In Case You Ever Wondered...

...whether pop culture has taken note of the upcoming release:

'Nuff said.

Die, cardboard video game box, die!

For a brief stint after moving to the larger city area I now live close to, I took a job working at a local video game retailer.

When I started there was two shelves for PC games, and one shelf for used PC games.  Steadily over the year I worked there I saw the space reserved for PC games shrink; and now when you visit a store, there's barely ANY space reserved for PC games.

I used to think this was a bad thing, because it indicated the slow demise of PC gaming.  What I didn't realize back then that digital distribution was just starting to offer PC games, and it was becoming fairly popular.  Which probably coincided with the decline of shelf space in local retailers.  I believe another contributing factor is the availability of high speed internet.  You may laugh, but my parents only recently had high speed introduced to their neck of the woods (satellite was available previously, but crazy expensive).

I recently signed up for a Steam account, and have been pretty happy with the level of services offered by the application - a nice friends list with chat messenger, community pages, and a library of your purchased games that are available for download when ever you want them (if you haven't already downloaded them).  I'll never misplace software, or a booklet with a game activation code on it, because it's available digitally. 

And what's even better is they run specials and have some pretty good games for REALLY cheap.

Now, I'm not some Steam fanboi, I'm just setting the stage for the experience I received last night upon my trip to the local game store.

I went to cancel my two preorders for Cataclysm, and move the money I had placed as a down payment onto a gift card to use as a Christmas gift.  And I couldn't believe the attitude of the clerks.  I walk in and explain what I'd like to do and the guy chides "Oh, excellent."  Not in that Mr. Burns from the Simpsons way, and even in a genuine tone of voice - it was that I'm-working-a-job-I-hate-and-being-a-complete-asshole-to-everybody voice.

So, I'm already a little miffed, and the clerk launches into a tirade about how I should throw down some money on the preorder of DragonAge II he saw me looking at.  I tell him no thanks, I just want the money on the gift card, and the second clerk pipes up and again applies preassure trying to get me to preorder the game. 

Look people, I walked in and clearly explained exactly what I wanted.  I didn't ask to be hasseled about any preorders, and I certinaly didn't ask to join your discount card program (I worked there.. I know it's a scam).

I was just all around irritated when I left.  And I don't think I'll be going back.

I got home and hopped on my computer, loaded up the Blizzard website and click click click - Presto!  Two accounts upgraded to Cataclysm with only the need to maybe download a patch on the day of release.  No trouble at all.

I'm going to be doing all of my gaming purchases digitally from now on, tyvm.

Gah! Warrior nerf!

There's been a lot of talk recently about the sweeping nerfs the warrior class has received.
A lot of warriors are riled up, and fightin' mad about it.

In fact, I found a video demonstration of what would happen if the warrior class were to receive a further nerf, such as the removal of heroic leap.

Warning:  Brutal fight scene




On second thought, we're still doing just fine.

The Rise Of The Mage...RAWR!

The latest patch, 4.0.3a, we mages have seen a resurgence of "WTB port to..." This can be good or bad, depending on your goals in the game. Sure, I'm an entrepreneur like the next Joe, but receiving request after request for ports not only gets old, it makes me postal. I don't have a lot of time in the game, so what time I do spend I want to get things done and go. To stop and port someone here and there occasionally is fine, but not constantly as I've had to experience the last week or so. Yes, I'm grousing, because like you I'd prefer the portal hubs. I'm all about self-efficacy. But there's another side to this that people don't consider...

This ain't Kansas anymore, Dorothy!

With the Shattering, our World of Warcraft has changed and porting back and forth won't afford you the opportunity to see all the nuances that have been altered forever. Its not about worshiping the developer gods, as much as understanding what the new points of interests are, as well as experiencing what the Shattering really means to each class. So I bare the nudge here and nudge there for ports for now, because some people won't be willing to pay the 25 gold I'll charge. Instead, they'll hoof it around and maybe, just maybe find something really special to enjoy and appreciate.

Quick Thoughts on The Shattering

Yeah, I couldn't sleep.

Having checked out both sides of the coin, here's a bunch of quick thoughts on the Post Apocalypse:

• Orgrimmar is completely unrecognizable.  Even The Drag is brightly lit.
• Camp Taurajo is still burning.  Between that and Fort Triumph, that just stuck in my craw.
• Desolace is... well... 'desolate' is not a good descriptor anymore.
• Hillsbrad is like the Western Plaguelands, Forsaken style.
• Ashenvale is like Southern Barrens to the Alliance.  'Nuff said.
• The gigantic 'Ode to Me' statue in front of Stormwind Keep  --complete with top knot-- makes me dislike Wrynn even more.
• There was a toon standing next to me, taking in the giant Wrynn statue, and said out loud "Tax payer money..."  I think he won the Internets last night.
• Sylvanas is making Hellscream look normal.  Or as Vosskah put it when I was discussing the changes with him, "I'm starting to like Jaina more.  And that's saying something."
• The old Barracks in Stormwind look like Deathwing took a gigantic bite out of it.
• You can't go into an opposite faction's city solo anymore.  As a guildie put it, "You walk in, and instant death."
• I got on Tomakan, mounted, and....  Dear Lord, Elekks ain't pretty.
• You won't find the word Defias anywhere.  Not even in the Stocks.
• There are so many flight points around I expected Ricky Ricardo to pop out from behind a tree and say "It's just so ridiculous!!"
• For those of you who waited, the price on Master Flight dropped to 4k.
• Magatha Grimtotem's tent is empty.  Good riddance.
• Those Plagueborn Horrors?  You'll find L20 versions of them in Hillsbrad.
• For Elune's sake, lose those bird arms, Malfurion Stormrage.
• One last thing:  Dalaran at 8 PM looked like Dal at 5 AM.  Shattrath-style empty, here we come.

EtA:  Plants vs. Zombies!!

Wistfulness

The Shattering is nigh.

There's quite a bit of anticipation out there, coupled with a "just get it over with already!" undercurrent on the servers I'm on.  The chatter on some of the Arathi Basin runs I was on emphasized that.

Maybe it's just me, or maybe it's the season (Late Fall, heading to Winter), but I'm finding myself wistful about the upending of the current order.

I'm going to miss Cairne and his rumbling voice.  Sure, he never was at the forefront of things like Thrall and Sylvanas were, but he was dependable.  He was the killjoy who grumbled about the true meaning of Winter Veil, but he cared about keeping the Tauren traditions alive.  I always considered him the "Old Grandfather" of the Horde, who you'd go meet for coffee and listen to him spin tales of the good old days.

While Thrall isn't really going anyplace, he will definitely be missed as Warchief.  He had that clarity of vision that you only rarely get in a leader, and he was able to keep lines of communication open with the opposite faction when most everyone else wanted blood.  He understood sacrifice and the need to work together.  At the same time, these qualities will drive him to lay down his leadership in the Horde to try to save Azeroth.

From what I'm reading, I think I'm going to miss the old Sylvanas too.  She had an opportunity to really change things, but she seems incapable of pushing beyond her hatred.  Her time spent as a helpless minion of Arthas and the Lich King seems to have ruined her.

And lastly, I'm going to miss the old Barrens.  Camp Taurajo aside, the Barrens was this vast expanse that you could spend a ton of time questing in and just relaxing.  It was there that I learned:

• Don't attack a Yellow character in a PVP server.  ("You see that yellow guy?"  "Yeaaah."  "Okay, we're going to back out.  Really slowly.")
• Running through a bunch of gazelles and using Arcane Explosion can be fun.
• You will see both factions in a Neutral City.
• Just finding the entrance to an instance can be a real pain in the ass.
• You can go up mountains and run around the tops of them, but if you fall off at the wrong time, you're screwed.
• In WoW, Centaurs really are the bad guys.
• Chuck Norris really is a demi-god.

Okay, enough of that.  What are your thoughts?

Over Here, Jeeves!

In Mel Brooks' History of the World: Part I, there's a garden scene with the Court of Louis XVI at Versailles.  Count de Monet (played by Harvey Korman) has ridden from Paris to warn the King of impending revolution, but before he can seek an audience with His Majesty, he needs to relieve himself.  Therefore, he summons one of the roving piss-boys --and his bucket-- for this purpose.

The other day, in Blackrock Depths, I was the piss-boy.  (Er, piss-girl.)

I was on Neve, getting a lunchtime run in.  Nothing unusual about that, since I've been trying to get both her and Tomakan to Outland before Cat dropped.  The destination of this run was Blackrock Depths, and I was pretty sure I'd progressed beyond a simple prison run.  A quick scan of the levels of my compatriots told me that Neve at L53 was the lowest of the bunch, so I was prepared for a longer run than normal.

The Warrior tank started the first pull, then quickly progressed to a second in the initial cavern area.  Finishing up that pull, he started in on a third.

"Wait!" cried the Druid healer.

The tank kept on going until the pull ended.  "What?" he demanded.

"I was out of mana!"

"Well, you didn't say anything."

"I am now!"

"Well, drink, you dumb ass!"

"I don't have anything to drink."  He paused, then shouted, "MAGE!!!"

Oh, for the love of...  I was tempted to tell him to do something explicit, which would have carried a bit more weight being the only female toon in the crew.

The healer ran over and immediately opened a trade window, then selected the 'Trade' button.  At that point I hadn't even conjured anything yet, but I gritted my teeth and did it, hoping that would shut these two jerks up.

Silly me.

"Does anyone have the key?" the tank asked.

"Nope."

"Not me."

"No."

"I do," I replied.

"Well," the tank said, "I guess we're not going very far then."

What the hell!!  I said I had the key!!  I fumed through the next couple of pulls, while the Warrior dispensed his wisdom concerning Paladins.  "They should shut up and go back to being glorified buff-bots.  I'm sick and tired of their whining."

"Yep," replied the healer.  "They're a bunch of asses who can't do s#!&."

The Interrogator dropped quickly, and the tank took the lack of an 'instance over' sign personally.  "This sucks.  You're all stupid anyway."

And then he dropped.

So did everyone else.

I breathed a sigh of relief.  At least I wasn't the one with the debuff, and I was grateful that I didn't have to put up with any of that combo for the next hour.

Compared to this, most any run would be an improvement.  At the same time, both of those clowns completely blew the three DPS off, and even when I said something worthwhile, it was completely ignored.  We were reduced to being piss-boys for the tank and healer, unworthy of taking a leak in the same area they were soiling.  Talk about treating your fellow player with respect.

I was tempted to think that I was ignored because I was the only female toon, and one with a name that a player had obviously put some thought into, which in some camps that means I'm a female player.  However, I chalked this one up to just pure asshatery; if I had Tomakan or Quintalan along, I'd have gotten the same treatment.  Now that I think about it, I'd have probably been treated worse, given their opinions on Paladins.

The pugging scene is what it is; there are jerks, and there are great puggers.  I try to be the latter, and by doing so encourage others to be a better pugger.

***

Ironically enough, the night before this pug, I'd had one of those runs that you never really want to end.  It didn't start off very good, as the Druid tank pulled the entire first chamber of Blackrock Depths, then complained when we wiped.  He and a DPS immediately dropped, while three of us ran back.

One of the three got into the open area for Blackrock Mountain and had no idea where to turn.  Having found the entrance to BRD the hard way while grinding for Loremaster, I talked him through it.  When he finally made it through that opening, he was effusive in his praise.  "I'd never been able to find the entrance before," he admitted.  "I think I should call you Saint Nevelanthana, although that's a pretty long name."

"Neve for short," I said.

The queue eventually gave us back a new tank and DPS, and we started over.  The warrior tank said he'd like to go as far as we could, even though he admitted he couldn't go all the way to the end at L52.  He did everything right, from LoS pulls to waiting for people to drink.  The Fireguard pairs at each entrance?  He asked the warrior DPS to off tank the one so he could take the other.  When someone asked a question about what was up ahead, he gave a precise and detailed answer.

"You're damn sight better than the Druid tank we first had," I said.

He chuckled.  "You had a Druid tank?  Say no more."

I never reached the end of BRD on that run, because I got paged and had to login to work.  We said our goodbyes, and the lost puggee again thanked me profusely.

***

In comparing the two runs, the first thing that stands out is the quality of the tank.  Technical skill isn't always what's needed, you need leadership.  Whether they like it or not, tanks are the leaders:  they have to know the way around, they have to know the boss fights up ahead, and they have to monitor the status of the group.  That's not an easy task, and people who queue to tank just to skip the wait for DPS often don't succeed.

Another difference between the two runs was the attitude.  You know how when a group bonds you can actually feel it?  That happened with the latter group.  In the former group, the overall attitude of the tank and healer was that we were there to make them happy.  Make no mistake; this was their run, the DPS was just along for the ride.  When you have that sort of attitude, unscrupulous puggees won't hesitate to sabotage a run.  Much better for everyone that you have a tolerant attitude and can handle some foibles.

I also think that the time of day has something to do with the success of a pug.  Distractions count, especially when people might be raiding that evening on another toon.  I've had people say "I want this run done in 10 minutes because I've got VoA tonight," and that doesn't exactly give a player warm fuzzies to know that someone you're pugging with has their eye on something else.

Maybe the best thing that you can say about pugs is that each one is different, but it's up to you to hold to your end of the bargain.  Don't let the bastards get you down.