A World of Warcraft Moment
Sun Jul 10th 2005, 10:53pm
Something funny happened the other day while playing World of Warcraft (if you've wondered
why I haven't been posting lately, now you know why). Needing a short break from my
Druid, I had just started a Rogue, Vilya, and was really liking it. I was making the run
from Menethil Harbor to Ironforge on foot, as all Night Elves must do at least once until
they learn the flight paths. The stretch of road is actually quite dangerous for new
characters, as crocodiles and other vile creatures from the swamp continually attack
passers-by.
So I ran into another guy making the trek, let's say his name was Smurf, and we formed a
quick party to get through it together. We started chatting, and I asked if he had any
other characters. He said yes, he had quite a few actually: Foo, Bar, Baz, etc, etc, and
SlaughterX (real name changed).
Wow, I thought, isn't this amazing! I know this guy, we actually did some questing
together a little while ago with our other characters, and it was fun. Isn't this just a
real World or Warcraft moment, where two players meet up again, but with different
characters, in completely different contexts. So what if there are two million
subscribers, the world really isn't that big of a place. Doesn't that make you feel good.
Just as I was feeling like I had experienced one of the better moments World of Warcraft
had to offer, the rest of the conversation went something like this:
[Party][Smurf]: how old are u?
Ahh geez, the dreaded question. Yes, I am 30, and I play video games. I have since I was
8. Some people ski, bike, or mountain climb, some read books, paint, draw, some like
board games, some like cars--I like playing computer games, especially adventures or RPGs,
and I always have. And I'm sure there are plenty of other 30 year olds playing WoW, but
still I didn't want to tip my hand. 24's a nice safe age, yeah, like I'm still in college
doing this.
[Party][Vilya]: 24... how about you?
... brief pause ...
[Party][Smurf]: omg
Oh my god... what ?
[Party][Smurf]: i'm 12
Oh
my god. And now I had really just experienced a World of Warcraft moment: I've
been playing with a 12 year old.
On Tue Jul 12th 2005, 8:44am, Clay posted:
Hey Steve, that's a riot!
I guess it's all ok as long as you don't /flirt anymore. ;)
I just got sucked into this game (thanks to some of my co-workers) and I
have to admit, I'm far more impressed with this game than I ever thought
I'd be. What a major time-suck, though!
And yes, there are lots of other 30 year-olds (and many quite a bit older)
playing WoW, so I figure we're about middle of the road. :)
On Wed Jul 13th 2005, 5:34pm, Forest posted:
Hahahaha, classic. I play Guild Wars (sort of a MMORPG Lite) and yeah,
what a time suck. But I shudder to think the average age of some of the
people I party up with. :x
On Tue Aug 9th 2005, 1:26am, Tomae posted:
I actually play WoW as well...however, it's the truth when I say 22
(although, I'll probably still be playing well past this age ^_^). In any
event, I work for a large computer company, and more specifically, in the
network security department. I'm only an analyst, so sort of a low man on
the totem pole -- I watch packets all day or night, depending on the shift,
so I have a lot of spare time when nothing malicious is going on. In any
event. I'm looking for a way to log on to WoW from work. Now, being in the
job I'm in, you can imagine that the firewall rules are extremely strict.
I've read that WoW needs ports 3724, 8086, 8087, 9081, 9090, 9097, and
9100, however these all seem to be blocked at the firewall. Is there any
other way around this besides having another box set up that I can log in
to and run WoW remotely from? Obviously, there is no port forwarding
solution, as I'm sure Blizzard will not acquiesce in allowing me to connect
on one of the few ports I can get out on here from, such as 5050. ^_^ In
any event, my server is Skullcrusher, and as of tomorrow I'll be a 52 Night
Elf Priest... the name's Tomae, and thanks for any future advice.
On Tue Aug 9th 2005, 12:49pm, Steve Kehlet posted:
Hi Tomae, my first thought is that if you're working somewhere security
conscious enough to have people paid full-time to watch for malicious
network traffic, then you probably don't want to bring any non-work related
activities onto their network, period. Leave WoW at home, or you might
risk your employment. Now with that said... you have access to their
network policies, maybe you could tunnel your traffic out of their network
over a VPN to a box you have outside. OpenVPN looks very good for this,
you can bridge your box onto another network over a single TCP or UDP port
of your choosing (say, 5050). 'Course, you need a box somewhere outside to
do this :-). A home PC with broadband would work. Again though, while
it's fun to find ways to hack around them, and fun to play WoW, don't let
it risk your job.
Congrats on leveling your Priest to 52... my Druid is at 41 and my Rogue is
at 30. Cheers.
On Sun Oct 16th 2005, 5:37pm, Visitor posted:
My rogue is level 60. I'm 52 years old, a single-mom of two boys, and all
three of us play WoW. I may grow older but I'll never grow up!
On Thu Feb 16th 2006, 11:36pm, RDJ posted:
LOL I JUST read this .. I got hooked on Wow by my daughter ... I am 53
this year and LOVE this game .. being in IRAQ I don't get to play it much
but I do get about 4 hours or so in on my day off ... Great site also ..
have been dinking around with subneting and using the practice page
On Fri Feb 17th 2006, 11:43am, Steve Kehlet posted:
Haha, that's great RDJ. WoW continues to be a fabulous game, I'm going on
almost a year of play now. Thanks for posting.
On Tue Jul 25th 2006, 2:05am, Jesse posted:
I've been in your shoes, although the age gap wasn't quite as big. I'm 25
and I play WoW. Our guild uses Teamspeak, and of course, a player's age
becomes guessable after that. One person I play with is 16, but the newest
visitor to our teamspeak server can't be much over 10 years old. I asked
someone if he was a dude, they relayed this message to him, and he
confirmed he was. How was I to know? Apparently he hasn't hit the stage
of his life that changes the sound of his voice.
On Wed Dec 20th 2006, 4:33am, Visitor posted:
Had the exact same experience with someone I was helping with quests in
Mulgore (Taurens) he asked me how old I was, I said 23 (real age)... Then
he says "Oh my god... I'm 11", I guess that you can find some
very young players but also very old ones... I have spoken with a 60 year
old person and that was cool!
Forgot to mention that my friend that I play with everyday is 34 ;)
On Tue Apr 3rd 2007, 9:30am, Visitor posted:
Im off sick from work.Im 36 and play wow,i had a wow moment just a minute
ago.I decided to find out how many 30 year old and plus play.this site has
answered my question.A female player dark elf asked for help.which i
did.then the question came how old are you? 36 i said.you got to be kiddin,
came the reply.and you? 16, she said. with this she said gotta go and do
some work, and ran off to talk to another player.she said to the other
player what you up to? he then replied waiting for (wont say my name)then
we ran off to next town together.I can almost imagine what was going
through head.
On Tue May 15th 2007, 7:04pm, Visitor posted:
Kind of neat to see this page still seems to find google results. :)
Had to laugh at the story none the less; it seems most people that ask that
play WoW are in the 12-15 range.. well, maybe it's 50/50. But it seems
whenever I tell someone my age, it is at least double of theirs, or close
to it.
On Fri Dec 14th 2007, 4:42am, Visitor posted:
Thanks for posting this. I am one of those 24-year olds! ;P
On Fri Jan 25th 2008, 11:00am, Visitor posted:
hey go play soccer
On Fri Feb 8th 2008, 9:42am, Visitor posted:
hey - learn that soccer should be called football....the rest of the world
calls it this.
Im a 32 year old WoW head. lvl 54 Rogue. I bump into quite a few old
codgers during my travels. Played with a few kids doing instances. I find
that the more mature gamer will take the time to say hello and have a chat
while learning the game mechanics and not just doing a Leroy Jenkins in
instances.
On Fri Feb 8th 2008, 9:42am, Visitor posted:
hey - learn that soccer should be called football....the rest of the world
calls it this.
Im a 32 year old WoW head. lvl 54 Rogue. I bump into quite a few old
codgers during my travels. Played with a few kids doing instances. I find
that the more mature gamer will take the time to say hello and have a chat
while learning the game mechanics and not just doing a Leroy Jenkins in
instances.
On Wed Mar 12th 2008, 9:44am, Visitor posted:
This is funny, talking about ages ... I'm a 34 years old dad, playing with
my 7 years old son .... and he's very good too !
On Sat May 24th 2008, 3:05pm, Invalid Name posted:
Hey, Nice to see this is displayed as a google search, Yes I may seem to be
a young 16 year old compared to some people that have left comment's on
this page. Never the less, I have always thought that it is young people
that play this game, but reading this blog has made me realise that doesn't
matter how old you are, it can be played by anybody. Thanks for the
post.
On Tue Nov 17th 2009, 6:20am, kimicn posted:
i afk a long time
WOW is really cool online game
On Tue May 4th 2010, 5:56pm, wowfan posted:
Hey I'm a 32 year old wow player! Do you guys still actively play? I'm in
the shattered hand server.
On Fri May 7th 2010, 11:54am, Steve Kehlet posted:
Yup, still playing, been 5 years now :-). I'm on Cenarius, Horde side.
On Sun Jan 1st 2012, 2:54am, Visitor posted:
I've been playing games since I was about five. Played Runescape for YEARS
it was the game that created the best bond between me and this kid from
Canada. We ended up meeting in real life after a few years we got are
parents to arrange something for us and it was the best moment of my lfie
to this day.
