World of Warcraft is an extremely fun game. But as with any other game, the players have to accept the bad that comes with the good.

The Good:

1) The humor - The game packs in silliness and jokes anywhere they can. The voice argument heard when a group nears Dalliah the Doomsayer and Wrath-Scryer Soccothrates is quite amusing, as are the emotes performed by characters when you do a /silly or /flirt. Many of the quests have underlying humor to them as well.

2) Leveling speed - The speed at which your character gains experience is much more friendly to the casual player than many other MMORPGs. You can still feel accomplished after only an hour of game play. For those who enjoy playing alts, the leveling speed is a positive for this, too.

3) The battlegrounds - Even those who have never enjoyed PVP should give the battlegrounds a try. There are 4 different options, each with different objectives and different amounts of players required. You can join as a group with guildmates and friends, or you can enter them on your own.

4) The instances - The various dungeons in the game are very well-done. There are about 35 single group (5 man) dungeons, spanning Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdoms, and the Outlands. If you enjoy raid content, there are a couple of 10-man raid dungeons, several more 20-man raid dungeons, a few 25-man raids, and a handful of 40-man raid dungeons.

The Bad:

1) Content development - Blizzard is SSSLLLLLOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW to release new content. It took them over 2 years to release their first expansion! The player-base will likely dwindle if it takes them over a year to get another one out. Even in our small guild, we have reached near the end of the Burning Crusade content. I think many of us are hoping for an expansion announcement at Blizzcon in August, but we don't want to get our hopes to high as it might take another 2 years to develop!

2) Player base - WOW brought many new players to the MMORPG market. Unfortunately, this seems to include more rude, l33t-speaking asshats than anything else. It also includes (though the numbers are dwindling now) gold sellers trying to sell their wares by spamming you with tells. It is so rare to see a well-named character because so many folks run around with names like Thepriest, BetterThanYou, BeastMastah, Drizzzzzt, and Anarkin.

3) Non-raider equipment - They have made strides in allowing the more casual folks to get better gear, but there is still some frustration in this area. For example, I think many people expected Karazhan/heroics to have a full dungeon set of armor. Instead it only enables players to get 2 pieces?? To get the other 3 you have to do the 25-man raids. How logical is that, folks? I'm ok with raiders having better equipment than me, but please don't tease me with 2 pieces of a set that I cannot complete unless I significantly change my play-style. Still I, suppose 2 pieces is better than the crazy .5 armor quest that my guild spent so many hours trying to get before BC! I think only 2 of us ever completed it. My Virtuous Armor will rot in my bank slots forever as I am too damn stubborn to sell it!

4) PVP vs PVE Balance - Many games struggle with this, so I can't say anything too harsh here. I do think the right direction to go would be auto-equip players with the same gear upon entry to a battleground. Also, to potentially create a separate set of PVP abilities so that one does not nerf a spell that is too powerful for PVP but was just right in PVE. This goes at the bottom of my list though, as I would much rather have faster introduction of new content than this adjustment to balance.

The Ugly:

1) Harbringer Skykriss - Boss of The Arcatraz. He is a big cockroach wearing a robe. Gross.

2) Aasya's old boots - They were of the magenta thigh high variety. I don't care if they were on a female night elf or not, they were scary. (Brasse's note: Aasya is one of the InnMates, long known for her outrageously bad wardrobe habits, dating back to original EQ)

3) Pulling a boss without clearing trash mobs - in the Scarlet Monastery for instance. Never pull the end boss (Morgraine & his priest friend) without clearing out that church. Some of us found out the hard way the first time (ages ago). Now that was ugly.

4) Female dwarves - I mean they don't even have beards!!! What's up with that?


The heart of the matter is this:

I can tell that World of Warcraft is going to be one of those games which years from now, I will speak of with many fond memories - arduous quests completed, epic encounters attempted, and new levels of DOOM achieved that came as part of learning the intricacies of the game with some of my greatest friends. Just like some of the games that currently have a special place in my memory, WOW has its faults, too. But honestly, I haven't yet figured out what I would do if the perfect MMORPG came along. So until then, at least WOW can help me make some memories for future nostalgia.



Tyraenna is the leader of the small but tough guild "InnMates" on Eonar server, and is most often found playing her lamentably beardless Dwarven Priest, Breyna. Look for more of her contributions to our site in weeks to come! ~Brasse