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Night. Elf. Mohawk.

November 16th, 2009 | Commentary

We’ve been hacked, folks.

Just when you think it was safe to head back towards Goldshire or the Den…

“Where’eva I go, I makin’ Warcraft look gooooood…”

Yeah… we have been hacked. By a sinister force more vile that the Lich King…

Or even Hogger… (gasp!)

Mr. T and his Mohawk Grenades.

Don’t get me wrong. I think Mr. T is cool and the Mohawk Grenade is a cute idea. It’s also a pain in the tail to work it into role-playing.

But first… let’s commence with the Jibber-Jabber. More here in Warcraft’s promo vid:

Where do you find him?
Journey towards your starter area of choice – look for the Night Elf Mohawk.

After a bit of jibber-jabber, you get the goods! You can get 5, which last a day. It’s a small, throwable aoe that “pops” a Night Elf Mohawk head on you. This goes on from November 16 – and it’s open ended at the present, according to the handy-dandy Mohawk Grenade FAQs page: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/faq/mohawkgrenade.xml

Ok… now what?

From a role-player’s view… my first reaction is quite profound.

“I got nothing.”

How do I RP this off? Do I make sure I have my “Hide Helm” toggled? (by the way… it doesn’t work!)

I can see it now. Come Story Night (my rp event), just over 24hrs as I write this:

Grrrrr… I can already “hear” me blinking when I am trying to host.

Great, so I can’t dodge it. I can, however, right-click and kill the “buff”. But you know that one will be lobbed again… that’s for sure. So, we have a in-game item and game mechanic that could be used as an attempt to wreck roleplay.

Will griefers use it?

Will it disrupt things and wreck my event? By a griefer or otherwise?

Will it tear a fabric in the space-time continuum and leave me in a crumpled heap before Mr. T and the Night Elf Mohawks?

The answer is simple, as simple as the possible Mohawk that may appear on my head… No.

Life will not end, this is all temporary. All in all, I will have more great and fun nights than wrecked ones. Griefers will grief – but not every person is a griefer. We sometimes as roleplayers get a knee-jerk reaction whenever some people see anyone we don’t “know” in game. Like I have said before, it’s better to see new folks as potential role-players – not “troublemakers”. We are all here to have fun, right?

So, the “Shaw” abides.

Whatever happens… happens. Much like in everyday life, there are things we cannot control – so we roll with the punches, roll up our sleeves and do the best we can. You may cannot change what happens, but you can change how it affects you.

Be calm and move on. Ignore it if that works better – better yet, try to find an RP way of adding it. Try to diffuse it by communication if you can. Report as a last resort. I’ll most likely be right-clicking a bunch of those, since I really am not partial to having stuff “forced” on me ICly. Also remember not every person with these are a griefer – some are just folks trying to have fun with a cool new gadget. No harm, no foul.

Heck, I may just shrug it off, or go nuts and go something. You never know. May be good for a laugh. It’s not the end of the world.

A challenge for you all: Find some ways to use the Mohawk Grenade as a RP tool. Surprise me!

Yeah, you will get the here and there griefer, but helping that another new person learn about role-playing makes up for it. The more we support each other, the better the RP and connections. It may be an added pain for a bit, but there’s more good out there than bad. The bad just has better advertising.

Let’s try to change that, ok?

Until next time…

Keep role-playing!

PS: So, slightly related to all this jibber-jabber… what do you think they will have next?