Panda! Go Panda!
Okay, I've been playing World of Warcraft since Thanksgiving of last year pretty much for the sole purpose of joining Panda Attack, the guild started by Scott Kurtz, creator of the funny, sometimes brilliantly so, webcomic PVP. Not sure why that came out sounding like a confession. Am I shameful of my inner nerd? My outer one? Anyway, I'm happy to say this dream was realized last week, when, after months spent leveling, questing, exploring, and socializing, I was finally invited to join the Panda Attack guild.World of Warcraft is an mmorpg, a genre I've avoided since its
inception partly because I loathed the idea of paying a monthly fee for the privilege to pay, and partly because I knew there was the possibility of me falling into a gaming hole from which I'd never emerge. When I read Scott was forming a guild however, I just couldn't resist. For those unfamiliar with World of Warcraft, imagine an online, persistent world of Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, Minotaurs and other fantastic creatures on your PC (or Mac), many (sometimes most) of which are controlled by real, live, human players. You can gain experience points to level up your character by taking on quests or going out and killing things. Most of the time, quests are fairly mundane, involving delivering "item x" from point a to point b, but sometimes they can be pretty involving, especially if you take an interest in the history of the game's world, the scope of which is quite huge.
I was enjoying my time playing WoW, but it wasn't until Christmas Eve of last year, when I made a long and dangerous trek to the capital city of the Horde (an alliance of creatures such as Orcs, Undead and Tauren of which I am part), Orgrimmar, to complete a quest during Christmastime (or Winterveil, as it's called in WoW) to visit with Greatfather Winter (turned out to be an orc dressed in Santa robes). Well, it seems a lot of people had the same idea because there were what seemed like hundreds of human controlled characters, running about the streets of Orgrimmar, reveling and dancing, throwing snowballs at each other and kissing anyone who came near the hanging mistletoe and large Winterveil tree in the center of the city. There were so many people, in fact, the streets had become extremely crowded, and people were hanging out on/falling from rooftops everywhere. It was funny, because I hadn't really felt the "Christmas Spirit" last year until then, but seeing all the revelers made my heart grow a size or two. The event was one of my top gaming moments of all time and it had nothing to do with killing a Boss Monster or achieving a high score. Amazing.Anyway, as you can tell, I'm loving the game, and it's worth the monthly fee of
$14.99 to play, even if I only have time to play a few hours a week. Playing with the Pandas makes it even more fun, as they're a large guild and there are always a few of them around to help out on quests, and they all seem to be quite friendly. Even without the guild, however, it's fun to play alone, even to just go exploring and seeing what the world has to offer.Oh yeah, and if you're unfamiliar with the PVP webcomic, check it out. It's a great strip that would make a great sitcom if there was any interest in watching a show about the office staff of a gaming magazine and their intern Skull, a big, blue troll.
4 Comments:
You'd be a cool panda. Especially during Chritmas time when Coca-Cola uses pandas in their commercials.
um, thanks but i think my chances of landing that role are severely limited by the small detail that i'm not computer generated, nor am i really a panda or polar bear.
Entirely too much time on your hands! Okay, okay, I'm back to posting. Read your eyes out!
i wish i had too much time on my hands - especially when i have to pay to play the game. my druid should be at level 60 with an alt character close behind. as it stands, he's at a lowly 24.
remember when you could just waste a whole weekend in front of your commodore 64 without a care? *sigh* the good ol' days...
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