SGnTN Casey Fleser / Some Geek in TN

For the longest time I swore that I would never ever ever buy a game that required a monthly payment to play. I couldn’t understand how someone could justify first paying $50 or so for a game and then tacking on an additional $10 to $15 a month for access to a server… Well, never say never. I’d been hearing all the hype about Blizzard‘s latest entry into massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs), World of Warcraft, for some time, but had planned on resisting the temptation. I talked to a friend of mine some weeks ago about it, and he told me how excited he was about and how he and some other friends would be ready to play as soon as it was released. I nodded politely and informed him that I’d probably be more interested in Half-Life 2 or something. Then I heard that my neighbor was involved in beta testing World of Warcraft and he had nothing but praise for it… even took the day off of work when it was released to play, but still I resisted. Then the previews/reviews started rolling into Gamespy, Gamespot, IGN, etc., and the temptation grew. Finally on Wednesday, a couple guys here at work came back from Best Buy, each with their own copy and I caved. I just had to find out what all the fuss was about.

Not having any experience with MMORPGs before I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but let me tell you, I’m hooked. The game is vast (as you might guess after 20 minutes installing from 4 CDs) and though I played quite a bit over the long weekend, I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface exploring the Azeroth. The locations (I hate to say locations, since the transition between different areas is so seamless) are simply huge. And the number of different options you have in shaping your characters abilities is bewildering. World of Warcraft has such depth, I can’t imagine getting bored with it anytime soon (much to the chagrin of my family and detriment of my general well being). If you’re a fan of gaming, give WoW a try and look for Neelah, Druid Night Elf, on the Thunderlord server in the Central Time Zone 🙂