Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Shocked, Stunned, and Confused


My day started out normal...

I've been playing MMORPGs for some time. Since the 90s actually way back when EverQuest: Ruins of Kunark was released and found it's way into my heart.(and wallet!) With that in mind, I've seen some really bizarre things. From raining gold (EverQuest 1 glitch), to everyone spawning high in the heavens and falling on top of each other, making a "Tower" of Death.(World of Warcraft)

In short, I've seen some wacky stuff.

However yesterday must take the crown in sheer madness. I was in Thousand Needles in World of Warcraft. I had just recently achieved level 30, got my class mount, and sold a pair of legs for 200g. It was a swell day as I was Arikara, a nice unique looking wind serpent to finish up a quest line. If you're unfamiliar with Thousand needles, or World of Warcraft in general, the area I was in is basically huge flat lands with massive un-worked stone pillars going high in the sky. Some of these pillars are wide enough for small villages and the like, and have bridges connecting them.

I was such a bridge..when..

Inconceivable!!

Yes. That's a huge dragon walking on a narrow rope bridge. Now I'm pretty knowledgeable about World of Warcraft, though all the new stuff in Wrath of the Lich King is , well, new to me. So imagine my shock when I gaze upon a dragon from all the way in the Caverns of Time in Tanaris.

I was intrigued. A bit confused, which is normal, and perplexed. So I set off to investigate the matter like a good journalist.

Off to discover the truth...and the destination of this madness.

Apparently, two paladins had been pulling this dragon all the way from Tanaris. You can slightly see one of them in this picture, however you'll see more of them as I show the progress of this journey. So I hopped on my new faithful steed that probably wondered at his rider's sanity as he followed a huge dragon that could have sighed in his direction and destroyed him utterly.

Location: Lower Barrens, approaching Crossroads...

As I took screenshot after screenshot, not really knowing what I would want to use in this post, the most amusement I got was from other people that happened upon the scene. It would always some low level person in their low-mid teens running in my direction, seeing the dragon, stop, then immediately run the opposite direction. I can almost visualize their eyes widening in terror like a deer gazing at headlights as they simply stop moving for a good couple of seconds...

Then flee.


You can almost see the tauren's eyes widen in pure shock and horror..

The great journey continued onward for some time, until at last the destination was in sight..

Even the pigs came to stop and stare.

Immediately upon entering the city, I imagine the dragon wasn't too happy to see two dragon heads on pikes. However the residents were QUITE happy to see the great wyrm, as everyone and their cousin started beating the dragon down as he was continued to be pulled toward Thrall, the orc chieftain. What was hilarious was there were even a few people deciding to role play and goof off with the mini-event.

Read the text, it's worth a chuckle.

All in all, this took a boring grinding night and turned it into an enjoyable experience with quite a few chuckles. Perhaps the best part to me was seeing how no one was attempting to grief or blamed the two paladins of doing such. In fact the whole city seemed to gleefully jump in arms to slay the beast and play along. There were even people encouraging to do more events, perhaps PvP with the alliance, and "role" play the whole event for kicks.

This warmed my little nerd heart, and reminded me why I enjoy MMORPGs in the first place.

So on to today's discussion! Tell me about some of the crazy events you've experienced in an MMO. No glitches please.(that was another post.) It doesn't have to be World of Warcraft related, just any MMO where something out of the ordinary happened.

I close with a picture of the two paladins that pulled this off. The "tankadin" is to the left of me, Relea, and the "healadin" is Kanira, who is on the huge woolly mammoth.

I want to be like these two when I grow up..

4 comments:

  1. That sounds so fun! When I was a little bitty priest (on my very first one, a human, so a long time ago) I was in Duskwood and someone had kited a dragon from I don't know where, right through Darkshire, and there was absolute chaos. I didn't understand what was happening and ran right away - just like the people you laughed at ;)

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  2. Running out of Booty Bay one day with a friend and quest partner, we ran into a large group of baby Taurens...none higher than level 3...gathered before the entrance. Now, while Taurens in Stranglethorn Vale are not anything new, baby ones are...it is a level 35-40 area. The group we ran across may as well have been carrying large signs that said "LUNCH" over their heads.

    Each one had a name that had something to do with beef...all were wearing a guild tabard...and simply by being where they were, they were getting attention from Alliance players entering STV from Booty Bay (or, vice versa). What happened next will remain a part of my awesome memories from WoW for a lifetime.

    They took off running...not into Booty Bay (which would have been the safest course), but into the Vale. They weren't attacking, they were just running. Right before our eyes, Stranglethorn Vale was being introduced to the Running of the Bulls...and the Alliance players who witnessed the start, including myself and my friend, were so in awe of the undertaking that we temporarily discarded our opposing viewpoints and ran with them, killing what predators we could to clear the way. We missed a few here and there...let's face it, they were true aggro magnets...and some died here and there. In fact, all were eventually picked off, but before the last went down, he'd made it three-quarters of the way through the Vale.

    I have a picture of the group at the start of the run. I keep hoping they will come back and do it again someday. :)

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  3. Awesome. I love this sort of shenanigan/emergent gameplay. You can only see this in an MMO.

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  4. It's great i so interesting about it and if you interesting about games or want to download games for free you can visit this free games site, thanks.

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