Mark - [Practicum Post: 2]

So we meet again...! If I remember correctly, last time we met, I had finally gotten WoW all set up and ready to play, so how 'bout we pick up from there?

As with any good game, the first thing you're prompted to do before playing is create your own character. World of Warcraft offers a wealth of customizability when creating your character to help set yourself apart from the millions of other players out there. Right from the get go, you have to pick your gender. I chose 'male', obv. Next you have to chose your race. Most of the races to chose from are unspeakably strange, but in the end I decided to go with a Night Elf because his ears were cool and his eyes glowed. Choosing this race means that I am part of the alliance, so I'm playing for the good guys! (Whatever that means...) From here you can customize everything from distinctive facial features and hair styles to the hue of your skin color. I went with reddish skin and white hair. Again, bad ass!

My dude was complete, and the only thing that remained to do was give him a name. This is without doubt the most daunting task of the entire game, as not only are you stuck with the name for the duration of the game, but you also want it to sound appropriate for the game world without sounding too nerdy. For these reasons, 'Mark' was out, and probably already chosen. When it came down to it, I couldn't decide anything clever, so I went with a name the game randomly chose for me, Firius. Not bad!

This is it: the moment you've been waiting for! The build up was incredible, I know. But, it has all paid off for this! (Hopefully =/) I was finally ready to break into the World of Warcraft!! I'd be lying if I said I wasn't just the slightest bit excited to finally get into it. After all, the set up process was Hell. The actual game must be pretty amazing, right?!? Well, we'll see...

After a bit of cinematic and back story, I spawned in the middle of a massive forest filled with huge trees. Being an elf, I should have seen that coming. (Where's the Keebler guys?!) The thing was, I wasn't alone. There was a crowd of people around me, each with unique names and appearances. Mousing around, I realized that they were all unique players as well and probably just beginning the game like I was. After getting the basic controls down (A, S, D, and W are like the arrow keys, and Space is to jump) I started wandering around. There were people everywhere!

After getting the general sense of my landscape, I approached a person with an exclamation point above their head. I could tell almost immediately that this was not a real person, but rather a Non-Player Character (NPC). I right clicked on him and he offered me my very first quest! As it turns out, a few of the indigenous creatures to the area were becoming wildly over populated and he asked if I could help by killing some of them. So, I set out to kill 5 Thistleboars and 5 Nightsabers. Upon finding an area where each of these creatures lived, the biggest challenge was finding one alive. I was surrounded by other people trying to do the same quest. If these creatures were over-populated, like the guy claimed, then they produce offspring like no other. I just kind of stood back and waited for more to appear and then went at it.

Combat is overly simple. Basically, you right click on the creature you wanna kill, and your character does the fighting for you. On occasion, you can throw in a special move to do more damage, but this requires something called... [checks game manual]... 'Rage'. This comes in a limited but constantly regenerating supply.

When all was said and done, and the populations were under control, I headed back to complete the task and collect my reward. I got some boots that I can't wear for some reason. So, that was dumb. I want a new gift; something I can use.

So yeah, that was my first quest in WoW. Nothing too exciting, but more importantly, nothing too complicated. There's still a LOT that confuses me and I don't quite have the controls down, but maybe I can find at least one person in this world who will talk to me and explain things. But thats for next time...