Investigative Gaming

Issue 1: World of Warcraft

In our inaugural edition of Investigative Gaming,  I'm checking out the MMORPG that everyone's talking about, even four years after it's launch: World of Warcraft. The goal of this segment in to get to the bottom of gaming stories, in this case the question being, "Why is this game still so popular?" I'm not normally one for online games; I'm rather antisocial that way. As such, I've never tried WoW before recently, when I began delving into it for this article. To begin my investigation, I chose a Tauren hunter and named him Lug. I knew a little about this game by word of mouth, but this was my first time jumping in, and I was going in head first with no safety net. My first opinion was that I liked the artwork. After recently having been putting Frontlines: Fuel of War and Unreal Tournament 3 to the test, I really dug the bright atmosphere. This is proof that it's not all about polygons or realistic character models. If you can give your characters and world charm, like in Team Fortress 2 or Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, you'll be able to capture your audience. That's exactly what WoW does.

Gameplay wise, I felt a little like I was playing a very bright and cheery Diablo. You click on a creature, wait until either you or it dies, and repeat ad infinitum. Naturally there's more to it then that, but that's the way it feels in the beginning. Lug, I was happy to find out, has a gun. Being a veteran gamer, I didn't need tutorials or any other help to realize that I should use it early and often to wound baddies at a distance before they can close in on my poor avatar. I also quickly became a fan of the Tauren's War Stomp ability, which enabled me to stun a foe and back off for a few more shots when I was wearing down.

Money is a big issue in this game, and there's just not enough of it for newbies like me. So far my little Tauren dude is still in Mulgore, leveling up in hopes of surviving the Barrens when he finally decides to leave. He's currently, after about 2 days of sporadic, on-and-off playing, level 7. I've done about half of the available quests for my level, and am a good skinner (level 45+) and an ok leather worker (level 20+). I chose those, not only because they seemed hunter-y, but because as long as I was killing things, I may as well make a killing off of it, so to speak.

The game seems to be allot of fun, but I'm only a couple of hours in, and only with one character. To conclusively answer this question, more playtime is needed. Look for Issue 2 of Investigative Gaming soon. Alphasim out.

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