Fuck You, Brewfest.

One thing that I love about World of Warcraft is the way they handle holidays. They may not have the exact same holidays that we in the real world do, but the citizens of Azeroth do celebrate a few very close corollaries. For example, instead of Octoberfest, which is our month-long salute to beer and the good things about Germany, they have Brewfest, which has nothing to do at all with Germany.

Azerothian holidays do offer players the chance to participate in special quests, with extra XP, non-combat pets, or some other prize as the reward. In lieu of Labor Day, players celebrated a Remembrance Day for their fallen heroes. We were invited to visit gravesites, and received a magical item which conjured food or drink once a day as a reward.

Since I returned to WoW, I have been excited about Brewfest, which started Saturday morning. Last year, a special ram mount was availabl e for purchase for those willing to complete the daily quests, and I wanted it dearly. Being a Blood Elf, I get saddled (pardon the pun) with a giant bird as my noble steed. My only options for replacing my ride with something less ghey were to up my reputation with the other Horde cities enough that they would sell me their race-specific mounts (a near impossible feat), waste countless hours in Battle Grounds, earning points towards a mount I couldn't use until I hit level 70, or participate in Brewfest and easily buy a ram. Obviously I was going to choose the latter of the three.

When I logged into my account Saturday morning, I saw tents and drunken revelers and ram-riders as far as my video settings would allow. Finally that ram would be mine. I ran to the nearest quest-giver and began the first of the dailies. Once completed, I searched for a vendor who dealt in Brewfest exclusives so that I could find out how long I would need to grind to get my mount. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that my beloved ram was a loot drop from an instanced boss. No big deal. Even without a 100% drop rate, that mount would be mind eventually. I immediately started looking for a group.

My primary character is a level 50 Hunter, a Blood Elf, as I said. With an evenly leveled pet, I can be an asset to almost any group. It shouldn't be a problem to find one, do the dungeon, and ride out on my shiny new mount. Apparently all the groups were 70-snobs who wanted to rob me of my chance to get a lvl 30 mount, because I was denied at every turn.

After doing some digging and research, I discovered that this is an epic-level quest, for 70s only. People like me have no chance of completing it without having their virtual-hands held. Suffice to say that I am very pissed off. And I'm not the only one.

So, fuck you, Brewfest. I've got a pocketful of worthless tokens, a dumb looking pet, and an in-game-only hangover that will last until next year.