Posts Tagged 'WOW'



Self imposed Blogging filters

Eeek!  Another post.

I promise I am not stopping blogging, just the things I start writing end up fitting into one of the below category’s – I guess sort of like a ‘writers block’ in that it’s a little voice telling you it’s crap, and so thus it becomes a blogging filter that kicks in before you hit publish.

Oversharing

You probably don’t really want to know everything, and I don’t want to tell everything. It’s not that kind of blog. ” Dear Diary..  A lady at work had me drinking Chlorophyll ( yes the green plant stuff) You mix it with water and it tastes a little weird, I am not professing to any benefit from it,  but it turns my tounge green.

Dear Diary I am devouring books at an alarming and expensive rate – I keep getting involved with the wrong sort of books.  They are all series of which I HAVE to read the next book in.

Negative

It’s a whine. About someone, something,  and screaming at brick walls gets exhausting. I don’t want to view the game like that,  I would rather focus on more positive things,  because well,  negative people just make you feel like crap, and it becomes infectious.  and then you end up feeling negative, and  I love this game. I don’t want to over do it like I did sambuca shots that one time, and can’t stand the smell of sambuca anymore.  ( oversharing..  sorry!)

PVP

I am doing/was doing a fair bit of this.   I am still not raiding,  and most of the people I was playing with for a while was lots of Pvp, but some of them are raiding now, and the Time zone difference increase with daylight savings means that my US friends aren’t around as often so I wasn’t even doing much of that. There are only so many new things I can write about pvp,   I had planned on recording in a decent Pvp playing session the wonderful things we say to each other,  I got two examples quite easily, but most often unless its someone trying to talk strats – its best to ignore chat, and this is sad, and I think how long a collection of little snippets like this I could make makes me even sadder.

Irrelevant

I missed the boat on a couple of  topics of discussion, there’s been enough said on it,  or I don’t know enough about it to really comment on it, and I don’t want to just have my 2 cents because my opinion may not be that different and I am not adding anything to the discussion.

Uninteresting.

If I can’t find it at least mildly entertaining how do I expect someone who reads me to

Alts

I have Altitis.  See what having free time does for you.  You start taking Warlock family portraits

You end up in yet another Alts guild  of random people on a random server where people don’t even bother talking in guild chat and it just becomes a chat of achievements and stupid “Grats” macro’s as people just leech off the guild perks ( I am..

But yes,  this post made it past all those self-imposed ‘blogging filters’

Because I shall reveal the real purpose of this post.

I brought the Winged companion. Yes I paid US 25 for a pixel vanity mount. Only because I saw one in a BG, and thought ” I want one. Must have”  and my poor impulse control won the battle of wills ( and it was payday.. )

I felt this was important to share,  because I probably have been negative towards the sparkle pony, and to then go out and buy a shadow pony,  well that is kind of hypocritical, and I made you read through this entire post to get to a very important piece of information.

I have become corrupted by pixel purchased mounts…  nooooooooooo

 

 

Leveling together

Some of my alts are failed relationships, left on servers I was driven to due to shutdowns or random motivational drives.  Including wanting to see people RP, or even the bloggers guild  Single Abstract noun.  My intentions were there,  just not the drive.

Some alts are  from failed relationships “Hey lets level together to get to know each other.”   Of course they are on some obscure server because your mains are on different realms and to be ‘fair’  or to add extra ‘fun’ and a ‘challenge’  you roll on a completely new realm ( however that means that  when it doesn’t work out you are  left abandoned in Strangtlethorn vale on a strange realm  crying into your crappy level cloak ” I didn’t really want to be your pocket healer anyway”  ( ok that was a slight exaggeration )

But there have been alts with friends, starting zones worked through for kicks. My I want to be a gnome priest phase ( for a day) the I want yet another baby tank so I can tank lobie instances again. My early toons I rolled on the server of my RL friends until I found what what exactly went on, on a pvp realm. ( things have changed a little)

But when leveling together, be it with friend or potential future foe, first there is a discussion on what class and  role you both shall pick.   The tank/healer combo is cute but one time I rolled a hybrid with the idea of being dps – ” I need heals..  I need heals..” So I reluctantly but away my lightening bolt and  used my healing surge and became the unwilling pocket healer while he got to have all the smash and slash fun.  It will last longer if your both having fun.

My first Warrior Tank that I rolled with a friend  I HAD to be the Tank – that was the point.  My friend went heals, and we had a lot of fun until time zone differences meant I couldn’t play my new exciting project as much as I liked,  and I rolled a 2nd warrior tank. ( I was a terrible friend)

But because of that I think it’s important to have a side project you can focus on, otherwise if you are having too much fun on a new class and you want to see what amazing new ability your going to get next you may do something like roll another tank and forget that sometimes the best bit about leveling together isn’t the dinging.

Once you have your class and races sorted ( usually easier if you pick the same race /close enough to run to race. Then begins the  profession negotiation.

This is made a little harder now because Mining and herbing gives you xp,  but skinning doesn’t.  A gathering profession can be quite profitable if your going around questing anyway, but it also means you get more xp then your leveling partner,  and you might not ding together.

People also have different questing styles.  Some people will read the quest text,  and pay attention to the story line ( not me -  I skim the important bits) and others  ( me) are already racing to the next bit, the consequences is that because of  your  impatience you miss out on funny bits, and important story explanations,  or worse    you start the next part of the quest chain and end up activating an event ( because you didn’t read the quest telling you it would happen)  I didn’t realise I did this so much until I played with someone who did take the time to read, and enjoy the story line.

I have hoped I have slowed down a little.   I do have a tendency to go all speedy Gonzalez  in a quest area.    It’s why I suddenly ‘grew’ a level 63 Worgen on Frostmourne.  I explained  my speed as  ‘efficient leveling practices’ but  the reality is I speed through stuff – did what would give me the most xp – questing with Bg’s, Dungeons, Mining, herbing, and Archeology.  It meant I left zones halfway through  and bg’s where we were getting farmed with 20 min left to go.   I didn’t pay as much attention  as I could have.

So leveling together is a little bit of a negotiation, and am glad to say I have probably been a lot more aware of what I’m doing  through the Undead starting areas so far.

Chilling on the block.

Remember when the cool place to hang was in Ironforge.

All the kiddys hang out in Stormwind. Don’t go  there. 

SW used to be where all the gold spammers would go to as well.

Then it was outside the bank in Dalaran. Sitting or standing on the  steps.

In Cata when they removed the portals from Shatt and Dalaran people Stopped hanging in the ‘current’ content, and went back to the old world to  hang out in Stormwind again,   and everyone now seems to hang out in Dwarvern district. Never mind all the smog and polution in the air. Ironforge is virtually deserted.  Gone are the days where rogues with double glaives would pick their preening position on the bridge between the bank and Ah.

It make sence the Dwarfven district is the new place to chill.  It’s closest to the portals,  there’s a bank, an AH, and a pub, and a fountain for baths.  What more could you want  in a day and age where Bg’s and dungeons are menu que’d ,  and one raid member can mass summon the entire raid to a dungeon.

But it’s not the most welcoming of places.

If I had to pick a nice place to hang out, it would be the blue Recluse  in the Mage quarter, it has an outdoor eating area now, and its kind of sad to see all the Npc’s standing around with no one to serve. There also is no bar wenches,  its all  bar men :)

One of the downsides of guild halls was going to be that, you would no longer be mingling with the common people, and having all the various things like banking, and ahing available in the guild halls,  would mean with the system as it is now,  you could practically stay shut up in your hall, and never rub shoulders with the best geared DK on the server who goes afk on the steps to show off his gear. ( or that box you like standing on.. )

So while we are afking in the streets,  or on the steps,   we aren’t really hanging out together,  but we do make deliberate choices of where we choose to chill. For some strange reason I always end up between Weller’s armory and ‘Everyday merchandise’ in the Trade district,  on my bike,  smoke blowing out the exhaust.  I’ve had the best conversations with randoms  who stop for a chat. I am drawn to that space on the cobblestones.

Where do you hang out now?

Why aren’t we perpetually drunk

I was fishing, and I fished up some port from some wreckage,  and then there was more port,  and then on occasion I’ll get some Rumsey Rum,  that promises to give me +10 stamina  for 15 min and gets me drunk to boot!

One of the first quests you do when you hit Stormwind sends you to the Winery for some wine.

16 silver for a Jug of Boubon. Sweet!

We have festivals that provide us with free booze,  kegs and flagons for everyone!

When selecting what cooking receipe I was to get next I could have got an alcohol making one,  but I couldn’t think of a good enough reason to want to be able to slip my hand in my Enlarged Onyxia backpack and pull out some alcohol.  Quietly having a little sip.

*slurp

*giggle

If you have ever done the Wildhammer Dailys in Twighlight Highlands  collecting their beer makes you drunk,  and it’s bloody annoying.  I’m trying to work,  make gold,  and do questing,  and here is my flying mount flying off into all sorts of weird directions.

We have alcohol available to us in all sorts of places,  it’s cheap,  your screen goes funny,  and the entire world gets little announcements. * blah* is getting tipsy.

It’s kind of like alcohol advertising.

“What is he drinking?”

“He is getting drunk from [black label make me a man brew]

“Hey I want some!”  Have you ever thought that way?  “Hey he is getting drunk off some sweet stuff, I want to buy some/”

So Why don’t we drink more?

Zahraah is getting drunk from Flask of Port

Zahraah is getting tipsy off of Rumsey Rum

You feel Tipsy Whee!

You feel completely Smashed after that Flagon of mead

( Yes I wrote this post IN the Gallina Winery)

and then I kept drinking until I “Drunken Vomited” several times It was kind of gross, Then I passed out in front of a Keg. Real classy.

I know its not real. Everyone knows it’s not real.  In Australia we had Fallout 3 originally refused classification basically because of the way the ‘chem’s were delivered that they were “Material promoting or encouraging proscribed drug use”

I don’t remember there ever being concern about the availability of intoxicating beverages in Wow.

So the question was ” Why aren’t we perpetually drunk?”   we have the means, it’s cheap  it does funny things, our health doesn’t suffer

I personally find it annoying , the affects interferes with my gameplay, I also don’t want to be the Shadow Priest that hangs out in Stormwind drunk all the time, because any passerby gets told.  “Zahraah is tipsy on..”  and Being Drunk in Wow isn’t cool.

Do younger players think ” Woot!  I am drunk!” Hahahah! cause surely we would see more drunk people around given the amount of younger players that play.

I don’t get the impression that alcohol is a big deal at all in Wow, and I think regardless of its availability, what it stands for in real life, that getting drunk in game is more an annoyance then it is “for fun”  we know the difference between real life and virtual worlds.  Given the opportunity to misbehave, most people don’t.

So why would we not be able to tell the difference when it comes to violence and drugs in games?

What else I have been doing.

Reading Mogworld

I suck at book reviews, and I haven’t quite finished with it.  I am dividing my public transport time between this and playing Battleheart ( more on that furtherdown)  so I have been slower then normal with it,  but I argue,  if  almost getting a undead mage to 58  ( 58 apparently the 1st time ) can inspire a book.  Shutdown night and an almost finished book can inspire a blog post.

You may know Yahtzee from The Escapist,  Zero Punctuation.  He did a review on Cataclysm in January this year, and is also a co owner of Mana bar Australia’s first gaming bar.    ( with game themed cocktails!  <3)

It’s cheap at Book depository, so no excuse not to buy it, but if you can’t wait I am sure bookshops will have it ( well at least the bookshops I shop at  aka Galaxy Books in Sydney)

You may also be relieved to know that the pace in his reviews is not the same pace as the book.

You can tell there is a strong wow influence, you can also tell that he seems to have missed out on a bit of content. As much as Altitis can be considered a disease,  it allows you to learn a lot more about the game, content,  classes.  But this isn’t a book about Wow, it could be a book about any MMO with undead mages, and above all  It’s about Jim,  an undead mage who wants to kill himself. It’s quite easy to imagine Jim, and Meryl (his undead companion come stitcher back togetherer)  (as pictured below – and no they are NOT holding hands)

This would have to be my first book that I would call a “geek magnet”   who knew that by carrying it around a train station,  ( I use my train ticket for a book mark ) would make boys talk to me. I was approached with “  IS THAT MOGWORLD YOUR READING”  Alas he was more interested in talking about the book then me,  but I think I successfully encouraged him to buy it,  because he  should ‘get’ it, and I nodded wisely as I said “Get it”  like its a secret club only some people are invited to. Because while I shall not call it a heavy pensive thought producing tomb,  much like reading The Dome was,  it was fun and entertaining, and there have been several times I have chuckled aloud on the train, and often have a grin fixed to my face.

So much of it is relatable.  Some of the silly stuff  especially.

“They stand around like they’ve got a broom up their arse, start talking weird, lose interest in everything except quests and having the best armor”

It describes the symptoms of adventurers suffering the syndrome,  and what image in wow calls to my mind is the posing done outside banks with various pieces of gear that goes on.  More specifically the double glaives back in the day.

So I think you will quite easily “Get it”  and I am sure you will be entertained once you get over that as a MMO player your gaming world is getting mocked in the most amusing of ways.

Playing Battleheart 3.99 ( aus)  for Ipod and Ipad on the Itunes store.

Prizes go to the first person who can identify the class and role of the four non skeleton looking creatures in the pic above.

I lied.  There are no prizes, but yes, there is a Tank, a healer, a caster dps ( who I forgot to tell to target something) and a melee dps.

You hire your recruits from the Tavern – they level up and get new abilities every 5 levels,  you get Gear, and gold and the ability to upgrade, and sell and buy more gear, and xp for winning a fight.

My four mains are level 16, 17, 15, 15 and about 5 hours play, so yes I am enjoying it,  MUST GET ONE MORE … LEVEL…..

If you are anywhere but Australia – I am sure it’s cheaper. ( Insert moan about the price disparity) but I didn’t mind paying the money because so far I have at least gotten 5 hours of entertainment out of it, and I forsee quite a few more.

Looks like you can get to level 30 – and there are enough class combos,  with their own duel talent trees to pick and chose from that you can try, and train different variations

How all insults to your honor should be handled

I rolled my own little princess Lelia hair styled Gnome – complete with her own Very light saber

With heirlooms and guild leveling bonus she’s at 17 now – she even did a deadmines and probably did as much tanking as the dps, which is ok for now. I wanted to see the new gnome starting area quests, and I dont think they were as exciting as the goblins but they were
a whole new race. Have a lobie worgen in the works as well.

Ps happy valentines day! I loves you all :)

Things to Not Tell your Colleagues

It was jokingly suggested that one of my nights this week was spent rewriting the policy docs I will be working on.
It’s a project I am involved in and passionate about – and since I use and enforce it on a daily basis, I am a Subject matter expert on it, and kind have been formatting it in my head and doing bits and pieces on it already, but my reply was

Nope, I went home and killed people ( In pvp) .

Because it was sadder to admit to working from home then it was to be gaming.

Some of them are console gamers or ex Wow people, one or two may kind of understand. I perhaps should have said ” I went home and ganked people” but yeah even then that said with a wrong inflection would have sounded very wrong, and my last attempt at explaining that ended up with blank looks and this after I was trying to explain.. It’s like Frag.. but not in a FPS

Shag?

/sigh

That I had played the sims and Zoo tycoon ( only the first one) seemed to be a redeeming quality, and the fear that I had violent tendencies was somewhat quashed.

But there are other things you shouldn’t answer when asked” so what did you do last night”

“I did some herbing”
“I was making flasks”
“Cooked some buff food”
” I killed a boss”
” I died 20 times wiping on progression attempts”
” I kept dcing”
” have almost 100,000 honor kills”
“I did battlegrounds, arena, raiding”
“Sat in SW and afk’d”
“Did the Love is in the Air dungeon”
“Farmed”
“trolled trade”
“I’m playing a priest”

We really do speak another language.

How would you not come back?

I am addicted

First step is to admit it.

Is it  a problem?

Define problem…………..
Firstly my unusual period of quietness, is not a demise of my love of the game,  or desire to play,  and nor is this a precursor for a sayornara post.
I have had some ISP issues which has not been helping, and calls and polite emails of my dissatisfaction has resulted in  2 months credit for the lackluster internet service,  but the fix isn’t happening for weeks, and it is extremely frustrating when you want to play,  and your not sure if your going to go from everything is going smoothly to crap everyone is running on the spot, and insta heals are the only ones that eventually hit your target.
Also  If I was a bloke, my balls would be bigger then some of the lovely,  charming, upfront and honest players I have had the honor of spending time with.  Let me wipe away those globules of sarcasm for you,  and keep  my charming smile properly affixed to my face.
But yes, back to quitting.
Honestly I don’t think I could.
Primarily because I don’t have a  reason to quit,  I could find / do find reasons to reduce my playing.  But quit, that’s crazy.
Say you did decide to  quit Wow for various reasons, and want to stay away – wash Wow right out of your hair. Maybe there were too many asshats, things you thought you ought to be doing.
So How would you quit with the idea of not coming back?
Cause  everyone I know that quits comes back
You could
  • Cancel your subscription.
  • Give your authenticator to a friend to hide and a promise not to return it to you even when begging them at 2am in the morning in tears.
  • Uninstall.
  • Destroy your PC.
  • Find distractions in a new game – patches of browser based MMO’s to lessen the pain.
  • Find distractions in people.
  • Get a new hobby.  ( I am half serious about the idea of learning Archery and Welsh)
  • Just don’t come home and work on your fluro tan in the office.
But all of those things would be easily changed, and so easy to slip back into the habit.
I am a deleter. I delete things that could be bad for me that  I would be tempted to keep and use eg Mobile numbers.  It might sound  a little odd.  But deleting, or uninstalling it would most likely be the more affective way for me, as long as I deleted my back up files, and then threw out my cds.
What you can download it off battlenet?
Nooooo
I had a friend that went hungry so they could smoke. That’s what addictions do to you.  What would I do to get my fix?
Me and Caffeine have had a love hate relationship for years. I have quit Caffeine successfully for short periods of time.  Cold turkey. But I am glad I never smoked,  because I can’t leave caffeine alone.    I have Suffered through the withdrawal  headaches of caffeine and the cravings and the crazy thoughts towards someone holding a coffee cup in the lift  - the smell  so intoxicating  that I had to stand a little closer and take a long sniff.
Your coffee dear sir,  has me in a swoon..
But I had several habits to break when quitting caffeine.
I had to break a ritual at the same time. Drinking the coffee wasn’t the only thing I had to change.  The coffee place was on my way to work,  walking cheerfully into the office so used to holding that cup,  the cup sitting there next to the PC,  waiting to be sipped.
I managed to do it  by changing the direction I walked to work,  buying a piece of fruit  from a fruit vendor and eating that like I would drink a coffee. I replaced my habit with something,  because the times I have tried to do it other ways. Feet! Keep walking! haven’t lasted as long as my successful attempts.
So quitting Wow, would need to involve more then canceling an account,  not turning on the PC,   Even hanging out with people is dangerous because it’s so easy to slot wow into a conversation, and the internet is dangerous because there are all these things about wow!

Can I come over to your place to watch you play Wow? No I really did come here for Wow..  Really,  it wasn’t an excuse to see you.

I have resisted the urge to manage my auctions through my phone.  Wow has already permeated my life, I’d like to say mostly for good reasons, but I dream about wow, stay out of my subconscious.

However a Chinese monastery sounds like it might work.

Practicing Casting animations while wearing a robe.  It’s Wow Fu -  Iron Shadow Priest form. Like this ” Waves hands around”  Mindblast!   I win against preying mantis!

Nope wouldn’t work.

I don’t have – nor can I forsee,  a big enough reason to quit completely, and I think I would have great difficulty doing so. I guess that worrys me a little.

Though I am writing this instead of playing right now.

Must write more!

Dislike.

Zelmaru from Murloc Parliament talked about not being ‘liked’ for an unknown reason, and what you should do, if you do dislike someone in “No body likes me, everybody hates me, guess I’ll go and eat worms” , and that has given me a reason to finish this post off.  Like Zelmaru I don’t expected to be liked by everyone, I P people off in real life.  ( hey that should be a tshirt) but it would be nice to know Why.

This post has been sitting half finished since I server transfer quit AGAIN,  and slunk back to Proudmore  with the realisation that sometimes burning bridges is a good thing.

I got asked a interesting question in my re- interview for the raiding spot   that confused me  a little because I had to think on a concept,

“Do you know you will be playing with people  you don’t like?”

I wondered at the time, and considering the grilling I got in my reinterview, and the hoops I was told I would need to jump through to prove myself,  as well as the general difficulty I had in getting them to acknowledge I want to raid –   should the question have been “Do you know you will be playing with people who don’t like you?”

When expressing my confusion at my supposed apparent and obvious dislike,  I said,  well  there was only ever really one person I had issue with – and I don’t believe he is in the guild anymore  anyway – but even me and him sorted that out with a long discussion on vent,  so we were cool. So I’m not sure what gave you the impression I don’t like someone? ( especially since I am usually uncharacteristically quite in raid )

Was  there reasons I didn’t know about that should cause me to dislike someone? -  well that kind of thinking only makes you paranoid.

I did however had to think. Who I actually liked – and I realised how little I knew them. I didn’t know most of them well enough to dislike them.

If we use the analogy that Wow raiding is very much like a 2nd job, you  may not ‘like’ everyone in the office – but you probably don’t know them all too well,  or  have an interest in doing so,  but it also doesn’t necessarily affect your working or business relationship with them. They are colleagues but not a friend. A friend is a bonus – its a deeper connection then a colleague, and you make that because of time invested.

So sometimes  it means working with people you have nothing personally in common with bar that you are at the same place and time to get a job done.

I am amazed  sometimes at such obvious dislike and I guess snark I do see in guilds that if you can get past your personal differences and still raid with someone – and not cause public disruption or another officer tell you to quit it,  well that truly is a working relationship.

Do we need like/dislike buttons against guildy names?  Am I taking this concept of like or dislike too seriously – and that  concept of like and dislike are now as serious pressing a button on a status update.

There are people I have disliked  – however they are usually terrible examples of humanity eg  the Chick that changed Peoples guild notes,  and had to have daddy clean up her forum post messes.  Or the guy who muted me in raid, and his lovely companion in that same raid that told the only other female to “Shut up you f’ken W*hore”

How do you treat other people?  has to be one of the biggest nudge worthy items on the scale of dislike or like. Do you  go out of your way to make other people’s games or lives miserable? Do you manipulate people? Spread rumours for kicks? Those kind of things shall not endear you to me.

Doesn’t matter now  – I burned my bridges – wasn’t sure who would care if I did go to the effort of saying goodbye, because even with working relationships.  When it’s not working. It’s not.

But I am not sure how I would go about displaying my dislike of someone. Perhaps I need to be clearer  about those I do like or respect, so there is a greater variable.

No app required: and we will pay you to join

Didn’t take long for my then level 83 scrub Mage alt to find a guild. Standing tagless back on Proudmoore and I get asked politely if I were interested in making 500 gold and joining their guild, running a normal dungeon with them so they could cap out their days xp. Sure I said no gold required but will be grateful for the run. (30 min dps queues) So I get invited to a level 13 guild – did throne very quickly- guild xp capped out – and for helping the guild out me and another random they had picked up in sw were told we could stay if we wanted to – but if we wanted to raid we had to app .

Sweet- I say. It’s kind if funny – perhaps i was silly to turn down 500 gold , it is still a decent amount – even with economy inflation, but it was too much to accept for the little effort they asked of me. The guy who did the inviting was explaining in guild chat – they didnt have the members on and it was the first day they were not going to cap it.

I was always picky with my mains tags – wouldn’t sign guild charters or join little guilds in-between my home hunting – joining a guild was supposed to be a commitment and I would rather be tagless then in a place I didn’t care for and I assume some guilds look up a persons guild history when looking at raider apps and I don’t want there to be a million ones. Alts are different. How much rep is a person leveling their alt or chain dungeon running under their tag worth? My contribution to that guild was probably just over 100 xp – but a chain run- even on normals would add up. I did some questing and more dungeons after. Contributed to the next days cap.

Not meeting your cap? Invite us! And we will dungeon run you 1 k xp minimum.

Other then my fickle heart- I’ve been getting some very bad lag on my international Internet connections . Done all the various troubleshooting – reported to a tech, local networks are fine – there is talk of over congestion or a international cable in need of repair.  Raid healing with 3k lag  was not fun it altered my Healing style – more instants just to get them cast. More on that another time.

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