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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 5 of 7)
Revanel Jan 7th 2011 6:52PM
Maybe it was Killercaitie? Sounds about right...
Lichfingers Jan 7th 2011 11:45AM
The most unlikely player I have come across was our schools track & field god. He was really good, I mean he got a few medals from nationals and what not. And as far as I knew track & field was the only thing he did, training like 6 days a week. So I laughed like a drain when I found out he played a priest! Just goes to show you the demographic associated with WoW.
elustree Jan 7th 2011 11:50AM
A very long time friend who I grow up with from birth but had not spoken to or seen in 15 years found me on Facebook and then that we both played WoW. He transferred to my server. He is now in my guild and plays with us several times a week. Amazing
Darrell_Loya Jan 7th 2011 11:54AM
We had one guildie who worked as a sex-line operator. She worked while she played. She was a hell of a raider, but could never get on vent, lol.
We also had a 60-someting ex-marine. One of the all-time great vent voices. He died of cancer recently, and we miss him. He was a 'slow, but steady' type. He started out pretty awful, but worked at it until he was a really good raider.
Ametrine Jan 7th 2011 11:59AM
a phone-sex worker on vent... yeah, I can see how that would cause problems.
"Okay, so I'll need the mage to sheep that healer in the back, while the rogue saps the... dammit, you guys better not be jerking off - I'm not getting paid for this!"
Bynde Jan 7th 2011 1:40PM
I think it'd be more like...
"Ooooo baby, you like that? You want me to unbutton it slowly...oooooo....That's the biggest .....INCOMING PAT WATCH OUT FOR FEAR .... chest I've ever seen you must work out, studly... SOMEONE SHEEP THAT SPELLBINDER AND STAY OUT OF THE GREENSTUFF!!!!...mmm baybeeeeee"
Twizzy Jan 7th 2011 11:59AM
Maybe its just on my server but I keep hearing"black ppl don't play wow." I happen to be black and play wow. Now I know its not all a race thing but I guess those trolls in trade will just be trolls. My cousin happens to play and he is what you would call a "gangster" . I like to tell him some gangster you are u damn warlock lol.
Twizzy Jan 7th 2011 12:01PM
Did I mention he's a bloodelf?
Quasimofo Jan 7th 2011 12:30PM
I used to hang out at a gaming store/internet cafe when I was in college. I did all of their art and design matters for free (the owner was a friend) and I had free use of their computers and internet. Since they were better than my own, I would play WoW there a lot, as would several other people. The place was open late, often until 3 or 4 in the morning, and those of us who were still around would sometimes go to the IHOP just down the road for a late-night dinner.
That was also around the time a strip club down the road would close, and sometimes some of the strippers would have the same idea and come into IHOP for food. We would see them in there from time to time. One evening our group was talking about what we had done in Burning Crusade, which had just come out, when one of them, a gorgeous brunette, turned around and asked if we were talking about WoW. Being the geek crowd we just sort of muttered "yeah" and she chimes in "oh awesome, which server? I have a gnome mage and just made a draenei hunter". She wasn't a casual either, she was well-versed in AQ40 and Naxx.
So just think, that well-geared mage with the pink handlebar mustache could be a front for a smoking hot girl who gets naked for a living.
DaNomie Jan 7th 2011 3:19PM
A Few years ago, i think it was summer 07' or 08' when we were all going crazy to kill Cthun, I had to stop bringing my lunch to work, because they were fumigating our offices, so we had to start eating in the Restaurant in our building or going out.. No food was allowed. Not too many seats were available, but one group of younger guys let me sit with them at the end of their table,
Imagine my surprise one day when I saw one of them with a Horde T-shirt. that was when I found out that the Game informers staff worked in my building and the Nicest quiet guy I ate lunch with was one of the managing editors. And after a few lunches I found out from them, that the MN Vikings Kicker was an avid wow player, and that on 93x in Minneapolis ( where I live) they have the game informer guys and the Vikings players that play wow and other video games on the Half-assed morning show with Weasel, Josh and Nick every Friday !!! WOOOT
Also In my guild there is everyone from a lawyer, to an HR Consultant, and many younger IT players and one Grandma :P
Imagine the young staffer at game Informer's surprise when the grandma he at lunch with turned out to be the alliance lock that had beat him in a duel in front of as 40 a few weeks ( yes one of my tons is on the opposite faction of some of the game informer's staff server, or was at the time) before :P
Talitha Jan 7th 2011 12:55PM
It might not be as unlikely as some of the great examples before me, but occasionally when new members join our guild, they would express surprise upon meeting my sister, my dad, and me.
How come?
My dad is a pastor who occasionally teaches college classes. He has one 85, and four 80s (two of them warrior, nonetheless). My sister and I both are profoundly deaf. We have a couple 80s (and one 85).
For the Horde!
oryxlea Jan 7th 2011 12:59PM
Most players are surprised by me actually. I am a married women in my mid twenties who is also completing a Masters degree in Divination. To avoid the normal comments one gets from players who feel they can say whatever they wish through the cloak of virtual animosity I usually only reveal these facts about myself to close player friends. One day I was surprised to find another guild mate who also studied theology and currently taught.
kayfed29 Jan 7th 2011 1:28PM
Most ppl do not peg me for the type of person that plays mmos due to my looks but i think WoW has opend doors to all types of ppl and from all walks of life that there is no more sterotype nerdy player.
albanesp Jan 7th 2011 2:26PM
Why, ugly ppl can play wow too. just kidding, but you left the door wide open XD
The biggest surprise was a tank we pugged with in Wrath who had to leave after 2 hours of raiding. Told us he was stationed in Iraq and had to leave to go to work.
Wish i remembered his name /salute
Feanora Jan 7th 2011 1:33PM
Where I live in England, the general consensus is that if you're playing anything other than COD & FIFA (yes, even things like Halo or Assassin's Creed are scorned), you're an un-salvageable nerd with no hope and should be mocked at every opportunity.
So I've never mentioned I play WoW to -anyone- I know, and I don't know anyone within a 100 mile radius to me who plays it.
Kinda lonely.
Sorcha Jan 8th 2011 9:09AM
I know. I don't get why WoW is seen as geeky but CoD isn't. Something about blowing up people with guns is somehow cooler than blowing up monsters with magic.
Zephyril Jan 7th 2011 1:57PM
I acctually get this a lot.
I acctually play in a touring rock and roll band, work as a low-level recording exec and bartender at a trendy rock bar in Toronto, play hockey and am into the fashion industry a bit.
Whenever I tell people I've been playing WoW since beta, they all kinda raise their eyebrows, thinking I'm lying.
Nope.
Horde for the last 6 years, and proud of my fav. hobby!
Rynok Jan 7th 2011 2:01PM
My wife, I've been playing since Open Beta as well, and was dating my now-wife. She has no interest in games, most she's ever done before is the Lego Star Wars/Indiana Jones series. But one day she comes up to me and says "I want to play WoW"... I was floored, I think I might of even half-feigned death.
Superstone Jan 7th 2011 2:04PM
Most of my guildies I've never thought of as NOT WoW players because of the fact that we all played WoW together. However, when I was thinking of starting to play WoW, I found out that I knew an entire group of RL people who played. A cook, a pharmacist, an independent computer salesman/repairer and a friend who is going for his Masters degree in journalism and is an associate professor of creative writing at our largest college all convinced me to start playing.
Since I started playing I've gotten my little sister to try it (she didn't stick). I've met a guy who used to be in gangs in Cali who plays. I've even talked about it to my former boss who is actually afraid to try it because he's a giant video game nerd and he doesn't want to get hooked because he's heard the (true) rumors of the addictiveness.
Raszero Jan 7th 2011 2:25PM
At my Christian Confirmation, our "head" guy showed a bunch of presentations via powerpoint, and one time left his desktop open, and there it was, World of Warcraft. I didn't play at time, but that's closest I have.