It’s pretty self-indulgent of me to post this, so it’s going up on a Tuesday when there wouldn’t normally be any post anyway.
Long ago, in days of yore, I played World of Warcraft. A lot. Truth be told, I love that game. I think its overall quality has gone downhill over the years, but I still love it, and have very fond memories of the time I spent playing it. And aside from being massive amounts of fun, the game fostered a number of positive changes in my life. It gave me a vessel with which I could remain close to some of my friends even after I moved far away, and it allowed me to make new friends, one of which I’m now involved with. Without the years I spent playing World of Warcraft, I never would have started writing Curse of Senility. If I hadn’t started writing Curse of Senility, I never would have been noticed by WoW Insider and hired by them to write Blood Pact. And without the confidence of knowing that people were willing to give me money for making words, I don’t know if I would have ever taken writing seriously enough to bother maintaining Papers & Pencils as long as I have.
So yeah, WoW played a big role in my life. And my character in WoW, the only one I ever took very seriously at all, is Sentai Grehsk, The Corpse Seeker. My warlock was the first character I rolled, and he’s the one I’ll always love. On the Silver Hand Role Playing server, I was the senile old warlock who rambled on about how much he loved fancy hats, and behind closed doors became a cunning, and sometimes ruthless, diplomat. It’s a little embarrassing just how much time and effort I put into the character and his backstory. And it is really cool to see him drawn so awesomely, courtesy of my very talented ladyfriend.
But if you don’t care about WoW, it’s just an awesome picture of a wizard. That’s cool, right?