10 Video Games That Owned Themselves

World of Warcraft launched in 2004, and in the sixteen years since, a small country has been entirely consumed by Azeroth. Helping perpetually part these inextricable digital denizens from a wad of cash per mensis is the game's cynically-crafted, bite-sized quests, guaranteeing a dollop of achievement endorphins per session. There are now an astonishing 15,000 of the blighters across WoW and its six expansions, ranging from such engaging tasks as 'kill 10 goblins' to 'collect 20 goblin ears'.

To be fair, latter day WoW quests have become a little more dynamic, thanks to phased storylines and diversified objectives beyond killin' 'n' lootin'. Back in the vanilla days however, they were as grindy as Tony Hawk with a pepper mill - and even the quest planners grew tired of contriving reasons why your little cowman should harvest 15 raptor eggs.

One of mid-level zone The Badlands' many content scrolls, Rise of the Machines, brilliantly exposes this ennui. The quest, whose chief objective is to kill a malevolent golem known as Lord Argelmach, also tells put-upon players 'You will also need to collect 10 Intact Elemental Cores'.

Why? Simple: 'You know this because you are psychic'.