Why we love and play World of Warcraft

Posted by Joshua S. Hill

January 17, 2008

Hi, my name is Josh Hill, and I play World of Warcraft.

*Hey Josh!*

These days, it is a bit of a problem to tell people that you play World of Warcraft. There is almost always mention of “those crazy Koreans” or just the natural implication that playing video games is childish.

Well, World of Warcraft has, from the beginning, been a different type of game. And this semi-rant/semi-spiel is intended to dispel a few of the myths surrounding World of Warcraft gameplay, and explain just why it is the game is so popular.

I’ll be answering the question, ‘why we love and play World of Warcraft’!

Gameplay

Let’s get the basics out of the way first and foremost. World of Warcraft is without a doubt one of the most involved games of its genre, and probably of the industry. The sheer amount of choices for a player to indulge in is extraordinary, Whether you want to level up via quests or running instances, farm herbs, ore or leather, create weapons or potions, the choices are almost endless.

In addition, it isn’t very hardware intensive, so you don’t need a top of the line computer to be running this game; which is a blessing, trust me.

And yet, the game is still resplendent with the amount of detail it provides. The sunsets, swirling clouds, and the massive cities all belie just how little this game will crunch your computers requirements.

Endless Updates

Many people have been a little bit grumpy with Blizzard for making us pay for expansion packs. They bellow that they’ve already paid out for the game, and for monthly subscriptions which should provide them with updates anyway; why do they have to pay for an Expansion.

Well to be honest, I wish they’d just cram it!

The sheer wealth of information and gameplay that is provided within an expansion is so much more than a mere patch, it rivals being its own new game entirely. People have paid money for equal amounts of gameplay when buying version 2 of GTA or something. And even then, we’re paying less for the expansion than the cost of an entire new game.

On top of that we get the patches (we’re nearly at 2.4, ie, the fourth since the Burning Crusade came out). The next patch is going to be bringing us a new dungeon - both 10 and 25 man (I think it was a 10 man) - and much more. Our classes and surroundings are being upgraded all the time, and Blizzard never holds back.

Community

One of the things that I’ve encountered while playing the game is that a lot of my outside-game friends don’t understand the friends I make over it. They somehow believe that a friend you only talk too - never see - is less than a real friend. They shake their heads and scoff at me, suggesting that I’m only kidding myself.

When in reality, some of my best friends are online. We chat over Vent, we go fishing together (ingame) and are hoping to go fishing in the real world too! There is no difference about having a friend in game, then a real life friend, because they are real life friend. Blizzard has created a game which allows us to play with real people, not just bots.

Add to that the benefits of joining a guild, the game becomes priceless. The acts of generosity, caring and fun that I’ve seen within my two guilds almost outmatch anything you’ll see amongst your everyday friends. Maybe because the commodity is less than that outside, I don’t know, but I wouldn’t consider ones time to be less.

An End

I will stop here, because I think I’ve made my point. I don’t like the thought that WoW is looked at as an average game, for the nerd in his parents basement. Many of my friends are parents, with day jobs that stress and wear us out just like everyone else. But where else in life can we go to do battle with giant orcs or dragons, and destress? Nowhere, that’s where!

Hello to the guildies of the Etamogah Mob (spelling?)

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