I have always been a long time fan of PC gaming. I expressly recall the humble origins of my fascination with the more sophisticated games that were made possible by a computers superior memory and processing power compared to that home video consoles. I was a young boy when I first started playing the original Sim City, the old “Gold Box” AD&D games, and a variety of other titles on an old 386sx with DOS. I couldn’t begin to fathom to the amount of time that must have been committed to staring at 16-bit graphics for hours on end. I moved on to other games. I played Doom when it came out. I particularly liked the Lucasarts adventure games and Interplay’s RPG’s. But really, I loved games in general. I was dork incarnate.

But there has been one particular genre that I haven’t kept up with until now: Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games. Yes, everyone has heard of MMORPGs, or knows someone who plays them. It’s usually not seen as a positive way to bide ones time. Everyone’s heard of the guy who sits in his moms basement playing them all day. Or the guy who got fired from his job because he showed up late too much from playing them. Or the guy who died from playing them too much.

The old Ultima series had been one of my favorites, but I never explored Ultima Online, widely seen as the first true MMORPG. Maybe it was me gawking at the monthly fees, or the fear that online play would ruin the immersive experience and suspension of disbelief that accompanied a finely crafted single player game. Likewise, I skipped Everquest, Star Wars, Dark Age of Camelot, and all of the others that entered into the massively crowded market of massive multiplayer games. Finally, fearing that I was surely missing some vast spectacle in the history of gaming, I figured that I would just give one a try. I picked up World of Warcraft.

I could say a lot of terrible things about World of Warcraft. I could challenge its simplistic outdated graphics. Or I could bemoan its simplistic combat system. Or I could complain about its boring and uninspiring quests and storyline. But I will do none of that, because those aspects are not what it is about. World of Warcraft does one thing well. It encourages social interaction and brings people of all ages and sexes together in mutual cooperation. To play solo through the game is to miss the point. It is only when playing with a group, especially among friends, that it shines as an example of what a fun and entertaining game is like. It is unfortunate that some individuals with too much time on their hands take it way too seriously. But not me. I’m getting bored with it already, and my monthly subscription is almost up. :P