With the enormous built in audience I suppose it was only a matter of time ... but do we REALLY need a movie based on the MMORPG World of Warcraft? Warner Brothers, through their Legendary Pictures arm will team up with Blizzard to produce this monstrosity based on the online fantasy world populated by six or so million users. No plot has been announced yet, as far as I can discover. WoW will become the latest in a rush of films trying to break through the negative stigma attached to film projects based on video games -- and it's nearly unrivaled video game audience may go a long way towards helping that goal.

The movie will undoubtedly focus around a grand fantasy adventure (I'm sorry, "quest") of some sort. Heaven only knows the universe is deep enough and rich enough to support any number of interesting/exciting fantasy stories; if a first film is successful the universe could certainly support plenty of sequels. However, I can't help but envision a movie full of cliched fantasy archetypal characters with names like Zathanditir and F'kkh'lyln repeatedly shouting poorly phrased insults at each other or getting "married" to people they've never actually met. Sometimes both simultaneously. If our lead characters ever manage to stop fighting with each other (the official movie announcement refers to this as "forming deep social relationships") they will then go out and kill a bunch of monsters so they can brag about how awesome they are now and tell their friends about the sweet new ring/hat/sword they just obtained.

It's probably a good thing I'm not in charge of making this movie, isn't it?

Disclaimer: Many of my good friends play MMORPGs, and I know they're quite enjoyable games. I do the occasional RPG myself, although I don't get into MMORPGs. I make fun of you because I love you. Really.