World of Warcraft

In the short time since its release, World of Warcraft has become the most successful MMORPG ever created. So what the heck is an "MMORPG" you may well be asking? "MMORPG" stands for "massively multiplayer online role playing game."

MMORPG's started with the original online role playing games, MUD's, "multi-user dungeons." MUD's were text based computer role playing games, but the fundamentals that were created with them have remained in place since those days. MUD's themselves were based on the original pnp, "pen and paper", role playing games, virtually all of which were based in one way or another, on the original FRPG, "fantasy role playing game," Dungeons and Dragons.

So what are the "fundamentals?" Well, the grand poetic vision of the original pnp FRPG's, and the muds that followed them, and the MMORPG's that followed them, was to create alternate worlds where players could live fantasy lives, to, in a sense, create living novels. Players create characters in an alternate universe and live the lives of heros or villains. This is the grand poetic vision. The reality is most often something quite different.

In MUD's and in every MMORPG that has followed in their footsteps, for the majority of players, the game is an endless round of killing MOB's, "monster or beast," or of harvesting resources and creating items, or some combination of the above. As you do this your character becomes more powerful, gaining in "levels" or skills, or, most often, some combination of the two.

Depending on the server you are playing on, and the people you are playing with, "role playing" may or may not be a strong component of the game. In role playing players attempt to create and play a character in much the same way as an actor plays a character on a stage. The biggest difference however is that there is no script, the player is both the writer and the actor.

So what's the appeal, you may well ask? Well, MMORPG's are much like an adult version of playing with dolls. You dress your characters up, you have adventures, you create stories, you beat other dolls up, or get beat up by other dolls, maybe you play house... In fact, MMORPG's are probably one of the most, if not the most, addictive gaming experiences out there. In fact, for some people, and I am sure there will be serious studies on this some day, if there aren't already, become as addicted to these games as alchoholics do to drinking, or smokers to smoking, or gambling addicts to gambling, or any other form of strong addiction out there.

All of this leads us back to the topic at hand, what about World of Warcraft, or, as it has become known in a genre rife with acronyms, WoW? WoW is the latest and greatest in the MMORPG scene. In the short time since its release it has shattered all previous records for MMORPG's, for sales, and for numbers of players. In fact, there is a good chance that it will become one of the best selling PC computer games of all time, if it isn't already.

So what's so great about it? Well to start off with, it has an advantage over some of its rivals, in that it already has the foundation of a substantial, and highly successful, game history, both from a business and a story perspective. It is based on the Warcraft series of games, which is one of the most successful game franchises in the history of computer gaming, a series of games that founded an entire genre of computer gaming, the RTS, or "real time strategy" game, and has spawned countless imitations.

At first glance it might seem odd that an RTS would spawn an MMORPG, but when you look at it it is really not that much of a stretch. One of the appeals of Warcraft was that, when it was created by Blizzard, they created a comprehensive world, and world history as a foundation to that game, WoW simply continues and builds on that same foundation. Not only that, but there are elements of the original Warcraft series that the creators of WoW are in the process of translating to the MMORPG. The idea of massive battles is one that is founded in the original Warcraft, and it is an idea that Blizzard is in the process of developing as a specific game system for World of Warcraft.

So what is so special about WoW? WoW looks great. It is a faithful continuation of the Warcraft world, everything is slightly cartoony, and blocky, but overall it looks terrific. Also, everything that I tried works. For a game that is only a few months out of alpha it has a great deal of polish. I didn't notice that any one type of character was dominating over any other type of character, the game has a balanced feel to it. The cities, the ones I have seen so far, are very impressive. They are massive, and beautifully done. Combat works well, there are enough options to be interesting, but not so many that they are confusing. The UI, "user interface", is simple, but flexible and powerful enough to be easy to use, but able to handle all the complexities of the game.

So far in my limited experience with the game I have come across two things that have truly impressed me about WoW. The first is travel. Travelling through the land presents alot of variety and is interesting. There are no instant teleportations anywhere, but if you have long distances to travel there are ways to do it that present variety and fun. You can ride all kinds of creatures, from horses to large cats, these travel faster than you would by foot. You can travel to the dwarven lands via a kind of subway, but the most impressive thing I have seen so far are the griffins. You can travel between cities on the back of a griffin which flies fast enough so that long journeys aren't onerous, but not so fast that you lose the sense of being on a journey, and they look spectacular whizzing over your head as you travel down a busy road.

The second thing that has truly impressed me is the economy. Gold is hard to come by in this game. If there is a way of becoming fabulously rich in a few hours, I have yet to see it. Gold is hard enough to come by so that it is challenging to save up for that next peice of equipment, or to be trained for the next skill, but not so difficult that it is impossible. Blizzard, the creator of WoW, has obviously taken the time to learn lessons from its predecessors.

So what's the downside? For some reason WoW hasn't grabbed my imagination the way some other games have. Perhaps I just haven't played it long enough, but something that I can't put my finger on is missing. For one thing, I love roleplaying, and even on what is supposedly a roleplaying server, I have found very little of it. There is no player housing as far as I can tell, nor does there appear to be any provision for it. It appears that many things that Blizzard didn't want to deal with are simply missing, doors for instance. The game is at its heart a very simple game, which is both good and bad: good because it already has shown that it appeals to a very wide audience, bad because the lack of a certain level of detail lessens the player's immersion in the game. It is a bit like the MacDonalds of MMORPG's, very polished, very successful, but in the end somewhat bland and predictable.

Having said that, the game is huge, and I assume that a person could quite easily spend several years playing the game and still not see everything the game has to offer. Does it succeed in creating an alternate universe? In part yes, and in part no. Is it destined to become a classic in the genre? Probably. Is it worth spending $70 (Canadian) for the game and another $20 a month forever after to play the game? It depends on how much you like it, and that will depend, in a large part, on the friendships you find in the game.

It should also be noted that, like any of the successful MMORPG's, WoW is a work in progress. The game is never "finished". They will always be working on some new game system, or expansion. In many of the MMORPG's these are most often an excuse to milk more money out of the player base, we will see what happens with WoW. So far indications are that Blizzard is prepared to add lots of content without charging you another $70 to to access it. This is a good thing...

A word of warning before I finish this review however. This is true of any MMORPG I have ever played. Stay away from the official WoW forums. For the most part the official forums are full of people who have wasted far too much time playing the game, complaining about everything about it. It is one of the fastest ways to spoil your enjoyment of the game, especially if you take any of what is said seriously. Also, if you are into role playing, the first thing you will want to do is "/leave general". That will log you out of the general chat channel in WoW. The general chat channel is very convenient if you want help in the game, but it is a sure way to spoil your sense of immersion, as well as ruin any surprises the game may have in store for you.

***

One month later...

Well after a month my opinions haven't changed a whole lot from my first impressions. The game is still impressive looking, it is still huge, there is still lots to do, and it is still bland and predictable - it is still the MacDonald's of MMORPG's as far as I am concerned.

WoW is all about quests. There are thousands, quite literally, of quests, but in the end they all fall into a few simple categories: kill a bunch of things, kill a bunch of things and retrieve certain objects, deliver something, escort an npc (non-player character), and explore. That's about it. The quests have varying degrees of difficulty but most aren't too difficult to figure out. You won't experience too much frustration playing this game.

In fact, the game is a very "safe" game. One of the problems that has plagued other MMORPG's is "griefing". Griefing occurs when one player goes out of his or her way to make another player miserable. In other games this would involve dirty tricks such as luring a bunch of powerful monsters into an area frequented by players with weaker characters and run away, or disappear, the result would of course be lots of dead characters. This is just one example of griefing, in other MMORPG's there were generally lots of different and creative ways you could make other players miserable. Usually the perpetrators were 12 year old school yard bullies with too much time on their hands.

Blizzard has done a very good job of making it very difficult to grief. Many of the old MMORPG dirty tricks simply don't work because of the way the game has been coded. Passing items between characters is safe and fool proof, even dying itself doesn't involve much more than a minute or two of running and a silver piece or two worth of repairs. The game is very low frustration, and very safe.

This is both a good thing and a bad thing. It is a good thing that you aren't likely to have to put up with being victimized by that 12 year old school yard bully. But the game ends up feeling rather sterile. There are no great penalties, but there are also no great rewards.

I mentioned in my first review that the game is, at its heart, very simple, and it is. There are seven different character classes, but within those classes every character will generally end up being virtually identical. After level ten you can choose different talents, and these will serve to differentiate somewhat between characters, but they don't seem to make enough of a difference that they actually produce different playing styles.

The game is "safe" in many ways. There is little opportunity for griefing, there is little room for jealousy because all of the classes are well balanced, and characters within each class will almost inevitably end up being identical to each other, but it is also "safe" from a production point of view. While there do seem to be some impressive features in development, at this time there is nothing that you can point to in the game and say, this is truly innovative or ground breaking. All of the in-game systems and conventions are tried and true.

All this adds up to what I said was missing, that something that I couldn't quite put my finger on in my initial review. There is nothing in the game that made me say, "Wow, this is just so cool!" Or, "I can't believe they thought of that!" With the possible exception of the methods of travelling and the very tight economy. The gryphons, the subway and the ships were very impressive, but in the end they simply weren't enough to make me want to stay.

I payed for the game, I played my free month, I cancelled my subscription, and in the end I felt like the $70 I spent on the game was wasted. It is back to my old favourites, back to games that still offer surpises and challenges years after I bought them. Perhaps I will review some of those as well.

Epilogue

The final joke is on me. I missed the friends I had made playing the game, so I caved in and subscribed, and I must say I am having fun. This doesn't really change my opinion of the game, other than to say that it seems to get better as you go along. It is still a long way from what I think an MMORPG could truly be, but then it could just be that my standards in that regard are impossibly high, maybe someday...

Added:  Monday, February 21, 2005
Reviewer:  Drek
Score:
Related web link:  World of Warcraft Official Website
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Language: eng