Say what you want about being a hardcore gamer or not, but one of WoW's huge advantages is that it's very easy to get started and the early game (ie the first 10 hours) plays well. This is one of the things that Blizzard really got right and is one of the reason they have so many people playing for whom this is their first serious MMO. I certainly will quit games after an hour if the controls make no sense and things don't seem rational. Damn my short attention span!
As others have pointed out the British Sci-Fi scene seems much more interesting these days and not mired in N book trilogies and the like. There have been some fantastic authors from the UK lately such as Iain Banks (not that recent admittedly), Peter Hamilton and my personal recent favourite, China Mieville. If you want to try the latter try The Scar or Perdido Steet Station. Very different style so they may not be for everyone but I found them engrossing.
Slashdot Mirror
Say what you want about being a hardcore gamer or not, but one of WoW's huge advantages is that it's very easy to get started and the early game (ie the first 10 hours) plays well. This is one of the things that Blizzard really got right and is one of the reason they have so many people playing for whom this is their first serious MMO. I certainly will quit games after an hour if the controls make no sense and things don't seem rational. Damn my short attention span!
As others have pointed out the British Sci-Fi scene seems much more interesting these days and not mired in N book trilogies and the like. There have been some fantastic authors from the UK lately such as Iain Banks (not that recent admittedly), Peter Hamilton and my personal recent favourite, China Mieville. If you want to try the latter try The Scar or Perdido Steet Station. Very different style so they may not be for everyone but I found them engrossing.
Classic Mathematician's Fallacy : Assuming it's a fair coin. If I see 10 heads in a row, I'm starting to wonder if this is a fair game.