Second Life vs World of Warcraft

I haven't actually played WoW, but in conversations with people who do, I have come away with the impression that SL is clearly superior to WoW. I am submitting this point-by-point comparisome to prove it.

All the WoW info comes from www.worldofwarcraft.com so if anything is inaccuate, blame them. Unless it was me who misinterpreted something.... If I did, submit a comment below, and I will fix it as soon as I can. Flames and gratuitous insults will be cheerfully fed to my pet dragon. Anything marked [off the website] is a direct cut'n'paste from the WoW website. Easier than paraphrasing, and more accurate.

Minimum cost to play:

-->WoW: Info is scanty, but it appears that a temporary free account is available. If you want to continue past a certain point, you have to buy one of those boxes you see at gaming stores.

-->SL: Free! You can sign up with a basic account, and never upgrade to premium. You only need a premium account if you want to buy land. Even then, basic account holders can buy land from other players.


Character types available:

-->WoW: Eight character races: Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes, Night Elves, Draenei, Orcs, Tauren, Trolls, Undead, Blood Elves, Orcs.

-->SL: Anything you darn well please. The default is human, but you can make yourself into anything someone can imagine. All you have to do is buy or make an avatar. (In SL, avatar or "avie" refers both to your graphical representation inworld as well as the appearance of that representation.) I personally own several dragons, teddy bears, dragonflies in multiple colors, a bee, a giant hand, llamas, a "carnifern" (aka Audrey II), a small rolling rock, a puffball.... Robots are popular. I have seen someone wearing a toilet avie. Yes, a toilet!


Character classes available:

-->WoW: Nine character classes: Druids, Hunters, Mages, Paladins, Priests, Rogues, Shamens, Warlocks, Warriors, Deathknights.

-->SL: Ain't no such animal. You choose your own role in the world. Some of the role-playing sims may have "classes", but you leave them behind when you leave the sim.


Character professions available:

-->WoW: Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Cooking, Enchanting, Engineering, First Aid, Fishing, Herbalism, Jewelcrafting, Leatherworking, Mining, Tailoring, Skinning, Inscription.

-->SL: Profession doesn't belong to your character so much as it belongs to you, and depends on the skills you bring to SL or develop there. Semi-skilled jobs include security, club dancer, escort, model. Skilled jobs include builder, scripter, club dj, animation maker, texture maker, clothing designer, jewelry designer, business owner, real estate speculator, teacher.


Character levels:

-->WoW:

-->SL: None. An avie under a certain days old (generally 30, but sometimes up to 90) is considered a newbie, and is often eligable for free items and events that older avies don't qualify for. Otherwise, all avies are equal in power.


Character death:

-->WoW: [off the website] You will immediately be able to release your spirit as a ghost, at which point you will be transported to a nearby graveyard. As a ghost, you must run back to the vicinity of your corpse to revive yourself.

-->SL: Avies are immune to physical damage; even a 20-story drop will only damage your avatar's pride. Certain areas are "damage enabled"; when you run out of hit points, you are teleported back "home" (wherever you have home set to).


Transportation:

-->WoW:

-->SL: The major methods of transportation are teleporting and flying (yes, everyone in SL can fly!) Others include cars, motorcycles, airplanes, balloons, boats, various riding animals, flying carpets, jet packs.... In short, whatever someone can imagine and build. When can you obtain transportation? When you have the money - on your first day if you have a premium account or credit/debit card or Paypal account.


How much can you carry?

WoW: [off the website] Bag space will be a premium in the early levels. Your initial backpack holds up to 16 items, but you may find that it fills up all too quickly.... You can also buy bags from NPC vendors and from other players.

SL: Inventory space is unlimited, at least in theory. In practice, you want to keep your inventory small enought so it loads in a reasonable amount of time. "Small enough" is a matter of opinion, but 5,000 items is a good number to shoot for. See my blog entry on inventory organization for more on SL inventories. Not only that, but there is no encumberance in Second Life. People can - and do! - wander around carrying entire houses in their virtual backpacks.


What is there to do here???

-->WoW: From what I can tell, it's basically Dungeons and Dragons - kill monsters, collect treasure, buy equipment, level up and buy more skills, kill more monsters, rinse, repeat.

-->SL: The D&D experience is available in a game within SL called Darklife. But when you're bored with that, there's Combat Cards (an in-world collectable card game); Tringo, Zingo, and other semi-gambling games; skydiving; horseback riding; nightclubs; treasure hunts.... A lot of people spend most of their time simply exploring. If you are a creative type, you can build things - rez the basic building blocks straight out of thin air! That's only a small scratch in the surface. See my blog entry on activities for more - but even that entry only covers a small portion of available activities.



Okay, more of this entry will come soon, but it's 2:30 in the morning and my brain is shutting down.

Update: Still working on this post. :P