15 Minutes of Fame: Slow road to max level

15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – both the renowned and the relatively anonymous. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about at 15minutesoffame (at) wowinsider (dot) com.

How long does it take you to get to level 70? This week's 15 Minutes of Fame shines its spotlight on a young player who has drifted placidly along for one and a half years, up to the grand old stature of level 49. Molii of Argent Dawn has spent most of his WoW life roleplaying. As time has crept by, though, his perception of the game and its myriad goals and attractions have morphed, and Molii is hearing the siren song of raiding and the Arenas. Will he get serious about leveling? Where will he end up focusing his game time? We'll peek inside the motivations of an eighth-grade gamer to see where he might be headed next.

Molii is one of those guys you've probably seen around. In fact, when we first heard from Molii, the first thing we thought was "Bingo! This is the guy who ends up next to you at the mailbox in town, over and over and over." If you're anything like us, you get curious about exactly what that guy is mailing -- and why despite how often you've seen him around while you level cap your own character and dip back down for new ones, he's still clip-clopping along through his 40s.

For one thing, he's relatively young; the player behind Molii is in eighth grade. For another, he hasn't played straight through since he started his characters a year and a half ago, and he sometimes gets sidetracked into other games and experiences. For all the arguing WoW fans do over the definition of "casual" and "how young is 'young,'" Molii seems to be exactly that player.

15 Minutes of Fame: Tell us about all your active characters, from the lowbies all the way up to Molii. What makes Molii your favorite?
Molii: I have made quite a few of characters ranging from different servers, most of which have been deleted through uninterest, though I still have a few. There is Gilhelle, a level 11 Human Warlock currently questing in Westfall. I created Gilhelle from interest of how much Warlocks "pwn" (or so I hear). There's Gernnt, a level 2 Druid which I used to help my mom in-game when she tried out WoW. She ended up liking it, but as of now does not have enough time to play with work and all. Trinaje, a level 11 Gnome Warrior, I have already skilled her up to Journeyman Engineering (I think) and Mining, and she's my favorite lil' tanker. Eserai, a Night Elf I mainly use to roleplay in Goldshire (since Molii is not befitting for the town, or as she thinks) and I've also spent probably over 10g just to get her some nice stuff to wear.

Then there's Molii, my main, my lovable Hunter, with her lovable pet (whom she's had ever since level 10 when I ran from Darnasus to Stormwind.) Molii is my favorite, because she just blends in with my personality when roleplaying, and I am in love with the Hunter class. It seems like the only befitting one. Hunter's Mark, Aspect of the Hawk, then shoot the mobs to near death before they can even reach me. If they get close, get a Mongoose Bite on 'em, and they'll be down for sure. She was also the character I had done most of the dungeon runs with, and the one whom I have made many new friends with.

What made you choose an RP server when you made your first character? Was it sheer luck that you ended up on Argent Dawn?
I picked Argent Dawn, because back when me and my brother first got the WoW trials, I made a character before he did. I started scrolling through the RP category, and the name reminded me of the galaxy I was playing on in Star Wars Galaxies. Eclipse and Argent Dawn -- they sounded similar, so I chose it. I also probably was looking at the server rate, but who knows. I think I was very lucky to have picked Argent Dawn. Though we are not the highest rated ones in PvP or Arena, we still are all awesome ^_^.

You've called Goldshire the "roleplaying hub" on your server. We've heard it called other, less reputable things. Have you had any trouble with other players getting too personal? How do you handle that?
I laughed at this, and thought of a guild name I saw just a few days ago. It was called "CYBERING IN GOLDSHIRE" or something like that. In situations where people will get either too close or too in-depth with Molii, I'll simply just laugh about it and either try to change the subject or walk away if they won't. There are also the very disrespectful kind, the ones who will create level 1 humans, strip 'em naked, then hit on you in /whispers. Though sometimes I'll just listen to them, and once they're done trying to get "cyebrz", I'll just say I'm a dude and see how either shocked, disgusted, or embarrased they are. I would never get into relationships with people in roleplay; it just goes against my moral fiber. :(

Is there a regular group of players that you meet in Goldshire, so that you can develop friendships and ongoing "stories"?
With Eserai, I have met a girl called Samari, and she's the one I regularly hang out with. If she's not on, I'll just find someone to talk to. Though I was in a roleplaying guild called the "Defias Brotherhood" for a few days, they got name-changed, and I forgot the guild leader's name.

Is your current guild an RP guild? How much of your guild time is spent roleplaying vs. grouping, questing, and so on?
On Eserai, she currently is not in a guild. On Molii, however, she's in <Enclave of the Bear>. They are a huge raid guild, and they even took down the third boss in Mt. Hyjal a few days ago. I never see any of them in Goldshire whether I'm on Molii and Eserai, so they're not really a roleplay guild.

Do you think being on the young side as a player makes any difference to you or the others you roleplay with?

I do, and I've had a big opinion on this for awhile. I found anyone who would neglect you or your character from roleplay situations (not cyberz, other stuff LOL) when they found out your age, would make me just scream "Ageist!" in my head. It was my excuse back in Mos Entha on Tatooine, and it's my excuse now.

I am also disappointed that when people will ask you your age or gender after a while of roleplaying, that they might treat you different than what they had thought of earlier. Say I'm on Eserai. She's a "hot night elf rogue." And most of the dumb crowd will go for either "hot college student" or "hot girl" and set me to be that in real life. They'll treat me as if they were treating a woman. Once they find out that I'm a dude, or I'm not even in high-school yet, they'll either just completely stop talking to me or be completely rude from there on. I just find it bad roleplaying skills. You shouldn't judge people from what they are in real-life, since that's not what roleplaying is about. Roleplaying is becoming a new person in another place, and that should be your personality while roleplaying.

Does your brother still play? Do you two play together?
My brother recently re-subscribed to World of Warcraft when my mom tried it, and though I did help him with some quests, mainly in Dustwallow Marsh, we don't play together that much. He has a level 37 (or 38, dunno) human mage, so we don't have enough to really do.

About how much time do you devote to WoW on a regular basis?
Unless I have something planned during the weekdays after school, I'll usually devote 8-10 hours from Monday to Friday, and maybe 14-16 hours from Friday night to Sunday night.

Do any of your RL friends play with you?
About two to three. Robert is the guy I'll play with on Nathrezim, and I met him this year from school. And I also will play with my other friend Jorge, who I met last year, on TTR or PTR sometimes. My best friend, Ben, used to play WoW on Eitrigg, but he quit. Though I did get a call from him today asking what he should set the patchlist in his realmlist.wtf to, so he may either be starting up again or playing on private servers. And of course, my brother is my friend, so yeah. :)

What do your parents think about WoW? Do they ever watch you roleplay?
My parents are fine with WoW. Though they care if I'm playing WoW and I'm not done with a project for school or something, they're fine with it. They don't hassle me a lot to get off or to spend less time on it. They know that I know my standards and when I should stop playing, whether it's carpal tunnel, eye-hurts or just boredom. But also no, I never let my parents watch me play games where it's not just focused on one thing. I'll let 'em look at my character if I want 'em to, and I'll tell them how I got a new sword or a new level, but other than that they don't watch me roleplay or play.

So now, you're dreaming about raiding and PvP. What's the attraction -- what makes this interesting to you?
So as I figured roleplaying had indeed existed in World of Warcraft (and very luckily for me, I chose a RP server at the beginning) and it rocks. But I've been thinking to myself lately, "I want to raid, I wanna kill Illidan, I wanna compete in Arena teams and go to Alterac Valley." I knew that the hours I had spent roleplaying, indeed very fun, but had been blocking the time I could have been spending levelling up and getting to do this stuff.

It's the whole organization thing that speaks out to me. Using Vent, listening to just a few guys who know what they're doing, knowing that you're the one that took off 44,000 HP from that boss, and seeing all the end-game content that I wouldn't see when I'm just a low-level. It's the feeling that it could take two hours just to take one creature down, and that they are people dedicated enough to just have fun while doing it.

Is raiding something that higher-level members of your guild do, or do you think you'll need to move on to achieve your goals?
Though I don't quite understand, I think my guild is all raiding. Yes, they accept low-levels into their ranks, but it's mainly just hanging out and raiding for them. Whenever I log on, whenever I'm playing I'll either hear in guild chat, "You guys need help in SSC?" or "We just downed the boss :D." And it's also knowing that the people in the guild are really good at what they do. If I ask a question about some chicken in Tanaris, a lot of them will know the answer, because they've all had their run in the game and can help me and other guys out when needed.