Love is in the Air
Posted February 16, 2009 at 01:11 PM by Warpy
Tags achievements, character, holiday events, humor, role-playing
So we've come to the time of the year when Alliance warlocks are reduced to molesting gnomes for achievement points! No one posts about what Horde warlocks do; it's just too gruesome.
Believe it or not, some of us, even me, did get involved in this event before there were achievements. It has less to offer the practical player than many of the other holiday events: no rep, no experience, no gold, no raid-quality epic drops, none of that. It's just good, silly fun. For those who want the details on the achievements, check out Oliselia's Love is in the Air - Achievement Guide.
I've been pretty serious about the holiday achievements, in part because they give me another excuse to group with my guildies. But if the RNG (random number generator) plays a big part in a given achievement, there's a good chance I won't get it, at least for Warpy. Bad luck runs in my family, and somehow has been passed on to my unfortunate imaginary warlock in spades!
For the Hallowed achievements, he couldn't get a Sinister Squashling to save his life, not with frequent visits to the Headless Horsemen or more frequent ones to Innkeepers. This holiday, it's the dreaded Bag of Candies. With a roughly average droprate of 1 in 6, my warlock hasn't gotten one.
- Just a zillion Silver Shafted Arrows
- ten zillion Love Fools,
- three Romantic Picnic Baskets,
- and a Truesilver Shafted Arrow twice!
- He even got a Lovely Black Dress, and, I assure you that he looks terrible in it.
Gender Bending?
This being the first year people were doing these achievements, trade chat was full of people asking questions about how to do the various tasks. I wish I had screenshot of the chat window when this one kid started protesting that his character was being made to be "gay".
For that matter, I wish I could remember why I had the trade channel turned on.
At least the kid had stopped to think about the whole event, instead of mindlessly grinding out the achievements. For the ruthless pursuers of the Violet Proto-Drake, the gender of the hapless NPC from whom they plan to wring a gift for their next achievement is irrelevant! But for a role-player, it may be a more serious matter, even (perhaps especially) if the character is gay or lesbian.
For the last few days, my death knight has been wandering around with perfume in his backpack. Is he gay, fond of perfume, or just too cheap to buy cologne as well?
As it turns out, for all but maybe one achievement (which I mention later), your toon is not obliged to court one gender rather than another for an achievement. Since all the guards in Ironforge are male and all of those in Darnassus are female, any toon relying on guards to get the gifts to finish achievements on their own is going to end up pursuing NPCs of the same gender in one city, and of the opposite gender in another. If you really want guard's cards, group with someone else to collect and exchange stacks of them.
One of the achievements requires a Gift of Adoration, which has to be given by a townsperson, not a guard, and townspeople everywhere come in both genders. There is no achievement for getting a Pledge of Adoration from a guard, or for an Alliance Gift Collection (or its Horde Equivalent). Of course, you will have to look around to find a love-lorn townsperson of the appropriate gender for your toon and maybe even go into buildings.
The one achievement which may require courtship of a particular gender, in fact of a particular toon, is Flirt with Disaster (or its Horde equivalent). In this case, however, role-players might have bigger problems with their characters getting smashed on alcohol than about the other details. Believe you me, after 5 Jugs of Bourbon, your toon won't be sure what Sraaz is, let alone what gender he is.
There are, as always, far more bizarre doings in Ironforge than guys giving Valentine cards to other guys. It turns out Alexander Calder, already the most unpredictable warlock in Azeroth, gets pretty hostile with non-warlocks, but still expects love tokens from them!
Love is not always a pretty thing.
What is Love?
So what is going on during this event? Are the Love Tokens simply the goblin equivalent of cheezy Hallmark cards? Or is the whole token/gift exchange a symbol for something more that Blizzard doesn't necessarily need to animate (in much the same way that none of the major cities have bathroom facilities)?
My guess is... it depends on the character, and one is expected to use one's imagination. If one is a simple achievement-grinder, one may not even have an imagination.
My warlock seems unlikely to get seriously physical with some Sentinel who won't even tell him her name, but might well buy her (or in the case of a pushy dwarf guard, him) a drink and flirt a little. The death knight... well, I'm not sure and I don't think I want to know. If Alexander Calder or Sraaz are involved, perhaps the less said, the better.
Love Is In the Air comes to the Undercity as well, and given the state of deterioration of most of the Forsaken, I suspect a lot the romance is actually Platonic. It sort of adds to the tragic atmosphere of the place. I also don't see a lot of baby undead being wheeled or carried about the Undercity, and a good thing too.
Baby, Don't Hurt Me
I had a crisis on my hands. I'd assembled an Alliance Gift Collection, I was voting for my favorite leader if I turned it in. Last year, no problem, I voted for Bolvar Fordragon, but he's no longer around. I was tempted to go turn it in at Orgrimmar and vote for Thrall, but the last time I went there, the local Horde attacked me and had to be killed.
I find the new King of Stormwind too insipid for words, and Magni has been all about bad decisions from day one: the Trogg situation in the gnome/dwarf starting area, the Alterac Valley invasion, the Blackrock problem, etc. I'd consider Tyrande (this year's front runner on Kul Tiras), except she's leaving most of her governing to Fandral Staghelm. I guess I'll hope that recent events in Wrath of the Lich King and the restoration of two brothers and his daughter, all of whom have more sense than he has, help straighten Magni out.
Total Comments 2
Comments
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Baby undead? And you told me I needed to stay off drugs, Warpy!Posted February 16, 2009 at 06:58 PM by Jive
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Loved this warpy! I'm all about the festivals, and while other less interested players make fun of me, I found your post to be supportive to both ends of the spectrum. I too had the issue with the candy bag, but found a way to prevail after the event had 'officially' ended.
I would like to bring to the Den's attention that those going for the violet proto-drake need to have completed the 'brew of the year' achievement LAST YEAR to get it at the end of this brewfest as it requires you to have joined the brew of the month club and sampled ALL of the 12 brews.
So players like myself who didnt join the club (pre LK release event) but have done every holiday achievemnt since the achievement system was instated will only get thier drake in september 2010.Posted February 17, 2009 at 02:52 PM by Vanya<3
