Perverting Game Play, or did they want us to?

Yes, alts again, get over it. I play my own game. Frankly, it's clear that Blizz recognizes that they have made a sandbox and people want to do lots of things, not just quests and gear. The fact that they lowered mounts to level 30 has something to do with that, I think. A recognition that we're all rolling alts and sick of running up and down STV road. [If only they'd lower the cost of cold weather flying... omg supporting three epic flyers is about 15K gold.]

So, I have acquired a habit of refusing to ride the given racial mount, on general principles. This means a lot of rep grinding but, wtf, kinda fun to go back into a lvl 30 dungeon as an uber toon and just pwn ur way thru. Although sometimes it makes me sad to see gear drop that would have been really cool to have back when I was a wee toon. So, my under-the-radar rogue, Françoise (after Francois Villon who was not only a poet but a thief), could not be stuck riding that stooooooooopid bird mount that all the BLELFS have to ride. I'm pleased to announce that I have grinded UC rep and hit exalted by lvl 52 and am now astride the truly awesome undead horse.

drum roll...


Yah, it's the fuckin' crater, but I'm outta there. Fortunately, on this alt I couldn't care less about covering all the territory. I just want her to level. I'm hanging out in Azshara and Winterspring cause they're prettier. I might do Silithus cause I have always avoided it in the past and because it has cool CE rep which I think I *DO* want (and lots of thorium).

Mr. Rhodes, I sure hope you show up in game under the radar. I'll play with ya. Hell, I'll level with ya. I have an Alliance paladin that's about lvl 11. I have a 60 pallie Horde side but I have forgotten how to play a pally and they've changed it so much, I thought I'd just learn it again from the bottom up. Plus I was getting sick of the ugliness of cities on the Horde side.

Planetside R.I.P.: We Few . . .

By the gods . . . I wish we were the 300!

We’re not even a baseball team . . . and neither are they.

Once, my virtual self stood on this ground with 100s before me and 100s at my back. It is an odd thing to face barely double digits on ground that once teemed with friends and foes.

I was here . . . they were here . . . explosions, encounters and excitement!!!

Now . . .this is almost . . . surreal.

Before me is a huge base with just a few defenders . . . and attacking the base . . . just a few. It’s pretty futile really. The built in bonuses of this and that don’t matter when the game devolves from massive to minimum.

Suddenly, the game is oddly personal. I mean, if there are only a dozen of us and a dozen of them . . . eventually you kind of sorta get to know theirs and yorn.

It’s no more about the weight of circumstance, but the circumstances of dueling. You kind of get a sense of that guy will kill me and I will kill that guy. It’s a very personal game now. Unlike WOW, we can talk across factions and . . . we do.

“Nice kill”

“Good jorb”

“Where is everybody?”

They are gone . . . to other games . . . greener virtual pastures.

It now feels like the cartoon of the wolf and the sheepdog (It’s a wolf? I thought it was a coyote. Seriously, why would a wolf try to eat a roadrunner? This makes no sense. It’s the Coyote and the Roadrunner, right?).

Yet, the question isn’t “where is everybody”, but “Why are we still here?” I suppose it is because someone has to turn the lights out. Maybe it’s a bit of nowhere else to go. Or is it the contempt of familiarity? Perhaps, it is just the mirror mirror on the wall. We’re just exiles no where near mainstreet. Nah, it's just spite.

All I know is it costs me nothing more than $4.99 a month and my time and there is a place that is dying and where I can still stand and where I can close my eyes and see . .. and recount . . . battles and histories and . . .

I’m running backward along a shore trying to keep an eye on a gnome. I think those baddy bastards over there are Kobolds.I know down the cliff there are Murlocks. Why is it always harvest season in Westmarch? Wait . . . is this Alliance territory? Why would I remember such a thing?

What were Guildenstern’s (or was it Rosencrantz?) last words? “There must have been a moment at the beginning, where we could have said no. Somehow we missed it. Well, we'll know better next time. ”.

XXX

P.S. For a list of all the references, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope to . . .

OMG I Found James!

in the picture on the wall behind the bar out in Steamwheedle... Hey, at least it isn't a WANTED sign, right?

Have a Nice Day

Every now and then you need to zoom in to the stuff around you and you'll find some pretty amusing details. Like this eye-patched zepplin worker out in Northrend. You have to click on the thumbnail to see what I'm talking about.

Or, this kid. His picture is all over the place, including the Scryers' Inn in Shattrath. THis shot is from a tower on an island in Grizzly Hills. Yah, that's right; you recognized it. It's from the Hour of the Worg quest chain. See, ya gotta stop and look around every now and then.