World of Warcraft

I installed and started playing WoW last night. Like I did before starting Guild Wars, I did some research on the Web about the game. I wanted to play a human hunter with a gun, but turns out that humans can’t be the hunter class. My second choice was an orc with a gun. Unfortunately, orc hunters don’t start with guns. Oh well, I started an orc hunter anyway, and will get a gun when I can.

The game looks good, and is pretty fun. I only played a couple hours, up to level 5. I had some video “stumbles” in the opening animation. That surprised me — my computer meets the “suggested” (not just the minimum) specs, including a good vid-card. The graphics are as detailed and impressive as those of Guild Wars, but not realistic.

Something funny that I experienced in my first hour of play: While wandering around in the beginning zone, I found a hidden trail up through some hills. I walked up onto a cliff overlooking a river with a town on the other side. The town was Ratchet (the game said, “You’ve discovered Ratchet.”). In Guild Wars, you can’t fall off cliffs. The game just won’t let you walk off. But there are no safety rails in WoW. I fell off the cliff and down into the river. And since this was my first exposure to swimming, I was a bit bewildered. Fortunately, I found a sandbar to stand on. Then some crazy giant crab-thing (“Level ??” — the level actually showed as double question marks) came up out of the water and promptly killed me.

So at about 2nd level, I got my first death experience. Unfortunately, my spirit popped up in Ratchet, and had no idea where I was or how to get back to the river. I wandered around some and found the river. I made my way back to my corpse. I was surprised to see 4 or 5 other corpses in the river. I resurrected myself and started swimming for the Ratchet shore. Half-way there, the crab thing came and killed me again. Son of a. . . .

I ran back from the graveyard and rezzed myself again. I swam as quickly as possible straight to Ratchet. I made it this time. Everyone in Ratchet, PCs and NPCs, were in the 40 levels. Whoa, I was badly out of my league. I asked out loud how to get back to the Valley of Trials. No one answered, but then I found my Hearthstone. Poof, I went back to the Valley.

I continued the beginner quests and made 5th level before calling it a night.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com