After all the hoopla surrounding World of Warcraft’s new expansion, i got to talk to one of my friends who plays WoW and Asian made MMO’s. You know what i heard? “I’d rather play World of Warcraft than another Asian MMO”. or something to that effect. And that made me say “I’m actually reactivating my account now, lets gather up some friends and go play WoW!”

I have been quoted as saying that once you have actually played WoW, everything else pales in comparison. That still holds true today. Say what you will about Everquest 2, Lineage 2, City of Heroes and other big name MMOs, nothing compares to World of Warcraft. Yet.

I still remember how one local exec proudly told me: “We’re bringing in much better games than WoW”. Yeah, right. In your dreams, buddy.

Sure, WoW costs like 13usd (600-700php) monthly to maintain plus the box and the expansion (which are cheaper than when i bought my first box in Dec 2004) but a lot of local players spend much more than that on Asian made MMOs. As they say, you get what you pay for, and there are a couple of reasons why Blizzard is on top on their game right now. I’ll name some of them:

1. Polish - Play any modern Blizzard game and you get the best cinematics and the best introduction into game features on the PC
2. Gameplay - It’s actually fun. Grinding is inherent in any MMO but the WoW doesnt make you feel like grinding.
3. Developer support - They actually are doing a lot of stuff behind the scenes to make WoW even better, check out their forums to see what i mean.
4. Questing - Compare how world of warcraft does quests compared to say Lineage 2. In Lineage 2, looking for quests actually is such a bother that i feel im questing for uhhh quests. This ties with #1 and #2.

World of Warcraft feels like home to me and other WoW players who have moved on and tried other MMO’s. I know for sure that if i spend my money on World of Warcraft, then it will be money well spent. If you’re happy with your Asian MMO’s then this article isnt for you. But if you’re willing to play the best online game out there today, then drop me a line and lets go raiding sometime. =)