A few questions.Follow

You don't have to be in one, no. I didn't find a "real" guild until I was level 37. But being in a guild is, obviously, a good way of making friends, it gives you a base of people you know (in theory) are good players, etc. And, of course, if your aim is to be a PvE raider you're going to need a good guild for that.



Not in my experience. You'll find a very broad range of personality types, not surprising considering the millions of people who play. You'll come across rude and obnoxious people, but there are equal numbers of friendly, helpful players. Treat people as you'd wanted to be treated and you'll get along fine.



Not at all, this is what forums are for. Just make sure you research your questions as much as possible before posting them (eg read the board FAQ, use the search function for previous topics, use the WoW pages, etc), because some people do get irritated with repetitive posts asking "zomg wat r teh best class i want to pwn lalz", etc ;)

Welcome to the game!

As far as your questions go:

1) Nope, you don't have to be in a guild to do things - you can level up and do most quests perfectly well on your own. Some harder, "elite" quests are supposed to be done in a group, as are those quests which take you into dungeons (instances). You can get by without ever going to these dungeons, although they are good for learning your role in a group and they are also where a lot of the best loot is found. You don't have to be a member of a guild to find groups though: you can join a pick up group (PUG) by using the chat channels to find other players looking to do the same thing. Guilds are good for the social aspect, and also because you can form groups with people you know, like, and trust.

2) Sure, some people are like that. Some people are going to be morons wherever you go. However, there are plenty of perfectly nice people who will be happy to help you. You seem to be articulate and polite so most people should respond to you well. If you were the type to spam the chat with "HLEP KILL HOGGER PLX" then you'd be likely to encounter more hostility! Everyone was new at the game once even if they now have 3 level 60s in epic gear :)

3) Not at all. This is generally a good place to find information and get questions answered. Be sure to read the FAQ at the top of the page though!

EDIT: typo

Edited, Nov 29th 2006 12:28pm by Rubytitania

Wow, thank you everyone. It seemed every review by players I heard was bad, about how it's so hard to find people to get help from, or advice. So, I was a bit skittish about it. Anyway, I still have no clue about all the abbreviations you guys and gals use, but I suppose I'll pick that up. Anyway, thanks again and sorry if I broke any of the rules here.

I'll do a better job of reading the rules and such from now on.

Again, thank you everyone.

One more thing, if there are any other helpful little tips for me, that'd be wonderful. Again, thank you very much everyone.

I've never played any sort of online role playing game, I'm kind of giving it a shot since it looked up my alley. Only game I ever played online was Rainbow Six way back in its first days. I'll take a look at the FAQ although it looks quite confusing and detailed at first glance. I did notice the class forums and such, so thank you. I'll have to bookmark the links in your signature as well, thank you.

Edited, Nov 29th 2006 7:09am by JohnnyCupcakes

1) One of the best features of joinging a good guild is that you should always have help at hand. Also most of the end game content requires you to group with others so it's a lot easier to do this with a guild.

2) I found that as I played the game certain elements would not be explained that well such as instances. As it is an MMORPG they expect you to ask other people for advice and help and failing that there are loads of websites with guides.

you seem to be doing ok. just follow the simple rule of read (the quest log, the faq, the manual, the stickies), think, search, post. if you've gone through the first three steps and ask a clear question, lots of people here will be happy to help (as you can see from this thread).

I never played an MMO before, either - just MUDs.
This game is really easy to pick up and learn if you pay even a little attention.

I've been playing since January on a relatively casual basis, although lately I'm delving a little more into "medium-core" raiding, I suppose...I got my first (and only) level 60 character in July. Much of my online time used to be spent solo and slightly anti-social. I wouldn't group unless I needed to for a quest. I wanted to try to do everything by myself to prove that I wasn't some weak little girl dependent on everybody else to play the game and accomplish anything. I didn't even do an instance for the longest time until somebody pointed out the cool items you can get from them (I think I was in my 30's when I first went to Wailing Caverns).

I finally started socializing online and joined a guild when I was around level 35 or so. That's when the social aspect of the game really took off, and it was a total fluke that I joined a guild as I wasn't even looking at the time and didn't really want to.

Anyways.
It's a fun game. You have many options available to you as far as how you play and what aspects of the game you focus on.

And the asshats? Well...that's what /ignore is for. There are still helpful people out there. The best thing you can do is read the manuals and FAQs and the websites out there like this one for information. Watch and learn, and offer help when you can to others.

-T.