There are certain subjects the mainstream media should leave to the professionals, and this news report on the secret language of World of Warcraft players demonstrates every reason why.
"Many gamers are part of a secret society," begins the lead in to NBC Bay Area's correspondent Nicole Riley on the secret language of World of Warcraft players, setting the tone for an extremely misinformed report on the funny things that WoW players say. Everything that follows is exactly the sort of ridiculousness that comes from a news station that allows a reporter to do a special feature....on her boyfriend. "This is Jay Hollanda (sp), and he's ranked in the top ten out of 12 million people who are playing World of Warcraft. Nobody knows this language better than he does."
Someone has been feeding their girlfriend a line of bullshit.
In order to show how hard it is for WoW players and non-WoW players to communicate, our intrepid reporter takes a seat and attempts to get help for...something, I don't know. She does so by typing,"I NEED HELP" in a trade channel window and hitting enter. Anyone new to WoW will tell you - this is exactly right. Her boyfriend, the professional, corrects her, explaining that "LFM 25 Naxx 2 more tanks 2 more DKs" means help.
Incidentally, what this means is that they are looking for more for 25-man Naxx - two more tanks required, and two more Death Knights. There is no way in hell anyone new to World of Warcraft would ever, ever need to type that.
For those of you curious, there is a special, secret way to ask for help in World of Warcraft. Go into a general chat channel, and type, "Excuse me, but I am new to the game and was wondering if anyone could help me sort a few things out?" This is called speaking like a human being. The proper response is to call said person a noob in as many ways possible while someone more courteous helps them out in a private message.
The report is really painful to watch. The guy seems to know his stuff gameplay wise, but to have him represent the majority of the World of Warcraft population? Not until we're all dating hottie NBC reporters.
Gamers Speak Two Languages [NBC Bay Area]
WoW-Speak Expert Talks Garbage [Worldofwar.net]