I get up to some silly things in-game. Usually it’s just messing around with strange game mechanics like using Slow Fall then jumping from the Temple of Storms. Once in a while though, it’s something that’s shared around that’s equally silly, and makes the game even better.
I’m going to kick off with something that happened on Curio, one of my mages. I got asked if I’d help out a couple of people with making a portal to Dalaran so that they could set their hearthstones there and find it easier to get around the world. Heading over to Ironforge I picked up that this was a roleplay group, so I thought that I’d best be ready for some impromptu roleplay.
Since last year’s Children’s Week, Curio has constantly had a Gorloc pet with him. Affectionately named Ernie-fu, there’s a dialogue between them as Curio says something, then watches as Ernie emotes a response. As a result, Ernie doesn’t say very much but he does an awful lot. And one of those things is eat.
So when one of the portal-seeking roleplayers throws Ernie a hunk of bread to eat, Curio pulls out a tube (don’t ask) of jam in order to sweeten it a little. This then leads to questions being asked about why Curio has jam in a tube, which went to experiments in jam delivery systems. This then went to discussions around jam explosives, jam mortars and jam limpet mines. Curio then pipes up that he’s scared the Horde may have stolen his research, so he’s working on ways to protect Stormwind from a jam-based attack. The session finished with Curio suggesting that baking a large crumpet to cover the city may be the only way to protect it from jam-based artillery.
They couldn’t use the portal in the end – they didn’t have the Wrath expansion on their accounts.
Another one is mentioned by Ercles in his blogpost about Single Abstract Noun. Bear in mind that I’m Juplaar in the screenshot he’s included. My response was based on the question “Are hippopotamuses really hip, or are they just really cool potamuses?”
I guess the point I’m trying to make is that I do some crazy stuff in-game, from random roleplay encounters to campaigns for cheese-sculpting to be added as a profession. I get some immense fun from these moments of randomness, some real pleasure from being silly. But I couldn’t do it at all without other people to play alongside. A good set of guildmates or friends in the game are fantastic to have, and worth seeking out.
Although great game mechanics and cool effects can help to pull people into a game, it’s the people that you play alongside that will keep you hooked and eager to return. It doesn’t matter if it’s a close knit community or just some people you bump into for a while, the important thing is to have fun with others regularly.
When I’ve unlocked my last achievement and killed the last boss, I’ll still be around. As long as there’s silliness to be shared, I’m in.
<3 Slow falling off things is an activity close to my heart as well.
Couldn’t agree more. If it weren’t for the people I’ve been playing with over the last months and years I probably would have stopped a long time ago.
Whenever I’ve tried other MMO’s I’ve quickly grown tired because I didn’t know anyone else who were playing.
@Gypsy There are so many crazy things that being a mage allows you to do š
@Ercles I’ve tried other MMOs, but I’ve really had to fight with the interface in order to get any kind of social or community interaction. The only one that came close was LOTRO, which I played for a while. Unfortunately the client refuses to run on either my Vista or Windows 7 machines, so it remains unexplored.
Great post. The utter randomness and social play is what has kept me going these last 5 years.
Your writing is great by the way, mind if I link it from mine?
@Pindle
Thanks for the comments, I really appreciate it! Feel free to link if you want to.