As a fairly casual player I haven't ever stepped foot inside a raid and I can count on one hand the number of times I've done heroics.  However, when I was playing my ally priest Sahndriel, I spent a lot of time inside regular 5 mans.  I loved the Burning Crusade instances, and I loved being a priest.  I got a lot of random whispers asking me if I wanted to do one instance or another, and I could pretty much always be counted on to drop whatever quest I was doing to go heal.  Doing instances was fun, easier than soloing, less monotonous than dailies, and incredibly rewarding.  I was constantly complimented on my healing by players far more experienced than I was, and it felt really amazing to be so appreciated, especially since most of the time I still felt painfully noobish.

The Art of Persuasion.

Härpy was running around the Borean Tundra powering through quests when she ran into that one. It took me by surprise. I carefully read the quest text, then re-read it.

"It is fortunate you're here, Troll.

You see, the Kirin Tor code of conduct frowns upon our taking certain 'extreme' measures - even in desperate times such as these.

You, however, as an outsider, are not bound by such restrictions and could take any steps necessary in the retrieval of information.

Do what you must. We need to know where Lady Evanor is being held at once!

I'll just busy myself organizing these shelves here. Oh, and here, perhaps you'll find this old thing useful.... "

"WTF is THIS?!" I typed incredulously to my boyfriend. "I'm being told to torture a prisoner?"

Until just recently, America had a president in office who staunchly defended the use of torture techniques. Movies, television shows, and video games constantly glorify that barbaric approach to gaining information, and suddenly I was faced with my favorite game jumping on the filthy bandwagon.

I used to scoff at the idea that the entertainment industry was the cause of violent crimes. When the Columbine shooting occurred I shrieked in outrage every time I read an article that held metal bands responsible. "I listen to metal, and I'M not about to go shoot up a school," I snapped. "How about some personal accountability!" But since then I've seen our entertainment become more realistic and grim, and witnessed the emergence of the "torture porn" cinematic genre. When Hostel was released, I'm ashamed to say I went to go see it. Within the first half of the film I literally felt sick to my stomach, but worse than the film was the fact that I was surrounded by young men who laughed through the entire duration of the movie.

I am still reluctant to blame the media, blame entertainment. It still feels like a cop out to me, a way to dodge the personal responsibility. But I don't think there's any escaping the fact that we are building a culture of desensitization - perhaps have built. And I know that this quest seems insignificant. Click, click, the prisoner says a few cheesy lines, and it's done. From how I look at it, it feels like all Blizzard is doing is adding to the commonplace nature of torture, and not only that, promoting it. What does Librarian Normantis say to you?

"You see, the Kirin Tor code of conduct frowns upon our taking certain 'extreme' measures - even in desperate times such as these."

Even in desperate times such as these.

I say that in desperate times such as these, and by that I mean the world we, as players, have to inhabit in real life, we need to stand up and object to this casual integration of brutality into our every day entertainment.

This is a smaller point, but one I'd still like to mention.

Children play this game.

I'm a twenty-four year old adult, I was raised with very strong moral values, and I know the difference between right and wrong. World of Warcraft is rated "Teen", and I know twelve year olds who play this game. Now don't get me wrong, I believe very strongly that parents should be involved in what their children are doing, and the games that their children are playing. But even if you're an attentive parent and you're watching your fourteen year old play WoW here and there, it seems all right. Cartoony graphics, bloodless battle. Odds are you probably wouldn't notice the quests to torture helpless prisoners slipped in there under the radar.

What's next, torture in children's books?

And don't even get me started on Forsaken biological warfare.

Beletseri, the wee baby BM hunter, and her bad tempered bear Morticia were cutting a swath through the raptors of the Barrens with the boyfriend's alt when they were invited into a group for WC.

I know I shouldn't have. It was late, and I had to be at work in the morning. But honestly, these days it seems to be pretty tricky to find a group that includes both a tank and a healer for the earliest instances, and while it's easy enough to ask the boyfriend to run me through an instance if I'm looking for a particular piece of gear, that does absolutely nothing to help me learn how to handle my class.

So, what could I do? "I'm in!"

I was so proud of myself for remembering to turn off Growl and set Morticia to passive so she wouldn't attack anything that I didn't expressly tell her to, and I was feeling pretty confident when we started in.

I didn't do badly, which is the best I can say for myself. There were a couple "OMFG what's Morticia doing over THERE OHDEARLORD" moments that had me panicking and forgetting how to call my pet back. Then there were the moments where I stood at the edge of a gap I was supposed to jump over, paralyzed with indecision. Should I dismiss Morticia and call her back after I jump over the gap? I don't want her running off somewhere into a nest of mobs! How does this WORK?!?!

Oh yeah, and I sort of completely forgot about Hunter's Mark for 90% of the instance. Oops.

It was fun, and although probably took us a little longer than it should have, it was a great learning experience. Keeping a pet under control is trickier than I thought it would be, and just remembering everything that the hunter is capable of is definitely going to be a work in progress! I'm getting a kick out of my hunter - I have a feeling she'll be sticking around.

It's been a loooong time since I wrote in a blog that was dedicated exclusively to World of Warcraft, though I never stopped reading my favorite WoW blogs. I had so little relative experience and I was still learning so much that I didn't feel that I had any business writing about my experiences. I mean, really - what did I have to offer? I had no sage advice to dispense, no raid strategies, no insight to my class.

I was so intimidated (which seems to happen to me a lot regarding WoW, whether I'm currently playing or not) by the plethora of brilliant, funny, skilled gamers who document their experiences that I just unofficially called it quits.

It took me a while to remember that I used to write simply for the sake of writing, and that there's nothing wrong with not having profound wisdom to give out. It's enough to simply enjoy what you're doing. It's enough to share each new learned experience, each new discovery.

Whether anyone reads this or not, it's important for me remember that there's nothing wrong with being casual, and I don't have to be embarrassed about my lack of experience. So here's to the rebirth if Power Word: Totem!