A Conversation In /tell

So while we wait for WAR, I'm stirring up the leftovers of my WoW meal, which are increasingly unappetizing yet I hope there's still a nugget or two of fun left.  Therefore I spend a half hour a day running a few dailies on my main, just saving up some cash and saying hi to my friends there.

Today I get a whisper from an old guildie -- Azzkik the gnome rogue (yeah, it's a juvenile name, but he's probably the only rogue I've ever come to like and deeply respect) -- whom I haven't spoken with in a while.  We shoot the Charmin for a bit, and he asks what I've been up to.

"Oh, not much.  Work.  Writing.  I'm doing a Warhammer Online blog these days.  Kind of fun, actually, what with the vestal virgins and fresh fruit laid at my doorstep every morning by adoring readers," I say.

"Warhammer Online?" Azzkik asks.  "That's a game?"

Pause.  Gasp.  Pause.  /r "WHAT?  You haven't heard of it?"

My friends, he had not heard of WAR.  This conversation quickly went from a casual catch-up to a full-fledged WAR evangelical speech.  To make a really long conversation short enough to retain your interest, I spent a good 40 minutes laying out WAR's features until he was about salivating for it.  I didn't expect to get all pushy about it, but when you're excited about a hobby, you want to share that passion with others.  I want all of my good friends from other games to come try this out, especially the ones bored to death with the Arena/Raid/Rep grind of WoW.

Azz was especially fascinated with the capital city warfare, and I tried to answer all of the questions he had about it -- what enemies could do in a captured city, how the defenders could get it back, statues, looting, dungeons, the whole nine yards.  By the end of our talk, he'd promised to check out the blog (hey Azz!) and look more into the game.

The moral of this story: word of mouth is THE best advertising money can't buy.  If we're all to help make WAR successful in terms of numbers of subscribers, we each need to do our part and educate our friends and families that there is something beyond World of Warcraft -- something possibly way better.