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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: What makes a WoW geek?
by Stephanie Drury 
Dec 1st 2010 at 8:00AM
During the BlizzCon 2010 opening ceremonies, Chris Metzen spoke about the power of words, particularly focusing on one: "geek." He then followed up with a montage of what the word meant to him. Chris's dialogue was about what brings us together as geeks, celebrating common factors we all share as a community.
This of course got me thinking, what does "geek" mean to me? More pointedly, what does it mean to me in the World of Warcraft? What great accomplishments have brought me closer to my community? Raid achievements come to mind, such as obtaining the Hand of A'dal title as a guild an expansion ago (or two). But there are some things I consider elite -- and therefore geekier -- that set my fellow community members on top of what I consider the geek pedestal:
- The Loremaster title -- definitely my chart-topper for geekdom. Kudos to you!
- Anyone who has completed the Scepter of the Shifting Sands quest chain.
- The Black Qiraji Battle Tank mount and Scarab Lord title. This was a whole server-wide event that brought the players together as a community toward one common goal: opening the gates of Ahn'Qiraj. I think this epitomizes the celebratory meaning of geek.
- Obtaining a legendary item -- this also involves a group working toward a common goal, strengthening our sense of community.
What does "geek" mean to you? Is it that elusive title? A rare pet or mount? Perhaps something that isn't even obtainable anymore, or something that was added in Cataclysm. What do you think brings us closer as a community or find celebratory of geekdom in WoW?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 6)
Forreststump Dec 1st 2010 12:44PM
I guess sarcasm doesn't translate very well...
Let me add "Murlocs in Film" and Thunderfury to the list of things that bind us together.
/rolleyes
Nina Katarina Dec 1st 2010 8:42AM
One of the hallmarks of the negative stereotype of 'geek' is solitary striving - a geek gets along with other geeks but strives for solo success despite marginal rewards. Thus, Insane in the Membrane is probably the geekiest thing in there, although The Exalted probably comes close.
Getting a legendary doesn't just take time, for many of them it takes social engineering to convince a guild to focus their efforts on you. Same thing with grinding for ashes, although that's become soloable recently for some classes.
Tim Dec 1st 2010 8:44AM
My dad told me I was addicted to WoW. I said no I'm not. He said he was addicted to golf because it was something he loved to do. So I fessed up. I am addicted to WoW. I love playing it. I look forward to playing it and think about it quite a lot. I'm a WoW geek. My dad is a golf geek.
Gandar54 Dec 1st 2010 9:05AM
Getting exalted with any of the "grindy" Outland factions, especially The Netherwing. Now that was the single geekiest week of my life.
bui Dec 1st 2010 9:28AM
As an odd fact, whilst doing my mountain o' mounts I ground out the rep for the Skywing in a single day ? Doing the dailies 2 times only the rest of the time I spent killing everything in sight. And I don't mean I'd been up there before and just finished it off that day, I mean neutral to exalted in a day (18 hours or so).
bui Dec 1st 2010 9:29AM
And by Skywing I mean Sha'tari Skyguard stupid morning and its fogging my brain..
SpaceGoatPriest Dec 1st 2010 9:51AM
I thought Netherwing was not bad really. Not many people doing those, so I found at least a couple eggs per day (took about 10 days). Shat'ari was super easy (few hours), as was Kurenai (again few hours). Consortium (grinded the Zaxxar Insignias and keys) and Keepers of Time were ok (grinded the instances). Org'ila was the worse. No way but the 4 dailies per day to get rep (at least to my knowledge).
gandar54 Dec 1st 2010 9:56AM
Wow, now that's impressive. For my mountain o'clock mounts I have done Mag'har and Netherwing, I gave up on skyguard after 4 hours and not even honored. I'll have to try that kill everything strategy xD.
gandar54 Dec 1st 2010 10:05AM
@SpaceGoatPriest Netherwing may have not been that bad id I hadn't done it in 4 days, I was getting 15-25 eggs per day super grind ftw.
Hyacintha Dec 1st 2010 11:08AM
I started the Netherwing grind Sunday evening, hit Revered in less than 24 hours, and am on track to hit exalted by tomorrow (today if I find lots of eggs!). I've been enjoying it, but it would definitely take much longer if you have a lot of competition for eggs.
Cambro Dec 1st 2010 8:55AM
How about raising your weapon skill to 400 on 4 weapons, including unarmed...on your MAGE...the night before patch 4.0.1?
nieboh Dec 1st 2010 9:47AM
I'm not sure that would count as "geeky". My question would be why did you wait so long? My mage has had knuckle sandwich and master of arms since March '09. I don't think doing it the night before 4.0.1 makes you a geek, it just makes you tardy.
Cambro Dec 1st 2010 9:53AM
He's my 5th 80. :) And not the only toon I had woring on these achievements that night...
Namy Dec 1st 2010 11:29AM
I did that on my mage and when I got the acheivement my guildies had a good old laugh about it. They wanted to know why I bothered. I told them it just had to be done! I may be a slight achievement junkie.
Then a few days later I was in Scholo (need the Argent Dawn Ach, cough cough) only to discover there are a pack of mobs immune to everything but holy damage. I pulled out my trusty sword and hacked them all to death. I knew that skill would come in handy! It was a proud moment lol ; )
nieboh Dec 2nd 2010 2:24AM
LOL, yeah ok. I, too, know a thing or two about altism. But reading your response suddenly gave me a cold chill and made me rush to the armory to make sure I got those on my pally. 7 months after my mage, my pally got master of arms. 9 months after my mage, my pally got knuckle sandwich. My mage is special...I remember my favorite expression when leveling her was, "whack it with a stick!"
Danny Dec 1st 2010 8:58AM
Attending Blizzcon = Blizzard Geek
Joshwa Dec 1st 2010 9:02AM
The epitome of geekiness right now is idling / afk idling in Wetlands, Arathi Highlands or any other zone in Azeroth waiting to be killed by a 5 second event that will grant an achievement which doesn't a title or any reward other than 10 points.
Yeah, I finally got it last night after spending every logged in moment waiting around for Deathwing.
MsMoo Dec 1st 2010 9:07AM
"Geek" to me is a name given to people with an interest in something novel out side of the mundane daily grind, comics, computers, WOW! Together we are wow geeks, my ultimate act of WOW Geekdom is having 4 active 80s each with the crusader title and the albino drake Pre 4.0.3. :D
Raymond Dec 1st 2010 9:10AM
Sadly I have the Black Bug mount and all the other things that went with it. It does not make me proud much any more. Infact the character that has it I almost won't play anymore, doing that whole thing during that time almost cost me a marriage.
And for the person above who said the little fawn pet, yeah I have that damn thing too :P
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Thunderhorn&cn=Rezso
I did the gate opening on Blackhand and have moved and name changed since then. But there it is the bane of my WoW career
Saeadame Dec 1st 2010 9:17AM
That stupid Scepter of the Shifting Sands quest chain. Okay, so I'm glad I finished it, but the drop shenanigans of the Draconic for Dummies Pages was stupid. I ended up killing Rag - while having the quest - about 3 times before I figured out the whole "free-for-all" loot thing. Unfortunately that meant instead of PUGing it with someone trying to get vanity gear/cool hammer things that I can't use, I had to beg some of my friends to come.
Luckily it was close enough to the expansion that the weren't too reluctant to do BWL.