WoW question(s)

[Bolty]

heh heh! So I am curious, you had great characters in the old diablo and was wondering what characters you play in WoW and what kind of gear you have. Also if your in a guide, how long you've played, and how a person balances their time between girlfriend, job, and in my case writing a book and still have a decent character or two.

I'm long out of the guide-writing process, although I do write some guides to assist raid guilds with clearing instances and boss encounters.

I've been playing WoW since phase 1 beta. When was that? 4 years ago? I can't even remember, it's been so long. As far as balancing time, I'm married and have a full time job. Like everything else, it's a question of scheduling and working around time constraints. WoW is my hobby, it's what I do outside of work, period. Due to my guild's raid schedule that raids every weeknight but Friday, I literally go to work, come home, eat dinner with my wife, and log in to play. I still play too much, but I have a very understanding wife who also has her own hobbies such that I'm not constantly getting beat up for playing WoW. :)

As for gear, I have some of the best in the game on my main, but that's what happens when you dedicate so much time to the game. With MMOs, time spent is the top determinant of your success, followed by skill - not the other way around, as the players on top would try to have you believe.

The best thing about World of Warcraft is that you can have fun no matter how much you play, although you'll likely get the most out of it if you can find 3-4 hour blocks of time to play it in. Even if such a block is only once per week. The game is only minimally capable of being played in 1 hour chunks - you can do things, but as you approach the end game the number of options starts to dry up in that case. Playing in groups will require some time chunks, a few hours strung together, to get things accomplished. So if you can only play for 4 hours a week, but those 4 hours all come in one block, you'll have a total blast.

It's very true that, like most MMOs, it sucks you in. Even the most casual player can easily find themselves turning into a hardcore 30-hours-a-week+ player eventually. But hey, that was the same with Diablo, right?

Didn't D2 only offer 3 months before erased?

Your characters will never be erased in World of Warcraft. It doesn't make good business sense for Blizzard to do that; they want you to come back and keep paying. With Diablo II, you already paid them money, so if you stopped playing they didn't really care.

There are many casual players who will activate an account, take a character or two to the level cap, play around a bit in the endgame, and then put their account on inactive status until the next expansion. It's the endgame that sucks you in, you see. :)

As for your high lvl warrior guide (for D1) I know that was a ways back and not expecting everything to be fresh. But generally speaking, everything you wrote there is very accurate right? You checked it over and your fellow players did to? I just have a 19th lvl test rogue going in diablo 1 to buy a Holy/Mammal tower or gothic shield I'm hoping. Your guide mentioned you need to be lvl 18-21. A long time player said only holy/tiger.

Everything in the guide is still 100% accurate as far as I know. I've never received any emails over the years with corrections, and I know Lurkers are great at scrutinizing.

-Bolty