Now before any of you jump through the screen and start strangling me, YES I HAVE played WoW, and to tell you the truth, I very much enjoyed it. I believe it is a very good, high quality game.

WARNING: This blog contains words that may be offensive to some WoW fans. Viewer discretion is advised.

A while ago I read a post by someone on the topic of mmorpgs. One segment of their post just got me thinking (and as we all know thinking leads to writing).

"...People really need to let go of this whole "cant compete with WoW" complex..."

I for one, strongly agree with this statement. The gaming society seems to have translated "mmorpg" to mean "WoW'. Seriously, I don't care who are, the first thing that comes into every gamers' mind when they hear "mmo" is WoW. Don't bother denying it (If you do deny it, then fine. Have a free mind. See if I care). Now think about any larger mmorpg that has come out since WoW's reputation blew through the roof. They all have one thing in common - they're automatically compared to a particular game in the genre that has the reputation of being the king (obviously this reputation still stands). And yes, I know about Runes of Magic, that game is a complete copy-off of WoW (My friend and I noticed a bit of Guild Wars in there too). However, some people still like it, so please be respectful of their opinion.

Minor sidetrack: Sometimes I wonder if that mindset (can't compete with WoW) is keeping developers from branching out into the mmorpg genre on the sole factor of WoW's sheer existence. If that is the case, then that's a crying shame. The mmo/mmorpg genres are greats ways to make games. They allow many people to interact, and play together in a world that they all enjoy (hopefully). Now, being a fan of the rpg, and mmorpg genres I suppose that my view isn't a universal truth. But no matter the genre, the ultimate goal of any game is to create an enjoyable experience. Seeing as most people enjoy playing with others, I figure the mmo genre is a good choice. End of sidetrack.

As to WoW's ever-increasing popularity, well, good quality games (with good marketing) sell. However, other mmorpg's are doing increasingly (if not, at least consistently) well ("well" being "making an efficient profit for the company(s)") with their own user base. I won't name names, or give statistics due to it being undoubtedly a target of argument over how many players that game really has, or where the hell I got my information from.

Ever since it's [WoW's] famed reputation, when people are trying to decide upon which game to try out in the mmo universe (or are merely tired of their old one), WoW comes to mind. I'm not saying that WoW's credit goes without due. As I said earlier, it's great game that's really fun to play. However, there are many "great games that are really fun to play."

Several other mmo's have very different game play mechanics, and are doing respectably well. By "respectably" I mean "making an efficient profit for the company(s)."

When you compare what makes WoW what it is to what makes many other mmorpgs what they are, you realize that WoW isn't that unique. Bloody fun (sorry UK, I don't mean to offend), but not unique, or special in some way. I'll point out a few reasons why:

1. It has skills that get better as you level up, along with attributes such as Strength, Health, Intelligence, etc.

2. It has generic worlds/areas (You know, the ice spot, the jungle spot, the desert spot, fiery area, etc.)

3. It has many variations of armour, and weapons, that players use, and throw away when they get better ones.

4. It has universal fantasy races made popular by J.R.R Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy of books (I know he wanted them to just be one big novel). These being orcs (although Peter Jackson's movie adaptation of them is very different from Blizzard's), elves, and dwarves. Yes Blizzard's Warcraft universe existed long before Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" movies, but J.R.R Tolkien's books existed long before Blizzard.

5. And let's face it, the WASD movement is a tried and true movement system that pretty much every mmo uses. If WoW was the first mmo to use these key bindings, I don't have sufficient facts to back that up.

6. I'm sure there's more, these are just examples.

Now I'd like to make a few comments on my statements above:

1. I know you're thinking - "but these things are generic to the mmorpg genre, why are you targeting WoW?" Well that's a good point. In fact, that's the exact point I'm trying to make, many mmorpgs use these concepts, which is why WoW isn't special (other than the fact that it's more fun than most others, and the most world-wide known game [on top of being the most popular mmorpg]).

2. As to why I'm targeting WoW, I believe the rest of the blog (along with the name of it) explains why. It's just what I decided to write about. If you want to target Everquest, WAR, Ulitma, Guild Wars, or whatever be my guest. I presume you live in a free country, and you have the right to do so. For those of you in North Korea: God help you, and remember that he will leave this earth eventually.

3.I know the other thing you might be thinking - "Ya, so J.R.R Tolkien has orcs, elves, and dwarves. BUT WoW has:

a. Trolls (pretty similar to orcs [was it just me, or does the female character creation for both look identical?])

b. Gnomes (variation of a dwarf)

c. Forsaken (don't get me started on undead in rpgs)

d. Tauren (Greek mythology anyone?)

e. TWO variations of Elves (whoop-de-do?)

f. And Draenei (okay ya got me, that actually is creative)

4. If there's something else you're thinking, then my telepathic powers are failing me, and that's why the good Lord invented the comments function (or at least whoever came up with the programming code for it).

All of the above is my reasoning for why World of Warcraft is not that different from most other mmorpg's in the market. That's my opinion, feel free to comment on it. For those of you who strongly disagree with me, please be respectful while you disagree.

Please note that I will be talking briefly about 9/11, and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in this blog. If either of these topics bothers you, or offends you, then you may prefer to stop reading now. Although I do not go into great detail about these events, I realize that many people have lost loved ones in these two tragic, and terrible events, and thus, may find it difficult to talk about. Please believe me when I say, I mean no disrespect to anyone. If this offends you, then I am terribly sorry.

No doubt many of you have read tiggerboy's recent blog about 9/11 titled "Seven years ago today. Keep up your chin soldier." This is not a argument, disagreement, or retaliation against him of any sort. In fact I read his blog, and I thought it was very good. I recommend anyone who hasn't read it, to do so.

All Americans feel pain and suffering for the tragedy of 9/11. Which they should, most certainly, it was a terrible thing. But how often do you find Americans regretting the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which killed over 100,000 Japanese people? And 9/11 only killed about 3, 000? I'm not saying that 9/11 was insignificant, or minor. I'm merely saying that often, death has to come close to home, before we (people) finally feel it.

Why is it that we only think about, or realize the effects of death, when it hits us personally? Whether that be our individual selves, or our home country. Obviously the main reason it either we lost someone dear to us, or we feel patriotic. But that shouldn't stop us from realizing that, on the other side of the war/battle, the man, or women (sometimes even child) holding that gun, firing it, most likely has a family of their own. They have a spouse, children, a home, parents, siblings same way we do. They feel pain, joy, love, sadness, the same way we do. And in many cases, they may not have willingly joined the army. In this case, all their doing, it protecting their family, and their home. The same way we do.

I'm not saying that the bombing of 9/11 and the two Japanese cities were two armies fighting each other, soldier fighting soldier. They were the merciless slaughtering of thousands of people, most certainly. But I believe that very often, when we hear about our friends, family, or even just fellow citizens fighting far off in a different country, and we hear about the death toll on our side, we often forget the death toll on the other side.

I'm a Canadian, and when I hear about the Canadian soldiers fighting across the world, and I hear about the good men and women that die far away, I am saddened. But I never feel saddened, or even think about who their killing, and those people's lives. Heck, it often never even occurs to me that, thousands of people, men and women in the country right next door, the United States of America, are right there, fighting, and dieing with them. This an example from my life, and I know there are other's out there who also forget that people are dieing on BOTH sides, and what that means for their families.

I'm NOT attempting to make a big, profound speech about life and death. Rather, I reminding everyone to never forget that everyone has a family, friends, feelings, and most importantly, a life.