Friday, February 27, 2009

Ready Check..Occ @ 7:30EST

Good Afternoon Musers,
If you've noticed the gaps in my posts are increasing. This is just due to part time work schedule I'm juggling the transition of my SAT students. The March Students are wrapping up and the May Students are spooling. Luckily this controlled chaos will be over next sunday. I'm not running on fumes yet, but I can feel my mana is down below 30%. If this went on past next week, I don't know what my mental state would be like. I will say this I wouldn't need Yogg-Saron to drive me mad!!!
In other news. Tonight I've assembled a top team of lunatics to take down Occulus. I've been reading the strat & getting psyched up to knocking this one of my list. I'll just need to get that extra boss in OK, kel & mag and another title is mine!!!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Tier 8..Looks Great!


http://www.wowinsider.com/photos/tier-8-armor/1383206/full/
Awesomeness!!! I know I'm busy but I so need to run Uludar when it goes live

Saturday, February 21, 2009

On leveling a warlock..inital thoughts

Good Morning Musers!
I know it's been a couple days since I last posted. For anyone who's read this blog since it's inception, you'll know that this time of year is very busy for me due to SAT season. In fact I'll be leaving soon to go do a 'rescue' tutorial (Student used other services before coming to my employer.) I hope to get back on the writing wagon next week (finger's crossed!!!)
Also you may also remember my stance on Alt's. I have a love\hate relationship with them. I strive for the Zen like purity of my friend Zorch. He has one toon, that's it no alt's not even a bank alt. If he needs to goto the AH he goes to the AH. At the same time I also find that an Alt can be liberating. With my work schedules, personal commitments, and in-game commitments an anonymous alt is a way to unwind and have fun.
Still though Alt's are an investment in time, if you spend time on an Alt you lose time you can invest on your main. Turndow is getting dusty because of this. With SAT season in full swing I don't have the spare hour to invest into his leveling. There's a part of me that's even wondering if I want to invest more time in him. He may be boxed for a while because I'm leveling a Warlock!
Yes I know I've said before I can't stand Lock's but an odd thing happened. Well not really odd. Last Friday the missus & I saw Coraline. I heartily recommend seeing this film & if you can see it in 3D. Anyway for the film adaptation, they gave her a friend name Wybie. He was dark & moody etc. but not evil. So last Sunday logging into WOW I had a scratching thought...let me see if that name is taken. Guess what it wasn't
Hence Wybie The Warlock was born! In a way he reminds me of Greathoof, the name was so good I had to level him. But Also I got it. I mean I get what makes Warlocks a tough class & a great leadership tool. The nature of the class, the need to be situational aware almost all the time and not be stressed by it is fantastic. Wybie offers me a way to train my mind, and I'm enjoying it. It's almost like Randori, you have x attackers coming at you & you need to prioritize and have on the fly strategy.
I don't expect Wybie to become my main, but I have a feeling I may actual level him to 80 because of the opportunity that the toon offers me. Not in WOW but in real life.
Until another Day
The Musing Moonkin

Monday, February 16, 2009

My Laggy Valentine

http://www.wowinsider.com/2009/02/15/my-buggy-valentine-problems-with-love-is-in-the-air/
Agreed!!!
Sunday I had enough rockets for the rockets pink glare achievement, and I missed it due to a lag spike. I cursed in guild chat & gave up on the achievement after that.
Hopefully they'll extend this holiday for next year because I can't see the lag issues being resolved.
Until another day
The Musing Moonkin

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Annoyed with The Guild

When The Guild first appeared, I loved the webisodes, I mean I LOVED them. The mix of humor and social commentary was as balanced as my Druid!
In addition it gave me a way to explain WOW to my wife. I get that for some people MMO's, WOW, gaming culture in general is frowned upon. My beloved wife originally fell into this group but over time she's become quite understanding of my passion towards WOW. It's my 'thing' like her dad likes golf or my brother in law like bowling. The Guild helped her I think to come to this understanding.
Lately though the tone of the episodes is turning darker. Yesterdays episode set off memory triggers of my geek apprenticeship. My wife thought it was absolutely hilarious but I beg to differ..I think that the show has 'jumped the shark'.
The thing is (and again this is my own opinion) the reason the show started was out of Felicia Day's experiences using WOW to avoid real life due to her unemployment & the people she met during this period of her life. That's where it picked up its fan base. I've lost count of players who used wow (myself included) to hide from the unjust universe. I liked Clara in season 1, I knew woman like her stuck at home with toddlers and a husband who worked 90 hours a week. Now she's become the dark party girl. For me the show feels more of a mockery of the actual people of The Guild.
I think in the quest to become more successful, the creators of The Guild are forgetting those that actually made them successful. If the show continues in the fashion for season 3 I'll stop watching it.
Until another Day
The Musing Moonkin

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Monday\Sick\Didn't Play WOW all day

The title says it all I actually didn't play WOW yesterday when I was home sick. I tried to, I logged in and did some dailies, but the plan I had for the day just didn't happen. However this was a good thing. I really just needed the bed rest\couch rest and I will say it again that if your home sick, you should avoid playing WOW because your mind will view the sick day as a virtual chore day. (I'm home, I can get all these quests, to-do's etc. finally done) therefor you'll end up feeling sicker than you did when you got up in the morning because you really didn't rest.
Here's the obstacles that gave me rest time
1.) Naxx Run that fell apart: One of my exguildies in TCD invited me to a Naxx am run. We were going to clear three bosses in construct quarter & then take down Kel'Thuzad. We started at 9:30, but after three wipes on Grobbulus two of the raid member quit which peeled off another 4 members and caused the Raid Leader to call the event.
I decided to go to bed until 11am to particpate in...
2.) The Occ run that never happened: Again a to-do that made me want to ignor how I felt. Yesterday's daily heroic was The Occulus. This is high on my to-do list because I still haven't downed the last boss on Heroic. The guild members logged on in the morning decided to Run it after the 11am reset. I got out of bed, logged back in only to find the people who said they'd run Occ not logged in. I decided to log out & watch TV for the rest of the afternoon.
Hell I was so sick yesterday, that my autopilot alt only went from 25 to 26. If that doesn't say your plauge ridden I don't know what is
Until another day
The Musing Moonkin

Saturday, February 7, 2009

An Achievement Worth The Effort

Good Evening Musers,
In the whirlwind of the week I forgot to post this.
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-achievements.xml?r=Fenris&n=Neren

Yes that's right I am now an ELDER!
So you know what you have to do..
Yes that's right. Kneel & Show Respect to your Elder!!! =P
But Seriously, I am very pleased with this achievement compared to the other holiday achievements that have been implemented since Echoes of Doom. First off, you actually have to work to earn this title. There is simply no way around it; if you wanted your name to be Elder X, you were going to have to do some seriously hoofing about Azeroth to meet all the requirements. So when the event started on 1/24 I decided to use the time I had that weekend (which was more than usual since my wife was away on business,) to knock out as many of the requirements as possible. I believe I started at 6:00 am with Omen, then went focused fire on the Elders of Kalimdor, (stopping for dungeons along the way), then Eastern Kingdoms, then Northrend on Monday.
In my opinion, the Major Effort that was required was devilishly designed. Here's what I thought was the highlights.
1.) To actually earn the title you would need to run Heroic Gun'Drak. This meant that you had to be level 80 & geared since the elder was with the Extra Boss in the dungeon.
2.) The Classic Dungeon Elders were all deep in their respective dungeons. While 3.08 has removed some of the slog, you would still need to expect to invest 20-30 minutes per dungeon to find the Elder.
3.) Elders of the Horde \ Elders of the Alliance was very well balanced. Although the event leans towards the Alliance (as the Wickerman event leans towards the Horde,) The placement of the elders effectively balanced out the advantage. For my friends who play Horde, they described the experience as 'Death of a thousand cuts'. For me and my ex-guildies, it was a Gank-Fest from the start, Horde PVP players were waiting ready and excited to see us and prepared to one shot or toons from the get-go.
4.) The Time Requirement meant that only those who were dedicated to getting the title would pursue it. I calculated that just doing the Elders of Kalimdor and not the dungeons on the continent took approx 4 hours. Eastern Kingdoms was about 2hours (but more time spent in dungeons) and Northrend elders took about an hour.
And last but not least...
5.) The players who pursued the title were the cream of the server. People who pursue (or are still pursuing this achievement) are really the dedicated few. It brought pride to my face to see us roaming lands that we had moved past once again
Until Another Day
The Musing Moonkin

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Why I left The Crystal Dawn

Good Day Muser's I've been laying low the last couple of days partially because of work & partially because of what I did Wednesday Night.

Since I know some of my ex-guildies read my blog I wanted to use it to explain my actions

I gquit The Crystal Dawn Wed night after the fourth attempt on Instructor Razuvious on heroic mode. This was wrong on my part, it was bad form to quit the raid and then quit the guild. I hope that you will accept my apology and understand I had reached my line. There were several factors in this choice. My only regret is how I left the guild. It was juvenile of me though considering TCD's behavior on Fenris it does seem rather appropriate.

Before I go into the why's I want to thank TCD for all the kick ass times I had with all of you. Frankly I burnt out on WOW and you guys re-ignited my love of the game. Overall TCD is a solid guild with members who know the game, and will back you up.
Now for the why I left. First & Foremost this wasn't a choice I made lightly. I had been mulling over it for a couple weeks but I had stuck it out because I liked TCD. Yes we couldn't get a raid together to save our lives but the guild members compensated for this.

Item #1 Raid Times

What I'll say now has been discussed with a TCD officer in confidence and he agreed with me but acknowledged he was powerless to make any changes. Fenris is an East Coast server. I live on the east coast as do other current member's of TCD. However a large population of dedicated raiders in TCD live on the west coast and the raid leaders setup raids based of the pst time zone. At first this didn't bother me but after awhile it wore me down because I am not really a night owl. I have a full time IT job that usually starts around 6:30 in the morning & ends around 5pm if I'm lucky, and of course I'm teaching SAT Prep 20-30 hours a week. I wasn't the only one to be irritated by this (not naming names) So I'll say this:

"While I have no issue with people from other time zones playing on any server, running raid times based of your local time zone is in my opinion a teensy bit selfish. If you want to run raids on PST Time then play on a PST Server Gawd Damn it!!!"

Item #2 El Laxo Attitudo

TCD is a very casual guild. This is why I liked it, hell why I loved being in TCD. After being in several hardcore raiding guilds I was tired of the guild drama & the time commitments. This is why I also turned down other guild invites when the state of moonkins was realized by the raiding guilds on Fenris. WOW is a game yes there is serious time but not all the time. TCD though was just a bunch of guys out to have a good time. However raiding does require a focused mindset and commitment to virtual obligations. TCD guild members because of item 1 & item 2 made raid progression difficult. Sign up for a raid, sure! Actually be logged in that's another matter.


I'm an adult I work two jobs, have a wife, children (albeit furry and egotistical but nonetheless children) and various other concerns. I do not have the luxury to waste time because people who say they'll be available for a raid do not show up because something comes up. I'm sorry I can only deal with that so many times before it becomes an issue. It became an issue for me about three weeks ago.

Item #3 Member Behavior

TCD was an adult guild and I was made clear of this before I joined it back in December, and truthfully I found the trash talk of some it's member's posted liberating. As I said in item #2 coming from hardcore raiding I had witnessed guildmates gkicked for lesser offences then what was done in TCD on an average day. However, I also noticed that this lack of mutual respect for other players had a degenerating effect on the guild as a whole. It was infectious, new members who joined the guild would in a few days begin to trash talk as if it was a hidden side to them.
As I said in my grand project post, people want to be led; and as we've seen in the real world if people see their Superior's, their leaders preform bad actions and get away with it they will as well. I had several time had to apologize to players who I had leveled with, who I had raided with who I had known since coming over to Fenris for the behavior of my guildmates. I also began to notice that people asking me if I would join them for heroics because there is truth to the old saying that if you hang out with ducks your going to quack. I was being written off as another TCD douchebag.

At first I didn't care, but an event on Tuesday made me re-evaluate my commitment to TCD. I won't go into specifics but a guild officer did something that in my opinion really showed his nature, which is to shock & to grab attention & to cause strife because he has that power to do so. That was the straw that broke me, and luckily for me opportunity presented itself & I had a guild to goto that still remembered who I was & not who I had been hanging out with.

I think by now the dust has settled & when I login tonight there won't be a stream of pst's that are inappropriate to post even on Encyclopedia Dramatica. In WOW people have short memories, it's the nature of the game I think. Still I know I won't ever get back the 900g that's owed to me by a guildmember for repairs respecs etc. but that's ok because I view it as a deposit on a learning experience. One that taught me more than I ever imagined. Somehow hanging around with a bunch of trashtalking goofballs made me a better person. It made me realize what I valued vs. what I thought I valued.

Until another day,
The Musing Moonkin



Monday, February 2, 2009

A grand project of both scope & scale: Addendum to Part 1

I was thinking about this after I posted

"6.) Class shortages are due to basic human nature. The reason that there's always a shortage of tanks\healers & an abundance of DPS is because for the most part human beings want to be involved in the event but not in charge of the event. It's one thing to say I went to Heroic Naxx last night, it's another to say I was the main tank for Heroic Naxx and we didn't wipe.
Human nature is to be led not to Lead. Healers, Tanks & Specialists (off-tank, off-heal etc.) have responsibilities that if not preformed correctly can have dire consequences in game. Most people do not want these responsibilities, which leads to most players choosing a DPS class."
What this means is that no matter what blizzard does to make some aspects of instance\raid\guild responsibilities more tolerable if your idealized self does not want to tank, to heal, to provide off-heals battle rezz'es etc, You will not do it. You may respec from time to time because your raid needs a tank or a healer etc. but as soon as your given the chance you'll respec to your idealized self. If forced to do it, you will resent it.

A grand project of both scope & scale: Part 1

Greetings Musers!
Well I'm just too excited so I will let you in on what I'm working on.
Beneath the surface of WOW lies the motivations and desires of it's players. Some are aware of why they play the game, but most aren't. Their motivations their desires manifest in WOW in their character types and play style.
Still though real world behavior manifests in the world of Azeroth. As we all note the major events (such as the Corrupted Blood Event or the Zombie Invasion event) when we can clearly see human group behavior mimicked virtually. But for the most part the group behavior that occurs on a day to day basis doesn't get noticed, even though that's the behavior that affects us the most.
This is why my project will be about. What I am proposing is a analysis of WOW players based of race, class and specialization. I have several hypothesis I would like to confirm based of data gathered.
1.) All WOW players regardless of server, participate in role-playing. The difference is whether it's idealized role-playing vs. theatrical role-playing.
2.) A player chooses a main toon's race, class & spec based of their idealized self (or selves). If your idea of a hero is a samurai, you may find yourself playing a night-elf warrior specced arms because the talent build calls to your idealized heroic self.
3.) Diametrically opposed to this is your idealized fallen self. A person who's always being picked on may choose to play a Rogue and lash out at other players. This self represents all your worst tendencies and desires.
4.) A player will attempt to find his or her niche in WOW based of which idealized self is stronger. A healer who needs to be praised consistently is a good example of a mix of the two. At one end he\she is helping other and saving the group. At the same time, the need for acknowledgement is being fueled by their guild or party. If this fuel is throttled down or cut off, the negative self lashes out by either underheals, party member deaths or wipes.
5.) Since WOW is a game and people play it because it lets them be who they want to be, the real-world limitations are slowly being erased. In the real world not everyone can be powerful, see everything etc. But we play WOW to do this. This leads Blizzard to slowly remove restrictions to keep it's customers (us) happy & to increase profits. However it can and does have unintended consequences such as
a.) Undergeared players entering heroic dungeons & raids
b.) Players who had to invest significant time to achieve gear and see end-game content becoming increasingly frustrated & leave WOW or take breaks from the game in their own way.
To minimize item b.) Blizzard develops systems to compensate players: achievements, feats of strength etc.
6.) Class shortages are due to basic human nature. The reason that there's always a shortage of tanks\healers & an abundance of DPS is because for the most part human beings want to be involved in the event but not in charge of the event. It's one thing to say I went to Heroic Naxx last night, it's another to say I was the main tank for Heroic Naxx and we didn't wipe.
Human nature is to be led not to Lead. Healers, Tanks & Specialists (off-tank, off-heal etc.) have responsibilities that if not preformed correctly can have dire consequences in game. Most people do not want these responsibilities, which leads to most players choosing a DPS class.
Furthur Posts will go into more detail of the Why of this project
Until another Day
The Musing Moonkin

Quick Update: A hint of things to come

Greetings Muser's!
I'm sorry there hasn't been post since 1/23. RL Work FT & PT ate up much of my time last week. I am working on a project that I will need data from WOW players. It is a project grand in both scope and scale. But I think that it will answer some of the mysteries of social interaction and behavior in WOW.
Until another day
The Musing Moonkin