World of Warcraft Experiences
Sorry this is late...

I was not sure what exactly to expect when I first started playing World of Warcraft. I had played Warcraft 2 and enjoyed it, mainly because of its realtime strategy aspects, so I was familiar with several of the class-types and the overall feel of the world of Warcraft (not the game, the environment). How would Warcraft's battling play out now that people would take over individual characters? Would it take forever to learn how to play, or would you be able to jump right in?

I was surprised (and a little grateful) to find that, for the most part, the controls were similar to Diablo 2. Many of the functions, such as the NPC interaction and hotkey functions, were roughly the same, and that made the game easy to pick up on. Initially I was a little disappointed with the character types. I would have liked more freedom in creating my character, not just picking someone who looked vaguely like everyone else. Hopefully once I get better and I explore the items that can be found, I will be able to give my character a unique look. I wasn't expecting the same level of character definition as the Sims, but a little more variation would have been nice.

I was also disappointed by the lag of the game, which (while not too bad) was noticeable (especially if my character happened to be jumping and moving at the same time... he would suddenly dart at a ninety degree angle, breaking all the laws of physics). However, the game itself was pretty involving. While it would be nice if my character was a little better, and its sometimes frustrating to not be able to use any of the items that you are finding, I recognize that character development is one of the keys to the game. If everyone were to immediately become a high level character, then no one would play... growing up may be a bitch, but your skills at the game grow as your character's skills grow. I know that when I finally do become a higher level character I'll know how to use my character's skills. Outside of class I play as an Undead Warlock, which is a learning experience for me. I'm not very good with hotkeys and multiple spells and the like. When I played Diablo 2 I tended to avoid being anything other than a barbarian or maybe a paladin. It was just too much effort to combine a dozen spells together all at once... I would rather just run into the cave and bash my brains out until everything and everyone was dead. But I figure that I might as well push myself if I'm going for new experiences... if I can learn how to use spells on this character, then I'm sure that I can figure it out in other games.