30 Day Trial: World of Warcraft - Part 01

Seriously, people who argue that vanilla WoW was better than anything afterwards needs to take off the rose-tinted glasses.

As someone who really never played an MMO for pretty much the same reason this is pretty cool. Now I can just watch someone else do it!

I for one loved finishing a quest and getting the next one in a line that wanted you to go to another continent and do a quest in some out-of-the-way zone there before sending you back to the original zone and making you walk your slow ass back across the entire zone to continue the quest chain in that zone, netting you roughly an hour and a half of nothing but walking and some +1 int boots that aren't any good for your class.

It was so much better back then guys, honest.

Does Dan know anything about video games? Like, what the fuck is going on here?

Once Dan gets into the more recent zones, from some of the newer expansions the game looks much better. Also they're currently in progress of updating all the player race models which all look fantastic.

I'm leveling a shaman right now and that is EXACTLY what it is.

Finally got around to watching this, and it was really enjoyable even though I fell out of WOW a long, long time ago and now pretty much hate it.

I kinda hope, that they'll do a similar feature with some other MMOs or just other games in general.

By the way I will never understand how every single time, after minutes of discussion, everyone ends up playing as the most generic race/class combination possible. Human warrior? Oh come on.

@mrbene: Did you see the updates to the character models that they're doing?

Holy hell, Dan is like a 40 year old man who was lost as a child and was just brought back into society. I don't even... food, games, general knowledge... I just don't even.

This is a bizarre video / series. So far it feels like watching an elderly relative being taught how to play a video game for the first time.

I'm assuming that they'll throw Rorie at Dan in later installments? I think it's a good idea to not have Rorie overwhelm him immediately, but it seems Dan is missing a few points here. Jeff did invest plenty of time with this back in the day, but it's been a while since he touched the game. Just simple things like how to use the proper chat channels, or even whisper to players seem lost in this first part.

Me and Dan are kindred spirits in our cheapness keeping us away from MMOs.

"You mean I gotta buy the game, AND pay each month?"

It's why games like Guild Wars were so appealing to me when they came out. Of course, I never played that either.

Don't know which took place first in this case, but similiar situation has occured several times over the years. Maybe they just want to share it with people who only watch videos and don't listen to the bombcast/vice versa, or maybe they just have a really bad memory when it comes to some things.

Or chemtrails.

This is so difficult to watch having been a part of one of the highest raiding guilds on my server back in the days.

Best of luck Dan!

Edit: Right-click to fast equip items

@danryckert Rocky did lose to Apollo in Rocky 1

Oceanic because they are by the ocean? Jesus Christ, I think that made me dumber. Is Dan the most unaware person on this planet?

I don't think I could ever take gaming advice from someone who dies at level 1 in WoW. Or hasn't eaten a salad. Or tries to cook egg shells. Fight on, Dan. Fight on.

I kind of wish they did this live so that chat could help Dan and Jeff pick a class.

"Imagine this whole game is set in some sort of fancy amusement park, where nothing ever really changes because there's always someone behind you that want to go on the ride."

Jeff Gerstmann on why I can't get into MMOs

Yea, I was watching this while dozing off and it really creeped me out to hear the same conversation almost verbatim from the podcast being spoken. Real weird.

I can't wait for the Microsoft Bingo QL. Dan and Jeff are my new favorite QL pair next to Drew and Danny.

Dan is turning out to be the best thing to happen to this site in a long time.

Dan shoulda just picked Shaman, last I checked Enhancement was pretty much "Punch/Cut dudes and occasionally shoot lightning"

@kinggiddra: Based on what he said about Divinity though I didn't get the impression that he played many PC RPGs either.

It's kind of amazing a professional videogamesman knows so little. A lot of what's in WoW is universal across the medium, not just MMOs. Right clicking gear from the Inventory ( I or B key) to equip it is pretty standard fare for an RPG. Asking if you have to save in an ostensibly online-only game was actually kind of surprising.

That being said, Dan is awesome and I can't wait for the next video.

Tutorials could have helped him figure out a few things, like equipping being right click.

Ugh I use to love World of Warcraft. I fell out of it before Burning Crusade came out but then I relapsed hard when Wrath of the Lich King was released. I remember the magic moment when I realized I needed to stop playing this game. I basically started it up one day and going through a laundry list of stuff I planned to take care of: "Do a daily, farm some gold, raid at 5 o'clock, grind some rep".

I began to get the feeling that I was paying a monthly fee for a digital simulation of a part time job and that kind of commitment is counter-intuitive to a profitable lifestyle. Plus I love playing different games too much to get anymore meaningful achievements out of WoW. I'm pretty sure if I booted it up now it would be great and I could get so much fun out of it. If I had the time I'd totally go back. What I'd give to play some more Alterac Valley.

I was just quietly saying 'Shaman, Druid, Shaman, Druid' throughout that whole character selection process. Warriors are so bland.

I've never played WOW or most MMOs, so I'm very interested in seeing Dan's reactions to this as well as Jeff's as a former World of Warcraft player.

God, it too me forever to realize this, but Shaman is exactly the class that Dan wants.

They've certainly done it in the past.

@crono: Eggwhites... Poor guy, he tries so hard! He's like a sweet innocent flower, about to be ruined by the utter corruption that is GiantBomb, and I'm loving it!

I know that feel :(

Dan: "I assume there's going to be more variety, so far it's been a lot of go do six of this, go to four of this, do eight of this, there's this one guy, he's real scary... I hope that it does."

Oh Dan... You sweet innocent soul.

What I have learned about Dan since he has joined Giant Bomb: He has been living under a rock his entire life.

I've been on the fence about becoming a member for awhile now because I wanted to watch Unprofessional Fridays; this new series is what pushed me over the edge. I'm pumped to dive into the madness that is Giant Bomb premium.

I think he should have picked Druid! :>

@dizzyhippos: @civid:

Okay so a few things. And forgive me if this all sounds a little like stream of consciousness.

I find the argument of "Just don't watch" kind of a lazy short cut to not wanting to empathize with someone's opinions. It shuts down any conversation there is to be had about what is a more effective entertaining way to do content like this, and marginalizes a segment of the fan base for no reason.

That said, I didn't watch this whole video for that exact reason, it frustrated me, I end up not finishing lots of Brad quicklooks for the same reason, I don't usually comment about their quality because I understand why the quick looks are the way they are. Its hard work to focus on being entertaining and talking, showing off every aspect of the game that is still new to you, and all the while knowing 100 assholes like me will still think you're bad at the game. So I get it in that regard and I just don't watch them if it starts to frustrate me, just move on. This video inst one of those though, there's no reason why there cant be a little tutoralization. WoW, and most mmos in general sort of relay on a certain amount of base knowledge and are extremely obtuse if approached from a place of complete ignorance to the genre. Jeff was there to help but some felt it wasn't enough. Its a completely fair criticism to not like the blind approach to this video series.

We're all fans of Giant Bomb here, were all dorks that enjoy watching funny people play video games and in this specific case we all paid to do so.We have the right to criticize the content, that doesn't mean any of the duders have to acknowledge or change anything about their videos, it doesn't give us the right to dictate content. I don't understand the defensive reaction to the criticism though. There's a segment of people that feel that begin frustrated by the sort of thing were talking about is unacceptable.

My reply in this thread was directly addressing the video but one of the aforementioned people, trying to explain why some one might be frustrated and why its not something you can just "stop taking seriously" as he suggested.

I guess what I'm trying to say in my tired, convoluted way is, be excellent to each other. Or something. Maybe. We all love this site, some minor gripes about some of the content doesn't take that away.

The currenty community for WoW tends to be very rotten in some aspects. The grown popularity and introduction of cross-realm dungeons and raids kinda made the whole "You've got a reputation to hold up on your own realm if you want to get into groupds/raids and guilds, so it's in your best interest to act politely" thing obsolete, since chances are you won't meet that same player/players again anytime soon, if ever, so you might as well call them all sorts of things and act like a real douche. I kinda have a feeling that Dan will get chewed-out pretty badly when/if he decides to try his luck with dungeons.

There are those few exceptions that can brighten up one's day, but I don't blame people for not trying much, when chances for that happening are very slim.

All that said though, WoW still is one of the easiest MMOs to approach for a newcomer (hadn't played any MMOs myself before it) and you can survive quite easily without an aiding hand.

@insane_shadowblade85 said:

@fattony12000 said:

I'm thinking about doing that again as well.

NOTHING BAD WILL HAPPEN!

Hopefully Dan rerolls a horde Shaman or something, I think he'd enjoy it more.

I'm really scared to watch it. I have this feeling I'm going to reactivate my account during this.

Wow. WoW looks like dogshit graphically.

It's fun to see someone who haven't been introduced to one of the biggest mmorpgs and what they're experiencing. It's also fun to know one hasn't been playing for 10 years and the game is pretty much more upgraded than that.

What isn't fun though, is the way people now plays. Being silent, boring, too focused to the game and doesn't care about the new ones. I sort of met this behaviour in another game as well.

You shouldn't be silent, but speak up if you know something that may help out the poor newcomers.

It's sort of your role since you most likely, been in the same seat and found out how. This is not how it always work for others though.

And the sociality which goes on, has gone bad, and I mean really bad!

Sometimes you can play a game an entire day and noone even tempts to chat at all!

Remember, gamers tries to find another way to communicate with others, and games are just that way. And now you're silent in games as well?

Me, I try to at least tell what I know if I can. I don't like those who doesn't want to learn though so I'm having a hard time with that kind. Otherwise I try to help out whenever I can. I have already helped plenty folks by doing a few guides which wasn't any bull.

But... *sigh* many checked up those "Hey, look at my high damage and skills!" videos instead and basically learned absolutly nothing.

Some did though and they managed onward, a thing I'm somewhat proud of. I was, after all, a not so stiff high-level . The others tend to go arogant and stuck up on just being with those at their own levels.

They forgot they were there once as well... forgetting that, makes you forget the newcomer's problems.

In other words, try to help if you can more alright? I sort of dislike the silence in onlinegames these days.

"I have to kill some worgs for 50 cookies or something"

FAN. TAS. TIC.

Dan likes it easy...

I'm not saying people aren't allowed to express their opinions on a particular video they don't care for, that's all fine and well, but why would you spend an hour watching something that you find 'painful' to watch? That doesn't make any sense to me.

The most fun I had with Human Warrior was dualboxing a pair of them, back when it was something that required effort and not just money.

Having never played WoW, I got the strangest sense of phantom nostalgia watching this. Being witness to the introduction of one of the most influential games ever, and knowing the staggering amount of times that content must have been played - it's a strange feeling.

Love this feature though, as I've always wanted to experience the game from an academic perspective but known I'll never actually do it.

I dont think tutorials would of made all that much of a difference, the basic concepts of WoW have spread to every other genre at this point