Today was the last day of my WoW trial. However, I had some trouble connecting to the server. I started panicking: Was my trial already over? Did I overlook the release of the new expansion? Would I lose my last chance to play for free?
I stepped away from the computer and came back 20 minutes later. There were no more connection issues, and I guess I felt a little relieved that I could finish my full 10-day trial.
I finally did reach level 14, which felt like a milestone at the time. I was hoping that it would make my life easier, but it didn’t really make a huge difference. The monsters seemed to get more difficult as I got stronger, and I didn’t have the patience to level up by picking fights. I then chose to continue on my previous quests, starting to feel the monotony set in.
After finding one buzzbox for a maniacal gnome, I was assigned the task of finding another buzzbox. I spent about 15 minutes running down the beach and getting too close to some monsters that I shouldn’t have tried to fight at level 14. I resorted to looking for advice online, but the sketchy directions told me little more than the fact that I had been heading in the wrong direction. I promptly turned around and headed up to the next beach.
The buzzbox was much more difficult to find than I expected. My sources told me that it would be right where the sand meets the grass. I ran along this edge for another 10 minutes, and then realized that I must’ve missed it. I finally found it in the middle of the beach (near the shore) but not until after I had gotten attacked by several monsters that I was too apathetic to fight.
Unfortunately, my next quest in the area involved going near another dead sea monster. I thought I’d be nice and try to gather bones for a previous quest-giver, but I was hindered by a pack of those mini-rancor creatures. This time, they packed more of a punch. These scavengers had leveled up. One of them even was some sort of shaman that could heal himself. This added up to a recipe for doom. I think I died once or twice before high-tailing it out without any bones.
The assigned quest I then tried to complete involved exploring a sunken ship. This sounded cool to me, so I swam out to it. I soon discovered that managing my air would involve some planning if I wanted to get any treasure. While musing over such circumstances, I suddenly found myself being attacked by not one, but two of those awful gremlin rancors. Yes, the mini-rancors suddenly appeared out of the depths of the sea for the sole purpose of attacking yours truly. Needless to say, I died again, and my motivation died there too.
When I play a game for 10 days and at least as many hours, I hope to be struck by it and pulled into its world. I had procrastinated in picking up World of Warcraft for this long because I feared that it would take over my life. Fortunately, I faced that fear and discovered that it had little basis. While WoW certainly has many commendable features (the exquisite GUI design and hotkey customizations, for example), I am too much of an independent gamer to thrive in such a group-oriented game.
I also prefer my stories to tie together in a cohesive, highly-structured storyline that has become a standard in many RPGs. I found that WoW's structure rewarded players for quick completion of quests – not for the immersion in the story. I felt like a gratified errand girl and I would rather be a real hero in a game with people I can depend on. After all, computer-generated comrades in the one-player RPGs I love will always be there for me, and I can accomplish something that feels vastly more important than my real life.