LOST IN AZAROTH
The land of Azaroth, where all women have the same breast size (large), elves don't work for Santa and being dead merely means a long walk to your body and a bad hair day.
Seeing as my holiday is longer than originaly intended, I have lost myself in the world of World of Warcraft. A culmination of a ten year saga of games, from a firm called Blizzard entertainment. This latest instalment, is what is called a MMORPG. A "Massively Multiplayer Online RPG (Role Playing Game)".
Think Dungeons&Dragons of the die-nerd-die pencil and paper fame, only this time the game is played using a credit card and a high end computer. The player journeys through a cartoon like universe of surprising depth. As the character grows more powerful, new challenges open, one gets to wear better gear and respect of youre peers and hatered of your enemies grow. Ah yes, the enemies, unlike most games of this ilk, rather than just the computer controlled monsters, there are two player controlled factions. The Alliance, with the capital city of Iron Forge a union of the industrious Humans, The secretive Elves, the stalwart Dwarves and the gadget making Gnomes. In the other corner, under the banner of the Horde green monster orcs, lanky Trolls, despicable undead and honorable, minotaur like Tauren. Both factions so hell bent on destruction of each other that the players can not even communicate with the other faction. A sad state of affairs in my book, for would it not be wonderful if we could set example for the troubled world of today by making peace in game :)
Still, the game is incredible in its complexity and even after 4 months keeps my interest with new content being added all the time.
This is my first end-game character. A Tauren shaman called "Horns". Residing on the realm of STONESPIRE, Horns is now Level 60, the maximum level a character can reach. This opens up new challenges and loot, measures of characters success.
A shaman is a combination of a warrior, healer and a magician, being very average at each discipline, shamans strength is his flexibility and utility to most roles.
In the image above, Horns sits in the throne of the vanquished Emperor of the dark dwarves in the Black Rock Depths and instance. Instances are party specific areas where a small group of travellers venture in the pursuit of treasure and fame.
The only thing standing in the way of their doom is tight communication and cooperation as a team.
This is a second of my most often played characters, a human female rogue by the name of "Buffy" (as in the vampire slayer). Buffy is the one on the left, dressed in a rare leather armor set, standing next to a Warlock succubus pet.
Buffy lives on the alliance side on the SMOLDERTHORN realm. Rogues are sneaky characters who can turn invisible and cause a lot of grief to the foes but can be vulnerable in some circumstances. Though only level 33, I have learned a lot from playing my previous characters so Buffy's equipment and skill is the envy of many.
Interestingly in the hope of finding some real world application of these 'wasteful' skills I have been improving my leadership skills. Finding myself being the defacto leader of many groups and becoming leader or co-leader of guilds where real world scenarios of incompetence, poor interpersonal skills and appaling communications have to be managed to get the team to accomplish one goal.
Interestingly the challenges grow harder as one progresses further into the game. Recently I had the privilidge of going into a 'Molten Core' instance. An euphemism of the maker of the game for hell (to avoid the wrath of the American Taliban fundamentalists). A party of 40 highest level character, everyone on voice communications (using headsets to talk coordinate with voice across the internet) and working with a high degree of professionalism. A trully memorable experience in any ones book. A journey through hell with a professional possey of adventurers.
This is without a doubt the future of interactive entertainment, large, subscription based, non-linear worlds where people can waste their income and creativity interacting with others.
Bread and Circuses indeed.
Seeing as my holiday is longer than originaly intended, I have lost myself in the world of World of Warcraft. A culmination of a ten year saga of games, from a firm called Blizzard entertainment. This latest instalment, is what is called a MMORPG. A "Massively Multiplayer Online RPG (Role Playing Game)".
Think Dungeons&Dragons of the die-nerd-die pencil and paper fame, only this time the game is played using a credit card and a high end computer. The player journeys through a cartoon like universe of surprising depth. As the character grows more powerful, new challenges open, one gets to wear better gear and respect of youre peers and hatered of your enemies grow. Ah yes, the enemies, unlike most games of this ilk, rather than just the computer controlled monsters, there are two player controlled factions. The Alliance, with the capital city of Iron Forge a union of the industrious Humans, The secretive Elves, the stalwart Dwarves and the gadget making Gnomes. In the other corner, under the banner of the Horde green monster orcs, lanky Trolls, despicable undead and honorable, minotaur like Tauren. Both factions so hell bent on destruction of each other that the players can not even communicate with the other faction. A sad state of affairs in my book, for would it not be wonderful if we could set example for the troubled world of today by making peace in game :)
Still, the game is incredible in its complexity and even after 4 months keeps my interest with new content being added all the time.
This is my first end-game character. A Tauren shaman called "Horns". Residing on the realm of STONESPIRE, Horns is now Level 60, the maximum level a character can reach. This opens up new challenges and loot, measures of characters success.
A shaman is a combination of a warrior, healer and a magician, being very average at each discipline, shamans strength is his flexibility and utility to most roles.
In the image above, Horns sits in the throne of the vanquished Emperor of the dark dwarves in the Black Rock Depths and instance. Instances are party specific areas where a small group of travellers venture in the pursuit of treasure and fame.
The only thing standing in the way of their doom is tight communication and cooperation as a team.
This is a second of my most often played characters, a human female rogue by the name of "Buffy" (as in the vampire slayer). Buffy is the one on the left, dressed in a rare leather armor set, standing next to a Warlock succubus pet.
Buffy lives on the alliance side on the SMOLDERTHORN realm. Rogues are sneaky characters who can turn invisible and cause a lot of grief to the foes but can be vulnerable in some circumstances. Though only level 33, I have learned a lot from playing my previous characters so Buffy's equipment and skill is the envy of many.
Interestingly in the hope of finding some real world application of these 'wasteful' skills I have been improving my leadership skills. Finding myself being the defacto leader of many groups and becoming leader or co-leader of guilds where real world scenarios of incompetence, poor interpersonal skills and appaling communications have to be managed to get the team to accomplish one goal.
Interestingly the challenges grow harder as one progresses further into the game. Recently I had the privilidge of going into a 'Molten Core' instance. An euphemism of the maker of the game for hell (to avoid the wrath of the American Taliban fundamentalists). A party of 40 highest level character, everyone on voice communications (using headsets to talk coordinate with voice across the internet) and working with a high degree of professionalism. A trully memorable experience in any ones book. A journey through hell with a professional possey of adventurers.
This is without a doubt the future of interactive entertainment, large, subscription based, non-linear worlds where people can waste their income and creativity interacting with others.
Bread and Circuses indeed.
posted by Wulfy | 7:36 PM
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