WOW, I was Wrong

So if you read my posts (and chances are you don’t) you might have heard me berate World of Warcraft for their unstimulating RPG mechanics. And while I still believe some of this to be true…well I have a confession. Okay, here it goes. I’ve been play World of Warcraft for the last month. I know, I’m a hypocrite but at least I’m coming clean.

Now this article isn’t just a confession. More importantly it is something I have discovered through the game which I think will really benefit my gaming enjoyment overall. At its barebones World of Warcraft is a lot of “fetch ____” or “kill this many____” with a few entertaining missions spread scarcely between. However what I’ve enjoyed the most of World of Warcraft is the story, the lore of the world created, and how my character is involved in that.

This leads to what I think is the most fundamental part of playing a game like WOW if you still have somewhat of a social life. What the game needs is the gamer’s ability to immerse themselves in the world and to play pretend, to put it simply. In other words you must be willing to throw away your inhibitions of disbelief and really just flow with the game.

What I think finally won me over to the game was when the Wrath of the Lich King came out. Playing some sort of undead menace always peeks my interest so I went around digging into information on the game. I eventually came upon a website that explained in great detail how the story of Warcraft was unfolding. I had always assumed that Blizzard made it up as they went like Lost (hoping no one would catch on), or that the stories were not connected at all. But it was refreshing to see that Blizzard had built and built upon its story till it literally became a self sustaining world, thus somewhat logically leading to World of Warcraft, where they could bring that world to the players.

The first time I played World of Warcraft was a few years ago and I think I made some bad choices that tarnished my view of the game for some time. First off was choosing a PvP server (player vs. player). To all of you who aren’t up on these sort of acronyms (lord knows I wasn’t when I first created a character) PvP really just means that while you’re questing, anybody on the opposing side can come up to you (despite their level difference) and kill you. This of course leads to extreme douchebaggery and them staying near your corpse so you can’t revive. Eventually I stopped questing and canceled my subscription because there wasn’t any point to it. Online gaming has enough pricks and bigots roaming it, I didn’t need to pay monthly to get more of that.

But this time around I picked a regular server (which means people can’t kill me till I say so).  I also tried to slow my self down. Instead of busily trying to level up my character as quickly as possible, I went out of my way to learn the intricacies of the world and people who inhabited it. What I got was a rich world much like Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.

So I started with a new class, the Blood Elves, which come with their own story of being persecuted and struggling with their thirst for magical power, at some points becoming an addiction. They also are new to the Horde (the bad guy side) and must prove themselves competent.

I keep his helmet off because that hair is damn sexy

Despite my obvious leanings towards playing as the bad guys since I enjoy villains so much, it was refreshing to play as the Horde. Not only are they cooler looking (except for the Tauren moo cows who are ugly as hell, but have cool native American music play when you enter their home city…so that more thank makes up for it), but the Horde are what I see as oppressed by the “good guys” of the Alliance. In most games the Horde would probably played so that people get to have that evil streak they so often and disturbingly want (aka. Fable 2). But instead the game shows the Horde as villains should be shown… misunderstood. There’s plenty of horrible acts played on each other by each side, but both sides are on common grounds. In other words when choosing my professions (something I still can’t get a full grasp on) I did not choose torture and baby chucking. Instead I’m a miner and engineer, which means…well not a whole lot as of yet, but I’m learning.

The other thing that really sold me on the game besides the story and characters were the integration of music and societies that thrived. By and far the best place I’ve visited is Booty Bay, a place full of goblins and pirates, with amazing piratey pub music ta boot! I find myself taking screenshots almost as much as I fight.

Blizzard has also made playing with friends easy. Everybody I’ve run into has been really nice and I was even invited into a guild, called the Elusive Light. Which when it really comes down to it, is just a group of people who enjoy the game and help each other out if you need it.

So Blizzard, you’ve made a convert. I don’t foresee playing the game for an endless amount of years but whenever  an expansion pack comes out, I look forward to what other stories there are to be told. And as long as I’m only losing a couple of hours of sleep a night, I’ll continue to play you…okay that sounds weird but you get it.

Now for some pics I’ve taken which show off some of the beautiful scenery:

watching the moon set

a star filled night

an ode to Brazil perchance?

Oh Booty Bay, how I love thee