MMORPGDot Feature: World of Warcraft Beta Journal #2
Dialogue, 2004-03-24

In Dun Morogh, quests begin around level 8 that have you running beers and stouts between friends. Finally, one gentleman requests that you take a brew to a friend of his in one of the Guard towers of Loch Modan. This innocuous quest hooks you back into the World story overall and ties very closely into the themes the Dwarves have to deal with in the frigid north. Most of the quests you receive early in your time at Loch Modan have you dealing again with the treacherous troggs. Far away from the IronForge patrols, these beastly little humanoids and their cousins the Kobolds have carved out niches for themselves. You, as an adventurer loyal to the Dwarfish throne, must rid the Loch of the beasts. To do that, you spend a lot of time in a quarry just on the Loch side of the Dun Morogh/Loch Modan border. This quarry is a good example of what's to come as you level up, with players from levels 10 - 17 regularly in the mini-area questing for this tooth or that scrap of fabric. Before you know it, the snowy plains around Anvil Marr seem a distant memory.

Similarly, the Elwynn forest gives way to the west to the fallow fields and rampant thuggery of Westfall. To get you to part with the Idyllic forestlands of Elwynn, your superiors in the Stormwind Militia order you to make contact with forces on the edges of the Elwynn, who need some assistance hunting gnolls. From there, it's a small step to the green/brown edge between Westfall and Elwynn, and just over the bridge are a couple who look like they're desperately in need of some help. The gentleman has actually lost his pocketwatch, an affront that cannot long go unanswered, and the young woman would appreciate you making sure that their cow doesn't go hungry as they try to escape the famine and death of their lands. Once again, you travel to new lands not because you heard that there was "good mob hunting" there, but because the peoples of the World of Warcraft want you to. Their wants and needs, as well as the history of your race, propel you forward into ever greater arenas for adventure.

Besides Grodin, I have a few other characters going on the side. One of them is a Night Elf Priest who I used to explore the night-dappled glades of the World-Tree. Besides being incredibly beautiful, the Night Elf lands feature a series of very tightly interwoven quests from the very first, moving you out of the newbie areas you inhabited and into ever greater dangers. In the shade of the new World Tree, the dangers at first seem more subdued. Some of the forest critters have been breeding overmuch, and it's your task to thin them out. Once out into the larger areas of the forest, you discover that the overbreeding has at its source a definite problem. The furbolgs, a normally peaceful species, have turned feral. Just beyond the boundaries of the peaceful newbie area lies a village now over-run by mad furbolgs. Your elven nature demands you right the wrong of this situation, and yes, this requires a lot of furbolg booty-kicking. I haven't made it out of Teldrassil yet, so I can't relate to you any experiences in the higher level elven lands. Worry not...I will later, I can assure you.

Something that Tycho touched on yesterday that I think was really spot on was the breathless ease of the User Interface. I think that's worth a whole journal entry, and I think I'll touch on that and Tradeskilling next time around.