World of Warcraft - worth starting?

[Flicky]

I've had a passing interest in this MMORPG for a while now, but whenever I look at it, it just feels like it might not be worth joining now, since it's been around for so long.

Does anyone here play? Is it worth starting now? If it is, does the free trial up to lv20 give me a good enough idea of what to expect?

 

[Corrie]

I don't play but I know people who have and as long as you're careful to not get addicted, you should be fine. It's easy to sink hours and hours into it. The folks I know who play it needed to sink hours and hours just to even be relevant and compete. It's not something you can pick up and play here and there like something like Mario Kart. You gotta train basically. As long as you're aware of the time sink.

 

[Foreverfox]

Definitely agree with Corrie. I used to play and it is a HUGE time sink to even keep up. My thing with if I were to start playing now as if I was a new player is that there are sooo many expansions now that it’s just absurd. I don’t even know how people keep track of it all unless they’ve been a devotee from the beginning. Other players are generally way overpowered too, which makes it not fun when people just come out of no where. Sorry, might have some play trauma coming through there haha. You could always try the free trial and see though!

 

[Millysaurusrexjr]

WoW is a time sink for sure but I think that's true of any MMORPG. I played a little bit of WoW over 10 years ago, and it was already kinda old by then! It was my first MMORPG and I had fun, although I don't think I got past level 60. There are a lot of cool mounts and interesting locations in the game, and I'm sure a lot of people still actively play it.

I think if you're interested in WoW, then it's probably worth trying it out. It may be dated but that can be a very charming thing; like how OldSchool Runescape is still popular despite the very simple graphics.

 

[Belle T]

I don't play this game specifically, but I'm friends with a few people that do. Most of those people have been playing roughly since the start. As such, please take everything I say with a grain of salt, as I can't really expound upon any of it. From what I know, if you have played other MMORPG's in the past, the free trial will probably be sufficient in helping you decide whether or not you want to keep playing. If this is your first MMO, you will probably have to take some time to get acquainted with systems, etiquette, and gameplay styles which might make the level 20 cap seem comparatively small. MMORPG's aren't just "an RPG game that happens to be online" as many accomodations have to be made to support the PC environment and large player base. So there's a specific breed of quirkiness and jank that you probably wouldn't appreciate in an online shooter as a counter-example.

My opinion is that it never hurts to just give it a try. If you're not enjoying yourself, you'll probably know this from a very early point. If you want to try other MMORPG's, I do recommend giving RuneScape (old school or otherwise) a go. It's free and still has a large playerbase and can be played in a browser. It's a bit of a different game, but from what I remember, it's similar enough to WoW to satiate that desire on a whim.

The only thing I'd personally caution you about as someone with limited experience with MMORPG's is that the active community for any of them is going to have their share of snobs and geeks with superiority complexes that will perhaps unfairly taint the experience in some way. And if the game has a PvP system, turn it off at the start of the game to avoid level 100 griefers who get a kick out of slaughtering level 1's and then bragging about it.

 

[Flicky]

Thanks for the advice, all.

I think I'll give the trial a try, and see how it goes, although I doubt I'll go in for it past level 20. The only other MMORPG I've played was Cartoon Network Fusion Fall, but that was F2P and not as time consuming as this one appears to be. Thanks again!