Hi, my name is Claypool, and I’m a Warcraftaholic.

It’s been three days now since I’ve had an epic and I don’t think I can make it another day. My last epic was the Judgment Legplates, and I honestly don’t remember picking up the first mob. I must have fought all night, because when I finally came to, it was 5 am in the morning and I couldn’t remember where I put my Fire Resist Potions. I don’t know who to trust anymore. I asked my sponsor for help, and he told me that he was too busy getting AD rep for the new instance to give me any advice. I hope I can resist the urge to PK tonight. I just have to remember the steps and I think I can make it!

Seriously though, I had a customer the other day interested in playing an MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) because he had heard about how fun they are. He asked me about Final Fantasy 11 and I suggested that World of Warcraft might be a little more accessible for a beginner to the genre. He answered that World of Warcraft worried him as a game to try because from what he understood, many people become too involved in the game and “lose control of their lives”. True story.

WoW

To be honest, (tbh in WoW speak) I am not surprised, nor, I suspect, are many of you who are reading this. There are countless stories of people flunking a class or missing a day of work, or even getting fired, losing a loved one, even getting kicked out of school or fired due to an MMORPG. It’s true. Anyone who plays these sorts of games can relate.

World of Warcraft seems to be a different animal to me, however. While I too, have fallen victim to missing a day of work or skipping school in order to “just get that last bubble of xp till lvl 49!!!”, I have never stayed with a game as long as WoW. WWII online, Dark Age of Camelot, Shadowbane, Star Wars Galaxies, Final Fantasy XI, City of Heroes, and RF online only held my interest for a maximum of 8 months or less, and this of constant two to five hours of game play a day, sometimes more. Warcraft, however, I have played since its release in November of 2004, and have rarely skipped any significant amount of time.

While this may seem like ample reason for anyone to avoid the game (cough, cough, the editor!) it’s actually a good thing. The REASON so many people love and live by World of Warcraft is because, quite simply, it’s a terrific game. I’m not here to really write a review about it, but visit any website associated with gaming and you’re sure to find a glowing review or editorial on the content and game play.

So to summarize, if you ARE considering an MMORPG, above all others, I DO highly recommend World of Warcraft. Of the MMORPG’s on the market to date, it’s arguably the easiest and most accessible one to pick up, quickly understand, and immerse you in without having to know any back story or have any previous experience with the genre.

Besides, everyone’s doing it. You want to be cool, don’t you?

World of Warcraft

Computer gaming is not dead. They’re just faking death. Its sort of a possum tactic. They’re making us think that PC games have been whacked over the head with the rubber mallet of technology and thrown into the trunk of a passing Red Mafia man’s limo and tossed into the Baltic Ocean. Not so…

At the last Entertainment Expo (E3), plenty of announcements were made about the “next generation of gaming”, and to be sure, some exciting new material pertaining to games was released. The big dogs were all out in force showing off their brand new collars, studded in shiney new graphically enhanced skulls and gems and goodies, drooling, frothing and chomping at the bit, and at our wallets, to be sure. Microsoft showed tons of new games, like Fable 2, Viva Pinata, Gears of War, and Shadowrun. Nintendo caught everyone’s attention with incredible new ways to involve yourself in the whole gaming experience with it’s interactive controller design, but Sony…

Sony seriously scares me…

I work for a gaming retailer. The guys at work all pretty much have the same opinion that ranges from, “Man, I can’t wait for the PS3, but it’s so expensive!”, to “Man, screw the PS3. I know its gonna be amazing, but it’s so damn expensive…”

We have a schedule.

1. The Sony Rep visits

2. We get REALLY excited about the PS3 and TOTALLY just HAVE to have one

3. A few months pass and we get paid a few times

4. We start bashing the PS3’s price point and Sony in general

5. We get a visit from the Sony Rep…(rinse and repeat.)

The reason Sony scares me:

Kaz Hirai (Sony Computer Entertainment President):

“Last year…we sent a message and the message was clear: Playstation 3 is not an incremental upgrade to previous platforms, but is truly designed to advance our vision for computer entertainment today, and for many more years to come. Playstation 3 is ment to be a companion device in your living room, flexible enough to sustain many years of technological advancements. Its arsenal of media compatability, with seamless access to both packaged and non-packaged content through a networked environment.”

Taking shots at the competition, he continued:

“The next generation doesn’t start until we say it does.”

While I don’t neccessarily agree with the last little bit, I do agree with the rest of his statement, with one alteration. ALL consoles are taking this route. Computer gaming is not dead at all. PC gaming has simply evolved. What we commonly think about as our PC gaming rig is more and more merging with, as PC gamers like to call them, “Those filthy, petty console bastards who keep stealing all of our cool games!”

The refreshing part about all this for me personally is that I wont be dumping another $4,000 into a new gaming PC, I’ll just be able to go out and buy a $250 to $600 dollar machine that can do all the same stuff and keep my old computer for all that tedious Excel and Word processing stuff. My big question tho still remains…

If I can buy machine like the PS3, Nintendo Wii,or Xbox 360 for 1/4th the price of a PC built for gaming that will last just as long, if not longer, then what will be the incentive for people to spend $4000 or more on a really slick, water cooled fancy typewriter?

PC games are not dead. They have simply evolved. Now, true, it seems they have evolved from being really complicated eight-legged, super-hyper intellegent pan demensional beings into say, Carl from ATHF, they have evolved none the less. Consoles are just not consoles anymore. They are what they should have been all along.

Upgradeable…