World of Warcraft
We all knew this was coming. Blizzard has dragged a huge majority of the gaming community, and even non-community members into their persistent, massive world of Azeroth. So, of course I spent at least some time in the past playing World of Warcraft.
Now, as I've mentioned before, a number of my friends were big Blizzard fans when I wasn't. So they were always ahead of the loop when it came to upcoming releases. Back while I was still playing Final Fantasy Online, Blizzard released it's own take on the quickly growing Massive Multiplayer Online experience. I can't remember if one of us had decided to purchase it when it was first released to give it a try, or if one of us had gotten in on the beta run, but I do remember three or four of us sitting around a computer, trying WoW out for the first time and being pretty impressed. Though recent releases such as Final Fantasy Online and Neocron may have proven that MMOs can actually look great graphically, World of Warcraft took that one step further and pushed a game that pretty much matched the kind of visual quality we were seeing on current consoles at the time.
So, with that in mind, we all decided it would be a good time to grab ourselves a copy and dig into it spoon first. Though, if I remember correctly, I may have started about a week behind the others. Which would explain why I was pretty much never seen with them. The only trouble I found with World of Warcraft is that I really wanted to play it with my local friends, but since they put so many more hours into it than I did, we weren't ever matched level-wise so no one ever wanted to go run pity missions with me.
And yet, I still enjoyed myself. World of Warcraft, although very powerful when played with large groups, still catered nicely to those who were interested in 'soloing' their adventures. Though I had teamed up with the odd person here and there online, most of my gaming was done by myself. Funny enough, even though I was effectively playing alone, there's something much different about doing so in a world full of other players in a big persistent world.
MMOs are all about the experience, WoW was no different. Sometimes, playing a game where time is handled differently, where you often find yourself hanging about an area waiting, or exploring with no rush to get anywhere means that you truly do have the opportunity to live within that world. As much as you may want to sit and enjoy the view in most games, it's rare that you will stop for more than a brief moment to look around. But in an MMO that you may play for a year or so, taking an hour to enjoy the scenery while waiting for a group to form is not uncommon and a unique experience at that. And I have to say, Blizzard made some beautiful areas that really stuck with me. Though I'll never go back to it, I'll always kind of want to.
Truth is, the biggest reason for me leaving WoW was simply that there's no good reason to stop playing it. The game has no real end and while that in itself is absolutely fantastic, it meant that for a year I was only playing one game and missing out on all the rest. In the end, I'm much rather enjoy 12 or so games and their stories over the course of a year than just one.
So, with that in mind, we all decided it would be a good time to grab ourselves a copy and dig into it spoon first. Though, if I remember correctly, I may have started about a week behind the others. Which would explain why I was pretty much never seen with them. The only trouble I found with World of Warcraft is that I really wanted to play it with my local friends, but since they put so many more hours into it than I did, we weren't ever matched level-wise so no one ever wanted to go run pity missions with me.
And yet, I still enjoyed myself. World of Warcraft, although very powerful when played with large groups, still catered nicely to those who were interested in 'soloing' their adventures. Though I had teamed up with the odd person here and there online, most of my gaming was done by myself. Funny enough, even though I was effectively playing alone, there's something much different about doing so in a world full of other players in a big persistent world.
MMOs are all about the experience, WoW was no different. Sometimes, playing a game where time is handled differently, where you often find yourself hanging about an area waiting, or exploring with no rush to get anywhere means that you truly do have the opportunity to live within that world. As much as you may want to sit and enjoy the view in most games, it's rare that you will stop for more than a brief moment to look around. But in an MMO that you may play for a year or so, taking an hour to enjoy the scenery while waiting for a group to form is not uncommon and a unique experience at that. And I have to say, Blizzard made some beautiful areas that really stuck with me. Though I'll never go back to it, I'll always kind of want to.
Truth is, the biggest reason for me leaving WoW was simply that there's no good reason to stop playing it. The game has no real end and while that in itself is absolutely fantastic, it meant that for a year I was only playing one game and missing out on all the rest. In the end, I'm much rather enjoy 12 or so games and their stories over the course of a year than just one.
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