World of Warcraft

Developer: Blizzard
Estimated Release: 2003
World of WarCraft official home page: http://www.blizzard.com/wow/

Massively Multiplayer Warcraft

I’ve never been a big fan of massively multiplayer games. But being a big Warcraft player, I couldn’t help but be drawn to Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, which will be their first foray into the massively multiplayer market. Since the game is still rather far away from release, Blizzard was very guarded about specific details on the game, like giving away extensive lists of spells or the abilities and specialties of the (currently and soon to grow, we’d assume) four races in the game – humans, orcs, taurens, and dwarves. Instead, the look we got at E3 served more as a technical demonstration and a mere appetizer of what’s to come with the game.

Warming his mouth

Troll vs Tauren

Got an axe to grind?

The first thing we noticed about World of Warcraft is its gorgeous graphics. Normally with a massively multiplayer game, one tends to judge things on a lower scale than you might with a normal RPG or other single player game. With WoW there isn’t much need for mental compromises. Characters are well detailed, and fluidly animated. Weapons and armor that you equip are shown right on the character, just as you’d expect.

The third person camera view affords great looks at the gorgeous environments. Forests filled with lush trees – graveyards filled with gloomy mists creating an atmosphere of dread - grasslands and farmland with blades and vegetation that sway about – oceans and coastlines with water that includes swells and eddies as suns set over the water. Yes, there will be a day/night cycle where twilight affects the colors in the skyline, and stars and moon(s) pop out at night. A clock in the upper right-hand corner helps you keep track of the game time. Interior areas were just as breathtaking as the outdoors, with massive rooms, complete with furniture and carved statues high on walls. One of the abbeys we walked through included a cavernous library, with shelves of books stretching high above the player. Monsters range in size from relatively small wolves and man sized skeletons to gigantic treants (tree-men) that are as powerful as they look.

Reverse angle

Simple shadows

A jungle temple

I asked the developers what ideas they had in terms of the meta-game for WoW. Would the game have grouping built in mind from the ground up like Dark Age of Camelot? As I said earlier, Blizzard was very guarded about details like this in the game. For now the only answer I got is that grouping would “definitely be involved” but they also want “plenty of single player possibilities.” Talk about straddling the fence! They did offer one tidbit about certain spells being ritual spells that require several spellcasters to participate in. Of course these ritual spells would be much more powerful than your garden variety Firebolt or Frozen Finger. Trade skills will be in WoW but again, Blizzard didn’t offer too much in the way of details on how you’d go about creating your own weapons and armor. Dwarves will of course be among the experts at craftsmanship.

More dwarven action

Swing and a miss

We got a peek at three of the character classes in the game – warrior, mage, and shaman. A number of spells from other Warcraft games, like Warcraft III’s Entangling Roots, will be included in WoW. They even used the same icon to represent it in the interface, so veterans of previous Warcraft games can feel right at home and get into the game more easily. We’re eager to learn more about the game as its development progresses. Perhaps WoW might force me to break down and finally join the ranks of other massively multiplayer online addicts!