Being Polite, or "How to Let Someone Take Advantage in Three Easy Steps"

I haven't had much to write about recently. I traveled a bit for a wedding, had guests visiting, and got Dustfire from 43 to 55 in the downtime.

Non-Gamer's Guide to This Post

It's called the Gurubashi Arena, and it's a big building like a stadium in Stranglethorn Vale (30-40). When you jump down to the floor, anyone, even people on your side (horde/alliance) can attack you.

Every 3 hours, server time (12, 3, 6, 9), Short John Mithril puts a chest on the arena floor. (You will hear him yelling in STV when he does.) Inside are a few prize items (usually a nice piece of bind-on-equip armor and some sort of potion) and an Arena Master (bind-on-pickup). You must get 12 Arena Masters to get the Arena Grandmaster, a trinket that is very popular among low-level twinks.

However, you must kill everyone else in the arena to get the chest. It's a free-for-all.

-----------

I have 8 thus far. Need 4 more. I've been getting up at 8:30AM every morning for the last two weeks to get the 9AM chest. This is because I, unlike most of the people on my server, am in the same timezone as Zuluhed. So when gamer geeks across the nation are falling into bed (California, 6AM?), I am alone in the arena, nabbing the chest.

Today, a lvl 19 twink was there, getting his first one. I went to stand beside him because neither of us had jumped into the free-for-all pit yet, and he said, "Can I get the trinket, please?" I paused, because I didn't crawl out of bed at insane 8:30AM for nothing. But I'm a pushover and, after dueling (and winning marvelously), I agreed. He, in his thanks, said I could have everything else in the chest.

So the chest hit the floor, I downed a 37 alliance warrior, and the twink handed me all the phat loot from the chest and thanked me prettily. I thought, "That wasn't so bad." And felt kind of good about helping a fellow player.

I mounted up, chatting with the twink in whispers. I asked if he was a girl, since I like knowing other girl players. He said no, that he just thought it was an extra punch in the gut for his enemies to be killed by a girl character.

I shrugged this off and went on my way. He had me add his main to my Friends, which I did, and he promptly jumped on it (a lvl 60) and asked me to instance. I said what I usually say instead of "God, no!" -- "No thank you. I'm busy." We chatted about leveling up and how my friends had been raving about Outlands.

He asked if he could see the shield he'd "given me." I linked it for him to examine, taken aback by his wording. I was 55. He was 19. I wiped the floor with him in that duel, and I could have destroyed him in the arena. I let him get the Arena Master, and I considered him a decent, word-keeping individual for giving me the rest, which he offered to do and which I wouldn't have asked for. I even protected him from the higher-level warrior, who probably would have killed him and taken everything himself.

I let the comment pass. I moved on. I worked on a quest or two. (My mining desperately needs training in Outlands, so I need to get high enough to go through the portal.)

For the next part of the story, I need to remind you how I feel about instance invitations. Particularly the line:

"And even though I know that the people who have been asking me EVERY TIME I LOG ON to instance with them will never ever ever read this, I just want to say: No. I don't want to instance with you. It would be horrible, you're just asking me because I'm a priest, and after finding out I can heal about as well as an Oily Blackmouth, you'd end up leaving me to die."

With friends, such as people I chat with every now and then (a 66 warlock who also chats with my brother comes to mind), I don't mind instance invitations very much, even though I always turn them down. These people have a reasonable expectation that I will consider their offer, since I already know they aren't massive rejects.

An hour or two later, he whispers me again. "Will you heal for Stratholme?"

I had just gotten four quests for Stratholme, all of which were a scary angry red color (green=easy; yellow=not bad; orange=harder; red=death, death, death). So I said, "I can't. I'm not a healer, and my quests for there are red, so I'm too low level."

He said, "K."

Twenty minutes later, twink-boy whispered me again. "Please heal for Stratholme? We need 1 more."

I was fighting a monster, but I replied, "I'm not a healer, my quests are red so I would die, and I don't group with anyone but friends/family."

He said, "K."

And I sighed because it had finally hit me: I had helped an annoying person.

That, kids, is why you always take the chest for yourself.