WoW Factor is Eliot Lefebvre’s column on an MMO you’ve probably never heard of: World of Warcraft. [Follow this column’s RSS feed]
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Casually Classic: Looking back at my 20+ year journey in World of Warcraft
When was the first time you ever heard of World of Warcraft? As a fan of the three Warcraft RTS titles, I became aware of...
First Impressions: The War Within breathes new life into World of Warcraft
After being mostly disappointed with Dragonflight, I was wondering if my decision to return to World of Warcraft for the Worldsoul Saga was a...
Casually Classic: The five World of Warcraft mods I use as a non-modder playing The War Within
Generally, I don't use mods for MMORPGs. Or most video games. It's not that I take some high-minded principled stand against them; I have...
WoW Factor: Leaving World of Warcraft’s Dragon Isles for good
Vallin didn't like boats. Lots of Dwarves did, he knew he was the outlier in that regard, but he had never cared for them....
WoW Factor: The black mark of World of Warcraft’s player economy
Sometimes, I like to play a little game with MOP's Bree. I say I like to because the game is "Give Bree An Aneurysm,"...
WoW Factor: The mulligan problem in World of Warcraft’s narrative
In World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, Illidan Stormrage gets killed. This isn't actually a surprising end for the character. Illidan as a person...
WoW Factor: Blizzard started listening to World of Warcraft players for a reason its leadership doesn’t want to say
I have a few different conflicting thoughts when it comes to the most recent interview with World of Warcraft game director Ion Hazzikostas, or...
WoW Factor: MMORPG raiding is not special
You all remember The Incredibles, right? I know that these days the hot take is to try to spin the film as some sort...
WoW Factor: Is The War Within going to be ready for its launch?
The surprise announcement of the date for World of Warcraft: The War Within prompted what I'm sure is a lovely reader with a large...
WoW Factor: The streak The War Within needs to break for World of Warcraft
On November 13th, 2008, World of Warcraft's second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, was released to an eager population. The prior expansion, The...
WoW Factor: Story Difficulty is a bad idea and a good idea all rolled into one
Back during Wrath of the Lich King, I remember people asking for a story difficulty for raids in World of Warcraft because if the...
WoW Factor: Guessing at World of Warcraft’s The War Within’s release date using math
Oh yeah. It's time. I actually have some thoughts to share about World of Warcraft's current Remix leveling event, which are complicated and multilayered...
WoW Factor: How World of Warcraft makes you cheer for removing features
Yesterday, MOP's Justin wrote a column about The Elder Scrolls Online that detailed its key virtues. It's a good column, and one of the...
WoW Factor: There’s probably never going to be a World of Warcraft ‘Classic Plus’
As I always do when discussing World of Warcraft (and anything else, really), I am putting my cards on the table here: I am...
WoW Factor: Exit BlizzCon, for good this time?
Back in 2021, we learned that there was not going to be a BlizzCon 2022. This did not surprise me, and I penned a...
WoW Factor: The strange excitement split for World of Warcraft’s The War Within
There's an interesting aspect I've observed about World of Warcraft as we slowly creep toward the release of The War Within. No one who...
WoW Factor: What’s a Mists of Pandaria remix and why is World of Warcraft doing it?
In hindsight, I feel like I was gentler toward Season of Mastery than I should have been. World of Warcraft has turned everything into...
WoW Factor: Blizzard didn’t reveal World of Warcraft sub numbers – it drew a Mystery Line
It will not surprise anyone reading this to learn that there are things which upset me. This is just part of being a human...
WoW Factor: World of Warcraft’s Plunderstorm is neither greedy nor good
It would be an exaggeration of the highest order to say that no one was even a little interested when World of Warcraft unveiled...
WoW Factor: Steve Danuser was not really the problem with World of Warcraft
So I don't want to sit here and say "oh, things were going so great" before the news that Steve Danuser had actually left...
