Confused on how to start playing World of Warcraft.

WUT?

you need to be richer than bill gates to start playing

Thanks for Skyrim!

you can find deals for complete expansion.
the world changedafter each expension, so there is no way to play the really original WOW, but it's the same "story".
you need a monthly sub and the game. not that expensive, but the main problem is that it takes all of your time. great story... haven't plaayed the panda expension, other than that, Cataclysm is favorite story arc for solo player

1.You need to buy the battle chest and the current expasion Dreanor

2.About the story you should play warcraft and then world of warcraft

3.Yes

4.In some ways yes, because there are some things that ppl don't do anymore and you need a party to do it, like raids.

5.Yes

6.Nothing just in-game time

7.There is a mount and pet shop with real money

8.there are 6 if you count vanilla wow(wow, burning, lich, cata, pandaria and dreanor)

9.right now battle chest if 50% off so is 10$ and the expansion is 50$, battle chest give you one free month

edit: maybe if you want to check wow just buy the battle chest and play if you like it buy draenor and one more month.

Which was the first one out of " World of Warcraft (Vanilla),Burning Crusade,Lich King,Cataclysm,Mist of Pandaria,Warlords. " ? What's vanilla?

There are a lot of movies about the story in warcraftmovies.com/machinima.php .My favorites are about the ashbringer (about 3 hours long, lol) and about the War of the Ancients.
Also you will have to play all warcraft games to understand the story or read the books, I have read only 8 so far.

vanilla is wow t the start. wow without any addons

1.relax
2.go to battle.net
3.buy base game which includes basic expansions+buy a subscription
4.download launcher
5.run launcher, it downloads everything you need (don't run from any disc if u get it irl, download the game from there instead as its the latest build), also you need loads of gb free..i suggest you have anything between 40-60gb free on your hard disk
6.if you like it, only then get warlords of draenor (wod) which includes a lvl90 character boost

I must warn you the game is like heroin. I had 15maxed out (lvl+gearwise) characters in mop. It was difficult for me to get off it (I have done every single quest til the end of mop, done 3/4 of all achs+most of the rarest mounts in the game with 0.01% drop rate). It's all fun but I suggest you don't do it unless you want to waste your life away. Blizzard are one of the worst companies at customer service and tbh that got me off it 2 months ago for good after about 7years. Instead of paying for a wow subscription now I just buy games on steam sales; I believe other developers who listen to and pay more respect to their customers deserve more respect. Also the WoW community is a bit douchy..like 80% of players are c*nts whereas the other 20% are ok. Also battlegrounds in pvp are full of bots (secretly run by bliz to keep shareholders happy), and in mop they added russian servers to the eu, which led to lots of russian cheaters (with lag hacks) flooding on eu servers (if you are in usa it won't affect you), there is also maintenance time every wednesday for half the day..and sometimes bliz messes up big time and it can take longer.

Just chill and start playing. If you have the battlechest and WoD that's all you need to pay (and the monthy fee ofc). After that just get immersed in the world, get friendly with the mechanics, get a guild, all that stuff. There's really no point in over-complicating it, you simply won't be able to handle the whole game for first run. Give it time (and I mean a lot of time) and you'll see.

Link to vanilla / base game?

its the easyest, intuitive mmo of all times, just grab a copy and read the damm contract.

should only have to buy base game, and latest expansion

base game should come with one month of game time as well
there are optional pets and stuff you can buy, but nothing anywhere near required
overall cost of startup ~80
and 13-15 a month depending on how often you renew(1 month, 3 month or 6 month)

you can buy everything at battle.net battle.net
EDIT: added linky

where are you from?

you can buy the battlechest. a pack include from vanilla to (maybe) wotlk.(playable content form lvl 1 to 80) +30 days free playtime
enough for the beginning with wow.

Guide to playing WoW.

Step 1: Don't play WoW.
Step 2: Use the $15/month you just saved on games that are actually fun to play. This includes the original Warcraft strategy games.
Step 3: Gift Fortix.

WoW is a dinosaur. Giant, imposing, but utterly irelevent to the modern world. If your idea of fun is to embark on an epic quest to minmax hotbars, deliver bear asses, and tend to a garden of stats in a world that had long lost its magic and wonder, then by all means go for it. But if you just want to pretend you're not getting bored when doing fuck-all with your off-time, try weed. If you want adventure, story, challenge, growth, or just about any level of actual psychological stimulation, well, you have the collective accumulation of thousands of years of human effort and creativity to browse. 90% of it may be crap, but 10% of loads and loads is still loads. You have limited time on this Earth. Do you really want to spend it with an elaborate Skinner Box?

Something seemed no one else said, you can create a starter account free. All classes/races, not locked out of any zones (beyond higher lvl stuff killing you). Maximum level of 20, chat/mail limitations, a cap on gold. You can upgrade from there if you feel like it. I have one to hop in for nostalgia purposes once in awhile when not subbed. Pets, mounts, titles, and toys all carry over from main and are usable on Starter.

Their standard practice is to put the prior expansions free with the base game when release a new one so you should get up to Mists of Pandaria with the base purchase (which would also include 30 days gametime). They also send out free 10 day trials multiple times a year to lapsed accounts, mine just expired.

Just by the nature of MMO you have missed story, stuff changes over time. The Cataclysm expansion basically did a total overhaul of the original 2 continents, so for example the zone Darkshore is now in ruins and some of the first quests involve finding out who did and did not survive from the original.

Since Cata the storylines tend to be self contained within a zone, you start the story at beginning of zone and it resolves by the end and you move on. Some characters carrying over.

The Christmas holiday event is ending soon, alongside quests and achievements there is also a set of lootable gifts which have new things each year. The 10th Anniversary event is also ending soon, by logging in during it you unlock the Molten Corgi pet (it just follows you around, can have it battle other pets like Pokemon).

On topic of being your first MMO welcome to the genre, I know the world size can be intimidating. WoW is one of the most user friendly of them and is still the undisputed king of the themepark sub-genre. If do start and need any info Wowhead is one of the primary resources for general information.

If not for lack of trial I might point you at Guild Wars 2 for your first taste just because it is about as casual friendly as can get, no expansions to worry about, and no sub. I call it the tourist MMO due to how well suited it is to just hopping in and out at will without worry about keeping up in gear or anything like that.

Could also try Guild Wars 1, but that is more of a pseudo-MMO, everything lobby based and can used AI henchmen if want to solo. But there is alot to it, no sub, and plenty of story. Plus you can earn cosmetic stuff in GW2 by playing through it. I think it might have a trial, but as I said it is atypical for the genre.

Rift or Lord of the Rings Online are both F2P and very similar to WoW so could give them a try, neither quite compares though.

Just play on a private server, post WotLK is garbage, It's too expensive and Blizzard don't even care about the players anymore, they don't deserve your money.

Start from watching south park episode "make love not warcraft" and if you still want to waste your life and money that way consider buying account from someone(i guess it might be better and cheaper than buying game with all dlcs and grinding spiders).

Confused on how to start playing or WHY to start playing?

How to start playing:
1) Don't
2) Don't, you'll save a LOT of money
3) Don't you;'ll have time to do important stuff like eat and poop
4) Don't, you'll keep your friends
5) Don't, you'll keep your complexion
6) If you're STILL determined to waste your money, waste your time, lose your friends and lose your complexion, go buy yourself some crack, you'll have more fun AND make new friends

You already got good answers, but I think I'll give you more :)

Question 1: What do I need to buy from a local game shop/online blizzard to start playing WOW?

• Only the World of Warcraft Battle Chest (or base game). You will get 4 expansions for free with that, and 30 days game time. A little later you will need a gamecard or an appropriate credit/debit card to pay for the game time, and Warlords of Draenor for the latest content.

Question 2: I do not want to miss out with any of the story elements, so what is the name of the first World of Warcraft that was released? (There seems to be catacalysm, burning crusade, pandaria, etc etc. Pretty confused in all this)

• The story started in the RTS games (Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne), but the main elements are mentioned in WoW too. The story of WoW unfolds as you are doing your quests in-game.

Question 3: Do I have to buy each and every WOW update / expansion pack to advance further in the story line?

• No. You have to buy the latest one, but the older ones are now free. If you want to continue, you will have to buy the 6th, 7th, etc. expansion packs after they are released.

Question 4: If I buy all updates, will I miss the story line covered in the initial updates?

• You will miss some story, because its are removed from the game (most of the vanilla WoW storyline, The Battle for Undercity, Battlefield Barrens aka patch 5.3 etc.).

Question 5: Is my blizzard account only sufficient for playing WOW?

• No. You can play Hearthstone for free, you will be able to play Heroes of the Storm for free after Blizzard releases it, and you can play Starcraft, Starcraft 2, Diablo II, Diablo III, and Warcraft III after you bought them.

Question 6: Except in-game time, what do I need to buy for WOW?

• Battle Chest and Warlords of Draenor, if you want to level beyond lvl90.

Question 7: Once I buy the game, game-time, expansion packs, are there skins/items like DOTA 2/LOL which I might have to buy?

• Yes, there are some pets/mounts/cosmetic helms, but they are completely optional and you will lose nothing if you don't buy them.

Question 8: How many expansion packs, updates are there in total?

• Warlords of Draenor is the 5th expansion pack, and the only one you have to buy right now. The content patches are free.

Question 9: What would be the collective price for all these? If I want to start playing WOW, how much should be my budget.

• Right now you can buy the Battle Chest 50% cheaper from Blizzard, I recommend to do so (except if you find an even cheaper boxed version). It's €7.50/$7.50; Warlords aren't discounted yet, so it's €44.99/$49.99.

you can try the game up to level 20 for free, gives you an idea of whats going on

You're free to do what you wish, but I'd like to suggest you don't. Not because of mindless hate like other people, I actually very much enjoyed it. The problem is that it consumes your life if you aren't careful. You're paying $15 every month to play, so you feel like you should play or you'd be wasting your money. If you've ever heard someone say they were addicted to WoW, they probably weren't exaggerating.