World of Warcraft was at its peak in 2010 (Picture: Blizzard)

As Duncan Jones’ movie adaptation of World of Warcraft hits cinemas this week, a WoW newbie dives into the famed fantasy world for the first time ever, to see how it holds up 12 years later.

World Of Warcraft has always been a blip on my gaming radar. I’ve long known about it since my school days; bypassing huddles of friends spilling over the events of raid’s gone-by, and through that notorious South Park episode where Cartman s**** on his Mum, but I’ve always been reluctant to try it myself. Probably because I’m fully aware of my own susceptibility to games, which litter a constant path of rewards like a digital Hansel & Gretel.



But now, as a middling twenty-something with still little responsibility, I’m fully prepared to succumb. If you’re unfamiliar, World Of Warcraft is a massively-multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) which sees you create and control a character in a sprawling fantasy setting connected to others around the world – tackling quests and levelling-up until your eyes are glazed over from deciding whether to purchase Spectral Legwraps or Geomancer’s Boots.

While the game was at its peak in 2010, with 12 million subscribers worldwide, in recent years these numbers have seen a significant drop. So much so, Blizzard have stopped reporting the statistics altogether. The final report in October 2015 revealed a total of 5.5 million subscribers; a dramatic cut following its initial steady rise ever since the games’ release in 2004.


So with a new movie potentially hoping to reignite interest in the franchise, does World Of Warcraft still possess a knack for stealing lives until the early hours of the morning? I sacrificed my tight body clock to find out.

As is customary with any role-playing game, your initial decisions of choosing a class/character will shape your entire experience to come. Orc or Alliance? Dwarf or Night Elf? Hunter or Mage? Instead of digging into online forums to strategically plan how you’d like your experience to run, I find it’s much more enjoyable to roll with your instincts. Giant wolf-like creature? Sounds cool. Giant wolf-like creature who can summon demons while sporting a glorious robe? Now you’re just tickling my ears. I’ll call him Starkwolfe. Warlock. Done. Let’s do this.

Starkwolfe the Warlock Worgen (Picture: Blizzard)

While there are some customisable options for appearance in World Of Warcraft, it’s nowhere near the pain-staking decision levels of recent role-playing games like Fallout 4 and Dragon Age: Inquisition. It’s common in those titles to spend a worrying amount of time pulling someone’s cheek bones, adding sporadic freckles and deciding whether a facial scar is in keeping to the true ‘nature’ of your character or his bobby-dazzler haircut. Warcraft has some of these, but it was a refreshing change to rattle through them relatively quickly without your character looking like they were pressed from the default factory.

So after an impressive opening cinematic, I was thrown into a village under attack by the very race I had picked, Worgen. What I didn’t realise before playing, was each race has its own unique opening ‘quest zones’ which serve as an introduction to playing the game; as well as to uncover each individual race’s backstory. These gradually open up as you progress, allowing you to eventually crossover with other players of different kinds as they run around the fields and learn the ropes too. For now though, I was surrounded by fellow cursed Worgen. And I was determined to chat with them.

World of Warcraft is all about the communication with other players (Picture: Blizzard)

Call it journalistic impulse or chronic nosiness, but opening quests which require you to pinball between blathering non-player characters soon fell to the wayside once I clocked fellow players going through the same motions. I wanted to hear their tales, ask what’s kept them coming back to World Of Warcraft, and see whether they were aware Overwatch came out last week. This is gonzo journalism in the fantasy 21st century, I thought. Hunter S Thompson in Gnarlpine Leggings and an Elder’s Robe.



Strangely enough, turns out this personal line of questioning doesn’t translate so well upon first contact with a stranger online. Most simply bypassed me altogether, leaving my speech bubbles to hang like a madman screaming at the wind. If you talk about the game however, I was surprised by how willing people were to help guide you around areas – with one player (shout-out to Misshowleres-Aggramar) who practically escorted my lost self through a string of quests he/she had already completed, presumably just for the fun to be found in slaying endless Worgen.

This welcoming guidance and interaction with players is where the appeal of Warcraft started to take hold. Soon I was having accidental encounters with screen-filling trolls, teaming-up with a beginner from Sweden to maul crocodiles, and even caught myself bemoaning my spell ‘cast-time’ for its unbearable length. I was only level 8 (still a terrible novice in Warcraft terms) and I was hooked with the correct jargon in tow.

Tackling the swamps in World of Warcraft (Picture: Blizzard)

Just like the early stages of any dense role-playing game however, there was an overriding sense I was only understanding a mere portion of what’s on offer. I was looting creatures with no real idea of item benefits and ploughing through fairly dull ‘kill set number of enemies’ quests without looking at my growing character stats. A large turn-off for many in role-playing games is the time needed to feel the benefits of your investment, and it was certainly something which instigated a fright after realising I had barely got into the main crux of the game.


So while the visuals are starting to show their age, and my console-bred fingertips yearned for a joypad, World Of Warcraft impressively doesn’t feel like an archaic relic just yet. There’s still plenty to enjoy here for anyone who’s likewise been hesitant in taking the plunge, and as a mere level 10 at the time of writing, I’m certainly going to keep burrowing through its world to see whether I can become the all-conquering devil-summoning journalist my heart so desperately desires.

Louis Theroux? Pfft. There’s a new undercover investigator in town. Only he’s indoors, sat in his boxers and tossing gunpowder kegs onto the heads of Horrid Abominations. My Warcraft Beginning is officially here. Someone help, please?

If you wish to try the game yourself, you can download World Of Warcraft on a trial basis which grants you free access until you reach a level 20 cap. After then, subscription fees apply.

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