Monday, January 28, 2008

irrational behavior in and out of the World of Warcraft

The husband is lagging behind me in our exploration of the World of Warcraft. Over the weekend, he abandoned his first character and created a new character after some research. I had done the same ages ago. We both created our first characters impulsively (mine a Night Elf rogue, his an Orc warrior) and then later realized they weren't the right choices (the Elf lived in a sickeningly cute environment; the "warrior" was too weak and was constantly being killed). We differed in our research to create the right new character. I read up online and in the Warcraft manual about the different classes before determining that my personality was suited towards becoming an Orc hunter. The Sober Husband asked around at work which type of character is the most "overpowered" and then made himself an Orc warlock, killing off his old character with no mercy.

Although my character was thoughtfully chosen, she has a pet which was impulsively picked. My character, a hunter, has the ability to tame a wild animal, which is her immensely helpful sidekick. I picked a cougar because I like cats and it was the most convenient sort of wildcat to tame, since it was around when I was looking for a pet. I put no analysis into it. Now my character is much more advanced (level 51, if you're following this geeky saga more closely than you'd like to admit), and I'm running across more sophisticated sorts of wild animals which have special abilities and exotic appearances. I'm contemplating getting a new pet, but it feels disloyal.

I confessed this to the husband. "Can I tell you something irrational?"

"Sure."

"I'm thinking I should get a new pet, and there are two kinds I'm really interested in. But it feels really mean and wrong. I know my cat is just a computer image, but it feels disloyal."

"That's irrational, but it's kind of cute. I think it's okay to be loyal to a computer cat."

"Can I tell you something even crazier?"

"Sure."

"I swear that since I started thinking of getting a new pet and checking out other ones, my cat has started being disloyal. He runs off all the time now, and he never used to. I have to call him with my whistle all the time now."

There was a pause, and then the husband said, "I want you to write about this on your blog."

I thought that he meant this was the sort of amusing anecdote worth sharing, but now I suspect he wanted me to humiliate myself publicly as a Warcraft idiot/addict. Later in the day, I called my mother to wish her a happy birthday. The Sober Husband got on the phone and, during a break, announced portentously, "Carole plays Warcraft six hours a day now."

"I do not! You played Warcraft as much as me today!"

After we hung up the phone, I dug into the husband. "You were tattling on me! What kind of spouse tattles to his spouse's mother?"

"Evidently me," said the husband unrepentantly.

11 comments:

Silliyak said...

I think he's setting up for make up s-x. If not, his bad.

hughman said...

i know you are but what am i?

Vodalus said...

you know... if you don't share an account and you want to be evil... you can turn on his parental controls.

(although you might want to go put a password on your own parental controls before he gets there.)

Pallas said...

That's just mean.

I would nevah do that to my husband.

(Because he sends me really good armor kits and any cloth lewt he comes across.)

Anonymous said...

I think the post is great.

Trouble said...

Oh my gosh, Sober is such a tattletale. Do you tell him about the comments on here? I can't believe what a tattletale he is.

I do understand your feelings about your cat, though. I have a level 100 character on runescape, and I feel the same way about her cat.

Trouble said...

and, by the way, the fact that I have a level 100 character on runescape that I am about ten million times nerdier than you are. We have WOW, btw. I just don't want to go to the trouble of starting a whole new character, learning a whole new game, making money, and making new nerd friends.

god, I am a huge nerd.

hughman said...

jeez... i've never even heard of runescape.

but i had a HUGE igloo in club penguin! with a TV!

god, i'm such a loser.

Anonymous said...

My hunter goes through pets like changing socks. The game is designed so that you need to exchange pets once in a while. You CAN actually keep your old if you put it in the stable before you get a new one. Then train your old pet with new abilities.

I tell on my wife all the time :p

Trouble said...

Hughman:

I think DH's blog is incredibly reassuring to me because it's composed of a whole bunch of us whose children look at us condescendingly and think we're losers.

Freewheel said...

I don't know anything about the game, but the obsession sounds similar to the DnD obsession of the '80s.