World of Warcraft.
It’s like marmite I guess, you either love it or you hate it. For the past 3 years I’ve played this game, spent hundreds of pounds to play it infact and what have I gotten out of it? A handful of online friends certainly but other than that not alot, a few pixels that made my virtual character virtually a bit more powerful, so he could be virtually raped over and over again by other virtual people who had virtually better gear or skill?
I know what you’re thinking, “You paid hundreds of pounds to play that shit?”. Truth is yes, I did. It used to be a cool way to relax and unwind at first, levelling my character a bit, seeing progression as their equipment got better and pushed for that ultimate, level 60 then 70 and now 80, the top level. But most of all it was chatting with the people I’d “met” on the game. There was always plenty to talk about with regards to each persons respective country having this or that happen. But recently it’s gone a bit quiet, and I’ve realised I was only playing for the community. The other stuff was just to keep me busy while I talked and now I can only find negative points about the game as it stands. Sure Wrath of the Lich King ( the current expansion for the game ) was exciting at first with all its new content and achievements and the mighty Death Knight class to play as but the lustre of it wore off after about a month or two. I mean, getting used to the Death Knight took some time with it being a new and different way to play. And the new Vehicle system was interesting for about five minutes till you understood how it worked. Then there was all the new dungeons and heroic dungeons. Interesting enounters some of them, but nothing that has stunned me or impressed me. So what about achievements? They were and still are kinda fun for me, because I’m a perfectionist, I want my achievement log to be full of all the achievements.
So the game itself isnt particularly amazing anymore. It stunned me at first, but it didnt drop me to the mat, and so now i’ve had time to recover my senses and realise overall I’m not particularly impressed by it. Sure it has its moments like when you spell reflect a polymorph or deathgrip or when you get that little ding that tells you, you’ve made an achievement, but without the community, for me, its not a particularly good game. I’ll probably get flamed by all the gamers out there who might find this but there is and always has been class imbalance in the game, and its generally the stronger classes who will say “L2P” or “stop QQing” simply because they dont realise how difficult, nay impossible it can be to kill their class. Or based on one experience where a well geared, well skilled player has managed to JUST overcome them, THEY whine that they arent anywhere near Over Powered. But nevermind thats turning into a rant, and I dont want this post to be like that.
So As I was saying. The community was there, and the RP was fun but over time its just sort of frittered away into nothing-ness to the point where I was just logging on to loads of messages saying things like “My character just found out what you did and he’s pissed and is going to kill you” or other such comments. Now by way of explanation, my character is an evil bastard who does evil things by trade so I take it for granted that most of the world hates him - ie, I don’t need millions of people pestering me and nagging me to say they hate my characters guts or want to kill him or whatever. And the only people I did want to RP with are on the other side of the fence now. So! It usually goes like this, I log on, get my usual death threats and such out of the way, stare at the auctioneer while I get the customary “Hello how are you?” said to the people who barely talk anymore. try and find people who want to RP with me, all half a dozen or so of them. Then think to myself “well i cant be bothered to do anything so I’m going to watch a DVD” and end up logging off more bored than I was when I logged on. And of course no one on MSN wants to talk because they’re all in game enjoying it.
Well thats about all I can think to say on the subject for now, I just feel my “Warcraft era” has ended and hopefully it’s grip on me will be loosened enough for me to get out and start taking responsibility for my Real Life. It’ll be hard I guess and I’ll lose touch with alot of my e-friends I suppose, but life is a bigger better game than Warcraft is - At least I stand a fighting chance against rapists in the real world.
well thats this months over and done with, maybe with free time i’ll try and make this a weekly thing.
Stay Safe Folks
Phil
