Massively Multiplayer Online games such as World of Warcraft provide a unique experience that console games simply can’t rival – a chance to interact with a large number of other players and provide a way to socialize with people who carry at least one similar interest as you. Of course, just like with any other situation, you are bound to run into those people. They are the kind who know how to push all of your buttons; sometimes even being oblivious to that fact.

I’m sure a large number of MMO players experience this since people tend to act out their inner asshole (or moron) when huddled inside a virtual blanket of anonymity. Just by the sheer fact of playing you are bound to get rubbed the wrong way. If you haven’t had this experience yet then you either 1) haven’t been playing MMOs long enough, 2) are an immensely sweet person or 00110011) are a robot. Though in either of the two latter cases I would have to question your ability to experience what we humans call emotion.

This comic is actually (mostly) a re-enactment of an experience I had with a few of my guild mates not too long ago. When Cataclysm launched for WoW, it wasn’t long before our group had reached level cap and started on the path to gearing for heroic difficulty dungeons. We are a small guild but somehow we have attracted some great players who are fun to hang out with and by some fluke of nature actually know how to greatly utilize the classes they play. We run small but efficiently and we had quite a lot of fun learning the mechanics of heroic Cataclysm dungeons.

As the screenshot can attest to, about a month after launch we were already running heroic Blackrock Cavern and doing rather well. There was just one issue and boy was she ever a big one. The corehound Beauty is the 4th boss of the dungeon and up until just a few days ago, downing her was rather challenging – made even more so when a certain loveable warlock decides to chase after lucky charms instead of paying attention to kill orders.

After having a near victory siphoned out of our hands, frustration was high but the sheer hilarity that ensued on Ventrilo was one of the major reasons I doubt I will ever stop playing MMOs. It’s the brotherhood and the friendships that you can make as well as the fun (coupled with a healthy dose of frustration) that makes online gaming such a uniquely amazing experience.

We never were able to take down Beauty while she was still nice and challenging. I blame the fact that we have very terrible classes for crown control in our party makeup which is a bigger issue than it should be. Sadly Blizzard has over nerfed a lot of dungeons in the latest patch which I will rant about in some other post.

For the time being, Pie and I hope you enjoy this comic!