As promised, this is Lauriean's impression of her romp with me in World of Warcraft. I'm happy to find that she had more fun than I thought based on my impression of the evening. Night one didn't seal the deal, but it certainly left room for hope.
Lauriean aka Xuxa in her own words...
The Dreaded Download
For the love of all things right and natural, would it kill Blizzard to let you know that they are too cheap to buy a fast server, so there's a better chance of Jesus coming back a THIRD time before this game finishes downloading? Seriously, I would have appreciated a note saying that downloads could take up to 24 hours online, including patches, etc. I wasn't expecting that long of a wait, especially since it's been a year since I played an online game, and even then, I started with a CD.
My Poison of Choice
I chose to be a warlock. Even though I'm not all that keen on killing in a game, the thought of having weapons at the ready with names like "Searing Pain" and "Curse of Agony" sealed the deal. The warlock seemed like a character not to be trifled with.
Thoughts on Killing
The graphics aren't nearly as bad as I thought they would be in this respect. My concern was that I was going to see the levels of macabre and unsettlingly realistic gore that I've seen in other games. WOW isn't anywhere near as graphic in it's depiction of death, so I was able to enjoy the playing more than I thought. I still am not totally comfortable with the idea of killing my way to the top of a game, especially when I know there are millions of other people out to kill ME to get to where they want to go.
I can't help but wonder why, when you think of the most popular games across all platforms, nearly all come down to killing and causing harm to as many people as possible, in the most graphic terms available. Just gives me something to think about. Anyway, I'm in Rome now, and shall do as the Romans. So if I see you, and you're trying to kill me, know that me and my shadow bolt are gonna bring the PAIN!
Haven’t You All Had Enough Fantasy?
Another thing that I didn't find as incredibly nauseating as I thought it would be, is the fantasy genre of the game. I really can't stand the idea elves, gnomes, middle/under/over earth, and whatever else. However in my first night of play, it didn't seem to bother me at all, and I believe helped to immerse myself into character and have a little fun with it. I won't be running off to rent LOTR anytime soon, but I can certainly appreciate the genre within this game.
Overall Impression
Overall, I had a lot of fun playing this game. A lot of it was because Lauren and I were playing together. However there were a few moments I thought of sneaking back onto the game to adventure for a bit. However the fear of not being able to find my way back, or just ending up dead for some stupid reason kept me from logging back on. It's too soon for me to say if I'd keep the playing after the trial, but I've only played for one night. Let's see how it goes after another couple rounds.
Noob Friendliness Verdict
I am SO glad Lauren was there to show me around and help me get started. I didn't find a couple of the quests very intuitive enough for a beginner, so if she wasn't there, I wouldn't have known where to start. Overall, I think the game is fun and I enjoyed playing WOW, largely because I was able to play with Lauren and we have such a great time gaming together. Will I keep playing after the trial? It's a little early yet to say, after all I've only played for one night. But let's keep going and see what happens!
Interesting viewpoint. The downloads issue is a big one. It would be nice if Blizzard would get on that. I do hope your friend does try and go out on her own here and there - she may be surprised!
Posted by: Christine | February 10, 2007 at 12:46 PM
Great post...
On the killing...just remember that these are digital 1s and 0s you're "killing", nothing more, nothing less. Its like erasing your hard-drive :)
I hope you stick with it.
Posted by: darrenl | February 11, 2007 at 03:55 PM
Interesting post, I would agree on most of her thoughts on the game. But I think the "killing" isn't a big deal. If you think about it, killing has and will always be apart of human (on earth....) history. War? Murder? Suicide? Of come to terms with the fact humans are savage. So anything "killing" related isn't as a big deal to me as it is to her.
Posted by: Rokman | February 12, 2007 at 08:52 AM
Oh, and I hope she sticks with the game, too!!
o_o? (in previous post by me) Of = I've
I dunno where I messed up on that, hahaha.
Posted by: Rokman | February 12, 2007 at 08:54 AM