MMORPG: How a Computer Game Becomes Deadly Serious (15 page)

She called him half an hour later. “Let’s go back to Raynewood Retreat. I have a hunch. Let’s compare the layout of that place to the pictures in the paper. Let’s get confirmation.”

He coughed. “Good morning to you, too!”

“Yes, yes, we don’t have much time. I have to go in an hour. What level are you now?”

“Twenty-nine!” he answered proudly.

Robert wasn’t getting the praise he was looking for. “You’re not going fast enough. But it’s more than enough to go to Ashenvale. Do you know where it is?”

“Eh, yes. It’s to the north of The Barrens, isn’t it?”

“Correct. You fly to Crossroads and take the northern road out of town. Follow it all the way to the border with Ashenvale. Don’t stray. Ignore quest givers. Run from beasts that attack you. When you’re in Ashenvale, keep following the road. When you get to a T-crossing, take the right fork. Follow the road signs to a place called Splintertree Post. I’ll meet you there in fifteen minutes.”

He started to answer, but before he could open his mouth, she had already finished the call. He looked at his phone for a few seconds, stunned by her brusque behavior.

She found him near to Splintertree Post, riding up to him as he reached the crossing. She motioned him to follow, which he did dutifully. A short while later, they were standing in front of the towering building of Raynewood Retreat again.

“What do you think?” she asked.

He moved backward to the sloping path that gave access to the retreat from the road below, taking in all of the relative positions. He compared them to the map from the newspaper once more.

“It’s remarkably similar,” he said. “Even the placing of the entrance at the back of the building is more or less similar.”

“I feel the same. It looks as if they’re indeed using WoW as their training ground. This can’t be a coincidence.” Killermage walked the short distance to the back yard, totally ignoring the Cenarion Defenders patrolling the area. She made a complete turn, studying the building, gardens, paths and access road.

Robert watched in fascination how she drew the aggression of no less than three Defenders, who rushed to attack her. Within seconds, they had her surrounded and were swinging and slashing swords at her, grunting with the effort. She made no move to defend herself. Suddenly, the body of Killermage was surrounded by a transparent nimbus of energy that seemed to absorb all the blows of the weapons. Robert clicked on her health bar and got confirmation that it was indeed still at one hundred percent. So they weren’t even scratching her. If they had attacked Gunslinger instead of Killermage, he would have been dead on the ground.

“Impressive. They’re not even touching you!”

“What? Oh, the mobs. Yes, irritating.”

With that, Killermage raised her arms to the air and started channeling a spell. A terrible hailstorm descended from the clear sky, pummeling her assailants with the largest shards of ice Robert had ever seen. One by one they fell to the ground, killed by that sudden, local blizzard. When they were all dead, the weather returned to normal. The mage stood with three corpses at her feet and started to laugh. It sounded eerie in the silence of the gloomy forest.

“Maybe I should have chosen to become a mage after all,” Robert said admiringly. “That was a nice trick!”

She winked at him. “The best protection is simply the ability to kill your opponent sooner than he can kill you. Mages are extremely good at that.”

“I can see that. Are we done here?”

“I’ve seen enough. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no doubt left. This is the place where they prepared for their attack on Benjamin Natale.”

Although Robert had been playing WoW intensively the last days, Rebecca was unsatisfied with his progress. That evening, on the phone, she told him again that he wasn’t going fast enough. “Besides, when we’re going to infiltrate their guild at some point you need to be ready and capable for that,” she repeated.

“How am I going to speed it up? I’m already playing nearly day and night!” Robert felt irritated. He had come to the Netherlands to study and to have a good time, not to hunt terrorists and be bullied to level up faster by some Scottish girl. Even if it was such a nice Scottish girl. Then he realized that without all this, he wouldn’t know her at all. Robert sighed.

“I know, but you’re not efficient. You’re completely ignorant and you’re running around like a headless chicken.”

This remark stung. He was getting better and better and able to handle most situations. He had faced and killed many foes and overcome some daunting challenges. And wasn’t he leveling a lot faster than the other people in his guild? No one had made such a jump in levels as he had. “What should I do better then?” he asked gruffly.

She remained silent for a few seconds. “Are you using any add-ons?”

“No. What are those?”

She cursed. “Little programs you can download and add to your WoW interface. They’re designed to make life easier. The first one you should have is Quest Helper. And something like Map Coords.”

“What do they do?” he asked curiously.

“My guess is that you’re losing a lot of time by wandering around, trying to find the enemies or items that you need for your quests, am I right?”

This was true, and he said so. Only yesterday he’d spent nearly twenty minutes trying to locate some cave before he abandoned the quest in despair and frustration.

“Quest Helper will show you on the map where you have to go. Also, it’ll tell you exactly which enemies to kill to get what you need. Besides it’ll show you the most efficient order to complete the quests in your quest log, so you won’t spend ten minutes getting to some place to do a quest, only to discover later that you had another objective in the area.”

Robert smiled ruefully. “That happened more than a few times!” he admitted, although he wondered why she hadn’t told him this before.

“That’s what I thought. The other add-on will show you coordinates on the map of each zone. That helps when you look something up on the Internet. Many players use coordinates and will generally explain things by using those. For instance, they’ll write that you must follow the road until 47.66, then head due west until you reach the entrance to the hidden path at exactly 49.55. Such advice is useless if you don’t have an add-on that generates those coordinates for you.”

She told him to open his Internet browser and guided him to an Internet site where he downloaded the add-ons. After that, she made sure that he installed them the right way.

“Sorry about this. I should have thought of this ages ago. Now you get some sleep. I’ll take over your character tonight and make up some of the time lost.”

He hesitated. “Does that mean I can’t play?”

Laughter cascaded over the telephone line. “You’re becoming addicted, aren’t you? It’s only for one night. Now get offline and to bed!” With these words she signed off, leaving Robert with no alternative than to obey her orders. Just before drifting off to sleep, he sent her a text message wishing her good luck.

***

He slept late. The last few nights his dreams had been filled with the game, but this night he slept peacefully and easy. When he finally woke up, it was nearly ten o’clock in the morning, and he felt refreshed and happy. Back from the shower, he dressed in sportswear and went outside for some exercise.

The weather was remarkably soft for the end of October, and Robert inhaled deeply while he strolled to the Witte Singel on his leisure. The Witte Singel was a minor slow river that ran just outside the city center, bedded between broad banks of gently sloping grass. He crossed a bridge and, when he reached the outer bank, he started running.

After twenty minutes his mobile phone rang. It was his mother. He settled on a public bench and spoke with home for nearly half an hour. He felt a little guilty about neglecting his study duties, especially as his parents were so interested in his progress. When he finished the call, he saw that he’d received a text message from Rebecca. It was sent ten minutes before, saying that she was finished with Gunslinger and that she was going to grab some quick sleep and would be out until the evening.

Have you been playing until now?
he sent back, astonished.

The answer came immediately:
Yes, let me sleep now. Will explain later.

Her ‘later’ proved to be hardly an hour in the future, when Robert had showered for the second time and was waiting for his computer to boot. He was sitting at his desk, accompanied by a container of milk and a plate of sandwiches.

“I thought you were sleeping,” he said accusingly when he answered her call.

He heard her yawn. “Yes, but I couldn’t sleep. And I have to go out in an hour anyway, so I decided it was no use.”

The computer was ready, and Robert started World of Warcraft. A few seconds later he was looking at Gunslinger. He saw immediately that he was in another place. He also noted that his wolf had been replaced by a pig.

“Now tell me, what have you done?”

She laughed. “Congratulations! You’re the proud owner of the ultimate level thirty-two character. I gained three levels and even dipped in battlegrounds to get you some extra gear.”

“Battlegrounds?”

“Yes, those are places where players of the Alliance and the Horde meet each other in open combat. You receive special points and tokens for participating and winning in battlegrounds. With these, you can buy special items and gear that are significantly better than what you can get in normal play. At this level anyway.”

Robert opened his character window and moved his cursor over all the new items that were equipped on his character. Then he checked his statistics.

“My God, I have double the health and power!”

The smugness oozed out of the phone’s receiver. “Nice, isn’t it? You may thank me now!”

Laughing, but still incredulous, he thanked her. “How did you do it?”

“First of all, I did the battlegrounds. You always play against opponents that are roughly your own level. This means that, at level twenty-nine, Gunslinger could still play in the bracket from level twenty to level twenty-nine. At twenty-nine you’re strong, but at thirty, you’re at the bottom of the bracket thirty to thirty-nine.”

“I see.”

“Next, I crafted some items myself and bought more at the auction house. The next few levels you’ll especially appreciate the Raptor Hunter Tunic and the Master Hunter’s Rifle. That gun is vastly superior to anything that’s normally obtainable at your level. The same goes for the chest piece.”

“The enchants are pretty special, too,” he remarked.

“That’s the bonus. The plus fifteen agility enchants on your two swords were pretty expensive, by the way.”

“They look good!” he complimented her, noting the green magical glow coming off his swords. He was silent for awhile, studying his new equipment again.

“So what am I going to do now?”

“I’ve positioned Gunslinger in the Arathi Highlands. I want you to stay there until you’re level thirty-three. After that, you go to Stranglethorn Vale and do the quests involving the trolls. Ignore everything else. Then you go on to Tanaris and right after, the Hinterlands. I already sent you an email with the details and the quests you have to do. Just follow the instructions and you’ll be all right.”

“Okay. One last question. Why the pig?”

Rebecca chuckled. “Don’t be fooled by appearances. True, a pig doesn’t look as slick or dangerous as a tiger or a wolf. But at this level, it’s definitely superior. It has a capability called Charge, which means that it charges at the enemy really fast, knocking it senseless and stunning it for a moment. Charge also interrupts any spell casting an enemy is doing at that moment. Apart from that, a pig is a little sturdier than a cat. It may not do all the damage, but it can take a lot more damage before it dies.”

It went like a breeze. Now, he was so strong that he was able to complete quests that were several levels above him. Many quests also rewarded pieces of equipment, but until he hit level forty, which was only one day later, nothing he found or won was better than what Rebecca had given him. He zipped through the grassy Arathi Highlands, the coastal area of the jungles of Stranglethorn Vale, the deserts of Tanaris and the woodlands of The Hinterlands.

At level forty Rebecca joined him with Killermage and together they ran through several instances, earning him another heap of experience points. Rebecca again provided him with a new set of gear and equipment, which was superior in another way.

“Hunters have to wear leather until they reach level forty,” she explained. “After that, they can wear mail, which gives a lot more protection.”

They played together for the next several days, becoming more and more attuned to each other’s playing style. Robert enjoyed the time they spent together, although it was only in the virtual world. Rebecca gave him many useful tips and guidance, and at the end of the week he reached level fifty-eight, the minimum level required to go through the Dark Portal to Outland. For all of this time, none of the members of the Grimstones came online. Khalid hadn’t been home for three full days. They worried many times about what they might be doing or where they were. They were both convinced that soon they would learn about a new attack, most certainly on a boat. Just like Rebecca, Robert felt powerless and frustrated about not being able to do anything to stop it. So the celebration at reaching the important milestone of level fifty-eight was muted and dull. He’d been working hard to reach it, but felt a little deflated now the moment was finally there.

They were standing in front of the Dark Portal in a zone called The Blasted Lands. It was one of the most depressing surroundings Robert had encountered so far. He wondered for a moment about the people who had given names to the different zones. It seemed that the drearier the zone was, the better the name reflected the look and feel of the place. Like The Badlands, The Barrens, and now The Blasted Lands. Maybe it was to warn people who preferred nicer surroundings.