World of Warcraft Retrospectives
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My server, Zenedar, is full-on PvP almost everywhere. This can be frustrating as hell when you just get randomly ganked and killed, but it's odd how quickly you develop an innate sense for danger. Something as simple as an aggressive guild name can tip you off, or the composition of a group. I steer clear of Rogues, but calmly walk past most Warriors and Druids, and generally get away with it. You see body movement in characters that never display any; signs of danger based on which way they're looking, or how active they are after noticing you.Shamus is still running reports on his Twenty Sided blog.
Admittedly, sometimes it's easy. A guy with a big sword called '˜Gonnakillyasucker' probably isn't someone you want to hang around with, especially if he's twenty levels higher than you are and surrounded by your friends' corpses.
All this makes for some fantastic tension when neither player is particularly interested in fighting, but has no way of knowing what's going on in their potential opponent's head. The first to attack gets a major tactical advantage, but then they've got to watch their back for as long as they're in the area. Conversely, if they're killed, they're at an immediate disadvantage upon returning, making them easy prey for repeated killing until they retreat to the nearest Spirit Healer for ten minutes of twiddling their thumbs and repairing their gear. A polite little /nod could be seen as an invitation to take charge of the situation come play football in the trenches. It could just as easily be seen as a sign of weakness. Or a bluff, as one enemy Warrior found earlier on today. I regret nothing.
So now I've sunk some real time into WoW. I've rolled up a character from almost every race. I've played a few of the classes past level 10. I've seen most of the early-game content (Alliance-side) and I've taken part in both solo and group play. Given the size of this thing, I am still a newbie, but I think I have enough of a handle on the game to start talking about the mechanics and gameplay without flailing about in ignorance.
But even a couple of hours into my first session I could see what imbues the game with its addictive properties. It provides a tremendous number of highly polished activities and goals for the player to pursue.
