World Of Warcraft

It's funny that you guys were talking about what classes you thought you'd like playing but ended up liking something else better! That's what happened with me. I thought I'd be interested in a warrior class. But I found it very hard to level and now my warlock is 80 and I love her! I also love paladins (somewhat casting plus up-in-your-face fighting). The hunters are very fun though - one of my favorite classes still.

Since my lock is 80 I've been switching between her (doing heroics, trying to get achievements), the 63 hunter I have on Fizzcrank, and all the odd little oDwarf sisters I made on my sister's server. My sis has an 80 paladin. She leveled it very quickly, and yes, thanks she seems to be enjoying the game.

Trying to finish Children's Week with all my toons. Wasn't sure if I wanted to do all of them, should have started sooner. Right now I'm waiting for hearth stone cool down on a couple toons, while I start running my little level 12 ally priest through it all on foot, LOL. She's scared!

This Real ID controversy concerns me. They announced Real ID will be mandatory for posting on the WoW forum in the near future, i.e. using your real name (linking your name to your character will be optional). Blizzard says it's to cut down on trolling in the forums, which is complete bullshit, it's all about marketing opportunities, including a deal with Facebook, who knows what the details are of that. The fact that Blizzard merged with another company not long ago might have something to do with the change in attitude, too. If the Real ID thing stays to just the forum, that's fine, but one employee has eluded to the idea they have "big plans" for battle.net/real ID in the future. Blizzard seems to think this is their ticket into the lucrative "social gaming" market. It never ceases to amaze me how little gaming companies know about what their customers.

Of course the WoW forum has gone completely nuts with the announcement that posting with your real name will become mandatory. And the forum pages will still be viewable by anyone, you don't have to sign up to see other people's names, you can just google a name and people's posts, prospective employers will see you game, etc. Many forum members are vehemently opposed, with some saying it's no big deal.

Yesterday, to show it was safe, a Blizzard employee posted his real name. Good idea, right.. Within 5 minutes, he (or some unfortunately fellow who happened to have the same name and live near one of the Blizzard offices) was being harassed mercilessly, within half an hour his Facebook page had been taken down. And then later Blizzard announced that employees would not be subject to the same real ID rule for security reasons! Brilliant, just brilliant.

Blizzard's claim that this will somehow improve the forums is already shown to be ridiculous, as all of the forum leaders (moderators that are not employees) have said they will stop using the forums. As well as many people who make add ons (which they will no longer update), and some have said they will just quit WoW entirely if Blizzard goes live with this idea of using real ID on the forums.

If it ever comes to just playing WoW alone will make your name available, I'm out. I was looking forward to Cataclysm, now I don't know what to think. I joined WoW for the security of a big game after my experience with GoPets. Oh, well, maybe if I stop online gaming there's still time to make something of my life, LOL.

Edit: Someone said that employees will still be posting their names, that policy didn't change. Sounds like it may have been a rumor.

They're backing down! "As a result of those discussions, we've decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums." and "I want to make sure it's clear that our plans for the forums are completely separate from our plans for the optional in-game Real ID system now live with World of Warcraft and launching soon with StarCraft II." Still not sure what they ultimately have in mind, but for now I can breath a sigh of relief, should have my characters for quite a while still (no game lasts forever!)

I was already having problems coming back to WoW (money+time sink). I've been away for several months and I feel free of it. I do think about it occasionally but I still don't want to come back. Cataclysm is coming out and that's what, $30 or so plus $15 a month...just not going to be able to do that. My sister started playing right before the time I stopped. She played on for awhile but has also stopped. She plans to come back when Cataclysm comes out but I'm not sure if I'm going to join everyone in that.

This Real ID thing also really bugged me. I agree with what Asynjur said that they said it'd put a stop to trolls on the forums. That's really a bunch of crap.

With WoW you sometimes NEED to post to the forum for support, etc. They're alienating a lot of folks if they implement the Real ID thing. You said they've backed down and hopefully it will stay that way.

However, the Real ID thing is implemented in game. My sister said that someone wanted to friend her and it offered her to use the Real ID and her real name. She was thinking about it with this friend, until she realized that HIS friends could see her name too. So she declined its use.

I would not use it at all. I've had this one person I became friends with. We played together for MONTHS with no issues. Then this one time maybe he was drinking or something and he just flipped. We dropped him from our guild and I was so shocked. I couldn't speak to him for quite some time after that. He apologized later and said he'd been drinking and don't remember what happened, but I wasn't able to trust him after that. Later he just got weird sometimes and I just felt I didn't want to hang out with him anymore. Once someone has your name that's it. So I don't want to take any chances on having my name shared out to the world, for my safety and my family's.

It's going to take a lot to get me back into WoW.

I believe someone at Blizzard claimed it wouldn't be made mandatory in game. They may stick with that just because they'd lose too much business making it mandatory. But the fact they haven't added privacy settings to address the "friends of friends" issue doesn't inspire confidence. It doesn't affect me because I wasn't tempted to put in my real name, I never use my name, not even on Facebook. It's just been a pain for people who are too trusting, used it in game and believed their names would only be shared with the good friends they chose.

I hope to play WoW for a couple years yet. It saves me money over games like Pet Society, that dangle so many items in front of you if you'll only fork over real cash, and if you don't make it a point to add up how much you're spending you can do really stupid things. But WoW only costs me $15 to play month after month, and if we spring for extra items that's a joint decision with my husband (don't do it very often). I think they'll stick with their policy that pay items never affect game play, since they'd have a mass exodus if they abandoned it. If the game ever becomes about who sticks the most quarters into the game, rather than rewarding in game accomplishments, I imagine most people would feel no reason to play.

It's true that Blizzard hasn't been the same since the forced merger with Activision. But I realized if I only dealt with companies I trusted, I wouldn't have a phone or a car or ever eat at a restaurant, basically I'd be out in the woods in a log cabin I built with my own hands--not gonna happen, LOL. So I'll keep playing until/unless something happens that makes me feel too uncomfortable or unsafe, and I have to leave. I'm hoping they realize how negatively such a move would affect their cash flow, and not go there.

Oh, in happier news, the scuttlebutt is that hunters will be able to adopt a lot more pets in Cataclysm. So I decided I don't have to be so worried about using up my stable slots. My 48 belf adopted a red hyena, and my level 25 tauren adopted a pale tortoise. Not sure about the names yet, I'll make a final decision after I've fought with them a little more and have a feel for their personalities. I use a little program called Pet Emote that has different emotes for each breed of pet, sometimes amusing, so it will be fun seeing what they have for hyena and turtle. My ally hunter would adopt something new, too, but she wants a firefly so she's waiting until she gets to Outland. She'll have to wait her turn, though, since I'm currently leveling my warrior to 80 (she's 61 now).

That's really nice to hear about hunters. A reason why some folks pick hunters is to have a choice of pets!! And who doesn't love the thrill of waiting around for a rare, only to find it and tame it? Yep that's exciting stuff for a hunter. But having a limit on the pets you could tame wasn't fun.

Wow you got a warrior to 61? Impressive. I gave up on my ZombieLisa at level 71. It was too hard to solo for me alone.

Here's the link to the forum post by the Blizz spokesman saying they won't go to Real ID for forums after all....

Anyone know where I can preorder Cataclysm Collector's Edition?

Edit: OK, preordered from GameStop. I've never used them before, it seemed odd they didn't ask for the 3 numbers on the back of my charge card. It says it's preordered, though. Would have gotten extras for gifts, but only 2 per household.

2nd Edit: Up at Amazon, too, now. I could order from more than one place and try to get a couple for presents. Thinking about it.

I'm not sure if or when I'll be back to WoW. I really want to jump in with Cataclysm, but with me being without a job for so long, the price of the game + $15 a month is really hard to do. I really want to play, but I also really want to get out of the small amount of credit card debt I have (big amount when I'm not working!) and adding $15 a month does not help.

I might stick with free games for awhile and see how I do. I will miss my warlock and will have a lot of catching up to do if I do join at a later point.

Really struggling with this.

I think of WoW as something you can do or not do at any time. They're still not ready to put any kind of date on Cataclysm. And when it does hit, so many people online you can barely play, I won't try to get near any new content for 6 months, LOL. Thankfully your characters are always there to work on again if you come back. Sorry to hear you're having trouble with finances, hope things pick up for you soon.

Yeah I agree, and with my main being on a PvP server, jamming in there on the first days, weeks and months will only lead to frustration from getting killed.