Thursday, February 15, 2007

Cave

I was playing Rappelz last week, not really doing much, wondering what there was to look forward to, when my thoughts drifted to World Of Warcraft. I've managed to avoid it for two years now - mainly because I wasn't thrilled with the prospect of paying a monthly fee. OK, entirely because I wasn't thrilled with the prospect of paying a monthly fee.

I figured that after this long, it couldn't hurt to give it a try, so I downloaded the client and set up a trial account. A day later, my opinion on monthly fees had pulled a 180. I'm not going to go on about how great the game is - everybody knows that by now, but the fact that my viewpoint changed so fast does say something.

I suppose it may have to do with the MMO's I've been exposed to. Anarchy Online was great when I was playing it - I wasn't lying when I mentioned how much I miss it sometimes a while back - but Funcom really gave too much of the game away. I already had access to what interested me, so it didn't make any sense to pay for what seemed to me like a minor incremental upgrade. The GPotato games are a special case since they don't charge a monthly fee, but I haven't spent a cent on any of them for the same reasons.

I can finally see why World Of Warcraft has become as popular as it has. For me, it's the cohesiveness of the world, which is the same reason I dug Anarchy Online so much. It feels like a real place, and that realness adds a sense of gravity to the encounters (positive or otherwise) with the other players in the game world.

I'm going to try not to write about it too much - there are literally thousands of other places you can go if you want to read about World Of Warcraft - but damn, I am hooked for now.

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