Here was my thought process two days ago:

Well, there aren't many games coming out right now, and I enjoyed watching the feature that Dan Ryckert's been doing on GB with World of Warcraft, why not try the game myself?

You see, I'd only ever tried the Starter Edition of WoW prior to a few days ago, and the game had never really interested me. Sure the world always seemed fascinatingly large in scope, and I liked the idea of getting a character to a high level and going on 3 hour long raids, but no one I know in real life plays the game. I always thought it would be insufferably boring without at least a partner to play with. Also, since I never even had to patience to get to level 20 (the cap for the Starter Edition of WoW), I didn't see the point in ever investing a lot of time into the game. But since it was relatively cheap to get the game up to Cataclysm for a month, I thought I'd try it. The way I looked at it, I couldn't recall ever playing a game consistently for an entire month, so if I got bored before the month was up, I'd never have to put any more money into the game. As it turns out, I hadn't even begun to scratch the surface of this gargantuan, genius, and diabolically designed game.

For the first 20 levels, all that occupied my mind was "I need a mount". Above all else the biggest frustration of the early stages of WoW is having to travel by foot everywhere (except when a travel point is accessible, but these aren't frequent enough to solve the problem). Performing the boring tasks that make up the early stages of an MMO is tedious indeed, but once you embrace the fact that these are simply there to get you to the good part quickly, it really isn't that bad. Perhaps the thing that has made WoW occupy my every waking thought so far is the fact that features are made accessible to the player at a fairly slow pace. Want to search for dungeons? You'll have to wait until level 15. Looking to access your classes specializations (extra skill trees), that isn't accessible immediately either. By offering the player these further choices at a slower pace, there is always something to look forward to in WoW. It was around five minutes before writing this that I truly began to worry about what I was getting into with this game. So far every quest I've completed has been with the goal of getting to level 20 to get a mount, which has already added up to close to 11 hours. This was over two days of playing the game, and I honestly don't know where that time went. With such a specific task in mind it's easy to get caught up in the process of grinding out quest after quest. I haven't joined a guild yet, I haven't played with anyone else (a close friend is also getting into the game though so that may change), yet I've already spent as much time in the game as is needed to complete many story-driven games. But enough of that, because getting caught up on time spent in game is a useless thing to worry about (luckily I have a job which prevents me from playing 24/7.

Once I get my mount though, I won't have as much of a goal. Perhaps I'll give a dungeon a try, matching up with randoms and perhaps making friends along the way. I'm looking forward to getting a response from my guild membership requests, which will offer more opportunities to play with other people. I got a Baneling pet in the mail a little while ago because I had bought the collectors edition of Heart of the Swarm when it came out, which made me a lot more happy than it probably should have. My hope is that I meet people to play with, as that is what the game is meant for. I think the biggest mistake I made while playing the game before however, was expecting to meet up with randoms from the get go and embarking on huge quests which dropped loot with the excess of Diablo 3 (a game which I love, for the record). But WoW, at least at the beginning, is a very slow-paced game, one which requires you to set your sights low at first (getting a horse to ride on!) and then working your way up slowly. This offers a refreshing change of pace from many other games where the sole purpose is to offer constant excitement. I realize I'm being manipulated with a constant "carrot on a stick" mentality with this game, but I really don't care. I'm having too much fun immersing myself in this gigantic world.

So the moral of the story is, I'm already lost in WoW, before I've entered a dungeon, met a friend, or gotten a mount. I couldn't be more excited to venture forth and see just how far this game goes (hint: it goes on forever). My questions for you are as follows: if you play WoW, why do you? What makes it fun for you, and what are some of the goals after getting your first mount? Thanks for any feedback!

Oh dude...you've barely scratched the addiction surface when it comes to World of Warcraft. You won't be fully lost until you join a guild, reach the level cap, and start raiding and getting wrapped up in the gear grind. All isn't lost, there is still time for you to quit!

@mb: oooo oooo that grind to get the fast flying mount. That is satisfaction.

Agreed, I quit before hitting that point. My buddies passed me by in the earlier stages when vanilla WoW hit. They were at max level when I just broke 20.

They said "let's walk to this place," I realized we'd be walking back and forth 20 minutes at a time. I realized how much time they were spending doing inane things, and chasing gear that was just a marginal improvement on what they already had. Or maybe it was worse, but looked cool!

I left before hitting that addiction level and saved myself hundreds of hours. They had great times, but also experienced significant emotional lows when the game got "dumbed down" and "too casual." I went on to finish college and play dozens of different games in that time frame.

But it's your life!

My condolences OP. Is there a next of kin you would like us to inform so they can come to your home and collect your belongings before you turn into a complete zombie? Seriously stop now, it only gets worse and then in 3-5 months the cycle just starts over with a new raid.

I did something quite similar with a different game. I finished the last of us on ps4 and decided to try an mmo. I had downloaded tera and rift a couple of months ago and played a bit but I couldn't quite get into it. So last week I did too much research on the different MMOs and decided I was going to buy Guild Wars 2. Unfortunately, I went to the mall, and used the GW2 money on brand new shoes. I went home and played about an hour of Rift before I got bored. It seemed so empty and the art style was too bland. I didn't even bother with trying Tera again and so my last stop was going back to the mmo that I enjoyed with my cousins back in the day which was Runescape. Immediately after logging in to runescape I was like holy cheezits I can't believe I played this horrible looking game. I stood in the game for 10 minutes contemplating if I should really be playing MMOs and I logged out. I do really want to have fun playing these games but I just get bored after a while. I really enjoyed my time with the Wildstar beta and I would continue to play it if it went f2p. I've logged on to DC universe a couple of times and I think I might buy guild wars 2 later.

I remember the first time I played it cause some friends said I should, and found it absolutely boring. Tried a different character at one of the friends house and decided to start playing and got hooked. Started during WotLK and quit before the final raid in Cataclysm, but I had 4 max level characters (two of which were geared for raiding) was running dungeons for rare mount drops and soloing old raids just for silly achievements. It's a dark fall if you get into it. Even after I quit I still wanted to go back and eventually did last Christmas to get to level 90 with my main before stopping again. And now Dan is doing those videos and that itch is there again.

Do yourself a favor and stop now before it sucks you in and doesn't want to let go.

I was always weird with WoW I spent most of my time trying out a ton of combinations of races and classes, to the point where I had had at least one character with each class and at least one with each race available at the time (Burning Crusade). At the time I only ever played three of my characters really "seriously" (for me, that means at least getting a mount, which at the time cost 10 gold and needed level 40 I believe) a Blood Elf mage, a Draenei paladin and a Night Elf Druid. The rest I'd play somewhere between level 10 and 25 and then just try something else. No idea why I played it like that, it really didn't make a lot of sense. I was almost exclusively playing by myself on a RPG server. Occasionally I would join really small guilds and play with a few random people in them but for the most part it was solo-dolo for me.

There have been times where I've felt the pull to hop back in again but I know I shouldn't.

Everyone seems to want me to stop but I mean either I play WoW for the time when really no new games are releasing or I hop between various games. Would it really be best to just stop even if I'm only level 20? I mean I've never played one game only for more than 3 weeks so I doubt this would be any different. All the feedback here seems so depressing though haha.

WoW always had two things going for it far as I'm concerned. They did loot right (lots of it, looks different), and it's got a huge open world to explore. The open world PvP was also a blast, and I'm not really all that into PvP in general. Storming and raiding enemy faction zones where you'd wipe out a town of quest-givers and players trying to quest was suuuuuuper satisfying. It helped that the whole faction conceit made it easy to be an asshole in PvP without feeling like a huge frickin asshole. But none of it got it's hooks in me.

Getting a flying mount was preeeetty much what I wanted since I hopped on one of those transports, and eventually getting it when/around the level cap was cool, but after flying around a bit and realizing I couldn't take it into the main world (this was back during Burning Crusade) I was left feeling like "ok, did that, now what". Joining a guild was nice, and raiding was fun, but by then my interest was waning. I almost wish I had gotten the bug so I could know what the hell people were going on about when they say it's so addictive. Maybe stopping at the endgame was the problem. For me it was all about the journey to max level, and once I'd gotten there I felt like I was done. Only later after playing other MMOs would I come to understand that lategame is just the next step in an MMO.

I'm planning on seriously jumping back in with all that in mind when the new expansion comes out with the new player models and such. And by serious I mean I'm gonna play it for a month at least before stopping. I played a bit around the time Dan's first foray was posted, but having played quite a few MMOs since, it felt really, really old (because it is). I'd had Old Republic on my mind for a while, and oddly enough playing WoW got me to go play that, which I'm having a blast doing. Looks great, feels great. Now it apparently has proper space PvP and is getting player housing soon not that having a virtual house does anything for me but I'll probably try it and spend a lot of time decorating nonetheless.

Then by the time the WoW expansion comes out I'll be getting bored of TOR and will jump into that. But even if I'm not bored I still want to jump into WoW when it gets that influx of players. Have they said if it'll be their last expansion? Seems like it'd be about time they, you know, did something else. But I guess as long as the well's still pumping they'll keep coming to it, because why not. Of course when subscriber numbers eventually start to wane you gotta expect they'll go full on free-to-play which will probably bring a whole heap of new players (and money). I can't imagine they'll keep pumping out expansions after this upcoming one though.

Still, I recently had a moment where I realized I actually like MMOs, which is weird because I've been playing them for years, so I'm excited to give the WoW monster another shot.

I'm on the same boat. I bought the game plus the expansions yesterday. €20 for all of that + 30 days of game time isn't that bad of a deal, even if I don't renew my sub later on. I'm paying a third of what I'd pay for a new release and getting 10 years worth of content.

WoW is the perfect "play while watching a movie or listening to a podcast" game for me.

My suggestion to most new players is to read up on the fiction a bit. It's pretty decent, somewhere on a like B-A tier comic book lore. It add some weight to what you're doing and the places you are. Probably the main reason I still play WoW every now and again. Well that and the music.

Holy shit everyone who said to stop is right. I've accomplished next to nothing in this game and its terrifying. All credit to blizzard for making a pure genius game but i cant get sucked into it.

Never again.

You'll know you're addicted if you spend 4 hours in Orgrimmar/Stormwind just jumping around outside the auction house on your mount.

Just kidding I'm still playing it.

@noahtheboa999: what server are you playing on? If you started an alliance character on Aerie Peak (the server that Dan is playing on) you're welcome to join the giant bomb guild, people are fairly active so far. Message me in game (grindstyle) or add me as a battle.net ID friend (Grindstyle#1941) for an invite, or message anyone in "Bomb Squad," everyone has invite power.

If it begins to adversely affect your life in any way, quit. Might seem a tad dramatic, but I have watched people throw their lives away for WoW. Im talking total accumulated play times of over 3 years on two characters.

If you are not prone to that level of addiction, have fun!

I've been thinking about it for awhile but I know I will not stick with it. I've played more MMO's than I can count but the only one I have ever reached the level cap on is SWTOR and that was all because of the story. MMO's just doesn't have enough story to keep me going. I get tired of grindning when there is no story.

I tried the trial a while back and remember thinking that I was expecting more from the most popular game in the genre. It seemed like they had put less into it than games like SWTOR or Guild Wars 2. It reminded me more of F2P games. I could just play Rift or Aion or some other game that is F2P. This was the beginning of the game. I know it has good end game compared to other games but I never raid or do things like that. I solo MMO's which is probably why I, like Jeff, don't like them as much.

I haven't played in 8-9 years, but after watching Dan play, I just had to give this a go again. I got to level 20 on the starter edition, but bought the game and made a new character once I found out that my girlfriend was willing to play with me. Now because we used the refer-a-friend program, we're leveling up 3x faster than usual... Just today, we got from level 15 to level 21 in just two dungeon runs... Just got my mount and at this rate, I don't see myself getting bored because this leveling pace keeps the game very exciting.

I think wow is probably one of the most immersive games to ever come out, especially if you get into the lore. I mean I was a big fan of W3 so I had read the books and stuff so Wow was like a dream come true. That being said, its too addicting...I think for you its okay since you have a job but for those who don't have real life to interfere I would not recommend it, be wary of weekends... don't let it consume you!

@jimbozu: nah I'm an Orc Rogue on Lightbringer, maybe I'll start another to join you guys though.

I hope you haven't taking a look at the in-game achievements. Exploring every nook and cranny of the world, while you watch TV on your second monitor.

Or leveling up your professions. Leveling up your fishing or archaeology while listening to three hour long podcasts.

Or I hope you haven't discovered the auction house. Get a nice addon to scan the AH, buy low, sell high.

Have you taken a look at the pets? I quit long before they implemented the pet battle system, but have you taken a look at the pets?!

Stop while you still can...

I recently rejoined too.

I will say that the first 20 levels can go by pretty quickly and I think I had my mount on the second day (when I started playing again 2 weeks ago) so hopefully you're not stuck in that mountless rut for long. If you're selling everything you don't need as you level you'll also probably have the money for it too.

I used to play WoW, back when it was new, the thing that drew me in was the massive seamless world, i remember being in awe and frequently getting lost, and reading every bit of text that came way. That was a fun time :)

What got me into WoW was seeing an undead Warlock terrorize me and a bunch of other questers in Redridge Mountains (a level 16+ish zone) back in vanilla. He was wearing the coolest armor, and he put Curse of Doom on me. This is an especially slow damage over time curse, and he just sat there watching me die. I panicked, ran around in circles, and eventually accepted my death. I rerolled a Warlock in hopes of being just like him, and that's what hooked me initially.

The Carrot-on-a-Stick:

• Level 10 - Specializations
• Level 10 - Battleground: Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin
• Level 15 - Talent 1
• Level 15 - Dungeons
• Level 20 - Ground Mount
• Level 30 - Talent 2
• Level 30 - Dual Spec
• Level 35 - Battleground: Eye of the Storm
• Level 45 - Talent 3
• Level 45 - Battleground: Alterac Valley
• Level 55 - Death Knight unlocked
• Level 60 - Talent 4
• Level 60 - Outland
• Level 60 - Flying Mount
• Level 65 - Battleground: Strand of the Ancients
• Level 70 - Northrend
• Level 75 - Talent 5
• Level 75 - Battleground: Isle of Conquest, Battle for Gilneas, Twin Peaks
• Level 80 - Cataclysm
• Level 85 - Pandaria
• Level 90 - Talent 6
• Level 90 - Pandaria Flying
• Level 90 - Battleground: Silvershard Mines, Temple of Kotmogu, Deepwind Gorge
• Level 90 - Raiding!

What this list doesn't include is smaller stuff like moving into new exciting zones, unlocking new LFG dungeons, glyphs, professions, or fundamental class abilities. For me, the driving force when leveling any character is "what ability do I get next?" and "when do I get [blank]?" As you level, your class will evolve and mature into what its designed to be; early goings often feels like being an awkward, growing teenager of sorts--some skills don't work well together, while others feel like they need a follow-up that you don't have. Just take a look at your spellbook. Moving faster is nowhere near as impactful as making your core combat loop more interesting, satisfying, and nuanced.

Being someone who has played since vanilla and never missed a months sub, I find it amazing people take 11 hours to hit level 20. I know the reason for this is I have played so much that I level at full efficiency with boa gear, it still boggles my mind however. I keep forgetting in vanilla 1-60 took me 15 days game time.

What a fantastic game honestly, just limit yourself and you'll have fun, no sense quitting something this enjoyable. Also I'm level 40 but I've never tried battlegrounds because they seemed intimidating, should I give it a try and/or any tips or tricks for starting?

@noahtheboa999: Battlegrounds are divided into brackets of every five levels. At level 40 you are in the 40-44 range which means you'll be pretty ineffectual in terms of combat, but you might as well queue for one anyway to get the lay of the land since they play a significant role at max level.

@erhard: Alright cool, thanks.

In case your interested, I've posted a blog update on my WoW journey.

I will never try wow because I know I won't be able to stop playing it and it will ruin my life.