So I’ve completed my journey through the Worgen starting area, began my life as a Goblin, and even put some time into a Tauren Paladin. I think it’s time to share some initial thoughts on my experience of coming back to WoW.

Let me start off by saying that I am extremely happy with Blizzard’s additional online services they’ve added to help you retrieve a hacked account. Who would have thought that something as simple as allowing you to input a section of your CD key into the site to verify that it’s yours would make my tired experience with Battle.net so much less of a headache? The whole Battle.net experience is as slick Clark Griswold’s snow sled. I kind of wish it was utilized for more than just Blizzard’s products.

But enough of that, let’s talk about the game.

So after my account was back up to speed and the game was downloaded, I started my return to the game by first jumping on my Death Knight to have a look at the world. I didn’t stay long because I wanted to get my hands on a Worgen, but I was impressed by what Blizzard had done with the increasingly meager graphics. It’s like they rubbed stem cells all over the game to combat the aging effects. It’s still the same old WoW, but it just seems crisper. So again, if you’ve always hated the stylized look of the game, just stay away, but if you like the game’s aesthetics go have another look, it will seem like you just got a new pair of prescription glasses.

I had given thought to not getting Cataclysm and just resubbing to the game to check out some of the other new content and then play my Death Knight. The constant praise that was being given to the new races starting areas was enough to make me change my mind. Plus…I had a coupon.

People I follow on Twitter have by-in-large been far more infatuated with the Goblin area than its Alliance counterpart, but I’ve always found WoW’s version of Goblin’s to be nearly as annoying as their version of Gnome’s, which means; I hate them.

Tell them I hate them!

The Worgen starting area, on the other hand, was amazing. I couldn’t really tell if Blizzard was going more for an old timey London feel, or something more along the lines of Romanian, but I liked it. The dingy, over-wet look to everything, the full moon’s light creeping through the buildings, and the amazing sounds all worked in unison to create one of the best feeling experiences I’ve had in WoW. I honestly did not want to leave the area, and when I landed in (SPOILER!) Darnassus after the retreat from Gilneas, it was a colorful explosion that ended up disappointing me more than emphasizing the “whole new world” that Blizzard was trying to represent by the extreme color palette change.

The other aide in mood setting during my teen wolf years was the implementation of phasing. If you don’t already know what this is, it’s essentially a way to hide players who are on a different section of a quest line and at the same time will allow you to see the world differently than them or people that aren’t caught up to you. For example; at one moment I was walking around a grassy field, then after turning in a quest and seeing the earth shake in a cellar of someones home, I returned to the surface to find that the docks had moved a little closer so to speak. The field I was just walking around on was now under water, and I was then charged with a rescue attempt. It was pretty amazing for an MMO. With phasing, Blizzard has taken a great step forward with storytelling and it’s something I personally consider a milestone for MMO’s. We as players have been asking to feel more impact to the world around us, and phasing is the best implementation I’ve seen thus far of that idea.

But that’s not to say my return is a rose with no thorns. The new starter experience that Blizzard has created is both a masterpiece and something that I fear for the future of MMO’s. As a whole, WoW is still great and I totally understand why it is the beast it is. There is an amazing world to experience, loads of content, and it’s all pieced together like a woman designed by a computer. But Blizzard is walking a fine line with the content they’ve added. The Worgen and Goblin starting areas (at least these, I haven’t checked all of them yet) are very linear. The quest lines are much like what were presented in the Death Knight starting zone. You have a predetermined path which you must walk. It’s like you’re Kwai Chang Caine and you have to snatch a shitload of pebbles from a line of blind people’s hands before you’re free to go.

As a way to tell the story of your character, this whole setup is brilliant. But my fear comes from the idea that it won’t stop at the new player experience. My fear is that this level of single player story will eventually be molded into the entire world, putting it on rails, and making it into more of a single player experience then it already is. If someone wanted to soak hours into single player games, you could do a lot better and save a ton of money by playing other games.

An additional problem with this deeper connection bridged by a more cinematic application is that I find myself not wanting to repeat it. I’ve gone through the Worgen area, and I have absolutely no desire to relive it. To relive some of those events would make them feel less genuine. I’ve always believed that MMO’s should lean more towards the sandbox feel and the water cooler moments should be created by the players. The developers should only be there to provide a backdrop. In WoW, we’re beginning to see that everyone will one day have the same story to tell.

The crazy thing that I still can’t quite wrap my head around is that from the outside looking in, I believe making the game more of a solo affair is a horrible idea and easily makes WoW some type of monster other than an MMO. It’s the same fear that’s keeping me suspicious (yet, cautiously optimistic) about Star Wars: the Old Republic.

But here’s the catch; I lose myself in it. After a short stint with a Goblin (no pun intended) I rolled a Tauren Paladin and spent a few hours playing. I didn’t even notice the time go by and I went to bed more than an hour later than I had intended.

So I question my thought process. Is the move to a more story driven experience for better or worse? I’m guessing it’s both. On one hand, the game has been this massive open world for a handful of years now, this kind of change is just the thing to get people interesting in the game again and will also act as the catalyst of numerous alt rolls. But on the other hand, what happens next? Blizzard has some story driven content planned for the coming year or so until the next expansion, which I imagine they’ll need to have to keep the rabid, content hungry players in their chairs. But with this kind of content, won’t it be more fleeting? Or will it instead make more players slow down and enjoy the ride?

Given the average WoW player (or at least those I’ve seen in the past week), I doubt it.