- World of Warcraft
- Blizzard Entertainment
- Blizzard Entertainment
- Massively Multiplayer
- 11-23-2004
- Online
- PC
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- Member:
- Arcturas
- Game Reviewed:
- World of Warcraft
- Posted:
- Posted 07/23/07
Usually when playing MMORPGs time management becomes just as important as learning the nuances of one’s character’s class. Sitting in the same spot with a few other people killing the same types of monsters over and over again has often been the norm, with the occasional quest thrown in for good measure. The frustrating thing is that this process has traditionally been very time consuming, requiring people to spend untold hours just trying to level up, hence the concept of grinding and time sinks became synonymous with many MMORPGs on the market. Now World of Warcraft has stepped onto the scene, and proven that a game in the genre can be played in short spurts and still be fun. Not only that, but it has tweaked everything many of us associate with MMORPGs to such an extent that much of what has usually been thought a drag, has become a fun, rewarding experience. All of what makes World Of Warcraft what it is has made the title the best online RPG ever created.
Upon choosing a race and getting started, players have a total of eight to choose from: four representing the forces of good, the Alliance, and four representing evil with the Horde. While the vast majority of jobs find themselves on both sides of the ethical divide, only certain races can do certain jobs. An interesting thing about playing either Alliance or Horde is that players on either side cannot understand one another in chat. If a Horde player tries to say something to an Alliance player standing right next to him, it will come across as gibberish, as the Alliance player’s character doesn’t know how to speak Horde languages, and vice versa.
Getting started with a new character is quite straightforward, and quickly shows the player how much quests are emphasized in progressing through the game, as opposed to grinding like in other MMORPGs. Players will spend most of their efforts to level up focusing on quests that reward steady experience, as well as treasure and money. The great thing about this is that it constantly gives a sense of accomplishment, as players are always doing something for someone, while learning more about the plight of the cities they visit. It’s a very welcome contrast to sitting in one place and beating up monsters walking by for a few hours straight.
As players make their way through the quests and start leveling up, it quickly becomes clear just how well balanced World Of Warcraft is at allowing people to decide whether they want to go solo, or group with others to get things done. This all comes down to how well balanced the different classes are in the game. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that something like a warrior, or a rogue, or a hunter in this game can handle themselves quite well going it alone in WoW, but it is very impressive to see magic users like the mages, and priests being able to hold their own while soloing (albeit with a little more difficulty). Even more impressive is that priests can become very viable damage dealers thanks to the way their talent tree is set up, a very welcome change from the traditional heal-bot nature that priest-like classes have suffered from in the past. As one gets to the higher levels, more of the quests become something designated as "Elite" quests. These involve fighting particularly strong enemies, and will require grouping in order to complete them well. It is a good way to make sure players are well-trained when they hit the end game material, but for those who would prefer to solo all the way to level 60, there are still a decent number of soloable quests available. For those that do want to make other players cry, their time is far better spent enjoying the PvP aspects of World of Warcraft. Alliance vs. Horde raids can be a very fun way to test one’s mettle, trying to tear down swarms of guards and any members of the opposite faction that may come to defend their town. On top of this, most of the servers are full-on PvP, with a handful of PvE which only allow PvP play against members of the opposite faction, and only when your flag is up. Generally it works out quite well, though there are some people who get their kicks out of ganking, an act where they are much stronger than the players they attack, making for a very unfair battle. The good news here is that Blizzard is introducing something called the Honor System, which is meant as a way to prevent this by penalizing bullies who like to go around harassing players of a far lower level than them and rewarding those who only engage in fair fights. The only other problem that PvP suffers from is the horribly lop-sided server populations as there are usually three times as many Alliance players as there are Horde on any given server. It makes for a very difficult fight for Horde as they are constantly swarmed by far greater numbers of opposing forces. Some means of capping populations on each side would be a welcome introduction to balance the opposing forces' populations. Of course, with all of this questing and PvP, players are probably going to die a few times along the way. To help make the prospect of dying a little easier to bare in World Of Warcraft, Blizzard has given players the option between doing a corpse recovery and being resurrected on the spot for a penalty. Unlike other online RPGs, the penalty in WoW does not involve taking away experience points, or paying some sort of dept. What happens is that a character will have all of their equipped items damaged by a certain percentage, and receive something called resurrection sickness which will vastly reduce all of their stats for a specified period of time. It's very forgiving, but still strict enough to make people seriously consider simply retrieving their corpse, especially at higher levels where resurrection sickness lasts a long time, and it costs a fortune to repair weapons and armor. One thing that can be the bane of many an MMORPG player’s existence is trying to earn money. Usually, players need to completely divide their time between leveling up and earning cash to keep their gear up to date, but in World Of Warcraft it is quite easy to constantly have a decent flow of cash coming in, and as such keep most of one’s gear up to date. Even when it becomes increasingly necessary to fork out large wads of cash on big ticket items like mounts and whatnot, it’s not nearly the ordeal to raise funds for these things, as it would be to accumulate a lot of money in other games in the genre. The only area where it can be troublesome to generate money is when trying to level-up certain crafting skills at a reasonable speed on your first character (Enchanting). With the dust settling now on World Of Warcraft, it is becoming more and more obvious that this is by far the best MMORPG currently on the market. It manages to walk a line that makes the game appealing both to the hardened power gamer, and casual weekend warrior, where both can enjoy the game in their own special way, without stepping on each other's toes. If you are looking for a new game in the genre, you would be doing yourself a terrible disservice by overlooking the World Of Warcraft.
( +0 | -0 )( +1 | -0 )On that matter at leats other MMO's from the same ERRA look better. Grpahically WoW is extremely inferior to its major competitors namely Final Fantasy 11 and Everquest 2. Stop trying to hype a crap game.
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