So Long and Thanks for all the Video Games.

Oh Blizzard, what happened? I remember you, back when I was getting into PC games for the first time. I looked around at all the PC games and wondered “Is there anything here that I actually want to buy?” In the corner of my eye I could just about see a twinkle of something great buried in the mess of games. I picked it up to be greeted by a fiery red demon's grill slapped on the front case and a single word. Diablo. Sounds awesome to me. I ended up walking home with the battle chest which included both Diablo 1 and Diablo 2 with lord of destruction expansion. The hours I spent running through dungeons and scanning every piece of equipment I could find with blue text or higher. Just to see if it was that single digit higher in attack power. In retrospect it probably would have been quicker to run through with slightly weaker gear until a new area and it's equipment appeared.

That's not all from Blizzard though. I soon found myself back at the shop with the same Dilemma...What to buy...Plenty of clones of my beloved Diablo...but they were often a far cry from it's Brilliance. Maybe a change of pace is needed...an RTS maybe? I mean I loved Command and Conquer so why not. Did not take long to stumble across the DVD sized case with a huge green orc slapped on the front. “Warcraft III?” but I had not played any other games in the series...I eventually buckled and bought it. I got the same level of quality that I got from Diablo 2 but in the RTS genre...A far more colourful game...Something I welcomed to see on the PC. I loved the game a great deal and managed to work out the basics of what happened in the first two games. An RTS with RPG elements and driven by hero characters...Fantastic I thought. It all fit together well and while I could not get past the undead section of the game. I had fun.

I never did get myself acquainted with some of their other games like Starcraft but I had heard very good things but punishing difficulty as I found out recently. Next to hit big was World of Warcraft...Maybe just the term “hitting it big” is somewhat of an understatement...The game was nothing less than a behemoth. No other online game stood a chance. I was pretty late in getting into WoW and I did not get to a very high level. Just a Paladin in his mid 40s. Either way, I had fun and it did not feel the least bit like a grind to my experience...Alas...All good things must come to an end...WoW is still going and really without signs of evolution I fear it has started to drag other online games into it's pace. Now we have Diablo 3...While not an utterly terrible game, it was a far cry from what fans had come to expect from a sequel to Diablo 2. One day it might be okay...Blizzard may make the game fun or perhaps just make another great game someday...but for now...I think it's safe to say goodbye and thanks for all the memories.