World of Warcraft Analysis pt. 1, or: Holy Cow, I'm Actually Back

(This entry was written for SNHU's GAM-205 class in the Fall 2017 semester.)

 
    Well, pigs are flying and the planets have aligned. I actually got back into World of Warcraft. Granted, it's only for a few weeks on the 'free until level 20' plan as part of a college course, but it's still a minor miracle, I suppose. Now sit down, because I've got a story about my first time playing WoW.
     I was about 13 or 14 when I got into WoW for the first time. It had been around for a year or two, but I didn't really pay it much attention until a friend of mine and my sister's then-boyfriend mentioned that they played it, and suggested I join. I started it up, got on the same server as my friend, and created Holayle, the Tauren Shaman. Unfortunately, I wasn't easily able to play with my friend because he's several years older than me and thus had a busier schedule. Eventually, he and the then-boyfriend stopped playing. I stayed playing for a few months, but without anyone I knew playing, the charm had left, and I eventually resigned Holayle to the void.

Just pretend Isaac has horns here. And hooves. And that Afterbirth+ came out in like 2007.

    So it's been ten whole damn years! To be honest, I didn't really fell like getting back into WoW. Kingdom of Loathing felt like a suitable replacement and felt like it relied less on twitchy skills and huge amounts of knowledge. But given that it's the most popular MMORPG of all time, I figured I'd be dragged back in.

    Before I talk about the character I made, I should mention a website my class visited for this assignment. This website has statistics on the US and EU servers for WoW, and it has some pretty interesting data on demographics that would likely lead to some good research topics. One thing I noticed on the US server is how the blood elves were the most popular race for the Horde and second overall, losing to humans by 0.4%. It's impressive, given that they weren't available until the first expansion pack. Maybe it's because they look so much like normal elves or because they're the least monstrous of the Horde races. If the Horde were all vampires, blood elves would be Bela Lugosi's Dracula, and everyone else would be Nosferatu.

Pictured: A metaphorical blood elf.

    I am by no means knowledgeable about the lore of Warcraft, so the opening cutscene was promptly skipped because I would still have no clue about what was going on if I watched it. Starting up the character creator, I had my choice of races and classes, and I had no clue about any of them. For races, the Alliance offered me humans, night elves, dwarves, gnomes, draenei, and worgen. The Horde, meanwhile, let me choose from orcs, goblins, conspicuously Jamaican trolls, undead, tauren, and blood elves, the undefeated winners of the Annual Horde Beauty Contest. I could also apparently be a panda guy, but I vaguely remember that race being somewhat unpopular, so I just ignored them. I wound up being a goblin rogue named Cifeffliz.

    I should use this time to mention something that I never like about character creation in video games. The only things I focus on in character creation is anything that has an effect on the gameplay, such as race or class. Everything else just feels unimportant to me and I wind up choosing it arbitrarily, most likely because it makes a character look like me. Sure, Skyrim gives you a bunch of sliders that let you modify every bump and curve on your character's face, but it means nothing in the end unless you're going for something out of Monster Factory or Touch the Skyrim because I mostly use first-person view and my character's face is mostly or completely covered in a helmet. I'd rather not spend 10+ minutes carefully fixing up my character and their clothes only to have it all covered up by their much more useful armor. With WoW, everyone with the same race/class combination will most likely be using the same equipment at top levels, so character customization just feels pointless.

    Well, that's all for my first time back. Next time, Cifeffliz will be messing around on his home island, escape a volcanic eruption, and come across highly outdated memes and references.

Wow. Who remembers this one?