World of Warcraft: An Addict's Look Back, Part Two

History aside, I would like to discuss my opinion of the game and why I was so obsessively absorbed by it for two years. While WoW did dominate my life, I allowed it to for a good reason: I really enjoyed it. I feel Blizzard designed the game like a casino in that they didn’t want players to leave, but they did one helluva job doing it. The account cancellation process was really discouraging as Blizzard practically grovels in attempt to get you to rethink your decision. That aside, by far and away my favorite aspect to the game was the social aspect. Sure there were a bunch of noobs and idiots, but thankfully you could block them and never hear from them again. However, it was a great way for me to “hang out” with my friends while I’m over 300 miles away at school. I particularly enjoyed when I raided with KoA because of the little gem that is Ventrilo. Killing the massive threats to Azeroth was fun and all, but laughing your ass off for 3-4 hours straight to the antics of fellow nerds across the country and globe made the time-commitment all worthwhile. One of the guild leaders was from Alabama, and about 95% of the things he said made me laugh, not only because of his fantastic southern accent, but because he was a naturally funny guy. My times in ventrilo were great and all, but without a shadow of a doubt, my favorite times playing WoW were when I partied with Bartoneus and Joshx0rfz. Their back and forth sexual-shouting matches and “Your Mom” battles not only made me literally “rofl”, but made my character die in doing so. Some would complain about the gear repair bill afterwards, but I felt nothing could replace such priceless dialogue. I wish I could recreate some of their conversations, but they were back when we all played during WoW’s infancy a long time ago. I also enjoyed how Bartoneus “ninja-looted” stuff from Joshx0rfz at least five times, but I’ll let them discuss how that occurred.

In regards to the gameplay itself, I divided the game into three separate facets: leveling, dungeon-raiding, and PvP. I, personally, enjoyed all three facets equally. Most people abhor the project of leveling to max level and feel it is mind-numbingly boring and repetitive, hence why there are many people who have bought accounts off EBay and other sites. The fact I had five level 60’s clearly demonstrates the fact I enjoyed leveling. Gaining new skills, talents, spells, mounts really kept me “bright-eyed and bushy-tailed” enough to log in so many hours. Raiding was great not only for the social aspect mentioned above, but for other reasons as well. I really felt like I was part of an elite team when we downed bosses in Blackwing Lair, Molten Core, etc. During high school I tried playing FPS and RTS games online and well, I was about as noobsauce as you could get, so achieving the pinnacle of greatness in WoW (and having people compliment me on my purple gear) made me feel like I wasn’t completely wasting my time. Raiding is also the most challenging part of the game. Blizzard did a beautiful job of creating aesthetically pleasing bosses who required good teamwork and communication to defeat. I’m not sure I can say much about PvP, it speaks for itself. While I didn’t feel this way during my initiation into WoW, Justin really proved to me how a game like WoW really should be played for the PvP facet. When you are going to play a “MMO” the emphasis is on “multiplayer”, and this is one of the best opportunities to display your skills against a very large player base. Plus, killing swathes of players in Alterac Valley, Warsong Gulch, and Arathi Basin is just flat out satisfying. I don’t understand why, nor do I wish to break the bounds of modesty, but I became quite the battle-hardened expert in the battlegrounds. It pleased me to no end to see myself dominating the killing charts when I would think about how pathetic I was at RTS and FPS games.

There were also a number of aspects to the game which I did not agree with or enjoy. The first one that comes to mind was gold farming. The gold farmers at one point became a serious problem. There would be so many of them that they formed entire guilds. Not only did they complete obliterate what sense of an economy was present in WoW, they were the biggest group of morons and jerks when joining in your dungeon-spelunking adventures. They would never follow orders, constantly pester players to hurry up, and “ninja-loot” like it was nobody’s business. On the plus side, I did learn that “Caoni ma” is an equivalent to “fuck you” in Mandarin after booting a farmer just before we took on the final boss in Scholomance. For awhile Blizzard just sat on their asses and did near nothing to deal with the farmer problem, but thankfully, once the universal realm transfer system went live the problem dissolved. While I do agree that there has always been the issue of class-balance, I don’t agree it was as severe as many people have stated (especially not to the point of in-game petitioning). I was very irritated when I leveled my druid to 60 to find out they were a completely terrible class, but I just went and rolled other characters. It figures though that now druids have been buffed so much they are one of the most dominant classes in the game. Honestly, what bothered me the most about class balance was with ease of leveling. Getting a rogue or warlock to level 60 was a breeze compared to a druid or warrior. While a druid could keep himself healed, they had extremely low DPS and had no means of dealing with monsters who joined up mid-fight. Warriors are the same way, except they can’t even heal themselves. Rogues on the other hand can not only deal with added mobs, but completely disappear from fights if things get out of hand. I was also never really a big fan of how long it would take Blizzard to fix bugs in the game, or to realize when certain challenges in dungeons were a bit over-the-top. There are still a handful of quests to this day that can’t be completed that I remember attempting when adventuring with my alliance characters years ago.

I hope you have enjoyed my look back at World of Warcraft and have even made some of you fellow retirees reminisce on some of your experiences, both bad and good. For those of you who have played WoW, I invite you to help this recovering addict cope by sharing with us your favorite moments and why you left the game or still play. For those of you who never have played, I invite you to discuss your thoughts on WoW and why you chose not to play.