The World of Warcraft: To Geek or Not to Geek

Okay, so a bit of background.  I’ve been addicted to World of Warcraft for a while now (if you don’t know what WoW is, you need to crawl out from under the rock you’ve been living in before you get crushed by that massive thing).  I go through periods where my trips to Azeroth are lessened but I always return.  Sometimes there’s shame (always pride when it’s in-game) when I come to admit to myself that my first forays into the world were back right at the turn of “vanilla,” that is to say, I’ve been around since before any of the expansion packs.

The first “toon” that was all mine, my beautiful Andelyse (Scarlet Crusade-US, if you were wondering) has been around since about August of 2007.  It was a time when, if you were a hunter, you had to go out and tame yourself a pet.  It was a time when, if you wanted to train your pet, you had to go out and tame other exotic rares with specific skill sets.  It was a time when, if you wanted to run a dungeon, you had to put together groups to run instances (which still had the infamous “jump phase”)…that is, if you wanted to have any hope.  It was a time when “More DoTs!” and “Leeeeeroy Jenkins” were inside jokes and not on Tshirts, a time when “DM” was Dire Maul and “VF” was what you called Deadmines (for VanCleef), a time when talking about murlocs got you odd stares, and a time when the game was relatively still full of geeks.

Things have changed since that time so long ago when Ande sat happily on the Khadgar server.  Blizzard has released countless patches since Andelyse was created; they’ve also released two expansions, announced a third expansion, and the world of Azeroth has been changed forever.  No, I’m not making a bad reference to the Cataclysm, I’m talking about the dynamic of the game as a whole.

Last night was raid night.  My guild currently has a 10 man group working on Dragon Soul.  We’re not the highest in progression, but that’s not what the Fel Watch is about.  It’s about the people…and boy, are they some interesting folks.

Since joining back at the beginning of December, I’ve gotten to know two fellow writers, a sales rep, three former or current military personnel, moms, dads, brothers, friends, and so much more.   There are couples who treat WoW akin to a date night, married folks who use it as an escape from their spouses/real lives, people who’d rather be exploring a fantasy landscape than watching television, and people who just use it as an escape.  We’ve got people that have been around since day one of beta testing to people who are leveling their first toon.  I’ve met one Trekkie, three Warsies, a few D&Ders, and the rest are considerably not your typical gamer.

At 10.3 million subscribers as of November, even with the rise in geek culture, the game is populated by a diverse selection of people from all walks of life.  For instance, I run with a guy who, previously, only held interest in FPS video games (that’s first-person shooters, for the uninitiated) and was introduced to WoW by his brother.  Another friend of mine in-game holds hobbies like disc golf and runs in marathons.  I can’t stress it enough… Azeroth is home to just as many non-geeks nowadays.  It makes for an interesting dynamic to the world.

This influx of non-geeks has turned the World of Warcraft from a successful MMORPG based off of RPG video games into a massive, multi-billion dollar business that spans the globe.  How did they get this big?  They specifically appeal to the non-geek.  The advertisements over the years have become more mainstream (most recently featuring none other than Chuck Norris…and he’s a hunter!  What now?) and the big spots are premiered during football games, no less!  Blizzard knows that every geek worth his or her salt already knows the appeal of the game, so they don’t waste the marketing dollars on a niche market…they spend it where it’s going to draw in new subscriptions.  It’s worked.  The company makes an unpublished number somewhere in the 9-10 digit range yearly based off of its estimated 10.3 active subscriptions (a number that’s statistically in decline at the present!).  Even better, they current have lines of licensed products ranging from tangible goods to digital ones: there’s clothes, drinking wear, stuffed animals, in-game pets, and so much more for anyone with a disposable income.  It’s enough to make them sound like evil overlords (but I’ll get to that in a later article).

So, with the number of subscribers, it begs the titular question- The World of Warcraft: to geek or not to geek?  Azeroth isn’t just for, to embrace the stigma, basement dwellers anymore.

Until later, I sign off with my usual: geek on!