WoW: Third Time Lucky
By Pazy 10 Comments
Recently I started playing World of Warcraft. Truthfully, I should be saying I started replaying World of Warcraft since this is my third attempt to get into World Of Warcraft and my second retail purchase of the WoW Battle Chest.
To give a little perspective I started playing WoW originally sometime in late 2006 shortly before the release of the first expansion pack (Burning Crusade) and I played for the full term of the free trial. This was my ever exposure to the MMORPG genre and I did not like it. I am unsure of exactly what I didnt like, all I can really remember is that everything that happened felt worthless and disconnected. I can say little more for my first exposure to WoW since it was quite short and such a long time ago but it did leave a sour taste in my mouth in regard to WoW and the greater MMORPG (and MMO) genre.
My second attempt came a little over 2 years later in the run up to the release of Wrath of the Litch King, I wonder if you noticed the pattern that is beginning to form, and again I got a trial account and played for the trial period but this time I purchased the Battle Chest in order to play with a friend who wanted to try it out. That friend never showed up to the game and I went ahead myself since I had already bought the game. I ended up getting up to level 17 as a Human Warrior but I dont think I ever once got into a party the entire time which was a major sticking point for me. I also felt the combat to feel disconnected, I felt like I was watching animations happen while a spreadsheet was running underneath, although I was affecting the spreadsheet I didnt feel like I was the one in combat. I ended up giving up on the game before my 30 day's had even ran out and forgot about the game for another two years.
In the intervening years I tried out a number of free MMO's since I had a niggling feeling that I should be enjoying this genre but I never managed to get very far into any of them. That was until around six months ago when I joined a few friends who were playing Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online (Megaten) and I had a similar reaction as I had to other MMO's I had played, I kept going since I had promised and I enjoying playing with friends and without warning I was enjoying playing the game. I am unsure of what cause this change but I kept playing, I was suddenly the one asking for people to come on and run a dungeon (partially because thats most of what Megaten has).
The above screenshot is not very current but its what I had to hand.
I am pleased that I ended up enjoying my third try of WoW, partially from a monetary stand point, but I find it annoying that I cant tell why I am enjoying it when I didnt before. Although WoW has changed its only in small ways, from my perspective, so I cant attribute my new found passion to WoW itself instead the only answer I can find with any credibility is that I have changed or at least how I view this game has changed.
I may try and write up some impressions so far of WoW, currently I am a level 27 Human Warrior specialising in tanking with mining and engineering. Although I cant commit to anything, I had started a piece of my experiences with Final Fantasy VII but I have only played an hour greater than what I wrote about so I have never had the urge to continue that blog.
