MMORPG: How a Computer Game Becomes Deadly Serious by Emile van Veen Page B

third. “I always get thirsty when I play WoW. Did I tell you that I joined a guild today?”
    “Weren’t you in a guild yet?” he asked surprised.
    This time, Rebecca really laughed out loud. People at the bar looked up trying to find out what was so funny. She wasn’t mocking him: it was just pure mirth finding its way out. She actually shook with it. When she had calmed down a little, she steadied herself with more beer.
    “Did you really think that I just ‘happened’ to be on this server? Out of all those realms out there, I just happened to be on the same one as our friends?”
    “I don’t know. I hadn’t thought about it.”
    “Well, let me tell you then. No, I wasn’t on the Sylvanas realm before. It’s possible to transfer to another realm, if you pay for it. That’s what I did. I moved two characters from my own server to the Sylvanas server.”
    “Two? I thought you only had Killermage.”
    She waved her finger at him, as if he were a naughty child. “Never underestimate a girl! No, Sir, I have ten different characters!”
    With a deferential bow, he picked up her empty glass and walked to the bar. The bartender made eye contact with him and nodded when Robert raised two fingers at him. He sat again opposite Rebecca. “Why ten?” he resumed.
    “Because there are ten different classes. I wanted to have one of each class.”
    He thought back to the game for a few seconds, but couldn’t come up with so many. She saw him racking his brains.
    “The available classes are priest, mage, warlock, shaman, hunter, rogue, druid, paladin, warrior and deathknight.”
    He was impressed. “Maybe you’d better tell me a little more about it. But I mean a little more. My brain can’t hold much more information after today.”
    “Okay, I’ll keep it short. The only important thing to remember is that every class has its strengths and weaknesses. A mage for example, can do a lot of damage in a short time. That damage can also be done from a distance. The drawback is that mages can only wear armor made of cloth, which makes them extremely vulnerable. The armor value of cloth is almost zero. That’s why mages are often called glass cannons. If the enemy gets too close the mage is as good as dead. On the other side of the spectrum you have the warrior, who wears heavy plate armor and can take quite a beating without dying. In between you have classes that wear leather, like rogues, and classes that wear mail, which gives even more protection.”
    “And does heavy plate protect against magical spells?”
    “Good question, and the answer is, no, it doesn’t. Resistance to magic is something else entirely, but let’s not go there. I’m trying to keep it simple.” Robert felt his head tumbling with all this information, but he nodded at her, not to disappoint her.
    “In general, the classes are divided into three categories, according to the roles they fulfil when operating in a group. First you have the DPS’ers, which means Damage Per Second. They dish it out to the enemy. Second you have the Tanks. They are the people who close with the enemy, making them focus their attention and aggression on them. It’s their job to make sure that the enemy doesn’t go after the DPS guys who are actually killing him. The last category are the healers. They keep up the health of the rest of the group by casting healing spells.”
    “I see. And what exactly is my hunter, Gunslinger?”
    “A hunter is a damage dealer, no doubt about it. So they’re DPS. Hunters are strong versus cloth wearers, but pretty useless against plate wearers. Those bullets don’t worry someone wearing an inch of plate.”
    He nodded, starting to see the logic of it.
    After a big gulp Rebecca continued, “I also transferred my rogue. Rogues can make themselves invisible, which might come in handy. My rogue is Alliance by the way, so on the opposite side of the fence from your point of view. That makes it easier to sneak around. If she had