Five MMO Holiday Gift Ideas

Five MMO Holiday Gift Ideas By Cecil Adkins Cecil Adkins is a fiction writer and covers MMORPGs for Examiner.com. He is an active player of City of Heroes, World of Warcraft, and several other MMOs. He can be found on the web at www.ceciladkins.com.

The holiday season is rapidly approaching, and if you’re like me you’re scrambling to come up with gift ideas for friends and family members. Also, if you’re like me you’re a big fan of MMOs as a concept and think they’re some of the greatest games ever known to mankind. Why not merge your gift shopping with your passion and shop around for MMOs to give some folks on your holiday gift list?

A couple of caveats, first. You’ll need to ensure that your recipient will be able to play the MMO you’re giving him or her. MMOs, like any PC game, have minimum system requirements, and it won’t do your recipient any good if they don’t have at least one computer on which they can play their new game. Hint around (be sneaky if you have to be) and try to determine that they’ll have the capability to play the MMO you have in mind for them. Luckily, a couple of the most popular MMOs out there have really low system requirements. Also, be sure your recipient understands that there’s usually a monthly fee associated with most MMOs, and that after the first month of play (which is usually included with a retail box purchase) they’ll need to pay for a subscription to continue playing. That is, unless you’re generous enough to purchase a few months’ worth of subscription time for them as well as the base game.

With those warnings aside, let’s look at what could be some good choices to include on your shopping list this year.

Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft is the biggest MMO ever, and with good reason. WoW isn’t great because it’s all that original – although its story is pretty cool overall. What makes World of Warcraft the MMO to beat is that it’s taken all the conventions of pen-and-paper RPGs and the early MMORPGs and polished them to the extent that other MMOs can look to WoW for examples of how they should be. Right now is a great time to break into World of Warcraft, because of the upcoming Cataclysm expansion that will redefine the playing experience across all level ranges. Blizzard has also made many changes to the game lately designed to make the game more appealing to casual gamers (lower level mount availability, dungeons with smaller group requirements, and quest tracking improvements), so people shouldn’t be afraid of the game if they’re not “hardcore” enough.

World of Warcraft can be purchased from many retailers, such as Wal-Mart and GameStop, as well as Amazon.com. The World of Warcraft Battle Chest would be a good choice, as it includes the base game and the first expansion, as well as strategy guides for both. And if you have someone on your holiday shopping list who’s already a World of Warcraft player, why not stop by the Blizzard “pet store” and see if you can find them a companion to keep them company while in-game?

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If your friend is already a World of Warcraft player, why not stop by the Blizzard “pet store”?