The shades of gray and white flickered before my lifeless corpse. As a sparkling wisp, I had just completed the now-memorized journey through the oases and glens of the Barrens on the way back to my lifeless form.
Throughout the journey I had hatched the best conceivable strategy for defeating Hellacow. Having employed various sequences of healing myself, casting offensive spells and buffing myself, I believe I stumbled upon a novel way of exacting the heaviest amounts of damage while keeping myself from being hit with whatever the druid would throw at me. This was it. This time I would defeat this cow bastard and break free from his corpse-camping grasp. I positioned my ghost in a strategically appropriate location and cautiously pressed the accept button on the resurrection dialog box.
I reappeared in the material world, between Dreadmist Peak and the oasis directly to the south. A glow surrounded me as I cast a Power Word: Fortitude on myself and immediately felt healthier. I turned left and right, then finally all around, with my staff brandished before me and a Mind Blast spell on lips. For the moment, I didn't see anyone near me. Hellacow had tried this tactic before, appearing out of stealth in cat form and slashing me before I could do very much. But this time I was prepared. I stood there, my fingers poised over my hotkeys, ready to press them in the correct, invincible sequence which would bring me certain victory.
Minutes passed on the grassy knoll in the Barrens. Nothing happened.
It seemed my adversary, my nemesis for the past hour, had deserted the battle. Hellacow, I was now sure, had finally grown bored of me as prey and moved on. As I gained more energy from my resurrection and scanned the horizon for any Horde, I reflected on the last hour and 29 minutes. This was the ultimate mockery, I decided, of griefing in WoW. At the end of the match, one combatant is forced to just leave. There is no game mechanic to say that you won or lost, like in the battlegrounds.
In the end, there is just no point.
Greg Tito is a playwright and standup comic residing in Brooklyn, NY. He is currently splitting time between World of Warcraft, a new D&D 3rd edition campaign and finishing one of his many uncompleted writing projects. He also blogs semi-regularly at http://onlyzuul.blogspot.com/.
