Be Excellent To Each Other

And, you know, party on. Dude.

All times are UTC [ DST ]




Reply to topic  [ 566 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1 ... 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12  Next
Author Message
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2014 12:06 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
Eurogamer still haven't reviewed the WoD expansion for some bizarre reason but it has made one of their games of the year, so I'll direct you to the excellent write-up by Oli Welsh there - http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014- ... of-draenor

Me and the chaps have been back into the game since the expansion launched on November 13th so we've had over six weeks at it now, which I think is time enough to form a decent opinion about the game in its current state. (It should be noted here that we started playing in Burning Crusade so whilst we technically missed vanilla the original vanilla zones were still untouched in Burning Crusade so in that regard we've pretty much been there since the start.)

To avoid going TL:DR I'd say that WoW has never been better than it is now in WoD, it's like the atrocity of the pandas never happened and the game is right back to its fire and brimstone roots, in fact, it's arguably as good as the Lich King expansion, and that's saying something.

The Draenor zones are great fun to quest through, I levelled one of my characters from 90 to 100 exclusively through questing so I saw every new zone to completion, to the extent that I finished off the final zone despite having dinged 100 with loads of quest chains left to complete, because I wanted to see how it all panned out.

The dungeons are pitched somewhere between Cata and LK difficulty I'd say, normal modes can be pretty challenging, heroics can be brutal, and challenge modes demand a very together group (you can't really get golds with randoms, it needs a good guild or friend group). Looking For Raid remains a bit of a clusterfuck IMO, you just have to look at it as a loot machine, normal raids however offer a solid and substantial challenge.

Professions have been massively overhauled in conjunction with the new garrisons. Every character gets their own Level 1 garrison at the end of the opening quest chain at Level 90, and as you level up to 100 you can upgrade the garrison to Level 2 and then 3, and within the garrison you can create a number of buildings of your choice to assist with professions, gear, or just stuff for fun like the Goblin Workshop which produces a new invention every day to have a play about with. You also get your own mine and herb garden which has basically rendered the gathering professions dead in the water and destroyed the gold farmers.

TBH the garrison is pretty much a whole game within a game so I'll not bang on about it too much here, sufficed to say there's a whole section dedicated to it at Icy Veins. One of the results however is that you can 'do' all the professions to an extent without actually being trained in the profession, so for example if you make an Alchemy Lab in your garrison you can issue work orders for potions and flasks even if you don't have the Alchemy profession.

(The long and short of it is that garrisons allow near total self-sufficiency for just about everything, albeit with time-gating, so if you're not one for getting involved with the economy of the game and the auction house, you don't have to. But those things are still there for folks who like them.)

For someone who doesn't like MMOs I can't see the new expansion converting anyone to the cause, at its heart it's still an MMO with MMO mechanics, but for folks who do like the genre but have fallen out with WoW and/or other MMOs over the years, I'd say that WoW in its current iteration is as good as it's ever been.

We've got a fairly fluid group of six/seven people but we always manage to get together a five-man group for Saturday nights and we're putting ourselves up against the heroic and challenge mode dungeons with gear that's 'just good enough' to really push ourselves, and thoroughly enjoying it. Besides that we're doing regular tourist runs through old raid content for achievements, mounts, transmog gear and stuff like that.

I was so disappointed with the pandas that I wasn't keen on returning for WoD but was eventually talked into it, so I agreed to give it a go but with the disclaimer that if it didn't really impress me, I was going to be straight back out again. Now six weeks into the expansion I very much suspect I'll be fully subbed up for its entire duration and keen to see next one too.

As a final note the game has put on over three million subscribers since the expansion launched, to take it back over ten million again for the first time in a long time.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 22:46 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
A new first for me in the game, over 100K in gold earned totally without any gold-buying shenanigans. (I previously peaked at around 40K.)

I came into this expansion totally skint, having sold all the gold I had on my account to a mate before quitting last time. (I was basically playing for free a lot of the time, as every time I earned 10-30K I'd sell it for £8-£10 per 10K to one of my mates who was playing the game, as they didn't do the whole economy side of the game but still wanted gold, so that paid for a decent chunk of my subs.)

Obviously in-game inflation has ramped up again with the new expansion, but 100K is still a pretty substantial chunk of gold, if one were to purchase that much gold from a commercial gold seller you'd be looking at £50-£60, with potentially lengthy delivery times too.

With my current set up I can do maybe 50K-60K per month (it's taken me a while to get it all refined and sorted out, but I'm running at nearly full chat now across four level 100 characters, and my time investment per day for this is around 20 minutes on average), and a 'cash rich time poor' mate has offered to take 100K off me every time I get that much for £60, so I'll be playing the game for free and actually have some cash left over too!

As such this 104K will be back down to practically bugger all very shortly, but I'm churning out 2-3K profit per day so it'll build back up again fairly sharpish.

Attachment:
wowzomg.JPG


You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 10:15 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
It's finally happened, Blizzard are now selling gold! (Well, they will be shortly.)

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/181411 ... n-3-2-2015

I don't see a problem with this in all honesty, gold selling already exists but it's illegitimate and dodgy, there's no good reason for Blizz not to just do it themselves.

I'm very curious to see what the price ends up at though, they need to compete with the gold sellers and at the moment £15 gets you 20K, so it'll need to be in that sort of ballpark.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 10:23 
User avatar
ugvm'er at heart...

Joined: 4th Mar, 2010
Posts: 22255
I might give wow another go for a bit, if there are any deals going at the moment for getting a subscriber back into the game?


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 10:57 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
Trooper wrote:
I might give wow another go for a bit, if there are any deals going at the moment for getting a subscriber back into the game?


I don't think there are any deals as such, there's Recruit-A-Friend of course but that's aimed at new accounts.

The WoD expansion will set you back £35 from the Blizzard Store but you may be able to get cheaper elsewhere I suppose. (It comes with a Level 90 boost.)

Also the subs went up last November, £9.99 per month now (a bit less if you go for 3 or 6 months at a time.)

It's a good expansion and worth taking a look IMO, definitely a lot better than the pandas, not as good as Wrath (but then that was a stunning expansion which I doubt will be bettered), probably about as good as Cataclysm.

I've eased up on it a lot as I got four raid geared 100s, but Mrs Hearthly and Hearthly Jnr have their own accounts now so the three of us are playing it together which has given the game a whole new flavour for me - Hearthly Jnr in particular is enthralled by the game.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 11:36 
User avatar
ugvm'er at heart...

Joined: 4th Mar, 2010
Posts: 22255
There is a 10 day trial of WoD. That'll either be enough, or get me back into it :)


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 11:51 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
Trooper wrote:
There is a 10 day trial of WoD. That'll either be enough, or get me back into it :)


What (if any) are the limitations on the trial? Can you do all the garrison stuff and what-not?

Do you have a Level 90 you can start with straight away on the Draenor zones?


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 11:55 
User avatar
ugvm'er at heart...

Joined: 4th Mar, 2010
Posts: 22255
Hearthly wrote:
Trooper wrote:
There is a 10 day trial of WoD. That'll either be enough, or get me back into it :)


What (if any) are the limitations on the trial? Can you do all the garrison stuff and what-not?

Do you have a Level 90 you can start with straight away on the Draenor zones?


Unfortunately not, as I skipped MoP. I have a few 85s to play with.
I know MoP was a bit crap, but it'll give me an idea about all the new skill and tree stuff they did that I missed.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 12:14 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
Trooper wrote:
Unfortunately not, as I skipped MoP. I have a few 85s to play with.
I know MoP was a bit crap, but it'll give me an idea about all the new skill and tree stuff they did that I missed.


The pandas seem to be very popular with women and children, if my family are anything to go by.

Splendid music though.

Skills/talents/glyphs have all been much simplified, as has the stats on gear.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 13:57 
User avatar
ugvm'er at heart...

Joined: 4th Mar, 2010
Posts: 22255
Hmmm... Installed, loaded it up, stood there in Org... and just could't be arsed. So I turned it off.

I guess that tells me everything I need to know! :D


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 14:17 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
Well if you've no friends or family active in the game I guess it'd be hard to get motivated. At any given time I've got a few mates playing the game and am in an active guild, plus with Mrs Hearthly and Hearthly Jnr playing now that's a whole new layer of stuff to do as well.

So yes, my reaction would probably be the same if logged into a server, all alone :)


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Sat Nov 07, 2015 11:40 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
Next expansion has been announced, ('LEGION'), and for one I'll be glad to see it as after a very promising start WoD turned out to be a bit crap.

The questing through the zones was fantastic, and the first batch of dungeons were superb. It just turns out that they were, erm, the only dungeons.... Yes we got Mythic difficulty but there was nothing like the later-expansion dungeons that we got in Wrath and Cataclysm. They did open up the final questing zone of Tanaan Jungle but after a decent opening quest line that turned out to be nothing more than rep grinds via dailies, very dull - I didn't even bother with them.

Timewalking dungeons have been added, and they are on one hand a cynical way of recycling old content, but it has been fun to revisit previous expansions' dungeons and play them 'on level' as it were, but with Level 100 appropriate loot.

LFR is the random clusterfuck it's always been, a nice way to see raid content but as ever, only about half the raid only need to know what they're doing to progress, I find tough five-mans more challenging and interesting. Then again I have neither the time or the inclination to commit to a proper raiding guild or calendar, so LFR is at least a doorway to the content.

The garrisons ultimately ended up being a rather tedious grind, and sucked the life out of a lot of the rest of the economy, the shipyards were more of the same, except with boats. (It also led to a lot of players simply living in their garrisons, which are instanced away from the rest of the world, so the cities were a lot emptier.) They were very lucrative though, I earned something in the region of 500,000 gold out of mine before I couldn't even be bothered with that any more.

I haven't been playing in any serious capacity for months, but have retained my account to play with Mrs Hearthly and Hearthly Jnr as they're still having loads of fun with the game and Hearthly Jnr hasn't even got a character to Level 100 yet.

We're going to need three copies of the expansion, Hearthly Jnr is eyeing up the digital deluxe edition as she wants the pets and mounts, so that'll be £50 + £35 + £35 (!) on top of the £30 per month we're paying for the subs on three accounts.... Blizz are already doing the pre-order even though it's not out until next September.

The subscriber numbers say it all, after peaking at just over 10 million in the wake of the expansion's launch, they've plummeted to 5.5 million and Blizz now say they won't report the numbers from now on. (Although 5.5 million active subscribers is still a very healthy number overall.)

I'd bet on the game having at least another decade in it yet though.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Fri Nov 11, 2016 12:16 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
The current expansion LEGION has been with us for a while now, and it's really good.

We've got three accounts on the go (me, Mrs, Jnr) so that's £30 per month, and it was £35 per head for the expansion itself as well. I am freeloading Hearthstone extra-hard to try and compensate a bit.

In some regards it's 'more WoW' but they have made some bold design choices. For example all the Level 100-110 content now dynamically scales to your level, so whereas in previous expansions there'd be a clear zone progression to get from the previous level cap to the new level cap - (and zones you were over-level for were rendered trivial, and under-level for effectively inaccessible) - now you can do the zones in any order you want and they just scale to your level. (The loot drops scale too, so you're always getting meaningful drops or rewards from quests.)

This carries over to the dungeons as well, so instead of a dungeon dropping off your list as you become too high level for it, you can cheerfully make a group of five people with levels of between 100-110 (there's a minimum gear level required at Level 100), and it chucks you into the dungeon together, and you all see appropriately scaled baddies for your level, which take and deal appropriate damage. (As per the open world stuff, the loot drops scale too, so you're always getting meaningful drops or rewards from quests.)

One way of looking at this is you're all basically just 'Level 1' as the game dynamically scales its content around you, as if you were a Level 1 character doing Level 1 quests, but we're all very much of the opinion that it's a great change.

At Level 110 there is a specific zone to go to, a load of Level 110 quests and dungeons and raids and so on, which you can gear up for and ultimately overgear in the traditional sense, but the overall levelling experience to get to that point is much improved. (The first major content patch to add new stuff for 110s has already landed, and Blizzard are promising a far better management of this aspect of the game than they did in Dreanor, and have held their hands up to having made a mistake in that regard.)

It's been great for our group because historically we've had to say stuff like 'Everyone get to at least 92 for Saturday, but no higher than 94' - whereas now it really doesn't matter, we can just rock up with any character we like between 100 and 110, and run dungeons together.

Quite dramatically, weapon drops, craftable weapons etc have effectively been removed from the game, every Level 100 now gets an 'Artifact Weapon' questline to complete, and the resulting weapon then levels with them from 100-110 and then beyond that in terms of iLevel, and there's a unique 'currency' called Artifact Weapon Power to customise it.

Excellently, not only is there a unique artifact questline for every class, but for every spec of every class too, so the early game at the start of levelling from 100 is different every time. (You can go on to complete the two other spec questlines, and get the other artifact weapons, from Level 102.)

The garrisons have gone, to be replaced with an 'Order Hall, which is a bit like a garrison but has loads of other players in it of your class. The mission and follower system has been massively streamlined too, on the 'less is more' principle and it's a far better system.

The feeling amongst us is the game is now the best its been since Wrath Of The Lich King, and that's really saying something. Whether or not Blizzard can maintain the momentum through the two year expansion cycle is another matter (Draenor started off incredibly strongly but lost itself with an absolute drought of content from the mid-point onwards), but we shall see.

I'd recommend giving it a go, it still runs really nicely on a lower-spec PC, Jnr's i5+750Ti can handle it at 1920x1200 with settings at about '8 of 10' and maintain 50-60FPS most of the time - so you don't need a mega-PC to have a try.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Thu Nov 24, 2016 8:51 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
Black Friday sale sort of thing now available on the full WoW game less the latest expansion.

£4.99 gets you everything up to and including the previous expansion, Warlords of Draenor, and your first month's subscription.

Cheap way to give it a try likes.

https://eu.battle.net/shop/en/product/world-of-warcraft

Attachment:
Screenshot 2016-11-24 at 07.51.11.png


You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Thu Nov 24, 2016 10:10 
User avatar
Master of dodgy spelling....

Joined: 25th Sep, 2008
Posts: 22533
Location: shropshire, uk
Is there still a monthly subscription?

_________________
MetalAngel wrote:
Kovacs: From 'unresponsive' to 'kebab' in 3.5 seconds


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Thu Nov 24, 2016 11:28 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
KovacsC wrote:
Is there still a monthly subscription?


There is yes, ranging from £9.99 down to about £8.69 depending on how long you renew for.

The point with that offer is you get the entire game (less one expansion), and a month's subscription, for a fiver - which is a decent chunk of time to get a good feel for the game and whether or not you'd like to play on an ongoing basis, for really not much cash.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Thu Nov 24, 2016 11:38 
User avatar
Master of dodgy spelling....

Joined: 25th Sep, 2008
Posts: 22533
Location: shropshire, uk
To be fair I would expect the game for free, if I was paying over £100 a year in subs....

_________________
MetalAngel wrote:
Kovacs: From 'unresponsive' to 'kebab' in 3.5 seconds


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Thu Nov 24, 2016 11:40 
User avatar
UltraMod

Joined: 27th Mar, 2008
Posts: 55715
Location: California
KovacsC wrote:
To be fair I would expect the game for free, if I was paying over £100 a year in subs....

Yeah, it's a disgraceful business model.

_________________
I am currently under construction.
Thank you for your patience.


Image


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Thu Nov 24, 2016 12:03 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
I find it substantially less disgraceful than what seems to pass for the 'AAA' games business model these days, which is to sell broken games at full price, repeatedly shunt out multi-gigabyte patches for months that may or may not fix everything, whilst selling multiple DLC bundles that add in stuff that should have arguably been present at launch, with an extra layer of micro-transactions added in for extra giggles.

Yes WoW costs a chunk of cash to play, but you're getting the most comprehensively and well supported game in the world for your money, that is constantly being actively developed and improved, with patches, changes, new content, and full expansions.

It has a development team that numbers in the hundreds, working full time on the game, all the time - and that isn't cheap.

So yes, to play it's a tenner a month and then £35 every two years for the next full expansion, or if you're prepared to be an expansion behind the game is a tenner (or even a fiver, as above), plus your tenner a month.

One can choose to vote with their wallets however they wish, of course :)


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Thu Nov 24, 2016 12:04 
User avatar
UltraMod

Joined: 27th Mar, 2008
Posts: 55715
Location: California
:facepalm: :DD

_________________
I am currently under construction.
Thank you for your patience.


Image


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Thu Nov 24, 2016 12:07 
User avatar
Gogmagog

Joined: 30th Mar, 2008
Posts: 48607
Location: Cheshire
Lonewolves wrote:
KovacsC wrote:
To be fair I would expect the game for free, if I was paying over £100 a year in subs....

Yeah, it's a disgraceful business model.


Worse than netrunner

_________________
Mr Chris wrote:
MaliA isn't just the best thing on the internet - he's the best thing ever.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Thu Nov 24, 2016 12:11 
User avatar
Master of dodgy spelling....

Joined: 25th Sep, 2008
Posts: 22533
Location: shropshire, uk
Hearthly wrote:
I find it substantially less disgraceful than what seems to pass for the 'AAA' games business model these days, which is to sell broken games at full price, repeatedly shunt out multi-gigabyte patches for months that may or may not fix everything, whilst selling multiple DLC bundles that add in stuff that should have arguably been present at launch, with an extra layer of micro-transactions added in for extra giggles.

Yes WoW costs a chunk of cash to play, but you're getting the most comprehensively and well supported game in the world for your money, that is constantly being actively developed and improved, with patches, changes, new content, and full expansions.

It has a development team that numbers in the hundreds, working full time on the game, all the time - and that isn't cheap.

So yes, to play it's a tenner a month and then £35 every two years for the next full expansion, or if you're prepared to be an expansion behind the game is a tenner (or even a fiver, as above), plus your tenner a month.

One can choose to vote with their wallets however they wish, of course :)


I think you missed the point by a country mile.....

EVE has a monthly charge but the game is free to play. If I remember most MMos have that model.

it is a bit cheeky to charge £35 for an expansion as well as a monthly charge

_________________
MetalAngel wrote:
Kovacs: From 'unresponsive' to 'kebab' in 3.5 seconds


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Fri Nov 25, 2016 9:58 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
KovacsC wrote:
I think you missed the point by a country mile.....

EVE has a monthly charge but the game is free to play. If I remember most MMos have that model.

it is a bit cheeky to charge £35 for an expansion as well as a monthly charge


What you have to remember with WoW is that they don't just push an expansion out of the door and then leave the game alone for two years, with everyone on the WoW team immediately starting to work on the next expansion.

The current expansion, Legion, was released at the end of the August, and has already received its first major content update, with many more in the pipeline over the life-cycle of the expansion, before the next full expansion is released (this is usually a two-year cycle, or thereabouts).

As well as these major updates, each expansion receives constant tweaks, patches, hotfixes, minor content updates, seasonal events, and so on.

If you don't mind being an expansion behind, the game is damn near free to play ('buy') (the £5 deal above is a drop from £10, so it was hardly mega-expensive beforehand), and the only ongoing charges are indeed the subscription. If you want the latest expansion then yes they do cost £35 at launch and usually for the first year or so, after which point they generally drop down to £20 and then lower as the expansion gets older.

It's hard to over-emphasise just how vast WoW really is, this is perhaps unsurprising considering the game is now over twelve years and six expansions old, but nonetheless it's a massive world to explore with a huge variety of things to do, and all of it actively and constantly curated, maintained, and improved.

I can completely understand folks looking at the headline numbers and baulking, '£35 for an expansion AND a tenner a month? Fuck off!', and that's fine, hence my suggestion that the £5 for the full game up to Draenor and including a month's subscription, might be a good way for people to investigate without a large commitment of cash, and then subsequently decide if they think it's worth continuing or not.

I've lost count of the AAA games me and my mates have tried over the years, MMOs and otherwise, with and without monthly subscriptions, and in terms of a game you can play on a long-term basis and continue to get enjoyment and satisfaction out of - nothing has ever come close to WoW.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Sat Nov 26, 2016 16:21 
User avatar
Master of dodgy spelling....

Joined: 25th Sep, 2008
Posts: 22533
Location: shropshire, uk
My point is....

The subscription should be enough to keep the game going and fund expansion. There should not be a need to pay for an expansion.

_________________
MetalAngel wrote:
Kovacs: From 'unresponsive' to 'kebab' in 3.5 seconds


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 20:54 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
My first ever legendary item, and I've been playing the game since July 2008!

Well I was quite excited at least :)

Attachment:
hasselhoof.JPG


You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 9:05 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
Six months into the new expansion and there's a consensus amongst us that the game is currently the best it's ever been.

Blizzard have really nailed the endgame now, so that even if you're not a hardcore guild raider, there's loads of stuff to do at the level cap, and there's a constant stream of new content coming onstream as well. (Blizzard admitted they fucked this up in the last expansion.) There are a load of new tools built into the game which make grouping up for world quest/group content quick and easy for when you're playing by yourself, so you'll routinely find yourself in groups doing stuff (if you want to), all the way up to 40-man groups taking down world bosses and suchlike.

Our group is currently working on 'Mythic Plus' dungeon progression, which is the hardest 5-man content in the game. Dungeon difficulty goes Normal > Heroic > Mythic > and then Mythic Plus +2, +3, +4 etc up to +11. We've currently managed a +2 run and will be attempting a +3 run later in the week.

On a family level Mrs H and H Jnr are really loving it too, and the three of us play together daily doing more 'family friendly' pursuits in keeping with H Jnr's limited tolerance for stressful situations. (She's very fond of questing and levelling, and doing some of the easier world quests to gear up at Level 110.)

None of you care, you won't install it, you won't try it, even though it's free-to-play up to Level 20. All I'll say though, is there's a really good game just going begging here.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 10:36 
User avatar
Unpossible!

Joined: 27th Jun, 2008
Posts: 38439
Hearthly wrote:
None of you care, you won't install it, you won't try it, even though it's free-to-play up to Level 20.

Correct. But I do enjoy reading about it.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 10:39 
User avatar
UltraMod

Joined: 27th Mar, 2008
Posts: 55715
Location: California
Hearthly wrote:
None of you care, you won't install it, you won't try it

Christ no. I already have one MMO time and money sink and that's one too many.

_________________
I am currently under construction.
Thank you for your patience.


Image


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 10:39 
User avatar
Comfortably Dumb

Joined: 30th Mar, 2008
Posts: 12034
Location: Sunny Stoke
I think there were probably three reasons I've never played WoW. The monthly subscription and the PC specs aren't as much of an issue now, but the last still remains - I was terrible for getting hooked on Diablo II and I think I'd be the same with this. It's bad enough that I haven't weaned myself off Binding of Isaac yet, let alone adding an RPG into the mix too. :)

_________________
Consolemad | Under Logic
Curse, the day is long
Realise you don't belong


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Tue Sep 26, 2017 8:51 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
Quote:
This led to what Klara describes as a disturbing scene: "A female human really wanted to 69 with me as a few paladins watch and simulate ejaculation through spells that emit white light." Klara responded with a very clear "no!", to which the players responded by surrounding her and harassing her further.


https://motherboard.vice.com/amp/en_us/ ... pe-problem

There are often lots of people in their underwear in the Goldshire Tavern, although it's never gone as far as ejaculating Paladins in my own experience, then again we don't play on RP servers.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 06, 2018 19:40 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
Latest expansion is imminent, it's currently in the 'pre-launch' phase which means there are some new questlines to do and the prologue story for the expansion itself, with different questlines for each factions.

Myself, Mrs Hearthly and Hearthly Jnr have been questing out the new stuff over the last couple of days (admittedly there isn't a huge amount of stuff to do yet), ready for when the full expansion launches later this month.

Even if that is of no interest to you whatsoever, I'd respectfully draw your attention to just one of the amazing cinematics Blizzard has done to get a grip on the character arcs going into the expansion.

(i.e. This is worth watching, just on its own merits.)



Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Tue Aug 07, 2018 10:37 

Joined: 5th Jun, 2018
Posts: 389
Yeah but, Horde>Alliance.

My friends are trying to get me to come back, they're telling me how they've rerolled on another server as alliance because they wanted to play the new high elfs.

I don't mind coming back, but I'm not rerolling my character that i've spent (far too much) time on getting gear/achis/goldz and I sure as shit aint transferring him for £50.

It's a real shame as this is the first expansion I've actually been interested in.

E:(I will agree that Cinematic is great, also the Sylvanas ones great too)


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Wed Aug 08, 2018 15:26 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
You get a Level 110 boost when you buy the expansion, or at least, we all did because we pre-ordered it. (i.e. Check that you still get the boost with the expansion.)

Don't worry about being on different servers, with the new community system groups and guilds sort of straddle servers anyway.

Gold is largely irrelevant now (I don't even bother playing the AH anymore) and of course any gear you've currently got will be going in the bin anyway.

The pre-expansion world quests are awarding gear more powerful than the endgame raid gear from the current expansion, so even with a fresh 110 you can get them 'endgame' geared quite easily just doing the current pre-expansion content.

When was the last time you played the game in anger?

As for Horde vs Alliance, most of my characters are Horde but I always level an Alliance or two per expansion as we like to see each expansion from both sides. I think the Taurens are my favourite race and I love the music in Thunder Bluff.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 14:41 
User avatar
ugvm'er at heart...

Joined: 4th Mar, 2010
Posts: 22255
I have 3 L110 characters ready to go. My holy priest which was the character I mained for Legion, a mage which I used my 110 boost on, and my hunter which I mained for WoD.
My hunter was at 105 on Friday, so I took him to 110 on Saturday. I expect he is the one that I will concentrate on to start with, as holy priest damage has gone through the floor recently. I used to round up and holy nova spam, that still works but takes ages these days.

I have Wednesdays off work anyway, so a Tuesday night release is perfect for me. I've also taken Thursday/Friday off work, as I might as well use my holiday days for something!

I expect Tuesday night will be a shit show, but i'll be pissed anyway, so I'll start on Wednesday morning and see how the servers are holding up.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 15:39 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
Do a

/played

on all your characters.

Post the results here.

Biggest nerd wins!


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 16:00 
User avatar
ugvm'er at heart...

Joined: 4th Mar, 2010
Posts: 22255
It'll have to wait till tonight, but sure...


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 16:07 
User avatar
ugvm'er at heart...

Joined: 4th Mar, 2010
Posts: 22255
Hmm... it appears that it's released tonight at 11pm, not tomorrow at 11pm...


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 17:40 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
5658 hours 8)

Attachment:
timers.JPG


You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 20:04 
User avatar
ugvm'er at heart...

Joined: 4th Mar, 2010
Posts: 22255
1896 hours here, you win ;)


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 20:31 
User avatar
ugvm'er at heart...

Joined: 4th Mar, 2010
Posts: 22255
It's almost as if something is expected to happen here soon...


You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 20:32 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
Trooper wrote:
1896 hours here, you win ;)


Is that including all your characters ever though?

I've still got all the characters I've ever rolled, except for a Rogue I got to Level 10 and deleted, so that really is my total game time for an entire decade, less maybe three or four hours.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 20:33 
User avatar
ugvm'er at heart...

Joined: 4th Mar, 2010
Posts: 22255
Hearthly wrote:
Trooper wrote:
1896 hours here, you win ;)


Is that including all your characters ever though?

I've still got all the characters I've ever rolled, except for a Rogue I got to Level 10 and deleted, so that really is my total game time for an entire decade, less maybe three or four hours.


Yup, 23 characters on 3 different servers.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 20:38 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
In all fairness I was MASSIVELY into this game for the first three or four years, I eased off in Cataclysm and have been more of a casual player since then. (In WoW terms at least.)

But during Wrath, it was basically all I did....... :o


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 23:13 
User avatar
ugvm'er at heart...

Joined: 4th Mar, 2010
Posts: 22255
I'm enjoying BfA so far!


You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 23:25 
User avatar
ugvm'er at heart...

Joined: 4th Mar, 2010
Posts: 22255
That first quest was hard, now i'm onto the first boss.


You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 23:27 
User avatar
ugvm'er at heart...

Joined: 4th Mar, 2010
Posts: 22255
Dammit, he killed me!


You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Tue Aug 14, 2018 8:00 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
I was logging in and playing OK on Doomhammer, but I wasn't trying to do the new expansion stuff. Are you still playing on Draenor? According to the realm select screen that server is full so I guess it'll suffer more.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Tue Aug 14, 2018 8:25 
User avatar
ugvm'er at heart...

Joined: 4th Mar, 2010
Posts: 22255
Hearthly wrote:
I was logging in and playing OK on Doomhammer, but I wasn't trying to do the new expansion stuff. Are you still playing on Draenor? According to the realm select screen that server is full so I guess it'll suffer more.


Yeah draenor is the busiest eu server, it didn't handle the launch well...


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Wed Aug 15, 2018 8:00 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
Poor Hearthly Jnr, after months of excitement and build-up she got a dreadful case of the jitters yesterday evening and couldn't bring herself to log in and start playing, it's like she'd built it up so much in her mind when it finally came time to play she was unsure about it.

Fortunately Mrs Hearthly had the idea of logging in with one of her (many) 110s and doing the initial few quests whilst Jnr watched, that did the trick nicely and after an hour or so she was champing at the bit to get started, although by that time it was too late for us to start ourselves.

I used the time to log into my Priest but discovered that Blizzard have made questing as Holy pretty much non-viable (I've been Holy forever, basically, I don't like Shadow at all and for some reason I've just never tried Discipline).

However, I'd decided I wanted to level as a Priest with Mrs Hearthly and Jnr, so with Holy non-viable for questing (i.e. no meaningful damage output, so I'd just be healing as we were questing which isn't much use) - I decided to try Discipline for the first time ever (I've been playing WoW for over 10 years, and I've never played a Disc Priest before).

Took a short while to get the abilities and rotation sorted (Icy Veins always helps....), but after going out into the world and smacking a few 110 mobs around I decided I rather liked it. Good heals and good DPS in one handy package!

So by all accounts we'll be kicking off our questing adventures tonight. Nice to see the cities so busy again, Orgrimmar was rammed!


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Wed Aug 15, 2018 9:12 
User avatar
ugvm'er at heart...

Joined: 4th Mar, 2010
Posts: 22255
Hearthly wrote:

I used the time to log into my Priest but discovered that Blizzard have made questing as Holy pretty much non-viable (I've been Holy forever, basically, I don't like Shadow at all and for some reason I've just never tried Discipline).


Exactly the same here. I don't like shadow as I want my healer to actually be able to heal... I expect i'll have to switch to disco this time round. Like you i've never really tried it before.


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Reply to topic  [ 566 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1 ... 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12  Next

All times are UTC [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Columbo, MaliA, Squirt and 0 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search within this thread:
You are using the 'Ted' forum. Bill doesn't really exist any more. Bogus!
Want to help out with the hosting / advertising costs? That's very nice of you.
Are you on a mobile phone? Try http://beex.co.uk/m/
RIP, Owen. RIP, MrC.

Powered by a very Grim... version of phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group.