Highlights of the Week from my Blogroll November 6, 2011

The best read I had this week was from Rades of Orcish Army Knife, with a post about What Theramore destruction will mean for WoW.  There has been a lot of outcry from the Alliance about how the Horde seems to be taking a lot of the spotlight - Thrall is now a neutral hero, and a number of Alliance outposts were destroyed or taken by Horde.  I haven't done a lot of the low level zones, but Camp Taurajo was wiped out by Alliance - I didn't even know that, I thought it was a Cataclysm event.  I highly recommend it for those who are curious about Lore and the upcoming Theramore event.

Big Bear Butt Blogger wrote Are you part of a single WoW community?  That if you meet a random person on the street who happens to play WoW, do you feel a kinship?  Do you strike up a conversation?  It was an interesting read, and talked about the general WoW community, and YOUR WoW community.  It reminded me of how WoW can be an icebreaker - I have two examples.
  • In 2005 had a 60 something year old patient just before surgery and I was doing my preoperative assessment and putting in her drip etc.  In passing she said to me,
    "Oh, I hope I can play my computer here."
    "Why is that?" I asked. 
    "I play computer games with my granddaughter." 
    "Oh?  What game do you play?" 
    "World of Warcraft," she said. 
    Well.  I smiled at her.  My consultant and the nurse said "Oh we've never heard of that game," and I said to the patient "Do you play Horde or Alliance?"
    "Alliance.  I'm really excited, I'm almost level 40 and we're going to buy a mount.  Do you play?"
    I nodded. Do I play.  If only she knew how much I played.  "I play Horde."
    Anyway, so the patient chatted away to me about World of Warcraft while my co-workers listened on in a bewildered manner. What a cute old lady.
  • Early this year my department took over the management of a smaller hospital's department and I was appointed to be in charge of one of the services there.  So I went over, and I was dressed very nicely (for once) and went to meet one of the nurses and discuss some things we needed to organise for the service to run smoothly.  While I was there a few of the other anaesthetists were bringing their patients out and I said to the nurse,
    "Oh, who is that?"
    "That's Dr W."
    "Oh, I've heard a lot about him, I should go meet him."  He was one of the people opposed to our departments merging.  He can be very agro.
    "Let me introduce you!  He's very nice."
    Oh really?  That's not what I've heard, I thought to myself.  I walked up to him and he looked at me with a very cold expression on his face.
    "Dr W, this is Dr T, she is one of the anaesthetists from Hospital L."  The expression on his face didn't change.  Well, let me think what I can say to break the ice a little....
    "Hi Dr W, I've heard a lot about you.  I saw one of your patients on the ward.  I think the ladies they have out here are tougher than at Hospital L.  She didn't require much pain relief after her Caesarean."
    His face relaxed a little.  "Which one was that?  The one who named her kid Archer?  What a weird name that was."
    I nodded.  "That's not so weird.  A friend of mine named her kids Talon and Hunter."
    He snorted.  "That's a name I would give my Worgen."
    I paused.  Did he say Worgen?  He had a funny gleam in his eye, as if to say, I bet you I am bewildering you and you have no idea what I'm talking about.  Well, I can play this game...
    "Is your Worgen a hunter?" I asked.
    "You know what a Worgen is?" he asked me.  The nurse looked at me, a smile breaking out on her face.
    I nodded. "Yes, I play World of Warcraft."
    Wow.  His demeanor changed, and he took on an avid interest in me, but yet there was still a bit of that challenge and subtle power play going on.  "Horde or Alliance?"
    "Horde.  Of course."
    He snorted.  "Horde are evil.  What ilvl are you?"
    Wow, if he wasn't testing me before, he was testing me now.  Does he really want to play this game with me? "Umm, 358 I think."  I can't remember, what it was, but I know my arena PVP gear bumped me up.  And I don't think I had full 359 on.
    He looked at me, suspiciously.  "Really?  Mine is only 349..."
    "I raid and I arena."
    "Do you have a Vial of the Sands?"  Now this must be a test, I'm sure.
    "No, I'm not spending 35k just to turn into a dragon."  I think I passed.
    We spent the rest of the morning talking World of Warcraft.  The whole theatre complex knew that Dr W loved World of Warcraft and did not stop talking about it, and now they knew that I played as well.
Zelmaru of Murloc Parliament wrote about Playing the Game with your RL friends, and how it doesn't really work out.  As in, if your RL friend doesn't play or raid at the same pace as you, then there can be friction in the friendship. Sitting your friend out of raids.  Yelling at them for being a noob.  You can do that to guildies when you're an officer but you can't really do that with your RL friends coz they get shitty at you.  A good read, and one a lot of people can relate to.

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