It has taken a few hours, but I finally have a few minutes of WoW under my belt. I have a couple of things to note about the initial setup before I get started. First, the copy of WoW was version 1.11.0.5428; this thing too a while to install (5 CDs). My wife’s laptop is not the fastest in the world, but I was surprised that the thing did not install faster. I lost track of time, but each disk had to take 20 minutes.
Once the game was loaded, the first thing I noticed was this little gem of a note
“If you do not wish to be billed for additional time, you must cancel your account prior to the end of your free month.”
I have always had something against monthly fee games; you cannot even start this one without setting up a credit card unless you have some sort of prepaid card. I would still rather do some sort of pay as you go plan.
I noticed that the Bronzebeard server is going to be offline Tuesday and Wednesday. Joy. Do you get a credit if your server is down?
Before I could get any further, the game started downloading patch 1.12, which was a good 465MB. Here we go with patching. The bane of PC gaming (for console fans). I noted that my download panel showed a yellow status – “your computer appears to be behind a firewall
change firewall and router settings (port forwarding).” While I did not have any problems downloading the patch, I setup my firewall and router to make sure ports were configured correctly for WoW. Still took about 25-30 minutes to complete the download. Then the download had to install. Yawn. Not so fun. Finally I was on version 1.12.0.5595 and ready to partake in some WoW.
The game suggested a server, but I picked Bronzebeard. Figured Chris may start a new character (or something) and play with me every once in a while. So off I go, but the game tells me that Bronzebeard is full (apparently I there are 24 players in queue). After a couple of minutes it was time to create a player.
I really wanted to create a druid, but I am not sure I like the looks of the elves in this game. I decided to go with a male Dwarf Hunter named Tuldar.
At this point I really do not know WTF is going on around me. The help icons (!) are nice; I think I would be really lost with out them. Right away someone asks me to join their party, but I declined. Still trying to figure out WTH to do and all that. I accepted a quest (have to get some wolf mean or the like), and off I go. Of course I saw bunnies, and my first thought was that I am not going to spend my time killing rabbits.
About 15 minutes later Tuldar was level 2, and had picked up some useful items (some sort of rob, belt, cloak, and boots). My reward for my first quest was a pair of Wolf Gloves (I think). I could have picked two other items, but I am not sure why I would want to pick up rabbit gloves. I think the other pair was something I could not use (part of the name was in read) because the gloves were metal. Of course I could be wrong, but I am thinking back to D&D games; there must be some restrictions.
Now the fun part. I needed to take the dog out, and lock up for the night, but I had no idea what to do to safely end the game. Is Tuldar going to get robbed? Should I have found an Inn? Instead the dude just sat down and that was that. I am now a veteran (but not so much) of WoW.
hehe, I was online most of the day since this was a terrible football weekend. Add Fwarn and Swarn to your friends list. One is my hunter and the other is my priest. Also, hunter may not be the best choice. They are very popular and as such, nobody wants them around until the very high end instances. Other less popular classes are priest, warlock, mage, and warrior. People seem to be looking for those classes a lot when they are looking for dungeon groups.
Oh yea, you want in inn because you get “rest” in inns. For a period of rest time, your experience gained doubles. So always rest in an inn or a city. But at level 2, I don’t think you have that option yet (an inn).
Chris, I am going to post more on each of these comments later today. What level are Fwarn and Swarn? Are they located anywhere near me – Coldridge Vally in Dun Morogh? Any interest in starting a new character so we can play in the same party (assuming Fwarn and Swarn are too high level for me right now)?
Both Fwarn and Swarn are level 60. I will start a dwarf palidin tonight that can group with you. I am known as a racist in my guild because I only play dwarf characters and routinely make jokes about how elves look :-). Night elves are by far the most popular Alliance group. I also want to emphasize that you might want to start over with a different class. I only use my hunter to farm loot with. My priest does all of my high-end stuff. Just about any class is better, although we do have a lot of rogues in the guild, so I’d look at something other than hunter and rogue. Should take us a couple of hours to get to level 10 (which is when the fun begins). Before that the game mechanics are just getting you adjusted to the interface.