I have heard it said that the defense community has always - since nukes started being put on missiles - greatly exaggerated the effectiveness of nuclear defense capabilities to the general population.

There's a great sequence in the show Foundation showing a terrorist attack on a space elevator, incidentally.

>How much would it be with in game gold?

It depends on what region you're in and how expensive WoW tokens are in that region at any given time (1 token = 1 month game time). I'm in the US region where they go for roughly 180k - 220k gold lately. Very expensive for a new player, but gold is easy to make on the auction house if you put in the time to learn.

If you're curious what determines the price of the tokens: people buy them with real money to sell them for gold on the AH. That way people with e.g. lots of money but little time IRL can fund their WoW adventures without having to farm or get involved with the auction house.

You're correct. It sucks because basically every class doesn't start filling out their kit until the 30-40 range*, and with WoW's emphasis on the endgame, the game doesn't truly start until max level. Level 20 isn't even enough to get your dick wet. Maybe it was ten years ago or whenever they came up with the F2P model, but definitely not anymore.

*This might be a little different with the new talent system

Yes, that's something they need to update. You ought to at least be able to play up to the previous expansion's level cap for free.

I've been paying for the game with in-game gold for so long now that this kind of thing never occurs to me until someone brings it up, but it's probably the biggest reason I've never bothered trying another MMO. I ain't paying monthly. It's an outdated system.

WoW of course. I've been playing with the same group since 2009, and we're very proud of the community we've built. The game has its ups and downs, but it's nothing if not reliable.