By Pminton

So, around the first of the year I downloaded a free trial of a little game you might’ve heard of. As the matter of fact, if you haven’t heard of it you should check your pulse. Because you’re probably dead.

I’m talking, of course, about World of Warcraft.

Now, I’ve done my fair share of Everquesting, Dark Aging in Camelot, Hero-ing in cities and participating in the Final Fantasy - you know, the eleventh one. That being said, I’ve always considered myself to be a hobbyist, if you will, with MMOs. But apparently that’s changing…and it’s a little scary.

Now, not only do I blog, shop Thinkgeek and play Wee War at work, but I read the WoW Wiki, Worldofwarcraft.com forums, and Thottbot. I now plan in-game instance runs through a Google group specifically set up for that purpose. I find myself thinking about how to be a more effective priest at inopportune times. Meetings are especially bad. For example:

Supervisor: So, Patrick, what do you think we can do to boost book circulation on the IT end?

Me: Well, I would suggest dropping Shadow Word Pain and Mind Blast as soon as possible, pop a bubble and then wand the thing to death. What?

But it’s not an addiction. I can quit anytime I want.

Although, I have never had a game so completely occupy my mental facilities. Not since Starcraft and maybe Diablo II has a game so completely infiltrated the way I think. You know you have a problem when walking toward someone on the street you start to veer away so as to not activate aggro as you move past. Not that I’ve ever done that - I’m talking about a friend of mine…who also plays WoW.

Not me. My friend.

So, what makes the game so effing addictive? Here’s my guess:

On the surface WoW is not that different than any other fantasy-based MMO. You kill stuff, you get XP (experience points for n00bs), you get better gear, you level up, repeat. The cooperative play is better in World of Warcraft than in most other Massive Multiplayer games - with the exception of City of Heroes, which, in my opinion, might take the teamwork aspect too far. But that’s one of the big hooks.

WoW also has three previous RTS (Real Time Strategy) games with huge and compelling storylines to draw from. Other MMOs lack an overarching story to propel the player through neverending quests. In World of Warcraft, nearly everything you do has some relevance to the story or some small subplot. Whether you choose Horde or Alliance, you begin in a world nearly drowning in references to Jaina Proudmoore, Arthas Menethil (a Paladin in Warcraft III that *spoiler* turns into a Death Knight under the Lich King’s control), The Scourge, etc.

I’m going to say that this is probably the reason a lot of fans of the original three Warcraft RTS games stick around for WoW, but there are over 8,000,000! subscribers (compared to the 500,000-ish subscribers for Final Fantasy XI circa June 2006) worldwide and I imagine that not all of them had played Warcrafts I-III. Hell, a lot of the players you’ll encounter in Azeroth weren’t even alive when WC1 and WC2 were released.

A major part of the reason I keep playing the game has less to do with the game itself, and more to do with socialization. Now, before you say, “Hey, nerd! Go hang out with people in real life!” let me interject that I do that too. But WoW lets me talk to and interact with friends that have moved away. We chat on our Ventrilo server while we’re playing more than we ever would on the phone.

We’re guys, after all. We don’t call each other anyway. We don’t even like each other that much, really. Wait. Why am I playing with you jerks in the first place…?

Another feature of World of Warcraft that keeps people coming back is the game’s economy. Blizzard has put in place a pretty impressive economic system that nearly completely revolves around the players. Sure, monsters drop money and you can sell stuff to NPC (Non Player Characters) vendors, but the real money to be made is in the hub of the player fiduciary system: The Auction House.

The AH (as it’s known in WoW lingo - imagine that) is an in-game Ebay. You literally can find and/or sell almost anything in the game at the Auction House. You need a lite-brite? Look on Ebay. You need some buzzard meat? Look on the WoW Auction House. Seriously, if you happen to be an economics professor and would like a microeconomic example of supply/demand, have your students roll a WoW trial character and watch the transactions that go on in a day in the AH.

Even trades between players that forego the Auction House show how well thought out and effective the economic system in World of Warcraft is. If you need a golden rod, for example (don’t ask what they’re for, you might be sorry), you can look on the Auction House, but if that fails, what do you do? You find a PC (Player Character, natch) that has Blacksmithing as a profession and ask if he can make one for you. You might have to provide the materials, and he’ll expect a tip (probably) for his work, but it still gets you what you need if you can’t make it for yourself. And what’s this? A tidy segue into….

Professions. There are ten major professions from Mining to Tailoring with things like Alchemy and Engineering in between. Of these ten, any PC may take two as their jobs. It’s nice to take two complimentary professions so you can help your fellow players and/or make some money by selling your goods. For example, in the higher levels, Tailoring combined with Enchanting makes some awesome cloth armor that sells rather nicely on the AH (so I’m told). Basically, there are few things in the game that you need that you or another player can’t make. Again, very thorough.

That said, I haven’t seen a prophylactic-smith yet. Maybe in the next expansion.

There are a ton of pop culture references in the game to keep geeks on their toes. For example, (this is something I heard from a friend, so grain of salt, please) there is apparently a mechanic of some sort in a Horde area in the Outlands named K. Lee and talks about things being “shiny” a lot. In Un’goro Crater there are tons of Nintendo references - in one area you have to kill gorillas. Can you guess what loot the gorillas leave behind? Yup, barrels. There is a gyrocopter pilot around Azshara named Xiggs Fuselighter and if any of you can tell me for who and from which fandom he is named you win a bunch of bonus points.

So you see, if you dig down into WoW you find a lot of reasons why people lose themselves in the game. It’s an alternate reality. Instead of being a lowly IT worker, I can be Psion - a shadow priest that heals while he kills! Instead of a programmer, you could be a bad-ass warrior with two gigantic maces and lots of plate armor! Instead of a teacher you could be a warlock with a demonic minion and super-hurtful spells. It’s an easy escape into a fantasy world that millions of people find appealing.

There are, of course, those who take it too far - like these folks - but for the most part the people playing are just trying to get a little release by pretending to be someone else. Come on, who doesn’t do that. Especially in the bedroo-. Er.

Honestly, if you like video games at all (and it doesn’t count if you only play Madden ‘0x, so put your collar down, flip your hat the right way and talk your ‘bros into playing something else), I would suggest giving a trial account a try. If you do, you’ll be able to understand what this means: WTB [runecloth] x20 PST.

And you never know, you might just find your soul mate in the lands of Azeroth. Be careful, though. They could end up being Tauren.