Paul Bellezza

So besides being a full time MFA student here in the IMD, I moonlight as a blogger for a gaming website called the Game Chair. Here's the latest piece I've written for them on my less than stellar return to the World of Warcraft.

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This past June, I hung up my gnome’s boots in World of Warcraft. I was fed up with dealing with pick up groups for dungeon exploration, taking 15 minutes to walk from the North side of Stranglethorn Vale to the South side, being level 40 and still 50 gold away from buying a mount, and having to travel half way around the world to the Elf Lands just to bring up my leatherworking skill! The game had become work! I spent an hour prepping for a quest before I went out to accomplish it. Ennui became too much for Gnob, my little gnome, and so I cancelled my account.

And so months past and I merrily moved on with my life outside of Azeroth- besides I was starting graduate school. All was well, until echoes of its world began penetrating my daily routine. Friend’s AIM away messages begin creeping up with “Smacking your mom around in Azeroth” or “Saving Gnomeregon”. Several professors and visiting speakers at my graduate program alluded to their weekend raiding guilds. A few cute girls I knew revealed to me that they out dueled their level 60 boyfriends. Even The New York Times had several WOW related stories covering topics such as Gold Farming in China.

I smiled and continued on with my studies, my resolve was slightly tarnished, but overall unabated. And then the expansion pack was revealed. A level 70 level cap, new areas and gear, flying mounts, the attractive Horde race: the Blood Elves and rumors of Pandarians for the Alliance. I peered over that month’s PC Gamer and began quivering with excitement. I was sold again- but on the condition that I would wait for the expansion pack to launch in July of 2006.

But one evening, when I should have been writing a project proposal- I decided to peruse my WOW Collector’s Edition Art Book, which then led me to reading the WOW forums, which then led me to install the game on my laptop, with its wimpy Intel 915 GMA graphics card, just as an experiment to see if the game would work. After downloading several patches, I logged into the game world using my friend’s account information (with his permission of course).

And to my astonishment it ran smoothly- granted the settings were all on the minimum level of detail- the game was working on my lap top. My finger’s muscle memory instantly recalled all of the keystrokes needed to dispatch an enemy or change up my inventory. The familiar sound of people mulling around Ironforge began to bring back memories of happier times when my character was at a lower level and the quests were simple and plentiful.

Finally, a guild member of my friend appeared before me on top of his golden epic mount- his war hammer glinting in the air. He de-summoned his horse, turned towards my direction, and began doing the Hustle. Yes, the hustle.

And so I calmly logged off, signed onto the World of Warcraft billing page and re-activated my account. (Bless Blizzard for this option). 3 minutes later, on my significantly more powerful desktop, Gnob the Gnome awoke from a six-month slumber in a sleazy Booty Bay inn with 12 quests waiting to be finished in my Quest Queue. With a sweet poisoned Skull mace in hand, he embarked into the wild jungles of Stranglethorn Vale. And it’s good to be back.