Posts with tag odd

I know that I wasn't the only one that did a double take today when I opened up WoW and saw the "Breaking News" maintenance announcement that included a tidbit about the realm Dreadmaul undergoing hardware upgrades for Wrath of the Lich King.

I find this interesting for several reasons. First, the expansion hasn't even had a release date announced yet and they're already making hardware changes. Now this is obviously a good practice – getting ready for things before hand – but then again, if it's not going to be released in October / November of this year all these hardware changes could be done later and for much cheaper. No matter if you agree with my pricing analysis or not, it is definitely a bit odd to hear about hardware upgrades when the release date hasn't even been made public yet.

We all know this is just a game. We know this, and it allows us to overlook several things that would really shock us if they happened in real life. And I don't mean strange blue aliens with tentacles coming out of their chins, or meteors of fire raining down on top of us -- these are standard fare fantasy and we look forward to seeing them.

No, the things I'm talking about are more like this:

• The big blue alien walks right through you on his way to the bank.
• Meteors rain down on some people standing by the mailbox -- but they don't seem to notice.
• Flying mounts go the same speed up and down, unaffected by gravity.
• A polearm takes up as much space in your bags as 20 bottles of water.
• Creatures you kill just respawn a few minutes later.
• Big spaulders and weapons just pass through your character's head as they move and yet there is no brain damage!

Of course this is just a game, and if many of these things were like real life it would negatively affect gameplay, but do you still sometimes look at these things and wish that the experience could be a bit more lifelike? Do you ever wish you could bump into people, for example, or walk over to the stables and actually "mount" your mount? Do you fly your mount straight down and wish that you could pick up speed? Do you look at the map and say... "But, Dun Morogh should be elevated really high, or much farther north, to be so much colder than Loch Modan the Searing Gorge!"

What other odd aspects of this gaming experience would you add to this list?

I've been having fun with sheep recently. Admittedly, I am Welsh, but I'm talking WoW -- and odd behaviour. While skilling up in Engineering I made several mechanical sheep; I tried making them attack nearby Horde players, who were thankfully laughing too much to retaliate. There's nothing like an angry sheep in the morning to get your blood boiling.

I also wasted valuable minutes of my life repeatedly polymorphing a sheep, just to see what would happen. No prizes for guessing the result! So, what are some of the weirdest things you've found yourself doing in WoW -- with or without farm animals?