Secondly, WoW takes place in a persistent world with hundreds of thousands of other players. It’s remarkably fulfilling to produce something, even if it is only virtual - and how many of us could skin an animal and make some armour in real life, after all? That’s true to an extent, but in WoW you actually see the end result rather than being a drone in the corporate machine like most people. “ Great”, you’re thinking! “ Now I can work in a game as well as real life!!”. A couple of things make WoW unique though.įirstly, there is a crafting system where you can actually produce items for yourself and others to use in-game - a set of armour from animal leather, for example - or a sword from iron ore. This may be a vast simplification, but essentially you perform quests (kill something, find something, visit someone), collect treasure, and upgrade your character with better weapons and better/new abilities. What’s it all about then? Set in a typical fantasy world, you create a unique character and are soon off adventuring. If however you’re a normal human being with a good level of self-control, you can probably just play it like most people do, and have fun without any dangerous consequences.

Like anything in life, people who have a tendency to addictions and compulsive behaviour are going to have issues with this game. Suffice to say it has spawned academic discussions on topics such as the gamification of life. You could describe it as the epitome of gaming mechanisms, but that would take us down a long path of discussion we probably don’t have time for today. WoW is indeed the gaming equivalent of crack cocaine, and has been designed (just like FarmVille) with clever rewards to keep the player engaged for longer. Is that attention justified? In many ways, yes. Blamed for deaths throughout the world and the breakdown of numerous marriages, WoW has garnered a lot of attention.

The mother of massively multiplayer online games, World of Warcraft is a 3D adventure/role-play game. If you’ve never heard of the game but would like to give it a try, read on to find out what all the fuss is about, and how you can download it and play World of Warcraft for free, right now. That’s a massive amount of gameplay, by the way. In a bold move to invigorate the aging game, attract new players and just let everyone have a little fun, Blizzard recently announced that the game was now 100% free to play up to level 20. World of Warcraft gets a lot of bad press, yet clearly it’s doing something right to a have a few million players worldwide.

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