Why we don't need more torture in video games. Or, WoW is not Star Trek.

Something has been bothering me about Wrath of the Lich King for quite a while now - the cruelty. Wired magazine recently published an article talking about the quest where you torture someone. I did the quest, and as a Death Knight I was just fine with it.

Back in Real Life though, I'm a bit saddened with Blizzard. They took it upon themselves to add what I assume is political discourse to a video game that I play to escape from dreary reality. I didn't personally enjoy that quest. I also didn't enjoy the quest that resulted in someone's soul being destroyed, having to kill someone's entire family, or the other various dastardly deeds I've been required to commit in order to complete quests.

(Note: The starter quests for Death Knights were just fine, because you're supposed to be Evil at that point.)

If, as the Wired article suggests, Blizzard were to make there be more important ramifications to doing that quest, people would happily do whatever got them the most benefit, including me. That's because World of Warcraft is merely a game. In a previous MMORPG, my entire guild and I all wore (seriously, I'm not kidding) woven straw chicken hats  because they had great stats and could not be stolen from us upon death.

To quote part of the Wired article:

It's quite possible Blizzard has a much larger, slow-moving point to make about torture. If true, that's great. Because personally, I'd like to see games that had more torture — and better torture — in them. In this alarming chapter of American history, they might wind up fueling the best public debate yet.

I guess to the Wired article author, that's really exciting. Personally, I'm paying to play this game, and I'd like to not have horrible reality shoved in my face while I do so. WoW is not Star Trek - I haven't been enlightened, just pissed off.