It's been eight long months since I wrote my last diary entry. It's been eight long months of hacking, slashing, killing, exploring, leveling, trading, auctioning, flying, dying, and questing. That's right. I've been exploring the World of Warcraft pretty regularly for most of the last eight months. And I've barely seen a quarter of it.

Of course, during this same time, I got married, published 140 articles, found a new house in Florida so we can avoid the nasty New Jersey winter, and packed something like 19,480 pounds of belongings into a large moving van and unpacked them again here in Florida.

In other words, I've actually had something of a life during these eight months of World of Warcraft questing. And that's why my ugly cow is only at level 38. That's me, in Figure A.

FIGURE A


Here I am, armed and flying atop the strange cat that's the WoW equivalent of mass transit. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Another way you get around the huge maps of World of Warcraft is on the Zep, shown in Figure B.

FIGURE B


Riding the Zeppelin will take you between land masses. Roll over picture for a larger image.

What's interesting is that the Zep makes its rounds about every ten minutes, so you can often find a bunch of players waiting at the stations where the Zep lands.

Another mode of island-to-island hopping is the boat. This picks you up at other locations. One warning though: I recently sneaked into the enemy's boat dock and rode their boat to one of their private islands. If you get caught, they are gonna woop yo ass! I wound up in a world of hurt and I've learned not to do that again until my "toon" is a much higher level.

While I've managed to get married and have a life while still playing WoW, I'm far more worried about my friends. I have a couple of friends who are almost done with their second level 60 characters. These guys are both undead rogues, and if you thought my cow is ugly, my buddies are even uglier. And so are their characters in the game, as shown in Figure C!

FIGURE C


Here's Odis and Mormo. If you see them skulking around in the woods, run! Roll over picture for a larger image.

In fact, Odis and Mormo seem to have something of an unhealthy relationship. They're always killing unsuspecting Alliance players and, well, sometimes, uh, what can I say about Figure D? And why is Mormo's ass glowing? Yeah, maybe I don't want to know.

FIGURE D


Somethin' ain't right here. Roll over picture for a larger image.

My friends used to go out into the real world. They used to answer their phones. Now, the only way you can communicate with them is by going into the World of Warcraft and seeking them out in-game.

World of Warcraft is the most amazing video game I have ever seen, though I can't necessarily say it's the most fun. The most fun I ever had in a video game was with the original Tribes, when me and my buddies would protect and take over bases and the action got very, very involved and very, very fast.