WoW

This is what I've noticed.
A game that never ends is incredibly addictive.
Well, I'm sure there's an actual end, but I wouldn't know, I'm only lvl 16. And will probably have to start over come April, because my character is on my brother's account, so I'm not going to play for a while, because if I lost a lvl 30 druid, I'd be so sad.

But, World of Warcraft was something I tried desperatly not to get sucked into. I mocked people who played it, and refused to even look at the manuel. But, of course, a good friend of mine plays it constantly, and Geek I got it for Christmas - I was too busy playing all the new X-BOx I bought to care about an MMO until my brother bought an account and started to let me play.

I started as an Undead Warlock on the Vek'Nelish... or something like that... server, and got up to level 12 before Geek I started playing her Tauren Shaman on Argent Dawn.

I like Warlocks, they get to summon minions, and I have no doubt when I have my own account come April, I will have a "lock" as they're called on the forums.

But, I wasn't about to level up a lock when I already had leveled one up to 20, and because Druids can shapeshift into animals (and only because of that) I made a Tauren Druid on the Argent Dawn server.

Good, no that you have all that bg info on what I'm playing, I can give you my overall opinion of Warcraft, not a well rounded one (I never intend on playing a warrior or a Rouge, my next endevor will be a Night Elf Hunter, probably on the Cenarius server because I like elves, and Hunters can get pets. Do you see my thought process here?).


It's a hard life being a druid. I can say that plainly, reading the druid forums and being one. And the other classes (especially rogues) seem to treat us with some sort of distaste. Druids can tank like warriors, DPS like Rogues, cast like mages, and heal like preists. The downfall is no matter how hard Druids will try to make you believe this, we're only really above average in this, possibly as good as some of those classes, but we'll never be better than them at it.
What else can I tell you?
We have 2 travel forms - a sea lion you can gain at lvl 16 (I'm currently on that quest, and it's a pretty painful mission) and a cat looking thing at lvl 30 that you can't do anything in other than move.
We have a Bear form, gained at level 12, that allows us to tank and do fairly decent amounts of damage.
We have a cat form - you get that at lvl 20, I don't have it yet, but it enables you to DPS during battles.
There's also a Moonkin form, but you have to spend 30 points in the balance tree to get it, and even I realize that it's not worth the speccing to get it (though I want it).

Why do I tell you this in a review? I'm involved with my Druid, and that is something I didn't think I could get out of this game.

Specialized quests that make you work for what you want and forums where you can read all about your own class, your class's perception of others classes' and those classes' perception of yours, all really make a person feel like they're not just playing some large video game, instead, it makes me a much more personal experience.

Being able to actually speak to a GM and knowing that the company values your input, and fixes what you, the player, says needs fixing, also helps add to why World of Warcraft is a good gaming experience. And also my first in the world of MMOs.

I'm naturally adverse to MMOs. Gamers are, by definition, self-righteous assholes. We all have our own style of gameplay that we don't want anyone to mess with (I remember when someone rearranged my inventory in a Final Fantasy game, I nearly tore their heads off and spent 15 minutes correcting it.). But, MMOs seem to invite people into your home, and let them tell you you're doing it wrong.

But, so far, it hasn't. Of course there are n00bs. And we all hate them. Not the newbs who are just getting used to everything and don't really know what to do - they get better. I mean the lvl 60 n00bs who do |337 5|*34|< a disservice by even being alive. I was once challeneged by a level 10 Orc (or Ogre, or whatever it was) in Durotar to a duel (I was level 15). I declined. I declined because it was ridiculous. Because I knew, despite the notion that he may have a lvl 60 alt somewhere else, I'd beat him. 5 levels is a big difference. I mean, I can't even gain experience from a lvl 10 beast at this point.
And then comes the "wUt R U sc4red? ha ha ha"
Which almost made me claw his eyes out.

Fact is, sadly, this is pretty common place. Level 8 rogue challenegd my lvl 11 warlock to a duel. I had my imp minion already out, and it was only 2 levels below me, so I figured what the hey. It was also my first duel ever. I cleaned his clock with 3 DoT spells on top of eachother, and casting a few spells, while my imp did his thing (Oh, Qzfip, I hardly knew ye). He complained that I had "WTF? U CHEATED STFU N00B" and some exclaimation points.

I was challenegd later on to a duel by a level 12 warlock, and I figure, why not? I lost. Badly. But we bowed to eachother, said good duel, and teamed up to kill some zombies.

And, it's hard to say why my recollections of a game that's easy to play, user friendly, and visually appealing, are my review of the game, but it's pretty much impossible to review a game that has no goal - no "save the world" goal. Thus, recollections of the good, and bad, are all you have to go on to trust me that this is a good game.

There is a supposrtive and welcoming community, preists that buff you as they pass by (I try to use my buffs on them too, but it's usually too late by the time they've passed), people who randomly trade with you, and a general channel that, for the most part, is full of people, like myself, who are just playing the game, and are willing to help a person who needs it if they can.

There's also solidarity among the factions. A village of Tauren - Bloodhoof - which is a lower level village, was being repeatedly attacked by a level 32 NE hunter, and upper leveled characters, horde side, came and defended the village, while us lower levels did what we could against someone who was, at least, 20 levels higher than us.

So, this isn't really a review, other than a meandering thought process of why WoW has earned a well deserved thumbs up from me.
Not only does Blizzard care, but the fans do too.


-Geekus II

PS - The General Chat in Durotar was pretty infuriating. I was ready to kill the next person who typed in "teh" on purpose.