andthennothing.net

I’m not a gamer. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, it’s just not my thing. I play computer games perhaps one or two times a year. But lately I’ve been bitten by the WoW bug. The last two weeks (I think) there has been an open beta testing phase. And I got an account in order to try it out, for free. And I’m amazed over how good a game it is, especially the social parts of the game. When you get stuck with a quest, you just hook up with some other guys doiung the same quest. It is so much easier when you cooperate with a few people. And then you stick together for a couple of quests, until you have to go to bed (or more correctly, a few hours after you had to go to bed).

Two examples from the game. One time this Danish guy came up to me and challenged me for a duel. I didn’t know what a duel meant in the game, but I accepted, and was beaten rather quickly. And then he asks if I wanted armour, and sure I’d like some armour, so he goes away looking for copper mines, mines some copper, smelts the copper and smiths some armour. I guess it took up to an hour, and he didn’t want anything in return. Oh, and this other Hungarian guy, with whom I played for a couple of quests in the beginning. And then a couple of days later he comes up to me and gives me one gold coin (which is a lot) and some other stuff. Without wanting anything in return. That amazes me. Not that people do stuff for others without wanting anything in return, that happens once in a while in the real world as well. But to spend a lot of time to help a virtual character, played by someone you never met. That makes me think that the guys behind WoW has done at least something right.

So today I ordered the retail version of WoW, since the beta ended. I didn’t think a while ago that I would buy a game. Unfortunately my laptop is not a gaming station. Perhaps I will buy some more RAM, to make it lagg less in the cities. So now it’s time to do all the other stuff that have been put on hold. At least until Friday when I hopefully get the retail version. And start from the beginning.