----- A whole new world for the new Millennium -----
I’m already beginning to forget the details, but for quite a few months back in 1999 there was an ongoing doomsday-esque attitude about the assumed year 2000 debacle. Computers the world over were going to
byte the bullet and our technological world would come to a shuddering stop.
In the midst of all this digital chaos a forward thinking software company (Blizzard Entertainment) was already working on a revolutionary online experience titled
World of Warcraft. Counting on computers still working on 1/01/00, Blizzard started an adventure that didn’t go public until years later. As designers of such legendary computer games as
Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo, and older console games such and
The Lost Vikings and
Rock & Roll Racing, Blizzard decided to try their hand at a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. There have been several successful MMORPGs that continue to thrive today, the largest one I believe would be
Everquest and its sequal
Everquest 2. After several years of development and an almost 2 year public beta-test and bug clearing period,
World of Warcraft (WOW) was publicly released in late 2004.
----- Install Details -----
Platform: PC (Windows XP) or Apple (OS 10.3.5+ )
Recommended memory: I recommend 1GB RAM or higher for both PC and Mac users.
Hard Drive Space: Installation requires 4GB of space.
Recommended graphics card: NVIDIA card with 128MB ram or higher
For starters, unlike all other games there is NO single player game whatsoever to WOW. You must sign up with Blizzard online and create and account to begin playing. The $30 street price for the game gets you 6 install Cds, a 1” thick manual and users guide, and 30 days of free membership. WARNING: You must add a valid credit card number to your Blizzard online account and your card will be auto-charged for the first months fee ($15.00) after your free trial expires. Know this ahead of time to prevent angry emails to Customer Service. If you don’t want your card charged you can also buy World of Warcraft Gift Cards good for 2 months of online service. These cards sell for $29.95 and are currently available at Walmart and larger software stores.
System requirements for this game aren’t unreasonable for current computers, although you’ll definitely want to fulfill the recommended spec list, not just the requirements. The graphics and scenery in the game are awesome for a world this large, you’ll want to have a powerful enough system to appreciate it. Installation can take a couple hours, more so on slower systems. There also are obligatory updates you’ll need to download totaling about 500MB as of right now.
----- Okay, enough already… what’s it like to live in Azeroth? -----
Before you get to explore the new world, you’ll have to create the character you’ll play as. You’ll either join the Alliance (good guys) or the Horde (bad guys), once committed you’ll have to stay with the faction you’ve chosen or start the game over. The Alliance has several races available, most notably the Humans and Dwarves with Night Elves and Gnomes the remaining choices. Horde players have the choice of Tauren, Orces, Undead, and Trolls. All races for both Horde and Alliance are available in both male and female avatars. After your race is chosen you can pick from many possible “classes” for your character. For example, a Human may be a Rogue, Warrior, Paladin, Hunter, Priest, or Mage. Dwarves on the other hand have the choice of Priest, Rogue, Warrior, Paladin, and Hunter. There are nine of these specialty professions available and every race has different choices available. Once you’ve finished with your race/profession selection, you get to choose the face, hairstyle, skin tone, facial hair, and hair color of your character. Once satisfied, you can save your character and start the game for real.
----- Cue epic Hanz Zimmer score… -----
Ahh… you’ll always remember the first time you see Azeroth (if you’re an Alliance player at least). The majestic buildings and towering trees take you back a few hundred years to when feudal lords ruled fiefs with the help of battle hardened knights. Everything you would see in a period painting or movie is present and accounted for, even simple things such as rabbits bounding through the grass, birds floating through the air over a misty waterfall, and woodsmen chopping trees for the castle lumber supply. Although many of the people rushing about are human players (identifiable by blue text above their head), many Non Player Characters (NPCs) are also found scattered throughout the towns, roads, outposts, fortifications, and at the small farms dotting the countryside. By communicating with these NPCs you’ll find directions around the world, buy/sell items at the merchants, train your character to advance your skill-set, accept quests to gain experience points, collect items to equip your character, and increase your respect in the game world.
The main goal of the game for the player is to advance the “level” of his character, this is done by defeating wild animals (early game), enemies or bandits, completing quests successfully, exploring new areas of the map, and joining a group of players for raiding parties or larger quests. Possible levels currently range from 1 to 60, although an new expansion pack coming soon will raise the max level to 70. As your character “levels up” he/she will gain more hit points otherwise known as health (the better to surviving battles), better attack and defense skills, and generally becomes more intelligent and agile. There isn’t really a defined “victory point” for each player as W.O.W. is an online experience more than a game. Victory or defeat is found every time you play as you challenge your skills and wits in new ways.
If you die during the game you don’t just pop back up as in most computer games. You’ll find yourself standing in the nearest graveyard as a spirit form that can move and view the world just as your character but cannot interact with anything. While in this spirit form the world will look colder and tinted slightly blue and you’ll hear a constant rushing wind until you return to your body. To rejoin the game you’ll need to navigate to where you fell in battle and you’ll then be resurrected. You can also be resurrected immediately by another player if they happen to be a Priest or other character with the ability.
The primary currencies of the game are copper, silver, and gold. At first you’ll win copper pieces from conquered bad guys and some creatures, and later quests will give you silver and even gold. The monetary system is very simple actually, 100 copper = 1 silver, 100 silver = 1 gold. If you won 85 copper from a level 10 Kobald Miner (creature) and already had 61 copper in your purse, you’d have 1 silver and 46 copper in your purse.
----- Fun and games in the new world -----
I’m currently a level 13 Human Warrior and have been exploring several of the lands surrounding my home in the Elwynn Forest. The scenery varies from gorgeous vistas to desolate volcanic wastelands, although the graphics are all very well done. The creatures and players in the game all look realistic and no clipping or polygon dropout is noticeable even in large battles. I’m extremely impressed with the variety and quality of everything in the game world, for a map this huge and varied I give two thumbs up to Blizzard’s graphics artists. There are no load times for any of the zones or “counties” on a continent, and it takes between 5-6 real-time minutes to walk across one county in the game. The Alliance home continent is composed of more than 18 of these counties which gives you an idea of the size and scope of the game world.
Wandering around the roads and towns feels much like walking a virtual Medieval world with a healthy dose of Tolkein-esque monsters thrown in. There’s a huge sense of community spirit in this online game, and as a new player I was amazed at the people which would help me with quests far beneath their level just so I could finish them. Advice from other players is pretty easy to find if you ask several for help. No matter what your gaming style you’ll find a way to play W.O.W. at your pace. Questing, hunting and scouting, blacksmithing and mining, rogue missions and spycraft, and of course battles from small to epic scale are all possible in W.O.W.
Once you’ve played awhile you’ll be able to learn skills to use as you acquire resources throughout the game. Each character may have up to two skills at the same time and each skill starts at level 1 experience and can grow up to level 75. For example, if you’re a Dwarf and your class is Hunter, you might want leatherworking as a skill. Once you collect skins and knives you can make tons of leather armor, clothing, and baubles to sell to other players or on the marketplace. Other skills you can learn are Mining, Tailor, Alchemy, Herbalist, and Cooking. These skills are first learned from instructors found in certain towns and cities.
Traveling around the map is usually done by walking and much of your game will be spent trudging from one destination to another. Once your character reaches level 40 you can buy a mount which varies by race. For humans it’s a huge war-horse, gnomes get a steam-powered mechanical strider, and dwarves ride on rams. Another way to travel quickly before you can buy a mount is to use the Gryphon masters. These are essentially the air-travel of the time period and give you a much quicker way to jump between counties. All you need is the silver or gold required to pay the master.
The world map is quite detailed once you’ve explored and uncovered the fog (a.k.a. discovered) from new areas. It’s a sepia-tinted parchment style map with a cursive script often seen in ancient cartography. The closest zoom shows the county you’re in now with any towns, farms, bridges, or other landmarks. Zooming out further shows the entire continent you’re on and any large cities or fortresses are clearly marked. The farthest wide-angle zoom shows the whole world with both the Alliance and Horde land masses.
WARNING!!!: One huge downfall of this online experience is the addiction factor, it’s
HUGE! Once you start to build your character and acquire skills and abilities, you’ll find three hours have flown by in no time at all. Just one more quest can easily add an hour to your playtime, then you’ll want to stop by a merchant and sell your new items, shop for new stuff, and on and on it goes. I find it hard to fault a game only because it’s (possibly detrimentally) addictive, but I will warn that your free time may just disappear. If you have kids or are married, you might want to think twice about World of Warcraft if you’re prone to gaming addiction. The real problem is every game I’ve been addicted to I would play to death until I beat it… wasting up to a month at the most. Since there’s no defined end to W.O.W. your time may be tied up for quite a while longer than that.
----- Bottom Line -----
If you like medieval/fantasy RPGs already or appreciate a well-designed game world, World of Warcraft is the most complete and immersive game I’ve played to date. The cooperative (and competitive) gameplay with other real, live humans is very engaging and never the same.
While you need to have a fast and smooth internet connection, a fair amount of free time to spend, and a powerful computer, if you fulfill all three requirements you should definitely give this game a try.
---(NOTE)--- This review is part of
Bryan Carey’s Y2K/2000th Review Write Off. I'd like to send my congratulations to Brian for his 2000th review and my appreciation for his contributions to Epinions. Here’s to many more reviews to come and best wishes for the years ahead. Make sure and stop by his Write Off page and check out the other entries.
Related Links:
Age of Empires 3
Command and Conquer Generals
Command and Conquer Generals: Zero Hour
Thanks for reading and feel free to comment!
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Openroad 2006
