Why I Play

I complain a lot here.

I complain about not getting loot. I complain about people who are bad in dungeons. I complain about being depressed. I complain about people RPing things incorrectly, rudely, perplexingly, or whatever.

In some way it’s because this blog can be an outlet for that frustration. In some way I think complaining about idiots can be funny.

But I also think it’s important to remember that WoW can be a wonderful part of your life.

Yesterday was an amazing day.

I’ve had some amazing times in WoW. All you have to do is look at my entire Shadowmourne experience and you can see the happiness the game has brought me. I’m sure there are other blog entries floating around like that, describing fun times. The thing about Shadowmourne was that it was a long process, and I knew that if and when it culminated it was going to be amazing.  And it was.

Yesterday, on the other hand, took me completely by surprise.

It started innocently enough. I was playing the game while some work was being done in my house so I basically was RPing while that happened. The Blue Recluse was empty so I went to the Cathedral steps (the major RP hangout). And boy, did I get RP.

Let’s see if I can run down the people I met, in order.  I apologize if I mix things up.

First person I met was B. She said she knew me and I thought she was someone else at the time, but she later revealed herself to be a different friend of mine. She was dressed in a pink bunny outfit and had some very hilarious things to say about a death knight who was playing exactly to type and trying and failing to grief people who were having fun while she was being miserable.  We actually spent most of the morning together. I added her to my friends list.

Then there was G.  G was a paladin with a very interesting hairstyle. I like to look for uniqueness in MRPs and little details I can pull out and talk about. We had a conversation about hair. It was fun. I had never met her before and I added her to my friends list.

B grouped up with me and A and S to have a fun conversation. A is a friend of mine who I call the most stylish Draenei on Azeroth. S is a worgen hunter who I always seem to have a pretty good time with and who I am liking more and more.

At some point I met D. D is a rogue engineer, one whose MRP I quite liked. She assumed three different forms during our brief conversation: a draenei (from a transporter malfunction), a blood elf (from an orb of the Sin’dorei), and her natural human form. We had a very silly conversation about the pink dress from AQ20. I added her to my friends list.

Shortly after that I met X. X is a frost death knight and plays her like Emma Frost; dripping with ice and chilling anyone around her. I love the idea. She was also playing a pale draenei with white hair, wearing the Mooncloth robe, and thus was one of the more beautiful character models I had seen in some time. We had a fun conversation. I added her to my friends list.

Then I met L. L plays an illusionist worgen mage, one who crafts solid illusions out of mana gems, kind of like mirror image but with more permanence and, according to her MRP, with sufficient skill as to fool most people. She also plays her with other abilities that to some might make her seem overpowered, but to me make her seem utterly fascinating. And she has an interesting history, one that I feel I only scratched the surface of yesterday. We hit it off almost immediately. I added her to my friends list.

If you’re keeping track, that’s five people I’ve added as friends so far, and it wasn’t even noon yet.

B then spoke of how much she liked the pink dress and how much she wanted it. What she hadn’t realized was that it dropped off of an easily solo-able boss in AQ20. I offered to take her and we were off. It didn’t drop, but it was fun.

After that I ran into M. M plays a night elf mage, and by her description she reminded me quite a bit of Anivile. She was also very warm in responding to my compliment of her MRP. We got to talking, and I found out she was an officer of a small guild, one that I thought was perfect for one of my leveling alts. I joined the guild, and I think it’s fair to say that I hope she’ll be a new friend, along with another person in that guild who I met briefly.

Then in the afternoon, Momori logged in for the first time in what seemed like forever. Momori is one of my absolute most favorite people in the game, one who I might drop almost anything to go talk to. She’s someone who has encouraged and helped me with my drawing, and generally been a really good friend in the brief times I’ve been able to talk to her. Seeing her was fun. We had an all to brief RP, but it resulted in one of what I considered to be my most hilarious lines ever (one that would take far too much of an explanation for anyone other than Momori and me to understand, sadly). I had to leave the game after that, sadly, but it was incredibly good to see her.

When I got back in the evening, I didn’t have too much of an expectation as to what would happen. I met up with B again and met her RP boyfriend, which was fun.

Then I spoke to K. K is someone I “met” in raid finder; I actually knew her alt from before then, but I didn’t have experience with K the character until then. She is, as of Cataclysm, the best dps warrior I know, someone who if she tries would outdps me by a fair bit (she wasn’t trying all that hard in the LFR). She is also someone I have RPed with a bit, and what bit I have RPed with her has been fantastic. She’s very friendly, very social, and we seem to get along great.

K asked me if I would like to join her guild for attempts on Madness of Deathwing. I had run with Jana earlier in the week with my guild’s B team, but that was as a sub and I was unlikely to make their second session. After talking with an officer to get approval, I said yes, and we were off.

Their guild was trying a very different makeup than RRT had used to down him. They were using seven dps, two healers, and one tank (as opposed to the more traditional 5-3-2 setup that RRT used). This led to different strategic choices, such as needing to stop dps on the main tentacles to wait for hemorrhage to be cast, and so on. As always, it was a frustrating encounter because the progression bits were on the last platform, ten minutes into the fight. But after four attempts (maybe five), we got him down, and Jana has the achievement and title I didn’t think she would get until DS had been nerfed to the ground.

Jana didn’t win any loot, but I would have felt bad if she did; she was a guest of a guild and I felt happy just to be there.

So, if you’re keeping count, my day had:

• 7 new friends;
• A new guild for my leveling alt;
• A first-time run to get some RP loot for a friend;
• A return of one of the most awesome people I know;
• A kill of the final boss in the expansion for Jana, the character on whom I have spent the most time in this game, by far.

It was one of my best days ever in World of Warcraft. It reminded me of why I play the game.