Battleangel | Personal

I have to admit that World of Warcraft has been dirty secret of mine. For the longest time I stayed out of the game citing various concerns. But in February of last year, as the Burning Crusade expansion was about to ship, I made a huge mistake and enrolled into the ranks of grinding, pointy-eared, angst-ridden emo-kids – and gnomes.

After playing almost non-stop for two months, and having a few relapses for the rest of the year and early this year, I called it quits. WoW just wasn’t worth the trouble. The anticlimax as you reach level 70 and realize that you’ve been conned is remarkable. All that time you were fooling yourself, hoping for something better, more rewards, and meanwhile you were just mindlessly grinding away, playing the endless virtual slot machine that is World of Warcraft.

Worse or same as many other MMORPGs

• Grinding. In fact WoW is taking grinding to entirely new levels. WoW perfects the psychology of gambling using a slot machine model. In my opinion the game is deceitfully addictive. And that is saying a lot considering how much time I still spend playing computer games.
• Little focus on single-player content. You are forced to play in groups of 5, 10 or 25 people to get any of the real virtual goodies. And probably in the middle of the night. And even then you’ll have to rinse and repeat ad nauseam before you get the badges or items you want. Or how about the locked boxes that you can’t open unless you are a rogue or interact with a rogue. The list goes on.
• The above caveats lead to a very stratified game where those that are in a good guild and have time to waste can get anything they want. The rest of the players are basically casteless, that is poor and without place or status. And they can do very little improve their situation.
• Expensive monthly fees considering that you buy the game and expansion packs. Most likely this is just an unreasonable deal that benefits share holders and goes into making new games. But WoW players are seeing very little of that money returned in terms of gameplay.
• A simplistic combat system that leads to an absurd hammering of spells, timings and abilities. About as interesting and action-packed as playing chess in that you’re mostly concerned with matching different abilities and spells when you’re not concerned with timing them of course.
• Lengthy character leveling. Especially considering how much there is left to do in the end-game before you actually can get ahead.
• Blizzard’s gold seller and “glider” witch-hunt. Just accept the fact that this is the sort of game you have created. One that is so boring that most would prefer to have a bot grind for them or buy gold to get past ludicrous in-game costs of materials, skills and items. 5000+ gold for a swift flying mount? Say what you will, but that is nothing more than a way to trick people into paying for another month of gameplay.

I get that WoW can’t be like joining a Quake server back in the day, but that sort of skill just suits me better. With WoW, half of the “skill” is in the character and unlike a first person shooter you cant just run over weapon spawn point to get a rocket launcher. No, acquiring a better weapon is hilariously unachievable for the average WoW player. And the difference between a character with mostly green items and one with mostly purple items is simply staggering. I think it is completely fine for people to spend weeks grinding for a bear mount or whatever, because that is just a vanity item that wont give them an edge. And I would probably also support giving hardcore players some sort small edge. But as it stands, the game is for total obsessive jerk-offs. Blizzard is doing the world a huge disservice.

Better than most other MMORPGs

• Smoother learning-curve than most games.
• Forgiving PC requirements.
• Immersive. Compelling story-line that has been written and re-written for over 10 years.

On the plus side, I got a good insight into MMORPG dynamics, the psychology of MMORPGs and the people who play them.

See also: 10 Reasons Why I Stopped Playing World of Warcraft