No matter how hard I try to hide away, in my pixelated fantasy game world, reality somehow always manages to make its presence known. For over 5 years, World of Warcraft has been my refuge. I use it as a form of both entertainment and escape.
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Yet, even as a magic addicted, pointy eared, red headed blood elf with a 15 inch waist, (which is about as far away from
reality as you can be and still exist within this dimension) my poor little warlock is still nothing more than a smokin’ hot version of my old, neurotic self. When all is said and done, she too is forced to bear the burden of all the same quirks and nuances that follow me throughout my daily existence.
And here is where she encounters her first issue, the social aspect of gaming. 
Grouping and interacting with other players is sort of what World of Warcraft is all about. That’s why it is called a MMORPG – Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. There are massive amounts of players (approx. 12 million subscribers) that I am supposed to Play a Role with, in order to accomplish quests and tasks within the game.
(I know it sounds dorky, but please try to refrain from pointing
and laughing, it is impolite you know – hehehe)
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This is the point where some major reality seepage begins. In game, as in life, I just want to be left alone to do my own thing. The British poet John Donne may have said, “No man is an island,” but I’m doing my darnedest to prove him wrong.
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If I can’t do a quest by myself, I doesn’t get done and I move on to the next. I rarely speak with other players on the chat channels and I never engage in any player vs player combat. I am a member of a guild, which in itself could be construed as a social activity. Of course, the only other person in my guild is Beloved.
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“Small my table, it seats just two.”
(Lyrics from the song, Not For You, by Pearl Jam) Yep, I’m quoting Eddie Vedder right up there along side of John Donne lol!
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Not surprisingly, most of my favorite in game activities are ones I preform alone:
I Cook
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I Fish
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I Enchant 
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I Sew
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All things I can accomplish by my little old self.
But, trust me, I am not alone when it comes to in game quirkiness. My lone guild mate, Beloved, is an alt-aholic.
That’s a player that continuously creates new (alternate or alt) 
characters over, and over, and over, and over again. I can always tell when Beloved has had a rough week at work. Because, when I log into the game, he has added 4 or 5 new members to the guild, all level 1′s, that weren’t there the 
night before. The deletion of the old and the creation of the new is cathartic for Beloved. The hope, promise and excitement brought on by the birth of a brand new character 
somehow cleanses away the stress of the previous week and renews his spirit. Now, all these new toons absolutely
destroy our guild’s progression rating. Which irks me in real life, because I am very big on my in game linear progression of achievements.
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He is also in charge of selling the extra goods and gear our characters come across while questing in WoW. And 
boy, does Beloved LOVE playing the Auction House. He manages to make crazy amounts of gold, selling stuff that I wouldn’t think any player would need, much less buy. Again, fantasy is no escape from reality. Beloved makes his living in sales. He posses a unique ability to sell a drowning man a cup of water. While I, on the other hand, couldn’t give this very same man a lifeboat.
I tend cringe every time Beloved takes that hard earned gold
out of our guild bank and buys another one of his characters a new piece of epic purple gear. It’s eerily similar to the reaction he receives when coming up with goofy uses for the coin in our real bank. *Please refer to the footnote below concerning Beloved’s quest to spend an inordinate amount of U.S. currency to upgrade his racing wheel and pedals.
The shades of reality continuously cropping up within the context of my fantasy world, is proving to be quite disturbing.
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I’m finding it difficult to lose myself within the elven world of
druids. Shape shifting into animal form, at the mere utterance of a spell, is overshadowed by deep internal guilt. If I have such an affinity for the plant and nature kingdom, why am I killing this cute little flower?
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xA master of magic, my mage posses the ability to destroy with 
deadly bolts of fire and frost. Yet, after a fight, she often contemplates her misuse of spells and wastefulness of mana. Which without, she is
nothing but a pile of cloth, waiting to be obliterated by the nearest enemy. Her concern leads to contemplation of re-rolling a plate wearing character that draws its power from rage and anger. Indecision abounds!
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