Spooky Time

Happy Halloween! This is by far my favorite holiday of the year. Candy Candy galore and people don't look at you funny when you're stuffing your face full of it!

I also love the spooky factor.

Anyhow, if you haven't checked out The War of the Murlocs by Taverncast I suggest you go do it right away. I was so glad to see them re-release the episode this year so that more people could enjoy it. It's a bloody good show, entertaining as hell. Better than cable television! And you get to hear Starman from World of Warcast get murdered by a murloc. How cool is that?! heheh.

Listen here http://futurenet.vo.llnwd.net/o2/taverncast/taverncast-war-of-the-murlocs.mp3

Life as a Gamer

Life as a gamer is tougher than it sounds. For most people who hear that you're a gamer, they think, "how nice, you sit around playing games all day having fun"

Part of being a gamer is having that bit of masochism in your blood stream. That part of you that will play BEYOND fun and on into necessity. Half of playing is play. The other half is to be damn good at it. If you're only going to half-ass play something, that's one thing. But if you're going to really invest your life and time into it...that's being a gamer...

From my own experiences and my own observations of fellow gamers, it's like coming home to a second job. The fun part is playing, the hard part is playing until you've reached the apex of your skill level.

It's weird. Some people will automatically assume we have a commonality because we play the same game. But even with playing the same game, there are many different aspects of play that differerntiates us all. I often get pretty pissed when I realize I can't push a friend as far as I want to go. Everyone has their limitations, everyone has their standards for playing goals. Some people cap out earlier. That's when I realize that while we play the same game, we play nothing alike.

People always own this up to addiction and competitive nature. I'm pretty obsessive compulsive so this makes sense. Gaming for me is my life. It eats up approximately 30% of my total week. Sleeping takes up 30%. Another 30% is work. That leaves 10% of my week to doing misc things. ;)

Anyhow, that's a huge chunk of a working girl's life. And my commentary stems from the fact that I feel kind of alone being a gamer. People don't get you. People shun your lifestyle. My co-workers all mock me. And there are very few friends of mine who really get it.

They all want to know what propels me to keep gaming until my eyes burn and my back feels like it's crumbling and my left pinky is so strained it feels like it's going to fall off....... How is that fun?

I never know how to reply. The adrenaline of an FPS game is hard to describe to someone who has never played one before. Gunning down a choke point, getting air dropped, E M P nading that mech.... you just have to be there. You just have to be in the middle of the warzone to experience what it makes you feel like. It's like skating on the brink of a climax. :)

Then there's the autonomy of an MMO like WoW. You may be bound to your chair and staring at your monitor in one room for hours but I sware I have never felt more free in my life than while in a virtual world. And I also feel like the possibilities and opportunites and potential are boundless in an MMORPG. As more and more are being developed, I expect the experiences will only get richer.

So, people may not get me but I get IT. And it's an awesome lifetlye if you have the time and will power to afford it. Will I be a gamer for life? Not sure. I've been rather hooked since the dawn of HUGO (so old it's not even on the archive radar). And with game development only progressing, I have no doubt that whatever life brings me, I'll be gaming someway, somehow.

Gamer4Life. :D

Give me your Turtle mount, kay?

Shame on Blizzard, The Card Game Trinket Fiasco - Page 1 of 1 - Gameworld Network.

sooo...whose gonna fork over the 2100 so I can get a Turtle mount??

The way I see it, Blizzard is a model for a succesful gaming company. You don't gain profit or success without branding and appealing to hardcore fans. Just look at Macs. The formula is to take a corner of the market that has yet to be branded (multi-media) and find a way to brand it...then feed it like crack to the kids. Before macs, i-tunes, i-pods, there was NO such thing as paying for downloaded music. Now, they've made it COOL to pay for music, videos, etc... and it's been cash money from there!

watch out, it's only a matter of time before podcasts cost you .99cent. BLEH!!!!

So Blizzard has made in-game objects and going virtual "cool" to the masses. They don't promote gold farming BUT for 2100 bucks, you have a chance to buy yourself some funky in-game rewards...ie..turtle mount!!! DROOOOL. Succesful model of business is that all money flows to you. That's why Blizzard has been around for so long and will continue amazing success.

Now if I can just appeal to them to make an FPS MMORPG....I'd be set for life.

Starman and Alachia fool around in the DeepRun Tram

With news that the expansion has been postponed till January 2007, I think we're all going a little looney.

Instead of leveling or raiding nax, Starman and I decided to have a little bit of deeprun tram fun!! woo woo! ;)

heheh. I hooked up with Starman on his server and we decided to race through the deeprun tram from ironforge to stormwind.

I have always been told that this was a huge distance. Apparently, it is not. Along our race, there were many many parts that opened up into larger platforms. I noted that these would be great places to hold raves.

About midway through the tunnel, when it opens up to the aquarium, we had to stop and take note of a lot of cool shit we had never seen before. We found Nessy, a gnome diver, a siren, and a shark!!! Pretty awesome. I'd recommend making the run just to go check those mobs out.

Starman tried to attack Nessy who was an elite mob but she remained safe from his moonfire through the glass. :(

Afterwards, we harassed people as they came through the tram and then slaughtered a million rats.

Yes, we are going crazy with out BC!!!

hehehhe. And yes, that's T3 shit Starman has on. pwnage.

Episode 19 Supplement

Episode 19 Node Supplements
Links to some of the significant nodes:

BlizzCon
Deadly Plague Hits Warcraft world
The Impact of Gold Farming
Opening of the Gates of Ahn' Qiraj

Be sure to send me a heads up or mail at wowcast@wowcast.net if you think I missed any!

Thanks!
Alachia

Blood Elf Males too G*y...?? WTF?

GayGamer.net: WoW Overwhelmed By Homophobes, Make Blood Elves Less "Feminine"!

Hmmm. There's nothing wrong or not sexy about a thin-set man. Japanese anime character models are all practically anorexic and yet they somehow manage to look very masculine. Perhaps the key is to have the character wield a sword ten times larger than they are. ;) "it's not how big you are, it's how big your sword is!"
cliche.

so, what do I have to do to get the Human female models to have a 18" waist? And what kind of petition do I have to sign to have the NE females have at least a C cup?? lol. Seriously, all of the male models in WoW look stupid. It was attempted to make them look masculine and strong but instead they all ended up a bit clunky and blocky. That's why most of the men I know who play WoW all play female characters.

So what does it say when the men who play WoW prefer to go transgender rather than play their own sex?? Why then is it a problem to have a more slender, thin-set character if the alternative is to play female characters anyhow? I didn't think men who play WoW would be that self-conscious about their own masculinity. It's not like playing an MMO has anything to do with your gender anyhow. It's one of the least gender-defined activities I have found.

How Alachia came to pass

Many people always ask me where the name Alachia comes from. It's from the Earthdawn RPG series.

I totally fell in love with her character the first time I read the story of Queen Alachia of Wyrm Wood who became the Queen of the Blood Elves after they self-inflicted themselves with the ritual of thorns to escape the horrors.

Here are some excerpts from the story. Full story can be found at the link.

THE ELVEN SCHISM
Some nations reject Thera outright. Queen Alachia of Wyrm Wood, High Queen of the Elves, despises the Therans for their use of slavery and for their political opposition to her rule. She commands that no elven nation, and no elf, follow the Theran ways of protection. She presents an alternative in which elf Elementalists will use wood magics to weave the living plants of a forest into a kaer. The Horrors, she believes, will be unable to pass through living wood.
Elven scholars outside Wyrm Wood, and it is said even some within, are aghast at the proposal. They believe that though the Theran method is not foolproof, it would provide more effective protection against the Horrors. These magicians and scholars doubt that any wooden kaer could possibly withstand the savage physical punishment the Horrors would inflict upon it.
Alachia, however, stands resolute. She vows that any elf who follows the Theran way will be forever separated from all of elven culture. This threat, far from cowing the other elven nations, shatters the great cultural elven empire Alachia commanded, presumably forever.
Word comes first from the elves of the faraway Northern Kingdoms. As the elves most distant from the Court at Wyrm Wood, they feel the least amount of true loyalty to its ways. Though little is known of those Northern Kingdoms in Barsaive, their rejection of Alachia represents a severe blow to her power. Before she can react, Alachia receives word from other elven nations and city-states that they refuse to follow her. They wish the Court well, but they will not follow Alachia to what they believe to be certain death.
Queen Alachia, in the end, does not formally declare these nations separate. Their refusal has bereft the Elven Court of much of its power, making any such declaration an empty gesture. Instead Alachia chooses to wait until after the Scourge when her continued existence can prove her wisdom. At her command, the elves of Wyrm Wood begin the construction of the wooden kaer that will be their downfall.

BLOOD WOOD
In 1262 TH, the wooden kaer of the Elven Court begins to fail. The loss of protection is slow, but inexorable. Panic strikes within the kaer as the elves desperately seek alternative means of protection. They haven’t enough time to construct underground kaers, nor do they have sufficient reserves of Elemental Air or Earth. Desperation and depression set in as the Horrors begin to break through. The elves create roving militia squads to respond quickly to breaks in the kaer barriers, as Elementalists strive to repair the existing breaks and shore up other weakening sections.
Then the elves of the Wood make a startling and ultimately terrifying discovery. Of those Horrors that break through, those most intelligent, most devious, and most difficult to destroy all but ignore elves who are already mad or in extreme, constant pain. The advisors to Queen Alachia are quick to realize that these Horrors need to inflict madness and pain themselves in order to feed. Existing madness and pain are not enough for them. A horrible seed begins to grow in the heart of the Wyrm Wood, a plan for protection so terrible that its implementation will be as heinous as anything the Horrors themselves can inflict.
Finally, with the Horrors on the verge of complete penetration of the elven kaer, the elves enact their desperate plan. Elementalists perform a twisted blood ritual that forces a physical change upon the surviving elves of Wyrm Wood. Thorns begin to grow out of their skin, ripping and tearing, leaving them in constant, excruciating, overpowering pain. The initial Ritual of the Thorns kills many of the elves in Wyrm Wood, but those who survive learn to live with the pain and even draw upon it for strength. For the Horrors, nothing they want remains in Wyrm Wood. Some of the more bestial Horrors continue to attack and attempt to break through, but the more diabolical ones who feed on pain and suffering leave to find their nurture elsewhere. The elves of what has become the Blood Wood have found a way to survive, but at a terrible price.

IMAGE OF A BLOOD ELF AFTER THE RITUAL OF THORNS


Earthdawn: How it Came to Pass

Down Rank Heals Nurfed!

In the great words of Homer Simpson, "DOH! it just gets worse and worse!"

Nurfing Down Ranking? Seriously, that was the most fun I had with my druid. Sure, I can see how down ranking can be abused. I mean, it's how they 4 man onyxia. But tell me out of all the people you've raided with, how many freaking learn2downrank? In my experience, not many. Hell, I never have seen it get abused at all. It made healing fun and a little bit interesting as a druid...which.. healing..sheesh....give us something! Being efficient was something that gave a lot of us an edge and made the class more compelling. It meant that druids that weren't necessarily resto could keep up and it make the dynamic between the main healer and support healers a little more dynamic. tshhh.. good thing i'm rolling a priest.

anyhow, healbots FTW!

WoW Forums -> Change to Coefficient Bonuses on Spells

In the Burning Crusade, we’ve decided to make a fundamental change to the way spells calculate the bonus they receive from +healing and +spell damage effects and items. This is because we have seen a growing trend in using “downranking” and large amounts of +healing items, which we feel negatively impacts game balance. Downranking involves high-level players using lower level spell ranks and +healing gear to conserve mana, but maintain a high rate of healing done. Through this method, it has become possible in the live game for healing characters to heal large amounts of damage indefinitely without running out of mana. To maintain progression of use through spell ranks, we are changing how lower ranked spells relate to characters of higher level.

Spells will now receive a smaller bonus from +healing and +spell damage based on a comparison of the level at which the spell was learned and the caster’s current level. Take the Priest spell Heal 2 as an example:

The spell is learned at level 22, and the base points for healing on the spell keep increasing until level 27. So, level 27 is considered the spell’s max level in our calculation.

This system gives an additional 6 levels of slack before applying any penalty to casting Heal 2; so, players up to level 33 can cast it with no penalty.

In this example, we will use level 34 (one level past the cast level of the spell) as a starting point.

The bonus from +healing is multiplied by this ratio:


((spell level)+6)/(player level)



That means the level 34 player only gets 97% of the normal bonus from +healing items when casting Heal 2. A level 60 player would only get 55% of the bonus, while a level 70 would get 47%.

The exact same system will also apply to damage spells. However, as healing classes tend to use downranking more often than others, healers are likely to see more effect from this change than other classes. As a general rule, players will be able to use the top 2 or 3 ranks of each spell before receiving any penalty. All of the existing ratios for the +healing and +spell damage bonuses on spells are also still in effect; so spells with a short casting time will continue to receive a smaller bonus than spells with a longer casting time. Spells learned below level 20 will still receive substantially smaller bonuses.

WoW BC Postponed

Thank you Kaz for linking the post. BF2142 it is then! lol. nah, actually that means I can get a preist AND pally ready for BC. lmao.

did you guys just hear that noise? That's the sound of seven million people grunting.

WoW Forums -> Media Alert: Please Read: "IRVINE, Calif. -- Blizzard Entertainment� today announced that the release date for World of Warcraft�: The Burning Crusade™, the highly anticipated expansion for World of Warcraft, will be in January 2007. By adding a few extra weeks to the development cycle beyond its original target date, Blizzard will be able to extend the closed beta test and further refine the new content that will ship with the game.

“We appreciate the enthusiasm surrounding World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, and we’re excited about putting the finishing touches on all of the new content,” said Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We feel confident that the extra time spent polishing the game will result in the high-quality experience that our players expect and deserve.”

Blizzard began the closed-beta phase of testing on World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade earlier this month. The January 2007 release window will allow extra time for current beta testers to participate in the final stages of development and continue providing valuable feedback.

Further information on specific worldwide release dates, pricing, and other details will be announced in the near future."

BF2142: Rank up vs XP

Man, you totally forget how much faster time goes when you play an FPS game. It's like 4 hours goes by in 4 minutes. Complete adrenaline rush. That's probably why I've been completely praying to the gods every day about Huxley. FPS MMORPG. I literally cried from hysteria when I saw the trailer to it. But then again, that game might be the death of me.

Anyhow, Battlefield 2142 is pretty good. I must say it's quite weird seeing skyscrapers in my fps games. Not used to that. I even successfully flew the choppers around. They have made manning vehicles a lot easier in this version. I'm the engineer of our squad, still trying to learn all the maps. Going from MMORPG to FPS will throw your brain for a loop the first couple times around. "frost bolt! no wait. reload! no wait. cover me!"
Also, WoW throws off your strafe buttons. I still need more practice though. Going to a lan party in November. JAE has to bring it!

Blizzard is toying with me

just got a call.

It's been my third Unofficial, Unconfirmed leak that WoW BC is going to postponed till 2007. Has anyone else heard anything about this? I heard they will release news to Europe next week about this and then the US the following week.

"don't break my heart, my achy breaky heart, i just don't think it'd understand!"

lol.

Good news is that the death march is off if this is confirmed. We have at least another month to level.

So we were in the Yeti Cave in Southshore....

Just when we were reminising over the old days of Tauren Mill Open World PvP....

SOoooo.. I wonder how many great WoW war stories start out with "we were in the yeti cave in southshore...when..."

lol. SO, we were in the yeti cave in southshore and a little gankage started right outside the cave. they ganked us, we ganked back. then they brought in 4 level 60s and decided they would camp our level 30 bodies. so we logged out. as soon as we did, the other people in the guild were like "horde problems?" ..and I was like "they want to camp our bodies, we'll give them a fucking camp fire"

heh. and so we got our 60s to southshore and started ganking back. the next thing we know, they are falling back to tauren mill. as we arrive there, we see 3 more level 60 horde flying in. they make a push forward and then we push them back in. then the guards come out and push us back. the next thing we know, three more alliance show up on our side and several more show up on the horde side.

30 minutes later and it's a full out war on Tauren Mill and we've lost at least one hour of our leveling time. :D You can literally go back and forth between Tauren Mill and Southshore for hours.

RAWRRR! Got Flint and Tinder?

Alachia is the Devil

I love the subtle references to Diablo in this game. I keep expecting for there to be an elite quest to form the horadic staff. :D

Death March

Grind Grind Grind. Quest Quest Quest.
That's pretty much what I did all of yesterday on my priest. We breaked once for lunch for sandwiches (ham, mustard no mayo) and once for dinner, chinese take-out (beef w/ broc).

We covered Deadmines, Redridge Lakeshire, Duskwood, and the Wetlands. Level 28 and 32 more to go. Our party make up is:
Taint: Human Priest
Alachia: Human Priest
Sadin: Human Warrior
Felix: Human Warrior (but is going to switch over to his warlock when we hit 30)

Today we cover Stockades, Gnomer, and DUN DUN DUN STRANGLETHORN VALE! I foresee is being slowed down quite a bit in STV due to gankfesting. (it's a good thing I have 10 copies of every page in the STV chapter quest) Free 3k XP. :D

I'm mostly looking forward to my mount. Walking is SOOOO over-rated! lol. And you better believe I'm getting the black stallion this time around!

Deadmines x 10

"ZOMG! Stick a fork in me!"

was the last thing I typed to Taint on our 4 hour XP farm session in the Deadmines trying to catch up my level 15 priest to their 20 characters. I thought if I saw another fucking smelting pant, emberstone staff, cruel barb, cookie's wand, I would fucking puke my guts out.

I have no idea what the official count was as to the number of times we ran it...but by the time I hit 20, i wanted to set the entire mines on fire.

LOL. now I have to back in there with our four man party and actually do the real quest line. ZOMG!

Do you have to be fair?

If only it were possible to make everyone happy in the game, all the time.

At my job, I have to make a lot of decisions that effect the people around me. Asking someone to come in on a Saturday will most definitely not make them happy. Of course, having your entire team screamed at for missing a deadline and causing the project to go over budget, not so good. But you have to make the call one way or another.

I've found the same dilemmas in being a guild lead. And you learn over time, that as much as you want to make some people happy, you have to think of "over all" guild satisfaction and not "that dude who was super nice to you" or "that one person who power leveled you through mauradon", etc.

so last night. the tome of polymorph turtle dropped again. (why we are still running ZG, i don't know).
All of the mages in the raid has gotten it.

One of the old mages from cykos comes on our raids even though he is not in our guild at the moment. But he
always comes to our raids as his warrior.

When the book fell, he askd if he could have it.

Dilemma 1: He was one of my best mages in cykos. He's a nice guy. He once gave me the Ace of Elementals without blinking an eye and returned all my attempts at sending him gold for it.

Dilemma 2: He's not the only one in that raid with an alt mage that would like that book.

Dilemma 3: A lot of people in the raid could use the money from the sell of the book. Most of JAE are pretty poor in-game.

Dilemma 4: It's not easy for mages to find a ZG group willing to run Fish Boss just so they can get the book. So is it better to bank the books and save them for everyone's alts?

Dilemma 5: We could raid roll the book and whoever won the roll would get to do whatever they wanted with the book. But again, it would be basically giving one person close to 800-1000 gold. Sure to make some people annoyed.

The final resolution was to sell the book for profit and split the proceeds among those present during the fight.

I felt bad. It was a hard decision to make. And I apologized that I wasn't able to just give his alt the book. I'm sure he was still pretty dissapointed.

It sucks you can't make everyone happy. It's all virtual but the feelings are real.

This American Life

WoW. So Hot Toddy compared WoWcast to This American Life.
At first I was like..hmmm. NPR? I must be getting beyond boring. But I'm not one to blindly judge. So I subscribed to the podcast myself. Very interesting. It's a great podcast all about American Society and Culture.

From WBEZ in Chicago | This American Life

I've never heard anything like it. The reality of our society is so fucking fascinating sometimes...by watching MTV or VH1, you wouldn't know how interesting we all are.

Trick or Treat!

Yeah! Halloween is here again. SO far I've only gotten this cool undead mask. I really want the Tauren mask.

WoW BC, get it while its hot

Went to Best Buy on the way home from work today. They are completely out of B2142. They're not getting any in until Saturday. WTF? If B2142 already sold out on the release date, can you imagine what release date for WoW BC is going to be like?! HOLY BOLOGNA!

So I drove straight to Game Stop and pre-ordered 3 copies of WoW BC right after that.

SAFE!

Get a Life

So on my way to lunch today I saw this awesome bumper sticker:


get a life? I'm a gamer.
I have LOTS of LIVES!!

I was laughing my ass off. I must get that bumper sticker!

Mechanical Animals

I haven't reserved my copy of World of Warcraft Burning Crusade Expansion yet. I feel like I'm playing with fire. A part of me thinks that it'll be fun to the first one in line the day of release and fight it out for a copy with the rest of the WoW junkies in Austin. Another part of me thinks there won't be a single copy left after all the games get reserved. I wonder how many people will show up to Fry's or Best Buy or Gamestop that day. I should bring my camera.

I can just see everyone now in the line outside waiting for the store to open: "what server do you play on?" "oh yeah, what's the 2 piece bonus on that set?" "and then his frost bolt crit me for like 3k damage!"

lol. should be fun. I wonder how many of us are going to be "sick" from work that day. :D

I DON'T LIKE THE DRUGS, BUT THE DRUGS LIKE ME!

Edit 2:32PM: So I really was getting worried so I sent an email out to Taint, Sadin, and Felix.

On 10/18/06, **** wrote:
So. The Collector's Edition has already sold out.
I'm a little worried about getting the game when the expansion comes out.
Don't you think we should reserve a copy at Game Stop or something? It would really suck to have to wait 1-5 days to get it while everyone else is playing it.
There is a Game Stop on Brodie I think.

Taint's response: yeah we should do it this weekend.

So as long as the game pre-sell doesn't suddenly vanish by this weekend, I think we'll be safe.
Ashame it's not coming out till at least the 28th now. The 22nd would have been perfect! Thanksgiving weekend, can you imagine? Why we have to go out and do it togehter, I don't know. I guess it's just more exciting that way. Geeks-R-us :D

They Hate Me

lol. So I noticed my site is being referenced to by
WoW - Recommended Servers - Fires of Heaven Guild Message Board

so i go check it out to see what the thread is about. holy shit. those dudes hate my guts. what did they say?
let me sum it up to you. "duh, you total noob twat, mmos are addictive, shut your fucking whining and face up to your addicition and get a life"

wow. okay. first, i have recieved a lot of criticism for what i do and my episodes and where i'm going with the podcast. free media. my right to podcast shit if i want. second, it's hard to take criticism seriously from people who have time to post in an MMO forum. yeah, like i'll take addiciton advice from addicts.

second, what's up with EQ elitists? like none of us are allowed to experience MMOs for the first time, to discover them, to appreciate the evolution of MMOs? I appreciate EQ. I love to chat with Starman about his experiences back in the EQ days. I have total respect for the game that revolutionized main stream mmo games.

but damn, cut me some slack peeps.

that's it. i'm going to buy B2142 today after work!

mmos are for sissies! lol. haterz.

My Mage is Retired

14 Straight ZG Runs + 9 Fish Boss fights - 2 roll losses = Tome of Polymorph Turtle!!!

woot!

Episode 18 Supplemental Info

Here's the newclip and article talked about in Episode 18. You decide for yourself. :D

World of Warcraft Addict Media Clip


Landover Baptist Article (I had to check it three times to make sure it wasn't a spoof article)
http://www.landoverbaptist.org/news0105/wow.html

update: 10/16/06 16:14, got this email to help clarify the absurdity of the landover baptist article

Hey Alachia,

Shaman on Hyjal here again. Just listened to your
last show, and im glad to see you are updating
regularly again. About the Landover baptist website
tho. Its a satire site, much like The Onion, however,
they specialise in ridiculing Christians. Just wanted
to give you the heads up.

-Santo

I thought as much, but when I navigated through the site, I thought it was rediculous but sometimes some religious fanatics are that extreme so I wasn't sure. Thanks for the clarification, Santo! Still psychotic nonetheless!

New Podcast Intro

So last night I stood at my kitchen island eating a vanilla ice cream, fresca orange citrus original flavor float and hot fries for dinner. One of the perks of being an adult is that you get to eat just about anything you want for dinner and not have to worry about stunting your growth. I am however, one of the most unhealthy people I know. LOL. you're probably all picturing a 300 pound glutton snorting chips at my computer like in that South Park Episode.

Anyhow, my point was I spent a good amount of time in my kitchen stairing off into space before raid time. I've been trying to brainstorm a new intro to the podcast. I just recently subscribed to another wow podcast and they're using the exact same intro and exit music as me...which I cribbed from Blizzard. Don't think they cribbed it from me but we probably just have the same audio tastes. heh. Anyhoo, thought I should take the time now and do something original of my own... what to do...

Started playing around with some ideas last night but still nothing that really clicks.

Maybe I should just open the show with me screaming "World of Warcraft is for Losers!" Think that would fly??? Probably would lose the last of my 10 listeners. lol. and Should it even retain any of the World of Warcraft audio? Does it matter??? UGH. Think Brain, think!!

MySpace WoWcast

Parenting yourself sucks. Last night after the ZG run, we kind of finished early (we split the instance over two days). No tome of Turtle Polyomrph :(

so afterwards, I went with Felixx and Boozefort and Maebee to run Undead. Booze still needs his valor pants. but he's had as much luck as i have with my turtle book. lol.

it's so wild running that instance now after having struggled so much in it in the past...i'm recalling my 3 hour bugged out run fom Episode 5, Live from Undead...and now we slice through that instance like butter. We almost had the thing in 30 mins with 4 people and that includes a detour to try and get me the flute. FYI, devout skirt fell. BOOOO.

So I was super tired last night and was thinking I'd go to bed as soon as we finished. But then as I was about to log off, I checked my e-mail and saw someone added me as a friend to their myspace account.

I've always said that MySpace was the first time I felt a generational gap. Those pages are just sensory overload and hella hard to navigate cuz of all the flashing vids and gifs and 10 bazillion friends commenting at random. But I had created an account a few weeks ago to reserve the wowcast name.

So I spent like a few hours researching myspace accounts and div overlays...including watching like a billion videos along the way. I was able to make my Myspace look a lot simpler by the end of the night but it still needs a lot of work. At the end of the night, I was like "Why am I doing this??? and You're going to pay for this in the morning big time!"

Staying up till 4am --->>>
www.myspace.com/wowcast <<<-------

update: 10/17/06, thanks KaiZen for helping me figure out the problem with the +add friends function. you kick ass! I <3 Smart People! I think the add friend feature should now work on the site!

Audio 450 Ultimate Performance On-the-Go Headset

Woot. my dream come true headset. Just ordered mine! Free shipping from amazon.com..and it's only 28 bucks there too. wooohooo!!!

Plantronics )) Computer )) Computer Headsets )) .Audio™ 450 Ultimate Performance On-the-Go Headset

The Rogue is Out of the Closet!

I know there are static characters out there. Those who will only play one character until the game dies or they die....in RL. But I love playing multiple characters.

Last night, I finally got to bring my rogue along to the second half of our ZG run. It was pretty awesome. We had two old cykos guildies come along and our dps was just sick. It felt so amazing to be up next the main bosses and mobs in an instance. It was like...I finally got to join the melee club...welcome to cleave city. Heh. It's so exhilarating. I loved it. The rush of spamming feint every cool down, vanishing when you've toppled agro, kicking, stunning...woot. Hell. When the clothies were jumping in their chairs that shit was on them, I got to be the one to come and try and pull mobs off of them at times.

I have experienced instances with my druid before. Healing is a whole other high I love as well. But it's so exciting getting to play my rogue with the big guns now. :) I'm sooo happy! Of course, I still can't shake that feeling like I should be sheeping something or giving people water and food.
I'll still play my mage but I'm really glad I'm getting a chance to play the rogue now too.

She's actually pretty geared...as geared as you can be almost pre-20 man raids without paying 300g and time to upgrade to .5 gear..which I plan on doing if we don't hit MC again soon. No ZG drops yet ..and she's only half way through netural in ZG rep. hey! Last night was pretty much her first run. Give her time!

Weekend without WoW

I took Friday off to go to a John Mayer concert with Tai (Taint) and my friend Ren.
We took off Friday to drive home which is only 1.5 hours away from the concert as opposed to 4 hours away from Austin. Plus, it was our mom's birthday so we were basically killing two birds with one stone.

Anyhow Thurday night I normally would have been raiding ZG or AQ with JAE but I spent 4.5 hours driving home with Tai. We got in around 11:30pm I think. I thought maybe I'd watch a movie once we got home but I had just spent the last hour arguing with Tai in the car about my commitment to gaming...especially FPS games. So I just went to bed. I ended up dreaming that I was caught in a jungle trying to cross enemy lines without so much as a knife in my hands. Bizarre.

Friday I sleep in of course and wake up, shower, and start watching cable tv. It's like having your brain sucked out of your through a straw, I swear.
100 something channels and the best thing I can find is some show called Made on MTV. I watched this one episode where this girl wants to get MADE into a girly girl (she starts out as this nice tom boy). After all is said and done, to become a girly girl, she has to wear make up, learn how to eat, ditch her brother during lunch, hang out with more popular girls, learn how to flirt with boys, blow one dude off who invites her to the prom for some other dude she thinks is hotter. Basically she has to become a bitch to become a girly girl. And I'm thinking in my head...hmmmm. That's like using a small progression guild to gear up and then applying to a hardcore progression guild. Bitch! Lol.

The John Mayer concert was awesome. First RL thing I've done in a long time that was fun and enjoyable. I kept hoping he'd play Stop this Train, my favorite song from his newest album Continuum....but he didn't. Still an awesome performance.

Saturday was pretty much the same. I woke up, stared at the tv for a few hours, ate lunch, went shopping for my mother's b-day present, stared at the tv for a few more hours, ate dinner, stared at the tv for a few more hours, ate cake and gave my mom her pressies, then stared at the tv for a few more hours. I kept thinking... Man, it must be super late...but by the time I went to sleep, it was 11:30pm!!!! Super early. I usually never hit the sack till 1:30am at the earliest.

Sunday was the same except for the drive back to Austin. Got home, watered the lawn, put away my clothes, went grocery shopping, ate dinner, took a shower, then hopped onto WoW.

Is life without WoW do-able? Yes. Did I handle it fine? Yes.
But I would have to say time moves a lot slower in RL. And I felt more sluggish and lackluster. By the time I logged on again Sunday night, it felt really good to be slammed with the sensory overload of WoW. And my brain turned back on.

WoWcast Vids Session 3

All is good. Felix supposedly taped the South Park Episode for me so yeah for that!!

Here's WoWcast Vids Session 3....Alachia's WoW Room. Let's get the party started!

South Park and WoW

Man!! I wish I had cable. Anyone in Austin mind me coming over and watching tv for an hour??? hahahah.

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South Park - WoW

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From today's Comedy Central Press Release:

"South Park" celebrates 10 groundbreaking seasons! The boys immerse
themselves into the World of Warcraft(R) as "South Park" joins forces with
Blizzard Entertainment(R) to kick-off all new episodes on Wednesday, October
4 at 10:00 P.M. on Comedy Central


The Emmy And Peabody Award-Winning Series Premieres Seven New Episodes


New York, October 2, 2006 -- There's trouble in the online gaming world when
the actions of a renegade player threaten to destroy Blizzard
Entertainment's(R) award-winning game World of Warcraft(R). The future of
the game lies in the hands of Cartman, Kyle, Stan and Kenny when all new
episodes in the tenth season of the widely-acclaimed series, "South Park,"
premiere Wednesday, October 4 at 10:00 p.m. on Comedy Central.

In this episode, the boys come into contact with a gamer who doesn't play by
the rules. Even the creative people behind World of Warcraft don't know how
to stop the renegade. They are forced to put all of their hope into the
hands of the kids of South Park. The boys dedicate their lives to defeating
the mad gamer and saving the game for all.

"We were excited to hear that the creators of 'South Park' were interested
in featuring World of Warcraft in the opening of their new season and we
really enjoyed collaborating with them to make this happen," said Mike
Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We're looking
forward to sharing the experience with our employees and our players as well
when the season debuts this week."

World of Warcraft is the world's most popular massively multiplayer online
role-playing game, with millions of players worldwide. In World of Warcraft,
players assume the roles of legendary heroes as they develop friendships,
forge alliances and compete with enemies for power and glory. The game's
upcoming expansion pack, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, is due out
by the end of this year. Learn more about World of Warcraft at the game's
official Web site: www.worldofwarcraft.com.

Full Raid equals Pwnage

rawrrrr!!! JAE downs hakkar.
to our amazement, we actually had a full raid last night. and just as we suspected. since we spanked with 13-15, we pwned with 20!

This is a screenshot taken by Kitch. I had one that has me in it but this one seemed more hilarious.