So, is it worth it?

[Roland]

Kas and I resisted buying WoW. Everybody (and I mean everybody) had accounts, ponyed up the $15, and got addicted. Kas had some gamer bushido about never paying money for games, and I had this hangup about paying $15 a month for something I'd never have time to play.

We went home for Thanksgiving, and it turns out my sister's boyfriend has WoW and plays it religiously. And I gotta say...WoW is, well, WOW. Even Kas was impressed.

So, in order to play this game together on Bnet or realms or whatever, we'd both need a copy on our own computers, and we'd need to pay the $15 each. However, I have school and work, and Kas has work, though he spends non-work hours playing videogames anyway.

So is it worth it? Can I count on being around friends? I remember Roland's D2 server and how I got to play with Doc and Occhi and the gang every day. Do the Lurkers have their own space within WoW that's safe from normal gamer hazards?
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The beauty of pay to play is that you can cancel at any time, for as long as you like, and when you're ready to go back, everything will still be waiting for you. I do this all the time with WoW: play for a month, quit for a month or two, then go back. It keeps my budget sane, and myself, for those times when work and life just take too much out of me to allow for any serious progress in the game.

IF you pick one of the major Lurker servers (i.e. Stormrage for Alliance side), you'll find plenty of people to spend time with. Unfortunately, most of them have capped toons, so growing up will be spent mostly alone. However, having said that, there are plenty of good people out there for PUGs - you just have to look out for them, and be quick to weed out the bad when you see them. I've met plenty of very friendly people who played with me for very long periods of time, when the only introduction we got was "Are you doing this quest? Can I join?". :) It's amazing how you can find someone in the beginning of the game, and how they can still be cool to play with 30 levels later, when you're both complete strangers.

WoW itself is not that expensive. Buying the game upfront is a little costly, when you're buying two copies, but the good news is you get a free month of play for each copy. With this, you can try the game and see just how much you enjoy it, and also how much time you can actually spend playing it on a regular basis, without worrying about sinking another $30 a month into it.

WoW is a very fun, addicting game, but it can also take a lot out of you if you don't have a regular schedule to devote to it. Which is why I tend to be so sporadic in my playing of it - I just don't have a regular enough schedule to devote significant time to it, despite my "work" schedule being fairly normal. Which is why I said you can always cancel your account at any time, and rejoin at any time as well, without losing any of your characters.

I, personally, would recommend picking it up, and finding a good server with a strong Lurker crowd on it. Without a good guild, the game is still plenty fun, but half the fun of the game is the social aspect, and without a good guild, you won't be finding nearly enough of that to satisfy. The game world is just too vast to be spending significant time socializing without running into huge gobs of inbred idiots, mostly because they all gather in the major focal points (large capital cities). Out in the wilds, however, you'll rarely run into too many jerks, but you also probably won't find too many friends, either, simply because the world is just that big. Don't let it scare you off, though - it has so much to offer, it'd be a pity to pass up on it simply because you couldn't find a dedicated friend to play with. Besides, that's what Kas is for. ;)

Good luck with your decision, and let us know where you end up. We'd all be willing to lend a hand in any way we can. I think you'll really enjoy WoW, so I say give it a shot.