World of Whorecraft

If the title itself doesn't give it away, I really dislike this game. But let's step back a bit.

MMORPG's (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, and MMO's from here on out) are an enigma to me, at least as far as gaming goes. Usually people play a game for one of a few reasons: Awesome graphics, neat story, killer gameplay or good multiplayer. Ask anyone who has fallen under World of Warcraft's spell, and they'll tell you that WoW has all four. I would have to disagree, however, and this is coming from someone who has spent years playing games of this type. My disapproval of WoW isn't just limited to this one game, then, it's a massive unapproving nod to the entire MMO genre.

MMO's are designed to immerse a player into a world of some fantastical setting, then play out like a regular game where player's are offered the "freedom" to do and become anyone they want (Within the limits of the game world of course- you can't expect to become a Jedi Knight in Final Fantasy 11). This initially seems like an OK setup, until you meet someone like me.
Not really a "people person (that reminds me of a wonderful joke...I'll tell you later)", I prefer to hoof it on my own, which goes against one of the main selling points of the game: team questing. And not just small factions of people, either; some quests require no less than fifty people in a group, and I can't even think of fifty people I like in the real world. But that's OK, because finding or creating a group is fairly easy, but then I have to do things like share loot or split experience points and listen to my teammates speak in irritable l33t sp34k for the next however-long-it-takes-to-finish-the-damn-quest.

But lets assume I'm a multiplayer hippie like most of college gamer youth (and because I want to make a valid argument against the multiplayer) and that these large quests with 35 or so of the same generic-looking characters are my thing. Obviously I've traveled long and hard to get to wherever I am and I want whatever item might be stashed in the gullet of whatever creature I'm about to slay. Almost immediately my place in this "battle" is decided: either I'm hacking and slashing the creature or I'm healing the guys who are. I'd like to think that any "fun" aspect of a multiplayer experience has everyone doing something that is at least slightly different, but maybe that's a gameplay issue. The healers will try their best to keep themselves and everyone else alive while I go make a cheese sandwich and return to my character who is most likely dead anyway. You see, these "battles" are usually just flashy boss battles in which the boss is given almost god-like power and even a small army of people are powerless to stop it. Yet in every case the enemy, with it's vast and broad abilities chooses to remain in the same spot attack in the same way.
By believing in myself (and sitting long enough to give a damn) we can all fell the horrid beast, but it's that type of battle that ruins the immersion for me. I'm probably just too damn practical to play games like this: Without any real reason to attack the creature I feel like I'm little more than a thief, and without the intelligence to attack based on the makeup of his enemies, the god-beast becomes nothing more than a giant time consumption. So I chose to avoid these types of encounters because I just feel ostracized when I'm in them, and isn't that the feeling you play videogames to escape from? Well maybe that's a bit too complicated.

The controls of the game are complicated for all the wrong reasons, and simple for all the wrong reasons as well. By utilizing any number of keyboard buttons you execute an action, but it's the shear number of possible "moves" you can pull off that I find confusing to navigate in an intense battle. I can't tell you how many times I've died because I've pressed the attack button when I wanted (and needed) to press "heal". At the same time, I always feel dislodged from a game where I select an enemy and wait two seconds before my character attacks, repeatedly. I know how to swing an object and I'd like to think my character could somehow figure out how to slash a creature until it's dead, so the realism is lost on me. This is different from regular RPG's, because combat isn't the number one reason you play those games- that's for the story. But in MMO's you have to fight and therefore should at least be able to feel like you're fighting... not just watching someone else do it.

The story and graphics are two aspects of MMO's that take a hit due to the shear volume of things that have to be available in a game of it's size for the population to do. You can't have a focused story when you have 10,000 people on a server who have to experience it, and at the same time you can't have Halo 3 graphics in a game that has to be that large. This means that, no matter how pretty the game, MMO's always take a graphical "backstep" in comparison to other games in the same generation.

ALL OF THAT HAVING BEEN SAID, this is Gurren. He's the Dwarf Priest I decided to play as. I decided to begin my venture back into this world since we had a week out of school due to the snow. He's a level 10 (of a maximum of 80) character and he fights with spells, a mace, and a wonderful little drinking mug. I'm fairly certain all Priests in the real world use that set of weaponry anyway, so I'm sticking close to reality.
I'm staying in the area he started the game in, at least until I learn all discernible spells from my "master" and decide to move on, which could take quite a bit of time. The next time I post I'll actually tell you about some adventures I've had, such as his inhuman bear-attracting ability, which cost me my life quite a few times in the past.

For those of you wondering why I'm playing a game I already seem to be biased against, I'll just repeat what I said earlier: My boyfriend made me do it.

Later