Hangin' Out In 100b

Let’s face it, you’re a real geek when you play World of Warcraft. Some players are what many in the Warcraft community derisively call “mouth-breathing trolls”, an elitist pack of driven players that view this as an intense battle they must win and it doesn’t matter who gets stomped on in the process. Others are just like you and me. On the outside we might look calm and collected. But, secretly, we are, deep down, thinking about things our character wants to do and parts of the in-game world our character wants to see.

Warcraft really is a virtual world within a world and I’ve been playing since August 2007. I think I was hooked within the first 15 minutes of creating my first character. Over time I discovered more and more stuff online that helps you to get ever more involved and immersed in the game. And I’m not even on one of the role-playing servers, where participants are in-character throughout the game.

If you stick with your character and reach the maximum level, at some point you may decide you want to fight the toughest baddies (bosses) with a team of 10 or 25 other players (raiding). This is the pinnacle of the game and what many people strive to do throughout days, weeks, and very often months of playing to reach the maximum level.

If you want to succeed in your raiding you need to prepare and plan ahead for the toughest bosses. To help us prepare and plan for these end-game bosses a lot of players create videos detailing the strategies used to defeat them. Which is where a bit of music comes into Some Other Stuff this week. Some productions of these strategy videos can be quite elaborate (for homegrown videos), with opening titles and music selected to enhance the action recorded.

Here are some examples …

A 10-man team taking on the frosty blue dragon Sapphiron in the forbidding complex of quarters known as Naxxramas. Australian drum-n-bass band Pendulum beats out “Tarantula” for the soundtrack.

And this is some excellent use of the Men Without Hats’ “Safety Dance” for what is, appropriately, called The Safety Dance strategy used to defeat Heigan The Unclean and the exploding ooze shooting from the floor.

Finally, when raiding guilds kill a world or server first it is a big deal for them and the Warcraft world. This is War Front on the Frostmane server killing Thaddius way back in 2006 with inspiration provided by some metal, including Alice In Chains.

See how seriously people take this stuff? This is why so many form tight virtual (and often enough real world) friendships through the playing of an immensely popular and entertaining game. And why I ended up missing my post last Friday while working on my guild’s website.