Shared Topics & Memes
WoW In The Workplace
Jul 16th
It has come to my attention that I haven’t joined in with shared topics for a while now. I like to get involved, however, I haven’t really thought of any responses recently. I’d actually had the idea to write a post about the things WoW can teach you that would seem great to potential employers, though if they found out where the skills had originated from they perhaps might not be so supportive. Well, I think that slots in quite nicely with this week’s shared topic:
What has the World of Warcraft taught you? Did you learn about economics from playing the Auction House? Or learned the value of household chores from doing dailies? Or maybe WoW has impacted your real life in some other way. Maybe you even met your significant other in Azeroth! Write about something you’ve learned from WoW, or some other way it’s affected you in the real world.
Recommended by Sindei.
I’d first like to mention that employers differ. Some will be quite open to gaming, after all, it’s hardly an activity that requires sacrificing lambs in the name of Beelzebub. On the other hand, some will remain fairly archaic in the sense that gaming is something for children and teenagers, it doesn’t belong in the workplace. Whilst I don’t believe that mentioning that gaming is a favourite pastime, I also don’t believe that going into detail about the following skills being learnt as a result of heavy game playing would be particularly rewarding either. I am going to talk about a few skills, which are widely regarded as excellent skills to take into a job, or anywhere else in life for that matter, and how exactly they relate to the World of Warcraft.
Tolerance
We’ve all been witness to the immaturity present in trade chat, pugs, and sometimes even in guild chat. However, after time, you learn to just deal with it, it’s a part of any multiplayer game. If you want to play the game you enjoy, sometimes you just have to tolerate the stuff you might not otherwise want to. The existence of this immaturity is particularly obvious when it appears within guilds. You enjoy raiding with them, there are some great people, but one or two people might spoil the fun. A lot of people decide that it is worth ignoring the bad stuff to stick around in the guild they like.
Of course, in the real world, we may encounter people whom we find insufferable on a daily basis. It’s a part of being human, but do we attack these people or just smile and tolerate them, for the sake of a job, a friend, family, whatever may be at risk if we choose to act on our dislike. I feel that there are many situations in WoW which help us to tolerate people a bit more.
Patience
Tolerance goes hand in hand with patience. We need patience in order to tolerate the idiots. This skill is especially great if you’re working in customer service, as I’m sure many of us have discovered, the general public can be dicks. If they’re particularly stupid, you may be able to slip in a little sarcasm which will probably go unnoticed but that’s never really recommended. It’s always best to take a deep breath, smile, let them rant, and so on. Keep your cool.
Doing dailies, levelling your 5th level 80 alt through the same zones you’ve now completed repeatedly, grinding just about anything from reputation to herbs, all of these things require an immense amount of patience, and music/podcasts/vent. Not only this, but doing the same mundane tasks day after day must in some way prepare you for a 9 to 5.
Problem Solving
Problem solving is another very important skill for the workplace, and life in general. Often we are met with difficult tasks, whether we choose to flail around in a state of panic, or calmly take things step by step in order to overcome the problem is upto us, but it is possible to learn this skill whilst playing WoW.
Okay, so, this skill is a little more based within the refines of raiding and PvP, perhaps even in RP. In raids, Blizzard have given us a variety of problems to solve, also known as bosses and their strategies. It is mostly the raid leader’s job to think of a tactic to best overcome the boundaries put in front of us, though at some point, any of the raiders can step up. Rogue adds hitting the healers can be misdirected away by a Hunter, the boss standing in bad stuff hurting the melee can be moved away by a tank, there are many examples of problem solving within raiding.
In PvP, particularly in arena, the enemy players become our problem and we have to use our offensive and defensive abilities to best overcome them, perhaps even using the environment around us to make it a little more difficult for them.
Roleplay was also mentioned, and you may be wondering how on earth roleplay and problem solving can mix. Well, occasionally we meet new people, and we have to devise ways to interact with them. Sometimes, they may even force situations on us that we are not comfortable with which we have to find ways to escape from. This will tend to happen much less if you roleplay with friends but it definitely counts.
Teamwork
This skill I think you can work out for yourselves. In fact, I may already have touched upon it in the previous examples. However, I’m not bailing out. Teamwork. Working as a part of a team. This is a term that employers love. They lap it right up along with good customer service and a lot of patience. In fact, there was a great scene in the IT Crowd that summed this up quite welli (just incase you guys outside of the UK can’t view that clip, here‘s a different clip, thankya Mork, completely unrelated but I can’t leave you guys out now can I?)(oh look, another one, more related to teamwork).
I believe I just went off on a footnotes vs. bracketed rant. Right, teamwork. Whenever we group with people ingame, that’s teamwork right there. Raiding, 5 mans, group quests, arena, premades, roleplay. Know what else? Vehicle mounts. You have to put your trust in somebody when they’re riding you around that they won’t eject you in some strange place, like jumping off of Dalaran and watching you fall to your death while they parachute down, or perhaps you’re a passenger in their rocket, they could eject you in midair any time. That takes trust, which is pretty useful when you’re working with other people.
Business
Have you ever put anything up for sale on the auction house, or perhaps advertised it in trade chat? Could be an item, or offering your professions for a fee or tip. Was it a lot of items? Did you undercut the competition by a lot or just a little? Did you use your professions to make things to sell? Buy something for cheap and sell it for more? Whatever you did, you were making gold on your own initiative, rather than just doing dailies and quests which are there, you’ve thought about it a little bit. The more you do it, the more you think of new ways to make gold, different strategies. New skills. Business skills.
Management Experience
I’ve left this one until last because this won’t relate to everybody, but if you’ve ever lead a guild, or been an officer in a guild, or lead a pug, that is giving you a little management experience. Why? You’re leading people! Thinking of the best ways for people to work as a team, hoping they have patience and tolerance for one another, in order for the team to work a lot better, using your problem solving skills and hoping that others step up and use theirs if need be.
Whilst an employer more than likely wouldn’t accept management skills learnt from a game, in leading people within WoW, you have picked up a few tricks, and demonstrated that you have enough patience to work in management.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could put down ‘a few years of MMO playing’ on your CV as a part of your experience?
- chances are this is only viewable in the UK, sadly I couldn’t find another clip on YouTube that wasn’t in Russian [↩]
Meme Time
Jun 27th
Was just having a little catch up and came across this. For some reason, I’ve always loved filling in questionnaires and if you don’t like it tough! So thank you to sorry caps for starting this one off. Yoink!
1. Raider, farmer, PvPer, or altoholic?
I’ve always been a raider. When I first started playing I asked what I was supposed to do when I hit max level, “Well, raid.” So, it was always embedded in my brain that that was the done thing. I got to 70, raided a little, rerolled, got to 70, raided a lot, got to 80, raided some more, then realised that there was more than just raiding. Getting to max level and just raiding, to me, is a bit like having the same thing for dinner every night every day. Sure, at first it’s new and exciting, tastes damn good and you never want to eat anything else, but after a while it starts to taste bland and you realise there are other foods you can eat instead. I still raid, though at the moment I stick to pugs, I PvP on a rare occasion, but I’m an altoholic. I do spend a lot of my time achievement whoring, collecting, farming, playing the auction house too, mind.
2. Favorite raid or dungeon?
Hmm.. Gonna have to be Black Temple. So well designed. Each boss encounter was fun, and the entire place brings back good memories. When I was raiding Black Temple in TBC on my Priest, that was when I enjoyed the game the most, so naturally, Black Temple reminds me a little of that.
3. Number one choice for a new playable race?
Gah, I don’t know, I’m pretty happy with the current races to be honest! I don’t at all care about Goblins and Worgens because I love my Elves, Humans, and Draenei. I guess Ogres could be kinda cool though, ha.
4. Class you suck the most at?
Shaman because I’ve never levelled one past 20? But then if I bothered, I might not suck! I dunno, really, I read enough to be average at whichever alt I play. I guess I’ll go with Druid, only really played Resto and Feral, but healing bad groups gets me stressy and I find cat so boring, so I’ve not really practised with it and therefore suck.
5. Original UI or modded UI?
Modded UI, but I really wish I could revert back to the original UI. Mods take up soo much memory and the game performs a heck of a lot better without them. Of course, Addon Control Panel is brilliant for turning off the stuff you don’t need in raids like QuestHelper, Auctioneer, etc. without having to worry about being kicked, but it doesn’t beat a nice, clean UI. However, I’ve used mods for so long I’ve become reliant on them and they really do help you with so many things. My DPS for example would be a lot lower without mods.
6. Profession you’ve never levelled past 200?
Think I’ve levelled every profession past 200 now. It was Blacksmithing for a while but I’ve levelled that on my Death Knight far enough to get all of the extra sockets.
7. Favorite flying mount?
I want to say the Phoenix but alas, I don’t own it. /pine. So I’ll say my Blue Proto Drake, who is absolutely awesome!
8. Nozdormu — friend or foe, you figure?
From what I’ve seen/read/heard, I’m gonna go with ‘foe’. However, more in a ‘he’s gone insane’ way.
9. Useless item you have in your bank that you’ll never get rid of?
Zomg, I have so many! Drakefire Amulet, the one from the Onyxia chain because you can’t get it anymore. Archmage Vargoth’s Staff because.. who doesn’t keep that one?! My tier 6 because it’s pretty, and my white tier 6 because it’s pretty. Dark Iron Smoking Pipe, I’ll never use it because it’s a crap trinket, but I love its’ use. All sorts of things like that.
10. Most expensive thing you’ve ever bought?
Traveler’s Tundra Mammoth. To be honest, the amount I spend on things like that all adds up. I’ve also bought 2 bikes, an Ice Mammoth, and paid 6k for a Hyacinth Macaw. If I could get something insanely awesome for 30k, like a 310%, 2-seater Phoenix mount, I so would. Most I’ve ever owned was about 66,000 gold, but that was after constant spending, so who knows how much I’ve really made.
11. Favorite starting area?
Eversong Woods. Has been since the day TBC was released. It’s so pretty and Elven, and the quests are brilliant for levelling fast.
12. Inane goal you worked hardest to achieve?
Hmm.. Loremaster, Blood Rare/Frostbitten, gearing up my Priest from Ulduar/TotC 10 gear after the arrival of gearscore, 2 Violet Proto Drakes. I’m an achievement whore who enjoys collecting stuff, I work pretty hard on just about everything I do.
13. Darion Mograine VS Tirion Fordring, gloves off — winner is?
Oh I don’t know.. Fordring is the fucking ASHBRINGER, but Mograine doesn’t wear a dress.. so who really knows?
14. Game music or your own playlist?
I turned off ingame sounds a few years ago to listen to my own music. That way I can sing along and get my crappy farming done.
15. Particular option or setting that you always toggle on a new alt/server?
Always used to be ‘instant quest text’ but that seems to be automatic now, and ‘automatically target self’ or whatever, for when you were buffing. Can’t think.. oh, I turn off ‘allow overlapping name plates’, and turn on ‘preview talent changes’. Overlapping name plates annoy me, and I mess up my talents from time to time.
16. Highest amount of levels gained in one play session?
I’ve been playing way too long to remember that! Besides, you can go from 1-20 much faster than you can go from 70-80.
17. Thing you’d most like to experience or see in-game?
Own a Phoenix mount, and kill the Lich King before the big 4.0 nerf that will inevitably come. I can’t even describe how much I love the Phoenix mount..
18. Worst PuG moment?
Only one I can remember was the other day when I was doing Lord Ahune for Dan who was away, and while waiting to hear which tabard he wanted me to take, the other group members started insulting me. In fact, bullying. For NO reason. I was about to report them but never got round to it. Also, yes, I’m naming and shaming, in this case I think it’s deserved and couldn’t care less.
19. Best dungeon/raid moment?
Killing Lady Vashj, Kael’thas, Illidan for the first time. It’s very likely that I just enjoyed the game more back then, but nothing now, for me, compares to that feeling of accomplishment.
20. Worst quest ever that you totally hate doing?
Ha. I say this about soo many quests. Escorts, any of them. Any quest where you have to kill things next to a totem, can think of 1 in Dustwallow, a few in Shadowmoon Valley and 1 in Borean Tundra, off the top of my head. HATE.
21. First thing you do when you hit 80?
Check to see what Rhonin sent me as a present and set Dalaran to my hearthstone and check if there are any BoEs I grabbed that I need to equip.
22. Character (of yours) you would RP as if you had to?
The only character I’ve ever considered RPing on is Jaedi, my Rogue, but I’d love to RP Seithir if she was on the right server. She’s been my main for the longest amount of time of any of my characters and has seen so much more. I feel like she’s developed a personality without even stopping to think about it, so it would only make sense.
23. Keyboard, mouse, or both for using abilities?
I use keybindings for spells, and mouse for turning, though I don’t bother keybinding everything, only the spells and abilities I’ll use regularly, or need in an ‘oh shit’ moment.
24. Thottbot or WoWhead?
Wowhead for life \o/
25. Acronym you’ve seen in chat but don’t understand?
‘Rec’. I figure it means: mana break, rest, stop a sec. It’s always used when a healer wants to stop and mana up, but never figured out precisely what it means.
26. Plot point you’d like to see resolved someday?
Where did Maiev Shadowsong go? Are we going to be sent back to Uldum by the cows in Thunder Bluff, as they originally sent us over there with the wrong discs?
27. Biggest thing you’re looking forward to in Cataclysm?
Seeing everything for the first time! The new abilities and things are great and all, but there’s nothing quite like walking through to the new areas and seeing it for the very first time and discovering all of the quests as brand new. It feels like Christmas and I love it!
28. Guild event you’d like to see?
A lovely fun game of ‘punt the douches’! Ha. Um.. seriously? I don’t know, nothing really beats Supreme’s guild meetups, it’s just a lot of money to go to them, personally.
29. Level range you hate being in?
60-70. I can’t stand Outlands for some reason, it makes me level soo slowly. Perhaps it’s Hellfire, perhaps it’s the million Death Knights you come across, I don’t really know, but I’ve had 3 characters abandoned in Outlands in the past.
30. Favorite map to quest in?
I like Hinterlands. I find the zone pretty, and the quests are awesome for levelling. I tried to level here as Alliance and was greatly disappointed to find there were, like, 2 quests!
Screenshots and Lyrics
May 10th
As suggested by Anea on Twitter, post a screenshot, and song lyrics to go with.
Born on a Horse <- Clicky for Youtube link to the song. I also have another I really wanted to share.
“Shes got eyes
Propostrious eyes
I’ve never had a lover who’s my sister or my brother before
I’ve been counting on the wrong things
To make life feel alright
You can be
My acid queen
’till the end of time
You can have it all
You’re stuck in the middle
Reason one and all
I was born on a horse thats all.”
Song for the Clay, le Bloc Party.
“I am trying to be heroic
In an age of modernity
I am trying to be heroic
As all around me history sinks
So I enjoy and I devour
Flesh and wine and luxury
But in my heart I am so lukewarm
Nothing ever really touches me
At the Trois Garcons, we meet at precisely 9 o clock
I order the foie gras and I eat it with complete disdain
Bubbles rise in champagne flutes, but when we kiss I feel nothing
Feasting on sleeping pills and Marlboro reds
Self-pity won’t save you
Oh how our parents suffered for nothing
Live the dream like the 80′s never happened
People are afraid to merge on the freeway
Disappear here
We stroll past the queue, into the magazine launch party
I am handed a pill and I swallow it with complete disdain
Kick drum pounds off beat high hats remember to look bored
We suck each other’s faces and make sure we are noticed
The cocaine won’t save you
East London is a vampire it sucks the joy right out of me
Dressed like the cover of a magazine. I’ve aged so in these golden years.”
The Best & Worst: Cities/Towns
May 8th
Yet another Blog Azeroth Shared Topic, this time suggested by the most delightful and lovely Windsoar.
First off, I need to make it very clear: I’m not a fan of the Alliance cities. They’re boring to me. Stormwind? Every Human city in a fantasy land looks like this, cobblestones and cathedrals, seen it all before, not for me. Exodar? I know I’m supposed to be a Space Goat and all that but.. it’s sickeningly pink. Yeah, I’m a girl, but that much pink and purple is enough to put you off. Not to mention I always get lost in there, or stuck behind something. Darnassus? At the beginning of my WoW playing, I had quite a soft spot for this city, however, as time has moved on I’ve learnt that again, it’s nothing really special to me. Trees, trees, elves, trees, wisps, trees, and where the heck is the auction house again? Ironforge? Yeah, okay, this is the city that I can stand the most out of all of the Alliance cities, but still, lava, grates, not to mention it’s FULL of Dwarves and Gnomes. When you spend maybe 3 years with green people and cows, a girl gets used to a bit of mess.
I’ll start with Thunder Bluff, because in the past I always hated the place. However, after a while, you get sort of used to the wooden maze that is Thunder Bluff, and quite enjoy the company of big fluffy cow people. It feels kind of cozy. Silvermoon, while it isn’t my favourite city, is lovely. I’ve played endless amounts of Blood Elves for so long that I can’t not like the place, I’ve spent so much time there in early levels, and some of the bars and shops are really cool looking. Undercity is another place I used to hate. It’s so dank and dreary, full of slime, and in the past abominations (which by the way, used to REALLY freak me out. GUTS!), not to mention, again, I used to get so lost here. I’ve come to realise that Undercity is basically like a compass, divided into 4 sections and if you do happen to go to the wrong one it’s easily remedied. That and the scenery looks pretty Tim Burtonesque. That leaves me with Orgrimmar, to longtime Alliance players I can imagine Orgrimmar being one of the blandest cities, but not to me. It’s so big and majestic! Yep, I called the city of the Orcs majestic. The shape of the city itself is interesting, I reckon it’s difficult to get lost there as long as you ask a guard, the stealthed Trolls on the auction house roof, the zeppelin high above your heads, the drag, I love it. Really do.
So am I a Hordie at heart? Of course I am, I was always Horde in the past of course I’ll have a soft spot for the large bunch of misfits. It won’t stop me liking the Alliance mounts and races.
Raising Awareness
Apr 11th
This Blog Azeroth Shared Topic was brought to you by Tarinae.
“Blizzard has been on the fast track to promoting account security lately. They all new options for when accounts are compromised, they offered pets for authenticators, they made several posted awareness sheets, etc.
But running parallel to that is the amount of gold sellers we see.
I have seen two of my guildmates hacked already this year by devastatingly experienced hackers. I was going to construct a post about the ugly truth behind gold buying. Do I know anyone who buys gold? No, but I know people who suffer the consequences. I did it once…referring to the fact that I suffered the consequences of someone else taking my items and money to give to someone else. I was the victim not the gold buyer.
I want to try to make sure people are aware of what happens when a gold seller needs to fill an order…they don’t create this stuff out of thin air.
So I thought I would promote it as a shared topic so you can share any (hacking or other) experiences you have to help raise awareness. People expect blizzard to say this stuff…but we are just players….real players with real experiences.”
A while ago I planned to write a post about authenticators and why it will always be worth owning one and why. It seems to have been pushed back by a bunch of post ideas in my drafts, as always happens, so, let’s take a look.
In my first guild back in TBC, we were in Karazhan and my boyfriend at the time claimed a disconnect over vent. He tried to log back in, but we pointed out that his character was hearthing. I think a couple of us yelled at the person on his character, my little naive mind assumed that they would react with “Oh crap, they caught me, run and hide!” But of course, that’s not realistic, they carried on. The one being hacked quickly changed his password and managed to get the guy off of his account. He lost a few things, but he was pretty lucky.
Quite early on in Wrath, one of the guild’s officers was hacked. The guild bank was cleared out, and this happened twice. A few weeks later, our prot paladin was also hacked. His character was used for roughly 2 days before the account could be locked, it was constantly in Wintergrasp, so they were either using his character to farm, or they really liked PvPing with other people’s characters.
This all begs the question: are gold sellers hacking? Or is most of the hacking coming from another source? I’m sure we’ve all seen them farming away, Whelplings, Borean Leather, I’ve even seen them farming Hippogryphs in Feralas in the past, but how can we tell who’s actually hacking? Well for starters, the example above is very good evidence towards gold sellers hacking accounts to use. The most likely thing they could have been doing was using the level 80 character to farm eternals to sell. The hacked accounts themselves can be used as a great source of instant gold, selling gear and items and trading the gold to another account. It can be used to farm items to sell for further profits. They can use the account to whisper and trade people, which cannot be done from a trial account. Not to mention they will 9 times out of 10 have access to a high level character without all of the time and effort put into leveling and gearing. There probably are some out there who hack for malicious reasons, but the main cause, as far as I can see, will be gold sellers.
They ruin the economy. How many times have you seen stacks of Borean Leather and other things on the auction house for ridiculously low prices, sold by Wxrycd? Blue Whelplings for 150g? If I can, I try to gank them when I see them, anything to hold them up. I found one in Scholazar Basin a while back, there were a few characteristics you can pick up on to tell if somebody is or isn’t a farmer. Do they emote you? If they wave, smile, or something along those lines, often the interaction will throw people off, but don’t be fooled, it’s one of their tricks. How keyboard mashy does their name sound? Are they guildless, or perhaps in a guild you’ve never heard of? If they’re an enemy, if you place yourself next to them, do they ignore you, kill, loot, skin, keyboard turn away and rinse and repeat? They’ll be fairly slow with their movements and will usually be Hunters or Death Knights. Ganking them and reporting them are great ways to do your bit. Of course, this isn’t going to make people’s accounts any more secure, but let’s call it vengeance.
If you don’t have an authenticator, why not? Blizzard have done plenty to make them more accessible, they’ve made them cheaper, made them available for iPhones, they even come with a cute little Core Hound puppy now, so if you don’t have one, what’s your excuse? Don’t think using NoScript is safe enough, don’t think an over complicated password is safe enough, if you don’t have an authenticator, they can hack you and attach one to your account, making it even more difficult to regain access. Sounds fun, yes? Thought not. You can never be safe enough. I deeply recommend you get one. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.
Starting Over
Mar 29th
This week’s Blog Azeroth Shared Topic, suggested by Fiorentin, is:
If you had the chance to start all over again in WoW, but your char is already level 80, or level 1 depending on if you like to level or not :>. What class would you pick? What race? What faction? Why would you pick that class/race/faction?
And most of all what would you plan to do with it? Raid, PvP or just hang out in Dalaran?
Let’s just imagine that my account is gone. Space aliens came down to Earth, tamed a bunch of elephants, and stole my WoW account. Thus leaving me with the need to start all over again if I still wanted to play WoW.
The first thing I’d have to do would be to decide my faction (after of course buying a new copy of the game and installing it and banging my head against the desk for a bit while it patched). At the moment, my main is on Vashj, I’m having some fun on Argent Dawn with SAN, and I have a few friends on Terenas. I’d have to make a Horde alt on Argent Dawn anyway, to say hey to the guys in SAN, but realistically I’d want to be Alliance, so I’d head over to Terenas and stare at the character creation screen a little.
Here is where I would really have to decide which race and class I want to be. I’d probably spend a little time creating female Dwarves and giggling at how silly they look, maybe play a bit with the female Human model, then eventually settle on the race and class combination I’m so attached to: Draenei Hunter. Of course, those who know me should know how badly I’d like Fae to be a Draenei. The waggle has a certain charm I tell you and they have the best hairstyles. Hunter is just a given fact by now, I don’t need to explain that one. According to maths, they are the least faceroll class in the game, so obviously that means they’re the most fun, right? Okay, I get to have an attack bear. Hush. I would tame the polar bear from Dun Morogh and call it Patrick, named after the large cuddly polar bear that lives on my bed.
Then I’d have to log in, skip the intro, sort out my settings, get the video and sound settings to exactly how I like them, and add people to my friends list and throw them a poke. Also perhaps grab a couple of mods, but these are the boring bits so I won’t go into too much detail.
Levelling is okay for me, I don’t mind it. I get to do something that’s not raiding, see the old world, enjoy being a lowbie, and get used to the character. Terenas is a PvE server so she wouldn’t need a personality or a backstory, but I would work hard on her to earn some gold, level a her professions, grab a few achievements, and gear her up a little. Once I hit 80, I would spend most of my time doing Loremaster, working through my achievement panel, and collecting mounts and vanity pets, occasionally popping over to SAN to say hello. Perhaps I’d level a Mage or a Death Knight over there, they’re pretty enjoyable classes.
Overall, it wouldn’t be so bad, and it wouldn’t be a whole lot different to what I do with my time now: levelling, collecting, and achievement whoring. The only thing that would be different really would be the confusion over why the heck the aliens decided to tame elephants and steal a World of Warcraft account.
A Little Exploration
Mar 26th
Pilf’s Grand Tour is an excellent response to the Explorer Task! I think she is a wonderful writer, do read them all. Mine is a little different and you can see I’m pretty terrible at taking decent screenshots. The first one is Jaedi speaking, the last two are Fae.
Undercity: The Throne Room
This was actually a suggestion from Erc, to go sit in the throne room of the Ruins of Lordaeron and turn up your Ambience and listen. I did.
“Have you ever stopped to listen to the whispers of the past in Lordaeron? The cries of pain, of betrayal.. It brings a tear to my eye. The horrible events that occurred here, in this very room, are the very reason I can’t bring myself to care for or believe in humanity. There will always be betrayal, sadness, and often without reason.” – Jaedi.
It’s easy to forget when you’re going about your daily routine, that Lordaeron was once a thriving kingdom, ruled over by King Terenas Menethil, Arthas’ father. It is haunting when you stop to look around and listen. You can hear different echoes of the past in the various parts of Lordaeron and the bloodstain where Arthas killed his father can still be seen.
Searing Gorge: The Cauldron
“We have encountered and defeated Ragnaros in the past, yet the Cauldron remains as a reminder to us of the evil that is the Dark Iron Dwarves. They surround themselves by lava and worship a God who is too powerful to control? Madness. These are dark times..” – Fae.
Whilst charging around, getting a little more of Loremaster done on my Hunter I had to venture into ‘the Cauldron’ where I can see mechanical structures built into the rocks and a deep quarry. I have to say, though generally I’ve tended to hate this place in the past because it reminds me of BRD wipes and dust, the lore behind it has really won me over. So much that I took my Rogue here to level. The slaves of the Dark Iron down in the Slag Pit have been driven mad by their masters, and we don’t know for certain what they are digging for, it is thought to be Old God or Titan artifacts, but we can’t be certain.
Arathi Highlands: Faldir’s Cove
“I have to swim to this place called.. *checks soaking map* Faldir’s Cove. I’m told that I’ll be able to find a chunk of knowledge I didn’t previously know.. and I have to swim there. My hair’s getting wet, and NomNom really doesn’t like the water. Like there’s going to be anything there anyway, I’ve never heard any talk of… My God, that’s a pirate ship? In Arathi Highlands?! That’s beautiful!” – Fae
I had to check Faldir’s Cove for quests while I was doing Loremaster, because I didn’t believe there were really quests there, I’d never heard of it. Lo and behold there were a few, all granted to you by a crew of treasure hunting pirate gnomes and an ogre. The fact that this place is fairly difficult to get to means that you wouldn’t think about going there unless directed (which you aren’t unless tracking quest givers on Wowhead), which implies that this little spot is forgotten about almost. There are naga to kill and Blackwater Raiders in search of Elven Treasure, not to mention maps from their sunken ships to be able to navigate away. The solitude alone is quite beautiful.
Positive PuG
Mar 3rd
Shared Topic courtesy of Kin at Altoholics Anonymous. You can find other responses in this post at Blog Azeroth.
I’ve been playing my mage, Twylite, a fair bit lately. It’s fun when you’re feeling a bit blah about the game to pop on an alt you haven’t really explored yet, get her spec, glyphs, gear just right, and attempt to top the meters in every random you do as Frost. Maybe that’s just me, I like damage meters, they make DPS classes fun for me.
Well, when I was about level 35 and Scarlet Monastery was all the rage, I queued, got in a group and lo and behold the warrior tank could hold aggro! I Blizzarded my little Blood Elf heart out, and we started chatting, the tank, me and the druid healer. We decided to stick with that group and re-queue for a few. The druid healer was a really nice guy, he gave both me and the tank some friendly advice, not the kind of advice you expect to find in a pug these days. He told me to try single targeting the mob with the most HP in a pack of 4 or less, I think it was along those lines, I’ve since adapted it anyway, and it has helped me in dungeons with my mana issues.
It was a lovely group and unusual to find that and have everybody want to stick around, well, everybody who counts. The silent hunter left at the end of the first one. The warrior was on my server, I added him to my friends list and chatted a little after we had finished. Shame he hasn’t really been online at the same time as me since because it would have been quite cool to queue up again together. Keep trying guys, there are good pugs out there!
WoW Outside of Azeroth
Feb 20th
I haven’t participated in a Shared Topic in a while, so I’ve browsed the forum, selected a few which are sitting in drafts waiting to be written, and my first is Oath’s idea:
Have you ever been out and about, minding your own business, having a casual conversation with a friend and fellow WoW player about the latest patch or last night’s dungeon, then some random stranger comes up to you and says something like, “Hey, I’m sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear, but do you guys play WoW? I’ve got a level XX [race] [class] on [server]“?
I’ve probably had two handfuls of people come up to me in real life, either overhearing I play WoW from conversation, or seeing that I’m wearing my Warlock shirt or Horde sweater, and strike up a conversation with me about the game.
While places of congregation abound, such as a gaming convention, comic book shop, or GameStop, the topic persists more of an unprecedented setting. I ran into an Alliance member at a mall outside of the restrooms and we had a heated debate about Varian Wrynn. A guy started a conversation with my cousin and me at a sushi bar because my cousin and I were discussing ICC. A friend and I were at dinner at an expensive restaurant, and I was telling her about my spec, as she was leveling a warlock, and our waiter chimed in about his warlock.
Have any of you out there in the blogosphere had this happen? If so, what was your experience like? Was it just a pleasant conversation or did you face off with a passionate member of the opposing faction?
Well, I can’t recall any eavesdroppings, from my part or anybody else’s, but I do remember a particularly nasty train journey, or as much as my terribly bad memory allows me to remember…
This was back in TBC, I was playing my shadow priest in Supreme, and my relationship with Dan was at this point long distance. Okay, compared to some I can’t complain, but a 7 hour train journey did suck a fair bit.
I think this particular night it had been snowing in some places, or more possibly raining quite heavily, so when I got to Cardiff the bloke in the orange coat who I asked which platform I was on, or God knows what now, told me the train to Birmingham was cancelled or heavily delayed, or something, so I’d need to get the train to Bristol and change there to get to Birmingham. So, I listened, at this point I just wanted to get home, I was cold and tired and didn’t particularly feel like sitting on trains, I wasn’t in the best of moods. Got to Bristol and the train was cancelled! I broke down, thinking I’d be stuck in sodding Bristol all night with no money or anywhere to stay, not a particularly nice train station either. I was wrong, a train came along to take us to yet another station to get us to Birmingham, I forget which, where I sat waiting rather impatiently for this, by now, doubtful train to Birmingham.
I sat next to a girl who was quite friendly and started talking to me. I’m usually quite a shy person, so it’s probably a good job she spoke to me, else not only would I have gone insane that night but I definitely wouldn’t have a post to write about this topic.
We talked about why we were stuck getting these stupid trains, me on my way home from visiting my boyfriend, her on the way to visit hers. I asked, “Oh, cool, how did you meet?” And she blushed.
“Just some online roleplaying game, heh, bit lame.” I became curious. At this point we had something in common, both meeting our other halves online.
“Really? Which one?”
“World of Warcraft.” She blushed harder.
“Really? Same here! We were in the same guild together! What server are you on?” Suddenly she stopped blushing and we got talking even more.
Sadly, I did finally get to Birmingham, but the last train back to my town had gone, so I had to get a taxi to my dad’s friend’s house to stay the night. That was a stressful night, but bumping into her really helped, it’s a shame we didn’t keep in touch.
After Arthas
Jan 23rd
As usual I’m late to the party, this shared topic is one I wanted to get involved in and in all my IRL stuff, managed to forget. Ringo from Flinthammer Hall suggested the following topic:
What now? What happens to the world of Azeroth? What happens to the people, the factions. How does this affect the relationships between the Alliance and Horde? What does your character think happens next? Is this the end for you, as a player, especially if you started, as I did, with Warcraft III? Is this the “end of history?”
Other responses from: Zan, Littlebark, and Ophelie.
What happens to the world of Azeroth?
Arthas is dead. Not too soon after, Deathwing breaks free. The world of Azeroth is once again torn asunder (the first time by the destruction of the Well of Eternity), races are left stranded (goblins), entire zones changed by the extreme power of Deathwing. That’s for a different topic, another time.
Looking at the undead armies and the Lich King, as Uther said in Halls of Reflection, Azeroth needs a Lich King. If we didn’t have a Lich King, there would be nobody to control the scourge and stop them from swarming Azeroth. Somebody will need to replace Arthas, and my money is on Bolvar Fortdragon. They don’t necessarily have to be evil, in fact, it’s going to be a huge sacrifice, but a necessary one. For the future of Azeroth.
What happens to the people, the factions. How does this affect the relationships between the Alliance and Horde?
The Alliance and Horde will have to work together to not only defeat Arthas, but decide who the next Lich King will be. Bolvar has lost so much, he has nothing left to lose by making the sacrifice. This causes a temporary truce, though I don’t think it will last long. There will be issues leading upto Wrath which again will cause disagreements between the Horde and the Alliance, at the moment, we only know rumours, not facts.
What does your character think happens next?
My character figures that so much has happened, that it has to come to an end now. She expects that after Kil’jaeden has been defeated, the Lich King, Yogg Saron, and so on, that really, what else could happen? With this thought in mind, you can imagine she gets quite pissed off when Death Wing pops up, determined to give Azeroth some peace.
Is this the “end of history?”
No, of course not. There is still a lot to deal with. Deathwing, the rest of the black dragonflight. The Emerald Dream and what exactly is the nightmare. There are still Old Gods locked away, not to mention the Elemental Lords and Sargeras, if Yogg Saron and C’Thun managed to corrupt people from their prisons, I’m sure others can also. There are endless pieces of lore with loose ends, just because the RTS games haven’t shown it yet, doesn’t mean it isn’t being planned or written. This part is surely more exciting, not knowing exactly what’s around the corner.
Brew of the Year
Isle of Conquest Victory
A-bomb-inable
Stocking Up
40 Exalted Reputations
Master of Arms
Plenty of Pets
Looking For Multitudes
A Void Dance
Lockdown!
