No game has done more to make MMORPG a household word in North America than World of Warcraft (WoW). Since its launch in Nov. 2004, the game has been breaking records and receiving stellar reviews. I think we can safely say that the world of persistent worlds will never be the same. Without repeating too much of what I've already said in previous articles on the game, here's a look at the current state of WoW.
Just Another MMORPG?It's worth considering what has made WoW such an incredible success when at its core, it follows a formula many of us are all too familiar with. Killing NPC mobs and completing rather mundane quests to gain experience levels so that you can kill tougher mobs is really nothing new. Nor is throwing in some player versus player (PvP) combat at the end to give higher level characters something else to do. Perhaps the most exceptional thing about WoW is the pace at which this progress is made.
Most MMORPGs force players into a significant amount of "downtime." Downtime can involve everything from sitting to regenerate your power bars after a fight, to having to run back to your corpse after you die. It's time when your character isn't directly engaged in gaining either experience or cash. You are generally required to take one of these short breaks after every few monsters you kill.
By comparison, WoW has reduced the amount of time you spend doing nothing but watching your health and mana supply recover to an absolute minimum. Food and water, which, as usual, speed up the recovery process but can't be consumed in combat, are abundant in WoW, and they act very quickly.
World of Warcraft Review