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.  

After Day 1 of my World of Warcraft trial, I wasn’t that convinced that it was an epic, addictive masterpiece that had the potential to take over some peoples’ lives. On Day 2, I kept telling myself, "It’s not that fun. I don’t see why everyone’s so excited about it." Yet when I quit, I would keep thinking about it, and I found myself logging back in a couple of times throughout the day.

I ran to a different town in Day 2 for the first time. I had to consult a map online to make sure I wasn’t running into certain doom, but I was already headed in the right direction. I found more interesting tasks there such as filling phials at moonwells and killing more advanced monsters. There is something fun about running errands for people – tasks that ordinarily don’t receive much glory in RPGs are rewarded with the appreciation of NPCs, a higher local reputation, and often money and/or an item.

One such quest involved obtaining tumors from monsters called Timberlings. It was a lot of fun because the Timberlings were very close to the quest giver and it was no trouble at all to help out a man who was trying to save the environment. The themes of environmentalism were part of the reason why I chose to be a night elf. I enjoy nature and have respect for it – another reason why I enjoyed Okami. Several Timberlings later, I had reached level 7 and quit for the day.

By Day 3, I had accepted a quest to kill Gnarlpine Ambushers, some beastly humanoids who were making the road to Darnassus unsafe (according to a pretty night elf who rode on a tiger). I searched far and wide for these beasts, but I could not find them anywhere. I asked around but no one seemed to know where they were. I went on other quests, but, by the end of the day, I still had not found those Gnarlpine Ambushers.

I asked a friend from the real world about the Gnarlplines. I was frustrated because I kept getting slowed down by other monsters when I went looking for the Gnarlpines. I found a few camps where there were many other types of Gnarlpines (Shamans, Warriors, etc.) but never any ambushers. My friend suggested that I try to group with some other players to make the fights end faster. I ruled out that possibility because I like to play games by myself without having to depend on other people or do their bidding. (This is one reason why I have avoided MMORPGs for so long – I don’t like to leave others in control of my destiny when I don’t even know who they are.)

I reached level 8 when I quit playing WoW today (Day 3), but I was extremely frustrated about my inability to locate those Gnarlpines. If this is how the game is going to be, I didn’t know how much I want to play. Perhaps it won’t be as addicting as I had feared.  

After hearing about World of Warcraft all semester, I finally decided that it was time for me to take an MMORPG for a test drive. No longer would I be in the dark the next time conversation turned to guilds and classes. I wanted to know first-hand what all this meant.

Fortunately, there is a free trial right now – likely a promotion for the new expansion (The Burning Crusade). I jumped at the opportunity to download the full game for free and try it all out for ten days.

However, knowing the achiever part of my personality and compulsion with which I like to play my RPGs, I knew I had to be careful. I vowed not to subscribe to the game after the trial. I even told all my friends, “Ten days and that’s it!” Few believed that I have the willpower to resist such a game, but I am determined that I can be done at the end of the trial and continue to lead a normal life.

With over a week left before I have to return to school, today seemed like a good day to begin my trial. I had put it off long enough, afraid of the potentially dangerous addiction that has led to the downfall of some academic lives. I downloaded the installer (around 3GB). This took a couple of hours. Then I had to actually install the game (4GB), which took a long time as well, especially considering that I had to clear off enough space for the game on my computer.

Five hours later, I was registered and ready to play. I chose to be a female night elf druid (a choice I had made carefully over a length of time before playing), and began my adventure.

Quest acquisition and completion seemed easy enough. I liked the fact that killing monsters was part of some quests, meaning you’d level up both by killing the monsters and completing the quests themselves. Movement seemed fairly intuitive – I quickly grew fond of the WASD keys beneath my left hand and the mouse beneath my right for a default position. I really enjoy the customizable hotkey bar at the bottom for abilities. This way, I could cast spells using the low numbers, only needing a fraction of a second to move from the WASD keys.

Unfortunately, I found some of the in-game tips to be more annoying than helpful. These seem to be the main form of tutorial. I had to ask other people like an idiot how to save and quit the game. It was really embarrassing, especially when the enabled tips should have revealed such vital information. I finally did figure out how quit after half an hour, and I was very relieved to find my character exactly as I left her when I logged back in. Unfortunately, the tips that appeared the second time were exactly the same as before, and, despite their promises to become more advanced, they failed to teach me more rudimentary information that I needed to know, such as how to group or ungroup, how to talk, etc.

World of Warcraft is an intriguing game. After one day, I am not completely captivated by it – especially after my frustration in trying to save and quit. I got to level 5 in an hour or two which I find quite rewarding, but I’ll see if it becomes any more addicting tomorrow.