On this day a Gnome is born…

September 3, 2009 § Leave a comment

My initial foray into Azeroth was not exactly what you would call typical. It was a dreary February day. I had been out of work for a long time, and I was very bored. My roommate had been playing WoW for quite a long time (since it’s release I believe) and was playing his paladin. Years ago, I had played Warcraft 2 and loved it–although I had no idea there was anything after it. So I began asking him questions about what he was doing, where he was going, what the game was like and so on. He was in Ironforge at the time and as I was asking him about the game, he was accosted by a gold beggar. He was so annoyed by it that I couldn’t help but laugh at his frustration as he yelled at what pretty much amounted to pixels on a screen.

I was intrigued. I thought to myself how much more amused I would be if I were the gold beggar accosting him in the middle of his game-play. In fact, maybe I could annoy more people that just him. Yeah! That will be my MO! I’ll find out all the things that drive people the craziest in the game and I’ll use my powers for evil! *sinister laugh*

I immediately went to the World of Warcraft home page and downloaded the free 10-day trial (which can be found here for anyone interested). I picked a male gnome warrior–not because I thought I might enjoy playing him, but because that was what first came up when I logged in. I gave him bright pink hair (because I figured it would be more annoying) and entered the world.

The intro for the Gnomes began playing and I was a little caught off guard. I didn’t expect the game to be so…well…cool! But I stifled my excitement and psyched myself up for some high-quality annoyance. Right away I hit a roadblock. I thought I would start out in that same grand city I had seen my roommate in, but instead I was plunked down in this tiny, snow-covered valley, wearing an outfit that was decidedly not cold-weather friendly.

No matter. I had played video games before so I at least had some idea that I needed to get out of this starting area before I could really do anything in the game. It shouldn’t take too long, I thought.

I got to level 6 fairly quickly. I had learned some cool new abilities, charge being my favorite, bought myself some shiny new armor pieces, and headed off to be the bane of Ironforge!

When I passed through the magnificent gates of Ironforge I hit my second roadblock. I discovered that people on the 10-day trial couldn’t whisper other people (this may have since changed, I don’t know). In truth it wasn’t just a roadblock. It was a damn arclite spanner in my carefully arranged plan. I was crushed. I would never get the chance to drive my roommate or anyone else crazy. But fate, as it were, had other plans for me.

The Cranky Old Gnome