World of Warcraft - review

Online games are wonderful and I play a lot of them but they do have their problems. World of Warcraft nicely addresses these problems and turns in a great gaming experience)

About the game

World of Warcraft I have played a lot of online games. I was playing Ultima Online before most people even had a computer. That was a long time ago in technology years :) So I have a pretty good perspective on online games. I wasn't too interested in World of Warcraft because it just didn't seem like my kind of game. But I was wrong. This is my kind of game, as a matter of fact this is everybody's kind of game! Eight million subscribers can't be wrong.

Somebody offered me a free 30 day subscription so I thought that I would try it. And I am totally hooked! Warcraft is just great and they do some things that are unique in the game world.

Here is an overview of what makes warcraft different:

Mass Appeal

Most games are targeted to a specific audience by nature. You like RPG, you like PVP etc. You are a certain age group. Warcraft manages to cover all the bases and keep everyone happy. If you like PVP there is plenty of it. If you don't like PVP then you don't have to.

Do you like killing monsters or doing quests? Well, warcraft has plenty of both. If you are like me and you like a big world to explore then warcraft has that too! As a matter of fact the Warcraft world is so big I am starting to get afraid that I won't be able to explore it all! Imagine that!

Party or Solo?

This is a big sticking point for me because I love to play solo and occasionally enjoy group play. And this is something that turned me off on many online games - the fact that if you wanted to level you absolutely had to party with other people. This is not true in Warcraft. You can solo and do pretty good at it. Now there are things like difficult quests or dangerous dungeons, with big rewards that you have to do in a group - and this is perfect for me!

Got to level 60 Now What?

This is something that used to drive me crazy because whenever I play a game I max out my level then try to figure out where to go from there. Warcraft handles this nicely. The currently level cap of 60 has been changed; you can now get to level 70 by buying the Burning Crusade Expansion pack. And I think this is great because it gives you new goals to aspire to. And I can't see any reason why next year they release a new expansion that will allow you to get to 80!

Avoiding the Leveling Grind

The worst part of all online games is the perpetual grind to get gold and levels. If you play online games you know what I mean. You find a group of monsters to kill and you kill them, over and over and over and over again so you can level up and accumulate wealth.

This doesn't happen in Warcraft. The game is quest oriented which means you chase after a lot of different quests to gain reputation, experience, gold and weapons and armor. And in the process you are of course fighting creatures and leveling up! This is a nice way to avoid the monotony of level grinding.

All The Things that Make Games Great

Of course World of Warcraft has all those things that we love about online Fantasy games. You can be a warrior, a wizard, an Orc, a human an elf etc. and each race and class has its own characterisitics.

Then there are the skills like alchemy, potion making, mining, tailoring, blacksmithing and more.

And the best thing for me is the accumulation of things. I love gathering, making, buying and finding all sorts of items from weapons to armor and magical items.

Of course Warcraft has all these things and more.

If you are an online gamer you should check out World of Warcraft. If you never played an online game but are curious then you definitely should consider Warcraft.

World Of Warcraft Expansion: Burning Crusade

• Warcraft Official Homepage
• World of Warcraft (Software at Amazon)
• World Of Warcraft Expansion: Burning Crusade (Software)
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