TechgnosisWeb Prime

… because you care enough to be the very worst.

First off, a quick note to those of you who have been wondering why the radio.blog selection of songs never changes: it’s because I’m lazy. But there’s a bit of a song shakeup coming up on it, don’t worry. In the meantime, I added a new song to the lineup, in honor of the bit abut the Creationists yesterday: MC Hawkins’ Fuck the Creationists, a lyrical masterpiece that says all I want to say about that. Go have a listen over on the radio.blog to your left.

And now to the topic at hand: World of Warcraft. I’m in the public beta, spent all of yesterday and today downloading the 2.5GB client, and finally got it installed earlier tonight, and got to play for a couple of hours tonight. So what’s the verdict? So far, so good.

I created an Undead Warlock, a pretty popular choice, apparently, judging by the amount of red-robed undead running around the area of the world where I first spawned. I figure picking up a magic user, and one who mainly uses pets, to boot, would be a good test of whether the game’s any good. Way I figure it, if they can keep me from getting frustrated in the initial levels with a magic-user, the game can’t be all bad… you know what I mean, other games that I won’t name where the first 10 or so levels as a magic-user suck the big fat one: “I can cast 1 Magic Missile, which does 2 points of damage if it doesn’t miss, and then I have to rest for half an hour before casting another one.”

I’m glad to say the game didn’t disappoint me there, though. Mana regeneration is quick and smooth, and from level 1 I was flinging Shadow Bolts to and fro like a pro. Before my first hour of play was over I was setting critters on fire and summoning wicked imps to do my bidding, and not having to depend on the dinky dagger magic-users invariably start with. The game does a good job of getting you started and off on the right foot, giving you a context-activated series of help menus that explain how to do things as you go along, so you’re never lost, either.

One thing I really like about the game from the short while that I played tonight, is the quests. Many other MMORPG’s just dump you in the world, and expect you to spend a few weeks mindlessly leveling up before you hit level 20 or so and things finally start getting somewhat interesting. WoW doesn’t do this, though. From the very beginning, you’re given short quests to complete. While it’s your choice to do the quests or not (you can still run mindlessly around and level up), the quests give someone like me, who prefers goal-oriented gameplay, much more solid ground to stand on. Sure, the beginning quests are mostly the usual “Kill 5 of those, bring me the heads of 8 of those others.” type of thing, but there’s a bit of variety as well, and at least you’ve always got a few goals to pursue at any given point. In my first couple of hours alone I was given over 10 different quests, and completed about half of them, getting instant equipment and XP rewards. Good stuff.

I’ll keep playing while the open beta lasts, and see if the good feeling continues. If it does, I just might have to break down and buy this one. So far, it’s looking like a gem. I’ll be talking more about it often, I’m sure.