Breakfast Topic: Who's the most unlikely WoW player you've met?
by Phil Babby 
Jan 7th 2011 at 8:00AM
I first started playing WoW during the open beta right before launch. It was my freshman year at college, and I had eagerly awaited its release since reading a magazine article almost two years before, as I had been playing since the first Warcraft RTS game. While I was excited like a 6-year-old bound for Disneyland, however, very few of the people I knew even knew of the game's existence.
A few weeks after release, I came into my dorm room, which I shared with an international student from Malaysia. Although we were both computer science majors, the cultural and language barriers had yet to really be broken. Surprisingly, when I walked in, I noticed him at his computer, riding through Desolace on a human mage. While I was, am, and always will be a Hordie, WoW managed to break the ice for us.
A few years later, I was working at a pizza shop full of non-gamers. One of the guys working there, a mohawk-sporting gearhead, just so happened to be another fellow WoW player (albeit another Alliance). Shortly after returning to the game late last year, I was working with a person who was on work release from prison. While I was giving him a ride back to the jail one day, he revealed that he couldn't wait to be finished with his sentence so he could try out ToC, which had just dropped at the time. Even more exciting, he was another Horde player.
I've met some unlikely WoW players in real life, and it's made me some unexpected new friends. What about you? Tell us about some of the most unlikely WoW players you've met in your real life.
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
Casusanima Jan 7th 2011 8:14AM
Ha, at a wedding I was talking to the cousin of the groom (whom i also became friends with), turns out he was the only one on Feathermoon with the Gladiator title at the time ...
Rainkeltoia Jan 7th 2011 8:16AM
A former guildie was probably the most unlikely, roughly mid-60s or so years old, retired army veteran of Vietnam. I never think of someone of that generation playing computer games! But it was wonderful, he played and he introduced his son to the game.
Nacirema Jan 7th 2011 8:20AM
My mother in-law. Late 50s Catholic middle school assistant principal. Of course she is a clothie...all priests and mages.
Billlop Jan 7th 2011 8:47AM
Im catholic and i play a Hunter/Rogue....class has nothing to do with your religion or sex
Nacirema Jan 7th 2011 9:08AM
It was more of a comment on the assistant principal part...she likes to wear cloth and stand back and do the damage or heal. She does not like to get in the middle of the problem and instead enjoys taking care of it from afar - not how I as a teacher see most APs behaving.
Bynde Jan 7th 2011 12:49PM
Well, if she's looking for a laid back guild with people her own age have her check out 'Geezers of Azeroth' on Scarlet Crusade. We have a few in their 50s , most in their 40s and a couple in their late 20s and 30s. Our insignia is a turtle, and we cater to coots. :)
themightysven Jan 7th 2011 8:20AM
I've met three people irl that play, one is a philospher, one is an internationally known singapore artist, and one is a teacher at a private school. I don't think I have a set type in mind that I wouldn't expect to play.
Roguesan Jan 7th 2011 8:23AM
Almost fell off my chair laughing once, when a friend of mine on another server was lamenting because his 68 year old grandfather had a higher gearscore than he did.
Granted, I never actually met the guy, but if I had.. I would have shaken his hand.
Magma Jan 7th 2011 8:28AM
One of my WoW buddies turned out to the high school all star quarterback. I was shocked.
zlliM Jan 7th 2011 2:27PM
why was this downvoted?
pancakes Jan 7th 2011 9:19PM
Inate fear of quarterbacks.
exogenesis. Jan 7th 2011 8:28AM
When I started working at a restaurant a few years back, there was another girl also working there, who - well, let's just say that she was so completely opposite to me that I didn't really bother getting to know her. She was obsessed with girly pop music, glittery things, make up, clothes and anything and everything that could be coloured pink. She even dyed her hair pink once. Now, I - the solitary, bookworm, somewhat gothic and Renaissance-obsessed girl I am - didn't really enjoy working with her. I felt, of course, obliged to add her onto Facebook along with the rest of my colleagues.
It wasn't until a week or so after I left that job, that she popped up on Facebook remarking on my WoW feed announcing that another toon had hit 80, asking with surprise how long I had played. It turned out that she was also a WoW player - not only that, but Horde, and a hunter too. And one of the best endgame raiders on her server, no less.
People never stop being surprising.
Lucidique Jan 7th 2011 12:00PM
Talk about a surprise :)
Guess she's like a guy in my guild - he's very good at what he does, an officer and so on. He won't let the rest of the world know though, that he's a gaming geek. Saddens me, hehehe.
Nawaf Jan 7th 2011 8:28AM
4 years ago, when I was 13 years old. When I first started playing the game.
I thought, as most 13 year olds around me thought, that gaming was for kids. So I was surprised when I found out that so many people in my guild are over 30, married, and have kids. I was even more surprised when I met a guy who's 76.
It's actually good that I saw that, or else I wouldn't have continued playing till now.
robbymack Jan 7th 2011 8:29AM
One of the things I love about WoW is that it's a very accessible game for people from all walks of life and levels of ability. While my guild is mostly comprised of people in their 20s & 30s, we have a couple of grandparents and a few members in their early teens (kids of guild members). One guildie is partially blind, while another has a seizure disorder. We have lawyers, at least one doctor, a baker, accountants, stay at home moms & dads, and not surprisingly a number of IT professionals. Not everyone is a hard-core endgame raider (I'm certainly not) but the game has something for everyone, and we all have fun and enjoy our time in guild chat and on vent.
But with all the different, awesome people I've met playing this game, I'd have to say the most unlikely WoW player I've met yet is my wife. :)
Wolfshanze Jan 7th 2011 8:30AM
So, what I learned from reading the original article, that 50% of all Horde players are in jail... pretty much what I figured...
bobalobabingbong Jan 7th 2011 9:02AM
I learned that you're a douche.
FOR THE HORDE!
Saeadame Jan 7th 2011 10:11AM
If we were going by the stories presented in the article, you could also say that 50% of alliance must be non-native English speakers from places in Asia.
I don't really think that's the case, personally.
Legs Jan 7th 2011 10:25AM
I think people forgot their sarcasm/joke detectors turned off for this post... Nothing wrong with some light hearted faction smack talk!
Devin Jan 7th 2011 11:01AM
I thought it was a clever use of a specious argument.....
FOR THE HORDE!!!!