Gaming Corner

World of Warcraft was sold as the solution to the mmorpg grind. From the initial install and character creation it almost seems true. The average person (read: not gamer) can hit level 10 in a few hours. Amazing level progression, a good pace, inspiring interest in the latest skill or spell. Consistant growth and exciting new places. The game seems almost perfect, but then something happens between level ten and level twenty. The ratio of dead rats to dings exponentialy increases. This is not unexpected for the hardcore entheusiast but for console gamer; it is a pain not unlike waiting in line at a bank. Something happened and the game becomes concommitant on how well you perform in a team. If the casual player cannot find a team or finds themselves turned away for whatever reason they no longer have a choice, the game strategy strongly favors the group atmosphere of ballanced teamplay. Forced to play solo they are stripped of all comparative progression. The vast majority of the game takes place in Epic instances designed for a team of five or fifty players to accumulate and horde unimaginable treasures. If you number among the pariah you will not experiance what World of Warcraft has to offer. The game divides players into two catagories 'Those who can (raid) and those who can't. This oversight on the part of the developers could be easily corrected by creating sloping instances, simply making all existing dungeon accesible to the lone wolf, with fewer and weaker monsters. Ensuring every player has the same opportunity to advance and enjoy the game. As it stands now the bloated number of subscribers that blizzard flaunts are fallacious and dwindling. I can see no reason why any game or company would exclude its players from participating in every aspect of fair play. To deliver any less than everything alludes to an insidious plot to beguile monthly subsciption in exchange for progress. This deception is not necessary. All players are introduced to the game by existing social networks, friends or familly that play. The mechanics of the game actually dissolve these networks by creating (time sinks) obstacles to mutual copesetics. The game is not condusive to an adult lifestyle. If it were possible to enjoy the game casualy Blizzard would have reinvented recreation, ursurping the most venerable games in history (chess,checkers,monopoly, battleship) instead they chose to kill the golden goose.