Angela B. Macala-Guajardo's Blog, page 4

So My Former Boss Plays WoW, Too

 ***Please note: anything in [ ] was a footnote in my word processing document.***

Chapter 4

Making friends all over the globe is one thing, but discovering who you know in real life plays the same game is another. It’s even more fun and amusing when it’s one of your bosses. At one point I worked for a local Friendly’s restaurant, and my boss, Ed, whom I fondly called “Sir Ed”, revealed that he also plays WoW.

How cool is that? I actually know someone else who plays, besides my brother!

Shortly after my brother got me into WoW, he ended up stopping playing. He got bored or something, or perhaps he was too busy with college.

Really, Pete? Really? You get me into this super awesome game, and then you bail on me?

Oh, whatever.

Anyway, Ed played Horde side on a server called Runetotem, which meant I had to create another character if I wanted to spend time on WoW with him. Not seeing any sufficient reason to decline, I decided to give Horde side a try and rolled a male Orc Warrior, naming him Whacksalot.

In my defense, I didn’t know that “whacking off” was alternate lingo for jerking off. I was a green meanie with a giant, two-handed sword, and I whacked a lot of things upside the head with my weapon.

Okay, that sounded dirty, too. But another piece of defense is that I was (and still am) a terribly naive person, nor was I yet corrupted at age twenty. I lacked a gutter brain; however, my WoW friends cheerfully obliged to help yank my brain into the gutter with theirs. And oh boy, losing my virginity is WoW-related, and I don’t mean cyber sex. I mean the real deal, but I’ll tell you about that later, and yes you can laugh now.

My Orc’s name was met with lots of laughs at my expense but no one wanted me to change it, not even Blizzard, who could forcibly make you change your name if anyone found it offensive. I’ve reported only a handful of names that were derogatory towards vaginas, bragged about raping, or were general crude, like “Suckmycock.”

With all the options available, some kids can’t think of anything else but their penis.

There’s one instance where a penis joke name made me laugh. It was a fellow guildie who’d named a toon Pringlescan. I never thought anything of it beyond assuming the father loved Pringles. The son was also in our guild and I forget how his father’s toon’s name came up in the Ventrilo (Vent) conversation—might’ve been talking about how we named our toons—but at one point I asked the son about his father’s toon named Pringlescan. [Ventrilo/Vent: program that allows verbal chatting through computers with the aid of speakers/headset and a mic.]

I could hear the grimace in the teenager’s voice when he said his father explained, “He says he’s as big as a Pringles can,” meaning his male member.

I know I laughed, and I probably said something like, “You poor thing.” However, I had two unspoken thoughts that followed. One: must be good to be his wife. And two: I wonder what that looks like.

Playing on my former boss’s server led me to making good friends with two people named Kroty, an Undead rogue, and Doominatrix, whom I believe was a warlock of which race I’ve now forgotten. I could be totally wrong about the warlock part; I just remember her main character’s name, her voice, and how close a friend she was to Kroty.

Those two were best friends and I became fast friends with both of them. They helped me collect decent gear, catch up in levels, and we had fun conversations over Teamspeak (TS), the communication software that preceded Vent.

I didn’t have TS when I first met them but I quickly acquired it because Doom hated typing to communicate. Doom’s real life name is Rose, a Canada native and fellow Vin Diesel fan who was pushing through the wake of a tough divorce. I remember one day she had to walk away from her computer because her ex had come over, and when she finally returned, she was so freaked out. The way he’d talked to and looked at her had driven her to get a restraining order against him. He’d stared at her like he was premeditating harm and even said things that alluded to such violence. I supported her move for the restraining order and hoped the guy would never try to come back.

And Kroty? Boy was he pissed. I believe he’s from the United States, but at the very least I know he lived too far away to do anything to alleviate Rose’s situation.

She and Kroty made me feel very welcome in their guild, which I helped name. Back on Thrall, I was in a guild called Legion of Steel, and I’d just joined Runetotem in time for Rose’s guild to fall apart. But, just like her failed marriage, she was determined to move forward and move on by forming a fresh guild full of loyal friends. To hell with the selfish bastards who created guild drama.

I could fill a book explaining guild drama but all I’ll say right now is that WoW guild drama affects people equally as much as drama in the work place or at home and the likes. Yes, we’re all playing a video game and all we have to do is log off to get away from it but, Orcs, Elves, and Undead aside, it’s still a human environment where people act human behind all those pixels, kindly or cruelly.

Even though I’d come to Runetotem to play with Ed, he and I were hardly ever logged on at the same time, leaving me plenty of time to become good friends with Doom and Kroty. They both called me Whack (short for Whacksalot), instead of Angela, and they didn’t want me to rename my character either. I also got teased for not knowing the alternate lingo, but it was all in good fun.

I can still recall the day where I helped Doom form a new guild, but before that happened, she was struggling to come up with a name for it. All she knew was that she wanted it to have the word “sin” in it. I told her about being in Legion of Steel, so why not Legion of Sin? Had a nice ring to it. She liked it as well but I believe she deliberated on that and other prospective names for a bit before settling on my suggestion. I was flattered and she was thankful, and we both laughed as we watched Kroty taunt an Alliance character who had brashly entered the zone called The Barrens, an African-style plain lined with sandstone mountains. At the southern end lay two lifts that carried people to and from an adjoining zone, and near the lifts was where we encountered the lone Alliance player, who was somewhere in the 30’s in levels. Kroty and Doom were both 60, the max level, meaning they could easily kill the intruder. Doom wasn’t interested but Kroty saw an opportunity for some playful intimidation. He would pop in and out of stealth mode, trying to scare the intruder, and even Sapped him I don’t know how many times. [Sap: Rogue ability that stuns a target for a period of time, rendering them unable to act until either Sap wears off or they get attacked.] I don’t recall Kroty actually killing the intruder; just him saying, “C’mon! Go! Go!” over TS as he mock-charged and tried to make the guy jump off the cliff. The Alliance player couldn’t safely use the life because it was Horde-controlled and manned by guards who would attack him on sight.

Lots of laughter over TS ensued but, I can’t remember if Kroty got the intruder to jump to his death. It sounds like a morbid want, but that’s the beauty of video games. People can recover from death. Sure, there are penalties, but only temporary ones.

For a while I tried juggling playing on two servers but it became too much and I returned to Thrall. I didn’t delete Whacksalot; just left him to collect dust. I forget what ultimately motivated me to go back to Alliance but I do know I never felt truly at home on Horde side. I gravitated towards Alliance.

My Horde toon became a distant memory until I saw my former boss working at a different Friendly’s. He’d been transferred. And that day, I received the worst news I’d ever heard in my MMO life: Rose had been murdered by her ex husband.

I stared wide-eyed at Ed, mouth ajar and everything. Rose dead? Doominatrix no more? WoW friends don’t die.

“Do you remember Kroty?” Ed said.

“Yeah.” That lovable rogue. Who could forget him? But… Rose dead?

“He’s taking it really hard. He hasn’t logged on in a long time. He made a web page dedicated to Rose. He even spoke with her family.”

I remember leaving Friendly’s in a confused daze. My brain didn’t know how to process Rose’s death. Murder was supposed to happen in dark corners, far away from my personal happy bubble; not to people I knew. To this day I can still recall her voice, her saying, “Hey, Whack” in a lightly accented voice that carried an air of authority behind it. I didn’t know what to make of the fact that I’d never hear her say hi to me again.

My friends don’t get murdered. This can’t be right…

Oh, but it was. I read Kroty’s memorial page, learned more about Rose, along with their deep friendship. It was on that site that I learned that she shared my celebrity crush on Vin Diesel, and learning we had a bit more in common made her loss sting all the more.

I don’t know for how long I tried, but I logged onto Runetotem every day, hoping to talk to Kroty again and give him my condolences and support. I eventually succeeded and boy was he still feeling down. And it was at that point I realized I had no frickin’ clue how to console the mourning. He was so lost and devastated but he was thankful for my support. I missed his joviality. I passed on what words of solace I could, even though it felt so bizarre to log back onto Runetotem, knowing Doominatrix wasn’t ever going to log in again.

I believe Kroty ended up taking care of Rose’s account. Beyond that, I only remember logging back onto Runetotem now and then, until someone informed me that Kroty had stopped playing WoW.

Chapter 3: My First WoW Friends

Chapter 3: My First WoW Friends.

Chapter 2: Welcome to Thrall

***Please note: anything in [ ] was a footnote in my word processing document.***

By the time I’d returned from Gamestop with my brand new copy of WoW, I couldn’t wait to start playing. However, my excitement was dampened by having to download several CDs of content onto my laptop, which could barely handle the game. Dear god, the lag was murder… [Ah, lag, every online gamer’s bane. L Countless deaths have resulted from this. That moment of dread where everyone around you starts running in place knows no equal.]

A billion hours later, my excitement was rekindled by the sound of a deep gong, signaling that the game was now playable.

Oh, no wait. There’s a patch to download. Correction: a few patches. Welcome, Angie, to the modern online gaming experience.

I hopped on the wagon towards the end of Classic WoW. [Now referred to as “Vanilla WoW.” No clue how “vanilla” be came equated with “classic.” Makes me think of neapolitan ice cream.] I’d never heard of “patches.” Hell, I hardly knew anything about computers, other than that they were fun pieces of technology, and made writing papers for classes so much easier. I learned that patches meant the developers had fixed bugs, and introduced new content along the way. Introducing new content was a new concept to me as well. Video games were complete by the time I bought them. Always had been up to that point in my life. But whatever. Cue the opening cinematic and by the end of it, I so had to roll something called a Night Elf Druid. [Roll: gamer lingo for “choose/pick.”]

While reading the player’s guide, I’d already decided to play the Alliance side. In my mind, that was the good guy side and I like playing the good guy when given the option. Rolling human was out of the question. I’m human in reality, so why would I want to be human in a fantasy game? Dwarf was out of the question, too. They were way too disproportionate and stocky. I wanted to play a gnome. They’re short and cute, and it’s fun to pretend to be short, since I’m so tall in reality, but gnomes can’t roll Druid, so Night Elf it was.

Creating characters is one of my favorite aspects of MMOs. I love to personalize my characters, falling in love with customization by playing Morrowind. I tweaked my purple-skinned, green-hair, pointy-eared female Night Elf into awesomeness, clicked on Druid class, and cupped my chin in one hand as I contemplated what to name her.

Naming characters is my second most favorite part. I bounce between comical names, like Shortchop and Handyhands (actual names of toons I played) [Toon: gamer lingo for “character”], or made up ones that have meaning behind them, like Bhastet (Bastet was already taken). I ended up naming my Druid Sekiro, after one of my characters in one of my books. Don’t ask how I made that name up. I don’t remember. I like picking words from a thesaurus and either moving around the letters to spell a new word, or create a new word that sounds like the original. Or I use my Apple dictionary and thesaurus, borrowing from the root word in ancient languages, like Celtic, Latin, Norse, or Germanic, and simplify the spelling.

Yeah, I’ve got a crazy naming method.

Thus Sekiro was born on a server named Thrall. I recognized the server’s name from the trio of Warcraft games I’d played beforehand, which had been a lot of fun, especially with the cheats /rosebud and /whosyourdaddy activated. Challenging games are fun, but sometimes you just want to feel godly and roflstomp the enemy. [Ah, “rofl.” The first time I saw those four letters clumped together, I read it as “raw-full,” rhyming with “waffle.” Somewhere along the way roflwaffle cropped up, although I’ve never used that word in my gaming vocabulary. I use rofl regularly, even though I’ve never literally rolled on the floor laughing.]

Servers were yet another new concept. I ended up on Thrall simply because Blizzard suggested I pick that server. [Servers are like rooms in a mansion. Blizzard is the owner of the "mansion" and you pick a room and start playing. Only so many people fit in the room, so that's why there are many rooms, a.k.a servers.]

I have no idea what I’m doing, so okay, Blizz!

Almost nine years later, I can’t quite peg what Blizzard did to make WoW so addicting. It was fun and simple, yet so intricate. Players were rewarded for every little achievement, and achievements got progressively harder and harder as the game threw more challenges at you. The UI was intuitive, learning the game was easy, yet difficult to master. I seamlessly transitioned from game controller to action bar, from joy stick to using ASDW to move around, and killing enemy after enemy that spawned in front of me. [Action Bar: a row buttons that contain all your spells and actions, typically assigned to the 1 through = on your keyboard.] And every time I encountered another player with their blue-colored name floating over their head, a certain thrill washed through me. I was in an online world where peopled typed to communicate. No more ridicule about who people believe I really am because of my voice.

Sure, some girls might look at me funny for liking video games and playing them often but news flash! I’m surrounded by guys. Maybe some girls love being surrounded by guys who have nothing more than pretty bodies and pretty faces. I don’t care how pretty the shell is if nothing’s going on between their ears. There are a lot of wonderful men in the gaming community, intelligent, friendly, compassionate ones. Of course there are the acne-ridden, roly-poly ones, but I don’t care. They make far better friends than any conceited halfwit.

So what about the idiots in the online gaming community?

That’s what the /ignore list if for, duh!

I ran around the starting zone called Teldrassil, killing monsters and collecting items for NPCs too lazy to get it themselves, learning WoW’s version of aggro, a term which has fondly integrated itself into reality. [NPC: Non Playable Character]

Friends have wife aggro, girlfriend aggro, baby aggro, etc, and I can’t say which gets more annoying sometimes: in game or out-of-game aggro. [Means you have attracted the attention of something, or your attention is being drawn to someone or something.] Ultimately, I learned that by running too close to an aggressive monster, this prompts them to attack, and boy has this world mechanic resulted in some of the most comical and embarrassing of deaths.

Now, if you run far enough, a monster will give up and run back to where they were before they noticed you. Unfortunately, sometimes I get so determined to keep fleeing that my escape route leads to yet more attackers. Next thing I know, I’ve got a mob of spiders, gnolls, or trolls screaming, “Kill the Elf!” and dashing after me through brush, around trees, and across rivers. If I’m lucky enough to be near town, a guard or three will pull a Chuck Norris karate chop and one-hit KO said bloodthirsty mob.

Okay, so the spiders didn’t use any words but they did hiss at me, and gigantor hissing spiders are scary.

 

Chapter 1: Inducted Into a Different MMO Community

***Please note: anything in [ ] was a footnote in my word processing document.***

Introduction

“Why on earth would anyone write a book about their online gaming experiences?” Life has a way of connecting me with people I need in my life who’ll help me through hard times, become a better person, or help me get closer to achieving my goals. One such connection led me to move from Connecticut to Arizona to live with one of my World of Warcraft friends, whom I’d known for years beforehand, but hadn’t met in person, until we united by baggage claim in Tuscon. My family couldn’t comprehend such a decision, even though I knew in my heart of hearts I was making the right decision. The move across the United States has preserved my sanity and, I humbly admit, my life. If I hadn’t started playing World of Warcraft, I would’ve never met Simon or be where I am today.

I’ve done my best to write this book for people who’ve never played any of the games mentioned in the following pages, or any video games in general, can follow along and enjoy the contents. I want to show how awesome the gaming community is, and perhaps persuade a few to join the ranks.

The stories in this book are recounted as accurately as possible with hopefully minimal embellishments—who can resist sometimes?—tarnishing the truth. I never thought I’d write a book about my online gaming experience, and neither did my friends. Everything comes from memory, which can be unreliable at times.

Classic World of Warcraft
Chapter 1
 Inducted into a Different MMO Community

Halo 2 on Xbox Live reached the end of its appeal. Being a gaming girl, the online gaming community wasn’t always friendly. There’s this puzzling belief held by a fair few boys—not men; they don’t deserve to be called men—that girls don’t play video games. Said boys wholehearted believed I was either a prepubescent boy whose balls hadn’t dropped yet, or I was a fag.

There are morons who don’t believe girls and homosexuals belong in the gaming community.

Too bad for those noobs. [The word “noob” used to be “newb”, which used to be “newbie.” Not only do gamers shorten words, they purposely alter the spelling.]

I got so fed up with being told I was really a twelve-year-old boy that I opened my throat, to make my voice as deep as possible and said over Xbox Live, “Oh, yes, I really am I man. This is my manly voice. See how manly I sound?” I was going ramble more nonsense, but I started coughing. The strain on my larynx was too much.

What’s the kid’s response to my farce?

“Your manly voice sounds realer than your girly voice,” he said in his own prepubescent voice.

Yeah, I blinked at my TV, probably even smacked my forehead. Hell, I might have shot him, too. He deserved no less. I don’t have the most feminine of voices but for the love of gaming, clean your ears and tune yourself into reality! Girls play video games, too, you morons!

Moments like that steadily wore down my enjoyment of Halo 2 and I turned to offline games, including the tabletop game called Warhammer, where I sent whole armies to meet others head-on in war where the winner would be declared only by total annihilation of the enemy.

* * *

I’m a gaming nerd through and through. Not hardcore, perhaps, but lifelong. I grew up on the Nintendo, chasing down the elusive Princess Peach and blowing air into the cartridge through my T-shirt as needed. [Who knows if that trick really worked?] I don’t know how that lumbering lizard with a tortoise shell navigated his way through the dungeons the hero, Mario, had to race through, but I logged endless hours of running, jumping, squishing things, swimming, and shooting fireballs that stood between me and the princess.

Then came Super Mario 3, the Super NES gaming system, and Final Fantasy Games, along with Donkey Kong. I discovered my love of turn-based games where you had to strategize with an arsenal of offensive and defensive moves for multiple characters. Then there was the Gameboy and all sorts of games, especially Pokémon, where my goal was to catch every type of monster, which required teamwork or cheating. Dear god, I still own almost every last version from every generation.

I grew into the Nintendo 64 and fell in love with Ocarina of Time, Super Smash Bros., Diddy Kong Racing, and more. Ocarina of Time was a medieval adventure with a magical ocarina, and one of the most amazing climactic fights between good and evil. Super Smash Bros. was an enjoyable no-think game where you mashed buttons and sent opponents flying off the fighting stage. Diddy Kong Racing was a fun racing game. My favorite character was Timber, a tiger cub, and zooming past the competition time after time on bumper boats.

And then my brother bought a Playstation and Final Fantasy VII (FFVII) [Considered one of the greatest games of all time], and oh man, we were blown away by cutscene graphics, on top of how awesome that game was and still is. Final Fantasy VII was like a novel come to life through a video game. It had action, adventure, romance, mystery, and an excellent character-driven story. At some point I dabbled in Phantasy Star Online but the game didn’t hold me. It was lots of fun running around maps, killing stuff, and building a robot companion with parts found via killing stuff, but I think I was too young to properly enjoy it.

I didn’t return to online gaming until after high school. My brother, Peter, who’s the reason I became a lifelong gamer, has always been good at checking out what’s trending. I forget what game I was playing at the time, besides Warhammer, but one day Pete introduced me to—drumroll—World of Warcraft (WoW).

You saw that coming, right?

Of course you did.

Pete fell in love with WoW [Ah, yes, we shorten the names of games too] and, as always, wanted me to get into it, too. I was in college at the time and reluctant to try another online game. My Halo 2 woes hadn’t been expunged from memory. However, Pete persisted and prodded me to try it, even handed me the player’s guide.

“Ang, you gotta try this game. It’s so much fun!”

I remember sitting in the living room, looking askance at the guide, knowing I’d want to play the game if I started reading it.

Like a sucker, I picked up that pile of shiny pages and started reading about races, classes, macro explanations, and more. I was hooked before I got halfway through.

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Seventeen-year-old Roxie Lohr has always wondered why her eyes glow different colors whenever she feels intense emotion. Aerigo, a captivating Aigis, not only gives her the answer but also whisks her away into a host of new problems. Suddenly, Roxie finds herself thrust into exotic worlds, an unexpected romance, and a conflict between gods in which only they can decide the outcome…

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To Ocean’s End Up for Grabs Via Rafflecopter

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It has started!

Originally posted on Journey of the Writer's Heart:

I’m giving away three copies this weekend, so enter for your chance to win!


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One end-of-the-world prediction almost came true: humanity nuking itself to pieces. The one thing nobody tried to predict: how Mother Nature would reassert control over the environment.

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To Ocean’s End Up for Grabs Via Rafflecopter

I’m giving away three copies this weekend, so enter for your chance to win!

Rafflecopter!

One end-of-the-world prediction almost came true: humanity nuking itself to pieces. The one thing nobody tried to predict: how Mother Nature would reassert control over the environment.

Captain Dyne Lavere is one of a small number of skippers who delivers cargo all over the world. It’s good money for those brave enough to fight off pirates, black market mercenaries, greedy skippers trying to monopolize the shipping industry, and, of course, the occasional assault from supernatural entities. The supernatural are no big deal since he, unfortunately, is one himself.

On one particular stop, Dyne acquires a fiery stowaway named Jessie who’s just looking for a way to get home, but they both soon learn that their meeting is no coincidence….

Finding Solace in Your Online Gaming Friends

Finding Solace in Your Online Gaming Friends.

To Ocean’s End Gets a Facelift

To Ocean’s End Gets a Facelift.

Surprisingly, I’m Thankful I’m Getting Older… So Why Not You?

Surprisingly, I’m Thankful I’m Getting Older… So Why Not You?.