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PC | RPG | World of Warcraft

Boxart for World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft 150 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 4.5
  • SOUND: 4.5
  • CONTROL: 4.5
  • FUN FACTOR 4.5
  • AVG USER SCORE 4.4
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 4.7
Winner of the GamePro Editor's Choice Award

Feature: This Persistent Life #8

Feature by Miguel Lopez | 06/29/2007 | 13:41:11 PM PST

WoW's e-sports scene is absolutely blowing up. The World Series of Video Games and the Championship Gaming Series--two of the biggest leagues out there--have included the game, so what will the future hold?

Though you wouldn't think the game was particularly suited for the attention, WoW's e-sports scene is absolutely blowing up. The World Series of Video Games and the Championship Gaming Series--two of the biggest leagues out there--have included the game in their tournament rosters, and Blizzard's own arena tourney has drawn wide attention. It's easy to see what the draw is here; WoW is a huge, genre-busting game, with massive global appeal, and an assuredly long life. Blizzard and the leagues it's supporting would be daft not to push it in this direction, given the breakout potential of competitive gaming.

But have you ever watched a WoW PvP video? If you're anything like me, unless the subject of the video is one of the classes that I've personally played to the high levels, I have no idea what I'm looking at. It takes about three or four viewings before I begin to notice the strategic subtleties. And these are for the classic world PvP videos. When it comes to recorded arena matches, well, I can't imagine anyone understanding what the hell is going on who hasn't either A) watched the video 20 times, or B) participated in the match in question. Granted, the WSVG and the CGS are focusing on the smaller brackets (3v3 and 2v2, respectively), but for the uninitiated, this is daunting enough.

Believe it or not arena PvP is what these leagues are betting will garner interest in competitive WoWing. Now, there's no question that WoW is a huge game with a very broad audience. The big question is whether there is an audience beyond enfranchised WoW PvP heads. We know they'll watch the matches over the league's broadband channels, but what about TV?

Personally, I'm skeptical. It's going to take quite a bit of effort on Blizzard's part to beat WoW into a form that's conducive to broadcast. At this point, most folks just won't get it--including casual WoW players, which comprise most of its player-base.

But be that as it may, there already is a budding WoW e-sports scene. If you're interested getting yourself acclimated with what's going on, I've made a list of all the most relevant spots on the internets. While some of these sites are a bit rough around the edges, you can bet that the people involved in them are on top of what's happening in this young scene.

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