ATTENTION GAMERS! - BEST GAME YOU WILL EVER PLAY, PERIOD!

World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). It is a computer game developed by Blizzard Entertainment, and was released worldwide in November of 2004. I play this game myself and absolutely love it. I cannot ever get enough! World of Warcraft is similar to other MMORPGs, yet very different according to the majority of gamers. WoW is no comparison to other similar games, such as EverQuest, Guild Wars, and Final Fantasy XI. “WoW is balanced, has variety, and is much faster and easier to level than other MMORPGs,” say gamers.

This game is so incredibly rich in detail, with an environment that makes you feel as if you were right there in the present moment, experiencing the game as if you were on a virtual reality thrill ride. WoW is an online fantasy world. You walk through forests and hear flying birds around you. You swim through rivers and streams that ripple and splash as you jump in the water. You even leave footprints in the snow as you walk throughout the online world. When creating a character in World of Warcraft, you can choose from 10 different races and 9 different classes (a total of 52 different combinations).

World of Warcraft is a game with thousands of players online at any given moment. As of March 7, 2007, WoW had 8.5 million subscribers worldwide. It is important to note that the game is built to facilitate extensive in-game socializing. Players often add other players to their ‘friends list’ so you can keep track of nice, helpful people to group or chat with later on. There are often many times in the game when you cannot complete a mission or quest by yourself, so it is essential that you socialize and chat with other players around you.

There are a few downfalls to this game, however. Because the game is so huge (requiring 5 CD’s to install; 9 CD’s total if you buy the expansion component to the game, “The Burning Crusade”), and is so popular, many gamers will often experience “down times” in which your particular chosen realm is offline for maintenance. However, this is a rare occurrence, and Blizzard is usually pretty good in getting the realms back up as soon as possible.

The strength of your Internet connection is also an important component of this game. The better your connection, the less “lag” you will encounter as you play. Any player will tell you that lagging is the most annoying part of the game, and can even kill your player character if you are so unlucky. It is as if you are playing in a choppy, broken-up world that freezes and interrupts your game play. Take my word for it, you do not want this. My recommendation is to make sure you have a strong, reliable Internet connection and you won’t likely experience this.

It is also good to know that because the game is never-ending, every couple of weeks Blizzard creates new content for the game that includes fixes for “bugs” (i.e., errors in the game). Every few weeks, all realms go offline for a few hours in the morning while Blizzard works to prepare a new ‘patch’ for everyone to download. Downloading these patches have taken me anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 or 4 hours to complete, depending on how many other people are trying to access the patches to download, too.

To play World of Warcraft, you must be aware that the game requires an Internet connection (this is listed in tiny print on the box of the game and is often missed by potential buyers). You also have to subscribe to the game and pay an online monthly fee (around US$15) in order to gain access to play on your personal WoW account (established the first day you download the game to your computer). WoW runs on both Macintosh and Windows computers, with no preference for one over the other.

There is one more thing I would like to mention. If you have read thus far, chances are you are a gamer yourself or an interested buyer of this game. You may or may not have heard the popular misconception that this game is “addictive” or is “the Devil’s game.” I have to disagree. It is true that this game is like no other game that has ever existed before it. It is extremely complicated and is very rich in detail, quests, missions (over 3,500 and counting), and just overall things to do. There is essentially no end or way to “beat the game.” Because of this complexity, it often takes an hour or more to accomplish anything of significant value in the game. Therefore, you will often see a WoW player at their computer for hours at a time. This is normal and should be expected of this game. Non-players often call WoW players “addicted”, in this sense. To me, the game itself is not addictive. You most certainly can become addicted to this game and play all night and day if you want, but I find that this is not the case with the majority of players. It is the players that are addictive-prone or have addictive personalities to begin with that give this game a bad reputation. This is not to say, however, that you need huge blocks of time in order to play the game. Blizzard has created World of Warcraft for many types of people – players who can only commit an hour a week to players who play up to 10 or more hours per day. The game welcomes and incorporates all types.

World of Warcraft is known as “the King,” “the Grand Daddy” of all online role-playing computer games known to date. World of Warcraft is a game that is truly in and of itself, and I recommend it to anyone (gamer or not) that wants a gaming experience that is like nothing else. I can honestly say that it is by far the most fun, challenging, and enjoyable game I have ever played.