Give me a moment to age myself here. Back in my day, questing wasn’t so speedy, I had to read the quest text and walk to (unmarked!) objectives. Sometimes you’d spend 20 minutes trying to find a certain type of boar to slaughter only to realize it’s on the other side of the world. How did you get there? You walked. This was routine until that fateful day you finally reached level 40, the day you could purchase a mount. Achieving 40 levels wasn’t the hard part, no, getting the 100 gold pieces to buy the training and the mount itself was. You either needed to have a higher level character without much need for currency, the dignity to dance on top of a mailbox for money, or a loyal friend like I did.
His name was Faviopeave. The name came from the “randomize” button below the character creation screen. “I thought it sounded cool,” he told me. He was a Troll Mage, level 60, my idol. His presence was that of a god, I was terrified to talk to him, to say the wrong thing, for fear he would take me off his friends list. I was desperate though, I needed Faviopeave. So I asked him if he could power level me through some dungeons. The plan was for me to stand there gaining effortless experience, loot, and most importantly money, while he massacred each and every thing the dungeon threw at him. All I needed was that mount, and he could go on with whatever powerful deeds he performed elsewhere. To my delight, he agreed to help me out.
Standing there, purple text scattering my computer monitor with experience gains, I felt guilty. What could I ever do for Faviopeave in return? For all I knew, every time he read my, “I have 12 bars left,” to himself in the chat log, he was growing with frustration. But he never complained, he was silent all the way until the end, slipping a “you’re welcome,” as he returned home.
Faviopeave was my friend, I didn’t know who he really was, but his silent demeanor and kindness felt suffice enough to refer to him that way. Days later I was questing in style on my giant mount, a privilege Faviopeave granted me.
He never asked for anything in return. In some way, I wish I still knew him now. At some point in my World of Warcraft career, I could have lent him a hand. I’ve logged onto that particular server since then, but his name in my friends list was unlit for years. I still went back, hoping maybe I’ll catch him, give him an update, say hello.
Faviopeave, if for some reason you’re reading this, thank you. Thank you for making my first MMO experience that much better by helping me earn enough cash for my ride. Thank you for helping me out. Thank you for giving me friendship during a time I had so much left to learn.
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