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.