I broke my right wrist in late April 2013 and it was a huge change for me. I went from being busy every minute of every day to being unable to do most things I did normally. Everything I did with two good hands or my dominant hand now had to be done left handed. The transition did not go smoothly. The first bit I took in stride with my normal can-do, things-will-improve-soon attitude but that quickly changed as I hurt my wrist over and over and it didn’t rapidly improve. When I tried to keep to my normal do-it-all life, I would slip or forget or miscalculate and end with tears of pain. Ugh. Frustration built as my very active mind had no creative outlet and inevitably, depression set in.
In a desperate attempt to find something to occupy my mind besides knitting (continental combined, for those of you who knit) and keep myself still so my wrist could heal, I took to the world of multi-player online games. With an old Logitec Trackman thumb-ball mouse which allowed me to play without moving my wrist, I dove in. First I tried Everquest’s “free to play” tutorial. For someone who has never done any kind of role playing gaming before, please believe me when I tell you it was a VERY steep learning curve.
In picking a race to play, I found I fit comfortably into human, wood elf or half-elf as a Ranger. I tried other races but I just don’t enjoy the characters and I absolute hate melee. Without fail I would panic and run, then die. Ugh. I tried playing a gnome but didn’t like that at all. I don’t think I got her to level 4 before I deleted her. She was so short I had to do weird stuff to complete quests and she had NO magic. Ugh. I tried a barbarian shaman who had magic. That was okay for a while but her inability to solo (play alone) was a huge handicap. Being naturally anti-social, I REALLY like soloing so I finished with a collection of characters that were human, wood elf or half elf. Those seemed to have just enough power and just enough magic to stay alive under my care.
The free-to-play on Everquest was fun. In the free bit players have to pay for pets and other stuff, but it’s stuff I could easily do without. Pretty much everything I needed I was able to loot or buy.
The Gloomingdeep tutorial isn’t the best but it’s adequate and once you’ve been through it 4 or 5 times, it makes sense. The mercenaries at the lower levels are always in the way and not very tough. The description of them at the merc liaison is amusing, something about being prone to running and hiding. I had fun playing Everquest and I learned a lot about playing. It was a good starter for a never-played-before nooby. Just a note . . . their maps truly suck to the point of being nearly useless.
It wasn’t too long after that my son convinced me to try World of Warcraft. Everquest is a pedal car compared to the Ferrari that is WoW. I was introduced to a whole new world of frustration. All the online instruction was written by players who took so much for granted they left the nooby almost completely in the dark. If you are new to Massive Multi-player Online Role Playing Games, there is an enormous amount to learn before you can hope to be able to just play and stay alive. It’s a whole new language, both addictive and fun. A leveling guide is a must.
It’s now August and I’m finally back to doing more of my normal things but I don’t know that I will ever stop playing WoW. It’s just too much fun.
Herein are my mostly amusing experiences. Enjoy.