Joining a PvP server was a mistake. I should have found a different friend to join. Making the server PvP seems to have three effects:
- Level 80s can gank with impunity. Once I hit 80, I still expect the difference in equipment tiers to make playing at peak times unpleasant rather than more exciting.
- People can shoot you in the back while you PvE.
- You can perpetuate the cycle from 1 and 2.
It was a trivial annoyance in the original zones, but as the population gets more concentrated in the expansion packs, it becomes more frequent. In the long run, I am not going to want to be on this server, and I am certainly not going to want to be here when the expansion hits and everyone is in the same zone. Paying to move the Paladin could be an option, but I want neither to abandon the alts nor to effectively re-buy the game several times to move them all.
So here I am. I made a mistake in listening to a friend, and I am not willing to pay $100 (or whatever) to correct a game error. I might come back, but the Blizzard account maintenance page is incredibly patronizing, and I don’t really want to deal with those people again. I mean, this is a less annoying version of the screen Blizzard requires you to go through to exit. But there are still neat things to see, so I am going to keep looking around. And, for some reason, doing some grindy things because that is apparently just what we MMO players do.
: Zubon
I can relate to your mistake of joining a PvP server, but it’s too bad you’re stopping before Northrend, since that content is vastly better than any of the game’s previous content and I think should act as a new baseline for MMO content in general.
But I wish my friends, and therefore I, wasn’t playing on a PvP server, too, though – it’s really annoying at the least convenient times.
I am in Northrend. Most of these posts are on a week delay, to give me time to mull some things over. I probably have time to hit 80 before the account runs out.
I’m glad you’ll get to experience Northrend. The quests and environments and lore in Wrath of the Lich King are vastly superior to anything else in the game.
Don’t quit before you finish Dragonblight and the incredible Wrathgate quest line.
Really, I cannot believe you are so much bothered by WoW’s World PvP, which is a rare occasion and I wish it would happen more often. I am actually more a carebear and was pleasantly surprised that the amount of PvP was quite low and actually more refreshing than annoying.
You will get used to it, the only places where I experienced attacks on me, and also attacked myself, was while farming Titanium and Saronite Nodes in Winterspring between the battles.
I once had trouble with the guild of a guy whom I killed on the turtle ship, which probably resulted in an annoying far away respawn for him. :P They hunted me a bit in the Borean Tundra, BUT… if you have troubles there, go to the Howling Fjord! And if you have issues there – go to the Tundra.
There is a world of differance between World PvP and Griefing. It seems that Griefing is what WoW players do best
Not really. World PvP is not fair and is not supposed to be fair. Two versus one is never fair. Neither is attacking someone at <50% health while he is fighting a mob. But face it, this is also the perfect opportunity to attack someone. We do not ask the opposing faction for a duel like some knight in literature.
We have corpse camping and people who are clearly stronger than you killing you easily over and over. This often leads to someone "coming back with his level 80" or calling friends for help or just going elsewhere.
But the idea to have fair and grief-free World PvP is an illusion. There will always be asshats in world pvp that are totally merciless and are not content with killing people, but want to anger them. They often ruin other player experiences, but modern MMOs have safeguards that allow you to avoid them and lessen your pain.
I can only tell of my experiences. I levelled an Alliance char on a totally imbalanced server where the Horde was extremely dominating. I even managed to avoid unwanted PvP or was not attacked that often on the Isle of Quel'Danas on the days just after it was released.
I consider myself a PvE gamer, but I could stand this. People were mostly doing something else, questing, doing dailies, than to waste time going for the lone ally they see. And there are PvE servers, after all. People know their preferences, it cannot be so hard to pick the right type of server. And it can be corrected by now, for a fee…
The question is if server transfer and stuff really need to cost money, or how much money they should cost at max.
Yup, but World PvP is and was never fair. Attacking people 2vs1 or while he is fighting a mob is never fair, but fairness in a world of war…? :) I levelled up on a Horde dominated server in times where level 60 players could not fly away, and I did not find it that bad, despite the occasional asshat.
Jemre is right, the first weeks are often gank-free as people have better things to do. But even after the first weeks, people can always go to another zone or fly away. And pvping in the “World” of Warcraft is usually not effective for anything – except if people try hard to grief someone.
But well. We should know our preferences. I am actually a PvE player. Period. But I did not mind WoW’s PvP. Maybe because I was used to getting clean-looted in Ultima Online. Death in WoW is only somewhat annoying, but nothing more.
The real question is why server transfers have to cost money at all. :P
The real question is why server transfers have to cost money at all. :P
It’s a business decision. It could be a free service, but I assume that they have made a LOT of money from it. If I could transfer all my characters to a PvE server without paying $25, I would probably keep playing and paying. But I can’t, so I won’t.
Bizzarely, the first weeks of the expansion packs were largely gank-free, at least in contrast to what we see now – i think it’s because 95% of the server is more focused on levelling up, and realise that starting a fight is counter-productive for everyone.
Which server are you on? (don’t worry, i’m not gonna do anything)
The server transfer cost is $25, not quite a $100 bombshell :p
$25 per character, yes? If I can take the entire server’s worth for $25, that might be worthwhile.
Really, WoW is trending down a tad – none of the entries in the past couple years have toppled the MMO king from its throne, but every entry that remains and doesn’t just die out takes a little chink out of the armor. I’ve been tempted many times, but can’t bring myself to back to a game that leaves its old content behind, Cataclysm included.
To me flying mounts have almost eliminated world-PVP… which isn’t really a bad thing.
Frank: What MMOs don’t leave old content behind?
good question, slux. Not even Guild Wars managed to do that, despite the low level and stat cap and most areas being level 20 areas after a while. Not even hardmode, basically putting all areas/missions to max level and making them difficult, really gave people incentives to run some areas over and over.
It is still sad that many favorite dungeons turn to ashes when the next expansion gets released. Magister’s Terrace and Mechanar for instance, I found them more entertaining than most WOTLK instances which are mostly AoE gank&spank, despite their very imaginative settings.
That annoyed me up until about level 72 .. when it stopped.
I don’t really know what happened – I guess everybody is too busy doing dailies in Northrend to bother.
Except at meeting stones.
I have to admit that I was wondering why you picked a PvP server. You lasted a lot longer than I would have.
Following the mostly absent refer-a-friend.
Speaking of exit surveys. I just signed up for a DAoC trial just to get into the game and see what it was like. Mythic, for whatever reason, forced you to enter a credit card number for a trial…so of course it shows that it’s gonna bill me whenever my trial ends so I cancel immediately less I forget after 14 days. What awaits me after canceling? An exit survey. I haven’t even played the game a second or paid them a cent and I’m being asked why I’m leaving and my opinion on the game. It’s a fairly lengthy survey too.