World of Warcraft: The Good, Bad, and Ogrely

World of Warcraft is well known for its popularity, as well as its infamy, as a giant among massive multiplayer online games (currently leading all its pay-to-play peers with 7,400,000 subscribers). For eight years of my life - from sixth grade until my first year of college - WoW was my favored game to play, producing profound and lasting effects on who I am.

Recently, I started looking more critically at the way video games can be overwhelming for some, and offer opportunities for the exploitation of players. While I personally found my playtime easier to control as I matured and developed stable relationships... the game’s combination of immersion, challenge, and community has highly addictive potential for rivaling reality, which can be contrastingly blunt, dreary, and lonely. As for exploitation, I am not referring to cheating in gameplay but mercilessly using social interaction to take advantage of other humans… which does occur, though I fortunately never saw this at its worst.

With the health of human hearts and wills specifically in mind, I’d like to write my own review on World of Warcraft. Where so many other voices have demonized the game as a whole from very limited research, in effect drowning out discussion and losing the attention of the gamers impacted, I instead hope to honestly identify from my own experiences which parts of the game are good, bad, or potentially anywhere in-between.

Lastly, though the focus of this post is only one MMO of many, I believe it concerns themes relevant to all other games too… which should be insightful for gamers and their parents, as well as designers in the gaming industry.

Radiant Vessels!

((This was originally posted on my church's Cambodia missions blog, just before my team arrived home at the end of July. As a reflection upon my adventure as well as my first project Rachel and I wrote together, it is special to me... but I want to share it with the darkness surrounding our Christmas-time celebration in mind especially.))

[Taylor:] When I first began this missions journey, I felt sorry for Cambodian Christians in a way that was unfair. It's not that I lacked respect for them; I certainly viewed the Fleenors with admiration in light of all they gave up to follow God's call. Still, without saying (or thinking) it in blunt words, my perception of Cambodia's believers before the trip was one based mostly on pity for their circumstances. I noticed at the outset of our trip a great overwhelming opposition for the country's Christ followers, but as I've interacted with this faithful remnant personally, I've learned to appreciate one thing most of all: in the midst of adversity and obscurity is where God's love shines brightest.

[Rachel:] My feelings before coming to Cambodia were similar, with the expectation that we were going to encourage our brothers and sisters and God was going to use us to shine His light- a startling contrast to the bleak surroundings. What I did not expect to see was God's flame of redemption burning relentlessly in so many of the individuals we would interact with- reflecting back strength, Love, and joy.

[Taylor:] Rachel and I want to share with you who these individuals are, and how they illuminated the way God's kingdom unexpectedly flourishes. Two men come to my mind in particular: Paul Fleenor and Soem.