You may have read about it already, but just in case let me direct you to the Azeroth Metroblog. I’m a contributor to my local Metroblog, but I had no idea Azeroth had joined our family until I got an email from honcho Sean Bonner letting us know that this little easter-egg project had been outed by the likes of his friend Wil Wheaton and WoW Insider. (I swear, that’s not an intentional Easter pun, kids.)
I’ve browsed a few Guild blogs here and there, and I’m sure I’ve written a few World of Warcraft-related entries of my own, but I’m sort of surprised we don’t see more of this kind of line-blurring between virtual worlds and the real. The camaraderie of online play is part of the appeal of an MMO, for me, and I’m actually curious to read some anecdotes from other players and their unique experiences in Azeroth.
But most of the reporting I hear about the game seems to be coldly removed — business news, server information and gameplay critiques. Is the reason that more people don’t blab on their blogs about their experiences fighting Stitches or being rescued by a passing Paladin that these experiences aren’t news because we’ve all had the same experiences? Because these quests all turn out the same way for each of us?
Or is it because most players are that coldly removed from the experience? Are the monsters just amusing costumes that hit points and XP dress up in so you can be entertained as you grind through levels?
Maybe it’s a descendant of the age-old custom of paper-RPG players: Nobody wants to hear about your character.
Whatever it is, there are incidents that happen in Azeroth that I want to hear about. The night of the patch, there were shape-shifted druids dancing as bears in PC-summoned moonbeams in front of the Bank of Ironforge. (I imagine they were celebrating.) That was just on my server. What other snapshots of “life” in Azeroth are going undocumented and forgotten?
Published: Apr 17, 2006 01:09 am