World of Warcraft is an on-line role-playing computer game with over 12 million people of all ages playing it. The numbers are set to rocket with new markets opening up in China and India, and all over the Asian continent. Its popularity is down to curiosity and if you have ever played the game you were no doubt impressed with its graphics and content. The number of different aspects to the game give it a hypnotic quality that means people are drawn back again and again. It also means it is a huge time thief. Children playing it should be closely monitored and their playtime limited.
The main points of the game are to quest with your chosen character and to take part in player v player combat. You do not have to do the latter, but it is probably the most entertaining and appealing aspect of the game. There are two factions in the game: The Horde and The Alliance, and you have to choose which one to be in. You then have to choose your race. The Horde is comprised of the Orcs, Trolls, Tauren, Forsaken, Blood Elves and Goblins; and The Alliance is made up of Humans, Dwarves, Night Elves, Gnomes, Draenei and the Worgen. There is no distinction between the factions in terms of good and evil, although the Horde do appear to be made up of predominantly and traditionally evil "real world" human mythological creatures. The introduction of the Worgen does not really address this mindset, but presumably in the next major expansion we can expect a further development on this theme?
So once you have chosen your faction and race the next conundrum is what class to be: Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock and Warrior. For a beginner I would definitely recommend a ranged hero, as attacking from distance is an easy option and allows one time to ease into the game whilst getting used to all it has to offer. I definitely suggest that a Warrior is not a good choice for a beginner, unless you intend to play in a group with friends, in which case it is a fine choice. People playing the game often have preferences for certain racial features and matching them up to the class they choose. To explain what I mean more clearly...it is believed that a Night Elf Death Knight is a more powerful choice than say a Dwarf DK. However there is usually a lot of debate about these choices and a lot of it is down to personal preference.
Well, once you have gone through all of that decision making you can start to play the game, phew! Oh, wait a minute I forgot about the realm (server) you choose to play on. There are lots of pros and cons about what you do choose, but do not choose a PvP (player v player) realm because you really do not want to be attacked by another player when you are in the middle of a quest. Those realms are for the experienced pros. You will also see realms for new players and you will be tempted to believe that you will only meet inexperienced World of Warcraft players like yourself. Unfortunately it is not the case and another problem maybe that there are too few players on the server. The advantage I find is that you will find more people in the starting areas than in other realms, which gives you the opportunity to group up. However, it is not hard to solo quest, apart from on the very occasional quest. Your better choice of server would be one with a medium sized population.
From level 1 to level 17 there is not much opportunity to practice PvP skills other than in "friendly" challenges. Right click on another player and you will see a menu. It's a bit of fun and you suffer no lasting damage, well maybe a bruised ego! But really at this level most of your time and enjoyment will be spent on World of Warcraft quests. The game is actually pretty good at guiding you to your quests, but the game advice generally given by Blizzard is very basic and comes no where near close in explaining the very deep layers to the game. Which is why I have developed my own website which advises people on all of the nuances and complexities of the game and leads players to the best resources to improve their understanding and abilities.
The author, Philip Bailey, has been playing World of Warcraft, and other PC games, on and off over a number of years and is able to pass on his wealth of experience and know how.
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