Posts Tagged 'Gaming'



I’m not an Altoholic * hic

Cozmo from GTFOOTF pointed out that so many of us bloggers are playing Wow in some new or different way to maintain our motivations to keep playing,   and speaking to Kiwired from One of these Alts who has rolled even more Alts with SAN  – how SAN  ( Single Abstract Noun )  has come about at the right time for him to fill in the gaps between now and the expansion.

Alts – Special projects  – who will survive this downturn – or shall we see more Phoenix raiders  ‘die’ and then resurrect in time for the expansion with grand stories of other games, and stuff like real life stories. 

The result of a current case of Altolism or  Is it ADD  is now a Level 20 Shammy – I’m feeling a little guilty.  She is a result of me dragging someone back to Wow  –  ( I didn’t mean to! ) so we are leveling together  – and at level 16 it was kinda cute running round the barrens  in my Ghostwolf and them in  druid travel form.  * scratches at imaginary flea.

On the flip side  everyone else is going through their own motivational crises with things like time and priorities  and needing a break  though some people just can’t stay away 

I am hearing more and more people I raided with  – leaving the game – stopping raiding,  the higher end raiding guilds at least on my Home Server are slowly bleeding players.  We are losing bloggers gradually too. It was bound to happen – but we shall prevail..  or flail around untill we phail…

I tried to get into Star Trek online.  But I am STILL level 1.  I think I have spent more time showing other people.  See..  this is the Star Trek MMO.. i haz a Phazer! then actually playing.

I am happy to hear about the  BSG MMO so I shall be watching that for developments. I want to be Starbuck..  ” Fight them untill we can’t “

Wasting my Childbearing Years playing WOW

Without going all Bridget Jonesy

This post has been sitting in my drafts for  a while.  Might even be considered  a TMI post, and possibly some of you who read me might read too much into this. But Meh.  I wanted a Humdinger for my 500th, and this well – this I thought was appropriate.

I turn 30 this year, and a thought has been propping up every now and then has been ‘Am I wasting my Childbearing years playing wow?”

The most important question is do I want kids? – I have  no idea if I want kids or if I want kids because people expect me to want kids. Then I have to find someone who wants to have kids – and wants to have kids with me – and then what happens if they or me are not able to have kids.

I think I shall leave that up to  RNG.

But I also don’t want to wake up in 5 years time  doing a /played on my toon and wondering where the months  of life have gone in that play time, and If I missed out on opportunities or life  because of it.

Maybe that is a slightly Bridjet jonesy

I guess if you have to ask do you play too much  – then the answer is probably yes.   I multitask a fair bit though when I am online.  Still see real people – Read books – listen to music – even write stuff non wow related on occasion. So  my @home time, If I wasn’t playing Wow – I would still be watching a Dvd – on msn – on the phone instead of a vent ect.

 I’ve been responsible – I work – have a mortgage – I function socially  – but I don’t think I have ever really grown up.  I’m not talking about getting all excited in playland kinda not  growing up, just more clinging to this peter pan ideal . Gaming, or more pointedly Wow has probably reinforced this Peter Pan mindset over the last few years for me.

I’ve tried to cling to my ‘freedom’  and thats often shown in the type of relationships I choose.  Or choose to stay in.   This freedom lets me game.  Lets me do my own thing without real commitments to a partner – a family. 

Yes there is a Wow / Life balance that can be achieved –  people do it all the time.  I would be interested in Stats though – in how many dedicated gamers and are in long term relationships? – how many have children,  how many are Women,  how many are Women with children.  Some people go through phases of availability and dedication as priorities crop up – but what if you never have – and never get new priorities?

When I was raiding  I wasn’t meeting many new non-internet based people.  I worry that going back to raiding,  even as casual as I am currently will mean that I will slip into the same habit.

I also think I am a big enough procrastinator to admit that Wow isn’t what is stopping me from doing what I really want.  More that to achieve what I want  – I need to risk a lot more than I am currently, and sacrifice more – turn off the pc,  develop better writing habits.

I also think my  desire to not grow up and settle down is tied up into not being satisfied with other areas of my life  –  I want to be self-supporting / responsible / independent  – yet my creative urges and needs don’t get satisfied – because it was drummed into my head so often that ” you will never make money from that”   and always there is this doubt  that I am not “good enough to make money from that”  I play  to escape  perhaps from a path I kept walking down – not denying that. Until I reconcile with doing something that makes me happy – I won’t need something to escape.

I have the Adult career. It pays the bills,  it provides challenges,  I work for good people.  But I have a fear of being trapped in a Picket fenced nightmare of drudgery. Where this is it….

We know the average  gamer is an adult, and I wonder if that is a good thing?  As adults society tells us that we need to have more responsibilities,  and maybe gaming  is just a way of extending our childhoods where we will skip – or waste the prime years of our adulthood.

When you play. Play.

My Sifu used to tell us at training.

When you eat. Eat.
When you read. Read
When you walk. Walk  ect.

This was as we were learning a new Kungfu form, we had learned the moves, and were just going through the motions, and not executing them with real intent.

He demonstrated to show us how we looked. He started our form and made a block and Fist smash move, then said outloud ” So what’s on tv tonight?” he moved his leg forward in a kick in to the next stance ” I wonder whats for dinner” Grab and pull ” I still need to pay my Telephone bill” Sweep and block  ( he then made us do horse stance for 5 min as punishment )

He could tell we weren’t in the moment – and that our lazy motions, and lack of intent was being caused by us thinking of other things when we should have been thinking about the form. Our performance was not what it could have been – if we had been paying attention to the task at hand.

We go through the right motions when we aren’t paying complete attention to things – but we don’t do them with intent. 

My Duel PC screens are a blessing and a distraction at the same time for gaming.  Australians are already  multitasking our TV viewing and  Computer use   we also listen to music,   chat on msn, Psts in the middle of a boss fight,  browsing web comics, news or web posts, mobile phone,  home phone, friends, Write blog posts..    ( Sorry!) family distractions and so on. 

How much of your gaming time is spent really in the moment.

Honestly. None. In raids I shutdown as many distractions as possible  – if there is music it has to be on my cd /mp3 player in the lounge  not in my earphone , I might go away or offline on msn,  but more often I’m not.  I once tried to have a msn voice conversation and a  guild raid vent  at the same time.  ( just don’t push to talk the wrong thing )  I have a friend who keeps linking me Youtube videos while raiding.  You know who you are! Then there are those “oh shiney” moments and my mouse has skipped over to my 2nd screen.

 Is gaming meant to be about being in a gaming moment? Or only as a layer of activity or awareness.   There are moments when 100% of your attention is needed – but more often not.

You have to wonder if that ugly facial expression on that grandslam tennis players face is because they are Im’ing in their brain – or concentrating on that moment the ball hits the racket.

Does the definition of playing a social game allow for these extra layers of activity and awareness – and does that contribute to a MMORPGs popularity and appeal?

In a raid with my guild someone made a comment about the other activities they were doing while they were interrupting.  He wasn’t missing the interrupts  – still doing awesome dps – but he also wasn’t paying 100% attention.  This wasn’t necessary bad for his performance,  or the raid.   Just a fact that the activity allowed him to multitask meant that he wasn’t as engaged in the moment.

Technical Problems: Part 2.

Well the good news is.  They are gone.  ( or seem to be)  Not one loss of texture or graphic glitch last nite, not one freeze.  I apprehensively did Freya, waiting for the crash that happened 3 weeks in a row in a particular spot on a trash pull. 

Nothing, and the only thing I changed was the settings on my Norton.

I am almost crying for joy here.

I would crash 10 secs into a 25 man faction champions pull, and also on that Freya pull,  I would get screen freezes that went anywhere from 3- 10 sec intervals on any boss fight.  Which seems to be alleviated by a game restart – sometimes. Sometimes not.  I could not stay in Dalaran.  I used to crash once, and then be ok.  The other night I got booted or frozen 15 times just trying to swap badges for an heirloom item.  I would lose floors. like this below.  Yes thats Mim’s room. Basically it has been a pain, and I have only survived because  I was waiting for the right time,  money and time wise to organise my new pc.

No Floor.

Well its fixed.   The only thing I changed was on Sunday night was run the Norton update that had been bugging me for 2 months. My subscription had been updated without my permission months ago ( oh yeah the auto renewal box was not ticked by me. I was testing it for 12 months and at no time when all the warnings for renewal popped up on my pc did they tell me they set me  up for auto renewal anyway.)  It was something that they did with a lot of customers credit card details that they had kept on file. Which they are not supposed to keep!

“Antivirus vendors Symantec and McAfee have agreed to pay the New York Attorney General’s office US$375,000 in fines to settle charges that they automatically charged customers software subscription renewal fees without their permission”  ( the most reliable source of this information I can find presently is Pc World’s Article here  back in June, I think I read an Aussie equivalent but can’t find the link)

So I upgraded Sunday night before bed,  restarted, It didn’t load, restarted again.  Fine,  opened up Wow to make sure it hadn’t stuffed it up, and it opened ok but didn’t do anything too strenuous with wow.  Shut it down and went to bed.  I logged into Wow Monday night after work and straight up I got lag and screen freezes – ‘frack this’ I said and opened up the Norton control centre to discover several more options for computer security, including a bad file checker that was running constantly, and a live update that seemed to be running every 10 mins. 

I am not a pc guru,  but I know that stuff running in the background like that is going to cause issues, so I started disabling and tweaking some things that were beyond what I would expect a virus checker to do, and not already covered by my Spybot .    I also then got onto vent and ran a few things past some guildys to see if what I was doing was dangerous to my pc security.  My guildys proclaimed.  Norton *spit *spit   “Remove it at once”  

Once I got the settings as I liked,  I restarted wow.   It was smooth.  It was fine.  It was almost raid time, so I headed to Ulduar. Chatting away on vent,   answered a friend on Msn and started gathering inside for  raid,   Msn conversation still going on my 2nd screen ( at this point to reduce system issues I would normally exit out of anything but the bare minimum.) but there were no glitches.   Thorim, Freya, Mim, General, Yogg, Razer, and Ignis.  All done  no freezes, with a browser, and vent and Msn running     /cry for happiness.

Summary:  Norton caused my graphics glitches,  possibly by slowing down my Pc, to the point where nothing would load correctly  hence why my Net and my Vent ping were fine  ( 22 – on a Sydney vent server) and my graphics card did not die a horrible death.  My poor graphics card, that copped all the blame for being so old. Has managed to struggle through the torture I have put it through and has come through.   ❤ my graphics card.  I am so giddily happy.  My tech friend when I explained my issues only grumbled and said could be 50 reasons, and you need a new graphics card.  It all pointed to my card, and it wasn’t,  it was Norton!

I am still getting a new pc,  I’ve paid the deposit, and I am hoping that it will be built by this weekend, but it’s no longer a desperate need.  As long as norton  doesn’t stuff up the patch.

Valid Reasons for Transfering Servers.

I think I’ve been on my server for too long.

I popped in a Seige engine in a WG match last night,  and the driver was an ex guildy. I said Hi. 

I turned around at some other point in the same match to see I was being healed by an another ex guildy who is also ex guildy of the guild I am currently in on an old main

There are people transfering servers all the time.  Some do it for reasons such as  –

Transfering to be with friends and family, 
Transfering to/off a Pvp server,
For a better battlegroup,
For better fitting Raid times
To a more highley populated server of what ever faction
Get off a busy server/ Get on a quiter server
To a server with less lag

They are all valid reasons for leaving a server.

My reasons are none of the above… I”ve played on a pvp server, but beyond that my main, except 1 level 21 alt all my played alts are all on one server –

I have grown up on my server, and I think now its time to leave. I don’t think thats a valid reason, and it sounds like I am not being honest about it, and maybe its not the specific details as to why I feel like I need such a drastic change – I doubt I will find any difference in asshattery – of ninjas and the nice people in any server. I am not sure if Oceanic servers have different ‘cultures’ but I think I would like to find out.

“Dobbing”

In School in was uncool to dob.

I learnt at around the age of 5 or 6 that you didn’t run home and tell mommy because then everyone would know that you dobbed.

I was reading in the Guild relations forums today about a guild that was writing in because another guild on their server was systematically harassing them, and the best advise was to use the reporting feature. Report Report report..  eventually enough of them will get banned for them to stop it.

Is raising a ticket asking Blizzard to play nanny when the kids are playing in the sandpit the right and only way to go?  It seems to be, but each time I escalate an issue to Blizzard by typing out a ticket- (and I’ve only done it a couple of times)  I feel like I am ‘dobbing’   ( not counting the report spam)  Its like being harassed in guild, or in chat, or by mail.  Bullied. You feel that you should be able to deal with  it yourself. ( Come on its a game!) We aren’t playing the tournament worth 200k , its not a grandslamn tennis match, or the Olympics, its a game, and yet we still need a nanny or umpire.

I’ve done many a BG where there is one person who is present enough to click off his afk debuff and he gleefully laughs at our attempts to actually play – I’m not sure what their motivation was, that they would waste their time being there at all, only to spent it fracking around. You can’t give then the afk debuff  – you can’t appeal to their better sence or even ask them to leave so someone else can come in – they laugh at you what else can do with them but put in a ticket. 

The ticket joins a queque,  which probably won’t get answered in the time your online, and he is still laughing at everyone in the BG, and you log off and get a non commital email hours later  from blizzard saying they will look into it,  and because of privacy reasons they cannot tell you what actions/if any they took.

 This doesn’t satisfy me that ‘justice’ has been done. There is no result to motivate me to do it more often. Yet, if you don’t tell someone,  don’t report it,   his behaviour goes unpunished, and unrecorded.

I approach any ticket I write the same way I would write a business email,  trying to keep the issue clear, with all the facts so it has a better chance of being taken seriously. I don’t take ticket writing lightly. I also need to be beyond reproach in my own actions, meaning no swearing at the person/insulting, or being the cause of their action. 

I haven’t put many tickets in, and I’m not complaining about Blizzards ticket handling,  and because I don’t see anything doesn’t mean nothing has happened,  we Know people get banned as punishments for things, and the best way to deal with any bad behaviour is to ignore it where possible. Player run courts are unreasonable, and the Terms of services are the ultimate law, but nor do I want to spend all my time raising tickets for the minor things which are technically breaches, but you can deal with to a point.

Beyond talking to the persons GM ( if they care) /leave the area,  and ignoring them,  raising a ticket is all you can do.

I don’t want to be a dobber, so I weigh up how important the issue is, who/what are the affecting and if its important enough I will raise that ticket, but for the most its less complicated to walk away, and thus nothing gets reported.

Wow related relationship issue makes it to front page News.com.au

read
My Boyfriend is addicted to wow

I think its funny.
It smells like a troll

and 9 pages of Comments and an advice columnist response feed the troll.

( and if someone by chance finds this blog that is not forum savy: Troll is not a personal insult on K see Troll Wiki for definition)

Disclaimer: Addiction to WOW is real. Mana pots are not. ( for those Fallout 3 fans in oz.. Games’ Double Standards) “Fallout 3 was banned in Australia for its drug use” because we don’t have a +18 rating for games – They have since approved a lesser graphic version, but that is also funny.

Would you Employ someone with WOW on their resume

I read the Realm forums.. I always have thoughts and often I will type a reply..  but then never post it because then you need to filter out the forum trolls and rubbish to get to the real issue..  and in a completely non relevant forum discussion about who is the most famous on our server, someone commented “It’s not really something you can put on your resume now is it?”

and that started a discussion ( but not a new thread) about ” Would you employ someone who has they played wow? – Or was a GM or Officer in a Guild in Warcraft”

I think it slightly odd that they would put it on their resume.  But I have in the past when I had ‘hobbies’ on my resume,  put Kungfu, Writing and Singing on there, and when I did a year of Chinese Sword I had that on my resume too.   Those activitys showed I was creative, active,  the martial arts shows discipline ect ect..  But even though I used to play chess  ( not necessarily well- but I was in the chess club at school  ( shhhhhhhh ) ) Or Play trivial pursuit and  monopoly, and Mech Warrior and Sims and Tomb Raider or even Dnd, I would never consider putting them on my resume but, if your in a management position WOW does have alot of real life skills which can cross over, but is it enough to be recognised as ‘real’ experience.

It would depend on how they sold their ingame learning skills to me as to whether they are useable.
Knowing about Gaming would give you additional questions to ask in the interview.

So your a Guild Master now..
How Big is your guild?
Whats your chain of command like?
Whats the aim/type of guild?
Show how an ingame experience can be used as a real life example?
Explain a difficult situation you have been in where you have had to performance manage someone.

You of course would have to talk about time management. ( I am writing this at lunch.. i am.. )

I think the job  they do that some Gm’s that actually GM,  or a raid leader are amazing..  the thought,  planning,  mothering, fathering,  manageing, planning, ect ect eg like you can see that goes into it through a Guild master and BloggerChickgm.
Even though its game you are still dealing with real people, from all cultures and backgrounds, the sheer exposure to multitudes of people, and having to learn to work together. Or ignore.. ( silently curses the Battleground Leader that split an EOS into 4 groups and put the two priests – a shadow and holy – in the same group rendering my VE and VT useless. and yes I use VT in Bgs sometimes – more for the dot then the mana to stick on warriors with 16k health that are beating me up. ) Breath.

But yes. I think being a GM gives you transferable skills you can use in the real life. As long as you time manage and prioritise.

but having said that because unless I was applying to a ‘gamer’ friendly role or company.. then its not something I would put on my resume. Most people just wouldn’t understand, or know what questions to ask.

Things I wish I knew when I was a noob.

 

I have fond memories playing wow for the first time, running round lost in Elwynn forest, following streams and lakes and running into all sorts of strange creatures that chased me and killed me.
I became very familiar with the paths back to Goldshire, and learnt that a particular break in the road fence meant I was only a little way from there, or not to go down that stream because I would end up in a place with some very dangerous beasts. Running around as a ghost was safer, they couldn’t kill you, but sometimes using your mini map to locate your body when your exploring territory can get quite confusing. Why?
I didn’t know about M for Map. ( it was christmas day – and I didnt want to read the instructions.. )

Rolling a new toon, on a new server, with no financial support has been rather interesting, and I’ve been able to look back at my early days, and my Warrior.. ( shes a level 12 now.. ) and use my experience.

So my advice for Lobies who don’t have a sugar mama or dadda to help you
1. M is for Map – Use it. Trying to navigate Stormwind, or any area without this Key running round in circles is not fun.
2. Do not waste your precious copper and silver ( your nowhere near gold yet.. ) money on buying the white gear that vendors in start up areas often sell. When you have been picking up any scrap of clothing of the dead carcasses you kill, a piece of white armour or weapon or shield looks like a mighty big upgrade. Its not. Its a rip off – they are shonkey.
3. Pick up Gathering professions as soon as you can afford the 9 copper a piece ( you get two) . I would recommend Skinning and Mining. – Low level herbs aren’t worth much for stacks on the AH ( well at least lately.. ) Where as stacks of Light Leather and Copper Ore will sell for Gold. Yes Gold. Activate your Mineral finding icon ASAP.. and seriously Mine and Skin everything you can. People leave alot of carcasses behind.
4. The Auction House is your friend. I find Auctioneer very useful just for the viewing and scanning of prices. It will help you determine price averages on items you put on there, and it also squashes the listings so you can see more at once: Using it – sell in either singles, or neat stacks, my experience is people often only need 1 or 2 of something, or want to buy in bulk, Eg 5’s 10’s 20’s not 13 or 17 of an item, unless there is nothing else listed. – Look for bargain price upgrades, Some people don’t know how to use the AH or don’t do research to see what price other items like what they are selling are selling for, and sometimes Will just throw anything on there really cheap. Some people recommend not buying anything off the AH as a way of saving money, but I like living. But be frugal. Is it really an upgrade? – Don’t bother buying blue items if your going to outgrow it in 10 levels, they cost a lot more. You can also get alot of cheap basic level items which make your life easy. People off load minor healing and mana pots for next to nothing, as well as items they need to make for leveling a crafting skill – you can get cheap Jewellery, Strength pots, armour, ect ect.. but only buy if it really is an upgrade.
5. Learn First aid – The price of Linen is often very cheap, and won’t sell well. Your better off using it to level your first aid no matter what class – Once you start getting Silk drops you will find that it will sell better on the AH
6. Learn to fish and Cook. There are quite a few low level recipes that give you a ‘well fed’ food buff eg for extra stamina If you cook them yourself its easy, and everything helps right?
7. Get as Many flight points as soon as possible, even in areas that are a little high for you. It will make it alot easier when you are doing run around quests and you need to hop on a bird everywhere
8.Bag space is important. Check out the AH for cheap bags before buying from a vendor its often cheaper to get there from the AH as people level Tailoring with them and just want to make some money.
9. Talk to a Guard to find out where things are… When you ask a Guard where something is he puts a little red flag on your map. ( M for Map.. 😛 ) and you can locate it.
10.Don’t try and sell Green items on the trade channel no one buys them.
11. Signing Guild charters is a great way of making money. I wouldn’t recommend staying in the guild though, ( I wonder if there are stats as to how many guilds fail. ) If you don’t know anyone personally on your server You don’t need a guild till around level 12ish, and then you will have seen a lot more people, maybe grouped with people by then and will have a better idea of who you want to play with.
12. You don’t have to train everything a trainer offers you. Its a good idea to get all of it later on, but read the skills, and if you can’t see that you will use it, don’t get it now. Save a little money
13. Don’t give beggers money, or buy some pretty female toon that new Sword she wants. They are either kids, or someone who is delibertly manipulating people.

thats most of the main things for now.

Player Housing – My take on it.

Kudos – and Credit firstly to  Tobold at Tobold’s MMORPG Blog Post on Player Housing who asked
“What do you think? Would you like to see such guild housing in World of Warcraft”

Absoultely….. but. Where does it stop? – This could be HUGE>> I like most of Tolbolds ideas…

The things I would like from player housing/Guild Housing would need to consider the following things..
Vanity
Practicality
Socialibilty

Vanity
From a guild Point.
A house, or a guild hall should be a place to show off your accomplishments, achievements, I like Tobolds idea about the trophy room I have some further ideas..
Each completed raid with a 75% single guild make up could have a badge or a plarque to hang ( this would stay with the guild name and would not be transferable. Yeah we cleared Dead Mines!!
Having said that, the Guild Hall or Foyer could be made public access. The Hall would only be active if there was a guild member in residence, and people could select the Guild they wanted to vist from an active list and wander into their hall and check out the guild progression…. Player Portraits of the officers and GM could be on the wall
Kennels for Hunter Pets
From an individual Point
I like Tobolds idea about the armour sets on Mannequines it would save bankspace and you wouldnt have to delete your Items. ( however There would be a cost for each mannequine.)
A bed or a couch and ‘rest’ time could give you a minor buff like a spirit increase for 30 min – you could also display all your titles / achievements on the wall. Eg Instances cleared – earned titles, Arena teams / PVP ratings.
People would need to be allowed to walk into your room and have a look – The quaity of funishings would reflect on your prestige – A wardrobe facility ( bankspace saver.. ) would allow you to wear in the hall Items you brought /earned Eg Special Events Holiday outfits. An equivilent to outfitter would make changing out of your armour simple. It could also let you change your hair style..
Non combat Pets could stay in the room. Imagine your little white kitten curled asleep in a cat bed, while your Bird or Firefly is on a perch ( these pet assesories would come with a cost.. )

Practicality
Calander/raid sceduling could be done ingame and displayed by the appropriate class. Raid annoucements, and news displayed on clickable boards.
A Noticeboard for Notes, or messages such as Afk’s ect ect.. Item requests,
It also could allow visitors to leave comments/ messages or guild applications.
The hall would have a mail box – and Bank,
A Library for reference materials or Warcraft Lore books – Or when you find a book eg in Scholomance you can bring back a copy and store it in the library.
Cooking facilities Food vendor – Armourer..

Social
Bar /beer facilities in the hall.
Guild round table where the officers and GM could sit and discuss things
Couches and A fire.. a Place to meet before raid, rest/go afk..

However….
Besides excluding alot of people just on what I will gather will be an affordabiliy point of any housing, Blizzard would need to find Enough reasons for people to want one.. Enough reasons for people to use one.. and Keep using it, and enough things to do while there…. Without removing the need for other vendors/trainers..
Eg – are we so entrenched with the Virtual world that we want our Virtual toons to be able to surf the Warcraft web and Buy what they need without leaving the couch in the guildhall.
It would be a trade off – as to what people want available.. and what would effect the game dynamics.. I like running into the auction house with everyone else and using it.

Just some ideas.. some probably aren’t orginal, but its a take.. not claiming copywrite..


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