available that show you how to level faster, power level, but I really enjoy taking the game at my own pace.

5) The game can be soloed completely, and can also be run entirely with groups, although I've found that its best to have a mix of both.

6) Create more than 1 toon (charachter) at a time. If you dont touch use a charachter for some time they become rested and gain double exp for kills. This is an easy way to gain levels fast.

7) The game can be played out of the box with content dl only from Blizzard, but it is very beneficial to dl some third party addons. Many of these are easy to install, and have been used by millions with no problems, just check around before you dl something.

8) If Tuesday is you're main day for playing games don't buy. The servers are down most Tuesdays (sometimes for a short period, but they have been down till 3 or 4 eastern since I've started playing).


All in all WOW may be the most addicting game I have ever played. I have been mostly a PVP FPS player on consoles, but the depth of the game, the differing environments, the storyline, the RPG experience, and diversity of each charachter, along with all the added capabilities that the world of warcraft site and third party sites offer is incredible. For any gamer who likes RPG's that are realxing for the most part, but can be insanely intense during boss battles and PVP fighting. This game is definitely one of the best you'll buy. For those who consider money an issue.... if you buy one game a month that is more than the monthly fee for this game, and you probably won't want to buy many if any games (money saved). For those who don't consider money and issue, there are many other things you can purchase to enhace the experience and help you to level more efficiently. This game truly has something for everyone and is worth every dollar spent.

PS you can get a free trial and if you know someone who already has the game you can save them some money (get them to send you an email and they get a month for free if you pay for three months).

I downloaded the trial version of WarCraft yesterday (Sun, 03/09/08) at about 11:30 AM EDT and didn't stop playing until 12:25 AM (Mon, 03/10/08). Needless to say I found WarCraft impressive. I went right to the '1' reviews here at Amazon and was also impressed by the fellow who basically called the program specialized spyware (because it is a EULA violation checker) and panned the customer service as arrogant and uncaring. I also read about 'after the 60 level" character limitation issue i.e. you have to join in a crowd to make any headway (i.e. not get killed .0001 seconds) unless you want to get into an endless loop of 'same-old, same-old'.

Well as I can get the program cheap for about $8.00 here at Amazon and since all I basically want to do is: kill monsters galore and freely and heavily flirt with the virtual hotties (God knows what these women look like behind the mask and I REALLY don't want to know) and as $15.00 per month is no hardship (cheaper than some dating services and I don't have to go on any expensive dates cringing about what she'll think of me or trying to be polite when she doesn't live up to the image she created in my mind with her online profile, emails and chat sessions) WarCraft should be fine for a past time for me and I do recommend.

I have played all of Blizzard's previous Warcraft games, starting way back when with Warcraft I: Orcs and Humans in the early 90's. With each new game the series got deeper and by the end of Warcraft III it was clear that Blizzard was getting too deep storywise for another RTS game to adequately handle. I'm going to *greatly* miss playing Warcraft RTS games, because I've a sinking suspicion that they're not going to ever make another. World of Warcraft, for better or worse, is the wave of the future. More like a tidal wave of pure gaming heroin. This game builds upon the lore already laid down in the previous games in the franchise and immerses the player into one of the most well-thought out online games I've ever seen.

I should mention that while it's not necessary to have played the game's forebears it definitely adds to the overall enjoyment. You can visit famous battle sites and view some of the leftover relics of said battles in Loch Modan and Hillsbrad, be it destroyed Alliance ballistas or Horde watch towers . Swim around the sunken wrecks of Elvish Destroyers. Follow Arthas' path to insanity from Strahnbrad all the way to Stratholme, and see the aftermath of his actions in the ruins of the capital city of Lordaeron. Great pains have obviously been taken to provide previous Warcraft players with lots of detailed eye candy of historical battle sites that the players themselves commanded in the previous game installments.

The game itself allows you to play in one of two factions; Horde or Alliance. Horde faction allows the player to choose from several races; Orc, Tauren, Troll, Undead, or Blood Elf (if you have the Burning Crusade expansion). Alliance allows you to play a Human, Gnome, Dwarf, Night Elf, or Dranei, the latter if you, again, have the expansion. Each race has it's own starting city. Each major city has an adjacent "Newbie zone" which allows new players to gradually advance in level in phases, without dumping the uninformed player right in the middle of things, much like Ever Quest did. In addition to the race selection players can choose your standard class types, from Paladin, Warrior, Shaman, Mage, Priest, and the usual assortment of types.

As the player advances from the earliest levels they'll have the opportunity to engage in certain tradeskills. With this set of alternate "jobs" players can craft new swords, make rifles, brew potions and tinctures, manufacture leather goods, and the like. This is not shoved down the players throats and is completely optional.

At it's root this game, like many before it, is a game about favors. You, as the player, are constantly doing "favors" for various NPC's. "I need you to kill X number of X for me", or "Gather X number of this raw material for me" style quests. The quests themselves are not *nearly* as complex as they were with Ever Quest, where making a simple Soulfire paladin sword involved something near 20 individual steps and 5 or 6 unique actions. The quests in WoW are overly formulaic and one is nearly identical to the next, and that may eventually drive some people to boredom. Personally I am a big fan of solo play and don't like to be bothered with grouping unless there's no other way around a quest. WoW caters to my type almost perfectly, but also rewards those that like to group. In fact you'll find that the best weapons, armor, and items drop during group excursions, prompting even soloers like me to engage in group quests when the need arises.

World of Warcraft does provide ample rewards for the player that make up for any weaknesses on the quest side. At level 40 players can acquire their first "mount"; horses for Humans, Kodo beasts for Tauren, etc. Players can ride these mounts at a faster speed than they would normally traverse on foot and it saves for a lot of travel time. At level 60 one can get an upgraded mount for substantially more money, but a greatly increased travel speed. And if you get your mitts on the Burning Crusade expansion you'll have access to flying mounts and gyrocopters, although they're only usable in Outland.

The game, graphically, is very easy on the eyes and will run on the majority of PC's without any major issues, provided you're not in one of the major cities during peak hours (Ironforge is bad with lag, but Shat'rath is almost unbearable until 4am). The major cities each have their own unique feel about them, from the industrial motif of Dwarven Ironforge, to the shamanistic Tauren dwellings of Thunder Bluff, to the overly nature-themed Darnassus, home of the Night Elves. Music is also very well done with zone specific themes that play. And much of it is pretty catchy stuff, truth be told.

If Blizzard has one glaring weakness with this series it's that it doesn't release expansion packs in any manner that resembles timeliness. Expansions are made about once every other year, and given that there is a point where players will hit a "wall" where they can no longer advance in any substantial way, that's not at all a good thing. The next expansion is due for release sometime this summer, and it's already feeling long overdue. If Ever Quest I had any one advantage it was it's constant release of new material on a regular basis, almost like an "Expansion of the Month" kind of feel.

This game is a great value though and will provide you with many, many countless hours of enjoyment. It is addictive to a fault and will have you ever craving for more. Blizzard will even give you the first two weeks on a free trial basis to try out. There's nothing wrong with that.

I played for about a year, and really enjoyed it most of the time, I can't argue it's not a really fun, in depth game. However, you pay [...] dollars a month, but patches often break the game and/or down the servers. The focus of the game keeps changing, favoring pvp sometimes and pve sometimes. It is designed to be addictive, like a drug it's easily rewarding at first, but later painfully difficult to get rewarded. This can be very dangerous, and you must monitor yourself. After level 70 and some casual raiding, without significant time invested, you may hit a wall and be bored and make little/no progress. The servers are also loaded with bots, paid foreign farmers, racists, homophobes, and general idiots. Like many, many people, I became addicted and ruined my life playing the game, be warned.

To the poster that said they have over 100 people on ignore per day. You're just extremely uptight and must be doing something to piss off people in the game. Been playing this game since Beta Day 4 and I think the entire time I've been playing the only people on ignore have been friends and gold farmers.

Don't be misinformed by people claiming that everyone in game is out to get you. In fact, in most cases it's the exact opposite. Sure there's going to be the jerks out there but you'll also come to find some really nice players.

Also, to the person that said they never see anyone except in the big cities, go reroll on a higher population server. How do you expect Blizzard to keep 10 million people all on the same server? It's impossible there is no computer in the world that could handle even 1% of all that would be going on on that server.

It's a great game. People become addicted very easily. Don't fall into the trap, still keep time for real life if you plan on playing.

AWESOME!!! I never thought I would like MMORPGs. I've always played games like Baldur's Gate II, Neverwinter Nights, and Diablo, but after the trial, I had to have more!!! I bet right now they have clinics for people with WOW (World of Warcraft) addiction.

World of Warcraft is an excellent, but not ground-breaking, online fantasy role-playing game with the potential for unlimited fun. The gameplay is typical of the genre: you select a class and race, start at level one, go off on a lot of quests, gain experience and money, complete tougher quests, repeat. Where this game shines, though, is the online experience with other players.

Blizzard has succeeded in creating an online environment with great opportunities for interaction with other players. You can formally team up with other players in groups to complete individual quests, sharing loot and experience, or you can join guilds to have a larger group of friends ready and willing to help you out. Also, as often happens, you can informally help another player out with a battle or quest by simply helping them with a tough fight or casting a helpful spell on them.

So far I've found the other players, by and large, courteous and very helpful. I've had more experienced players spend lots of their time helping me out by showing me new areas or features, and almost all are willing to answer a question or two.

The gameplay is very well-done, with an intuitive but customizable interface. Often the quests aren't overly challenging, especially because of the poor AI of the bad guys, but they're still fun.

Finally, Blizzard has created a huge world in World of Warcraft, and populated it with two factions. Players at higher levels may raid the homelands of the other factions, while players at lower levels experience the thrill and terror of real (not AI) threats bearing down on them. The opportunity to interact with other players, both on friendly and deadly terms, gives this game unlimited potential for exploration and fun. This is a highly-addictive game!

Looks impressive, but we weren't ready for the extensive downloads and pay to play. We gave up when we saw a 12 hour download time, after already spending 3 hours downloading the game and signing up. Only for the strong of heart!

I bought (WoW Battlechest) as a Xmas gift for my hubby. It was one of the few PC games I thought we could play together. After setting up his account, I set up my characters to play with him on a trial account. Now, with the trial about to expire, I find that (to continue playing) we must drive an hour and 30$ worth of gas to the nearest city and physically purchase a 2nd set of software disks or wait 2 weeks for a mail order (with his characters stuck in limbo since we were cooperating & I can't continue). They won't even make a second key available for purchase online.

When I bought the game I was told that we only needed one copy. It's fair for Blizzard to charge their monthly for two accounts but this is completely unreasonable.

Furthermore Blizzard absolutely inundates a player with legal contract mumbo-jumbo over and over and over again just to play. As a semi-retired software designer, game designer, and graphics artist, I can say that Blizzard has done excellent work in these fields. However, their bean counters and bureaucrats have managed to take all the fun out of the game for me. I'm not willing to put up with this short term stupidity and will recommend to hubby that he cancel (though he loves it) after his subscription expires.

This is consumer fraud and extortion up with which I will not put. Should Blizzard correct this policy I shall change this review. Meanwhile may their slimy lawyers get exactly what they put out.

When a friend told of WOW about 3 years ago, I blew it off as he gets excited about games a bit too easily. However, as each year went by, he kept talking about this game and how great it was. So great that he stopped buying a new game once or twice a month as he had been.
So I tried it. In fact not only did I like it, but my daughters liked it and wanted to play often enough that we were competing for time. They have their own account now!
Looks like a kids game, but great play value for this 40 something.