Monday, October 12, 2009

More World of Warcraft stuff

When you start playing "World of Warcraft", you roll up a brand new toon and start at level 1. You click on the guy in front of you, he gives you a quest to go kill something or other, and you do it and get some experience. Repeat this and you go up a level, and now you're faster/stronger/deadlier. After a while, you get to thinking that that's what the game is: leveling. You also start to think about getting to the level cap and wonder what you're going to do afterwards.

Kathy and I have actual real-life friends (Hi Dan and Leigha!) who also play WoW. They're leveling up pretty quickly now, and are in the low 70s rolling through the Howling Fjord. Kathy and I are excited because soon they'll be able to go do stuff with us, as opposed to having us run them through things.

But Dan said something with regard to the level cap (I don't recall precisely what it was now) that reminded me of how much my thinking about the game has changed. Specifically: I'm amazed at how much game there is still left after you hit the level cap. In some ways, it's an entirely different experience when you're not leveling, but it's just as rich and just as overwhelming and just as time-consuming ... it just isn't concerned with your XP bar anymore. Weird.

So anyway, I have five toons at the level cap with four more in the 70s and I do not have time to play more than two of them. What with the working and sleeping and doing stuff outside the game and all. And of the two toons I'm actually playing, only one of them is geared at the level of my guild; the other one is still trying to gear up in heroics so I can run him in the second set of 10-mans.

I still recall what it was like questing for level, and I really enjoyed it and fully intend to resume doing it with the rest of my toons (gotta get one of each to level cap, of course). I just thought that I'd be done seriously working them once they dinged 80; now, of course, I realize the depth of my previous error in thinking.