Week #3: A Gap In Time
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December 19, 2004
-12:00 AM EST
It was getting pretty late and I needed to get some WoW time in for the day. I mean, sitting around all day doing
nothing takes a lot of work, so why not have some time for fun? It was quite interesting to see how many late
night players there were. Yes, I know what you're thinking, "What are you stupid? People play from all over the
world; it's not like its dark everywhere just because it is for you!". Luckily for me, my statement is backed up
by the fact that the servers are split up into time zones. So think twice before you aim your words of hate at
me.
Late at night isn’t my best time to think, and deciding what I wanted to do was even worse than usual.
Instead of my previous method of taking one mission at a time, I found it more useful to pack on as many as I
could so that I could multitask and hopefully find goals for all of the missions in close proximity, giving me
something to do all over Darkshore.
The first quest I wanted to get out of the way was called The Fall of Ameth’Aran, which had me
traveling to a set of abandoned ruins in search of two mystical tablets that held some important historical
information vital to one of the local Sentinel’s (NightElf guards).
I had been in Ameth’Aran before and to put it simply, you can get your ass handed to you very quickly if you
jump in their swinging your sword around. It was either stealth or joining a team that would probably consist of
caffeine induced ten year olds, so of course, I chose stealth.
This isn’t what you would normally consider to be “stealth” either. I simply ran to the area of
the ruins layered by low mountains and sidestepped my way around the area until I spotted one of the tablets.
Accessing the tablet took about 10 seconds and it basically outlined some information regarding the ruins and what
happened to them. I was lucky for the first tablet as none of the ghostly spirits (the monsters that inhabit the
ruins) were surrounding it, but reaching the second one was more of a challenge.
The second tablet was near a gondola of sorts, surrounded by a horde of spirits. As one of the spirits in front of
the tablet turned its back to me and floated towards the others, I quickly ran up to the tablet and began to read
it. The spirit noticed me and turned around just as I finished reading the tablet. I quickly began to realize that
I wasn’t as weak as I had thought I would be against them and I made mince meat out of the spirit. I ran out
of the ruins as fast as possible and made my way to the sentinel who happily provided me with 5 silver to add on
to my growing fortune.
I headed back to Auberdine as soon as I collected my reward. The other missions I had lined up were far too
difficult for me to take on my own, and as I stated before, no ten year olds for me. When I entered the city,
people were as usual, trading, conversing, whining about not having any money and all of the other things
townsfolk do. One of the NPC’s I came across gave me a mission to speak to Thundris Windweaver who needed to
know the information I had gathered from a previous mission. I quickly dispelled my personal questions regarding
the NPC’s inability to get of its fat ass and walk fifteen feet, and realized that I would be getting
experience for doing such a simple task. Yes, some quests are very easy, but often the rewards reflect the
difficulty.
Reaching Windweaver gave me a little over 100exp which at my current level, was quite pathetic. Regardless I
proceeded to discover what mission this man had in store for me, and as I had hoped, it was one that would send me
quite a distance away, along the coast of Darkshore.
The Cliffspring River, wasn’t a difficult mission, but me getting lost didn’t help
matters. While I was supposed to follow the coast along the giant creature carcasses that had washed ashore, I of
course stupidly took the main road intending to wing it when it came time to break off and move towards the river.
I was rewarded for my stupidity by being ganged up on by about five woodland creatures straight out of a Tim
Burton adaptation of Bambi. Quickly resurrecting, I found myself a little closer to the coast than before and
decided to take that route instead. I was finally upon Cliffspring River and collected a water sample from the
base pool where the water dropped off. It was time to head back to Auberdine, but I of course decided to go on yet
another tangent.
January 10, 2005
-11:00 PM EST
I must admit, I haven’t had as much time as I would have liked to dedicate to World or Warcraft during the
climax of the holiday season, but obligations are always there and that’s something that must always be
considered when playing an MMORPG. One of the best things about them though, is that no matter how long you have
been gone for, your character is where you left him and the world (for the most part) is the same. I had played
quite a few times during this gap of time from the last entry, but most of it was quick fixes involving small
quests and beast hunting.
So to jump right back in on things, about that “tangent”. Washed Ashore was another mission I had
picked up that wasn’t really a top priority, but the keyword in its description was carcass, so I quickly
looked it over and I went after the first carcass I saw closest to Auberdine on my way back. I literally sat there
for 15 minutes stupidly looking for an area to collect remains and not only was it quite humiliating but it was
the epitome of ungodly boredom. I pretty much gave up on it after that, thought it was bugged and returned to
Auberdine. I turned in my quest, gathered some meager experience points and I ended my session. In the next two
weeks, I basically logged on, completed a few small quests and moved on. Some involved teams of four, while others
I could take on myself with only a few painful deaths. It led me up to Level 16, which is where I was tonight.
While gaining levels 1-10 was a piece of cake, anything above that is a harsh lesson in patience. Level gaining
will begin to require hours or at least concentrated progress and this is the make or break section of MMORPGs for
most gamers. Thankfully, it’s a much more speedy process than with games like EverQuest, but that
doesn’t mean its very fast. You will still spend a lot of time gathering quests and killing monsters to
simply complete one level, and then when you read it, you sit and wonder what to do next. World of Warcraft is an
example of a game that constantly throws new things for you to do.
While I was hopelessly killing some spirits in Ameth’Aran (yea, killing spirits, where’s the sense?) a
level 21 player named Chelly spoke in the general chat channel and asked if anyone would like to help complete a
mission. First I thought, man, this Chelly is level 21, any mission this person is doing has to be too difficult
for me. I contemplated, pouted and then sucked it up and offered my services. She (the character is a female so,
that’s how I will refer) gladly accepted and I went off to meet her on the coast. The mission required us to
track down a wanted fugitive named Murkdeep, a resident murloc of the Darkshore coasts. The mission seemed fairly
straightforward and for the most part it was. When we arrived, several murloc minions were guarding Murkdeep
around a bonfire. These murlocs were mostly around level 17 and for a level 21, I thought they would be no
problem.
The first time, we rushed them, and she ended up dying first, quickly followed by me. The problem was that
whenever we tried to lure Murkdeep, all of his minions would follow and swarm us, giving the level 19 Murkdeep a
perfect opportunity to pummel us. We went back a second time and failed yet again. After a few more embarrassing
defeats, I rushed Murkdeep, attracting the attention of only one other Murloc. As Chelly kept the minion off my
back I went in for Murkdeep and began to do some serious damage. Chelly came back in time to help me deal the
final blow. The experience points were meager but the quest itself was satisfying. Happy that I gave a hand, she
offered to bring me back to Auberdine to get the quest myself and return. I accepted on the condition I
wasn’t putting her off of more important matters. I gathered the quest in town and sold off whatever items I
had, to bring my money supply up to 1 gold and 5 silver and we headed back to the camp. The second time was a
charm and I gained a hefty 1700 experience points for completing the quest myself.
Level 17 was almost upon me, but I had one more mission I wanted to tackle. Chelly was only in Darkshore to finish
this one quest and she would be heading back to Ashenvale (the next area I will be visiting when I reach level
20). I asked if I could complete a mission that was part of a multi part epic quest called The Tower of Althalaxx.
I had already completed one part of the mission before with a group of similarly leveled players and it was
basically clearing out the area in front of the tower. It was standard stuff, and nothing too interesting, but
this second mission required me to deliver a letter to Delgren the Purifier who resided in Ashenvale at
Maestra’s Post.
I didn’t know my way around Ashenvale as I had never been there for more than a few minutes, so I asked
Chelly if she could escort me there on her way back to her current venture. She happily agreed and we were on our
way, completing the quest was as simple as talking to Delgren and I gained enough experience points to perform my
level up victory dance. Level 17 had finally reached me, but to go even further, it would take a lot more time and
effort, time which I would struggle to find.
Until next week....
Written By: Joseph Bennett
