Here we are then, five years down the line (or 15 years for Warcraft) since World of Warcraft was launched by Blizzard. And I’m STILL playing. Why? What is it about WoW that keeps me coming back? What have I learned?

When I rolled my first character in 2004, a Night Elf Warrior whose name now escapes me, I didn’t know what I was doing. I’ve covered this before but that failed attempt sent me running from WoW for a couple of months. I didn’t get it. Something brought me back, however, and my second character and still my main, Inoperante the Undead Warlock, has kept me going for almost that full five years.

I’ve tried to work out why. When I first started I as very much a solo player, levelling and speccing randomly, still not knowing what I was doing, really, but nevertheless progressing. And that is key to World of Warcraft’s success over the years.

Blizzard have cleverly expanded the game to make players strive to better themselves. Whether it was improving gear, clearing raids – and vanilla raiding was infinitely harder than it is today, believe me – or exploring new areas, Blizzard have introduced just enough at all the right times to keep people coming back.

Of course, I’m not an idiot – Blizzard create things that basically become time sinks, forcing you to spend hours and hours doing very silly things to achieve, in reality, very little. It’s the secret behind their revenue stream. You WILL continue to pay your subscription while you have things to do. Knowing that it is a waste of time doesn’t change the fact that the game is designed to goad you on.

It is an addictive game. For some, dangerously so. We’ve all heard stories of people who have ruined their lives by spending far too much time on the game. Thankfully, those people are few and far between and, I believe, had much deeper issues than the game itself.

I have spent such a significant amount of time on the game that to give up now would feel like quitting. And therein lies Blizzard’s other secret. If they can get you to do enough, you will not want to give up.

With the Burning Crusade they introduced a whole new way of keeping you hooked. Raising reputation for greater rewards wasn’t new, but boy, did they take it to a new level with BC. New raids, especially Karazhan, that were accessible by the many, not the few, were genius introductions. They didn’t forget their hardcore though, and introduced the Sunwell, Serpentshrine Cavern, Mount Hyjal and the like.

It was hard to ‘finish’ Burning Crusade – I still haven’t. But each player did eventually reach their personal limit with it. Some took a break, myself included. And just in time, Blizzard rolled out Wrath of the Lich King and subsequent patches. It drew us all back. Ulduar then Onyxia and the Trial of the Crusade. It has been non-stop and continues soon with Icecrown. Wrath of the Lich King has maintained interest at unprecedented levels.

The Achievements system was a GENIUS stroke. It allows even the solo player to strive for more and more. Truly genius.

They have, however, made mistakes. Ulduar was by far the hardest raid introduced since Karazhan but when they introduced Trial of the Crusade few but the hardcore had cleared it. ToC, so much easier, drew people away from Ulduar and it lies, even for my Guild, not quite complete. Yogg-Saron survives for GANK Inc and it has proved frustrating for me and my raid leaders. Onyxia had much the same effect.

The ability to get T9 gear from daily Heroics was a bitter blow for the hardcore player too, who felt that they had spent far too much time chasing it to allow just anyone to access it. They had a point.

These, though, are minor errors and have not damaged Blizzard’s income or reputation enough for them to worry about.

It is ironic that on the 5th anniversary of WoW I find myself burned out. I have had enough, there is little left for me to do that I can do and not enough for me to do that I can’t do as a semi-casual player. But Blizzard are set to do it again. Icecrown will launch before Christmas and I will be drawn back to new dungeons, new achievements and new loot.

I’m not sure how long that appeal will last. Right the way up to Cataclysm? It seems doubtful, but then I don’t know what patch 3.3 entails fully, so you never know. But it does ensure I will be playing for a few more months at least. Cataclysm WILL draw me back and for a year at least I would think.

But will I be playing in another five years? That depends on Blizzard and what they can do with the game over that time. Every dog has its day, even WoW, but when that day will be I don’t know.

One thing is for sure – Blizzard deserve all the credit in the world for producing such an enthralling, delightful and long running game as World of Warcraft and long may it continue. In the meantime, enjoy the anniversary site they have produced. It contains (or will contain) interviews with the creators, video features and the Battlecry Mosaic (go look for yourself!).

For the Horde!

475Mb of patch 3.3 in fact. Seems we’re close. Which is good. Because frankly, I’ve been getting very bored with World of Warcraft.

Now I have a reason to push on for those last few bits of gear, that last mount.

Might even PuG some raids in the absence of my Guild mates.

Oh Arthas…I’m coming…

L'il K.T.

Get your L’il K.T. pet here.

Without doubt the best Google.co.uk homepage I’ve ever seen! Celebrating, I believe, Sesame Street’s 40th anniversary. Yesterday the Google.com homepage had Big Bird’s legs in the Google Doodle. Class.

I'm bringing back up...

The thing that makes World of Warcraft so enduring – playability, diversity and sheer size aside – is the ability to have more than one character.

We all, I would think, have what we consider our mains. In my case, it is, of course, my Undead Warlock, Inoperante. He is my raiding and achievement toon (whore, my Guild would say!) and the one I began life in Azeroth with (if you ignore the failed attempt at a Night Elf Warrior that is).

But one can get very bored playing one character all the time, especially when the only thing left in the game to do is raid – and the same raids at that. The urge to log in each day fades until you end up not bothering to play at all.

So we turn to our ALTs. There are members of my Guild that have so many ALTs at level 80 it’s untrue. Me, I have just one, Slabs, my Tauren Warrior. Running a Guild lacking tanks kind of puts the onus on you to level one – so I did. In retrospect I should probably have rolled a Paladin for that task, but I did always want a warrior, hence the Night Elf anomaly!

It’s amazing how quickly I got him geared too. A few runs of Trial of the Champion, part runs of Ulduar and one full run of Trial of the Crusader and I can tank most bosses (skills aside – they lack, as my Guild mates would tell you!). Not only that, I can, without any effort, put out over 3,000 DPS in my Arms spec.

This has helped me retain my love for a game that otherwise would have bored me eventually.

And yet…there are classes and races I just cannot and will not play. For starters I am Horde. I will always be Horde. I cannot, for some reason, play Alliance. Despite starting there in my WoW career, I just can’t do it. What that says about me, I don’t know…

I am indifferent to the Night Elves, Humans and Draenei but I hate – HATE – Gnomes. I gank every one I see, I have to.

Dwarves, however, is a different story. I could play a Dwarf. Nothing stupid like a Warrior, but a Dwarf Hunter – yes, I could play that. If it wasn’t for the Alliance connection I would have a Dwarf. Bless there little woollen socks.

Other classes I won’t (can’t) play are Mages and Rogues. I simply cannot level a Mage, I just don’t have what it takes to make it work for me. I don’t enjoy it. Rogues are less annoying, but I find the early levelling really slow. The DPS just isn’t high enough for me to feel like I can progress.

Death Knights are clearly overpowered. I have one, Juggernought, that I play purely for the stress relieving damage output! I could never play one seriously though. Paladins are also overpowered, but in a more acceptable way. However, I find the 12-25 levels SO difficult to get through. I made it to 30 once…but have since deleted him. I regret it now…

I have a level 50-odd Hunter who I pop on now and then – though it has been a while! Hunters are fun but too similar to my Warlock to bother with too much.

So with Slabs happily gearing up and still questing for Gold, Inoperante very much my main, what am I doing now? Something, I am told, is insane – levelling a Priest…as Holy! My thinking is that I have a DPS and Tank class…I need a Healer. Logical, right?

Well, maybe, maybe not…but it’s the challenge that will keep me interested in World of Warcraft for many months to come. It will fill the gap between Icecrown coming out (surely less than a week or two now?) and Cataclysm launching (and then we’ll have Goblins and Worgen to play with!), that’s for sure.

And who knows…maybe, just MAYBE, one of these characters will supplant Inoperante as my main. I hear that happens too…

Do you use ALTs to keep your interest up? What classes and/or races do you favour or can you simply not play? Let me know in the comments.

I wasn’t there…but I’m proud of my premier raiding team.

Talk not type!

Well, maybe not your frustration…but mine.

Last night I tanked Trial of the Crusade (10-man) for the first time on my warrior. It really brought home the importance of Ventrilo (or Teamspeak if that is your thing).

We began with me and a new-ish Paladin tank and it did not go well. Why?

Well, our Paladin friend – a long standing Guild member for the record – did not have Vent installed. Hasn’t had for sometime and apparently can’t or won’t. That makes doing the taunting off each other very hard on the Impales. For me at least, typing while tanking is not an option. There’s too much to keep track of to break out and type. That’s just the way it is.

After a couple of wipes we swapped him out (and he had to go anyway).

Next came another Warrior tank and good friend of mine. Vent installed but no microphone so no speaking. A “Taunt” macro sufficed for him to let me know and he, of course, could hear me call for a taunt when I had two or three stacks of Impale. This made the first part of the Beasts of Northrend doable, but due to other factors we had him switch to healing and yet another Paladin tank joined me.

THIS tank, however, had Vent AND a microphone – and everything went fine first time out. We talked to each other, there was no panicking and even switching phases was handled smoothly. Communication – it’s key.

Ok, it’s not SO important for DPS – especially ranged DPS – and perhaps even less so for healers who are properly assigned. But for tanks – Ventrilo is now a must for any raid I am involved in as a tank. It’s a new rule.

For any raid leaders out there struggling on certain content that doesn’t at least have their tanks talking to one another in real time – make them or remove them. You WILL see the difference.

Getting this title has been an ambition for a while. Trying to do it the ‘traditional’ way always proved impossible. So why not just walk in, clear trash and then nuke Sartharion down, using only one tank, one healer and eight DPS? ZERG!

It works, try it…

One of the most exciting Flickr developments in recent times, the Flickroom application allows desktop browsing of Flickr using the Adobe Air platform.

But this isn’t just another way of viewing Flickr…no, this is to Flickr what Tweetdeck is to Twitter. And its dark, neutral and pleasing appearance is very reminiscent of the Twitter desktop client. Take a look:

Ok, so what does it actually do? First of all, you authorize the app to access your Flickr account. Now you can browse your photostream, your groups, your sets…it is like being logged into the web interface only better presented (depending on your opinion – that’s mine). Across the top of the app are your main menu functions, including:

1. A button to view the most recent uploads of your Flickr contacts
2. A button to open the upload tool in Flickroom
3. A button to access the Flickroom chatroom – IN the app
4. A button to search Flickr – photos AND users
5. A button for the obligatory settings
6. A button to give feedback to the developers

There are a couple of things I want to focus on there.

The Upload Function

This is very, very clever. Easy to use, offers the full features that the Flickr web interface does and allows you to drag and drop onto the app rather than searching through your file structure. You can also add more than one pic at a time, though you can only edit details individually – a limitation of space more than anything else. Clever. As I said.

From there you can title your pic, give it a description, tag it, add it to a set and / or group and set its privacy level. All that before you hit upload.

Flickroom Uploader

The upload time is fast and you can view your new pics in your photostream by clicking the Reload link on the Photostream page.

The Flickroom Chatroom

This COULD prove to be one of the most useful tools offered by Flickroom. It’s certainly an interesting experience chatting with fellow users, learning how they use the app and what sort of things they find interesting on Flickr. It could be a brand new way of finding new users to follow that share the same interests as you. Right now I found it a little quiet and dominated by just a few users.

With the addition of rooms and more users – yes, it could be brilliant.

Browsing

The browsing experience in Flickroom is very good. Already connected to your groups through your account, the search function is strong and the app allows you to comment, favourite, add a note, save to your hard drive and even Tweet about the pic you are viewing.

You can control how much detail about the image is displayed ranging from a simply slideshow appearance to a sidebar with all the description, comments, tags, and EXIF data. From here you can also add the person who posted the pic as a contact.

If you’re looking for an aesthetically pleasing way of viewing Flickr on your desktop this is it – and it does compliment Tweetdeck in appearance, so if you are a style guru it’s ideal. Basically, you should never need to visit Flickr again. Except…if you want video. But you can bet the Flickroom team are working on that too.

Link: Flickroom

Have you been looking for a Flickr desktop app? Have you tried Flickroom? Do you know of any similar apps? Let me know in the comments.

And thanks to our dead mage, we have a video!