Another one of my models is pestering me to venture into the world of online gaming. The thing is I have no idea where to start or what it really involves.

I have a fairly decent and up to date comp, but know nothing about the costs involved in setting up this type of thing or where the best place to start is.

Seeing how there seems to be a lot of online gamers here I thought maybe a help thread for newbies might be in order.

I'd appreciate any help and advice.

Jobe

Buy game, install game, play game.

Thats about it, have fun.

I gess the best move is to get World of Warcraft, as I've only heard good things about it (not that I hear alot of news about it anymore).
However, if you do get into any Massive Multi-Player Online Role Playing Games prepare for the fallowing:

Addiction
Time wasted
Plenty of hours everyday palying
Peeing in a bottle

Alot of good things about playing MMORPG's, alot of bad side effects (like lack of social life and such and such).

fr0g got it right.

you should MUD, its how the cool kids play online.

there are lots of types of online gaming. there's online gaming where you just buy a game, like... battlefield or something (1942, vietnam or bf2) and install it, and install gamespy, get yourself an account, and play online, or there are mmorpgs. where you download the game or buy the game, get an account, get a login, pay shitloads to play each month, lose your life to the game, and just shit like that.

there are free mmorpgs, and all are fun. i recommend Diablo 2 for the best gameplay. that is free to play online.

the fantasy/sci fi mmorpgs are usually pay for a subscription to play online. standard shootemups like halo and half life 2 and quake and bf etc aren't pay to play. and you can jump on whenever you want and not have to worry about having to play for hours and hours and losing your social life for it to be worthwhile so you have an ubercharacter.

of course with WOW you can pay people to level up your character. but thats kinda lame and pointless.

Dont bother if its just to impress some girl. If you want to play then play, if you arent all that interested then dont.

It's not to impress her (thou she is hot) but it would fill a void when I'm online and bored. I used to be into stuff live Final Fantasy and Shadowrun and always wanted to get into stuff like Vampire Masquerade but just never had the time.

I'd like to at least give it a go to see if it's my sort of thing, hence asking the pro's around here for advice.

Go buy World of Warcraft, its pretty cheap and the story line is good and its popular so you will have people on the forum to talk about it with. I think its pretty fun. If your computer is somewhat decent then it should run fine. Buy it, install it, register an account and play.

What about costs involved? I know I am in the UK (and things tend to be more expensive than the US), but does it cost to play online, what servers or hosts are best to go with and stuff like that.

Remember you are talking to a complete beginner here

I dont know the UK costs but I assume they would be similar to ours. the game itself costs around 25-50 dollars. I got my last cop for 25 because blizzard (the company) dropped the price on it.

It costs me 15 dollars a month to play. No time limits. They usually just charge your credit card.

WoW has American, Asian and European Servers so you would probably end up on the UK servers.

When you buy the game and set it up based on your location it will give you a choice of the best servers/time zones. You dont have to pick the one it suggests though you can choose whichever server you want. I suggest taking one with your time zone though. I once picked a West Coast US server and couldnt get anyone to play because it was always 3 hours behind me. So When I was getting ready to go to bed everyone was just signing on for thier nightly grind.

At any rate check this forum/website out.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/

Should you decide to play, book mark these pages because they are very helpful.

www.thottbot.com
www.curse-gaming.com

The basic one-month subscription plan costs €12.99 per month (£8.99 in the UK)
The three-month plan costs €11.99 per month (£8.39 in the UK)
The six-month plan costs €10.99 per month (£7.69 in the UK)

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/require...scription.html

Here is the Euro FAQ

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/faq/

Thanks Billy

You're into Shadowrun? My respect for you just jumped 10 notches.

Wow, somebody's bitter. Did an MMORPG rape your sister or something?

I don't pay shitloads a month. I pay $12 US, actually. And my good friend was a total Quake 3 and Halo 2 addict, so all games can suck a person in.

I have a old copy for my SNES and I've completed it many times and it definately ranks in my Top 10 games ever. It just had a great storyline and always had that 'just one more hour' factor for me

Oh, but that's not THE Shadowgate. Shadowgate's an old pen-and-paper RPG. It just made for a good SNES game (I played it, too).

Shadowrun rocks

Yeah jobe.. for online MMORPG hit WOW(World Of Warcraft)... it has the best of both worlds... you can play solo if you prefer or easily find a group to do most anything you are looking to do whether it be to quest/raid/or hunt... no other mmo has hit the nail on the head like wow.... a friend of mine is trying out the d&d online mmo and says it is a mostly force group game which is what most mmos are....

Shadowrun is my RPG of choice, been playing the pen and paper since I was 15, I game mastered it until recently when I started playing when 4th edition came out.

NERD ALERT!

Sorry, I've always loved the SR world and own most of the old sourcebooks and many of the novels.

edit: And yes, the SNES game was the shit. There's rumors of a FPS coming out sometime soon, keep your fingers crossed.

edit 2: A shadowrun MMORPG would make me blow a load in my shorts.