Some pictures

[Jim]

all those on-screen statistic messages and numbers and the galores of icons, which remind me rather of some air- or spacecraft cockpit controls and messages than a fun game,

are yet another reason why I won't get into MMORPG's (I think most of them work this way?). That's what I like about Diablo: You just put your points into the (rather self-explaining) spells of your choice, and there you go.
Very easy to understand and to use, user-friendly and fun. In WOW, it appears all very complicated, at least from what I can see on the screenshots: "You fail to perform Strike: Not enough rage" - "You fail to perform Strike: Not enough rage"- "You fail to perform Strike: Not enough rage" - "You hit Kolkar Stormer for 25" - "Your Strike hits Kolkar Stormer for 52" - "You fail to perform Strike: Not enough rage" - "Kolkar Stormer dies" ... Oh my God, what's next? "Your Shoes got a Hole of 1.5 inch from too much Walking"? ;)

Hi

nobbie, you really need to give at least 1 MMOPRG a try in your life time. Learning an Interface be it complex or not is easy, it's just a matter of spending a bit of time to understand the instructions. Once you learn one, the rest will be even easier to learn.

#1 HUD = Head Up Display...this is what the Interface is in the screen shot with ALL those Icons. Those icons are easier & more user friendly than Diablo 2 system of memorizing F1 thru F12 keystrokes in order to cast a spell & I noted an Up/Down arrow at the end the 12 slots to bringing up a different Icon bank so you can not only have ALL your spells available...but you can seperate them in to usefull groups like DD spells & AOE spells & Player buffs etc:

#2 Text...in most games you can filter out whichever Text messages you like...my dear friend "Thenry" could not stand the text messages in EQ..."Your Hungry or "Your Thirsty" these messages played till you bought food or drinks. In some games you can even Turn off the Text box completely.

I admit the learning curve is different in All games, but WE are Gamers...Gaming is the name of the game....GO For It :D

Jarluf Screenshot

I'm not in the WoW beta, but I'm able to read the Interface by just looking at the screen shot which I love to do with all new games. If I'm wrong with this someone Please correct me  :D

Keyboard numbers 1 thru =/+ are 12 keys to press to activate anything from using a Postion, Special Melee attack or a Spell and even let you switch weapons like in Diablo 2.

The next set of 7 [looks like room for 8 icons?] Is the same as the ones in Diablo 2...Icon  #1 Character stats #2 Quest Journal #6 Log off or for changing Options while in the game #7 Help!

The last set of 5 icons appear to be Inventory. ?

Upper left "Character Health & Mana...green = Stamina ???

Upper right Compass, Direction your moving, Location & time of day I see a 1/4 Moon ???

To the left of the compass is what I believe to be a BUFF Icon ?

The Purple bar above the Icons, measures your current XP ?