Breakfast Topic: When emotions catch you by surprise
by Deb Montague 
Aug 3rd 2011 at 8:00AM
I'm not a roleplayer. Oh sure, there are times when my actions in the game can be considered of a roleplaying nature, but I don't play the game that way. I know all about roleplaying, as I played Dungeons & Dragons back when Gary Gygax used to lead DnD games in the basement of the store in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where he lived.
WoW really doesn't get to me. It's 1s and 0s contained on computers, and by pushing buttons, I cause those 1s and 0s to align in a certain way. Just because that certain way has not yet delivered my T2 gloves is not cause for me to get upset. It just means more runnings of Blackwing Lair. I've seen guild members lose 40 straight rolls on items and then turn around and win the next 40. As I remind my guild members, "Some days, you're the pigeon. Some days, you're the statue." It's nothing to get upset about.
This patch, however, caused a collision of the roleplaying and the computer worlds. Having read The Shattering, I knew what happened to Magni Bronzebeard, his sacrifice for his people. I was rather sad that when Cataclysm was released, there was no way to see what happened. When it was announced that Old Ironforge would be opened in Patch 4.1, I knew where I had to be the day before the patch.
The first thing I did, after logging in and before I fixed my UI, was to find Old Ironforge. I was totally unprepared for my emotional reaction to pixels. There he was, just like the book said -- a diamond, the former king of the dwarves now a solid piece of stone. I found myself getting emotional over this. This. Pixels, nothing more than pixels.
Maybe the fact that I'm a dwarf toon and into the lore of this world caused me to react. I've talked to other dwarves and races; if they aren't interested in the lore, Magni is just someplace they had to take their orphan during Children's Week. If they know something of the lore, being able to see Magni elicited an emotional response, and none of us were quite prepared for that.
It got me thinking, has something in the game provoked a response you weren't expecting? Were you happy? Sad? Angry? I found myself crying as I made my character kneel in front of this crystal. Did you have an emotional response to seeing Magni, or has the only thing that gotten to you been the random number generator's seeming to hate you?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Demeternoth Aug 3rd 2011 8:07AM
I can't look at Magni. For Children's week I clicked on my party member's orphan to complete the quest. I don't even play dwarves on the whole but something about that part of the story really chokes me up. /blub
Mortenebra Aug 3rd 2011 9:07AM
On the Horde side, it was watching the funeral of Cairne that made me.. awww, dammit, I'm tearing up right now. See? -grabs a tissue-
Okay, continuing: It struck a very personal nerve for me. It absolutely sucks having to bury/send off your father. The silver lining I clung to was the fact that Cairne was at peace, resting on the assurance that his son will do what's right as the new Tauren leader and welcomed into the arms of the ancestral spirits. I found myself wishing that I could go back and tell my 13yo self about all of this to ease the pain, even if I didn't know what a Tauren was then. It's the thought that matters and precisely what turns the sad tears into not-so-sad tears.
Kelanar Aug 3rd 2011 11:46AM
Yeah losing Cairne made me kinda teary eyed as well:( To this day I refuse to call Tol Barad "TB". Thunder Bluff has taken enough hits as it is.
Revnah Aug 3rd 2011 8:11AM
I get very emotional over lore stuff. To give a recent example: Molten Front, and Leyara frying Hamuul Runetotem. As I sat there watching, unable to control my character and intervene, I actually yelled: "Hamuuuuuuuul! Noooooooooooooo!"
Thank gods I live on my own so my budgies were the only ones who looked at me funny. Which they do all the time, anyway (to them, people are weird large budgies who need to be humored by throwing the occasional cute look and "chirp" in their direction).
Knob Aug 3rd 2011 8:25AM
That one made me annoyed too. I hadn't followed the PTR and the questline reveals, so when that happened I was like "FFS, they're going to kill him too? We already lost Cairne!!" The next moment I went to Wowpedia and looked up what happens next and was glad to know that I was wrong.
Revnah Aug 3rd 2011 8:33AM
I was more sad than annoyed, actually, shocked at another beloved lore figure dying - and right in front of me, too! Like you I was relieved to find him still alive, if very sick.
liliornin Aug 3rd 2011 9:06AM
I did pretty much the same thing. Except I sat there unable to do anything thinking, "oh great, she's going to kill him. BE CAREFUL HAMUUL." When he fell I was really angry. I mean really angry.
Magni also made me tear up. I cried hard when I read in The Shattering the part where Cairne dies and the treachery behind it. I was upset when Thrall chose to leave the Horde in the hands of Garrosh.
But the biggest cut-scene that just killed me inside was watching Bolvar "die" in WotLK, due to Putriss. He was such a great figure in the game. He kept watch over SW, Anduin, he was First among the Knights. He was always about other people and what they needed. And when he fell, I just.........died inside lol. I cried very hard and I still tear up when I have seen it a few other times (leveling new toons, etc). Then come to find out that he's been changed into a charred version of a human who takes on the LK title to "save the world"....such a great guy.
Kaage Aug 3rd 2011 9:19AM
Hamuul doesn't know how to not stand in the fire.
B1ue Aug 3rd 2011 9:42AM
@Kaage
The smoldering roots may have played a factor there.
Hmm, now we know why shifting no longer breaks roots. It was a plot by Leyara all along.
Microtonal Aug 3rd 2011 11:15AM
@liliornin
Right there with you on the Wrath Gate cinematic. I weep openly every time I see it.
The ending of the Leyara quest chain had me in tears, too. And the one questline I really, really miss from before the Cataclysm revamp is the old Children of Elune questline in Winterspring, wherein the true nature of the moonkin is revealed. I loved that questline.
Azzure Aug 3rd 2011 2:44PM
When hammul "died" I mounted and chased after her only to watch her despawn. I had shouted "NO!" only to have my roommate look at me and say "Hammul?"
btsfstr Aug 3rd 2011 8:17AM
I got teary eyed helping Aggra get Thrall back when their future kids showed up I was like aawwwwwwweeeeee
Trilynne Aug 3rd 2011 8:42AM
This. I definitely got choked up at that part of the quest line. ^^;; But I can blame it on pregnancy hormones... :P
Mortenebra Aug 3rd 2011 8:53AM
Yeah, that made me teary, too... Maybe it's because the husband plays an orc and we just had a really endearing time with our daughter earlier but, man... /sniffle
babywhiz Aug 3rd 2011 9:39AM
Add 'Me Too'. I also cried at the wedding. I know a lot of guys in guild were like "this is too mushy for me", but for me, it was better than most sappy movies I had ever watched.
When I gotta have my 'girly moment', I just grab an alt and do that quest line again. :D
(I am hard core Alliance, but Thrall is good stuff.)
MattKrotzer Aug 3rd 2011 10:47AM
That part made me groan... I don't like soft, sensitive, "just wants a family" Thrall.
Ctmcstomperq Aug 3rd 2011 12:29PM
Here's the thing though, that dream probably makes him fight all the harder because while he wants children, he doesn't want to bring them into the world as it stands now. So he'll fight and sacrifice until he can make the world safe for his children, whenever they appear.
Fweet Aug 3rd 2011 10:24PM
Aggra's voice was captivating.
I did the whole chain on four 85's, it was that good.
Dragoniel Aug 3rd 2011 8:17AM
Long long ago.. Netherwing quest line.
I am absolutely crazy about dragons - all kinds of dragons, their lore and their art (outside of WoW). I was completely unaware of the questline when I stumbled upon it questing and mining around.
I literally knelt before every netherdrake accepting the meal and relentlessly searched for a group to free the dragoness. Later on - literally 20 hours a day of search for the eggs among intense competition. I was completely immersed in saving the Netherwings. That was the only questline that left such a mark in my memory though. Yes, even these days sometimes I take the trip to Northrend to just to kneel before the Dragon Queen, but serving those dragonflights was never the same as Netherwing.
I have all netherdrakes on 4 of my alts right now and currently working on another one.
___________
I am not reoleplayer. I'm die-hard PvP'er. But I do take time to read the quests - it's the story I paid for.
Sonalita Aug 3rd 2011 8:29AM
Not from an rp point of view but the first time I fell off a cliff I felt like I was falling for real, I had the adrenalin pumping and a real sense of fear.
I also can;t stand in that fast flowing river outside that village behind AN in dragonblight without getting motion sickness