Jed Pittman

About six months ago, I received a free-trial of the newest expansion to the World of Warcraft game. It was something that I didn’t really bother with because I knew how expensive it would be to buy it and I had really lost the zeal that I once had for the game.

World Of Warcraft is a MMORPG. MMORPGs are massive, multi-player, online, role-playing games. In this game you create a character and run around and do quests to build your character up. For some people, it can become seriously addictive. I really enjoyed playing the game for about a year, especially for the camaraderie that I felt when playing with a large group of forty players working on a single quest together.

People who play MMORPGS in large groups in a serious fashion often use technology that allows all players to communicate just like a telephone using Voice over IP while playing the game. Its funny because we generally all look like telephone operators or aspiring singers while talking into our headsets or the microphones in front of us.

The free trial of World of Warcraft wasn’t all that exciting. The game hasn’t changed much. Certainly there is new scenery and there are new quests to explore. However, it is not as simple as that to hold my interest. When I logged on to the trial I found that most of my gear was obsolete since I had not played in a while. Furthermore, the guild experience takes months to develop. I didn’t want to invest that kind of time again. In the end, it was not for me.

Certainly the game will continue for quite a long time. I know that there is still a huge demand, but I cannot say as to whether or not it will last really long term. I think blizzard makes great games, so I will remain quite loyal to them for that. But when it comes down to it, I personally don’t want to spend all that time on something that is just 0s and 1s and has no real lasting result. So, when I want to play a game now, I am content to play something that I enjoy, but with a reasonable time limit, measured in hours, not months. And then I can finish and say I enjoyed it without regretting what I could have done if I had that time back.

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