The Armory

It’s been a while since I’ve posted about gaming or World of Warcraft stuff. That’s mainly because only 1 person in my readership (to my knowledge) plays WoW and that’s only because she’s my wife and I practically make her.

One of the interesting things about these MMORPGs is that they maintain a perpetual world. Just because you log off doesn’t mean the world stops. There are always dungeons being beaten, guild politics going on, and arena battles being won. A single person can’t play a game 24/7 (believe me I’ve tried), so what does one do to keep up?

Blizzard has tried to keep players enthralled away from the game by introducing The Armory. It’s actually a pretty impressive feat of a website that brings the game to the player wherever they can snag some web access.

From The Armory, you can view any character in the game, their skills, their reputations, their gear, and even their talent trees. You can search for any item in the game and find out where it drops, what its drop percentage is and what classes usually want that sort of thing. You can even view guild statistics of any guild in the game, as well as statistics about PvP arena teams.

I hope Blizzard keeps adding to the project. It seems the first step would be to add the ability to see in my bags, see what patterns I know in my professions, and see what’s overflowing my bank.

After that, I’d like some more interactive features. I’m ok with logging in if it means I can check out the auction house, make bids, and check my mail. It would also be nice to be able to respec your talents or train your new skills.

Blurring the line between MMORPG and real life is inevitable, and ways to reach into the game world from anywhere on a nominal basis will only serve to increase the hold that such games have on their players. But dang, it’s fun!