What the hell am I doing?

Okay... so I guess this title applies not just to this blog but to what this blog is about. It applies to this blog, well because I've never done one before and because I'm not really quite sure what I am doing. I am certainly not sure what I am talking about... but that is what this blog is supposed to help with.

I started playing World of Warcraft on February 4, 2006. ( I know this because I checked my account Payment history.) I started playing because my friend Brian was hooked on the game and he gave me his disks and his trial code and I loaded up the game and created a character... and as a n00b, I created a Night Elf Hunter. Now, I like my Hunter, I play him well and I enjoy playing a Hunter, however even after a year and a half of playing I am the eternal n00b for playing an NE Hunter.

To add to my status as a N00b I am one of the nameless generation, in those 5 years between baby boomers and Gen X is where I reside - now almost middle aged - I have no generational identity, I grew up in a world where computers were not ubiquitous. Where all my music was on cassette tapes and I played Dungeons & Dragons in its very first incarnation. I don't know l33t speak beyond the basics and I have very rarely been considered "hip". Therefore I don't seem to blend in well with the crowd and that also makes me feel like a n00b.

But with my background in RPGs and computer games, I figure that, even without playing any of the versions of Warcraft and only doing a cursory reading of the manual I dove right in... to the shallow end of the pool.

My first problem was that the server my friend was on was closed to new characters, so I started on another PVE server and had no friends and no one to play with or help me get started. (I did convince some real life friends to create characters on my server and help me out one day, but all they did was teach me everything I should have but did not learn in my first 20 levels.)

My second problem was that I was a Huntard -- a very deserved title for those Hunters who just don't know how to be a Hunter. (I remember repeatedly Multi-shotting into rooms in the Stockade and everyone wondering why we were pulling the whole room!) I heard a theory once, that I really think may be true, that because as a Hunter you can do so much solo leveling, that unlike other classes, you can get to 60 or 70 without knowing how to play your character.

How did I fix both of these problems? Well, by reading and learning from other players. Certainly not the manual, which I did read all the way through eventually, but reading the forums and hunter guides and blogs and websites. I've linked to some of my favorite on this page and I will be adding many more as the time goes on. If you, like me, feel as if there are aspects of this game that you don't get, come here and share -- I'm certain that I will always have n00bish moments but hopefully, I can start learning from them -- maybe one day I will learn not to use Multi-Shot in a Crowd Control situation!