Issue #30 of The Escapist offers a trio of articles that touch on different experiences in World of Warcraft. First up is Mark Wallace's piece "In Celebration of the Inner Rogue" in which he looks at immersion and the difference between the player and their character.I'm a big fan of my troll Rogue in World of Warcraft. He's good at ambushing his enemies, and he hits hard. I find myself rooting for him as he's trotting off to take on the next quest or fidgeting around in the Warsong lumber camp, waiting for a battleground to begin.
But every time he puts the killing blow on a nasty gnome Mage or detestable yeti, I always think, "Way to go, Wallace," rather than, "Way to go, Rogue." Every time I reach that small moment of excitement, when I'm no longer considering but only reacting, it's always, "Yay, me," and never, "Yay, him." And every time I think that, it raises the question: Just who is it I see before me on my screen? Is it him, or is it me? What real difference could it possibly make? More...Next up is "A Roleplayer in Azeroth" by Will Hindmarch in which he asks the question, what is an RPG?CRPGs aren't RPGs. I'm a snob about this, always have been.
To me, Knights of the Old Republic was a complex adventure game with too many chances to make character advancement choices I'd regret later, not an RPG. The story was fun, but the longest, most difficult route through any satisfying narrative is a CRPG. I thought it was the illusion of freedom on the road through a fixed story that bothered me - I would rather have watched KOTOR than play it - but Morrowind proved me wrong. For all its freedom, I was bored. More...
Finally we have Chris Dahlen confessional "I Enjoy Playing a Girl" in which he examines that ever-popular forum topic, why do guys play girls online?About half of the women you see in World of Warcraft are actually played by men. Nick Yee's Daedalus Project came up with this number last July, and anecdotally, it seems about right. But, take a step back into the real world and ask yourself: Why is it so common? How would you explain to your grandparents why so many guys - given a free and clear choice of either gender - choose to pretend they're girls? More... |
WoW: Articles @ The Escapist
