A Bit of a Shakeup

Having a week off was good for the soul, and as a consequence I've decided to make a few changes in my current stable of toons for Operation Spread the Love.

Hoots was named after Hoots the Owl from the
children's television show Sesame Street. Here's
a link to a clip of Hoots with John Legend. I think
I ought to work on a backstory for a bit, just to make
Hoots' name a nickname due to her obsession with owls.
This listing was as of February 2, 2025.

I'd originally intended to get all of the toons to at least L30 before I would begin to put in some separation, but I've decided to leave two toons behind at L20: the Shaman and the Warrior.

The decision to leave the Shaman is kind of self-explanatory: there was just too much mental baggage dealing with a Shaman, even 3.5 years after TBC Classic. I'm still going to keep that Shaman around in case I want to revisit it sometime in the future, and I'll hold onto the name Briganaa as well, but I doubt I'll be leveling a Shaman anytime soon.

As for the Warrior, it was a struggle for me to actually want to play one. I'm used to having a full mana bar or energy bar to work with and have it gradually get depleted, but the Warrior plays in exactly the opposite manner: you have to build up rage before you can expend it on various abilities. I've frequently found myself struggling to get enough rage going for me to actually, you know, DO something interesting. And if I can't get that rage up, the Warrior doesn't really feel fun to play. 

Maybe it's a matter of not getting high enough in levels to make a Warrior fun, but to me it certainly doesn't check any of those "fun" boxes on my "things to do" checklist. Warriors may be extremely popular to play because they're so overpowered in Vanilla Classic's raid scene, but I wasn't ever planning on taking this toon into any group content. There's too much pressure to tank in that scenario, and I wasn't going to deal with that.

So going forward I'm focusing on 8 toons instead of 10. I don't expect my leveling to speed up very much, given that the leveling curve itself is flattening out significantly, and I'm also planning on leveling professions along the way. I've never really leveled Leatherworking as part of my actual leveling process itself, because Briganaa was my Leatherworker and I only began working on that after she got to L70. I simply couldn't focus on professions until after I got to max level for the raid. Same thing goes for Blacksmithing; I've leveled it typically after a toon got to max level (in both Retail and Classic), so any bonuses from making my own armor kind of went out the window.

Tailoring, on the other hand, I've done numerous times, so I know how to fit that into my leveling process and take advantage of inherent bonuses available to a cloth wearing profession. Leveling a profession along the way also has the advantage of slowing down my own leveling process, because I have to divert attention to collecting materials necessary to keep my gear up to date, in as much the same way that a Rogue will work on opening lockboxes to level their Lockpicking skill.

***

Okay, that's out of the way. How's everybody else doing?

Uh... Well... I think my Questing Buddy's raid issues got straightened out, because she's had a few weeks' worth of pleasant raiding in Molten Core. Now, her issue is getting a Healing weapon that she doesn't have to fight all the other healers for in raid, so she's set her sights on PvP gear by getting to a high enough PvP ranking. I can only shake my head, because if it's not one goal, it's another. In her defense, she is significantly younger than me (still technically under 40!) so I salute her drive and focus. Me, I couldn't do that anymore, but she apparently can. I think she's also been listening to the audiobook version of Onyx Storm, the new Rebecca Yarros book, which apparently has yet ANOTHER cliff hanger ending. I guess for my sanity's sake, I'm going to hold off reading the series until it's finished, something I learned the hard way by reading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time back in the 90s.*

As for the rest of the gang, all except for two have a toon at max level. Of the two, one still raids regularly on the Classic Era servers (hence the reason why she doesn't have a max level toon) and the other is busy with other non-WoW things, so she doesn't have a lot of time to get on and play. 

Of the players in my friend group, I am the farthest behind, which suits me fine. I think they've finally given up trying to talk me into accepting boosts, but even if they haven't, having 8 toons means I can let them run me through a dungeon and then I can park that toon for a week or more while I level something else. 

***

For a Sid Meier's Civilization fan, I'm simply not interested in Civ VII that is coming out right now. I'm happy that Christopher Tin came back to compose more music for the soundtrack, but I play Civ IV almost every other day, and I really don't have any interest in moving on to something new at this time. What I have seen of Civ 7 is that it is a lot more tactical and wargamer-ish than previous installations of the game; fine for some people, but for a grand strategy type of game that Civ once was, it isn't for me. If I want more wargame in my Civ style game, there's Rome: Total War or Medieval: Total War 2 to whet my appetite.

Anyway, that's where Redbeard's WoW Classic Anniversary is currently at.

*I never finished reading The Wheel of Time, as I threw up my hands and gave up on the series after A Crown of Swords. I bought The Path of Daggers, but when I sat down to read it, I just couldn't. I was tired of Robert Jordan never really moving the plot along and simply adding more and more complexity without getting anywhere. Apparently I wasn't the only RJ fan who jumped off the bandwagon during this time, but we were more than offset by an influx of new fans.

Finding Inspiration in a Theme

I came across an interview of composer Christopher Tin on Polygon the other day, and it gave me a chance to ruminate on how great of an impact video game music has on my gaming experience. 

While I realize a lot of people my age are very fond of certain classic video game themes, such as that of Super Mario Brothers, I was a bit too old for the original NES and Super NES. So, Mario and The Legend of Zelda never really resonated with me. 

I suppose you could say that I was of the Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man era, where the music was limited to a 4-5 second ditty at the beginning of the game:

As well as the intermission themes:

Still, you get the idea. Things were a bit minimalist back then, and not because the creators didn't want to add music, it's just there were limitations to the technology (and the associated cost).

Well, and that for a lot of arcade video games found at the check lane area of grocery and discount stores the sound was actually turned off*, so unless you went to an actual arcade you may not have heard the music at all. 

My first real encounter with a video game's soundtrack beyond a short little ditty was that theme for Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar.

This is the version I was familiar with, for

the Commodore 64.

It's not a very deep theme by any stretch of the imagination, but when my college roommate began playing the game for the first time, the sound was a revelation. 

You could draw a straight line from an Ultima IV through games such as Wing Commander and X-Wing, through Diablo and Baldur's Gate, up through Civ IV's Baba Yetu to today's games. There's always something in there to draw inspiration from, and while some people play video games with the soundtrack muted, the music is well worth a listen.

***

I guess that it was inevitable, but all the above was prelude to the announcement that the (now) venerable Battle Bards podcast has ended. Eleven years is a long time for a podcast's run, and Syp, Syl, and Steff gave us years of great video game music. I know it was only Syp and Syl for the past few years, but I'll always think of the three of them when I think of Battle Bards.

My personal favorite of their podcasts was very early in their podcast career: their interview with Chance Thomas, the composer of LOTRO's Riders of Rohan Soundtrack. Were it not for that interview, I'd not have gotten up the nerve to contact Mr. Thomas and see how I could purchase the score to Theme for Rohan, as it seemed to me that it could be adapted to a high school orchestra.**

I'm amazed how young Taylor Davis looks

in this video. I guess we've all gotten older in

the 12 years since this video first aired.

I wish the Bards luck in their future endeavors, and I'll miss their voices.

Now to listen so some more music...

*I don't know if my experience was the same as others, but there were always complaints about the noise from arcade video games, so the sound was frequently turned down/switched off at the request of the store owners.

**Mr. Thomas did confirm that the piece could be adapted for high school (or even middle school).

#Blaugust2024

Point of Reference

If there's one game that I play more than any other, it's Sid Meier's Civilization IV.

What, you expected an MMO? WoW, maybe?

Oh no, not by a long shot. 

A rare cultural victory for me, from 
back in May 2022. I don't save a lot of
screencaps, but since I almost always win
a space race, this was a notable exception.

I bought the game around 2009 or so*, which honestly works as a counterpoint to WoW, and I ended up re-purchasing the game on Steam a couple of years ago when it was down to $4 or so on one of those Winter or Summer sales. My reasoning was that I'd already gotten my money's worth out of the original game, and I knew that in order to install it on this new PC I'd have to go buy a portable DVD drive, so it kind of made sense to save a few dollars and just buy the game off of Steam instead.

Having played the original Civ back in the day, and then Civ III for several years, I knew what I was getting into. Still, even I was surprised at how much I preferred Civ IV to Civ III. I don't think I've even bothered to try to install Civ III on this PC, and even though I dabble a bit in Civ V and Civ VI, I always return to Civ IV.

Just how much?

Uh.... Whoops.

That little graphic is from my 2023 Year in Review from Steam. That's roughly half of the year I played Civ IV, because some of those sessions went kind of long. 

It's the sort of game where I can play for a bit, go away and do something else for a while, and then return to the same session while it's been patiently waiting for me in the background.

Unlike it's brethren and other civ sim games, a match of vanilla Civ IV can be cranked out in about 3 hours or less, depending on how wars develop and my need to micromanage city building and development. It's when you add systems such as found in Civ IV: Warlords or Civ IV: Beyond the Sword do the Civ IV matches really start extending in length. I guess for immersion those later iterations of the game are better, but I prefer vanilla Civ IV for the overall simplicity and balance. I've gotten to the point where I can play for about 5-10 minutes and immediately decide whether it's worth it to continue a game or start over, something I can't really do in the latter two for a bit longer.

And don't tell Sid Meier this, but the AI in Civ IV is kind of predictable and brainless, so I can switch my own brain off for a bit while playing. That is especially useful during lunch, where I can hop on and play for an hour or so and try to forget anything stressful in the morning.

So... If you ever wonder if I spend all my time in WoW or other MMOs, I guess you'll understand that is simply not the case. Hell, I don't even spend the majority of my video game playing in WoW, but rather in a turn-based civ builder game from 2005.

*Just a guess, really. No idea as to the exact year.

Comfort Food for the Gamer

No, I'm not talking about actual food or recipes inspired by games and SF&F franchises.

I mean in the same vein as what comfort food represents: something familiar and makes you feel like all's right with the world. Maybe for some people they have an actual meal that gives them that feeling (for a coworker, it's all about the Texas style brisket when they get back to Texas) or for others it's getting to play a favorite game (for my wife, it's getting her crossword puzzle done) or still others it's curling up with a favorite book (for my brother-in-law, it's his annual reading of The Lord of the Rings). No matter what it is, everybody has some sort of comfort food.

For me, there are certain games --or places within certain games-- that I return to when I want a helping of comfort food.

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade" is how the old saying goes, but when life gives me lemons I give life the finger and go play Sid Meier's Civilization IV.

Well, Hatshepsut isn't too bad a leader
to start with. And at least the random
location gave me a river with some resources.
I've been in worse starting positions, for sure.

It's a game I've been playing for over 15 years now, and it's the sort of game I can knock out anywhere from 2 to 5 hours depending on how the game plays out.* I can also get an early feel for whether my position is untenable or not --if I don't have access to Copper or Iron, for example-- and I'll just kill the game rather than die a slow death. 

But when I feel the need for gamer comfort food and I'm in an MMO type of mood, I return to the old standbys: create a new character and run through the areas I love best: the low to mid level zones.

Like, oh, this one:

Hel-lo, Ord Mantell.

For the record, the new on-screen map makes me look like I'm playing TERA** rather than SWTOR, so I'm grateful I can go into the Interface options and turn the damn thing off.

Or maybe start up a new toon in this game:

I'd never created a High Elf before, 
so I pulled out some of my Middle-earth
sourcebooks and started throwing names together.
I decided to not put umlauts over the last 'e'
like Tolkien would have; too messy to type.

There's something peaceful and pleasant about Ered Luin under starlight, just the way the Elves of Middle-earth like it. For all the quirks of LOTRO --such as trying to read those damn maps and the ability icons all looking the same-- the scenery, tone, and storyline are all highly evocative of Middle-earth.

And not to be outdone, I do have favorite places in WoW as well:

I always wondered what that Sentinel
was doing there.

I realize I'm in the minority, but I truly do love Teldrassil, Darkshore, and Ashenvale. They have that ancient Elven forest vibe down so much that you'd think you were in Lothlorien or something.  Yes, I do like Elwynn Forest, Westfall, Eversong Forest, The Ghostlands, and even the damn Barrens, but for pure atmospherics the Night Elf areas are dead on perfect. 

***

The more I go through some of these old original or vanilla areas on these MMOs, the more I enjoy them. You never get the impression that you're "the chosen one" or that you're there to save the world and/or galaxy --okay, the Jedi Knight story does somewhat sound that way-- but you're also not out there hobnobbing with all of the Powerful of the game world. Sure, you run into them from time to time, but it's not like they're saying "Champions! Meet me at the Town Hall! We need to take the fight to Mal'gannis!" At best they may offer counsel (Elrond, Gandalf, Satele Shan) or some quest direction (Aragorn), but nothing like what you find in later expacs in these MMOs. 

There's something comforting in the anonymity provided in these vanilla-esque zones. Even if you're on an active server, you're still not likely to run into many other players at all in these original zones because the latest and greatest zones are "where the action is". That is even the case in these megaservers in Wrath Classic, where most everybody has gotten multiple toons to max level and unless there's another 50% XP boost they're not likely to run another alt through the gauntlet. (I discovered this while waiting around for a Deadmines run in the past couple of weeks.) While those dungeon runs were active in the lead up to Wrath Classic launching, they're almost totally dead now. So, while you wait you go out into the world and quest. Or fish. Or level a gathering skill. Or explore. All of those sorts of things can be done on those three MMOs***, at your own pace without any concern for life, the universe, and everything. (Thank you, Douglas Adams.)

***

While these areas tend to be quiet and relatively empty, disruptions can show up when a high level toon rolls by and wipes an area clean of questing mobs. Perhaps they were going back and completing quests that were left behind, or perhaps they were farming for materials. Or maybe they did have a slightly cruel and/or trollish streak and did it just because. Whatever the reason, the effect was to basically throw off my cadence and I have to wait for respawns. If said high level toon zaps those, then I just abandon the area; arguing with idiots never ends well in my experience.

As a consequence, I've learned to do any low level questing on my high level toons when I know I'm not causing disruptions to people already there. On a (now) empty server like Myzrael that's not a big deal, because there have been times when I've literally been the only person in a zone for several zones in a row. But an "active" server, or a server where I'm new? Yeah, I'm sensitive to disruptions.

***

Okay, enough about me. Where do you go --or play-- when you just need a helping of comfort food?

*All about whether I've got a combat heavy game going. The combat heavy games are much longer than the ones where I simply out-develop the other civs.

**Minus the ridiculously sexy clothing (and the Elin), of course.

***Okay, so you can't fish in SWTOR, but you can do a lot of crafting and datacron hunting.