A tale from World of Warcraft
Here's a proverb that comes to mind: "You will never understand why anyone would pay $25,000 for a car until you have driven a $25,000 car."
The same held true, for me, with massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) for years. I couldn't understand why people were paying by the month to play a game that would otherwise cost nothing after the initial $40-50 cover charge. And so, while the Everquest fad raged on, I stayed away. While my friends talked about their attempts to become Jedi in Star Wars: Galaxies, I stayed away.
It took several forces, thus, to convince me to get involved in World of Warcraft. First of all, peer pressure. On the night that the World of Warcraft Open Beta was set to start, EVERYONE on my floor sat hunched in front of their computers, hoping to get a spot. Most of us did. Constant claims of "this game is going to be AWESOME!" were, despite their simplicity, compelling arguments.
I believed them mostly becuase of the reputation of Blizzard Entertainment. I had previously been addicted to several of their earlier titles: Starcraft, Diablo II, Warcraft III. (I still play Warcraft III whenever I don't have a significant block of time to devote to WoW.) Classics all. World of Warcraft had impossibly high expectations to meet.
Upon first playing the game, I saw that it met every one of them. The game looked amazing even on my aging FX5200 graphics card, the story elements, while sparse, were intriguing, and there was virtually no learning curve.
Before the Open beta ended, my character, a human priest named Vesper, had reached level 17. Losing Vesper meant discarding nearly a hundred hours of wasted effort over two weeks in which I should have been studying. So the only way to set things right? Vesper's memory must live on! A trip to CompUSA later and I was designing Vesper's successor, Omni. (The name Vesper, to my dismay, had already been taken. If you have this name, please let me know who you are.) I had a mirror image of vesper and I was ready to kick some ass.
But first, I must consult my friends. Which server to join? Since my friend Adam had been the first on our floor to buy the full version of WoW, he got the honor of choosing which server we would all be on. At the time, Skullcrusher was the most sparsely-populated Player vs Player server, and it was therefore the natural choice. Not quite understanding what I was getting into by joining a PvP server and not wanting to be separated from anyone, I figured, "Eh, what the hell?" and I was off.
Fast forward to today, and the aforementioned problem.
I wanted to choose a place relatively close to Stormwind City to level my character. Once I reach level 40, I will be able to train in horse riding and buy a mount, and this won't be an issue any more. But since Omni is only level 34, and proximity remains an issue, I'm currently hanging around Stranglethorn Vale.
For those unfamiliar with the geography of the lands of Azeroth, the world is divided into two continents, the western continent of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. At the southernmost tip of the Eastern Kingdoms lies Booty Bay, a town built and maintained by Goblins, a neutral race. As such, both Alliance players and Horde players can use the facilities and services of booty bay. Stranglethorn Vale consists of Booty Bay and all the lands immediately north.
Now here's the odd part: Most of the Alliance players (Humans, Dwarves, and Gnomes) start in the Eastern Kingdoms. (The Night Elves, also Alliance, start on an island off the northeastern coast of Kalimdor.) Most of the Horde Players (Orcs, Trolls, and Tauren) start in Kalimdor. (The Undead, also Horde, start on the northern half of the Eastern Kingdoms.) Here's the question: Assuming that both races play equally quickly, who gets to Booty Bay first? The Alliance or the Horde? You'd think Alliance, right?
You'd be wrong. I forgot to mention that in order to get to Booty Bay, Alliance players have to pass through areas with level 30 - 45 monsters. The horde, on the other hand, can take a zeppelin directly to Booty Bay, from the Goblin city of Ratchet in Kalimdor, which is significantly easire to get to. So, naturally, when I got there, the Horde were well entrenched and not giving up their claim. And to reinforce the Horde position was the Orcish town of Grom'Gol to the north of Booty Bay, which is closer than the nearest Alliance settlement, the Human town of Darkshire.
In case you forgot, I'm a priest. Priests are good at healing. Priests are not very good at anything else. They can only use cloth armor, a limited number of melee weapons, and only Wands and Holy spells for range. My current healing spell can restore at least 800 HP, but that's not the kind of thing you brag about if you want to get hot Night Elf babes.
Because an honor system was planned, but not yet implemented, for PvP in WoW, Horde can kill Alliance with impunity. And vice versa, but the former happens more often in Stranglethorn Vale. Which has led to the act of "ganking," which means, killing someone who is many levels lower than yourself.
To Sum It All Up: Lv 34 Priest + Lv 60 Orc/Troll/Undead Rogue + No Honor System = More time spent, for me, walking back to my corpse to resurrect, than actually gaining experience.
Normally, I wouldn't complain. But this whole thing has several issues attached to it:
* TO BLIZZARD: Why wasn't the honor system included with the first release? Didn't you realize this was going to happen?
* TO THE GANKERS: What threat am I to you? Killing a live player gives no experience and no good items. So I can only assume that this is fun. I've tried it. It's no more fun than killing a mindless computer-controlled monster. But I've been ganked so many times now that "you found me, you'll kill me" is most likely what will happen. So I've tried depriving you of the "fun" of chasing me by sitting down during combat and allowing you to hit me. No change. All I'm asking is, "What the hell goes through your head when you see me, merrily walking along the road, obviously not a threat? Do you kill the harmless critters too?"
* TO THE ROGUE GANKERS: And another thing: why the hell is it always Rogues that kill me? Rogues have the abilty to sneak up to someone undetected. They also have the ability to deal out incredible amounts of damage in a short period of time. If the difference in levels is high enough, A rogue could kill me in ONE HIT. One. So, suddenly, without warning, I watch my body crumple to the floor and read "6 minutes to release. Release spirit now?" And into view fades a scowling orc rogue. Where's the fun in that? If you wanted to kill something in one hit, why not go back to the area where you started, where the enemies are level 1 and won't attack you first?
This is why. The rogue has to take on the bully mindset: attack those weaker than yourself, because someone stronger than you will fight back. Rogues can't attack paladins and warriors because warriors and paladins have too much armor. And paladins can heal themselves. So can I, but Heal at its current rank takes 4 seconds. My friend Adam, a lv 60 rogue named Afic, can dish out over 2000 damage in 4 seconds. And of course, melee attacks break spellcasting concentration.
(While I'm railing about rogues, you, and by you I mean everyone who plays WoW, really need to learn to spell "rogue." It's spelled R-O-G-U-E. What you are spelling most of the time is a type of cosmetic.)
Priests are the easiest targets becuse they don't bite (no melee), they don't sting (no nonmagical range, and spells that can be interrupted) and they have a soft chewy center (few HP) surrounded by a thin, easily breakable shell (cloth armor).
So I'm annoyed. Even more annoying is that Blizzard has cut off communication between Alliance and Horde by encrypting everything they say in constructed languages. I can't voice my concerns in game where the Horde will hear me, so I complain here, where very few, if not nobody, will hear me. Well, shit.
But! Those few who are still listening, KNOW THIS! I am not planning on just getting mad. I'm getting even! Eventually, I will reach the level cap of 60. And also eventually, Blizzard will add some regulation that will discourage people from killing people way too low for you.
But until that time, everyone and anyone who ganks me and is at least 4 levels higher than me (thus causing you to view my level in green or gray and causing me to see yours in orange, red, or as just a skull and a pair of question marks) is going on the list. When I finally reach level 60, you most likely will be too. And then? I will hunt you down. It may take months, years even, but I WILL GET MY REVENGE. With Blizzard as my witness, I swear it.
Here is the list so far. Note, this list contains only Horde players on the Skullcrusher server. Everyone else can go about your business without my interference.
* Azagthoth
* Boblo
* Davaar
* Dugarin
* Giggawattz
* Golbez
* Gyrao
* Khonan
* Sulreth
* Tenbears
I have a feeling this list will grow quickly, since this is just those that have ganked me over a 4 hour period yesterday from 7pm to 11pm. I will post updates frequently.