World of Warcraft... WoW indeed

Posted on Wednesday, November 30, 2005 in the Games category.

Updates on this blog have been quite sparce. This can mostly be attributed to the fact that Blizzard has created the most addicting game to ever be released, World of Warcraft. I started playing WoW about 2-3 months ago, when I decided I would try out the game millions of others were raving about. I figured with the 1 free month you get with the game, I would be able to tell whether or not it was truely worth the $15 monthly fee. As I have stated before (see, Guild Wars), I was never a fan of monthly fee’s for games. I figured there would never be a game possible of deserving a monthly fee. Damn… I was so very wrong.

Comradery

World of Warcraft brings a new meaning to the word addiction. I can’t say I have ever been more addicted to anything in my life. This game has even forced me to pretty much halt any poker addiction I currently have/had. I am currently a level 53 Orc Hunter (7 more to go!), a level 23 Undead Mage, and a level 12 Troll Priest on the Burning Legion server. I am a member of The Vague, a small 30-40 person guild. None of us are truely addicts in the WoW sense (50+ hours a week, etc), but we all get along quite well in the game. Most of our members are developers/designers in the Dallas area, with a few implants from the San Fran area (Danny, Mike, Christian, etc). If you are ever in need of finding a quick pickup group to quest with though, there is always someone doing the exact quest you are, making it VERY easy to level.

Economy

The one thing that amazes me in this game is the economy. You could literally sit at the Auction House all day, and make gold like a mad man, and still have a damn good time. Or, you could farm Copper, Silver, Mithril, etc through mining, and sell that at the Auction House, or craft it into Armor/Weapons to sell as well. There is also a skill for fishing, where you can create Savory Deviate Delights that transform you into a random character (Pirate, Blob, Skeleton, etc) for 30 minutes. These sell for quite a hefty price on the Auction House, but why? Because they are cool, and for no other reason. I can’t count the amount of high armor items I have that won’t sell on the Auction House, yet if I have Abel create me a Leather Ball that you can simply throw to friends, it will sell in no time flat.

PvP

Hmmmm. How do I word this. PvP is both the bain of my existance, yet the thrill of a lifetime. There is something about constantly fearing for your life while doing simple quests in a contested area. Yet, having a 12 year old level 60 Rogue decked out in epics corpse camp your level 25 body, can be quite frustrating. I still don’t understand why Blizzard can’t implement a system that disallows the same character from killing an opponent for 15 seconds or so, after they have killed you 3 times consecutively, but oh well. I think I am one of the few people that thinks Battlegrounds are a perfect answer. Most people have said that Battlegrounds have ruined world PvP. While that might be true, there seems to still be plenty of raids in Orgrimmar, etc.

No end in sight

I see no end in sight for my love of this game. There is just way too much to still be explored. Hell, I still have 5 other classes to get to 60 :) So, in closing, if you have noticed the lack of updates, you know why. If you are on Burning Legion, or want to get in touch with me in WoW, send a tell to Aeigelus on the Horde side, or just comment here. We are always looking for more developers, designers, or just plain addicts. Either way, if you play, comment with your server/in game name.