Why WoW?

A few years ago, I ran into a real life friend who played WoW a the same time that I was starting to get into the game.  It was surprising to find someone that I knew who played the game.  Even with 8 or 9 million people subscribed to the game, there was still a stigma attached to the game, so it didn't come up in conversation much.  I'm not sure exactly how it came up in our conversation, but I think it was during swim class with our infant sons.  I kept making a noise in the water that sounded like a murloc and he finally said something about the game.  We got to talking on that day and in subsequent days the conversation occasionally came around to the subject again.  During one of the conversations, he brought up the following question, "I don't understand why the game is so popular.  The graphics aren't that great.  The story is decent, but not anything special.  Why do we keep playing this game?"  After reading my last post, you are no doubt asking yourself the same question.  Especially after my moribund description of descent into addiction and the negative effects of that, "Why the hell are you still playing this game?"

So, why WoW?

Well, as mentioned in that last post, the addiction possibility is low, represented a small portion of my time in the game, and was easily diagnosed and remedied.  So, that's not even a worry anymore.  The graphics of the game might be considered on the low end, especially with some of the photo-realistic games that are being released these days.  I've never been one to say that graphics make a game, though.  Sure, they're nice and there are some beautiful games being done, but it is more about game play and story for me.  "Game play?" You respond (even if you play the game), "Isn't the game play just a endless repetition of quests like kill x of y or collect b of c?"  I could never understand this argument of the virtues of one game (or system) over the other.  Granted, you're not supposed to read comments on blogs (I do other things like run with scissors, too.  I'm a dangerous man) but those are invariably the first comments that I see from people when a new Mario or Zelda game is introduced.  The 360/PS3 CoD fan boys (they might just be trolls, too) come out of the woodwork and start bashing the game with their, "Oh, lazy Nintendo, just keep releasing the same game year after year and your stupid fans just eat it up."  Meanwhile, they're working on their latest kill with the latest gun to get the latest nuke in "Call of Duty: insert some vague military term here".  Don't get me wrong.  I'm not bashing Call of Duty.  I've played Call of Duty and I enjoy the game.  I just don't understand how anyone can be so blind to the soul crushing tedium that exists in any video game.  All video games are doing the same thing over and over expecting that next shiny.  So, the game play argument is invalid.

Back to graphics.  The graphics aren't the best and there have been updates to some of the models, but it is more or less running on the same engine from 8 years ago.  The human models look downright freaky and has ensured that I have never played a human character in my entire time playing the game.  Like I said, though, it is more about story and game play for me.  The game play, as mentioned, might not be revolutionary but even that's secondary in the game to the story.  My friend said that the story was decent, but nothing special.  In game, at the time, that was true.  The story was secondary in the game to the process of advancing the character from level to level via quest.  There was an underlying story in the game and that kept me coming back.  I learned about external, fan built web pages like WoW wiki.  Since I had never played the Warcraft games before WoW, I came to each one of these pages to learn as much as I could about the latest character, town, dungeon that I encountered in the game.  Blizzard has devoted so much time to create this living, breathing, changing world that serves as a back drop for our epic adventures and there is much behind the scenes to learn if you only know where to look.  Recently, Blizzard has extended the in game narrative to include more cut scenes and recurring characters through your journey that lend depth to the game.  Add to all of that the little hidden gems of the game that you can find and you have a well rounded game that some have mentioned could be included as part of an online museum for future generations to discover.

The community is another reason that I keep coming back.  While not as vibrant or friendly as it once was, there are still a number of players who are friendly and fun to talk to and play with.  Always on the lookout for new and interesting ways to meet new and interesting people, this game always delivers on that promise.  There you have it.  Those are the reasons that I keep coming back to WoW time after time.  How about you?  What are the reasons you still play?  What are the reasons you left?  Is there anything that could make you come back?