WoW/FFXI: Day three

[thistlechaser]

If nothing else, I'm enjoying playing WoW because people leave interesting and thoughtful comments on my FFXI/WoW posts. Purchasing it was worth it just so I can see so many different POVs on games! And a note: I really, really hope I'm not offending any WoW players. I understand that different people want different things from games, and I'm not attempting to say that one set of goals is more valid than another. This is just my experience with WoW, how I'm feeling about it, what I'm getting out of it, etc.

My opinion on WoW hasn't changed much, other than slipping more towards bored and unsatisfied.

Those who know me on FFXI (or read the LJ posts) know how much hard work and time I put into leveling leathercrafting: Months and months of work (I was low level so I couldn't farm and be faster about it), and millions and millions of gil. I leveled it up to 86 before stopping. I spent months turning in enough guildpoints to earn my apron and gloves. It was hard (so very very hard), but I accomplished it! I did it! Tonght on WoW, I leveled skinning to 60+. I did it in about two hours. I did it while XPing. I could hardly decide between laughing and crying over that. (FFXI players: You skill up in whole numbers, not tenths like we do it. Everything is like that, weapon skill level, everything.)

I experienced another new thing tonight: Death on WoW. It was another one of those "don't know if I should laugh or cry over this" moments. On FFXI, you lose XP when you die. It's pretty painful, especially at higher levels. You really, really want to avoid death if possible. (Which is reasonable in a game (or RL!), no?) In WoW, if you die you turn into a ghost (the whole ghost world thing looks pretty cool) and have to run back to your body (which is on your map, see the little tombstone in the upper right hand corner?). Once you get in a few feet of it, you come back to life. The only thing that you lose is that your armor gets a tiny bit (10% I think?) worn out. When your armor wears out, you have to pay a little money to get it fixed (you can never lose it). That's it.

With death being so ... so meaningless, I took a lot of chances I would not usually take. Aggro? Who cares! Tackling a much higher mob? Go for it! I died three times tonight, which would make me kill myself RL if ever happened on FFXI. (Okay, not really. But you get the idea!)

There were some things I liked. I hate to say it (really, really, really, really hate to say it), but the bright colors are growing on me. FFXI is starting to look a little "washed out" when I switch back to it. Gah, that's just horrible.

peppygrowlithe's server suggestion was a good one, and for some reason I have not run into one idiot yet (and a number of helpful people casting good stuff on me!). I mostly ignore all the channels, so that could be part of it, but in general it seems okay thus far.

Surprisingly, WoW is more realistic than FFXI in a couple of ways:

1) Swimming! I've said since day one that FFXI needs to let you swim! That's so cool!
2) Mobs running away when they're nearly dead. At first that tickled the heck out of me, but it quickly got annoying. "Hey, you! Come back! I'm not finished killing you yet!" (Luckily I have a range weapon, so they don't get far.) But annoying or not, I love it because it's real. I run when I'm losing, so why wouldn't a mob?
3) Damage when falling/falling in general. I seem to fall in WoW. A lot. In FFXI you can't fall off a lot of things, which saves me. I nearly died tonight because I fell off a high thing!
4) The sounds are nicely realistic. When you fight a wolf, it sounds like a dog is fighting. Kill a pig and it makes a noise like a RL dying pig would. Lions sound all lion-y. It's cool.

Some of the bad things:

1) Quests are still nothing but carbon copies of each other: You need to collect X items! Go kill Y mob to get the drops! Very, very, very boring and utterly uncreative.
2) I really, really dislike how WoW handles aggro. Things give up chasing you way too quickly! I would have had probably four more deaths tonight if the mobs hadn't lost interest in me after a few feet.
3) That whole "paths not only take you useful places, but you basically don't get aggro on them!" thing bugs me a lot. I can cope with the first half of that, but I really, really hate how being on one makes you safe from aggro.

Oh heck, there was lots more I wanted to mention, but now I'm forgetting. Maybe I should keep notes while playing. :P

Here's the other screenshot I took: I take lots of pretty screenshots in FFXI, so I thought I'd try to take one in WoW. This was the prettiest I found. :/

I ended the night at level 9. I had wanted to get to level 10 so I can do the quests to learn to tame beasts, but man, I think XP grinding is even more boring in WoW than in FFXI. :p (FFXI people: While Hunters are like RNG/BST or BST/RNG, they can't charm/tame anything till level 10.)

Huh. I just realized something: Other than the "racial movie" you see when you first start out, I've not seen one single cutscene in WoW. I guess that shows you how little story there is in the game: The most plot you ever get is a couple of text sentences explaining why the NPC needs those X drops from Y mob.

Edit: Holy cow, this post got long. I only meant to note a few things before bed!

Edit: Oh, one more note! WoW is so very, very, very lonely. In three days, the most I've talked to anyone was to /tell a "Thanks!" when someone casts something good onto me. :/ That's so utterly different than the LS "family" I have on FFXI. I know I could probably join some guild or something, but strangers are scary and all that... :/

Oh, and one last note, then I'm going to bed for sure! I thought this would amuse folks: You get XP for everything in WoW, not just killing stuff and quests! I got XP for entering a zone for the first time! Heh heh. (I'm not sure if that happens for every zone or just cities. Of course I'm not expecting XP for that so never watched for it.)

Comments

[whren.livejournal.com]

I'd show you some of my screens, but I nuked my WoW screenshots folder already >

[southern-hell.livejournal.com]

That sounds alot like when I played Guild Wars, which runs on the same engine; except that when you die you respawn at the zone with a max HP/MP penalty which stops at 45%. It sucked clearing a whole zone, then dying at the end a million times, running all the way back through, then getting one shotted every time.
As for the colors I don't know if it's just my settings but I always felt like FFXI was lacking in saturation by a few %. GW was a bit over saturated by a few %, but overall that's nicer to look at because zones with say, bright white sand, don't break your face compared to everything else.
FFXI being my first MMORPG, and FF being a long-time favortie series of mine, I'm used to the time sinks and other games don't really do it for me. To other people who played Starcraft or something it's ridiculous how long it takes to do something in FF.

[fyerio.livejournal.com]

What server are you in? I'll keep you company =)

[fyerio.livejournal.com]

Oh, and here's my screenshots.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b324/Fyerio/WoW/WoWScrnShot_091505_225150.jpg
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b324/Fyerio/WoW/Sentrok.jpg

Just FF for this old dog plz

[draymor.livejournal.com]

One of my friends who plays GW... 2-3 weeks after she started she capped 2 of her 4 characters and was already complaining about the lack of things to do >>;
I suppose I prefer the more realistic graphics of FF, the whole world has sort of a ravaged and brooding touch to it. When I was shown GW all the graphics was just so... bright. It's nice and vivid and smooth but... so fricking bright. Maybe it's his graphics settings, but I really didn't like the lighting effects that puts a glow on anything and everything. Felt like I was stuck in a bad flashback and couldn't get out.

I can't comment on WoW, seeing as I've never played it, but I have never been fond of the franchise (not a big fan of resource managment/SRPGs that has little/no plot). Hearing your comments about the storyline I may just go ahead and take it off my "maybe-someday-when-I-have-a-lot-more-time" list.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_orz/]

Yeah, me again.

There are no cutscenes in WoW. There is a story, though unlike FFXI, it's much more subtle and you need to look for it. For example, why are the Barrens, um, barren? Why is Silverpine Forest so dark and dead looking? These questions are answered by various quest lines that culminate in going through some lowbie dungeons.

You'll find that some quests assume that you know some of the basic knowledge of Warcraft lore. If you haven't already, I highly recommend reading up on the Warcraft story, here:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/story/chapter1.html

You're also starting out as Horde, and unfortunately, lowbie Horde quests blow. The lowbie Alliance areas have longer, more elaborate quest lines and just feel more polished than the Horde equivalent. Not to say the Horde sucks, but it's obvious the devs gave the Alliance areas a bit more love. :( Give the Undead lowbie areas a try--they're a bit better than the Orc/Troll/Tauren areas.

And as far as the death penalty goes, yeah, it is a joke compared to FFXI. At the highest levels, it gets more important. After all, you're pretty screwed if you're in the middle of a dungeon and your tanks have 0 durability (I actually know a tank who spent 30 gold in one night on repair costs). ;) Or if you wipe in a dungeon, and make a corpse run only to rez and find that the mobs respawned and your work is gone. Ok, I know, not as bad as losing hard earned xp, but it can be frustrating.

Ok, I'm done. Really.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_orz/]

I lost my 1 gig of screenshots recently :( Some of the very few scenic ones I had saved:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y19/kem78/deadwind_karazhan.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y19/kem78/dino.jpg

[http://users.livejournal.com/_orz/]

One last thing, check out the official WoW forums sometime:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/

The General forums are usually whiny, but the server forums are a good way to get to know people on your server.

[scribbulus-ink.livejournal.com]

4) The sounds are nicely realistic

The atmosphere sounds are cool and realistic too -- you can hear torches crackling when you run by, and if you're wearing chain mail armor, it jingles when you walk. I play WoW wearing headphones just for the sound effects.

Also, you can get killed by aggro while on a path. I don't think it happens as much in low levels, but as you get higher level and enter more dangerous areas, aggro wanders close to the path and will nail you.

I agree with whoever said that you get more plot with the Alliance, Night Elves especially. There's an overall storyline, but it's subtle. I adore Tauren, but they aren't terribly plot-heavy in the early levels.

[fealu-bryne.livejournal.com]

Like we pretty much established... WoW is a MUD, where FFXI is a MUSH. Therefore...

Death is a way of life in WoW. ;)

Particularly when you tend to be a magic-user like me, you just come to expecting death three or four times an evening. It's a minor inconvenience, sometimes a major one, but hey. It happens.

As for being lonely... yeah, I agree with you there. I met a really nice group some time back, but our timezones sucked like you wouldn't believe and we lost touch. Generally, though, I go solo unless there's someone I know. But I think that's just me being antisocial... it always takes awhile to get into things and meet people and feel comfortable.

[daltontrix.livejournal.com]

You can also burn yourself on torches! Not significantly, but I tend to take a little damage runing about Orgrimmar from running over those huge firepots. ;)

[daltontrix.livejournal.com]

Level 9, eh? Sadly that probably means you'll be heading over to the Barrens soon. That's my only real complain about the Horde side of things... the Barrens is rather dull. It -does- feature the first instance dungeon you'll run into however, unless you run over to Orgrimmar for Ragefire Chasm (the only semi-faction specific one, since it's in the middle of Orgrimmar).

It does have some neat points, it's very much like how I'd imagine the Savannah in Africa being. Unfortunately, this makes it very flat for the most part. The quillboar camps are nice and hilly and have huge thorny things though.

Lastly, the exp for entering places for the first time serves a second purpose. if you get like 400 exp just for going somewhere, turn around and leave again. You stand no chance against anything in there. If it's in the low to mid 100's, you'll probably be okay. Lower and it's trivial at that point. (You'll usually only see lower if you, say... head over to the Undercity and run about the Undead's newbie area.)

Hmm. I think that's everthing for the moment.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the offer! No worries that they're gone. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

FFXI was my first, too. I suppose if I had played WoW or something else first, FFXI might make me run screaming... But I'm glad it worked out the way it did.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Um, Feathermoon, I think it's called? One of the RP servers. (I don't RP, but it was suggested that the RP servers tend to be more mature than the other ones.)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ah, that deadwind_karazhan.jpg one is especially nice!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

*snickers at the moon one* Cool!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks for the info! One day I might level a character on the other side, so then I'll get to see what their quests are like.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

you can hear torches crackling when you run by, and if you're wearing chain mail armor, it jingles when you walk.

Yeah, we get that in FFXI, too. It might not be fair for me to say that WoW's sounds are more realistic since I play FFXI silent 98% of the time, but from what I've heard it seems that way.

Also, you can get killed by aggro while on a path. I don't think it happens as much in low levels, but as you get higher level and enter more dangerous areas, aggro wanders close to the path and will nail you.

Ah, that's good to know! Thanks!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Death is a way of life in WoW. ;)

Yeah. In a way it's okay, since it's nice not to have to worry so much (which is my whole reason for checking out WoW -- trying something more casual).

And I know that whole antisocial thing. :P

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Lastly, the exp for entering places for the first time serves a second purpose...

Oh, that's clever! I think I got like 98 or 74 or some low number like that for entering the city.

Thanks for the info!

[wazsgirl.livejournal.com]

Saw this in passing and figured I'd toss in a few thoughts since you're new to WoW.

Like some others have said, aggro definitely happens once you get out of the newbie areas. Oh god, yes. I've gotten chased by things much more powerful than me plenty of times while on paths. Plus, they often have roving bands (like there's a roving band of 25 alliance NPCs in the southern barrens that go up and down the road that WILL hunt you down and kill you mercilessly).

The Tauren starting areas are kinda...dull. Boring. Yawn. There isn't nearly as much plot in those areas as there are in the other starting areas. And really, the starting areas are to get you used to your characters and the world and how it operates. It starts getting good (and more challenging) once you hit about mid-15 or so. At least, that's where, for me, everything tends to crank up a notch or two.

I'd also agree with someone else--undead are one of the stronger areas, I think. The Night Elves, sigh, also have decent starting areas though I really hate them. Horde tends to, in general, attract the more mature group of players, especially on a RP server---the younger ones usually all want to be "heroes" in the alliance. Not completely, of course, but. I have far far fewer problems with horde players than alliance.

Another thing I'd recommend: a guild. That would likely solve a lot of the "lonely" for you. There's always some sort of chatter going on, they tend to help people out immensely with things AND it makes it easier to group. And don't be afraid to ask for help or to help others when they ask for it on the channels. Sometimes it sucks but a lot of times you manage to meet up with some cool people. :)

And some screenshots: some places are just gorgeous and this is Durotar, which you'll see when you go to Origrimmar (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v55/wazsgirl/JahnaPony.jpg) and my new mount. And so it this. (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v55/wazsgirl/Jahnaponybird.jpg)

Good luck! It's not for everyone but it's REALLY easy to play casually. So. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

The Tauren starting areas are kinda...dull. Boring. Yawn.

I snicker endlessly at how "Native American" it is. There are totem poles! And NPCs tell you about the "earth monther"! It's just so snickeringly bad.

I'm really going to have to try an undead character soon. That would have been my first choice, if they could be Hunters. Everyone keeps recommending their area to me, so I'd like to check it out.

Horde tends to, in general, attract the more mature group of players, especially on a RP server---the younger ones usually all want to be "heroes" in the alliance.

Which is exactly what I'm looking for. I'm not really there to RP (though I could if needed), I'm looking for that type of player.

I sort of have my ears open for a guild, but I'm not the most outgoing person with strangers, so I haven't been looking too too hard for one.

Thanks for the screenshots! I can't wait to see that area. :)

[daltontrix.livejournal.com]

I think it's to cover for some rather nasty choices of placement in a few areas. The Undercity, in particular, would be deadly without that warning system as it's next door to a rather high level zone.

And then there was the time I ran over to Desolace trying to find my way to Thunder Bluff from the Barrens. "Wow, that thing's pretty big..." *splat*

[daltontrix.livejournal.com]

When/if you go to the Barrens, you might wanna consider turning general off. It's the mid level area where the morons tend to not get past, so it's a cesspool of idiocy and bad spelling on most servers. ;)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Hee, thanks for the tip! Will do!

[wazsgirl.livejournal.com]

That's actually a great tip. I forget there's a general area a lot of the time because of that. ;)

Btw, if you like the "have a pet" aspect of hunters, consider an undead warlock---they get a "pet" at level 2 (the imp), they have badass spells and they're pretty fun to play. Fragile, yes, because they wear cloth but they get the "blueie" (voidwalker) by level 10 and that's a tank so that helps. Just a food for thought if you want an excuse to play Undead. They're also good priests. :)

And yeah, the Taurens=Native Americans thing is kinda lame but they're really cool to quest/group with, especially with the warstomp ability. :) Tauren Druids and Shamans kick ass with that. :)