Day 6 Post Patch Scarlet Strat Run

The latest patch hit, 1.10, on the 28th knocking the servers out for most of the day because of technical issues with the patch. Inspite of this patch days are generally days of celebration in World of Warcraft because it means that new features are added, old places are improved upon, and new places are inserted in. While this patch boasted no new places to explore it did do some significant revamping to some of the old places such as Stratholme(Strat) so it could only be done with five people rather then ten.

Areas like Stratholme are classified as instances because they create versions of themselves for every group of players that enters. In a sense it breaks down the massively multiplayer paradigm because the players get taken out of the large seamless populated by thousands to be placed in an isolated world populated only by the group of players connected by an arbitrary bond through either a five man party or a raid of up to forty, the numbers vary depending on the instance.

Players must carefully choose the players they wish to have in their party since instances require players to be heavily dependent on their comrades. A single player can not make it through an instance meant for them, nor will a group make it through if they do not have experience and communicate with each other. Most importantly trust is required to make it all of the way through an instance, especially since they can take a few hours to get through.

The decision to go to Scarlet Stratholme arose from a conversation my friend and I had over lunch. We were both curious as to what changes had made to Stratholem to facilitate the new five man cap, so that we agreed to meet online later that day to check it out. I got home from work at 4:30 pm and signed in with my level sixty Night Elf Priest named Leye.

Up until now I have only been following the exploits of Gref the Tauren Druid. After some thought I decided it would be inappropriate to not show how travel occurs from many different entry points in online games. Players do not see the world from only one perspective but from a multitude of perspectives, not only from the different races but also from opposing sides of the war. For instance if Gref and Leye were to meet they would have likely harbor feelings of hatred for each other since as a Night Elf Leye is aligned with the Alliance and as a Tauren Gref is aligned with the horde. The two player controlled factions in the game who wage a never ending war against each other. Anyway, let's get back to the task at hand.

My friend signed in with his level sixty Night Elf Druid. I'll leave a more in depth explanation of level for later but for now I'll just say that level sixty is as high as one can go right now. Before we could get started in Strat we needed three more people preferably a warrior who can tank, net speak for a player who can take lots of damage, and two others that can do dps, net speak for a player that can do a lot of damage. The first and most reliable place to check for players is in our guild as it's a social organization of players we have played with before. Sadly, we had to resort to a PUG, pick up group, which many players look down upon with hatred. Generally it is assumed that players who join PUGs are the dregs of the game. It's assumed that they are the people who have no idea how to play because they lack the skills to get into a decent guild. I admit that due to many a bad experience I share this feeling with my fellow players.

Around 5:30 we managed to get all of the players we needed: a warrior, a mage, and a rogue. I can't say I remember their names too well because I saw them only as a means to an end, again I admit that this wasn't this kindest thought but in a world teeming with players who frequently see each other only has tools to get them what they want it's all too easy to remove digital characters of the personality that controls them. Before I had cemented myself in my guild other players were seen as more but now that I have stronger connections to a group of people in the world I often ignore opportunities to increase my social connections. This is an elitist sentiment because I snub those who aren't in my guild deigning to stoop to the level of others only when my guild doesn't come through for me. My only poor excuse is that everyone else does it.

We got the group together and in Strat by 6 pm. We made slow progress through the instance because the people we picked up didn't immediately trust my experienced friend. After a few deaths the others succeeded their wills to his commands, for the most part. From then on things went rather smoothly in the game except for our mage had to leave us after the first hour, but we survived with out. In the real world things were a bit more rough for me.

I had foolishly thought we could be in the dungeon by no later then five and didn't fully consider that it would take us at least two hours to make it through the whole not to mention the amount of time required to make preparations to enter the dungeon. At around 6:15 my girlfriend asked me when I was going to make supper I responded only with soon, knowing full well I was in over my head. By 6:30 she knew something was up and was becoming openly frustrated with me. By 6:45 she was steaming. By 7:00 she wanted me dead. At 7 pm the mage left, and I hoped that the whole group would disband, too bad for me my friend was sure we could make for at least twenty more minutes until we killed the Cannon Master. Spinelessly not wanting to upset my friend I tagged along for the next twenty minutes with the sounds of my girlfriend storming around upstairs, upset that I choose the game before her.

Thankfully, this story does not end badly for me. We defeated the Cannon Master, I logged out and ran upstairs to create a delicious meal that was so good it redeemed all of my past iniquities. For all that these games do to create a world to escape to the real world is still present and filled with its own obligations.

Day 5

You can't take on the great challenges by yourself. That's not really what I discovered today as I stared at polygonal trees trying to think of something worth writing about. I've yet to discover any deep meaning in this world if that's something that only the divine spark can grant something, or perhaps we simply have yet to perfect the virtual divine spark. The real world is amazing because it's breadth and complexity are too much for us to comprehend. In a virtual world we only get simulated vastness that is only as the hardware can handle.

Day 4

Is deep travel possible in a virtual world? This the question I've been pursuing each time I start up WoW.


I'm in the crossroads. Shit, what the hell am I doing in the crossroads? I'm a level one Tauren Druid in an area meant for level ten to twenty. I came here because I wanted to illustrate what happens if I go beyond the prescribed bounds set by the designers. I was ripped apart by mobs who couldn't stand my level one calogne. Not only that but the other players were more than obliging enough to tell me where I should be not forgetting to call me "nub", a term of derision for inexperienced players.


Didn't take me long to realize that the crossroads isn't my place so I clicked my hearthstone and snap I'm back in Camp Narache with the rest of the "nubs". I picked up some quests from the dudes with exclamation makrs above their heads. I started the quests that begins the journey of ever widening circles until the whole world is encompassed in their expanse. What I mean by this is that when a player gets a quest she is usually expected to go out and complete the quest then return to the npc that gave it to her. Progesively the player makes her way further and further out into the world until they find themselves in a new town with new quests that repeat the same idea, eventually the player finds themselves traveling back and forth from one edge of the world to the other.


Could the designers have planned what the circular nature of these quests might imply? Complete a task get a reward, complete a task get a reward, complete a task get a reward, ad infinitum with never ending life. Seems almost like never ending sadness than infinite adventure.