The Game - [World of Warcraft]

World of Warcraft (WOW) is a MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game), which means it??s a RPG (role playing game) with millions of real users interactive simultaneously in a fantasy world. As any typical RPG, WOW comes with various classes and races. There are 8 races (Human, Orc, Dwarf, and etc.) and 9 classes (Warriors, Paladin, Mage, and the other usual suspects) in the game. I picked a Dwarf Warrior as my main character. (I am on Normal serve in the Whisperwind Realm)

To be honest, I was very skeptical about the game at first. I was never a big fan of MMORPGs. The only previous one that I played was Diablo, which I found very repetitive and boring. Because of this bias, even though WOW received rave reviews and was voted the Game of the Year in 2004 by more than 400 gaming magazines and websites, it never interested me until one day my brother told me about the greatness of this game. I finally decided to give it a try.

Oh, boy, what a game!! I really can't pin down what exactly makes this game great, but it's great nonetheless. This game is as flawless as you can think of. The world in the game is huge and graphically beautiful. You can even see your footmarks on the snow. The enemies are diverse and well-designed, including variety of animals, humanoids, and mechanical objects. The sound effect is excellent. You can hear the wind whistling through the forrest. The collision of weapons also sounds authentic.

When it comes to gameply, WOW simply nailed it. This is not a hard game to begin with, even though many secrets of the game require more hours to discover. I learned how to play the game in less than 10 minutes. Controls are very intuitive. You use arrow keys or ASDW to move around, and right click to attack an enemy. Even though you are constantly killing things, there are also many other things to do in the game. You can learn Skills that does not involve fighting. I acquired Mining and Black Smith skills so I can make my own Armor. You gain experienes through either killing or Quests. There are variety of quests in the game, and in generally they are meticulously designed in a way that it won't be so difficult that you want to throw your mouse at the screen; nor it would be so easy that that you get bored after 4 hours of play. Sometimes when a quest gets too difficult, you can always team up with someone around you to form a party. I once met a Priest and we fought bravely against some fish-like creatures. I may even join a Guild one day to get to know more people and fight bigger battles.

The game is not graphically violent, even though you are killing things constantly. The characters look a little bit catoonish, but I think it looks really cute. This is a game for everyone. If you are remotely interested in RPGs, you should check this game out. There is a reason that this game is currently the most played MMORPG in the market.

BTW, the game is so fun that I don't feel like going to snowboarding anymore (the warm weather in NY certainly doesn't help either). It's indeed very scary for a snowboarding fan.