Wow All Day

WoW fanatics like me are always eager to heap praise upon the beautifully rendered characters and backgrounds in our beloved game franchise. Until recently, however, few people would confuse the game’s stunning visuals with fine art. A museum in California recently unveiled an exhibit that blurs that distinction. The Laguna Art Museum in Orange County is running an exhibition titled “WoW: Emergent Media Phenomenon.”

In the past, the game has been heralded for its addictive gameplay and the niche culture that has come to anticipate each World of Warcraft expansion release. The museum has chosen to focus on the elements that make the game visually unique. Fourteen artists have their work highlighted in the exhibition, and each has put his or her own spin on what the game means to our culture at large.

Growing up, I would sometimes try to hide my gaming addiction from the outside world. Sure, I always had a core group of friends who would come over every weekend and help me beat a bunch of Final Fantasy games. Not to mention those all-night LAN parties fueled by gallons of soda and fistfuls of candy. My passion for games was no secret to these select few buddies.

In general, though, I didn’t feel comfortable letting others know about my obsession. Then everything changed. I discovered WoW and became so addicted that I no longer cared what anyone thought. If they didn’t get it, it was their problem, not mine. I bought an entire wardrobe’s worth of World of Warcraft t-shirts and made new friends who shared my passion for the online phenomenon.

Though WoW has had just two expansions since its release, there are sure to be more to come in the near future. However, when comparing the two existing expansions to the game, Burning Crusade (BC) and Wrath of the Lich King (WOTLK), most gamers believe that BC was better. Burning Crusade had a lot more content available upon release, and all the content was brand new. The WOTLK WoW expansion had just one rehashed dungeon that was removed from the original game and retooled for level 80 characters. BC, at release, had one new ten man dungeon, as well as two world bosses, and two encounter based dungeons designed for twenty-five. In addition, two new full length dungeons were introduced in BC right after most guilds had conquered the two previous dungeons and the special encounters. Within the first week of WOTLK, most guilds had cleared the first dungeon, and then had to wait four months for a new dungeon, which again, was cleared in just a short period of time.

Burning Crusade also featured better dungeons with more unique designs, as well as a host of heroic dungeons which made the game a lot more fun. Overall, BC had a clear advantage over WOTLK as a WoW expansion.

There are a lot of add ons out there that can enhance character performance in the World of Warcraft, and most do so through altering the UI, or User Interface, of the game. While Blizzard has taken some steps to provide a competent UI, most serious gamers opt to create their own custom UI from numerous different WoW add ons. There are a few essentials, often the most important being a threat meter. The threat meter provides an accurate threat count to ensure that no one pulls aggro off the tank. While the threat meter is more essential for DPS and tank classes, it can also be helpful for healers. The raid interface is another important add on, and is most important for healers as it allows them to view all of the characters in the raid, and provide healing to them as needed. The raid interface is also important for removing status effects such as curses, diseases, poisons, and magical effects.

The other essential add ons are more based on class than role in the raid. For example, a Paladin might want to invest in a WoW add on that shows their active auras and special abilities, and makes them easier to use. A Hunter might want an add on that provides accurate timers for all of their cooldown abilities.

Let’s face it, when I get into something, I GET INTO IT!  Such as the case with my love of World of Warcraft (WoW for you n00bz). When I’m not working or busy trying to dissect a quantum physics theorem, I like to relax by playing WoW and it’s definitely a great way to take it easy and not think of work or school.

For my own birthday present, I decided to deck out my dorm room (I do have a single) with some cool WoW merch.  I’m particularly stoked on the WoW mouse that I have to go along with my laptop.  Now when I’m discussing some matters with the guild, I can do it in style.

Author: Scott Holmes

World of Warcraft is an exciting MMORPG game that is absolutely filled with quests that you can do to gain levels, money and reputation with dozens of different factions.

Beginning with level 1 you will be offered quests to help get better armor and weapons and the better equipment you have, the easier it is to survive in the World of Warcraft environment. Often times you can accomplish several quests at the same time or at least in the same areas. The trick is to know which order to do these quests to get the most done in the least amount of time. This can be tricky at times, especially when you are dealing with “chain” quests.

Chain quests are a string of quests that tie together. You do the first part of a chain before you are eligible for the second part. Once the second part is turned in you become eligible for the third part and so on. These chain quests are usually a good way to build your reputation with whichever faction you are questing for and generally have a pretty good prize for finishing them. That prize may be a new piece of armor or a weapon and money. Sometimes the quests in World of Warcraft only pay money but that money comes in very handy for buying potions, buying materials to raise your skill level in a trade or saving to buy things that are expensive, like mounts.The higher your level, the more money you earn with each quest.

If you are looking for an exciting way to explore the many different areas and fascinating creatures of Azeroth then log into World of Warcraft and start questing.

Author: Mike Howie

World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role playing game or MMORPG that has been set in the equally expansive Warcraft universe. The Warcraft universe began in the nineties with the release of Warcraft I for the PlayStation platform. Years later, gamers around the world saw the evolution of the third-person strategy game to a venerable strategy game for the PC platform.

Perhaps the most memorable game after Star Craft in the 2d realm is Warcraft itself. Before WoW, players form around the world mastered the complex game architecture of Warcraft III, which had been expanded with the well-known Frozen Throne expansion pack.

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is the latest installation of Blizzard Entertainment to the already hefty World of World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade. The game is an addition to the already rich environments and complex gaming system that composes WoW.

Wrath of the Lich King may be just the thing to wheat the appetite of WoW players looking for a new character class and improved game play. Wrath of Lich King features a newer character class: the death knight.

For those who have been playing Warcraft for a long time (at least already playing when Warcraft III emerged in the market) the death knight hero class emerged with Arthas- the used-to-be good Prince of the Human race who eventually destroyed those around him with the search for the Blade. Arthas eventually returns to his father the King’s kingdom and kills his father, thus beginning his career as the infamous Death Knight under the sway of the Undead legion.

The death knight hero class has powers similar to necromancers, thus continuing the older story line of the death knight getting his identity and powers from the Undead.

The expansion pack also features an improved and beefed up character development system. There are two magic numbers with the WoW expansion Wrath of the Lich King: 55 and 80. Level 55 is when you get to customize your own death knight and level 80 lets you explore a veritable minefield of new abilities and powers.

The game is improved significantly with the addition of another Realm: the Northrend realm. According to Warcraft lore, Northrend is the continent of the deadly Lich King. According to feedback from beta testers, indeed the Northrend realm is tougher than the other realms, adding to the anticipation of finally coming face to face with the Lich King himself.

According to Blizzard, the new realm Northrend is open for visiting for any character level or type. However, the realm had been designed for characters who have progressed to at least level sixty eight.

As for the dungeons, there will be dungeons in Northrend and these are comparable to those that have already been made available to players in the Burning Crusade.

For the destruction dimension of the expansion pack, the addition of siege weapons would truly make the WoW experience better- because now you can tear down destructible elements of the environment.

Author: Patrick Smith

If you’ve been playing World of Warcraft at all consistently over the last two years, you’ve seen the way the game has been moving toward more casual play. By this, I mean that there are fun things to do at all levels, without the need to spend many hours or days to achieve anything. The idea behind this drift seems to be to attract and retain more casual players, people who can’t or won’t put in the amount of time and energy a hard-core player will. Considering how many people now play the game, this strategy has clearly worked to get people involved. But some people are wondering if having lots of casual players is good for the game itself, as well as for the hard-core players. Here’s a breakdown of the situation.

The Positive Side of the Casual Trend   Probably the best thing about the more casual style of play is that it causes Blizzard to make sure to add lots of fun things to the game.. Changes like Achievements, lower level requirements for mounts, less XP to get to the higher level content, along with the large number of events held throughout the year all add a lot of depth and detail to the World of Warcraft universe. For hardcore players who spend large blocks of time repeatedly playing through the same area over and over trying to get a new epic shield, pair of spaulder, it keeps you from getting stuck in a rut and adds some depth to your gaming days.

The Negative Side of Casual Style Play   The trend toward casual gaming has drawn away from resources Blizzard previously poured into raiding content and things for more devoted players. Surprisingly, the highest level raid for Level 80 players is significantly easier than the top raids for Level 70. Raid sizes are now 10 and 25 men as well. The top-end Players who reached Level 80 days after the expansion came out are left with PvP or Achievement grinding if they want something to do as they wait for the higher end raids that will eventually come to the game.   What Casual Play Means for World of Warcraft

In the end, casual gamers coming to WoW is good for everyone. It brings in new revenue and as long as Blizzard maintains quality levels and puts the necessary resources they should into the game, they will be able to maintain a steady flow of new content for all level of players. It might seem like the faithful are getting shortchanged, but it is the price we have to pay to give the company the resources to develop new content in the future that might not otherwise get the go ahead.

Author: Greg Mee

Pain, agony, suffering… also known as “leveling in the World of Warcraft.”

Say what? Ok, to be fair, the first time, or even the first few times, leveling characters in WoW is a kick. Many of the quests are clever, fun, interesting, and have a good story behind them. Of course, some are little more than an excuse to kill off a bunch of Raptors, but others have a lot more detail, story, and humor.

Still, like any story told more than once, if you’ve done the quests several times they get old. If you’ve leveled many characters they might be really old. Trying different races doesn’t help, since they all do the same quests once they get into their teens. If you’ve leveled many characters you might even find it … painful. Doing it yet again becomes somewhat unattractive.

People do the leveling grind anyway because the end game content is so good and because their friends are already there and/or they want to try another character at that level. .

Playing different classes helps to alleviate the tedium, since the strategies and abilities are different, but still, it’s all been seen before. PvP might help here. Twink out your character a bit and run around ganking other players. PvP adds a level of interest to the game, especially when the players that you’ve been ganking get some pals and look for revenge. But PvP doesn’t help you level.

In the interests of avoiding further pain, agony, and suffering, here are the four best ways to get leveled fast:

1) Buy a level 70 character off ebay.com. This character has the levels and probably has the gear and might even have some cash (gold.) Take some time to learn to play and develop your skills. Of course, the one downside here is that Blizzard will ban you if they catch you, since this is against their Terms of Service.

2) Buy a power leveling service. Pay some cash, they level the character for you. Come back in a couple of weeks and you have a brand spanking new 70. What could be better? There’s just the small issue that this is also against the Blizzard ToS and they’ll ban you if they catch you. But what’s several hundred dollars down the drain?

3) Instance grinding - Find some high level character who is willing to take you through the many instances in the game. He will clean out the dungeon (kill everything) for you while you get the experience and the choice loot dropped by the bosses. Quite legal, quite boring, and you’ll have to work on your skills when done, but it’s fast.

4) Treat yourself to a WoW leveling guide. These guides provide you with a step by step path, already done by experts, that will take you from level 1 to 70 as quickly as possible. All of the “what to do and where to go” info has been provided ahead of time. All you have to do is follow the path provided and you’ll level up faster than you ever have before.

Then once you have good WoW leveling guide in your hot little hands, try this: Get a friend to open a new account. As of this writing Blizzard is offering a promotion where if you invite a friend then you and your friend will get triple experience for monsters slain and quests performed!

Team up with your friend. Duos level faster than singles anyway, due to less downtime and faster slaying, now add triple experience to that and you’ll see the levels fly by faster than ever before.

There are some conditions, so read the Blizzard FAQ page, but if you have a willing friend this is a killer way to go. Heck, if you have enough computing power you might be able to do it with two of your own accounts and run them both on the same machine.

Now, no leveling guide, for WoW or any other game, will be a magic pill that will poof you right to 70. It won’t get you leveled to 70 in mere hours of in-game time, since you still have to deal with all those monsters. It will, however, show you a well thought out, fast and efficient path that will get you leveled in as little time as possible. Even if your game time is limited to a few hours per week.

Assuming that you’re still bored, or in agony at the thought of more leveling, one thing that will help is to play energizing music in the background (no suggestions here since my tastes are likely way different from yours.) This will help keep you awake and motivated.

Some people who are skilled at multi-tasking have even been known to watch movies or read books while leveling! Sometimes however they also find themselves parked in a cliff face, due to having dozed off or the book/movie being really good.

The bottom line is this - save your sanity and invest in a World of Warcraft leveling guide. Not only will you keep from losing your mind, you’ll save many hours, even days, on the leveling grind. And isn’t your sanity worth it?

Author: John Molar

I just came across a WoW Leveling Guide and it really changed the way that I play. I used to be fairly conservative, only fighting when I had to and grouping whenever possible, but now that I’ve followed my leveling guide I don’t need to be a wuss anymore. I went from level 9 to level 61 really fast (faster than any of my friends who were the same level), and I didn’t play any more than I normally would.

So, I’ve compiled a list of reasons why I love my WoW Leveling Guide (and you will too!):)

1.They make me look like less of a noob – When I am following a leveling guide I always know exactly what I should be doing and when I should be doing it. To the players around me, I’m always the one that knows what’s going on. I never wander around aimlessly, looking for my next quest or trying to figure out where to go next. I’m in control because I know what to do.

2.I know what kind of leveling I can expect – All of the good guides out there tell you what kind of levels you can expect to gain when you follow them. Now, admittedly, some of the free guides can be a little tricky, but hey, considering their price I think they’re still really good. All of the guides that I’ve paid for have always been dead one, hence why I never have a problem paying for them.

3.I know the importance of certain quests and items – This key in any MMORPG. Knowing what you’re doing is important, but knowing what kind of equipment to have and what kind of items to obtain is equally important. I can’t even remember how many times I would have sold some really valuable items for less than they were worth if it weren’t for the guide.

4.I learn really cool “tricks of the trade” - Knowing all of the insider tricks and strategies is worth the few bucks I paid for my WoW Leveling Guide. I know that there are many free guides out there that get into similar details, so don’t think that you need to pay for a guide to learn some cool tricks. But, if you can afford it, they help!

5.Longevity is important to me – A good WoW Leveling Guide will help you get your character set up so that not only do you level, but you also build a strong foundation that will you to have fun while leveling. I’ve had experiences in other games where I’d reached a high level focusing on one skill set, only to find out that I’d built a very high level but inefficient character. Buying a WoW Leveling Guide up front helped me avoid the frustration of starting over because my character was too weak to handle the end game.

A good WoW Leveling Guide avoids this by giving you tips on how to build a good overall character from the beginning to the end.

I’m sure I could think of a few more, but I think those 5 points addressed what I had to say. I need to mention that I have noticed a difference in the quality between a free leveling guide and a paid one. You can usually find what you are looking for with a free leveling guide, but it will take more time and effort to put all the information together. With a paid WoW Leveling Guide, it is right there at your finger tips, easy to find and understand, so you can spend more time leveling.