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Uneducated Opinion

By Mike - April 19, 2010

I honestly believe that the greatest era for video games dawned in 1994 and ended in 2003. During that nine year period we saw the arrival of the best developer on earth, Blizzard Entertainment, release five ground breaking titles. All but their first game, Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, were followed up with a solid expansion to generate a near endless amount of high quality gameplay. Everywhere, regrettably unaborted nerds rejoiced.

Blizzard blazed the trail for real-time strategy games with Warcraft and Starcraft and revolutionized the action-RPG genre with Diablo. On average we were treated to new content once a year that stood above the competition in terms of quality and gameplay for nearly a decade.

But then something strange happened in 2004 and I’m not referring to the time I woke up after a night of drinking and was spooning with my buddy while Star Trek porn was playing on my tv but it was equally as disturbing. Blizzard went in a completely new direction and tackled the MMORPG market with World of Warcraft. I’ll be the first to admit that it sounded pretty rad in the beginning but today I can proudly say that I’ve never once touched the toxic game after witnessing friends and co-workers talk about it like a filthy crack addiction.

WoW hit like the Black Plague and turned everyone’s minds into Jello pudding, which is probably the closest thing we’ve seen to the zombie epidemic I’ve anxiously been waiting for (I glance at the loaded shotgun mounted on my wall). As enticing as it is to be an irritable bag of subsisting meat hunched over a keyboard, I’ve managed to resist the temptation of ruining my life and having my parents cross my name off the family tree. I prefer to play my games in smaller, controlled doses during my spare time rather than going on epic binges that would leave me unemployed and questioning whether its June or October.

No one can really blame Blizzard because World of Warcraft has been by far their most profitable title to date, but its come at the price of turning half our population into ugly, brain dead slugs. Another lucrative market is brewing methamphetamine in your bathtub and selling it to high school kids, but it isn’t necessarily an admirable decision.

Worst of all, World of Warcraft has clogged the production of Blizzards original titles worse than a large cheese pizza crammed into Kevin Smith’s colon. After experiencing so many great titles for nine years we were suddenly cut off as they started catering to some of the saddest, weak willed people on the planet with this big chat room where you hang out, play dress up and throw shrieking temper tantrums when the server is down. The majority of WoW players were barely even born when the rest of us were buying Warcraft II: The Tides of Darkness off the shelf and playing it on our 486. Now we have to sit and watch while the name ‘Warcraft’ is defiled worse than the chicks in “Two Girls, One Cup”.

I can’t help but notice that with the arrival of WoW was also the demise of PC gaming. Granted, the stiff competition between Microsoft and Sony pushed consoles to much higher levels ultimately crowding the PC’s market but the fact that Blizzard put their previous titles on the back burner for over seven years in exchange for the ultra low-poly World of Warcraft was lights out. I’m pretty sure I could run The Wrath of the Lich King on my Grandmas computer that she bought at the flea market. There hasn’t been a single must-have PC game raising the bar for processor/video requirements in quite a long time. Sure there’s been a handful of mundane 3D shooters, but seriously…I’d rather get my head shots laying on a couch with a controller and a 52″ HD tv.

Hell, it’s been 13 years since we’ve seen a Starcraft title and 10 years since the last Diablo. Games like these were generally untouchable to the consoles of the time and were some of the best reasons to invest in a PC but since Warcraft III there hasn’t really been anything new that has stood out that isn’t on Xbox or Playstation. Now any games that do make it to Windows are generally developed for consoles first and ported over as an after thought. I’m really not complaining either, it took years of kicking and screaming like a hobo with his leg caught in a bear trap before I finally buckled and bought a PS3 and I never really looked back.

Now, many years later, with the soon arriving Starcraft II and Diablo III coming for the PC, I seem to have mixed feelings about the return of the prodigal son. I let my old computer fade away into ruin quite a while ago, and replaced it with a decent laptop since I don’t really have much need for a good tower. I can honestly say that if there was ever a good reason to upgrade your computer it would be for one of these two games, surely.

Has anyone told Blizzard that most people don’t really play PC games anymore? Other than disgusting WoW players of course, but I consider that more of a nasty habit than a gaming experience.

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• What has become of the once proud gaming community that now whimpers like a fat chick on a diet at the mere mention of a challenge?

  -Mike

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