Raise your flippers to the sky!

For those of you who are uninformed and out-of-touch, on account of until recently being held in a PoW camp on a Pacific island by a squadron of Japs who don't know the war's over (it's been over 60 years, fellas; your people are now famed for attaching mops to their shoes), Blizzard Entertainment has just released a new expansion to World of Warcraft.

I went to the midnight launch tonight at EB Games. It was a wonderful, giddying experience; I had ever so much fun mingling with my co-geeks. I got major props for my [T-Shirt of Pure Pwnage], I made fun of blood elves, and together we all bitched about why Blizzard is the worst games company in the world and how every single thing about WoW is unbalanced and stupid.

The single most memorable event of the night occurred while the security guard was explaining to the attentive masses what they should do when their tickets are called. He was speaking pretty softly, which gave me a wonderful opportunity to interject. I cupped my hands around my mouth and yelled in a booming voice which carried wonderfully in the silent, empty mall: "EVERYONE! MURLOC NOISES ON THREE! ONE-TWO-THREE! RGGGRLLRRRGRGLRL!"

Not unsurprisingly, no-one else joined in. There was a moment that I will remember forever, when, with the entire WoW community of the Eastern Suburbs watching raptly, I cried the gargley cry of a Murloc. It was one of the moments that seemed to go on forever, those dazzling singularities of time. In reality, it was probably only half a second before the sheer absurdity of it all breached my wall of bravado and I broke down in hysterics.

Everyone joined in.

It. Was. Wonderful.