by Rob Kentworth

Created on: August 24, 2010

The answer to the question of whether or not World of Warcraft (WoW) is addictive depends on how much self-control the person in question has at the end of the day. It does depend on other things though, but for the most part, self-control is the main aspect. So, to answer the question, included below are personal experiences when playing the game.

World of Warcraft was the first MMORPG I ever played. I’d played Neverwinter Nights before hand, but that was no MMORPG. The game first hooks you when you see how easy it is to create a character and of course, when you’ve created that first character, you enter the world and see how big it is. It’s there waiting for you to explore at your leisure. If you know how to reach an area, but you’re not strong enough to handle it, you can still go if you don’t mind the risk of dying a lot.

Next, you see how easy it is to acquire quests and collect loot, alongside equip your character. Character training is also simple. You just need to find a trainer to acquire or improve new abilities. So, it’s largely the ease of use that captures you, along with the fact that there’s a massive world to explore.

However, the game doesn’t really grab you until reach level ten because it is then that you can really start to customise your character thanks to the talent system. You see, prior to level ten, each level up only grants a few stat points here and there. However, you can also seek out the trainer every few levels or so to train a new ability. But when you hit level ten, you gain a talent point. This talent point can be spent in one of three trees, each different from each other. The talent tree for each is different as well. So, at the end of the day, two characters of the same class can be quite different. It is the need to build your character up and make them better that can be addictive. This is done by levelling and also by acquiring new loot, of which there is a lot. There is also the fact that you want to reach the level cap so you can tackle the hardest content and see all of these cool bosses.

However, the real addictive part of the game is the social aspect. It can lead to the game becoming a replacement for real life in all honesty. While it’s not prevalent at the low levels, you’ll perhaps be in a guild at the high levels dedicated to the end-game content. Now then, all of the best loot is in the end-game content and it requires ten to twenty four people to complete

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