Albert Art

WoW - the PSO replacement, is taking over my life

Late to the party.

4 years after World of Warcraft launched, I've finally decided to take the plunge into the popular MMO, ending my curiosity about the game and it's drug-like appeal to players, filling the void that PSO left behind. As expected it's taking over my life. "Warcrack," is exactly that.

Not that I would know anything about taking Crack cocaine, but from what I've heard it's pretty addictive, similar to the affects of Blizzard's MMO creation. If you're like me, and have a history of getting hooked to the repetitiveness of lvling up, WoW is certainly something to be avoided.

Case in point, me last weekend. When you find a game more interesting than hanging out with friends, outside, in the real world, you start to seem pretty pathetic.

It all started last Friday, thanks to a friend who during a conversation over dinner, convinced me to sign up. This person had a copy of the game that they got as part of an expansion pack bundle, so they gave it to me to try the 30 day trial.

What was supposed to be a night of watching Pixar's Up with friends, turned out to be an online RPG discussion. We started talking about WoW in detail, and I of course, mentioned how I used to go hardcore when playing Phantasy Star Online for the SEGA Dreamcast. Too immersed in the conversation, we realized rather late, we were gonna miss the last showing of Up. Too full from gorging on the meal of All You Can Eat Hot Pot, we decided that going to see a movie with such full stomachs would cause us to fall asleep during the film. Which would be a waste of movie tix.

Instead, I decided to get the copy of WoW off my friend, went home, and began the installation process. 10 hours or so later, the game had finished installing/patching/updating, and the game was ready to go the next day.

Saturday morning, Kev came up from Seattle to visit Jen. They called me up to hangout, but I was too damn bent on creating my character, and getting right into the madness of WoW, that I totally blew them off to stay in and play the game. How effin' pathetic is that! I'm admitting it on the internet too. LOL

A week has passed since I joined. I'm currently at LVL 20, and am enjoying the game quite a bit. Not sure if I'll renew at the end of the 30 days, if I don't burn out, or get bored with it by then. I just missed the BETA for AION this weekend. (I have my eyes on that game too, when it comes out.)

WoW isn't my perfect MMO drug. I'm not too crazy about the combat mechanics of the game, where players don't have the freedom/flexibility to attack like in an action adventure game, like PSO, where you chain your attacks together with button input. WoW's combat is like playing an RTS, where you basically point, click, and watch the character fight on automatic, which was something I wasn't clear on before I started playing, and is kinda a bummer.

I won't say what server I'm on, but I am Alliance, and I like to clean up ugly Horde trailer trash.

See ya online, ya ganks.

PS. No game will ever truly replace Phantasy Star Online DC.