So this week I've been staying at my dorm due to my diagnosis of "walking pneumonia," an unpleasant and week-long disease (week-long thanks to horse-pill antibiotics shortening its lifespan). While this does make life somewhat limiting and boring, I've had a chance to actually work on my projects and get them done and over with. And, I've had more than enough time to play World of Warcraft all day long.
I've begun to phase into my former "hardcore" WoW life, the phase that brought on such priceless statements as "No thanks, I can't go to the movies, guys. I've got a Molten Core raid tonight." And who could forget (me, addressing my family around the dinner table) "So I totally just got this awesome new purple from MC last night. Not only does it have stam for raid reliability but also spell haste, so I don't have to worry too much in AV." Who could forget indeed? (Not me. I've learned to hush up about WoW during dinner)
People have asked me over my brief, 4 year addiction to that soul-sucking game why, WHY is it so addicting? "Don't you just hit the maximum level and the game's over?" they ask. I'm going to let all of you in on a little secret (WoW players, silently chuckle and weep as we go through why our lives are so hopelessly taken by this piece of software).
How WoW addicts you:
First, you start out an innocent, naive level 1 character. You only have a couple of abilities, but as you level, more and more abilities make their way into your spellbook every couple levels or so whether you be Warrior or Warlock (my personal favorite). At level 10, many of the abilities belonging to classes begin showing up. Hunters get to train pets to help them on their quests. Warlocks get demons. Paladins are able to resurrect allies and friends. You also get this shiny new tab on your User Interface bar that says "Talents." Whatever could that mean? Well, every time you level, you're able to spend points in various "trees" that give you additional bonuses, spells and abilities.
This is Blizzard's first step: to make sure you play all the way to 80 (yes, there are 80 levels), Blizzard introduces not just spells and talents to get you moving, but also fairly attainable "baby-step" goals like getting a mount at 40 (I believe it has moved down since last I leveled), or an "epic," faster mount at level 60. And then a flying mount at 70, and finally a custom mechanical mount at 80. Lest you think mounts are the only thing besides new spells and talents that you achieve at higher and higher levels, think again. As your level goes up, better and better weapons and armor become available. And some zones (the areas where players actually "play") are only available at certain levels, so you must achieve a certain level just to BE there.
"Ok, we get that part," I can already hear people saying. "But what makes WoW so addicting AFTER you reach your highest level?" Well, there are multiple answers to that. Let's get started.
First of all, Blizzard expects you to make friends in order to raid higher and higher level dungeons. We're talking 25-man raiding. That's 25 people who have dedicated their time for a 5-hour run through the same old stuff just to have a small chance at receiving a glorious blue or purple drop. Before I go any further, I need to explain color drops.
Grey - Items of this color are not useful in any way and can be sold to vendors for money.
White - Items of this color are useful to some but generally not very good to equip. You usually are decked out in white armor at the start of the game.
Green - Items of this color indicate something special about the weapons or armor that you should take note of. Whether it boosts your statistics (health, mana, attacking power, etc.) or just does more damage than ordinary white weapons, it's generally accepted as being better than white. You'll mostly find these materials dropping from "mobs" (enemy Non-Player Characters) around the world.
Blue - Items of THIS color indicate that you just picked up a pretty good item. Better than green (in most cases, although Blizzard screwed with that when they came out with their first expansion), you find these items only rarely dropping from "mobs" and at the end of long quests. You can also find those items dropping in dungeons that you're raiding.
Purple - When you get a purple, expect to jump in happiness. Purples are generally much better than either blues or greens (again, Blizzard's mistake flipped this around with their first expansion) and are highly sought after. Remember, green, blue and purple items can also be crafted, but at a generally increasingly high cost.
Orange - If you EVER get a hold of an orange item, you will be most likely one out of an entire server. Orange are so rare, they're expected to blow everything that you have in your inventory away. If you come across an orange item, you will be the envy of hundreds of thousands of players who will never ever be able to equip that item for their own use.
That was fun. A little off-topic, but fun. Ok, so you're raiding 5 hours through a dungeon just to "roll" on an item that you desperately want. In many cases, your roll will be much less than the victor, and you'll have to grudgingly congratulate them all while looking sadly at your Green item sitting forlornly in your inventory. 5 hours gone, and for what? Well, at least you're gaining more experience in that dungeon. Maybe you'll get it next time.
Maybe.
So Blizzard pulls you in by forcing you to make 25 friends and going on raids on the off-chance that you might get lucky. Many of these people will make a weekly run schedule, and (obviously) the only time anyone really has "free" is the weekend. "Welcome to our guild!" they'll say. "We're running Black Temple or the new Naxxramus or Utgarde Keep every weekend starting at 7pm on Saturday and ending at around 4am on Sunday. Wanna join?" At first, it sounds good. One weekend just to get your character even better equipped. But then they expect you to be there every weekend. And bit by bit, your social life falls away until you're forced to explain to people that you can't go out with them because you have an obligation to people you've never seen face-to-face to play a videogame for 6-8 hours straight. It may sound nuts now, but just wait. Veteran WoW players will back me up on that one.
But surely you'll eventually get all of the "new" weapons and armor, right? Wrong. I mean, some guilds of players who do NOTHING else than sit in their basements playing WoW will get to the highest level and the highest armor and weapons within one week of new content. Don't argue, it's happened so many times it's disgusting. But you, an everyday player who still has commitments to fulfill (a job, for example, although I've heard of people losing their jobs over this ridiculous game) will not EVER have the newest weapons and armor.
Let's say you're raiding the new instance. You have 4 new pieces of armor from that instance because you've sold your soul to Blizzard for 3 months straight. All of the sudden, Blizzard releases a "patch" (a piece of software that fixes bugs that crop up in WoW with new content) that has 2 or 3 new dungeons. Suddenly, you're going from those old dungeons you slaved away at month after month to new dungeons where, yep, you guessed it, you're going to slave away at month after month just to get your new weapons and armor THAT YOU JUST GOT. What does this do? Well, it helps you run those dungeons more efficiently and kill other players more easily. It allows you to step out into the city of your choice (ingame, of course. You won't be going anywhere once you've installed WoW) and strut down the main halls while other, less fortunate gamers stare at your gleaming armor in awe. Or at least, that's what you'll dream about at night. That's right. You'll start talking in WoW, dreaming in WoW, and thinking in WoW. In a short while, your closest family members will have no idea what you're talking about (unless, of course, your entire family plays WoW. My god, I've seen it and the memories never fade.)
Blizzard's latest ploy is perhaps their most fiendish EVER. Achievements. So you're looking pretty good in all that new armor you got, and you look like you could handle anything that Blizzard can throw at you, when suddenly you discover the "ACHIEVEMENTS" tab. Here, you browse through meaningless achievements that give points when they've been completed. Some of these achievements come with titles, others with actual ingame rewards. You may think you're all that, but you only have 50 points out of 500. What are you doing, just sitting there? You should be out fulfilling ultimately meaningless achievement "quests" that make a cool noise and flash on your screen when you get them. I know how addicting they are because I just got a few. "Make Love, not Warcraft," when I hugged a dead enemy before he released his spirit from his rapidly-cooling corpse. Then I started browsing through the achievements. "Oh, I can do that one. And that one's not too hard." Blizzard has done it again.
There are so many aspects of the game that are addicting in their own right (professions, the economy, and person-vs-person combat) that I don't have time to get into. All I really need to do is let you know that Blizzard, each month off subscription fees alone makes enough money to make a game on the scale of World of Warcraft. That's right. EACH MONTH. Think about that for awhile.
I've seen people who've thrown their lives away for WoW. My old karate teacher's girlfriend threw away her Ph.D, job and ultimately her boyfriend to play WoW. Yeah, it's that serious. Luckily, I have a WoW break built into my system, and I'll get sick of WoW for months at a time before diving right back in again.
I've been playing World of Warcraft since the beta of the ORIGINAL GAME debuted 4 and a half years ago.
I'm Bear, and I'm a WoW addict. Hopefully, my post explains why.
