World of Warcraft

[nobbie]

MMORPGs are in the "hard drugs" category, and for that reason alone, I'm staying well clear of that genre. ;)

My opinion exactly.

You know, with the introduction of pay-per-play MMORPG's, the game industry - like the rest of the entertainment industry (music, film, TV etc) - has finally lost its "innocence". Once laughed at, games have finally become the next victim of capitalism. It's not about "good games" anymore - it's about addictive games that promise oodles of cash for the producers. Just look, for example, at typical teenie TV channels like MTV these days: once a cool insider music channel with Ray Cokes as moderator icon, you now see faceless, young moderators with ads every 5 minutes in-between that try to sell you some completely useless, expensive jingles for phone handys, which are very popular among teenies. Complete consume terror - download this jingle, download that jingle. Teenagers are the primary target group for this junk, because most still live at their parent's home and have that money to spend. The same goes for MMORPG's these days: fancy graphics, sounds and gimmicks (a.k.a. quests and items) aside, it's basically addictive, unhealthy, crack-type junk for teenagers. It's like Hamburgers from the fast food shop - looks good, smells good, but it's basically just junk food. Always keep that in mind if you want to get into this type of games ;) My tip: Buy yourself a good book, CD or DVD instead, or go into the theatre or an exhibition of art.