We interrupt this website to bring you an important news bulletin.

Dan, long an outspoken opponent of MMORPG’s and their place in the gaming community, has begun playing World of Warcraft.

For more on this story, we go live to Stormwind where a press conference is already under way…

You…there in the back?

I guess the question on everybody’s minds is, Why now? What’s changed your mind?

Yes, well I was expecting this one. As much as I’m sure certain folks would like to take credit for “breaking” my resolve, I’m afraid that’s just not the case here. I can’t say that my qualms about the genre as a whole have ever been countered by anyone that was trying to convince me to play this game. The “money-back guarantee” offered by Jeff was certainly intriguing as far as no-lose propositions go, but that only addressed one issue I had with the game.
The fact of the matter is that I’ve always considered myself to be a fairly open-minded guy, but it occurred to me that I was being very closed-minded about the MMORPG. I’ve never tried one, and I had a slew of reasons why not, but that didn’t change the fact that I was speaking from an uneducated position. If I was going to offer my opinion, it had damn well better be an informed one. Given the number of people I know that are playing WoW and the “n00b-friendly” nature of the game, I figured that if ever there was an optimal time to try one out, this is it.

Now that you’ve been playing it for a week, how do you feel about the aforementioned qualms?

I would have to say that at this point, some of them have been confirmed while I’ve been able to write off others as skewed perspective. For example, the notion that the game just keeps going on and on and will never work towards a conclusion (ie. you will never be able to “beat” the game) overlooks a fairly substantial point…in any game, it’s the gameplay itself that is the reward, while the conclusion is an award. In WoW, you are awarded XP, items and/or money with the completion of each quest, of which there are literally thousands. Strutting around in some rare fancy cape for all to see while you weave powerful spells and strike the hearts of men with awe as you pass through town certainly feels more enticing to me than, say, the ending of Halo 2, for instance. When the gameplay is this satisfying, you don’t need to be working towards “beating” it, simply enjoying it.
As for a confirmed problem, I’ve always taken issue with the subscription fee and the timesink factor…having to continue to pay more and more for a single game when I have dozens of untouched premium titles sitting on my shelf collecting dust. I shouldn’t really even feel a need to get any new game, much less one that will require me to continue paying it for the privilege of ignoring all those other games. If anything, I think I underestimated the severity of the addictiveness of WoW, as hours melt away into the night while you take a jog to finish that one last quest.

What are your thoughts about the social aspect? Is it the expensive graphical chat room you’ve always claimed it to be?

Not at all, I’ll totally bite the bullet on this one. Even when everyone is on at the same time, I have yet to come across a time where everyone was standing around doing nothing but talking. There is always something to do (often 7 or 8 things that need doing at once) and the chatting with those people I know has been mostly game-related. As for the people I don’t know, I’ve found it to actually be a pretty enjoyable community overall. Sure there are still assholes and spammers around, it’s unavoidable that someone out there has a good time by ruining yours, but all of that ceases to matter the first time a random stranger runs by you on the road and casts a spell on you increasing your attributes, and then just keeps on running right by. No thanks necessary, no expectation of reciprocation…the world seems to be abound with random acts of kindness, and it makes you want to return the favor as well. Additionally, I’ve come across several instances where a slightly higher level player will come along and offer to party up with you to help you with some of your quests. Again…no material rewards necessary, they do it because it’s fun (which it is). Kinda sad that it takes a game to make you feel right neighborly with those around you.
I’ve got time for one more question…

Where will you go from here? Is your opinion forever changed?

I don’t know that it’s forever changed, only that Blizzard has crafted another excellent game in which I’ve barely even begun to scratch the surface. A man has to admit when he’s wrong about something, and I will freely do so. Don’t expect me to start showing up on Everquest servers or anything like that, although I suppose I might take another look at Anarchy Online, since it is still free for another 4 months, I believe. If for nothing else other than simply comparative purposes I would be interested to see just how far apart from the rest of the pack World of Warcraft stands. As for moving forward, as long as I can pry myself away from time to time to play something else for a bit, I guess I’ll keep up with it. I will be very interested to see just how beautiful this game can get once the new gaming bomb is complete in a few weeks. The journey to Level 60 begins with a single step.

Thank you all for coming and blowing a complete non-occasion so far out of proportion.

And there you have it. As Dan walked out of the room he made it a point to flip off each and every one of us… Real stand up guy.

Back to you, Tom.

Thank you for tuning in. We now return you to your regularly scheduled tomfoolery.