Since my boys like to watch me “play” WoW, I’ve decided to try gaining the World Explorer achievement. Now, when they watch me play (read: ride/fly around the zones), I can actually accomplish something more than just entertaining the Calves.

I was surprised to learn that there was still a lot of areas I hadn’t fully explored. I was mostly shocked to find out that I hadn’t finished exploring Durotar –- where my orc hunter started out. It’s kind of an annoyance to have to ride way off to some far corner of the zone map just to fill in the last small area. But, doing so does make my boys feel like they’re playing WoW.

One night, without my boys with me, I decided to explore all of Teldrassil (as an orc). The first two times I tried to get on the boat at Auberdine, I had trouble with PvP players. One human warlock ended up killing me, and one night elf something drove me away. The third time, I ran right to the boat and got on. No problem.

And then in Darnassus, I had a bunch of 70+ PvP players blasting me. They camped my corpse for about 15 minutes. Fortunately for me, though, I just minimized WoW to my taskbar and worked on other stuff to wait them out. Actually exploring Teldrassil was easy. Running through the guards in Darnassus was easy. But the PvP players were all over me, coming and going.

Then I went to Azuremyst Isle, by boat from Auberdine. I had no problem getting on the boat and exploring around the island (although I’m not finished yet). No PvP players came after me even when I jumped in and out of the Exodar.

Sadly, to me, exploring the world isn’t nearly as interesting as I thought it would be. It’s really just a time dump. I could be doing something much more fun. So I think I’ll just forget about going for that achievement. It’s a waste of my time.

Bullgrit

I finally got Wrath of the Lich King. After getting my main character (orc hunter) to Northrend and looking around for a short while, I made a death knight.

The beginning quests, all in Acherus, make an interesting story, but the actual play of the game is still World-of-Warcraftish. Actions still have only temporary affects on the game world. For instance:

Taking the orb/eye/spy thing down to the village to look around, I flew over the massed civilians and in a moment of evil curiosity, I summoned a swarm of ghouls on them. The ghouls climbed up out of the ground, the civilians died or ran away, and the soldiers ran in to fight off the ghouls. It was pretty funny, for all of 10 seconds. The ghouls died quick, and the fleeing civilians turned around and ran back to their assigned places in the town square again. Within 20 seconds of me siccing a dozen ghouls on the town, all was right back to normal –- like nothing had happened.

When my quest sent me into the mine to make ghouls, I could transform a miner into an undead beasts while another miner stood just 10 feet away, oblivious or uncaring. A couple of times, a miner hauling a cart walked right through me and my collected ghouls without reacting at all.

Then when I performed the quest to fire the ship cannons on the assembled Scarlet soldiers (all elite!), I killed all 100 required to complete the quest. But by the time the undead flying thingy hoisted me off the ship to take me back to base, the beach was still full of stationary soldiers. When the quest giver congratulated me with, “You destroyed the whole fleet?!” (or some similar salute), I thought, Not really, they were all still there when I left.

So, try as the designers might, WoW is still WoW. It’s still just a grind through quests that have no real consequences or results. Yeah, sure, the campaign map changes as you accomplish certain quests, but that’s artificial –- it doesn’t feel like I’ve done anything real.

From what I’ve seen, WotLK hasn’t improved WoW game play in any way. It’s added some neat gimmicks, but the game play is the same. I’m starting to feel all “meh” about it, now. I’m disappointed, and I feel like the purchase was a waste of money.

Bullgrit

I may be the only WoW player in the world who doesn’t have Wrath of the Lich King yet. I’ll probably get it this week, but I’m in no hurry. One of my friends ordered a copy through Amazon, but when it wasn’t going to get to him fast enough, he bought a box off the shelf. I’m going to buy his Amazon copy from him when it gets in — I’ll get it minus tax and shipping, and he’ll get some of his money back.

I logged on and played on the Isle of Qel Danas (or whatever the hell that island is named — crazy elf names) for an hour the other night. I ran around doing the 10 daily quests (for the 100gp), and I saw only one other player on the whole island. Everyone has run off to Northrend, apparently.

Then I thought, what happens if I go to Northrend, myself, without having WotLK? I took a flight to Undercity, ran out to the new zeppelin tower, and waited for the zep to the new continent. The zep came, and I boarded with one other player — he was already 73rd level.

The zep left the tower and I started to think maybe I’d actually get to see the new land. What would I be able to do there, without the expansion installed? When the screen changed to load the new zone, I appeared in a cage in the graveyard outside Brill. (I took the screenshot after leaving the cage.)

“You must The Wrath of the Lich King expansion installed to access this area.”

Oh, well, I’ll have to wait to get the expansion.

Bullgrit

Well, I’ve rejoined WoW. Wrath of the Lich King is coming soon, and various other factors prompted me to reinstall and get back into the game.

I can still find the game very fun when I stay away from the lure of gear, (through gold and rep grinding). The “fast” money from doing daily quests is very addicting, and I have logged in a couple of times over the week just to make a quick 100 gold (in 1.5 hours). But I’ve taken time twice last week to spend a couple of hours with a new character — a tauren shaman — just slowly accepting and completing individual quests for the story enjoyment.

Following a story and role playing a character is the fun I now find in WoW. This is a main reason why I’m looking forward to the release of the Lich King expansion. I want to see and explore the new lands, take on the new quests, and even play a new character (a death knight).

I just really love exploring exotic places, meeting strange creatures, and killing them and taking their treasure. Here’s hoping the expansion will give me this activity enough to keep the game fun without grinding.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com