Breakfast Topic: What are today's most common zone-wide calls for help?
Where is Mankirk's wife?
Even today, most players have heard of the above (misspoken) zone-wide plea, so common in Barrens general chat during the classic WoW era that it became the stuff of legend. (Do check out that link -- a fascinating look back at the memes and humor of early WoW.)
On a smaller scale, back on the dusky beaches and forests of Darkshore during the prehistoric era of beta and early WoW, we chuckled at the inevitable, bashful quavers of new players: "Where is the red crystal?" You'd think a giant, glowing red crystal embedded on the side of a mountain range would be easily found. You'd be wrong. The mountains lay behind the trees, in a forest particularly dense with mobs. Anyone who approached too closely was introduced to the joys of new body orifices by the local raging moonkin, a population that took group solidarity to a whole new level. Held at bay, many players missed spying the crystal's location.
The rest of us used the pleas for information as an opportunity to sort out who was who in the zone. At a time when guilds were still forming, how (or if) a player responded to the steady barrage of queries about the crystal showed who was a regular, who was willing to be cool and talk with players, and who was more concerned with mockery and trolling. It's a memory that springs to mind immediately when someone asks me about early WoW, entwined in the strands of my WoW experiences.
What's the burning question of today's new zones on your realm? Anything that seems to be on the cusp of becoming a Mists-era meme?
