Who knew that sneaking through the back woods of a fictional world, running errands for inn keeper’s daughters, and dealing with infestations of things that go bump in the night would be so much fun?
Being totally honest, during the free trial I’ve probably played “World of Warcraft” to the extent that I ever might. Going much further would involve banding up with others to venture into dungeons togetherand given the limited time I have to play it (typically an hour or two, late at night), it all gets a bit complicated. It is a wonderful game though. Total escapism. I can’t help feeling, after reading “Ready Player One”, that it doesn’t quite go far enough though. The game funnels you down a particular pathin pursuit of money, better equipment, bigger swords, faster arrows, a steed, more ability, strength, stamina, and so on. While some would argue that it’s totally open-ended (you can choose to take on a quest or not), the nature of “things to do” is almost always either delivering something, or fighting something. The resources available to occupy you while just wandering around are pretty threadbare.
I will carry on with it though. An hour here, an hour there. Perhaps I need to teach each of our children how to play it, so we can train as warriors, hunters, mages, paladins, wizards, and so onand venture out into the darker corners of the virtual world.
Imagine the conversation with the school teacher”I heard your youngest telling her best friend that she had been up all night spilling goblin blood”