Happy Holidays and my last update for 2008....

Well, I am not 100% positive that it will be the last update, but since I only made one other update in December, I am going with the odds.

So, I decided to do some catching up on the outside world today and realized that I have had a pretty good year. With the exception of my Mom passing away, I haven't totally gone broke or insane, and I haven't been arrested! Hey, that's a plus! I have been blessed with many different things and many new friends, and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has helped in reality or spirit to get me back on a positive track.

So, I have this blog for a couple of reasons. One is that even though BV is not the booming PK network of days past, people still try to find me here. Well, everyone except Evocare and Adrick, which are both now sucked into the vortex of silence for Fear someone might learn something they aren't supposed to. The other reason, is that I still love to talk to myself in the hopes that there may be others out there that struggle with these very same questions. Maybe together, we can find our own path to glory.

I know there are still a lot of old UO people out there scanning this page to see if one day I might resend my terrible descision of leaving UO in any form, and moving on to something new. Well, as much as I hate to say it. I like WoW, and probably won't be leaving anytime soon.

So, I want to start off my last update with some questions about WoW that have been puzzling me. If you know the answer, please feel free to leave a comment.

1. There is a Hordie in Eastern Plaguelands named Georgia. I have attacked her as Aliance and she poped me like a zit with two huge demons. What is her purpose?

2. Why do some female Orc PC's sound like a guy?

3. Why do they keep making more and more factions that you need reputation with? At this point how many of those factions are even viable anymore?

4. Is it just me or does getting past level 72 seem like the slowest ride ever?

5. Are my quest items for the Warlock epic mount all worthless now?

6. Why don't the Hordies auction as much crap as the Alliance? Or, Why does the Alliance have all the money and the Horde have all the power? I think I can answer that.

7. Why don't the Blood Elf females do that ghey little jumping dance like their Dark Elf counterparts?

8. Is there some reason all Horde strongholds have to be so confusing with twists and levels? I can't find my way around anything in Org.

9. Why do they give you Nexus quests at level 70, when you can't even go through the door until 74?

10. When will there be housing in WoW?

Okay, so those are my burning questions, now to move on to status.

I am still running my Alliance Warlock at level 72. Stopped there because I wanted to try the DK for awhile. I did get someone to put me into a BG from Dalaran, so I have my new base of operations when I am ready to return her to active duty. I also have tons of rested exp now, so getting her up in levels should be quite a bit faster.

My DK is also level 72. I have been playing that DK like there is no other thing important in my life. I got some new blues from questing at this point, and still believe strongly that my DK is tougher then my Warlock. However, the Warlock is a clothy and it is sort of an unfair comparison, but my DK can heal fairly effectively and survive some seriously nasty encounters by several combatants. No scaring them away either, this DK will actually get stronger and heal better by fighting harder.

I really like the Death Knights. I see a lot of them around, and sometimes we even group up, but for the most part that is not needed. We are all pretty self sufficient with our goulish pets, blood worms, and dancing swords, we can do just about anything.

Anyway, that's it for now ya'll. Please be safe and have a great holiday! If I don't catch you before the new year, then enjoy and be safe for that one too!

Take care!

Beat Me, Whip Me.... Ooohhh!

I was reading this article and a couple of hundred comments...

Yes, all of my characters are evil, so I don't mind the "Torture" quests. Yes, as a person, I thought they were bad. I even got a funny feeling about doing them.

The thing is, no matter what cookie they offer you at the end of the quest chain, it won't be worth anything at level 80... Please skip those quests if the offend you so terribly.

On the other hand, I don't think those types of quests are needed in the game, however, if we are going to question morality, then there are a whole bunch of areas we could fuss about. One example would be the Warlock Succubus, who exclaims serveral questionable comments during the course of her use. My GF, said that she wouldn't even let the kids have that pet.

I don't know if a line has been crossed, but there are so many refrences to questionable things and of course there is supposed to be humor there. I can see many things being offensive to other people, that I take as being funny or cute.

Thanks, move along.

Best Commercial Evar!

Dread Lord, Death Knight, what's the difference?

So, as you may or may not know. My copy of WoTK came in the mail and I have been somewhat busy trying to work on the Warlock. Well, I was until I decided finally to start a DK, cause you know, I CAN.

So, after a few million quests in Borean, I stopped my warlock at level 72. Most of my guild mates are still only 71 or less so, I am in no hurry to show them why I am a serious WoW crack baby. Above is my latest action shot of the warlock and my pet, old Thangore...

So, on to the Death Knight. I decided to try the Horde side of things this time, since I would have chosen that side anyway if it had not been for outside influence, and maybe I just wanted to win a few BG's once in awhile. In any event, I decided on a blood elf, just because, well because they spin in the air while jumping. Pretty cool in my book.

I created the character, and immediately I was thrust into a very calculated series of events that prepared my DK for Outland. I played for about 12 hours before I reached level 60 and I have been in Outland since level 58. Much to be said for the DK, although I am not totally clear on what I am doing or how to drive the character to it's potential. I can drive the hell out of a warlock, but this weapons with casting is a bit different then I am used to.

Some of the things I like so far is that I started with all of my personal bag slots filled. Only 12 slot bags, but that was enough to get me started on my journey. I also like the fact that all of the flight paths for both old continents were filled in. I didn't have to do any exploring, and I can already fly wherever I want. I also like that they loaded me up with some pretty decent armor and a nice weapon. Even the greens at level 60 are still not quite good enough for me to change over. I also liked the quests that they gave me while building my level 55-58 DK. Even though I had not too much in the way of options fo quest choices, I found the cannon quest to be very fun, and it kind of reminded me of that first encounter in that old Commodore 64 game "Beach Head II". Graphics have changed, but the concept is the same,(kill everything moving). I also liked the way they made the terrain look different during different phases of your journey away from the Lich King. The king is a lot shorter then I thought he would be. I figure they used some sort of mutiple player instance to show the lands in different variations until the quest lines were complete.

The ending kind of threw me for a loop. I mean with the "300" against 10,000 gouls and me, I figured we were going to win for sure. Suddenly, all fighting was stopped and there was a conversation between a priest and the head of the lich army. Something about the bad guys dad fighting scourge etc. etc. Then the Lich King shows up to kill the high priest commander, and somehow gets hurt and teleports to safety. Arthas, the Lich King left his command center in the Plague Lands behind so we "good" Death Knights formed our own group called The Ebon Blade. They gave us a cool little "Death Gate" hearth stone that we can use to recall home for training or whatever. I still don't know if we have to train for the rune inscription later down the road or not.

I was also wondering if I am caught up on all of my talent points. Things went by so quickly, I was hoping I didn't miss a quest or two that may have given me more talent points. I suppose I will know for sure at 80, but I did have all blue armor and weapons at the end which led me to believe that I was on the right track.

So, the Plaguelands still hold no real value for me. I hate that place because most of the quests are in a dungeon that I do not wish to visit. So, I immediately found the flight master and headed to the Swamp of Sorrows so I could hit the Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands. Once I hit Hellfire Pen, I made my way to the other two flight points so I could link to Shat and claim the Scryers Inn as my home.

So, now I can portal all over the place, but I have no clue as to where anything is in the old lands for The Horde. I am sure it will be a slow and painful process, one which I will curse Tom Chilton for along the way.

One thing that has me irritated just a little is that I have no reputation with the Blood Elves, of which I was a member at some point before I was abducted by the evil Lich King. I am not sure if this will prevent me from getting a mount in that area, and I know I won't be able to purchase a mount anywhere else. I haven't really investigated that avenue just yet.

Outside of that, I have been grinding my way up the level chain. I really appreciate all of the abilities that the DK has compared to my Warlock, and I am learning new things as I go. Gold is already looking pretty good, so I feel I made the right decision in going to the Horde side. Now I have a better way to make money for my other Horde characters if I choose to build them.

I guess time will tell, but for now, I am in the Dark.

Northrend to Alaska, comon, the rush is on!

Goodness, I forgot just how annoying questing can be. I would think that all that Epic gear I have would keep me a little safe, but some of these crazy mobs up in Northrend are giving me a hard way to go.

Almost level 71 now, and I got the old Tailoring up to 375! Just in time to have to build it to 450. I would start to cry, but that would be a weakness, and we can't have that with skulls on my shoulderpads now can we?

Yea, I am playing a Hot Warlock Chick. A lot of fun really. I didn't think I would even play WoW, let alone have a level 70 running around.

The World Server for Northrend is still a bit unstable. I think we are going to need a larger rack of servers to handle this expansion. Doing quests is a breeze, but unlike when I started a new character 5 years after release, there are tons of people fighting over resources. Overcharged Capicitors are being overcharged for daily, and I suppose at some point I will have to let them overcharge me for one. I am at that point already, where I need one to complete a quest out at the Airstrip.

I am however impressed with how much data they are storing on characters and items now. I was reading the acheivements page last night, and even though some stats are incorrect, probably due to when they started tracking the events, it was interesting how much they could tell me about my character.

So, we grind for levels again. I hear there are already some 80's running around. Death Knights are like a dime a dozen at the moment, but I am sure that will calm down eventually.

Profession: "Grand Master" (Thanks Evocare) I see they have adopted something else that reminds me of UO. In UO, Grand Master was for skills more than professions, but it all works the same I suppose.

A semi-interesting interview with Tom Chilton, formerly "Evocare of BV" if you are interested. He is alive and doing well, we had a very brief hello and that's about it, but he did say he was glad that I was sucked into WoW. Made me chuckle and want to kick him at the same time.

Anyway, I am off to see a man about a horse, or a mammoth or a Death Charger, or something...

Nothing to see here, please move along...

Well, I got my WoTK expansion. Everything seems to be in order so far. I was a bit shocked that they tried to tell me my 1G of memory laptop was not sufficient to play WoW with the expansion, but so far it is working.

I didn't start my Death Knight yet. I am still trying to decide if I should just go ahead and switch to horde with the DK or not. It would certianly help getting a Hordie up to speed faster then waiting on a new roll, but I am still unsure.

Kelly Kindred started up her old account to come hang out with me on Norgannon. It is not the greatest server in the world, but it is workable right now. Norg was crashing a lot yesterday, so I will have to see if anything good came out of the last maint update.

See you in BG!

Get Your Email For Nothin', And Your Epics For Free...

Well, after about roughly five hours of downtime, the illegal PvP Epic gear has vanished. No word on the Email situation except for the up to a few days server message of last night. Blizz also sent out emails to let us know our email is jacked up.

The good news is that Blizzard can track items obtained illegally, by glitch or bug. This will help me sleep better today.

I don't think banning everyone who did it would be the right choice for 2 reasons. It was Blizzard's mistake, and they obviously can identify all the illegally obtained items through their database system. Nice going on that fix Blizz...

I would still bet there might be some job openings at Blizzard today, so check your local listings.

Edit: The Email was returned the following day at about noon. I am pretty sure I got all of my stuff back.
CIAO!

It's Like A Nightmare, It Just Keeps Getting Worse...

In what would seem the worst patch since World War II Online launched, Blizzard released the mother of all bad patches this Tuesday...

Most of us couldn't even login until late Tuesday evening. Those of us who did, found that all of the Email was gone along with any cash we had made or auction returns etc...

So Blizzard apparently addressed the email issue, even though we didn't get any of our email, Blizzard at least "found it". Somewhere out there, on a server someone forgot to turn back on earlier or something. Blizzard sent a nice message via the server login message in that we would have our email back within the next day or two...

When I was finally able to get back online, the Trade channel was loaded with people saying there was free BG gear in the Champions Hall... Bah! A trick you say? Nope. All of the Season 2 PvP cloth gear was "Free". Both the Merc Gladiator Felweave and the Dreadweave sets were free for the taking. Oh, and that's not all there were a couple of really nice epic neck pieces and an epic ring. These were only gear sets for Priest and Warlock I was told. The Champions Hall was filled to the brim with hopeful players looking to get their hands on some free loot. The up side for Blizzard is that all of the gear is Bind On Pickup, and it has no sale value. So really, all you can do is wear it or let it take up some bank space.

There was also something about 1 free arena weapon, that I couldn't verify because it was for another class, but there were also some arena items that no longer had a rating requirement. Stupid me didn't have enough arena honor to get any of that stuff. After about an hour or two, the server login message was changed again letting us know that Blizzard was aware of the prices being incorrect on the Arena Gear and asking us not to make those purchases at this time. I am not sure if they actually did anything to stop people, but they did give some warning that there would be a resolution forthcomming.

So, the servers went down again this morning about 5AM (MT). I suppose we will just have to wait and see for how long and what steps Blizzard will take to repair all the damage from the latest patch.

The suck part is that I actually played, long and hard to get all that S2 gear. I knew it was going to become obsolete when WoTK came out but this is crazy! All this with the launch of WoTK coming out tonight at midnight... Oh what a joy it will be going to work at Blizzard this morning.


Good luck fixing this one guys! If restore a backup, please go back to Monday, October 13th or so. hehe

Here is some reading on the subject courtesy of VN: Hall Of Hero Giving Away Free Stuff and What are the odds

Oh yea, the Zombie thing...

Okay, first off, I just wanted to say it wasn't all that bad. Sure, they turned everyone into a zombie, but it was actually kinda fun if you gave it a chance...

There was a lot of chatter in Trade channel about this, some said it was grief, others had some good fun. Once I realized nothing would get done that day, I just let em have at me. I got to blow myself up and everything was good again. Death was another way to get rid of the zombie curse, but then you had to run back and get your corpse. I found this to also be annoying because I wasn't offering to play as a zombie and had no idea what the consequence would be for my death. Finding the healer was also a bit too confusing. I knew where he/she was one day, but the day I got infected, they weren't there anymore. I think an easier way to dispell the effect besides those options would be better down the road.

Some things about future events though. You might want to be a little more selective in what NPC's you turn into something else. It is a bit annoying that if you wanted to ignore what was going on that you could not. Including the players would be okay if we knew what was going on. I had no idea that when I logged in that day, I would be instantly infected. It took me a few minutes to figure out why my spells were not working. Not knowing I was not myself, well was a bit frustrating and confusing. I think the Breaking News or a Login message about what is going on may be useful in the future.

My best suggestions for "Normal" or "Optional PvP" servers would be this. Don't have the event take away all of the quest givers and battlemasters. Also, don't place the fate of other players in the hands of players. Anytime you give us rope, we will automatically hang ourselves. There are plenty of other NPC's out there that can be messed with that it really shouldn't take away from the experience all that much. But if Bobby and Beverly Bluebie want to continue on their normal boring existence, then I feel they should be allowed to do so.

Patience young Grasshopper...

I am waiting for the realms to come back up on my day off, and decided to talk about some of the changes as of late.

I read this morning that epic mounts for Warlock and Paladin are going to be available on the trainers at 61. Well, that is all fine and dandy, but I had really planned on making a mint on selling Warlock runs through Dire Maul for the epic mounts. I wonder if all my tools for that long quest will still be in my bank, and will they still do anything? Maybe there will be an "epic, epic" mount at level 80 and my stuff will still be useful. Of course the Warlock epic was almost completely impossible, while the Paladin quest while similar was a heck of a lot easier. I had already bought training for my fast ground mount before I was able to complete the huge and terribly confusing epic mount quest for Warlock, so I would have been grateful to just go get the darn thing from my trainer.

I have switched to Affliction, and I am enjoying some really good PvP sessions with a fairly destructive set of Dots. Most mobs can no longer withstand my attacks and I can usually fight 4 or 5 level 69-70's and actually live. Before I was barely able to keep up with 3 of them. I have the Abyss Shard, so I am making use of that now with the Voidwalker for doing dailies, but I still prefer the Felhunter in PvP. I am not sure how well it is working, but the "perception" skill has been made passive, so I assume it is on all the time. We used to have to activate it for a 20 second burn and seek out those darn stealty Druids and Rogues. You also get some added perception from your Felhunter, so the enemy sneaking up on me and killing me before I can retaliate has become a little less annoying.

My tailoring is still at about 367 or so. Getting resources after level 360 has become next to extremely boring. I just don't have the will to go get 800 stacks of 20 cloth to produce 7 stacks of the cloth I need to level up the skill. I guess that is what seperates the tailors from the hacks. I just can't give that 100% of my time right now.

I am a little weary of the changes to the level cap. I just received all of the epic items for my warlock, and those will all likely become obsolete when the WoTK patch comes out. This is not really all that exciting for me. I worked many, many hours on getting that stuff just so I could be a little competitive in PvP, and I will probably have to do it all again. It would be nice if Blizzard would be so kind as to make some things "upgrade" via cash or some honor rather then have us re-aquire all of those items at a higher level.

I am excited about the new class though. I think it will be great right up until the first couple of nerfs, and then when they introduce another Hero Class character into the mix.

Well, that's all I can think of for the moment. Anyone looking for me can give me a shout on Norgannon. Try the Doom Forged Battalion guild.

See ya soon!

PvP, the next frontier? A Day In WoW PvP!

So, we are hearing a bit about active PvP coming in the next patch for WoW, and apparently Warhammer has it already. The funny thing is that everyone already knows that DK's will be overpowered at launch and the summarily nerfed once their popularity hits the roof.

So, I wanted to go over some PvP basics for you...

Now, keeping in mind, I am an Alliance character, I will break down for you the basic PvP rules. At least as far as the Oct 15th patch. The Alliance gets an ass whoopin probably 80-90% of the time. This leaves the door wide open for maximum whining. Now, I haven't played the Horde side, but I can only imagine, thier leaders don't have to deal with as much crying.

Now, I will be dealing with Alterac Valley, because until recently, everyone uses the other three BG's for marks only. We all use AV for honor. The honor has been adjusted recently, but AV is still the primary farming grounds for honor.

First we go into the little staging area... We buff, someone asks for a table from a mage. Sometimes we get one, other times we don't ... No one cares if the warlocks provide healing stones or not, so we move on.

Then we get one of a few different "battle plans".

1. Everyone stick together...

This plan works great, we all run to Galv, kill him in about 5 seconds, then we all take towers, and 2-4 stay behind to make sure the towers cap before moving on, then we check on the next one. Continually moving south, we get past tower point, and then move to RH. Take the East and West towers and then kill Drek. About a 99.9 success rate.

2. Groups 1-6 hit RH, Groups 7-8 hit Galv then towers.
A good plan but with the limited intelligence levels within BG. We have people that don't care what group they are in and then of course there is always not enough people to kill Galv and take the towers. I would say this plan has a 75% success rate, and inspires people to leave or call out insults.

Frequent insults include the fact that when Galv or Drek "fear" everyone out of the stronghold. Many people interpret this as that we "ran out" or got scared of dying, when this is not the case at all. You may hear someone call everyone a "retard" or "noobs" because these fellows have the ability of kicking us out of their homes.

Most insults come from someone on a PvP server that is nowhere near the action. They sit back and ask how come this objective isn't met or that one, while sitting on their horse somewhere far from the battles going on. Telling us how it is an "Epic Fail" and we all suck.

Another plan, and my all-time favorite is "Just win", and more recently the "unlock all the acheivements you can and just win" plans.

These plans are almost certian doom accompanied by many insults because everyone stops playing so they can type bad things to each other. I give this plan a 10% success rate and I am being generous.

All Battle Grounds have their own set of funny or degrading comments made by the players, but I still don't get why everyone still finds it necessary to use the word "raped" all the time. I hear that more then anything. I am sure it is mostly the younger guys, but sometimes I just want to slap them for being so stupid.

The BG's really no longer hold any true value except to gain the most honor in the least amount of time. I feel over the course of the new expansion, we will see the developers trying to give some meaning back to completing the quests built into the BG's.

At least I hope they will.

The Joys of Patching Take 2...

Well, I don't know what happened this morning, but WoW and it's website went off the map in the middle of my proudest moment in the BG's... I had about 5 secondary objectives in my pocket and we were on our way to victory yet again today.

I don't know what it is, but you give those Alliance guys a reason to win, and they do! They want those acheivements worse then a hooker wants a case of herpes!

If there was any good done in this debacle of a patch, it has been nice to see the Acheivers step up and show the PvPers they can actually do something given proper motivation. The Hordies have been getting swept frequently the last couple of days. I am not sure if the PvP changes have angered the usually over aggressive hordies, or if they are all on vacation until the patch settles down. In any event, I am taking the points while I can and get my gear before it all becomes obsolete.

WTB Port to Monday Oct 13,th... Please PST!

Patch went in today as the major application to be prepared for the WoTLK. 12 Hours downtime, followed by an hour patching and getting ready, followed by all the Addons crapping all over the place, followed by server crashes and a rolling restart.

Someone let me off this train please!

Anyway, everyone had to respec their characters so I went for the old PvP favorite Affliction... Miss the pet, but love killing people really fast.

PvP is totally in chaos.. No one knows what the heck is going on in there, but one thing is for sure. We all die a whole lot quicker. Ranting about how Pally's and Moonkins are the new Daddies of PvP.. Rogues got a quick, long overdue bend over the virtual sink and pumped all night long, are no longer the biggest threat in BG.

This is just a quick down and dirty update. I have a lot of info to assimilate, and it is getting late in the day for me. I am sure there are tons of good things to say about the patch, however I am unable to recall anything at this time.

Please fix the server crashes, thank you Blizz!

-Later

What else sucks...

So, I have this gear, called "S2". You can get this gear by spending a lifetime or two getting your buns kicked in PvP. Well, Alliance gets their buns kicked a lot. I have decided that if this were UO back in the 90's, the Alliance would be the Bluebies aka Great Lords, and the Horde is very much like the PK's aka Dread Lords. So, yea, I am on the wrong side. But the Alliance needs all the help they can get.

Anyway, my gear needs all these socketed gems to make em like all cool and whatnot. So I fill this gear up with gems, and I had one gem that I had received from a dungeon run. I think it was Underbog on heroic or something, but it had "Parry" as an attribute. I don't need parry as a Warlock so I determined I could use it for the other bonuses and just switch it out later. I finally get the money to switch out the gem and I found out why people don't like to do that. It destroys the original gem. Doesn't give it back, doesn't send you any money in the mail, doesn't do anything except destroy it...

Now I ask you, why the heck do they destroy the gem? At the very LEAST they should make it soulbound and give it back to you. Then you could give it to a vendor for a couple of bucks, but NOOOO! Anyway, I am dissapointed that they just waste a gem like that. This gem happened to be "epic" too, so it could have given me a couple hundred gold had I been allowed to sell it at the Auction House.

I was reading something Lum "The Mad Blogger" had to say about what zones you don't like and why. I can tell you volumes about what zones I like and do not. One he mentioned was Nagrand, and I was shocked. I think that is my favorite zone in the whole game. The ones I noteably hate, are as follows.

Silithus - Bug infested zone, and there is no way that I can tell other then to walk to it from Ungorro Crater. I don't like any of the bug quests, and most of the time I will skip it just so I don't have to deal with the bugs.

Zangarmarsh - Another bug zone, but the Naga there are like damn locusts and they are tougher then anywhere else in the game. I also don't really understand what the PvP is good for in that zone. No one ever wants to fight for it, many don't even know how.

Shadowmoon - Too damn hard to solo. I couldn't finish but maybe 5 quests in this zone, and still can't even at 70. I ended up going to Netherstorm to complete my training to 70... Netherstorm, even though it was easier, is actually too easy. Once you get to the bio-domes, it was like the developers just gave up on being original, and just started giving newbie quests. Kill 8 mobs, come get lots of money and experience, etc. So many of the quests were as if they just wanted to be done with it. Many people don't even realize just how easy it is in this zone. Many of my guildies that have been around awhile still insist on grinding the Eastern and Western Plaguelands, and end up going to Hellfire way later then they need to.

Eastern and Western Plaguelands were just not needed. They may have once been very important when 60 was the cap, but now, all that stuff they have there and all those very tricky quests are obsolete.

Anyway, I have not played every zone in the game. As a matter of fact, there are still many places I never even visited yet. I just didn't need to go there. I can't say I have any more fun then Nagrand though. I like to play there, and I love to help people get through that zone. I like to fight for Haala, and I love to kill the bosses there. I don't know, but I think of all the zones in Wow, that has to be my personal favorite.

Right now I am still working on the last couple of pieces to my S2 gear. Then maybe I will finally get the faster mount? Who knows.. 5000G for training is a bit much, but I just keep on grindin' away.

Mr. Roboto... Domo... Domo...

Well, I have become efficient enough at killing players to collect shards on the Battleground. That's not much of an issue anymore. I hear there are some new arenas coming out with WoLK. The big debate in trade channel as late is whether they will erase honor or not. The latest rumor is that they were, but now they are not. Good for me.

Still working on gear and gems for the Glad-wear. Takes a bit of time, which I am sure is the plan. I talked to Kelly Kendred the other day and told her about my adventures. Seems many folks went to Conan to check it out, but we are banking that with the release of the Hero Class in WoW, many people will return.

I didn't try Conan, but I haven't heard any raving review on this side of the park, so I will probably pass over that one in favor of something else down the road.

Today was a good day for the Alliance. We were actually winning on most of the BG's today. I chalked it up to a full moon or the really good hordies decided to give us a break. Still way too much whining going on the Alliance side, but maybe someday, they will suck it up and just learn how to fight back. They have probably been saying that for years, but I still keep the faith.

PS, Blizz, please put a darn mailbox closer to the BG bosses... I hate having to walk real far to check my auctions while playing.. KTHX!

Hey Mr. DJ, put a record on...

So, we are still gleefully doing the PvP grind for gear. It is a daunting process, but when you want the best stuff, you obviously have to spend the time for the stuff right?

I have most of my gear now actually. The only reason I am here is because they made me log off for maint on my ONE GOOD DAY OFF again.... :( *sobs*

Okay, I am prolly better off, cause I started a rogue at 1:30 seconds to shut down and made level 2 before they kicked me off the server.

Anyway, things are going good. I am going for the ES grind to 40 marks with 3,500 honor for some new shoes. What a drag, but at least my first game in ES tonight was a winner. I still don't understand all their strategy, but as long as they are happy, who cares right?

I have signed up to be in a 2v2 group, so we will see how that goes. I hear arena gear is better then PvP gear, so we will have to wait and see how that pans out before I make a call. There is a helmet i want with a pair of bat wings that would look cool with my horse. hehe I am gonna get that I think.

I hear Bliz is gonna release Inscription with the next big patch! WooT! Now, where is the cartography and bow fletching? There are no player lumberjacks to be found anywhere... Lol I remember when Lumberjacks were overpowered in UO and everyone had one. I think that is like rogues in WoW!

Anyway, still grinding my way to victory. I think I am gonna go to bed and see if the servers are back up early today.... I hope. ;)

Laters

20 Days to 70...

So, after a much entertaining days of my life, I reached level 70 on the 12th of August. Oh, after that the gold situation got even more easy as you can make at least about 200G a day off of the daily quests. So, I think back to my friend, the level 40 on a PvP server that wants to be a gold farmer... WTF is he thinking? I dunno but it can't be right.

Since I hit 70 I went out, finished a ton of quests, got my first Flying mount, the Ebon Griffon, and begun the long grind for PvP gear. So far I have gotten my Merciless Gladiator's Dreadweave Robe and I am working on the gloves. I had some other decent items on, and decided I want matching gloves since mine are a gross looking green, and it just doesn't go with my outfit.

I looked to see about getting reputation in certian places, and I have decided that making people do a RAID group to get rep is completely ridiculous! There should be another way for those of us that don't have 25 friends on at the same time all the time. Granted there are guilds out there that frequently run Kara and ZA, but I still think there should be a slower more painful outlet for those of us that want to get there the hard way.

Some of the materials I need for tailoring at my level are also impossible to get without a raid run, which is another thing that is pissing me off. It is hard enough to get most of this stuff without relying on the few groups of people that will actually go to those Raids and then sell those items at a reasonable price. Matter of fact, there is one item for Shadow Tailoring that is next to impossible to even buy unless you get lucky and find it on the server at the right time.

Does someone want to explain to me what the hell they do on the scheduled maint days which is Tuesday??? I mean, that is like my day off and stuff and sure enough, today is one of those long downtime days where I can't even play until after noon... It sucks to be sure. I was very close to getting my next PvP gear item, and now I will have to wait until tonight. On my day off, which I am already awake and ready to go. Which makes me mad. Which makes baby Jesus cry. I am rambling...

Anyway, So far so good. Wrath of the Lich King comes out soon, and I haven't seen test centers version of this yet, and I am not sure how good it will be, but I am sure the PvPers will soon be all loaded up with them...

Speaking of PvP.. What a whiney bunch of idiots we have there. I mean you get these few guys in there that may or may not actually know what they are doing, constantly spamming the channel with insults and then marking people as AFK for not going to the place they specified. Now, I have a huge problem with people entering the arena and going AFK. I don't even know why that is allowed, but since you get points for your partners kills and you get at least one mark for being there, I can see why some folks just choose to enter and sit there. It does make it easier, and of course you don't use any resources while you are there.

I go through a ton of soul shards while I am in PvP, and sometimes I remember to get one or two while we are playing in AV. However, the arena is not a place for pulling and killing mobs, and since most of the arenas were build prior to level 70, most of them can't be used as soul shard outlets.

So, I have to quit playing PvP every so often to fly out to the forest and try to get those elusive Netherweb Spider Silks I need so badly. What a joke that is to farm those things. Farming for anything is pretty much stupid. I remember wool cloth, and the field day I had with that one. Any other cloth is okay, but not that one...

Oh, and is it me or did Bliz spell "Mana" wrong on their mage table that creates the Manna Biscuit? Seems wierd to me but every where else in the game, Mana is spelled M A N A, except for that mage tables biscuits... Could be me, but I think the proof reader fell asleep on that one.

Anyway, I am off to see the Wizard.. I am gonna have to get a game I can play on Tuesday...

Up the last part of the hill...

Approaching level 68... The road is getting longer, but the mission stays the same.

Now they are giving away a Zebra pet for getting the game, and subscribing for 2 months... Considering that I haven't even gone for my epic mount a second time, this looks good to me.. Would one of you please start playing so I can ride around you in circles while you WALK!? Thank you! Oh, we also get Friend Summoning, so I can make you come play with me whenever I want. Okay, I am just being cute, but I thing having a zebra would definitely be more fun then my Level 40 (oooh, now 30) mount.

Oh, I agree with Lum and everyone else.. The reputation system is the big SUCK. The confusing part is that there are so many people you have to grease to get anything, you could spend your entire life trying to get anywhere and be bored out of your skull to get it. Yes, Outland does pretty much make the old lands meaningless at higher levels above 60. I made so much gold over there, I would never go back unless I had to get something like my damn 60 epic mount.

Believe it or not, I am thinking about making a guild. Why? Cause I can, and I am sorta sick of my guild because no one is ever online. When they are, they don't want to go do anything. Now, I am still kinda busy, but I think when it is time for someone to get their just rewards, that should be done, and if they need to do it twice because someone forgot the quest, then they should do that too. hehe

See ya.

I don't get it...

So, I was talking to this dude the other day, and he is a Gold Farmer on a PvP server... He was telling me how he gets killed on his server when he is farming... I was like "no kidding"? WTF are you thinking? If you want to make a lot of cash, what is the point of playing on a server with people that DESPISE craftsmen? I look at it like this... I like a challenge, but if I have a choice of building a "toon" without the interuption of the frequent PK drive by... Then I will build my character in peace and pay to Move/Copy that character to a PvP server when I am ready to do so.

I mean, I don't like that the games have changed, but there is no reason for me to beat my head against the wall because leveling is too damn hard on the PvP servers. However, I was quite impressed at how PvP server people will jump on quests with you and build extremely quickly. It is way faster then a PvE server and there is a good reason. If you don't get there fast, you will get your ass kicked...

So, it is different on the different servers, but I think that it is definitely geared towards building and moving if you don't want the hassle of the PvP beatings.

One day I will move, and I will be geared and rich. Struggle all you want, I have enough real life issues to deal with.

My game must be fun!

Still WoWin' It

Just hit level 63 last night. The ride is slowing down, and I can't see the light at the end of the 70 tunnel, but we must press on. I am making mad cash at the AH, and I even know a little PvP at this point. It is amazing to see how far things have come since UO, yet, I still miss the little things. Ownership of the lewt and placement of said lewt in your own place is the ultimate. I have started to build other characters in other classes, and even figured out how to get some cash to my Hordies.

Still way too addicted to this game though. Hard to even blog, as it is cuttin' into my killin' time. ;)

See ya!

Trip Like I Do…

I am somewhere in the level 43 range now. Finally, have a mount, and can move at just above turtle speed. I joined a PVE (leveling) guild, and these guys are just crazy. They know every single quest for every class, and can usually run you though anything in under one hour. It is insane watching these guys work. They go so fast, that sometimes I hardly have time to dot or sick the pet before it is all over.

They really make me laugh, because they will take me to a place I have never been, tell me to get all the quests, and them BAM we are flying all over the place doing all of the quests. Then, when it is all done, we all go back to town and chill for a couple of days sorting through eight million piles of stuff we acquired during the quests. I really enjoy that more then anything. I never had people so eager to go out and help in EQ. As a matter of fact, I think EQ restricted the levels or experience you could play with or something which ended up making me not able to play with my guild most of the time.

So, when I get done with my stuff I try to help others. I am making some decent cash now since I got over 225 in tailoring. I just wish I could ship bags to my horde characters. BUT NO!!

Warlocks are just the coolest! Anyway, see ya round…

Almost level 38... Still going strong.

I found some nice ways to level faster by myself, and have went up a few levels since my last post. I would have never thought you could make so much money in an auction house, but I guess it is about the same as a vendor in UO.

Warlocks are pretty cool. I have a good system of doing things and hopefully it will work until I decide to stop leveling the mule and work on my main.

I am still a little peeved that I can't send my Horde character stuff from my own Aliance character. I don't want to have to make Fear a traitor!

Thoughts? Is there a workaround to the email issue?

Level 33, I am an eBay whore in WOW!

So, I discovered the Auction House here in WOW, and I am now a farmer... I thought I would try selling some stuff, since the majority of "loot" you get from fighting can be rather low if you are not doing the big quests. I was happily suprised to find out that bags are a hot item in WOW, and I can make some. So, I have been farming for supplies and making some cash faster then ever in WOW.

An eBay in WOW! That was really, a good idea! I still wish they had housing, and the mount sitch is sorta lame, but I suppose at the rate I am going I will be high enough to get a mount soon.


Anyway, back I go!

Note to Lum, Tyrant, Evocare... I HATE YOU ALL!

Not really, I just thought it would be an attention getter...

Well, I will get to why I hate them in a minute. I have some time since all the Goddamn WOW servers are down for "extended" maint... GIMMIE MY CRACK!!! LOL just kidding.

I was reading Lum's interview with TTH, and I have to say that I am glad to see Lum getting up there and saying something negative/positive about specific games and not just generalizations about the genre. It was also nice to see him speak on PvP, which as you know, he was the defender of the PvE back in the day. Maybe not because he wanted to, but hardcore PvP people came here, he got the rest. hehe Please read the article, so you can see the context. I may not have a movie or a book, but I did my small part. *wink*

So, anyway... He just got me thinking about some things. Lum says:

"There are going to be a good group of people out there who are able to compete with the big name games on a much smaller budget. And they’re going to make an insane amount of money."

I agree and those people are out there, but all the really good people want to do their own thing. In every game publishing house there are those that have been around the block in MMO's and those veterans are really good at what they do. The downside is that once you become an MMO veteran, you want to do it "your way". I guess you could call it the "Frank Sinatra Syndrome".

I also believe there are, and will be those games created by veterans and new teams that can make a lot of money. Most of the big vets have their own companies now, and hopefully, they can make something just as good if not better. Everyone has friends. If you have enough friends that like what you are doing, you will see them in your games. Some of us players have friends too, and they know we will work hard to bring them more people. Spending the big money helps, but I don't think that determines "success" or "failure" in every instance.

Lum also said this about the game he is working on "in secret"... (I hate that when they don't tell us what is going on... Don't you? Even Adrick used to pull that crap on me...):

"Yes, it is going to be a fantasy MMO. But it’s going to be a fantasy MMO that is done by a lot of veterans that have a fairly good grasp on making these types of games."

I think if you could find a team of vets that don't have "Frank Sinatra Syndrome", and can put together something cool, then I applaud you. I would still want to get some cutting edge newbies in there for a little flavor. I mean, before EA and Mythic started hiring all of my friends, they were only veterans at "Playing" MMO's, not necessarily making them. Now look where they are. Lum, and Evocare are doing well in their respected areas. I can't even tell you how many people I know out there that used to just be playing the games and visiting sites like BV or LTM that are out there making a difference because of the platforms we created back in the day. I guess all of you vets will just have to "group" and hopefully not fight too much among yourselves.

You take WOW, and you just can't help but see so many things that we bitched and complained about in the past that have come to light! I probably notice it more then others because I was there back in the UO/EQ days, and I left MMO's for awhile. When I came back, it was like a magic wand had been waved over a game casting "less suck, more crack". Don't get me wrong, I already do have some issues with WOW, and I will get to those once the crack pipe gets a little worn, but OMG what a difference four years can make.

I don't think WOW wants to get away with anything. I just don't see that too many folks are pushing the right people. If you remember even in the days of UO, when you talked to the right group of folks, you got results. Hell, Lum could manipulate an emergency game fix or bulletin board wipe, in two seconds when he pushed the right buttons. Even I got those guys to make changes if I played real nice and didn't call them dirty Dread Lord posers. They just need the right push, and one day a new bunch of crazy people like us will come up and give it to them.

The point is, don't give up on your game. If you pay them each month it is your right to let them know how they are doing wrong. It is a "service" industry after all. If you aren't happy, they are gonna do something about it. Even though WOW makes more money then God, they are greedy bastards and will do things to keep each one of our crack lovin' booties playing their game.

I hate Evo and Lum for getting to live the dream. I hate Tyrant for always being so damn RIGHT!

See ya!

The honeymoon is over...

Well, we are looking at level 19. I went ahead and subscribed after my 10 free days were up, and things were still lookin' pretty sweet. Now the tough stuff gets goin. All my quests are red to me, and I have found that those tricksters at Blizzard are going to make me fight two of everything a lot. So, I am working on a new strategy to defeat their evil plans so I can make level 70 by Chrismas. hehe

Hell, I didn't even get to 30 in EQ, but you know how it is... So many people to see, so little time.

Anyway, I gotta figure out how to get some of this stuff I have been looking for. I will be back soon with my next WOW update. ;)

Happily grinding my way to victory!

Now, grinded to about 15.5 or so, we are at the point where I am starting to like others around to help out. It just goes faster… I am now starting to get some decent special items, and I even figured out how to get more bags so I don’t have to go to town as much. It’s just never enough though is it? How much storage should one need? I can’t really afford much, so we are going with the 8 bag slots for now. One of these days I need to rob the bank or something.

So, I was in Stormwind the other day and I saw this bizarre deal where a lady was guiding a bunch of children on a tour of the city. My first thought was “What the hell is this?” What were these guys thinking? I don’t know, but there is a lot of humor and snark built into this game, and I find it to be funny. My little pet Voidwalker frequently announces that he is “Void where prohibited”. My little Imp pet is always trying to break up with me. The Imp is more comical, but I want to know who did the voice for that character.

So, with all of the major headaches taken out, I think WOW was the perfect EQ killer. I can’t get over how much they put into taking some of our pain away and saying… “Hey, we love your money, come spend it here.” I just love it when they ask nicely for me to play the virtual slot machine.

DSL should be available here any time now. I have no clue about cable, but I would at least have a better connection on the wired DSL instead of the air card. For the most part, the aircard does okay, but there are a few times where things have gotten shaky.

Another interesting feature I liked last night. If your pet dies immediately after you make it, then you get your soulshard back. I found that to be quite the bonus.

Anyway, I am off to see the wizard, err the warlock…

Still Wow’d by WOW…

Anyway, I have been happily grinding my way to level 13. I am impressed with how much has changed since EQ. I am mostly self-sufficient at this level, I can heal myself, I have a pet, which makes me very happy. I always loved Dark Elves, but Warlocks seem to fit the bill just fine. It doesn’t take as long to learn in this game, which as a casual player makes me even more excited. Now, most everything I could want to know is tracked somewhere on the net.

There were some other things I liked. At least up to this point, I haven’t had to bother with where to put “points” and stuff. That always bothered me in EQ. I am more likely to just want to play the game and get my cookie, then worry about where to add points. In many ways they really dumbed things down. Although, I may not have liked that in the past, I find that it keeps me more interested in doing the busy work and not so much about screwing up my character.

Of course the second character is always better then the first. I had to go figure out what to do with the first one, then quickly built up another on of my own in half the time. I have been running a couple of characters because they seem to do maintenance on the servers in the early morning when I like to play. The system is so easy to do. If you stay close and do the quests, you will advance quickly. They will move you on when you are ready.

Maybe it’s just me, but I can help but want to find out what happens next. Four years of downtime did me some good.

On another note…

I was reading the Massively's ION notes over at Lum’s house. I was amazed that people are still arguing about players causing grief in games. Enough grief to make some folks leave the game. I don’t know that there will ever be sufficient tools to keep people in line in the game. But, when you have a game with over 10 Million subscribers, they still must be doing something right.

Some equally funny stuff...

This is older, but if you haven't read Amber in awhile, she is making a comeback!

She is talking about games targeted towards "Boomer Women" My favorite quote here is "“Wedding dash?” Sweet Jesus on a Maxi Pad, I think my ovaries just asploded." Oh, my sides are hurting! I think they are talking more about busty babes, but who knows...

Quick notes on WOW...

Keeping in mind I haven't played an MMOG since Asheron's Call first came out, here is my scoop on WOW.

WOW! I like it. I could immediately tell who had been working on this game just by the mechanics and the way things were laid out. I felt as if I was playing UO and Everquest in one neat little package. The thing that most reminded me of UO is the terrain. I like how most cities are very close to each other, and things are divided into smaller areas for quests and such. The terrain reminds me so much of UO, especially because of the guard towers. I remember being quite afraid of those back in 1999 since my character was usually a red one.

I haven't done any PvP, but I did grind to level 9 in one evening. I hate that part, but I was pleased by how things were meant to trick you into getting your ass kicked. I also like the way you rez right by your corpse, and the zones don't take long to load like EQ. I also liked that I could play on my air card with only an Edge connection and still had minimal latency.

The nice thing about starting a game after it has been out a long time, is that you don't have to deal with as many assholes. The downside is that there aren't as many assholes around to help you out with cash and equipment.

The quest engine seemed to work great, and I love the experience for exploring new areas. I also liked that for the most part, if you stick to the road, you don't get killed a whole bunch. I had to go quite a ways away from my home town before I was plastered into dust by a couple of agro mobs on the road. I also like the flight paths so you don't need a mage, and the tram that travels underground to the dwarven city was too cool. Graphics were good, sound was good, and the options are excellent. It really seems like they put some real work into this game, and it is obviously showing up in the number of accounts.

I like the way most of the adventure is layed out just off the path of the roads, and the fact that you can solo if you stay on the outskirts of each encounter. It is still hard to solo, but so far, it hasn't been impossible. I don't know about the harder levels yet... I laughed when I saw someone offering 10 siver to people to strip and dance. I couldn't believe someone thought up the Michael Jackson moves and even the Macarena. I haven't seen it all yet, but those cracked me up.

I had to read the credits to see who I knew from EQ and UO, and sure enough, I saw someone very fimilar. Old Tom "Evocare" Chilton is one of the Lead Designers. Congrats to you my friend. I can see your input in there, along with the other folks you have working with you. The list of folks doing the game is huge!

I noticed there are a lot of PvP servers. I wonder if that is just because the game is older, or if the stigma of people losing stuff and fighting is not so harsh as before.

Anyway, I just wanted to throw out my 2 cents on the game. I personally want to play World of StarCraft, but that is another story...

Yep, still alive and kicking!

Just stopped in to give you something to read on another site...

GTA MMO? Wouldn't that be interesting?

I'll Be Back...

Why do I get this feeling Sarah Connor was right? Is this the beginning of Skynet?

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger...

I like Daft Punk... Well, I liked them more before this came out.



Fun to watch though.

Boobs are back, I am staying in the U.S.

That almost sucked, err not sucked for a second...

Amber is the color of your energy...

I think my future girlfriend has lost it... Hope she gets better soon.

My current favorite video...

JB makes me laugh...

Screw it! I am moving to England!

No nipples in Conan for the US... That's bullcrap!

Lum has done it again... made me post something. Bastard!

Happy New Year!

So, I found some sites, thanks to Lummy. I put them on the right hand side of the page so I don't forget about them.

Someone asked me why I still read those game sites when I don't play any of them anymore. I answered that for some unknown reason, they still interest me. Maybe someday there will be something that really catches my attention.

I did check out the Tabula Rasa site the other day and that seemed somewhat interesting to me. I particularly like their logo which looks similar to the Battleblade of BV. I want to check out more of that in the near future, but without Cable, I most likely will stay in my cubby hole out here in the country for awhile.

New Years Eve went well! People were dancing and singing, and for once I got to say "I told you so" to those folks that said we can't have a party in the country on New Years.

This year I predict there will be some new game releases, and there may be a closure or two. I will let you know how I do on these predictions at the end of the year.

Tell everyone Fear says HEY! Talk at ya later...