Meet Poggles!

So, one of the reason I haven't been blogging, I'm slightly embarrassed to admit, is I've been playing far too much time playing World of Warcraft. It's my first experience with a MMO. I'm a big gamer, but largely it's on various consoles, primarily PS2, and I avoid gaming on computer because Macs are not really known for having that big a variety of games.

Eric DeSantis went on quite a bit about World of Warcraft, but his tastes in comics (and pretty much everything else!) is pretty suspect, so despite him raving about it, it was pretty easy to take it with a grain of salt.

In my various travels, I would meet other people who played it, and when they talked about the game, their eyes would glaze over in this expression of ectasy. But it wasn't until my recent trip to New York I was finally sold on the game. I went to a show after the New York Con, a Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Benefit where Joe Quesada's band played (and were much better than I would have guessed, though the music was a little too happy and not angry enough for my taste.) I was getting a beer, when I felt a slap on the back of my head. I must have been feeling charitable, because I did not whip around and drop the culprit. I turned: and saw one of my many arch Nemises, Larry Molinar.

Larry is a thug, and a goon, with the cold, dead eyes of a mackerel. He is a former Wildstorm colorist, currently doing stuff for Marvel, among other comic companies. When he stares at you behind those black, beady eyes, you know he is carressing the pair of boxcutters he keep in his pocket, dreaming of how far he can stick it in your belly, and then precisely how much intestine he can twist out when he pulls his blade out of your gut. Larry and I, two stone predators in the urban jungle, hate each other instinctively, and, yet, this night, rather than throttle his ass like I should have, we maintained a veneer of civility, and engaged in a semi-civil converation, all the while circling each other like two hungry sharks sensing blood in the water.

Anyway, we got to talking about his latest hobby, and it was World of Warcraft. For the first time in his wretched life, Larry's eyes lit up with some semblance of life, and I saw joy in his otherwise tormented existence. And Larry, for all his many, many faults, convinced me at that moment I should give World of Warcraft a try.


I'm so freakin' glad I did. It's a momumental time-suck, but it's the most video game fun I've had in ages, and I'm totally hooked. This was my wet-dream as a 13 year old, when I played D&D nonstop every weekend. World of Warcraft is D&D for the 21st Century, only a billion times better.

Poggles is my character, now a 30th level Rogue. He's skilled in poisons, stealth, and has just learned a Kidney Punch which can incapacitate a foe for 5-20 second, or something like that. He is in the Llane realm, same as that sad-sack Eric DeSantis-- and if I ever run into Eric I'll probably unleash an entire arsenal of whup-ass on him. There may be higher level characters than mine, but, like a true Layman, there is nobody more badder ass.



Upcoming: A kitty who says "Yo!" to drugs... and the introduction of Ruggles!