World of Warcraft

I've been putting off this entry since the inception of the Glog over six months ago. The story of my time with WoW is one of bliss, and of sorrow; fulfillment, and disappointment; anxiety, and terror. What lay below is an account of how WoW changed my life, and how I was able to change it back.

You see, back in the before-times, I lived, breathed, and ate video games. Cruising through high school was an enabler for me to consume games at a rate some might consider bizarre. Then I graduated, received WoW for xmas in 2004, and began playing in January '05. The next two months were a blur - Mirkon, a proud engineer of the Gnomish race, became engorged of the delicious experience points from blowing up monsters in the wild, and reached the game's plateau of Level 60. Here he remained, experimenting with crafted gadgetry, exploring hidden and ominous areas, and following other pyromaniacal pursuits, until the middle of that summer when I finally decided I needed to get on with my life.

Yet Azeroth's pull on me would not so easily concede defeat. My roommate Matt, who started playing before I had (when the game was released in fall 2004), continued through that summer. He and several people I had formerly played with were now in The Raiding Game (more on this later), and though I had been apprehensive at first, I decided that winter to join them in the deepest, dankest dungeons the World of Warcraft had to offer. And thusly Mirkon toiled and triumphed (and meanwhile I fostered other characters, including a warlock to 60) until the autumn of 2006*, when I made the difficult decision of putting schoolwork before WoW and quit again. I have been clean since, and have returned to my former lifestyle, though the Burning Crusade expansion continues to tempt me at regular intervals.

What struck me the most when I started playing over two years ago - striking enough that I remember it vividly today - is how brilliant the game formula is. World of Warcraft is essentially a combination of the quick and simple action RPG gameplay of Diablo II, and the rich and enormous world environment an MMORPG can pull off. Playing the game, not just turning it on and being there, but actually enjoying it, is absurdly accessible and rewarding. And it continues to be throughout the entire game (though it helps a lot if you have friends to play with). From the snowy hills of Dun Morogh to the fiery peaks of the Burning Steppes, the rainy shores of Stranglethorn Vale, the mysterious arctic reaches of Winterspring, the barren desert of Tanaris, the lush dangers of Un'Goro Crater, and even the blighted Plaguelands, the World of Warcraft is a beauty to behold and a joy to inhabit.

Though I am wont to forget many games I have played, WoW's geography is permanently etched in my fond memories. The feeling of exploration in this world is too good for words. When roaming around the zones of the game, finding new things, even if they were only new to me, felt like a groundbreaking discovery. While a denizen of Azeroth, I made it my primary directive to simply collect knowledge about this strange wilderness, and I was both pleased and enticed with this goal for months at a time.

Don't mistake my obsession with the world as an indication that WoW is some sandbox crap. There is always something to do, thanks to the genius implementation of quests. Where other games may require a player to grind on sewer rats and birds of prey to gain levels, World of Warcraft has thousands of quests that NPCs will task you with. These quests will frequently involve slaughtering animals and other forms of evil, but many are in fact quite different, entailing a treasure hunt, or a reconnaissance mission, or a foot race. And all of these quests take you to new places, show you new things, and give you a little insight into the rich backstory of WoW, which is quite laborious.

The problem I ended up having with WoW was in the endgame, and is the same thing I hold against most MMOs, namely that the content runs out. Of course it is difficult to help this, and in fact the endgame is something that is almost constantly being worked on in monthly content updates; I have heard that it is no longer as contentious as it once was. But nevertheless, the magic simply could not last forever. When you've reached the maximum level, the game really starts pushing the Law of Diminishing Returns, and for me the fun factor just couldn't keep up with the required time investment. Some people enjoy this kind of thing but I'm not one of them.

By normal standards World of Warcraft is nothing short of amazing. Even at a retail price of $50 and an additional $15/month, the return I got on that investment in terms of number of gameplay hours easily outdoes any other game I have ever played. And I don't even tend to like multiplayer games very much. If I had to sum up WoW's flaws, I can only conclude that the game is too good: enough so to create unrealistic expectations for the game to continue, and to significantly disrupt my very lifestyle. One of these days, I intend to see what's new in the expansion.

• It was around this time that the Glog first appeared, though most historians agree that this is just a coincidence.

Progress: Gave Up -- 60 Mage, 60 Warlock (PvE)