Several months ago, some students who worked for me started raving about the MMORPG World of Warcraft, which they’d been playing apparently since right after it came out. Now it wasn’t like I hadn’t heard of the game, but mostly what I knew was how Blizzard had horrible problems with server stability at launch because it vastly underestimated how popular the game was going to be.
So after a couple months of badgering I bought the game, figuring I’d play out the free month that came with the box and be done with it. Riiight.
Instead I not only became hooked but got my wife hooked, so a typical evening is “lets get the kids to bed so we can go finish that Murloc quest or get the enchanting skill up to 175.” My wife took this to its dorkish obsessiveness by starting a Live Journal (ugh) for other Stormscale players.
And to be honest, I can’t tell you what’s so compelling about the game. It is really more of the same sort of paced reward system that has you staying up to get one more level or increased skill or better equipment. But there’s just something about the whole rat race that makes it impossible to resist.
I know, I’ve tried.