Magical. The effect is magical. Like a Hogwarts for adults, this new land keeps offering both challenge and awe, sometimes at the same time, but often as separate dimensions of play. And what is magic but the willing suspension or perhaps the seduced suspension of belief, the capitulation to a fantastic reality, not of this world.
Barely a week into the game, I had what we 60s folks would call a mindblowing experience, my second one already, and it was very unlike the first. In the first, the muster at IronForge, the scale was overwhelming. The scale of collaborative effort and the visual representation of it. That was a lot of folks and creatures working together to get out the door as a killing unit. The immensity, yeah on a 12" screen, the immensity of it struck us dumb.
This time it was a different facet of awe. I was wandering around in a completely foreign land, having acquired the courage to do so the night before with James. But this time I was alone, still not afraid actually. I happened upon a fellow with a gryphon in a pen. Uh huh, that's a right, gyphon....
I passed the gryphon and his handler, not knowing what to make of that, and did a bit of scouting and mayhem in the hills nearby. When James appeared and sent word he was around, I realized I was too far from him. It would take me many minutes to get back to him.
I as headed back toward IronForge where he waited, I thought about the gyphon. When I asked the good man about it, he told me I could ride her back to IronForge for a pittance. Being still a weathly gnome, by virtue of our welcoming gift of coin that first night, I indulged myself in a gryphon ride.
I settled in on the back of the giant creature, and barely in time as it quickly took to the air. We soared high, and I could see below me the many territories I had trudged through on other journeys, and new landscapes I had not yet laid eyes upon. The gryphon soared high over the mountains and swooped lower in the flatlands. One or two mightly pulls of her wings gave her the loft to soar a long time, with nary a bit of extra flapping to be had.
She flew in through the topmost opening in the great IronForge entry, and soon enough I was settled back on my feet at the very center of the Forge itself, where I was greeted with a great belly laugh from Balamor.
POSTSCRIPT
I'm going to begin posting links to snaps from WoW. See links.
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