World of Warcraft
Yes, sadly I have to admit that I have spent quite a few hours with this game *sigh*. Oh well, I guess most of us have. And what can I say now that I have seen the dusty halls of Black Temple and prevented the destruction of the world tree?
WoW is dangerous. There are many unfortunate people who really can’t limit the effect the game has on their lives. It is not exactly the game’s fault, but still, if you start playing it, you better be careful for it is a slippery slope, the slope of the MMORPGs, especially the slope of such a polished and well designed game as WoW.
What is it about MMORGPs really? Is it the social thing? Or the endless repetitive grind that gives you always new goal to aim for? There are many elements that people elate to, but I’d say it’s the whole that’s more than the sum of it’s parts. Yes, the social aspect is very important part of WoW - if you are not in a guild or do not have in game friends, chances are you won’t be playing it too long. When you do have, it becomes that more difficult to leave the game for a long while when you have shared so many in-game experiences with the people you actually do not know, but effectively think you do.
The magic of WoW is that it’s simple, easy to learn, it is polished, looks like candy and plays well. It doesn’t annoy too much, it rewards even if you don’t put too much effort into it and it always, always gives you that next goal to aim for. And while it is simple and easy, it manages to give myriad of different things to different players. Some use it as a tool for ingame acting, some use it purely for epeen grinding of better equipment than others and some jump into the wild world of end game raiding getting kicks out of complex fights that are 25 man raid encounters. The list goes on.
To me personally WoW is mostly about social interaction and end game raiding. I have quite a few friends I know in real life that play it and with real life friends any shared gaming experience becomes so much more reasonable and enjoyable. I do have to say that there are also quite a few people I only know ingame that I’ve become quite fond of. When it comes to end game raiding, I really do enjoy the 25 man raid encounters. If you happen to find a good guild of decent players and manage to nail the boss encounters, the sense of accomplishment that follows the first kill is something that is really hard to describe. To me it’s a personal process where I aim to beat my previous level. When the encounter begins I enter this sort of flow where I try to be as efficient and accurate and possible until the encounter ends. I have not run into any other computer game that manages to give me the same kind of sense of extreme concentration and effort. It is comparable to hard physical exercise or competition.
But I have to say that now the magic is waning. The problem with end game is that
- either it takes too much time, feels too intense and becomes too tedious when you repeat the same encounters over and over again
- you are in a group that takes it more easy but doesn’t get anything done because it doesn’t have good enough players that would put enough effort into the process
Was it worth it? I’d say so. It was interesting rollercoaster -ride and while I do casually continue to play the game still, the hardcore phase is over for me. It offered extreme experiences, and extreme experiences are often worth experiencing.
Check it out, but be careful!
