Practicum - Lindsay

Well, 59 levels and 6 days, 10 hours, 41 minutes, and 8 seconds worth of gameplay later... my experience on World of Warcraft has come to an end (well... kind of, but more on that later). Please enjoy the cliche parting statements.

It's been crazy ride. When I first started playing WoW, I was terrified of talking to people, fearing that they would judge me on my general lack of know-how. I found that this was not the case at all. For the most part, people have been extremely supportive and though there are definitely people who treat the game like a full-time job (with raids and dungeons scheduled weekly), there are a lot of people who are just on WoW to have fun and escape from the real world. It was actually pretty surprising to me that there were so many people who played the game casually even with the monthly subscription fee.

But look at where we are now. I have a level 59 character, and though I'm still learning about certain things, there are now people that will come to me for help. One example in particular is when a guild member messaged me on chat because she was lost. She explained that she had swam the entire expanse of the ocean because she didn't know that there was a flight path that would take her there much faster. After a couple of "lol"s were exchanged, I helped her find her way back and gave her some advice about quests. It is the little interactions like this and, of course, the more complex interactions when running dungeons that make the game function as well as it does. People rely on one another to improve and to complete tasks that they could not have done by themselves.

Another one of my favorite encounters was with my former guild master. After he had invited me to the guild, we stuck together to do some quests. After a little bit, he said,"gotta go do the dishes brb." However, he never came back and he hasn't been online for over two months. So, he must have had quite the backlog of dishes... Anyway, this conversation always sticks out to me because it was the first time I stopped to think about the identities of other players. Even though this character was my guild leader, and my superior in the game, he was no superior to the mundane tasks of daily life.

If you haven't figured it out already, I am definitely going to keep playing WoW. This game has opened me up to a whole other world (of warcraft, if you will), and I think I will keep playing for... ever? Or at least until my mom stops accepting the fact that I'm playing for a class and drives down here to stage an intervention. Anywho, enjoy the picture of my character waving goodbye to you all with her freakishly large hand. It's been real. HAGS! (Sorry, I had to...)