Back to Warcraft

It has been one of those long days and I have no profound thoughts left. So I’ll ramble a bit about Warcraft.

I played Warcraft I, II and III and when World of Warcraft came out, I started playing that. Like most people, I became a bit addicted to the game. However, after getting an Alliance and a Horde character to level 60, I started to get tired of doing the same quests over and over again. The Burning Crusade was supposed to come out at some point, but it did not arrive soon enough and I stopped giving Blizzard $15 a month to play in their world.

When the Burning Crusade came out, I was not even tempted. I was Warcrafted out. When I heard about the Lich King expansion, my interest increased slightly. This was mainly due to two words: “Death Knight.” I’ve been fond of Death Knights since they first appeared in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (Fiend Folio, 1980). The original Death Knights were fallen Paladins transformed into lich like beings by one of the demon princes (probably Demogorgon). They proved to be a popular monster and have been copied often in various games. Although I’ve run Death Knights as a Dungeon Master, I’ve never played one as a character. Having the chance to do so is rather appealing.

Of course, World of Warcraft is a major time pit. Since Blizzard makes more money the longer you stay in the game paying the monthly fee, things take a lot of time. They have brilliantly found the balance between being so slow that most people leave and so quick that people are done before being properly shorn of as much cash as possible. My friend Dave claims that the game has been improved in this regard. That is probably true, but it would still be a major time commitment.

I did order the Lich King. Yeah, looks like I’ll be back in it again-if only to play a Death Knight for a while.   Christmas Break is coming up and what better way to get in that holiday spirit?