11-24-2004, 03:32 AM
We all remember how memorably the beta ended, but think back to the gaming environment just before the demonic invasion, and just after the end of the beta was announced. People were organizinng raids, wanting to kill Horde at level 20. Entire raids of low-level characters were held up by a few Horde players. In Redridge on test 6, one orc hunter in his low 30s besieged an entire raid of Alliance 20's.
It was in this environment that my brother and I decided that my paladin needed to reach level 20 before the servers went down. having just levelled to 19, I knew this was going to be a bit of a task.
The easiest way to get some quick experience is to complete a few quests, so we headed over to RedRidge. After collecting dragonwhelp scales and making RR goulash, we headed up the hills behind the town to gather iron pikes and bolts, and kill gnolls.
On our way up, we met Kandi. A level 19 female gnome mage with bright pink hair. Well, my feelings on gnomes are rather firm (a race that resembles a football does not belong in an Alliance, IMHO), but as we walked up she accidentally pulled three gnolls at once, so we buffed her, helped her out and basically saved her life. Kandi thanked us, and I whispered to her an invitation to our party (despite the gnomeness). After all, we were all about the same level and doing the same quests...and nothing says pulling impotence better than two palys partied together.
Well, this impromptu group actually worked out rather well. Kandi, while not the most skilled player, was open to advice on her pulls/aggro management. We actually had a discussion about aggro (a rare event in pickup groups like this) and my brother and myself decided to use seal of fury to keep the heat off of Kandi. We wiped on Yowler (er, they got wiped on Yowler, my divine shield got me all the way to the edge of the cliff where i was killed by a vulture--much more ignominous); but overall things were going well. As we journeyed to the Stonekeep Tower to collect blackrock axes, Kandi dropped a tell that she was, in fact, a real-life girl.
Now, this got me thinking, which is always a BAD idea. Her name is "Kandi" which sounds very suspiciously like a stripper or pornstar's name, given the replacement of "C" with a "K" and the "y" with an "i." It escaped me at the time that such changes could have been forced on her by someone else already playing under "Candy." Her playing showed ignorance of the more complex ideas of the game, like aggro management; and I attributed this to immaturity rather than freshman status. Based on these assumptions, I figured that "Kandi" was likely the typical internet gamer--an adolescent male without social skills.
So I send off a tell to my brother--using the "reply" command--with the message, "Odds that she is a she--50:1." Only, we had been using the party chat to communicate all this time, and the last /t I had given was to Kandi herself! Like I said before, a BAD idea. :-P
That being said, she took it rather well. In fact she offered to send us a picture of her son (which was cute, but not evidence of her gender, but that's neither here nor there.) She continued to play, and I profusely apologized for the mistell. We eventually levelled her and got a few more quests in.
So the moral of this story, my lounging lurkers, is to be careful who you respond to--you never know who the message is being sent to. That is, you never know if you just hit "R" reflexively and not check the recipient before sending the message. But that would be thinking again, and that tends to get me into trouble.
--Anxiously waiting for a copy of WoW--
It was in this environment that my brother and I decided that my paladin needed to reach level 20 before the servers went down. having just levelled to 19, I knew this was going to be a bit of a task.
The easiest way to get some quick experience is to complete a few quests, so we headed over to RedRidge. After collecting dragonwhelp scales and making RR goulash, we headed up the hills behind the town to gather iron pikes and bolts, and kill gnolls.
On our way up, we met Kandi. A level 19 female gnome mage with bright pink hair. Well, my feelings on gnomes are rather firm (a race that resembles a football does not belong in an Alliance, IMHO), but as we walked up she accidentally pulled three gnolls at once, so we buffed her, helped her out and basically saved her life. Kandi thanked us, and I whispered to her an invitation to our party (despite the gnomeness). After all, we were all about the same level and doing the same quests...and nothing says pulling impotence better than two palys partied together.
Well, this impromptu group actually worked out rather well. Kandi, while not the most skilled player, was open to advice on her pulls/aggro management. We actually had a discussion about aggro (a rare event in pickup groups like this) and my brother and myself decided to use seal of fury to keep the heat off of Kandi. We wiped on Yowler (er, they got wiped on Yowler, my divine shield got me all the way to the edge of the cliff where i was killed by a vulture--much more ignominous); but overall things were going well. As we journeyed to the Stonekeep Tower to collect blackrock axes, Kandi dropped a tell that she was, in fact, a real-life girl.
Now, this got me thinking, which is always a BAD idea. Her name is "Kandi" which sounds very suspiciously like a stripper or pornstar's name, given the replacement of "C" with a "K" and the "y" with an "i." It escaped me at the time that such changes could have been forced on her by someone else already playing under "Candy." Her playing showed ignorance of the more complex ideas of the game, like aggro management; and I attributed this to immaturity rather than freshman status. Based on these assumptions, I figured that "Kandi" was likely the typical internet gamer--an adolescent male without social skills.
So I send off a tell to my brother--using the "reply" command--with the message, "Odds that she is a she--50:1." Only, we had been using the party chat to communicate all this time, and the last /t I had given was to Kandi herself! Like I said before, a BAD idea. :-P
That being said, she took it rather well. In fact she offered to send us a picture of her son (which was cute, but not evidence of her gender, but that's neither here nor there.) She continued to play, and I profusely apologized for the mistell. We eventually levelled her and got a few more quests in.
So the moral of this story, my lounging lurkers, is to be careful who you respond to--you never know who the message is being sent to. That is, you never know if you just hit "R" reflexively and not check the recipient before sending the message. But that would be thinking again, and that tends to get me into trouble.
--Anxiously waiting for a copy of WoW--
Out here,
--Ajax
--Ajax
