Thursday, January 10, 2008

WOW Trial - Day Five


Note: Okay, so we're starting these updates on Day Five ... mainly because blogging about WOW never crossed my mind. Shoo suggested the idea ... and it sounded fun.

Day One - Signing up for the trial was easy. No credit card was required. The trial version of the game streams in the background, so there was no massive download required either. World of Warcraft requires broadband ... and Insight's cable Internet service seemed to work fine.

You begin by creating your WOW character. I believe you can have up to ten characters on one account ... but for now I'm sticking with one. She's a gnome rogue ... which, two days later, I've read is the worst possible combination you could create. Oh well, you live you learn.

I find myself in a snowy landscape at a camp with other subscribers and a few NPC (Non-Player Characters). I wandered a bit before seeing the exclamation point over one of the NPC's. Woo hoo! I got my first quest ... retrieve seven wolf pelts.

Apparently the usual "tutorial note" didn't pop up for me ... because I spent the next two hours trying to figure out how to loot a wolf corpse ... I gave up and logged off in frustration.

Day Two - Bingo ... I had looting down. I had the seven pelts ... but I by that time I was completely lost. I could no longer find my "base camp" nor the NPC who gave me the quest. Suggestions to check the map were no help. I was able to find another NPC who told me to go kill 12 wild boars. Sweet!

After killing and looting four boars, I was attacked by a troll of some sort. Not just attacked. I was stalked ... then chased ... then brutally killed. I am a level two ... the troll was a level five. Why it would attack me ... I have no idea. It was a massacre.

In WOW, after you are killed, you become a ghost. You find yourself in a graveyard ... and you're given two choices. You can either search for your corpse ... or go to a healing center. If someone finds your corpse before you do, they can loot it and take all your stuff. You guessed it ... my seven pelts are gone. Again, I gave up and logged out in frustration.

Side note ... housework wasn't suffering yet. I hear 40% of WOW players become addicts ... I can see that. But so far ... so good. I made steak on the grill for dinner.

Day Three - I figure out that yesterday's massacre happened because I wandered into an "advanced" area. Okay then. I finally learned how to navigate the map and found base camp. I killed seven more wolves (much easier now) ... and completed the quest. I was given a pair of gloves ... which ... I could not use because I wasn't strong enough. WTF? Bastard!

The other newbies ... and there were hundreds wandering around who had downloaded the trial just like me ... had killed off all the wild boar. I couldn't complete my quest because of the over-hunting. Is there no WOW Department of Conservation?

So I wandered around ... randomly killing the wolves and bunnies in the "safe" area close to camp. I leveled up ... and decided to go to bed.

Side note ... housework still wasn't suffering. I actually cleaned part of the basement. However, each day I'm sucked in a little more. I made hot dogs for dinner. Hmmm ... maybe things are slipping.

Day Four - The girls came over to spend a few days. They're fun to hang out with ... so I completely blew off WOW. This is a good sign, right? I'm obviously not addicted if I can blow the game off for one night, right? I am aware that dwelling on the fact that I didn't play probably isn't a good sign. I made a roast with carrots and potatoes for dinner. Things are back on track.

Today ... is day five. Let's see where this goes ... more tomorrow ...

It's been one week since you looked at me
Dropped your arms to your sides
and said "I'm sorry"
Five days since I laughed at you and said
"You just did just what I thought you were gonna do"
Three days since the living room
We realized we're both to blame,
but what could we do?
Yesterday you just smiled at me
Cause it'll still be two days till we say we're sorry

Barenaked Ladies - One Week

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:39 PM

    Technically, don't hot dogs take more effort than a roast? I mean, for hot dogs, you have to take them out of the package, then grill them, watch them to make sure they don't burn, get out the buns, make any sides....You have to physically stand there or at least be in close proximity to it while its cooking. Roast? You plop it into the crockpot, add potatoes and carrots, then leave it to go play some more world o--- I mean go to work.
    If we start having roast every night, I'm calling Dr. Phil for an intervention...

    ~College One

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  2. Anonymous2:45 PM

    Welcome to the club.

    Go to www.wowarmory.com enter your character name and search. Then choose your realm that your character is on and you can post a link here for everyone to view your advancement.

    Being a extreme WOW addict myself I will enjoy watching as your food preferences go from steak -> hotdogs -> hotpockets -> doritos -> whatever you can find the cabinet. You are already proud of yourself for not playing a night, only goes downhill from there
    :)

    Here are my characters....

    Carvil
    Selwind
    Meras

    Most of my gear sucks, been working on getting a epic pvp set for Carvil, takes forever.

    If your on the Uldaman server give me a shout in game sometime and I'll run you through deadmines when you get in the low teens.

    You will find great humor in the multitudes of others that share you addiction and find yourself wondering how so many can take a game so seriously. If you think the team speak on the south park episode was funny, you haven't seen anything yet.

    Best of luck.

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