A Load Of Bull
August 6th, 2006 at 10:00pm TheFurryOne
Session Time: 2h spread between Friday and Saturday; advanced from 3 to nearly 7. Would have been more if life had not interfered.
So this weekend was my first experience as a member of The Horde. This is as opposed to the horde I was already a part of, ie pasty-faced nerds with the second-most popular thing in their hand on a lonely Friday night– a mouse. As stated before, I was playing a Tauren Shaman named Shalalah. And the first thing I noticed is that the Taurens steer like cattle. This is not an idle gag meant to go for the easy bovine pun; I mean that quite literally. It seemed as if my enlarged, meaty bulk actually had a significant more amount of inertia to overcome before I could even start moving. I caught myself pressing down harder on the “w” key, if that tells you anything. I am very glad that there’s no voice-chat built in because the number of times I screamed “MOVE, DAMN YOU! RUN LIKE RONALD McDONALD IS BEHIND YOU WITH A MEAT GRINDER, YOU GOD DAMNED SIDE OF BEEF!” would certainly seem to be annoying to other people. I know it was to the police.
Public disturbance aside, I had my first experience on a real team this weekend. One of my quests was, again, to go into some cave and retrieve the cranial section of some named monster. As a Shaman, however, I realized I was a bit more fragile than I was as a Hunter. So as I entered the cave, a Tauren Warrior offered to team with me, as we had the same quest. We joined forces, and set off together. I’d said I don’t usually play support classes in games; I prefer to get my hands dirty myself. However, hanging back and casting spells seemed to really jive well with my partner’s hacking and mauling. Now, granted, it wasn’t always clear as to who got to loot what corpse; yeah, there were the sparkles, but it wasn’t clear why I was able to loot or why he was. As we approached the monster’s lair, I began wondering if I was going to get shafted once he got his monster head. Boy, was I surprised. As it turned out, once the named monster was dead, we were both able to loot the requisite noggin. So, score one for that system. Still, I wasn’t thrilled witht he prospect of walking back home alone, so I used my hearthstone.
Which turned out to be really, REALLY dumb as I was dumped back to the starting village. Because I’d been smart and decided not to set the village with the inn as my home point. So, score one for my own idiocy. I would much rather that the game give you an option of home points to jump to.
One other thing happened of note; I had completed a quest and progressed past the ‘complete’ text a little too quickly. I wondered if there was a ‘completed quests’ log, but couldn’t find it with a cursory inspection of the quest log interface.
I realize that within the lore of the Warcraft universe, the Taurens are the ’spiritualists’ of the Horde. They are the analogues to the Native Americans, who are supposedly in tune with nature and in harmony with the earth. There is definitely a very strong tribal vibe to the Tauren environment and the quests themselves; at one point a spectral vision hound led me way out into the middle of nowhere to meet some old geezer in a shallow cave. And while I might be flippant about it now, while I was doing it I found myself slipping into it just a little. Leaving monsters alone when I didn’t need their loot, that sort of thing. Even without paying too much attention to the storyline, that says something.
But I swear to high heaven, if you make me chase another phantasmal monster that I can’t kill or tell to slow down while I get away from the five wolves following me and chewing away at my HP, I will tell you exactly where to stick that totem. And it ain’t gonna be in the well.
The Good: There’s variety in the missions depending on your starting race. Short sessions still feel productive. Teaming is easy, and efficient even at low levels.
The Bad: Teaming needs a better explanation in-game. Taurens move slower than my XP bar does in CoH. Skill ‘upgrades’ are unclear– should they replace old versions of spells, or go aside them?
Opinion Change? No change this session. Partly because there was a lot of not-playing going on this weekend, but also partly because it’s just not wowing me as much as it did previously.
Entry Filed under: World of Warcraft
11 Comments Add your own
1. Meophist | August 6th, 2006 at 10:47 pm
From my experience, all races move at the same speed. Some races such as the Tauren seem to move slower because of their large size. Likewise, some races such as the Gnome seem to move faster because of their small size. There is a possibility that this has changed since the last time I played, which was quite a long time ago, however.
2. Anthony | August 6th, 2006 at 11:31 pm
From my experience playing several Taurens, they only feel slower because they are much larger than the rest of the races. All races move at the same speed for game balance. That’s why playing as a gnome can be interesting as you feel like your progress around the map is much faster, but it really isn’t. You’ll notice this more once you play with other races in your party.
On a side note, once you have a level 20 hunter with the speed Aspect, all the other races feel slow. Probably why I tend to like Hunter, Shaman and Druid as they all have level 20 speed enhancers. Ghost wolf for Shaman and Cheetah for Druid, though they are outdoors only compared to the Hunter’s anytime Aspect.
3. ANeM | August 7th, 2006 at 12:09 am
Oddly enough Tauren run at the same speed as all other characters. However, due to their size they appear to run slower since they don’t need to take as many steps to move the same distance as others..
Oh, that and the Tauren starting zone is much larger and wide open than any other starting zone.
It is like a giant optical illusion in that things will seem so close until you spend 20 minutes running towards them and still aren’t there yet.
Mulgore was what really put me off from playing horde when I tried WoW. I realize that lorewise Mulgore is supposed to be big open plains, but to put starting characters in such a space twice as large as certain other starting areas with content that is only equal to those other areas. Its harsh, if not cruel, and all together sloppy design.
4. Pete | August 7th, 2006 at 12:32 am
Just wanted to say that I’ve enjoyed the updates thus far. I played WoW for about 7 months after release before I got burnt out and I had a good time with it during those months. As for the Tauren movement speed, I’m sure you’re aware that it’s actually the same as others (assuming no speed mods (wolf form or whatnot) are used). It just feels different since the Tauren characters are so much bigger than other races. You say you played EQ for a couple months… did you ever play a troll/ogre type and then switch to a gnome, or maybe even a drunk gnome? The smaller guys always feel alot slower although they aren’t, and the drunk effect in EQ made it seem like you were wearing jet shoes.
5. Pete | August 7th, 2006 at 12:33 am
Edit to my last comment.. the smaller guys feel faster, not slower…
6. Pzychotix | August 7th, 2006 at 3:42 am
“Teaming needs a better explanation in-game.”
You have a game manual. I think those are used for something. I don’t know.
“Taurens move slower than my XP bar does in CoH.”
They all move the same speed. It’s just you.
“Skill ‘upgrades’ are unclear– should they replace old versions of spells, or go aside them?”
Skill upgrades always go alongside the old ones, unless the old one is completely obsolete. Essentially, if your new spell is a damage upgrade and costs the same as your old one, then it’ll replace it, since there’s no possible reason you could want to use your old one. But since in most cases, old spells cost less mana to use, people would want to have their old spells around for various reasons (i.e. faster casting times, less mana).
Overall, your review is ok, but you come off as a noob. Not a newbie, but a noob. Honest.
7. Mothlos | August 7th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
At some point you should really re-think the use of add-ons. It is a central design element of WoW that you can overcome the limitations of the default UI by using 3rd party add-ons. If you ever did play this game to the top you would find that certain add-ons are required to be part of player guilds.
I played Horde as well, and I have to agree that the Tauren starting quests are some of the most immersive in the game.
If you are going to be playing 2 characters, you really should put one on a PvP server. You will be griefed, but I think you would have some good things to say about PvP in the early levels and some excelent (if negative) things to say about PvP at the higher levels.
8. Madjack | August 7th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
All races run the same speed unless buffed. Dirty n00b critic~
9. Ripperjack | August 7th, 2006 at 6:23 pm
Yes, and that comment by Madjack sums up the typical attitude of your socially inept, girl fearing, non-self esteem player ganking, 13 year old, lives in my mothers basement, 22 hour per day playing, WoW nerd.
World of Warcraft’s community SUCKS!!!
If the population was anything approaching “normal”, then I would have stuck with the game longer, but after 2 years of playing with smacktards I would rather run over with my Jeep, than help with yet another raid on Molten Core, I’ve had enough. I need to talk with a “normal” human being, and not yet another night elf stripper mangina!
10. m.a. | August 8th, 2006 at 4:03 am
It’s not a problem of WoW, it’s a general problem of online communities. WoWs problem seems just so much stronger because there are so much more people. But look at your average online forum (of decent size) and you will see the same socially inept behaviour all over. Perceived anonymity breeds bad behaviour. That has been a fact since before the Internet (man, even back in the day on small mailboxes with no more then ten users we had assholes spewing their mouth off).
Which all is the reason why I’ll become a millionaire as soon as I invent a way to punch people in the face over the internet. A MILLIONAIRE I SAY!!! MUAHAHAHA!
11. KeyOfTwilight | August 8th, 2006 at 4:48 am
=P i’m afraid that slow moving taurens are a figment of your imagination. They are in fact moving as fast as gnomes on ice.
Nice description of the horde newbie area for the taurens though. Props for having the hearthstone idea… i can’t recall how many times i’ve returned to the wrong place simply because i’ve forgotten to set my hearthstone.
oh, and taurens are the natural predators of gnomes btw.
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