On Warcraft

Tasking me with playing World of Warcraft has got to be, arguably the most difficult tasks I have had to undertake. To be fair, WOW is not the difficult of a game to get into. What is difficult, however, is growing up in the ranks.

When I fist signed into the game, it wasn't 15 minutes before I was at level 2. So I thought to myself, making 10 levels will be a piece of cake. I got into the game with gusto, knowing that it was just one of the many on my to-do list. I ran errands and killed stuff; I ran around using my new found powers to live an let die when I realized that killing was the way up the level ladder.

After a while, I tired of killing. I know now that were I an avid gamer, I'd be an achiever. That's all I wanted. Were it possible to achieve without killing, I'd be very happy with that option. So I circumvented the errands, since they involved a lot of killing and made do with looking around outside of my comfort zone. I got into trouble soon, though. I learned that just because I wasn't interested in killing didn't mean the meanies out there would leave me alone. I died. I resurrected; died and rose again so many times I lost count. The last time I died, however, even though I found my corpse myself, I was without a weapon. What to do; what to do!

I killed one of those defiance nuts and got myself a shield as loot. Gotta love a good loot; one that you an use! That helped along in my battles. Most of all, I discovered that I could actually take on opponents with my bare hands and take them down!

Still I felt this urge to get me a weapon and so I wondered from my safety zone only to find myself in a completely different city/region altogether. First I was in a fascinating city that had canals, and parks, and squares, libraries, and all indicators of modern civilization. What I needed was a trainer, and none of those uppity folks in the city would give me the time of day. So off I I wondered, only to find myself in some military lair; there was a tunnel in which I went around and round until I stumbled, or in WoW speak, discovered what I prefer to call the Tundra region.

It was miles of forests, deserts, snow-blown mountains, and exotic-looking places. What I noted was its frost-molded landscapes, frozen roads and even more blood-thirsty killers to match the frozen temperatures. It was all I could do to get myself out of there. Try as I could, I succeeded in embedding myself even more. Suddenly Elwyn Forest seemed like the SC Botanical Gardens. I longed to return there and so I got myself killed, thinking that would oust me from the cold. No such luck! I was resurrected after failing to scale the frozen mountain to locate my corpse. I lost all the copper I had obtained from grazing the defiance nuts in the area. Still, however, no weapon. I got fatally attacked by about 9 level 9 lepers twice. What's interesting is that when you set out to find your corpse, just when you are about to reenter it, the killers can sniff you or something, if you happen to be in enemy territory.
And they pounce as soon as you are alive!

As a Paladin, I found myself fighting back the evil forces with one mighty hammer. I couldn't help thinking that there was more to being a Paladin than my lacklustre performance accorded me. For example, I was unable to cast spells or heal even myself. I did not resurrect dead players, could not find armor to wear even though I had some Plate armor in my loot. I figured I need training but somehow I could never find the trainer nor the school. As a result, my which defense was greatly compromised.

It's easy to understand the attraction of WoW; who can match the satisfaction for gamers that comes with the very real sense of accomplishment they get when they gain a level in experience and strength? Floods of light, noticeably rising levels and a daring adventuresome thrill that can only come from such reckless abandonment.

Still I was baffled by this idea of game in a war game. WoW is rhetorically a war zone. You fight or you are fought; you kill or get killed. You cannot simply sit around and socialize; there is no fun in that. What is the motive behind WoW? I hope avid gamers can respond to this query.

Perhaps the concepts of game/play are understood differently in WoW. Wikipedia defines WoW as a "is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG)," a fantasy. Granted, my Paladin character was fighting the environment--the landscape, the monsters, etc. And Wikipedia adds that "it is also through the use of quests that much of the game's story is told." Quests are the way the player is led through the game. However I found the quests rather repetitive and, in way, mindless. It felt like having 500 channels to surf and still wondering weather or not there is something else to watch.

Now on level 7, I am still struggling with the concepts of game and war. They are binaries to me and yet they are at the core of WoW. And examining other forms of play perhaps reveals that these two are not peculiar to WoW. Think about ball games, racing, riding, boxing, even politics, I suppose; all invovle quashing one's opponent. Gamers in those worlds have perfected the art of doing what it takes to be on top of their game.
I don't know if my fascination with WoW will survive beyond this class.
We'll see!