Return of Warcraft
Posted under: Okay, okay.
I gave in and I’m playing WoW again.
In a move that will surprise no one, I am immediately bombarded with ideas for Warcraft-inspired blog posts, which I shall condense into list format because I am NOT turning this into a Warcraft blog, nope, not gonna happen, no way, no how.
Onward!
Mr. Chilly, the penguin pet, is adorable and I will love him and squish him and hug him and call him George. Also, the fact that his eyes are flashlights (highlighted in dark dungeons even when he’s not focused on) is both creepy and awesome. Crepawsome. Aweseepy. Something.
The new random dungeon thing is awesomesauce, especially since we can vote to kick. Reasons we’ve kicked folks so far include: doing 12 dps (12. And that was AFTER stepping it up because they were warned), a hunter rolling need on a +stam cloth robe, a dps warrior (that was not doing any damage and had a shield equipped) rolling need on +agi shoulders (with a rogue in the group that actually DID need them), and my personal favorite – calling me a very naughty word and threatening to stalk me after I asked the group not to do the Thing That Can Wipe Even A Very Good Group.
Rogues, did I miss the patch where you get a damage bonus after sapping things? Because five rogues in a row can’t be THAT wrong in stealthing up and sapping everything in sight while the pallytank is drinking to replenish mana … could they?
This many huntards in a row is not a coincidence. Blizzard, you must be teaching them incorrectly. Hunters, I love you, but please use a ranged weapon.
Two hours to do the water quest for an orc shaman goes beyond “silly” and well into “ludicrous”. I don’t even want to know how long it took before they dropped the level requirements to get the first mount.
Have I mentioned how much I love the random dungeon thing? Because travel time to and from instances alone used to eat up HOURS of gametime. I love, love, love the random dungeon thing.
I realize that, as a druid, I can choose to morph into bear form and tank. However, since I am currently wearing healing gear and have all of my talent points in the Resto tree, I feel the need to comment on the SEVEN tanking cloaks that I’ve gotten as random dungeon goodie bag blues. Seven tanking cloaks. One healy belt. It’d be awesome if you’d let us trade those goodie bag blues to other people in that random dungeon group. Also, if your inventory is full, the goodie bag gets mailed to you. That’s great! Except … it would be better if a line appeared in the chat window or on the screen that lets us know to EXPECT it in the mail. I might’ve said a few naughty words when I didn’t get my bag, only to retract them half an hour later when my mail arrived. Maybe.
Roleplaying rarely ever works out as planned. My tauren druid (Yes, horde. No, not a priest) SHOULD be a mild, sweet-mannered peace-loving hippie, based on lore and common expectations. Around level 10, she let me know that she’s a pushy, foul-mouthed harpy. Our female blood elf tank is constantly bombarded with threats and insults, the most common of which is to call her “little boy” or refer to her as “that eleven-year-old boy”.
Dear Vonya,
I missed you and your egotisticalness. Yes, that’s a word. Good to see you back in action. Just don’t stop writing k? Gotta kick Tami a bit when she starts to slack off.
Wishes,
Kriz/Bashertin/Leyola/Wimzig
.-= krizzlybear´s last blog ..Learning From the Pros =-.
Welcome back =)
.-= Dechion´s last blog ..On Worldbuilding =-.
@Krizzlybear
Thanks! No worries – writing is not allowed to take a backseat to gaming.^_^
Okay, I was going to celebrate, rejoice, buy drinks on the house. THEN you let it out you rolled HORDE!!!!! Doing all the drinking by myself. :(
Point the second: You have read my short blurbs where I keep saying I’m >< this close to quitting wow. Our mutual friends have heard me bemoan the fact that playing WoW sucks so many hours away from other Things I Want (and Need) to Do–like reading and writing. Shelving Blue Moon was NOT supposed to be your ticket to WoW-time. I thought.
Oh, and finally? Welcome back. :D
.-= Steve Hall´s last blog ..Weekly Word Count: March 5 =-.
@Dechion
*laughs* This is not a triumphant return! *stomps hoof* It’s a … a … um … an ASIDE. Like if I’d blogged my recipe for spicy peanut butter noodles!
*winks*
@Steve
*laughs* I haven’t experienced the most recent two expansions on horde-side. I’d like to see how they differ. And I loves me some tauren.
This weekend, we did the following:
* worked out both days
* Mr. Moore finished his homework not only for this week, but next week as well
* I wrote the Choose draft (which is longer than usual)
* We cooked all our meals for the week, as we normally do (about four big recipes)
* We did some worldbuilding for Stained
* We watched three movies
* We engaged in a ridiculous amount of cuddling
* I finished inking my March sketch for my digital art project
* We leveled from 0-25
Believe me when I say that my writing and other projects are not taking a back seat to WoW. The major reason for stopping Blue Moon was that I was unhappy with some of my rewrite choices and couldn’t go back to fix them because they’d been “published”.
=]
Cuddling is > all.
Leveling 1-25 is ridiculously easy now. Don’t tempt me to start early on my Draenei shaman! (Waiting for x-pac to level up with a friend’s Worgen mage.)
About Blue Moon: Methinks you’re using the “they’d been published” bit as an excuse. If the work needs work, then by all means, DO IT. It’s a good story, it needs to be told. And if it needs to be dismantled, reassembled–even if you use new, better parts instead of factory stock–then by all means, put it back together so it works better!
(How about THAT for some turnabout “tough love”?) *hugs*
.-= Steve Hall´s last blog ..Weekly Word Count: March 5 =-.
Can’t say that I blame you, I’ve considered going back since The Hubby still plays all the time. I’m just not interested in raiding and that’s all he does. I just wish I could say that I’m getting more done now that I’m not playing WoW… I just play console games and watch TV instead :-)
.-= Lauren´s last blog ..A New Story =-.
@Steve
I do plan on reworking Blue Moon. It’s not been thrown into the trash, just put back to my Idea Box. I couldn’t fix it while moving forward with it as a webserial, though. No excuses here, I assure you. =]
@Lauren
Raiding and burnout were huge reasons I stopped playing in the first place, so I definitely understand that.
*laughs* Sadly, the “stop playing wow to get more done” can oh so easily turn into “more tv”. I can’t be trusted with TV. I haven’t weaponized the idiot box in … oh, almost a decade now.
I’ve seen melee warlocks, too. It’s really weird. Opinion in our /gchat leans towards “people leveling weapons skills and who aren’t aware of better ways to do it.”
I swear to Mammon – a Warlock!
.-= Grimmtooth´s last blog ..This is My World: 3/7/2010 =-.
mmm, welcome back, my dear! I’ve often toyed around with rolling horde – I, too, have an affinity for Tauren but can’t seem to give up my spacegoats.
@Grimmtooth
(MANY moons ago) our rogue lost an agi dagger need roll to a mage. He might need to melee, he argued. You know. In case he ran out of wand stuff.
@Tristina
I do loves me some spacegoats. It’s fun playing with the new druid forms, though!
In an ironic twist, I cancelled my WoW accounts on Friday. Heh!
@Michael C-with-a-beret-on-top
A couple other WoW folks I know of have done the same. =]
HAH! I knew it was only a matter of time!
Teaching hunters incorrectly? The only thing Blizzard teaches hunters is how to melee. No pet for ten levels = learn to shoot twice, then beat it down. You only learn how to send the pet, let it get aggro, then burn it down when someone shows you how. Even BRK had to be shown, once upon a time…
.-= Michael´s last blog ..Holy Frickin Cow =-.
Oh how the cruel world taunts me. My favorite people to play with have all returned to the game. The person who taught me to Rogue who had just came back. And now my second WoW Family is back.
WHAT TO DO WHAT TO DO….
Perhaps an alt on the server. I’ll check in at some point.
Hooray for WoW-ing! :D
I feel a little bad for the low DPSer though, maybe they just didn’t know how to “step it up”? Blizzard really does fail quite hard at the newbie stuff, like Michael said above me, and Dechion has so recently posted. But then I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt (perhaps more often than I should).
Good luck with your new endeavors! I hope that we will get to read more of them from time to time!
@Michael
Thhhbbbt. Yes, you were right. *grins* And you’re right on hunters, too.
@Zack
*laughs* The way YOU level, your alt will be carrying us through dungeons before we know it. Do know that we have zero plans at the moment for raiding, so if you join us like the old days, no worries about alting. =]
@Carrie
He wasn’t attacking anything (warlock). He was following around and looting. After being warned, for the next two fights he threw exactly two shadowbolts and that was it. We’re trying not to abuse the kick policy by giving the benefit of the doubt, too. But sometimes it’s pretty obvious when someone’s confused versus someone’s just flat out lazy.
Perhaps. But I has no golds! Well at least on that server :D
@Zack
Pssssht. Like that’s ever stopped you before. ;)
Welcome back :) It’s pretty strange that you should post this literally the day after I finally got around to dejectedly removing Ego from my Google Reader :P
The new LFD thing is probably the best thing that’s ever happened. I leveled my Priest in a matter of 2-3 weeks (all while raiding on my main) just by questing for a level, then instancing for a level. And heirlooms. Can’t forget the heirlooms. I’m just glad that they made it perfectly viable to actually level as a healer :)
Yes, Mr. Chilly is completely buhdorable, but just you wait until you get the Perky Pug. I learned last night (much to the dismay of my raiding buddies) that my pug barks when I click on him. JOY OF JOYS! Still not a fan of the butt-scrape-then-sniff-it animation though…
@Courtney
*laughs* Ego can be removed safely. I don’t foresee myself picking that particular project up again. Consistently blogging about playing is a pretty solid time commitment on top of just playing. I prefer playing and blogging for fun, I think. =]
Played with someone who had the corehound pet last night. Talk about buhdorable!
Wow. Yeah, I totally get that then. I just remember back when I started leveling my alliance mage, I wanted to try fire (I have a blood elf mage that’s frost). Hit the randoms at a pretty low level and got Rage Fire Chasm, and a hunter who yelled at me for doing low DPS. He was doing 36, I was doing 30. He was also pulling for the tank because I guess he was in a hurry or something.
But seriously, I got picked on as a FIRE mage in Rage FIRE Chasm. At least as much of a fire mage as you can be at that level. Blech.
Justin has dropped WoW to persue Star Trek Online.
I’ve decided that I want to try out this raiding thing, so I’m in a guild that does them! and they don’t suck at organizing! so it’s fun.
I’m too attached to my mage. other classes just don’t interest me enough to level. that sounds so sad.
@Carrie
If it makes you feel any better, Hunters are OP at low levels. Any caster with long cast time spells takes a longer time to catch up to them.
@KristenSue
I remember you talking about your druid was one of the reasons I wanted to play, oh-so-long ago. <3
Sounds like your female blood elf tank is on a server with boys. I picked up Counter-Strike again lately and noticed the same stuff. “OMG GIRLZ!” followed by “OMG UR A LEETLE BOY!” Best so far was, “ASL?” I thought kids were too young these days to know what “ASL?” was…
Noooo!
I am sorry, madam, but this is an honest reaction. WoW is a timesink. A bad, bad, BAD one. You think you can keep it under control now, and I do believe you. In three weeks? Not so much…
It is easy to keep it under control when you have just come back. Then time passes, and there starts to be more demand, mentally. Just do this bit of meat farming, that bit of profession leveling, do three more randoms to get ridiculous pet, fifteen more for badges for this new piece… it spirals down. And then one day you realise you are losing your time… and leave.
At least this has been my experience. Hope it is different for you.
As for me, I got a chance to do HTRYN, thanks to a generous friend, whom I am so going to kill. WoW lost the contest for my time, and I feel all the richer for it. One Draenei priest leaving, and another returning? Nothing is ever lost in the world, truly. *smiles*
.-= Iris´s last blog ..Feather Path: Chapter VIII =-.
@Iris
While I appreciate your concern, I promise I’m going into this with my eyes open and fully aware of how much WoW can become a time sink.
It’s only as much time sink as I allow it to be, just like any other hobby. =]
.-= Tami´s last blog ..Return of Warcraft =-.
I am very, very happy to see you back! And while priest is still my first love, my druid is my favorite alt.
@Iris
(*winks at Tami as I derail the thread*)
WOOT FOR HTRYN!! Except now I know FP is going to be shelved for awhile. :P However, maybe we can do HTRYN together for your second and my first. ;)
(*returns thread to Tami’s control*)
Ugh, you lucky lucky XP
I’d had a real craving for WOW recently (especially with the new expansion coming out so sooooon), but I just can’t afford to play it ; o ;
..So I’ve been playing warcraft 2 instead (which was one of my only childhood videogames).
.-= Rhinne´s last blog ..Kremlin and Cold =-.
@Rhinne
I am glad that I have a job where I make enough money for things like WoW.
w00tz!
Durids r0xx0rzz teh big 1111
Got my Tauren to 72 on Thundehorn with a restoferal spec. Thinking of going dual spec as a healer, since they’re MUCH faster to be picked up by dungeonfinder!
(Miss u, old friend – drop me a line, lemme know how you’ve been)
… nice website, BTW – tho not as immediately interactive as our old LJ
@Vlad
Grats on breaking the 70 barrier! That dungeonfinder tool is the biggest and most wonderful surprise to hit WoW while I was gone. =]
I have too many email addresses for you, not sure which one is the best. You drop ME a line. *winks*
.-= Tami´s last blog ..NaNo2010 > Characters 1 =-.
I am SO glad to have found myself here, Tami — thank you for the Twitter discussion and general WoW enjoyment reading here!
As a freelancer who also plays WoW, and whose playtime is a near-perfect match for when I used to watch TV (and no longer do), can I recommend the productivity software called “RescueTime” (www.rescuetime.com)? If you do a lot of your work at the computer, it will keep track of every second you spend on what.
It confirms that I play WoW about 20hr/wk which is actually pretty normal if that’s your hobby game of choice (according to various academic research projects including my own). Of course some folks play more and some less, but in context of overall media consumption? The Neilsen Three Screen report says Americans spend over 35hr/wk watching TV…. uninteractive, unchallenging, unsocial TV. Thanks, I’ll take my WoW!
.-= Liz´s last blog ..On the Nature of Accomplishments =-.
@Liz
Welcome to the blog! I’m so glad you’ve found something to enjoy. =]
Time management is a scary, scary beast. Is it bad that I don’t want to click the link because I don’t want to KNOW? *laughs* I’m only half joking when I say I collect hobbies the way some folks collect stamps. I just try to prioritize them (with varying degrees of success).
Warcraft definitely trumps tv time, though I make some time for shows like Deadwood, House, Firefly, etc.