The first question, of course, is what is WoW? With over 11 million players worldwide, most people already know that answer, at least enough to say that it is an online video game also known as World of Warcraft.

More specifically, WoW is an MMORPG, or massively multiplayer online role playing game. This means that not only are you playing online as your own character, but you are playing with everyone else’s character too, almost like an interactive chat room with depictions of yourself that can go off and kill things after you’ve had that meaningful conversation.

Created by Blizzard Entertainment, WoW was not a new idea in scope or setting, following the Warcraft series of games that first began in 1994 with Warcraft: Orcs & Humans.

Going the MMO route, however, was new as the previous Warcraft games were all RTS format or real time strategy.

The way MMORPGs work is that your character, created by you and existing in a fully developed universe of its own, starts off at a beginning level with minimal skills, but as you kill monsters and complete quests you gain experience that helps you level your class abilities.

In WoW those first few levels breeze by as you learn the mechanics of how the game works, but the further along you go, the longer it takes to achieve the next level, increasing difficulty over time.

Quests can be anything from ‘go kill those boars over there’ or ‘fetch that book’ to chain quests involving more than one trip into a dangerous dungeon.

While many games claim to be the first MMORPG, EverQuest was really the game that set the standard and captured American audiences with the idea of that type of fantasy experience. WoW simply took it to a new level.

Coming out ten years after the first Warcraft game, WoW followed Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne and set a whole new standard for the MMO format.

Since this is an MMO, you aren’t just sitting in your basement playing alone. You can group with others to finish quests and continue through the expansive world of WoW, you can set up programs to talk besides just typing, you can even make new friends. But, technically, you are still alone in that basement just with the illusion of being surrounded by other people.

Don’t misinterpret me, I am an avid gamer and firm believer in letting kids, teenagers, and frankly whoever else wants to play, to have their game time, but it’s like with everything else, folks, you need to find that happy medium.

Interaction with other players is a good and bad thing about WoW.

For example, not everyone is nice, so don’t expect them to be. Profanity and harassment might be monitored, but the definition of harassment can be pretty loose.

Also, you can’t play with everyone at the same time, because there are just too many people, so WoW is split into various servers that each holds a limited amount of players. If you want to play with your best friend then you both need to make characters on the same server.

FEATURES OF WOW

One of the things that drew me to WoW was the many options available when creating your own personal character. When I started there were still only four races in each faction with nine available classes depending on what faction you had chosen and what race. The factions are the Horde and the Alliance.

Those names can be misleading, because people will say there’s the good side and the bad side, but that is not true. They are simply two different sides with different values, so they are opposing, but one side is not better or more right than the other.

As for the races, a Horde, in the beginning, could either be a Troll, a Tauren, which is like a Minotaur, an Orc, or an Undead Human. An Alliance member could either be Human, a Dwarf, a Night Elf, or a Gnome.

Each race has certain benefits and drawbacks, and only certain classes are available depending on what race you chose, those classes being Warrior, Druid, Shaman, Priest, Ranger, Rogue, Warlock, Mage, and Paladin.

One important aspect of WoW and other MMORPGs is PvP or Player versus Player combat.

If you chose to make a Horde character and along your journey you run across someone who is Alliance, you are enemies and can kill each other just as easily as you kill monsters. You cannot, however, attack someone from your own faction.

Some people choose to turn PvP off or go onto a server that does not allow PvP at all if they prefer more the RP or role playing setting, though there are also realms for both. Being good at PvP is definitely its own skill, one I can admit I have never been very good at.

Playing the game, leveling your character, choosing to group with others or not, choosing to attack the opposite faction or not, and what armor and weapons you happen to acquire along the way as you kill things and complete quests, all aide in individualizing your character.

EXPANSIONS

The first expansion for WoW, Burning Crusade, offered not only a new race to each faction and subsequent storyline to explain them.

It also made available through those races for the first time the use of a Shaman on the Alliance side and of Paladins on the Horde side.

The new races, Blood Elves for Horde and Draenei for Alliance, were both unique and beautiful additions that rejuvenated WoW’s already popular franchise.

Since then there has also been the expansion Wrath of the Lich King that introduced Death Knights as a new class, available only to players with characters at level 55 or higher. This prestige class is more powerful in certain aspects than the normal classes and is meant for high level dungeons.

Yet another new expansion is on the way called Cataclysm. It will increase the level cap for characters once again, open new dungeons, revamp old ones, and introduce another set of new races.

Goblins for Horde, which have already existed as NPCs, and the Worgen, a werewolf like race, for the Alliance.

Expansions are not only a way to add large amounts of new content without taking forever to download a patch, but also how Blizzard continues to make money off of old and new players alike. There are camps out there that think expansions are just a ploy to make money.

In some respects those people are right, but it does make content integration easier, and Blizzard has been using expansions for their games since the Warcraft series first began.

WoW is the most popular MMO of all time, and quite possibly the most popular video game of all time. This can be seen not only in the game itself and the millions of players, but in the additions to the story.

Besides the original Warcraft games, WoW itself, and the many expansions, there is also a comic, a manga, several books, a hugely popular South Park episode, and even a motion picture in the works set to be directed by Spider-Man director Sam Raimi. I expect it to be epic.
 

WHY IT’S ADDICTIVE

The first thing anyone will tell you about WoW, whether in a positive or negative light, is usually how addictive it can be.

Having a constant goal that is clear—level, gain experience, get that new armor, that new mount, etc.—keeps the game constantly fresh and moving you in a forward momentum that makes you want to come back on every time you sign off.

WoW is also arguably the best MMORPG out there. It has the easiest interface, while still having complicated and interesting dungeons and boss fights. It has many options for the characters. It has a huge story that starts back in the Warcraft games and spills out into those other facets like the comics. It is constantly updated and bettered.

And even if you stop your account for some reason, when you want to come back, your characters and all of their possessions and experience will still be there.

The contenders against WoW, like Age of Conan, Champions Online, Dungeons & Dragons Online, Final Fantasy XI, and Lord of the Rings Online, to name a few, fall quite short most of the time as even competing. This is for many reasons. WoW still has some of the best graphics, it has pioneered some of the best ideas in MMO history, and frankly, it laid its groundwork of good ideas sooner than the rest.

If games like Final Fantasy XI had done in the beginning what they are doing now, taking some sensible cues from WoW, it might have been an actual contender with bringing in and keeping players.

For example, WoW is known for having what we call a Hearthstone.

This makes it possible once an hour to automatically teleport back to a home base of your choosing. It helps with getting around since the map is so large.

Other MMOs that did not originally have a similar system have started to incorporate this, among many other WoW norms.

There is one MMORPG still in development that might prove to be some competition for WoW if it pans out as good as it is looking, that being, of course, Star Wars: The Old Republic by BioWare. Casey Schreiner of The MMO Report has been calling it the WoW killer. One can only imagine.

Here is some coverage:

DRAWBACKS

Aside from just being addictive and potentially keeping you from normal social interaction, unless all of your friends really are your online friends and that is the only way you can interact, the addictiveness of WoW has spread to other aspects of life as well.

A year ago reports came in that job recruiters were being instructed not to hire WoW players. I read the story at Kotaku originally, where a forum poster at f13 forums retold his experience of explaining to a recruiter that he had in the past spent too much time playing MMORPGs.

He replied that employers specifically instruct him not to send them World of Warcraft players. He said there is a belief that WoW players cannot give 100% because their focus is elsewhere, their sleeping patterns are often not great, etc. I mentioned that some people have written about MMOG leadership experience as a career positive or a way to learn project management skills, and he shook his head. He has been specifically asked to avoid WoW players.

We already know to watch out for what we put up on Facebook, but now, folks, you better be careful what you say about your hobbies too. WoW might just keep you from getting that next job.

A great example of the negative and positive aspects of being addicted to WoW comes to us from the real experience of actress and self-proclaimed geek, Felicia Day. She admittedly became addicted to WoW during a difficult time in her life, even frightening her real life friends. Her experience was one of the reasons she created her successful web show The Guild.

If you have not yet see any of The Guild, you are missing out, especially if you are an MMO player of any kind.

Another development that has come about in this age of MMOs like WoW is gold miners and for-hire players. Yes, players of WoW will actually pay someone to mine gold for them, and even to play their characters for them so that they can be leveled up to the highest possibility without having to do any of the work themselves.

Ouch. What has the world of gaming come to if we don’t even want to do the work to get the rewards? Frankly, I find the whole thing pretty funny most of the time, but to think that people have paid thousands of dollars for high-level characters so they won’t have to do the work themselves is just plain sad.

CONCLUSION

I call the love affair with WoW an on-again/off-again relationship because that is how it should be. You get sucked in, you play for awhile, but before the addiction can set, you get out and take some time off. Your character will always be there when you come back. That’s what makes it work so well.

And you will come back, WoW is just too good, and every new expansion makes players want to give it another go. But in between try and make sure you are not constantly playing, but playing in bursts.

Be like me, a casual gamer but with a hardcore way of playing when my account is active.

WoW is its own universe, much like being a Trekkie or a Star Wars fan, and I’m not just talking about the world of Azeroth that makes up the storyline. WoW can take over your life because it is that fun, that good, and that addictive.

I am not actively playing right now, but the next expansion could very well pull me back in. I accept that. WoW deserves all the praise it gets, because the hype is all true, but be careful if you give it a try and it consumes all other free time and gaming in your life.

I know I will be on again soon so that I can try out those new races coming with the next expansion, and level my original Human Warlock character, Nemirac, and maybe my Troll Death Knight too. And that is just fine. In moderation.

To answer your question, yes, I play both sides, but I can proudly say that if I had to choose just one, Horde or Alliance, I would not hesitate even for a moment.

For the Alliance!

Ahem.

Along a similar vein, Friday I will be discussing “Dungeons & Dragons Today”, going over the history, the height of success, and the current edition, 4.0, that, really, is more like WoW on paper. See you then.

Thanks for tuning in.

 

Images taken from:
http://www.movieguys.org/movie-news/warcraft-movie/
http://loyalkng.com/2009/06/20/hottest-girl-gaming-hosted-obama-girl-e3-2009-choice/
http://thestockmasters.com/node/1549
http://wow.zuggaming.com/2008/09/23/horde-and-alliance-racial-abilities-and-traits/
http://www.wowguru.com/gallery/original/1736.jpg
http://www.wowquit.com/The-eBook.html
http://www.gold2key.com/default/sell.html
http://wotlkwiki.info/forum/showthread.php?t=5679
http://media.photobucket.com/image/voidwalker/KromusKaption/ffff.png
http://www.stuffwelike.com/stuffwelike/2007/07/24/9-million-subscribers-to-world-of-warcraft/

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