World of Warcraft

Ahhh, MMORPG's. Right now i'm getting a psychic reading: you're thinking, what the hell is an MMORPG? Well, it's an analogy. It stands for Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. Quite a mouthful. In english, it's an online game with a LOT of people playing and cooperating at the same time. And it's an RPG. WoW is one of the 2 MMORPG's that are worth your time. The other is Guild Wars. Anyway...

The year 2004 will be remembered with wars, elections, and scandulous pop stars. But in the growing video game nation, 2004 will be remembered as the year World of Warcraft was introduced on the PC. To be frank, this game is the most fun you'll ever have in an online game. And the online- huge. Clans, raids, wars, instances, parties, and a lot more. Your eyes will be glued to your monitor for days. The game is just soooo diverse. There are a bajillion items, auctions, clan matches, battlegrounds, thousands of quests, and cool little easter eggs like hidden shrines, dungeons, and areas. And who could forget the epic struggle between Alliance and Horde? You also have mounts, which are horses, big cats, reptiles, and more that you ride on. They can be summoned at any time. Mounts are your main tool in World or Warcraft.

Now, MMORPG's, how many few they are, are known for torturing players with impossible tasks. But WoW has changed all that. The thousands of quests have more variety than any other game. Quest stretch from collecting items to talking to people to spending 3 hours romping through a dungeon. But you will never ever ever ever ever ever ever get tired of it. It will take you months to rise through the ranks in PvP and get to ever WoWer's goal: Level 60. Good luck with that, by the way.

WoW sets a new standard for not only MMORPG's, but online gaming itself. Blizzard has always upped the bar, with games like Diablo 2, Warcraft 3, and more. I give World of Warcraft a 10 out of 10, part of this complete breakfast.

Now there is a catch. In addition to the 50$ and the high computer standards this game requires, there is a 15$ monthy fee. OUCH! For those of you who can't afford that, there is Guild Wars: Factions.

Guild Wars: Factions is the "expansion pack" to Guild Wars. But this game can be treated as a stand-alone. Maybe NCSoft should look up "expansion pack" in the gaming dictionary. Anyway, GWF is an MMORPG. It's not quite as good as World of Warcraft, but there is no monthly fee. This game isn't quite as elaborate, but it looks a whole hell lot better. It's got clans, wars, and battlegrounds, but it's missing that ever-important Alliance vs. Horde thingy. This game is also a lot easier to learn than WoW, making the game for rookies in the MMORPG genre. There are three problems: first, power-levelers will absolutely dispise the level 20 cap. Also, there are a ton of frustrating invisible walls across the game world. Finally, the fighting just isn't as involving as many other games. 9 out of 10.

Well, depending on your cash flow, it's up to you to decide which game to get. But here's the best part of the competition between WoW and GWF. They inspire some great videos!