By 
Introduction
If you like computer games, you’ve probably heard of World of Warcraft, the latest hit produced by Blizzard Entertainment, and you’re probably aware of what an MMORPG is. If you’re not, let me explain it to you quickly. An MMORPG is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game that allows thousands of players to play in a persistent game world.
World of Warcraft currently entertains close to 7 million people around the world. It has attracted a lot of MMORPG veterans, but it has also introduced a lot of new people to the genre. Why is World of Warcraft so successful? Good. I think it’s about more than one thing.
First, MMORPGs are generally not that easy to get into, the player is often presented with an awkward interface, tons of options, and a lot of things going on around him in general when he first logs into the game. Blizzard has done a pretty solid job of keeping the interface simple and stupid, allowing even novice players to jump into it at a fast pace. Hints and tips also help guide the true MMORPG newbie. When the game’s developers created the interface and overall gameplay, their goal was to make it easy to get into but hard to master.
They have definitely nailed the first part, the second part can be discussed. What defines a good MMORPG player basically boils down to two things.
1) Do you know your character and abilities
2) Do you pay attention?
There are no twitch abilities involved, and if you’re looking for competitive gameplay, current mmorpgs, including WoW, are not the place to look in my opinion. If you want skill-based competition, stick with RTS and FPS games.
The second thing that makes wow so successful is probably the name of the producer and their huge fan base, which they deserve by all means, having released such huge games as the diablo and warcraft series, which were huge hits.
Let’s go to the review part 🙂
character creation
Like any MMORPG or MUD, the journey always begins with character creation. You can choose your site: alliance or horde, your race and some visual characteristics. Character customization is definitely one of the weakest points of the game, the diversity and number of features to select and switch characters are reminiscent of Everquest, which was released almost 8 years ago. you get to the thing
* among a handful of faces
* skin tone
* among a handful of haircuts
* among a handful of facial hair styles
* hair color
It’s probably not a big deal, and it’s certainly not anything groundbreaking, though a little more would have been nice.
First steps
As you take your first steps in WoW, getting used to the user interface, you will quickly notice that the game is very quest oriented. You can earn most of your character’s experience through quests, though from time to time you will still grind mobs for exp.
The initial quests take you very well too, out of the starting area into the larger cities and into the deep dungeons.
The world
The amount of detail that was put into the World of Warcraft is unbelievable and amazing. The cartoon style may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but whether you like it or not, you can’t rule out that the world has a lot of character. It’s also packed with content, and you’ll find yourself stumbling from one point of interest to another.
the dungeons
The dungeon instances, which are areas owned by you and your party, while fairly linear most of the time, are also amazingly done. Boss encounters are fun, and the best loot comes from running instances. Dungeon instances are supposed to be the group part of the game (aside from pvp) and it would be unwise to go solo unless you are 20 levels stronger than the mobs inside the dungeon.
The road to 60, and beyond
Most people I’ve talked to tell me they have more fun leveling their characters up to level 60, because it’s fast most of the time and only slows down rarely. The missions are well done and there is a lot to discover.
However, once you hit 60, you basically have three things to do
a) make instance executions (raids) for items
b) grind monsters for money
c) pvp
Now this might sound like it’s enough. But the core problem is this: there is no character advancement beyond 60, apart from getting items. These items are obtained by raiding elite dungeons with your guild, playing the bazaar game, or gaining rank while PVPing.
Right now, if you’re a raider, you raid so you can raid more. There’s no reason to take that super stabbing dagger in normal 5 man dungeons and just slaughter things left and right, other than for the sake of slaughter, is that even a word?
The game at this point, 2 years after its release, is in dire need of some alternate trailer, luckily the expansion (The Burning Crusade) is right around the corner, so it should help a bit for now.
server problems
This is where I have an ax to grind so excuse my rant
Ever since wow was released the game has had severe stability issues. I guess they didn’t expect the amount of people who would buy the game back then and they were surprised. Not a big deal, most MMORPGs face server issues in the first few days of the game’s release, even if it’s not as popular as wow.
But even after 2 years of development, it’s sad and annoying to see that the same server issues are still there, albeit not as bad, and servers have to go down weekly for maintenance.
content updates
We all know it, Blizzard likes to do things right and they always take their time. The thing is, this is an MMORPG. People need to get new content almost constantly, waiting 3-4 months between content updates that deliver content that was promised to be in the game when it released just seems weak. Then again, I can certainly appreciate the amount of work that must go into creating the content. It wouldn’t be so bad if there was some alternate form of character advancement.
This review may sound a bit harsh and don’t get me wrong, WoW is an amazing game, and what the artists did is mind blowing. I leveled 3 characters up to level 60, and as I progressed through the different zones of the game world, I always kept this thought in my mind.
Wow, it’s an amazing online world, but it’s like they don’t do anything with it. Where is the dynamic world I envisioned when I first read about WoW in 2002? There was a world event of opening a raid instance that involved players gathering resources for a month or two and then fighting in a theater of war. to unlock the dungeon. While this is definitely a step in the right direction, it’s not enough. Next-generation MMORPGs must be developed with dynamic behavior in mind. The world needs to change and feel less static.
Fazit
World of Warcraft is a great game, and you will definitely enjoy leveling up your character. After that it’s uncertain, you’ll have to see for yourself. Making raid instances can be fun, unless you don’t like being dependent on people. PVP can be fun too if you’re into that sort of thing. Heck, even trying to accumulate large amounts of virtual money can be fun for some people.