Hmm....Well, I don't know about the others, but I just decided to quit this game after 3 years of playing. everyday. I have over 35 characters in WOW, all of them level 80. I own 3 guilds...anyway...this game is indeed addictive....

Even Blizz tells you that...."Take everything in moderation, including WOW". So,I must disagree with the earlier post:

"Easiest - Warrior, Rogue (A lot of fun), Mage, Priest
Hardest - Shaman, Hunter, Paladin "

Won't get into this subject too much.

Therefore, here are my advices to you.
- Start with a hunter.
- Join the Horde. No matter what they have the best team-play!
- Follow the story-line.
- Get add-ons. Go here: www.wowmatrix.com . They will help you a lot!
- Join a guild. But not before level 20. When you join it, make sure there are active players!
- If you play with a hunter, learn skinning and leather-working. You will get good money!
- Use a decent language.
- Don't buy anything from auction house, unless you need it. Such as glyphs, potions, etc...If you want good items, join groups, and go to dungeons.
- Always help your guild mates, if they worth it.
- Learn the terms used in the game. Such as WTB(Want to buy) LFG ( looking for group) etc...
- Don't buy gold outside the game!
- Enjoy the game!

Don't be rude to other players!!! No matter what they say, be calm and ignore them...

If you have any other questions, drop me DQ and I'll guide you. Here are my pages on mahalo regarding WOW.

http://www.mahalo.com/recount-wow
http://www.mahalo.com/wow-mounts
http://www.mahalo.com/wow-pets

Hmm...I might join this game back when Cataclysm appears...:)))) I really miss my guildies

Yea loan W.o.w. gold to other playyers fot 20 cents on the dollar.

yes - don't play! It will suck you in and no one will see you for the next two years. Check out these lawsuits:

Taking to long to level:
http://www.neoseeker.com/news/12437-californian-launches-lawsuit-over-wows-slow-game-mechanics-/

I don't know how they are asking for $1 million in damages on this one:
http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/11/24/winona-ryder-depeche-mode-factor-wow-lawsuit

I think the best thing to do is find a good active guild and join. If its a good guild then many of the members will be more than happy to help you through your ruff spots and any quests questions that you might have. They might even help you run through some of the lower lvl dungans and get some decent loots.

Well first of all, here are the difficulty in classes

Easiest - Warrior, Rogue (A lot of fun), Mage, Priest
Hardest - Shaman, Hunter, Paladin

You should also take your time by doing all the quests possible given. Do not rush through the beginning. Focus on doing quests and getting skills to level rather than killing a bunch of mobs (monsters) to level up.

Also, make sure you buy good weapons and armor because when you die, your armor/weapons take damage and it costs money to repair so you need to be strong.

Make sure you buy more bags for inventory space

Collect all the things mobs drop, and you can sell them at general stores for money.

When you get around level 10-15, use the auction place to buy your weapons instead of stores

Make sure that every 2 levels you gain (even numbers for example 2, 4, 6...) go to your class master so you can learn better skills

Good luck!

Well:

1. The game is HIGHLY addicting. VERY highly addicting. So, my word of advice for this one is, get up every now & then, walk around, get a drink, something to get your mind off of WoW.

2. Ignore the people who start stuff with you, because in WoW, there are SO many people who decide to get ignorant over something & somehow, it never fails, if you fight back, you will get a GM whisper, giving you a warning or talking about the situation. Too many warnings, your out. Then, you've lost your hard work, your money & everything else you've worked hard for.

3. Don't EVER log in from different computers. Trust me, I did that last month, my husband & I both play. Occasionally, he used my computer & occasionally, I used his. A couple days of this & BOTH of our accounts were banned. We had to call Blizzard & get them turned back on. Turns out, it is from logging in different IP addresses, they begin to believe you have a keylogger, hack, etc. & BOOM you go to log in & your account is banned. Ours is back on now, but it has happened twice to us. Blizzard told us since we let them know we were okay, the second I logged on his comp, they did it again.

4. The game CAN be expensive at $30 a month, when there are much cheaper games out there. MMO's & RPG's.

5. Don't try to rush thru quests. Read the story line of the quest, it helps you to get into the game more.

6. Don't EVER buy gold off of sites, Blizzard will catch you :) Especially don't do power leveling, because the websites that you pay to do it, will be logged onto your account for days without logging off, which Blizzard sees as darn near impossible. So, they will ban you.

7. Don't rush to get to a certain level, it just makes you more addicted, therefore losing sleep, time with friends/family, etc. because you are SO focused on that next level.

I'm just going thru these because WoW can be a very addicting, harsh & somewhat needy world (needing gold for mount, gear, etc.)

First of all you need to down load the addons tomtom, light headed. You can get them at curse.com. These two addons will greatly assist you when it comes time to quest. I also suggest you get the auctioneer addon and get atlas map as well. I would say play one of the easier classes like warlock, rogue, or maybe even warrior. You will also want to get your gathering professions from the get go so you can make money. I suggest you do mining and herbalism. Join a guild as soon as you can, doenst have to be the best guild in the entire world, just a guild with people who know how to play the game (you are going to have alot of questions). Everything you can sell, do so. Dont desteroy anything, rather, sell it if you can. Every bit adds up and overtime you could have a small fortune. I also suggest you play horde as it appears that the more mature players tend to go horde. I also suggest you check out this website http://www.wowwiki.com/Portal:Main it has everything you need guides, maps, tips, information on everything related to world of warcraft in on that website. You can also check out http://thottbot.com/it is a world of warcraft data base. Here is how you install those addons to your computer...

install addon

extract addon to the wow interface addon folder

there ya go, you now have the addons

I have to disagree with the above poster about the easy/hard designations on classes. Easy or hard is really a bit subjective. I would say Shamans are difficult to play but hunters (often called huntards) are one of the easiest classes to play (hence the somewhat negative name). I find rogues a pain to play though maybe not too difficult. Mages and other casters can be annoying because they are cloth wearers and therefore squishy (i.e. die lots). Another easy class to play is the shadow knight but you can't get that until have a character that is at least level 50. My two favorites are Mage and Shadow Priest personally but my husband prefers tank type classes. So you might have to try a few classes until you find one that really clicks with your play style.

Along with what the others have said about play though, you will need one other thing - GOLD. Other gamers hate people that beg for money. While you are welcome to do it, you could get on alot of people's ignore list. So, you need to find a way to make gold. (And I agree 100% with the poster who said do NOT buy gold. Many of the sites are hacks and once they have your account information, you're screwed.)

So what do you do to make Gold?
Most of the stuff you pick up in newbie zones will only be worth a few copper and silver if that. It will take a long time to make money that way for the gear that you need.
The best thing to do is pick up gathering skill professions and sell everything that you collect. It isn't really necessary to have a profession in the lower levels that does anything except make you money (because they are gold sinks). People only pay money for professions at the highest levels; hawking your low level skills won't really get you a thing.

So, I recommend picking up skinning and either mining or herbalizing. Skinning you can do to any animal that you kill and mining or herbalizing you have to look for the nodes that will pop up on your map. You collect these as you are out questing anyway. (You don't want to do both mining and herbalizing because to find the nodes you need to look at your mini-map. If you have both of these professions they you will miss nodes as you toggle back and forth).

Most high levels hate farming for low level materials (mats) so you can usually make some really good money. Be sure to check the auction house when selling to make sure your prices are competitive but don't sell stuff too cheaply because then other people buy your stuff and just resell for the appropriate price (of course if you are good that is another way of making money - buying low and selling high but you need to know the economy of your server well for that).

Other than that, enjoy the game. There are many nice people in it but also lots of people who aren't nice and the anonymity of the internet allows people to be meaner. Find a good, helpful guild and just make some friends, go out questing and have fun.