Just purchased World of Warcraft

[Yzzim]

I've never played an MMORPG in my life (though I did have the chance to beta test Asheron's Call...) and am wondering what to expect.

After a quick google search I found that I need to pick a server before I can start playing. I'm assuming that once I pick the server I can't change? It's permanent? Do different servers = different maps, quests, gameplay types, etc?

How did you guys pick which server you wanted to play on?

 

[Schadenfroh]

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=33&threadid=1490550&enterthread=y

 

[Wingznut]

It's true that you can't take your character to another server. But you are free to create another character on another server. Iirc, you can have 8 chars per server. I don't think there's a total limit.

 

[Concillian]

Your server choice is semi-permanent. If you make a character on a server that character only has access to that server. However, you can make new characters on different servers.

Game content is the same on different servers (quests, etc...) but there are different rulesets (normal, PvP, RP). Also the population is "permanent" and you will have to deal with the people who are on the server for your entire time on the server. Quest content is obviously quite different based on which faction you choose, but at the higher levels, there are several quests available to both factions, or quests that are different, but have similar item rewards.

I chose a server based on guild and people I wanted to play with. This is probably the most important thing. Server population distribution is also important if you are interested at all in battelgrounds activity. For example if you want to play battlegrounds, but join a server that has more than 2:1 alliance:horde on the alliance side, you can expect to spend time in queue waiting for enough horde.

When the game first came out there were no such concerns (no battlegrounds) and alliance outnumber horde on most servers (check www.wowcensus.com). Since battlegrounds, it has become a larger issue with alliance waiting in line because there aren't enough horde, and whole servers having difficulty getting enough horde server-wide to even create an Alterac Valley instance (requires 30 players on each side in queue to even start). So people interested in BG are creating horde characters. I know of at least half a dozen or so who have done this on my server.

So think carefully about server populations and which side you would like to play. I think on most servers it makes the most sense to be horde.

The other issue with server population is general stability and the availability of high level resources (especially rich thorium veins, but there are others). highest population servers will typically have more chance of stability issues compared with medium-ish population servers. The highest population servers will also have a larger problem with high level resources as there are the same number of gathering nodes on every server, but more people competing for them on high population servers.

Look for some available guilds that you might enjoy being with, then look at a census site to determine which might make the most overall sense. There is an alliance and horde guild of AT forum users, hardocp has a horde guild, my guild has two branches, one horde and one alliance, and the horde side is much smaller, but that is the branch I play in (levels 58, 50, 50, and 42 horde side but only a 21 and 13 in the alliance guild.) Because we have an alliance side on a reasonably high pop server (Stormrage) and a horde side on a medium pop server (Terenas), we hear a lot of complaints from people who chose alliance and play on a high pop server (the issues I outlined above) and horde-side on medium pop, we experience much less of those issues. Though server stability has greatly increased, we still have times when we get an invasion of people from the Stormrage alliance side guild because Stormrage is dawn and Terenas is up.

 

[LeetViet]

Arthas.

 

[Todd33]

Horde? Crushridge. Look me up as Eddybul, I'll give you some cash to get started.

Alliance zerging scumbag? Anywhere else.

 

[gsaldivar]

Realm statistics in my signature. They aren't totally accurate, but it will give you a rough idea of what to expect.

I'd suggest picking a server with an Alliance/Horde ratio as close as possible to 1:1.

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: Yzzim
I've never played an MMORPG in my life (though I did have the chance to beta test Asheron's Call...) and am wondering what to expect.

After a quick google search I found that I need to pick a server before I can start playing. I'm assuming that once I pick the server I can't change? It's permanent? Do different servers = different maps, quests, gameplay types, etc?

How did you guys pick which server you wanted to play on?

In a nutshell:

Normal (PlayervsEnviroment): You can't attack the other faction unless a player in the other faction is 'flagged' nor be attacked by them(Alliance if you are Horde, and viceversa) unless you are 'flagged'. You flag if:
-you type /pvp. You'll then remain flagged until you unflag by typing /pvp again and waiting 5 minutes out of combat.
-You attack an opposing player who was already flagged, or you heal / assist a friendly player who was already flagged.
-You attack an opposing faction NPC (which are flagged as well).
In other words, Player vs. Player (PvP) is for the most part, consensual, and you usually don't fight other players unless you wish to do so. You can quest without worrying about being attacked.

PvP (Player vs. Player). Depending on where you are, you will be flagged. If you are in enemy territory, you will remain flagged as long as you remain in enemy territory and can be attacked by the opposing faction, but you can't attack them unless they too decide to flag. If you are in friendly territory, players in the opposing faction will be flagged but you won't, meaning you can attack them but they can't attack you unless you flag yourself. And if you are in contested territory, all players will be flagged.
This means that you will be in constant danger of being 'ganked'. 'Ganking' means to attack an opposing faction player from behind, and specially when he is questing or fighting monsters, putting him at a disadvantage. Though playing in a PVP server is also very exiting for many, because there's always the danger of enemy players, as PvP is not consensual like in Normal servers.

RP (Role playing): Role playing servers are Normal (PvE) servers with an added Role playing ruleset. This ruleset means that there's a more strict naming policy, as all names must be 'fantasy names' (ie, you can't have a character called 'xXxt3hl33tz0rzP1mPxXx').
You must also remain in character, ie, you have to 'act out' how your character should act. For that reason, you can't make out of character statements in some public channels; ie, you aren't supposed to chat in AOL speech like "d00d, letz pwn teh instanse t gt sme ph4t l00t OMG lololol!!1!!". RP can be quite rewarding and can add a level of depth and fun to the game not present in other servers. Soon the first RP-PvP server will be opened.
RP servers are usually regarded as 'mature' servers because of these restrictions. However, given Blizzard's feeble enforcement of this rulesets, RP are really nothing more than PvE Normal servers with a 'RP' tag attached, sadly.

After choosing the server (realm) type, the game will suggest a server of the type you picked according to your Geographical location, but you can pick any server you want. You can have different characters on different servers, but you can't (for the most part) transfer characters from server to server.

For more info:

Blizzard's official realm type explanation