BlueTear

Yes, Depends on what you compare to, No, Have no clue. While a shadowpriest is a bloody pain in the rear in PvP for a lot of classes (You can get a damage reduction that's downright sick for a cloth-user), you'll end up fairly subpar when it comes to healing. True, you will be able to get quite a high damage output, but most raids/parties in PvE will rather grab a straight up DPS class to fill that role because if played proper, they will outdamage you most of the time. You're also not going to be that welcome in endgame raiding, even though some guilds bring one shadowpriest along for the shadow damage increase so the warlocks do more damage, but that could give rise to threat issues and overaggroing. That being said, you can still have fun with a shadowpriest in PvE. But your options will be limited. (And I'd really suggest reconsidering on not respeccing. The amount of gold involved for the first three respecs is low)

-Runescape (eh... not sure how long as I ended up playing in between some of the others) -Asheron's Call (6 months) -Star Wars Galaxies (two years, right up until they announced the NGE. IfSOE hadn't refunded my expansion pack, I'd never played another SOE game ever again.) -World of Warcraft (8 months and counting)

IMHO, that's the wrong way to approach trying out any new class, especially during your first few weeks in the game. Specc as you see fit, examine the talent trees and make your mind up. But be prepared to change it several times before you find a spec you like. It might also be worth mentioned that while certain specc's are great for leveling (Maxing out Dark Pact on a warlock for example), at lvl 60 they can become rather boring and/or worthless. Most speed leveling tactics involve at least one respec, some involve several. You will respec. Accept it and choose your talents based on what seems like a good idea now, and change them later. That being said, the best place to look for advice and spec guides are on the official forums. There's usually large extensive breakdowns of individual skills/talents, along with suggestions of how to use them.

So what does that make any other country that has the technology to play hockey but still - nationally - favour soccer? One of the reasons for soccer's popularity is the fact that the "underdog" wins 45% of the time. And I really fail to see how the likelyhood of people getting hurt makes a sport more interesting (unless it's a sport were the point is to hurt your opponent).

On a related note, WoW Europe is now offering free ten day trials to anyone who wants it at http://teaser.wow-europe.com/

I must confess I'm not that big a sports fan on the whole. But I don't live in a vacuum and I read newspapers and watch the TV news so I tend to stumble into sports news anyway. But... I didn't get that. Which sports has the United States been dominant in for the past decade?

Nope, you have to bounce it via an alt (mail alt, have alt return mail, do not open or pickup mail until you need whatever's in the mail).

Point are not "distributed" that way.Except for certain talents that increases a stat pÃÆÃâÃâÃÂ¥ by a %, you will get gear that adds those stats. The list provided is what priority you should give each stat when choosing what gear to go with. Visiting a mailbox allows you to send mails to people, include your alternate characters. This way, you can spread your stuff over a wider bank selection. Using professions (i.e. tradeskills) over multiple characters is, in all honesty, a right pain in the rear. I'm not sure if they have the cap anymore, but you may have to hit lvl 30 to be able to max one out. Few people will want to grind a second characterthat far just for his professions. Your choice of professions should also take your class into account; Mining/Engineering is excellent for PvP no matter what class you are, Herbalism/Alchemy is mostly for casters, Mining/Blacksmithing is for people with heavier armours and Mining/Skinning (Herbalism/Skinning) is for making money selling materials. There's a few more recommended combinations as well but they the logic behind them is a bit more game-versed. My advice is to always start out as Mining/Skinning (Herbalism/Skinning). You can then replace one, or both of them, with a crafting profession which you can easily level if you've saved all the materials. (For example, if you want to have alchemy, you start out as herbalism/Skinning, and keep all the flowers you get and sell all the skin you get. Then, once you feel you need alchemy, you get rid of skinning and use all the flowers you have to boost your alchemy) There's no cross-server communication. You must choose one side (on a PvP server at least, not sure how it works on a PvE one...) one each server, and all your character on that server will be on thesame side. I've never played on a PvE server so I can't speak about the differences, but the primary thing about the PvP servers is that it forces you to stay awake. You need a completely different awareness of your surrondings, and IMHO that adds a lot to the gameplay. That, and taking a break from grinding to go tell the guys AoE grinding that killing you was probably not the smartest of things to do is plain fun. It also means you have to play a bit smarter. Yes, Stranglethorn Vale is a great place to level in a specific level range with a huge amount of quests. However, they call it Gankthorn Vale for a reason and leveling there during peak hours without a group is done at your own risk. Solution: Choose a different area to be in during peak times, or make friends with one or two people and go there togheter.

*shrug* Right or wrong, good or bad, it's happening. Virtual currencies are being farmed in sweatshops and then sold for real cash, characters are being leveled by other people in return for money. And my question still stands; If both the virtual and the real currency can be counted in time, what's the difference? Who's going to have the most well-developed social life, the guy who plays for 8 hours during a week, or the guy who works for 4 and pays someone else to play for him? The guy who can't "see the difference" between virtual and real money actually has four more hours to spend partying. (Personally, I think paying someone else to play your character is idiotic - I mean you pay ten bucks a month and then have someone else play for you, hello? - and buying gold is like cheating in Monopoly.) Of course it's to a point, it's about balance. But to paraphrase what I said last august, why couldn't an MMORPG be a part of that balance? Why would it have to be an either-or?

40 people getting togheter to kill a dragon discussing tactics over ventrilo between asking about the last football game, about what you did last night and so on and so forth is probably more healthy - from a social point of view - than getting so plastered you have no idea what you were doing last night anyway. And as for money... A friend of mine recently paid to have a WoW character of his leveled. A few quick mathematical calculations revealed that considering his hourly wage at McDonalds and the amount of hours required to the amount of leveling, he "made" hours out of that trade. I'm quite sure the same goes for most modern day MMORPG "gold farming" - as the market is completely cornered by gaming sweatshops in asia - working at McDonalds and using that money to buy in-game items/services means you spend less hours reaching an in-game goal. If time is money and both the real and the virtual money can be counted in time; Is there really any difference?

Fairly sure it caps at 50 characters.

Only those who doesn't want to see claims that oranizations like the KKK is the biggest concern when it comes to racisms. Oh yeah, getting your house burned to the ground obviously isn't fun, but quite frankly, truly problematic racism is not scores of houses being burned down, it's thousands of people who aren't given equal job opportunities due to their name or skin colour, equal opportunities to education due name or skin colour (and equal rights to education and job and opportunities is not the same thing). The guy waving a swastika scares me less than four guys who automatically - and without really thinking about it nor meaninging any harm - assume someone with a different skin colour or name is less suitable for working in a certain position. The fact that no one cares about what the KKK says anymore is not the same thing as "racism isn't an issue anymore", because the KKK were never that important anyway. It's the silent masses that counts.

Havn't even considered playing RS again. Should probably log in and wander around a bit soon though, just because.

Primarily, Guild Wars fail to attain a "persistant world" due to the massive instancing (and stuff like switching of characters, advancement, traveling etc etc). Town is not a town; it's a graphic waiting room from where you set up "games". A persistant world is - depending on who you ask - one of the requirements for a game to be truly massive multiplayer (there are purists who claim any instancing detracts from the massive multiplayer experience, but I'm inclined to think they just lack sufficient experience with being on the recieving end of some targeted corpse camping). As Phil said, ArenaNet doesn't even bother claiming they're selling an MMORPG because they know they're not.

Guild Wars isn't an MMORPG though, which might be a part of why you don't like it if you're into MMORPGs. Like Lion, I'd really recommend World of Warcraft. It requires thought and tactics to play well, and is fairly balanced. Fun, and bound to keep your attention for quite a while.

That's all well and fine, but strictly speaking, the formation of the modern state of Israel was not the result of God; It was the result of the Balfour-declaration and it's ratificiation. Politics gave them that land, not God. And there were some strings attached to that aswell, specifically, regarding the respect for the civili and religious rights of those who happened to live there. You know, the guys you can't work within the borders of Israel to support their family who also happends to be living there. That explains why they're so upset about Israel. After all, everyone knows it's a christian st... Oh wait. Actually, you lost me there. How did christianity come into this? Iran? No, the religiously practicing jews and zoroastrism-ers (... I don't knowwhat they call themselves...) are being equally persecuted and they're all such a small part of the population. Where did christianity come into this? Suicide bombers are the products of 'poverty', 'despair', 'lack of eduction' or possibly 'unstable minds', not religion.

That would seem to be the point of that line of politics, the same way the various Israeli laws applying to Palestinians are meant to drive them away from their homes. I really fail to see how forcing people to flee their own country because they're persecutd by the force of the law can be considered humane, ethical or just plain sensible.

Yeah. The ones with that funny orange/yellow colour that made you want to gouge your eyes out with a spoon. Later they were moved onto the same forums that housed the tip.it Asheron's Call forum. I got interested, examine the game for a bit. It seemed to be like RuneScape, but better. Took nine weeks from when I decided I wanted to game til the ISP setting up ADSL connections finally hooked us up. I bought the game, loved it for six months and then I heard about DAoC. I never played that, but I did do SWG for two years, and now I've done WoW for more than six months. So basically, this place is the main reason why MMORPG's are my gaming genre of choice today, more than five years later. It's also one of the main reasons why I like forums and - truth be told - the off-topic section remains one of the more interesting places I know of on the internet to discuss just about everything.

Huzzah for being oldschool :)

So? In Chernobyl they were testing the system by removing the moderation rods. No one is ever going to be stupid enough to do that again, and why they were doing it in the first place, remains to be solved as it goes without saying that removing the moderation rods is like asking for a meltdown. The second incident didn't kill anyone, and lead to broad security policy , equipment design and personnel training changes. Saying that it isn't viable due to these incidents is like saying cars aren't viable, because a car without breaks is going to crash and one once did so, killing people, and once, a quarter of a century ago, a car got demo'd because the designers hadn't thought of adding a gauge that some component failures used. Nuclear power is a lot safer today.

Fair enough. As I said though, WoW combines a lot of good ideas. And quite frankly, while it's always nice to see unique ideas in one area of an MMORPG, to have an entire package that is likeable is definitely underrated. Since MMORPGs generally aren't the type of game you go "Hm... Which MMORPG do I feel like playing now?", it makes it well worth the money. (And WoW is the largest MMORPG to date with 5+ million subscribers. EQ, at it's peak, never crossed 500 000, UO never croseed 300 000. Right now, Runescape has more paying subscribers - let alone players - than DAoC, EQ, UO and quite a host of other games)

No offense to anyone's mate here, but whether you can take out stuff or not depends on what class you play, what you're facing, what preparations you've made and most importantly, how good you are at utilizing your class'/racial/skill abilities. Depending on the combinations of the above, taking out groups of four mobs or the odd elite is quite possible solo. And that's really what makes the game fun. Walking into a fight, any fight, is about tactics. It's about knowing what tools you have available and when to use them. How to use them. Between the different choices of race, class, skills and talents, you can build a character that fits your playstyle extremely well (/whineOn Not as well as you could in the old SWG, but SOE killed that, so that's not an option anymore). One thing to keep in mind if you do try it, is that the game changes when you hit 60. The higher level you go, the more abilities you'll get, and the more tactics you'll have to use to get around. Because different classes have different power curves, some classes own everything 1-30, where as they at 60 can get routinely clobbered by players of a different class. PvP, items, dungeons... You can have a lot of fun getting to level 60, but never think you've done it all because you got a lvl 60 character two hours ago. In some ways, it's like a new game; Your time will be spent in different places - new dungeons - doing different things - raiding. Or the same ol', same ol' but better - PvP. Don't go the level 30 with one class and say "this sucks". If you think it sucks at 30, try a different class. But get one character to 60, and see how you like that type of gaming. I have mate who's been playing on and off for like a year now, and his highest leveled character is 57. He hasn't been to half the places I favour in the game now. Short version: You miss out on a lot of you don't hit 60 and play as a lvl 60. Such as? There's tons of other games with better graphics, and there's other games where individual systems have a better design philosophy behind them, but comparing the entire WoW gameplay package... (And by that, I'm excluding the graphics)

There 'are' and there 'were' aren't quite the same thing. Besides, you don't actually need to glass a planet to make it uninhabitable. First of all, there's the nuclear fallout. It travels quite far, and in the kind of doses caused by a few good sized nuclear strikes, it'll be lethal. Second, there's the nuclear winter. Throw enough dust into the atmhosphere, block out the sun and we'll be freezing our rears off while the plantlife dies because they need sunlight for photosynthesis. It goes downhill from there. We're all quite lucky someone with some ounce of intelligence was on duty that time.

English isn't my first language and I knew what the word meant before I was 14 years old. I suppose the sad thing is that I know exactly why I knew it. Civilization II had a wonder called "Women's Suffrage" or somesuch. ... gaming *does* help your vocabulary!

Nah, people have done 1-60 in >8 days. 58 is quite possible in a month, but you'll miss out on quite a bit of fun (PvP for example) during that time.