We Fly Spitfires – MMORPG Blog

Pandaren Monks. Filling every role and making every other class obsolete.

Let’s face it, the holy trinity mechanic for MMOs isn’t going anywhere. No matter how restrictive it is, no matter how much it impedes gameplay, no matter how much it puts the whole silly concept of raiding at odds with the leveling game (I just despise the idea of a single ‘main tank’), its here to stay for a long, long time. Regardless of how much we might want the holy trinity to accidentally asphyxiate itself during a sordid little sex game with its dirty sandbox cousin, it’s never going to die, especially not when developers have found a way to keep the darn thing on permanent life support. Y’know what I’m talking about – the concept of hybrid classes and versatility.

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No matter how much you try, Pandas will never look cool

No doubt you’ve all heard the news about WoW’s next expansion and some of other big changes Blizzard plan on introducing. Not only does this prove that I’m psychic to a scary degree of accuracy but it’s also got me rather flippin’ excited. About the playable Pandas? No, I honestly couldn’t give a crap about them (I reserve the right to completely backtrack on that statement as expansion fever kicks in later on next year). What’s really got my boat floating and my fancy tickled though is the promise of new character models, animations and a complete overhaul of the talent system. Now that’s hot stuff.

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You all know my kid would be a badass

No, my wife isn’t pregnant. Yet. But it’s definitely on the cards – turns out the biological clock of a woman is an insane force to be reckoned with. Last time I likened it to a nuclear time bomb but I was wrong, it’s more like the most dangerous ninja on the planet, ready and waiting to attack. And attack she did. A couple of weeks ago I was awakened from a deep slumber in the middle of the night by the woman pouncing on me in a burst of animalistic sexual desire. It wasn’t until the deed had been done and she rolled off me with a smirk on her face that I realised just what had happened and a wave of utter terror flooded over me.

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A Goblin in shades? Now that's immersion.

Today, I’m not going to talk about how easy or hard WoW is, about whether or not it’s dumbing down the MMO genre, or even what impact it’s having on the way we socialise in game. These may all be valid (and interesting) topics but right now, right at this moment, all I want to discuss is something that I believe WoW does better than any other game out there: it stimulates and cultivates our imagination.

I’ve commented before on the psychological way WoW (and every other MMO out there) exploits us and tries to addict us by leveraging the human need to collect and complete but that’s not what keeps me coming back to the game (thankfully). What keeps me returning time and time again is the way it manages to kindle that fledgling spark of excitement in my brain about playing a certain race or a particular class. Call it roleplaying, call it escapism, call it immersion, call it whatever the heck you want but when I load up WoW and roll a new alt, I really feel it.

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