I’d always known that there were many different types of players in World of Warcraft. Just like Richard Bartle’s essay on player types in MUDs, this MMORPG allows many different types of players to find satisfaction. I don’t think it really sunk in until after I met a few of those who fall into other player types such as killer and socializer.

I hadn’t played a lot of WoW since my first group experience. I played briefly during a lunch break at work on Day 5, but then I ran out of time to play later. On Day 6, I had reached level 10, so I focused on completing quests relating to the acquisition of the druid’s bear form.

I focused on individual activities like shopping and simple quests for most of the day. I was a bit careless a couple of times, such as when I got killed in an instant by a mysterious character in charge of wind mounts on disputed land. I also underestimated the power of some annoying Harpys in the Oracle Glade and got myself killed twice.

By Day 7, I felt empowered again after completing some quests by myself. Then I made one of the stupidest newbie mistakes: I assumed that I could do anything alone if I set my mind to it. I thought that I could single-handedly sneak into the Gnarlpine Hold and kill a vicious Gnarlpine leader. I thought I could follow my tested technique of picking the gnarlpines off one by one, but it just doesn’t work when the gnarlpines are close together, as they were in the Hold. I died several times and finally decided to give up and go on another quest.

I went back to the Timberling area to complete a quest for the same guy who wanted the tumors. I had to kill a big monster, and there happened to be a group there already trying to kill it. They were several male night elves that didn’t seem to care about much except killing things. I helped one of them figure out where to find the tumors he needed (which were on the Timberlings). Then I got the whole group to come to the Gnarlpine Hold with me.

Most of the people in this group were of lower levels than I was (between 4 and 7). However, they seemed to want to kill practically any creature in the forest. I led the way (burned in my memory from all my trips to revive to my corpse). I led a successful attack into the hold and they helped me kill the nasty gnarlpine boss just before most of us died. (I ended up dying about five times just trying to get out of the Gnarlpine Hold and eventually got enough time to transport out.)

Even if I died multiple times, I was so happy to have had some help. I am no longer ignorant of the fact that some quests really do require other players in order to succeed. It was fun to fight with those guys because they seemed happy just to kill. Dying didn’t even create much of an obstacle for them. In World of Warcaft, dying won’t set you back – it’s more of an annoyance. I can take a lesson from my group today and not even get annoyed. After all, there is great pleasure to be had from simply killing.