Feelin' the need to unwind from the stress of the game? This one's going to be a low brainer..
Bring your own beats! Turn up the volume! Time to have fun.
Events for the night:
1. Tram Racing
2. Tram Hopping
3. WoW Stress Affirmation followed by attempted Suicide Club Movie re-enactment
4. A trip to the Tram Aquarium
5. And of course, freaking people out on the Tram
Hope to see ya guys there!
She was a level 31, he was a level 54. I shit you not, this is how I found them wondering around in the Stormwind Cathedral Crypts tonight!
At first I thought they were NPCs. I was on my MetaTalk toon on the Scarlet Crusade RP server. Last week, people asked if we could meet in a new spot for once. So I went off looking for a cool room to gather in. That's how I found myself in the the bottom of the Stormwind Cathedral obviously accidentally barging in on something....
at first, I found myself snickering a bit...but then I inspected both of them. Obviously.. he didn't have much of any clothes on.. she had on a wedding dress.
Suddenly the encounter seemed less kinky and maybe sweet.. kind of like a whole Braveheart secret marriage thing. :)
Who knows... <3
Okay. Spent some time updating the WoWcast store with the new logo and of course the kick ass WoWcast bunny!
hahaha. I'm going to order me one of the black wowcast bunny t-shirts to become one of my WoW Uniforms... You know what I mean..the comfy outfits you put on for long hours of play. :D
I opted not to add the wowbunny thong. I gave it a moments though but then I had this vision of some large dude prancing around in a wowbunny thong and then decided against it. hehehhe.
oh yeah. some of the shirts have stuff on the back. doin it from behind...ah yeah!
http://www.cafepress.com/wowcast
Hahaha. JoJoKnit cracked me up when she sent me this email awhile back when she found out I was TRYING to learn how to knit:
Here's a "quest" for you...the recluse:
After you practice a bit, find a yarn/knitting store in your area. You are in Texas, right? Bring your knitting with you and ask if someone can take a look and see if you are doing it right. You never know, you might meet some nice knitters. We knitter are usually a friendly bunch. Buy some chunky yarn and big needles (again ask someone to help you) and cast on for a scarf. Chunky yarn and big needles is a way to get a scarf done in no time. Whatever it looks like, finished is better than perfect and you will feel accomplished and then the bug might get you.
Reward: A skein of hand spun yarn done by the one and only J C Knitnstuff
Well I'm happy to report that due to my WoW break, I have finished my first RL quest!
Wooot!
I wrote JoJo to tell her that I finished the quest, she replied back "Gratz, you have just learned a whole bunch of XP and have Dinged/Bonged to the next level"
I had to ask her what a skein is. heheheh.. it's a ballish bundle of yarn apparently!
She asked me what color I wanted and I said blue, pink or purple. If I get a purple skien, does that mean I got an Epic Quest reward?! hahahaha
Thanks JoJo for the motivation!
When the pain gets too much, you just want to get out....
I had to log off of WoW early tonight. I'm up to my ears in stress.
Loot Drama and Arena Drama are pissing me off.
I just want to play. I want to improve. But everyone else just wants their own...or at least that's how it feels.
Scenerio 1 guys.
You're in a 5v5 group. Your team is working out the dynamics and mostly, you just like playing together as a team and improving how you work with everyone. Someone else comes along with more survivability than your bullsh*t shadowpriest. This someone already has a 2k ranked 5v5 team on another character. He gets to roll with a fully geared Warrior and Paladin at all times. He gets to play 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5s all the time.
What do you do?
A. Silently watch as you get slowly replaced?
B. Say something and piss people off?
C. Just quit now?
Yes, I want to win. Yes, I'd like for us to be the best and do very well. But mostly, I just want to play. Does that make me selfish?
Scenerio 2.
You just downed Prince Malchezaar in Karazhan. [The Decapitator] drops. In your raid group, you have two warriors who are heavily into Arenas and play almost every day of the week. Both who want to try out a Fury build. You also have an elemental Shaman who rolls incase he ever wants to go Enhancement. Your policy on loot rolls, if you want it and will use it, you can roll on it. The shammy has already spoken at lengths about quiting the game and does not play very often. He rolls and wins and the weapon goes straight to the bank.
What do you do?
A. Get pissed off and seem like a loot whore?
B. Be glad that such an awesome weapon went to someone's bank?
C. Feign indifference?
I'm getting tired of all the BS. And on top of that, I'm getting very pissed at the Blizzard development team for making it very difficult to want to play my class.
I'm doing everything I can to stay optimisitc... but I do have my f*cking threshold.
This weekend was going to be WoWfest weekend but instead I took a much needed break from the game. Loot drama, character drama, and group drama are things you gotta just step away from every now and then.
Instead, I watched all of the Firefly series and Serenity the movie again. One of the best sci-fi series out there IMO. Ashame it only lasted one season. How Fox can have kept 'So You Think You can Dance' on the air for multiple season but couldn't see out Firefly for more than one...boggles meh mind.
Of course I love the sense of humor of the show, but what I really appreciate is their portrayal of "future sci-fi". It's quite unique. It's not all tech and glamor.. you've got your central planets which are a huge gigantic melting pot of multiple cultures with high tech as well as overcrowded streets.
The use of cross-language cussing was a great detail to add to the effect that new worlds inhabited by the overpopulation of earth...the stripping of our ties to nations and cultures...would blend in new environments. But then they show the border planets which are not developed and look more like early settlements of the midwest where food supply equals wealth.
It's a surreal mixture of super sci-fi high-tech with the raw human survival ruggedness of a western. I always found it intriguing that you could have these earth like worlds formed by the science of mankind, space ships, digital high tech displays but then in one second, a single strawberry can seem like a total treasure and a wonder.
Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
I be a Shadowpriest
F*CK! I am screwed!
[deleted big b*tching post about cloth survivability]
Did the game of checkers ever change you beyond being just a part of your history?
What about Chutes and Ladders?
Games are supposed to be interactive and add to the history of your 'fun' life. With the introduction of MMORPGs, I have to ask, is it more than just fun?
Is it possible to engage in a 'game' and come out feeling that your entire lifestyle has morphed and that your behavior and patterns of engagement differ over the course of months and years?
Let me just explain my behavior about my innercircle of friends for example and the use of ventrillo.
At first, it was just us four (taint, sadin, felix, me). That's it. We shared a 10 person vent server and I would find myself getting annoyed when other random friends got on and "listened in" or invaded our "space".
I was so closed and guarded. I didn't want anyone intruding in our world and the intimacy that only comes from having played with the same group of people for years and years. A friend of a friend pops in vent and trust me, it's not the same atmosphere anymore.
Plus, we were all so close, we openly fight with each other (yelling and all) which can be very uncomfortable for other people to hear.
I used to be so picky about who I let in...I even kept a passworded channel for when I didn't want to hear "excess chatter".
But as JAE got larger and larger, so did our vent server. I bought a 50 person server eventually and created multiple channels. I started to get to know the people through voice better and while still not comfortable chatting openly with everyone, it became easier to get to know people.
And when you start to raid with people for 3 hours every day on ventrillo, you really start to develop a comfort level with open channel talk. Joking, laughing, bitching, etc...
I definitely still prefer smaller group chats to open ones and I don't feel comfortable just floating into other group channels for the hell of it to say "what's up guys"... but it's a lot better than "vent is only for the four of us".. and now I find I enjoy chatting with new people and am glad to see us all communicating and forming a closer bond.
So....tonight's MetaTalk Topic is "How has WoW changed you, if at all"
Scarlet Crusade US/Stormwind/The Park/8central
/w MetaTalk
Practice and confidence. I'm learning and getting better. While I'm not the best, I'm so glad to see myself improving day by day. /played = /better player
Today, Taint (frost mage) and my shadow priest did 15 2v2 games. We went 10wins-5losses.
Mind you, he just hit 70 like Sunday. His gear is mostly greens still. But damn those frost mages have the most amazing survivability. And who the heck needs arcane power when you can just spell steal it off of someone who spec'd it! LMAO. I know that must be frustrating for them.
Anyhow. After 14 games, we had 1699 rating and wanted to break 1700. So our last match we went head to head with a shaman and a mage. Both their mage and Taint went down at the same time. I was at 20% health and 10% mana. The shaman had 100% mana and health as he was just coming out of polymorph. I seriously thought it was gg.
The shammy was pretty smart. He/she set up totems at 30 yards apart so the odds that I would run into one was high as I was kiting away from him/her.
Mages are allowed to trade water and food to their team members. And you can get OOC during Arenas if you run far enough from the opponent.
SO I ran and shielded myself with the mana I had left. As soon as I got out of range I started to drink and eat but a totem was close enought to tag me. DOH!
The shaman kept assualting me. As soon as I got the mana, I dotted and feared. I then ran and bandaged myself to 30% again before he interrupted me. I repeated this two more times just doing everything I could to stay alive trying to drink, eat, or bandage. Taint was yelling "DO NOT GIVE UP! THIS IS NOT OVER!"
I never got over 30% health again. Finally I lasted 5 full minutes at marginal health and no freaking mana until my Shadow Fiend cool down was up!!! (gives back mana as it does damage)I popped the fiend. At this point, my dots had finally eaten away at the shaman to get him to 60%. I popped Shadow Word Pain, Mind Blast, SW: Death, and then Mindflayed over and over again as it is my lowest mana cost spell that does significant damage. As he was about to cast heal, I feared and he died.
O M G. I couldn't believe it. Hardest 14 arena points I ever earned. LOL.
Woot! Children's Week is here. I've been waiting for it for the past month.
And in true NOOB fashion, I ran directly to Stormwind and did the entire questline only to find myself with the choice of the pig, rat, and turtle again. WTF?
Meanwhile, the rest of the people in my guild started the correct quest line in Lower City. You take the little Orpan to the Dark Portal, Auchenei Crypts, Aeris Landing, Caverns of Time, and Exodar.
Then you get the baby Elekk, baby Hawkstrider (bird in an egg), OR baby Mike Wazowski (Willy). You know, the cute one-eyed monster in Disney's Monster's Inc.
I'm almost done. Just need to port to Exodar and somehow get back to Shat..
The hard part? Picking which one!!
http://www.shadowpriest.com/viewtopic.php?t=1652
Yeah, every class whines but I've been trying to hold my complaints off for a very long time. But it's good to know that I'm not completely insane. Reading the forum above, it's good to know I'm not so alone.
The real gem about PvP is that not many people are going to hand you a manual and be like, here is every combination of classes you can go against and here is what you do! It's about experience, listening, and learning. And surviving the frustration of course.
"Erebus" on the first page of that forum post says a lot imo. SP totally got balanced for PvE but moved down second class PvPers. They keep buffing the burst damage of melee and other spell casters but have done nothing to help balance out the stam/hp for priests. This makes us almost instant fodder.
I can handle my own in larger groups though as I have good players with me who really look after me. Hunters and rogues can really help out a SP like no tomorrow. Be kind to your friends! hahahaha.
As some one else mentioned, the Massive increase to Burst damage and hit us rediculously hard. As a class that relies on 60% of our dmg or more in PvP to come from our dots, we cannot compete with the other classes which can either Burst DPS us down, or CC us the entire fight. The lack of viable CC for our class puts us at a very strong disadvantage. We cannot blind/sheep/sap/seduce/chainfear/deathcoil/trap/cyclone/root/frost nova/ etc like just about every other class with the exception of warriors. because of this we always have to fight a reactive fight, unless we see our enemy first. -Gilthresa
amen brotha.. amen.
So Felix specced Unstable Affliction and we tested that out a bit with our Connect the DOTs 2v2 team. We also developed a better dps cycle.
I'm hoping to start with vampiric touch and then hit my instant dots. Now that we have unstable affliction, my dots are bit more effective as it makes teams afraid to dispel..and for good reasons. It also ties up a healer team pretty well.
We were able to use our DOTs and kite tactic pretty well. The combo teams that still gave us a lot of troubles were the dual rogue or rogue/druid stealth teams. The stealth to burst combo they do usually doesn't allow us our max ability to DOT and run.
Despite doing reign of fire rank 1 around us, a rogue was still able to sap one of us. How? Don't ask me. But one things for sure, they Blizzard should just take away our fear abilities. They are pointless against anywhere decent teams. Immune, resist, immune, resists. Sucks when you're only defense is immune or resisted by 90% of your opponents. I know. /cry more. I will. :D LOL. But you'd be screaming too if a human rogue out of stealth and not shadow stepped said IMMUNE to fear. wtf?
But despite the struggles, we came out A TON better. It's been fun trying out our new strats and adjusting. Arenas may come easy and a breeze for some teams but the ones around me are about work and improving. PvP is not for the impatient for sure. Die and Try, repeat.
We got up a 100 more points though..1630ish..
Sure wish I could get a team to 2000 rating but I guess in due time. :)
Give me 1.5 seconds and I'll give you holy hell in Arenas. That would be my slogan if it weren't for the fact that I'm having such a hard time with my shadowpriest. Not that I don't know how to play her or that I don't know what kind of things will work best in terms of how I can smoke someone down.
My issue is that other teams keep me locked down sooooo well. Blind, sap, spell steal, poly, pummel, counterspell, fear, kick... you freaking name it and it's been done to me. If you were to equivilate crowd controls with sex...I'd be freaking Jenna Jameson.
All I really need is close to 1.5 seconds of free cast time and I can unleash the pain but it's darn near impossible half the time. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. For now, I'm just calling myself "team fodder"...:)
I dispel a lot as that is instant and then fear. On my 5v5 team, I seem to stand a decent chance but on my new 3v3 team....it's been quite tough for me.
Luckily I'm grouped up with a fully geared warrior who knows his shit. Our team, 'This is for Mathilda' played its first matches today. We landed at 1660 rating. Which isn't bad at all!
Players: Felicks(warlock), Alachia(sp), Taint(mage), Kamisa(warrior deep thunder)
The team name comes from the movie Leon The Professional.. badass movie if you've never seen it...def. must see.
In fact, for a first go...it was an awesome start. But I still felt halfway useless. Bringing to the table what? Power Word Fort? Maybe a fear and a couple dispels.. and maybe ...just maybe a shadow word death at the right time.
It wasn't all bad for me but just an over all sense of helplessness ...gah.. it just makes you feel like screaming "what should I be doing otherwise?!"
Anyhow, our 5v5 arena team also had an intense day. We climbed up to an 1830 rating only to plummit down to 1730 something. It went back and forth.. up 13 points, down 18 points, up 16 points, down 22 points....and so on. Tomorrow, we're going to attempt to climb back up to 1800 before Tuesday reset.
"This is for Mathilda"
pw:p+vt+ve+mb+pw:d+mf
note to self: learn how to be the professional :P
Felix and I decided to try out our 2v2 arena combo again tonight. We were feeling really good about it too. First game and we already tarted to peak over a 1600 rating.
But then we began to fall victim to the rogue/druid combo over and over and over again.
The rogue would sap one of us off the bat if we didn't have perception timed perfectly. The druid would cyclone felix or myself..usually felix. The rogue would apply mind numbing and wounding to both of us and then go back and forth with kidney shots and blinds etc to keep us both from casting much. In the meantime, the druid would moonfire spam or try to chain heal the rogue.
We tried everything...silence, curse of tongues, fear locks, aoe fears, seduce, single fears.
But the initial burst damage from the stealth combo usually knocked us so far behind that it was hard to catch up.
Over the course of 20 games, we were basically doing 1 for 1 in wins and losses. But we started to learn a few things here and there as well. Positioning is huge for us. Playing the patience game is key. Using wide open spaces helps us a lot as Felix's fears usually send someone jetting across the entire map.
For about 50% of the games one of us would find ourselves in the 1v1 situation or 1v2 situation. We had to start focusing down the healers first because dps bursting through heals ate up all of our mana. And to that effect, our initial burst was just plain inadequate.
So... Frustrated, we stopped...having pretty much landed where we started for the night.
I began to surf the forums about our class matrix which is supposed to be one of the best. There are a couple of things I think we'll try next time. Working with complimenting each other's abilities. Stacking misery and curse of shadows. Timing our DOTS and CCs with each other etc.
Also charging to immediately burn on AOE fear and lock down the healer or caster might help us as well. But mostly..I think it's using complimentary spells. SW:Pain rank 1 to stack shadow weaving and misery..then curse of shadows to enhance our burst attack. This in combination with DOTs should hopefully get us somewhere.
Hopefully tomorrow we can practice some more. Nothing is more exhilirating that going 2v2 in arenas... the pressure! the pressure!
:D
Defeat is part of the agony of getting better. It is discouraging for sure but self-improvement doesn't come cheap :) Just Ain't Enough! That's our motto!
And here's proof that experience is key:
These are the numbers for the number one 2v2 team in our battlegroup.
games played: 854
wins/losses: 670 -184
78% wins
rating: 2610
854 games!!! Die and Try, Die and Try!
MetaTalk tonight
05/17/07
"How WoW is Meta?"
Scarlet Crusade US
Stormwind/The Park
8pm central
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html
I remember looking at this chart a few months ago and kind of having a sense of pride. How nice it is to belong to such a huge community. But at the same time, as I've delved more into the ideas of the metaverse and actually creating a real and thriving working meta society...a lot of realizations came to me.
If WoW is the catalyst for what we now recognize as the start of a real metaverse...a great platform for how a virtual existance can begin.... what happens if it ends?
WoW no doubt takes up a huge chunk of the pie and it's very game based..its users are all of a certain goal orientation. If you take that away, is there anything left?
I keep thinking of what a future metaverse would look like. Where Alachia isn't just my identity related to a priest or mage or engineer or medic etc. Where Alachia is simply Alachia in the meta.. period. And that she can assume many roles.. some to fulfill game-like fantasies and other times to explore philisophical topics or to kick back and watch youtube videos with friends or to read up on the news or look up random words for the hell of it. Anything.
Tonight's topic for MetaTalk is going to explore the idea of 'How WoW is Meta?'
What kind of a social impact would it have on most of us if we were to lose this medium overnight? What kind of connections would we stand to lose? Or would we evolve into something else?
How WoWcentric are we?
(group pic with those who were willing to get nekkid)
Pics and transcripts from 5/10/07 meeting are up at metatalks.blogspot.com
Tonight, I decided to not let my BG tokens go to waste and splurged them on [Reins of the Black War Tiger]. It only requires 30 AB , 30 AV and 30 WSG Honor tokens. I was getting close to 100 of each and you can't have more than that so the rest just go to waste.
I never thought that I'd ever have enough to be able to spend extra on a mount. When I first started at BGs, it seemed like a hopeless situation. First, you're learning how the games go so you're never sure of what you're doing or where you should be going. You're also not used to group fighting so it all takes awhile to get used to.
But over time, you really do start to learn the fights and strategies. I loved just going in and having a different group every time and seeing different ways of conquering a BG. Then you start to see the same faces over and over again. You're like "oh yeah..that mage! yes! they kick ass!"
Only recently, I have learned how to PvP with my shadow side. It's totally new doing DPS instead of the healing in BGs and Arenas. I'm still feeling my way around it and learning what works and what gets me wtfpwnd!
My favorite BG is definitely Eye of the Storm because of the dual aspect of the game (flag caps and tower caps). I love to ninja towers. But I find that most people hate this map because most folks want to just kill kill kill (be #1 on damage or killing blows)... so they just head straight to the middle for flag caps or fight in no-man's land to get HKs. I try not to get too glory hungry as I think it messes up the over all goal of the game..but I definitely see the appeal.
Anyhow, I recommend hitting BGs for fun ...especially if you're bored and don't want to farm. The tokens and honor start stacking up over time and who knows...one day when you least expect it, you'll realize you have enough tokens to get a cool new ride!
DSL blows!!! My parents' internet connection reminds me of the Fourth Ambit audio story that I talked about in Episode 27. There are like some people who can't afford to have access to the 2nd Ambit...and public access to the first Ambit is shotty...
yeah...my connection to the meta right now feels so menial.
Anyhow. It seems to be working for the moment.
Last Thursday, Felix and I created a 2v2 team. His warlock and my shadowpriest. It's supposed to be a pretty strong combination. As I was flying to Nagrand to purchase our team charter, Felix and I were discussing names. We came up with a bunch. Some pretty tacky and some were almost huge mistakes....like 'I RP with your Mom'. hahahha.
We finally settled on a cute one. Connect the DOTs. Seemed really catchy and I thought clever considering our class make-up. Well, I felt clever. :)
Queing up for our first 2v2 match was sooo nerve wrecking. I have only ever done a 5v5 arena team. And going two on two seemed so much more intense.
And it was.
First thing I noticed was the fact that the games are super short compared to 5v5s. Second, you will find yourself in far more 1v1 situations...where it's literally just you against another player without the help of your teammate. THAT is intense!
Our first game was horrible. We went up against a mage/rogue. POMPYRO! (presence of mind/pyroblast) They ate us a new one in less than two minutes out the gate. The good thing about losing the first game of your team, less pressure and you don't get cocky.
The next team we went up against was a rogue/rogue. Felix managed to keep one of the rogues CCed with fears and seduce while we DPSed one down. However, he died in the process. We had the second rogue down to half and he vanished. I couldn't follow him or find him so I stationed myself on one of those pillars in Blade's Edge Arena and waited for him. Sure enough, he had bandaged to full and sapped me right off the bat. Lucky for me, Shadowpriests are one of the best 1v1 classes in the game. I dotted him up, mind blasted and deathed him, feared and then mind flayed him over and over so he couldn't jump around out of my site. WOHOO!! Victory number 1 for us!
Third game, we went up against the same team as our first game mage/rogue. This time, it was a different story.
Right out of the gate, as we were coming up the bridge. Both the mage and rogue blew every one of their cool downs and knocked me dead. Arcane power/POMPYRO and the rogue sapped Felix so he couldn't help. I was thinking "damn damn damn. I wish my resilience gear was higher!" But then over the next 30 seconds, it became very clear that this was a cooldown pony team. Felix spanked both of their asses after I died as they had pretty much blown their best abilities on me! Felix pwned 1v2!!! YES! Finally being fodder paid off!
We then won the next six games. On our tenth game, we lost to a Shaman/Warrior combo. It was a shame too because our only huge mistake in the game was to play into the shaman's lair. shucks.
Connect the DOTs went 8-2 on its first night! Not bad aye?
I like the change of pace of a 2v2 game and it's nice to have that extra pressure. I'm looking forward to the forming of our 3v3 team. Felix's warlock, my shadow priest, and Taint's mage (and/or another warrior friend). I already have the name picked out.....to be revealed when we make the team. :D
"Oh! What a lovely bunker(sp?) shot!"
Coming home to visit the folks reminds me that getting rid of cable television was an excellent decision. 100+ channels and nothing to watch.
Right now, my mother is taking a nap and my father is watching tv (and quasi nappping). But he has control of the remote. I'm sitting here on my lap top. Apparently proximity to a person counts as "socializing"...regardless of wether or not there is actually any socializing going on.
It's kind of like putting yourself on follow while going AFK. lol.
Anyhow, somehow the station has landed on a women's golf tournament. I just spent the last ten minutes trying to figure out if the announcer really did say "bunker shot"...or did I mishear it??
Ooooh! He just landed on TNT, they were playing the Matrix 2. nooooo!!! he changed it. oop...now it's on some travel channel bit. hmmm. Not too bad though. It's about this couple visiting Brazil on the HD channel! Obrigado!! I'm watching people samba...hot hot hot! /samba
Man, these HD channels are amazing. It makes going back to the normal cable channels hard to watch.
okay..this is boring. Enough of my adventures in TV land.
enjoy your AV weekend :D
It's mother's day weekend and I've traveled back to my hometown for the weekend to visit my folks and wish my mother a Happy Mother's Day. And ofcourse, this lovely weekend totally conflicts with AV weekend. Super UBER honor I don't get :( See? My mother doesn't realize how much I love her!
So tonight, we went outside to the backyard and sat on bench swing on the porch. She's got an amazing garden full of every delicious herb you can think of...as well as dreamy pink and white flowers everywhere she manages to keep alive somehow in Texas. It's almost as awesome as the eco-dome in Netherstorm.
It was a great night, cool with a slight breeze...kind of like that feeling you get when someone opens up a fridge on a hot day.
Anyhow, she wanted to "talk" to me about my life. I think she's afraid I'm depressed.
"A*, how are you doing?"
"Fine, mom"
"I'm concerned you need to keep yourself busy"
"I do"
"You need to go out. You need to do things"
"Like what? What do you want me to do?"
"I don't want you to waste your life and lose purpose"
"What purpose do you want my life to have, mom?" (this is when I get aggitated)
"You know, at the hospital last month, it was very very sad. One weekend, one doctor came home and his wife had shot herself. Then three days later, yet another doctor had a fight with his wife and left the house. When he came back, she had shot herself. Apparently, he had been having an affair.
The next weekend, another OBGYN, drank antifreeze trying to kill herself. When she woke up in the ICU, she was so pissed off because she hadn't died. Her whole family came to visit her and pick her up. But when she got home, she shot herself.
It was so sad. She was so determined to kill herself"
"Why?" I asked
"Pressure. Stress. She was in the middle of a lawsuit.
I feel so sorry for her family"
"Yeah, that's sad." (she must think I'm suicidal)
"You need people and friends in your life" she advised
"I have lots of people. I socialize with a lot of people."
"Those aren't real people" she kinda scoffs, "You need to get outside"
"Real enough to me. And meaningful. More meaningful than most others"
I then spend another few minutes trying to explain to her what a virtual existence means for me but it's totally lost on her.
You see, none of you guys exist in her eyes. None of my guildmates....they aren't part of my "real" community. The people I talk to or discuss ideas with....those aren't "real meaningful and valid" relationships. Spending time online with your friends doesn't mean anything to her.
How is it that I can sit here and psychoanalyze my meta life and spew out all of my convictions to strangers but I can not get my own parents to comprehend it??
I have always been an engima to them...especially my mom. She thinks I'm weird and kind of mental. "why can't you be normal"
lol. Isn't it funny how the people who love you most are the ones who can make you feel the most lost?
Hahahah. Sorry, I forgot to link the threads regarding the "why podcasts suck and are a disgrace to the radio media community" commentary response I made on Episode 27.
When I read it, I was pretty sad hence my tone during the comments.
Why Podcasting Sucks-WoW Radio
The Top 10 WoW Podcasts thread comments
"Podcast propagators and uninformed media hype-bots would claim that podcasting is 'so easy, anyone can do it!' Yeah sure, they can do it. BADLY. They can waste people's time and bandwidth listening to tosh that wouldn't even attract the ear of a drunken lonely fellow in a pub let alone a consistant audience online."
I think there's a huge misconception about the podcasting community. We're pretty level headed folks. I have no aspirations to become famous or well known. And I can't see Sam, Starman, Renata or Cromley waking up in the morning going, "GOD I'm so bloody famous. I need my own green room! I'm sooooo popular it hurts!" At least I can't see it.
I'm not even hear to entertain so much as I am here to express myself as a WoW player and a person genuinely interested in exploring a few meta ideas.
That's what separates most podcasters from radio personalities. THEY are excellent on-air personalities... WE are just mere personalities. I guess I don't get his argument because I don't see anything wrong with both sides. It's like comparing an accoustic live performance of a song to a studio recorded one. They both have advantages and are about personal taste and mood really.
Sometimes I'll just see something in WoW and become totally obsessed with it. A whole different kind of loot whore. It has more to do with the coolness and self-pleasing factor than the uber gear factor.
Ever since I saw that Blood Elf Bandit Mask in the trade channel and people posted about twinking out my bank toon, I was hooked.
Tonight, Xelaere offered to help me get the full unadorned set from the horde side over to a neutral auction house in Booty Bay. From there, I transferred it to my my main who then handed it over Xelaere the alliance version...and from there to my bank toon!
I had to reroll her since she was a gnome mage. First, it's a waste to twink out a gnome for looks. You can hardly see the gear. Second, unadorned set is mail. So I rolled a Draenei pally and got her to level 5!
She's also sporting a white moth pet and a [soap on a rope] necklace.
It's funny. In that time, I could have farmed up 10 primal airs or something equivalent to at least a 100g. Yet, I feel very happy and fulfilled anyhow!
woohoo! My bank toon is pazaaaz!!
Thanks again Xel for the help! And also special thank to Felix for farming the Blood Elf Bandit mask for me. Who knew grey gear could make you feel so spoiled. :)
/giggle
it's like Christmas!
(karazhan front steps)
Mentioned Links:
http://www.anim5.com/
http://www.worlds.net/
http://www.ambitgroup.com/fourth/
http://www.webkinz.com/
Wired Article: Puffle Kerfuffle
Ghost in the Shell
Special Thanks to Anim5 for Arathi Who?
Special Thanks to Marco for the WoWcast soundtrack
There is a MetaTalk tonight for all those interested...Virtual Taboos!
Scarlet Crusade US Server
Stormwind/The Park
8pm central
/w MetaTalk
*Someone emailed me awhile back saying the podcast wasn't updating on Itunes. Is it working for you guys?
Can't sleep. Have you guys seen the music video competition WoW is hosting from now until June 1st? http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/contests/ataris/index.xml. You choose from one of three Ataris songs. I've been spam listening to The Cheyenne Line. I have a lot of ideas swirling in my head. What do you think of this idea...too cliche?
The premise is 2-4 people just getting done with a serious raid or instance run. Then you break and see them during their "off time"...when it's not so Game-ON! And show the really fun side of WoW. Having silly fun.
I'm not good at machinima. I've seen the ones that have won in the past.. they use model viewers and adobe premiere etc. I'm not intending to win just want to do it for fun and be creative.
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What can I say, I still love playing dress up.
My new little obsession...I want to get the [Blood Elf Bandit Mask]. I love to dress up my bankers and having a head piece wearable at level 5? Woot! Woot!
I saw one in trade channel going for 10g. I should have grabbed it! Felix and I spent a good hour trying to farm them on Azuremyst isle...what a pain! We could have farmed up 5 primal waters or mana in that time. hahahah..
My idea is to totally twink out my level 5 banker so she's the coolest looking level 5 ever!
ah..the little things :D
In other news, our Arena team went 9-1 today. The new dynamic of having the hunter, pally, holy priest, shadow priest, and warrior has upgraded us to a whole new threshold. I'm loving it. My Shadow gal has much to learn. She's gotta have a sixth sense about mana burn, mind control, mass dispel! The hard part is most of the time, those things need to happen before they ever happen! The good shadow priests operate like 10 seconds ahead of everyone. I need lots of practice.
Oh! Today I got the last Badge of Justice I needed for the [Orb of the Soul-Eater]! Wohoo! Yeah for a decent offhand finally! Now I just need an uber main hand. What's like the best shadowpriest main hand? So far, I haven't seen one that jumps out at me. Right now I'm using [Bleeding Hollow Warhammer]...Runesong Dagger equivalent pretty much. Just wondering if there is something better..and no, I can't equip swords :(
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I just did an interview with Elly and Sal, the hosts of http://elunesgracepodcast.blogspot.com/. It's a refreshing WoW podcast that gives you all the necessary meat about WoW related topics..events, news, quests. It's sweet yet down to business..a great podcast for your morning drive to work.
I get absolutely nervous for interviews. It's terrifying when you think about it. How people are just about to find out how ordinarily boring you are! :)
But I had fun doing it as jittery as I was. It's nice to meet other podcasters and even more so, other WoW players. Always interesting to sit down with people and find out that this WoWverse we all patake in isn't full of just game mechanic geeks and nubers. They're every day people...the kind you'd go shopping with...have lunch with...talk about politics and economics...except you talk about game dynamics. game politics, game economics...
...off to do Arenas now! We hit 1701 last night with a new group dynamic. We've added a holy priest and hunter to our 5v5 group. I'm slowly learning to PvP with Shadow. A very interesting twist and turn from the holy/disc build. And damnit all! I had already bought my gladiator chest piece for healing!! Now I have to buy one for DPS. :( I blame Taint! hahahaha.
We've all been waiting for it...and the first to come throught the Corporate Sponsorship door!?? ding ding ding! VISA!!
Congratulations Visa on a terrific marketing move! You've made the right decision!
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/visa/
The card that pays you to play... It's so bloody brilliant it hurts :P
Bank of Ironforge closed! Bank of Visa open today! Low low interest rates! And if you apply today, you get one free [large glimmering shard]!
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MetaTalk Topic: What is WoW....to you?
hop on over to http://metatalks.blogspot.com for more info!
Hope to see you guys there!
Real Play. I've been into that a lot lately for some reason.
I like doing little social things to connect with people and spend time learning things from them and about them. It's my new addiction.
Awhile back, Sadin pointed out to me that there was a cute little picnic setup outside the Aldor bank. We all went to check it out. It was so very cute. But we had no idea where it came from and it dissapeared almost as soon as I got there.
A few weeks later, Starman whispered me in game to tell me to come check something out. He had the picnic basket setup! It was really cool. I noticed people tend to gather around it a lot when it's near the banks in Shattrath. He said it was from the trading card game. The Rest and Relaxation card.
Today, one of the guys gave me the code for the picnic basket! woot! So I flew down to booty bay and picked up a shiny brand new picnic basket of my own! Just as I was heading down there, I got a tell from Marco. He's the composer of my WoWcast soundtrack.
So I thought, what the heck, I'll go show him my new toy and say hello to thank him "in person" again for my soundtrack. I had one hour to spare before I had to go help some guildmates get Kara attuned. So I flew up to Loch Modan where he was questing. He happened to be on the dam. So I set up my picnic there and we chatted. It was quite lovely.
Now one of my favorite things to do is to lay the picnic basket outside of the bank and run away and watch to see how people interact around it from afar. My social experiments continue.... :) So far, the horde seem to stop by it more and sit than the alliance.
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