Recalibrating Warcraft
In what has been a fairly surprising experience, I’ve recently spent some time going back through the Warcraft games, with the most emphasis on Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne and World of Warcraft. It’s been surprising because my memories of these two games are different - Warcraft III, which dropped while I was in college and which I put an enormous amount of time into, remains a cherished favorite. On the other hand, World of Warcraft was a game that never really sucked me in, even though I appreciated its myriad achievements.
WOW is just as I remembered it: unsatisfying, boring, yet addictive. When I first played WOW I got a troll priest up to level 42 or so, far enough to get a taste for the game but without reaching the endgame which is vastly different from the rest of the game. This time I played until level 9, and decided that was the end for me. Again.
Warcraft III is another matter. When I first played it it seemed like the pinnacle of RTS design, but now I find its lack of strategic and tactical options frustrating. I didn’t delve into the multiplayer (not for lack of trying, but I couldn’t get past DOTA, a mod with a learning curve just as brutal) but the singleplayer is an unending exercise in making as many guys as possible and forcing them down your enemy’s throat. It’s not CIV 4 - in fact, it seems more akin to Spore. That’s a rough comparison indeed.
What’s the point here? I’m not sure. But it’s useful to go back and play games to see how they’ve changed, and perhaps more importantly how you’ve changed.
