BZ - The old style of guides
Prior to Zygor's Leveling Guide, most WoW leveling guides were very similar. They were sent to you as digital eBooks that you could print out or read from your computer. They might be biased towards one race or another, and often focused on solo play, meaning, game review, that you would not do the instances, game review, or the group quests. Some may offer an add-on that allowed you to set waypoints, and others offered links to sites like Thottbot for more information on an individual quest.
These types of guides had a few issues that made them less than ideal. For, game review, starters, the fact that they were an eBook meant that you either had to spend a fortune in ink and paper printing them out, or had to continually, game review, flip back and forth between the guide and the game (unless you are one of the serious gamers that has at least two monitors running). Also, these guides were not always specific about how to complete the quest, and instead were geared for players who had already played the game.
This meant that new players would spend a lot of extra time reading the quest log and referring to sites like Thottbot for help.
What makes Zygor's so different?
For one thing Zygor's leveling guide is a resizable window that you can see while playing the game. This can be made small enough to have on one side of your screen, allowing you to access it when needed, yet not being in the way. No stopping to read something, or needing two monitors, a major bonus over other WoW guides.
Automated - Zygor Review;
The other great thing about this guide is that it is automated.
Unlike other in-game guides, you do not have, game review,, game review, to click on the next quest to know where to go. When you turn in, game review, a quest, the guide automatically updates for you, so you can keep playing. The waypoints are also already set for you, and all you need to do is follow the arrow. If you log off during game play, your guide will remember, game review, where you left off when you log back on.
Zygor Review - For Any Character or Class
If you like, you can even use Zygor's leveling guide starting at a level other than one.
Just scroll through the guide until you, game review, find the quest that you are on, and the guide will continue from that point forward. If you decide that you want to skip a quest, click on the next one and the one you skipped will be grayed out. Class quests are included, so you don't, game review, even, game review, have to worry about figuring those out on your own. And since the guide, game review, is not class specific, you can use it for leveling any character class you wish.
Every detail that you need to complete a quest is included.
For example, if it, game review, tells you to pick up a quest, it will tell you what direction to travel to reach a specific set of coordinates, who to talk to, and what the quest name is. You also get a waypoint arrow that will point you in the direction that you need to go.
Zygor Review - Downsides to Zygor's Guide?
There are a few things that some players may not like about Zygor's Leveling Guides. For, game review, example, all classes hit the same zone at level 13. So, if you are an Alliance player, you are stuck in Westfall, and if you are a Horde player, you, game review, can expect to hit the Barrens.
All in all, this is not necessarily, game review, a deal breaker,, game review, unless you've endured Barrens chat for just a few too many levels.
There are some cases where the guide does not update automatically, though some updates, game review, have corrected this. If you experience this problem, you will just have to manually select the next item on the list to get back on track.
Some quests can have you fighting larger mobs or mobs of a higher level. Depending, game review, on your character and class, this can be a bit of a pain, and walking back to your body from the graveyard does waste valuable playing time.
Keep in mind that if you aren't playing 24 hours a day, then taking advantage of rested experience can put you ahead in level from the guide, causing many of, game review, these quests to become easier.
Zygor Review - All in all, this is probably the easiest to use, most comprehensive guide you can get, game review, . If you are looking for a way to level through WoW quickly, even with minimal experience, then the Zygor's Leveling Guide is a great place to start.
Showing posts with label world of warcraft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label world of warcraft. Show all posts
2010/04/03
2010/02/19
MMORPGS: World of Warcraft, a Review
Introduction
If you're, game review, into computer games, you probably have heard of World of Warcraft, the latest hit produced by Blizzard Entertainment, and you're probably aware what an MMORPG is. If you're not, let me explain it quickly, game review, . A MMORPG is a massivly multiplayer online roleplaying game that allows, game review, thousands of players to play in a persistant game world.
World of Warcraft currently entertains close to 7 million people world wide. It has drawn many of the mmorpg veterans but also, game review, introduced a lot of new people to the genre.
Why is world of warcraft so successful? Well. I think it comes down to more than one thing.
First, game review, of MMORPGs are usually not that easy to get into, often the player is presented with a, game review,, game review, akward interface,, game review, tons of options and, game review, a lot of things going on around them in general, game review, the first time the log onto the game. Blizzard has done a pretty solid job in keeping the interface simple and stupid, allowing even newbie players to, game review, get into it at a quick pace.
Hints and Tips help guide the true MMORPG newbie along as well. When the developers of the game created the interface, and gameplay in general their goal was for it to be easy to get into it, but to be hard to master.
They have definitely accomplished the first part, the second part can be argued about. What defines a good player in an MMORPG basically comes down to two things.
1) Does he know his character and the abilities
2) Does he pay attention
There are no twitch skills involved, and in my opinion if youre, game review, looking for a competitive, game review, game, current mmorpgs - including WoW -, game review, are not the place to look at.
If you want skillbased competition stick to RTS and FPS games.
The second thing, game review, that makes wow so successful is mostlikely the name of the producer and their huge fanbase - which they deserve by all means - after having released such great games as the diablo and warcraft series, which were all huge hits.
Let's get to the review part :)
Character Creation
Like every MMORPG or MUD out there the journey always begins with the character creation. You get to pick your site - alliance or horde , your race and a few visual features.
Character customization is definitely one of the game's weakest points, the diversity and amount of features to select and change for character remind of Everquest which was released almost 8 years ago. You get to chose
* between a handful of faces
* skin tone
* between a handful of haircuts
* between a handful of facial hair styles
* hair color
It is probably not a huge deal, and its certainly nothing game breaking, a bit more would have been nice though.
First steps
As you take your first steps within WoW, getting used to the user interface, you will quickly notice that the game is very quest driven.
You can earn most of your character's experience, game review, via quests, you will still be grinding mobs for exp once in a while though.
The starting quests, game review, also lead you along nicely, out of the, game review, starting area to the bigger towns and into the deep dungeons
The world
The amount of detail that was put into the world of warcraft is amazing and stunning. The cartoony style, game review, may not be everyones cup of tea, but whether you like it or not you cannot dismiss that the world has, game review, a lot of character.
It is filled with content too, and you will find yourself stumbling from point of interest to point of interest.
The dungeons
The dungeon instances, which are zones that belong to you and your group, while pretty linear most of the time are also amazingly done. The boss encounters are fun, and the best loot is gotten from doing instance runs. The dungeon instances are supposed to be the group part of the game (aside from pvp) and it would be unwise to enter them alone unless youre like 20 levels stronger than the mobs inside the dungeon.
The way to 60, and beyond
Most people ive talked to tell me they have, game review, the most fun leveling their characters to level 60, because it is, game review, quick paced most of the time, and only slows down rarely. The quests are done well, and there is just so much, game review, to discover.
Once you hit 60 youre basically stuck with three things to do, game review, though
a) do instance runs (raids) for items
b) grind monsters for money
c) pvp
Now this might sound as if it should be enough.
But the core problem is this: there is no character advancement beyond 60 other than getting items. These items are gotten by raiding elite dungeons with your guild, playing the bazaar game or by gaining rank while pvping.
Right now, if youre a raider, you raid so you can raid more. There is no reason to take that super dagger of stabbing into a normal 5 man dungeons and, game review, just carnage stuff left and right, other than for the sake of carnageing - is that even a word.
The game at this point, 2 years after its release, direly needs some alternate advancement, luckily the expansion (The Burning Crusade) is right around the corner, so that should help out some for now.
Server Issues
This is were i have an axe to grind, so pardon my rant
Ever since, game review, wow was released , the game has, game review, had severe sever stability issues. I guess they did not expect the kind of amount of people to buy the game back then and got, game review, surprised. Not a big deal, most of the MMORPGs face server issues the first few days, game review, of the game's release, even if is not as popular as wow.
But even after 2 years of development it is sad and annoying to see that the same server problems still exist, while not as severe, and the servers need to go down for maintenance weekly.
Content Updates
We all know it, Blizzard likes to do things correctly, and they always take their time. The thing is, that this is a MMORPG. People need to be handed new content almost constantly, waiting 3-4 months between content updates that deliver content that was promised, game review, to be in the game when it was released just seems weak. Then again i can certainly appreciate the amount of work that must be needed to create the content, game review, . It wouldnt be so bad if there was actually some way of alternative character advancement.
This review may sound a bit harsh and dont get me wrong, WoW is an amazing game, and what the artists did is just mind boggling. I leveled 3 characters to level 60, and as i was progressing along through the vastly different world zones of the game there was always this thought on mind.
Wow is an amazing online world, but it is as if they do nothing with it. Where is the dynamic world, that i imagined when i first read about WoW in 2002. There has been a world event of, game review, the opening of a raid instance that involved the players gathering resources for a month or two and then battling in a war like scenario to unlock the dungeon.
While this is definitely a step in the right direction it is not enough. Next generation, game review, MMORPGs,, game review, game review, need to be developed with, game review, dynamic behaviour in mind. The world needs to change and feel less static.
Fazit
World of warcraft is a great game, and you will definitely enjoy leveling your character. After that it is uncertain, you will have to see for yourself. Doing raid instances can be fun, unless you dont like to rely on people. PVP can be fun too if youre into that kind of thing.
Heck, even trying to amass huge amounts of virtual money can be fun to some people.
Stefan Pratter is a developer of the free browser based MMORPG Lands of Kazram - http://www.landsofkazram.com
If you're, game review, into computer games, you probably have heard of World of Warcraft, the latest hit produced by Blizzard Entertainment, and you're probably aware what an MMORPG is. If you're not, let me explain it quickly, game review, . A MMORPG is a massivly multiplayer online roleplaying game that allows, game review, thousands of players to play in a persistant game world.
World of Warcraft currently entertains close to 7 million people world wide. It has drawn many of the mmorpg veterans but also, game review, introduced a lot of new people to the genre.
Why is world of warcraft so successful? Well. I think it comes down to more than one thing.
First, game review, of MMORPGs are usually not that easy to get into, often the player is presented with a, game review,, game review, akward interface,, game review, tons of options and, game review, a lot of things going on around them in general, game review, the first time the log onto the game. Blizzard has done a pretty solid job in keeping the interface simple and stupid, allowing even newbie players to, game review, get into it at a quick pace.
Hints and Tips help guide the true MMORPG newbie along as well. When the developers of the game created the interface, and gameplay in general their goal was for it to be easy to get into it, but to be hard to master.
They have definitely accomplished the first part, the second part can be argued about. What defines a good player in an MMORPG basically comes down to two things.
1) Does he know his character and the abilities
2) Does he pay attention
There are no twitch skills involved, and in my opinion if youre, game review, looking for a competitive, game review, game, current mmorpgs - including WoW -, game review, are not the place to look at.
If you want skillbased competition stick to RTS and FPS games.
The second thing, game review, that makes wow so successful is mostlikely the name of the producer and their huge fanbase - which they deserve by all means - after having released such great games as the diablo and warcraft series, which were all huge hits.
Let's get to the review part :)
Character Creation
Like every MMORPG or MUD out there the journey always begins with the character creation. You get to pick your site - alliance or horde , your race and a few visual features.
Character customization is definitely one of the game's weakest points, the diversity and amount of features to select and change for character remind of Everquest which was released almost 8 years ago. You get to chose
* between a handful of faces
* skin tone
* between a handful of haircuts
* between a handful of facial hair styles
* hair color
It is probably not a huge deal, and its certainly nothing game breaking, a bit more would have been nice though.
First steps
As you take your first steps within WoW, getting used to the user interface, you will quickly notice that the game is very quest driven.
You can earn most of your character's experience, game review, via quests, you will still be grinding mobs for exp once in a while though.
The starting quests, game review, also lead you along nicely, out of the, game review, starting area to the bigger towns and into the deep dungeons
The world
The amount of detail that was put into the world of warcraft is amazing and stunning. The cartoony style, game review, may not be everyones cup of tea, but whether you like it or not you cannot dismiss that the world has, game review, a lot of character.
It is filled with content too, and you will find yourself stumbling from point of interest to point of interest.
The dungeons
The dungeon instances, which are zones that belong to you and your group, while pretty linear most of the time are also amazingly done. The boss encounters are fun, and the best loot is gotten from doing instance runs. The dungeon instances are supposed to be the group part of the game (aside from pvp) and it would be unwise to enter them alone unless youre like 20 levels stronger than the mobs inside the dungeon.
The way to 60, and beyond
Most people ive talked to tell me they have, game review, the most fun leveling their characters to level 60, because it is, game review, quick paced most of the time, and only slows down rarely. The quests are done well, and there is just so much, game review, to discover.
Once you hit 60 youre basically stuck with three things to do, game review, though
a) do instance runs (raids) for items
b) grind monsters for money
c) pvp
Now this might sound as if it should be enough.
But the core problem is this: there is no character advancement beyond 60 other than getting items. These items are gotten by raiding elite dungeons with your guild, playing the bazaar game or by gaining rank while pvping.
Right now, if youre a raider, you raid so you can raid more. There is no reason to take that super dagger of stabbing into a normal 5 man dungeons and, game review, just carnage stuff left and right, other than for the sake of carnageing - is that even a word.
The game at this point, 2 years after its release, direly needs some alternate advancement, luckily the expansion (The Burning Crusade) is right around the corner, so that should help out some for now.
Server Issues
This is were i have an axe to grind, so pardon my rant
Ever since, game review, wow was released , the game has, game review, had severe sever stability issues. I guess they did not expect the kind of amount of people to buy the game back then and got, game review, surprised. Not a big deal, most of the MMORPGs face server issues the first few days, game review, of the game's release, even if is not as popular as wow.
But even after 2 years of development it is sad and annoying to see that the same server problems still exist, while not as severe, and the servers need to go down for maintenance weekly.
Content Updates
We all know it, Blizzard likes to do things correctly, and they always take their time. The thing is, that this is a MMORPG. People need to be handed new content almost constantly, waiting 3-4 months between content updates that deliver content that was promised, game review, to be in the game when it was released just seems weak. Then again i can certainly appreciate the amount of work that must be needed to create the content, game review, . It wouldnt be so bad if there was actually some way of alternative character advancement.
This review may sound a bit harsh and dont get me wrong, WoW is an amazing game, and what the artists did is just mind boggling. I leveled 3 characters to level 60, and as i was progressing along through the vastly different world zones of the game there was always this thought on mind.
Wow is an amazing online world, but it is as if they do nothing with it. Where is the dynamic world, that i imagined when i first read about WoW in 2002. There has been a world event of, game review, the opening of a raid instance that involved the players gathering resources for a month or two and then battling in a war like scenario to unlock the dungeon.
While this is definitely a step in the right direction it is not enough. Next generation, game review, MMORPGs,, game review, game review, need to be developed with, game review, dynamic behaviour in mind. The world needs to change and feel less static.
Fazit
World of warcraft is a great game, and you will definitely enjoy leveling your character. After that it is uncertain, you will have to see for yourself. Doing raid instances can be fun, unless you dont like to rely on people. PVP can be fun too if youre into that kind of thing.
Heck, even trying to amass huge amounts of virtual money can be fun to some people.
Stefan Pratter is a developer of the free browser based MMORPG Lands of Kazram - http://www.landsofkazram.com
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