What a Long Strange Trip It's Been

Since vanilla gameplay (original content) much in the World has changed. Original content focused primarily on leveling, and much less on end-game content. But what all has changed? It would be impossible for me to list everything, but here are a few primary alterations.

The first, and most obvious change, is that the level cap has increased from 60 to 90 in four expansions. The Burning Crusade expansion increased the level cap from 60 to 70, Wrath of the Lich King increased it to 80, Cataclysm increased it to 85 and Mists of Pandaria increased it to 90. With each expansion came new zones, new classes, and new races.

But more came with each expansion than levels and zones. The game play has been effected dramatically. As stated before, the vanilla gameplay focused on leveling. Getting a character to max level was a challenge and a true adventure. You would get quests, complete quests, turn them in, rinse and repeat. The average time to get a character from level 1 to 60 was approximately 4-5 days of gameplay (over 80 hours). This could take anywhere from a couple of months for a casual player, to an entire year. Now, the casual player can get from 1-90 in 3-5 days of gameplay. So how can it take anywhere near the same amount of time when there are 30 more levels to ascend? The answer is simple: Blizzard made leveling 20-60 faster with Burning Crusade, and then faster still for levels 1-70 with Wrath of the Lich King. By reducing the amount of experience needed to "ding" (level up), it rushed players through the questing zones and into end-game experience.

But questing was not as easy as it is now. Your quest log would give you a general area to go to to complete the quest, and it was up to your own powers of observation to complete said quests. If you wanted to make things easier, you could download addons or even before that, check thottbot for coordinates and maps detailing the quests. In both instances, you still relied on other players to complete the quests. But Thanks to the newest expansions, much of the player interaction was diminished. Now zones are highlighted to go to. You can look at your map and see exactly where to find the items of quest. Elite monsters for quests became easier to fight, so you don't have to group up to bring down a particularly hard foe.

Getting a mount used to be something you worked for. Not only did you have to get to level 40 for your first mount, and rely on your classes speed boost (ie travel form for druids or aspect of the cheetah for hunters) until then, the fastest mounts were achieved by spending a lot of gold after reaching level 60. Now you get a 60% speed increase mount at level 20, a 100% speed mount at level 40, flying mounts at level 60 and faster flying mounts at level 70.

But wait, there's more! In vanilla gameplay, if you really wanted better gear, either while leveling or at max level, you had to find friends or groups of people to take on dungeons and raids. These groups could take hours to form, and the result was forming bonds with many other players. You had healers, tanks, and dps on your friends list. I actually kept a list of the friends I made with their role next to their names. Now, thanks you click a button that says "que for dungeon" or "que for raid" and you're placed smack dab in the middle of a group, ready to go. It even sorts out the amount of healers and tanks you'll need. While this certainly makes leveling, gearing, and playing a lot simpler, the cost is losing connection with people. Any patch that adds a button in place of player interaction is a sad replacement indeed.

Even the very nature of classes has changed. Shamans are no longer tanks, stealthing with your rogue no longer reduces your speed, hunters can tame rare beasts, mages are more over powered than ever.

All these changes should attract more players, right? If Blizzard did their job, the changes should reel in more players, after all. But after the release of cataclysm, which resulted in a new talent organization and class specialization, introduced LFR (Looking for Raid), and much more, over 1/3 of the players left World of Warcraft. The amount of players dropped from 12 milllion to 9 million. But hey, that's still 9 million people. But that is a LOT of people to leave. If you ordered a pizza and 1/3 of it was gone, you would think that's a lot. If you had $100 and $30 went missing, you would say that's a lot. If your salary dropped by 1/3, you would say that's a lot. 3 MILLION people, were so upset about Cataclysm, they left Azeroth behind. So for those of you who say that introducing "pandas" in Mists of Pandaria ruined the game, for those of you who say that it was the latest expansion that ruined the game, just look at the numbers. It was the Cataclysm expansion that ruined the game for 3 MILLION people.

My Characters

I have several characters with a back-story to increase my enjoyment in playing them. Not all of them do, but most of my main characters have one.

Dunadan: (Name taken from JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. It is one of Aragorn's many names)
Dunadan is a descendant of dragons. He is unsure of which clan, but he does know that dragon blood runs through his veins. He was raised in Northrend, the lost continent, until King Wryn of Stormwind found the lost continent and returned the The East Kingdoms. Dunadan returned on the king's vessel, serving as a hired mercenary. All manner of beasts are attracted to Dunadan. He easily befriends animals, dragonkin, and beasts alike. Several followed him to the Eastern Kingdoms and have served him faithfully since.

Syylus: The Night Elf, son of Sovelius. Syylus watched his parents brutal murder at the hands of Zhen at age 90, the vicious troll with a hatred for Night Elves. Syylus escaped into the woods,swearing vengeance on Zhen. He became a master of stealth, striking from the shadows and decimating his enemy. At the age of 120, he joined the Alliance Militia and fought the Horde in many bloody battles. Fine tuning his arts of war, he sought his revenge after his duty was served to the Alliance. He spent 10 years tracking Zhen, finally finding him and killing him in an epic struggle.

Somniator: (Name is Latin for "dreamer") Somniator was an orphan, raised by the Cathedral of Light in Stormwind. When he turned 18, he was promoted to a full time priest and was sent into the world to do good deeds in the name of the Light. However, his entire life, he was beset with troubling visions and terrific night-terrors. While on his own, he discovered how to manipulate his visions into the real world, issuing terror, pain, suffering, and nightmarish infliction upon the many enemies he encountered (For not all follow the will of the Light, nor stand for the support of the church). Slowly, he was led from the path of a holy priest, and became entangled with elements of shadow and darkness.

What do all these abbreviations stand for!?

If you're going to be playing World of Warcraft, you're going to need to know the basic abbreviations and terms. This list will help you.

Aggro: generated by attacking enemies. The character with the highest "aggro" in a fight, will receive the enemies attention

Tank: Generates the most aggro to hold the attention of the enemies while other characters deal damage

DPS: Damage Per Second. May also refer to the players the deal damage.

LFM: Looking For More

WTB: Want To Buy

WTS: Want To Sell

1H: 1 Handed Weapon

2H: 2 Handed Weapon

GM: Game Master or Guild Master (depending on context)

Tick or Ticket: A message submitted to a GM to resolve conflict, errors, and corrections
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Professions)
Alch: Alchemy

BS: Blacksmith

Eng: Engineer

Tailor

LW: Leatherworker

JC: Jewel Crafter

Insc: Inscription

Skinning

Min: Mining
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Places)

SW: Stormwind

Org: Orgrimmar

IF: Ironforge

Dar: Darnassus

UC: Undercity
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The list is endless, for a full list of abbreviations and terminology see the following link

http://www.wowwiki.com/World_of_Warcraft_terminology

An Introduction For Non-Players

So you've installed the game and updated to the latest patch. The first step is the most important in the game, even more so than choosing your class. The age old battle that wages in Azeroth and has torn the very world apart. Horde or Alliance. Under the red banner of the Horde, one may play as an orc, blood elf, undead, tauren, goblin, troll, or pandaran. Standing beneath the blue banner of the Alliance, one may play as a human, night elf, gnome, draeni, dwarf, worgen or pandaran. The pandaran is a specialty class, because after their starting quest line, one must then choose to fight alongside the Horde or Alliance.

The second step in entering the world of Azeroth is finding a race and class that you can enjoy. Many people look up charts online to see which one's are the best tanks, best healing, and best DPS. While this may provide the best results in raids, dungeons, and PVE scenarios, it may leave the player feeling hollow: why play a character that you only enjoy playing for their results in combat?

I suggest an alternative route. Play what you want to play. Don't worry about how much damage you can deal, how much damage you can take, how good you are at healing. For the best experience in World of Warcraft, you have to find a connection with the character you're playing. The choices include mage, warrior, death knight, warlock, priest, rogue, hunter, druid, paladin, or monk. Each class offers a unique game play experience. Whether it's melee or ranged combat, healing or tanking, you will be placed in a varying perspective.

But wait, there's more! Once you choose your class, at level 10 you must choose your specialization. This includes 3 subsets of your class. For instance, a mage at level 10 must choose between focusing on the arcane arts, frost, or fire specialization. Don't worry though, if you don't like it you can always change.

I made countless characters when I first joined the World. Before the expansions, when the level cap was 60, the first character I got over level 20 was an orc Shaman. But something was missing. I didn't feel fulfilled. It was only after switching to playing Alliance that I fell in love with a class. A Night Elf Rogue named Syylus. This was the first character I reached the level cap with (maximum level).

Further down the road, I needed another character to hold my attention. It was then that I found my favorite class in the game. A hunter. Taming wild beasts and shooting my enemies from afar! I leveled this character faster than any other because I enjoyed it so much. While playing my rogue, I would do 5-10 quests, get bored and log off. But playing as a hunter, I was enticed to do quest after quest and dungeon after dungeon.

Welcome to Azeroth

Let's face it: over 12 million people in the world have at one point played what may be considered the greatest MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game)  in the world. This blog is centered around this ground-breaking game. From poems and stories inspired by the world of Azeroth, to details on player versus player, raiding, questing, and general discussions, this blog will present how such a game could bring millions of players together.