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The latest patch 5.4 newsBreakfast 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 4 of 7)
Szass Jan 7th 2011 10:30AM
I hooked my wife's laptop up to her 46" plasma for netflix.
She has been playing a lot of bejeweled on the big screen.
Its a start ! :-)
shawn Jan 7th 2011 10:31AM
We have a variety of ages, professions and archetypes in our Guild; of course, we're all real life friends and family so we do know each other. But, I have met plenty of people before who play. I know a few fellow IT professionals, a Police Officer, a radio DJ, and some others.
I always find it odd people are surprised by the vast cross-section of players in WoW. Not only is the subscription rate for it in the millions, but the content and lore is definitely accessible by more than just your geeky gamer.
Komarii Jan 7th 2011 10:39AM
I started playing WoW only a year ago.. My husband told me it was retarded and not to waste my time.. A week later he started playing with me. I'm on a mission to get my younger brother and sister in law to play as well..
After a while of playing and getting tired of other guild formats, we decided to be brave enough and started our own guild.. We made sure to know who everyone was since we were determined to have a 'social guild'. We've met a Dentist, many Armed Service Personnel, Lawyers, a handful of Aussies (love their accents), Parents, Grandparents, a Artist, a LPN (which I work with ironically), a Bull-rider, a Dispatcher (Whom last call to 911 we think he answered), Students and many 'Hardcore' players that do nothing but eat, sleep and WoW. (..And many more professions I just can't think of them all)
I'm pro Ally and pro Horde.. For the Horally!
Jimmy Wang Jan 7th 2011 10:40AM
I am a soon to be 25 year old financial analyst for a REIT investment management firm. In addition to traveling and covering different stocks and having to be responsible like "adults" i am a diehard gamer and I love all games from RTS, to RPGs to FPS and MMOs like wow. The only loser in this whole arrangement is my sleeptime
Molly Jan 7th 2011 11:01AM
I'm a soon-to-be 25yo graphic designer and marketing manager for a million dollar account at my company who is also into all kinds of games as well (hi-five for lack of sleep!). I've been that unlikely WoW player for lots of people at this point. People don't expect the cute white collar girl to be into video games for some reason...
fallenphoenix Jan 7th 2011 11:55AM
Me: 32 y/o corporate training consultant for a multinational bank.
My Wife: 28 y/o accountant for one of the largest non-profit organizations in the US.
As this thread is showing more and more.... you just never know :)
Suite Jan 7th 2011 10:47AM
The one that first comes to my mind is the plastic surgeon in my old alliance guild who 5-boxes shaman. Among other things.
There was also a 60-something grandfather I used to play with, and he was one wicked Rogue.
Pam Jan 7th 2011 11:25AM
I hate that guy! He melts my face off every time I see him!
Amanda Jan 7th 2011 10:49AM
Being a female player with dreadlocks and piercings, it takes a lot for me to be surprised to see jocks, models, and actors play because it is just an image...but a few years back I met a quirky old man that played. He was in his 60s and honestly I did not expect that. haha
jasonkidd1234 Jan 7th 2011 10:54AM
Back in highschool, a few months before I started playing WoW, I had a class with a boy who was as unlikely as I'd think anybody would be to play WoW. He was every definition of jock, he was one of the top 3 football players on our school's team. The class had a lot of the football team in that grade, and was pretty much split evenly between people that enjoy computers, and people that were on the football team. Oddly enough, one day I overheard him talking about WoW. I assumed he was pretty casual, playing it every now and then. I didn't play it at the time, but eventually picked it up, and while I was talking about it he came over and told me to make a person on his toon. It turns out he's been playing WoW since release, and he's pretty hardcore, and good. He's mainly a PVPer, and he's damn good. It was kind of odd, changed my whole perception on who is a WoW player.
Nintai Jan 7th 2011 10:56AM
My girlfriends dad plays a human play. The first thing he ever said to me was, "So you're the Horde scum."
Nintai Jan 7th 2011 10:57AM
Pally not play wtb edit button
Grovinofdarkhour Jan 7th 2011 11:50AM
"No daughter of mine's dating one of... THEM."
"But Dad, he's really sweet, and it's not like his people gave him much of a welcome after the Scourge rezzed him... just give him a chance, okay?"
HHUK Jan 7th 2011 11:02AM
We all have this image of WoW players being social outcasts or weird in some way, even the WoW players I'm close to aren't social butterflies so to speak.
Then occasionally I'll speak to someone who secretly plays WoW and it'll surprise me, 99% of the time though they're utterly casual and tell me they've spent 18 months levelling to level 30. Facepalm.
I've never met any other hardcore raiders, even the people I'd suspect to be. :(
I do know a pretty healthy number of girls though, just doing a quick count in my head of friends that play WoW and it's roughly 50/50 between male and female.
Jimmy Wang Jan 7th 2011 11:03AM
Nice- rock steady and keep disproving those stereotypes!
Chetti Jan 7th 2011 11:24AM
I am a pretty unlikely player, having never played much in the way of video games in general before playing wow and certainly no other mmos (or even pen & paper rpgs). I was dragged into the game (kicking and screaming "IM GONNA HATE ITTT! Cause i'm not gonna understand itttt!!) by my best friend who had started playing not long before she was trying to get me to do the trial. That hadn't been the first time I'd heard of wow, another friend of mine that I met playing other online games (pogo lol) had played and tried unsuccessfully to get me to try it. Well, I did the trial.. did not hate it.. almost 3 years later still playing. When the pogo friend and I were talking one night, I told her I was playing wow and she was surprised. She hadn't played for a while due to working hours, but when things slowed down we rolled taurens. She'd always been a dedicated Horde.. when I started playing I picked up on the Alliance side.. somethin had to be done about that.. :)
As for the most surprising person I've met, I'd have to say my cousin's fiancée. He's a nice guy, sings opera, works for the church.. just never thought he'd play wow. It wasn't until one morning I was checking my facebook feed and saw that he posted a comic about wow Archeology (that was really funny) that I had to comment to him that I didn't know he played. His reply.. YEAH! 80 Arcane Mage. We got to chatting, he doesn't have cataclysm yet, but is looking forward to learning the raids. Way over my head, but its ok.. :)
Elwoods Jan 7th 2011 11:35AM
Started a conversation is GC a while back when I was going for my Karate black belt - turned out we have 5 or 6 black belts in the guild from Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Tang Soo Do and Kung Fu plus a police officer who teaches self defence to the cops (trained in krav maga)
We are a fit bunch of geeks! :)
Hilary Jan 7th 2011 11:38AM
Honestly, I am possibly one of most unlikely players of WoW that people have met. I have to admit, when I started dating my boyfriend 4 years ago, I though WoW was dumb and didn't know why he played it. It wasn't until he showed me that I could play 'a cow' that I was interested. The rest is history! People are surprised that me, a girl who is very active and out of the stereotype of gamers would play and love video games, especially WoW. I just love the game. It is fun and I have made a lot of friends through it in-game and in real life.
fallenphoenix Jan 7th 2011 11:44AM
I teach business education classes to adult employees of a large bank (that might make me unlikely myself perhaps), but when we do our introductions on the first day, I always throw in a little bit of geekery to break the ice (a quick story about how when my wife and I have spare time, we cocoon in the smallest room of our house and play WoW till we fall asleep--that's true by the way). Every once in a while, someone lights up over it.
Most unlikely one though was a girl who showed up to class absolutely dressed to the nines--designer label everything, absolutely gorgeous, etc. Well she introduces herself, her name, where she's from, why she's with the bank, and then right before she sits down, she says "Oh, and level 80 Kingslayer Warlock" then yells at the top of her lungs, "FOR THE HORDE!!!!"
Wow.
Lucidique Jan 7th 2011 12:03PM
I like her.