So, when I logged into one of said toons that I'd last parked at the Lion's Pride Inn, I actually got a whisper directed at me.
In Retail, by default if you get a whisper it pops up in a separate Chat Tab, so I didn't notice it at first while I waited for my PC to catch up with all the toons in the immediate area.* But when I did, I got an existential sense of dread. After all, the last time this happened I got some pretty explicit queries**, but I figured I ought to at least look at what was said.
 |
| That was... normal. |
It was unusual in that it was an actual normal whisper. So I replied:
I think the person misunderstood that I actually was parked there due to quest turn-ins, but it could be worse.
At least somebody was looking out for the lowbies on Moon Guard...
*I've discovered that it takes about 5 seconds or so for all the toons in an area to appear on my screen when I've logged into Retail. I get the impression that the engine is polling the server for everyone in the area, and that it's not exactly a very swift response. My current internet connection is 600/600 mb, so there's plenty of bandwidth for items as simple as that, so I suspect the engine for this is a wee bit unoptimized, especially since Classic WoW does not have those problems.
**No, not the ones I actually posted here on the blog. The ones not published here were a wee bit more direct and rated "M for Mature".
EtA: Added an extra "*" to clarify a statement about toons appearing after a login.
Wow! I have read about that area of Goldshire, but never personally experienced it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, funny how that ties into your Mass Effect comment. I wonder if you could get rich by buying the localization rights to an Asian erotic dating sim/ shooter that runs on a potato :-)
Yeah, I've seen things in that place. Kurn of Kurn's Corner once told me I was a braver person than her in going to Goldshire on Moon Guard, but I also remember Vidyala posting about how she missed the server as that was where she began playing WoW. (Aha! Found it! Here it is!)
DeleteSo I figured it can't be that bad, and in general Vid is right. The ERP crowd does tend to congregate in a few places, and once you set your boundaries, you'll be okay. But still, I don't think I can look at transmog exactly the same way EVER again.
For someone who's not into ERP, you sure spend a lot of time in and talking about Moon Guard's Goldshire! Fortunately Google's lack of indexing means it's too much effort for me to go and actually count the posts...
ReplyDeleteThe initial part of this post was a snark, because I obviously have spoken about it a bit. But still, I've discovered in Retail that you're not going to see anybody at all in low level areas unless you go to the RP servers. Therefore, if I want to discuss anything Retail that means Moon Guard and... whatever the Horde RP server is.
DeleteThe retail levelling journey can definitely be a bit lonely in the open world, but have you been to what actually counts as a low-level area these days, aka where new players get sent by default? Because that's the Dragon Isles (Waking Shores is the first zone), not Cataclysm-era content.
DeleteNo, because the Retail aesthetic is that you get to hang with all these important people from the beginning. Once you hit L10 you start getting beat on to go to visit the Dragon Isles. As soon as they said "Champion!" in the voiceover while I was looking at Hogger get captured, they lost me. (Thank goodness I accepted the seed quest and then hid it from view so I won't get pestered again.)
DeleteThe only places in Retail where you don't feel like a superhero from the start are on the (Cata-revamped) Old World and TBC Outland. I mean, even in Wrath (on the Alliance side anyway) as soon as you land in Boring Tundra you're feted by people there as a grand hero, and that's only added to your mystique as you progress through the zones. At least in TBC Outland that doesn't happen all that much.
So, what I do in Retail is get to a high enough level (mid-teens or so) and then observe. Watch people do their thing. Watch the Trade Chat and Gen Chat. Watch the occasional event that happens in Org or Stormwind (like that Blue Dragon legendary thing). Roam around places that people can't get to anymore, such as Darnassus or Theramore. Or maybe they can, but I'm not inclined to find out, as even my "max" toons never did the Destruction of Theramore event, so they see only the old "populated" Theramore.
There's only so many "look at all these empty places" posts one can make on Retail, and I'm content to wait for another 1 to 1.5 years before housing becomes part of the base game when the next expansion hits pre-patch.
So, hanging around Stormwind, Orgrimmar, and Goldshire comprise a lot of my Retail posts.
Classic WoW is, of course, a different kettle of fish. I'm still leveling there, keeping busy, and unfortunately that means cleaning up the messes that Corki created. I'm an open-minded kind of guy, but after a certain point I'm inclined to let Corki rot in his cage for a while to see if he's learned anything.
I've also been having fun running instances, because the people doing them right now on the Anniversary servers are the ones who actually want to run instances rather than have to run instances, and that makes a huge difference in enjoyment.