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My experience with multi player on line games started with an original, Ultima Online. Let me tell you, I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I discovered you could play a graphic video game on the Internet and make new friends in the process. I never imagined in a million years that my very favorite PC game company, Blizzard entertainment would lure me away from Ultima Online.

A friend I had made while playing Ultima Online had sent me a message on ICQ. The tone of the message was sort of a dreamy and far away. I asked him where he had been, we had dragons to slay! He revealed he had been beta testing World of Warcraft. Well, I had not heard of it so I asked him all of the pertinent questions. Was it fun, was it easy to navigate? How many types of characters could you create? All he could say was, "Can I have a cigarette?" Well! That was enough for me to check into it, though at that moment they were no longer accepting beta applicants. Lucky for me it went retail less then a month after I spoke with this friend, and I bought it the day it released.

On entering the character creation screen it was like I had fallen in love for the first time. In UO, you could only create male or female characters of the human race. That was it! Imagine my surprise when I found I could role play a Night Elf or an Orc! There were four different races on each faction you could create, for a total of 8! A fantasy role players dream come true. WoW offered another thing that was missing in UO, QUESTS! And thousands of them! Now I look back and wonder how UO could hold my attention for as long as it did. You spent hours slaying monsters and demons to collect rare weapons and armor. But in WoW you quested while finding these items to advance your character. Endless quests is the answer for the old on line gaming blues.

Since the release of World of Warcraft in 2004, many other on line RPG's have released, and in looking at them to see if there was anything better out there for me, I have found that they all have learned from Blizzard how a video game for the masses should be. Deeply embedded lore of the lands and the characters inhabiting it. A reason to gather 25 or more of your friends within the realm of this game to learn more of the story, and defeat impossible minions. A chance to interact with a story, and help guide it's future outcome. Yes, most of them pale in comparison, and the reason for that I believe is that they had a lore foundation already created in three previous

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