Reader comments -- ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week.

Why, oh why, are the wolves of Northshire Abbey getting sick? Has swine flu gone to the dogs? Could it be something even more cataclysmic?!

(cutaia): It all makes sense now! The letters W, O and E are the 23rd, 15th and 5th letters of the alphabet. On 5/15/23, Johnny Walker was born -- not the brand of scotch, but the Indian actor. In 1954, Mr. Walker starred in Taxi Driver. In 1976, Robert De Niro also starred in a movie called Taxi Driver. Twenty years later, Bobby D. appeared in Sleepers with ... that's right, Kevin Bacon.

...I don't think I'm doing this right. :(

More of this week's (astute?) observations from our readers, after the break.

	The future of the Horde Ready to dig in? You simply can't beat a post about lore for all-hands-on-deck comments. Amaxe: Seems to me (and I'm only experiencing Horde-side through a level 80 I switched for an RP spying mission, so I may encounter more later which changes my mind) that Northrend forces have been following Garrosh and seem to be loyal to him personally, and loyal to "The Warchief" more as an abstract. The quest where you administer a blood oath to the Taunka seemed almost sinister to me ... like they were exploiting them to swear blindly to obey the "Warchief" in whatever he commanded. It makes me think of the Japanese army in Manchuria before WWII, where commanders and officers there could enact their own decisions against the decrees of the government and not be rebuked for it. I don't know if Thrall condones what Garrosh does or if he is kept uninformed, but it is interesting to look at Alliance quests and Horde quests in light of the war. As I see it, there are certain factions within the Horde (Forsaken, those who follow Garrosh) who were acting as warmongers long before Wrathgate and seem to be the cause of the war with the Alliance. The problem as I see it is: These groups have been committing acts of war against the Alliance, but if the Alliance goes to war with them, they have to go to war with the whole Horde unless Thrall repudiates them. Ilnara: And I think this is why most Hordies are reluctant to simply follow Garrosh ... We've grown with Thrall, we've seen his plight, and it has softened many of our views on war and this conflict with the Alliance. We rather work an uneasy truce then remain at full war with the allies ... At least, this is how I feel. There are greater threats to the Horde and Alliance than our mutual hate of one another. So Garrosh represents a sort of de-evolution of the way we've come to think and feel about our faction and Thrall's leadership. This reader knows how to keep things in check. Callimaco: The change to Garrosh will not affect me at all. As a blood elf warlock, I run around assuming I run everything, anyway.
	The story of vanilla WoW Adam Holisky's reflections on the story of vanilla WoW raised the eyebrows of some, but most readers appreciated the connections and insights in this piece about the themes of original WoW. Malkavos: This is Holisky in rare form. I really like the idea of the players (groups, guilds, raid groups, whatever) being the central heroes of the story. It's kind of a foreign concept to many of us raised on westerns, Kung Fu and Star Wars, where the hero is a loner or at least a single identifiable person surrounded by his entourage. Many RPGs fall into that same narrative rhythm, but WoW to me evokes the large-scale hero stories of ancient Chinese literature like Romance of the Three Kingdoms or Outlaws of the Marsh, in which the cast of heroic characters expands into the hundreds, each with his own back story and motivations. Alanid: @Malkavos It's even more prevalent in Wrath. (In BC, the NPCs still considered you to be a newb for some reason.) A lot of quests in Wrath are like, "I never thought we'd get someone with your expertise!" "Who in the Alliance hasn't heard of !?", etc. And I loved it.
	Patch 3.3 PTR: Gunship battle impressions Matt Low's description of the 3.3 PTR gunship battle (spoilers ahead – fair warning!) were clear: "High Overlord Saurfang had approached us and began systematically dismantling all of us, one by one. The clothies had no chance. When he was on the tanks, the damaged appeared to be marginal. The tank I was with reported that Saurfang gained a stacking buff that would increase the amount of damage the orc would do. This led me to conclude that a tank would be needed specifically for Saurfang while the rest of the raid was working on the other NPCs on the ship. We would have a limited window of time before Saurfang tore us apart and it was best that he be held off to the side. ... You can't kill Saurfang. When he reaches a certain point, he just lays the smacksdown on the entire raid. We found that out the hard way by pouring massive DPS on him. Nope, didn't work." Apparently, Chupathingy figured out the secret. Chupathingy: When you were fighting Saurfang, that green bar isn't his health -- it's his patience with you. It would be wise to keep that from hitting zero.

And finally, we produce this e-mail sent to our tips line this week as evidence that WoW.com is on the job and working for you ...

Name: [redacted]
URL:
Subject: gym cancellation in August still getting billed

I was told to come in to cancel my son's membership. I went in August to cancel. I was told I was all set.
I was told this week by my husband that we are still being charged. I was also told that I am not the first person with this problem and that the gym has let several people go for problems like this.
Please let me know how this will be rectified. I appreciate your help.

Eliah Hecht: Now we're a *gym*? Being a video game company, cable company and ISP is not enough for people?

Eddie Carrington: Nope. Looks like we just keep diversifying. I think the next business should we should get into is event planning.

Event planning? Party?!? Come on in ... Drinks are on the house!

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Ha, caughtcha looking! Hey, don't scroll away -- come join the conversation on these and other posts around the WoW.com community. We'll see you around in [1.Local].

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