Games & Gadgets

World of Warcraft wants you

Blizzard Entertainment, the makers of "World of Warcraft," must know by now their game is an unstoppable (and profitable) juggernaut. There is no escaping it. It will conquer us all. One day the entire world will shut down because everyone called in a sick day to do some massive raid.

Lately Blizzard has me and my friends wondering if it is secure in its status as the world's most popular multiplayer online game. Through the new "Recruit-A-Friend" feature, players can earn triple experience up to level 60 when playing with a new "World of Warcraft" player. But it doesn't end there — for every two levels your recruited friend earns, they can grant a level to one of the recruiter's characters.

Do people abuse these new features, say, by buying a separate account or two? And how! One YouTube video I saw showed a player who bought two separate accounts and leveled one of his characters to 60 in 20 minutes. I suppose Blizzard can use the, "That's not what the Recruit-A-Friend feature is for" defense. They may even boot a player just to make their point. But I think Blizzard knows people will buy separate accounts.

How evil is it? Well, on a scale of one to 10, 10 being the most evil, I'd give it about a three. It's capitalism at its finest, baby. What gives my friends pause for concern is Blizzard's cavalier attitude. Rather than spend money improving the game play of "World of Warcraft," Blizzard opted for a gimmick to boost its subscriptions. It's also a gimmick that other players are abusing, flooding servers with high-powered characters. This will work to Blizzard's advantage, especially when it releases a new expansion pack increasing the max level from 70 to 80. It just strikes us as a touch insulting to older players who struggled through the lower levels to get to 70.

Will Blizzard's promotion make the game better for all players or frustrate older ones in the name of attracting new ones? It definitely gives us a clue about what the company's priorities are. Game play may satisfy veterans, but triple experience keeps new players (or new accounts, at least) coming through the door.

"My Word Coach"

"Word Coach" gives you vocabulary-buffing exercises in short bursts. Nintendo, not content to let people raise imaginary puppies on its DS console, is also reaching out to the educational game market. It's a smart move that adds more purpose to the system.

One gripe I have with this game is one I have with other vocabulary-building tools — it doesn't give the part of speech for each word. Knowing how to use a word is just as important as knowing what it means. Granted some words have multiple uses, but would it really have been so hard to note those?

I have to dock it some points there. But assuming you can figure out how the words are used in sentence construction, you will pick up some new words and become reacquainted with some old ones you thought you knew. "Word Coach" is kind of like a GPS that needs some of the side-streets updated on its information card. What it really makes me crave is a game that teaches history; particularly U.S.

Please hook it up, Nintendo.

Rating: 3.5 buttons.