World of Warcraft: The Text Adventure

Taking on the Text Adventure

Commentary by Lore Sjöberg
02:00 AM Mar, 08, 2006 EST
http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,70348-0.html

Welcome to World of Warcraft: The Text Adventure.

You are standing at the end of a road before a small brick building. Around you is a forest. A small stream flows out of the building and down a gully. There is an elf with an exclamation point above her head here.

>Talk elf

"Alas," she says. "There is a great darkness upon the land. Fifty years ago the Dwarf Lord Al'ham'bra came upon the Dragon Locket in the Miremuck Caverns. He immediately recognized the ..."

> Click Accept

"Hey," the elf protests. "This is important expository. Azeroth is a rich and storied land, with a tapestry of interwoven ..."

> Click Accept

"OK, fine. Bring me six kobold tails."

> Shout "Where are the Kobolds?"

You hear a voice in the distance. "NE of stream, near lake." You hear another voice in the distance. "Right near lake." You hear another voice in the distance. "LF1M! Need priest!"

> Go NE

A small ramshackle house sits atop a hill, apparently abandoned. At the foot of the hill is a large field. The field is swarming with kobolds, their tails swinging seductively in the breeze.

> Kill kobold

You kill a kobold. You get a kobold tail.

> Kill kobold

You kill a kobold. You get two pieces of silver and a kobold tail.

> Kill kobold

You kill a kobold. You get three pieces of silver and an apple.

> What, no tail?

Apparently this was the rare but majestic Manx kobold.

> You said they had tails

You hear a voice in the distance. "LF1M just need any healer ready to go!"

> Kill three kobolds

You kill three kobolds. You get eight pieces of silver and four tails.

> Four tails?

Maybe it's something in the water around here.

> Go SW

You return to the stream where the elf waits, a golden question mark floating above her head as if to say "Huh?"

> Talk to elf

"At long last, you've returned!" the elf cries. "I had feared that you ..."

> Click Complete Quest

The elf snorts and hands you a slimy, rusted, bent dagger with runes on it reading "Discount Shiv Warehouse -- Bring us a lower price, we'll stab it."

> Look at dagger

It's a noxious, poorly-balanced piece of crap, but it's better than the weapon you have right now.

> What do I have now?

It's not clear from the decay, but you think it may have once been a whisk.

> Wield dagger

You look slightly less feeble. A knight rides by on a gleaming white charger. He is bedecked from head to toe with shining armor. His shoulder armor alone is big enough to house you, your family and any pets you pick up at the auction house, and still have room to hang that pathetic dagger of yours on the wall as a constant reminder of your utter weakness compared to a true man like him.

> Pout

You hear a voice in the distance. "LF2M need healer and tank!"

> Talk to elf

"I have another task for you," the elf says. "In the east there are ..."

> Click Accept

"Take this bag of jelly to Commander Wolfchow in Cramhollow Dale."

> Go to Cramhollow Dale

You run to Cramhollow Dale. You run and run. You run and run and run. You keep on running. Someone runs past you, faster. You keep running. Two gnomes run past you in the opposite direction. Still you run. You're not there yet. What are you going to do?

> Run

That's right, bunky. You're gonna run. You continue to run and run and run and run and ... whoa, you're in Cramhollow Dale. A tall man who looks like a lot of the other tall men around here has a question mark over his head.

> Give bag of jelly to man

"Good!" says ...

> Click Complete Quest, Accept, whatever, just get on with it

"Take this crate of liver back to Elfiwee Muttonscorner near the gully stream."

> Go back to stream

You run. You run and run. You run and run and run.

> Wonder aloud why I find this so damn compelling

You hear a voice in the distance. "Need group! No quitters!"

Some pretty good algebra news!

I didn't complete my pre-algebra class (sort of an advanced intro) last semester for two reasons. First, I wanted to get my final project in photography in on time as it absolutely had to be in on time: no projects were being accepted late. I got it in on time, I also got four extra prints done which counted as extra credit and I pulled an A- in the class, probably would have been a B+ otherwise. Second, I was pretty much incapable of passing the class. I'd missed one test and would have had to re-take it like two days before the final, and regardless of whether I'd passed the test, I wasn't comfortable with my grasp of the subject and would have retaken it this semester anyway. One interesting thing about this particular class is that you have to have a C in order to pass: there is no D, if you don't pull a C you fail. They've found that people with a D generally don't pass the next level of class.

Well, we had our second test last Wednesday and got the scores back today. On both tests I got the second highest score in the class, so that was cool! I got a 90 on the first test, the best score was a 91. On the second test I got an 88, best was an 89. The instructor gives us a detailed score breakdown of what you scored on all homework and other scored assignments. I'm currently running an 87%, and that's before lowest scores are thrown out, so I might actually pull an A in this class which would be majorly cool.

I think I needed to take this class twice to shake off the rust from that miniscule part of my brain that had algebra still lurking in it. I don't regret it, but hell, I had an amazing amount of frustration with it last semester! And now this semester it's coming together so much more easily.


One interesting thing in this class is that you can re-take any test short of the final. They have an A form and B form of the test. You have to complete a self-review and turn it in at the test session, you're then given the A form. After that, you have one week to go over your missed questions with the instructor or a math lab aide, do a written explanation of what your mistakes were, and you can then take the B form. However, you can score a max of 95 on the B.

This is the first time that I've seen a class that's really structured to help you succeed. They do a huge amount of work to help you succeed in the class.


Now here's the cool thing. They finally finished processing my transcripts from Phoenix, mapping everything that I've taken to their course numbers. My algebra class that I took in 1979 maps to the course AFTER the one that I'm taking right now! So that saves me one course for my continuing edjumacayshun.

So I now have something like 120 hours at NMSU! But once again, they're not mapped into exactly what I need for a degree, but it'll come. One thing that I thought was really cool was that a poetry class that I took many moons ago mapped to a 300-level class!


I need to sit down with my processed transcript and load it into a database so that I have a ready summary of what applies where. Maybe I'll do it over spring break, the computer lab'll be open and I'll want to put in my massive 19 hours since I won't be working this weekend -- we leave for Phoenix in the morning for the Arizona Renaissance Festival! WOOT!

IMDBs Top 100 "What I've Seen" list

The ones that I listed as Started are probably more accurately described as films that I've seen various segments of, I have not neccessarily started them from the beginning and stopped watching it at some point. It looks like I've finished 63 and I've seen pits and bieces of another seven.
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