The TPS Report - Games, Beats 'n' Blogs

Guest Writer Spook's Experiences With the World of Warcraft Euro Beta
Posted by Gil - 17/1/2005 0:35

Hello World of Warcraft

After all the reviews, all the hype, all the everything, I finally got into the Euro beta thanks to my pre-ordered version of World of Warcraft. With much anticipation, I waited 14 hours for the client to download via BitTorrent (thankfully, the final product will be on CD...).

With my friends in mind, I tried to join beta server #6 which they all use, but it was sadly full, forcing me to sit there waiting for a chance to join. I waited and waited for more than an hour until I was eventually able to log in. I certainly hope that Blizzard have learned their mistakes with the US launch and manage it better here in Europe next month - it would be ridiculous to ask any paid customer to wait to play a full retail game like this.

The first thing you have to do once logged in is create your character, and to be honest it's rather primitive. You have only 6-8 different options for your face, hair, facial hair and skin colour, and that's it. Definitely one of the poorer features of the game, but I guess it kind of fits in well with the game's simplistic cartoony graphics. Although different clothing, armour and weapons differentiate you and other characters further into the game, it doesn't get away from the fact that each person tends to look identical to someone you met earlier. Thankfully everyone has their name plastered the size of a highway advert above their head. Regardless, I created a human mage and finally started my WoWing adventures in the town of Northshire Abbey.

My first impression was one of odd familiarity, and if you've played Warcraft III you'll immediately see what I mean. My character quite literally feels like a mini soldier from Warcraft III (and that includes in the graphics department as well). Those graphics may not be cutting edge, but animations feel right, and the look is on the whole very Warcraft III-ish.

Just as I was about to dig through the online help to figure out where to go and how to get there, I spotted an NPC. As I began chatting and following his instructions, I realized this was the natural starting point of the game and the beginning of my journey.

People who know me know that I hate the typical MMO monster farming, the mindless levelling and the same old tiresome missions that so often repeat over and over. I even fell asleep on more than one occasion when playing Neocron for these reasons. I'm therefore so thankful to see that although WoW does share the same basic MMORPG concepts, the experience has been so hugely improved.

There are many varieties of quests in WoW, you never find yourself doing the same one twice. They're directly linked to your level and are therefore achievable when going solo too. The great part is that quests subtly lead you off exploring new areas, encountering different beasts, and helping you level. Later on they also start linking multiple different quests into an overall story.

Even more rewarding is the speed of levelling at the beginning. As a total newbie, I got up to level 8 with a mere four hours of play. I'm sure you can do it faster in fact, thanks to the sense of encouragement you get that entire time.

As a job-less newbie with no cash to his name, Spook couldn't afford a real bed and thus was forced to improvise

The world is huge, but since I'm a lowly newcomer, all my quests were within the same newbie zones, each within walking distance. Thank God there are no 20 minute long hikes of empty land to reach your quests; the most you have to travel is five minutes, and those five minutes are always choc-full of happenings. Even travelling is kind of fun if you take a short cut through the country; there are beasts chasing you down, lakes to swim across and epic mountains to climb. To travel in a more speedy manner, you can also hitch a ride on flying creatures though, and as I reach higher levels I'm sure I'll be expected to travel far and wide for that "ultimate quest". If and when I ever get there, I'll let you know.

As far as combat mechanics are concerned, although there's nothing revolutionary here, the talent options you get to pick from level 10 upwards add that extra bit of uniqueness. The ability to mix and match these different talents to suit your fighting style is nice.

Grouping in WoW is easy and fun too. I love the quest-sharing feature, it encourages similar levelled players to group together and makes levelling easier and a lot less risky. To make looting fair, whenever a valuable item is dropped an automatic dice roll will occur - if the item is usable by you, you can participate in the roll and try snagging the item. It really does away with loot arguments during questing, and although I lost two rolls last night, my partner was even willing to share the loot with me regardless. Still, the best way still to tackle this sort of thing may be to lay down some ground rules prior to questing.

Desperate for social interactions and some virtual pussy, Spook began belly dancing on street corners...with little success

In terms of crafting professions, I haven't done much yet as I only just picked up tailoring and am still figuring it all out. From what I've seen though, it's definitely worth taking the time to level up your crafting skills, providing you want to earn some easy money. It also presents a gentler side of WoW as well, aside from killing monsters. I've not discovered the wonders of the auction house yet, but guess where I'm heading tonight...

One down side to the game so far for me is the lack of social aspects. Perhaps it's because I'm not in a guild yet, but everyone seems to be so busy questing that it's rare to see people just chilling out and chatting. I guess I'm also guilty of it myself, but surely there must be places out there you can simply hang out and meet people? I don’t really want to play a MMO-solo-RPG after all.

My WoWing adventures will continue soon…