Sunday, September 30, 2007

Watch me Fly!


Thanks to Sadin and Felix's warrior and lock, I was able to blow through the pally epic mount quest series...from eastern plaguelands to Southshore to Dire Maul to Scholo...and about 350g later, I'm riding the golden horned beast... and two minutes after that, I turned in 50 AV tokens to get my Battle Ram.

I use this macro:
/cast [nocombat, nomounted] Crusader Aura; [mounted] Concentration Aura;
/stopcasting
/use [nocombat, nomounted] Stormpike Battle Charger;
/dismount

and bam!! I fly at the speed of light every time I mount up and am ready for battle every time I dismount.

and for those of you who like the look of the Pally Warhorse instead, you can use this macro:
/cast [nocombat, nomounted] Summon Warhorse
/castsequence [mounted] Crusader Aura, Summon Warhorse
/cast [mounted] Concentration Aura

The reason I don't like the Warhorse macro is that you have to hit the macro twice in order to change the aura because it's two casts not a /use...I like the all in one..

but man... you sure do FLY when you've got cader aura!

Postcard from the Seas

I always thought those shammies were total pirates!

Friday, September 28, 2007

My Buddy and Me


I was pondering what my pet would be for this character. At first I wanted a big white owl cuz I'm so wise (hehe) but nothing like that exists in the game.. so I was carrying around a brown hawk for awhile.

Then it hit me! I must have the [pet bombling]! So I went to Tanaris right away...it took two renewals of my Goblin Engineering membership but sure enough today in the mail...I got my little bombling schematic!

He makes clickety clackety sounds when he walks...and when I do an excellent job healing, he tells me I'm the bomb...and I'm like.. nah man, you da bomb! hahahaha... /dork

Epic Pally Mount

Need info on the Epic Pally Mount quest. Most important question. Does the quest count as if you had bought an epic land riding skill? Or am I going to still have to buy that as well in order to get my flying mount skill?

It will cost me 350 Gold and these items which I have for the Epic Mount Quest:
5 Stratholme Holy Water
10 Arthas Tears
40 Runecloth
6 Arcanite bars
1 Azerothian Diamond
1 Pristine Black Diamond

OR I can just fork over 540g for the epic riding skill and get my AV mount free this weekend. Not sure what to do.

I'm saving like 190g...but is it worth the trouble?

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

BYOSP

Bring Your Own Static Party..

So I was questing in Nagrand today when a listener whispered me to give me an update on his wow status. He was having a pretty hard time because he's put a lot of effort into his guild and they're just not progressing well in PvE.

He's frustrated and tired of it and was looking for a new server. Since he's on a PvE server I suggested he try out that instance guild 'alea iacta est'...but he said he preferred alliance.. so I told him I heard they had an alliance sister guild on the server as well.

So then he said large guilds weren't really his thing. He asked about Boulderfist and I never sugar coat my server. It's full of really rude people who sh!t on you when you do them favor and make fun of you when you ask for help...and try to cheat you whenever they can. The horde outnumber us 70/30 and a lot of the major horde guilds have a KOS (kill on sight) policy for certain alliance guilds. It's definitely no picnic...but that's what I really like about it. I like that it's rough...it gives the game an extra edge I really like.

And in the end, he said "I guess no matter where I go, I'm still gonna be by myself". Sad isn't it? I'm very lucky that all my RL friends play this game...and extended family and friends are there as well so it all feels like a good community. But for those like this guy whose friends all went to go play...as he put it "evercrap" lol...you're kind of screwed.

Is it just me or does it seem like this huge huge huge MMORPG may seem like it harbors a valid way to socialize....but in the end, it may not be so social after all. How many real relationships are formed in the game? How many people do we meet from WoW while playing can we take a real relationships from?

For me? Almost all the relationships I've formed outside of my guild have been superficial. "yo" "sup" "got my new merciless piece" "nice" "thx"....etc

It seems to me like if the guild doesn't create an atmosphere of community, that you will never have the forum or opportunity to create real bonds that extend beyond the Underbog or Black Temple or level 42.

It's just an interesting observation...8 million subscribers but how many of us still feel alone?

Dwarf Pally Anomalies

Here are two dwarf pally anomalies you might not be aware of...

They are actually a lot smaller in real life.


They can now carry staffs!!

lol. okay okay.. or I'm a dork! hehehe.
[Torch of Retribution] [Noggenfogger Elixir]

You Broke it!

OMG. Blizzard's patch 2.2 has broken my favorite mod!!! Itemrack is torched. It bugs out now and won't allow me to inspect my own gear in the character screen. UGH! TORTURE!!!

I've tried going to wowinterface to download a new version but unfortunately that site is crashed out atm.

I read on some forum that outfitter>>itemrack. I've never tried it out. All I know is that I NEEED itemrack or something thereof to work for me. Right now I play four different characters and can not keep track of the pve vs pvp vs healing vs dps gear.

Damn you blizzard.. you broke it!! I think I would have preferred an itemrack type feature over the voicechat...not that chatting to pugs could be sooooo lovely.

Felix and I ran a pug Slave Pens the other night. OMG. He's a bear tank and I'm the healer...who we have in between, I don't care...they can even suck and wand the whole fight or have crappy gear...just as long as they don't cause us to wipe by being stupid and if they would STAY THE WHOLE instance. I kid you not, we went through 4 pugs that run because they would just DC all the sudden. And it wasn't like we were wiping or anything.

Felix's theory is that it all happened around 12am to 1am so perhaps they were kids whose accounts got shut down during that hour. I don't know but I haven't run an instance with pugs in forever. I just would have loved for them to commit to the damn thing...especially when they cost us like 10mins each to run out and summon.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Country meets Un'Goro


I don't know about you but when I'm in WoW, I tend to listen to music a lot...especially when I quest. It's interesting how I start to associate certain music to some zones in WoW. Terrokar Forest-Nelly Fertado, Nagrand-John Mayer, Netherstorm-4th Ambit (the audio story), etc..

A few days ago when my pally was level 48 in Un'Goro, I picked up the new Kenny Chesney album Poets and Pirates. I will have to say that by far that is the most surreal sh!t ever. Country star croonin' this love song called 'Scare Me' and my pally taking on terradactals in a lush jungle setting. hahahah. trippy!!!

Now I need a new soundtrack for the Outlands. James Blunt and Sara Bareilles were the staple for Hellfire.. I just need one for Zanger. heh.

Yup, I am now in Zangarmarsh and hittin' up quests like a storm. I've devised a clever questing plan since I'm too cheap to buy a leveling guide and don't want to waste time stumbling around. I went to google to look for a map of all the Outland territories. I was going to print them out and then mark coords to /tloc and number the points so that I go in order... my questing roadmap. Then I just cross them off as I go.

Well, when I was google-ing, I found these awesome maps I could use as a base for my roadmap. It kicks @ss. I just number them and coordinate it with my /tloc and go from zone to zone and knock um all out. Thanks to whoever did these!


zang

terrokar

nagrand

blade's edge

netherstorm

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Just a Blogger :)

Foden said...
"I could spend a good two shows just talking about their uber-leetness. Make that three shows .."
You could, but you don't do the podcast anymore remember?
You used to rock, now you're just another blogger.

LOL. a blog you apparently read. :D

sorry. podcasting isn't my primary goal at the moment.

My pally hit level 60 tonight! She's a badass too. Top healer when she ran at AV at level 56...and at the time she was protection specced. Now she's full holy and I solo healed two flawless ramparts run tonight. It was so fun learning grid and figuring out how to be mana efficient with Divine Favor and Divine Illumination.

And to be honest, I was never a real podcaster...just a chick who plays wow who did a podcast every now and then. And I think people who listen and like the cast know that.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Shammy x5


(this video wasn't made by the guy who was quintupling the shamans, it was made by someone who saw the guy in AV and started to Fraps him)

(Chain Lightning, Lightning Bolt, Healing Wave)x 5 = Game Over
Enough said. lol.

If you don't have time to watch the whole thing, skip to 1:30

I wish I knew how to dual box program my keyboard and mouse to do this. I could probably do up to 3 instances of WoW. Frost mage x 3.. oh yeah!

Friday, September 21, 2007

To the Outlands!


WOOOT! YEAH! OH yeah! Do the dance! Shake ya booty! Shake ya booty!
da da da! woohooo!!!!

My pally has made it to the outlands! Thanks to Felix's uber lock-ness and a run through scholo and strat....she is OUTA Azeroth!!

AN FYI for fast easy quests again incase I forgot to mention them:
1)IF (tinkertown) IF (great forge) SW, Exodar, Darnassus- Silk (lvl 26), Mageweave (lvl 40) Runecloth (lvl 50) stack of 60.. turn in for 6600xp each for a total of 99,000XP

2) Alterac Valley (southshore) but it starts in IF outside the bank-lvl 51. Pick up quest to capture mine, tower, graveyard, standard, and kill drek. Approx 36,200XP for running AV.

3) Eastern Plaguelands. 30 Savage Fronds, 30 Bone Fragments , 30 Core of Elements, 30 Crypt Fiend Parts, 30 Dark Iron Scraps for 6600 for a total of 26,400XP

Warlock's Inflated Egos

It's amazing how over-powered warlocks are. I could spend a good two shows just talking about their uber-leetness. Make that three shows ..1) To cover the demo spec 2) The affliction and destruction and 3) Fear bullsh!t

heheheh...

SO anyhow, like I'm saying, those mofos have some of the most inflated egos ever! This level 55 demo lock is out questing in Felwood. My mage rides by him and totally ignores him, I'm trying to get to a flightpath. He sees me while he's fighting one of the gigantic trees in the Irontree area and takes off running after me...and he hasn't even killed the damn tree yet!

At first I'm like, there is NO way that this warlock is coming after me...but sure enough his dots finally kill off the tree and he's charging at me with his felguard. I turn around, counterspell, frost nova, icelance and he's dead.

You know, if the lock had come at me with a paladin at his side or another healer, I might have been scared. But solo? Seriously? They must think they're gods. hahaha.

You can pwn me in a few more levels buddy. No doubt. But today.. I gotch yo @ss!

Thursday, September 20, 2007

ERP Uniform


Took this pic a few nights ago...
Heh, I'm sure this could be one of the standard ERP uniforms. It's good to see Black Mageweave hasn't gone out of style.

The funny thing about this is that I used to raid with this guy. See what you've done Blizzard?! You've take away the forty man raids and people lost their jobs! Now they're forced to strip for rowdy dwarfs for their phat lootz. lol.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Erotic Role Playing Guild


An erotic roleplaying guild that now spans two realms has been accused of defending pedophiles and engaging in extreme sexual situations without any way to verify that their members are above the age of 18. While the guild in question says it has been reported many times and is not violating policy, and that minors joining an ERP guild are being poorly parented, Blizzard has forcibly disbanded the guild -- only to have it reform under a new name. There might be some disturbing content following the cut, so click at your own risk. ...READ MORE AT http://www.wowinsider.com/2007/09/17/blizzard-disbands-extreme-erotic-roleplaying-guild/

Thanks Kitch for sending me the article. You know, it's interesting because we all assume somewhere on an RP server, risque behavior is going on. I even caught that one couple in the basement of the SW Cathedral. But for the most part, you kind of assume it's these little individual affairs that are going on.

But apparently, in some cases, we have the full on communities. The way I see it, it's like open-sex channels you'd join in the days of mIRC. But there's a twist of course because we're dealing with an MMORPG. It's not just a community of sex-chatters. As we all know, when you interface in an MMO, it's so much more different than just chat channels.

There's a body associated with it, there's a gaming history associated with it, there's a real static community that you perceive. Even though it's anonymous, when you get into the level 50+ area, you kind of have an established identity. People start to know you.. from questing and raiding and pvp. They know you from the AH, trading, enchants, general chat..etc.

So I guess the debate the article brings up is about the "moral" responsibility of Blizzard, parents, and our WoW Community. My question is....are we talking about a guild made up of level 1 alts? It doesn't seem like it since it sounds like they actually raid. I'm in total support of this group's rights if you can have a Level 70 Orc Warrior lead a raid in Gruul's layer one night and then a group orgy the next.

But I have a huge problem with it if it's just a bunch of level 1 anonymous alts soliciting cyber sex to anyone they can get their hands on. It's like that whole youth and sex. For me, if you can proudly walk across the cashier register holding a box of condoms in your hands, you're probably ready for sex. If you're ashamed and hiding it, you're probably not ready.

The responsibility debate is always a huge one..especially with the amount of risque things you see on tv and movies these days. You would seriously think that we were a community of sex addicts. But we're actually very prude as a community when it comes to openly discussing the topic with our peers. "it's private" And yeah, some sex should be private.

But at the same time, there's nothing wrong with open sexuality. I'm in total support of any community that's completely comfortable in their sexual lifestyle.

The question is...where do you draw the line?? This is the first time I have ever heard about "Ageplay". And it seems a bit dangerous to me. Okay, who hasn't tried the school girl/teacher fantasy bit? But what if it goes beyond that and into, you pretend to be a 13 year old boy, I'll pretend to be a 40 year old married man with repressed sexual desires?? And in the online world, how easy is it to say "I thought he was just pretending to be nine years old"

I don't know. I obviously have no solutions. The technological age has really added an extra fence parents have to put up around their kids. And it is still the parents responsibility to try and keep their kids safe as long as possible.

Any guild that openly recruits in general chat for members has a high level of anonymity of its members. And I suppose that's where Blizzard saw the real danger of the guild. Children do play this game. Not all parents perk up their ears when they hear the whisper chime go off like Starman said in a previous cast.

There's nothing wrong with sex between consenting adults. In fact, we probably need more of it. But I guess I don't really blame Blizzard for taking the extra precaution to protect its younger users. I hope the ERP guild reforms but takes from this ban some kind of responsibility about protecting kids from its membership....in a decade or so, they can join..but not until then. :)

Jim Stats


I should have posted this picture as soon as I got it but it took me forever to transfer it from my lap top to my main pc to photoshop to blur out his last name. lol.
Kick @ss details. Lovin' the Legendary Mickey Mouse Watch and Wedding Band!!

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Theramore Chat


(Theramore Wallpaper)

Man, the chat on the boat from Menethil to Theramore is sooo engaging. :)

Postcard from Valley of Kings


A few weeks ago, I got caught up on e-mail...although I'm sure I must have missed some because I just got an email from someone dated 2 months ago recently. Not sure if it's on my end or their end. Anyhow, I was really proud of myself for catching up. But now I'm behind again. I'm not complaining either because it's extremely flattering to me that most of the e-mails can't be replied to with a simple couple of lines.

Maybe that's why I hold a unique view of this game. Because I get to hear so many stories from people about their lives in WoW. It's so diverse and also so human....

One of the most recent ones I got was from a fella named Ryan who was in a very hardcore raiding guild...dedicating his time and effort every day, never taking a break. Sounds familiar right? And sadly, he was shaken up by the realization that his "friends" cared more about the loot than him...

As I read the e-mail, I was reeled back into that era of my WoW life when I too came to this realization and how much I was hurt by the whole experience.

Now that he's broken away from the emotional chains of raiding, he's taking a break from WoW and then coming back to play it his way....to enjoy the simple things....that aren't REQUIRED on a daily basis. :)

I wish him the best of luck and I'm very happy he was able to step away. It's like coming out of a very bad relationship...you just feel sooo free.

Monday, September 17, 2007

A rapper in Felwood



So what do those two pictures have in common? LOL??? They are two really cool things I discovered in Felwood yesterday. Apparently there is now a flight path at the Emerald Circle in SOUTHERN Felwood!!! YAY! No more running back and forth up and down that linear path that takes like 7 minutes. You just quest your way up to the top and then take th flight path back down. It's sooo much nicer.

I was in Jadefire doing a kill quest. I saw this level 53 NE hunter also in the area making pulls. I usually AOE the mobs so I thought I would be nice and offer him a group invite so he could get the kills and not have to wait for respawns...

After we finished the quest, he asked if he should stay or go. I told him it was up to him but he was welcome to quest with me if he wanted. It gets pretty lonely questing by yourself, I welcomed the company.

So we did a bunch of other series of quests in Felwood..spanning to Darnassus, Ratchet, and all the way to Winterspring. Somewhere along the way, I asked him if he went to school because he said sh1t like FSHO and TIGHT. I got the impression he was like an 18 year old Freshmen. lol. and that he was probably going to miss class the next day.

But as it turned out, he was a 20 year old rapper from Pasadena, California. He pointed me to a website and his group Verbal Assasins description read as: Conscious/Political, Metaphorical, Verbal Combat, Controversial, Intellectual , Storyteller...

I was like hmmmmm...seriously? INTELLECTUAL, CONSCIOUS/POLITICAL?? I told him I hadn't heard any rap like that since Tupac died. So he let me listen to one of their songs. Sure enough, apparently there is this underground movement going on with smaller labels to try and push this type of music back into the mainstream. You know, just in case you're sick of hearing rap about shoes, bling, smackin' @sses, and all da hoes you can imagine. lol.

I said, not that rap can't have a fun edge but it's been almost 15 years since the music industry has mainstreamed anything "real".. The kind of rap that when you hear it, you're like...damn.

SO I asked him, when he goes platinum, is he gonna tell all the magazines he's got a level 70 hunter and druid?? lol. He was like "it's my dirty little secret"

He comes from a rough neighborhood, dropped out of school, escaped from crack addict family, other various things I don't feel right saying here..and just a few weeks ago, he was shot at because he was walking through the wrong neighborhood..

You couldn't find two people more different and here we are...questing together in Azeroth. Surreal right??

I asked him if he'd let me play his stuff on my podcast, but I'm not sure if he even knew what a podcast was... lol. He said he'd send me his album once they finished it.

I hope he writes a song about a bad @ss dwarf pally he once met. :)

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

A Rogue By Any Other Spec

So torn...don't know what type of rogue to be. I have the points to buy a mainhand...just not sure which build to commit too.
Most of the top rogues in 2v2 and 3v3 teams are combat mace...
but I've also been up against some really awesome hemo/prep rogues...

From what I can tell in Arenas, Combat rogues are all about keeping the target locked down and sheer dps. And Hemo rouges are all about stacking the hemo, stunning, vanish, and repeat....similar to a lock-dot strat.

Snurb(hemo)vsAll(combat)

Postcard from Bloodhoof


Postcards from Around the World (of Warcraft)

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Demo is out


Demo for Enemy Territory:Quake Wars came out yesterday which we downloaded. However, we had a lot of Arena games to get in so I didn't get around to playing it 'til late. Today, we actually ran the full campaign they're offering up as demo.

So far, I like it a lot. It's got a ton of the original objective-styles that the original Wolfenstien:Enemy Territory had. Plus, it maintains a steady front line of battle which I really like that BF2142 really didn't have. The map is large but spawn points reset depending on the objective node reached by the offense.

Right now, I mostly play the Strogg-Constructur (engineer). Got Best Engineer and Most XP 3 games in a row! :)

A lot of the bad reviews right now are about the graphics but I honestly don't think they're bad at all...nothing earth shattering for sure but I would say average for an FPS at this time.

So far, so good...I think buying the game is definitely going to be a must!

Feralas Wallpaper


(current desktop wallpaper)

Best Mod since Itemrack


I recently installed Cartographer (from wowace)...

At first I was really impressed by the fact that all zones of the map show up whether or not they are explored. You can have a translucent color set to show places you haven't discovered yet...it's all customizable.

But bringing up my pally, it was really nice to see the entire area of a zone.

Next cool thing was when you're in an instance, it brings up the map of the instance you're in...so no need to download atlas. And it gives you location of bosses and their loot tables.

It shows you where other guild members are, their player notes, and how far away you are from them. You can sit there and be a voyeur all day long. "and now Sadin is coming out of the Mystic Ward and to the AH" LOL.


But the other night, I was looking up where a "body" was for a quest on Thottbot and it said "try /tloc 45,64"

I thought hmmm. was /tloc some kind of in-game homing system I didn't know about. So I tried it on my machine without Cartographer and nothing happened.

So I tried the /tloc on my comp with Cartographer installed and got this cool waypoint/compass feature which lead me straight to the body and let me know how long it would take too..


kick @ss sh1t.

Saturday, September 08, 2007

Free Mount FTW



I mean EVERYONE and their mother has been asking me "WHY ARE YOU ROLLING A PALLY?!"
like either I'm crazy or stupid. And it's hard to explain really. A part of me always felt like I should have been a paladin to begin with. The class I should have rolled but never did for various reasons throughout the years.

Who knows, maybe it will be all for not. And maybe I won't even get to finish her. In any case, she's here...and above 33 (my dead age for alts)...so I guess that's a good sign.

Friday, September 07, 2007

Rudeness

LoL. It's like every single time I try to venture out and be friendly on my server...WHAM...sheesh. can't swing an arm out without hitting a swarm of a-holes on my server. I guess that's why most people who join it, quit pretty fast. And it's the reason why I've kept the guild friends and family only (or someone you'd trust your left nut with)...

So anyhow, we really needed a tank for Shattered Halls last night, Felix's pally was only 1k away from revered so he could get his healing enchant on his Merciless helm.

So I /who warriors and whispered one in Shattrath. First reply I got was this:


Needless to say, I stopped asking right after that.
The dude doesn't even know me. And I never associate with people outside the guild so I don't see how I could ever have done anything to offend him. I think it was just his character.

Luckily Felix found a Ret Pally to tank for us and surprisingly, he was a kick arse tank! And by the end of the run, Felix's pally was able to get the [Glyph of Renewal].

SO screw you jerk-off warrior! didn't need your @ss anyways!! Probably can't tank worth sh1t anyhow. hehehe.. yeah.. a-holes piss me off. LOL.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Postcard from Old Hillsbrad

hahahha! This one was hilarious. :D


Postcards from Around the World (of Warcraft)

Palachia


So, yeah, if you had asked me a year ago, I'd say NO to dwarfs and gnomes. Unfortunately, PvP is my big thing right now in WoW and so I have to sacrifice looks for racials. :D

heheh. So down went my level 33 human paladin and last week, I created my first ever dwarf character. At first, I thought I'd hate looking at her. But I've actually gotten quite used to her. She's cute in a chunky dwarf sort of way.. you know..how Gimli from LOTR touches that fuzzy little place in your heart.

I picked the swirly hair braids so that every time I heal, her hair goes swoosh swoosh swoosh like a helicopter. lol.

She's currently level 29. I try to work on her when I'm not doing Arenas. I hate being a ret noob at the moment. All I want to do is heal but you can't do that when leveling up. One of those big character changes from 1-70 and post 70.

Anyhow, I can see now how people can play characters they don't relate too physically at all. ..not that my human avatars looked anything like me...but they were far closer than a white haired dwarf!

well..in my version of the story, she's the good side of Alachia...ala Palachia :D

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Thunderdome


I love to duel. I will lose about 20 duels in a row without hesitation. If I beat someone more than once, they usually chicken out and say "this is stupid". lol. I guess it depends on how prideful you are. The way I see it, I lose 10 times today, so I can pwn 100 times tomorrow.

Dueling different classes is by far one of the best ways to learn how to play your own class. But dueling is a pain in the @ss. Water and Food is expensive if you can't get a mage to hand some to you. And when you're dueling in between Arenas, there's no point in getting mage water and food. It disappears as soon as you get into the Arena.

What we need is a Thunderdome near Arena queing areas. A place you can go to duel, when you enter, you get full health and mana and your cooldowns reset. That would be awesome! It would at least somewhat re-vitalize dueling.

Monday, September 03, 2007

Take me to another place


(LOTR online screenshot sent from Jim)

Beautiful isn't it? I wonder why that game busted in the MMO market?

Huxley, Warhammer, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Tabula Rasa.

WHERE ARE YOU people?? It's like they're all too chicken sh1t to come out when WoW is at it's peak. I guess they saw what happened to Vanguard and pissed their pants.

Maybe they'll just wait another 10 years until we're all on level 120 and dying to play any other game.. that's when anoter decent game will rear it's head.

hahahaha.

Tabula Rasa- Oct 2 release (lies)
Quake Wars- Oct 2 release (3rd time the date has been postponed)
Huxley- Never gonna happen :P
Warhammer- Beta 4 life!

Virtual Monotony

What happens when an MMO world gets too familiar. Kind of like getting sick of seeing the same bedroom for 10 years. After awhile, you've memorized all the cracks in the wall, the discoloration, etc. You want a new room. You long for something new or at least I do.

A part of me wants to wonder out of the comfort of my "room" and explore something else. I wish there was a way to sneak to the back of IF and find some back alley that leads to some seedy MMORPG where people lie, cheat, and steal. lol. I'm trying to paint a picture, so bare with me. You know, a world where it's not all optimistic and hopeful and everything is solved by MORE grinding of honor, gear, and xp. A place where you go and meet total strangers and totally ease drop on their backstabbing hater convos.

hmm.. maybe I'll go check out Second Life. But the last time I tried Second Life, I found it very annoying to navigate through.

When I get this itch, sometimes I log into random servers and create a character and stroll through IF and SW to listen to different convos in general chat.

I almost wish there was a server WoW players could just create identical avatars to their originals and just hang out...no pve or pvp.

hmmmmmmmm....not a bad idea. I wonder how full that server would get? hahaha, at least then some of their newer city models would get more appreciation. Poor Silverwing and Exodar... so dead..so unseen.

but isn't it odd that even in as my virtual self, I sometimes wish I were someone else...not doing the same things I do on a daily basis. man, my virtual issues are just as real as my physical. :D

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Control Game

It's pretty amazing how many people think PvP is all about power and bronze. A lot of the best pvp players don't just mash a series of keys over and over again hoping they have more dps and hp than you.

It is a very serious control game. How well you can finesse the quality of how you use your abilities determines how strong a player you are. That's why a lot of people end up so frustrated with PvP and exclaim that they suck. It's not about how much you suck, it's about how much you're willing to practice.

I love the way Arenas and BGs really brings out all of the qualities of a class. Melee vs Casters vs Healers etc. You'll see how well you shine in some aspects but fall short in others.

I'm noticing it a lot with my mage because of how much you have to tweak your dps cycle depending on which class you fight. I really love it. It's not all just slam ss and evis. I'm getting a kick out of working out the timing for energy vs combo points. Not as easy as it looks that's for sure.

I discovered that awful truth when I first started dueling a warrior. You can't just try and dps spam a ms warrior down. You have to watch your energy and use stuns to control dps pound per pound defensively.

I've been trying to hit IF every now and then to watch other geared out rogues duel in front of IF. It's still a bit hard to pick up what exactly they are doing. If I get my Merciless Pummeler this week, I'm going to respec 18/43/0 and go mace spec.

FYI, don't be an idiot like myself. If you have arena points to spend, hit the GLOVES first, then the main-hand mace, then all the rest. Gloves give you on hit from deadly throw, interruption of the spell and a 3 sec silence. Talk about clutch.

I totally didn't know. I was so used to my shadow priest where it was something marginal like 1 more second duration on psychic scream.

The more you know...(nbc chime)

JAE Guild RL meeting

I'm pretty excited about today. The guild is having a get-2gether in Austin at Rudy's BBQ for dinner. yummy..brisket and sausage...
lol. focus!..guildies. not food.

yeah, I think it should be fun. I'm expecting somewhere around 10-15 of us showing up. I'm not sure but I thought about bringing name tags for some of us who have never met face to face. lol.

Also, Friday, I tried to sit down and do a family+friend tree for the guild and man it's way too complicated. There are too many cross overs of "he's a friend of hers but also the co-worker of him and he's the brother of that guy but he's also friends with the first guy." lol. You should see my "map"... it's got lines going all over the place.

The easiest way I know how to break it up is The Gravin bunch, The Boozefort bunch, The original jae, Theadin/Trax Factor, The Shade bunch, Nub's friends, Terrer's Minions, Flipmax's friends, The Bellforce clan, and The Co-Workers/ex-CoWorkers group
(and of course there are about a million crossovers from each of those groups. I'm probably forgetting a group)

They all come from different backgrounds and family styles but somehow they mesh so well together. It's something I'm always really happy worked out for us. 'jae' has taken a whole new meaning for me. It's like, our little gaming family. I suppose, I can see how guilds like The Syndicate stuck together for so long. If you have the right dynamic, you just don't want to leave it.

Sometimes when we take an FPS break, I really miss being in guild. I'm not a big talker in guild chat but I like to engage in some of the witty banter from time to time. Mostly, I like listening to everyone else talk. It's a pretty dynamic group. Not just personality in RL but also game play.

Peeps range from super casual players (about 1 year played time to 60) to a multitude of people who have more than one level 70 char. We've got people who like PvE and those who prefer PvP (raises hand). And almost everyone is into ganking horde. :D can't go wrong there!

Tomorrow, I'm hoping to meet The Bellforce clan for the first time. In anycase, yummy bbq!!! :D

hehe.

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Death to Snow Crash

Like a lot of other people, I read Neil Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash back in the mid-1990s (along with other staples like Neuromancer and the still-applicable True Names). Like many, I was entranced by the idea of digital avatars with detailed facial expressions (something we were working on in 1995 and continue to today), and by the idea of the ‘Metaverse’ – of having a digital home in a bustling virtual world that was somehow entirely immersive, that moved beyond visual and auditory to the kinesthetic. I was so taken with the idea as presented that I was willing to overlook its technical faults, and like so many others, dreamt of a huge all-inclusive world.
Click on Link to read the rest:
http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2007/08/death-to-snow-c.html

I don't really mind the idea of having individual sep. worlds. I'm not even looking for a single verse...it was never part of my ideal..

however, I had hopes of a central identity at least. and even perhaps, a central idea of you're identity.

I mean, how many of us have at least 2-3 chat programs, part of different social networks like myspace, facebook, twitter, etc. I'm not saying I want us to only be able to have one avatar or one identiy online....I'm just saying it'd be nice to have a central source.

Hmm.. as I typed that I realized the big flaw of that. The danger of putting all your eggs in once basket. oh well. nvm.

Okay. okay. how about this? Individual verses but what about the possibility of SEVERAL central hubs that can lead into the different worlds? Like a gaming hub for example. A place gamers from all over the world can hang out, chat, exchange strats, review games, sample games, comment live on frapped vids, socialize even. Where EQs and FFs and WoWzers celebrate in a giant orgy. lol. But you get my drift.

Because in WoW, there's never really anywhere you go if you just want to get on to socialize with other WoW players...'cept maybe the Barrens...but why would you want to socialize with minors? lol.

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