Warcraft Level 70

World of Warcraft has grown into a game that boasts more than 11 million active subscribers.  Massively multiplayer online games have always been the subject of addiction talks, but World of Warcraft takes this to the next level.  Each and every player that plays the game is paying a fee to play.  For those in North America and Europe that figure is close to $15 per month.  What is it about this game that can attract so many players to it and make them willingly pay to play?  This article will explore some of the ideas that make World of Warcraft an addicting game.

One of the primary features that has been built into massively multiplayer online games since the start is the idea of the grind.  The grind is the idea that players must invest massive amounts of time to advance their characters.  Although Blizzard has tried to remove the stigma with the grind by attempting to make the grind fun, it still exists.  Gathering money, gaining levels, acquiring gear are all a part of the World of Warcraft grind.

One way that Blizzard revolutionized the grind was through their quest system.  Previous games of the same genre required party’s to repeatedly kill monsters for hours on end to gain levels.  Warcraft added in an easy to understand questing system that includes thousands of quests that players could complete to gain levels.  The questing system, for the first time, allowed players to level up in an mmo through solo play.  It also was the way by which Blizzard told the story of Azeroth, the world in which World of Warcraft takes place.  Each quest generally requires a small task to be completed, such as killing a few enemies or gathering a few items.  These tasks could be completed in small increments of time so that you could progress no matter the amount of time you could invest.

Aside from making the grind fun, World of Warcraft also benefits from the social aspect that all massively multiplayer games have.  World of Warcraft servers can support several thousand simultaneous players.  This ensures that no player has the same experience in game as the way the other players interact with you will make the game play different each time.

Guilds are one of the largest features to make this game addicting.  The community aspect of the guild is what keeps many players playing.  You will generally find a guild that has the same desires from the game as you and it is easy to form friendships under these conditions.  For instance, when a guild begins raiding the lure of the community can become very strong.  When raiding, individuals are often attracted to the allure of better gear, but there is something additional that happens when your guild finally defeats a raid encounter.  There is a bond that forms that goes beyond the loot you acquire; something that makes you want to be friends outside of WoW.