The Kindness of Strangers

2/21/09

As we’ve already established, I’m an altoholic. I’m also a bit of a recluse. Most of the time I prefer doing my own thing, and don’t like having to deal with people on a regular basis. When I first started WoW, I joined the first guild that invited me. I left after a little while, because the conversation scrolling by on guild chat was about as interesting as trade chat, and I didn’t want to double my punishment (yeah, I know you can turn trade chat off, I just keep it up because very occasionally there’s some topic that’s interesting, or a good deal comes up on it).

Nowadays, I play WoW like I used to play Diablo II online; I kind of view people as my gatherers. I don’t have the patience or time to grind for dropped recipes on 3 different servers, but if it happens to drop for someone, and they happen to put it on the AH, and I don’t have the recipe, I’ll probably grab it, no matter the price. It’s not that I’m shy around people, and I don’t talk about WoW ALL the time - though Steve or Francois might beg to differ.

Anyway, I had started toons on both Draka (PvE)(Horde side) and Gurubashi (PvP)(Ally side) to help out Kevin and Francois, respectively. They both ended up transferring those toons from those servers, and I was left with a few more toons on my account, bringing me closer to the 50 toon limit set by Blizzard. I decided to get rid of the temptation of playing those toons, and went ahead with it this evening. I logged into Gurubashi, and discovered that I still had a bunch of engineering stuff that hadn’t been moved to Horde side before Francois’ toon got transferred. I didn’t want to waste the recipes/mats/gold that I had collected, so I decided to host a giveaway. I posted on trade “Looking for dedicated low level engineer. I don’t want advice, pst link to engineering for a reward.”

People are naturally suspicious of strange posts, so I didn’t get many replies at first. So, I decided to make my message a bit less cryptic. “I’m deleting this toon, and I want to give my stuff to a low level engineer that shows worthiness. You won’t be disappointed.” The criteria I was looking for was someone who took the time and effort to actually acquire dropped recipes, either by buying them on the AH, or by grinding for them by themselves. The Johnny-come-latelies to engineering that powerlevel it at 80 are usually the ones that sneer at the low level trinkets and bombs, and refuse to admit how useful they could be. I didn’t want to reward them, so I was looking for someone a bit like me, who powereleveled engineering to 225 at level 20ish, and would appreciate the gift I was giving them.

Well, a couple of high levels posted me, wanting to know what I was up to. One level 72 said he had 360 engineering (I think, fuzzy on the numbers). That didn’t sound like my type of player, so I kept looking. Another level 80 had a whopping 99 out of 150 engineering. No, sorry. The level 72 was persistent, though. He asked, “What about a level 19 with 165 engineering?” I said he could log him in, and I’d check him out. He posted his engineering list, and while he was definitely a twink, he didn’t just do it for the goggles. He had the Goblin Jumper Cable recipe, and the Minor Recombobulator and Gnomish Universal Remote trinkets equipped. I thought he deserved a reward.

So, Endeavour of Gurubashi, I salute you. You showed perserverance in talking to me, and dedication in engineering by getting all the recipes you could for your twink. You deserved the 462 gold, the Schematic: Arcanite Dragonling, the Schematic: Sniper Scope, and the rest of the stuff in my bank that I gave you. Oh yeah, I also gave him 3x Recipe: Tasty Lion Steak, and explained how much it could sell for on the neutral AH.

One toon deleted. On to Draka. Pretty much the same story, a disbelieving audience, a couple of high level engineers were the only ones to post. One, a level 70 Tauren Hunter named GSMoomoo, posted his Goblin recipe book. 315 out of 375, not bad, and he had learned the Goblin Jumper Cables XL, the Mechanical Yeti recipe from Winterspring, and the Snake Burst Firework recipe from Feralas. He deserved it, in my opinion.
On Draka, I had most of my stuff transferred to Kevin, so all I had to give him were 45 Truesilver Bars, 57 Thorium Ore, 4 x Pattern: Bright Yellow Shirt, 4 x Recipe: Elixir of Giant Growth, 4 x Recipe: Discolored Healing Potion, 5 x Formula: Enchant Chest - Lesser Mana, and also 152 gold. I asked if I could give him some advice, and he said yes, so I told him what to sell in the Horde AH, and what to sell in Booty Bay AH. He said he wished that we could play together, which would have been cool, but the whole reason for the giveaway was so I could delete some toons. I gave him my blog address in case he ever wanted some advice, I /saluted him, logged, and deleted the toon.

That was pretty fun, actually! I’m thinking of perhaps doing this weekly on Demon Soul/Daggerspine/Darrowmere, seeking out a deserving engineer to give a a Lifelike Mechanical Toad or 50 gold, or give them the choice to post it on the AH while I price higher, so they could double their money. Hehehe, I’ll hook them on the AH before they know what hit them.

I might even do it on the opposite faction of those servers, seeking out a worthy Alchemist to give a Recipe: Elixir of Giant Growth to, since I usually have a backlog of those recipes on Ally side. They just don’t sell as quickly as the Savory Deviate Delight recipe.