Buying AdviceFollow

I've been playing a free trial (limited to level 20) of World of Warcraft.
The splash page upon entry is a picture with the title "Cataclysm".

Here are my questions:

1. If I buy the upgrade, what happens to the charachter I've been playing on the free trial?

2. I was surprised and unhappy that I've got to shell out more than the subscription fee, I've got to pay for installing the game, too. How is it that a direct download costs as much, or more, than a physical copy of the game?

So, which one is which?

It's confusing and very annoying to try to figure out what you get.

What I want to buy is the game I have been playing all along, but not if I will lose my starting charachter, and not if I'm going to be forced into a PvP world, and not if I'm going to be surrounded by high level charachters. I am guessing that Cataclysm is going to be full of high level veterans?

Yet, I'm gun shy of the two battle chest packages (how stupid to name them both the same thing)....will the graphics suck, compared with this Cataclysm I've been playing? Will the contintent(s) be different? Will no other players be there, because they have moved on to Cataclysm?
Look, the free trial was fun and great, and I'm hooked, but Blizzard could do a much better job of hand-holding and walking me through this buying process.

how do I enable instant email notification on this board??

Oh hey, a thread from ten years ago.

1: if you upgrade you get to keep your current character.

2: WoW has been around for many year now. You do not have to buy ALL of it at one time, unless you wished to play a certain class/race combo that original WoW does not have.
Look at it like this, there are 4 "games" here:
1)Original WoW, aka Vanilla WoW. This game is what the rest is built off. Most of the original game has been changed to. lv 1-60
2)Burning Crusade. 1st expansion. This added new zones, 2 new races and the ability to level to 70.
3)Wrath of the LK. 2nd expansion. More new zones, new class, ability to lv to 80.
4)Cata. 3rd expansion. Re-made the Original WoW (zones changed, and stuff). New races, new class/race comp, some new zones (some where reworked both in LK and Cata) and the ability to level to 85.

The 2 Battle Chest you can see at the page you linked in you next post are not the same game. The $20 one is WoW, the $40 one is Warcraft 3. The WoW Chest comes with Original WoW + BC (however, after updating the game you do not get to see original WoW) + some old guides.

The only way you will be on a PvP world is if you rolled on one.

How are you not already surrounded by high levels? You are not playing a different game, you play the same one as the rest of us, just you have limits that can only be "broke" after you buy the game.

Your confusion on the cataclysm needs to not be. Buying the game will just unlock more for you.



No. WoW + BC is $20. LS is $20, Cata is still $40 but will drop price when next expack comes out. So for WoW + all xpacks: $80. But again you do not have to buy all at one time.

As for a monthly charge. That is the decision to make. Pay each month for a game, or stick to free to play games.

The various 'versions' of World of Warcraft aren't separate games. The versions (expansions) basically control what content you have access to and to gain access to more content, you upgrade to a higher version of the game. All of the versions are played on the same servers so you have been playing your free trial on the same servers as people who bought the game license, people who have upgraded to Wrath and people who have upgraded to Cataclysm. If the server you are currently playing on is a PvE server, then you won't have to worry about high level characters attacking you without cause. Blizzard will not force you to switch to a PvP server but if you made your trial character on a PvP server, then you would have to pay for a server transfer if you wanted to switch to a PvE server. (It is actually pretty easy to level to 20 though so starting fresh on a PvE server would be less effort and would be free as well if you do happen to be currently on a PvP server.)

The basic game is World of Warcraft plus the Burning Crusade expansion (they were combined at the start of Cataclysm) and what you would be buying is the license to access all of the content from the base game plus access to Outland. Your characters will level up to level 70. You can play Draenei, Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes, Night Elves, Blood Elves, Forsaken, Orcs, Trolls, and Tauren. You have access to all chat channels, the Auction House and all professions except for Inscription and Archaeology.

The Wrath of the Lich King expansion adds in the continent of Northrend, the Death Knight class and the Inscription profession. It also allows you to level up to level 80. You can not skip buying this expansion if you want access to the Cataclysm content (levels 81-85).

The Cataclysm expansion adds in several zones for leveling from 81-85, two new races (Goblins and Worgen), and the Archaeology profession. This expansion also offers the ability to fly in the Azeroth continent (1-60 zones) for a minimal gold cost. This is the newest expansion and it's been out for about a year and a half now. Since this is the newest expansion, the loading screen for all players displays the logos for this expansion no matter what 'version' of WoW you are playing.

While I haven't looked at the prices lately, I believe there is a package deal (chest) that offers WoW, Burning Crusade and Wrath all for one price. This would probably be the best deal for a new player. There is no urgent need to buy Cataclysm if you are a new player until you actually get close to reaching level 80. I would advise waiting to buy Cataclym until after the new expansion, Mists of Pandaria, is released because they will probably discount the current Cataclysm price.

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It's okay to be jealous. It's a natural human reaction when someone far superior to you does something you wish you were capable of.

This thread is going places.

Now that's no way to talk about your mother like that.

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