I sailed to Booty Bay (BB) last night and explored the town. BB is a mixed town — Horde and Alliance folks mingling. I went looking for the flight path master and ran into a little trouble.

I found the sign for the flight master, went into the building, up to the flight level, and tried walking through the doors onto the platform. But I couldn’t get through the door. An invisible barrier kept me out. I saw others passing in and out of that doorway, but I couldn’t. I saw the flight master next to the door, and the griffons on the platform.

For the record, this was my first time looking for a flight path in a mixed town. Every other town I had been to with a flight path just had one flight master.

I figured there was some glitch. Oh well, I wondered if I could click and activate the flight master from inside the building (I was very close to him, just he was out and I was in). Putting my mouse over him, I saw his name, his title “Flight Master”, and ?? Level. I clicked on him.

Uh oh. Very bad idea. This spot was the Alliance flight platform/path. Clicking on him constituted an attack. He and two of his griffons jumped on me immediately. I died in about one second, give or take a couple nanoseconds.

And my PvP flag was turned on for that act. I ran my ghost back and resurrected myself. Then I found a little corner to sit down in and recover my health. I was more conscious of the Scout rank on my name now more than ever.

I was afraid my PvP status would bring every PvP Alliance character to attack me, but fortunately no one bothered me. The PvP tag only lasts a few minutes, so soon I was back to normal.

I did eventually find the Horde Flight Master.

I blame all this on my friend, because he suggested I get the flight path in BB, but failed to mention there was two — one being for the enemy Alliance. And then he suggested I hunt in Stranglethorn Vale — level 30-45. I’m only 32 right now. Do you think he’s trying to get my character killed? (Like I can’t manage that result on my own?)

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

I’ve been visiting the World of Warcraft message forums a bit lately. I’ve seen this “FTW” comment many times, there. I have seen it occasionally at other message boards and sometimes in online game chats, but I never knew what it meant. Well, actually, I had an idea what it meant, but my definition didn’t make sense in the context of the messages I was seeing.

Way back in my teenage life, I knew a guy who had “FTW” tattooed on his arm. It mean “F— the World.” I heard or saw that phrase once or twice more through the years.

So you can imagine my confusion over message posts such as:

“4 paladins in the same party, FTW!”
“Carrot on a stick, FTW!”

This term seems to be all the rage at the WoW forums. I don’t think you can read 10 posts without seeing it at least once.

But I have now learned what it means in computer gaming contexts: “For the Win.”

The more you know, the more you grow!

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

I went to the Undercity last night for the first time, to close out a couple quests. That place is creepy. Just creepy. The monstrous guardians with three arms and their ribcage open, the ghostly bank tellers, the glowing green river, everything. I couldn’t find the NPCs I need to talk to for ending my quests; navigating around Undercity is frustratingly complicated. But rather than log out in that undead city, I hearthstoned back to Crossroads. Undercity is just too creepy to stay there over night.

And I still have the Scout rank on my name. I still don’t like it.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

I joined in a PvP battleground — Warsong Gulch. It was a different, interesting, and fun couple hours fighting against other players rather than just against the computer-controlled monsters of the world.

I was surprised that I did decently in the rankings. I was closer to the top of the listing than the bottom. But I don’t think I’ll bother with that aspect of the game anymore. It just wasn’t my favorite kind of game. I’ve never been all that interested in deathmatch style games, either in first-person shooters or adventure games. That’s one reason why Guild Wars didn’t really interest enough.

But I’ve found one side effect of entering the battlegrounds that I didn’t know about or expect. I now have a military title: Scout. I didn’t want a military title, don’t want the title, and think it’s stupid for someone who has no real interest in the PvP side of the game. Now when someone looks at my character, they see someone who has participated in PvP. And unfortunately, I’ve learned that the title will never go away. No matter how long I go without ever going back into a battleground, my character will always retain the Scout ranking. That’ll look pretty silly when I eventually reach level 60.

“Scout” is the Horde name for the Alliance equivalent of “Private”. Ain’t that impressive?

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com