World of Warcraft

I friend recently recommended that I give a look at World of Warcraft, the latest MMORPG to hit the market. WoW comes with a boatload of hype, mostly due to the incredibly successful Warcraft: Orcs vs. Humans RPG series. WoW, however, is an entirely different beast than the previous games (which didn\’t interest me in the least). WoW is a fully 3D world teaming with life and critters of all kinds. Since I enjoyed Star Wars: Galaxies and City of Heroes for a season, I thought I\’d give World of Warcraft a spin.

There is a storyline that goes along with the game, but I haven\’t delved too deeply into it. Suffice it to say that there is an epic battle between two sides. Never heard THAT story before, have you? ;-)

I created a human/warrior character named Riathamus (after the character in G.P. Taylor\’s Shadowmancer) and jumped right into the action.

Without exception, WoW is the most beautiful online game I have ever feasted my eyes on. The attention to detail is absolutely staggering. From the villages and cities to the creatures and players, this is a world so gorgeous to look at that it is easy to get lost just exploring and forget that you are on a quest of universal importance.

So far, my character has made it level 10 by slaying a bunch of critters, running some delivery tasks and exploring new areas. The world is absolutely massive, but it is anything but mundane. I have barely touched the tip of the iceberg as I am still a novice, but I look forward to dabbling some more in the game as my free month progresses. Whether or not it will keep my interest beyond this period remains to be seen.