Quitting the World of Warcraft

Since November of 2006 I was a World of Warcraft player. Shortly after being admitted to the Beta for the Cataclysm expansion I simply quit playing.

I've had a lot of time to think about the reason(s) why, if any. It wasn't conscious. It was not something I had planned to do. I recall logging out one night. Then I never logged back in. A few weeks later, I removed my credit card information from my account.

World of Warcraft is an extraordinary experience, in general. Specifically, over time, it became a Groundhog Day-like nightmare. So in that spirit (e.g., the specific), here are some of the things I've discovered about why I quit playing World of Warcraft:

1. I was tired of feeling obligated. More so than in real life, WOW had ultimately become a series of endless obligations. For the uninitiated, that could include leveling up your character. Bound within that task are the quests. The professions. The battlegrounds. The auction house. The holiday events. Once you reach level cap (85), you'll be doing daily quests for gold or honor. You'll be raiding on a regular schedule. You'll be doing daily dungeon runs. If you don't do one or more of these things on any given day, its akin to traditional video gaming's "losing a life" event. You have a feeling of falling behind everyone else in the game world.

2. I was tired of feeling overwhelmed by needing to be somewhere that wasn't real, while in my home.

3. I was tired of the People (note the case). It wasn't a person or group that was the problem; I really did like all the people in my guild. I found myself internally grumbling about the fact that this video game required legions of other People to function properly. I've been playing video games since the Atari 2600 days. In fact, I'm old enough to recall when there were no video games. I'm part of the First Generation of Video Gamers - the ones who can recall going into some local pizza shop or convenience store and seeing a monolith-like black object called Pong had replaced an aging pinball machine. I guess what I'm saying is that I grew up with AI-based friends and enemies, and they are far more interesting to me than... People.

4. I was tired of raiding, and specifically, the absolute insanity that Blizzard decided constituted "fun" in this regard. It seems so insidious, on the surface, that to be the best you can be in WOW requires such insane levels of hand-eye coordination, coupled with the idea that to succeed, the 10 individuals in the raid had to become a single organism. One mistake by any one of the individuals usually resulted in disaster against a raid boss. The learning grind and chaos of reaching the Lich King in Icecrown Citadel was not rewarded, in the end. I was part of my guild's first 10-man group kill of the Lich King, and it was a profound anti-climax. The loot that Arthas dropped was instantly disenchanted. It was unusable. All we gained was the "Kingslayer" title to parade around with, yet the three months of work it took to complete the task was monumental in comparison. This left a very sour taste in my mouth. It was the single greatest disappointment I'd experienced in WOW.

Some part of me misses the daily fix of it all. But that's the craving one feels when one plays a decidedly good game. Forgive me the use of terms usually dropped in relation to addiction. I do not believe video games are addictive. Good games are replayable. Great games are compelling. World of Warcraft is a great game. For a while, anyway.

In the end, I have only a generalization to throw out there (one which no currently-immersed WOW player will agree with): happy people don't play WOW every day. I say that primarily because I discovered, a few weeks after quitting, that I was happier not playing WOW than when I was. In other words, I was unhappy while playing WOW, so I quit. Why did it take me so long to realize I was a gamer who was not enjoying the game?

So today is the day. The Cataclysm expansion for World of Warcraft is released. Is anyone really happy about that? That's a pretty big question, when you think about it. But unlike most World of Warcraft players, I know what I'll be missing by not playing: four more years of the same old crap.

DS = Dual Sexy

On Sunday, June 11th, I picked up my Nintendo DS Lite. I think the 'S' in 'DS' might now stand for sexy. I don't often apply that term to hardware, but it certainly applies here. The default brightness level of the DS Lite is actually twice the brightness of the original unit's highest setting, and thus, warrants immediate purchase. It is curious to note that I now regret trading in various DS titles over the last few years, because no matter what you slot into the DS Lite, it seems like an entirely new gaming experience. Even venerable favorites like Advance Wars: Dual Strike seem tantalizingly refreshed. Then there are titles like Electroplankton. If you haven't already special-ordered this directly from Nintendo yet, please do so. The DS Lite's new brightness levels transform the title into a stunningly psychedelic experience. If you've ever sat in a dark room with Electroplankton fed into a hi-fi, you'll understand what I'm getting at. Those you're performing for will thank you too. Trust me.

Night of the Hunters

I've just been playing Metroid Prime: Hunters on the Nintendo DS. Some of you may be in possession of the (collectible?) MP:H demo game-card (First Hunt) that was included with all Nintendo DS launch systems. If so, you'll appreciate just how far MP:H has come. If not, you're in for an extraordinary experience.

What can you expect? On a presentational level, this game sets a standard. The sound is futuristic, highly evolved. The music flows directly from the Gamecube editions of this series; it's dark, brooding and mysterious. The visuals are extraordinary. You won't quite believe what you're seeing on the DS screens. The framerate is glorious. The environments are breathtaking.

As I often do with Wi-Fi DS games, the first thing I did after booting was log in for some multi-player action. Within a minute or so I found myself in combat. Flawless. I got my ass handed to me 7 to 2, but that had more to do with the fact that I hadn't configured the controls to my liking (should have set it up prior to logging in - let that be a lesson to you all).

The menu systems are excellent, and though wholly focussed on the stylus user or thumb navigator, you can still get around with the control pad and buttons - quickly and without error.

I've only just dug into the single-player experience (and having glanced at the guide, there were 60+ pages of walkthrough). It seems deep, with hundreds of Logbook Entries (creatures, events, places, objects). In multi-player, there are 26 arenas. This game has some longevity built-in.

There is a welcome feature in multi-player that has been missing from prior Wi-Fi DS games - the ability to instantly log an opposing player as a "rival" so you can search for them online at a later time. The system still uses Friend Codes, and features a Hunter's License to track your rank and progress. It logs wins in all game variations, connection history, win ratio, win streak, "lucky" arena, favorite weapon, headshot kills, favorite mode, biped kills, alt-form kills, kill streak, Wi-Fi and wireless play time and total game time. I suspect there may be more. The game features a large list of unlockables. There is also an interesting mode called Rival Radar - which puts your DS into a sort of waking-dream mode. As you make your way in the real world, your DS is scanning your surroundings for other DS owners who happen to have their own DS in Rival Radar mode; if two or more DS units locate each other, "rival" data and Hunter Licenses are exchanged. Next time you look at your rivals roster, it will have grown.

For now that's all I can relate. I need to dig deeper. It is time for battle.

Age of Microsoft

I don't normally partake of anything Microsoft in my personal life, but Age of Empires DS: Age of Kings seemed like a winner. The maddening nature of RTS games had been jettisoned in favor of the elegance of turn-based combat. Being a huge fan of Advance Wars: Dual Strike (still the superior title), I used some trade at EB Games to pick up AOE:DS.

During the Battle of the River Crossings in Japan (1159-1160), I faced a fearsome opponent: Yoshinaka, a distant cousin who'd led a surprising revolt against the ruling Taira. Little did I know, he was in league with the dark forces of Microsoft. As I took the main bridges, cornering him, he used his special power: CRASH THE NINTENDO DS SYSTEM.

Now, admittedly, all the commanding officers in the game have special powers - but this is just ridiculous, wouldn't you say? I suppose the Mark of the Beast (Microsoft logo) on the packaging should have been a warning.

To be honest, I don't even want to play the game anymore. I have never had a hand-held game crash on me. Ever. In my whole life. From the thumb-battering Mattel blip-fests of the 70s to the Lynx and a whole slew of Gameboys, not once have I seen a game freeze. Reports on the web have revealed that this crash can cause a fatal error in the gamecard. It can never be used again. My own gamecard seems to function after a hard reset. Others haven't been so lucky.

So where do I want to go today? How about to a planet that isn't infested by Microsoft? Or perhaps back to EB Games, before my copy of Age of Empires DS is... history.