Now that we’ve touched upon the scenery and epic scale of the new World of Warcraft expansion, it seems like a good point to go into more detail about the content you’ll probably be spending a future paycheck on. As the beta test continues, more and more videos are posted to youtube while the unwitting watchers cry about the lack of balance between the classes. Specifically death knights. Before I go on, let me remind everyone that the expansion is still in the beta testing phase. Nothing is particularly set in stone in terms of talents/spells/etc. The developers have been very good about watching the forums and taking in new suggestions as well as listening to concerns that the players have.

Beta warning aside, I’m not going to get into most of the class mechanics, mainly because I’ve only played three of them in depth. Because of that, I feel I’m unqualified to theorycraft or whine on the unfairness or imbalance in the game. Besides, like I just said, they’re not finished yet.

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Plot advancement, receiving a new weapon, even unlocking skimpy female costumes… whatever it is, when we play a video game, we need an objective. Without anything to look forward to, a game simply becomes an exercise in futility. And what better way to push us forward toward objectives than to threaten us with the hulking beast that spells out our virtual doom, the ominous Game Over? I don’t know about you, but I’m quivering in the corner over here.

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The internet is all a-twitter with excitement over Blizzard’s recent release of the Wrath of the Lich King beta. People are bouncing between extreme anticipation and extreme disgust. Some are whining about beta keys and others can’t wait to get their hair cut. Seemingly forgetting the fact that in a couple of months (this is me making a wild estimation) the expansion pack will be readily available for everyone. But I digress.

With a shaky hand I double clicked on my beta shortcut (after the long download, of course) and the sight of the new title screen coupled with the befittingly chilling new music only served to further my tingly anticipation. I would not have said this about The Burning Crusade but this time Blizzard has done it. They have managed to re-capture all the excitement and epic qualities of World of Warcraft into an expansion that will blow both old and new players away.

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“Hey, whatchya doin’? Playing a video game again? Is that all you do in your spare time? Yeah, I know you have a job, whatever. What do you even have to do in that thing anyway? Shoot people and smash buttons? …And dodge ‘counterattacks’? Strategize—wait, you actually think about this game?”

Really, we’ve all heard it at some point. Playing video games makes us lazy. They’re nothing but simple time-killers akin to watching a sitcom or doodling in a notebook. Truth is, it’s not so easy. Unless you want it to be.

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So I’m chugging through Gears of War, gunning down Locust left and right, lighting paths in the streets to avoid being eaten alive by the Kryll. I’m having a good old time and then suddenly I pause the game. It is then, sitting at the pause menu, that I am struck with a realization.

Some of my most favorite games have little or no sense of humor.
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Okay, listen. I know that graphics aren’t the be-all and end-all of games. I know that it isn’t just about polygone count and realistic physics simulation. I agree, it’s a pain in the ass when a new game comes out and you can’t play it because your six-month old computer just can’t hack it. I do realise that stories were just as gripping, characters just as appealing (maybe even more so) back in the six-bit pixel-era. I was there. I played them. I get it.

But you know what? I fucking love graphics.

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