Thursday, August 26, 2010

Time is Money Friend (When it's Appropriate to Say No)

I'm one of those people who brings their true sense of self into WoW.  I don't use my avatar of pixels as an excuse to be rude, mean, or other otherwise a jerk to other players in the game.  In real life, I'm helpful (to a fault), and always try to see other peoples point of view.  In WoW, I'm not much different, but there are times when you have to put your foot down, and tell others that you WON'T help them.

I was doing dailies on the Argent Tournament grounds when another player whispered if I can help him.  It was his first time with the Argent quests, and I wasn't doing anything else outside of turning in my dailies, so I said yes.  We killed some scourge in Icecrown, then I showed him where in Grizzly Hills he had to go for the maiden quest (you have to kiss a bunch of frogs, one turns into a maiden, who gives you a sword to turn in).  Technically, I should have asked for some gold simply for the time, but I'm not really that kind of player, and he seemed like a kid, so I cut him some slack.

I get a whisper from him a couple days later, and I wish I took a screenshot.  I was doing dailies in Icecrown again, and he said he was waiting in LFG queue.  Out of curiosity, I asked if he was a tank or dps, considering he is a death knight.  He said dps and asked why.  I told him I also play a pally, and was considering tanking with it.  This is where I wanted would pull my hair out if I still had any.  The conversation went something like this:

Player: "I have a pally too.  It's level 8. Can you play it to level 15 and run deadmines?"
Me:     "Um.  No.  That's for you to do. I'm willing to run you through deadmines when you get there though."
Player: "Now or later."
Me:     "Later obviously."

Five minutes pass.  He logs out, then I get a whisper random whisper.  He said it's his pally, and if I could run him now.  My patience was pushed.  I tried to put it in context that this is obviously a kid I'm dealing with here, but the fact that he's a dk means not only does he have (or should), experience playing the game, but he should know better that other players can't drop what they are doing on a dime.  I politely told him no, logged out, and ate lunch.

So what lesson did I learn?  First, you give someone an inch, they'll try to take the proverbial mile.  Second, if I help a player like I did this one, I'm asking for a fee.  That time I helped him consumed about half an hour of my time.  Time I had intended to use to farm mats for my paladin's crafting skills. 

I put my foot down, and for the first time I believe, I didn't feel much guilt for it.

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