Confessions of a WoW Addict

The most compelling games I've played have not been the ones with the best graphics, or the shiniest game features. No, they have been the ones which are immersive, the ones where I can devote hours, days, months, and in the best-case scenarios, years to unlocking their secrets, and experimenting with every aspect of play.

I spent years of high school and college playing the Baldur's Gate series, and Diablo II. And I still played them long after their interfaces had grown clunky and their graphics were out of date, simply because they had a great story to tell. I've often compared a good computer game to a good book, because it sets a great scene, has great characters, and draws you into the action. The best part of roleplaying (RP) games is that they let you become the protagonist. And when I find a game which lets me be a good protagonist, I'm hooked.

Most modern RP games allow a high level of interactivity. You choose your race, gender, class and appearance. Some games even allow for "alignment" based on your in-game decisions. Given all these factors, there are dozens, sometimes hundreds of permutations for game play.

But in most single-person RP games, there comes a time when the final monster has been vanquished and the ultimate treasure has been looted. A time, in short, when there is nothing left for your character to do. In the worst cases, your ability to play the avatar you've spent weeks of your life with is terminated with the final cut-scene and your name on the in-game high scores list - the ultimate authoritarian end to the world you've spent so much time exploring.

WoW to me is therefore the quintessential eternal game. There will never come a time when the game is "over," no matter how many times you slay Arthas. And no matter what level your character is, you can always come back and play them again.

Of course, from a financial standpoint, it's better to create a game which people will play for years, a game which is basically serialized, not to mention social, and possessed of a random number generator which makes you forever wondering what better treasures await you if you only fight that boss again. MMORPGs were made to allow near infinite interactivity, and for this same reason they have also been likened to addictive substances. And among many, WoW has been called the "gateway drug" to the world of MMOGs.

Does this mean I've become a slave to my monthly WoW fee, and another junkie geek waiting for my next "hit" of content? Maybe.

But it also means I've become a WoW addict with just cause: the game isn't over yet, not by a long shot. In fact, if we're to believe the powers that be who touched on this subject at BlizzCon, the work on the new expansion is already well underway, and will be nothing like any of us expect.

And just like the way serialized content was unlocked with each successive patch in the Burning Crusade, the "end-game" content in Wrath hasn't even hit us yet. No, we should be expecting that post patch 3.1.x.

So to those who decry Wrath for being to easy or too short, remember that there's more coming. And even if Arthas falls, there's more story for us all to unlock in the world of Azeroth. I for one will be happy to pony up to the next expansion when it comes.