Citizen Azeroth

Whoops -- my bad! The blog and podcast are now over here...

2010-05-13T09:34:00.002-04:00

One of my blog followers and listeners, Matt, kindly pointed out to me that I have forgotten to post the latest Citizen Azeroth news, which is that I am back in the podcasting world. In April, I started a new podcast with my RL husband Cryler (going by the nom de cast Koko, since he hardly plays Cryler anymore) called, strangely enough, Citizen Azeroth.

The new blog can be found at http://www.citizen-azeroth.com, and the podcast is available on iTunes or through http://citizenazeroth.libsyn.com.

Thanks, Matt. I thought I'd done this already.

Citizen Azeroth: Selfish puggers

2010-03-08T08:38:00.004-05:00

My regular 5-man has a problem of too many healers and no disenchanter, so last week I decided to dust off my old main, my orc rogue. Since I'd been DPSing almost exclusively on my priest anyway, and Maggie, my rogue, can disenchant, it seemed like a good thing to do. Her gear is not bad -- a mix of 25-man Naxx with some Ulduar stuff, mostly 213 purples -- so she was pretty well able to hit the ground running. I just had to spend some time playing the game-within-the-game of redoing gems and enchants. I had too much expertise and hit, not enough crit and armor penetration ... well, anyone who has had to play this game knows how it goes. My Gearscore* came out to be just under 4200 when I took a deep breath and pushed the button to start my first random dungeon.

*Yes, I do have Gearscore Lite installed. Yes, I have listened to Analog Hole Episode 144 and know how deeply flawed this addon is. I mostly use it as a basic benchmark and not as a determination of whether I would group with someone or not. I'm consistently amused at how many people say "I hate Gearscore! Gearscore sucks! Hey, Ren, are you in Dalaran? I want to know my Gearscore..."

Anyway, I'm already much closer to the Perky Pug than my priest will ever be. I have only done a true random on my priest as a healer a couple of times and hated it both times. Randoming as a pure DPS class is fine, though. I've only quit two groups so far -- one because the tank was overpulling and blamed the healer for not keeping up (that tank got on my ignore list), and one because it was the Oculus, a dungeon I positively loathe. At least as a DPS slot, I know they would find a replacement for me almost instantly. As a healer I would have felt obligated to stay.

But my last pug yesterday just about floored me.

We were not doing one of the really difficult dungeons -- Drak'Tharon Keep is not heroic Halls of Reflection. We had been doing fine with a pally tank, druid healer, hunter, DK, and myself. Everything died reasonably quickly, the bosses went down, nobody died. Just before the last trash pull to the last boss, the druid healer published the Recount numbers for DPS results. This didn't surprise me because I've run into this particular thing before and although I hate those kinds of e-peen contests, I think people think it's just informational. In this case, the hunter was very much last with a DPS of only about 1200 -- I did a quick look at his Gearscore and it was very low, around 2400, so it didn't surprise me.

However, what happened next did: someone initiated a vote to /kick the hunter just before the last boss.

I was appalled. If the hunter had been kicked, he wouldn't get credit for completing the dungeon and he'd lose out either on two frost or two triumph badges (not to mention whatever badges and loot dropped off the last boss). With a 2400 Gearscore, he out of all of us needs the badges the most. The last boss of Drak'Tharon simply isn't that tough. There was no reason other than to punish the poor guy for not having gear, by (and this is where it boggles my mind) denying him progress toward better gear.

Of course, I voted no. Thankfully, at least one other person in that group agreed with me and also voted no. The group went on in silence, finished the dungeon, and broke up without a word.

I don't know for certain who initiated that vote; at the time I was so flabbergasted I didn't ask. I suspect it was the druid, since she initiated the Recount and did say "boo" after the vote failed. I put her on /ignore; I don't ever want to group with someone so selfish and vindictive.

It consistently amazes me how awful people will be to one another in a situation of perceived anonymity. To me, it says much more about your character what you do when people don't know for certain who you are and you don't look them in the eye. I am constantly reminded of the Penny Arcade cartoon about John Gabriel's Greater Internet F***wad Theory.

I'm sure I'll have more stories from Pugland. Maybe I shouldn't be appalled or even surprised. But I am. I still am.

Love Is In the Air: A Look Back

2010-02-11T10:43:00.001-05:00

Well, it's only a few days into the event and I'm almost done. Part of it is that my priest already did most of it last year. But I am also doing some of it on my level 66 druid; I know I won't finish it this year on her, but I'll get a head start on next year.

So a lot changed from last year, and most of it is to the good. Last year, there were two major pains in the butt -- having to play the RNG game to such a huge extent, and having to find someone who would be willing to unbreak your heart with one of those stupid friendship bracelets. I'm not sure who thought of that last one, but man, it was almost impossible to get your heart unbroken unless you had one to trade in return.

Now, by making Lovely Charm Bracelets, it's just a matter of collecting and turning in. There are five daily quests you can do to get a total of 30 Love Tokens a day, but in order to do that, you need to make 4 Lovely Charm Bracelets a day. To get those, you need 10 Lovely Charms each, which you get by killing mobs that give you experience, or would if you weren't already level 80.

In fairly typical fashion, Blizzard let the pendulum go one way, and then when it was clear that nearly anything would allow the charms to pour in like snow in the Midwest these days, they put it to a screeching halt. Charms are no longer particularly easy to get; getting 40 charms a day now takes awhile. This is fine on my druid, but on my priest it's a major pain in the butt. She does what dailies she can that normally yield a lot of kills, but even so, she has to go farm some purposely. After you've restocked your bank with all the rhino meat and chilled meat you'd need for a lifetime (given I already have more cooking awards than I know what to do with), and nothing else that needs farming, it just gets a bit old. Thankfully she only needs 15 more Love Tokens to get her perma-Peddle and she's done.

Even so, even with the relative charm drought, it's far better than last year. Last year, I literally set a timer in my office so I could log on, every hour on the hour, to kiss a guard and get my gift, and hope to the RNG that it would give me something I actually needed. Thankfully, I got what I needed. I knew a lot of people who gnashed their teeth over the candy bag in particular.

The apothecary fight in SFK is actually a bit challenging at 80, unlike the holiday boss fights originally calibrated for level 60 or level 70 toons. We did them on Monday and actually wiped once. I got a fairly nice necklace upgrade (for me; some of my gear is still weak) and the Heartbreaker, which makes people break down and cry. I want to try it out in PVP to see if it interrupts Allies. I have to annoy PvPers by running into Arathi Basin and pitying my Fool anyway.

I definitely had the feeling of slight disappointment that it all seemed too easy. However, it's a welcome change after last year's frustrations.

Some phish with your spam today?

2010-01-22T14:05:00.006-05:00

For some reason, I have been experiencing a major upswing in phishing emails regarding World of Warcraft. Not only that, but over the past few days I've also received some regarding my "compromised Aion account" (I don't play and never have played Aion). These are pretty much all landing in the Blizzard folder on my email account, since they are all spoofed to look like they're official emails from Blizzard.

So, instead of deleting them all, or forwarding them all to hacks@blizzard.com, I do what I often do when faced with new data: I studied them.

Looking at the emails, I learned patterns and keys to identifying scam/phish emails. Some of them are quick and easy, some are blatantly obvious, and some are far more subtle. The worst one I have seen nearly exactly mimicks the real email Blizzard sends when you change your contact information or password, but it too has some dead giveaways.

One question I have heard asked in regard to getting these spam mails: "How did they get the email I use with my registered account?"

The short answer is: they didn't. They don't know you have a WoW account. They sent this out to general marketing mailing lists and they're hoping that they hit some people who do have one. That's why these emails are called "phishing" -- they're casting their lines and seeing who bites the bait.

Ever gotten a spam email from a bank you have never done business with? That's phishing. Same thing.

The important thing is this: the purpose of spam/phishing emails is to get you to give them data they don't have so they can steal your account.

So, without further ado, here are ways you can tell if a mail is legitimate or not.

1. Fake emails ask you for your account name and/or account password, OR they ask you to "verify your account information" on an online form. They do this because THEY DON'T HAVE IT. Blizzard has this information already and does not need you to "verify" it.

They attempt to get you to do this by frightening you into immediate action. There are two common scare tactics:

Scare Tactic #1: Your account has been reviewed and you are under suspicion for being hacked, or buying gold, or using powerleveling, or attempting to buy/sell your account. Only by verifying your account information can you clear your name and save your account.

Truth: If Blizzard suspects you of doing any of these things, they don't warn you. The first you will know of the "suspicion" is that you will receive a letter that starts out with "We are writing to inform you that we have, unfortunately, had to cancel your World of Warcraft account" and goes downhill from there. They don't warn. They just do it.

Scare Tactic #2: They send you a faked email that your contact information or password has been changed. The letter looks nearly identical to the real one Blizzard will send under those circumstances.

Truth: You can easily determine if this is true by going to Blizzard's account page yourself, logging in, and seeing if anything has been changed. If you can't log in, you have a problem and need to call Blizzard account services. A real Blizzard notice for a password change will not tell you to log into anything; it will tell you to phone Blizzard account services.

Fake emails will give you a link to a page where you can log in to try to see your account -- this is a simple capture program that will let you give the would-be hackers your login information. And if you look at the letter logically, it's incredibly stupid. First, it tells you that if you made the change yourself to disregard the notice. Second, it tells you that if you did not change it, follow this link to Account Services to review your settings. Well, if someone changed your password without your knowledge, you couldn't very well log into Account Services, could you?

In summary: Blizzard's emails about account changes will direct you to call them if you have questions or concerns. Fake emails will give you "handy" links to check your information online.

In fact, Blizzard never asks for verification of any information through any kind of linked web-based form. Never.

2. Fake emails never greet you by name.

Nearly all Blizzard emails start out with "Hello Jane," (substitute your own name of Jane; they will use the first name associated with this account). This is true for nearly all correspondence that actually comes from Blizzard, because unlike the spammers, they have your actual data.

Fakes will open with "Greetings!", or "Hello", or even "Dear Valued Blizzard Customer".

There is only one exception to this that I am aware of where a Blizzard email does not start off with a greeting. When you email something to Blizzard, they will send you a short automated response acknowledging receipt of the letter. But this is an easy cause/effect relationship; you send an email, you get a response acknowledging receipt, nothing more. In these, there is no greeting at all.

3. Fake emails do not go back to the same address they came from.

Most fake emails will seem to come from a legitimate Blizzard address, such as donotreply@blizzard.com. However, if you do reply, they don't go back that way.

Real Blizzard emails generally come from noreply@blizzard.com. If you hit Reply anyway, it will put "noreply@blizzard.com" in the To: field.

Fake emails will go to a different address -- and not a blizzard.com one. Just hit Reply and see where it goes. Don't hit Send, though, because all you will be doing then is verifying to the recipient that this is a legitimate email address.

On that note:

4. Fake emails often include links that don't go where they say they go.

To repeat: Blizzard will never link to any form that asks you to verify your information. But some try anyway, and many include spoofed web addresses that look like they go one place but actually go somewhere else.

The most subtle of them will make an address that may appear legitimate, such as wowadmin-blizzard.com, but that is an entirely different domain. Dashes are like any other character in a domain name. What they are hoping you will think when you see it is that it's actually a subdomain, like us.blizzard.com, which is a legitimate name. The periods are signs of subdomains. The dashes are just other characters.

Some of them will also do subtle misspellings, like worldofwarcrarft.com or wor1dofwarcraft.com (play spot the inconsistencies!). One fun thing I do (OK, I think it's fun) is to copy these and look them up in the Whois database. One of the ones I found recently is owned by a couple of Chinese men in Toronto.

They may appear legitimate in the email, but it's very easy to have a link show as one thing and look another; it's a basic function of HTML email. See, I can make a link that looks like http://www.blizzard.com, but if you hover your cursor over it, it shows a completely different address. It's a quick way to check links.

5. Some fakes are obviously written by non-native speakers.

Most of them aren't that stupid and very closely mimic the appearance of a real Blizzard email. Some even use it as a standard boilerplate and just change a few things here and there. However, occasionally you get a doozy, like this one I received the other day:

"Today, we are do all activities of the World of Warcraft accounts a routine check. We have evidence to show that your account transactions involved in the disputed. Please visit our web site as soon as possible to clarify [bad link removed] otherwise we will lock your account."

Don't expect all would-be hackers to be this stupid, but it's worth mentioning anyway.

On the subject of stupidity, I got another good one just today that appeared to come from NCSoft. However, both the subject line and the enclosed email were about a supposedly compromised WoW account. For those of you who don't know, NCSoft is the company behind Aion. Looks like the hacker had some cut and paste issues.

So, in summary, fake emails:

ask you for information Blizzard should already have
ask you to verify information online
do not address you by name
have return addresses that don't match when you hit Reply
have spoofed web links that don't go to the place they say they go

So what can you do to increase account security?

Buy an authenticator or use the mobile authentication application for certain phone models. This is your absolute best and strongest defense against hacking. There have been a very, very few cases of people getting hacked despite the authenticator -- back in mid-2008 there were some reports of authenticators being removed from people's accounts without their knowledge, but hopefully whatever loophole existed then has been closed. While I have seen many of my friends' accounts hacked, not a single one of them had an authenticator on their account at the time. They have all gotten it since. Get it. Get it now.

Read - don't react. If you get an alarming email about your account being threatened with closure, read it. Remember, Blizzard closes without warning. Analyze the letter and pick out the common weak points of spam.

If you're concerned about your account, pick up the phone. Blizzard never asks for verification over the web. If you have a concern or question about your Blizzard account, call Blizzard.

Use a strong password. There was something on the news recently about large numbers of people who still use passwords like "password", "12345" or "abc123". Sure, it should be something you'll remember, but it shouldn't be something anyone can guess easily. A phrase or quote can easily be turned into a strong password; something like "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" could be turned into "p33weEzpl4yHwz". Microsoft has a good password strength checker and suggestions for how to create strong passwords.

Consider opening an email account only for your game account, particularly if you don't have an authenticator. Most email lists come from the web. If you use your email anywhere else -- forums, websites, contacts for anything -- someone will harvest it. If you make that email account name something similar to a strong password, like p33weEz@yahoo.com, it's also very unlikely anyone will guess it. Since Blizzard made the decision to make your Battle.net ID the same as your email account (a decision I disagree with -- your very discoverable email address is half your security if you don't have an authenticator), you can further fox would-be hackers by making your email address difficult as well.

Help Blizzard by forwarding any suspicious emails to hacks@blizzard.com. You'll get an immediate automated message with no greeting.

Don't worry.

This one's for real.

Citizen Azeroth: Carpal tunnel sucks

2010-01-13T11:50:00.002-05:00

It looks like I may have carpal tunnel syndrome. The curiosity isn't that I might have carpal tunnel, but that I got to be 42 years old without ever having a repetitive motion injury before.

I never realized how much of my daily activity involves my right hand until it started hurting around the beginning of last December. I'm actually ambidextrous, but through habit and laziness I tend to use my right hand more. It makes sense, since this is a world set up for righties, not lefties -- scissors, knitting techniques, computer mice, etc., are all set up for right handed folks.

At first I ascribed my hand problem to knitting too much to get ready for Christmas. I'd actually planned less Christmas knitting this year, but I'd also put it off longer, so I was trying to finish it. I started getting pain between my first and second fingers, and decided I'd lay off the knitting and make my apologies to the family I was knitting for (nobody grumbled a bit, just told me to get better and not worry about their socks or knucks being late).

But the pain didn't go away. It stayed all backgroundy and annoying. I had a general physical set up for late January, so I tried to put it off, until I was playing WoW and started getting pains that felt like electrical shocks shooting up my thumb.

I am not the most efficient WoW player in terms of my use of interface. I'm a mouser, not a keyboard user as much. I have very, very few macros -- I have one for assisting when I'm playing DPS, one for targeting that I change depending on what I am doing (my shaman was using /target Theramore Infiltrator in Dustwallow Marsh the other day), and one for deleting all my greys for when I am trashing low-level dungeons. That's about it.

I don't even use the number keys much for my hotbars. Except in instances, I mouse-click the buttons. When I am healing in instances, I do a combination of selecting abilities on the keyboard with my lefthand and mouse-clicking Grid and Decursive with my right (yes, I know Grid and Decursive can be partly redundant depending on how you set them up, but I like using both). I will need to look into solutions which make me use my keyboard more and my mouse less. Suggestions are more than welcome.

I have a good mouse that fits my hand well -- it's a Logitech MX Revolution rechargeable cordless optical mouse (how's that for a string of adjectives?). I am very picky about mice and trackballs because I also have basal thumb arthritis in both hands, so anything with thumb controls is out the window. But I guess I am going to have to switch to an ergonomic keyboard for my gaming machine. I have always liked ergonomic keyboards, but had stopped using one in favor of my Microsoft Razr keyboard with backlighted keys, which I really like (I will really miss the backlit keys. I like my office dim).

And then there's work. I am self employed as a web designer and work on a laptop. Laptops are not built with ergonomic keyboards. It's at a good height and I have a great office chair (yes, I sprung for an Aeron about four years ago and love love love it).

But other than work and gaming, my other major pursuits are genealogy (also computer intensive), knitting, and violin. I pretty much haven't knit since early December, except for one pair of heavy wool mittens that I knit in one day and regretted having knit for the next two. My hands were cold, I didn't have good mittens, so I knit a pair rather than buying them because I had gorgeous wool yarn in my stash. Now I wish I'd bought them.

If this was my left hand, I'd have to give up the violin for awhile because I wouldn't be able to reach the strings with the rigid brace. But since it's my right, I CAN play, but my bowing will suck royally. I already have the problem of "playing from the shoulder" -- that is, using the shoulder to move the bow rather than the elbow and wrist, which is how to bow properly and get it so it moves perpendicular to the strings. Without wrist bend, I'll be sawing -- the bow will run in one angle up and another angle down and sound terrible (not to mention reinforcing bad habits I already have). But I can't just hang up the fiddle because I'm the primary musician for a Morris dance group and we're practicing for the New England Folk Festival in late April.

So, next step is nerve induction tests and a treatment plan, and seeing what I can do about balancing what I need to do with what I can physically do at this point. Anyone who has any suggestions on how to help with the gaming aspect can leave them here or tweet me; I'm all ears. I want to get rid of this problem, not prolong it, but I also don't want to give up everything in the meantime.

Citizen Azeroth: Secrets of Winter Veil

2009-12-16T07:55:00.010-05:00

It's time for the Winter Veil achievements connected to the "What A Long Strange Trip It's Been". Here are my tips to a stress-free holiday.

The Winter Veil Gourmet: Cook the following products - Egg Nog, Gingerbread Cookie, and Hot Apple Cider.

This requires a cooking skill of 325 to complete. You will need the following items for all three:

From the holiday vendors:
- holiday spirits (2)
- holiday spices (1 group of 5)
- sparkling apple cider (1)

From regular vendor (innkeeper or bartender):
- ice cold milk (1 group of 5)

Farmed:
- small egg (2)

On small eggs: There are plenty of places to farm these easily -- any low level bird-type creatures will drop them. Favorite spots you can hunt includes: carrion birds in Mulgore or Westfall, dragonhawks in Eversong Woods, or moonkin near Auberdine. You can buy them in the auction house, but at least for the first day or two you'll pay through the nose for small eggs. Last night, the first night of Winter Veil, they were selling for 5g each (this morning, the second day, they were down to 3g apiece).

You can combine this with the quest "Treats for Great-father Winter", which is for 5 Gingerbread Cookies and 1 Ice Cold Milk. If you do this, you will need a total of 6 small eggs. You can buy the remaining cookies on the auction house, but again, expect to pay a premium. Curiously enough, the cookies generally sell for a great deal less than the eggs.

This is a quest where it can pay to wait a few days before you do it, especially if you plan to buy your items on auction. The prices will drop like a stone; by the third or fourth day, people can't give cookies and eggs away.

On Metzen: Rescue Metzen the Reindeer

This quest is to rescue Metzen the Reindeer. You are given the "tools" you need to do this. You can find him in two locations: in Searing Gorge near the tunnel to the Badlands (68,34), or in Tanaris in Lost Rigger Cove with the pirates (73, 48). You need to be at least level 40 to do this.

This one is actually good to do a bit early if you're low level, because people will be clearing to him all day and you won't have to kill the pirates yourself. If you're higher level, nothing here is going to pose any problems. Get to Metzen and use the items in your bag to free him. Return for your reward. Save the fruitcake!

This quest does give experience and WILL count toward 3000 quests completed. It also gives you goblin city reputations without reducing Bloodsail reputation. Curiously enough, the follow up quest that allows you to use Deeprock Salt and money to turn temporary holly into permanent holly also counts toward the 3000 quests, though only the first time.

'Tis the Season: Eat fruitcake while wearing 3 pieces of winter clothing.

You get the fruitcake reward from one of two places: by completing the "Treats for Great-father" quest, or from the Metzen quest line. They come in gift packs mailed to you afterward. Do not throw out the fruitcake or eat it all before you do this.

The good news is that the winter clothing and boots are not soulbound and may easily be shared among several characters. The Red Winter Clothes come from an Alliance available pattern, sold by holiday vendors, and the Green Winter Clothes are available from a Horde pattern, also sold by holiday vendors. These require 250 tailoring. The Winter Boots are made with 285 leatherworking from a holiday vendor pattern. All three of these patterns are BoP (bind on pickup), but the clothes themselves are not.

The bad news is that the third piece is the hat, and you will need to be at least level 70 to acquire it. In previous years, the hat was available on lower level bosses, but this year they are only available in one of three locations: the Nexus, Ahn'kahet, and the Oculus. By far, the easiest is the Nexus, off Grand Magus Telestra. If you take the lefthand path when you zone in, you can go more or less directly to her, after clearing some trash. This can probably be soloed by a well geared 80; we had a group of 5 80s last night and it was laughably easy. With the other two areas, you will need to clear to the third boss. Telestra always drops the Red Winter Hat, but she only drops one, so you will need to reset this instance to get hats for everyone in your group. Be careful NOT to reset too often; you can only do five instances in an hour.

If you're set on a Green Winter Hat, Mage-Lord Urom in the Oculus is your only option.

Scrooge: Throw a snowball at King Magni Bronzebeard/Cairne Bloodhoof during the Veil.

This one is easy and self-explanatory. You can buy snowballs from holiday vendors, scoop them up in Alterac Valley, or get them occasionally as rewards from the "blue lady" daily in K3.

However, my tip here is that you should combine this with the quest line "The Reason for the Season". This starts in Ogrimmar, near the bank, or with a dwarf near the bank in Ironforge. Both of these quest lines with the snowball targets of "Scrooge".

Let It Snow: Use a Handful of Snowflakes on the race/class combinations below.

This is another where you have to find a bunch of unusual class/race combos and throw snowflakes on them. You get snowflakes from /kissing winter revelers in old world cities, or in the Scryer/Aldor inns in Shattrath and Dalaran.

The snowflakes are not soulbound, but they are limited in duration and thus can't be mailed or placed in guild banks.

You can throw snowflakes onto a person who already has snowflakes on them. It's not like the turkey-turning quest where you don't get credit if you try to use it on someone who is already a turkey. You will get credit for "flaking" someone who already has flakes on them. This can be an easy way to spot the right targets, but always check before throwing.

Fa-la-la-la Ogri'la: Complete the quest Bomb them Again! while mounted on a flying reindeer during Winter Veil.

There are several parts to this quest.

First, if you didn't open these quests up on another toon, you will have to do a few quests to open this daily up. The good news is that you don't have to do the entire, twelve-step quest leading up to that, so no worry about the whole King/Queen of the Ogres line. As of patch 3.1, there is a new quest called The Crystals that leads into just a very few Ogri'la quests. This skips all the group quests. You'll still have to do some quests, such as the Relic's Emanation (get the Ogri'Lazy mod from Curse to help with this) and a couple others, but this quest line has been significantly shortened because of the changes.

Second, you need to get some holly to turn your flying mount into a reindeer. You can get Fresh Holly by the bucketload by /kissing a winter reveler in an old-world inn or Shattrath. You can use this to turn either a land mount or a flying mount into a reindeer. In this case, you will need to use it on a flying mount.

Druids have an apparent problem with this quest because it requires a flying mount; flying form will not do. If you are a druid, you will need to purchase at least a regular flying mount ( you have the skill to ride it as part of getting your regular flight form). So this will set you back about 50g, less for reputation.

HOWEVER, you don't need an epic mount, because you only need to be ON the flying reindeer for the turn-in. You don't need to do the actual quest. You can do the entire quest without being on a flying reindeer, BUT you must be on one when you turn in the quest, or you won't get credit. I did the entire bombing run on my unaltered Swift Green Windrider, landed, turned my mount into a reindeer, did the turn in and got credit. In my case, I did this because the flightHUD mod I use doesn't seem to work in reindeer form.

With a Little Helper From My Friends: Get 50 honorable kills while in little helper form from a Wondervolt machine.

There is a Wondervolt machine right in the middle of Dalaran, as well as outside every major Horde or Alliance city. If you're 80, the easy way to do this is in either Wintergrasp or Alterac Valley. My priest got this extremely easily healing in Wintergrasp. It's pretty simple: queue up, turn into a gnome, don't die. If you die, you will lose the costume and there is nowhere to get it inside the BG so you may have to do more than one.

Simply Abominable: Complete the quest to retrieve Smokeywood Pastures' stolen treats and receive a Smokeywood Pastures' Thank You box.

This simply means completing the "You're A Mean One..." quest line, which involves killing the Greench in the Alterac Mountains, near the yeti caves in the south. This can be done in a group, and it's best to wait at least a few days to get this. By the time four or five days have passed, the poor Greench will be wandering about, all by his lonesome with no one to play with.

This year, they've significantly sped up the Greench's respawn time.

Bros. Before Ho-Ho-Hos: Use Mistletoe on four named mobs.

These will differ between the Alliance and the Horde. This does require either level 77 or cold weather flying skill, because one of the brothers is always located on the flying ship in Icecrown. Use Wowhead to find the four brothers if you don't know where they are.

A Frosty Shake: Dance as a snowman with the Winter Veil Disguise Kit in Dalaran.

You will receive the Winter Veil Disguise Kit about 1 day after completing the Smokey Pastures' Treat/Greench quest line. Requires a snowball. Simply go to Dalaran, turn into a snowman, target another snowman, and /dance. You can almost certainly find a friend to help you with this if you can't find one.

He Knows If You've Been Naughty: Open one of the presents under the tree once they become available.

This is the #1 reason why it's so silly to rush this achievement line. Put simply: you can't complete Merrymaker the first day because the presents don't become available until the morning of December 25th. The presents are then available until the end of Winter Veil. These are level restricted and don't become available until level 10.

Crashin' and Thrashin' and BB King are also holiday achievements, but not required for the meta-achievement for "Merrymaker".

Happy holidays to all.

Citizen Azeroth: The story thus far (3.3)

2009-12-12T16:13:00.002-05:00

When I wrote the 3.3 post, I hadn't actually logged onto the servers. Now that a few days have passed and I have given 3.3 a try, mostly I have to give the patch a decent score. It was less broken than many patches (aside from the usual first-day problems), with fewer of my mods breaking. Sure, I had to turn off the Look 'n' Feel part of Cartographer, but not much adaptation ended up being required.

The built-in quest finder and quest helpers attached to the new minimap are fine for those who don't like fully featured mods such as QuestHelper and Carbonite, but ultimately it's no more a replacement for them than their built-in Equipment Manager is a replacement for Outfitter. Sure, it works -- but like the Equipment Manager, it does only about 3/4 of the job, is a little hard to use, has a rather barebones approach to the UI changes, and isn't super intuitive. Personally, I turned off the Blizzard attempts and continue to use QuestHelper. Score: A for effort, B- for execution.

I had problems with some of the default UI changes they made, probably to make life easier for real newbies. Two changes several people, including myself, had to find a fix for was making the loot appear under the mouse by default. Sure, the option has always been there -- but it's always been off by default. Suddenly, it was on by default. It took me a little while to find where to turn off the option under the Interface menu. It also defaulted my camera in such a way that I couldn't look uphill anymore and I had to play with the camera options to get it "right" again. Blizzard, most of your players aren't newbies -- don't go messing with those kinds of defaults when you've had it one way for so many years. Score: D-.

Dungeon Finder is a great addition and seems to work beautifully, although obviously the instance servers were not ready for the new level of demand, as evidenced by the old "Additional instances are not available" errors. I like the fact that the loot is hardcoded in so no one can mess with it, although this does not remove the need for groups to communicate about loot rules. And unfortunately, a pug is a pug is a pug -- making them cross server may cut down on wait times for dungeons, but it doesn't remove the fact that pugging is a crapshoot. Score: A for execution. Minor downgrade for the fact that pugs still have all the same problems they've all had, but that's hardly Blizzard's fault.

The new ICC dungeons are ... well, simply put, they're awesome. I haven't been this excited about new content in a long time. The fights are fun, and bosses are somewhat gadgety without being overwhelmingly so. The loot, even on regular, is excellent. The Quel'delar weapon quest line was great fun. The third dungeon takes gauntlets a little bit far, but the tension caused by watching the Lich King slooooowwwwlly stalking toward you (he must have gone to a zombie's track school) on the last part of the third dungeon is awe inspiring.

But... who put in all that monologuing? I've NEVER seen NPCs talk that much! And Sylvanus' interminable opening speech makes me want to go over and stuff a few Devout Candles in her mouth so she'll quit talking. Score: A+ for dungeons, C- for "for gods' sake STFU!"

The core hound pup is the cutest damn thing I've seen in a long time. I really love how Blizzard is making pets more interesting and more interactive. I believe this started with Murky. Early pets just kind of stand around and do nothing interesting. Maybe Blizzard should revamp some of their older pets to make them more interesting. And if it gets a few more people to buy authenticators, so much the better. Score: A+.

Putting arena points as rewards of the PvP daily seemed like a good idea when I first hear it until I talked to Christy about it on Analog Hole Gaming's annual call-in show. Apparently, the PvP daily dungeons are being flooded with entire high-geared arena teams who are just wiping the walls with people. Someone with actual PvP experience should have seen that coming. Score: F.

Oh, and please fix the problem with the exalted PvP titles so I don't have to listen to Christy whine. ;)

At the urging of several friends, I decided to go through the process of rolling up a new character to see the changes made to the character creation screen. It really is a lot better. The racials and the class roles are explained much better. While this information is not new to experienced players, I'm sure real newbies will appreciate it. And the mana regen for a new toon is truly sick; what I wouldn't give for that some nights on my priest. Score: A+.

And /hugs to whatever developer suggested they make Vampiric Embrace a 30-minute self buff. It's one less thing I have to remember to cast on a mob, and it seems to work with Mind Sear, which has made wiping out cultists in Icecrown just that much easier. I use the mod PriestFriend to remind me to redo my buffs, and there isn't one for Vampiric Embrace yet, so I just recast it whenever I need to recast my Prayer of Shadow Protection, since both are on 30-minute timers. Score: A++++.

There are whole sections of 3.3 I have not touched yet, but these are the things that popped to mind. I thought I should revisit the subject after spending a little time living with it. Again, it's a good patch, better than most, and I just hope it will keep us all entertained until Cataclysm arrives.

Citizen Azeroth: Guide to the Quel'delar quest line

2009-12-11T07:57:00.007-05:00

Last night, my priest finished the quest for the Hammer of Purified Flame, the weapon from the Quel'delar weapon line that starts with the Battered Hilt, a random drop from any one of the three new Icecrown Citadel dungeons. I won the roll on this item in my first try at the heroic dungeons, the morning after the patch, and finished it in a few days. I know many people who did this in one day, but I took a little time to enjoy the ride.

The quest line is long and involves a certain amount of running around. The quest lines are quite similar for both sides, but the quest names vary slightly and the NPCs are slightly different, but they're mostly in the same locations and involve the same steps.

The Battered Hilt: (Soloable: Yes) The first thing you need to do with the item is take it to an NPC at Quel'delar's Rest, south of the Argent Tournament grounds. There is a road going south out of the center of the tournament grounds and here you will find a small camp. Both the Horde and Alliance quest NPCs are here: Caladis Brightspear for Alliance and Myralion Sunblaze for Horde. You'll be coming back here later.

What the Dragons Know: (Soloable: Yes). This is a simple trip to the top level of Wyrmrest Temple to talk to another NPC. You will need to go to Dalaran to talk to another NPC, an arcanist or magister who is in either the Horde or Alliance areas, depending on what side you're on.

The Sunreaver's Plan/The Silver Covenant's Plan: (Soloable: Yes). This involves killing an agent in the sewers. If you're Alliance, it's in the Black Market; if you're Horde, it's in Cantrips & Crows. Kill the agent, who isn't elite, and loot the orders. Just as you exit the sewers, you'll be attacked by another one, but again, it's another easy kill. Return to the arcanist/magister.

A Suitable Disguise: (Soloable: Yes). The arcanist will send you to Shandy Glossgleam, a new mob on the outside second floor balcony above Threads of Fate (right on the same area where one of the books for Higher Learning spawns). There's a task similar to the drink-making quest in Sholazar Basin, but instead of throwing fruit, you'll be fetching laundry and water. Follow the gnome's directions, and you'll get a request to deal with the "clean laundry". Loot the bag that appears and take the tabard. Return to the arcanist/magister.

A Meeting with the Magister/Arcanist: (Soloable: Yes). You'll be put in a 5-minute disguise and sent into the enemy side's area. If you're not familiar with the other side's area in Dalaran, it may take you a moment or two to locate it. For the Horde side, the quest describes the Archivist as being at the "top level" of the Silver Enclave; in fact, this is not quite true. Run into the area with the alliance's city portals, run to the back, and find one of the stairs going up. You'll find the Archivist (yellow-name mob) on a middle floor among several bookshelves. The Magister is easier to find; he's inside the horde's inn near the stairs. Talk to this NPC, get the book, return to your arcanist/magister.

Return to Caladis Brightspear/Myralion Sunblaze: (Soloable: Yes). Return to Quel'delar's Rest and talk to the appropriate NPC.

Reforging the Sword: (Soloable: No). You'll need to return to the Pit of Saron (Icecrown Citadel) to complete this section. This is the second instance in the group, the one where you freed the slaves. This time, you'll need to collect 5 bars of Infused Saronite. These are found in the area with the slaves and they will show up as green piles of bars among the tents. Click to loot them.

After you have the 5 bars of saronite, you will need to kill the first boss, Forgemaster Garfrost. Loot his hammer and then take the hammer, saronite, and sword to one of the forges behind where he spawned. This will create the Reforged Quel'delar. Go outside the instance; Caladis Brightspear for Alliance or Myralion Sunblaze for Horde is now outside in the area near the summoning stone. Turn in this quest for the next step.

Tempering the Blade: (Soloable: No). This time, you'll be going into the Forge of Souls, the first instance in the group. This time, you'll need to kill the Devourer of Souls and go to the crucible (forge) behind where he spawns. Click the Reforced Quel'delar to temper, run outside, and turn it in to Caladis or Myralion.

Note: Apparently, if you've previously cleared the Forge of Souls and it's been less than two hours, you can go back inside and use the crucible with no repop. After two hours, you'll need to clear the trash again.

The Halls of Reflection: (Soloable: Maybe). You don't have to do the first event in the Halls of Reflection; you don't even have to clear anything. When you enter the instance, Uthyr Lightbringer will start yelling at you not to bring the sword any closer. Ignore him and approach Uthyr (don't step on the middle platform or you'll trigger the event). The sword will fly out of your inventory, and after a few moments will start whirring around and turn into a miniboss, much like the disembodied weapons in the military wing in Naxx. Kill this single boss and don't forget to re-loot it afterward.

I have heard of people soloing this mob, particularly pet classes, but it is easier with a group.

And now we're done with everything requiring or possibly requiring a group. It's all easy street from here.

Journey to the Sunwell: (Soloable: Yes). Head to Quel'danas Isle (the place with all those level 70 dailies we all learned to hate) and go to the entrance of the Sunwell Plateau. There is a mob outside, Halduron Brightwing. Turn in the quest to him.

Thalorian Dawnseeker: (Soloable: Yes). Halduron tells you to get the blessing of Thalorian Dawnseeker, who is located in the Dead Scar in the southern part of Isle. Just mount up and run to the southern tip of the island, then run up the Dead Scar until you see his corpse (turn in nameplates to make this easier). Don't worry; the mobs you previously had to bomb are nowhere in sight.

After you talk to Thalorian, who comes back as a ghostly figure, a level 80 elite mob shows up. Don't worry. He will summon three waves of non-elite undead, small groups that a level 80 player who got a heroic drop in ICC should be able to handle with ease.

Here's where it got a bit confusing for me, so I'll clarify it. After the third wave, nothing appears to happen. The 80 elite yells something like "I'll have to deal with you myself!" but just stands there. Hit him with anything -- doesn't matter; he goes down like a gnat on the first blow. Thalorian expresses astonishment that you bear Quel'delar, then gives you his blessing. Go back to Halduron Brightwing.

The Purification of Quel'delar: (Soloable: Yes). FOLLOW THE QUEST INSTRUCTIONS HERE. Do NOT go straight into the Sunwell. Halduron Brightwing instructs you to go into the Sunwell, BUT he tells you to get in there by talking to one of the Wardens. Do this and you will enter a non-raided, friendly mini-instance where all the NPCs are green-con. Walk down the ramp and enter the large room, walk up to the Sunwell in the middle and click the sword in your inventory. which will now appear to hover in midair. This will start a long dialogue, finally ending when the quest completes and you are able to loot the floating sword. Make sure you DO loot it before you leave.

You are directed to go to the end of the room and take the portal to Dalaran, where you are told an NPC in Dalaran will be waiting to greet you.

This isn't quite true. And this was quite confusing for me, because as a priest, this gave me entirely the wrong directions.

First, if you are a sword wielding quest, the mob isn't precisely WAITING for you. I expected the mob to be there when I ported in but he was not. The mob is in the Violet Citadel. Talk to this person, turn in the quest, and then choose your sword flavor.

HOWEVER, if you are a class such as priest or druid who can't wield a sword, you're left completely hanging wondering what the hell to do. This is because you have to do something completely different. YOU have to fly up to Argent Tournament and go back to Quel'delar's Rest south of the Tournament, to the first camp you went to, and turn in the quest to Caladis or Myralion. THEN you will be sent to Justicar Mariel Trueheart in Argent Tournament, in the main tent on the western edge of the tournament. Then you can pick your mace reward.

Update 12/16: This has apparently been fixed in the patch, so mace wielders are directed to the right place.

Anyway, it was fun. Hopefully this little guide will help others treading the same path.

Citizen Azeroth: My take on 3.3

2009-12-08T08:24:00.002-05:00

HUGE patch is going in today. When I printed it out to study the patch notes (which I admit I hadn't really glanced at until today), it took 21 pages to print them all. So, I'm not going to comment on everything, but I am going to cover some of my thoughts on some of the patch notes. Like all patches, it's filled with "it's about time", "that sounds like it might be cool", and "wtf were they thinking" moments.

General

Of course, the new Icecrown Citadel instance goes live today. Since I haven't even gotten through all the current content with my priest yet, I'm probably less ecstatic about it than those who have been champing at the bit for new content.

Several of the new General patch notes are directed at the super-newbie experience: clarifying race descriptions and making level 1-5 characters immune to daze (which will make the now-totally-unnecessary run across Wetlands from Darnassus to Ironforge a lot easier -- that change came a little too late, since you can now just take a boat from Auberdine to Stormwind). However, what's with the change of not putting food and water in the inventories of new characters? Are they at least going to give them a little more starting cash, or increase the money you get from the beginning quests so they can buy their own more easily?

I like that Meeting Stones no longer have a max level requirement. That will make summoning people to do holiday quests in low level areas much easier. For example, the Headless Horseman would have been a lot easier if us 80s could just use the summoning stone to get party members in place more quickly.

Classes: General

AOE damage caps now restrict maximum damage to a max damage value "equal to the damage the spell would do if it hit 10 targets". There aren't that many situations in which you're AOEing more than 10 targets, even the rafts of spiders in Naxx, even in PvP, so I'm not particularly worried here. And my rogue loves her Fan of Knives.

Again, there are several here that are directed to the SuperNewbie toon. Level 1 casters are no longer going to have Attack on their bars by default -- which at first seems very puzzling since my casters always had to use hand to hand weapons early on, at least until they're level 10 or so. However, they are also increasing mana regen rates up to 200% and reduced the mana cost of spells for lowbie characters. Perhaps this is better preparation for casters' reality, and you won't see so many level 30 mages still trying to hit things with sticks. (Yes, my casters still try to hit things with sticks, but this is to level up weapon skills for achievements. I know it's silly).

They're also starting characters with more uniform and more effective starting weapons, and rogues are starting out with dual wield. This is slightly disappointing; I sort of liked having to work up to that at level 10, the way hunters looked forward to pets.

Races: General

Orcs and trolls will have their own unique totem art. About time. Almost makes me want to roll up a shaman again.

Will of the Forsaken now shares a cooldown with similar items, such as Insignia of the Horde. I guess my undead warrior can thrown her Insignia away now.

PvP

Arenas now forbid the use of any spells with a cooldown of 10 minutes or more. Since they also have reduced the cooldowns of several spells (Divine Hymn, Preparation, and Tranquility have all been reduced from 10 to 8 minutes, for example), it doesn't affect as many as it did. However, there are several spells that have 10-minute cooldowns, including Raise Ally, Divine Intervention, Fire/Earth Elemental, Army of the Dead, and Inferno. However, be aware that even though talents may take some of these abilities below the 10-minute cooldown, most of these still can't be used in arenas.

Battleground experience has been changed to apply to the character getting experience, not to the level of the highest level person in the battleground. Also, the level 71-80 bracket's PvP daily now awards 25 arena points; I can see where this might make doing the daily a bit more popular.

Dungeons and Raids

In Naxx, you'll no longer have to kill all four bosses to get to Sapphiron. This will be nice for those who just want to get the dragon down for achievements. Not sure what this means about access to Big KT.

A note that was slipped into the section about the new Dungeon Finder system: daily heroic and regular dungeon daily quests have been removed from the game. This has been replaced with weekly raid quests. Look under the section for the Dungeon Finder for new ways to get emblems.

Death Knights

Army of the Dead's cooldown is being reduced from 20 to 10 minutes, but even with the talent to reduce the cooldown to 6/8 minutes, you still can't use it in arenas. This is good; Cryler often bitches about the long cooldown of AotD. However, the ghouls will only do half the damage they used to, so maybe the bitching continues.

Druids

Prowl is no longer controlled by multiple ranks and movement speed is penalized at a flat 30%.

Rebirth's cooldown has been reduced from 20 to 10 minutes; still no arena use. However, Tranquility had its cooldown reduced from 10 minutes to 8, and it is useable in arenas.

Hunters

You can now call a stabled pet once every 5 minutes instead of once every 30 minutes. Nope, can't use that in arenas either. Pick right the first time.

Under the "about frikkin' time" category -- several hunter bits fall into this.

Multiple hunters can now misdirect to the same target.
COWER IS BEING FIXED. This has been one of the major headaches of hunters everywhere, especially since cower was perpetually bugged and couldn't be turned off. Instead of shedding threat, cower now reduces the amount of damage a pet takes by 40% and reduces movement speed by 50%. Now, even if they haven't fixed the fact that it's very, very hard to turn Cower off, it won't bug me anymore because it's actually useful. The Improved Cower talent, the least-used pet talent in the game, can erase the movement speed penalty completely at the second rank.
Pets only need 5% of the experience a player needs to level, down from 10%. There was just no reason to make pets lag so far behind their people for so long.

Mages

My mage is an auction mule, so I don't really have many comments on mage changes.

Paladins

And I deleted my paladin.

Priests

Divine Hymn's cooldown has been reduced from 10 to 8 minutes, making it useable in arenas.

I also like that Power Word: Shield can be used on friendly people who aren't in your party. Since it's an instant cast, it's a quick way to help save someone you see who's in massive trouble. A PW:S can also give you a few seconds to cast a halfway decent heal. This will be particularly nice when I'm running around in shadow form and my heals aren't so great.

Mind Flay's range has been increased by 10 yards, which is very nice. However, in some ways, it won't change the way I do business, since I tend to dot up the mob and then apply the Mind Flay. I used to do this because my dots had longer range, but now I'll probably just keep doing it out of habit.

But what I'm most excited about: Vampiric Embrace is being changed into a 30-minute undispellable buff you put on players, not on the mobs. Any shadow damage from single-target shadow damage spells will generate healing (sorry, doesn't appear like you can heal your raid with a single Mind Sear). But it does mean you don't have to worry about having to remember to VE every target -- it's set it and forget it, at least until it needs to be refreshed.

Fortunately, Prayer of Shadow Protection also has a 30-minute cooldown, so when PoSP goes, I can just remember to recast VE. Hopefully someday, there will be Prayer of Vampiric Embrace.

Rogues

I'm disappointed that stealth is no longer going to have multiple ranks. I just hope that the Improved Stealth talent won't be affected; my subtlety rogue really enjoys practically being able to step on mobs' toes. Base stealth speed is increased, though, which is good. Again, I hope the Camo talent will still be around.

Shamans

I don't have a shaman anymore, but it is worth noting that the earth and fire elemental totems have had their cooldowns reduced to 10 minutes -- though they are still not useable in arenas.

Warlocks

Again, in the "about frikkin' time" category: soulstones now have a 15-minute duration instead of 30 minutes. While this puts some more onus on the warlock, it does mean that repeated wipes are made that much easier to deal with.

They're making life easier for baby warlocks, in that Imp is learned immediately at level 1 and doesn't require a quest. A small concession, but I think the early quest was a bit confusing for some.

Warriors

Only a couple small changes here, but not going to comment because my warrior is in mothballs.

User Interface: Quests

It looks like they're finally bowing to the fact that many players use various quest mods, like QuestHelper or Carbonite, and they're sneaking in a few features of these mods. You can now track quest objectives on the map, and the quest log features a "Show Map" feature. This is also a "keeping up with the Joneses" moment, since a lot of games such as Warhammer already includes these kinds of features by default.

Speaking of maps, lots of changes here too. The map is being divided into four panes: a map pane, a pane listing active quests for that zone, a pane for the full quest text of any highlighted quest, and a pane listing the quest reward for that quest as well. I think this is an improvement but there will be players who won't like this change and will scream for WoW 'dumbing down' the content. However, it's very similar to what other games already do; in this case, WoW is actually a bit behind the times.

And for those who don't like these changes, there's always the option to turn them off in the map interface.

The new quest/map user interface will also have objectives tracking and quest difficulty tracking, both of which can be turned on or off depending on your preference.

User Interface: Dungeon Finder

And Blizzard is making PUGs easier (and it's debatable if this is a good thing or not). The Dungeon Finder replaces the old LFG tool which nobody used. Whether Dungeon Finder will be used any more -- only time will tell. This allows you to join as an individual, a group, or partial group and teleport directly to a selected instance. When you leave, you go back to wherever you started. This is a nice extension of the meeting stone system (and actually makes me wonder why we even have meeting stones anymore). Also, if you're the one who forgets to bring food/water, pack reagents, or repair your armor, you can leave temporarily and then teleport back.

You can choose the Random Dungeon option, which is pretty self explanatory. Completing a random WOTLK heroic will award two Emblems of Frost daily, and repeated random heroics will award two additional Emblems of Triumph. Doing regular randoms will give you two Emblems of Triumph the first time in the day, and no additional emblems for the rest of the day.

"Level appropriate rewards" will be awarded for players who use the Random Dungeon option for pre-WOTLK dungeons (This will be interesting to experiment with. I wonder what I get for an 80 doing Deadmines?)

When you complete a random dungeon, the dungeon's rewards will automatically appear in your inventory. No having to kick yourself for failing to rifle through the final boss's pockets yourself.

If you want to do a specific dungeon instead of a random one, you can choose a specific dungeon "appropriate to your level range". You can also queue up for several dungeons at once, although you can only queue up for dungeons OR battlegrounds OR arenas -- not any two or three types.

In addition, there is a new cross-realm system where you can get PUGs from servers across your battlegroup. There will be a matching system similar to the battlegrounds matching to put people with roughly the same gear levels together, so you don't end up with someone with fantastic gear having to schlep around with a group of people who just hit 80 last week. Some dungeons will even have minimum gear requirements.

I was initially very concerned about this, since this meant that it would be much harder to track down ninjas. However, there are some things in place that will help deal with this. The group can vote a member off the island if they're being a slacker. Players will not be placed in groups with people on his or her ignore list (better make sure your ignore lists are all coordinated between your alts. Also, the ignore list has been increased to 50 and can include cross-realm people now).

Best of all, there is a permanent and unchangeable Need Before Greed system in place -- which I think is the part that makes me feel a lot better about this system. It's described this way in the patch notes:

"Need Before Greed will now recognize gear appropriate for a class in three ways: the class must be able to equip the item, pure melee will be unable to roll on spell power items, and classes are limited to their dominant armor type (ex. paladins for plate). All items will still be available via Greed rolls as well as the new Disenchant option* should no member be able to use the item."

*Yes, you do need to have a disenchanter in the group of the appropriate level to use this option.

Although I know some people are going to be annoyed about this, but I am not. As a cloth wearer, I do get a little tired of spellcasting paladins and shaman rolling on tasty healing or DPS cloth items. I am limited to one and only one armor type -- cloth -- and get a bit annoyed at classes who can wear up to four different armor types rolling on anything and everything they can possibly wear.

People who leave a dungeon early get a Deserter debuff similar to that in Battlegrounds, which should help out with people "group hopping" too much. If the group loses a member, the leader can choose to continue, placing the group back in the Dungeon Finder queue to find a new member.

Doing a "more random" dungeon will also give some extra rewards. The more dungeons you do with entirely random groups, the better your changes of getting these rewards, like a non-combat pet.

A new Looking For Raid function has also been added. I don't anticipate using this much myself. I don't even really love raiding with people I know.

User Interface: Miscellaneous

You can now report high lag or latency through the Help interface. I can hear the GMs groaning from here.

Unit nameplates have gone through a significant change. I always run with unit nameplates on because it's easier other players or mobs in this fashion, a habit I picked up playing on PvP servers. The range you can see the nameplates has increased to 40 yards, which folks on PvP servers will not love. However, you can toggle it so you don't see nameplates of friendlies, only of enemies (including enemy totems), something PvP players may like as it will clutter the screen a lot less. Nameplates are also more subject to line of sight issues, which may make it a bit easier for enemies to hide (although the notes did say this would not apply to certain situations, such as arena pillars or bridges).

They've fixed it so any player in a group (not a raid) can mark targets. I'm sure this will be abused, but hopefully it also means I can remove an annoying raid mark on my head. But I'm glad because it means that allowing another group member to mark on the fly can be useful.

In the "about frikkin time" department: Players will be warned if their talents were reset due to a patch. I always seem to discover this "fact" when I realize I can't seem to hit anything.

Professions

There's a new fishing derby coming to Northrend. Thankfully it doesn't seem to involve fishing in specific pools; it involves catching a shark, but the text in the patch notes says "these sharks' favorite meal are the bite-sized Pygmy Suckerfish. Perhaps a hook in their waters will do the trick". I would guess this means that fishing in regular pools will be the most effective, since that is where I catch the most pygmy suckerfish. The tournament starts at 8 PM server time on Wednesdays and the first person to return a shark will get a good reward. Anyone returning a shark before 9 PM server time will get some kind of reward even if they are not first. Should be fun. The start mob is Elder Clearwater in Dalaran, who is only present from 8 PM to 9 PM. Not sure whether you need to click him to get a quest or if you can just start fishing at 8. If it's like the Stranglethorn derby, you'll just start fishing at 8.

And best yet: this tournament has been added to the "Salty" achievement such that you can win either this tournament or the Stranglethorn derby to get the title.

Quests

As stated, the daily heroic and regular dungeon dailies have been removed in favor of random dungeons.

Weekly raid quests will be available each Tuesday at 3 AM for one of six raid instances: OS, Naxx, the Eye, Ulduar, ToC or IC.

Achievements

They've removed the necessity to become Exalted with WST, AB and AV have been removed from the Master meta achievements. This will be a great relief to people doing the painful, slow, awful march through Exalted with WSG. Instead, you'll get titles for individual exalted factions. Hopefully this means Christy will get the Defiler title she's been dreaming about.

Reputation

People grinding Sons of Hodir rejoice. Hodir quests now give more reputation (about 30% more), and top-level arcanum/shoulder enchants can be purchased by any character on your account who is exalted with that faction and sent to any other character on your account. Of course, if you're an inscriptionist, you can care less about the shoulder enchants.

Argent Crusade, Argent Vanguard, Horde Expedition, Kirin Tor, Ebon Blade, and Wyrmrest have also had their faction gains sped up by 30%. This is great news for all those poor death knights who are struggling to get Argent Crusade faction to buy their squires their very own ponies.

Bug fixes

They've finally fixed it so that item/quest/holiday costumes aren't removed when you mount. It will just give you an error message when you try to mount instead, giving you the option of keeping your costume on. You still can't mount as a Gordok ogre. Sorry.

There are a ton of other bug fixes I'm just not going into. And I mean a TON. The bug fixes alone take up 1/3 of the pages.

Enjoy 3.3. Download early. And fix your mods before you log on.

Citizen Azeroth: Pilgrim's Progress - The good, the bad, the ... not so great

2009-11-24T11:48:00.004-05:00

I like holidays, and I like holiday achievements, but I have never universally loved or hated any part of any holiday. Pilgrim's Progress gave me nothing I truly hated, which is good, but that's not to say I universally loved it either.

The good:

Good cooking: I liked the cooking quests, particularly since my level 51 druid was permastuck at 277 cooking. The cooking quests let her get past this hurdle with ease. Friends with DKs who had never leveled cooking got 1-300 on these alone. Very cool. It does make me wish for the chef's hat though.

Reputation gains through tables: Yay to Blizzard for this one -- the 10% rep buff for eating at the table is great for dailies. There are tables in Northrend too; I use the one in Sholazar at River's Basin because it's convenient for Frenzyheart. I just do all my dailies, ending with Frenzyheart, go eat at the table, and then go turn them all in. This is especially nice for Frenzyheart (or Oracles) because when you get 500-700 rep for quests, the 10% is a huge boost.

Reputation gains for cities with cooking quests: This didn't matter so much for my rogue, who is already exalted, but for my priest who still has a way to go yet with Thunder Bluff, every little bit counts. And you do get sympathetic rep.

The turkey caller/turkey pet: OK, some people don't like that the turkey caller is a temporary pet. But he's really cute. And I love that the permanent Plump Turkey Pet "senses his destiny" and jumps in a cooking fire. Priceless.

The not-so-good:

The running around: Having to shuffle constantly among the three major cities was simply a pain if you aren't a mage. Several enterprising mages set up portal services, mostly for ruinous sums, some for just tips. By the second day, if you were good about cooking up extra, you could easily manage it by visiting them, one in a row, and never repeating. Here is what I have done for toons who want to do the cooking dailies every day:

On the first day, make sure you pick up 40 of each city's special item, and cook them all up - 20 for today, 20 for tomorrow. You'll have some back and forth to do.

On the second day, turn in the ones you made the day before, but remember to pick up and cook 20 of each of that city's special item for day 3. Rinse and repeat.

The bad:

The life of an orc rogue: I can't take two steps in Dalaran without being turned into a turkey when I'm on my orc rogue. Yes, I'll just stand around and let people turkey me on the bank steps over and over -- that's fine.

But it's made doing The Turkinator hell. I get whispers galore from people wanting me to stop so they can turkey me. They not only follow me around and turkey me, but they also start killing the turkeys around me so I can't finish Turkinator. Plus, there seems to be a small stutter where I stop when I'm turkeyed, which when I'm running close to the buzzer on getting a turkey has thrown me off my rhythm more than once.

The turkey costume buff cooldown: There's no reason for this to be an hour long buff, and it's intensely frustrating for people trying to track down less populated rogue races. Christy told me that there were a bunch of gnome rogues in turkey form who weren't popping out to let other people turkey them -- just running around laughing and taunting people. You can't do what you could with the bunny ears and just go /afk on the bank steps; the bunny ears disappeared in two minutes, but if you don't manually remove the costume, you'll be disconnected from the server for being afk before someone else gets a chance to turkey you again.

Bad table manners: There were upwards of 50 people in the courtyard in Undercity just waiting for poor Alliance to run into the UC gates to try to sit down at a table. I realize the City Defender achievement is at stake, but c'mon people. Let the poor fools sit down first. Don't make it impossible for them to complete their achievements just because you want to complete yours.

And I heard that many of the Alliance tables were just as bad. It wasn't just Horde behaving badly.

Bad mount manners: I spent a certain amount of time on the bank steps in rogue form, dancing so people can get their achievements. The number of people who felt compelled to park their giant-ass mammoth mounts on top of us ... ridiculous. Of course, we just moved (at one point we had all eight race rogues on the steps), but I really wish I'd remembered to send my little troll rogue some Baby Spice to shrink them down to toy size.

When I look back on this list, most of the bad things didn't have to do with the mechanics of the holiday as it did with this: holidays bring out the worst in some people. Or maybe it just goes back to the John Gabriel's Greater Internet F**kwad Theory. Either way.

Citizen Azeroth: Microtransactions

2009-11-06T14:19:00.002-05:00

The appearance of purchasable pets in Blizzard has, shall we say, stirred up a bit of controversy. It made one of my friends very happy (she's wanted the original panda pet forever, and still wants it, but the pandarin monk goes a long way toward fulfilling this dream). I have to admit to eying Lil' KT -- how on earth did they make this lich monster so darned CUTE?

Will I buy them? Possibly. Do I object? No.

Microtransactions have been in various video games for quite awhile -- it's an alternate way of generating revenue that can add something to the game. In other games, however, microtransactions have done things I don't care for, such as making commercial sponsors happy or giving people the ability to buy real game upgrades for money.

Fundamentally I don't think that purchasing vanity pets from Blizzard for $10 is that big a deal. These guys are hardly game-changers, unless you've been harrassed by too many fjord turkeys and need Lil' KT to deal with them for you (in case you didn't know, Lil' KT will sometimes freeze passing critters). Items you can get in-game by spending money are not new to Blizzard -- they aren't even new to World of Warcraft.

I'm not talking about gold sellers here, but Blizzard-promoted and Blizzard-created items you get for spending more money than other people do by buying the game and paying a monthly subscription. Every Collectors' Edition contains a code to claim a special vanity pet, among other spiffs, for which you end up paying an extra $50 or so over a normal boxed expansion (you do get a bit more than the pet; there are usually art books and sometimes a nifty item like a mouse pad. I still use my Burning Crusade mouse pad). World of Warcraft: The Card Game contains loot cards; if you're lucky enough you can spend as little as $2.99 for a booster pack and get some in-game item, from a vanity pet to a mount to a toy item -- none of which add anything to game play experience beyond some fun and a different skin. Single unclaimed loot cards can sell anywhere from a few dollars to several hundred dollars on eBay, though Blizzard doesn't see anything beyond whatever cut they get from Upperdeck on licensing fees.

I have much less problem with buying a pet directly from Blizzard for $10 than I did for the whole Mountain Dew robots and "game fuel" business. The modern pop culture in-jokes endemic to WoW (particularly in names of quests and achievements, such as "To All The Squirrels I've Loved Before") are fine and cause a chuckle here and there, but the day I see the golden arches over Orgrimmar is the day I cancel my subscription. I didn't like where the whole game fuel thing was heading. Plus, Mountain Dew just plain sucks.

So while I haven't whipped out my debit card and purchased either of the pets myself, I think Blizzard's pet store is a good use of microtransactions. It doesn't change the game play. The Pandarin Monk isn't displaying a tabard advertising Wasabi's. You can't resell it on eBay for usurious prices. If someone wants to spend their hard-earned money on something to give themselves a smile, let 'em. And fjord turkeys beware -- Lil' KT is kind of tempting.

Citizen Azeroth: Day of the Dead miniguide

2009-11-01T06:40:00.011-05:00

This is a very small (VERY small) event, so it won't take long to cover the bases. It runs from today (November 1) through November 2.

All of these happen in nine graveyards, located outside the four major cities of each race. You can also do this in Dalaran if you have access. The cities and races follow:

Dalaran (all races): Between Simply Enchanting and the Violet Citadel
Orgrimmar (orc, troll): East side of the road -- the usual location for events such as Thanksgiving and Honor the Ancestors
Silvermoon (Blood Elf): Eversong Woods - between the Dead Scar and the arch to Falconwing Square
Thunder Bluff (Tauren): near the North Great Lift to Thunder Bluff
Undercity (undead): Courtyard outside the city
Darnassus (night elf): left of the road between Warriors' Terrace and the gates to Teldrassil
Exodar (Draenei): near Azure Watch
Ironforge (dwarf and gnome): Along the road down the side of the mountain
Stormwind (human): between Stormwind and Goldshire

Full completion requires going to the graveyard associated with your race, or going to the graveyard in Dalaran. If you just want to complete the achievement and nothing more, any of those of your faction will do.

Before you go to the graveyard, stop in the city and buy [Ice Cold Milk] and [Simple Flour]. You need both. (Note: you can buy Simple Flour from the cooking vendor in Dalaran, but there is nowhere in Dalaran to buy Ice Cold Milk. In fact, you can't buy it anywhere in Northrend).

There is one achievement associated with this: Dead Man's Party. There is an NPC in each of these graveyards named Catrina. Simply target and /dance, and you'll get the achievement and a 12-hour costume. Usual issues with these costumes; they disappear when you shapeshift or die. Also, this costume follows server time, not real time, so it will erode while you are offline.

There is also a vendor that sells a number of things; the only two things you may care about are the Bread of the Dead recipe and the Orange Marigolds. Buy and memorize the Bread of the Dead recipe, and then find the Ghostly Cooking Fire. The Bread of the Dead needs the milk and flour, and you can only cook it over the ghostly fire. Make one bread, then equip and right click the Marigolds. This will allow you to see a bunch of ghosts, including one racial "Cheerful" celebrant who will give you a quest to bring Bread of the Dead. Give him/her the bread you just made, and you will get a very cool, yet very lame, temporary pet.

(You can also use a warlock's Detect Invisibility to see the ghosts, if you're too cheap to buy the marigolds -- or if you happen to be a warlock).

It's a cool pet, but it's seriously and deeply flawed. First, it's designed only as a temporary pet that only works for these two days. But it gets worse. Right now, the pet is bugged and disappears permanently from your bag when you zone or hearth.

However, you will get experience (if you're under 80; you get 13g 23s if you're 80), and you'll also get two completed quests toward your Seeker title (it doesn't count toward Loremaster).

Citizen Azeroth: Haiku from the EQ past

2009-10-28T15:24:00.004-04:00

Analog Hole Gaming's recent episode (144) got into a discussion about turning raid instructions into haiku, which has in turn led to AHG host (and best friend) Christy posting submitted WoW haiku verses on Twitter. I only thought of one off the top of my head, but I am sure more will appear:

Up on Scryer ledge
Sixty-five yard achievement
Splat goes the tauren

Years ago, when playing Everquest, Cryler and I wrote several EQ related haiku. So, for those of you who are old Everquestarians, here are some of those oldies. Maybe they'll bring back some memories.

Keep in mind as you read these, particularly in reference to Jimble Woodentoe and Sergeant Slate, that I played a dark elf.

sitting on the docks
hey, who let the spectres out?
Damn ... PLEASE WAIT, LOADING...

Spirit of wolf please?
have long run -- corpse in Dalnir,
bound in Neriak

Jimble Woodentoe
Your Rokyl's Crystal shimmers.
I feel much better

entering the zone
frantic chaos, shouts of "TRAIN!"
Anyone rezzing?

Sergeant Slate killed me
twenty-five levels ago
ah, revenge is sweet

shop in the Bazaar
everybody face the wall
the lag is deadly

Citizen Azeroth: Easy way to Ambassador

2009-10-03T17:19:00.002-04:00

I'm working on my third Ambassador, as part of my ongoing experiments on how to do this the fastest and most efficient way possible. My 41 night elf druid is now Exalted in Darnassus and Stormwind, halfway through Revered with Exodar, and about 1/3 of the way in Revered in Ironforge and Gnomer.

So when did I start factioning? Level 41.

That is not a typo.

Now, from my previous rep experiments (see the tags for Rep Experiments 1 and 2, which involved repping first with an Alliance character and then with a Horde), I knew some of the secrets of how rep works and what's the best way to get the most bang for effort. Now, I've decided to refine the technique a bit, and so far I'm quite pleased with the results.

(And yes, I know you can also get a lot of player race faction doing Argent Tournament and Alterac Valley. However, I'm gearing this reputation stuff for people who want to do this earlier in their character's leveling careers. If you're 80, Argent Tournament is the easiest way, but some of us like the title earlier).

However, to those who don't want to go back and look at previous posts, I'll recap a few of the most important things to understand about player race faction in the game:

1. The newbie zones (1-10 zones) are among the biggest payoffs for rep. The quests are easy and the rep gains are huge -- often 250-350 rep per quest. DO NOT skip these. Rep goes DOWN from here! Start right with the level 1 quests; though unfortunately, Blizzard still makes it impossible for non-blood elves to do this in the first blood elf newbie zone, at least until you get up to the level 5 quests in the second area. You can do the 1-5 quests in all other areas, including the Draenei, although there is one quest line where you have to use the Draenei healing racial, so you'll have to skip that one if you're not Draenei. The zones in question are (Alliance) Elwynn Forest, Dun Morogh, Azuremyst Isle, Teldrassil, (Horde) Durotar, Tirisfal Glades, Eversong Woods, and Mulgore.

Remember that there are "hidden quests" in many of these places -- quests you get from dropped items. Don't skip any of these, even if this means farming every gnoll in Elwynn for the Gold Collector's Schedule to drop.

2. Dungeon quests are big payoffs -- often up to 500 rep.

3. Do holiday quests, as these often give a lot of rep and it's often for all five player factions on your side. As of this writing, the Harvest Festival is on, and there is a fairly easy one-off quest to leave a tribute. Do it, because it's either 500 Alliance or 500 Horde rep.

4. All quests that give player faction reputation in the level 11+ zones will give sympathetic rep -- that is, whatever the main player rep gets, you also get 25% of that on all other player faction reps. So a quest that gives you 200 rep for Orgrimmar will also give 50 rep for Silvermoon, Undercity, Thunder Bluff, and Darkspear. If you're having trouble with the harder reps like Exodar and Silvermoon, going back and doing quests for other factions will bring you up the ladder.

So those are concepts I've introduced before, but now that I'm factioning with my night elf druid, I have a couple of minor refinements.

In previous experiments, I ran the newbie zones in circuits. I started out in one 1-10 area as a level 1 character, finished that, moved to the next 1-10 area, and so on, until all four 1-10 areas were complete. Then I would start it over again, cycling through all the 11-20 zones. I thought this would be the fastest and most efficient way to faction up.

However, here's my new advice. Don't do that. Just level up as normal, as efficiently as you can, until you're level 40, and THEN go back and do the newbie zones, the 11-20 zones, etc.

At level 40, you can zip through the level 1-10 zones in near-record time. You're high enough level to blow through any of the mobs, and in fact, most mobs don't really want anything to do with you at all. You can just walk past trash mobs to end objectives and finish the quests more efficiently. Many classes have an AOE ability by level 40 (as a druid, I just got my first good one, Hurricane) which also cuts down considerably on time.

Consider not even looting mobs if you don't have to, at least in the 1-10 zones. In the 1-5 newbie areas, nothing of any interest will drop anyway. You can't even skin beast mobs at that level. Unless the quest calls for you to loot something, just leave it. You'll only make a couple silver total in money by looting and selling, and it slows you down. By the level 11 zones, you'll start getting some possibly good saleables, so it's worth it to consider looting then. But if you have a wealthy character, you might not even bother doing it then.

Because you are a high level character, you'll be able to pick up more quests from the start than if you were just barely high enough for the zone. Turn on Low Level Quest tracking and you're good to go. Using a mod like Quest Helper can aid you in stacking quests most efficiently to get as much done in as little time.

By level 40, you also have your epic land mount. Many of the newbie zones require a certain amount of long-distance running around, and having the epic land mount will really help you out a great deal.

Speed counts for another thing too: it minimizes your impact on the zone to other players. One of the problems with being level 40 and factioning in a zone that's 30 levels too low for you is that you can easily monopolize an area. Moving quickly through the content assures that you're not going to be inconveniencing any one person for any length of time, because you're going to move so much faster than they are. It's inevitable that you'll be wanting to do something at the same time as a "real" newbie, although if you try to do your low level factioning at off-peak hours, that can minimize the problem. But if you're moving through super quick, you will not inconvenience any one person for very long.

You don't get a lot of experience for factioning, as my level 41 druid illustrates. She had just dinged 41 when I started working on faction in earnest. Even without paying attention to it, I was very close to Exalted with Darnassus when I started, having done all the quests in Teldrassil, Darkshore, and Ashenvale as I leveled up. So I just started in the Draenei newbie zone, and by the time I finished Azuremyst and Bloodmyst, I was Exalted with Darnassus and getting very close to Exalted with Stormwind (also dinged Revered with all the other factions while I was at it). I finished Elwynn Forest and was halfway through Westfall when I dinged Exalted with Stormwind, though I finished Westfall and soloed Deadmines for the sympathetic faction (plus there are some very high-rep quests there for Ironforge and Gnomer). I've now finished Dun Morogh just started Loch Modan.

So how much experience has all this given her -- clearing out three 1-10 newbie zones, two 11-20 newbie zones, and clearing Deadmines? Total: three and a half bubbles.

But it was all very fast. I believe I may beat my old Alliance toon's record for level for hitting Ambassador. And it's taking a lot less time because, being overpowered as I am, I can be much more efficient.

The old methods hold, but my advice has changed a bit: level up and start when you're 40, after you get your epic mount. It'll go much more quickly and seem like a lot less effort.

Citizen Azeroth: Bugged-Out Brewfest Barrel Bingo

2009-09-28T13:36:00.010-04:00

The Horde's Brewfest keg run is way, way bugged.

Before I get any "lrn2play n00b", let me just say that I am running this pseudo-daily every day on both the Alliance and Horde sides, and have been running it every day since the start of Brewfest on September 20th. I finished Brewmaster (and thus finished What A Long Strange Trip It's Been) on my rogue (pictured below right, giving the offending apple barrel a piece of her mind).

This isn't really a daily quest -- rather, it's a token gathering task that resets anywhere from 12 to 18 hours from the last time you did it. Even this is bugged, since I can almost always do it 12 hours or so from the last time I did it, but my husband almost always has to wait more than 18. Go figure.

It seems simple and straight-forward: gallop to KegThrower, an NPC who throws you a keg when you near him, turn around, and gallop back to TokenGiver, who takes the keg when you get near and gives you 2 Brewfest tokens. Your special mount for this quest can get exhausted, which you refresh by passing close to apple barrels. There are four on each course -- two between KegThrower and TokenGiver, and one a little past each of these NPCs for an emergency in case you mistimed. You have 4 minutes, but each time you successfully return a keg you get another 30 seconds. Usually this run takes about 8-9 minutes total.

Theoretically speaking, you should be able to run this without ever having to visit any apple barrels other than the two in the middle. This is how I always run the Alliance-side keg "daily"; in the eight days I've been doing this, I believe I have had to veer off and tap the behind-TokenGiver keg exactly twice.

In fact, I have few, if any, problems running this on the Alliance side. In the past eight days, I have never had the keg thrower fail to throw, or the token giver fail to give me tokens. I can pass several feet short of either of them and do fine. I have my turn-around spots well mapped. In the past eight days, I have had ONE apple barrel bug out and fail to refresh my fatigue when I passed right next to it. A second time, I simply mistimed a barrel pass and had to go for the emergency apple bucket behind TokenGiver. (A third time I exhausted, but that was a cat related accident so I don't count it). Even on my worst day -- today -- when I am just feeling horribly uncoordinated and got caught on trees, fence posts, bushes, barrels, etc, I managed to get 22 tokens. Normally, I get 26-28 tokens.

Now compare this to my Horde experience, where I normally get 12-16 tokens. NORMAL. My personal best Hordeside is 20, 2 short of my worst day on Alliance side. I have talked to guildies, Twitter followers, and fans about this, and have heard overwhelmingly that this is the experience of nearly everyone who is running Horde side keg runs. Many who don't play any Alliance or aren't running it Alliance side didn't realize how much easier this seems to be on Alliance.

I posted my experiences on this thread in the official Bug Report forum, where others have been posting as well. It's not a big thread right now, and I wonder if this is due to people not realizing that such a disparity exists between the sides. If you are having issues, I urge you to post there as well.

So here, in a nutshell, are the problems with the Horde side:

1. Apple barrels do not refresh fatigue consistently. Even when you pass by right next to it, jump over it, even run into it, sometimes the apple barrels simply fail to do anything to your fatigue counter. Apparently there was a bug from an earlier Brewfest where if two people hit the barrel at the same time, it might not refresh both of them. However, this seems unrelated to proximity; I have had this fail when I have been the only person doing the run at all. In fact, my very worst run, where the same apple barrel failed to refresh four times in one run, it was about 6 AM server time and I was the only person I could see doing the keg run at that time.

The barrel most likely to fail is the one I will call FailBarrel. FailBarrel is the first apple barrel you encounter as you leave TokenGiver. (It's also the one pictured above, the object of my rogue's particular detestation).

2. FailBarrel causes periodic instant-exhaust. Watch FailBarrel for a little while and you'll see people hit it, get the red flash, and then instantly go into the 12-second exhaustion. I've had this happen more than once to me, with my fatigue meter reading as low as 80 when I hit the barrel. Flash, fatigue shoots up to 100, exhaust.

FailBarrel is fail.

3. Horde TokenGiver and KegThrower require a closer pass than their dwarven brethren on the Alliance side. I can turn several feet away from these NPCs on Alliance side and have never failed to get kegs or tokens. On Horde side, I must nearly step on their toes. Apparently, goblins can't throw or catch as well as dwarves.

And on that note:

4. Horde TokenGiver sometimes fails to give tokens. Sometimes, you run up with a barrel, run over his little green toes, and ... nothing. I've had to loop around to the barrel behind him for emergency fatigue refresh, then circle around him as many as three times to get him to take the keg and give me tokens. I've heard of people circling him unsuccessfully six or seven times. And yes, they had a keg from KegThrower at the time.

So why is this happening? I had a theory that perhaps the Horde course is longer, so I measured it as best as I could by having two characters pace out the course on 160% mounts. I measured the distance from standing right next to TokenGiver, straight line to the first barrel, straight line to the second barrel, straight line to standing on KegThrower's toes. I did this three times on each course, and determined that the distance of the Horde course is about 2 seconds longer. However, in utility, it's probably more like six or seven seconds longer simply because you can loop the end sooner on the Alliance side.

But I don't think that's it.

Most of these problems seem to act like they are related to latency. I don't think these are a function of the actual server or of my ISP. If they were related to my ISP, I wouldn't have eight days of consistently good on one side but consistently bad on the other. I have also been doing these on two different servers (Whisperwind, which is very high population, and Draenor, which has about 1/3 the population of Whisperwind) and get the same results on both servers. I also tend to do these very early in the morning when there aren't a lot of people on. This past weekend, I did these in the later afternoon when it was crowded and didn't see any functional difference in results.

In particular, the instant-exhaust on FailBarrel acts like a latency issue. It's like your fatigue was really at or near 100 when you hit the barrel, but the fatigue meter is giving wrong information. As soon as it tries to refresh the fatigue, the fatigue meter suddenly catches up, and boom! you're walking for the next 12 seconds.

So here is my theory.

Since it is (a) consistent between Horde and Alliance, (b) consistent even if it's a low-population time of day or a high-population time of day and (c) consistent whether you're running it nearly alone or with many, many other people, I would be more inclined to blame either the East Kingdom/Kalimdor world servers, or the number of resources allocated specifically to Durotar and Dun Morogh. On most servers, Alliance outnumber Horde, and I am sure that resources are allocated accordingly to deal with the disparate populations. On an average, non-holiday day, more people are in Dun Morogh than in Durotar, and therefore, server resources are allocated accordingly. However, with Brewfest, there are a ton more people in these areas than is normal. Durotar simply isn't built to handle the traffic, and as a result, there is a lag inherent in this area when overcrowded that doesn't exist in Dun Morogh.

I noticed another thing unrelated to the keg run, and that's the dark iron dwarf invasion. On the Alliance side, I get new mugs thrown to me nearly instantly. On Horde side, not only do I have to wait as much as two seconds for a new mug, but I sometimes seem to get "forgotten" by the NPCs and have to go to a table to pick another one up. I think this lends credence to my latency theory.

Yes, I was able to finish it. That's not my point. It's that it's a completely different experience for the Horde and Alliance, and not in a good way. This needs to be addressed and fixed.

Citizen Azeroth: A few insider facts about faction changes

2009-09-17T16:51:00.005-04:00

One of my oldest toons, my undead warrior Vivienn, has been rotting on the Khadgar server for ... well, since I moved to Whisperwind. She was created in August 2005, run up to level 60, and then abandoned when I moved permanently to Whisperwind in early 2006. At the time, there was no such thing as server transfer, or I would have taken her with me. By the time server transfers were allowed, I already had a level 60 undead warrior on Whisperwind and had no need for another one.

So when faction transfers became available, I decided to resurrect poor Vivienn and cure her scourge disease, turning her from undead to human. Other than the cosmetic change (her skin tone looks a lot better, her knees don't automatically rip out all her pants, her boobs are perkier and her hair is in much better condition), there were other things I have noticed about faction changing that are worth mentioning. Beyond the obvious, of course.

First, she was a Sergeant and she still is one. I think it's a cool title because you can't get that anymore. Plus, it's one of the few titles that stays the same on both sides.

Second, yes, you do keep all your faction information -- just translated. Viv was Exalted with Orgrimmar back when that was a very hard thing to do. It took days of farming leather during the opening of the gates of Ahn'qiraj event to get her Exalted. Yes, I was one of those people who just sat on my Orgrimmar wolf as an undead at the mailbox. Sue me.

So now, she's exalted with Darnassus. I would have thought it would have been Ironforge, but no matter.

But here's the cool part.

Third, you can be a newbie again. I went to the human newbie area and apparently I can do all the human newbie area quests. Since I leveled under the old reputation gain system, which truly sucked, this means that it will be that much easier to get Exalted with all the Alliance factions if I want to do that. I'm Revered with Stormwind, only Honored with Gnomer and Ironforge and Friendly with Exodar.

Had I thought about this, I might have had UndeadVivienn go and push all her Silvermoon rep quests before transferring her over to HumanVivienn. It would make "Exodar" rep a lot easier to push.

Fourth, apparently you complete both a certain number of quests, and yet no quests. Confused? Well, Vivienn shows for the purposes of the "number of quests" achievement as having completed 768 quests total. She has completed 15 of these in Hellfire Penninsula. However, under the Loremaster achievements, she shows as having completed 0 quests in Kalimdor and 0 quests in East Kingdoms. So where did she achieve these 753 missing quests? Apparently in another life, which doesn't count for Loremaster. So if you're looking to that for a shortcut, you'll have to think again.

This kind of sucks, because I can't redo all the quests that are for both sides, like all the quests for goblin faction quests, the Magram/Gelkis lines, the Racetrack quests, etc., because I already have been "credited" for doing those. But I can't use them for Loremaster. This may need to be bug reported.

Fifth, you get ALL the flight points, even in Outlands. I know I didn't have most of the flight points in Outlands, but miraculously, I now have them all. I have not checked Northrend; will report on that in a future update.

More on the faction change as I discover more hidden treasures/poop about it.

Citizen Azeroth: Unwritten rules

2009-09-09T17:18:00.002-04:00

I am sure there are plenty of unwritten rules of WoW, but here are a few I've run into recently.

Nesingwary's Law #1: When you don't want an rare or elite mob, it is always in your way.
Nesingwary's Law #2: The chances of finding a rare spawn has an inverse relationship to your ability to kill it.
Nesingwary's Law #3: When you do want the elite mob, you can never find it.
Nesingwary's Law #4: When you want the elite mob, and you find it, someone else has just killed it.

Distance Rule of the Flight Master: The longer the run, the less likely you are to remember to pick up the flight point.

Unnamed Quest Rule #26: The longer you spend gnashing your teeth because some rare quest item has not dropped, the greater the chances that you looted it twenty minutes ago and you never noticed.

Citizen Azeroth: Elitism

2009-09-02T10:29:00.002-04:00

So I got an interesting tweet last night:

Astrellas Tell me Twerps, what is your definition of an "elitist"? #wow #elitists @brigwyn @nibuca @fimlys @starmike @renatawc

The answer I sent her:

RenataWC@Astrellas #wow #elitists @brigwyn @nibuca @fimlys @starmike @renatawc Elitist is someone who thinks that their way to play is the ONLY way.

There's something about 140 characters, especially when you're redirecting AND hashtagging, that requires you to get your point across with the utmost brevity. For that, I actually like Twitter. I try never to resort to "ur" or "thx" or whatever -- I try to figure out a way simply to make my thought more concise. It's a daily writing challenge.

However, this is my blog, and I'm not required to be brief. In terms of WoW, however, I still think it is the right answer, with some minor elaborations. Had I not had so many hash tags and @s to fulfill, I might have said "An elitist is someone who thinks that theirs is the only LEGITIMATE way to play." Everyone playing every other way is somehow missing the point.

This is a superior attitude I often see in people who are fanatically religious. I don't mean people like my mother who go to church every Sunday, but rather people who live to force their own belief systems down everyone else's collective throat. They also have the "us and them" dynamic, "play like we do or you're unworthy of our time and consideration. And go to hell while you're at it."

However, I think a lot of people think of "elitists" purely in terms of hardcore raiders, the ones in the top guilds with mandatory raiding nights/specs/gear/attunements (back in the good ol' days anyway). These are the people who inevitably get in flame wars on the official forums, where people who are Not Them accuse them of having no life and living in their parents' basements (boring, predictable, utterly trite), while they come back with clever (boring, predictable, utterly trite) rejoinders that basically boil down to "you're just jealous" and "if you were any good you'd be One Of Us". ("Gooble gobble, gooble gobble! One of us! One of us!")

It's easy to think of these first, since they are the most common example. But I have run into elitists in all corners of Azeroth, if you define elitists they way I do: people who believe that they play the One True Way, and that everyone who plays another way is somehow an inferior player/species. In no particular order:

The casual elitist. This may seem like a contradiction in terms, but I have seen the worst side of this brand of elitism. I belonged into one of the largest casual guilds on Whisperwind for over a year and a half, and was one of the first to leave during the second mass exodus from this guild (the first denouement had occurred about six months before). The reason? A group of us had decided to get together on our own time to put together a more focused effort on raiding some of the more difficult 5-man and 25-man instances, and we had not posted signups on the guild board. What is particularly interesting about this was that some of the most vocal "casual elitists" at the time were also running their own so-called "private groups", mostly attempting to crack the 45-minute barrier on the Baron, but somehow their groups were OK and ours were not.

In this case, a large number of us left because in this guild, progression had become a dirty word. We were the ones who were being labeled elitists, because we wanted to see some of the upper level content and realized under the "y'all come" structure of this guild, we were never going to make progress because people kept bringing undergeared alts, not reading strats, not taking anything at all seriously, etc. Mostly what we wanted to do was be left alone and not have every moment of our time monitored by our guild, but the guild would not allow us to do this. So we left. Apparently things eased up a bit after they lost a huge chunk of the guild, but this attitude returned about a year later, and a third exodus ensued. It seems to be a cycle with this guild. There are a lot of great people there, but they do need to recognize that they do have as much of a problem with there being "casual elitists" in their guild, as any guild has with the hardcore ones.

The RP elitists. Play on any RP server and you'll run into the "RP police" eventually. On some servers, the RP Police practically choke anyone who doesn't immediately shift into complete and total RP. Now, you may say, "well, what's an RP server for, if not to roleplay?" but damn it, sometimes you just want to say "LFG for Hogger" and be done with it. You don't want someone correcting you, castigating you publically, or suggesting how to tone your message in bad Pidgin RenFaire.

The solo elitists. Ask for help with a quest anywhere in Azeroth, and unless it's a bona fide 5-man quest, someone will nag about how they soloed it using nothing but a full set of twill and a broken farmer's broom. I also enjoy soloing and prefer to find a way to do it myself, but I don't begrudge people who want help, unless what they are really asking for is for you to do it for you. (There's a difference between asking my level 15 druid if she wants to group up for some quests -- I'll probably say no, but thank the person for asking -- and begging my level 80 rogue to "help" a level 12 through all of Wailing Caverns. There is a difference between asking for help or companionship and begging for a free ride.)

The lore elitists. This isn't so much of a play style as a lifestyle. These are the people who start yammering on about some arcane storyline of the game and then act shocked when you admit you have no idea what they are talking about. I admit: I am largely lore illiterate. I don't know the stories behind most of the major characters. I tend not to read quest text beyond learning what the goal is ("whoja want me keell?"). I know and respect that others enjoy this aspect of the game, but don't make me feel like a total idiot for not being able to recite Arthas' past deeds, lineage, and his family recipe for [Spice Bread]. For some, it adds a lot to the game. For me, it doesn't.

Curiously enough, one group of people who seem to be largely free of the elitist taint are achievement whores. Sure, they will go on and on about their achievements and how they are doing and how many pets they have, but the vast majority of them (us, really, as I am one too) realize one important thing: achievements are, for the most part, stupid, pointless, a waste of time, and yet, strangely addictive. We fully understand why others don't go after them or don't get as obsessed about it.

And here is my point.

It's not that players have obsessions, play styles, preferences, likes and dislikes that makes them elitist. It's not that they study strats, or research achievements, or prefer to play in one particular guild system, that makes the difficult to be around. It's their divisive attitudes. It's the idea that their way is the One True Way, and anyone who doesn't do it Their Way is stupid or incompetent. It's the idea that anyone who attempts to point out that they are acting like jerks toward everyone else is stupid, incompetent, or worse, "jealous" -- the accusation of "jealous" only reinforces their attitude of superiority, even more so than simple stupidity or incompetence.

You may like your playstyle. You may think it's the only way you can enjoy the game. Fine. But that's you. There are many different ways to play the game that bring people enjoyment and fulfillment. Just because you don't agree with someone else's playstyle choices doesn't mean it's not right for them. For some people, a regimented, scheduled, and intense play style is how they most enjoy the game. For others, it's a casual system. I hate raiding; many love it. I love levelling; most seem to hate it. I love achievements; some like them, hate them, or have a love-hate relationship with them. It's all good.

It's not the playstyle that causes problems. It's attitudes and how people treat others because of it. That's elitism.

Citizen Azeroth: Observations from Newbieland

2009-08-31T09:49:00.004-04:00

OK, I can't really call myself a true newbie ... more a born-again newbie. I've rolled up my night elf druid, and she's now level 13.

Some things have changed since the last time I rolled up a brand new toon, which I think was when my rogue was first born a few months before the release of WOTLK. Some things I knew about, some I didn't, but here are some of my observations.

1. The fishing change that sounded like a great idea ... isn't. At least not from the newbie perspective.

The fishing change I'm talking about is the one where you can fish anywhere for skill, but all you get is junk until you hit a certain level for the fishing area. I started my fishing career in Darnassus, and planned to do what I usually do with newbies: level cooking and fishing at the same time. Well, I should have started in the lake in Teldrassil instead, because after getting level 50 in fishing in Darnassus, I had 3 Brilliant Smallfish, 7 Longjaw Mud Snappers, 4 or 5 Bristle Whisker Catfish ... and stacks of junk. Maybe I'd have done better starting off in the newbie area, but this was hardly enough to start my cooking, even if they do basically give you 1-40 free with the Spice Bread recipe.

2. Critters are no longer skinnable.

This came as quite a surprise to me. A common way to boost early skinning for me was to get the skinning skill ASAP, usually before I'd left the first newbie zone, and kill rabbits and deer to get some extra skinning. I was quite surprised to discover, after slaughtering my first bunny, that it wasn't skinnable. At the time, I gave a small mental shrug and figured that maybe this was just restricted to the first newbie zone, but as far as I can tell, they just aren't skinnable anymore, anywhere. I suppose this is to allow you to /love them, but personally, some quick and easy skinning practice is easier.

(Oddly enough, you can successfully /love a dead critter. That's just not something I want to think about, but an achievement is an achievement).

3. The AH prices on low level gear are RIDICULOUS.

26g for a green level 10 leather chest piece? Does anyone actually PAY these kinds of prices?

This night elf is only a semi supported toon. I don't have any 80s on this server, and I wouldn't have an Alliance 80 anyway, since my highest Alliance toon in my history is level 60. I transferred one of my old Venture Company characters over to the server where I'm playing the druid, so I got my druid about 250g, bags, and other basic support gear. I do make pretty decent money selling herbs. I had thought I might turn that VC import into a leatherworker, but without taking up skinning, I'd be spending (get this) over 6g a STACK for light leather. Ruined leather scraps are selling for an average of 10g a stack on this server! I decided to forgo making my own gear, preferring instead to sell my light leather for prices where I might be able to afford the odd underpriced upgrade. A few kind souls do still sell the occasional item for a decent price.

I guess from all the lowbies running around with heirloom pieces, I should not be surprised. But no wonder Blizzard is starting to create servers only new accounts can play on.

4. The speed of leveling and reputation gains never cease to amaze me.

I was almost level 13 leaving Teldrassil. I expect to be 22 or 23 leaving Darkshore. Back in the old days, you were scraping through to the next area, barely able to survive walking across the road.

I don't miss that.

5. I'm doing a lot of double takes at level 20s on mounts.

That's just going to take some getting used to. Higher level toons probably don't even notice this one, but I'm seeing it all the time around Darkshore.

6. Bear form at my level is just crazy damage.

I'm two-shotting mobs and my gear sucks. I guess I shouldn't get used to that, though. I remember it as being horribly slow, the last time I leveled a druid (which was back before BC, and I only got to level 24).

I'm sure I'll have more observations of the Born-Again Newb as time goes on.

Citizen Azeroth: Prepping for a faction change

2009-08-28T12:00:00.004-04:00

When Blizzard first announced its faction change service, I was surprised. I had been in the camp of "they'll never do it", because I felt that Blizzard had set up a hard-stop barrier between the factions. Between the lack of communication ability between the sides (despite all the attempts at cracking hash tables, the "keks" and such), the inability to create characters of both factions on PvP servers, and the like, I assumed this was something that would never happen.

Well, I was proved wrong. Now the only hard barrier that will exist is the communication gap. Will that fall? I'm done making predictions. Given that the new expansion is apparently made to step up the war -- goodbye to all the lip service to Horde/Alliance cooperation in WOTLK -- I would hesitantly say that I strongly doubt the communication gap will be removed any time soon. How's that for predicting without actually predicting?

So my question is this: will I be able to faction transfer over to one of the new race/class combinations when the time comes?

They haven't given a hard date for the faction transfer service, but the new race/class combos are being introduced with the expansion. So, in preparation, I've rolled up a night elf druid on another server. I plan to level her up as a kind of side hobby, and then when the time comes, faction/server transfer her to become a troll druid.

It certainly makes sense from a lore standpoint. To quote the Blizzard website on the subject of night elves and trolls:

"Certainly many trolls do believe that the humanoids who developed into the night elf race were trolls. The theory does have some credibility, for there is at least a superficial physical resemblance between trolls and night elves ... Nevertheless, many night elves find this theory preposterous and abhorrent. They are quick to point out that the first night elves began their rise to power by defeating a number of nearby troll tribes. As a consequence, the trolls came to fear and respect the might of their new rivals. The troll theory of night elf ancestry may have been a direct result of this early conflict. The trolls hated the night elves--a sentiment that persists to this day--and may have wished to marginalize the night elf race and its accomplishments. Also, attributing the night elf race with a troll heritage likely helped the trolls come to terms with their own shocking defeat."

Being the Hordie that I am, of course I prefer that night elves came from trolls instead of the other way around, and that my little druid will be returning to her roots.

However, there are two potential problems with this plan:

1. Faction changes to the new race/class combinations may be unavailable for a time. I can easily see Blizzard not allowing a transfer to a new race/class combination for at least thirty days, for one simple reason: it will give people a chance to get the "Server First!" of being the first troll druid, or first gnome priest, or whatever, organically, from level 1 to 80. If I decide to do that, I may have to wait some time.

2. Cataclysm also seems to be significantly revamping the old world, which means that I might want to start over and run up a character from level 1 anyway. I am planning to roll up a goblin mage or shaman, so I'll be doing that anyway.

It will depend on how wedded I get to playing a night elf druid. I'm not particularly fond of how often my character has been hit on already, and she's only level 8. Of course, my 74 female blood elf priest gets that to an extent too, but not as often as I'd expected. I think the frequency may still already be higher on the night elf.

Still, it's fun to learn about a class I haven't played much -- my last druid only made it to level 24 -- and there's a ton of new stuff to learn. It's something I'll pick at between times of the more serious business of leveling up my BE priest and orc warlock, just for a change of pace. But I'm a sucker for leveling; I admit it.

Citizen Azeroth: Kickin' it old school

2009-08-27T10:37:00.005-04:00

After last weekend's Jcon fest, I began thinking about dusting off one of my long forgotten alts (actually my old main) and level her up to 80. She's my orc warlock, and I always liked playing her, but I got a bit annoyed with playing her in raids because there was little interesting to do (curse, dot dot nuke, dot dot nuke, dot dot nu... well, you get the idea).

So, when WOTLK came out, I decided to play my orc rogue instead, and for awhile it was a lot of fun. It was kind of cool being the first person in my guild to be able to open the new lockboxes, although the waves of lockboxes hitting my mailbox soon made that novelty wear off (not to mention that I actually invested in the glyph that increases lockpicking speed. I got rid of it once other rogues got high enough).

But then, I hit 80, and raiding, and realized I'd jumped out of one bucket, and landed in the same brand of bucket, just painted a slightly different color.

If anything, WOTLK has given us even less character differentiation and fewer "cool" things for our toons to do. No more pickable locked doors. No more chests. Very few fights where rogue poisons are useful, beyond extra DPS. Interrupts are useful but there are a lot of uninterruptible mobs (like, just about every boss, with only a couple exceptions like Kel'thuzad), and now rogues have no particular advantages there. Crowd control is unnecessary. And I traded "dot dot nuke" for "*SS*, Slice and Dice, *SS*, rupture, *SS*, Slice and Dice, *SS*, rupture..."

(SS is Sinister Strike, the *s are a knitting pattern convention that means "repeat as necessary").

So when they got out the giant iron-clad spiked reinforced nerf stick and took 30% of my damage out of Fan of Knives, I decided it was time to level up the warlock.

My warlock has nearly a full set of Voidheart, the Tier 4 set from BC. The only piece she lacks is the robe, but the robe she wears is actually better than the Voidheart robe and isn't needed for the set bonus (come to think of it, I think the Voidheart robe may be in the bank). Needless to say, with its bright purples, the spiky shoulders with the magenta lightning bolts, running through Dalaran makes me stand out like a clown at a funeral. All the 80s are running around looking like they're wearing outfits made with the sole purpose of not showing dirt and travel stains, or like they're on their way to a fetish party. We complained about the clown suits they gave us in BC, particularly those teal pants with fuschia snakes all clothies loved to hate. But compared to the "Nordic brown" look of WOTLK, at least ... well, at least it was colorful. And in a city full of Nordic brown, one does stand out a bit.

So I was finishing up the cooking quest in Dalaran, picking mushrooms in the sewers, when I got a whisper from a nearby warrior, saying something like "Nice outfit". I laughed, and echoing some guildies on the subject of my (nearly) full Tier 4 set, replied back, "Tier 4, baby, kickin' it old school!" He laughed and told me to inspect him. It was another 70, decked out in a mix of BT and Hyjal gear. He told me that he'd been away from the game for a year and asked me when I'd gotten back; I told him that I hadn't been away, but was just resurrecting and dusting off some old, forgotten characters. We swapped stories about settling back in -- how we can't remember what half the icons are for, how he couldn't even remember how to hold aggro as a tank an instance now and he used to be his guild's MT for Hyjal; how I accidentally feared something instead of dotting it (well, to be honest, I used to do that when I DID ostensibly know what I was doing).

I do intend to replace the spiky purple lightning shoulders for heirlooms for the experience bonus, but I'll be sad to see the old Voidheart go. Not so sad that I won't sell it off when I replace the pieces, because Blizzard failed to give us a walk-in closet for our old gear and outfits.

Although, I admit, I still have my old Eye of Flame. Some outfits just aren't complete without a monacle.

Citizen Azeroth: Death of vanity plates?

2009-08-24T08:15:00.003-04:00

So I spent Blizzcon weekend at a much nicer venue: the Massachusetts home of Mike and Christy from Analog Hole Gaming, along with Thay from the same podcast, and several of my guildmates. We drank too much wine, ate too much food, played too much Rock Band 2 and watched selected bits from the Blizzcon DirecTV feed. We called the costume contest "Mystery Science Runway" because of our running commentary from the giant wraparound leather couch in the game room, puzzled over the third place winner of the video contest (what the hell did that mean anyway? That warriors are good and druids are bad?), and had lively discussion about the impact of the revealed changes coming up to WoW.

While I'm sure I'll commentate on a lot of parts of the expansion over the next months (I certainly don't expect the expansion out until LATE 2010 at the earliest; they'll probably try to avoid the post-Christmas release of the Burning Crusade), the one part of the show that got the most discussion was upcoming changes to the guild system and how this would affect our guild on Whisperwind.

See, the guild I belong to has long called itself a "metaguild" (I think Tua, who was at the party, coined the term originally). Our guild isn't about our guild tag as much as it is about a confederation of people, many of whom wear different guild tags. I haven't counted recently, but at a typical Collective raid, we might have as many as six to eight different guild tags. We look like a pug; we aren't. There are many people who are "in" The Collective who aren't "in" , if you get my meaning. Membership in this metaguild is given to individuals we like, which gives them access to the guild forums and a chat channel. I don't remember the last time anyone actually talked in the official guild chat channel. We always use the other channel for all guild communications. The only thing it hasn't given them access to is the guild bank, but often people who join the metaguild will put one of their toons in for access there. We are just as fussy about who gets into the metaguild as any good guild is about who gets their guild tag. We don't ally with guilds; we ally with people.

So one of the big announcements connected with Cataclysm is a whole bunch of new incentives for guilds -- guild achievements, guild heirlooms, guild mounts, guild talent trees -- all of which are firmly tied to the guild. If you're not a named member of that guild, you can't access that guild's perks. Unlike access to the guild bank, you can't have nine of your toons in some other guild, one of your toons in , and mail yourself a Collective heirloom item to a toon that isn't in the guild. Also, people in presumably won't get credit toward goodies from people who are attending raids organized by the metaguild but who wear a different guild tag.

Having both the guild leader and one officer, as well as several highly involved members at the party, we had some discussion about this and decided that, guild system or no guild system, we aren't changing the way we do business. We like our metaguild the way it is, so our philosophies and approaches won't change. We never pressure anyone to join the guild as a named member to play with us, and we have no intention of changing this policy. People who are approved to join the metaguild always have the option of joining us as a guild tagged toon, but it will remain an unpressured option.

However, there are some downsides that I see for some of our friends in other guilds. Also, I'm a little concerned about the status of vanity plates.

Vanity plate guilds are guilds that only have a few members, for whatever reason. Cryler and I have a vanity plate guild -- only the two of us are members and it's just for us. It's a good way for us to share stuff between us. I know a lot of people with one-person or two-person guilds. My 75 blood elf priest is in the vanity plate guild, though she's active in The Collective metaguild; up until the proposed changes had been announced, I had planned to keep her in the vanity plate, just because I already have plenty of characters and didn't need more. However, now, I will need to rethink.

But vanity plate guilds aren't my real concern. I'm worried about what smaller-sized guilds are going to do with their raiding plans. Already I've seen guilds who are attempting to tighten their raiding restrictions, to make people raid only with their guilds. This is something I totally understand if you're a progression guild, but if you're a self-described casual guild, it's another matter. Many of these guilds don't have enough people interested in raiding; either they become "training" guilds where people leave soon after hitting 80 for more progression-minded guilds, or they become guilds of alts -- or in the case where people have access to metaguilds like ours, even well-geared and experienced raiders stay because they can have their social fun with their named guild but still have a way to join more progression-oriented raiding if they want. The metaguild doesn't require raiding at all (for example, I'm an officer in and I never raid), but gives plenty more options for ten-man and twenty-five-man raiding. Many other-guilded metamembers I know raid with their own guilds on some days and with The Collective on others.

I'd be sorry to see some of our metaguild members be forced into a choice. It's already happened a couple of times, where smaller guilds have decided to make rules restricting their raiding to their guild. Sometimes they choose their named guild, and sometimes they leave that guild and join us for real. It's fine with us and it's totally up to them. But it was hard to see some of my friends already agonizing about what they would do in that situation. They love being part of The Collective but they also love their small social guilds, and I know it would hurt some of them dreadfully to have to choose between them.

We will never force a choice. That's up to others. But even for guilds that will choose to force that choice, it's not entirely their fault. For all its possible good points, the changes Blizzard is implementing for guild achievements, talents, and goodies will kill many of the smaller social guilds. Not just vanity plates, either. People see shiny stuff and want it. It's going to take some strength and determination to resist it and keep the bigger picture in mind.

To me, it's more important who a guild is than what they have. I don't see that changing, even if a new guild could give me a pony.

Citizen Azeroth: Welcome, Ursalla, Achievement Experiment

2009-04-26T06:49:00.002-04:00

Welcome, Ursalla, to my stable of experiment toons.

The experiment: How many achievements I can get at level 1, level 5, level 10, level 15 and level 20.

Purpose: Part of it is to find out how many achievements are doable at low levels. Part of it is prove my theory that the achievement system is not set up with low levels in mind.

Parameters: I am not going to do achievements where I simply see how much money I can spend. This lets out achievements such as My Sack is "Gigantique", Safe Deposit, or any of the pet collecting quests beyond those purchaseable from NPC vendors or easily gathered by my other toons. I don't plan to be shelling out 7500g for a Hyacinth Macaw anytime soon.

I will also not do experiments where I need a high level character to clear mobs for me. If I choose to do ones that take me into high level areas where I am likely to be brutally killed, so be it. For example, in the achievement Well Read, some of the books are located in places like Scholomance and Stratholme, but may have locations in other areas not normally accessible to Horde toons. The book Kil'jaeden and the Shadow Pact is available in Scholo, Strat, and Duskwood, so clearly, going to Duskwood is my option there. I realize this means I may or may not be able to complete the achievement, but I will do as much of it as I can.

I will not use warlock summoning to get me to places I should not be. For this reason, I am not planning to do the world exploration achievement. My understanding is that someone has already done this one at level 14, but he almost certainly had to have help of a high level warlock and group to summon him to some areas. Some areas in Outlands and Northrend are only able to be explored by flying mount, so he'd have to have used warlock summoning. I plan to use no warlock summoning in the course of this experiment.

I will use some of my high level character's talents and definitely use some of their money to help me get items I couldn't otherwise get. I'll explain those below in the "achievements achieved" and "achievements in progress" section. I also plan to get a high level mage to port me to Dalaran so I will be able to work on the Higher Learning quests. I will use the portals in Dalaran to attempt to move myself as close to objectives as possible, more to slow down experience as anything. For that reason, I plan to complete as few quests as possible during the course of this experiment.

I will try not to leave a level until I have completed as many of the quests as I can at that level. This may be difficult as some exploration experience will be necessary as I move to areas needed to do my achievements, but I will do my best to slow down my experience at all times.

I will also be perfectly candid about how I got the achievement and how much outside help was required to do it.

The experiment thus far...

Ursalla is now level 1 and has completed four achievements:

Can I Keep Him? Ursalla now has five pets: a Baby Blizzard Bear, three snakes purchased in Orgrimmar, and a Tickbird Hatchling. The Baby Blizzard Bear is an account-bound pet so I just mailed her one from one of my other characters. I got the Tickbird Hatchling from the Oracle egg from my rogue Magahli, since she has gotten four of these since she started opening eggs.

Represent: Ursalla bought a guild tabard for 1g. Obviously she's received some money from my other characters.

Shave and a Haircut: Curiously enough, a restyle is free at level 1. All that required was running to the Orgrimmar barber shop.

Second That Emotion: The emotion foods (haunted herring, et. al) are all edible at level 1. My rogue baked her a set.

She is currently working on the achievements Tastes Like Chicken, where you have to sample 50 different foods, and It's Happy Hour Somewhere, where you need to sample 25 different drinks. At level 1, she has managed to eat 22 different foods and 15 drinks. I've been quite surprised how many foods and drinks are available, particularly when you have a rogue who is only missing the Kickin' Chimerok Chops recipe, as well as the new Thanksgiving recipes they're going to introduce later this year. Also, surprisingly, much of the booze sold in Dalaran is edible at level 1.

She has also started To All the Squirrels I've Loved Before and Pest Control, but hasn't made that much progress in either. She'll need to do a bit of travelling, as both require trips into Northrend. Also, as soon as I can get her to Dalaran, I'm going to start the unhappy business of camping for the books for Higher Learning.

So I'll keep you posted. I can't start any of the quests requiring professions, but you can bet I'm going to be catching my 2000 fish and cooking as much as I can. I am going to do my best to try to fall 65 feet without dying (lowest character I've managed to do that with so far was nearly 30 and that was an accident). As soon as she's 10, I'll post an armory link, but that may be weeks in the future as I'm going to try to avoid experience whenever possible.

Citizen Azeroth: Why I'm not a team player

2009-02-04T17:39:00.003-05:00

There are times when grouping is necessary -- raids and instances are perfect examples. While you can do instances alone, you have to be so much higher than the useful range of the instance that you have to be farming it for different purposes. If you want to do an instance at level, you have to group.

But when I'm questing, mostly I am Greta Garbo: I want to be left alone*.

There are times when it's handy to do small short-term groups. I'd rather group up quick with some handy folks to get down a common mob, rather than compete for spawn. It's necessary to do most group quests, though the vast majority of the time I'll get my husband to help me rather than ask strangers.

This is proving to be a difficult concept to get across playing a priest.

To explain: there's a new server out, and I'm playing a blood elf priest, just for the fun of starting on a brand new server. It's so new that the AQ gates aren't even open. Transfers will be closed for another two and a half months. There are already 80s but not many. Copper ore and bars still sell for 1s each. People aren't putting up low level greens at twink-with-an-80-sugar-daddy prices. There are groups going for instances like RFC and Wailing Caverns, rather than lowbies begging for rushes. It's kind of fun.

However, everywhere I go, people are inviting me to group up for normal questing. Most of them are polite or at least don't answer when I refuse and tell them I'm not interested in grouping. Some actually get snotty. But they're the exception.

So why don't I group for normal questing?

Pure selfishness.

I want to decide what I am going to do on my own time, in my own order.

I want the loot. I am level 15 and have just over a gold to my name. The downside of copper selling for 1s apiece is that there isn't a good money scheme for lowbies and you're relying almost exclusively on small-profit sales and quest cash. Tip for lowbies on new servers: do the Draenei and blood elf newbie and secondary newbie zones; the money is a LOT better. I don't want to have to share drops.

I will see an herb node and I want to go pick it. I'll dash off in the middle of something else to pick flowers. Worse, I don't want to be grouped with another herbalist where I will need to share.

There's only one person I group with as a rule, and I married him.

So, instances, okay. Group quests -- okay, only if I am sure I can't do it myself. But normal questing? Let me run off and do my own thing.

It's nothing personal. It's not about you. It's about me. Honest.

*Greta Garbo never said "I want to be alone." She said "I want to be left alone." It's a common misquote.

Citizen Azeroth: Rarity is a virtue

2009-01-14T13:59:00.004-05:00

Back when I played Everquest, I played a gnome cleric. Not just any gnome cleric, but a cleric of the god Bertoxxulous. This is significant because gnomes could choose from three different deities: Brell Serillis, god of the mountains, and Bristlebane, god of mischief, and Bertoxxulous, god of disease. With Brell and Bristlebane, you didn't encounter faction problems with the so-called "good" races, and both deities had good armor and a lot of deity-specific things and quests. With Bertox, however, you screwed up your factions with a lot of the good guys and didn't have as much gear or as good quests to choose from. So why did I do it? Simply put: it amused me.

When Wrath of the Lich King came out, I had a choice of several different 70s to concentrate on, and I had fully intended it to be my undead warrior, Renatta. However, late in TBC I had been playing my rogue, Magahli, and was just having way too much fun with her -- so much so that she has become my new main.

Magahli is an orc.

Orcs aren't quite the least popular Horde race; that distinction belongs to trolls (probably because of consistently weak racial abilities). In my opinion, orcs have among the very strongest racials in the game, with broad applicability to every single class they can be. However, they still only represent about 5% of all characters over level 10 in the game across all servers (they are popular as auction mules simply because of the close proximity of Durotar to Orgrimmar).

The reason is simple: orcs are not pretty. My rogue would be very offended to hear this, since she considers herself quite a beauty among orcs. However, to human eyes, orcs are not at all attractive. First, there's the matter of the skin, ranging from a grey-green mossy color to almost a virulent ... well, distinctly mucoid shade. There's the teeth and the mouth breathing. The eyes are kind of small. The hair options for the females ... well, most of them don't really involve much of any hair (although there are some paid options at the barber shop that have more hair, and curiously enough, I didn't like any of them). The females are built more on the female powerlifter model and less on Brittany Spears, with bubble butts and huge thighs and arms -- but then again, I've always been more of an Anja Langer fan than a Brittany one. Though they are rather glorious, in a Lursa and B'Etor kind of way. Unless they're the type who read women's bodybuilding mags for the pictures, most guys wouldn't find their butts interesting to watch over long periods of time, and most women I know seem to find their roughness and crudeness offputting. I think it's funny.

When I was looking for a rogue character to roll up, I specifically looked at all the races to find out which was the least common -- on the Horde side, of course, since I primarily play Horde. On Whisperwind at least, the orc was the least common by nearly 2%. Plus I had been playing my orc warlock (chosen because of the great racials for demonology locks) and knew that I liked the female orc model.

Maggie the rogue was born.

I realize some class/race combos are fixed -- like druids, blood elf paladins, and draenei shaman -- but next time you're choosing, try the road less traveled. It's fun and adds a little difference to your toon. You may not be the only one, but you can be close, like being one of only 8 level 80 orc rogues on a server of over 32,000 (that's 0.025% of the population for anyone who is interested in the math), and only one of 55 over level 10 (0.17%). With those odds, you might as well be.

Citizen Azeroth: Are people more bloodthirsty on PvE servers?

2008-09-28T07:49:00.002-04:00

Fact: On a PvP server, you can (and do) run around flagged for PvP combat all the time.

Fact: On a PvE server, you run around unflagged unless you flag yourself, by (a) turning on the flag manually, (b) attacking another flagged character, (c) exiting a battleground or arena, or (d) taking on a quest that requires you to flag for PvP.

Fact: On a PvP server, you can run around flagged and a lot of the time, nobody bothers you. I've run into opposite faction players a lot of the time out questing, and much of the time, we just /wave and go on our merry way.

Fact: On a PvE server, people automatically believe that you are flagged for PvP because you are begging for a smackdown, and they will ALWAYS attack you if the think they have even a snowball's chance in hell of doing any damage to you. Heck, I've seen characters without a snowball's chance attack a flagged player on PvE servers. PvP players are too canny for that.

So, given that at lest two of the reasons one might flag on a PvE server -- exiting battlegrounds/arenas and taking on a quest where PvP flagging is required -- are not cases where the person really wants to engage in "real" PvP outside whatever it is they are doing, why do all people on PvE servers assume that they have a giant "Kick Me" sign taped to them?

And why is it that on a PvP server, where presumably you're there because you're interested, at least in part, in engaging in PvP on a less casual basis, do many (not all, but many) people assume that perhaps, once in a while, you really DO just want to complete your quest/run to your flight point/do whatever else it is in the world you want to do, rather than duke it out for no reason other than that you're two opposite faction people?

It sort of reminds me of the difference between Hollywood perception of wars and what I've read about actual behavior of soldiers in war. During the Civil War, it was fairly common for pickets (camp guards) on both the Union and Confederate side to exchange goods (coffee, whiskey, cigars, etc) and chat, or at least let one another know that they're there, rather than shoot each other on sight. Most of the time, they didn't just draw their guns and start blazing away at one another. They both knew the other was there, and many pickets claimed to have had opposite side pickets who became "almost friends" since they encountered one another so often.

I've been finding similar behavior on The Venture Company. There are people you run into on the other side who are questing in your area, and you may run into them several times. With some of these folks, it's almost like both sides give a big sigh of relief, /wave, and go off farming up their 20 satyr horns or whatever we're doing that day. Try running around flagged on a PvE server and see what kind of treatment you get.

Citizen Azeroth: There is a cure for the summertime blues...

2008-08-19T13:32:00.004-04:00

I hit the three-year-funk.

I hit it when I played Everquest. About the time I'd been playing three years, I hit a stretch of time where I just didn't feel enthusiastic about the game. I kept playing more out of a sense that I should rather than because I felt I wanted to play. I played even when I didn't want to.

At that time, I was the guild's second in command and raid leader, and this was not a guild full of people who wanted to lead or would step up to the challenge. If I didn't play, raids wouldn't happen, period. I knew because I tried it early on and organized play just kind of fell apart. Everyone seemed enthusiastic to run what I organized, but no one stepped up to run anything if I didn't do it.

So I kept playing through the three-year funk, and my resentment toward the game just grew and grew. I ended up playing for another year without really taking a break. And I burned out, bad. I quit playing the game altogether. The guild continued for about a year after I left, though by the time they folded, most of the active players had moved on to other guilds. I talked to a couple of them later and they said that for them, the sign that the guild was doomed was when Cryler and I left and quit the game.

I suppose that was flattering, but on the other hand, it was a lot of pressure and a lot to live up to. And it's had lasting effects on my gaming experience. First, I still don't play a healer class; my main was a gnome cleric and I was the main healer, and to this day I'm not interested in playing a healer again (probably the reason my paladin is stuck at 69). Second, I have never, ever volunteered to be a raid leader. In fact, four years after I left EQ, I still feel burned out on raiding.

This is not the situation I am in now. There are differences, but I have learned from my mistakes on how I handled my last three-year-funk.

The most important thing is that when I started to feel like I really needed a hiatus, I took it. I usually take July off because evenings are taken up watching the Tour de France, but once the Tour was over, I still didn't feel like playing. So I didn't force myself. I decided instead to apply myself to something that had been nagging at me for awhile -- namely, a problem I'd had finding a good new genealogy program to handle my family tree data (long story, but I've had problems since my old program stopped being supported and importing my old data into Family Tree Maker was a complete disaster), and then starting the process of re-entering my research. This has been an absorbing project that I've been enjoying wholeheartedly since the end of July. Instead of sitting down to play WoW every time I had a block of free time, I've been revisiting fifteen years of research and filling in gaps, correcting mistakes, and re-examining assumptions.

But I have to give the biggest credit to the peace and ease of this break to my guild. They aren't the needy group that guilted me into playing even when I didn't want to play. Part of it is that I've stayed out of the raiding scene, but most of it can be credited to them and their own drives and ambitions. Raiding has gone beautifully without me, and I'm happy for them. When I do pop in to say hello, they're warm and friendly, but they don't pressure me to play when I don't want to play. They are still supporting me on the class roundtables on the show, still helping answer questions when I have something I don't quite understand. They know I'm still around and that I'll be back, and I hope they know they can call on me if they need me for anything. But they are giving me the much-needed space to rest, concentrate on something else, and get my enthusiasm again without hitting a real burn-out point.

I really think every gamer hits the wall at some time or other. MMORPGs are consuming games that take a lot of time and concentration and effort to progress and do well. You can only put that kind of energy into something for just so long before you need to do something else for awhile. Genealogy is actually like that for me -- I may go whole hog on it for months, then get totally sick of it, put it aside for months, and then pick it up again later. Every absorbing hobby has those points. I hit mine with WoW, and this time I'm smart enough to take care of myself. I still stay involved and still stay up to date for the sake of the podcast, but I can easily take a few months off from the game and not get out of touch. And as they say in the theatre, the show must go on.

And as Ah-nuld said, I'll be back.

I'm not going anywhere. I'll still pop on from time to time. I may even play for short periods. But I'm enjoying some time off.

Citizen Azeroth: It's all about the follicles

2008-08-01T14:33:00.003-04:00

Pop over to http://www.resto4life.com/ and you'll see something I've been itching for in WOTLK. It's not talents. It's not new spells.

MY ORCS WILL HAVE HAIR!

Yes, folks, the new hairstyles (female anyway) available from barbers in WOTLK have been revealed. Not sure if it's all of them, but I'm thrilled with the orc female choices. All of these hairstyles involve hair. No more styling little tufts. Even the long hair orc model now really seems to be nothing more than a massive combover (or combdown, as the case may be).

But on closer inspection, the thrill of new hair sort of goes away, because ... let's face it, most of these styles ore not very original. For the most part, they're shifting around existing hairstyles.

Blood elf females: There are really only 4 hairstyles here, since the last two models show the same style from two different angles. They from night elf, gnome, human, and Draenei models.

Draenei: Some Draenei must have kidnapped a blood elf stylist, because all four of the "new" hairstyles are all blood elf models.

Gnome: Human, human (both show doubles to show the ponytail and the front), dwarf, dwarf, and ... maybe an original style? I don't recognize the folded up ponies. Maybe it's a Draenei style? Not sure on that one.

Humans: May get two originals, hard to tell for certain. The first one doesn't look familiar, though it's clearly a variation on a theme from the Evil Prom Queen blood elf style, which is the second style here. Again, the first two show two styles, so four models actually equals two styles. The third style shown is also a bit of a guess, but I think it's one of the dwarf braided bobs or the behind-the-back braid. The last one is also clearly a blood elf fashion.

Night Elves: Who'da thunk the Night Elves would be taking fashion cues from the dwarves? Anyway, dwarf coiffure seems to be all the rage. The first, second, and fourth hairstyles shown are all dwarven in origin. The third one is a blood elf style, which seems to make more sense to me for the tall, willowy, and fashion-conscious elves. I believe the last one is also a blood elf style, but it's hard to tell, since the style really doesn't flatter that well and, let's face it, these pictures are pretty damn small.

Orcs: Draenei, blood elf, draenei, undead, troll. Add plenty of hair gel for that spikey, can-do look. (I prefer to think hair gel rather than that they might not take a shower as often as they should). But I'm happy. At least they have hair now. Maybe they've come out with Orc-compatible Rogaine. Even the one long style they used to have for orcs looked like a giant combover.

Tauren: Um ... er ... . ?

I think there's something going on with the horns. I'm not sure.

Troll: Although they're variations on a theme (how many different kinds of ponytails CAN you do?), these actually look semi-original.

Undead: One, two, and six are clearly gnome. Four is probably dwarf. Three and five .. not so sure. It's a bit hard to tell from the angle.

Anyway, I would have liked to have seen more original models and less recycling. but given that my orcs will now have hair, I can't be too overly critical.

Citizen Azeroth: It's the frog's fault

2008-07-21T17:11:00.003-04:00

In the space of a week and a half, I've had to replace both my monitor and my sound card.

And it's all the frog's fault.

When I left my dot-com job back in 2002, I received a gift from one of my co-workers (I also received three resumes on my desk when people heard I was leaving to go into business for myself). This co-worker was another techie, and he was giving me his most prized possession: a small rubber tree frog. "If I keep this on my computer," he said, "I never have technical problems."

And damn it, the frog works -- as long as it's kept on the computer.

Read those words again: as long as it's kept on the computer.

Every time the frog falls off, or I temporarily lose the frog, I have problems. When I had catastrophic issues with my Dell XPS, while moving things around I discovered the frog on the floor behind my desk. I replaced it on the computer after the XPS was fixed, and I haven't had a problem since.

Well, about two weeks ago, I discovered my monitor was on its last legs, so I ordered a new one. And then, a couple days ago, my sound card died.

And you guessed it: while I was under my desk fishing out cables and unplugging stuff in preparation for doing brain surgery on my computer, I found the frog on the floor.

So he's back, sitting on my new 22" LCD high def monitor (well, why not upgrade as long as I have to replace?) and enjoying the sound of my new sound card (thankfully it was the card and not my Bose speaker system, which is a lot more expensive.

My next purchase? Sticky Velcro. That little bugger's going NOWHERE.

Citizen Azeroth: Falling off the wagon

2008-07-03T12:40:00.002-04:00

I fell a little off the wagon last night.

I had a momentary "why am I still doing this?" moment, with the Horde reputation experiment that turned into a leveling experiment. I had been stuck a bubble and change from 62 for more than a day. I have had exalted reputation with all the player races since 61. Why was I still in Azeroth?

So, I ditched all my old world quests, completed three quests into Outlands, dinged 62 ...and thought about it again.

This morning, I went back and picked up the old world quests again. The idea that Winterspring, Eastern Plaguelands and (yes, even) Silithus were still there untouched left me feeling I'd left this big, gaping hole in the program.

I suppose when an experiment in a game stops being fun, it's time to stop. But honestly, I can't say it's not fun. I think it was the mental hurdle of being stuck at 61.95 for a day that got me antsy. Yes, the experience has really slowed down, but when has this quest started being about experience? Wasn't I saying earlier that I wanted experience to slow down? Well, apparently, be careful what you wish for.

So I'm back on track, back on the program. I just had a minor problem with my commitment to Sparkle Motion.

Citizen Azeroth: 81% into 61, one goal completed

2008-06-30T10:19:00.003-04:00

As of this morning, my rogue is 81% into level 61 and Exalted with all five player factions.

The final reputation ding came from completing the Defile Uther's Tomb quest in Western Plaguelands. I admit I was starting to become tempted to finish off the remaining few hundred points with runecloth turn-ins, but I hung in there and didn't do any repeatable rep turn-ins to finish off Silvermoon.

So am I cutting short the experiment? Nope. I still intend to do as many old world quests as I can and see how much experience I can get just on old world questing. Given that I am just a couple bubbles from 62, haven't completed Western Plaguelands, and haven't even started questing in Burning Steppes (much less Eastern Plaguelands, Winterspring, and Silithus, except for a few quests from other zones that pathed in there), I expect to be at least well past my mid-60s before I call the experiment done.

But if you see a female orc rogue running around on a Swift Pink Hawkstrider, give me a /wave.

Citizen Azeroth: Rep Experiment 2 - Phase ... er, something complete

2008-06-27T21:24:00.002-04:00

OK, I've lost count.

But I finished Felwood, Azshara, and Un'goro, and Sunken Temple, and desecrated and honored a whole heck of a lot of fires.

Level: 61 (43%)
Number of quests completed: 1179

The high number has to do with the Midsummer Festival. Every "Honor the Flame" and "Desecrate the Flame" has its own quest. So it really upped the count.

Silvermoon faction: 19548/21000 (1452 from Exalted)

Still have done no repeatable reputation quests.

So, I am now 61 and heading into the next phase of Western Plaguelands and Burning Steppes. Then, last but not least, the last phase is Eastern Plaguelands, Winterspring, and Silithus.

Silithus may be where my resolve breaks. That place is a total pesthole.

As far as instances go -- from this point on, I'll do old world instances as I am able, but frankly finding people to do them with is challenging. I have a couple friends who have been kind enough to offer to take me through many of them, and I will take them up on it to a point, but I don't want to intrude on them too badly. It's about now I need to face up to the fact that hardly anyone wants to do the old level 60 content anymore.

Citizen Azeroth: Rep Experiment 2 - Phase 6/6a Complete

2008-06-18T12:03:00.002-04:00

I am seriously beginning to wonder how close to 70 I will get before I finish Azeroth.

I decided to change the parameters of Phase 6 and add in Phase 6a -- Searing Gorge and Blasted Lands. For the Horde side anyway, these are both rather "short" zones and bridge between that and the Phase 7 zones of Azshara, Felwood, and Un'goro.

So I finished these phases, and here is where things stand:

Level: 57 (5% into level)
Number of quests completed: 979

Zones completed: Tanaris, Feralas, The Hinterlands, Searing Gorge, Blasted Lands
Instances completed: Zul'farrak, Maraudon

Silvermoon: 17570/21000 (3430 to go)

I got 2000/3000 into Cenarion Circle, and 1750/3000 into Thorium Brotherhood, both Neutral. I am not planning to pursue Thorium Brotherhood, since, as an engineer, I don't want anything they have to offer.

I am Honored with all Goblin factions, high Honored with Booty Bay, Gadget and Ratchet, and only about 30% into Honored with Everlook. But that will change once I get into Winterspring later on.

Of course, I am also aware that all of these zones will require crossing back into when I hit higher zones. There are several Un'goro quests that path back into Tanaris and Feralas, for example. The "quest complete" for a zone indicates the completion of all* quests that originate there.

*All quests. I should take a moment to define this. There are some quests I can't do without a profession change, such as a tailoring line in Searing Gorge that requires 230 tailoring. I'm not going to drop professions so I can do quests for that. I also don't do repeats of quests that only give faction, which means I am not doing ANY repeats of the runecloth quest. I do the first quest, but none of the repeats.

So, it's on to Phase 7. I will do Azshara, Felwood, and Un'goro, and as far as instances, it's Sunken Temple time.

Citizen Azeroth: Searing Gorge is to Old Route 66...

2008-06-17T08:18:00.009-04:00

Remember those old SAT analogy tests?

If you don't know what Old Route 66 is, this analogy won't make any sense, so I'll explain it to those out-of-towners who don't know the recent transportation history of the United States. Route 66 was one of the first federal highways (started in 1926) that ran from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California (nearly 2500 miles) and was probably the main thoroughfare from the central US to the west coast. Starting in the mid-1950s, with the start of the new interstate highway system, Route 66 began to suffer, starting the decline and fall of hundreds of small businesses such as restaurants, hotels, gas stations, and a wide variety of tourist traps. It was officially decommissioned in the mid-1980s. Parts of Route 66 have been revitalized locally and "Historic Route 66" signs line much of the road today, but much of it is also totally dead. Having driven along some of it, I can attest to the fact that some of the road is downright bleak. If you want to read more about Route 66, this is a good resource.

Today, my rogue started Searing Gorge, as part of an extended Phase 6. I decided to roll Searing Gorge and Blasted Lands into Phase 6, since these zones don't really fit either into Phase 6 (Tanaris, Feralas, and Hinterlands) or Phase 7 (Felwood, Un'goro, and Azshara). They're sort of "6a".

I'm about half done. As far as I can tell, I am completely and totally alone in this zone.

Before TBC was released, this place was a zoo. It wasn't just from people who were leveling here. The incendosaurs were more or less perma-camped by people working on Thorium Brotherhood faction. The place was full of level 60s, then the uber-level, going to BRD, LBRS, UBRS, Molten Core, and Blackwing Lair for raids and groups. The path between the flight points in Thorium Point and Blackrock Depths was always being trained back and forth, purposely or not, by thoughtless 60s on their way without thinking about the 40s and 50s who might be in their wake.

Today, there seems to be a giant "Road Closed" sign

Thorium Brotherhood has probably suffered the most as among the least pursued old world factions today. Unless you're a blacksmith, and now even if you are a blacksmith, Thorium Brotherhood is pretty much useless. The patterns make stuff you can replace your first day doing Outlands quests out of Hellfire, and don't require having to go all the way to the bottom of BRD just to forge the metals. Quests and recipes that seemed ridiculously difficult then are not even worth doing today. If Blizzard wants any chance of people ever going for these recipes and factions again, they're going to have to move the rep vendor out of the BRD bar and activate a dark iron forge somewhere a bit more accessible.

With the experience modifiers increased, the only reason someone would go to this out of the way zone with difficult access to mailboxes and amenities (especially for the Alliance) is if they were stubborn and wanted to do all the quests (like me). The quests are kind of a pain in the butt to do, the scenery is not what most people seem to like, and you can easily skip this zone in favor of friendlier, more easily accessible and more quest-heavy zones. Truth be told, I rather like the desert-y zones, so for me the scenery is just fine, and I actually like that nobody else seems to agree with me anymore. I had formerly contested camps all to myself -- nice and quiet.

It reminds me of when I played Everquest I and they installed the Bazaar feature (sort of like WoW's auction house, with some major inconveniences that thankfully Blizzard did without, such as requiring you to keep a toon online to do your selling, a requirement Sony thankfully did away with in Everquest 2). On my old server, the place people used to gather to sell their wares was the tunnels between East Commonlands and the Desert of Ro. People indicated where they were standing by the torch numbers -- the torch closest to the entrance to East Commons was t1, the next one t2, etc. ("selling a bag of junk at t1 -- come look, all offers!"). While many people looked at this system with great fondness -- something akin to the rose-colored glasses where we look at travel vacations and remember only the good parts, not the parts where people got carsick or the airline lost our luggage -- I remember that all the extra people, sometimes up to a hundred, caused such incredible local lag that it was almost impossible to do any actual questing in East Commons.

Once the Bazaar opened, all commerce shifted up there, and nobody was hawking their wares at t1 or t2 anymore. East Commons became deserted to all but people crossing the zone on their way to other places, and some lowbies who still quested there.

Searing Gorge has that feel of seen-better-days. Once it was a veritable thoroughfare of activity. Now it's just another semi-forgotten quest zone hardly anyone visits anymore, with a faction only the most diehard recipe collectors bother to work. If you look carefully, you can almost see the potholes, the abandoned Texaco stations, the faded brochures from tourist traps long gone, and the dust kicked up by a Ford woodie station wagon rumbling in the distance.

Citizen Azeroth: Never. Again.

2008-06-16T22:55:00.006-04:00

I am never doing Maraudon again.

Never.

Never.

N.E.V.E.R.

I'm probably not doing Uldaman again either, but for different reasons.

Don't get me wrong; I love most of the Azeroth-era instances. Shadowfang Keep is one of my all-time favorites -- it's stylish, full of interesting stuff, lots of bosses, compact, and easy to get through in a short period of time. It's not hard to navigate. I even like Sunken Temple, even though I get lost in there a lot.

But I used to think Uldaman was my least favorite instance. Now it's Mara, a dungeon I'd never really done before.

But part of my rogue's purpose in life is to do all quests, and so I had to do both Uldaman and Mara. And here's why I think these are poorly designed dungeons.

The reasons Uldaman sucks:

1. Almost no quests actually path into the instance. Most of the quests occur outside the instance. Now that Blizzard removed the elites from outside the instance, these actually seem kind of dull and routine, rather that interesting. Plus, the problem with outside-the-instance quests is that you are competing with other players for the same spawn. Now, Uldaman isn't exactly a high traffic area anymore, but I did have a problem fighting for the same (rare) pink and slightly obscene looking mushrooms as an Alliance party.

2. Some of these quests involve pathing back to Undercity, or worse, THE OTHER FREAKIN' CONTINENT. Seriously. The shattered necklace quest on the Horde side involves an intermediate turn-in in Orgrimmar. Then you have to go back into Uldaman -- inside the instance. Then you have to go back out to Kargath, across the zone. Then back into Uldaman. Then ... back to Orgrimmar, and then back to Kargath.

If you're bound in Kargath, this saves some pain (though most of us, I suspect, bind in Shattrath these days) but that doesn't save you having to use long flights and the zeppelins or ships to get back and forth. This can take up to fifteen minutes just to do intermediate turn-ins. And you have to do it more than once.

Not to mention there are other quests that go back to Undercity. It's a long boring flight from Kargath to Undercity, and then back again.

3. The same quest that involves the back and forth to Orgrimmar also requires three people to summon the last boss. For those of us who rush instances with a friend (in my case, my husband), we have to find a third person to drag into the damn instance. Another pain in the butt.

4. Because there is only one quest that really paths inside, and one small one found inside (the Indiana Jones-type map room quest that opens the door to a single boss -- whoopee), there honestly just isn't much to do in that instance except slog from one boss to another. I suppose this isn't much different from some of the Outlands instances where you only have one quest to kill the end guy, but Uldaman is a lot bigger and seems like a lot more tedious work to get there.

Speaking of tedious work:

Here's why Mara sucks.

1. This dungeon is to WoW what James Michener novels are to literature: too long by at least 75% and full of a lot of unnecessary crap no one but the most tedium-loving individuals want to deal with. This dungeon is unnecessarily huge with way too much trash and random patrols. It's not fun or challenging -- it's mind-numbingly dull. Thank God I rushed this with my husband's rogue and we could stealth by literally hundreds of unnecessary mobs.

2. This dungeon is difficult to navigate, both inside and out. It's not like Sunken Temple, which is a little confusing but rather compact. It's sprawling, everything looks alike, and it's very easy to get lost. If you don't know the outer tunnels well, you can spend twenty minutes just trying to figure out how to get out of the purple area (does this sound like the voice of experience? We kept going in circles. Blizzard, please invent bread crumbs, or give us chalk so we can mark what hall we went down). The maps are little help because the halls wind back on themselves. You can walk 100 feet and still only make about 10 linear feet of progress due to the switchbacks -- and you have to fight/sneak past a billion annoying little slimes to get there. This isn't fun.

It's really too bad because it's a very pretty instance. But it could be shrunk at least in half and nearly all the corridors outside eliminated and it would be a much more fun instance. Mara doesn't feel fun to me; it felt like an absolute chore.

The other thing Mara has going for it: Princess. She's just a sight to behold. Everyone needs to experience Princess firsthand. Although she's very disturbing for a rogue to deal with (let's just say I regret most of my good attacks are from behind).

But I finished Mara and Uldaman. Somehow. I got through them. But never again.

So, I am halfway through 55 and finished with the latest phase, although I will probably tack on a phase 6B to it. I'll decide on that tomorrow.

Citizen Azeroth: What do you know -- it's not Sunday

2008-06-12T08:53:00.006-04:00

Phase 5 completed

Zones completed: Badlands, Swamp of Sorrows, Dustwallow Marsh
Instances completed: Uldaman (ugh!)

Level: 49 (46%)

Darkspear Trolls: 20833/21000 (167)
Silvermoon: 13916/21000 (7084)
Obviously still Exalted with Orgrimmar, Undercity and Thunder Bluff.

I will be Exalted with Darkspear on the first quest out of Hinterlands I complete.

Number of quests completed: 806
Days played: 5 days 6 hours 45 minutes. Honestly, that's not that bad for level 49.

Honored with all goblin cities except Everlook -- still friendly with those.

These were pretty "short" zones -- not a ton of quests to do there. Uldaman was the worst part because of all the required running around to entirely different continents.

Next comes Phase 6, which will include Tanaris, Hinterlands, and Feralas, and the instances Maraudon and ZF. I will probably do one quest in Hinterlands just to get Exalted with Darkspear at 49, then go do Tanaris, which I feel starts out the lowest of the three. I will do Hinterlands next because of the tie-in to ZF, and then Feralas.

Citizen Azeroth: Rep Experiment 2 - Phase 4 Complete

2008-06-08T09:21:00.005-04:00

Ending level: 46 (70% into level)
Number of quests completed: 692

Zones finished: Arathi Highlands, Alterac Mountains, Desolace, Stranglethorn Vale
Instances rushed: Scarlet Monastery, Razorfen Downs

Reputation:
Undercity, Orgrimmar, and Thunder Bluff: Exalted
Darkspear Trolls: 18205/21000
Silvermoon City: 11132/21000

Also Revered with Booty Bay and Ratchet, Honored with all the other Goblin factions

The reputation experiment took a bit of a turn here, as levels forced me to jump zones a little more often. Prior to this, I had started a zone, completed it, and then moved to the next zone. This became a little more difficult in this phase, and I found myself completing the lower level quests in one zone, then moving to another, then moving to the next. The only zone I did start to finish was Stranglethorn Vale, which I saved for last since I knew it went into the highest levels of the four.

There were also quests where I had to cross into higher level zones I have reserved for higher phases. There were quests that led into Badlands, Hinterlands, Swamp of Sorrows, and Tanaris; since those lines went back into the Phase 4 zones, I did those and came back. It allowed me to pick up some fliers I'll need in Phase 5 anyway. I expect this will remain a common theme.

It seems like I am finishing about a phase a week; I notice phase completion posts are being made on Sundays. This may change as I get higher levels and it takes longer to complete zones. Some zones are also more packed than others; it took me little time to finish Desolace and Alterac Mountains, longer to do Arathi and Stranglethorn. Having never "completed" Stranglethorn before, that was a new experience.

On to Phase 5. This will be the zones Dustwallow Marsh, Badlands, and Swamp of Sorrows, and the Uldaman instance.

Citizen Azeroth: Rep Experiment 2 - Horde - 41 and Exalted...

2008-06-04T10:37:00.003-04:00

...with both Orgrimmar and Undercity.

Got Orgrimmar right as I dinged 41, finished Undercity after turning in a few quests in Tarren Mill and hit about 25% into level.

Going to buy my first cross faction mount. Next one will probably be Thunder Bluff, since I am 2,618 points from Exalted with them. Still quite a way away with Darkspear and Silvermoon.

Citizen Azeroth: Rep Experiment 2 - The story thus far at level 40

2008-06-03T08:08:00.005-04:00

Just dinged 40 last night. I had three and a half bubbles to level around 10:00 PM and decided to leave Desolace to turn in my Green Hills of Stranglethorn pages. Like I thought, doing this gave me more than enough xp to go train and, most importantly, buy my mount.

I was only able to buy the wolf, but soon I'll be able to buy the undead mount, and probably not long after that, the tauren kodo. STV will probably be the big rep zone with Darkspear, as will some of Arathi.

As of my "ding", I am:

- 695 points from Exalted with Orgrimmar
- 1809 points from Exalted with Undercity
- 3193 points from Exalted with Thunder Bluff
- 9127 points from Exalted with Darkspear Trolls
- 13,093 points from Exalted with Silvermoon

In Phase 4, I have done a few quests out of Tarren Mill into Alterac Mountains; a few quests out of Hammerfall into Arathi Highlands; and most of Desolace. The only part of STV I have touched is the initial "find the Nesingway camp" quests (there are three of them Hordeside) and the Green Hills of Stranglethorn, mostly to clear bank and bag space. I also completed Scarlet Monastery in one run, but still need to do RFD.

Unlike the other phases, where I completed one zone, moved to the next, etc., I am skipping around in my target zones, mostly because most of these zones have level 40ish quests and I wanted to do some of the lower 30ish level quests first. Right now I plan to finish out Desolace, and then probably finish out Tarren Mill and then Arathi Highlands (or perhaps reverse those two, haven't decided). STV is definitely going to be last, since out of the four zones, that one goes the highest, with quests into the mid-40s.

One interesting side note has to do with mining. My orc is an engineer and miner, and even though she's only in zones where you find up to mithril (truesilver occurs but so far have only run into a single node), due to the changes in skilling available from smelting, her mining is 235. I have found that with the smelting changes, where you can get more skill off smelting for longer, her mining has stayed well ahead of the curve. I entered main iron-mining zones and by this time, iron was already grey to me.

Citizen Azeroth: Strange ways real life meets WoW

2008-06-02T16:47:00.003-04:00

The fact that I am a scuba diver helps me play WoW.

No, seriously.

I have several certifications in diving, including advanced, wreck, and rescue. I did everything but the final exam to become a divemaster and decided I didn't want to go on to become an instructor, and therefore didn't want to carry liability insurance. Crossing the line to become a "professional" meant assuming a level of responsibility I didn't want to assume.

So how does this help me play WoW?

It's never failed to amaze me how realistic the underwater experience is in WoW. My orc rogue is currently in Desolace and has to do a lot of stuff underwater, including finding lockboxes in pretty convoluted underwater environments with overhead obstructions. Believe it or not, I use many of the same techniques I use to find fish underwater to find mobs and "stuff" like clams in WoW. It's a little hard to explain, but it works. Underwater it's much easier to look for movement than to look for colors; that is also true in WoW, where the color contrast between mobs and the surroundings is much less (though turning on NPC names is crucial here).

Where this hit me the most is in situations where I need to do "wreck diving" in WoW. It's not as big a deal when I have a water breathing potion, but when I don't, a basic wreck diving principle works here too. It's called the "rule of thirds" and it applies to air consumption. Use no more than one-third of your air to get to where you're going, no more than one-third of your air doing what you need to do and get clear of an overhead environment, and AT LEAST one-third of your air to get to the depth for your safety stop, do the three-minute stop, and then get safely to the surface (this is for recreational-limit wreck diving, not tech diving, which I don't do).

Of course, in WoW you don't have to worry about the safety stop, used by recreational divers to minimize risk of decompression sickness (the bends), but the rules still seem to apply. If you can't get where you're going on less than one-third of your air, you can't do it without a potion or a buff. Do what you need to do until you have one-third of your air left, then surface. Voila! I've never drowned in WoW -- never even started to drown.

Has anyone else had an experience like this, where some real-life skill has helped them in a game?

Citizen Azeroth: Rep Experiment 2 - Phase 3 Complete

2008-06-01T10:12:00.004-04:00

As of this morning, I completed Phase 3, consisting of:

Zones: Ashenvale, Stonetalon, Thousand Needles, and Tarren Mill
Instances: Blackfathom Deeps, Razorfen Kraul, and Gnomeregan

Tarren Mill was a little challenging because I had to stop at all quests taking me into Alterac Mountains or Arathi Highlands. Those are going to be part of Phase 4.

Level at the end of phase 3: 36 (25% into level)
Number of quests completed to date: 514

Reputation levels: All player races revered:
Darkspear: 8092/21000
Orgrimmar: 15986/21000
Silvermoon: 5063/21000
Thunder Bluff: 13413/21000
Undercity: 13778/21000

Preliminary conclusions: I am not going to be Exalted with any Horde factions prior to my mid-40s.

Other factions:
Ratchet: Friendly (4797/6000)
All other goblin factions: Friendly (905/6000)

One thing I found out using a mod called "Reputation Monitor" that shows, in chat, the sympathetic reputation from all quests if you get it, that Goblin sympathetic reputation works somewhat differently than player sympathetic reputation. Since I started using it, I show that you get 50% sympathetic reputation for the goblin factions, as opposed to 25% for player factions. This may not be for all quests, but it has been true lately.

I also earned 1200/3000 reputation with the Argent Dawn by doing a quest line in Blackfathom Deeps. Go figure.

As a rogue, I did the broken Ravenholdt quests up to the point where I became 49/6000 Friendly with them, and am now 30775/36000 Hated with The Syndicate. Imagine my horror at having them hate me (you'll have to). I'm also hated with Bloodsail Buccaneers, probably by virtue of having talked to a goblin or two in Booty Bay.

So, today I start Phase 4. My plan for Phase 4 is as follows:

Zones: Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands, Desolace, Stranglethorn Vale (probably in that order)
Instances: Razorfen Kraul, Scarlet Monastery

Citizen Azeroth: Rep Experiment 2 - Today's update

2008-05-26T18:41:00.003-04:00

I'm going to ding 30 just before leaving Stonetalon for Ashenvale.

Still haven't touched Ashenvale, Tarren Mill, or Thousand Needles.

Over 350 quests completed.

Amazing.

Citizen Azeroth: Rep Experiment 2 - Phase 2 Complete

2008-05-25T12:30:00.003-04:00

This morning I completed Phase 2 - all of the level 10-20 zones plus 3 dungeons (The Barrens, Silverpine Forest, Ghostlands, RFC, WC, and SFK). I am leaving the Barrens instances RFK and RFD for level appropriate times.

I literally dinged level 28 on the last Barrens quest.

So here is where I am now:

Darkspear Trolls: Honored (10967/12000)
Orgrimmar: Revered (5830/21000)
Silvermoon: Honored (9838/12000)
Thunder Bluff: Honored (11832/12000
Undercity: Revered (1991/210000)

Ratchet is Friendly (2710/6000) and all other goblin factions are Neutral (2855/3000), all on sympathetic rep. I am also Exalted with Tranquillien, not that this means anything.

On to Phase 3, the 20-30 zones. These will be Stonetalon, Ashenvale, Thousand Needles and Tarren Mill. I will do BFD and RFK while I am in Phase 3.

Citizen Azeroth: Rep Experiment 2 - Phase 2 50% Report

2008-05-21T16:20:00.004-04:00

Well, my little rogue is halfway through Phase 2, having done about half of the Barrens (up to things related to Camp T), all of Silverpine Forest, and just venturing into Ghostlands. My plan is to finish Ghostlands, then return to Barrens before starting on Phase 3.

I also got rushes through Wailing Caverns and Ragefire Chasm. Not only this is efficient, but it kind of nerfs my experience by being grouped with a 70, which actually suits my plans.

So at this point, halfway through Phase 2, I have just dinged 24. My reputations are as follows:

- Darkspear Trolls: Honored (7690/12000)
- Orgrimmar: Revered (1633/21000)
- Silvermoon City: Honored (4733/12000)
- Thunder Bluff: Honored (7066/12000)
- Undercity: Honored (9701/12000)

I think the Silvermoon City number is pretty impressive, considering I haven't touched any Silvermoon quests in Phase 2. That's 4021 reputation points just from sympathetic reputation since Phase 1.

I also picked up a few other bits and pieces:

- Ratchet: Friendly (1384/6000)
- Everlook, Gadgetzan, and Booty Bay: Neutral (2192/3000)

This is interesting because I have done no quests for these other goblin factions. Obviously they share a similar sympathetic reputation formula among themselves, like the player racial factions have with one another.

- Tranquillien: 1250/3000

This I actually picked up at the end of Phase 1. I'll be Exalted when I leave Ghostlands. That's just how that rep works.

Citizen Azeroth: Raiders need love too

2008-05-21T10:41:00.004-04:00

(This was a reply to a poster who objected to a recent show, where Starman said that the new 10-man/25-man instance model of the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion might mean that the highest level content might be reachable by casual players, and that more hardcore raiders might not have anything to reach for or unique to do. We got a reply from a listener who objected to his 'elitist' attitude. This was my reply on the subject of hardcore raiding vs. casual raiding).

One of the strengths of our show is exploring different perspectives. Different people have different approaches to the game. That includes the perspective of the raider AND the perspective of the casual.

I am more the casual perspective of the cast, but I can see the points of the raiders. They DO put more time and effort into the game and I do -- and why they do this is not really the point. They simply do. And they believe, and not without some justification, that those who work the hardest at the game and put the most effort into it should get the best rewards. At first, I did not see this perspective either. But if you REALLY believe that everyone needs to accept all play styles, you need to put yourself in their shoes as well.

If the highest level content was available to everyone, even people who, for whatever reason, were not able to invest a lot of time in the game, that sort of defeats the purpose of being a high-level raider. It's about putting the extra effort and time into it that gives them a "high" in the game. If everyone can do it, it's not worth doing.

It sort of reminds me of climbing mountains. Mt. Washington is the highest peak in northeastern United States, at 6,288 feet. I can tell you, since I climbed it in November, that this is a hard climb, especially when you get to the top and the winds are howling at 45mph and there's a whiteout. There is also an access road; you can drive your car up to the top during the nice weather season (not in November). But I can certainly imagine the disappointment if I'd climbed this mountain in season, struggled my way to the top, and saw a parking lot full of overfed tourists looking at me like I'm crazy because, "don't you know there's a road?" (a friend of mine actually got this question on a similar experience climbing Whiteface in New York).

So I laugh every time I see the "This Car Climbed Mt. Washington" bumper stickers, and say my boots need little "These Feet Climbed Mt. Washington" plates. But, I also realize that for some people, for whatever reason, this is the only way they'll get to the top of the mountain. It may be no fault of their own. It may be simple laziness, or they might have small kids, or they may have a physical disability. There are lots of reasons.

But does that mean I want access roads built to the top of all mountains? Hell no. There should be some things that are only for those who have the tenacity and drive to do it themselves. Is this fair? Define fair. Is life fair? If you're hoping everything in life should be available to everyone, no matter what their circumstances, you're going to live with constant disappointment.

So do I mind that I will never see the highest level content? No, because I got to that point through a series of choices and priorities. I choose to place other things over raiding, like spending time with my husband who hates raiding (not that I am that fond of it either), or working on silly experiments for this show. I COULD choose to become a hardcore raider, join a guild with a strict raiding schedule, and see the highest level content, but I would have to make sacrifices in other parts of my life. I choose not to do so.

It's about choices and priorities. And I have come to the conclusion that there needs to be a place for everyone in the game -- including those who choose to make WoW a major priority in their life. And I can't do that if I don't realize that they have to be kept entertained too.

Citizen Azeroth: Rep Experiment 2 - The Horde Completist

2008-05-18T10:47:00.003-04:00

The subject: a female orc rogue
The goal: Complete every (or nearly every) quest in the old world. Experiment may be continued into Burning Crusade if I have not totally burned out by now.
The experiment: See how fast she can become Exalted with all factions, and what levels she can get to before leaving certain levels.

I can't guarantee I am going to get every quest. For one thing, as you level out of an area, it becomes increasingly difficult to find all quests. For another, not all quests are available to all races. There are quests only available to non-undead, or just to Tauren. Of course, I can only do the rogue quests and not quests available only to other classes. But I am going to do my best.

And of course, since this is a Horde toon, I am only going to be able to do the Horde quests.

At the end of each phase, I will report on experience, reputations, and observations.

I am going to "chunk" various zones by levels.

Phase 1: Complete all 1-10 newbie zones, without any instances. Complete quests in Durotar, Mulgore, Tirisfal Glades, and Eversong Woods. Complete any "breadcrumbs" to the next 10-18+ zone, but do not do any quests in those zones beyond the breadcrumb.

Phase 2: Complete all 10-18+ zones, including any level appropriate instances. In Phase 2, I will be doing Barrens, Silverpine, and Ghostlands, and the instances Ragefire Chasm, Wailing Caverns, and Shadowfang Keep.

Phase 3: Complete all 18-30+ zones, including Stonetalon Peak, Tarren Mill, Ashenvale, and Thousand Needles, and the instances Razorfen Kraul and Blackfathom Deeps.

I haven't planned out beyond Phase 3 yet, but will do so as the experiment progresses.

This morning, I completed Phase 1. I did all quests I could do in Durotar, Tirisfal, Mulgore, and Eversong Woods (in that order).

Current level: 17 (6582/16400, or about 40% into level)
Reputations: Honored with all Horde factions:

- Darkspear Trolls: 2778/12000
- Orgrimmar: 4272/12000
- Silvermoon: 712/12000
- Thunder Bluff: 1043/12000
- Undercity: 447/12000

Remember that orcs start out Neutral with both Silvermoon and Undercity, so although those seem much lower than the others, add 3000 points to each of them to get an idea of how much reputation was actually gained by doing these quests.

The 1-10 newbie zones do not have sympathetic faction. Doing these quests only built reputation for the base faction and added nothing to the other factions. As I move into the 10-18+ areas, I will be gaining reputation for all factions.

My Ratchet faction is also 1000/3000, by virtue of a few Ratchet-reputation giving quests in Durotar. I also picked up 1000 points in Trainquillien faction by virtue of doing the "bread crumb" quest that took me into Ghostlands.

I will probably start Phase 2 in the Crossroads, given that at level 17 I need to work on my lockpicking, and I'd like to do Wailing Caverns at or about proper level for getting gear.

It surprised me that I ended up so far into level 17 without ever leaving the 1-10 zones. In the later levels I was fighting a lot of grey-con mobs, but even a grey-con quest gives pretty good experience.

Citizen Azeroth: The Rep Experiment, Part 2

2008-05-16T20:27:00.002-04:00

What if you take a Horde rogue, say, an orc, and make her do every quest there is?

I mean, EVERY quest.

Take her through all the quests in Durotar. Then Tirisfal. Then Mulgore. Then the blood elf area (name has temporarily escaped me). The start over with the 10-20 zones

Citizen Azeroth: Consumables, durable goods, and the manufacturing economy

2008-04-05T18:46:00.002-04:00

I am a frequent poster on the Worldofwar.net forums. One of my favorite boards is the Newcomer's Forum, because I enjoy answering questions (except the ones that require a leetspeak translator matrix to understand; those just make my head hurt and I don't bother).

A recent question came up from a person who was brand new to the game and was struggling with professions. He was doing tailoring and mining and was having trouble leveling those up. Several of us, including myself, recommended that he drop tailoring for the time being, pick up skinning, and use his profession-ing efforts to make money, especially since he was new to the game and probably counting his pennies to train his spells.

Citizen Azeroth: Is "soloification" a bad thing?

2008-04-01T09:53:00.003-04:00

[By the way, this is NOT an April Fools' post. I am personally the Scrooge of April Fools and find little to none of the April Fools' "jokes" funny. Just because this was written on April 1st does not mean it has anything to do with this so-called holiday. Back to regularly scheduled blogging.]

"But a MMORPG has a large and diverse base of customers, and not all of them prefer solo play. As early as Everquest some people noticed that a group is stronger than the sums of its parts. The larger the group, and the better it is coordinated, the greater the challenges it can overcome."

"What needs to be done is to rethink the concept of solofication. Why is soloing popular? A part of it is due to Real Life ® contraints, if you solo you can play in smaller bits and bites, group play needs longer periods. But another part of it is just a Skinner box: people like soloing because the game teaches them that soloing is the easiest way to advance."

"Solofication not only opens up a gap to end game raid content, it also moves MMORPGs in a direction where they become vulnerable to competition from single-player games. When I recently asked whether people would play a single-player version of WoW without monthly fees, I was surprised of how many people would prefer such a game over an online MMORPG with monthly fees. If game design minimizes your interaction with other players, then why pay $15 a month for that interaction?"

From http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2008/03/solofication-of-mmorpgs.html

So here are some observations made by another blogger about the "soloification" of MMORPGs, and how this is a bad trend in games. Put simply, I don't agree. These are just a few statements from the blog, but they sum up the basic points of the article.

First point: Everquest taught us that the group is stronger than the sum of its parts.

Everquest forced grouping. There was little to no possibility of solo play because of the various dynamics of the game. Only pet classes had much of any ability to solo, and even they struggled; I'm told that now even mages can't solo effectively beyond a certain level. It was one of the things that Sony fixed in Everquest 2, at least once WoW came out and was kicking their butt in the soloing department.

Everquest also taught me to hate pugs. I would amend the sentence "As early as Everquest some people noticed that a group is stronger than the sums of its parts" to "As early as Everquest some people noticed that a GOOD group is stronger than the sums of its parts." And Lord, there were tons and tons of bad groups. One or two bad group members, or more, are anti-synergy, causing more problems than they solved. Everquest is where I learned to hate pugs (pick-up groups) with a passion. You could have a great group, but if you had one bad healer, or one bad tank, or one bad mezzer, you could wipe. Yes, a good group where everyone was doing its job was a beautiful thing. But it was so incredibly rare in pugs that any time you got a good one, it made your entire month, not just your day. If you didn't have a guild you ran with all the time, you were largely doomed to pugs.

Second statement: if you solo you can play in smaller bits and bites, group play needs longer periods. But another part of it is just a Skinner box: people like soloing because the game teaches them that soloing is the easiest way to advance.

In Everquest, it was largely impossible to come onto the game for short periods and do anything useful, other than check auction mules or do tradeskills. First, there was the matter of finding buffs. Unlike buffs in WoW, which fall under "nice to have" except in raid situations, buffs were a "must have or spend hours of downtime waiting for your health and mana to regenerate". This could take 10-15 minutes all by itself. Then you needed to travel wherever you needed to go to do your soloing. In short, unless you had at least an hour to play, it wasn't worth logging on.

In WoW, you can go on for shorter periods of time and get quests done. I can do a couple dailies over lunch (I work at home). I can come on while I am expecting a phone call, and then go /afk or log when the phone rings, without inconveniencing anyone else. If I don't feel like being social, I can go off and do useful things that advance my character without being forced into a group. But when I do want a group, or just want to be social, I can usually find at least a couple folks in my guild who want to do something, or just hang out on Vent and chat while I'm fishing or working on a daily.

There are ways to remain social in a game without grouping.

I also disagree that soloing is always the easiest way to advance. If you can find a group, or even another person to duo with, that can often be much easier. My level 60 paladin does not kill quickly; she advances much faster with a DPS-intensive friend. In terms of not having to find a group and being able to quest on your own schedule, yes, it's easier. But that's an issue of convenience rather than game mechanics.

Third point: "Solofication not only opens up a gap to end game raid content, it also moves MMORPGs in a direction where they become vulnerable to competition from single-player games. When I recently asked whether people would play a single-player version of WoW without monthly fees, I was surprised of how many people would prefer such a game over an online MMORPG with monthly fees. If game design minimizes your interaction with other players, then why pay $15 a month for that interaction?"

I don't think anyone can separate that statement from the issue of fees. There are a lot of people who play, mostly younger people, who have to buy game cards or otherwise have trouble paying the $15 a month due to being students and having limited cash flow. This is a flawed evaluative statement, because there are two issues being asked about: single player vs. world, and no fees vs. fees. For me, as a 40-year old professional with a good income, $15 a month is something I don't even notice missing. For a poor college student who just paid a godawful sum on the semester's books, $15 is a whole lot of ramen noodles.

Put simply: you can't judge people's thoughts on single player vs. multiplayer based on this question.

There are plenty of advantages to a multiplayer game, even for a pretty hardcore soloer like myself. The number one advantage is the auction house or bazaar. If you have money, you can literally get other people to do your farming for you. When I need one [ItemX] to complete [GoalY], I can look on the auction house to see if I can just buy it rather than farm it up myself, and if it's not too expensive, I can save myself a lot of time that way.

I solo about 70-80% of the time, but I also have the option to duo with my husband. We could do that back on old LAN multiplayer games, and that was fun. But I can also CHOOSE to do an instance with friends in Ohio, Maryland, New Jersey, Georgia, Washington state, etc.

The issue here is not whether soloing or grouping is better; it's about offering choice. WoW offers soloing as a viable choice to grouping, and many people thus choose to take advantage of it. It doesn't mean I want to solo 100% of the time.

I want the option to group if that's what I wish to do, but as I learned from Everquest, I don't want to be forced into grouping either. Put simply, it is a good game's job to provide me with options; it is not the game's job to dictate my level of social interaction, and it is not their job to force me into whatever play style they think is best for me, whether I like it or not.

There's a reason WoW has more than 7 million subscribers. It's their recognition that not everyone wants to play the game the same way.

Citizen Azeroth: More on the rep experiment

2008-03-22T15:50:00.003-04:00

While I was posting on this blog, I did not post my character's name. However, I am doing so now, and I will leave her level 40 for a time. If you want to see her reputation page on WoW Armory, you can see her here.

When I was doing the research for the show segment I did (World of Warcast, Episode 57, http://www.worldofwarcast.com), I discovered the rather disturbing problem: while you can easily do this experiment with the Alliance, it's not so easy with the Horde. The theoretical levels at which you can get the two easiest Horde player reputations each appear to be in their mid to late 40s, with early 50s if you're dealing with crossing interfaction lines (Tauren, orc, and trolls start out friendly to one another and neutral with blood elves and undead, and vice versa; crossing those lines means adding about 2600 reputation points needed to achieve Exalted levels).

There simply aren't as many Horde quests to do. Period. Once again, the Horde is harder.

Of course, this means I have to try to see if I can do it. I have a new Horde mage named Jasminah (Whisperwind) and I have decided I am going to try to see how quickly I can get her Exalted with Orgrimmar. I'd like to try to do it prior to level 40.

So, if it is theoretically impossible to get Exalted with Orgimmar prior to the early 50s with an undead, why do I think I might have a chance? The answer, I believe, lies in working sympathetic reputation. First, I need to complete all 1-10 quests I can find that give Orgrimmar faction. I have to do as many quests as I can for all player factions that occur in the level 10 and above zones. This means doing everything I can in the Barrens, Silverpine Forest, Ghostlands (while skipping the useless Tranquillien faction quests, as well as any Ratchet quests that don't give me Horde faction -- the Samoflange quest is an example of one that does, as well as anything that gives me experience but no desirable reputation), Stonetalon, Thousand Needles, and Tarren Mill. It means doing anything and everything I can to slow down experience gain, such as not camping in inns and trying not to build rested experience. And it means doing all of the instances I can do, preferably grouped with at least one 70 to gimp my experience gains, to complete those high-reputation quests.

I'll be posting on Jasminah's progress.

Citizen Azeroth: Insanity achieved

2008-02-28T16:47:00.010-05:00

Level 40 and Exalted with Ironforge, Stormwind, and Darnassus.

This was definitely an exercise in patience and tedium. On the other hand, it was also kind of fun, in a compulsive kind of way.

My /played time at the end of this odyssey? 4 days, 4 hours, 31 minutes. In other words, one minute over 100.5 hours. In some ways, that's a damn scary number, but in other ways, it's less than I thought it would be.

Of course, I had to get all three mounts.

Oh, and since "screenshots or it didn't happen" ...

Not crazy about the way my legs stick out from the horse's sides.
I also wonder why, on this mount, I'm always glancing off to the side over my shoulder. Does riding a horse inspire paranoia? Or maybe it just smells funny and I'm trying to get a whiff of fresh air.

I rather like the symmetry of the horns on the hunter and the horns on the mount. Makes me wish I'd picked curlier horns for myself.

The cat matches my pet, except the mount isn't see-through.

Citizen Azeroth: Guilds and the brain size of primates

2008-02-25T13:32:00.006-05:00

I listen to all kinds of podcasts and audiobooks. While I enjoy fiction, I find I enjoy reading it more than listening to it, so when I listen to audiobooks, they are primarily nonfiction.

My current selection is Malcolm Gladstone's The Tipping Point - How Little Things Make a Big Difference. The book's premise is that big changes are often precipitated by small ones, and he gives several examples of small changes that have made a big impact on life, the universe, and everything. He compares the spread of certain ideas to an epidemic, and explores the vectors by which ideas become epidemics and how these spread.

Today, he was discussing an idea called Dunbar's number. This is an anthropological and sociological concept about the theoretical number of individuals with whom the average individual can maintain social relationships. This is a number based on the size of the neocortex, so the larger the neocortex, the more social relationships. Primates with smaller neocortexes tend to live in smaller social groups; primates with larger neocortexes operate in larger groups. In humans, Dunbar's number is about 148-150 (we'll call it 150 for simplicity's sake). Beyond 150 people, an individual can't maintain the kind of informal, social relationships that makes a casual organization work. In other words, you simply can't get to know and care about that many people; your brain won't allow it.

The functional upshot of this is that groups that grow beyond 150 will start splitting into more manageable subgroups. People no longer "know" everyone in the group, and start focusing on a more manageable subgroup that they DO know. In order for the group to continue functioning, it has to be more formal, structured, and rules based. The kind of social networking and consensus that works well in small groups doesn't work beyond a certain number of people. It's not a failure of organization. It's biology.

So why do so many guilds try to grow huge, and then complain that people don't work together like they used to? Why do they brag about being the biggest, and then complain about "cliques"? Because most people do not understand that the larger a group becomes, the less possible it is for the people within that group to maintain social relationships with the other members.

Last year, a group of us broke off from my old guild, The Pod People, amidst accusations of cliques and private groups and keeping to ourselves. Many of us (though not all) formed The Collective and now have our own guild, currently comprising about 50-60 people. At the time that we broke off from The Pod People, the Pods number over 500 toons, which probably represented about 200-220 individuals. If Dunbar's number is even close to accurate, the breakoff of a splinter group from The Pod People was not only expected, it was nearly inevitable.

That is not to say that groups larger than 150 cannot survive, or even thrive, but they must do so in a different fashion. A group whose primary method of interaction is based on casual social relationships, however, should try to keep this maximum number in mind for maintaining the best group health. After 150 or so, for a group to do well, it needs more rules, more regulation, more stratification, and much greater compartmentalization into meaningful subgroups. It's how big business works, with multiple levels of managers, departments, divisions, and written protocols, without which all would be chaos. This may even work very well for guilds, with raid leaders, class leaders, distinct teams, and hard and fast raid/DKP rules.

But for a casual, social guild, size matters, and large is not good. To keep the social network tight, keep the numbers down.

In some ways, this helped clear up a lot of things for me. The Pod People meant a lot to me when I was in it, and seeing it fall apart for me and turn into something I didn't want to be part of was a difficult and puzzling process to me. Now it makes much more sense. What happened, given its size, was what was meant to happen. It didn't have to split the way it did, but something had to give. In some ways, it became a victim of its own success, and lost something in the process. Understand this helps me think in terms of not repeating that mistake.

Bigger isn't always better. Keep things simple for our primate brains, please, and don't overload our social circuits.

Citizen Azeroth: Two down, three to go

2008-02-19T10:17:00.007-05:00

My Draenei hunter is now a bubble into level 35 and is Exalted with both Darnassus and Stormwind. In the process, just by doing Stormwind quests, she raised her faction with Ironforge to within 700 points of Revered, Exodar to 5000 out of 21000 points in Revered, and Gnomeregan Exiles to 600/21000 points in Revered.

To recap: it took her to midway through level 32 to get Exalted with Darnassus, but just another 2.5 levels to get to Exalted with Stormwind. So, of course, you know this madness must continue.

Off to Dun Morogh...

2/20/2008, 11:00 AM: Five bubbles into 35, over halfway to Exalted with Ironforge...

Citizen Azeroth: Play the game yourself!

2008-02-18T11:14:00.005-05:00

Apparently, there is a cadre of WoW players who do not want to play the game.

I'm not talking about people who have gotten jaded and bored and are just waiting for the Next Thing to come along, whether it's a content patch, the expansion, or a completely new game. I'm talking about the people who want everything handed to them ... money, mobs, and mayhem.

Players begging for money has been a constant irritant in MMORPGs since MMORPGs came out. This goes back to my days of playing Diablo II, when you'd get people wanting other players to hand them stuff for free, just because they asked for it. However, what is changing in WoW, apparently, is the scale of the begs. Gone are the days of "can you spare some coin?" or similar open-ended begs, which were bad enough. And it's not just my level 70s who are getting this either; I am consistently amazed at the begs my Draenei hunter is getting in her 20s and now that she is entering her 30s. She's gotten several tells begging for cash -- and not just small pocket change, but specific and sometimes large amounts. The other day, a level 26 hunter sent her a direct tell asking her to give him 10 gold. By level 26, I had over 150g in the bank from mining and skinning; I told him to go earn it himself and put him on ignore.

I suppose I should expect it, but while I am grinding reputation in lower level zones, I am having to fend off numerous begs for what basically amounts to power leveling -- people wanting me to kill monsters way too high for them to kill on their own. I'm not talking about the scenario where I have to kill a named creature for a reputation quest, see that there are others nearby, and offer to take them along on it. I'm talking about tells from people who want me to run them through several quests that are red-con to them ("kan u kill X and XX and XXX 4 me?", even though X, XX, and XXX are all in completely different parts of the zone). Even when I am relatively polite and tell them I am busy and can't help them, this usually results in a stream of snotty vituperation, like I'd just told them I wouldn't take their deathly ill grandmother to the hospital, even though it was on my way. Usually I just tell them they need to wait until they're the appropriate level for it, and put them on /ignore.

Yesterday, while on my hunter who has the ghost saber see-through cat pet, I got a tell from a level 15 hunter in Westfall who wanted to know where I got the pet. I told him I got it from the ruins in northern Darkshore, and he asked me to take him there so he could get one too.

For those who are not familiar with the ghost saber, it's not an easy pet to get. It's not just a matter of finding and taming one; it's semi-spawned. You have to go into the Mathystra Ruins up in extreme northern Darkshore, which is crawling with level 18-20 naga, and find little Cat Figurines in the ruins. Whatever pet you have, you will have to abandon as soon as you get it to spawn. Opening the Cat Figurine has a small chance of spawning a level 20 Ghost Saber; I've gotten it in as few as 2 figurines, and had to open as many as 12, and they are not easy to find. Once it spawns, you have only a couple moments to abandon your old pet, set down a freezing trap, and start taming the ghost saber. Then you have to start fighting with it immediately to get it up to loyalty level 2, because it has a nasty habit of randomly dropping dead until it gets to loyalty level 2.

I should have just said, "You're level 15 and five levels too low to get the pet anyway", but instead, I said, "It's a ghost saber. Look it up on the Internet and it will tell you everything you need to know how to find and tame one."

The response? "i cant i dont know how"

That's when I just said something like "I'm sorry but that will take too long" and just hopped a bird to Stormwind. I'm sorry, but if you can play WoW, you can use Google.

The worst lately has been people begging for others to rush them through instances. This is a problem I see far more on my 70s, but I see it all the time in cities. I realize that it's not always easy to get together a level appropriate group, but why this expectation that the only way to do low level instances is to beg for a rush? Some do offer payment, but usually very little and certainly not enough to make it worth my time, unless I know the person and have some investment in them as a friend.

But it's not just the begging. It's the abuse when you say no. It's gotten to the point that if someone begs me for something, I just put them straight on my /ignore list and don't even dignify the question with a response, just because in too many cases, it means I have to deal with someone who thinks that your time, your money, and your effort is their right to take, just because they Want It.

Now, many a lot of these are young kids. And it's a kid's job to see how much they can get out of adults. But I fear that many of them don't have the excuse of extreme youth -- just of an belief of entitlement. Because "I want" and "you have" means that by right, they can demand it and abuse you for not handing it over.

Play the game yourself. That's what you bought it for, and that is what someone is paying subscription fees for you to do.

Citizen Azeroth: Tell me I'm crazy

2008-02-14T10:53:00.009-05:00

It all started as a segment experiment.

It's gotten away from me.

I decided to see if the rumors I had heard were true: the increased player faction reputation gains meant that, just by questing, you could earn Exalted with another player faction by level 35. One of my knitting boards was starting a WoW guild, and I thought this would be a great way to experiment and see if this was true. I started a Draenei hunter, and from the beginning went on a single-minded quest to get her exalted with Darnassus so she would not have to ride the elephant mount.

Not only is it succeeding, but it's exceeding my expectations. She is barely level 31, and she will hit well over 19,000 out of 21,000 points into Revered with Darnassus this morning. I may meet Exalted well before level 35.

So here's where I'm getting a little crazy.

Can I hit exalted with TWO factions prior to 40?

Some of my quests (many of them, actually) give sympathetic reputation -- that is, they may give full rep with Darnassus, but they also give 25% of that reputation with other factions. I have also done some quest chains that have given faction primarily to other factions, but quests later in the chain give high Darnassus rep, so I did them to get to the quests I wanted. So, as of this morning, without actually trying, I am also high in Honored with all the other factions: 10795/12000 with Exodar, 8513/12000 with Stormwind, 6543/12000 with Gnomeregan Exiles, and 5430/12000 with Ironforge.

So ... what if, after getting Exalted with Darnassus, I went back to the level 1-5 human area, then did Elwynn Forest and Westfall, Redridge, etc., just to see if I could hit Exalted with Stormwind as well? I would not be progressing toward leveling because all of these quests would be grey to me, but it doesn't matter because the whole idea is to get Exalted before hitting 40 anyway.

Would this prove I had completely lost my mind?

Update: 2/14/2008, 1:00 PM EST, 19,318 out of 21,001 xp needed to reach Exalted, at level 31 (56% into level). Just 1,683 rep to go.

Update: 2/14/2008, 6:00 PM EST: At 58.3% into level 32, my hunter hit Exalted with Darnassus.
(Screenshot or it didn't happen, though I did edit out her name):

So now I'm going to start trying for Exalted with Ironforge, just for kicks (I decided Draenei ride horses funny). So starting today, my rep is as follows: Ironforge 6080/12000, Gnomeragon Exiles 7193/12000, Stormwind 9452/12000, Exodar 11445/12000, Darnassus 218/1000 (Exalted). I wonder how my other factions will move from sympathetic reputation...

Update: 2/15/2008. After sleeping on it, I'm doing Stormwind instead of Ironforge for now.

Citizen Azeroth: Split personalities

2008-02-05T16:21:00.001-05:00

It's a little weird when your characters start talking to you.

From a roleplaying standpoint, it's good, even desirable, for characters to become so real to you that they tell you what to do, not the other way around. But in another sense, it can be a bit disturbing.

My two main characters are an orc warlock and a tauren hunter, both 70. Mechanically, they are similar characters -- DPS pet classes. They do the same things -- quest, kill stuff, farm, and improve gear. Yet, in my mind, two more different "people" could hardly be imagined.

Today was the start of the Lunar Festival in the World of Warcraft. There isn't much to this festival if you aren't into collecting fireworks, clothes, or player faction reputation. At 70 there isn't much reason to collect player faction, other than for basic kicks. Yes, you can buy a cross-faction mount with exalted reputation, but if all you want is a different horsie, the PvP battleground mounts are a much better time-for-reward deal.

My hunter has it in her head, however, that she wants to ride a blood elf battle chicken (OK, it's not really a chicken -- it's a "hawkstrider", but the idea of a cow on a chicken is something I find almost as amusing as her riding her brewfest sheep). Then, with the Lunar Festival and the coin quests that give 75 reputation to all Horde player factions, she now has it in her head that she wants to be exalted with all Horde player factions.

From the standpoint of an efficient player, this makes no sense whatsoever. Tauren can't even ride the troll or undead mounts. So why would I bother grinding faction with these?

Because ... and here's where it gets weird ... my tauren wants everyone to like her.

Seriously.

Now, this is one of my characters who has always had a strong personality. She will only use a gun and refuses to use a bow or crossbow. If the most uber bow in the world dropped and she was using a crappy gun, she'd still pass on it. She's helpful to the extreme, even helping out a distressed Alliance. For a long time, she refused to PvP (she does it now, but only in battlegrounds because there, she "knows" it's just a game). I have a special iTunes mix for her, full of the most upbeat, happy songs (even Hanson's obnoxiously catchy "Mmmbop", which is one of her favorite tunes. Yes, my WoW character, a collection of pixels and code, has favorite music. My warlock prefers the soundtrack from Conan the Barbarian, or at least some good Swedish opera metal).

But in my head, just as I was setting off to collect coins on my terminally happy cow, my warlock's reaction flashed through my head. Who CARES if anybody likes you? You're just going to kill everything and anyone who gets in your way anyway.

My tauren flared her nostrils in disgust, hopped on her sheep, and headed off into the sunset. Actually, she headed to Darkshore, where she danced with a few bewildered Alliance youngsters on the shores of Auberdine after collecting her coin.

It's all just my imagination ... right?

Citizen Azeroth: Behold the power of cheese

2008-01-26T22:24:00.001-05:00

Gamers are well known for silly superstitions in-game. Some turn out to be warranted. Most don't.

I do carry [Rabbit's Foot], and my perception is that my drop rate on greens and blues is improved slightly. But this is probably just a silly superstition, without a way to quantify it.

But the cheese plate ... that's a different story.

In Karazhan, during the Moroes fight, I usually stand on the long banquet table during the fight, like most of the rest of the party. But I always stand in the same place. I always stand on a cheese plate, just left of center in the front facing Moroes.

What magic does this cheese have, pray tell? I run a mod called KillLog that counts how many times I've defeated a mob. It also records how many times I've been killed by a mob. Adding these numbers together, I have a decent idea of how many times I have faced Moroes. As of last night, it was 25 times.

Out of those 25 times, I have probably stood on the cheese plate 23 out of those 25 fights. And in all that time, I have been garroted by Moroes ... twice. One of those was pre-cheese plate.

At first, I used it simply as a place to stand, a nice, central location. But then I began to notice something after a few times; I wasn't get garroted, and nearly everyone else was. Fight after fight, I was miraculously garrote-free. The one fight where I was garroted? I ceded the cheese plate to our healer, since our paladin couldn't make it that week and we had no bubble-out option. She wasn't garroted that fight, and I was. I was standing only a couple feet from the cheese.

For the longest time, my party thought my cheese plate fetish was somewhat ridiculous. However, as week after week goes by with no garrote, I think I may even be making believers out of them.

Anti-Garrote Gouda? No-Dot-Neufchatel? Protection Provolone? Whatever the variety, it certainly goes down well with a side of Moroes.

PS. Today (2/2) our group's hunter tried it and got garotted. It's not enough just to stand on it; you have the BELIEVE in the power of cheese.

Citizen Azeroth: What WoW owes to Diablo II

2008-01-22T10:41:00.000-05:00

(I apologize for the delay in posting. I've had some pretty serious work computer issues I've been dealing with, so I've been pretty distracted with those).

It's patch day. For some reason, I usually feel like playing on Tuesday mornings, which is, of course, the only morning where I can't reliably play. I often play for a couple hours in the morning when it's quiet and there aren't a lot of people on -- one of the definite benefits of being self employed.

And of course, being Tuesday and patch day, the servers are down and will be down until 2:00 in the afternoon, my time.

Sometimes when I get in this mood, I'll go catch up on forums. Or I'll do some work (even though I rarely feel like it on Tuesday mornings). But part of the process of trying to resurrect my work computer got me digging through old disks. This morning, I re-installed and played some Diablo II.

Once again, I am impressed with how well this game has held up over time. The graphics are a bit rough by modern standards, but still eminently playable. The US East server was quick and responsive. I started one of my favorite characters, an Amazon, with the intent of making her a javazon (an Amazon who specializes in javelins, specifically Lighting Fury).

As I played, I began to reflect on how much World of Warcraft owes to Diablo II.

I'm not just talking about some of the obvious things. WoW is full of references to Diablo II -- little Blizzard in-jokes such as the Cow King's Leathers, Wirt's Third Leg, or the loading screen tip "There is no cow level" (there was a Cow King in Diablo II and he did drop pieces for a set called the Cow King's Leathers; Wirt was a hapless kid who got killed, and one of his lootable items was his wooden leg, which was part of the key to the Secret Cow Level. Yes, at least in Diablo II, there was a Secret Cow Level, full of murderous cows ... moo-moo MOO, moo moo ... MooooOOOO!)

Of course, WoW gains its lore, many of its NPCs, and character types from the regular Warcraft series. However, in terms of character creation and development, some of the bugs were worked out in Diablo II.

Class similarities. Diablo II had six basic playable character classes: Amazon, assassin, barbarian, paladin, sorceress, druid, and necromancer. There was no character customization other than name. Amazons, assassins, and sorceresses were always female; the other four classes were always male.

Amazons could pick one of two weapon specialties: bow or javelin. Some of the bow skills bear some minor resemblance to marksmanship hunters, but the similarity here is only minor.

Assassins were clearly an early blueprint for the WoW rogue class, although there was a bit of hunter thrown in as well. The most important innovation with the assassin class was the concept of charge-ups and finishing moves, a system we see today in WoW's rogues as combo points and finishing moves. Like the hunter, assassins also had a variety of traps, although the traps were much more varied and powerful.

Barbarians were, of course, a precursor to WoW's warriors. They could pick weapon specializations that added extra damage and to-hit on various weapon classes. This was the extent of the improvement (no stun damage from maces, for example). This class also used Warcries, which were the precursors to the WoW warrior's battle shouts and thunderclaps.

Paladins in Diablo II would not be unfamiliar to WoW paladin players, as it's clear that there are a wide variety of similarities here. Diablo II paladins had auras that could improve stats, damage enemies, heal, increase party resists, and like in WoW, they could only have one going at a time, but multiple paladins could use different auras and stack them. Spells like Holy Bolt, Blessed Hammer, and Sacrifice bear a more than passing resemblance to similar spells in WoW. Healing is a paladin specialty, but mostly through their defensive auras.

Sorceresses are to Diablo II what mages are to World of Warcraft. The only exception to this is that in Diablo II, there are three schools of magic to choose from (frost, fire, and lightning) as opposed to two in Wow (frost and fire). Some of the spells that may seem familiar to WoW players include Frost Armor, Frost Nova, Ice Bolt, Blizzard, and Fireball. In the lightning tree, there is a bit more resemblance to WoW's elemental shaman abilities (with Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning).

The Diablo II druid is, depending on the talents chosen, either similar to the WoW feral druid or to a mix between a boomkin and an elemental shaman. Diablo II druids could also choose a shape, but they were pretty much forced into either a bear (tank) or wolf (DPS). Because of the way abilities are chosen, doing both doesn't really work as well. Like the feral druid, when you're in animal form you can use your pet abilities but you can't cast your other spells, which made the elemental abilities for the druid and the shapechanging abilities mutually exclusive. Unlike WoW, where the bear's butt is truly gigantic, the Diablo II bear was pretty odd looking, with huge shoulders, a tiny waist, and this itty-bitty derriere. The elemental tree for druids was never very popular, due mostly to the fact that the spells were not very effective and somewhat hard to aim.

Curiously, the druid was also a pet class, able to summon ravens, wolves, and bears to assist him. The raven pets bear a more than passing resemblance to the birds summoned by the eagle boss in ZA -- they can't be targeted and hit; they simply disappear after they've done a certain amount of damage.

The necromancer was truly a pet class gone wild. They bore some resemblance to the warlock class, but instead of summoning a single demon, they could use bones to summon undead creatures and other items to summon golems. They could have an entire army of undead minions with a golem following them around. The major similarity to WoW warlocks was the ability to curse enemies, and like the WoW warlock, they could only have one curse active at a time.

The talent tree: The big innovation of Diablo II, not seen specifically in any other MMORPG and carried almost directly into World of Warcraft, was the concept of the talent tree. There are some similarities between the implementation of the talent trees, but there are also some key differences. These are probably things that didn't end up working as well as Blizzard had hoped.

The similarities: Each class had three distinct talent trees. At each level (starting at level 2 in Diablo II; 10 in WoW) you would earn 1 talent point to invest. You could invest all your points into one, two, or all three trees. Some skills are prerequisites to others, meaning you must have this talent before you can get another one that depends on it.

The differences: The differences are actually fairly extensive, but it's worth looking at them, just to get a Before and After picture.

First, in Diablo II, there were talent trees that were almost mutually exclusive. If you played an Amazon, for example, you would invest either in the Javelin tree or the Bow & Crossbow tree, but not both. The worst example was the Druid, where the shapeshifting tree and the elemental trees counterindicated one another. You couldn't cast the elemental spells in shapeshift form at all. While in WoW, there are trees that make more sense when paired together than others, you don't find any where if you invest in one tree, another tree becomes useless. They seem to have fixed most of these problems.

Why I think Blizzard changed this for WoW: Early on, the trees were unbalanced, which led to people who only invested in one flavor of the character. A good example of this was hunters, who, for a long time, only had one really viable build -- marksman. There were no survival hunters or beastmasters. By making all three trees viable, Blizzard gave the hunter considerably more bandwidth.

Second, in Diablo II, talent trees are the only way for a character to gain new spells or abilities. There are no level-based abilities that everyone gets.

Why Blizzard changed this for WoW: Diablo II's talent-based spell system limits the available spells to just a handful. Even so, in Diablo II's much more limited interface, handling more spells than what you could get through talents would be difficult to manage.

Third, in Diablo II, you can invest up to 20 points in any single skill, but you also only need to invest 1 point for a prerequisite skill. If you have a skill that requires level 30 and there are four prerequisite skills, you only need to have spent 4 points in each of those skills to get access to the level 30 skill.

Why Blizzard changed this for WoW: Diablo II had fewer items on its talent trees -- usually no more than eight or nine -- but the level limit on characters was 99. There are a lot more talent points, but fewer things to spend them on. Also, at the upper limits, there are significant diminishing returns on abilities. At 1-5 points, you may be improving a skill by 5-6% per talent point spent, but by 15 points, you may only be improving it by 1% or even less.

Fourth, skills become available by level, not by the number of talent points invested, as long as any prerequisite skills are met. New skill tiers become available at level 1, 6, 12, 18, 24, and 30.

Because you can (a) save points (b) only invest 1 point for a prerequisite skill and (b) have full availability of skills at a certain level, you can literally save points toward higher level skills. You could save points and as long as all your prerequisite skills are met, you can get every single one of your level 30 talents the moment you ding 30. You can't, however, save all your points for a level 30 talent and then put all your points in it right away; at level 30 you can only put one point in a level 30 talent, and then you can put in another point at level 31, another at level 32, etc.

Why I think Blizzard changed this for WoW: Builds in Diablo II could get very bottom-heavy, with characters who would grit it out for the lower levels to spend all their points at the top. This could lead to some balance issues.

Fifth, once you have spent a talent point, it's spent forever. In WoW, you can pay for a talent reset that refunds all your talent points, but in Diablo, you can't. This means you have to spend each point very wisely and with great care, or you can end up with a high level character who isn't viable and there's nothing you can do about it. It also means you need to be sure of where you want to take your character pretty much from the beginning; you can't build a fire sorceress and then decide at level 40 that you want a cold sorceress. The only way you would be able to do that is to start a new sorceress from level 1.

It also meant that if Blizzard made changes to the talent tree (and they did in Diablo II also), you were out of luck if that change didn't favor your current build.

Why I think Blizzard changed this in WoW: Blizzard almost certainly learned about this from Diablo II and added the talent redo ability in WoW when they introduced talent tree. People complained a great deal in Diablo II about the inability to change their specs, and a misspent talent point could haunt you forever. Introducing the ability to redo talents encouraged a great deal more experimentation.

Sixth, Diablo II has passive bonuses from having other skills. For example, having points in the lower level Amazon javelin skills Power Strike, Lightning Bolt, Charged Strieke, and Lightning Strike would add +1% lightning damage per level to the top level skill Lightning Fury. By investing a few points in these earlier skills, you improved the top level one.

I think this is what Blizzard did to help make the Diablo II talent trees less bottom-heavy. By making these lower level skills count, at least in part, toward higher level ones, it made players less reluctant to spend points in them. Since lower level talents were how Diablo II players got spells, it would be like asking a higher level player to invest something in improving, say, a Level 1 ice bolt when that character is level 70.

Why I think Blizzard changed this in WoW: Since the talents in WoW are more stand-alone and useful in their own right, it wasn't necessary to make this passive system to encourage people to use lower level talent points. Plus, with the system where you only advance to the next talent tier by investing a certain number of talent points, this wasn't a problem in WoW.

It's clear that the talent system got its start and got its bugs worked out in Diablo II. It's kind of interesting going back to the game after all these years and seeing how this very familiar system got its start.

Citizen Azeroth: Full of sound and fury

2008-01-02T09:39:00.000-05:00

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

- Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5

Last night, the Ron Paul raid invaded Whisperwind. They progressed from Ironforge through the tram to Stormwind, to Westfall, to Booty Bay, to Ratchet, the Crossroads, and then where I believed they hoped to take group pictures in front of the gates of Orgrimmar. At Ironforge I counted 223 members of the "RP Revolution" guild, and they apparently picked up several others along the way, probably nearing 250. There were also a number of flagged 70 alliance "guards" with them.

Until I lost them in Westfall, I followed the "raid" along with my unguilded gnome warlock, just monitoring what was going on in chat channels. From the RP Revolution side, mostly what I heard was spams in shout, general, and /say that amounted to empty sloganeering. My favorite reply to the oft-repeated "a vote for Ron Paul is a vote for freedom" was (and I am paraphrasing here, because I don't have the exact quote), "a vote for anyone is a vote for freedom, dumbass". It was probably the most politically astute thing I heard all night, and I certainly heard a lot of people spouting politics. Or at least I heard a lot of vapid sound bites, which I suppose is what poses for politics these days.

Although there were 250 people on the server for the march itself, and there were probably far more who logged on to heckle (there was some organized heckling going on through most of the Ironforge to Westfall route that I could find, including a "RuPaul for President" group and several toons with variations on the name Hillary Clinton), I would guess that the vast majority were recent imports, because another effect they had was that there was a server queue over 400 people long. We haven't had a server queue since the servers were upgraded over a year ago. Whisperwind was undoubtedly chosen because it's one of the highest population server, with THE highest ratio of Alliance to Horde of any of the high-pop servers (85%/15%). I know several people who were late for raids because they simply couldn't get on.

Frankly, the whole thing seemed more like a cult meeting than a political rally. There were no issues discussed. Just a lot of spammy jingles about how great Ron Paul was. Honestly, to me, it came off more creepy than enthusiastic.

The lag was almost paralyzing in places, and I have a good machine with a top video card and 2GB of RAM. I feel sorry for anyone who was just trying to play their game in areas where this march went.

I lost the raid in Westfall and decided to camp to my Horde toon, since many of my guildmates were gathering in Ratchet to "meet" the raid.

"The truly epic moment of the night occured [sic] after getting off the boat in Ratchet: the mass of people walked up the road heading out of town to meet MANY high level horde characters, flagged! Fun times were had by all. I wish I would have gotten a SS but I forgot to do so. If anyone else did get one please post." - Acrile, a 70 human priest of The Twelfth Man, Whisperwind.

Most of the high level Horde on that road were members of my guild, The Collective, though there were a handful of other level 70 horde who showed up, plus more when we hit the Crossroads, and even more when we hit the gates of Orgrimmar. Yes, we flagged up, and we had a great time PVPing with the "guards" of the RP Revolution march. Incidentally, one of my guildmates on his Alliance toon talked to a couple of the high level Alliance who were escorting the raid. They said they had no interest in Ron Paul or his message; they were just hoping that the Horde would show up and they'd have some fun world PvP. Well, we gave it to them. As Acrile said, fun times were had by all. (The RP Revolution people spent a lot of time admonishing people not to flag, but of course many did, and the Horde was there).

The original march was supposed to have the RP members surrounding the Crossroads and dancing, but a large number of them belatedly realized that the guards have a pretty big aggro radius when you're talking about a lot of characters who are under level 5. The piles of bones outside the Crossroads were soon legion. (Not to mention I had my one and only death when I got jumped by about five level 70s, but even that was good times).

So they ended up running around Crossroads, giving it a wide berth, and running on toward Orgrimmar. We mounted up to meet them there.

"The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft a-gley"
(The best-laid schemes of mice and men often go awry)
- To a Mouse, Robert Burns

I did learn one extremely important lesson in front of the gates of Orgrimmar. It wasn't about peace or freedom or that I had somehow lost my mind and wanted to vote for Ron Paul. It was that by dueling a hunter and setting off his snake trap, you can kill a lot of unflagged Alliance. A LOT of them.

Here's a picture of some Collectivites, standing amidst the masses of bones that once were Alliance players.

Citizen Azeroth: Politics and WoW don't mix

2007-12-30T16:58:00.001-05:00

For some unknown reason, followers of presidential candidate Ron Paul (why do I always think "RuPaul" when I see that name?) have decided that holding a political rally on the server I play on would be a great way to get votes for their candidate.

Of course, the fact that they happened to pick, out of the multitude of servers Blizzard runs, the same server that I play on is, I am sure, sheer coincidence. But I still feel like an invasion force is on the way.

I have no real clue why they think this is a good idea. Gamers are, on the whole, one of the most apathetic bunch when it comes to anything that doesn't directly affect their characters in-game. A good portion of them aren't even old enough to vote, and won't be by November 2008 either. Mostly what I have seen is people who are trying to form Ron Paul related guilds on both sides getting harassed mercilessly. It strikes me more like a publicity stunt, which is working in a way; media is taking notice and reporting on it. If Blizzard chooses to ban it, that will garner even more publicity for them. I suppose they go along with the old Hollywood adage that the only bad publicity is no publicity.

I won't go into a lot of details on my own political views or who I support or don't support. It's not the point.

I play WoW to escape real life. I don't want it invading my server. There may be a lot of people who are going to come to the rally to support Ron Paul. There may be lot of people who are going to come to watch to see if people grief the rally, or just see what's going on. The point is, they're coming to Whisperwind for an event that has nothing to do with the game, and may end up creating long queues or even crashing the server, blocking out people who actually just want to relax and play their game for the evening.

I'm fine with political rallies. But unless you're campaigning for Thrall for President, keep it out of my game.

Citizen Azeroth: Unintended market effect of dailies and maturity

2007-12-29T10:06:00.001-05:00

In the field of instructional design, we talk about the concept of unintended instructional outcomes. This is when a person learns something that you didn't plan for them to learn. Unintended effects plague all kinds of fields, not just instruction.

A good example of an unintended effect:

When we moved to our new home a month ago, we decided to put the cats' litter boxes in the basement. However, we didn't want to leave the basement door open all the time, so we installed a cat door, a device neither of my cats, Boo and Goblin, had ever seen. We taped the cat door flap open for a couple of weeks until they were used to passing through the "cat hole" regularly, and then put the flap down. Boo took to it like the proverbial duck to water, but Goblin took a little training to realize he could push the door open himself (he's not the brightest cat in the world). It was complicated by a small magnet that kept the door in place once down and required a little force to overcome the light magnetism, but in a few days Goblin was opening the cat door like a pro.

The unintended effect? If any door in the house is not latched tightly, Goblin opens it. And I mean, he OPENS it ... the door goes flying back on its hinges. Office, bedroom, even the bathroom -- latch it or you'll have the door fly wide open and a very proud gray-and-white cat looking at you (and anyone else who happens to be nearby).

So, what does my cat's learned door fetish have to do with WoW?

We all know about unintended effects in the game -- and I don't mean bugs. I mean events like the Great Hakkar Corrupted Blood Plague of September 2005. Or discovering that a change to a class really imbalanced something else.

Daily quests have introduced into the game a very easy way for level 70 characters to make cash, and a lot of it. Many dailies have rewards of 10-25g each. Do several of these a day, combined with high level farming, and your character can become filthy rich without the kind of effort that being filthy rich used to require. Blizzard introduced these not only as a new way to do quests and encourage people to build different factions or see places they might be ignoring otherwise; they did it to discourage people from buying gold. Why risk your account status on buying gold for real money when you can just spend a little time each day doing dailies? I can't say whether this has worked, but to judge from the seeming increasing desperation of gold sellers to advertise in game (of course, Blizzard's success at shutting down various methods of spamming adds to it as well), it's probably put a big dent in the gold farming business.

Add to this the concept of game maturity. We've hit the three-year mark on WoW, and although there are more mainstream ads out there, I haven't heard any announcement of hitting the 10-million subscriber mark. It seemed as though every time we turned around there was another announcement of another million subscribers. The number of new players will take its usual Christmas bump, but for the most part, the people who want to play WoW are already playing. This means few truly new players; although I don't have anything but anecdotal evidence to back this up, I believe that the vast majority of your sub-20 characters are alts of higher level ones, many with at least one level 70 sugar daddy (sugar mama?).

Game maturity + richer mains = rampant inflation in the AH.

People like to blame gold sellers, but gold sellers have been here since day 1. This is a relatively recent development. Inflation of certain items has always been around and is often tied to a particular game event, such as the yearly upsell of small eggs during Winter Veil or the amazingly high prices of ores and gems when TBC introduced jewelcrafting. This, however, is not tied to an individual event and seems to be getting worse.

I first noticed this when I was playing around with a human rogue on a PvP-RP server a few months ago. At the time, I chalked up this phenomenon to playing Alliance on a crowded PvP-RP server -- a double financial whammy. I've noticed that the laws of supply and demand don't necessarily follow on auction houses.

You'd think that with more people contributing to a server's economy that prices would, overall, be considerably lower. They're not. In fact, prices tend to be quite a bit less on low-population servers, and significantly higher on high population ones. This seems to be almost universal, applying equally to gear (weapons and armor), consumables (potions, armor kits, food, drink), and trade goods (metal, leather, cloth, etc).

Occasional fluctuations in particular tradeskill item markets happened all the time. This usually happened when someone tried to be a market maker -- that is, corner a particular market. You'd see someone try to buy out everyone's wool cloth and then sell it for a much higher fixed price, with the idea that they'd eventually manage to reset the price and it would always be that high from now on. In theory this can work, but it requires such a long, sustained effort to do so (not to mention some cooperation from other sellers, who are usually only too happy to undercut you by a significant percentage, hopefully significant enough that they'll make an instant sale to the reseller) and most prospective monopolists end up losing their money, their patience, or both, long before they can have any permanent effect on the market.

But for the past few months, on many different servers (I ran auction scans on several different servers of all four types, on low and high population servers) I've been seeing a disturbing trend toward rampant inflation of low level gear. And I don't mean blues, which have often hovered in the 10-20g market (higher for desirable level 19 or 29 pieces, the sweet spot for battleground twinks). I mean green armor for level 10-20s being posted for gold -- sometimes as high as five or six gold for among the most desirable items, especially agility leather, intellect cloth, daggers, and certain staves.

I've been working on my now-level 23 priest Epiphenie, and her gear is mostly an amalgam of stuff she's been made by my tailor mage and what she's gotten for quest rewards and dungeon drops (yes, I shamelessly ask my husband to have his 70 warlock rush her through low-level dungeons). I used to upgrade my stuff regularly through the auction house during these levels, where you could easily find gear for 10-30 silver. Not anymore.

The sad fact is this: people do what works. And if it works, even only sometimes, they'll continue to post outrageous prices for gear. Sure, they can get an almost immediate sale posting a level 10 +2 agility dagger for 40s, but get just one twink whose main has five thousand gold just sitting in the bank -- hey, what's 5g to them? Who cares if it's only level 10 and you'll outgrow it by that afternoon? It's easier than trying to find something else, or putting up with that white quest dagger.

So who's it hurting? It's not hurting me; I am experienced enough to know how to work around less-than-stellar gear, and I can always pinpoint dungeon drops and rewards. I try to continue to sell low level drops for reasonable prices, but I suspect that they are mostly getting snapped up by resellers rather than newbies.

The real victims here are the non-twinks: new players who just started the game and don't have a rich 70 to support their habits, as well as more casual players who don't have the time to put into getting a 70 to support their alt habits.

Of course, the good news is that the recent AH inflation cuts both ways. While I am adamant that I won't charge outrageous prices for low level gear drops, I'm perfectly happy to overcharge for metals, cloth, and leather. Those are easy for anyone to farm for themselves; anyone with a little time can make a quick round of Durotar or Dun Morogh and get 4-5 stacks of copper ore. Epiphenie, without relying on my other characters for actual money, has almost saved enough to get her mount when she turns 40.

So newbies of the world: go forth and farm. Overcharge those same level 70s who are trying to get their twinks' alchemy and blacksmithing to 300 overnight. Save your money, put up with some low level shoddy gear, and smile.

Citizen Azeroth: The shoulds of an alt-aholic

2007-12-28T11:40:00.000-05:00

There are a lot of things I should be doing in the game.

I'm not doing them.

I should be working on advancing Ghita, my 70 orc warlock and main. She's going to be going back into Zul'Aman after the first of the year, after everyone from my guild, The Collective, returns from the holidays. I switched her recently from Aldor to Scryer so I could get the exalted trinket, but I'm only halfway through neutral and should be progressing better toward exalted. I should be farming to save for her epic flying mount, which she still doesn't have. I should be doing dailies on her every day, which is easy money. I should be pushing various factions to exalted to collect enchanting recipes that became available a couple patches ago.

If I'm not working on Ghita, I should be working on Renatta, my undead warrior and former main. We could use more alternate tanks and offtanks in the group. She's halfway to 68 and is reasonably easy to level solo, and I can get help whenever I need it for group quests. I should get her to 70 and work on getting her equipped, so she can tank instances sometimes or even act as a backup tank for 25-mans.

Or maybe I should work on Meriele, my level 59 blood elf paladin I've lost interest in. We can always use another healer.

But no.

For the past few weeks, I've been playing everyone except Ghita, Renatta, and Meriele. In the past week, I've been consumed by playing Epiphenie, my blood elf priest who, as of this writing, just dinged 21.

I've tried priests several times before and never found them that interesting to play. Part of it is, I am sure, the idea of playing a healer again that had me gun-shy. I played a gnome cleric in Everquest for four years and entered World of Warcraft burned out on healing. Now, of course, healing in EQ is a much different thing than playing a healer in WoW (can you say 'twenty seconds to cast a Complete Heal spell'? Can you say 'cheal rotations'?)

But playing a character class several times before it clicks is not unusual for me. I tried the warlock class five times and deleted them before level 20 before finally rolling up Ghita; for some reason, lucky #6 clicked for me and she took my imagination to the point that she replaced my main.

Maybe that's where I am with Epiphenie. I've gotten a troll priest to 24 and an undead priest to 29 and ended up deleting both of them. But I was getting bored with them long before that, and was sort of forcing myself to go through the motions by their mid-teens.

There are some different factors this time.

First, I am much more adept at playing the game, and particularly at playing a caster. My troll and undead priests were both pre-Ghita, when I mostly had played warriors and hunters. I have a better idea of how to play a caster.

Second, one unintended effect of the faster leveling and faster experience gains of the 2.3 patch is that I have so many quests to choose from that I can simply skip some (but not all, as you will see later) quests I hate. Since you don't have to do as many quests to level up as you used to, you don't have to be forced into quest lines you don't like just to get the experience.

Third, I have a goal and a definite questing plan. My husband actually inspired this goal, since he did something similar with his blood elf warlock. I decided that I didn't want to ride the blood elf mount, a glorified chicken; I wanted to ride the orc racial mount instead, a wolf. So at level 5, after finishing the blood elf newbie zone, I moved to Durotar and have relentlessly pursued every quest that will give me either Orgrimmar or Horde faction. If I run out of Orgrimmar or Horde quests, I will do anything that gives me any other player city faction, since it does give a little sympathetic reputation for Orgrimmar (and every other city) as well. I try to do as few quests that give non-player-race faction or no faction at all. At 21, she's more than halfway through Honored. My husband's warlock did this with Undercity faction and had his bony pony by level 50. I'm hoping to beat his record. It's made the whole questing thing seem fresher, since every quest is a decision that needs to be made, not just something I do by default.

I'm not entirely certain why I can't seem to focus exclusively on one character like many of my friends do. But I like to think it gives me some breadth of experience, even if most of my one-character friends have toons that could kick my butt.

Citizen Azeroth: A new beginning

2007-12-28T01:50:00.000-05:00

So, how does a forty-year-old woman explain to the world why being a citizen of a gaming world is (a) important to her and (b) not something she feels she needs to justify, without sounding pathetic?

OK, I am not justifying myself. I have no regrets about being part of a community of millions of other people, many of whom (but not all) are considerably younger than I am. Every day, or nearly every day, I log on and assume the outward form of a fanged green-faced orc, a bipedal cow, a sinewy blood elf, a half-dead warrior, or occasionally, even a human being. I worry about my finances and how I'll afford my next vehicle, my next upgrade, or skill-building exercise. I plan to spend hours learning how to kill the next big monster. I'm concerned I'm not killing things as fast as my friends do.

All of this sounds pretty weird on the face of it. But you can make anything sound weird if you phrase it right. How about spending hours of your time studying statistics of grown men who put on big pads and spend their weekends deliberately trying to knock one another down while moving an oblong ball down a field? Or trying to find just the right colored powder to smear on your eyelids? Or swing a long stick to hit a tiny little ball to get it in one teeny little hole several hundred yards down an overmown lawn?

Mind you, I have nothing against football, eyeshadow, or golf -- as long as it's the New York Giants, you're not making me wear the eyeshadow, or you don't care that my golfing handicap is at the legal limit. My point is simply that you can make anything sound like a complete waste of time. Online gaming doesn't seem to accomplish much. At least football gives you something to talk about with work colleagues on Monday morning, eyeshadow can make tired eyes look pretty and, if you're single, can help you attract a mate, and golf can be a valuable social networking tool in some situations -- not to mention that at least you're outside and walking around.

I'm not going to argue that online gaming is better than any of these things for accomplishing their goals. However, I've talked about gaming over the proverbial water cooler at my old dot-com job, I know people who've met and married (and in many cases, divorced) as a result of online friendships, and I've certainly turned some online relationships into real-life friendships. I've even done some networking of a sort; since turning to podcasting in January 2006, it's a good way to talk to other podcasters about some of the ups and downs of our field.

There are definitely some surreal experiences about being an online gaming citizen, and that's going to be the main focus of this blog. I had another blog that I may or may not continue to update; one of the reasons I never felt it was successful is that it was trying to combine too many things and interests. I realized very quickly that my knitting friends didn't care about my gaming exploits, my gaming friends and podcast listeners didn't care what I was knitting, and there were probably only two or three people on the planet who cared about the house my husband and I built last year. So this blog's just for Azeroth.

I think my perspective is somewhat different from what people think is the experience of the average gamer, but I'm not so sure. I'm from the first generation of people who grew up on video games, who were in junior high when Space Invaders hit the local roller rink, were in high school when the Commodore 64 and Atari 2600 were the must-have items for the AV Club crowd, and remember the first MUDs and BBSs (may even have run our own). There are a lot of us out there -- the few, the proud, the protogeeks.