Today's gameplay went extremely well for me. On my first run through Heroic 25-man Vault of Archavon, I was able to get my hands on Furious Gladiator's Felweave Handguards, currently the best PvP hand piece in the game. It was all luck, really. I happened to be the only Warlock in the raid, and as these can only be worn by Warlocks, the Loot Master had no choice but to give them to me.

I also spent the better half of today farming mats today, allowing me to finally get my Tailoring to 435 so I can craft that Abyssal Bag like I said I would. :) And while I was at that, I helped win Wintergrasp and finally earned enough Stone Keeper's Shards to buy an Exquisite Sunderseer Mantle to help level my alts.

These were just a few of the (more tangible) rewards I gained from today's gameplay, and I wanted to share them with you because they are one of the reasons I play WoW. Now, I say "more tangible" because as we all know, none of these items exist in the real world. In fact, one might argue that it's better to earn real world rewards rather than work so hard for virtual rewards.

And I'd have to agree with the person who makes that claim. :)

You see, WoW isn't about pushing yourself to reach goals in order to feel good about yourself. No, WoW is simply a game, plain in simple. Some people might try to expand it to be something greater than what it really is, but their hopes and dreams will always fall short. These, my friends, are folks who take the game way too seriously.

While I was in Wintergrasp farming materials, a newly acquainted friend and I happened upon some Alliance players fishing. As a Horde player, it's my duty to crush the Alliance to a pulp, whether they're casting Firebolts at me or simply fishing in a pond, which is what they were actually doing. On my server, some zones allow us to fight -- such as Wintergrasp -- while other zones forbid fighting between the factions or at least allow us to turn it off. Seeing as we had no reason to not fight, my new friend and I killed lots of Alliance players and had a good laugh while doing it.

A few minutes later, I got a message from a Horde player, apparently an alt of one of the Alliance toons I had killed. He was a bit pissed that I had killed him, but what did he expect? Was I to just leave him alone while he fished? Whenever I fished in that zone, I always checked my surroundings and fished with other Horde players so that I would not be killed so easily. In this game, I've learned the optimal strategy because I saw a potential problem and thought of a solution.

Some players like that Alliance guy take this game too seriously. They feel the need to tell off players who kill them unnecessarily, steal items in-game, or even just do silly things like /poke and /punch them while they quest. While these things are certainly annoying, they can be avoided with a little forethought and are great learning experience. Now, if only people would learn that... :/

The game isn't always as generous as it was today. Heck, I usually wander around the game most days doing random things to try and earn gold so that I can afford basic repairs. If I make extra, I save my gold for some bigger reward! Every so often, I'll get a player who messages me asking for gold, and then starts insulting me because I refuse to. It's my gold, and I earned it! I actually remember reading an article on WoW.com about the game teaching people to be self-sufficient and work together to achieve common goals.

Basically, I want to get the point across that WoW really is just a game. When you next think about WoW, I don't want you to think about the crazy people who play it days on end and never eat or sleep. There will always be those people. And more importantly, I don't want you to be one of those people who automatically hates WoW simply because of that stereotype, especially if you've never played the game before. There will always be these people as well, but that doesn't mean you have to be one of them. :)