Monday, March 19, 2007

Five Tips for Playing World of Warcraft After 30

Hello, my name's Ian, and I'm a WoW addict. And I'm 38.

Gasp.

I know there are a lot of us out there, but we're outnumbered by cocky teens and twenty-somethings with (apparently) a lot more time on their hands. What's a fogey to do? Here are a few pointers:

1. Play a character that can solo. It's hard to set up raids and group stuff when you get to play between kids' bedtimes, late night work sessions and such. All those pesky grown up things can really cramp your style. So play a hunter, or a feral druid, or a warrior. Don't play a healer or pure spellcaster. Stick with a class you can play alone.

2. Love the grind. Look at your schedule again. If you've only got an hour here and there, learn to grind. Google 'WoW grinding' and you'll find tons of information. Grinding gives you flexibility and lets you kill lotsa stuff. Very therapeutic.

3. Do your research. Buy a few books. Remember, you're older. But that just makes you more devious.

4. Buy a nice computer. Sure, the youngsters can play 5 hours/day. But we can see more frames per second.

5. Buy gold. Yes, you heard me. It sounds horrible, and purists will flame me, but if you can make your character 'rich' for $20, why not do it? Then you can have fun hacking and slashing to your heart's content.