***Article by Leah Stewart
WoW: A Review
The game of many different faces World of Warcraft, (WoW). In it you can engage in PvP (Player vs Player), PvM (Player vs Monsters), go raiding, and casual questing all in a computer generated world that is so well coded it allows you to retrace your footsteps if you get lost. WoW has stood the test of time in the gaming world. Over that time it has evolved into something bigger than anyone ever before in a mmo. The World of Warcraft started 23 November 2004. In November of this year World of Warcraft will celebrate its eleventh anniversary. WoW from the start pushed the boundaries of PC gaming. It gave gamers a whole world of quests and adventures.
Originally the leveling cap (the highest rank a player could achieve) in the game was Level Sixty. In the game there were, and still are, raids (quests set usually in labyrinth like dungeons ) players grew to love. That’s where it all started was the first taste of the mmo (Massively Multiplayer Online )and many people later on would feel nostalgic about this kind of play. Every time Blizzard Entertainment , who is the creator of The World of Warcraft, prepares to expand the boundaries of the game they also expand the top level one can achieve. This much loved mmo has had five expansions to this day and an upcoming sixth is on the way. To date Level 100 is the top rank one can reach.
The love of the game may not be lagging but membership (yes to play you must pay a monthly fee) has dwindled since the release of the latest expansion in 2014, Warlords of Draenor. The reason being is that, content is lacking in this expansion. When compared to the other expansions like, “Mists of Pandaria” or “Cataclysm” it is especially evident. If you ask the typical World of Warcraft player they would respond with many different opinions but some form of complaint about the new elaboration. As an experience gamer and a very avid WoW player myself, the expansion is lacking in the content that we are used to getting.
Blizzard had high aims for “Warlords of Draenor” there is an extreme lack of depth in the patches (small updates for the game that are put out as needed ) that have come out to date. Is there something they can do to save this expansion? Maybe. With the released information on the next expansion named “Legion”, will they will they fix what they have done wrong in the new expansion or just continue making more bad choices? Only time will tell, as they release new information later possibly at Blizzard’s yearly convention Blizzcon. The facts have been clear and the fans have shown their disdain for the recent expansion flop. The fan base has dwindled down from what was a lively fan base in past expansions to a sharp subscriber drop in recent months. The numbers of the people who have left had reached three million earlier this year in the first quarter. The question on everyone’s mind is can they bring back the people they lost? Is it possible? Can Blizzard drawback veteran players of the game who were dedicated to the game before? Only time will tell. World of Warcraft has the nostalgia most other games do not. That is the reason most people about the state of the game and are upset. The fans feel a special bond with people who play WoW. This loss of loyalty and the membership being eroded is effecting the fun people had when a big group of gamers where online playing it at the same time. With the last bad release and so many other new games out there it makes it difficult to keep gamers focused on this mmo. If Blizzard can come up with a great expansion people might try it out again, remember what brought them to World of Warcraft, and return .
Independent Examiner 