No Country for Old (Wo)Men
My method for gauging the relative health of my server is checking on the town of Goldshire. This is a recent screen shot on Fenris during a weekday. For a few years Goldshire had been dead, devoid of life other than those six creepy Goldshire kids. I am so happy Fenris was made a new player server for a little while recently, it seems to have worked.
I logged into Zangarmarsh to do a comparison. I used Ironsally to go check out Goldshire. I tried to stay on the fringes and not attract attention as I didn’t want to try to explain why I couldn’t duel. It didn’t work. Ironsally was challenged, a conversation ensued. I’m pretty certain this was a fairly young player. Had I been thinking I would have made a screen shot of the conversation but since I didn’t I’ll have to rely on memory, it went something like this.
“Why not?”
“Inspect me, I wouldn’t be much of a challenge.”
“Why not?”
“Did you look at my gear?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm, okay then, I’m doing a blog Ironman Challenge, I can’t duel.”
“You blog about wow?”
“Yup.”
“You’re old.”
“Yup.”
“That’s creepy, when I’m 30 I won’t be playing games.” (Where I decided they must be fairly young.)
“You know, when you’re 30 you’ll still pretty much be the same person and enjoy some of the same things.”
“No I won’t, I’ll be working and stuff. What’s the Ironman thing?”
I explained about how the Ironman Challenge worked.
“You could cheat.”
“It’s a personal challenge, I can’t cheat, I would know.”
“Huh.”
After than it just cycled back to why can’t I duel. And here I’ve been complaining that you can’t meet new people anymore.
I’m trying to remember what I thought about grownups when I was young. They were authority figures to me, therefore scary. I don’t remember thinking much about what it would actually be like to be one, other than I wouldn’t have to pick up if I didn’t want to. I know I didn’t realize that I was actually an old person, just not ripe yet. Look sonny, you’re an old person in-waiting and you don’t undergo some secret old-person-complete-personality-transplant on reaching 30, 40, or 50, you’re still you, just older and hopefully a little wiser.
On the topic of cheating, I have some advice although I know it’s one of those things you won’t “get” until you’re older. By the time you reach the advanced age of 30, (giggle) you’ll have done things you’re not proud of, the memories are in your head and you have to live with them. It doesn’t matter if no one else knows you’ve done them, you know.
You’ll realize that there must be some maximum load, or tipping point on how much of this stuff your brain can hold before it explodes. You will not cheat because YOU WOULD KNOW. At least I hope that’s how it works out for you. And hopefully, sooner rather than later.
I don’t know, is this a rant? Or is this just general WoW. I think it’s just general. I’m just trying to communicate from that dark netherworld of old age using a blog as my medium. Doonn’t cheeeeat … at least don’t take up valuable storage space cheating in a game. If you’re going to cheat and lie at least do it where it counts.
Anyway, I’m only 29. 😉
Tome of the Ancient 
September 21, 2011 at 5:49 am
It is weird when you do become an adult (I refuse to believe that I’ve ‘grown up’ ).
When i was younger I said that when I hit 30 I would lose the piercings, I wouldn’t be gaming etc. I also said I would always smoke, always eat what i wanted, stay up late party forever.
Now I’m over 30, it’s pretty much the exact opposite. I think it’s just a way to distance yourself further from those authority figures and after all it’s not like you wake up on your 30th birthday with the overwhelming urge to garden and investigate your stock options.
The scary thing is, those young over-opinionated little oiks will soon become adults. Even scarier, chances are we were those same oiks a decade ago…
September 21, 2011 at 7:15 am
I know that I never did grow up. My family can attest to that.
What I do remember about being young was how black and white the world was, yup, I was one of those opinionated oiks!
Life viewed from my declining years (over 30) looks much more gray.
September 21, 2011 at 10:55 am
I wish I could look at life like I did when I was young and everything was so clear. I knew what I wanted to do with my life – I knew everything – I had all the answers. Now in my declining years I see that I know nothing – even if I pretend that I do. And the sad thing is – I don’t know whether to be happy about that or not.
I guess kids think it weird that adults stray into their play world, just like I would have found it strange if my mum and dad would have wanted to play with us kids at cowboys and indians or whatever we did in those days.
September 21, 2011 at 12:06 pm
I know what you mean but in my case seeing more shades of gray made me a more tolerant and understanding person than I was when I was younger and thought you were either right or wrong. And even if I had the answers nowadays I’d probably forget them by the time I walked down the hall!
I was occasionally an embarrassment to my daughter growing up. She once forgot an assignment at home and called from school at lunch for me to bring it to her. I did, but on a motorcycle and her classmates saw and she was mortified. Such unseemly behavior for a mother, lol.
September 22, 2011 at 8:56 am
I remember being so young that you actually thought turning 18 was some sort of switch that just clicked you from “child” to “adult” and how much I was going to change. But the older I got the more I realized that the adults around me (parents, grandparents) still were like children in many aspects, and here I am – 26, still mentally 15. Probably will be for the rest of my life? Maybe the switch really is when you get children of your own, although I hope not.
September 22, 2011 at 9:00 am
I am a constant embarrassment to my daughter who is more “adult” than I am. So have no fear, you can bypass the switch!
September 23, 2011 at 11:18 am
“…If you’re going to cheat and lie at least do it where it counts.
Anyway, I’m only 29.” I see what you do there! For me, I feel a particular age depending on the company I’m with. Sometimes I feel like an old geezer around my kids. Other times, I feel like my young self around friends. Either way, I do feel wiser each passing year…
September 23, 2011 at 12:20 pm
Hi Opaug!
I admit there are times I feel geezerly too, usually when we’re out doing yard work. Either that yard is getting bigger or we’re getting slower!
September 26, 2011 at 8:38 am
I remember when I was young being unable to visualise certain things in the future eg drinking alcohol in a bar, being able to walk round without clothes in front of a husband – and at the time the husband was just a blank face who occasionally looked like Paul Michael Glaser in my head! – it just all felt impossible. I never thought I’d get there. I was even jealous when I heard a friend talk about “owing” her sister 50p. I didn’t know what “owing” meant & I wanted to be grown up enough to “owe”. How young & innocent! Now I look ahead and there are still things I can’t imagine- things that still seem too grown up for me. Will I ever get heirlooms for example?! But I comfort myself by remembering that I’ve now done all those other things I thought I’d never do so the other stuff will come in time too.
September 26, 2011 at 9:13 am
I missed out on some of those. In my pre-teen and teen years I lived in Central America where being able to speak to order a drink was the only requirement and I’m afraid I took advantage of that, lol.
Ah, heirlooms. I’m happy I have them but have mixed feelings. It’s nice to not have to worry about gear while you’re leveling but then leveling goes too fast for me so now I only use one or two pieces. Unless I try to level a mage, then I’ll need all the help I can get!