World of Warcraft

The Basics:
Platform: PC
Developer: Blizzard
Price: $49.99 + $15/month subscription fee
ESRB rating: T (Teen)

Summary: Become a hero in an enormous online fantasy world.

Note: World of Warcraft is incredibly fun to play and spectacular in terms of its graphic beauty and creativity. However, parents need to be aware that the game requires adult involvement to be a positive and safe experience for their teens: there is a fair amount of violence-some of it bloody, references to alcohol, and occasionally a subtle sexual innuendo. Most importantly, parents need to be aware that this game is conducted entirely online and may regularly involve chatting with other unknown players. However, if properly managed, the game can be a positive and fun experience for older players.

Further Breakdown:

Overall rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Best for ages: 15+
Playability: Good. Controls are easy; however, a fast Internet connection and a powerful computer are needed to keep lag times low. Even so, the game sometimes bogs down or randomly crashes.
Graphics: Excellent. In interest of load times, details can sometimes be a little more limited than other top-of-the-line first person games; however, the variety and creativity is unparalleled.
Entertainment value: Excellent. Practically limitless exploration, quests, and replayability.
Educational value: Exploration, skill development and social economics are all part of the game. Teamwork is encouraged, as some quests require multiple people to win. A fair amount of reading is required to understand quests and character development.
Reading Level: 7+. Some voiceovers; however, most quests and other important details require players to read.
KidScore Rating

Ages 3-7: Red
Ages 8-12: Red
Ages 13-17: Yellow
Violence Amount: Yellow
Fear: Yellow
Illegal/harmful: Yellow
Language: Green
Nudity: Green
Sex: Yellow

Review:
WORLD OF WARCRAFT (WoW) is only in its infancy. Yet it is already proving to be one of the most popular MMORPGs (Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Game) of the year. Blizzard Entertainment's decision to make their popular Real-Time-Strategy WARCRAFT series of games into an online adventure game has proven to be a very successful (and profitable) gamble for them. Already 1.5 million subscribers world-wide are ranging the vast world of Azeroth-completing quests, defeating enemies and spending hours upon hours developing their character into a mighty hero.

The plot of WoW is more of a series of mini-stories than one overarching tale; however, there is a common storyline that runs throughout the game. The world of Azeroth is divided into two factions-"The Alliance", consisting of humans, night-elves, dwarves and gnomes and "The Horde", consisting of orcs, tauren, trolls and the undead. A very fragile peace exists between these two factions, and it is not uncommon for battles to break out. Players are able to choose from any of the different races, which then determines their allegiance. However, as described earlier, much of the game involves a more micro-story approach-players working on small individual quests, which may or may not be related to the overall plot. The primary concern of player is to develop their character's skills, abilities and fighting talent as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

Character development is achieved through a well-balanced mix of quests, use of trade skills and exploration. Quests are easy to find and fun to do-they provide the backbone of the game's storyline, and are the primary means in which players build up experience for their characters. There are hundreds, if not thousands of quests for players to complete from finding feed for a farmer's cow to hunting down and assassinating a known criminal. Some quests are "linked" providing longer-running stories. Others are especially challenging-requiring players to band together and use each other's strengths and abilities to win.

Trade skills fall under several categories of abilities that players can learn and develop. From leather working to mining and from fishing to cooking, players can spend a great deal of time learning and enhancing their skill at a trade. Although some experience is gained this way, the primary goal of having a trade is to make better equipment for the player's character. At the very least, trade items can be made to be sold for cash to buy more important things. Auction houses exist, allowing players to sell their wares to the highest bidder-otherwise, computer-controlled characters are more than happy to purchase a player's handiwork. Players are limited to learning two primary skills, which forces an interesting dynamic in the game. Players will frequently need to communicate and barter with other players to get the materials they need to create the equipment they want.

Finally, simple exploration affords players a few experience points but more importantly provides ways of finding new quests. Exploration is perhaps one of the biggest draws of WoW. It is obvious that the developers took great efforts to develop a world that is beautiful and fun to explore. There may be times that players will practically forget about the gameplay and simply gawk at the spectacular world Blizzard has created. From natural beauty-stunning waterfalls, snow-capped mountains and huge lakes (with amazing underwater scenery) to unique and wondrous cities, WoW offers an amazing fictitious world to explore.

With all of the exploration available, players will begin to realize that the game is essentially "unconquerable." Character development is currently capped at level 60 (which takes a long, looong time to get to); however, there is practically an endless amount of quests to conquer, magical items to find and new enemies to defeat. Plus, since the game is a MMORPG, it is consistently being added to-new quests, characters, etc. It makes sense for the game to be developed this way-the goal is to get players to continue to pay the $15 per month subscription fee for as long as possible. With this in mind, parents may wish to carefully monitor the amount of time they allow their kids to play this game-with no limits to exploration and no clearly definable "levels", it is easy to really get hooked-and subsequently play for longer than intended.

Many of the quests involve a fair amount of violence-even the more docile missions, such as delivering a letter to another character, often involve battle. This is because there are a lot of not-so-nice creatures in the lands of Wow A good part of the game is spent fighting a diverse and sometimes frightening assortment of computer-controlled creatures gone bad-wild boars, wolves, rogues, undead creature, dragons, thieves etc. At times players can take on human opponents as well-by becoming involved in the overall battle between The Alliance and The Horde, or by dueling one another. Although not a gross-out bloodbath, the game does have some graphic depiction's of blood during combat. For example, some special moves can cause a splash of blood to fly off of the enemy, along with an appropriate sound effect.

A couple of other concerns: Parents should be aware that alcohol is occasionally referenced to throughout the game. Players can buy and consume alcohol in taverns and pubs-even to the point of getting drunk, which is "replicated" in the game by making the screen blurry for a few minutes. Some quests are focused on alcohol-either gathering ingredients to make it, or bringing it to other characters. In addition to alcohol, there are some slightly suggestive elements sprinkled through the game. Players can "flirt" with one another by having their characters say preprogrammed phrases, some of which include mild sexual references. Some female characters can be rather scantily clad. Finally, although this reviewer did not find any occurrences, it is certainly possible that some quests could have sexual overtones. As it is an ever-changing world, it is also possible that such quests could be added later.

Finally, parents need to be aware that Wow is played in a pretty much unmonitored environment. Blizzard does its best to maintain the Teen rating, but as even as the ESRB rating indicates, the "Game Experience may Change during Online play." While the vast majority of people playing Wow are simply other friendly gamers with an adventurer's heart, parents will want to carefully monitor who their children are chatting to and thus potentially becoming friends with. There is no absolute guarantee that players will not run into profanity, sexual comments, or worse while chatting with other human players in the game. This is, naturally, a concern whenever players play any multi-player game online; however, it is of especial importance with Wow, since the game is entirely conducted online.

Wow is an incredible game- well-written quests, beautiful scenery and a staggeringly large world to explore make it a ton of fun to play. Nevertheless, it requires adult involvement to be a good and safe experience for teen players. Violence, references to alcohol use and the unpredictability of an online environment are all good reasons for parents to regularly "check in" as their older children play. However, managed properly, the experience may prove to be a rewarding adventure for all involved.