We Killed Some Orc’s Son or Something

Saurfang Carrying His Dead Son

Patch 3.3 is out and I once again tricked myself into thinking that we might be able to raid on Tuesday. And yes, I know it’s kind of stupid to schedule raids on a Tuesday but oh well, it works for us…except on patch days.

We spent a good hour and a half trying to get into the instances but all of them were borked and we could never get in. Most of the night was ganking horde trying to get inside and killing them at the instance gate and at the graveyard. lol. PvP servers do have their amusements.

Today we actually got inside Icecrown Citadel and tackled the first wing available for play. I’d say it was fairly easy. Most of the difficulty comes from just not knowing the mechanics of the fight. Even after reading up on the encounters, it never fully clicks until you see it live.

I don’t believe any of the bosses took more than three attempts. That being said, my impression of the instance was that it reminded me of being in an immaculate and cold Naxx type structure. I wasn’t blown away by the architecture or the bosses. I did however find it really nice that they put all the vendors at the front room of the instance. Always nice to see your potential gear before you head in. lol. I think the consensus is that the rogue’s got the shaft this time in terms of aesthetics.

Favorite fight was the airship battle. Two reasons mainly, I get to burn down and destroy the horde airship finally AND you get nifty cool rocket packs to jump from one ship to the other. It was hella fun playing around with that.

By far the BEST thing about 3.3 is the new LFG system. I actually feel like it stands a chance of really working. PLUS, the big bonus is the auto-transport system. As soon as you get a full group, boooooom, you’re instantly teleported into the instance. No more wasting your fucking time waiting around for people to fly their asses out to the instance. And then when you’re done with the instance, you walk out and it teleports you back to where you were before the instance. Great stuff.

As far as I can tell, it matches you up with even geared type players so it seems like the odds are much better now that you will have a successful group. Also, in my case, the fact that I can get matched up with players NOT on Boulderfist is a big bonus. It’s a win/win situation for me as the pugs on my server are of the lowest common denominator. Of course, I’m sure everyone says that about their pugs.

I’m looking forward to seeing how the heroic version of the Icecrown Citadel wing goes. I think the 28 day delay for the new wing is actually good. It gives my raid time to play catch up and maybe finally finish Ulduar (Algalon) in the meantime.

Slash Played

slashplayed
Originally uploaded by alachia

I saw a cute little twitter exchange between @hawkito and @kathunter about my /played. I have never really done one before so I sat down this morning and pulled up my list of sixteen characters including alt banks.

The total was about 328 days. This did not shock me at all. In fact, it seems like quite a reasonable number for some who has been invested in the game for five years come this Christmas. That's like an average of what? 66 days a year.

If you calculate that the average American works around 245 actual days per year, the truly scary figure is that I only got about 3.5 hrs of sleep on avg for the past five years. LOL. Of course that's ridiculously skewed.

The number I found the MOST fascinating is my mage's play time. 70+ days. That's close to 20 more days than my other characters. The reason it is so shocking is because I played her far less in terms of month spans than the other ones.

I think it's a great commentary on the nature of raiding and gameplay from 40 man hardcore raiding back in vanilla wow vs the 25 and 10man raiding from TBC and WoTLK.

In the few months I raided with my mage, I racked up massive amounts of /played. Compared to my shaman who I have raided with for about a year, I only raided with my mage for about 4 hardcore months. But I nearly put in 35hrs of raid time each week, roughly 4-5 hrs for four week nights and anywhere between 10-15hrs on the weekends.

You can click on the image to go to the flickr site to see the notes regarding which character corresponds with the /played.

Elwynn Forest Photowalk

Elwynn Forest
Originally uploaded by alachia

Every time I find myself around the starting area of Elwynn Forest, I get very bored but also nostalgic. It's the starting character for a majority of my toons.. including the non human ones. I always get myself teleported here during the start of a new character.

Northshire Abbey, Fargodeep Mine, The Pumpkin Patch, and Hogger are very vivid in my mind as fun early experiences. I have since gotten bored of the entire area all together though... so I will not be too sad if Cataclsym rips the place to shreds.

I think more than anything, I miss being human in the game.

Taking Shots From Places You Can't Reach

ScreenShot_100209_210910
Originally uploaded by Quest Log Podcast

Posted by Quest Log Podcast on http://www.flickr.com/groups/oldazeroth/

Taking shots from places you can't reach
If you're a Hunter or a Shaman then your in luck, you have the ability Eagle Eye or Far Sight respectively. Like myself you get these abilities early on and forget about them. They allow to select an area and your viewport is moved to there. You can only use this ability outdoors of course. Just remember to zoom in so you don't get the so you don't get the swirling golden light effect in all your shots. And once again a shot I took with the ability.

---------------------------
/facepalm!!!!
I hate it when I read posts like this because it reminds me of how noobish I am when it comes to vanity type spells. For example, there are times where I forget I have sentry totem, underwater breathing, and far sight! Now I'm super excited to take pics next week during the photowalk! New perspectives!

Swamp of Sorrows

 

Old Azeroth Photowalk was a lot better at 11am central today than at 9am. I was a lot more awake and able to function my brain. It also helped that we moved from Westfall from the last photowalk to Swamp of Sorrows.

It’s a much more visually interesting zone. However, as we strolled through the joint, it’s apparent there are still not many quests to be had out there.

 

We did stumble upon a few more alliance quests scattered about but not enough to make it worth coming out here to quest while leveling. At least, not enough to tempt me.

 

I’m unsure of this zone being touched during the great Cataclysm. Without this zone, Blasted Lands doesn’t have as much of a visual impact. It’s great being able to see the before and after of the area between the two zones after the Dark Portal and the resulting horde rampage into Azeroth.

 

Next week we head to the Blasted Lands. :)

11am central. Boulderfist PvP US Alliance. /join oldazeroth

I’m also starting to stream it on http://www.livestream.com/wowcast

To see the rest of the Old Azeroth collection:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/oldazeroth

Supersized Panderen

Supersized Panderen
Originally uploaded by alachia

Two people in our raid last night had gotten the Panderen Pet. One remarked that it was ONLY 10 bucks and the other (who I bought the pet for) said the 10 bucks was a bit pricey for the pet. However, both of them really enjoyed their pet and it got a lot of laughs from the raid.

I tossed a on them and super-sized them both. Man! First thing I thought of was what a shame Panderens couldn't be a race in WoW! Can you imagine the graphics of a panderen rogue? lol. awesome.

Anyhow, it was money spent and everyone who spent it was very happy and everyone in the game around the pets were very happy and amused. Was that not worth the 10 bucks? I spend 15 bucks on a second account I never access anymore so spending 10 bucks on something that actually does entertain in the game was well worth it for me. Would I prefer it for free? Heck yeah!! But I'm not opposed to cutting through the RNG bullshit of waiting on a boss drop (still bitter about the squashling) or buying 20 packs of TCG cards trying to get a Hippogryph Hatchling.

I guess it goes back to time vs money.

Let the Panderen Speak for Itself

Panderen Monk
Originally uploaded by alachia

This is a film of Jeppy's panderen pet. I didn't buy one for myself. I got one for someone else so I haven't seen what it looks like. He set up in Stormwind and was doing free showings.

It's account bound so you can get it on all characters! It does kungfu, it's fucking awesome. How can ANYONE say this is not worth 10 bucks??? I might have to get one for myself!

sorry for the video quality. all I had was my cam.. can't find my fraps.

Printwarcraft.com

(played with a portrait poster for Flipmax)

Started playing around with printwarcraft.com (doesn’t work with Chrome FYI). It’s quite good and fun. I will definitely be making a few posters.

 

At first I thought I might want a landscape poster since they show off backgrounds more…but after trying it a bit, I realized Draenei are too skinny and tall for the landscape portraits.

 

The customizations are pretty neat. Lots of backgrounds to choose from although I did not see my floating isle in Nagrand. LOL. It would also be awesome if I could change the character name so I could get my original spelling of Alachia.

 

My biggest problem is deciding which will the be the final poster. I’m so picky and will probably spend a few days tweaking the different possibilities.

No doubt these will make awesome Christmas gifts for friends. I plan on ordering a few as stocking stuffers. The only issue will be with all those alt-aholics out there. hehe.

Dead Man’s Party

You would have thought I'd learned my lesson by now after missing the [What a Long Strange Trip It's Been] Meta achievement because of one stupid RNG drop.....you'd think.

But here I am on [Dead Man’s Party] doing this one as well. I guess the truth is I'm a glutton for punishment. It did help that this one is easy.

I went to the graveyard of MY racial faction capitol city. Danced with a lady named Catrina. Boom, achievement completed!

In addition, I bought the [Recipe: Bread of the Dead] and the [Orange Marigold]. I had already brought the [simple flour] and [ice cold milk] with me. I then made the bread, used the Marigold to summon the spirits, found the spirit with a quest and turned it in. Now I have a cute little [Macabre Marionette] pet which no one knows is permanent or not. I hope it is.

I put the extra flour and milk in the guild bank so other guildies can hopefully use it. Don't want it to waste :)

Trick or Treats of Azeroth

I used Astarte66’s guide on the wowhead comments to do my Trick or Treats of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdom. Saved me a ton of time. These are the alliance flight paths. Made it easy for me to watch Sunday Football and do my achievements at the same time.

Alliance Kalimdor
1 Teldrassil, Dolanaar
2 Darnassus, Craftsmen's Terrace
3 Darkshore, Auberdine
4 Exodar, Seat of the Naaru (inside the inn, up the ramp)
5 Azuremyst Isle, Azure Watch
6 Bloodmyst Isle, Blood Watch
7 Winterspring, Everlook (careful if you are hated here)
8 Ashenvale, Astranaar
9 Stonetalon Mountains, Stonetalon Peak
10 Desolace, Nijel's Point
11 Feralas, Feathermoon Stronghold
12 Silithus, Cenarion Hold
13 Tanaris, Gadgetzan (careful if you are hated here)
14 Dustwallow Marsh, Mudsprocket
15 Dustwallow Marsh, Theramore Isle
16 Barrens, Ratchet (careful if you are hated here)
Take the boat to Booty Bay and start on Eastern Kingdom

Alliance Eastern Kingdom
1 Stranglethorn Vale, Booty Bay (carefull if you are hated there)
2 Westfall, Sentinel Hill
3 Duskwood, Darkshire
4 Stormwind, The Trade District
5 Elwynn Forest, Goldshire (do quests to put out the fire)
6 Redridge Mountains, Lakeshire
7 Ironforge, The Commons
8 Dun Morogh, Kharanos (outside of Iron Forge)
9 Loch Modan, Thelsamar
10 Wetlands, Menethil Harbor
11 Hillsbrad Foothills, Southshore (compleate quests at Southshore)
12 Hinterlands, Aerie Peak (inside, through the tank room, up stairs)
13 Eastern Plaguelands, Light's Hope Chapel

I am now only waiting on the damn RNG to go in my favor to get my squashling. Otherwise, I miss the meta achievement for whole year. :( *crosses fingers*

Tome of Valor Westfall Discovery

Westfall
Originally uploaded by alachia

Found this nifty little farm during the Westfall photowalk today. I had never seen it before if you can believe that. I was told by @eljeppy that it's for a Paladin quest called Tome of Valor


So unbelievable that I've leveled in that zone for nearly 5 yrs and have just now discovered something so obvious!

to see more of the Westfall pics, check out: http://www.flickr.com/groups/oldazeroth/

STV Captured

Kicked off the first Saturday morning photowalk. It was sort of last minute so only a few people were able to join me. Also, smarty pants me decided to kick it off in Stranglethorn Vale in conjunction with Pirate's Day! GANK city.

I barely got my achievement before being massacred. I figured it's nice to get this zone out of the way though. On my PvP server, it's hell and hard to relax while taking shots of everything.

I'm doing these by zones every Saturday around 9am (although I'm questioning my morning strategy because I was quite the zombie today). I figure if I do them one by one, I'll be more likely to upload and tag all the pictures correctly as opposed to a massive undertaking and then trying to convince myself to upload the bulk at one time.

Thanks to @azyxa and @jeppy (Flipmax, Bearfus, and Felix) for taggin' along on the adventures here and there. It was nice not being the sole receiver of a gankage. lol.

I can't say I'll miss Stranglethorn Vale much. The parts I'll miss the most are the Goblin Statue at Booty Bay, King Mukla the giant king kong gorilla, and the Guribashi Arena. Other than that, I probably won't miss this slaughter zone if they plan to destroy it. With my luck, it'll be the one zone they leave in tact.

Old Azeroth Highlights

Here are some great highlights from the http://www.flickr.com/groups/oldazeroth flickr set. Thanks to everyone for helping to post!

     

   

   

 

  

   

1. Sunken Temples , 2. Dancing trolls!, 3. Thunder Bluff, 4. Hyjal, 5. My WoW House!, 6. Cenarion Hold, 7. Maraudon, 8. Blood Myst Isle, 9. Crystal Lake of Elwynn Forest, 10. Dwarven Farm 2, 11. Felwood, 12. Darnassus

Higher Learning is Hard

Higher Learning is Hard
Originally uploaded by alachia

I camped the Dalaran Visitor Center for about an hour and got one book so I thought I'd go ahead and try for another book.

I don't think I have the patience for [Higher Learning] lol. I've tried checking after server restarts but the problem is I'm not around most of the time when servers reset. I also can't find the book channel for my server. I'm tempted on getting on my priest to use the Mind Vision guide to the books I read on the WoWhead comments.

/cleartarget
/targetexact [button:1,nomod]Afsaneh Asrar;[button:2,nomod]Sandra Bartan;[button:1,mod:ctrl]Archivist Betha;[button:2,mod:ctrl]Archmage Timear;[button:1,mod:alt]Rhonin;[button:2,mod:alt]Zidormi;
/cast Mind Vision

I hear it works for keeping tabs on all the book locations to see if they've spawned. It'll beat putting my watch on a 4 hour spawn timer or staring at a corner for a couple of hours.

Old Azeroth DB Project

As mentioned in the last Warcast episode, the Old Azeroth photo database has begun. I created a flickr group called “oldazeroth” - http://www.flickr.com/groups/oldazeroth/

I’m already enjoying looking through the posted pics and seeing some serious old school stuff. Do any of you guys remember that island we got water from for MC?!!! LOL.

Originally Uploaded by iStarman

There are definitely a couple of places I wanted to make sure I get pics of again before anything happens to them. I know there is plenty of time but if you factor in procrastination x 100, I just know I’ll probably forget a bunch. Like the Twin Colossals in Ferelas! Gotta get back up there and buy a parachute for sure. Also wondering if I should try to get the Winterspring Alliance mount before it’s gone or the UBRS key? I already went ahead and got my sprite darter pet this past weekend.

I don’t want to get carried away but I figured these could be good weekend projects. I’m also wondering if the Explorer title will change once the world is different. Most importantly I really just need to get my archived pictures posted to the group.

I wrote up this post for those of you who are like me and have a disgusting amount of screenshots to go through. I’ll do a follow up post to this one later today of some of the great highlights from the Old Azeroth group.

--------------------------------------------------------

Tackling your Large Archives One Step at a Time

If you're a bit overwhelmed like me with archived screenshots that you're going through, here are a few tips.

1) Do not undertake throwing them all up at once. You'll get too overwhelmed with years of screenshots and give up.

2) Take the time to archive your photos by year. WoW stores your photos with this naming convention: WoWScrnShot_122805_001631
"122805" Indicates December 28,2005.

3) On choosing pics to upload, tackle quarter to half years worth of shots at a time only! Make a list and just check off where you left off. When you have more free time, tackle the next set.

4) Use Flickr Uploader! www.flickr.com/tools/uploadr/
It makes naming, BULK TAGGING, and BULK grouping pics soooo much easier. (tagging is key)

Disney-fied….Blizzardized

You know that term when something has been Disney-fied? It’s a combination of dumbing down the complexity of something as well as making it family friendly. My best example is The Little Mermaid with the cute little Ariel and her happy ending with the prince and her plucky singing companions. The real story by Hans Christian Andersson is often disputed but the gist of the story is extremely tragic and sad.

 

However, in its Disney-fied form, the Little Mermaid became a house hold name and almost every family with kids has it tucked away on the movie shelf.

 

I was thinking about it and I feel like Blizzard has the same concept down for the game industry. They know the right combination of simplifying and structuring a game so that it can become household.

 

The very first time I was told about WoW, the exact wording was “I think you’ll actually like this MMO. It’s a friendlier and easier version of Final Fantasy. You’ll level like a 100 times faster.” And then when you compare the raiding experience of those who played EQ vs WoW, you’ll also see how they were able to simplify down the complexity of group play to make things so much easier.

(Very Old EQ Raiding footage)

 

And since it’s initial release, we’ve seen even further Blizzardizing of our game. Like I’ve said before, I no longer QQ this anymore. I think it’s great for turning WoW into one of the first fully functional social network/MMOs. I can’t wait to see it’s full evolution.

 

My theory about Blizzardizing are all focused on the new IP they have yet to announce. The new MMO boasts to be nothing like WoW and they say they are NOT afraid of it eating away a load of the WoW subscribers either. Of course, if you’re blizzard and sh1t more money when you bend over than most countries make in a decade, there is little reason to fear anything. (http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/08/blizzard-co-interview/)

 

I have high hopes that the new IP will be a Blizzardized version of EVE online and the Star Wars MMO. If anyone can harness the epic complexity of fleets, galaxies, and empires, it’s gotta be Blizzard. That’s my prediction anyhow. And if Blizz can nab the Sci-Fi MMO genre, it will have globally take over the fantasy world.

 

Right now, EVE owns the sci-fi MMO genre and it’s epic nature and quality of real world over flow in terms of economics and politics makes it an extremely fascinating game. Just read here about how in-game economics reflects real world banking fraud (http://kotaku.com/5348223/bank-deficit-freezes-eve-accounts). The lifestyle and culture of this game play into full emersion of global empires and the real intricate and dynamic play for power among corporations. Just reading a few years ago about the underhanded, backstabbing infiltrations and heists that can happen and are designed so they CAN happen gave me chills (http://eve.klaki.net/heist/).

 

(Eve Online: Apocrypha Trailer)

 

However, it is also the complexity of this game play can be very overwhelming for virgin gamers. And no matter how much I love the sci-fi genre (one of the reasons I loved Outlands as much as I did) I just can’t wrap my head into existing as a ship. I also find getting lost as a tiny dot in a massive empire to be unappealing.

 

I have no doubt that if Blizzard’s IP draws from EvE or any other massive Sci-Fi game, they’ll be able to bring its usual appeal of autonomy of individual play and game simplification while still capturing the fascinating draw of the sci-fi world.

3 Trees Freya

I remember several weeks ago when we first attempted Freya with three trees still up (hardmode). Ground Tremor damage, sunbeams, and f*ck tons of damage all around. Everyone was screaming at me “Uncle! Uncle! No more!” lol.

 

So we stopped and pushed on to the other hard modes in Ulduar. However, now that we’re all a helluva lot more geared I thought we might be able to give her and her damn trees another go.

 

It was a three part learning experience for the hardmode. My raid group sometimes takes a little bit of drilling to finally get into the right mode.

 

First part: Yells for ground tremor means stop casting. No really, STOP!

 

Second part: Fury and Sunbeam on you or people around you means GTFO!

 

Third part: Learn to kite the Detonating Lashers (timing how much dps would be enough to not blow them up but give us enough time to nova them, kite away, and finish them off before they moved)

 

The third was the hardest and the only part that stopped us from downing her in the first hour of the raid. It finally took us gauging how much damage would lower the lashers enough to not destroy them and then timing frost nova rotations perfectly so we could kite away from the lashers before they blew us all up. For us it was 35% HP on the lashers before frost novas and running away and finishing them off with mage aoe.

 

This would have been so much easier with our hunter but he just happened to be out of town this weekend. LOL.

 

Now we’re down to one more Sigil before we can unlock Algalon and finally fully clear Ulduar. Of course, the one thing standing in our way is Hardmode Mimiron which we have never attempted before! DOH! Guess it’s time to push that button!

Whose your Daddy?

Okay the title of the post has nothing to with the topic except it’s a lyric in the video music posted here. I thought it was a hilarious song…goes great with this video. Thanks to LoanzWow for posting it on youtube.

This video is a response to the question I asked myself about the Worgen race. I wanted to know what part of the worgen is customizable. Do you customize your human form or the worgen form. It looks from this video that it’s the worgen form that you tweak.

I was reading that they might end up using just a random human form or a generic human form for the transformation. I’m hoping that they allow human customization. I might have to rethink my desire to be worgen if I can’t make my static Alachia human form. That would be terribly disappointing.

Another kind of WoW play

Violet Eye Exalted
Originally uploaded by alachia

A few months ago, two of the peeps in Bindpoint started a tradition of running an instance every Saturday morning. It wasn't about XP or Quests so much as it was about just scheduling an activity to do together.

This past weekend we were fortunate enough to get enough people in the morning to run Karazhan for the fun of it. I just love this place and really enjoyed seeing it again. It was a well designed raid instance and my favorite to date. There has been nothing since as intriguing as Karazhan for me.

A part of me would love to see a restored version of Karazhan in the Cataclysm but another part me loves it too much in it's current decayed and dark state. I doubt they'll touch it but you never know.

You know, when we were in there we all tried to get the Worgen book to turn into worgens. Unfortunately, none of us had any luck. Guess we'll just have to wait till the expansion.

Return of Heroics

Return of Heroics
Originally uploaded by alachia

A month ago, you'd ask in guild or general chat, "anyone want to run the Daily Heroic?" and you'd get the reply "wtf for?!"

However, now that the Heroic Daily Dungeon quest yields you two [Emblem of Triumph]s everyone is once again hitting up 5-mans.

I think this is great as it once again motivates people to group up and gives people a reason to run more of the content (again). To be honest, I thought I was totally done running heroic 5-mans after running the list for [Glory of the Hero]. Oddly enough, I started missing the dynamics of running a 5-mans. They're super intimate and are usually very easy and require little to no concentration so you have a lot of time to goof around and just chatter unlike raiding.

Also on a PvP server, the return of heroics means more ganking. lol. Outside of every heroic daily instance portal you can pretty much expect to see a pile of corpses. If you're lucky, you outnumber the horde but more often than not on Boulderfist, we take a beating trying to make it inside the instance.

Dwarfageddon Achievement

Dwarfageddon Achievement
Originally uploaded by alachia

In case you ever wanted to know what 100 Steelforged Defenders dying in under 3 seconds looks like. Tharrrr it is!

We had both of our chopper guys gather all of them and we lined up the siege engines and demolishers up near the front without doing any damage. Once they brought the heard of dwarves back to us, we unloaded and WHAM, achievement achieved.

It was pretty impressive though just to see that many dwarves running at you. It's probably the only fun I've had during the Flame Leviathan encounter besides nuking pyrite at the boss and seeing 100,000+ damages going off.

I'm not a fan of vehicle fights... yet.

Human Shaman

Human Shaman
Originally uploaded by alachia

New racial/class combination? I wish.

Today's daily heroic was the Culling of Stratholme. Whenever you go into any of those Caverns of Time instances, your race is adjusted according to the history of the Lore.

In my case, there were no space ghosts in Azeroth at the time Arthas went medieval on this town. So, for just a short period of time, I get to my very much desired HUMAN SHAMAN!!!

WoW Magazine Lure

I am a pretty solid WoW player with interest in both the game, game mechanics, art work, slight interest in the lore, and vast investment in the WoW community. That being said, even being as hardcore WoW bent as I am, I’ve spent some time today thinking of what would compel me to subscribe to the upcoming World of Warcraft magazine. (thanks to @hanapa for the link: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-10312606-235.html?tag=TOCmoreStories.0)

They’ve definitely taken from the ideas of their own game subscription success and have opted to not feature or rely on any advertisement for revenue. This is definitely a plus. I usually gut my magazines that I get of the ads with an exacto blade so I’m left with just the content anyhow.

The cost is also extremely reasonable. US $40 annually, 35 Euros or 30 pounds. That’s about an additional $3.34 a month I’d be paying on top of my two WoW subscriptions. Reasonably priced but what am I really getting?

Future (the world of warcraft magazine) is promising “stunning artwork, behind-the-scenes looks at ongoing development, deep dives into the game's lore, and perhaps even occasional scoops about new features or other WoW elements". But what I want to know is how is this much different than being IN the game art and reading up on WoW websites and blogs?

Are they just banking on fandom to carry them through? I’m not enough of a fangurl to buy into the hype for sure. I love me some Warcraft but only enough to keep paying for actual crack and not the crack pamphlet. Also, you can not buy individual copies of the magazines, it’s subscription or nothing.

So what’s it going to take to get the average player on board with buying a subscription? I’ve thought a lot about it and I’m thinking I know what their ploy is going to be…..

My guess is that it’s going to involve pets or some in-game reward. That’s how they got the trading cards out there in the market of mainstream with NON-TCG players buying those things up by the boat load. Otherwise, I’m not seeing how they’re going to get us to pay an additional subscription for stuff we can get for free.

Obsidian Hatchling

Obsidian Hatchling
Originally uploaded by alachia

Woot, I often check the AH to see how much pets are going for and I noticed this Obsidian Hatchling for 150g. It was something I had never sen before so I thought...ooooh...so cheap for a rare pet, right?

Then I thought to myself...hmmm..when is a rare pet ever that cheap? It must be a new common pet that someone is trying to rake the AH for. Sure enough, a quick search on wowhead showed me I could go buy this cute new pet from Breanni in the Dalaran Pet shop for 40g!

His proportions are so cute..giant head..iddy bitty legs!

Second Skin Review

I got a chance to watch the Second Skin documentary this weekend. It is airing on http://www.hulu.com/second-skin until August 13th and I had a meta viewing of it with Bindpoint and twitter peeps via my wowcast livestream. The event was nice and I always find it’s way more fun to view stuff online with other people.

I can’t say any of us were all that pleased with the tone the documentary took on gam ers. I had this fear the first time I saw the trailer for the film when they showed the clip about the guy wanting to commit suicide. Our consensus is that negativity sells more than optimism.

I’m not sure but I have a strong feeling that the writers and producers of this film were not gamers. The stories they chose to cover had few spotlights of good and strong, strong undertones of serious negativity. The negative part is a given because of the stories they chose to focus on.

Most of the people I game with are successful, gifted, talented, smart, creative, and good natured people. They are not hopeless addicts who can’t distinguish “laziness” from “addiction.”

However, the part of the film that really bothered me was the serious missed opportunity the documentary made. Here was a chance to get inside the life of a gamer, to show the meta connections, the actual interactions that happen online. What did we get instead? We got 10 second blips of online characters doing emotes to each other. If a non gamer sees this documentary, they’re going to sum up our online interactions to a silly looking bear charging a silly looking monster and a couple of elf creatures riding horses.

How do you actualize the threads of connections that happen in a game? To document it, you have to really grasp what is happening beyond the computer screen but most of the documentary focuses instead on the imagery of the glazed over look of an obsessed addicted gamer staring at a monitor.

People are going to say I’m extremely defensive about gamer life because I’m one of those hopeless addicts who has no life and validates my existence through these “online experiences.”

But even if I push myself aside, I can’t help but be offended for the other people around me who don’t really deserve to be typecast into this hopeless negative light. I’m not sure why media outlets feel like they need to tell the “dangers of” stories.

I’m constantly fascinated with the stories I hear about other gamers around me and the lives they live both inside and outside of the meta…because it’s all REAL LIFE. Just look at the story of Starman and Renata. That would have been a very nice positive storyline to focus on regarding creativity and community. Instead they get 20 seconds of film time and then the film goes to 10 minutes of two people having a fight while moving in together which really has nothing to do with meta connections but rather the reality of relationships.

And if you go look at the comments on hulu.com about the movie, you’ll understand why threading these stereotypes about gamers is very harmful to our community. It’s easy for people to misunderstand the life of a gamer. The comments go on and on mirroring this notion that spending time playing an MMORPG is a social problem and gamers are referred to as “these types of people” like we’re lepers or something. I just wish there was some film out there that could help people who don’t game understand the reality of who we are.

The best line of the film came from the one real inspirational blip regarding a boy who has a disability that prevents him from speaking. I love this quote:

“Although they are virtual, they are still our lives nonetheless”-Andrew Monkelban

If somehow the rest of the documentary could have focused on that idea, I probably wouldn’t have come out feeling as down as I did. And the irony of it is that I was watching this hopeless idea of gamers unfold via live stream with about 12 other people online. There we were finding a way to virtually connect and experience an event together in the meta.

Oh and after the film was over, there were several requests to rewind to the Starman and Renata bit! It’s around the 42:28 minute marker incase you want to do the same :)

Meet Roo

Roo
Originally uploaded by alachia

Just adopted Roo today. He’s the cutest oracle you have ever met. I <3 him.

We spent all evening together. I took him to go see the biggest tree in Northrend, took him to play with other orphans, and we visited The Great One and the Dragon Queen. I didn’t even know about the portal from Scholozar to Ungoro. lol.

Roo likes to play with paper zepplins and eat flies…oh and he likes shinies…so we’ll get along quite nicely. :D