you are viewing archives from 2005

the honor system

I spent a good portion of yesterday running about a billion errands. I normally hate to spend Sundays doing work, but things can only pile up for so long. I pulled weeds. I went to about eight different shops to purchase necessities. The rest of the day I stood on a dock, fishing. My back is sore, my shoulders achy, and my eyes are still sensitive from the reflection of the sunlight on the water.

Of course, I never left the house.

World of Warcraft is another in a long line of time-wasters. Star Wars Galaxies was my first love, but I soon discovered that the vast population didn’t want to play Star Wars, they wanted to play Jedi.

…and Jedis they could be, as the process wasn’t like Wonka’s Golden Ticket, but instead a series of tasks that were easily accomplished. Soon it became a world where you couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting a Luke Skywalker or a Lord Vader. Sure, I got to run around in a metal bikini with a flamethrower on my back, but when ten of us couldn’t stand up to one guy with a lightsaber, SWG became a thing of the past.

Then there was DOOM 3. I still haven’t finished, as my rule is that I’m only allowed to game at night. But I can’t play DOOM 3 at night, ‘cause it gives me nightmares.

After DOOM 3 was The Sims 2. As you may recall, I was disheartened by the fact that my character, Sasha Mysterioso, alternated sitting inside all day in her pajamas waiting for the mailman for some small sense of social contact and having large-scale breakdowns in public over her lack of a career.

A. brought home World of Warcraft right before the Christmas holidays. I was busy trying to finish a screenplay in ten days (I did) and told him that I couldn’t load the game onto my computer until I had finished writing. I’ll start playing, I told him, and I won’t stop. So I can’t start playing until I have nothing to do.

I didn’t even want to sit at the computer after ten days of eight to twelve hour writing binges. Sitting at the computer and puttering is relatively easy. Sitting down because you know that you have to create something in x amount of time makes each keystroke an uncomfortable eternity. As I’ve often said, most writers don’t like writing; we like having written.

But I watched A. wander around Tirisfal Glades, hitting things with his staff (ha!) and healing random strangers. He was an Undead (race) Priest (class), a member of the [url=Horde (faction). I can heal and cast spells, he told me. There were eight playable races, with nine classes to choose from. I could also choose a couple professions to help me make money. The journey from level 1 to level 60 would be a long one, punctuated by multiple quests which took patience and cooperation and quickness behind the keyboard. I decided to be an Undead Rogue, since I like to be sneaky.

Being a member of the Horde, our opposing faction was the Alliance Forces (AF). While we’re characterized by Tauren, Undead, Trolls and Orcs, Alliance are characterized by human-types: Night Elves, Gnomes, Dwarves and Humans. When we ran across Alliance players in our travels, we could talk to them but not understand what they were saying, nor them us. If we were listed as PvP (Player versus Player) by being in a contested territory (not controlled by Alliance or Horde) then we could attack each other with impunity. Sure, it was annoying being level 22 Undead Rogue and having a level 60 Human Paladin off me with a single blow and then spit on my corpse, but it also brought a sense of excitement and adventure to the game that Star Wars Galaxies lacked.

A. and I would be wandering through towns and see wars between Alliance and Horde, and being lower level we would hang back and tend the wounded. We’d run into solo AFs and make the decision whether to attack or not. Before WoW’s newly implemented Honor System, we’d come up with an Honor System of our own: we wouldn’t attack them until they attacked us. To paraphrase the great Patrick Swayze in Roadhouse, we play nice, until it’s time not to play nice.

Of course, we’d set traps. As a Rogue, one of my talents is to become invisible. I’d stand nearby as A. would wave at the AF passers-by to see if they’d try to take a bite out of a solo Priest. The answer was usually yes. Of course, only about half the time we’d make them sorry. We’d also help out lower-level players being harassed by upper-level ones. One day younger slackbrother j. (who doesn’t play anymore) was out attempting to finish a quest when he kept getting killed by multiple Alliance players who thought it was funny to take out a guy seven levels below them. Five minutes later, the four errant players had a dagger in the back and I watched to make sure j. could finish his quest. I’m a pacifist by nature, but mess with the baby brother and you’re dead.

That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy a good dose of revenge. If we were ambushed, if we were attacked while we were attacking something else, if an opposing player would bow and salute in a gesture of goodwill and then go in for the kill, we’d make a mental note of their name and it was open season. Same for the lower level AF that we let go, only to have them bring back their higher-level counterparts minutes later.

They’re on the list! I would yell as I executed a vanish, an ambush and a kidney shot.

After almost every kill, we’d bow and pray for the corpses and then move on. This was somewhat of a rarity, as lot of people like to Corpse Camp – each time a player revived, they’d be right back there to kill them – or spit on the dead. Tacky, I told one Orc Warrior. We don’t do that. Again, I couldn’t separate my real-life morality from my in-game persona. In life, as well as in game, it’s not productive to be a jerk, because you’re always going to either a) get schooled or b) run into a bigger jerk than you. I love when option "a" works. Although I must admit, I do enjoy watching a good dose of option "b" on occasion.

But Sunday I had to do the not-fun stuff: Repair weapons. Make poison. Catch fish. Find herbs. Put items for sale on the Auction House. Clean out my Bank. Six hours later, I had a full ration of potions, ten more gold, and poison to last me through the week. Tonight A. and I are ready to head out into the wilderness to kick ass and chew bubblegum.

And we’re all outta bubblegum.




look for A. (Morvock) and the slackmistress (Sanguine) on the [url=http://www.fast-rewind.com/roadhouse]Dethecus{/url] server!