Never Say Never

I used to say that I would never play World of Warcraft--I used to make fun of all of my friends who played. But then I married Jacob, and somehow he convinced me one day to make a character, and then I realized that it was actually quite fun. Although I seem to get bored of my characters by the time they get to about level 30, because then I abandon them and start over with a new character. I have a level 29 blood elf paladin named Lexandra, a level 32 human mage named Lynnora, and my newest character is currently a level 13 night elf hunter named Xylena. My very first character was a gnome mage named Xyli who I only played with for a few levels and then abandoned. I spent almost as much time creating her than I did playing--you have to make a lot of decisions when you create a character, even down to choosing their hair color and making up a name... it's like designing a little doll to play with. I think you're supposed to use the special abilities of each of the races and different classes to guide your decisions more than their physical appearance, but I definitely cared more about things like their robe color than I did about what they could do.

Anyway, last night I did something else I said I would never do: I joined a guild on World of Warcraft. I didn't want to join them. I started my newest character a few days ago in a realm for new players, and I've rejected many requests to join new guilds since I started playing her, but this one wouldn't take no for an answer. I think they were just getting started and desperate for members. I tried everything short of logging out of the game to avoid them. I declined their invitations. I said no. I gave them all of my excuses. And they shot them all down, one by one. I told them that I never had any idea what I was doing in the game and that I had no desire to play with other people. I told them that I didn't want other people around to witness the many stupid things that I undoubtedly do every time I play. When they tried to tell me of the many benefits of being in a guild, I had no idea what anything they were talking about even meant. But they didn't care--they used my arguments against me and pointed out that if I was in their guild, they could explain things to me and help me out. So when I ran out of excuses, I caved and joined their little guild. And then I spent the remainder of the night avoiding anyone I saw that was in the guild. If they were doing the same quest as I was, I ran the other way and did something else instead. I knew it was ridiculous even as I was doing it. I know that I am still just a player on a computer screen to them--they don't know who I am. But for some reason, just knowing that I was now in their little group made me feel less anonymous. So I ran away. The only good thing about it was that random people started Congratulating me when I leveled or got a new achievement, which made me feel strangely good about myself.

So there you have my public confession. I have not only played World of Warcraft, but I liked it. I get excited when Jacob signs off because it means I can get on and play. And now I've written a blog post about it, which makes me even more pathetic. :)