Palegoldenrod

The first thing I have to say is that WoW was not what I thought it was, but neither was GW. I am a casual gamer. I play as the mood takes me - sometimes every night for two weeks, sometimes not for a month or more, and sometimes one day out of the blue. Guild Wars, while monetarily friendly to that style of gaming, is not designed to accommodate it. Much of the game is for guilds only, and as guilds are limited to 100 members, very few are willing to accommodate long term casual gamers like myself. The result is that while I was able to max out my char in PvE and participate in PvP with random groups, I wasn’t able to establish real connection with others (because they are so tightly involved in their group) and was missing out on parts of the game that really deserved to be enjoyed. It is “Guild Wars” after all.

WoW, on the other hand, punishes the finances of the casual gamer, but provides a game where everyone is LFG, and no part of the game is restricted to guilds only (well, none that I can see, anyway). I have been able to catch up with other casual gamers with little problem, and honestly, there are so many people out there and so many quests in the world that even if some friends lvl their chars much faster than yours, you will still find friends your own level to quest with.

Maybe I have been sheltered so far, but I have also found less idiots in WoW than in GW. Maybe its because GW is cheaper - maybe its because reporting a player is easier in WoW, or because players are more distributed across a larger world and more servers. Maybe its because I am on a PvP server and smart asses get pwned. Who knows? But so far I have come across less spamming 12 year old idiots on WoW than on GW.

The other thing I sorta like about WoW over GW is that each of my WoW chars can be in different guilds, with different friends. It would be nice to be able to transfer my friends list to my other chars, but on the whole its much nicer than GW, where your entire account signs up to a guild, not just your current character.

The other thing is that WoW has so many realms to choose from, and I don’t need to commit to just one. I can have some chars on a PvP, some on a Normal and some on an RP realm, and its all great. I think the only limitation is that on a PvP realm I must choose either Alliance or Horde - I can’t be both. I guess that is so people can’t spy on raid planning and such, which is fine.

I was really nervous about playing on a PvP realm, actually. The only reason I went there in the first place was because some friends of mine had chars there (and they never play! Wah!). I thought I would get killed all the time, be worried about being killed all the time, and not enjoy the game. It is quite the opposite. There are occasional Horde raids, which are greeted with willing Alliance fighters every time (everyone goes and gets there high level characters when they hear the Horde are coming), and on the Alliance side anyway, they are pretty protective. If you tell someone that you are being ganked, in all likelihood some good samaritan will come to your rescue.

I even killed my first Horde a few days ago, and boy! What an experience. My first in game kill of a real life person. I actually had a racing heart, and shaking hands when I finished. The adrenaline was flowing freely, and I had to walk away from the machine for a few moments. Now instead of thinking “Oh, man… there are probably horde out there! I’ll need to be careful!” I think “Oh, man. I hope there are horde out there! They’d better watch out”

I have given items to people and had responses of genuine gratitude (unlike the undisguised greed I seemed to always meet in GW) and have met some kind hearted strangers who stop on a trail to offer me food or drink.

Now, before I get flamed, no I am not saying that all of GW is a waste, I am saying that for my playing style WoW may give me more enjoyable gameplay, and that my time so far has meant that I have had a better experience in WoW than in GW. This may change as time goes on.

Anyway, I will post my char details on my About page - come play with me! If you find me in game tell me that you found me through this post and I will give you�some gift I rustle up�:-)

Live for the ding!