MMORPG: How a Computer Game Becomes Deadly Serious (20 page)

“Well, this is a major coincidence,” he said slowly. “You’re on Sylvanas, the same server as I’m on.”

Careful not to break eye contact and disguising his sudden fear, Robert managed a happy expression. “Wow, fancy that! I didn’t even know what I was doing, and I took the right one! That’s great! So that means that you can help me a little, right?”

Khalid broke eye contact and switched his attention back to the screen. He clicked and Hunterino was loaded again.

“Yes, I can help you a little. I’ll take you through the Wailing Caverns. Give me five minutes.”

Before Robert could say anything, the Egyptian turned around and walked out of the room.

[Drimm] whispers: Are you there?

Robert looked at his watch. It had been three minutes, not five.
So you’re eager to show off!
he thought.

“Yes, he replied. I’m still in the same place.”

“Good. Stay there. I’m on my way, but it’ll take some time.”

Immediately after these words, Robert received an invitation to join Drimm in a Party. He accepted.

This time it did take five minutes. Finally, Drimm walked up to him accompanied by a big bear. The two were followed on the heels by a host of raptors and lizards that were frantically attacking him.

“Sorry, I didn’t want to take the time to kill them one by one,” Drimm said. “I’ll take care of it now.”

With these words he shot a Volley, making it rain tiny arrows out of the air that killed all the mobs in short order. Robert knew that the damage of Volley was nowhere near as devastating as a mage’s Blizzard, but that it was more than sufficient to deal with a bunch of low level mobs.

“Wow, that’s impressive!”

“It’s a long way to level eighty, but well worth it,” Drimm replied. “Now let’s go.”

Drimm knew his way around the Wailing Caverns. The idea of this instance was to kill a number of Lords in a certain order. The demise of each lord was rewarded with special gear.

Drimm went about it in an efficient way. He killed everything they encountered from long range, leaving an endless supply of corpses for Hunterino to loot. The big difference was that Drimm didn’t waste time on idle chatter, as Rebecca and Robert used to do. He gave short orders, like “Stay behind me here” or “Keep your pet away” but otherwise there was silence on the Party channel. They moved through the Caverns swiftly, arriving at Lady Anacondra shortly. Lady Anacondra was the first ‘Boss’ in the Wailing Caverns, an extra strong Elite opponent, with extra special loot, meaning priceless ‘blue’ items for a level eighteen. Drimm killed her in short order and Gunslinger bent over to loot the dead Lady. He got two blue items, Footpads of the Fang and Venomstrike, a blue bow.

Unexpectedly, Drimm cheered. “Gratz!” he said. “That’s a good bow you got there. You’re lucky!”

Robert thanked him profusely. “I can’t use it yet, because I have no arrows with me,” he mourned. “I’ll try it out right after we finish here!”

Suddenly, the ice was broken. Drimm started to comment on how he was playing and gave him advice on various matters. Robert in turn asked him some innocent questions, like how often he played.

In this way they got to know each other a little, while they swept through the Wailing Caverns. They killed Cobrahn, Pythas and Serpentis, the three Lords that ruled the place, in quick succession, which rewarded Hunterino with a pair of Leggings of the Fang.

“Now you only need the Belt of the Fang,” Khalid said. “The other items of the Embrace of the Viper are useless to a hunter.”

“Well, you can’t have it all,” Robert replied. “I’m happy with what I got so far. And I finished my quest!”

“If you want, we can do it again. Try for the belt?”

Robert hesitated for a moment. “Sure. If you don’t mind.”

Right at that moment he received a text message on his cell phone.
How is it going?

He abandoned the game for a second to reply:
Better than dreamed. Doing WC with Drimm ATM. Second run.

Rebecca’s reply came only seconds later:
Well done. Call me when ready.

The second run went even faster than the first. They blasted through the instance, but the Belt of the Fang didn’t drop. Drimm wasn’t going to give up. He reset the instance, and they entered again. This time, they were lucky. The sought after item dropped off the Lady. Robert equipped it on his hunter, and they exited the instance.

“Now we go to DM,” Drimm told him when they were standing outside in the sunshine again.

“DM. What’s that?”

“Dead Mines. An instance in Westfall. It gives a lot of good blue stuff, weapons too.”

Robert was clueless. He’d been in many places by now, but even the name Westfall was unfamiliar to him. Once again he realized how immense World of Warcraft was. Khalid didn’t wait for his consent and started to walk back to Crossroads. Hunterino hurried after him.

“Where’s this place?” he asked.

“In the south of Eastern Kingdoms. It’s Alliance territory, but we’re not afraid, are we? We take a bird to Ogrimmar. There you can buy arrows for your new bow, and I’ll craft a good quiver for you. From there we take the zeppelin to Grom’Gol Basecamp. After that, we walk northward through the Vale. Just follow me.”

They followed the route Khalid had described, traveling in silence. When they arrived at the fort at Grom’Gol, Khalid spoke again.

“Follow me. Always stay behind me. You’ll get killed in seconds if you stray. If I stop, you stop. When I walk, you walk. When I fight, you stay behind me. If someone or something attacks you, tell me immediately. Understood?”

Hunterino nodded his understanding. He followed Drimm to the northern exit of the camp that was protected from the outlying jungle by a palisade of sharp tipped wooden beams. They went through and entered the dangerous wilderness full of raptors, tigers, gorillas and pumas. Because Drimm cleared the way like an ultra efficient mine sweeper, they crossed through the zone nearly as fast as if there was nothing to fear at all.

When they reached the most northern area, they entered territory where Robert hadn’t been with Gunslinger. Drimm obviously knew the way and led him on, all the way to another zone. They followed a road for what seemed like an eternity until they finally reached the bank of a river.

“Stop!” Drimm said. They had been running for so long that it took a moment for Robert to register the command. He stopped, but he’d already passed Drimm. The other pointed ahead at some medieval fortified bridge guarded by several soldiers in blue livery.

“Alliance guards. We’ll cross the river somewhere else. No use alerting every Alliance player in the neighborhood by killing those guards.”

Drimm left the road and moved through some green fields until they reached the river again, out of sight of the bridge. They were in a pleasantly shaded area, with just enough trees to give them some privacy while they waded into the river. As soon as they reached the other bank, Robert got another automated notice: Discovered: Westfall.

Drimm immediately struck out westward again until they came upon a mountainous area called the Dagger Hills, where Drimm skirted the edge of the hills, maintaining roughly the same direction as before. Finally, they arrived at a small town called Moonbrook. From a distance, it looked nice and inviting. A cobblestone road led into the town that consisted of a church and numerous wooden buildings. In the distance the shimmering surface of the sea could be seen through a slight haze.

When they drew closer, Robert could see that the town was deserted and in disrepair, now inhabited by humanoid mobs that all seemed to be part of a group called the Defias. He asked Drimm what they were.

“The Defias Brotherhood is a large community of thieves, bandits and pirates. They’ve taken over Westfall. We’re here to kill their boss, Edwin van Cleef. He’s on a ship at the other end of the Dead Mines. First, we have to get to the entrance of the mines. It’s right here in the village. Follow me, but stay behind me!”

They entered the village, and Drimm’s pet shot away to attack the first bandit. It killed the Defias Pillager in short order and immediately proceeded to attack another. Drimm and Robert followed the huge bear, Drimm firing with his gun into the houses, whenever he saw a member of the Defias Brotherhood inside. In this way they proceeded to the western part of the town where they came upon a plaza with a fountain in the middle.

“This way,” Drimm said, and he led the way into a shed built next to a larger building. It proved to be the entrance to the Dead Mines. Robert followed as they descended some steep mining shafts. After some confusing turns in the dark and another jump down, they came upon the entrance to the instance.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes,” Robert answered.

“Good. Stay behind me. If you’re attacked, just yell and I’ll rescue you. Understood?”

Hunterino nodded in confirmation. At that, they entered the instance.

Afterward, Robert couldn’t remember much of the adventure in the Dead Mines. It was rather dark, and he did nothing other than looting the corpses that Drimm and his bear left behind. They wound their way through a maze of tunnels, and he was disoriented from the start.

Several times, they passed through sets of huge doors that had been opened by Drimm before Hunterino caught up with him. Apparently, some of those passages were guarded by so-called bosses because Drimm ordered him to search a specific body for loot. Each time, it netted Robert a blue item. Not everything was useful, but he was still accumulating some vastly superior gear.

At some point, a path led downward to a multitude of mobs, which were Goblins instead of Defias bandits. Drimm ordered Hunterino to stand back while he engaged the Goblins. When the area was cleared, it took Robert several minutes to loot all the corpses.

While he was engaged in corpse picking, Drimm went ahead and cleared the next area. When Robert joined him, another doorway was already opened and another boss was down. After a while they found themselves in a huge cavern flooded with water. Robert couldn’t discern whether it was an underground river or if there was another source for the water under this mountain. Maybe it was even connected to the ocean, which was close, after all.

In the middle of the cave floated a large pirate ship. It could be reached by a construction of wooden platforms crowded with a host of enemies. They were not only Defias, Robert spotted many Goblins as well.

Finally, they came upon Edwin van Cleef, the Bane of Westfall and the leader of the Defias Brotherhood.

“Ready?” Khalid asked.

Hunterino pocketed the loot from the last victim of Drimm’s two-handed axe. “Yes.”

Drimm cheered and sent his bear to attack Edwin van Cleef. He was accompanied by two body guards, who desperately tried to fight off the animal. Drimm fired a Multishot, hitting the three targets at the same time. They all went down at the same time.

“Let’s see what he has got for you,” Drimm said, indicating the dead Van Cleef.

When they searched the dead body, Drimm cheered.

“You’re so lucky!” he said. Indeed, Robert received an extremely good chest armor piece called Blackened Defias Armor. As a bonus, he also got a sword called Crual Barb, that had an extraordinary attack power stat. It would improve his damage output.

Suddenly, Drimm jumped over the side of the ship on the other side. Sounds of fighting drifted up, and Robert sent Hunterino to the railing to see what was happening.

“Come here,” Drimm said.

“What is it?”

“There’s another boss beyond the main boss in this instance. His name is Cookie, the ship’s cook. Unfortunately, he didn’t drop anything special.”

Drimm led him to a hidden path that led up and away from the ship. They took a turn, and suddenly they arrived at the secret back exit of the instance. They went through and found themselves somewhere up in the Dagger Hills.

“Well, enough for today,” Khalid said. “You can use your hearthstone to go home. We’re far from civilized Horde territory.”

After Robert did so, he went to see Khalid in his room.

“Thank you very much for your time,” he said.

“No problem. You can ask me for help anytime when I’m online. Sometimes I’m busy with my guild, so there are no guarantees.”

Robert saw an opportunity. Should he take it? He swallowed, but decided to press on. “Of course. And I noticed that sometimes you go out for a couple of days.”

It remained silent for a full minute. Finally, there came a reply. “Yes, I have family in The Netherlands. Sometimes I visit them.”

“Oh, that’s nice. Well, it would be great if you can give me a boost again when you’re here and you have time!”

Robert went outside to call Rebecca, not taking any risk of being overheard by his friendly neighbor. He was floating somewhere between jubilant and exhausted, and couldn’t wait to share his success with her. She must have been waiting for his call because she answered after a millisecond. However, she showed admirable restraint. “Well done. You can tell me later. Is he still in his room?”

Completely taken aback, Robert confirmed that he was.

“Great. Get your ass over there. Now. Thank him for his time.”

Proudly Robert replied. “I already did.”

But Rebecca wasn’t satisfied. “Go back again. Chat. Ask questions. Play the fool. Whatever. Just create the precedent of you paying Khalid a social visit. You’re going to be a regular visitor. He might as well get used to it. World of Warcraft is probably his favorite topic anyway, so talk about that. Now go!”

This time, it was a lot easier to knock on the door. When Khalid opened, he smiled in genuine welcome.

“I wanted to thank you in person for your time and the great tips,” Robert said while he boldly stepped into the room.

Khalid still seemed a bit uncomfortable with his presence, but Robert didn’t think it had anything to do with him personally.

“Like I said, no problem. I always like to help new players along.”

“That’s nice. Are you in a large guild?”