From Bellz – What Do You Remember
Lovingly stolen from Ms. Bellwether :
I remember the time my baby Orc Warrior tanked Verdan the Everliving in Wailing Caverns, and how I was overcome with awe in how big it was, while it stomped my green ass.
Now, I want to see Brutallus go ass-over-teakettle.
I remember healing an instance for the first time.
Now, I wouldn’t dream of going back to it.
I remember my friend’s boyfriend sending me a gold in the mail after I had accidentally sold my green sword of ownage at level 15, and thought I’d be boned because I couldn’t replace it without killing tons of mobs with a skinning knife, and how grateful I was.
Now, I realize how little it was to him, but still appreciate how much it meant to me.
I remember being drafted by Defiance as a level 9 priest.
I remember leaving Defiance as a level 64 priest, and giving up on healing shortly thereafter.
I remember meeting up with a new friend in that guild, and RPing as twin priests. I was the bad one. XD
I remember losing touch, because she was loyal to a guild leader that was a douche and a jackass.
I remember running Scarlet Cathedral 15 times and losing two Need rolls on these: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=7724.
I remember running Shadow Labs once and nailing the Need roll on this. http://thottbot.com/i27903
I remember how cool the first time I saw Orgrimmar was.
I still remember how cool it is to go through the front gates.
I remember spending thirty minutes running a friend through Deadmines, and spending an hour and a half just goofing around outside the instance, and having a barbecue.
I think about that every time I have a shitty instance group, and how it’s the people you’re with more so than what you’re doing.
I remember raiding for the first time. Zul’Gurub was nice at first, but then got rough, and kind of awkward when I realized nobody knew what they were doing. (wow, why does that sound like another kind of first time?)
I remember grinding on blue dragons in Azshara at 2 in the morning, listening to Jennifer Batten playing Giant Steps by Coltrane. I don’t know why, I can’t stand Jazz or Fusion, but I really wanted to hear that song.
I remember freaking out when I didn’t know how to give my pet new abilities.
I remember smiling when I helped a newbie realize he had to finish his class quests in order to learn the first rank of Growl.
I remember that cougars are the Murlocs of Mulgore, and much like regular cats, our eternal conflict carries over into the virtual realm.
I remember triggering the Cage o’ Murlocs quest in Zangarmarsh, and laughing for a good solid minute.
I remember spending two days trying to tame Echeyakee – one to level up to where he was, and another to finagle the taming.
I remember getting rid of him, and feeling more attached to the bear I tamed named “Snuggles”, that I tamed on a whim.
I remember not knowing what people meant when they said “tank” or “DPS”.
Now, I know to ask if we have heals or CC.
I remember when I thought Night Elves were awesome.
…and secretly, I still think they’re cool, but they’ve lost their coolness due to everybody and their mother rolling Night Elves. By that virtue, Trolls are the coolest race ever.
I remember my first encounter with Stitches.
And subsequent “OH HI *facemelting*” encounters.
I remember hearing about Survival for the first time.
Now, I wish I had been with it from the start.
I remember thinking I was never going to reach 70.
I remember when Wyvern flights were cool.
I remember stepping through the Outland gates for the first time, and getting stomped by a Fel Reaver about thirty minutes later.
I remember taking down two Hordies at once on my Priest for the first time.
I remember realizing that most of the stuff BRK talked about at will, I had figured out on my own.
(well, except for the kiting thing.)
Then I started SHA.
Thanks, Bell. There’s more, but it’s been a nice trip down memory lane.
-Brian
Good news…and bad news.
I’ve got an interview for an entry-level position at HarperCollins on Monday!
HUZZAH!
It would be a good fit for me and my skills, and depending on how it goes, if I get into graduate school, I might put it off for a year so I could get some more experience. (and lewts.)
And… BOOKS! IT’D BE WORKING WITH BOOKS!!!!
But, on the down side, I’m running into a bit of a snag.
Another friend of mine went back to WoW.
He’s playing with our other friend, who’s rolling with his friends Alliance-side.
All that talk has me thinking of going back… but I know I wouldn’t go back to Ravenholdt, and I doubt I’d go and play with my friends on their server. (Once You Go Horde…um…I don’t know, you come up with something witty.)
The people I miss on Ravenholdt stopped playing, and the old guild’s done. I looked up a guild or two, and think I found a *really* good one on another server.
They’re not recruiting hunters, but it’s a good fit for what I’d want in a guild, and that’s what’s most important. Plus, I’m not terribly impressed with the caliber of their hunters. 😐
I’m really conflicted about this. Quitting felt like I was breaking up to get out of a bad relationship, but I also needed to grow.
But me going back to the game is ignoring everything that made me quit in the first place… which was the lack of people willing to help out, the new environment, and the absence of fun in where I was. I’d be going back to something bad for me, just because it’s comfortable.
But on the other hand, if, say, I DID get into this new guild, their attitude would be a good home for me. They’re remarkably organized, terribly friendly on forum posts (Friendly? Horde? What the deuce?) , and all about helping the rest of the guild out.
To not give them a shot would be like having one bad relationship, and then proceeding to stay celibate for the rest of my life, just because I think all relationships are like that.
So I’ve got a choice – keep growing the way I have, or to go back to the game with this new direction, and hopefully, have an entirely different experience.
It’s up to me, for the most part, but as the only people who comment here are Hershey and Cait, I would love to hear your opinions.
-Brian
ugh.
Despite the advanced hour of the morning that this post is being written at (and I am loathe to say “morning” to begin with, since it’s damn near 12 pm), I still feel blah.
Yes, I couldn’t resist going to a college bar party.
Yes, I am aware that it was a Wednesday.
Yes, I didn’t get carded. (that in itself deserves a small degree of celebration.)
Yes, I am aware that, after the bartenders, doorman, and DJ, I was the oldest person there by a margin of anywhere from 1 to 4 years.
Also, I got the DJ to take a break from all the hip-hop and play some Cheap Trick. Originally, I was thinking Sex Pistols, or possibly Motorhead, but I figured on the following :
a) Cheap Trick kicks ass.
b) Sex Pistols might, sadly, be over the heads of many of these kids. Not everybody can get the party going to Anarchy in the UK.
c) I have a soft spot for making good party mixes. I wanted to give him an easy segue into “Don’t Stop Believin'” by Journey, which, of course, was his intention.
He also pulled out some Prince and, shocker, Corey Hart in between the random rap songs. I approve heavily of Prince. Always and in perpetuity.
(Well, except for that whole symbol-for-the-name-thing, that was just the tiniest bit whacked out.)
So, I was up with the night owls. Still rose with the eagles, as they say.
And this makes me happy. Well, it makes me sad that such a post needs to exist, as my firm belief is that it is not entirely that hard to play any class, one just needs to learn properly. And class-specific quests like the Rhok’delar and Lok’delar helped that, to a degree, pre-Burning Crusade. They provided reward and incentive for taking your skills to the next level.
My only suggestion, in retrospect, is that Blizz set up a second tier of class-learning quests, much like the initial “tame XYZ” quests for the Hunters and “heal ABC” for healers, but covering the slightly more advanced stuff – like, for instance, chain trapping.
God, a hunter not knowing how to chain trap is like putting a four-year old on the highway with a Lamborghini. It’s a fast, reckless, inevitable disaster.
But I digress. Life after WoW is good, and I’m happy that there are some educated folk out there to pass on the knowledge, even if there are a bunch of halfwits who wouldn’t know crowd control if it bit ’em in the ass.
Which, often, it does.
-Brian/Track
Backseat Elvis 