World of Warcraft

[Geek King]

Same here on the cooperation thing. My human rogue has chucked a dagger at many an overwhelmed orc's enemy.

Nice to know I'm not the only one who does this.

Hopefully one of these updates will include the opportunity to learn languages to some extent. I could see the Night Elves and Deryni getting along with the Tauren pretty well, for instance. Also, you have the Cenarian Circle made of druids from both sides, but two druid players can't seem to get along. I don't know, but it's just something I mull over sometimes while playing.

[Shards]

In my case, yes it was a deciding factor for going ahead with Nagrand. I don't like world PVP too much in WoW, in fact I try to cooperate with the other faction when they're not being utter douchewaffles. Frequently I'll help finish off a non flagged Horde player's mob on my Kargath crew, or pull a bad pull off someone obviously being overwhelmed and about to die in someplace shared like Stranglethorn.

But....mess with the native lands of my character and it's on. You started it. And of course battlegrounds and Arena...well, you clicked queue same as I did, no one just yanked you magically away from your mobs or forge.

Just weird that way I guess, and a lot of why it infuriates me that night after night, everyone ganks the Crossroads.

Same here on the cooperation thing. My human rogue has chucked a dagger at many an overwhelmed orc's enemy.

Also, my warlock (Currently my main at 41, yes, I know I'm a n00b.) has sicked his succubus on enemies even when the players they overwhelmed had just finished ganking me.

One time I even got a letter from one of them (on a different char, he identified himself) thanking me and appologizing for the gank.

[Shards]

Hey! Awesome! I just noticed this. I'd been kicking around the idea of making a frost mage, so I suppose I'll just move to that server. Granted, I wanted to make him human, but undead works just as well.

I'm Regnis, so you know, and the character is made, I'm starting up playing him as I type. Anyone who can shoot me a guild invite, I'd appreciate it.

[Sarlon]

bad news folks....my account has been put on temporary hold until I can come up with the money to pay my monthly charge. and I don't get paid till next week.

[Fire_on_High]

In my case, yes it was a deciding factor for going ahead with Nagrand. I don't like world PVP too much in WoW, in fact I try to cooperate with the other faction when they're not being utter douchewaffles. Frequently I'll help finish off a non flagged Horde player's mob on my Kargath crew, or pull a bad pull off someone obviously being overwhelmed and about to die in someplace shared like Stranglethorn.

But....mess with the native lands of my character and it's on. You started it. And of course battlegrounds and Arena...well, you clicked queue same as I did, no one just yanked you magically away from your mobs or forge.

Just weird that way I guess, and a lot of why it infuriates me that night after night, everyone ganks the Crossroads.

[Aethian]

the PvP in WoW is *just like the PvP in Team Fortress 2.*

Snipped a bit but just wanted to make a little point clear. We picked a PvE server for this very reason, well close to this exact reason anyhoo.

[Gravekeeper]

WoW is perfectly crafted to be the ultimate carrot on a stick. Especially to people that have never played an mmo for and don't know how it all works. The first 10 levels are almost insultingly easy thus people can teach even their grandparents to play it. But by the time their grandparents realize its all just a carrot they're already level 70. ;p

WoW is only fun till the 40's or so and then only if you're playing with friends and only doing instances/pvp. Everything else about it is a mindless treadmill of kill/gather x of y at z. The higher level you get the lower the % chance of x spawning/dropping. =p

The Grind(tm) really starts to sink in by the 40-50's when you start having to worry about gear and rep and crap if you want to be even remotely on par with other players. Everything you accomplish or obtain will be obsolete by the next 5 levels/next Battleground/next instance/next patch or next expansion.

Its basically a constant never ending arms race.

Oh, and WoW pvp is nothing like TF2. There is not even a shred of resemblance in any way shape or form and the person that said that should be punched in the kidneys. WoW pvp is dominated completely and irreparably with gear. Period. Skill means diddly to begin with and means less and less then diddly the higher level you get. Till people are 2 shotting you because you can't spend 40 hours a week raiding or honour/mark farming to get similar gear. =p

This is why I really really don't want to reopen my account. I mainly like two things in online games: Instances with friends and pvp. WoW is a fantastically shitty game for both.

Thus I reopened my City of Heroes/Villains account instead. Because at least in that I can play for 30 minutes, log off and feel like I've accomplished something.

[ShadedWings]

I'll admit I'm addicted to some extent... I can take days at a time and not play... like lately, I'm a bit bored with it. Sometimes I just gotta play for a bit. But with my current free time I'm not harming anything by doing so when I do. When I start up my (hopefully!) new job, I won't be playing as much obviously.

As for prodding others into playing... I understand it's not everyone's favorite flavour of game. Some people like different things. I won't go poking at people to play, even if I like the company. And I've seen far, far, far more obsessive people in groups and such, ranting about pvp and how much they pwn and you suck because you aren't as well geared as they are, etc, etc. The main point of the game for me is to have fun and do my own thing.

To shorten my ramblings.. yes, I might be a bit addicted and I admit it. But I can and will control it and not try and shove it at others. It is a very enjoyable game, with several jokes hidden in it (anyone else notice the Cook in Lower City? ) and some marvelous storyline, and I will definitely probably get hooked a bit more into it when WotLK comes out... but no, no drug-laced CDs. At least, not my copies!

(I haven't slept yet so forgive the rambles.)

[Chanlin]

OK this is admittedly a long reply. This is an attempt to maybe shed some light on Broomjockey's question. This is epicly long so skip it if you want.

I've seen people use all sorts of excuses for their addictions. I have a buddy who bounces in and out of an addiction to Everquest. At one time he had three accounts and would play three characters at the same time so he didn't have to worry about finding parties.

His initial excuse was that the small monthly fee kept him from spending money on other entertainment. I could accept that when he was only playing one character. When he started blowing myself and other friends off to raid or whatever on EQ thats when a rift started. He seriously chose the game over us when we told him it was us or the game.

I honestly have no idea what it is about the games that makes them so appealing. When I first played EQ I played obsessively at first. Part of it was the wonder of something new. Especially since EQ was really the first game of its kind. I remember I played my first character for nearly 24 hours straight and only paused to go get something to eat or drink and brought it back to my computer.

What drew me in was everything. I am heavily into role playing like D&D and such. And I've seen people get similarly obsessed with their D&D characters. Hell its one of the bits of ammo some groups use when trying to convince people that D&D is a bad thing. Part of the draw of EQ was the intense desire to learn what was happening next. The world was very immersive. Here I had this persona I developed around my character. The world itself was very interactive. I even remember avoiding combat because the first mob I ever ran into was an orc. I know now the orc was like 4 levels higher than me, but I thought I needed to earn a level doing starting quests before I could do combat (and I did to, it took me 2 days but I earned level 2 on quests alone). Anyone who knows EQ knows how insane that is.

Anyway for some partly unexplainable reason I couldn't put the game down. I was my character, I was telling my story, in my own head. Hell I never even interacted with other players until my third or fourth day and that was a huge step forward. I remember I RP'ed with almost anyone I encountered and that just added fuel to the proverbial fire. I remember in some back part of my mind thinking how cool it was.

I played obsessively for almost a week. I slept maybe two or three hours at a time. When I wasn't sleeping I was playing. I took strategic breaks to go grab food or drink. I only left the house to go to work, which at the time was only a part time job. My room mate worked nights so we saw very little of each other was it was so they had no idea what was up.

I recall what finally snapped me out of it was falling asleep at work. At the time I was working for the boss I posted about before in a post titled "My most and least favorite boss." I remember being ashamed because I do pride myself on my work ethic. I respected my boss and my coworkers, and one of the senior programmers I really looked up to took me aside and asked me what was up. I knew he played as well so I explained what was up.

He got me to take a serious reality check and I'm glad for it to because I really don't know if that had no that had not happened whether or not I would have gone on being as obsessive or not. I deleted my first character and uninstalled the game. About a month later I tried it again and this time it was different. I remember seeing the first few levels as tedious because I had already done that. More importantly since I was redoing many things i stepped back and realized just how poorly the game was designed. I also was playing on a server with friends I knew offline this time so that seriously changed the experience. For a time I only played when they were on. Then I just played on my own for some things but all around I really developed my own way of doing things.

I really don't know what factors contributed to me not becoming addicted again. And I will admit for a time I played WoW somewhat obsessively as well, but I've never had that near addicted experience again like I did with EQ.

On one hand, having been there myself I know what it can be like. But at the same time it still pisses me off that some of my friends will blow me off to play WoW or some other MMO. I have a good friend I'm trying to convince that hes addicted to WoW. It's not bad, but its close. One time I teased him by calling him by the name of our friend that really was addicted to EQ and I think that hit home and made him open his eyes because he stopped playing WoW for 3 months following that.

I really can't say what it is about games like these for everyone else. Part of it is the escape to another world. In EQ my character was important and contributed to the world. The character was also many things I am not, he was strong, and stealthy and was able to kick ass and when I played with other people they depended on me. I think these factors were really just another bit added on to a massive pile of factors that caused me to be obsessed. So it's not really any one thing, but a multitude of very overwhelming factors that can really draw you in and hold you. It really is unhealthy, and just like any other addiction it can be hard to convince someone of their problem.

To end my little tale what ultimately got my addicted friend to quit was a collaboration of myself and some of my closer friends who were also friends with the addicted party. At a lan party we got him completely drunk and each stole a different part of his computers. We opened up his boxes and took out the hard drive, modem and video cards and also took his EQ cd's so he would not be able to install the game. Needless to say he was pissed and this nearly broke our relationship but once he started going through withdrawal he finally realized exactly how obsessed he was. When we gave his stuff back he canceled two of his accounts and deleted his main characters on the remaining one and quit for nearly a year. He plays off and on again and when he gets close to being obsessed with it he calls one of us to go to a movie or what not. So that does have a sort of happy ending. I just hope to never have to take such extreme measures again.

[Broomjockey]

World of Warcraft did not acquire a following of several million obsessively loyal players because it's a bad game.

And I never said it was. But the tenacity and pure delusion with which my accquaintance tried to rope me in rivals that with which an alcoholic uses in denying he has a problem. The guy would not accept that I honestly had no desire to pay money every month for a game I already know I won't enjoy (completely burned out on MMOs, and not my style, anywho).

[Anthony K. S.]

Do they lace the CDs with LSD or something?

There are, indeed, quite a few people out there who openly acknowledge that they are addicted to World of Warcraft (and many more who are, but won't acknowledge it.)

I will be the first to admit that the obsession some players have with this game is a little off-putting . . . But, in all fairness, I do have to note this :

World of Warcraft did not acquire a following of several million obsessively loyal players because it's a bad game.

[Broomjockey]

Okay, so I was talking with an accquaintance today, and he was waiting for his raid to start. I mention I don't play WoW, and don't care to, which leads me to this question I'd like to put before the assembled players here.

Do they lace the CDs with LSD or something? He spent about 10 minutes trying to convince me to play, going so far as to say that (after I mentioned I hated PvP in MMOs, that's why I played TF2) the PvP in WoW is *just like the PvP in Team Fortress 2.* Seriously. The guy wouldn't take "I'm not interested" for an answer as to why I won't play WoW.

So, do they lace the CDs with exotic drugs?

[ShadedWings]

*sits in her little corner and plays with her Alliance characters, feeling cut off from the world now * Pffah.

[Anthony K. S.]

World of Warcraft Character Roster

The team now includes 19 players, with a total of 21 characters.

And this is what the Character Roster presently looks like :


Character's Name (Character's Race and Class, Player's Username)
Character's Professions and Talent Specialization


Bloodlily (Blood Elf Paladin, Horsetuna)
Professions : Herbalism / Alchemy, Talent Specialization : Unrevealed

Brackentail (Tauren Druid, Bramble)
Professions : Mining / Enchanting, Talent Specialization : Feral Combat

Coilk (Tauren Warrior, Plaidman)
Professions : Skinning / Tailoring, Talent Specialization : Unrevealed

Drikthas (Orc Hunter, SteeleDragon78)
Professions : Skinning / Leatherworking, Talent Specialization : Beast Mastery

Gnarka (Orc Warrior, Fire_on_High)
Professions : Mining / Blacksmithing, Talent Specialization : Arms

Isala (Blood Elf Rogue, Sarlon)
Professions : Skinning / Leatherworking, Talent Specialization : Combat

Kallika (Rogue, Race Unrevealed, Kali)
Professions : Unrevealed, Talent Specialization : Unrevealed

Kasaros (Orc Shaman, <Not Registered on CS>)
Professions : Herbalism / Alchemy, Talent Specialization : Enhancement

Kelsash (Undead Priest, Spiffy McMoron)
Professions : Herbalism / Alchemy, Talent Specialization : Shadow

Komishu (Tauren Shaman, Fire_on_High)
Professions : Skinning / Leatherworking, Talent Specialization : Enhancement

Maiaingeal (Blood Elf Hunter, technical.angel)
Professions : Mining / Skinning, Talent Specialization : Marksmanship

Malindria (Blood Elf Mage, Geek King)
Professions : Mining / Jewelcrafting, Talent Specialization : Frost

Markyxm (Blood Elf Warlock, karath)
Professions : Tailoring / Enchanting, Talent Specialization : Affliction

Megaera (Blood Elf Warlock, CSR Kim)
Professions : Unrevealed, Talent Specialization : Unrevealed

Mexlor (Troll Priest, ibor132)
Professions : Unrevealed, Talent Specialization : Unrevealed

Murgain (Troll Hunter, Anthony K. S.)
Professions : Skinning / Leatherworking, Talent Specialization : Marksmanship (with 3 points in Survival for Hawk Eye)
Note : This character has been retired for the time being, but might become active again in the near future.

Nakajo (Blood Elf Paladin, Nakajo)
Professions : Mining / Jewelcrafting, Talent Specialization : Unrevealed

Nyxxa (Blood Elf Priest, Raventhistle)
Professions : Skinning / Tailoring, Talent Specialization : Unrevealed

Skyeline (Undead Warrior, Chanlin)
Professions : Mining / Blacksmithing, Talent Specialization : Protection (with 11 points in Arms for Anger Management)

Talino (Blood Elf Priest, Sarlon)
Professions : Mining / Tailoring, Talent Specialization : Holy

Zajac (Blood Elf Rogue, Aethian)
Professions : Skinning / Leatherworking, Talent Specialization : Combat


Once again, if any of this information is not accurate, or if any of it changes in the near future, please PM me and I will update the roster.

Also, the team will always welcome new members. So if you wish to join, just post a message here stating your character's name, race, and class, along with any other information that you wish to share.

The team's guild, Brain Bleach, is on the Horde side of the server Nagrand (Oceanic, PvE).

If you already have a character on that server, then great. If not, just create one (any race and class you wish) and dive right in!

(You can also transfer an existing character from another realm to Nagrand, if you wish to invest the time and money required for that.)


Note : This Character Roster is up-to-date as of 9:45 p.m., Eastern Time, July 11, 2008.

All of the previously posted Character Rosters have been deleted, to avoid cluttering up the thread needlessly.

[Fire_on_High]

Ok, sorry about the delay...I got bank permissions set up finally. If anyone needs more than what their rank allows, ask...chances are I'm lenient, esp with tradeskill mats.

Murg, PM me and talk things out? We were just being silly the other night, didn't mean anything by it.