World of Warcraft eh? WoW.
This game is one of the biggest, best known contemporary MMOs [Massively Multiplayer Online game] still running. Relationships have flowered and cracked from this particular niche hobby (although 10 million unique players at it's peak maybe isn't strictly 'niche'). There's now a movie about the game and it's lore. Not seen it, can't tell you if it's any cop.
A lot of my current (online) friends play this. I keep firmly away from it, and I shall tell you why.
Back in 2004 I started work at a new job, it was a new team within that business, so everyone was new to the new team. Newness abounded. If you pulled your shoulders back and inhaled, you could almost imagine that 'new' smell. It was that new.
One of my (new) colleagues played a bit of Warcraft, and we got on quite well. One day, he loaned me his account (not strictly allowed) so I could create a new toon whilst recovering from a hangover at his flat. WTF was this game? This was incredible! It knocks CS [Counter Strike] into a cocked hat!
Clearly this is untrue, I have much love for CS, but WoW was like the fresh and fly new kid at school, wearing box-fresh Run DMC Superstars and a VW pendant. (Not trendy? I'm older than you, it was once. Fuck you).
The term 'toon' is a (presumably, no-one really seems sure) derivative of cartoon, used to describe the character the player is currently using in the game. Some hardcore players maybe don't like it, as it implies a disconnect between the character and user, with the potential to dispel any atmosphere that the game creates. I'm just using it because I'm lazy and to provide a modicum of lexical variety.
To roll back a little, for non-aficionados, an MMO is a game where many players can take part in the same game world, they appear on each other's screens and can interact with one another. Warcraft is 'sharded' - that is, you create your toon on that server, and you are 'locked' to that server (but you can move your character for a fee). Each server has the same copy of the current patch of the game and the technique is generally done to maintain performance.
It is this interaction with one another and the content that the developers produce that provides much of the draw. You can do a quest, and if you're struggling, can ask for some help from other players. If it goes well, more quests are completed with them and from there go on to maybe join a guild (player run groups with similar aims). Quests will give you 'loot' - parlance for new weapons, armour and other items - and to gain levels to make your character more powerful. As you gain levels, the spells and weapon effects you may use become stronger and longer lasting.
Once the guild is big enough, and your toons are high enough level, you can organise to do a 'raid' - that is an event that has a specific sub-plot or story that can only be completed as a group. Raids are vary in difficulty up to extraordinarily challenging, requiring 40 people to be on top of their game and fulfilling a specific role, be it healer, damage dealer, spell caster etc.
As I started the game, I chose Horde (the bad guys) and an undead warlock. I have usually favoured spell casters in these type of games, maybe because I always liked the mysterious air that Raistlin usually cultivated. That and he was a total bastard. Roleplaying is supposed to be fun!
I enjoyed the early quests, 'Go here, kill some boars, collect their teeth and I will give you this blessed shoelace' for what they were (training), and progressed into the more deadly areas of the game.
My friend wanted his laptop back, so I went straight into town, bought a copy of the game (with it's free month of game time)... and lost the next 3 weeks. I would come home from work, go straight upstairs to my PC, boot the game and sit there until midnight. 6 hours per night, and it still wasn't enough. In quiet times at work, I'd look at item builds and skill progression, and watch the clock for home-time. Weekends, I'd play until very late, rise late and get straight on it, sit there all day. I used to get phone calls from a friend, asking me to come round for tea (dinner for non-Brits) or a beer or whatever, I'd turn her down as I was too busy. Those animated tree saplings weren't going to kill themselves you know!
I was enjoying the game, but was starting to find that the quests were all fairly similar. Go here, collect these, kill that and so on. I was continually told that the game came alive at level 60 (the top level at the time). I was 22. Why wasn't the game alive already? And yet, I couldn't stop playing. The burn to get that next level was so cleverly wrought into the game, it was irresistible. Must get that spell. Must get that item. The developers had clearly spent some time with psychologists.
Pretty soon, you need to chose a profession. In WoW, a profession allows you gain a particular skill, jewelcrafting, fishing etc. so that you can get items that will help you on your quests. I'd heard fishing was a good one, easy to do and helpful... and this was where I started to take a long hard look at myself.
Fishing in wow consisted of learning the skill from an NPC [Non-Player Character] and buying a fishing rod. Click on some water and you will cast your line, a progress bar appears and empties on the screen. If your fishing float bobs, click on it. Ta-da! You're a fisherman!
Fuck me. That was boring. Part of the aforementioned navel gazing was the realisation that I'm spending time on a game (that I'm paying for) to watch a timer bar empty to get some fish gills or whatever. What on earth are you doing.
That was it. 3 weeks in, in an unprecedented display of strong character I stiffed my upper lip and quit the game. Generally, I know what I'm like (weak-willed lily-livered decision recanter), so I changed the email address of the account to one I no longer knew the password for, then changed the password on the account to something random which I would forget. Uninstalled the game, burned the CD key and snapped the install disks. There was no way I could install that game without buying another copy.
For the next week I was depressed and moody. Cold turkey was the only way, and after a while, I was glad that I was out from under the game's shadow.
I was free. Until I found Eve Online.
