World of Warcraft

[Hydrobond]

Keep in mind, though, that RAM can run slower than its posted speed, it just can't run faster.  With RAM prices as they are today, it isn't too much of an investment to get RAM that is faster than you need, if you are unsure.  Though that little Crucial tool is handy when it comes to figuring out what speed you need.  

One more note, if you have a dual channel motherboard, you may gave to get all new RAM or suffer a speed decrease.  Information on dual channel RAM is redily available, so I will not post it here, but do a little research before you buy.

And WoW is very much worth $15 a month.  ($12 if you but it 3 at a time like I do.)  For how much time I play it, it's not really that much of an investment.  I don't collect games though.

[sinning.dragon]

Down with Alliance!

< 3

[Tynstar]

If they charge 12-15 dollars a month then the game should be free.

[Hydrobond]

If they charge 12-15 dollars a month then the game should be free.

The 12-15 goes to maintenance and paying for their bandwidth.  The game was $19.99 around here last weekend, and I think it still has a free month with it.  I'm sure they are making some money off of the monthly fee, but not that much.  It takes a ton of money to keep a game like this up and running.  

Either way, I'm not trying to sell it.

[Tynstar]

I am sure they are making a shit load of money of the monthly fees.

[captain_nintendo]

I am sure they are making a shit load of money of the monthly fees.

They have to be.... I am sure a portion of the fee does go to upkeep and what not.

[Hydrobond]

At the rate they add new equipment (Each zone requires at least one high calibur server to run, with multiple for each instance and a massive infrastructure to keept it all together) and with how often they upgrade the old equipment, they may not be making as much as you think.  WoW has a ton of users, and I am sure they are making a lot of money on the venture, if they were't they wouldn't be in the business.  But Blizzard seems to be putting more effort and more money into keeping the gear behind the scenes up to date than any of the other MMORPGs I've seen/played.  

[yap]

To say they're making a lot of money is putting it very mildly.  They turned the sinking ship that was Vivendi around.  When a single game is responsible for keeping a gigantic international media conglomerate afloat, that should tell you something.

Buying servers and paying for bandwith is cheap when compared to 5 million users paying ~$15 USD a month, not to mention the initial game purchase.  Give me a break.

[Tynstar]

To say they're making a lot of money is putting it very mildly.  They turned the sinking ship that was Vivendi around.  When a single game is responsible for keeping a gigantic international media conglomerate afloat, that should tell you something.

Buying servers and paying for bandwith is cheap when compared to 5 million users paying ~$15 USD a month, not to mention the initial game purchase.  Give me a break.

Thats what I was going to say.  |D

[Hydrobond]

Hit level 40 on my latest character.  Mounts are nice.

[Sauza12]

I'm almost at level 13!   |D

I gotta give credit to the horde that is on my server, because they have some balls.  It seems like 2-3 times a day they stage a raid on Goldshire and Stormwind.  They always get wiped out, but they at least make it tough.  They always seem to run into me on thier way to the raid.  Luckily I'm not any threat to them, so the usually just screw with me for a minute or two and then go on thier way.

[Tynstar]

In WoW can player vs player happen at any moment? If so that is a second reason for me not to play.

[yap]

They have PVP servers and non PVP servers.

[Sauza12]

Yeah, it can happen but the higher level players normally don't screw with the lower level players.  If a level 60 kills a level 10, they get an unhonorable kill.  If you get enough unhonorable kills your faction will turn on you and you will be attacked on sight by everyone.

[blissfulnoise]

On all non-pvp servers, or PvE servers as their called (Player verses Environment) you can option to turn on your PvP flag.  If you turn your flag on, that means you can be attacked by anyone of the opposing faction at any time.  There are rules around when and how you can turn on your flag, but I don't play with pansies on those servers, so feel free to research on your own.

On PvP servers, there are Horde lands, Alliance lands, and Contested lands.  The "newbie" areas for each respective faction are not contested.  While in a land that's assigned to your faction, you cannot be attacked by the opposing faction unless you initiate combat first.  This means that while playing from levels 1 to 20ish, you don't have to do any PvP at all unless you want to, even on a PvP server.  But, if you help (heal, buff, etc) someone who is engaged in PvP, or initate combat yourself, you will be PvP flagged and can be killed.

In Contested lands, anyone can initiate PvP combat with anyone of the opposing faction at any time.  1 on 1, 20 on 1, 20 on 20, 100 on 100.  Whatever.

At level 13, Sauza12 must be picking fights with the Horde first otherwise they cannot do anything to him.  They can't train mobs on him either.  All they can do is get in his way or steal his kills if they want to be mean.  Contested lands become a viable option to level around level 16 or so, but you can stay out of them until your mid 20s if you'd like.

You also cannot fight members of your own faction unless you're in one specific spot in the game.

You can also duel members of your faction at any time, but you will not die from damage, you automatically yield at 1 hit point.  You can also duel members of the opposing faction, even on PvP servers.  That makes for interesting times since you cannot communicate to each other beyond simple emotes.

All servers feature Battlegrounds which pit factions against each other in Team PvP (20 on 20 for the first two and 40 on 40 for the last one).  There are three different Battlegrounds with different goals.  Warsong Gulch which is Capture the Flag, Arathi Basin which is King of the Hill (hold points on the map for periods of time), and Alterac Valley which has lots of smaller goals but ultimately you have to destroy the opposing faction's Headquarters.

Death in WoW via PvP is, more or less, meaningless.  You simply run back to your corpse and incur a very small durability hit on your gear which will cost gold to repair.  Nothing significant at all.  Dieing in a Battleground has no penalty what-so-ever.

World of Warcraft was designed to offer PvP options to the broadest of player bases.  It's harmless, fun, and can offer serious rewards if you invest time in it.  While getting ganked by 3 Rogues 20 levels higher than you while soloing may not be a great time, when boiled down it's pretty harmless and nowhere near as severe as PvP in say UO or Asheron's Call.  Again, you cannot lose any experience, stats, or items from death in WoW, PvP or otherwise.