So, being one of the herd, I went and tried downloading World of Warcraft. After seeing that the download would take a minimum of 9 hours, I decided to go out and buy the retail box instead. I also picked up The Burning Crusade expansion pack as well, on the off-chance that I'd want to play one of the two new races.

Of course, after installing... you get to sit through even more downloading as WoW downloads patch after patch after patch. Which is somewhat sad, in my book, that they couldn't roll up a single patch for people who buy the retail copy of the game at the stores. When someone has plunked down their cash on the counter, it would be nice if they didn't have to stare at load screen after load screen while the WoW patcher plays idiot savant. Plus, the patch for TBC (The Burning Crusade) took another hour to download. But I finally got it all installed after 2-3 hours, which is still less then it would've taken to download.

The realm choices are moderately confusing to the new player. There are a *lot* of servers (a.k.a. "realms") in the WoW universe which means that you'd best know which server your friends and associates are playing on. (Or you can pay a $25 fee to move between realms, with a few minor restrictions.) Since my brother had already picked a realm, the choice was easy for me (Moon Guard).

Hmm... now which character do I want to play? If I had my choice, I'd probably have gone with the Horde (evil) side and tried a troll. But since Horde / Alliance can't group, aren't really allowed in each other's cities, and have a few other restrictions, and my brother rolled a pair of Alliance characters, I decided on rolling up an alliance side character as well. Later on, I'm sure I'll roll up that troll and try out the Horde side. So that leaves me with:

Human - Meh... maybe... but they don't really appeal to me. And you can't get them with a full beard (just a closely trimmed imitation beard).

Dwarf - Ahh, here we go, portly and with a full set of facial hair. And they're dead sexy the way they swing those arms (okay... everyone laugh). They also fit well into the role of a rogue as I see dwarves being somewhat greedy when it comes to treasure.

Night Elf - Mmm... too tall. Especially for a rogue (my first choice, probably). It feels like a bundle of flailing limbs.

Gnomes - I've never been interested in gnomes. I don't like the high pitched munchkin voice and I prefer punting gnomes then being one.

Draenei - Well, they're interesting. And I could see them wearing cloth for a priest, but then there's that whole tail & hooves thing which I don't care for.

So naturally, I rolled up a dwarven rogue to get things started. Rogues are generally a good class in most MMOs. They're typically a DPS class and they're generally less complex to play (you're not the main tank, no worries about health of others, just need to manage your own aggro, and they can usually solo). Basically a good choice for getting your feet wet.

I must say that there are a lot of things that WoW does "right" for a new player when compared to EQ2. Some of it is dumbed down (such as the "!" and "?" over quest giver's heads), but for the most part they make a lot of good decisions that make it easier for the player. The starter quests are fairly easy and the mobs in the newbie area are almost all non-aggro. You'll gain a little coin, a little reputation, and some half-decent gear by doing the quests. And the quests are typically worth a lot of experience; anywhere from 600-1200 points. Which is a lot compared to killing mobs that only get you 80-120 points. So completing quests in WoW is very worthwhile and a big bonus for killing creatures that you'd be killing anyway to level up.

The choice of an artistically styled world rather then the realism of EQ2 also makes it easier for the designers to pack in things like mechanical ostriches that can be ridden. Or the funny looking blunderbuss which is used as a ranged weapon. It also allows them to get away with a polygon count that is a lot lower then what EQ2 required which results in much higher frame rates, even in crowded areas. The result is something that looks nicer then EQ1 did but without overdoing it like EQ2. (But EQ2 was definitely a lot "prettier".)

At the start, you'll be bombarded with helpful tips (an exclamation point will appear at the bottom of your screen). These are mostly well written and clear. There's also the context-sensitive help that appears in the lower-right corner of the screen as you mouse over various elements in the UI. The designers did a good job here as well at anticipating the common questions that a player would have about a particular UI element. For an in-game example, take a look at the "Abandon Quest" button in the quest log sometime.

It didn't take too long for me to level my rogue up to 8 and find my way to Ironforge. Which was enough for day one.