Facing one's own mortality in World of Warcraft

Over the past few days, I have wasted hours trying to complete a quest in World of Warcraft. The quest involved exploring Frostmane Hold, a glacier cave inhabited by Frostmane Trolls of at least two varieties, and killing five Frostmane Headhunters in the process. The trolls in the cave seem to be limited to levels 7 and 8. Pretty easy for a level-9 gnome warrior with over 500 armor, right? Apparently not. My gnome, Jomdevert, would get only a few feet into the cave before he was swarmed by trolls and killed. Some of them can cast a spell that reduces armor significantly. Each time he was killed, he would report to an armorer to repair the damage. Repairs usually cost almost two silver. After about a dozen attempts, the requisite number of trolls had been killed, but I wondered if this quest could be completed alone at this level. I briefly considered a different strategy: killing local wildlife until level 10, reporting to the local warrior trainer to learn new tactics, and then trying again.

Last night, I had another idea. I decided to run as far as possible into the cave, then let Jomdevert get killed. Then I would have his ghost return to the cave and resurrect as far in as possible. Then he could just run like hell until the cave was sufficiently penetrated. It worked. Jomdevert survived just long enough to complete the final quest objective. Then he was killed again. Luckily, the non-player character he would need to find to receive the reward was standing only a few feet from the graveyard. At last the quest was complete.

Just as in life, death in WoW is generally something to be avoided. Unlike death in this world, however, death in WoW is reversible. Even the equipment durability penalties and resurrection sickness can be reversed with sufficient time and effort. Not dying has teleological value in WoW; longevity does not. In other words, dying once is better than dying twice. Successful solo play in WoW requires the foresight to know when a well-planned suicide will promote post-resurrection well-being. Moreover, it requires the ability to measure values of in-game phenomena in radically different ways than we use to evaluate real phenomena.

Here is what I have been listening to today:

1. Bell Orchestre: Recording a Tape the Colour of the Light
2. ABBA: ABBA
3. Wolf Parade: Apologies to the Queen Mary
4. M83: Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
5. Leonard Cohen: New Skin for the Old Ceremony