While World of Warcraft is a fun game, it isn't for everyone.

User Rating: 7.6 | World of Warcraft PC
[Edit] Before you get upset about the score, realize this is completely representative of my experience with the game rather than the overall quality. I'm aware that the game deserves higher than a 7.6 based on technical merits alone, however, I did not enjoy it as much as people who the game is aimed at. [End edit] Going in to this I was somewhat reserved about buying it. I have never really played a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, but I am a huge fan of Warcraft. Warcraft I through The Frozen Throne remain some of my all-time favorite games, but World of Warcraft just doesn't seem to do it for me. I can't really explain why. I don't know if it's not having enough time to dedicate to the game, or not having anyone who can play with me -- because all of my friends who are playing are really high levels. The game play is decent, although it gets really repetitive. Almost all of the quests are fetch quests of sorts, either "go here and collect all of these plants" or "go here and kill all of these monsters", it often gets pretty boring at times. I'm not sure if that's standard for these kind of games, but seriously, there needs to be a lot more variety in these quests. When it comes down to it, I don't understand the broad appeal to these games, other than the fact you can play it online with your friends. There's no real story, there's no real goal, there just doesn't seem to be any point to it, unless I'm missing something completely. The sad thing is, this is the best role-playing game to come out all year. The graphics are pretty good though, and you can go from your desktop to the game in almost seconds, it has a really good engine that way. The graphics themselves are good, like I said, but they're not really all that impressive. Artistically they're definitely intriguing, but on a technical standpoint they're nothing special. Terrrible textures are a big problem in the game, and lack of variety in the enemies as well. But some of the environments are breathtaking just because they're so colorful. In the audio department it's hard to really be impressed. Sound effects are nothing too amazing, there's very little voice acting, and some of the sound bites are actually from Warcraft III, plus, there's barely any music at all. So needless to say, I wasn't blown away by the sound of the game at all -- although it certainly isn't bad. The game costs $15 a month to play it, so I fail to see how this is such a good value. The fact that you're basically paying money to play a game you already paid $50 for seems sort of like a rip-off, even if there is a lot of stuff to do. Overall, the game is pretty fun, even if it's nothing truly amazing. To anyone who likes MMORPGs, it's probably some gigantic leap for the genre that I just don't see, but to people who aren't really interested in them, I can't imagine this is really going to sway your opinion on the genre that much. Maybe as I get farther in the game I'll start to enjoy it more, but as of now I'm pretty indifferent to the whole ordeal. It's definitely a well-made game, it just isn't for everyone.