MMORPG: How a Computer Game Becomes Deadly Serious (10 page)

“Follow me. Please don’t stop. I’d hate to go back and search for you.”

She ran away and Robert followed her through a maze of corridors. They passed a kind of shrine where candles burned at a sarcophagus. After taking more turns, they emerged into a courtyard. Even though everything was virtual, Robert felt glad to be in the open air again. Killermage didn’t stop until they were outside the gates of the Ruins of Lordearon. A broad and perfectly maintained road led away from the city. A message on his screen told him that they were now in a zone called Tirisfall Glades.

It looked friendly enough. He saw a lot of trees and grass. It wasn’t as sunny and bright as Mulgore had been, but it was certainly not unpleasant.

“Now it’s time we start you off with your first profession,” Killermage told him.

She started to move away again, followed by a confused Robert. When they came upon some tents set up on the side of the road, Killermage stopped.

“Here lives the skinning trainer. You can learn your first trade skill now.”

Indeed, one of the men at the tented camp was a skinning trainer. They were all Undead, with the same bony look as Rebecca’s Killermage. Robert selected the trainer and for a few copper he became an Apprentice Skinner.

“What can I do with this?” he asked.

“Nothing, because you still need a skinning knife. They don’t sell it here. The skill allows you to skin dead animals. You can sell the leather and start making your own money from now on.”

Robert had no idea how this worked. “Can you show me?”

“No, I can’t because I have other professions. I’ll explain some things about the WoW economy tonight. Now, let’s move and take the zep.”

“The zep?”

Killermage laughed in that sinister way again. “The Zeppelin. I told you how important going from A to B is. Several kinds of public transport help getting around. There are ships, zeppelins, and even a subway. The Horde has five zeppelin connections. You can use them for free, by the way.”

With these words, they arrived at some platform where a huge floating ship docked. They stepped on board.

“Where are we going?”

“We’re going to Ogrimmar, on Kalimdor, the other continent.”

To Robert, who didn’t have a map in his head, all these different names were confusing. He decided to study the world map as soon as they finished.

The ship was made of wood, just like a trading ship out of the Golden Age he was studying. The only differences were the large balloon above their heads held in place by ropes, and the propeller at the rear. Suddenly they began to move. He saw tree tops floating by beneath them, and he glimpsed two players walking through a clearing in the forest below. Shortly after, the view was replaced by a world map that showed their position and destination. This feature was the same as in an airplane. Their progress was marked by a dotted line. It started in the north of the Eastern Kingdoms, crossed the ocean, and ended with a red cross in a place somewhere on the continent of Kalimdor. The map disappeared again, and he was back on the ship. They were flying toward a tower where the zeppelin docked at another platform. Looking around, he saw that he was in a landscape that could only be described as a rocky desert.

“
The zeppelin to Undercity has just arrived. All board for Tirisfal Glades!”
someone yelled.

“Get off, before you’re back on the way to Undercity again,” Rebecca warned.

He disembarked quickly and followed Killermage down a winding staircase. When they had left the tower, Gunslinger followed her past a farm with pigs in an enclosure. They went through a monstrous gate in a huge defensive wall and emerged in the same rocky valley where they had been briefly before, en route to Raynewood Retreat.

“Ogrimmar is larger than Undercity. It consists of four valleys. We’re now in the Valley of Strength. The others are the Valleys of Spirits, Wisdom, and Honor. There’s also a quarter with lots of shops called The Drag.”

“I’ll try to remember!”

“Never mind. Come on, I’ll show you the auction house.”

They went into a large building where it was extremely busy. A continuous flow of people was entering and leaving through the large entrance. Robert saw that the newcomers all went to one of the clusters of people who were deeper inside. He moved closer, and exactly at that moment, by chance, a small space appeared in the crowd. This gave him a view of a burly man standing behind a low stone barricade that separated him from the crowd. It was Auctioneer Wabang, according to his tag.

“What is there to sell?” Robert asked.

“More than you could possibly imagine. The economy of WoW is almost as complex as the economy in the real world. Players need all kinds of things, from food and drink to clothing and weapons. Like in the real world there are professions, so players can learn how to craft things.”

“And then they sell them here?”

“Exactly. You can set a price and the duration of the auction, and when the time is up, the item goes to the highest bidder. Most people also set a ‘buy out’ price. If someone pays that price, they win the auction at once.”

Robert started to understand how it worked. “So if I skin some leather and put it up for auction, who would buy it from me?”

“Most likely it would be a leatherworker.”

“I see. And how many professions are there?”

“Ten. Every character can only learn two different professions. Generally speaking, there are three kinds of professions. You have gathering and crafting professions. Gathering means that you collect raw materials in the world and bring them to town to be sold, like Skinning, Mining and Herbalism. These materials are used by engineers, blacksmiths, tailors, alchemists, jewel crafters and leatherworkers. Those are the Crafters. The third profession is a bit different. If you’re an Enchanter, you collect your own materials.”

“What’s an Enchanter? Is it like a mage, someone who does magic?”

Killermage laughed. “Not exactly. Enchanting means that you magically enhance the properties of items. Every item has certain base statistics. For instance, suppose a pair of gloves has an armor value of a hundred, which gives a certain protection level. It also gives an extra twelve stamina and eight intellect. This means that the wearer gets more hit points from the bonus stamina, which grants extra health and makes him harder to kill. He also gains mana thanks to the extra intellect. Enchanters can put extra properties on an item. Extra health, extra damage, extra skill, you name it.”

“All right, I understand the concept. What is mana?”

“Look at your own character icon on top of your screen. You have a green bar that indicates your health and a blue bar that indicates your amount of mana. Mana is used for all the magic you do. Your hunter will learn many magical shots, stings, traps and other abilities that consume a certain amount of mana each time you use them.”

Robert checked and saw she was right.

Killermage walked out of the building. “Come on, we don’t have all day. We have more things to do.”

Robert followed her up the same platform where they had taken a flight that one time they had been here before. The wind rider master had a green exclamation mark. He clicked on it and learned another flight path.

“Now click again. You’ll see that you have one destination you can fly to.”

“To Thunder Bluff? How can that be? I’ve never been there. Where is it?”

“In Mulgore. As a Tauren you got that flight path because Thunder Bluff is the hometown of your race. Come on, let’s fly!”

One click later, and forty-five Copper poorer, Gunslinger was on a flying animal, taking him swiftly away from the tower. He found out that he could do nothing to control the creature. He was in a taxi. Robert sat back to enjoy the flight. It took him over a river, then through a dry landscape called the Barrens. It wasn’t exactly a desert, but looked more like a land that could be fertile if it rained only a little more often. A kind of oasis looked lush and happy in these surroundings. There was a lot of wildlife. He saw multitudes of giraffes, zebras called zehvras, prehistoric-looking raptors, lions, and hyenas. A herd of gazelles ran by right underneath him, so close that he felt he could almost touch them.

After maybe two minutes, his mount began to climb, and they crossed a mountain ridge. On the other side the landscape was a lot greener. A message told him they were now in Mulgore, the zone he’d started in. Shortly after, they ascended again and climbed toward a huge town built on cliffs that he recognized from the introduction movie he saw when he first launched his Tauren character Gunslinger. He landed in some kind of tower that could best be described as a hundred fifty feet high totem pole.

“Welcome to Thunder Bluff,” Rebecca said. “Follow me!”

Going down, he saw two exits, through which he glimpsed parts of the town. All the houses were made of wood and canvas. When they reached the bottom, Killermage led him onto a plateau ringed with tents. In the middle was a small lake. They turned to the right.

“This will be your home town for the next few days. Remember, here’s the auction house of Thunder Bluff.” She pointed. “There’s an auction house in each major city. They work together, so if you put something up for sale in Thunder Bluff, a player in Undercity can buy it on the auction house there.” Before he could say something, she started off again.

“This is the bank, right here is the mailbox. Watch it for messages from me. I’ll be sending you new gear to wear as you progress. So check your mail!”

“Yes, boss!” he answered, unsure if he was ever going to find his way back here again.

As if reading his mind, she said, “If you get lost in a big city, you can always ask one of the guards for directions. Remember that, at least.”

She walked into a different building that wasn’t so much a tent as a real building.

“This is the Inn of Thunder Bluff. Click on the Innkeeper and make this your home.”

Robert did as she told him. A shower of rays descended on him.

“What does this mean?”

“Look inside your backpack. Do you see the hearthstone in there?”

He checked and saw it. He moved his cursor and saw that it would take him back to Thunder Bluff with a cooldown of half an hour.

“You can use that twice every hour to transport yourself back to your home. You can set it at any inn you like. It can be a way to get yourself out of trouble, but it’s also a way to win precious travelling time.”

She showed him how to enter and leave the city. Because it was built high on some isolated cliffs connected to each other by bridges, there was an elevator to the plains below. She continued to show him where to buy ammunition and where to go for training.

After that, Robert had had enough. There was only so much one could absorb. He told Rebecca so, and she agreed. He used his hearthstone to return to Thunder Bluff. Seeing that Killermage was still online, he sent her a message just before logging off: “See you tonight!”

~~~

CHAPTER IX

She
was early. Robert arrived exactly at nine o’clock to find her already sitting at a table at the window. She had a large beer in front of her that was half finished. In her oversized denim shirt she looked very much at ease. The place was moderately full of people, hanging around a huge copper plated bar.

“Did you ever wonder why there are so many Irish pubs all over the world, and no English or Scottish pubs at all?” she asked by way of greeting.

“Eh, no, not really,” he answered. “Do you know why?”

She shook her head. “It’s not as if the Irish make the best beer in the world. Far from it. And they’re certainly not the most cheerful people of our sunny island. I can’t see why there are Irish pubs all over the place.”

Laughing, Robert sat opposite her. The bartender came over and he ordered a large Jupiler beer. “It’s even more mysterious that they serve Belgian beer,” he remarked. “I’m not sure I can handle so many mysteries at the same time.”

She leaned forward, bringing their heads closer together. In a slightly softer tone, just audible over the music, she said, “Right after you logged off, your neighbour came online.”

He looked around. Nobody was paying attention to them. “What happened?”

She shrugged. “Not much. There were five of them, all from The Hammer of Grimstone. They met in Shattrath City, which could be called a little unusual. It used to be the hotspot and meeting point once, but was replaced as such by Dalaran two years ago. They went to the Forge of Souls. They did the whole sequence, so also the Pit of Saron and the Halls of Reflection.”

He held up his hands. “You lost me. What are you telling me?”

“Apart from the ordinary world, there are places called instances. The typical thing about an instance is that a player or group has it entirely to themselves. Also, they are many times more difficult.”

Robert didn’t understand a word. “Please clarify. I still don’t get it.”

For the first time, he got the feeling that she was getting irritated. The moment passed quickly, however. She brushed some curls behind her ears and answered patiently, “When you go anywhere in the regular world, any other player can be there as well. You would see each other, and he could pick the thing you came for, from right under your nose. If the player was from the other faction, say from the Alliance while you’re Horde, he could attack you as well, of course. Instances are different. When you enter an instance, it’s created especially for you or your group. Other players can’t enter and can’t interfere. If another player enters an instance at exactly the same moment as you, all that would happen is that the game would generate two separate instances.”

“So it’s like a parallel universe?”

She smiled warmly at him. “Very good! That’s exactly how it works.”

He smiled back, proud of her praise. “So you couldn’t follow them?”