Folks I did all I could, but in the end I couldn't resist. Besides. Everyone knows that in the heart of every 6'4 black man, there lies a drug-addicted, vengeful, nationalist elf sorcerer just dying to get out. You can read about my back and forth with World of Warcraft here. I initially came in as alliance--for the uninitiated there are two sides in WoW, the horde and the alliance--playing a human mage and a Nelf hunter. But the more I dug into the lore, the more I felt out of place. There was something so familiar about Thrall's story--dude raised in slavery, educated by his enslavers, escapes, is schooled on his true heritage, rises to become a champion of his people. Heh, don't know where I've heard that one before. Then there was Orgrimmir itself, there was something about that I'd seen before...
When the blood elves came out I was even more tempted. All fantasy fanboys want to be elves, let's just be straight about it. But these weren't Gary Gygax's elves. These guys had suffered a horrible massacre, been betrayed by mankind and were single-mindedly set on rebuilding their nation. They even had an Uncle Tom among them. Something about their whole way of being ("Hold you head high," the doyens of Silvermoon tell you. That and "We will have justice") put me in the mood of my rights-of-passage training, where, as young boys, we were drilled on our responsibility to rebuild the community. Plus the humans in WoW are kind of racist. Well everyone's racist, but...
Anyway, it's getting all racial up in this piece. The point is I'm back, playing a belf mage and an orcish death knight. If I disappear for a week, you'll know that my PC ate me.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
Everyone knows that in the heart of every 6'4 black man, there lies a drug-addicted, vengeful, nationalist elf sorcerer just dying to get out.
Yes! Thank you for writing what I've been thinking for so long.
Dude, don't take this personally, but you are starting to scare me. Seriously, put down the controller and step...away...from...the...computer.
Go for a walk. Preferably with a girl.
Have thus far avoided getting drawn into WoW, mostly because I think my wife would kill me. But you're totally right about everyone wanting to be elves. Except for those few who want to be dwarves. No one in the history of fantasy role playing has wanted to be human. Or a gnome. Especially the gnome.
"Dude, don't take this personally, but you are starting to scare me. Seriously, put down the controller and step...away...from...the...computer.
Go for a walk. Preferably with a girl."
The originality of your wit is stunning and penetrating. It must be put to higher uses, and not simply wasted in a muddle of comments on this blog. Go, go. For the good of the city.
It's the best value entertainment you can get for $15 a month... If you like this sort of thing. It can be played very casually.
Troll hunter here, my pet eats Alliance mages for breakfast.
For teh Horde!
There is no escape. None. I was supposed to be cleaning my house last night for my buddy's Thanksgiving visit. Instead I was trying to keep evil trolls from destroying their own rhinoceros god in order to steal his power in their own battle against the lich king. (I failed -- they wanted it more)
Honestly though, I never liked elves that much. Their wisdom feels unearned, like it was just given to them (which it sometimes was) rather than gained through actual experience.
I identify with the forsaken more than the blood elves, though I deny any emo-ness in me. I wonder if the forsaken are better analogues for gay than the blood elves are. After all, they're fundamentally human (elven banshees excepted), but living humans will have nothing to do with them, a subsection of their own society they want to pretend does not exist and is not part of them.
Ah, I'm envious. I've avoided ever logging in or trying out any of the MMORG's. I lost almost two years of college to MUD's and know myself well enough to realize that if I take a taste of WoW I'll be right back to mainlining 20 hour sessions of geek crack.
I am a total outsider to this world, but for those of you who are in the know, know this:
Obama's FCC transition co-chair is a gamer.
http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2008/11/tauren-shammy-lfg-white-house-run.html
It's all Greek to me, but I thought I'd pass it on.
Yeah, well, Belfs also say "stay the course". I pretty much ignored them since then. I still like my Tauren, but I have a Native American background, so that probably helps.
It's definitely worth picking up, but I personally got bored pretty quickly with the Death Knight experience because the first thing you have to do (after the awesome opening) is trudge back through the 10 levels in Outlands before you can hit Northrend.
That said, Death Knights have some ridiculously cool powers. It's nice to jump back in for some fun every few months. Have fun!
TNC,
I'll see your belf mage on Azeroth in the SUPAR SEKRET GUILD. If and when I log in, I'll be the guy either boasting about how paladins are greater than any other class in WoW, or lamenting that Blizz hates paladins.
See ya in Azeroth!
For the Horde!
(I haven't played in about a year. I don't have the MMO-in-moderation gene, and if I was financially self-sufficient, I could easily get sucked into playing 10 hours/day, 7 days/week.)
In general I refuse to play elves in MMOs. My barbarians in EQ mocked elves relentlessly. My Alliance dwarves scoffed at Night Elves. My lvl 70 Troll Mage refused to acknowledge the common ancient ancestry between trolls and elves. I've never been a Drow fan, and Drizzt-worship drives me batty.
That said, there is something I find very appealling about the Blood Elves. It certainly isn't a "pretty race" thing. But I can't put my finger on it.
Undead Warlock here. I'm really not a fan of blood elves but I'll cut you some slack, TNC. I can appreciate your reasons for playing them rather than the usual "omg they look awesome".
Also, I never wanted to be an elf. I much prefer the dark and evil side of the undead, even if they are making amends while simultaneously trying to kill everything else on the planet.
How are you liking death knights? I think they're a bit OP against casters at the moment. I tried to play one, but I prefer casters too much to go back to a melee class.
Wrath of the Lich King really is a masterpiece. They have outdone themselves completely.
In the funhouse mirror of WOW identity I might be drawn to the Horde's storylines, but I can only really see myself in the dwarves and gnomes.
I like the tough little ones. In a way I think it reflects something about being one of the female gamers on WOW.
"No one in the history of fantasy role playing has wanted to be human. Or a gnome. Especially the gnome."
You should read the anger on the boards about 4th ed. cutting out Gnomes as character race. Of course, they may be making a comeback in Player's Handbook II but still, some folks were mightily miffed.
No nerd like an angry nerd, I guess.
What is it about gnomes? I actually enjoyed playing them when I first started D&D (I loved illusionist spells), but the fantasy genre just can't seem to figure out what to do with them. Even in WOW, they're essentially the dwarves' geeky cousins and lack any real story of their own beyond Gnomeragan. I think the problem is that gnome culture brushes up too much into the Renaissance, too advanced, and expanding it will start moving it away from fantasy, which is how we now have helicopters in WOW. They're steampunk in a fantasy world.
I gave so much time to WoW in high school...in college now and I know I could never maintain even a semblence of balance if I were to pick it up again. Too bad, because I certainly miss the thrill of it. I've got an xbox, but it just isn't the same...and now with TNC giving in to the dark side, who knows how much longer I can resist...?
*ponders*
*sighs*
alright...this is for my own good
*takes hammer, smashs computer*
(note for non gamers: I wish that sort of comment was a joke, but its all too common among MMO'ers. Let your kids play MMOs at your own risk)
TNC,
You are breaking my heat. As a reformed over 40 years of age player whose family was very glad when i gave up playing my Orc Shaman and Undead Warrior. I felt a kinship with you as someone who kicked the habit.
I stil read the WOW forums and still want back in, especially with the new game content. Now that you are back in the game, I'm thinking maybe I could too. The wife wouldn't divorce me ....I think.
You are not prepared.
I started playing the week after Burning Crusade came out, so I naturally picked up the expansion with my initial buy. After reading a little bit of the lore, the last thing I wanted to play was as a human, but I found myself inexplicably drawn to the Dranei. Something about their story, leaving their homewolrd where they were hunted because the mere IDEA of a better society existed, reminded me very much of my ancestors who came over on the Mayflower. Yes, I know the allegory is much more similar to the story of the Jews, but still, something about it intrigued me. Plus Shaman's are seriously the most underrated class and with the latest patch they are far more versatile and our damage is comparable to Rogues and Hunters now.
Glad to see you back, and holy crap how awesome are the new storylines?
Draenei Death Knight here. Former Human Priest.
I'm always surprised by how many people play the game (not having been familiar with your TIME article).
Not a single one of you mentioned what server you played on.
We should start a guild!
I'm on Nathrezim, hit me up.
Well, for those worried about TNC's regression, they've made the game a ton more casual-friendly. Dungeons are easier and more fun and less of a grind. They can be done in about an hour if you're organized. I expect he'll play his way through the expansion storyline and easily set it back down again. I'm guessing in about two weeks I'll have gone through most of the non-raid content myself and will put the game on the back-burner again.
TNC:
Are you still playing D&D with your boys? If so, are you going to blog about it soon? I loved those updates.
As an FYI about D&D nerd-dom, I think 4th Edition might be perfect for your kids. The rules are simpler - and more in line with MMORPG conventions of leveling and powers - as well as designed to accomodate cool-looking miniatures to wow your kids.
I dunno, I remember you posting about teaching them the rules of 1st edition and having younger players around; I figure if you're still into indoctrinating your children into tabletop (as a good father should) you might be interested in 4th. Old school players might scoff at the changes to the game, but thus far all I've thought is that they'll ease playability by removing needless crunch.
-neal
ps: good luck in WOW. It's a jungle out there.
I'm secretly trying to figure out how I'm going to play my orc Death Knight tonight considering my mother-in-law is flying in for Thanksgiving.
Plus the humans in WoW are kind of racist. Well everyone's racist, but...
Bah, you're right. They have that refusal-to-acknowledge-the-validity-of-other-cultures thing. Which makes things awkward, because for some reason I always want to be a human (I've got a human mage that I brought back from my college days and am leveling him up). I think in the end I'm a sucker for the home team. Maybe everybody is a sucker for the home team, but for many people the home team isn't the humans.
But anyway, if there's one consistent sci-fi/fantasy attribute of humans, it's that 1) they are surprisingly good at adapting, and 2) they have an indomitable will. I'm not sure where this comes from, since most actual humans are weak-willed and stuck in their ways. But it sounds good to me.
Well, David, I would point out that humans managed to populate almost the entire planet when the hight of high-tech was nothing more than making fire on demand and making a slightly better stone tool. I'd say that suggests that we humans, for all our venality, are actually pretty damned adaptable and indomitable.
For Gods sake, just look at Polynesia. You can't really knock a species that's capable of crossing hundreds of miles of ocean water to colonize islands that *might* be there using nothing more than freakin' canoes without so much as a compass or a decent sail.
speaking of polynesia, I was a WoW player and quit for 3 yrs upon moving to hawaii for grad school (lack of time and 365 days of beautiful weather). friends convinced me and I've been back on for about 6 months. fantastic game. has beat out Baldurs Gate II on my list of all time best games.
family's 5000 miles away so my 4 days off are going to be spent inside joyfully playing WoW and I couldn't be happier.
->66 Prot Warr : Smolderthorn
I love your blog, but secretly I always wanted to know your WoW details. I've started my first 'real' job in Australia, after avoiding real work for 10+ years (I'm 31 now), and even a new relationship, and like you I know that if I fuck this up then I'll never forgive myself.
I try to pretend that I can play like I used to, but I've already seen all my old friends rocket to 80 and slash through Naxxramas while I linger far behind. I tell you, it's pretty demoralizing.
If you figure out how to balance this with real life, not just ingame but psychologically, please for the love of Elune tell me how to do it.
(Jormundgard, Eitrigg)
Like many here, Ive been tempted as hell to go back.
Problem is, I know I can't. WoW is such a slippery slope, and it is also so centered around conspicuous consumption and keeping up with the joneses, that it is virtually impossible not to if you've ever been part of the elite in terms of progression and so on.
You start out saying "ill just be a casual this time around." And then one day you look at some website and you see that there is that incredible upgrade for you in that dungeon over there. And then you start running it with a few people, and soon you have a pretty regular group. And then you realize that group has grown to 10 people, and there are even nicer upgrades in 10 man raids. Of course, at this point you still want nothing to do with raiding regularly or playing hardcore. But then you do that one raid because, hey, everyone is on anyways. And then you go far, you almost kill that tough boss, and you feel let down when you have come so close and couldnt close the deal. And then you say "hey, we've come so close, lets try again tomorrow at this time."
You never start out thinking about becoming hardcore. But its always those "just 10 minutes of farming this item more," "just another 10% and we got this" and so on and then you are done.
Good to see so many nerds like me on these blogs(Tauren hunter stop hatin)
Ack - TNC, you were my last hope! For my husband this game is such an addiction. It is very tough to come home after work and see him there deep in the thrall of a 6 hour session. When he was unemployed for 6 months, this was pretty much my daily experience. I often think he uses WoW to avoid dealing with real life, or working to make his musical career succeed. Then I found Confessions of a 30 year old Gamer, and was inspired. (So, it IS possible to give WoW up for something more important. Hmm, perhaps we can have children after all!) So if you're back in the game, oh I despair....
"Every time I think I'm out, they keep pulling me back in..."
The trick is not to let it take over the rest of your life, like kudzu. In moderation, it's a fun and relaxing pastime.
And while I've run Blood Elves once or twice, my main is still a Human Paladin. I've always liked Paladins, going back to AD&D 1st Edition. The role, and the playstyle, just appeals to me.
My wife and I quit about a month before WOTLK came out because we have a fresh new baby. But now, I sooooooooo want to go back. Seeing that you've fallen off of the wagon just makes me jealous, except for that part where you chose BELF. I mean, seriously? They blew Azeroth in half, you know. Their glorious leader, Prince Kaelthelas, I've had to kill not once, but *twice*, something of an anomaly as boss mobs go. And finally, don't forget who engaged in a thousand-year running slaughter of the trolls. BELFS, BAH!
Go gnome. Gnome with pink ponies. You will kill yourself with glee every time you emote. And if you want an angsty story to go along with your race, remember, everyone abandoned the gnomes to their own fate when Gnomeregan was overrun by troggs and they were duped into irradiating their homes. They live in the ghetto of Ironforge --- Tinkertown, what is that? --- next to the subway line. And yet, despite these setbacks, they stick with the alliance. With irrepresible cuteness. Because they were made by the titans, not of rock, but of candy.