Breakfast topic: The mystery of WoWdar
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
Jan 23rd 2007 at 8:00AM
A friend of mine was at a party a few days ago, and someone he'd never met watched up to him and posed a strange question: "Do you play World of Warcraft?" "Yeah, how do you know?" my friend said. "I could just tell," said the mysterious stranger, and they proceeded to talk about the game.
Have you ever been able to "tell" a WoW player in real life? (And no, it doesn't count if they're running around in a "Booty Bay Lifeguard" t-shirt and greeting people with "Lok'Tar!") Struck up any friendships like this? When is it appropriate to talk about WoW in public, anyway?
Filed under: Virtual selves, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Orin Jan 23rd 2007 8:27AM
Can't say as I've ever had anyone talk to me about WoW out of the blue like that. Though I don't go out of my way to talk about computers or anything work related at the parties I go to. Different sort of crowd, and the majority don't have a clue wtf I'm talking about...
Kabira-Fenris Jan 23rd 2007 8:33AM
It happens all the time in the expected places - Gamestop comes to mind. But it's also happened to me at work and at a book store... it is kind of odd, makes you feel like you picked up some kind of WoW radiation or something. Or maybe we all just have that 'haven't eaten, slept, or seen sunlight in 4 days' look.
Cort Jan 23rd 2007 9:10AM
Last week I was on a conference call at work that was scheduled for two hours. In the middle of it, the conference call leader says over the phone, "Ok, this is a good spot to stop for a moment. Let's go ahead and take a five minute bio break and resume then." I realized that I've never heard someone use the term "bio break" outside of TS or Vent before... I did a quick poll of my guildies, and no, neither had they. It has made me wonder if the leader of my division plays WoW. :P
CSCIGuy Jan 23rd 2007 9:28AM
This has acutally happened to my son and I. We were at a candy store in the mall and I was doing some work on my PDA-Phone when the guy at the register asked me if I played WoW. I'm like "Yes, I do" and then my son joined in the conversation too and the guy just started talking about his characters and what server he is on. Anyhow after 15-20min of talking we walked out and my son and I were like "Wow, I wonder what made him ask that." I checked what I was wearing and he was wearing and nothing hinted that. Was it using my PDA phone? We couldn't figure it out but we felt good.
Becca Jan 23rd 2007 9:29AM
In middle school I had a computer teacher who was a bit of a dork. I could tell that he was heavily into the gaming scene (this was years before World of Warcraft was created), but I never really asked.
A few months ago my littlest sister got the same teacher for her computer class. I asked her what he was up to and she responded with "He spends all day on Thottbot looking up gear for his mage."
I knew it!
Sånguinius Jan 23rd 2007 9:58AM
LOL this popped in my head...
Hello do you play WoW? really?? A lvl 45 mage, nice. I roll a lvl 62 warrior. Wanna have sex??
Popor on EU-Lightbringer Jan 23rd 2007 10:07AM
Vaguely analygous to a "Booty Bay Lifeguard" t-shirt.
There is a popular political forum that I frequent. One person posted, quite innocently something about her hometown "Southshore". I responded with something like that I prefer Tarren Mill. Most people wondered wtf?, but a couple people chimed in with for the horde kind of thing.
Sånguinius Jan 23rd 2007 10:12AM
LMFAO @ Popor..nice!
Tekkub Jan 23rd 2007 10:29AM
On a similar note, I've been looking for a "My other mount is a..." bumper sticker for my car.
MadMup Jan 23rd 2007 10:38AM
I have a friend who plays but REFUSES to talk about WoW in public. "I don't want people to think I'm some kind of weirdo," she says.
Chleo Jan 23rd 2007 11:04AM
I'm in a game design program at my community college and about half the students in my classes play WoW. Unfortunately most of them are alliance :(
Now if we could just get the teacher to play...
andy Jan 23rd 2007 11:07AM
"Hello do you play WoW? really?? A lvl 45 mage, nice. I roll a lvl 62 warrior. Wanna have sex??"
LOL i would have thought the more you play wow would decrease the drop rate of [Womans Pants]
crsh Jan 23rd 2007 11:18AM
I started my current job last August in a web design company where I'm a project manager; so one day, at lunch, I'm chatting with some co-workers about something completely unrelated to WoW (we don't know each other well yet, I certainly don't know they play WoW a least) and one of them says "what an effin' r-tard, lol" (pronounced lawl, of course).
Don't ask me why, but the fact he said r-tard and not retard immediately made me ask him if he played WoW, and he did (so did the second co-worker who was part of that conversation!).
Krianna Jan 23rd 2007 11:28AM
*laughs* My main is a Troll-- if I play too long, I tend to start speakin' like I be typin, mon. Den, de WoWdar might be pingin' an' squakin'. Mon. ;^)
blkmasta Jan 23rd 2007 6:52PM
Only time this has happened to me was in the queue at gamestation (UK FTW!) and the kid in front was buying TBC. I asked him if he played WoW (not World of Warcraft) and he says yes. 5 mins later and we've exchanged server / character names.
Halicante Jan 23rd 2007 12:49PM
I once was out to dinner with a friend and her new roommates when one of the roommates called my friend's new phone "overpowered". I cracked up and asked him what server he was on and he just fell silent and went "HOW DID YOU KNOW!?"
So good.
Branislav Jan 24th 2007 2:18AM
The night when BC came in, I was playing Poker with some colleagues at work. I decided to boycot the first night so as to avoid the big rush.
Considering the overall look and behavior of the guys around the table, they had more like "poker faces" than "mmorpg nerds".
We were 5 of us left at 11PM. I decided to push all my coins in and try to, at least, have a very general overview of the game at midnight.
The guy to my left pushed all-in as well, and said "Ok guys, i am probably out of the table but i'm gonna do some burning crusade before going to sleep".
And both of us had a big laugh, hoping for the first time of my life that my opponent win the hand so as to go home play some BC.
ledzepp2348 Jan 23rd 2007 1:36PM
#12. Drop rate of [Womans Pants]...hahahaha
bsm0f0 Jan 23rd 2007 1:45PM
lawl @ Halicante
Before I quit my last job ... we hired a girl who had just bought her first pc 3 months prior, extremely odd for a system administrator to not have a pc. Anyway, one day we were in a meeting discussing disaster recovery and she mutters "... I want to gank that noob." I said to her ... "This room isn't a PVP room." The look on her face was priceless ... turns out, she bought the PC so she could play WoW after seeing it at a friends house.
Im beginning to hate trying to get to 60 Jan 23rd 2007 3:01PM
Level 70's look like they shot up herion and coke.