I've never been a fan of Blood Elves. My dislike of them goes back to the days of the Burning Crusade beta, when the word was they were beefed up to appeal to notions of masculinity. (Uh huh, you heard me: the boys playing Blood Elves wanted their men beefy and all twinkie to satisfy them. I'll just leave that repression thought alone.) Nonetheless, that impromptu steroid injection just set me off on the wrong foot with the Sindorei.

And then my initial dislike for Belfdom found a quick reaffirmation when I saw Silvermoon for the first time. Everything's so . . . posh and pretty. Luxurious color, rich fabric, and cushions. I've been an Ironforge man all my life. We don't do cushions! Cushions are for namby pamby elfs! And they have brooms! And those brooms magically clean things!

Yes, gentle reader, I'm aware that one part of my brain was rebelling against the beefy-ization of Belfs because of gender assumptions, while at the same time the other part of my brain railed against Belfs for being "namby pamby."

So, yeah. Blood Elves. Never been a fan.

And then, recently, for some hare-brained reason, I rolled a Death Knight. I wanted to finally give those guys a whirl, and see what it was like on the other side of Death Grip. Smirking at myself for my cleverness, I made the DK a Blood Elf. I gave him a bouncy little top knot, and I went off to play the starting quests.

It didn't take long to knock out the quests, and (for the first time) I accepted the portal to Orgrimmar. Still in that tentative exploration phase, nervous about myself and the people around me, unsure of what I was doing but so, so eager to try . . . I queued for Warsong Gulch.

And it was wonderful. I laughed, I gasped for excitement, my breath caught in my throat. In my very first match, the Horde achieved Warsong Perfection. Alliance fell at my feet as I moved like a scythe slicing through wheat. Every time a Paladin would try and heal near me, I would literally say "LOL" as I let an Arcane Torrent rip. It was glorious.

And now, I have a Belf. A Belf Death Knight, no less. I can't hide my dirty little shame. But, tonight when I get home . . . I'll log in again.

And so, to you, have you ever tried the other side? Perhaps tentatively reached across the faction gap, and taste what it's like over there? Or, perhaps, you switch back and forth readily -- do you have tips for those of trying it out for the first time?

Tags: blood-elf, game-discussion, gamer-discussion, my-dirty-dirty-secret, world-of-warcraft-discussion, world-of-warcraft-hot-topics, world-of-warcraft-topics, wow-discussion, wow-hot-topics, wow-issues, wow-topics

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics, Death Knight