World of Warcraft Never Ends

So Blizzard has unveiled their latest money pit craze, World of Warcraft : Wrath of the Lich King. This was entirely expected from an MMORPG, after all expanding your make believe world is the bread and butter of pay to play games. Just like the last time (despite a promise not to do this every expansion pack) Blizzard will be raising the level cap 10 more levels making level 80 the new end level. On top of that the prerequisite new dungeons, new tiered armors, new hairstyles, dances, the whole shebang returns in full force. They're even throwing in a new Heroic job class which is based on the Death Knight, about damn time. I know some people who have been clamoring for this since day one only to end up playing Warlock as a sort of consolation prize.

My question here is...is this all worth it? I mean I'm now part of the minority on the world wide web that doesn't believe in the alpha and omega of WoW. I spent tons of time on the game pre-Burning Crusade and even some time on the game after. But I came to realize that this game is not actually fun. I'm not talking about the gameplay mechanics either, those are fine. The leveling system, combat system and all that is actually quite well made as expected of Blizzard. What I'm talking about here is the actual motivation to play the game. It's sort of like you're compelled to play and level up your character, ultimately the goal is to get to the max level, get your tiered armor and then "pwnzors n00bs". That's just it, there's no goal other than the "one you make for yourself". The problem comes when you reach the dangling carrot at the end of the stick. I've been told countless times by people that it's expected of this game or that this game is constantly evolving to bring you more. Too much of a good thing though is bad for you.

Now I tried the guild thing, and believe me I think the most bitter part of the experience in playing World of Warcraft is here. For those of you that don't play, imagine that you join a society like the Stonecutters. You've got your fun handshake, initiation tests and all that. You're now a part of that group, that's where the fun ends. Those stories about epic battles in a coordinated effort? Yeah that's only if you were there from the beginning, otherwise you're the one hunting Dreamfoils for 6 hours a night while your "friends" are on that epic battle. Sure there are guilds who become close friends, some even have found true love if that's even possible on a videogame, but for the most part you have to remember that your true friends are those around you who would do more than offer you a Major Mana Potion.

On top of that some people have asked "why don't you just turn it off?" during my subscription months. Well there were about two reasons, #1 being that logging on means they (you guild) reward you with Dragon Kill Points or some other imaginary monetary system your guild cooks up. What do these points do? You trade them in with your guild to have a shot at winning armor pieces that bosses drop upon killing them. It's quite complicated and the rules change with each guild but this is generally why most people stay on in the first place. It gives players a sense of accomplishment I guess. Another reason is that the game simulates a social environment. A lot of people tend to overlook the idea that you are participating in a social atmosphere (though this is not a real life one) and having "friends" within this guild you tend to feel compelled to stay there to help them. It sounds stupid at first but when you actually play the game you tend to get caught up in it and you (like me) at least TRY doing things the way the natives do. The only other reason is that you actually enjoy this.

Granted they have since made systems in the game to offset this problem by reducing raid sizes (you used to have to have 40 people to accomplish tasks in raids, now it's 25) and they do section off the dungeons so you can complete these sections at your leisure while it saves the progress you've already done. But there isn't an alternative to this gameplay if you're a player who either has no friends on the game, has no time on their hands or just can't pass that "upside down inverted handstand initiation test". I found it quite hilarious that the most fun I actually had on the game was leveling up a Blood Elf Priest from level 1-21 after the release of the first expansion pack. In layman's terms that's like a drop in the bucket as the early levels are designed to be extremely easily accessible only to scale up as you get higher and higher. It's their addiction hook.

Now obviously one of my best friends of course is sick of me lambasting the idea that only a hand full of hours of the game were actually fun, but I can't help but feel this way considering the cost that goes into playing World of Warcraft. The monthly fee can cost a person more than $100 a year to play, this monthly fee also has the bonus added effect of making a person feel as though they need to make up the value of their monthly expenditure. Maybe it's only for those conscious of their wallets but you feel like you HAVE to play while your account runs. The exception to the rule obviously are those who are burnt out from playing TOO much and they're just too lazy to cancel their accounts, thereby paying Blizzard more money for a service they aren't actually using.

I still do wish that Blizzard had stayed true to their concepts of allowing a more casual play style for their players. I know the word "casual" causes quite a temper tantrum from a lot of the more hardcore players but this game was originally designed with that in mind. Somewhere along the line they decided that hours long campaigns are the only way to play this game and it's frustrating being that I've been a fan of the series since Warcraft 2 originally popped up all those years ago. Granted my knowledge of the Burning Crusade end game is quite limited, but I just don't have the motivation to jump back in to find out. I've tried to make it fun for myself by PVPing, raiding, grinding random creatures for money or doing quests for meager rewards even after hitting cap level. This game however does not seem to offer me anything more than an endless crunch through dungeons for "purples".

It's just sad that I had originally joined up with this game because a lot of my other friends were playing it. They claimed it was one of the best games around and well worth the investment, yet the entire game time was a grueling task of constantly trying to keep up with other players. I hadn't actually even spent more than a small percentage of my play time actually with my friends. They were all pretty much capped off by then and off raiding while I wasn't even allowed to approach their guilds until I had reached their certain quotas in level, armor and item donation. I had quit a month after Burning Crusade landed, it was probably all I could take of that game. A lot of people flock back for new expansion packs, but please ask yourself if you will end up any different than before? I personally don't feel like it is changing all that much to warrant another subscription.

I don't know, maybe because I used to MUD and play various online games of the same type maybe that's what affects my opinion of the game but I still do feel strongly that World of Warcraft is best left to moderation if that's even possible. I've got to apologize to my friend whom I mention earlier however as he's bore the brunt of my thoughts on this game. It's also worth mentioning that this is just my own opinion, quite frankly the game itself is well designed, it's just the circumstances surrounding my own game time that led to this disapproval. However there are alternatives to WoW for those interested like :

Guild Wars Prophecies/Factions/Nightfall
Monster Hunter Freedom
Granado Espada (the Singapore Beta is free and is the full game)
Never Winter Nights (it's buggy but at least it's a good small group adventure)