World of Warcraft: The Journey

A recent lively debate on the Terranova website discussed the reasons for World of Warcraft popularity, particularly in the US. It's not easy to pin down a neat explanation of such a complex phenomenon, but one thing we can do is explore aspects of the world which have kept us, as users, coming back to the world.

The tale above highlights a couple of points on my personal World of Warcraft plus list; elements that have contributed to furthering my interest in a game/world which I find really hard to decide whether I like or not.

It's hard to deny the visual prettiness of the world, not to mention the subtle but influential ambient audio effects. The graphics are, in my opinion, highly attractive and well thought-out. The transition between areas is smooth and it's hard not to notice the amount of work that has gone into giving each area its own particular feel, making it clear that you've crossed from Loch Modan to the Badlands, from Duskwood to Stranglethorn Vale. The nice thing about all this is that it is not realistic. There is nothing realistic about an abrupt change of landscape, where you can have one foot in a parched desert land and the other in lush green grass. In fact, I suspect that the sheer non-realism of the whole world is a big plus in its status as a separate fantasy world, what Tolkien has termed 'secondary world' (if you're interested in this, check out On Fairy Stories in The Monster and the critics by Christopher Tolkien). It has a certain consistency about its fairy-taleness that slips interrogation.

The flight paths are well distributed and discovering them throughout your travels gives a certain sense of accomplishment. Blizzard seemed to have been very careful about how WoWers are able to cross Azeroth. The motivation to get to level 40 is driven mostly by having a steed, making travel faster and easier, not to mention handy for flower pickers like Muun who get to zoom in to a herb, pick it and ride off, leaving angry mobs swinging wildly at his back.

But one great motivation to travel, aside from exploring the land and doing quests, which tend to be, with a few exceptions, quite localized, is to get to a trainer once your skills cap out, or, in the early stages, to learn new skills. (I still remember the excitement of leaving Teldrassil for the first time, on a quest to find a sword trainer in Stormwind and the panicked run from Menethil chased by vicious ?? Level crocodiles [Muun was level 9 at the time]). I find that the most interesting quests are those which I set myself especially when that involves venturing across areas which are far beyond my level. It adds to the excitement of a world that is very easy on pvp and death (aside from when you're at the end of an instance and your party gets wiped out JUST before you get the quest completing trinket), making life comfy but rather unexciting for the most part.

Do you agree? Have any similar stories?

E-mail them to muun@rpgdot.com if they're too long to fit in the comment section or just post them below of they're on the short side.

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