As people have said there is a trial but it didn't used to be available to "existing accounts" - I think they changed that last year. And the 1-20 leveling is pretty polished. Round about 40-50? it starts to look dated graphics wise and then it picks up again post 50. There is solid content but everything is pretty fast these days.
Should you play now? Tricky. There are class changes incoming - usually prior to the next expansion so c. 4 months out maybe. Lots of classes are impacted and some of the changes are non-trivial. When I last tried WoW a "relatively minor" change was one of the reasons I left - it changed the entire way my main character played. And yes I could have "worked through it" but I decided that I had had enough. So I am somewhat hesitant about suggesting you try "now".
There are other games you didn't mention e.g. LotR, EQ2, GW1 even but you may have tried those and not liked them. There are also some very solid "non-mmo" games out there as well - some online with co-op options, some solo that could be worth thinking about as well e.g. Withcher 3, assume you have tried Skyrim etc.
I just resubscribed to a month of WoW. Getting a couple of characters to lvl 100 before Legion launches.
There is never a bad time to jump into WoW. I only play it for the lore so i dont have to subscribe every month to enjoy the game.
You pointed out everything what's wrong with mmorpgs today. The journey became meaningless and turned into a rush to max level. That's why imo games need horizontal progression instead of vertical only.
As to playing for lore only, i really envy players like you. I guess i'll never know how much i missed and never experienced in WoW because i never really cared for the lore. To me it was bars and numbers only, too bad.
With every new game i start i always vow to myself to already read the damn quest texts and follow the story for once.
If you plan on reading all the lore and quest text there is an addon that you HAVE to install. It's called Storyline and it's on curse. Definitely check it out, changed the feel of the whole game for me.
You will level too fast. That's the main problems for newcomers. Always remember that you can disable levelling by visiting an NPC in one of the capital cities if the levelling speed annoys you. I disabled it when I got to level 70 so that I didn't completely faceroll the whole burning crusade expansion.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
lol at people saying EQ2 is better , it went through its own NGE like SWG because wow was destroying its playerbase.
WOW hands down is the best of the best for pve themeparks. You are getting a lot of jaded gamers here commenting negatively about it because they are jaded beyond repair and are still searching for their perfect mmorpg that will never release. WOW has a HUGE world 100 levels and plenty of classes and races. There is rare monsters in each zone you can try to chase after, pvp, pet battles like pokemon, and enough content to keep a player who hasnt played before playing for a year or more. The issue is its age, people here have played it to death and are negative about it. It still has fun combat and plenty of zones, I recently went back to mess around on a free 60 day card that was given to me just to work on loremaster achievement while still playing ESO regularly. WOW has it all honestly and anyone who is objective of themeparks easily sees that. The issue now is blizzard got lazy and stopped releasing content for months and months based around expansions instead without much filler to keep end game players happy. The issue with many of us is we have leveled enough alts to 100 to not want to just go do it again in between expansions.
Also FF sucks whoever suggested it was better really needs to step back and examine what gaming is, FF delivers about nothing at all to the industry and was rebuilt from the ground up because it sucked so bad at release. LOTR online is about the only other game in terms of content to compare to wow but its about dead and the class animations and combat will put you to sleep. Rift was never that good it had generic classes/souls that all did just about the same thing for each calling and hub quests that were boring and generic. Trion designed their entire game at first around wow and warhammer online and did a sloppy job of it in all aspects especially pvp and balance.
I started playing it a couple years ago and it felt great. The world is huge and there is tons to do. The thing that really steers me away from WoW as well as other similar mmos is the endless gear grind. In order to be relevant in PvP and endgame PvE, you need to continually gear grind. If you don't minmax the crap outta your gear, it is hard to participate in the really awesome end game raids and dungeons and PvP, and that really sucks for me.
I just resubscribed to a month of WoW. Getting a couple of characters to lvl 100 before Legion launches.
There is never a bad time to jump into WoW. I only play it for the lore so i dont have to subscribe every month to enjoy the game.
You pointed out everything what's wrong with mmorpgs today. The journey became meaningless and turned into a rush to max level. That's why imo games need horizontal progression instead of vertical only.
As to playing for lore only, i really envy players like you. I guess i'll never know how much i missed and never experienced in WoW because i never really cared for the lore. To me it was bars and numbers only, too bad.
With every new game i start i always vow to myself to already read the damn quest texts and follow the story for once.
i see your point and i dont necessarily disagree with you, not entirely.
I only play WoW for the lore for a coupleof reasons. 1) i dont do raids and dungeons over and over. I do them once and thats it. I dont really rush to max level either, i actually hate rushing in games. And 2) i love the Warcraft lore. It is the only thing pushing me to level characters in that game. I dont read side quests, but i try to read the main storyline quests because the Warcraft lore is the only thing pushing me forward when play WoW.
I would love to play WoW for actual gameplay, but Blizzard focuses too much on instanced raids and dungeons. After i do that content once, there is no piece of gear that is worth enduring that same small content over and over and over for me. If they put more effort into making the open world more enjoyable for everyone i would probably subscribe more often that 1-3 times a year.
Wow, thanks for so many replies! Means a lot Yeah, I currently own GW1, and have 10/50 HoM points (Experienced GW2 player). Lotr was good! Too bad it wants you to pay for a lot of things.
I started WoW as a paladin. Played for about 20 mins last night, that's all the time I had. Was good fun tho, looking forward to playing again this evening! Oh.. I heard Blizzard loves paladins
WOW hands down is the best of the best for pve themeparks. You are getting a lot of jaded gamers here commenting negatively about it because they are jaded beyond repair and are still searching for their perfect mmorpg that will never release.
Let me tell you about why I consider WoW the most gawdawful game out there. No, it has nothing to do with 'wrecked gameplay' and 'leveling too fast'.
I played Wow from about 3 weeks after release, for about a year. I was well under way to getting a full set of Lawbringer gear. Then my guild folded, the fourth WoW guild I was in that folded from internal strife. About that time, a co-worker talked me into trying EQ2, a game I had a lot of fun playing. After all of the politics, I decided a break from WoW was a good idea. So I played EQ2 for a year. Then my friend had baby #2, and quit playing all games.
About this time, WoW released Burning Crusade. The timing was good, so I bought the expansion that had released about 6 weeks prior. I logged in on my 60 Paladin, & I saw that about 20 people from my friends list were playing, so I started asking about guild invites.
"When you get to 66 send me a tell." "My guild won't bring in anyone under 70." "I could probably get you in if you were 65, but sorry, no can do right now." And various similar excuses. They all said to find a startup guild to screw over, by getting them to help level, and then abandoning them when I was 66.
Sorry, it may be just a game, but I can't do that to a group of people. So I went on the WoW forums, and started looking for a guild. Finally I found one on another server. They wanted to grow into a raiding guild. So I paid the $25 to move three characters to their server, and started running with them. Of course I was a little let down that my Lawbringer gear was garbage compared to the blues I was finding in the game.
About this time my wife got really sick, and I needed to pay close attention to her for about a week. So I was only able to log into the game for about 6 hours that week., so I was only able to get to 62. The last day of that week, I logged into the game and there were two people left in the guild. One of my guildies was on my friends list, and I asked him what happened. He said they got an offer to move to another server to join an all out raiding guild. I asked why they did not say anything to me. He said I was not leveling fast enough.
So then, I advertised LF guild. "When you get to 66 send me a tell." "My guild won't bring in anyone
under 70." "I could probably get you in if you were 65, but sorry, no
can do right now." And various similar excuses. They all said to find a
startup guild to screw over, by getting them to help level, and then
abandoning them when I was 66.
After all the money I wasted (BC + server transfer + a month sub), and all the friends that let me down, I realized that the community in WoW SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS.
I logged out, cancelled my subscription and have never looked back.
The world is going to the dogs, which is just how I planned it!
@GladDog ;: Sorry to hear about your experience. As I've gotten older and played MMO's over the years I've come to the conclusion that a large part of the enjoyment gained from a game is the friends you make along the way and experience it with. If you ever find yourself bored and have the time to try it again, PM me on these forums. I'll ensure you don't repeat that experience.
Thanks for quick replies! I have ADHD, so trying is a bit "hard" for me, I feel like I'm wasting time I could be spending playing other games. If I start playing, I want to commit 100%. Before I do, I want to know it's good for long-term
I would presume someone with ADHD wouldn't be able to commit 100% to anything... now someone with OCD is a different story.
Long term? WoW? Today? 30 days tops... pretty much the rule of thumb.
Just a heads up, WoW has one of the most toxic communities ive ever encountered. So find yourself a nice guild and stick to playing with the guild only. Using Dungeon finder will for sure just make you quit in seconds if your new.
Comments
As people have said there is a trial but it didn't used to be available to "existing accounts" - I think they changed that last year. And the 1-20 leveling is pretty polished. Round about 40-50? it starts to look dated graphics wise and then it picks up again post 50. There is solid content but everything is pretty fast these days.
Should you play now? Tricky. There are class changes incoming - usually prior to the next expansion so c. 4 months out maybe. Lots of classes are impacted and some of the changes are non-trivial. When I last tried WoW a "relatively minor" change was one of the reasons I left - it changed the entire way my main character played. And yes I could have "worked through it" but I decided that I had had enough. So I am somewhat hesitant about suggesting you try "now".
There are other games you didn't mention e.g. LotR, EQ2, GW1 even but you may have tried those and not liked them. There are also some very solid "non-mmo" games out there as well - some online with co-op options, some solo that could be worth thinking about as well e.g. Withcher 3, assume you have tried Skyrim etc.
That's why imo games need horizontal progression instead of vertical only.
As to playing for lore only, i really envy players like you. I guess i'll never know how much i missed and never experienced in WoW because i never really cared for the lore. To me it was bars and numbers only, too bad.
With every new game i start i always vow to myself to already read the damn quest texts and follow the story for once.
If you plan on reading all the lore and quest text there is an addon that you HAVE to install. It's called Storyline and it's on curse. Definitely check it out, changed the feel of the whole game for me.
http://mods.curse.com/addons/wow/total-rp-3-storyline
WOW hands down is the best of the best for pve themeparks. You are getting a lot of jaded gamers here commenting negatively about it because they are jaded beyond repair and are still searching for their perfect mmorpg that will never release. WOW has a HUGE world 100 levels and plenty of classes and races. There is rare monsters in each zone you can try to chase after, pvp, pet battles like pokemon, and enough content to keep a player who hasnt played before playing for a year or more. The issue is its age, people here have played it to death and are negative about it. It still has fun combat and plenty of zones, I recently went back to mess around on a free 60 day card that was given to me just to work on loremaster achievement while still playing ESO regularly. WOW has it all honestly and anyone who is objective of themeparks easily sees that. The issue now is blizzard got lazy and stopped releasing content for months and months based around expansions instead without much filler to keep end game players happy. The issue with many of us is we have leveled enough alts to 100 to not want to just go do it again in between expansions.
Also FF sucks whoever suggested it was better really needs to step back and examine what gaming is, FF delivers about nothing at all to the industry and was rebuilt from the ground up because it sucked so bad at release.
LOTR online is about the only other game in terms of content to compare to wow but its about dead and the class animations and combat will put you to sleep.
Rift was never that good it had generic classes/souls that all did just about the same thing for each calling and hub quests that were boring and generic. Trion designed their entire game at first around wow and warhammer online and did a sloppy job of it in all aspects especially pvp and balance.
I only play WoW for the lore for a coupleof reasons. 1) i dont do raids and dungeons over and over. I do them once and thats it. I dont really rush to max level either, i actually hate rushing in games. And 2) i love the Warcraft lore. It is the only thing pushing me to level characters in that game. I dont read side quests, but i try to read the main storyline quests because the Warcraft lore is the only thing pushing me forward when play WoW.
I would love to play WoW for actual gameplay, but Blizzard focuses too much on instanced raids and dungeons. After i do that content once, there is no piece of gear that is worth enduring that same small content over and over and over for me. If they put more effort into making the open world more enjoyable for everyone i would probably subscribe more often that 1-3 times a year.
Yeah, I currently own GW1, and have 10/50 HoM points (Experienced GW2 player).
Lotr was good! Too bad it wants you to pay for a lot of things.
I started WoW as a paladin. Played for about 20 mins last night, that's all the time I had. Was good fun tho, looking forward to playing again this evening!
Oh.. I heard Blizzard loves paladins
I played Wow from about 3 weeks after release, for about a year. I was well under way to getting a full set of Lawbringer gear. Then my guild folded, the fourth WoW guild I was in that folded from internal strife. About that time, a co-worker talked me into trying EQ2, a game I had a lot of fun playing. After all of the politics, I decided a break from WoW was a good idea. So I played EQ2 for a year. Then my friend had baby #2, and quit playing all games.
About this time, WoW released Burning Crusade. The timing was good, so I bought the expansion that had released about 6 weeks prior. I logged in on my 60 Paladin, & I saw that about 20 people from my friends list were playing, so I started asking about guild invites.
"When you get to 66 send me a tell." "My guild won't bring in anyone under 70." "I could probably get you in if you were 65, but sorry, no can do right now." And various similar excuses. They all said to find a startup guild to screw over, by getting them to help level, and then abandoning them when I was 66.
Sorry, it may be just a game, but I can't do that to a group of people. So I went on the WoW forums, and started looking for a guild. Finally I found one on another server. They wanted to grow into a raiding guild. So I paid the $25 to move three characters to their server, and started running with them. Of course I was a little let down that my Lawbringer gear was garbage compared to the blues I was finding in the game.
About this time my wife got really sick, and I needed to pay close attention to her for about a week. So I was only able to log into the game for about 6 hours that week., so I was only able to get to 62. The last day of that week, I logged into the game and there were two people left in the guild. One of my guildies was on my friends list, and I asked him what happened. He said they got an offer to move to another server to join an all out raiding guild. I asked why they did not say anything to me. He said I was not leveling fast enough.
So then, I advertised LF guild. "When you get to 66 send me a tell." "My guild won't bring in anyone under 70." "I could probably get you in if you were 65, but sorry, no can do right now." And various similar excuses. They all said to find a startup guild to screw over, by getting them to help level, and then abandoning them when I was 66.
After all the money I wasted (BC + server transfer + a month sub), and all the friends that let me down, I realized that the community in WoW SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS.
I logged out, cancelled my subscription and have never looked back.
The world is going to the dogs, which is just how I planned it!
Long term? WoW? Today? 30 days tops... pretty much the rule of thumb.
Only issue with wow imo is that its so addon heavy depended meaning ppl expect you to have specific addon to be able to play properly mostly in raids.
Otherwise you can skip addon 100% and i would recommend playing it without as it should be.
Will play legion myself though when it is released so far what i have seen and heard it will be awesome
-Semper ubi sub ubi!
always wear underwear