Thinking of buying WoW - Couple of questions

So I'm thinking of buying World of Warcraft, but there are few things I'd like to figure out first:

- Is WoW still the most popular MMORPG? With Diablo 3 out and soon GW2, I'm not sure if it's still worth joining. It's an 8 year (?) old game after all.

- When buying Gold, what are the approximate chances of getting caught? And how exactly does it work? Do you meet someone F2F in game? Or how?

- During work weeks, I probably get to play about 4 hours a day. In weekends 7 to 8 hours, would that be enough? Or would I need to make more free time to actually enjoy this game?

- And lastly, should I buy all expansions at once or would it be wiser to start with the Vanilla game?

Thanks alot!

 

- Is WoW still the most popular MMORPG? With Diablo 3 out and soon GW2, I'm not sure if it's still worth joining. It's an 8 year (?) old game after all.
I'm not sure anymore..

- When buying Gold, what are the approximate chances of getting caught? And how exactly does it work? Do you meet someone F2F in game? Or how?
Very low.
He just trades you the gold like in RuneScape.

- During work weeks, I probably get to play about 4 hours a day. In weekends 7 to 8 hours, would that be enough? Or would I need to make more free time to actually enjoy this game?
Yes that would be enough.

- And lastly, should I buy all expansions at once or would it be wiser to start with the Vanilla game?
Buy all expansions, else its not as funny as it could be.

 

I would personally recommend getting Diablo III. It's a new game which is already popular and has some great features packed in.

 

Thanks for the fast answers guys. I already bought Diablo 3, but for some reason WoW keeps me intrigued.. It's just that I'm not sure if it's wise to spend $100 (give or take) on an 8 year old game.

 

Have you played the trial of the game? If not they let you play up to level 20 for free (with some features not available). You could try that, or buy Battle chest for like $20 (and i believe you get 1 month free game time as well) and play through level 70. That way if you don't like it, your only out like $20.

Also, for being an 8 year old game, it is still the #1 MMO out, worth the money IMHO.

 

- Is WoW still the most popular MMORPG? With Diablo 3 out and soon GW2, I'm not sure if it's still worth joining. It's an 8 year (?) old game after all.

I believe so.

- When buying Gold, what are the approximate chances of getting caught? And how exactly does it work? Do you meet someone F2F in game? Or how?

Make sure your sellers are trustworthy and not gold hacked from other players

- And lastly, should I buy all expansions at once or would it be wiser to start with the Vanilla game?

Start with the first one, or the free trial. If you like it, then you can buy all of them.

 

#1 mmo based on subs, yes. #1 based on fun.. deff not.

imho its not worth getting, played through the first two expsansions, just din't enjoy it.

far as rwt goes, i think blizzard is pretty slack on it.

 

Your little too late man lol

 

- Is WoW still the most popular MMORPG? With Diablo 3 out and soon GW2, I'm not sure if it's still worth joining. It's an 8 year (?) old game after all.
Still the most popular paid MMORPG by a long shot.

- When buying Gold, what are the approximate chances of getting caught? And how exactly does it work? Do you meet someone F2F in game? Or how?
The chances are very low having sold about 5 million gold I have not been banned so far. You also generally trade face to face in most cases due to how slack they are.

- During work weeks, I probably get to play about 4 hours a day. In weekends 7 to 8 hours, would that be enough? Or would I need to make more free time to actually enjoy this game?
That should be enough if you want to play casually. If you want to join a raiding guild at max level in some cases 4 hours a day will be enough in some cases not.


- And lastly, should I buy all expansions at once or would it be wiser to start with the Vanilla game?
I would suggest buying vanilla first as you don't need the other expansions until level 60.

 

Thanks for all the replies guys. I just bought a 60 day game card and I'm gonna buy about 10K Gold to help me get started . Aside from buying gold, what are some good ways to make money?

 

You need to remember to do your daily quests, which can draw in ~500g a day if you actually do them.

Something else you can do is kind of play the auction house, but that's in its own way complicated to explain, and tough to do without having a lot of money to begin with.

 

Honestly the easiest money you'll ever make on WoW is gathering and trade skills. I can spend around an hour gathering enough herbs to make X amount of flasks (I check beforehand to see which are the most expensive atm and gather mats for that) and just sell them overnight. In the space of around 1.5 hours I can make around 2k. Not only that but I make a decent amount of gold when I transmute gems for people since I'm xmute mastery and instead of a tip, I usually just take the extra gems I proc then get them cut. On my realm, brilliant inferno rubies are still going for ~180g so that's easy money. Being an alchemist rocks.

 

Verts is right, the true money is utilizing your professions. I've pulled around 1k an hour farming herbs (mind you this was at a time where I was the only person in the zone).

I didn't start to truly make money until I started to farm herbs, then make flasks. From there it's just common sense in a way, on Sunday buy out all of the flasks that have dropped over the week, make some of your own, then re-list them on Tuesday for twice the price you bought them for and repeat it each week.

From what I've seen, you generally will find one method and stick to it. Like I said, ever since Wrath I've kind of been the flask guy. I know people that prospect ore, cut the rares, craft the greens into items, then DE those. http://www.tarouwowguides.com/ will guide you how to make as much money as possible in every profession.

 

It doesn't take a whole lot to do jewel crafting either. Main thing is finding and questing for the rare cuts for gem slots / jewelry. I got max in a few days, the rest was farming patterns or whatever they're called I forget.
I also had mining. Gathering skills are great!

But with the amount of classes they have the game is pretty nice to play. With different play styles, PVP, PVE, and then Dungeons/Raids. It can get repetitive and you're not going to get far with PuG's so you'll need a few friends or a guild!
I started at the end of TBC all the way through CATA, best guild on Terokkar.