My Life in WoW - Part 7

I didn't play much last night... I needed to spend some QT with the wife, so we watched Clerks 2. BRILLIANT FLICK!! If you haven't seen it, what are you waiting for? It has a gutter mouth, but a heart of gold.

Back to WoW. I did play just a little... long enough to stable Barrengeist and wrasssle me up another pet!! Now that I'm level 19 (knocking on the door of level 20) I am able to tame level 19 beasts. So I went and tamed myself a WOLF!! They're called Ghostpaw Runners around Ashenvale, but for all intents and purposes, he/she (I respect its privacy) is a wolf.



Isn't it BAAAAD ASSSSSS?!?



His/her name is Diemgeist, which is a ridiculous mish-mash of Latin (Diem = Day) and German (Geist = Ghost), so his/her name is, eassentially, DayGhost.

Granted, with the sheer level of lameness I stooped to to come up with that name, I might as well have gone with Pig Latin instead.

'Ayday Hostgay' has such a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

My Life in WoW - Part 6

It was a productive night for Schatengeist last night. The wife (my poor WoW widow) was out shoe shopping with her best friend, so I put the kids to bed and had a solid 4 hour chunk of time to devote to WoW.

So, the first order of business was to get Schatengeist to level 19, which I did rather quickly. This gave me newfound confidence to try some harder quests... one of which led me to a tunnel found on the outskirts of Ashenvale called Talendeep Path.

Talendeep Path leads to a new map... an area called the Stonetalon Mountains. My quest was to lead me to Stonetalon Peak, high within the Stonetalon Mountains. Before I reached the peak, I found myself in this gorgeous area... How's that for a view?

I was so enthralled with this spot that I just had to dance!

Of course, the Stonetalon Mountains aren't all views and dancing. There are new beasts to contend with. It didn't take much for Schatengeist and Barrengeist to take this big sonofabitch down!


Unfortunately, this area is also highly contested, and I saw my first Horde players running around here... and ever single one of them was at least 8 levels above me! So, I tried to take advantage of one of the traits of the Night Elves called Shadowmeld. This is when you stand still and basically turn invisble to other players.

The problem with this is that you PET does NOT turn invisible as well. So, any Horde wandering by is going to see Barrengeist and KNOW that an Alliance Hunter is around. As you can see, this Horde guy had a fun time standing in front of Schatengeist, taunting him. Before he ran off and (mercifully) didn't slaughter me, he took the time to actually wave! Bastard... Once I level up some more, I'm going to find him...


Not everyone was as merciful as Pompompaihn... On my way through the Stonetalon Mountains to Stonetalon Peak, I was slaughtered about 4 times by higher level Horde players. Buncha freakin' bullies... just wait 'til I hit level 20!

My Life in WoW - Part 5

Don't you hate it when you're in the woods fighting a Rabid Thistle Bear and suddenly you're glowing green because you've contracted rabies? That's what happened to Schatengeist yesterday.

But have no fear, for Schatengeist possesses a hearty constitution which affords him a fairly quick recovery time.

After that, he battled diligently until finally reaching the coveted LEVEL 18! This is what it looks like as one levels. Pretty, isn't it?

Once the after-glow of leveling wore off, we headed due south until we found a new Night Elf village in Ashenvale. It was touch and go making our way down to the village as the area is contested, and Horde could be hiding anywhere... Luckily none were lurking about yesterday, and we made it to the village without incident. Once there, we found another Hyppogriff Master which gave us a new flight point... all the way back up to Auberdine. Granted, it beats walking for 10 minutes, but I was hoping to be whisked away to yet another exotic land. I mean, I've never been whisked away before, so you can't blame me for hoping it would happen...

Ah well, at least the flight through the forest was scenic.

My Life in WoW - Part 4

I'm quickly learning that as you start leveling up, the process of leveling takes longer and longer.

As I write this, I'm on the verge of reaching level 17, but it's been a major pain in the ass. After attempt upon attempt last night to complete a quest by killing a huge level 19 Den Mother Thistle Bear and her annoying level 11 cubs, I finally had to step away from the computer. I realized that NOT killing her, NOT leveling, and dying time and time again was raising my blood pressure and seriously pissing me off... like way more than it should.

But before I got to the point of either walking away or committing Harry Carry, I did learn that I could clear my screen before taking a screenshot, thus making it much more picturesque. Take this shot, for example. Here's Schatengeist entering a new land called Ashenvale. It's contested territory, meaning there's always the chance I could run into Horde players here.


I've also been taking the time to learn the fine art of mining. Through this practice, I can obtain different materials that I can then turn around and sell for a shitload of sweet, sweet cash.


And now that I'm getting up to higher levels, I'm also forced to fight some pretty sweet looking badasses. Take this dude, for example. Him and his kind are a wicked pain in the ass (if you're a lowly level 16 Hunter, such as myself).


But the most frequernt activity I've encountered thus far in my daily doses of Warcrack is running, running, and more running. Every quest leads you to new and exciting areas, but they're all a 5 minute run away!


It is my understanding that once I reach level 40, I'll have the ability to obtain a mount. No, not THAT type of mount, you sick bastards! A mount as in a horse... something that moves WAY faster than I do on foot. But that's at level 40... 40!!! Keep in mind, my official tally of total time playing WoW is already up to 1 day, 2 hours and 43 minutes. That's TIME PLAYING THE GAME!! And I'm only at level 16.

I guess Schatengeist should invest in some good shoes... he's going to be hoofing it for a while.

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!