3/14/08--

“Hello, I am a Human Mage from Anvilmar.”

“Pleasure to meet you; I am a Tauren Warrior from Lightning’s Blade.”

This is an example of a normal reality greeting between two players of, arguably, the best game of the 21st century, World of Warcraft.

Immediately following it’s conception in November of 2004, World of Warcraft was named the game of the year by GameSpy Magazine. “WoW” effectively combines numerous interesting journeys with a complex combat system. Says senior James Page, “its extremely engaging and fun.” Page has been on his journey for three years and has recently quit playing to focus on his studies. However, adds Page, “I still think about it all the time.”

Players begin their journey by creating their own character, which can be customized in everything from faces to hair color. They must also choose between many different mythical races, which are divided into the two main factions of the game: the Alliance and the Horde. Once they have decided on a gender and name for their character, the journey will begin.

The basic goal for players is to raise your level from one to 70, which is the current level cap as of the expansion pack World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, which was released in 2007. The main approach to “level up” is doing quests. By doing quests, players dive into the unique history and plot line that the masterminds at Blizzard have been hand-weaving through various other games for decades.

In order to support the masses of players who log on every day, Blizzard created many different server clusters or “realms”. First, there is the Normal Realm, also referred to as PvE (Player vs. Environment Realm). Says junior Graham Berger, “I love the teamwork required to raid with 24 other players.” Raiding involves gathering a certain number of players to destroy computer players and is a common aspect of PvE.

There is also a PvP (Player vs. Player) Realm where the majority of the territory is “contested,” meaning enemy players can fight and kill each other. “It gives me such a rush to fight other players from around the world,” says Page. Then players can assume the role of their character by talking and acting as the character would in the RP (Role Playing) servers. And finally, the RP-PVP combines the social aspect of RP Realms with the rule set of PvP Realms for the best of both worlds.

With all things considered, what has truly made this game so addicting is the endless possibilities of ways to play. Says Berger, “It’s really enjoyable because you basically never run out of stuff to do.”

When faced with the question of certain flaws that WoW may possess, Page spoke for seven million players who log on in the US: “The only thing that they should change is making the game less fun, so I can have my life back.”