For the non-geeks in the crowd, MMORPG stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game. Unlike platform games, where you might be playing by yourself or with a few friends, guild wars gold MMORPGs consist of entire digital worlds where you can play alongside just about anyone. While platform games often have online multiplayer options, MMORPGs cater solely to this idea of parallel realms. But as every geek knows, some are much better than others.
I took my first foray into this facet of geekiness back in 2005 with Star Wars Galaxies (SWG), a Sony Online Entertainment-released realm in which you can outfit your wookie in the best gear, ride around on hovercraft and shoot Imperial scum - or be Imperial scum if you prefer. Never a huge Star Wars fan myself, the friends who¡¯d talked me into the game were quickly growing unhappy with the many so-called ¡°improvements¡± the developers were trying to implement.
The game had its flaws: too heavy an emphasis on grinding (or killing computer creatures for experience), limited planets to explore and of course the parameters of the Star Wars universe to consider. The game was promising, but instead of fixing the problems, the developers kept introducing ¡°upgrades¡± that had the fan base grumbling and increasingly taking off in their landspeeders to an MMOverse far, far away. guild wars gold Many people ditched SWG altogether, including myself, but others stayed behind to work on user-created servers in which fans can play older versions of the game.
My appetite for MMORPGs had awakened, and I considered other avenues. A plethora of MMORPGs exist, including EverQuest (known more commonly as EverFail), Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online. Guild Wars and Final Fantasy XI Online have huge and devoted groups of players. You can pretend to be a superhero in City of Heroes, or if your taste is on the sugary side, there¡¯s Hello Kitty Online. After I did a short stint in Disney¡¯s hideously flawed Pirates of the Caribbean Online, there was really just one choice left: Go WoW, or go home.
Irvine-based Blizzard Entertainment¡¯s World of Warcraft MMORPG is not just massively multiplayer but massively successful, and with millions of subscribers worldwide, the game truly rules over the MMORPG world.
I wasn¡¯t an instant fan of the game, feeling thrown off by my avatar¡¯s cartoon-like appearance after the realism of Star Wars Galaxies, and the first few levels of the game seemed too easy: click on mob (computer creature), click fight, sit back and relax. I wondered why everyone seemed to like this game so much, but I leveled a few times, and suddenly I was sucked in for good. The game becomes incredibly detailed, the worlds to explore seem endless, and now with my own highest-level toon (character) at level 68, there are still many places I have yet to explore. Blizzard makes an effort to create fun and unique quests, and though there are always those darn grinding quests to work through, there¡¯s usually something amazing just around the corner. In one quest for the Dranei Shaman, you are given golden wings and told to fly to a non-player character (NPC) from atop a cliff. When you reach the NPC, you are turned into a seal and swim through the water until you reach the shore, where you are turned into a ghostly panther in order to run across the island in search of the quest¡¯s end. In another quest for Death Knights, guild wars gold you ride atop a skeletal dragon and shoot lighting at the villagers below, swooping down when your dragon is low on health so that it can snap up one of the villagers, chew him up and spit him out from high in the air.
While the endlessly innovative quests keep players coming back to WoW, there are unique instances to play such as dungeons in which you work with a group, arenas in which you can battle your fellow players, thriving economies and a long list of achievements to accomplish. Weeklong festivals, such as Love is in the Air, provide new quests, fun items and opportunities to run around with friends fixing ¡°broken hearts.¡±
