Hillsbrad Foothills
It's been over two days since "World of Warcraft" launched.
Most players have reached around level 28.
Some leveling maniacs have even reached around level 35, but there aren't many of those.
The main reason is that most regular players don't care much about leveling up in the game.
Actually, there are things in "World of Warcraft" that are more interesting to them than leveling.
"World of Warcraft" is like a door to a new world, with so many things that make them curious.
Leveling is just a small goal.
They enjoy looking at the scenery, exploring the vast world of Azeroth, and accidentally wandering into high-level areas, only to be killed by skeleton red-named monsters and sent back.
They casually explore towns, take quests, and fight monsters.
If you really want to focus on leveling, "World of Warcraft" has well-planned routes for both monster hunting and questing.
The testing team tested this countless times during internal development.
It's not perfect, but the data and guidance are as good as they can be.
But once they're actually in the game, most players realize there's so much more to do in this world.
It's like in "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," where you play as Link to save Zelda.
But after playing for hundreds of hours, you forget what Zelda even looks like.
And "World of Warcraft," although it's an MMORPG,
its huge map and rich gameplay give players the feeling of playing a multiplayer open-world game.
Whether you're in the Alliance or the Horde, you can always find some surprises.
For example, Horde players experience the free-falling Undercity elevator.
There are also some players who are perfectionists.
They want to get the best gear at their current level.
So, they keep running dungeons like the Wailing Caverns and Deadmines, trying to put together a complete set of gear.
Then they realize that before long, this gear will be useless.
Lucas also adjusted the leveling system in the game.
Running dungeons is a good way to get experience, but doing quests isn't much worse.
This keeps players from just leveling up by fighting monsters.
If you can clear a dungeon quickly, it's the fastest way to level up, but that's not realistic for most players. If you're in a team that doesn't work well together, you might even get wiped out, which really slows down your leveling.
But even so, players are still enjoying it.
After experiencing "World of Warcraft" for the last few days, many players are saying it was worth the wait.
It's huge, mysterious, and has a rich world.
There's no strict main story, but in this incredibly large world, players can clearly feel they are part of Azeroth.
And compared to single-player games, online games have an advantage: a stronger sense of progress and ownership.
After all, in a single-player game, a save file is just a save file.
In an online game, you feel like the character is your personal property, which adds a level of immersion.
With this immersion and experience, and as they level up, players are introduced to a very important element of "World of Warcraft".
...
In the Hillsbrad Foothills, Ben and Zack agreed to log in together. Their progress isn't fast, but it's not too slow either. They're both level 30 now.
They even started a small guild, because social interaction is an important part of MMORPGs.
Of course, it's really just a place to hang out. Ben and Zack and their three friends are the highest levels. The rest are mostly between level 25 and 28.
They plan to finish the quests in Southshore, and then try the Scarlet Monastery dungeon.
According to online info, the top players have already started running Scarlet Monastery.
But they haven't cleared it completely, because Scarlet Monastery isn't like the Deadmines or Stormwind Stockade.
It's a whole area, divided into several parts.
What Ben really wants from the dungeon is a set of warrior armor.
His first time in the Deadmines dungeon, the three transformations of Mr. Smite the ogre and the final boss VanCleef with his three black-clad guards, were painful memories.
Another key point is that the gear you get is too low level.
But Scarlet Monastery is different. The Scarlet Crusade set is plate armor, perfect for his warrior class!
With a powerful weapon, he can switch from defense to fury!
The only bad thing is that he doesn't get to loot the bodies anymore.
"Sigh," Ben sighed as he did quests.
Just then, the guild chat started blowing up.
'Anyone want to help? I was killed by 5 Horde guys while doing a quest, and they're guarding my corpse!'
'What? Where are you? What level are they?'
'Snowblind Hill cave, above Southshore. Bring as many people as you can. They're a five-man team, all level 28.'
A guild member is being corpse-camped by the Horde?
Ben paused for a moment, then realized what was happening.
He'd been running dungeons, killing monsters, and doing quests to level up, and even though he'd seen some Horde players, they hadn't fought, so he'd almost forgotten that the Horde and Alliance are enemies in "World of Warcraft."
And now a guild member got killed by the Horde?
Ben remembered the player who sent the request for help.
He was an acquaintance of Zack who became an hunter after being brainwashed by the game trailers. After joining the guild, he tried to cast Beast Lore on any druid that he could find that was in their bear or cat form.
"Everyone level 20 and up, meet at Menethil Harbor, then we're going to Hillsbrad Foothills. Warlocks, make a portal to pull people. Let's go get those Horde!" Ben said, seeing the anger in the guild chat.
Compared to before, Lucas had made some changes to the PVP balance, so being a higher level wouldn't give you such a huge advantage.
Ben had just rallied everyone when Zack and his friends logged in and were surprised to hear Ben's plan. "Ben, are we going to cause trouble?"
"We're not causing trouble, we're going to rescue someone," Ben explained, posting the coordinates in the guild chat.
Most people haven't experienced PVP yet. Some players haven't even seen a Horde player in the game. This was a chance to rescue a guild member so a lot of people rushed to gather together.
Some even brought along friends who weren't even in Ben's guild.
They gathered about twenty people.
After everyone was there, they ran towards the small hunter that was getting corpse-camped.
A group of twenty players, ranging from level thirty to level twenty, with two-thirds of them from Ben's guild, attracted a lot of attention.
"Whoa, where are you guys going?"
"Yeah, are you going to a dungeon? You have a lot of people!"
"A guild outing?"
Some Alliance players nearby asked curiously.
"No, our guild member was killed and is getting corpse-camped by the Horde at the Snowblind Hills cave, and we are going to rescue him." someone from the group said.
The response quickly made some other players enthusiastic.
"Going to fight the Horde? That sounds fun. Can I come along?"
"Me too! I was killed by a Horde player while leveling in the wild!"
"Screw the Horde!"
Hearing that they were going to mess with the Horde, other Alliance players in the area got excited.
Some of them had run into the Horde and been killed, though they weren't corpse-camped.
There's no death penalty if you don't resurrect at the spirit healer, but it still sucks!
Seeing this, players who had been in conflicts with the Horde joined the group.
There's strength in numbers, it's a chance to vent their anger, and they have a good reason to do it. Perfect.
Plus, they can level up around Snowblind Hills.
Ben didn't mind the players who joined along the way.
They're free to go where they want, and it's a good thing, since they're all on the same side.
Now there's only one thing to do: screw the Horde!
(End of chapter)
---
Read +100 advanced chapters on my patre*n
patr eon.com/GustinaKamiya
---