World of Warcraft: A World of Misconception

When most people hear the name World of Warcraft(WoW), they think of a game full of anti-social guys who have acne, never had a girlfriend, and do calculus for fun. Although a lot of people will always have some sort of bias about games like WoW, it is not like what people think it is. The game is a universe big enough to support 11 million people, and keep them entertained for months on end.  If  someone actually decides to step into this immersive adventure, they would find that it is almost the opposite of what they might think they’ll find.

First off, if you’ve never even heard of the game, then it is a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) that about 11 million people currently play, and is the most famous and well known of its genre. It is made by Blizzard Entertainment Studios, which has created many famous games over the past 15 years, including Diablo and Starcraft. World of Warcraft is by far their most popular currently, and can be played by any who have some time to dedicate.

One starts out the same as any of the other of the millions of the people who decide to download the free trial for the first time, and that is with no clue what they’re doing. There are so many choices and direction that can be taken before even clicking the “create character” button, such as deciding what race you want to play and what “class” you want to play. These classes range from the elemental master called the shaman to the brute force class called a warrior. After the dreaded “Choose your name” box, then one is launched into a world of overwhelming size that is bound to make everyone feel tiny and insignificant.

After months are spent grinding the first character to the current level cap of 90, they will find a completely new game waiting for them that takes a special kind of person to play efficiently. This is when a lot of the immature kids that pollute the population of any multiplayer game start getting more scarce, and your left with a community of different personalities and interests that are far from the stereotypical WoW player. Everyone starts to form friendships with some of the people in their guild, which is a group of people who set off for a similar goal, and they start to personally talk to each other through something called Ventrillo. Ventrillo is a program which people can talk to anybody who joins their personal channel, and can not only come in handy when many people in the guild are all doing something that requires coordination, but when people have down time they can join with some of the people that they like and shoot the breeze for as long as they want.

From personal experience, I’ve found that there are almost none of the stereotyped WoW players, but there is just about everything else. I have met lots of people ranging from a father of two, and manager of a pepsi factory,  to a stay at home mom, and other high schoolers similar to me. I personally don’t get very close to these people, but some of the people take these friendships to different level. Even though most people don’t see the people they play with personally, the game is still the opposite of anti-social, for when you get to max level you spend most of your time talking to people and forming friendships.

It might not be anything like sports, but you still get at lot of skills just by playing the game. Since I started playing, I type a lot faster than I used to, and feel like I’ve gained a lot of skills in directing a team with precision and being directed myself. In this game, if a team does not have someone who can direct it and people who can follow directions, then they will end up losing the fight or task that they set out to do, and have to start back at the beginning.  Not only do people gain a variety of skills that are useful in life, but also have fun in the process. I’ve been playing since around the age of 13, and have been slightly disappointed with some of the decisions and changes Blizzard has made about the game over the years, but have still greatly enjoyed my time playing.

World of Warcraft is definitely something that a lot of people don’t understand, and is a great game full of awesome people if you take the time to get into it a little bit. It has provided a lot more then just a hobby over the years, and it might have quite a few down sides, but still proves to be very fun. I’ve made many friends, and even though many have long passed, I still keep in contact with a select few through Facebook. There might be some level of nerdism required to play, but there isn’t much of the stereotyped content people think of. Don’t knock it till you try it.

*Featured Image: “WOW Character” @ World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria