Thursday, April 30, 2009

3.1. Aftershocks: Herd Mentality in full swing

Good Morning Musers,
I had this minor moment on insight yesterday after getting the Noblegarden title outta the way. I went over to the AH in IF to post some flasks & get some mats to make more flasks when I noticed that there were barley any flasks or mats for sale. Oddly price gouging of the assrouge variety was not in swing (though this was rectified by last night; frost lotus was up to 140% of market value on fenris's alliance ah's)
I then realized that while I was posting my wares that no one was actually in IF, players on Fenris were either wrapped up completing Noblegarden, perusing advancement in the Argent Tournament or god forbid trying to get both done at the same time. My curiosity intrigued I scanned the AH and discovered that it's cupboards were not fully stocked. There was gear on sale of course but not the rows and rows that normally would be available to peruse.
I'm still trying to explain this logically, I think what I saw on my server and may be happening on other server's is a classic example of herd mentality. If enough people stop doing their daily routine to pursue a special event (holiday, sporting, etc.) It will affect day to day needs whether in a community or on a virtual world.
The question I have though is how long will this disruption continue. My gut says that with Children's week Starting on Saturday we will still see disruptions with day to day server needs for at least two weeks. By then people will have done enough Argent Tournament quests that they will start to pursue their usual goals.
Until another day
The Musing Moonkin

Monday, April 27, 2009

A Noble Idea

Good Morning Musers!
Well it was noble of me to think that I could keep a hard 'n fast writing schedule, but RL reared it's ugly head and prevented me from keeping up beyond daily tweets. This was compounded by the fact that two server events were going on & I had guild runs to do & I had real life obligations.
So let's see what's been going on
1.) Naxx 25 Cleared: Yes I stayed up till 2am on Sat to finally knock this achievement off the list. As you may be aware I tutor all day Saturday, So I had been up since 6am and had taught 3 kids that day. (AKA it wasn't a quiet day for me.) I actually passed out during phase 3 of the KT fight. It took my GM screaming at me to move out of the Purple Rings O Death to wake me up. While Naxx may be easysauce I firmly believe now that it's best done either as an afternoon event on the weekend or over two nights. There's just something that happens around the 2nd wing were people start going AFK. I don't know what it is but suddenly people will post bio BRB, afk phone etc.
2.) Gear Upgrades: This has been bittersweet for me, I tend to get attached to my gear & I set goals on what I'd like to replace with what etc, but sometimes you have to go with what drops. I had to make peace with that and take what the random die roll generated.
3.) Petopia: I do love holiday events esp when it get's me closer to my goal of 75 pets!!! I have grown quite fond of my Argent Page as it is quite nice to have a pet to kneels before you periodically!.

That's it for now. I'm off to enjoy a tasty Lunch!
Until Another Day
The Musing Moonkin

Friday, April 17, 2009

Feeling like a plucked chicken!

Good afternoon musers
First off I hope that your server has finally become stabilized. Fenris became somewhat stable last night, though there were still some hiccups here & there.
Well I wanted to post my current talent build but the armory isnt' updated. Needless to say right now I feel very un-moonkinie (if that is a word) I took the points I put into Typhoon & Starfall & put them into Imp IS & Imp FF. While this does up the dps across the board i feel like I've cut some of myself off. I know that Typhoon really is for PVP & Starfire is situational at best but still I miss them.
Normally I don't post questions to my readers but for those souls that do mull over my scribblings have you noticed this feeling before when you sacrifice BOOM for viability?
Until Another Day
The Musing Moonkin

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

3.1 Quick Thoughts

1.) Job Well Done!
As always Blizzard takes what worked & didn't work in previous major patches and improves on them.
Positives
- Argent Tournament is fantastic. What got me was the fact that you have to earn the right to compete in the tourney & from what I can gather this takes at least 3-4 days to acquire all the tokens. This means that all day players only have a slight advantage against casuals.
- In addition it opens up a number of items and achievements. I like the fact you can trade tokens for faction rep.
- Mounts Swimming is fun, hilarious & ever so useful.
- Fishing quests actually make sense, though the question for me is do I or don't I focus fire on getting that Turtle Mount?
- Completing the Epic Flight Form quest line is now a feat of strength. Oh Yeah!
- Level 213 idols being available for purchase. Goodbye Idol of Steadfast Renewal! Hello Idol of the Shooting Star!
Negatives
Major
- Mana Regen Nerf: Before I vent, I have a feeling this nerf will itself be nerfed. I understand the dev's view that mana regen was way too high (it kinda reminded me of a sci-fi weapon's power pack being drained then quickly replenished) but still the 40% nerf was a bit much. My guess is that it was nerfed that hard so they can 'adjust' it to say 20%.
- No Alchemy Daily Quests WTF?!!? I was so looking forward to this. I am seriously considering giving up my Alchy Stone for a epic trinket now.
- Dual-Spec: I'm going to have to agree with a couple of my cohorts, this was the worst 1000gp I have ever spent in world of warcraft. In my opinion, the concept of Dual Spec is good, the idea behind it is good, the implementation of it is good. Where it fails is the reality of players. What I saw last night was scores of alliance players on Fenris 'expanding their minds' only to say a few minutes later WTF, when am I ever going to be Shadow Priest or a Ret Pally.
Here's my point. To be an effective player, you need to know your class & spec. Unfortunately that takes time. There's no way around it, you want to be a good PVP'r your going to be in the battlegrounds or arenas for hours, you want to raid end game? Expect to put in hours reading strat working out theorycraft, determining what is sacrificed for what etc.
I can back this up with my own experiences Bear Tanking last summer, reading how to feral tank is one thing, but actually doing it took about six weeks before I had it down in normal dungeons.
I guess this ties back to my belief that once you find your ideal self, you should stick to it. In the end you find your alts unsatisfying.
Minor
Mini-Map needs to be fixed couldn't see my arrow on the new one.
That's it for now
Until another day
The Musing Moonkin

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Moonkin Fury, Dual-Spec Delight & My First Poll

Good Morning Musers!
Wow, all I have to say is wow. The last couple of days have been chaos in both game & real life. For starters I scored big in Naxx 25. I mean huge I won the heroic key to the Eye of Eternity Raid. Actually I didn't win it, another player beat my roll of a 86 with a 94, but he had already won a trinket from Sapphiron & he had forgotten the raid rule of 1 item per boss. Oh joy of joys!
I also won my tier 7.5 chest piece. As of last night my wrath is now hitting between 5.8k & 6.2K! & my Starfire is Criting right below 11k However I refuse I mean absolutely refuse to put the Powerful Stats enchant on it. The reagents for the enchant are absurd! 4X dream shard & abyss crystal?!!? Sorry but the difference between that and Super Stats (+8 vs +10) don't justify the cost.
Now onto new business. 3.1 is launching today, I am both excited and nervous. One one end I am kinda curious to try Feral Tanking, but at the other end, I have to agree with a co-worker who said that Dual-Spec allows groups to Spackle in a player to fill a void but that player will not have the experience to effectively preform the role that he's now assuming. What I think we'll see is a lot of almost WOW's funniest home video's moments such as a holy pally tanks and gets his ass handed to him etc etc for a couple weeks until players get their bearings.
Lastly I've posted my first poll! Yes should I dual spec (and if so which blend) or should I stay true & stick to a single spec. I look forward to your input!
Until another day
The Musing Moonkin

Monday, April 6, 2009

Support your local merchant: Thoughts on buyer's psychology in WOW

Good Morning Musers!
First off; Yes I know I've been negligent on my posts over the last couple of days! To remedy this I've setup a Blog schedule. My goal is that Moonkin Musings will now be updated every four days. My hope is that this will remedy a issue that I've seen with my posting. I go through spats of grand ideas and then months of drivel!
Ok now that's out of the way. Onto new business. My experiment in working the auction house has been a profitable success. I won't say my coffer's are overflowing but I'm getting to the point where I can actually look at a BOE level 213 epic & mull over actually purchasing it. I haven't though I need to have money to make money, & alchemy while profitable isn't a cash cow the same way enchanting is!
Also while having a Mule has it's merits, I've found that a mule doesn't cut it after a certain point. I'm not saying that Mules don't have their place in the server economy, but they have their limits. Mules conflict directly with a need that a buyer has trust.
When you use an Alt to conduct business beyond X scale (X being the value of the item but for arguments sake lets us the 150 gold level that blizzard will be adding a confirm to in 3.1), it adds a a level of skepticism\mistrust to the transaction. This level directly increases to the amount of gold that is needed to purchase the goods or services.
OK so you may be thinking why? Well my hypothesis is quite simple. Just like in real life we're just more comfortable buying from people we know then people we don't know. We're able to rationalize away this discomfort with small purchases, but as purchases increase in cost, we get more nervous about the purchase. We want to buy the goods from someone we know, someone who we can go back to if we need something else etc. Also with large purchases, negotiations will take place. If an item is on the AH for 2800gp, it may sell it may not sell, however if you know the person and tell them I'll buy it for 2500gp, then they've still made a sale.
The question for me though is how far will real-world economic psychology permeates into MMORPG's will it get to the point where brand loyalty comes into play? Will people forgo gaming to be farmers for a player who's amassed enough gold to pay game salaries? I suppose only time will tell.
- Until Another Day
The Musing Moonkin