Labor day World of Warcraft

Ever since I wrapped up some personal projects I’ve resolved myself to playing more of that game. I’ve basically been playing the same character for the last 3 years and never got it up past level 30 because I always played on my own, too annoyed by other people on the internet to try to join a group. But the Brian’s are playing now, and so is Toby and Tyler as well as my wife, so now it’s fun again.

So I’ve been squeezing in quality time with Conbano (the name of my character, it’s vietnamese for “screw this”), which Audrey saw and wanted to play. She asked me to make a character for her, and the most she can do is walk around and try not to get killed by giant spiders or boars but she loves it anyway. Slowly, after playing for hours on end she’s learned to make it jump, walk and change directions without stopping and finding the left or right arrow on the keyboard, use the map to find her way back home, and thanks to macros- waive and clap as well as lie down and sleep.

It’s cute because she will hum and make up songs about what she’s doing, then suddenly scream because something is attacking her while she runs away in fear. She’s already learned to right-click on a NPC to make it talk and, when she plays my character because less animals attack her, she’ll press the minus key to get on the ram and ride around.

I like it, plus it let me lie around on the couch in my office and watch TV while she entertained herself, but started to resent her playing after she wanted to enter a portal that someone had opened.

“I want to go in there.” She said calling me over from the couch.

“You can’t, my guy isn’t good enough yet.” I said.

“Why not?”

“Because it says you need to be level 58 to go in.”

“How old is your character?” She asked.

“He’s only 45, and it’s a level, not his age.”

“Why aren’t you 58?” She asked frowning. I started to get annoyed since it’s taken me years to get to 45. I explained that you have to do quests to level up. She demanded that I do a quest, I told her it takes too long and she’d be bored. I added that Uncle Brian could go through the portal, because he’s done more quests. Audrey rolled her eyes, turning to the screen, “I’m playing with Uncle Brian.”