Travel WoW City

[nobbie]

Check out this WoW area review and rating by Gnome Nodd, it's a very interesting read:

http://www.scipie.com/games/wow/travel.html



Since this review has a lot to do with personal preferences and taste, what would your personal ratings be?


PS:

The correct link for "Tirisfal Glades" is: http://www.scipie.com/games/wow/travel-tirisfal.html

[Walkiry]

Checking the reviews and stuff made me remember one of the biggest beefs I had with WoW and their alleged "open world": Mountain placement. Or rather ridiculous non-sensical bloody annoying mountain placement.

I checked the areas I remembered and started to recall what I did in them, and invariably managed to give low scores to those regions that have impossibly-high mountains for no good reason along the coast to force you into the "Blizzard-approved Right Path™". I'm looking at you Azshara. And the Dustwallow Marsh (Yeah, think you can just swim accross the channel? We'll just place a whole bunch of mountains around it in an otherwise plain flat area, now run around like you're supposed to!). Other places had at least the excuse of warding off unfinished areas (like North of Stonetalon Mountains, for example), but not those. The race track in Thousand Needles? Tough, go all the way around the Barrens and down the stupid lift and all the way around back because we felt like warding off the coast with mountains to make you travel and feel that the world is "large".

And hey, I actually liked the Darkshore. It had the right mood for my dark elves. These gnomes have no taste :P :lol:

[Mirajj]

And the Dustwallow Marsh (Yeah, think you can just swim accross the channel? We'll just place a whole bunch of mountains around it in an otherwise plain flat area, now run around like you're supposed to!).
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You can, actually, leave Theramore, turn west right outside of the gate, and swim across the channel to get to Onyxia's Lair. If you aren't sure of where you are going the first couple of times, you'll need someone to show you, but there is 2 paths that I know of through the mountains that are frequently used as a 'shortcut' to going all the way around.

[Walkiry]

You can, actually, leave Theramore, turn west right outside of the gate, and swim across the channel to get to Onyxia's Lair. If you aren't sure of where you are going the first couple of times, you'll need someone to show you, but there is 2 paths that I know of through the mountains that are frequently used as a 'shortcut' to going all the way around.
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Ah, I didn't know that, never found them either. I went around a few times just playing tourist, not looking for Onyxia's lair ^_^ My underlevelness didn't bother me much, as most enemies were those fancy Nessy-wanabee thingies and couldn't swim out to the small islands.

One has to wonder, though, what's the point of such stupid landscape isolating the channel (except for the paths you mention apparently ;) ), since it's not even separating different areas.

[fractaled]

Checking the reviews and stuff made me remember one of the biggest beefs I had with WoW and their alleged "open world": Mountain placement. Or rather ridiculous non-sensical bloody annoying mountain placement.
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You can climb the "mountains" between the Barrens and Ashenvale, and those between the Barrens and Dustwallow Marsh.

The use of mountains made the world seem much smaller to me as most every area was a little contained valley. But at least they keep Un'Goro crater from flooding!

[Rinnhart]

One star for Westfall and Silverpine? The gnome knows nothing.

[nobbie]

One star for Westfall and Silverpine? The gnome knows nothing.
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I was wondering about these ratings, too. Westfall is at least 3 stars, and Silverpine Forest - along with Tirisfal Glades and the Ruins of Lordaeron/Undercity - 5 stars in my opinion. In fact, the Undead starting area Tirisfal Glades is my favorite starting area. Agamand Mills, Coldhearth Manor, Brill, Undercity and The Sepulcher - those were my first real "wow" experiences during the WoW beta :)

[Arethor]

To me it seemed like it was a parody of a travel guide and rated the places based on what it would be like to actually vacation there, as opposed to how well the different zones are designed.

[savaughn]

To me it seemed like it was a parody of a travel guide and rated the places based on what it would be like to actually vacation there, as opposed to how well the different zones are designed.
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That was my impression as well.

The guide loses significant points on this however, for not mentioning things that would make for excellent tourism. I would have thought Darkmoon Faire would have gotten its own entry from this perspective alone.

Similarly, the 1KN lifts have got to figure into vacation plans somewhere...

<edit: Ooh, and teleporting to the top of one of the Colossals in Feralas -- that tourism stand and the view alone should rate Feralas 5/5.>