The Making of World of Warcraft

Eurogamer have published a really nice article about the Making of World of Warcraft where they talk about the size, popularilty and history of the huge MMORPG (which is Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game for you non-gamers out there), complete with loads of concept art, leading up to the launch of the game on 23rd November 2004, which is also Doctor Who's anniversary date, so a very special date for my calendar being an absolute geek for both game and TV show!

Check out the article here

WOW Couture?

OK, I play quite a bit of World of Warcraft, and I found this site (Jinx) a couple of years ago which sells Warcraft clothing. My (not so) inner nerd loves these, and I actually think - if you do play the game - that they are genuinely quite funny and creative.

A new collection, released this summer, includes a great set of tees that are designed in a baseball team stylie. I don't really like playing Cows in the game, but I am seriously tempted by the Tauren design, shown above.

You can buy them (and browse loads more) here.

What you cannot have.

OK, so I haven't played World of Warcraft for a few weeks now. It started to become a bit of a chore and, I dunno, I guess I got a bit bored of the thing.

Today I was asked a question about flight paths, so I said I'd log on to have a look for the answer. Of course my account is now unavailable because I haven't paid my subscription this month, and now I'm annoyed that I can't get on. I wasn't even going to play the game. But now I WANT TO, because I can't. And I'm sitting here thinking, "my wallet is downstairs. Shall I just renew my subscription and have a game?"

I guess we never change; I'm a grown man (apparently), and yet here I sit there like a spoilt rotten child wanting - needing - what I cannot have!

Someone just smack me.

2007, the lost year (and still counting)

Last Christmas (I gave you my heart? No!) we bought a new Mac Pro (there's a story there which I'll share later), and as an impulse buy, picked up a copy of The World of Warcraft too. Years ago when I was a younger man (and out and proud geek) some college friends and I played D&D, so I thought this World of Warcraft thing might be good fun now that I'm in my (cough) 40s.

I was hooked the moment I started playing. I did manage to keep my playing to about an hour a night (usually before going to bed). My partner, Neil, was watching over my shoulder one night, wondering what all the fuss was about, and said "Ooh, I might create a character and try it", so he did. And he was hooked too. He went out and purchased his own copy, created his own account so we could play together, and that was it... We played every night for the next few months!

After experimenting with various classes and characters over the year we settled into what we are now comfortable with: I'm a human, female warlock named Holli, and he's a Night Elf, male hunter. Yes, we are on opposite factions so can't even team up anymore, but we still play together.

Last night we were racing to reach level 62. He beat me by about 2 minutes!! Bugger!

So the addiction is nowhere near over, as we race towards 70 together! Our friends over the year have expressed concern about our health, jokingly of course (I hope) and we do manage to eat healthily (??), and go out occasionally, and entertain guests every now and then, and do all the normal stuff couples do. But I must say how much I've loved every minute of sharing this strange new obsession with my loved one this year just gone. I'm so lucky...

:-)

Roll on 2008.