August 23, 2006

• Beauty and the Beast, WoW, and Church

  What could those three possibly have in common?  The answer: the story
  within the story.  In fact, this concept exists within nearly all
  movies and stories, but Beauty and the Beast is such a clear example. 
  In the beginning of the movie, you see Belle in her country life, with
  her small joys (reading) and small annoyances (Gaston).  She’s a
  likeable character, and we find ourselves easily identifying with her. 
  That draws us into the story.  But soon she is drawn into a bigger
  story of her own, complete with magic castle and monstrous beast.  (The
  twist, of course, is that the real beast is Gaston, but that’s another
  post in itself.)  Since we’re already hooked in the story, we care
  about her fate as she goes through her epic story.

  In WoW, the initial story is simple: you are an inexperienced
  adventurer ready to complete quests and slay monsters.  Along the way,
  you will earn some money, find some magic items, develop your skills, and hopefully make a
  few friends.  This is the small story.  Some people play through this
  way for their entire WoW experience.  But the epic story comes when you
  and a group of friends decide to take on the big challenge of a dungeon
  instance.  By then, you will have been immersed in the background
  story, so you care about what happens.  As you enter your first
  instance, you will be blown away by the pace, difficulty, and grandeur
  – it’s completely unlike the simple outdoor questing you started
  with.  Your life depends on the skill of your friends, and vice versa. 
  At the end of a two-hour dungeon run, you can be emotionally exhausted
  – just as if you’d watched a good movie.

  When I give WoW demos to friends, they are often underwhelmed.  “This
  is what you spend your time doing?  It’s so boring!”  It’s because it’s
  hard to get into a high-excitement situation on the spur of the
  moment.  All of your friends have to be online and wanting to run
  through the same dungeon for it to happen.  But with the latest patch
  (1.12) that came out yesterday, people from different servers can now
  participate in the same player-vs-player battlegrounds, which should
  provide a more exciting demo experience.

  Church also has the story within a story.  We probably started coming
  to church because of parents, or friends, or to make more friends (or
  even a special friend).  The story is ok, but nothing to write home
  about.  If you found a good church, you got friendly people of your own
  age and background, and you listened to a decent sermon, and you sang
  along to upbeat music.  Eventually most people either drop out or go
  through a conversion experience — WHAM — which is their big epic
  story and changes the course of their lives.

  What happens when the bigger story is over, and you’re left with just
  the background?  Beauty and the Beast, as well as most classic-style
  movies, end with a Happily Ever After.  World of Warcraft pulls you
  into the Raid-at-60 endgame, where you are hit with even harder
  dungeons and diminishing returns.  I don’t think I’ll have the patience
  to play through those to the end, where I collect the top magic items
  (they are really called “epics”).  But we’ll see.  Besides, the
  expansion comes out at the end of the year, raising the level cap from
  60 to 70, so that changes everything.

  And church?  That’s the serious question.  What happens when you come
  down from the high of your conversion experience and return to life as
  you know it?  Someone should write a book, After the Mountaintop. 
  Maybe it’ll be my next post.

  • 3:15 pm
  • 6 Comments