WoW Basics
24/06/07 06:16 Filed in: WTF
My wife suggested that
I blog about WoW since few of my friends actually
know very much about the game. She is continually
impressed by how complex and varied the game is. The
purpose of this entry is to cover some of the basics.
I need to preface this by saying that there really is
quite a lot to the game and the world where it takes
place, and no single blog entry can hope to capture
it all....
My wife suggested that
I blog about WoW since few of my friends actually
know very much about the game. She is continually
impressed by how complex and varied the game is. The
purpose of this entry is to cover some of the basics.
I need to preface this by saying that there really is
quite a lot to the game and the world where it takes
place, and no single blog entry can hope to capture
it all.
The World of Warcraft takes place in a fictional world called Azeroth. Azeroth has 2 large continents separated by the Veiled Sea. The continents are called Kalimdor and the Eastern Continent. There are also several large islands and numerous small, generally uninhabited islands. Each of the continents and large islands is divided into zones that have their own names. On Kalimdor you can visit Teldrassil or the capital city of the Night Elves, Darnassus. You can travel to Felwood, where the plants and many animals are corrupted by some evil influence. You can explore the Stonetalon Mountains or visit The Exodar on Azuremyst Isle. The capitol cities of the Dwarves and Humans are on the Eastern Continent. Ironforge, home to the Dwarves, is in Dun Morogh. Stormwind, capitol city of the Humans, is in Elwynn Forest and near Westfall. These are just a few of the dozens of regions in the game. You can check out a map of Kalimdor and a map of the Eastern Continent. The recent Burning Crusade expansion pack added Outland to the game. Outland is not part of Azeroth, it part of another world that was torn loose by violent cataclysm caused by the evil Scourge - the enemy of everybody in the World of Warcraft. Players can travel to Outland via the Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands. Outland is a bit larger than either of the two main continents and also contains several zones. Outland is for high level players and cannot be accessed until level 58 or higher.
Player characters in WoW are sometimes called "toons". (I think the term comes from the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.) In addition to player characters, there are also Non-Player Characters, or NPCs that populate the Azeroth and Outland. These are game generated characters that may be friendly, neutral or hostile to the players. Friendly NPCs are vendors and quest givers. They sometimes provide help to player characters working on quests.
There are ten races in WoW, divided evenly between the two major factions, Alliance and Horde. Both the Alliance and the Horde are fighting the Scourge for their own reasons, but when they aren't doing that, they are fighting one another for dominance. Each of the races has its own unique history, and each has aligned with their particular faction for their own reasons. For example, the Undead are aligned with the Horde. But they have no real allegiance to them. They view life as wasted on the living, and ultimately plan to make everyone undead. If they can't do that, they'll settle for just plain dead. The different races each have unique attributes. For example, gnomes are gifted tinkerers and make good engineers. Tauren are born naturalists and Blood Elves are adept at the magic arts.
The races are:
Alliance: Human, Dwarf, Gnome, Night Elf, Dranei
Horde: Troll, Ogre, Undead, Tauren, Blood Elf
Players cannot interact with players or NPCs from the other faction, except to fight them. Players within each major faction have a much larger range of options. They can talk to one another, form large guilds, team up to explore or go questing. They can also trade or sell items and services to one another. It WoW, it is common to encounter players from other countries. You won't know where they are from of course, until you chat with them a bit. If you are using a voice chat feature, you may recognize their accent. Most players use in-game chat, which is text based and of course does not betray accents. I have discovered that you can't conclude that someone who doesn't communicate well in chat is necessarily not a native English speaker. I know one fellow who is a neurologist, but who suffered brain damage from a traumatic injury years ago and has trouble processing information. I have found that others whom I thought were foreign are actually just 8 year olds whose chat looks to me to be fragmented and ungrammatical. But I guess that's how kids do it these days. And of course, I have encountered real live foreigners as well, and have sojourned with Chinese players, and quested with Australians. You can never tell unless you ask.
In addition to races, there are different player classes. "Class" can be said to be the player's avocation or calling. The classes are Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, and Warrior. Not every race can play every class. So for example, there are no Gnome Druids. Like race, the class chosen by the player cannot be changed once the toon has been created. A warlock cannot have a change of heart and decide to become a hunter instead.
Player characters always start their existence in a beginning area within whatever zone is home to their race. Humans will always start out in the Northshire Abbey in scenic Elwynn Forest. The new toon will find a number of easy quests that will teach them aspects of the game and how to control their character, and what their character can do. Usually, players should be able to level up to about level 8 - 10 in the beginning area. There are a total of 70 levels, and players level up by gaining experience, reflected as points. These experience points, or "xp" in game jargon, accumulate as new areas are discovered, quests are completed or bad guys are killed. Reaching level 10 may take days for a novice player. For an experienced player, it usually takes about 90 minutes.
At level 10 the character can choose two major professions. The same professions are available to all races and classes, though some have natural aptitude for certain professions. The professions are Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Engineering, Herbalism, Jewelcrafting, Leatherworking, Mining, Tailoring and Skinning. Players get better at these professions as they use them. The herbalism skill improves by collecting herbs, for example, and players become better alchemists by making potions (known as "pots" - if you hear players talking about "pot", they're most likely talking about these potions and not that other type of herb!) You can get a total of 375 skill points for each profession. It is not necessary to choose a profession, but they can are very useful during play so it is advisable to pick a couple that both suit your particular race and class, and will produce useful items that you can use or sell for a profit.
In addition to the major professions, there are secondary professions available to all players. These are cooking, fishing and first aid. Like the major professions, there are 375 skill points available for each of these, and points are accumulated by practicing the particular profession. The least useful of these, and by far the most tedious one to level up, is fishing. Like fishing in real life, you have to sit by a river or lake, or on a dock, and cast your line into the water. Then you wait for a strike. If you're lucky, you'll pull up a fish that you can then cook (gaining a point in cooking) and eat (gaining health and possibly some other attributes, depending on what the recipe is).
Well that's it for now! As you can tell, there's a lot to the game. Blizzard does offer a 10 day free trial to anyone who wants to check it out.
The World of Warcraft takes place in a fictional world called Azeroth. Azeroth has 2 large continents separated by the Veiled Sea. The continents are called Kalimdor and the Eastern Continent. There are also several large islands and numerous small, generally uninhabited islands. Each of the continents and large islands is divided into zones that have their own names. On Kalimdor you can visit Teldrassil or the capital city of the Night Elves, Darnassus. You can travel to Felwood, where the plants and many animals are corrupted by some evil influence. You can explore the Stonetalon Mountains or visit The Exodar on Azuremyst Isle. The capitol cities of the Dwarves and Humans are on the Eastern Continent. Ironforge, home to the Dwarves, is in Dun Morogh. Stormwind, capitol city of the Humans, is in Elwynn Forest and near Westfall. These are just a few of the dozens of regions in the game. You can check out a map of Kalimdor and a map of the Eastern Continent. The recent Burning Crusade expansion pack added Outland to the game. Outland is not part of Azeroth, it part of another world that was torn loose by violent cataclysm caused by the evil Scourge - the enemy of everybody in the World of Warcraft. Players can travel to Outland via the Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands. Outland is a bit larger than either of the two main continents and also contains several zones. Outland is for high level players and cannot be accessed until level 58 or higher.
Player characters in WoW are sometimes called "toons". (I think the term comes from the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.) In addition to player characters, there are also Non-Player Characters, or NPCs that populate the Azeroth and Outland. These are game generated characters that may be friendly, neutral or hostile to the players. Friendly NPCs are vendors and quest givers. They sometimes provide help to player characters working on quests.
There are ten races in WoW, divided evenly between the two major factions, Alliance and Horde. Both the Alliance and the Horde are fighting the Scourge for their own reasons, but when they aren't doing that, they are fighting one another for dominance. Each of the races has its own unique history, and each has aligned with their particular faction for their own reasons. For example, the Undead are aligned with the Horde. But they have no real allegiance to them. They view life as wasted on the living, and ultimately plan to make everyone undead. If they can't do that, they'll settle for just plain dead. The different races each have unique attributes. For example, gnomes are gifted tinkerers and make good engineers. Tauren are born naturalists and Blood Elves are adept at the magic arts.
The races are:
Alliance: Human, Dwarf, Gnome, Night Elf, Dranei
Horde: Troll, Ogre, Undead, Tauren, Blood Elf
Players cannot interact with players or NPCs from the other faction, except to fight them. Players within each major faction have a much larger range of options. They can talk to one another, form large guilds, team up to explore or go questing. They can also trade or sell items and services to one another. It WoW, it is common to encounter players from other countries. You won't know where they are from of course, until you chat with them a bit. If you are using a voice chat feature, you may recognize their accent. Most players use in-game chat, which is text based and of course does not betray accents. I have discovered that you can't conclude that someone who doesn't communicate well in chat is necessarily not a native English speaker. I know one fellow who is a neurologist, but who suffered brain damage from a traumatic injury years ago and has trouble processing information. I have found that others whom I thought were foreign are actually just 8 year olds whose chat looks to me to be fragmented and ungrammatical. But I guess that's how kids do it these days. And of course, I have encountered real live foreigners as well, and have sojourned with Chinese players, and quested with Australians. You can never tell unless you ask.
In addition to races, there are different player classes. "Class" can be said to be the player's avocation or calling. The classes are Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, and Warrior. Not every race can play every class. So for example, there are no Gnome Druids. Like race, the class chosen by the player cannot be changed once the toon has been created. A warlock cannot have a change of heart and decide to become a hunter instead.
Player characters always start their existence in a beginning area within whatever zone is home to their race. Humans will always start out in the Northshire Abbey in scenic Elwynn Forest. The new toon will find a number of easy quests that will teach them aspects of the game and how to control their character, and what their character can do. Usually, players should be able to level up to about level 8 - 10 in the beginning area. There are a total of 70 levels, and players level up by gaining experience, reflected as points. These experience points, or "xp" in game jargon, accumulate as new areas are discovered, quests are completed or bad guys are killed. Reaching level 10 may take days for a novice player. For an experienced player, it usually takes about 90 minutes.
At level 10 the character can choose two major professions. The same professions are available to all races and classes, though some have natural aptitude for certain professions. The professions are Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Engineering, Herbalism, Jewelcrafting, Leatherworking, Mining, Tailoring and Skinning. Players get better at these professions as they use them. The herbalism skill improves by collecting herbs, for example, and players become better alchemists by making potions (known as "pots" - if you hear players talking about "pot", they're most likely talking about these potions and not that other type of herb!) You can get a total of 375 skill points for each profession. It is not necessary to choose a profession, but they can are very useful during play so it is advisable to pick a couple that both suit your particular race and class, and will produce useful items that you can use or sell for a profit.
In addition to the major professions, there are secondary professions available to all players. These are cooking, fishing and first aid. Like the major professions, there are 375 skill points available for each of these, and points are accumulated by practicing the particular profession. The least useful of these, and by far the most tedious one to level up, is fishing. Like fishing in real life, you have to sit by a river or lake, or on a dock, and cast your line into the water. Then you wait for a strike. If you're lucky, you'll pull up a fish that you can then cook (gaining a point in cooking) and eat (gaining health and possibly some other attributes, depending on what the recipe is).
Well that's it for now! As you can tell, there's a lot to the game. Blizzard does offer a 10 day free trial to anyone who wants to check it out.
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