Killing is my business, and business is good.
– Megadeth
Ok, so 2nd post, here we go. I got a few comments on my other post and nobody said anything mean yet, so I feel compelled to continue. As a basic formatting plan, just to let you know up front, I will start each post with a song lyric giving a general indication of what the post will be about, so you, as the reader can decide if you have any desire to read my comments for that particular day. Given the lyric I chose for today, I don’t expect too much of a drop off honestly, I mean I am in marketing so I am pretty good at coming up with enticing intros. Just check out my mad marketing skills.
Anyway, enough of that. So today, as I promised on my last post, I will introduce you to Ravindra. She is my Night Elf that lives on the realm of Hyjal in the World of Warcraft. She is a warrior, which means that one day she will grow up to be a killer tank. Jeff is going to have to teach me how to post pictures later, but for now if you want to check her out, you can go see this picture. She has really long hair, just like me. Pretty cool, huh?
Just a little background here – I have been a huge gamer since, well always. When I was a little girl, I would get my mom to let me hang out in the arcade in the mall instead of shopping with her or doing whatever all the other little girls were doing. My favorite games back then were Ms. Pac Man, Centipede and especially Galaga. Still to this day if I see a Galaga game I have to play it. Except the ones where you can put in more quarters to continue – I hate those games with a passion.
At home on the Atari, my favorites were Megamania (my turn always lasted so long no one would play against me), Zaxxon and Spider Fighter. When my mom would drag me to work with her when she was working late, by some miracle her work computer had Zork on it. Can you believe that? Man I loved that game.
Fast forward to college and I had moved on to games like Duke Nukem, Wolfenstein (who can forget that?!), and one of the best games ever in my opinion, Quake. That game wasn’t just a game, it was a religion. My old boyfriend and I would actually fight over the computer just to play. We would go to LAN parties on the weekend and have fragfests that lasted all Friday night and halfway into Saturday. I know that many of you men will take this the wrong way, but seriously, as a girl it is pretty damn satisfying telling some guy “Suck on this!” and then blowing him away with a rocket launcher. Overkill I know, but hey, if you have an issue with it, remember what I said about the intro song lyrics. You were warned.
The community that grew up around Quake was also amazing. I still remember being at E3 when John Carmack gave away his Farrari. I remember the Crack Whore clan and thinking about how cool it would be to join that group of girl gamers. And then I remember thinking – wtf – I don’t want to be a crack whore!! I had that same response to the Suicide Girls as well, but whatever. Nevertheless, when I think about it now, it was my first introduction to a technology related community in a way. Interesting.
That time period is also when my geekiness started really getting amped up. Partially out of necessity, I mean, I had to know how to set up the LAN, etc. But also, my boyfriend then was what we would now refer to as an “IT Professional”. Maybe they called them that back then too, but who knows. He really taught me a ton about computers. I hate to admit it, but before I dated him, I actually thought the monitor was the computer and the thing under the desk was just some big thing under the desk that was in my way. Anyway, here’s hat’s off to you, SirReal. Thanks for all the free tech support and training.
When I got out of college and I couldn’t hang on the Quake circuit anymore because I didn’t have like a gazillion hours a week to practice, I discovered my first MMORPG. Meridian59. That game single handily ruined a fairly decent real life relationship, but you know how it is; you can’t just stop playing because something might happen while you are offline and you might miss it! My guild was called Blood Moon and we rocked. We even had our own guild hall.
Eventually, I overcame that addiction and turned away from online games for a while. For a few years, I mainly stuck with things like Crash Bandicoot, Warcraft (not to be confused with World of Warcraft), Diablo and arcade games like House of the Dead. Shooter games are definitely right up on my list of favorites.
At some point, I briefly tried Everquest, but it just didn’t do it for me so I didn’t stick with it.
Over the last year though, a few friends started talking about WoW. I mainly ignored them because I was pretty happy with my current real life and didn’t want to risk another addiction. You know, once an addict, always an addict.
One day though, Crash just stopped meeting my needs, and the House of the Dead games at Gameworks were getting played out and not working very well anymore (poor gun alignment and all that), so I decided to try WoW. I came to my decision over Sushi with my co-worker and good buddy Chris Fox, who has like a full set of level 60s on Hyjal. On the way back to the office, we picked the game up at Game Stop, and once back at my desk I started installing it immediately (there was a ton of patching, so it took all freakin’ afternoon), and that night I logged on to start my adventures.
And this is how Ravindra was born. After a lot of frustration I might add. I have had very few gamer names over the years, and “Ravindra” was never on the list, but I joined an old server so I could benefit from some twinking and so all of “my” names were already taken. Grr.
Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, Ravindra is a warrior. For some reason, I have always gravitated to warriors instead of any sort of magic based characters, for reasons that I am not quite sure about but I am sure if I went to a shrink he would probably have some sort of opinion on it. I guess in a way, I just think it is kind of lame to stand really far from something and kill it with a fireball. To me, if you aren’t getting blood on your armor, you are a sociopath or something. I think eventually, I might start a mage, just to see, but I don’t know. I feel skeptical. Plus, I hate their outfits.
So back to Ravindra. She is currently a level 41, which means – that’s right – she just got her tiger. Oh yeah, baby. Now she can run around something like 40% faster. That may not sound like a lot, but seriously, when you are in a place like Stranglethorn Vale, that extra speed can make all the difference in whether or not you can get your quest done before someone starts bitching at you about how much time you are spending online “playing that game.” You know what I mean.
Here is how she is currently equipped from a weapon standpoint:
Ardent Custodian – Main Hand - 48-90 Damage, 32.9 dps
Zealot Blade – 43-81 Damage, 22.1 dps, +5 intellect, +6 spirit
I also have a bow that I use to lure out the baddies if there are too many grouped together, but that is inconsequential.
I would tell you about my armor, but some guy told me the other day that while my weapons rocked, my armor sucked. Oh well, as much as I hate it, I guess I will have to do some shopping soon. I gotta look out for my girl.
Ok…I think that is it for this post. I have to say, I hope they get shorter because honestly, I am starting to bore myself. I mean, I already know all of these stories. For some reason though, I just think it is important for you to understand how serious I am when I say WoW rocks, and I have the experience to prove that I know what I am talking about.
So for now, signing off…gotta get back to business. After all, those bloodscalp trolls aren’t going to kill themselves.