World of Warcraft

Overall Rating:
Genre: MORPG
Christian Rating: 4 of 5
   (slightly offensive)
Gameplay: 5 of 5
   (excellent)
Violence: 1 of 5
   (extreme)
Adult Content: 4 of 5
   (barely present)

The game World of Warcraft is very interesting and exotic. If you are familiar with Dungeons and Dragons, Everquest, and other games of the like, you will definitely be familiar with this game. Once you pick a server to play on, you create a character to your liking on that server. You choose a class (Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior), a race (Humans, Night Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Orcs, Tauren, Undead, Trolls), and a faction (Alliance or Horde). Different combinations yield different results for your character, and some combinations are limited to a certain faction. This game requires a monthly subscription of $15, after buying the game for $50.

Once you have your character, you're ready to enter the world and start leveling your character. You start off doing quests that are provided through people with yellow question marks over their heads. Once you complete the quest and turn it in, you get a reward (money or items) and you receive experience. If you fill up your experience (XP) bar to 100%, you increment in a level. You have the chance of leveling all the way to 60.

You can do many professions in World of Warcraft, like mining, smiting, leather working, engineering, etc… These things give you the chance of making yourself stuff that you need, or selling it for money to buy other things. There is also an auction house where you can put things up for auction, and other players are able to bid or buyout your item. This review would be too long if I were to describe everything that you can do in this game, go to www.worldofwarcraft.com for more information.

If you come from Counter-Strike and other games, you would be happy to know there aren't any “hackers” that I have come across. The worst thing you will encounter is what we call “gankers.” These people are much higher in level than you are, and their only purpose in life is to wait and kill you with minor effort. My suggestion would be if you see the enemy, if you cannot take them then run. Another bonus is that people tend to help others out a lot more than other games. My theory is that more mature people play, because you actually have to pay monthly for it. Nevertheless, there are always exceptions to this rule.

As for the Christian perspective of this game, there is an extreme amount of bad language. It isn't because of the characters in the game, but the people playing the game. Wherever you go, you get people who will talk nonsense in the channels for no reason at all, just to annoy others. A great thing is that you can put people on your ignore list, or leave the channel all together.

I know what you people are thinking, about the demonic "magic". There is a whole lot of magic in this game: from auras to ranged damaging ice novas, resurrection spells, etc. It is a part of what this game is. In addition, you see many characters and NPCs (Non-player characters) which seem to have evolved half way between two species. There are also ghosts that linger in some quests, and when you die, you become a ghost and your object is to run back to your body to be revived. This all is fine for the solid Christian; I personally have no problem with it. However, for the younger ones, maybe a few points should be explained here and there, to what is true to life and God.

The game is highly addicting, so I advise you stay away from it if you don't have a lot of time. Some classes take more skills than others do, but overall it isn't extremely difficult to play until you start doing Player vs. Player. If you want a great game then get this one, it's a keeper.

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