The 11th Jan 2009 was the day it started. It was the day I finally decided to take the plunge, to risk everything I love and everything I own. I've struck the match, heated up the crack and taken a drag. I'm nervous as I sit here today at work, I realise after a few hours of playing the game yesterday - I've spent a lot of time thinking about WOW and a lot of time talking about it. Could these be the first signs of addiction? I've even attempted to pull a reformed WOW addict off the wagon by suggesting he joins me and play WOW. I need to know whether this is a game or something run a million miles from.

Of course, like everyone else I've heard lots of stuff said about WOW and how addictive it is. So I've always been curious to check it out for myself. I feel like its the one phenomina in gaming that I have not sampled. Until now I've avoided it, partly due to not being a massive RPG fan and partly due to the fact you have to pay a regular subscription fee. One of my best friends has played the game before and managed to get reasonably far into it (level 60), he always warned me that if you get sucked into WOW then you may as well sell your XBOX, PS3 etc as you won't be playing anything else once you "get into it". So I was curious to see what all the fuss was about, and I wanted to see if the game was as good as everyone made out. I was also intrigued to find out how addictive the game really is - and whether this addiction is due to the game being so much fun or whether it was something more negative, like scratching an itch, or feeding a habit (I.e. from compulsion). My opinion before playing was its a bit of both.

The reason I decided now was a good time was to try WOW was boredom. I have a 360 which RROD'd a few weeks ago and is currently on recuperation vacation in Germany, hopefully my friend Mr 360 will be on the way back to me ASAP before I get sucked in to WOW. I suppose it was my own fault for relying too much on the 360 - I should have spread the games out more, but all the games I really like on the 360 - so for the past few weeks I've been doing other stuff.. like watching TV and films.. I was so bored last week and decided to check out some of the video nasties from the 80s (these are films which were banned by the BBFC, also known as, British Board of Film Classification) at one time or another.. I started off with a family favourite - Cannibal Holocaust.. This is a cautionary tale of what happens when you go into the Amazon to make a film about cannibals without doing your homework. The film is badly dubbed from the original Italian into English but the story wasn't all that bad. I liked the premise of the story, the way it starts off with the Professor who goes to find out what happened to the documentary makers that have not been heard of since entering the Green Inferno (Amazon Rain Forest). The film wasn't that bad until the film makers started behaving worse than the cannibals trapping some natives in their huts and setting fire to them. I was cheering for the cannibals by the time they started hacking up the hapless documentary makers. Although I must have downloaded the Disney version as much of the really bad stuff was cut from the film - maybe not a bad thing. I'm not sure anyone really needs to see turtle being chopped up or a bloke having his Johnson removed with a machete. By then end of the film I realised that the plan to spend the next few weeks working my through the entire BBFC of video nasties was not going to be that productive and if I carried on I would end up slightly disturbed.

So what else to spend my time on? The PS3 sits there winking at me (through its layer of dust) - okay it's not going to set the gaming world on fire - when the history books are written I think the PS3 will be something that Sony will want to forget - it feels like the George W Bush of gaming - always looking uncomfortable in it's on skin, able to do lots of things badly but no one thing really well.. (Enough with the cheap pops at Sony - have to say Home is terrible though - moving on) I tried. I stick on Resistance - a PS3 launch title that's been on the shelf since it was given to me gratis my friend who tried (and failed) to convince me that this would be 'the best thing ever' online - how wrong. But the 1 player game was actually alright. Nothing special but enjoyable enough for the first few hours. But then boredom and reputation set in and I decided to put it back on the shelf.. Then I went back to Mario Galaxy - managed to get enough stars to complete the game... I thought to myself how good is this game? but why arent there more games like this on the Wii... but now Ive finish galaxy and watched several episodes of The Office.. I want some interactive entertainment... I can only play Peggle on the Mac. What about WOW - could this be the time to do the free 10 day trial thing?

 I go to the website and click on the link... the download starts... I click on the game and start register... I keep thinking I'll give up if it asks me for a credit card any excuse to turn back from the road to ruin. I want to try the game but Im also looking for any excuse to do something else. In the back of my mind Im think the game will be dull, plus Ill have to go through the newbie stage where I'm all finger and thumbs. Fortunately no credit card is required, I quickly go through the character creation screen, for some reason I pick a Priest. I'm already thinking this is a mistake; I should have been a character with a sword but what the hell... I give him a name, struggle to think of something that sounds like a fantasy character - I pick Esseker in the end. The name of a character in the film with Keifer Sutherland I watched at the weekend (Mirrors). I pick a server and server type - I go for PVE. I don't to be attacked all the time. And without further ado I'm in the world of Azeroth wondering how the game works and what I'm supposed to do.

The interface is all PC like (lots of icons) but seems easy enough to understand. I walk around and talk to people not sure whether they are real people or NCPs. The graphics look a bit basic but look they've make a coherent world. I start my first quest my heading towards a yellow question mark on the map, I speak with a chap in the Abbey I have to head north and kill some creatures. It sounds easy enough. Then I get lost. I'm used to Fable 2 with the breadcrumbs. I expect there should be an icon flashing on the map but there isn't. I walk around and find some woods... I discover a lake and then another village. Here I see lots of people jumping around and throwing fireballs at each other. I walk past trying not to get caught in the cross fire. I'm only level 1, I feel vulnerable - if someone sneezes on me I'm not sure I would survive. I see a man on a horse - he looks cool, like Venga from Dungeons and Dragons. I want to talk to someone, what I really want is someone to talk to me and tell me what to do - but nobody does.

I wander back to the Abbey (via the pub) and go back to the bloke that gave me the quest to kill 10 creatures, apparently they are causing trouble but when ever Ive seen them they have been going about their own business. I dont question the quest any further. Ive read what he says more clearly this time and have a better idea of where to go (head north from where the bloke that gave me the quest was standing). There they are... I start casting some spells and kill one of them... and then another and another. Before I know it I've massacred 10 of the critters and in doing so completed my first quest. I head back to the man in the Abbey and collect my reward which is some rather nice boots. I check the time its 30 minutes later than I thought and time for bed, but already I feel like I want to do another quest. There seems like a lot to explore and I enjoyed seeing my level go up from 1 to 3 but its time for bed. I logout. Im not hooked. Im not even sure the game is anything special, but I want to try it again and find out more about this strange new world.

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