World of Warcraft: A Woman's Perspective

Not many people understand me when I state that I am a level 33 night elf druid with restoration skills on World of Warcraft, or WoW, for short. My sisters all call me a dork, my best friend and my husband all say I am stupid for playing. But I don't care. I am an official WoW addict. I try to limit my time played to only four hours a night, after my kids have gone to bed, but sometimes I play when they are taking naps, or even eating. World of Warcraft is my guilty pleasure.

The lure of WoW is unmatched in my opinion to any other on line game such as Diablo I and II, or to any on line gaming Web site, such as pogo. In WoW I get to be something I am not, a fighter, with the ability to shape shift into many shapes such as a bear or a panther, or a cheetah for traveling faster. I get to ride hypogryphs and see Dwarfs, Draenie, Elves, Taurens, mages, undead, and see many other mythical or unreal creatures.

I had originally bought this game as a surprise for my husband, intending to give it too him as a gift while he's deployed, but I dropped a hint about getting it for him and he told me he doesn't like those types of games. So I kept it instead of returning it to the store. That was my downfall. I loaded it onto the computer, set up an account, just to see what it was like, and was only planning on playing for the free month that comes with the game. Much to my surprise, I fell in love with everything about the game.

The second day of playing I was invited to join a guild, a large or sometimes small group of people who help each other with quests and dungeons, and to generally just help each other out with anything, from finding a spot where a quest is supposed to be, to enchanting armor and weapons. The guild that I am in is called Illusions of Immortality, and I have to say that it's the best guild to be in. It's got great people, great guild masters, people who are always willing to help with anything, and as long as you play nice with others, and say thank you, the people in it will always be kind. I am at the level now where I can help others with their own quests, which I was eagerly awaiting, since all I did my first three weeks was ask questions and get help from higher ranking "guildies" a term used for the other members in the guild.

And to anyone interested in getting this game, there are a couple of add-ons that are essential to the game, I don't know how I did it without them to begin with. The first one is called Quest helper. You can get it at wow.curse.com under the add-ons section. Also install the curse client, as it will automatically download the add-ons onto your account. There is also an add on called Cartographer, showing you all of the world maps, including places you haven't been to yet.

Alright, back to the game. The graphics are very good, not excellent, but good. The general idea behind World of Warcraft is neat, being something you are not, killing and fighting beside mystical beings. The quests are all different, although they have the same general idea, either being an errand runner, or killing something, or numerous somethings. The dungeons are fun, my favorite would have to be Black fathom deeps off of the Zoram strand, and Gnomer, although that one can be a pain if you have some one who is new to the game and wont listen too your advice. I am going to say that this is probably one of my favorite games of all time, including console games. I love the Mario brothers, but they have nothing on my Druid and what she can do.

So I give this game a 5 on a scale of 5 due to "addictabilty," low cost ( 14.95 a month), fun, and general creativity to Blizzard.

World of Warcraft can be purchased on the Web site, from www.blizzard.com and from nearly every Wal-Mart