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Anna on
February 5, 2008 – 4:11 pm
So, I find it really interesting that so many wowbloggers are talking about guilds right now. Maybe it’s because of the post-holidays slog, when people get back to the raid grind and dig back into the game. Maybe it’s the winter doldrums. Maybe the dramallama is just making his rounds, nibbling on everyone’s tulips and generally making a mess of things. Either way – BigBearButt and World of Matticus have both been talking about guild structure and raiding woes. The dramallama hit my guild this weekend, unfortunately, and the ramifications of his visit have not yet been shaken out. I imagine if there are big changes, I’ll be mentioning them here, but for now it’s just stressful to be around my mains. Which is sad, because Angoleth is really pushing close to 68, and leveling Tim is getting to be more and more important.
Who is Tim, you ask?
Well, that’s something of a story. An has never been one of those hunters that gives up on pets easily – but at the same time, she doesn’t still have a moonstalker either. After much tribulation she settled down with a wolf and a bat… and then eventually Sian’Rotam. Easily the most obnoxious, pain in the arse tame I’ve ever attempted, particularly since it was back before that quest became available to Alliance, so I had to get a Tauren buddy to do it with me. I think we finally got him on the 5th try, and both died on all attempts. Either way, Arsaelan had become her pet of choice. Which is odd, since I tend to avoid cat pets, being that the “female night elf hunter with big white kitty” is kind of a huge stereotype.
When An hit 66, I decided that it was time to do a big pet-skill-roundup. 
At that level she could tame creatures that had all the pet skills I usually keep around – dash, dive, claw, bite, etc. Into the stables goes Arsaelan, and out she goes to Terokkar to grab a scorpid – easy enough. Then to Nagrand to catch a birdy – also no problem. Then to Blade’s Edge and snag Rema the Den Mother. While I’m running back up to Toshley’s, I see these ravager guys, and notice that they have gore. Now, I’ve kind of wanted a boar pet for awhile, but I *HATE* ravagers. But, well, it’s not such a bad idea to grab more pet skills, right? So I fly back to Sylvanaar, drop off Rema at the Stable Master, and head back out to Gnomeville to grab a Rip-Blade Ravager.
Of course, my pet skill taming luck has, by this time, run out. Those first two pets? Taught me new skills within 3 kills of trying to learn. Ravager thing? Not so much.
So here I am, sending this bright blue and orange ravager after whatever I can find, and praying that maybe THIS time it’ll teach me the gore skill. This goes on for about 5 minutes, while my husband is sitting next to me listening to me plead with the Ravager to teach me Gore so I can just let it go on its merry way. So he makes a suggestion. At which point, the *entire* situation changes. What did he say?
“You should call him Tim”
…great. So now it has a name. I hate ravagers – what are you doing naming my… hehehe…. Tim, the Ravager…
There are some who call him… Tim…
*sigh* So now I have a ravager pet. He amuses me greatly. Tim also changes color, which also amuses me greatly. When he’s blue, he matches An’s hair. He’s also only level 65 yet, so I’ve been taking him out to murdervate clefthoof in Nagrand in the evenings, since farming + pet training = two rogues with one chain heal. So if you’re out on Feathermoon server, stop by and say hi. I promise Tim won’t actually do any damage to your shoes – he just likes to chew on the laces…
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Anna on
February 4, 2008 – 6:29 pm
(Things to do on first day of blogging: write piece about news article that will potentially piss off all readers. check. Bear with me here guys, this one’s a doozy!)
So there’s a Warcraft news story and an opinion piece that I found today, both about online gold selling. And, at a glance, the two seem to be rather contradictory. I”m talking, of course, about these:
OK. So the gist of the first article is that Blizzard won a lawsuit against In Game Dollar as a part of their policy to get rid of in-game spam from gold sellers. Though there’s not any money listed, it’s a step in the right direction, legally, for getting rid of the wonderful chat spam we all SO love to get while standing around capitol cities.
“Essentially, the injunction puts In game Dollar out of the World of Warcraft virtual item and power-leveling business. The Peons4Hire website is down.”
So yay on that count. One down, who knows how many left to go.
The other article is a little more controversial. The comparison of gold selling to the worlds oldest profession seems, at first glance, to be an odd one. But Imre Jele of RuneScape makes an interesting point.
“It’s not necessarily the prostitution which is a problem, although you might have moral problems with it. The real problem is the organised crime that’s built around prostitution; the human trafficking, the drugs, etc. And that’s the same with illegal real-world trading. The problem comes in when they start doing other illegal activities. One of the biggest is the use of stolen credit cards.”
Jele’s solution? Well, he offers two. Runescape has managed to crack down severely on in game gold selling (according to the article), through disabling trades that involve someone getting a large amount of money without giving something in return – implying that the “something” they gave was out of game. The other option Jele mentions is one for the MMO’s of the future: design your games with real world trading in mind. Either regulate it, hoping that by controling the out of game trade you’ll prevent the identity theft, or make the game such that grinding 5K gold for your epic flyer (or 6K if you want a Cenarion Hippogryph) is fun enough that you’re not bored to tears and opt to go hire some peons with real money to make the gold for you.
So which is the option of choice? Can Blizzard really get rid of the gold sellers by suing them? Probably not, in my opinion. The lure of free epix is just too much for some people, who want their fix and want it now. Even if you shut down the major gold selling companies, the only way to get rid of it is to get rid of the demand – which has, by now, become something of a part of the Warcraft culture. I honestly don’t expect to see much difference in the level of goldspam in Warcraft now that this lawsuit has been settled. There are too many companies, and In game dollar is just one of the many.
At the same time, I really rather dislike the idea of Blizzard instituting a standard policy for selling gold. They sell name changes now, and server transfers – but the jump to a little screen that has gold prices for dollars still seems to me a little offputting. Perhaps WotLK will be better designed for farming – I think Burning Crusade was a step up in terms of number of farming options (unless you’re a healer, lulz!) – but somehow I think that the biggest tie between these two articles is that neither of them is going to make a whit of difference in the long run.
So don’t dust off that /report spam command just yet.
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Anna on
February 4, 2008 – 6:23 pm
…the earth was formless and empty.
Kind of like this blog, at the moment. Soon to be filled, but probably never in a particularly orderly manner, of my adventures in the World of Warcraft.
So who am I?
Well, I’m Anna. *waves* I’m an RPer, a “casual” raider (5/6 SSC currently), a very casual PVPer (welfare epix anyone?), and suffer from a very bad case of altitis. I’ve been playing WoW for just shy of 3 years now, nearly all of that time on Feathermoon server. My characters are:
- Annorah – 70 Draenei Shaman (engineer)
- Annalira – 70 Human Priest (tailor/enchanter)
- Angoleth – 67 Night Elf Hunter
- Aelflaed – 53 Human Paladin
- Berylla – 49 Gnome Mage
- Laisrean – 34 Night Elf Druid
- Brietta – 32 Dwarf Rogue
I also have a few scattered horde alts, namely another shaman and hunter, but with the above list of alts, I don’t spend too much time hordeside anymore. And yes, both of those level 70′s are healers. Yes, I’m crazy. Yes, I’m leveling the hunter so I can make some money and not have to find friends so that I can go kill a few elementals for motes of whatever.
Anywho – gratuitous intro post over, I’ll try to have some real content up here later today, once I get this thing up and running!
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Anna on
February 4, 2008 – 1:42 pm
Q: What do you enjoy about the class you play the most?
Hrm. Ok that’s a hard question. The class I play most is a Shaman (Draenei variety). Annorah is a restelemenhancement shammy. Meaning that I like all three specs, have played all three specs, and have (more or less) decent gear for all three specs, but not enough money lying around to hit the respec button every few days when I decide I want to do something else. So currently, since her raid needs the uber chain heals, she’s resto.
What I like most about the class, honestly, is how much fun I have playing it. I just enjoy being a shaman. I like the way the class works as a healer and as DPS, and I take a great deal of pride from the fact that no matter what’s going on, Annorah is always useful. I love that i can, even as resto spec, bring an extra 20% DPS (at least) to a melee group, or a mana IV drip to a bunch of addict mages, and still perform well in my primary role as a healer. I really enjoy that kind of functionality and usability, and I miss it when I’m on my priest or hunter. I also really like the synergy of the enhancement tree right now, and while I’m not going to say that there’s *nothing* that needs fixing, I’ve really enjoyed the time I get to spend applying winfury directly to the forehead of Maulgar and his buddies.
From a lore standpoint, I love the background of the Shaman, particularly Farseer Nobundo and the Draenei Shaman. Yes, I know it was something of a retcon – bite me. If you’ve not read Unbroken, the story of Farseer Nobundo, it’s a great read and brings a lot of depth to Draenor lore that happened pre-Burning Crusade. To have a race so intimately tied to the Light, but yet to experience a connection to the elements is really kind of fun and makes for challenging character development.
Also. TOTEMS – IN – SPAAAACE! ’nuff said.
