World of Warcraft: Really a ‘Killer’ Game?
WoW cosplay girl in Taiwan. (By swanky)
The ten million player massive multiplayer online roleplaying (RPG) game World of Warcraft has long dominated the MMORPG charts. But what is so enthralling about a game that has, effectively, brought the end to ten documented lives?
Well, let me explain. I started playing WoW several years ago, one year before the first expansion. World of Warcraft has been an interesting experience over the years; meeting new people from all over Europe has caused my “WoW” group on MSN to be just as great as my “Real life” group. So one could say I’m a seasoned player!
You enter the game as a character in one of two major fations. The barbaric Horde side or the valiant Alliance. You get to choose between five different races per faction; the noble humans of Azeroth; gnomes of Gnomregon; dwarves of Ironforge; the humble night elves and the dranei, for the Alliance. The Horde offer the shamanistic orcs, trolls and tauren; also the sinister undead and pretty looking blood elves. Each race has it’s own different traits and skills which contribute to the gameplay. You’re then asked to choose a class which all offer a unique play style with different, some classes offer multiple roles such as using spells to kill, or to heal other players, such as priest or paladin.
The reputation WoW has for being a excitingly cool game usually starts at level one. You begin the game in the homeland of your chosen race in Azeroth. You are given jobs and tasks by non-computer players (NPCs) and eventually progress through the land of Azeroth as you gain experience points for completing tasks, killing monsters or participating in player versus player combat (PVP). You’ll accumulate gold as you work your way through Azeroth, which can be used to purchase weapons, armour and such, however the greatest rewards are given through quest completion and that which ’bosses’ drop when you defeat them. Eventually you’ll leave Azeroth for further lands as you gain higher levels, untill eventually you ding level 80, the level cap. Arguably this is where the game truly begins.
Once level 80 you’ll be given new tasks which are harder and more advanced than such as you faced while levelling up. Huge dungeons which take hours to complete will open up to you. The idea is to band up with other level 80s and working together, each performing their role, in order to slay bosses, which could be dragons, giants, demonlords and most other fantasy creatures. These bosses drop items in which are awarded to the players, the items have stats which increase the effectiveness of spells and abilities used by the players – a greater health pool or mana (which is an expendable resource in which magic users perform their spells out of ), or increased endurance or damage in the form of strength, stamina and agility. The more of the right stats you get, the more effective your character becomes, and the far more cooler it becomes.
Guilds, which are player associations, are formed in WoW and often are always competing to be the better guild. Whether this means they have downed more bosses than the other, completed more achievements or are considered to be more skilled in PVP. Depending on what server you play on, should it be a low or high populated one, you can find brute competition between guilds, though it is most common amongst PVE guilds (Player versus environment which focus on completing dungeons and achievements within them). Guilds will spend hours upon hours every week in these dungeons. I myself was in a semi-hardcore raiding guild (another term for PVE guild) and raided up to 30 hours a week over the period of four days. The challenges give a sense of reward when completed and is generally very enjoyable. I took the role of shadow priest, which involved casting a series of spells upon the target in order to damage them, and managed to become quite effective in my role. There is a certain cool factor to walking around in all your new gear, other players wish they had such and often get jealous or envious – which encourages the competitive play.
However THE most, undeniably competitive feature of the game which has proven to END LIVES is the player versus player mode. You enter a battleground, as they call them, and are faced with members of the opposite faction, this comes in 10 versus 10 modes and up to 40 versus 40. And you have the arena system where you reap the greatest rewards tailor made for destroying other players, while not being as squishy yourself. Arena comes in 2v2, 3v3 and 5v5. The game here becomes fast. You need to think quickly and. With the right combination and tactics you’ll have it, but it’s not easy. Here is the part of the game which builds the greatest stresses and anxieties. You’ll gain rating for winning, and lose rating for losing. The bigger the rating, the better the rewards. Depending on how serious you take it, and most people that aim high are quite serious about it, it can’t even be that fun, but you do it anyway. The more rating you get, the better you are, the more you have to show off and become the best on your server. Arena games can last from a mere 30 seconds to 45 minutes, insanely stressful matches which involve one player healing the other who’s duty it is to kill the others. Tactics have become very complex depending on what setups you are or face. I personally have “nerd raged”, as they say, upon losing a match, it can be very close and invoke a lot of anger should you lose. The issue regarding this is that it can spur some utterly dreadful behaviour. For example, a father comes to ask his son who is currently playing an arena match, what he wants for tea and he snaps. It’s true, and happened to me too, sadly to say! I lost my mind and yelled at my dad telling him to “F*** off!”. Not too good, I was midgame and in pure concentration, though that is no excuse for such behaviour.
Often World of Warcraft has been a game that requires a lot of attention should you wish to play it to it’s full extent and it can become the dominant force in someone’s life, thus becoming like a drug to them which they must endulge in. Progressing and becoming better and better, enthralled, while letting their real life deteriorate and suffer. It’s not all true though, not everyone is bound to this online world that participate in it; however most are more addicted than they like to admit.
Another side to World of Warcraft that continues the immersion to another level is the roleplaying side. Blizzard setup roleplaying servers when they created WoW. Here communities of players will be found who immerse themselves in their character and effectively become their character. This is another form of escapism in the online world. Rachel from Glasgow may have the chance to become Zanasia, Paladin of the Alliance, ridding the world of the foul evil taint that is the Horde, for example. Large plots can develop amongst these communities and huge achieves of stories created, each role-playing server becomes it’s own tailor made story by the very players. It can go fairly deep, and into all kinds of role-playing. Characters get married, attend events such as parties, balls, join forces with other roleplaying guilds to create alliances. Political associations emerge, criminals, murderers. Everything. It’s a very interesting part of the game which can be very enjoyable should you wish to participate in it. My research has proven that these people are simply ordinary people in life from the ages of 14 up to what I’ve seen 40+!
Often World of Warcraft has been a game that requires a lot of attention should you wish to play it to it’s full extent and it can become the dominant force in someone’s life, thus becoming like a drug to them which they must endulge in. Progressing and becoming better and better, enthralled, while letting their real life deteriorate and suffer. It’s not all true though, not everyone is bound to this online world that participate in it; however most are more addicted than they like to admit. All factors of the game become addictive, to the most the PVP battlegrounds and arenas; the long fights in dungeon instances and to many the roleplaying aspect. It’s often found, though, players log into World of Warcraft and find themselves merely standing around their city, most claim to be bored. I find myself bored a lot on WoW, but that doesn’t seem to take the whole idea of fun out of it, it’s a strange feeling like logging on can keep you content to an extent.
So it’s all fun and games, or is it something more? It would seem World of Warcraft is not just a game, it’s a community of people working together in order to achieve. An online environment where people work alongside and against each other. It’s a land that people go to escape the harsh modern life, and become what their imagination can lead them to. It’s a social environment where friendship, love and hate is inspired, you will meet people you like, dislike and in some cases romance is found. Some put in more than others, even if it can be self-inflicting to them, allowing reality to fall apart. Many simply hang around waiting on something to do. Whatever it is, it’s something to be reckoned with. Good or bad? My final judgement is that it’s down to the player, if someone dies from jumping out a window claiming to meet their WoW character in death (which really happened, a boy jumped out a 24 story building to see his WoW toon) they clearly have mental issues to be assessed. It’s capable of a lot of enjoyment, even when playing casually. Though of course you won’t be able to compete for the best, but still, a lot of fun to be had. Just remember to keep it real in Azeroth.
In your typical hardcore PVE guild, which is quite a minority, you will see players sit for up to 4-6 hours every night of the week progressing through these dungeons.
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I love pretty too. and I would like to visite this event in the future. I will be take some photo for share.
I love your pretty photo ^_^