World Of Warcraft out tomorrow - 11/23/04

Anyone that knows me pretty well, Rob included, knows that I've been firmly against subscription based games (under which most MMORPG's fall). This has largely been due to the manner of games that have been available. Everquest, Dark Ages of Camelot, etc, all seemed to have the same problem for me, mainly that it took forever to level up and you'd have to go kill hundreds if not thousands of the same monster to reach new levels. This isn't that fun in my opinion, so I wouldn't pay a monthly fee for a game like this.

Well things have changed, and I'll admit it, I'm going to be paying for a subscription based game. Recently, I was lucky enough to get into the World Of Warcraft open beta. Unlike all other MMORPG's I'd tried, WOW puts much, much more focus on completing quests than on just monster killing. You can easily out-level a player who simply goes around and kills monsters by completing the quite well written quests in the games, which makes it an enjoyable experience. Add in excellent graphics, amazing world detail, "killer" PVP interaction, guilds, and Blizzard has got me hooked. I randomly met up with several other players during the test and we had a really great time, so I'm looking forward to exploring more of Azeroth with them.

-David