My Life in WoW - Part 3

After WAY too many hours spent this past weekend playing WoW, I reached a point where I was supposed to battle some badasses outside of the Tower of Althalaxx. I was warned before my quest not to enter the Tower, as the badasses INSIDE the Tower were much more powerful than the badasses OUTSIDE the Tower.

Upon encountering the badasses outside of the Tower and getting my ass handed to me several times, I decided to hold off on this particular quest for a bit. After all, one's hands start to chafe after using the glowing green stuff to continually resurrect Barrengeist.



So what does one do in WoW when one does not feel like attempting to complete a quest that has repeatedly proven itself to be an unfruitful venture?

How about learning a new skill like, say, fishing?


Fishing was very relaxing, and it offered Schatengeist a way to provide food for Barrengeist without having to spend his hard earned Copper and Silver buying it from a vender!

After that, we found a nice bed in an Inn and took a little nap.


Once awake and feeling refreshed, it was off again to explore the land! But hoofing it and hitching Hyppogriff rides are not the only way to get around in WoW. There are also large ships that traverse the vast seas, taking you off to distant lands.

I really wanted to make Schatengeist throw out his arms and scream "I'm the king of the world!", but that apparently isn't an option currently available (I'm emailing Blizzard, the games developers, and putting in that suggestion), I had to settle for sitting on the ledge of the ship and enjoying the ride.


Boat rides can be long, and Barrengeist was starting to get sea-sick, so we went below decks and sat down for a while.


Eventually, we made it to the new land. The problem was, the new land was in turmoil. You see, the land I'm typically in is Alliance land, meaning the only other players you typically find are part of the Alliance. (i.e., they can't attack you) However, this new land is highly contested, with both Alliance and Horde folks running around, all of them averaging out at level 30 and higher. A lowly level 15 like Schatengeist didn't stand a chance! So I quickly turned around, re-boarded the boat, and made my way back home...

Screw these distant lands and high leveled players who are just waiting to stomp my ass... Tower of Althalaxx, here we come!

My Life in WoW - Part 2

Two days...

Barrengeist and I have been searching for this goddamn Red Crystal for 2 days!!!

All my quest said was that it was located somewhere "to the east of Auberdine within the mountains..." Yeah, and it was surrounded about about a billion freakin' level 14 Moonkin (think Owls on HGH with antlers jutting from their skulls).

So, 2 days of searching, countless deaths at the hands of the evil Moonkins, and I've finally found it!!

Oh yeah, and I'm up to level 15 now, too. Sweet!

My Life in WoW - Part 1

Ok, for a long time now, I've been avoiding the geekiest of geekies... the nerdiest of nerdies... the one online game that even South Park devoted an entire episode to mocking... WoW. What is WoW? WoW stands for World of Warcraft, and it's a MMORPG - Massive Multiplayer Online Rolepaying Game. (yep, dorks REALLY like acronyms)

Yep, the dorks no longer gather in Mom's basement for marathon sessions of D&D. Instead, they huddle alone in Mom's basement playing this online, interactive upgrade to D&D.

And now, I too, am hooked.

After all of this time resisting the urge to try this game, what finally brought me to it? a co-worker who plays it every waking moment he's home, and talks about it every waking moment he's at work... that's what. The way he described it... the sheer SIZE of the online world they've created... It just became too much for a geek like me to resist. So I ponied up the $19.99 to buy it and the $15.99 a month online fee, and I entered WoW.

And I've got to say, it's every bit as addicting as people make it out to be.

Here's my character. His name is Schatengeist, which is German for Shadow Ghost... almost. You see, the TRUE German spelling has 2 T's in it (ShaTTengeist), but there's a 12 character limit to the names, so I had to lose a T.

**NOTE - click on the pictures to see them in their larger than life glory**


Schatengeist is a Night Elf (that's his Race) Hunter (that's his class). What that means is he digs on nature, can tame wild beasts and make them his pets, and is wicked badass with a bow and arrow.

Right now, I'm up to level 13. The more Quests you complete, and bad guys you wail on, the more "experience points" - or XP - you get. And with XP comes levelling (i.e., gaining enough XP to go from level 12 to level 13). Each level brings with it more powerful weapons, magic, armor, and generally cool shit you can do.


Here's Schatengeist throwing up an arm in victory!

Now, all of that stuff is well and good, but there's no need for an ONLINE game to do that. So what makes WoW so special? The interaction with other players. There are good guys (Alliance) and bad guys (Horde), and when they meet, shit goes down. There are massive battles all over the place! But even better, within your side (good or bad) there are auction houses, a mail system, inns, boats, cities, quests, dungeons, guilds, flying beasts... you name it, this game has it. If you happen upon a super badass weapon or armor or something, and you can't use it, you can trade other players for it. Or you can give newer players really good shit so even though theiy're low level, they can still kick some ass. (this is called Twinking Out a newbie) You have to learn a trade (such as mining, cooking, leather working, skinning) so that you can make money to buy food, potions, spells, clothing, etc. So, say I'm cruising through the woods, and skinning is one of my skills. i come upon a deer and kill it. I can then skin it, which, depending on my skill as a skinner, will give me rough leather or high quality leather. I then collect that leather and sell it. BAM! Sweet moolah for me!!

As I said, right now I'm level 13, which enables me to tame a pet. Here's Schatengeist with his pet bear, Barrengeist, and a little bunny that follows me around. Barrengeist can kick some ass. The bunny doesn't do anything but make me smile...


The world that's been created is lush and imaginative... Here's Schatengeist sitting at the foot of what is called an "Ancient"... level 60 protectors of the Night Elf's homeland.


And the game is also not without a sense of humor. There are any number of useless, yet funny, things you can make your character do. They can toss out insults (with clever animations to match), give thanks, bow in reverence, or DANCE! That's right... each race has it's own style of dancing. Lucky for me, the Night Elves dance like Michael Jackson. Here's Schatengeist showing off some of his moves.



And do you want to see just how COOL this world can look? Here's Schatengeist hitching a ride on a Hyppogriff.


And the thing is, none of these pictures are from cut-scenes (animations within games that take place between playing levels). These are all in game!

So yes, WoW is super dorky... but it's also super addiciting! And for the time being, this blog is going to be dedicated to my trials and tribulations as I venture forth as Schatengeist, the misspelled, German named Night Elf Hunter who's level 13 after only 16 hours of playing!