Crikey, whilst freeing up my homepage and beginning to use Google Reader, I clicked through to a World of Warcraft feed that it recommended to me (presumably based on my current news feed content or my eating habits over the past week or something similarly scary). I won’t link to it because the guy will probably trace it back and leave me abuse or something but here it is:

hmm.

Now, as a casual WoW player, I needed to post this as I feel it doesn’t represent the bulk of the game’s players or the enjoyment that goes with it. Yeah, I play a few hours of World of Warcraft with a couple of chums (of the real life kind) when I can, so I understand bits of that quote more than non-players, but even then it’s still largely gobbledegook. To us the game is about playing in a team, identifying each of our strengths and weaknesses and pulverising any enemy player that dares to cross our path in the vast expanse of the world (although we’re still pretty bad at that). But personally, I like the exploration side. I’ll sometimes travel through the game until the early hours discovering magical lakes within thick misty forests and dark haunted lands, or simply clambering to the top of the tallest mountain I can find just to dive off and probably miss the life-saving pool at the bottom, only to resurrect in a spooky graveyard miles away. When playing like this (solo-ing) I’m not aiming for high scores or to finish the game in the traditional gaming sense, the media has evolved since Pacman. I’m playing for the rich and inspiring experience, the laughs that go along with it and the social aspect of multiplayer gaming, not “re-gemming”, “power-levelling” and “boar-grinding”.

Oh, and dancing.