So I'm home today, sick w some type of stomach bug. My wife got it first, and I started coming down w it yesterday afternoon. I was stubborn this morning & got up to get into work since I had a Dr's appt near my office at 5pm. but when I couldn't stand more than 2 minutes without being dizzy I realized it was better to call it & suck up the chops busting I'll get tomorrow.
WOW is not conducive to recovery if your sick. I'll repeat If your home sick do not play WOW, surf the internet, watch TV but avoid playing WOW, I find I look worse after staying home & playing WOW sick then if I had sucked it up & went to the office.
That's it for today, tune in tomorrow & see what I have to say about leveling an alt =P
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
About Me
Why is this blog called Moonkin Musings? when there hasn't been a single post about balance druids? Why is there no discussion about leather vs. cloth about talent builds etc. etc.
Here is my background. I'm a 33 year old married man who works in IT, my wife works in publishing in the Metro NY area, we live in Northern New Jersey & have very busy work schedules. Usually I'm working about 60-70 hours a week between my full time job & my part time job teaching SAT Prep in the Rockland\Westchester County regions of New York State.
I started playing WOW back in the summer of 2006. I'm not an old school player, I avoided WOW like the plague because I saw what it had done to my old roommate back in 2003 & 2004 (he beta tested & got it the collectors edition on the release day!) I knew the stories of World of Warcrack, & through the course of my job had met about 10 it geeks who verified that it was more addictive than heroin & crystal meth combined. I also watched my Best Friend get sucked into being a Dwarf Pally on the Blackrock server, and our bi-weekly phone calls promises to get together went to once every two weeks to once a month, to once every six weeks to eventually only hearing from him once in a couple months. Hard Core Raiding takes priority after all.
So then you might ask why did I start playing, very simply I was bored & I got one of the free 10 day crack pipes that blizz gives out (Yes blizz it is like a dealer giving out the first one for free!)
I started on Gnomeregan when it was still new, leveled a Arms Warrior till about level 40, made a couple of alts and got bored. After all WOW can be a very lonely game if no one tells you how to level a warrior etc. etc.
Cut to November 2006: My Warrior is level 41 w no mount, I have a couple alts, & my day consists of running back & forth to the graveyard in SV because I didn't know how to pull w a gun! As I'm attempting to complete the kill X # of bloodsail buccaneers quest. I see a moonkin druid. At that moment I knew exactly what I wanted to play in WOW. I wanted to be a big furry\feathery Hooter who danced like Chris Farley.
I decided immediately to make a new toon on a new server. I chose Fenris (well it was listed as recommended for me!) & I started my toon Neren. I loved playing a druid. Again though I had no help from anyone, so I wasn't told to level Feral & then switch to balance later on. This meant that I died (a lot), but this also developed a reputation for me on my server since any druids who knew me, respected that I leveled with balance (and for any players out there it is possible esp now with the respecs.) I also took up herb\alch because I thought it fit the character mindset of a druid. Although it does bring its own issues which I post about later.
Character Notes:
February 2007: Neren is level 30 since I only play 1-2 hours a day, due to work week, being sick w the flu I'm able to make a Gnomeregan run midday, My play style catches the eye of a low level member of a raiding guild. I'm invited that afternoon & begin to level at an accelerated rate.
- March 2007: Neren hit's level 40 Hoot Hoot
- April 2007: Neren hit's level 58, moves over to Outland, Hits 60 Easter Morning.
- May 2008: Raiding Guild starts falling apart as Summer Begins. I'm start leveling a enhancement shammy because my project at work just makes me want to beat up stuff! Don't play w Main character for about 3 weeks
- June 2008: Neren hit's 70 I learn that being 70 just means you can now focus on end game. & that my gear is now useless.
- July 2008: By this point my guild on gnomer has become a husk of what it once was, the alpha players have either moved to other guilds, other servers or left wow. Sunday morning 7/8 my usual lonely farming for herbs in BEM is enlivened by a old guildie who then invites me to join my current guild. I raid Kara that night & get the Adornment of Stolen Souls http://www.wowwiki.com/Adornment_of_Stolen_Souls
- November 2008: Epic flight form attained after banging my head on heroic Setthek Halls for about 3 hours
- December 2008: First Piece of Tier Gear received http://www.wowwiki.com/Pauldrons_of_Malorne
- January 2008: Guild starts to dissolve: Leaving me to where I am now
The one thing that my time in wow has given me, is time to think about a lot of things, WOW can be a very boring game after all (really think about how happy people were with the Simon game in Ogrila.) So I noticed certain patterns & behaviors which lead to my musings about People & how they interact & react to events.
Hence Moonkin Musings
Here is my background. I'm a 33 year old married man who works in IT, my wife works in publishing in the Metro NY area, we live in Northern New Jersey & have very busy work schedules. Usually I'm working about 60-70 hours a week between my full time job & my part time job teaching SAT Prep in the Rockland\Westchester County regions of New York State.
I started playing WOW back in the summer of 2006. I'm not an old school player, I avoided WOW like the plague because I saw what it had done to my old roommate back in 2003 & 2004 (he beta tested & got it the collectors edition on the release day!) I knew the stories of World of Warcrack, & through the course of my job had met about 10 it geeks who verified that it was more addictive than heroin & crystal meth combined. I also watched my Best Friend get sucked into being a Dwarf Pally on the Blackrock server, and our bi-weekly phone calls promises to get together went to once every two weeks to once a month, to once every six weeks to eventually only hearing from him once in a couple months. Hard Core Raiding takes priority after all.
So then you might ask why did I start playing, very simply I was bored & I got one of the free 10 day crack pipes that blizz gives out (Yes blizz it is like a dealer giving out the first one for free!)
I started on Gnomeregan when it was still new, leveled a Arms Warrior till about level 40, made a couple of alts and got bored. After all WOW can be a very lonely game if no one tells you how to level a warrior etc. etc.
Cut to November 2006: My Warrior is level 41 w no mount, I have a couple alts, & my day consists of running back & forth to the graveyard in SV because I didn't know how to pull w a gun! As I'm attempting to complete the kill X # of bloodsail buccaneers quest. I see a moonkin druid. At that moment I knew exactly what I wanted to play in WOW. I wanted to be a big furry\feathery Hooter who danced like Chris Farley.
I decided immediately to make a new toon on a new server. I chose Fenris (well it was listed as recommended for me!) & I started my toon Neren. I loved playing a druid. Again though I had no help from anyone, so I wasn't told to level Feral & then switch to balance later on. This meant that I died (a lot), but this also developed a reputation for me on my server since any druids who knew me, respected that I leveled with balance (and for any players out there it is possible esp now with the respecs.) I also took up herb\alch because I thought it fit the character mindset of a druid. Although it does bring its own issues which I post about later.
Character Notes:
February 2007: Neren is level 30 since I only play 1-2 hours a day, due to work week, being sick w the flu I'm able to make a Gnomeregan run midday, My play style catches the eye of a low level member of a raiding guild. I'm invited that afternoon & begin to level at an accelerated rate.
- March 2007: Neren hit's level 40 Hoot Hoot
- April 2007: Neren hit's level 58, moves over to Outland, Hits 60 Easter Morning.
- May 2008: Raiding Guild starts falling apart as Summer Begins. I'm start leveling a enhancement shammy because my project at work just makes me want to beat up stuff! Don't play w Main character for about 3 weeks
- June 2008: Neren hit's 70 I learn that being 70 just means you can now focus on end game. & that my gear is now useless.
- July 2008: By this point my guild on gnomer has become a husk of what it once was, the alpha players have either moved to other guilds, other servers or left wow. Sunday morning 7/8 my usual lonely farming for herbs in BEM is enlivened by a old guildie who then invites me to join my current guild. I raid Kara that night & get the Adornment of Stolen Souls http://www.wowwiki.com/Adornment_of_Stolen_Souls
- November 2008: Epic flight form attained after banging my head on heroic Setthek Halls for about 3 hours
- December 2008: First Piece of Tier Gear received http://www.wowwiki.com/Pauldrons_of_Malorne
- January 2008: Guild starts to dissolve: Leaving me to where I am now
The one thing that my time in wow has given me, is time to think about a lot of things, WOW can be a very boring game after all (really think about how happy people were with the Simon game in Ogrila.) So I noticed certain patterns & behaviors which lead to my musings about People & how they interact & react to events.
Hence Moonkin Musings
The slow decomposition of my guild: part I
Over the last two months, my guild on fenris has been slowly falling apart.
This was caused by a number of reasons. 100% due to people whether they were leaders or followers.
This has got me to thinking about what makes a good guild fall apart. I've read posts by other bloggers about different reasons for this problem. But from my perspective I have my own set of indicators. In this series of posts I'll go over one issue at a time.
1.) Commitment vs. Independence. A good guild regardless of pvp or pve\raid progression gives it's members the independence to do what they want. After all WOW is a game & you need to enjoy it or else theres no point in putting in the game time when there's a whole real world out there. At the same time Guild Member's need to have a level of commitment in order to make guild progression\goals reached.
The best raiding\pvp guilds have this level of commitment. I view it as the digitization of obligation: Taking the same level of punctuality & commitment you would have towards a softball team, martial arts class, volunteer group & applying it to your guild. This doesn't mean your OCD about WOW, it just means that you treat your raid time as a social event that requires your
commitment.
Guilds that require too much commitment (We raid 7days a week, your on standby from 7-11pm if we need you, if your not raiding we need you to farm or run lowbies\blue 70's through dungeons.) Fall apart because they require too many demands. They may appeal to some players who need a sense of being the team player, having the greatest gear until the new patch comes out. Like a 80hr workweek the players reach their line, & either gquit or gexplode (sucking out the guild bank, ninja'd tier gear etc. ) Also as I noticed w myself when I raided hard in my 2nd guild for about a month last year, you begin to avoid your guild. I made alts that no one knew about, spent hours killing boars (figuratively) just so I wouldn't be bothered w transmute requests or potion requests or can I farm this mat for the kara runs.
Guilds that have too much freedom, or to much lazies fare attitude towards events have difficulty attaining progression. This is expected. But what is worse is when guild members commit to an event & then do not attend or show up late. I view this a no digitization of obligation, "This is a game so who cares if I really show up on time. I am @ home I'm not outside with other people." This is poison to a guild if it's not eliminated from the organization because the guild members will be conditioned to not attend raid events since they never get off the ground. They will cease to commit to events, which will lead to the guild leaders becoming disillusioned w their positions.
So to Summarize: The Best Guilds have enough freedom so they're members want to play because they enjoy the game, & have players who have been able to mentally apply their sense of real world obligations to be present at guild events.
This was caused by a number of reasons. 100% due to people whether they were leaders or followers.
This has got me to thinking about what makes a good guild fall apart. I've read posts by other bloggers about different reasons for this problem. But from my perspective I have my own set of indicators. In this series of posts I'll go over one issue at a time.
1.) Commitment vs. Independence. A good guild regardless of pvp or pve\raid progression gives it's members the independence to do what they want. After all WOW is a game & you need to enjoy it or else theres no point in putting in the game time when there's a whole real world out there. At the same time Guild Member's need to have a level of commitment in order to make guild progression\goals reached.
The best raiding\pvp guilds have this level of commitment. I view it as the digitization of obligation: Taking the same level of punctuality & commitment you would have towards a softball team, martial arts class, volunteer group & applying it to your guild. This doesn't mean your OCD about WOW, it just means that you treat your raid time as a social event that requires your
commitment.
Guilds that require too much commitment (We raid 7days a week, your on standby from 7-11pm if we need you, if your not raiding we need you to farm or run lowbies\blue 70's through dungeons.) Fall apart because they require too many demands. They may appeal to some players who need a sense of being the team player, having the greatest gear until the new patch comes out. Like a 80hr workweek the players reach their line, & either gquit or gexplode (sucking out the guild bank, ninja'd tier gear etc. ) Also as I noticed w myself when I raided hard in my 2nd guild for about a month last year, you begin to avoid your guild. I made alts that no one knew about, spent hours killing boars (figuratively) just so I wouldn't be bothered w transmute requests or potion requests or can I farm this mat for the kara runs.
Guilds that have too much freedom, or to much lazies fare attitude towards events have difficulty attaining progression. This is expected. But what is worse is when guild members commit to an event & then do not attend or show up late. I view this a no digitization of obligation, "This is a game so who cares if I really show up on time. I am @ home I'm not outside with other people." This is poison to a guild if it's not eliminated from the organization because the guild members will be conditioned to not attend raid events since they never get off the ground. They will cease to commit to events, which will lead to the guild leaders becoming disillusioned w their positions.
So to Summarize: The Best Guilds have enough freedom so they're members want to play because they enjoy the game, & have players who have been able to mentally apply their sense of real world obligations to be present at guild events.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Rebuilding Turndow
One thing I've noticed about all every person I've met playing WOW is this shared common experience with their first toon. Specifically, everyone who've I chatted with about Toon #1 has the same story about how they didn't know how to play the character & how their first toon sits on a server somewhere gathering dust. First toons are like first pancakes, you screw them up & toss them aside.
My first toon, Turndow was a warrior on Gnomeregan server. I got a copy of the trial copy of wow with a copy of PC Gamer & had no idea how the game was played, I had no help from people on how to play a warrior, How to use my talents or even what was a good profession for a Warrior, I actually had turndow doing leather working\skinning since no one explained this wasn't the best choice for a warrior. I leveled Turndow to 40\41, tried some other toons on Gnomer (dwarf pally, undead rogue) then saw a Moonkin Druid & decided to switch servers, where I created Neren & made my mark, Turndow sat on gnomer & gathered digital dust.
This would've been the case with Turndow if my account hadn't been hacked due to my own stupidity, Blizz was able to recover Neren, but my toons on Gnomer had been deleted. I accepted this since I didn't have time to level Turndow, much less a desire to play him.
Then last week as we discussed 1st toons on guild vent it Hit me, Since Turndow had been deleted I could recreate him on Fenris! Since last Friday, I've put in about eight hours of leveling on him & have enjoyed it tremendously. But the issue I have is that my Time to play wow is limited & if I invest time in him, I have less time on my main. Hopefully though I'll be able to balance rebuilding him.
My first toon, Turndow was a warrior on Gnomeregan server. I got a copy of the trial copy of wow with a copy of PC Gamer & had no idea how the game was played, I had no help from people on how to play a warrior, How to use my talents or even what was a good profession for a Warrior, I actually had turndow doing leather working\skinning since no one explained this wasn't the best choice for a warrior. I leveled Turndow to 40\41, tried some other toons on Gnomer (dwarf pally, undead rogue) then saw a Moonkin Druid & decided to switch servers, where I created Neren & made my mark, Turndow sat on gnomer & gathered digital dust.
This would've been the case with Turndow if my account hadn't been hacked due to my own stupidity, Blizz was able to recover Neren, but my toons on Gnomer had been deleted. I accepted this since I didn't have time to level Turndow, much less a desire to play him.
Then last week as we discussed 1st toons on guild vent it Hit me, Since Turndow had been deleted I could recreate him on Fenris! Since last Friday, I've put in about eight hours of leveling on him & have enjoyed it tremendously. But the issue I have is that my Time to play wow is limited & if I invest time in him, I have less time on my main. Hopefully though I'll be able to balance rebuilding him.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
My thoughts on Blizzard's Ghost Wolf Reversal
As we all know Blizzard has raised some heat lately with the change on hunters taming Ghost Wolves. After reading a good deal of posts & complaints I've decided to weigh in on this debate. The reason why people are so upset about this change is because of the time & effort that they put in to get the ghost wolf as a pet. The ghost wolf was never intended to be tamable by blizzard, it goes against some core ideas of wow (Has anyone ever seen a undead hunter?!?) & I'm sure there was some back end code that would be left open for further exploit. But players put in time and effort to get it so Blizzard allowed it until it raised an issue (what this issue is we may never know.)
With that said as I read all the posts I thought about another exploit that had been plugged blizzard. Up until 2.3 most players who ran heroic Mechanar only ran it to get 3 badges (unless your tank needed the Sun-Eater!) This was a game exploit that was removed in 2.3 because it allowed people to get heroic badges very quickly. When blizzard announced 2.3 & players saw that the 3 Badge run was going away, No one complained on my server. What I read on chat channels & heard on guild chat & vent was to get as many runs in as you could because Blizzard is removing the 3badge run. Comparing this to how upset people have been about the Ghost Wolf change, made me come up with a formula to determine player aggravation with blizzard changes
The amount of player aggravation & griping is proportional to the amount of effort that the player had to put in to acquire the gear & rep.
This formula is also good for explaining why some old wow players became disillusioned when the BC came out. They had put in a great deal of effort to acquire their gear through raiding & grinding, only to have Blizzard wash it away with 61 greens.
Now we just need to see if this formula will stand up when WOTLK comes out.
With that said as I read all the posts I thought about another exploit that had been plugged blizzard. Up until 2.3 most players who ran heroic Mechanar only ran it to get 3 badges (unless your tank needed the Sun-Eater!) This was a game exploit that was removed in 2.3 because it allowed people to get heroic badges very quickly. When blizzard announced 2.3 & players saw that the 3 Badge run was going away, No one complained on my server. What I read on chat channels & heard on guild chat & vent was to get as many runs in as you could because Blizzard is removing the 3badge run. Comparing this to how upset people have been about the Ghost Wolf change, made me come up with a formula to determine player aggravation with blizzard changes
The amount of player aggravation & griping is proportional to the amount of effort that the player had to put in to acquire the gear & rep.
This formula is also good for explaining why some old wow players became disillusioned when the BC came out. They had put in a great deal of effort to acquire their gear through raiding & grinding, only to have Blizzard wash it away with 61 greens.
Now we just need to see if this formula will stand up when WOTLK comes out.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Remenants
Over the last couple of days I've embarked on a personal quest to obtain the Elixir of Dream Vision. Here's the link to thot if you don't know what it does http://thottbot.com/i9297 . Since I'm level 70 & my quests are now either daily or tied to the finishing up raid quests, I felt this was a good time to do this since I couldn't commit to any nightly raids.
So Tuesday Night & Last Night I farmed AZ & HT, & in the process of killing hundreds & hundreds of mobs to get the chance for the recipe to drop I noticed something. In the eight hours of farming I saw only 3 people in either zone. The rest of the time both areas were empty, not a single player was in either zone on my server. I then began to think about this because it was really really sad for me to see these areas left to the wayside because of the expansion & the recent change that made leveling easier. I mean if you know your lore, Az is critical spot in the warcraft universe. CF\SSK wouldn't exist without AZ existing. It made me wonder what outland will be like after wrath comes out. How many zones in outland will be abandonded with mobs that wander around with no purpose. With everyone focused on reaching level 70, whole areas are being left to rot.
So Tuesday Night & Last Night I farmed AZ & HT, & in the process of killing hundreds & hundreds of mobs to get the chance for the recipe to drop I noticed something. In the eight hours of farming I saw only 3 people in either zone. The rest of the time both areas were empty, not a single player was in either zone on my server. I then began to think about this because it was really really sad for me to see these areas left to the wayside because of the expansion & the recent change that made leveling easier. I mean if you know your lore, Az is critical spot in the warcraft universe. CF\SSK wouldn't exist without AZ existing. It made me wonder what outland will be like after wrath comes out. How many zones in outland will be abandonded with mobs that wander around with no purpose. With everyone focused on reaching level 70, whole areas are being left to rot.
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