What Turned into a Really Long Post

So, my trial subscription finally ran out (you will note by examining the dates on my posts that it has by no means been ten days--colon frowny bracket) so it looks like its going to be back to the dreary looking forest as an undead. However, my roommate needs to update his account, so until then I'll address the issue I mentioned in my last post (okay, two posts ago) and never followed up on, IE the whole ghost death thing. So. My thoughts.

In short:
I really really don't like the whole ghost death thing.

In long:
So I have spent at least a little time in each entry unnecessarily gushing about the visuals of WOW. Yes, it is beautiful, at least as beautiful as a video game can be at this point. However that doesn't mean I'm not going to get bored wandering around the same patch of land again and again. While I'm still alive the repetition feels a little more justified since it sort of feels like punishment for being too stupid to figure out whatever quest I'm trying for at that time, but whenever I die it is a completely different matter. First, you have no control over your re spawn points so if some malevolent animal decides to eat you then the game might unceremoniously throws you a ten minute walk away. Second, everything gets all blurry which I will admit was cool looking the first time but which now not only obscures all the stunning visuals I'm always gushing about but makes it really hard to find my way back to wherever my body is, especially if my body happens to be on the other side of a cliff. Finally, the only times I have ever died is when I encountered an animal which is way more powerful than me (a fairly good assumption, I think). Then, when I get up and the same animal inevitably kills me again, only more easily now since Blizzard conveniently started me out with half health. I'll make the token obnoxious reference to Runescape: while I appreciate that I get to keep all my items (and believe me, I really do appreciate that), Runescape would always respawn you in some safe, friendly place, the message being not to go back. Yes, it was a pain to have to wander all over the map, but the learnign curve was fast. Now, I have all of the same inconvenience of slowly trecking from here to there, but now I have no choice but to go back to the same monster that killed me the first time. Its like the worst of both worlds (minus the item thing). Really what it all boils down to is that the game is telling me to stay in the familiar, and to by no means leave my comfort zone until I have enough levels and weapons to take whatever that place can throw at me. What is completely backward about that is that exploring the world is by far the most fun aspect of the game. Don't punish me for on a whim abandoning my quest and going on a journey up north, Blizzard! That is the whole point of your game! If I can't do that then all I'm paying hundreds of dollars a year for is running errands for animated cow people.
I was curious what reviewers had to say about it, and I was surprised to find that they had the exact polar opposite reaction. In this gamespot review (pause for link): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyQhcFa9yEs
(okay, continue) the nerdy guy says that the death system actually boosts the players ability to explore. I suppose its possible that all MMORPG games before WOW were linear, claustrophobic exercises in boredom and depravity, but that would frankly surprise me.

I'm not sure exactly what I would want to happen. Every game struggles to hit the Challenging/aggravating sweet spot, but it's hard to come up with something that doesn't do the most irritating thing a game can do; take the player out of the action for a while. This could be an area where the races could differ I suppose. It would be neat for example if undead couldn't die, but just got weaker and weaker the longer they fought and would have to buy new limbs and stuff, whereas the night elves would turn into an animal for two minutes and would have to hide while their enemies got distracted before resurrecting. Sometimes I wish Blizzard would remember that Starcraft is the best thing they've ever made.

One last though: I was curious what other people thought of all this, so I googled "World of Warcraft Death". The first five entries were all describing people who died while playing the game. Ironic, since for me the main challenge is staying interested.