(Meet Dustin Stevens – Novice PC gamer and MMO virgin. Dustin decided to sacrifice a week’s vacation from work to dive headlong into the world’s biggest time sink and we’re going along with him. Join us for today’s chapter of Dustin Stevens vs. The World… of Warcraft.)

Date: Thursday, July 22, 2010

Time: 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Beard Status: I Look Like a Lead Character from Lost

Personal Smell: Mrs. Stevens is Packing Bags

Character: Kniveschau (Level 10 Blood Elf Hunter)

By now, I was starting to think that WoW was becoming a bit by-the numbers. There was a ritual to the game: Go to a new area with a blacked-out map, accept quests, and slowly fill in the map as you hunt down bad guys and bring things from point A to point B. I had the pattern down to a science.

But that’s not to say I wasn’t having fun:

I frolicked through the forests…

…saw the sights…

…and went for a dip in the pool. It was sort of like a virtual vacation during my real vacation (Maybe I should be doing some of these things IRL…).

But I was sort of tuning-out in terms of the gameplay. I thought I’d seen it all and was settled in for the eternal treadmill of becoming more and more powerful while facing more and more powerful enemies.

And then the most amazing thing happened: I found more stuff in the game! First I was assigned some quests to learn how to tame wild animals, eventually allowing me to get a pet to join me in combat. One that would level up with me. One that would take some of the sting out of the loneliness of playing this MMO alone.

Then I picked my two professions: skinning and leatherworking. Now I wasn’t just killing things to grind for experience points; I was killing things to take their skins and make them into boots. And my professions leveled up too. I suddenly see how someone can sink a hundred hours into one playthrough.

—–

Date: Friday, July 23, 2010

Time: 12:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Beard Status: I Look Like an Extra from Lost

Personal Smell: They’re Holding Interventions For Me

Character: Kniveschau (Level 13 Blood Elf Hunter)

Three hours into the day I had all the leather I needed to make myself a set of armor, upgrade it, and find a matching purse. This armor is actually mildly weaker than what I’d been wearing before, but there’s something satisfying about wearing clothes you’d made yourself. God, I shouldn’t be enjoying playing dress up this much. Maybe those guys in high school were right about me. I desperately needed to find something less gay to do.

So I went out to find myself a pet. I settled on a cat, who was cleverly named “Cat” when I found him. I eventually figured out how to change his name to “Caboose,” to match my real life cat, and how to feed him to make him happy and earn combat bonuses.

I don’t know if you can read the text in this pic, but it doesn’t make any sense anyway. Guess it’s all role-playing speak. I’m also not sure why my cat is invisible. Like I said, there’s a lot to this game.

The combat got a lot easier with my new kitty friend, although he wasn’t subtle… he attacked everything within a four-square mile area. That can be rough when you want to wait for your life to recharge.

This is why my cat died a lot.

So here I am, going into the last couple of days of my experiment. A few questions have yet to be answered, so I’d better get back to it. If anyone has any last questions or thought, post them in the comments here, tweet me or e-mail me. Or track me down in the game and we can dance together.