N00bs and Christmas Memories of Ironforge

Some grumbling reached my ears about yesterday's post especially in my reference to all the "n00bs" in the beginning Night Elf area. These comments noted that if The Loving Wife (TLW) and I had just begun playing WOW on Christmas that we too would qualify as n00bs. Actually, both TLW and I have played previously. Our son got WOW the year it came out and when he would come home for Christmas he'd bring his computer with him. During those precious yuletime weeks as well as during the summer, TLW and I became quite enamored with the game. My main was a Night Elf Druid named Ydrassil and TLW's main was a tough Human fighter named Kerata, in case you're curious. The son has graduated, gotten married and apparently outgrown WOW. I mentioned to TLW early this December how much I missed the decorations of Ironforge. She laughed and then, reluctantly agreed that she too missed the special holiday quests.

I'm not specifically talking about the strings of old-fashioned xmas tree lights - In fact, they seem chillingly out of place in the undead areas for some reason, a token of grim pathos. The Night Elf Mohawk was amusing but... dumb. And totally corrosive to role-playing.

So we decided to start TWO accounts, so that we could play simultaneously. Our playing styles are remarkably different. I confess I hardly played WOW like it was a MMORPG at all, just a really extensive stand-alone game. I rarely joined parties, never did instances. While TLW was a member of an active raiding guild. She even used those weirdo head phones to chat with the parties she was teaming up with.

The other remarkable advantage to playing with a partner is that it doesn't take weeks to level up. We've been playing for a week now and already we both have mounts.

What's With The Title?

There's a quest, in Dark Shore I think, where the adventurer must gather 8 corrupted brain stems from some creature or another. My wife and I were playing, WOW of course, her on the laptop, me on the G5 tower and when I looted one of these monsters, I shouted out "I've got a corrupted brain stem." The Loving Wife (TLW) quipped "I don't think you should be advertising that."

And it struck me as profound in a quirky, weird way. I suspect I *do* have a corrupted brain stem. TLW does too on some level. One symptom is that we gave each other a subscription to WOW for Christmas this year. That's not too strange in itself. There were probably thousands of such gifts this year if the number of n00bs in Teldrassil were any indication. What's strange is that TLW and I are in our mid-40's and we are just discovering our inner geek natures. We created this blog as a record of this self-discovery.