The WoW Experience

As you all know, I have an on-again, off-again relationship with World of Warcraft. I play on a roleplay server because, to me, MMORPGs have always been somewhat on the dry side gameplay-wise. To me it is always the people who make an online game great, and you tend to find more tolerable people (and by tolerable I mean people who do fewer stupid things and have at least a basic grip on the English language) on an RP server. I also love to roleplay, but the times when I actually get to do that with anyone besides my wife are so rare that I've largely given up on the hobby.

I normally play alone, or just with people I know personally, in real life or via the web somehow. Last night, however, while Jessica chatted with her friends and did homework, I fully embraced the WoW experience for the first time. For those unfamiliar with it, let me outline the WoW Experience. This is the game as the developers have set it up to be played, and how most people play it:

1. Pick a dungeon to run.
2. Use the /LFG function to locate a sufficient number of random people of appropriate class.
3. Storm the dungeon, killing everything you see and rolling dice for the loot
4. (optional) Attempt to roleplay, if on an RP server

I like to start with the pros of any given critique, so here we go:

The action was very fast-paced. It didn't feel like a normal MMORPG to me; there was a lot going on, the game demanded your attention, focus, concentration, and actual gaming skill the entire time. As an added bonus, I was being the primary healer of the group while playing a class not really suited for that role, so I had an additional under thrum of adrenaline the entire time. I was "the man". As in, "the man who makes the group work, who gets all the praise when things are awesome and who gets strung up by his thumbs when the party gets wiped." We had a somewhat flaky tank, and he died a couple times because he apparently didn't understand that I couldn't heal him fast enough when he engaged five people at once, but otherwise it was a successful dungeon run and everyone had a great time because I did my job right. It was a real rush; like all of cyberspace giving you a nice warm pat on the back while at the same time pouring 5 Alarm Chili down your throat.

(Randi, I know, knows what this feels like. She plays healers in EQ all the time. It's a super nice feeling, being the person who enables other players in the game to not be so frustrated, to be able to go back to having fun in short order.)

What's strange about WoW, though, is that many of the pros are also the cons. As I said, it was very fast-paced. There were other things I would have liked to have done; for instance, when the action was getting thickest, I got a message from both Josh and Randi out in AIM that they wanted to chat. Well, I wanted to chat with them too! The problem was, in the dungeon we were in, if I even *blinked* it meant death for everyone. So, I hastily informed them during a very brief lull that I was right in the middle of something, and went back to it. On that same token, it's a roleplay server and people occasionally do make an attempt at roleplaying. I was fortunate enough to be in a group with three people who had a story going. I would have loved to have jumped in, but again, blink=death.

Also, WoW's dungeons are very unique, very hand-sculpted affairs with amazing visuals. That was great, except I didn't get to enjoy any of them for all the chaos going on that I had to manage. There was no time to stop and smell the flowers, take screenshots, make notes, or comment on anything. The creative in me wept in frustration even as the gamer in me thrilled to the experience.

In summary: Dungeon running in WoW is a lot of fun. Just don't expect to be able to multitask. Do it in a time when what you want is a thrill, and in a time when your friends are not likely to be hitting you up for conversation.