I’ve been playing MMORPGs for a long time. I started the year Everquest came out, and save for the occassional break between games, I’ve pretty much always been active on one or another.

In all of these years, I’ve never once hit the level cap.

Oh sure, I came close on World of Warcraft (67 priest I think) and I often wonder why I’ve never once accomplished this dubious honor. Well, after much meditation on this subject (minutes and minutes, in fact) I think I came to the conclusion. Instead of blaming my own resolve, I think I’ll do instead what comes instinctively to humans as a species: I’ll blame someone else. MMORPG developers, all of you, pull the old bait and switch on your consumers. At first you mask grinding with quests and other shit but by the time you’re painfully close to the level cap all pretext of distraction is removed. Fuck you, you’re grinding. I suspect the reason they do this is because they reason they already have you paying, and you’re already that close, so you’ll surely endure those last few levels of pain because the glory of a maxed character is forever.
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Now I’m going to take you back in time –  12 years to be exact — to the year 1997. The company in focus is Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard at this point in time was fairly new to the game creation scene, and I’m sure many of you may remember such titles as The Lost Vikings, Rock and Roll Racing, or the PC strategy game Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. To say the least, they were still in the infancy stages.

When Blizzard went to make Diablo, they had hired Condor Games in 1995 (give or take) to do the job for them. Eventually in 1996 they had acquired them, and Condor games became known as Blizzard North; all the while they kept toiling away, creating a game that would be a great hit. Let’s fast forward to the game; I’ll save the Blizzard Entertainment History Lesson for later.
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Blizzard Entertainment has announced that World of Warcraft, its incredibly popular MMO, is now played by more than 11.5 million subscribers worldwide. The landmark was aided by the November 13 release of WoW’s second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King.

Apparently, WoTLK sold over 2.8 million copies within 24 hours of launch, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time. And it has gone from strength to strength, having sold 4 million copies total in its first month.

“We’re pleased to welcome the new and returning players who have helped World of Warcraft reach these new milestones, and we appreciate the enthusiasm and support that the game’s global community has continued to show,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We look forward to providing all of them with an excellent entertainment experience for a long time to come.”