An EVE Veteran Takes on WoW, Part 1

Many moons ago, back in the dark ages of the internet where downstreams were measured in double digits of kbps, I was hooked on MUDs. Thus, when Ultima Online was announce and later released (while I was in middle school), I simply had to have it. Since then, I've had an on-again, off-again relationship with MMOs. After leaving UO, I pledged never to pay a monthly fee for a game again. I then returned to MUDs. I was happy for awhile. Then came WoW.

My senior year of college, I gave WoW a spin, despite my better judgement, and found I really enjoyed it. My girlfriend even got into it (I love women who game!), so it was a lot of fun. Then the fun just...stopped. I was a level 34 Tauren Druid at the time. For those who remember the older days of WoW, you probably can guess why I stopped. The 30-40 grind used to be just an absolute nightmare. I am a bit of an alt-aholic, so the thought of grinding 3-4 characters through the immense gulf from 30-40 was not high on my priority list. Still, I kept playing for a bit longer with lower level characters, hoping against hope that it'd somehow be easier for other classes or races. I was getting ready to swear off MMOs again when someone showed me EVE. The rest is wreck and frozen corpse laden history.

Recently, however, my timezone (since moving to Japan) has been sub-optimal for participating with my alliance-mates in EVE. Desperate for some kind of real MMO interaction that was a more approachable solo experience, I have decided to give WoW another shot. As was mentioned on the pilot of The Drone Bay Podcast, the very day I got in touch with Al about doing the show for EVE was the same day he was downloading Trinity. What I did not mention on the show was that I was downloading WoW at the same time.

Thus, dear readers, the hard core, pvp-loving, Bitter Old Noob journeys back to the World of Warcraft. Stay tuned for my (mis)adventures back in the land of fairies and elves. Not to worry, though, EVE is my true MMO love, and is not going anywhere.

Due to the lengthy intro, Part 1 will be brief. I have currently rolled 4 characters (remember the alt-aholic thing?), 3 Alliance, 1 Horde. I was hard core Horde back in the day, and even now my highest level is a level 21 Blood Elf Fire Mage on Nordrassil. The Alliance characters I have are a lvl 14 Night Elf Priest (Shadow), a lvl 16 Dwarf Hunter (Beast), and a lvl 12 Dranei Paladin (Ret), all on Ghostlands. Thus far, I must say that the game has come a very long way from what I remember. Al has promised that the grinds have become much fewer and further between, and much shorter when they do happen. The game has the same cartoony style, but I think that they have demonstrated that this style ages much more gracefully than the more realistic approach of DDO or EQ.

Thus far, I'm still in pretty easy level country, and have yet to take my mage to Wailing Caverns, so I'll update more when I have actually been in an instance again.

I am enjoying WoW for now, but the real test will come when Conan and Warhammer Online finally come riding over the horizon. Until then, LFG.