As the only one in the office who still gives a monthly stipend to Blizzard, I feel it's my duty to report on random WoW happenings.  Although I recently acquired a beta key for the new Wrath of the Lich King expansion, I don't think I'm allowed to report on anything besides the obvious, "It's pretty freakin' sweet." You'll just have to wait a month and play it for yourself.  /facepalm

But under the sub-heading of "Never expected that..." PopCap Games is going to incorporate their super-addictive puzzle game, Bejeweled into the already super-addictive MMO: World of Warcraft.  As reported in The Wired Blog Network, the game should be available next Thursday for download and should install just like all other 3rd party add-ons. So how did this amalgam of internet time sinks come into being?

PopCap's Bejeweled Add-On.

To put it simply, WoW is boring. Well, Michael Fromwiller, a San Jose State University student thinks so anyway. Now before the angry hordes storm SJSU to destroy the blasphemer, take a moment to be honest with yourself and admit that a good deal of World of Warcraft, although highly addictive, is tedious and boring. Experience grinding, gold farming, flight travel, and long pauses in raids often inspire me to alt-tab away from the game and do something else.  Recognizing this, Fromwiller made his very own Bejeweled add-on, "Besharded".  (Enchanters will find that clever.)  PopCap, who knows a good idea when it infringes on its intellectual property, whipped up an official Bejeweled port for unofficial WoW use.  

Blizzard, while showing no resistance to PopCap integrating it's classic puzzler into World of Warcraft, also isn't officially endorsing it.  Probably because it would mean admitting that 90% of the game is monotonous and painstaking. Whether or not Bejeweled is any less monotonous, I guess that's up to you. At this time, the Bejeweled gameplay will not have any effect on gold earning or character leveling in the game.  It's strictly a time consumer.  I speculate that WoW play time lost to Bejeweled will be negligible since subscribers are paying for WoW service and puzzle games are free elsewhere. They probably have their priorities in order and I doubt Blizzard has much to worry about.

Will this new game-within-a-game mechanic raise the bar for time wasting gaming efficiency?  Will combining these two addictions satisfy your fix faster, or merely save you a keystroke?  And how soon can we expect to see World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Line Rider or The Burning Snood-Craze?

 

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