WoW Classic Era Truly is a Closed System

In what comes as a shock to absolutely nobody, the purely Hardcore WoW Classic Era servers have been abandoned in favor of the Season of Discovery servers.

Wow. They were High and Full only
two months ago.

I got on the HC server I've used in the past only to find almost nobody there. I knew that the "regular" WoW Classic Era servers had taken a bit of a hit, but I thought the HC servers would be more immune than this because, well, I figured HC would have it's own separate appeal.

Silly me, I know.

This is the current population for
"regular" Classic Era. There's another
PvP cluster off screen that's "Medium".

It does seem to me that the current population of Classic Era is pretty much one cohesive unit, and that population is distributed among the three types of servers. Right now the bulk of the population is in the Season of Discovery servers, as that's the new hotness, but when people tire of that they'll likely come back to the regular Era servers (and to a lesser extent the HC servers). 

One thing I don't see much of is people splitting time between Era servers and Wrath Classic or Retail servers. I'm sure that exists, just not to the extent that you see evidence of it a lot.

Looking at my own server logins, I'd say that once my 10 person raid team for Wrath Classic fell apart at the beginning of 2023, about 90% of my time has been spent in a Classic Era server of one form or another. The rest of the time is probably 8% Wrath Classic and 2% Retail: most of that 8% happened before I created Era characters, and that 2% worth of Retail logins is due to me getting screenshots for the blog.

I most definitely spent a lot more time in SWTOR and LOTRO than Wrath Classic and Retail WoW this past year. 

***

Going forward, I'm most interested in what will happen to the Wrath Classic crowd once Cataclysm Classic releases. What will the majority of players do?

1. Move on to Cata Classic
2. Go back to an Era realm
3. Migrate to Retail WoW
4. Leave WoW altogether

I don't really have an answer here, but my first guess is not #1. Maybe inertia will mean that #1 will win out, but my gut says no. The snark in me wants to say #4 given that it certainly seems that killing Arthas has been a goal of a lot of people, but I think we'll have a better feel for what might happen in the Spring when Wrath Classic has just about finished. The ramp up to Wrath Classic itself began organically months before the release date, and if we don't see a similar wave of interest in the months prior to release of Cata Classic, it's more likely that Cata Classic will be a dud. 

What do you think?

No Rest for the Weary

If you haven't been keeping track, I passed my two year anniversary of my little medical 'vacation' at Good Samaritan Hospital the other week. 

Unlike the other times I hit an anniversary (or half-anniversary) of this little incident, I delayed my post about how things are going.

Why?

Well, let me explain. 

I went into my annual physical in mid-November feeling good about the direction I'd been trending. I'd finally broken through the plateau my weight had been at for a year and was trending downward, and my daily tests I run* haven't shown any weird spikes or other odd behaviors. Considering that with my physician's encouragement I'd slowly weaned myself off of insulin and was going with only the Metformin as the primary method of controlling my blood sugar, that's a good thing.**

The physical itself went pretty well, with my blood pressure being pretty much "normal" for someone being treated for my condition, and I passed my diabetic foot exam with flying colors. They took my blood for the standard battery of tests, and my doctor told me that I should go take some time off and go on vacation. 

"What do you mean when you say you're on-call 24x7?" he asked.

"Well," I replied, "it means that if there's a problem in the middle of the night and it's bad enough, they call me up and I have to go fix it." If you've been in IT, you know what I mean. It's part of the job.

"Can't you just leave it all at work and just turn your phone off at home?"

"Can you do that?" I countered.

"That's different."

No, I'm not tech support per se, but this
is one of my two positions I assume during
'emergency escalations'. The other involves
rubbing my temples. From imgur.

Sure, there's the difference where a life might be in the balance, but if you've ever worked a 24x7 on-call job before, you don't have that option. Luckily for me, my job has gotten better at the 'woken up at 3 AM' scenario, but that doesn't mean that my work doesn't follow me around or keep me busy in the evenings/weekends.

What about vacation? 

Well, I'm not a homebody per se, but I don't have a burning desire to go out and travel any more. I'm not a fan of crowds, so when we do visit someplace I'm just not interested in doing much.*** And when I take the day off and stay at home, I usually have to visit the doctor or work on a project around the house.

Yeah, the girl is me. From imgflip.

So all in all, outside of the needling by the doctor, the physical went well.

***

A few days later I got a call from the doctor's office.

My blood work came in, and one of my numbers had shot up past the normal range.

Yes, if you use Mychart, you've seen this sort of thing before.

Considering I hadn't really changed my diet, and given that the only tweak to my medications was the weaning off of insulin --which shouldn't have had such an impact-- this was cause for concern. (That low marker on the left was during my hospital stay, and the number after that was due to receiving an injection at the hospital.)

The nurse told me that I was to stop one of my medications immediately, wait a few weeks, and come back in for a retest. The unspoken part was that if that didn't work, then I might be in real trouble. 

So, early this week I went in to get my blood drawn once more, which meant fasting since midnight. Again. This part of my new lifestyle I really don't like --outside of the fact that I still don't like needles-- because it takes several days for my digestive system to return to a semblance of normal.

Then I settled in at work and was kept on pins and needles while I waited.

Yeah, kind of like this, right Milton?
(We even have the red stapler!)
From makeameme.

At the end of the week I got a phone call from the nurse once more.

Unfortunately for me, I was preoccupied at the time so I couldn't take the call, but I listened to her message and breathed a sigh of relief.

So it returned to where it had been, on the lower
end of 'normal'. Kind of unnerving as to why the
medication simply started going haywire.

I sent a follow up email as to whether I should stop that medication on an ongoing basis, and the reply I got was yes, but because of that I was told I needed to adjust my diet a bit to compensate for the changes. I'm also scheduled to have another blood test in January to make sure that everything is behaving as it should.

So... I'll count this as a small victory: my medications decreased by one, my critical numbers have either remained at normal-ish or returned to normal, and the doctor was okay with this overall trend.

Still, this was a reminder that my projected overall lifespan isn't what I'd call 'good' by any stretch.

Given that my genealogy research has provided me with info that a lot of my relatives in the past died in their 50s and 60s**** I guess I shouldn't be too surprised by this, but one of my relatives died in the early 20th century from a "diabetic coma", which caused me to sit up and take notice. For some people that'd be an interesting little quirk of my family tree, but for me, knowing what I know now about my health issues, that was both a reminder to be vigilant and a warning that I'd better get my shit together because I can't count on dumb luck to carry me through.

*Oh yes, when you've both Type-2 Diabetes and Hypertension (aka high blood pressure) you have to keep a close eye on your blood glucose levels and blood pressure. I guess you don't have to do that if you don't want to, but kind of winging it isn't conducive to a long lifespan. Or to put it more bluntly, if I don't keep track of how my body is doing I should start picking out a gravesite now and save my surviving family the trouble.

**Metformin still can mess with my digestion from time to time. Of all the medications I've ever taken that say "take with food", this one you absolutely have to. Even so, about twice a month my digestive system kicks me in the ass so bad that I have to lie down for several hours, and if I'm not there I'm on the toilet. Still, it's a small price to pay for keeping my body (relatively) healthy.

***Like back in 1996 when we went to Denver for the 1996 Geological Society of America conference. My wife had a presentation, and she kept encouraging me to go visit museums or look around at various places. Or attend the 'Spouses Events' that were lined up. Or... you get the idea.

What did I do?

I brought a book and drove east out of Denver to a rest stop on the highway, and read for some hours. I did this for a couple of days. Sure, after the conference we went to Rocky Mountain National Park and camped in the cold early November weather that was 15F/-9.4C before you add in the 20 MPH wind chill, but I had absolutely no desire to get involved with the crowds or things to do around Denver. Like a true introvert, I wanted to unplug and curl up with a book.

****Unless there's a traumatic event, that is. I do have a few of those in my ancestors' past. One I knew beforehand, but others not so much. Maybe I ought to do a follow up post on some of that.

Meme Monday: Exam Memes from the Other Side

Upon request, here's the other side of what it's like for exam week: the view from the teachers, the professors, and the grad assistants...

As you can tell from the triangle,
this came from TikTok.

When Judge Judy gives you that look...
From Mashupmath.

From David Red and makeameme.

David Red has a ton of them.
From David Red and makeameme.

This could also be my son
grading papers as part of his
assistantship. From mangahigh.

And one bonus meme that could be either a test taker or a proctor. Either way, I've been there...

Aoooogah! Aooogah!
From funnyand.

Meme Monday: Exam Memes

You know, I could have meant this as a 'medical exam', but nope. Two of my kids have exams in the next week or two, so I figured that they'd appreciate these...

From Pinterest.

Thank you for your service,
Mr. Bean. From Massey University.

Yeah, I'm quite familiar with that look.
From universitystudent.org.

Hey, just like in my Quantum Mechanics final!
From memecenter.

The WoW Classic Token was Just the Beginning

It may surprise you, but I don't actually subscribe to WoW.

Yes, I'm aware that I could save a few dollars by subscribing for 3 or 6 month intervals, but because I buy 60 days' worth of game time every couple of months, it forces me to evaluate as to whether I'm having enough fun in-game to continue paying for it. In my experience, when I subscribe it takes more effort to actually decide to discontinue a subscription than actually keep subscribing, so by reversing the process and making it more effort to continue playing the onus is put on Blizzard to create a better experience. 

It also means that I actually engage with the cash shop on a regular basis, so I can see exactly just what Blizz is up to.

Such as this little surprise when I bought 60 days' worth of game time yesterday:

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot...

Do you see it?

In addition to the Retail character boost and the Cataclysm Classic Blazing Heroic Pack, there another little addition to the cash shop: a Level 80 Character Boost for Wrath Classic.

You can now bypass the entire leveling process in Wrath Classic and go straight to Endgame.

Of course, that also means you're effectively paying for gold as well, given that you can go back and do all of the Northrend quests and just get gold as a reward instead.

Yeah, right. 
Graphic from The Simpsons, and
the Comic Sans courtesy of MS Paint.

My, how the Wrath Classic player base has fallen. 

Yodeling In the Passes

I wasn't planning on getting into the Season of Discovery servers when they opened.

If nothing else, I learned that my favorite Mage names --Cardwyn and Nevelanthana-- are never taken by someone else, so I shouldn't have to rush to get a toon created. I could create something different, I suppose, but for me playing a Mage is second nature*, so I knew I was going to go in that direction.

But the lure of playing is strong**, so...

Oh.

Okay, that's not too bad. I mean, I did choose the RP server, which was "High" and not "Full" like most of the other servers...

???

What is this, Gorak's Guide come to life?

This went on for over 1/2 hour, where I lost track of time. (I told my questing buddy last night it was 1/2 hour, but honestly that's the absolute minimum time I could think of. It might have been closer to an hour for all I know.)

It looked worse when I started running around.

I see that people go naked even in the starting
area. Oh well.

I quickly realized I wasn't getting anything done in the starting zones, so I decided to go collect a few flight points.

I did make a short stop in Goldshire, since Lava Lash is an RP server, and I was curious as to whether there was a crowd at the Lion's Pride Inn already. (Narrator: There wasn't.) So I set my Hearthstone to the Inn and took off for Stormwind.

While I don't have any screenshots of Stormwind, it was as you expect it would be: empty. 

It was then that I got it into my head to go to Ironforge and from there....

Well, it isn't a Hardcore server, so why not see how far I could get to Menethil Harbor?

While I ran through Dun Morogh, people were discussing the merits of leveling in Teldrassil versus Elwynn Forest. 

"Northshire is an absolute nuthouse," I commented. "I figured I'd rather visit Darnassus right now."

"Yeah," a Gnome added. "At our size, all those Night Elves look hawt."

Oookay...

I mean, I'm not going to dispute that, since I've not played a Gnome before, but it's not like we've not seen Night Elves before. 

My major contribution to the Gen Chat discussion was something much more mundane:

"LFM Ulduar"

"Ha"

"lol"

"wrong server"

***

I made a wrong turn in Dun Morogh and ended up taking the North Pass by mistake, so when I left the Pass I had to turn south to reach Thelsamar.

"Ding!" Okay, that was a bit late, but
you get the idea.

I was chased by spiders part of the way to the town, but I made it there before I died.

As you can see by the screenshot, there were far fewer people in Loch Modan than anywhere else that I'd been. That was not the same I could say about the Wetlands, which contained my goal of reaching Menethil Harbor:

Druids. LOTS of Druids.

Alas, the pass through Dun Algaz was not very safe for lone travelers. 

Shortly after I took that screenshot, I left another stretch of the pass only to get killed by Dragonmaw Orcs, who were camping in the hills above the path I was on.

It was then that I discovered that my graveyard I released to was waaaay back at Thelsamar, in Loch Modan.

I thought of having to run all the way back just to respawn and decided that discretion was the better part of valor, so I just hearthed back to Goldshire and logged from the Season of Discovery servers for the day.

Maybe I'll give it a try sometime later, when I put a few levels on me and have some silver to cover my repair bills.

*I want to give a shout-out to Vidyala, of the late blogs Pugging Pally and Manalicious, and the webcomic From Draenor with Love for being the person who taught me how to play a Mage in WoW. I don't think she even realized she did that until I mentioned it to her years later. 

**I know: "If if's and but's were candy and nuts we'd all have a happy birthday." That's the G rated version of that saying, and no, I'm not going to put up the PG-13 version.

EtA: Forgot the links for Vid's blogs.

Elf Needs Food Badly

It's kind of weird, really, that the Steam Autumn Sale came and went and... I just kind of shrugged.

Oh, plenty of games were on sale, and quite a few in my wishlist, but I just wasn't interested in buying anything. I mean, that's good for my bottom line (particularly given just how many car repairs I've had to make this past year), but when push came to shove, I just didn't want to buy anything.

Yes, I did have Baldur's Gate 3 on my wishlist, but a) it wasn't on sale, and b) I just don't have the time to devote to playing it. Even if I gave up playing MMOs and all other video games to play BG3, I just don't have the hours in a day to play the game to the extent I want to. 

There's also the matter of me wanting to go back and finish BG1 and BG2 once more before delving into BG3, just for continuity's sake. 

Yes, I am that sort of player. I mean, you do read the blog, don't you?

***

Some months ago I stumbled on an old Blizzard gift card the kids gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago, and given that Blizz was running one of their sales at the time, I used said gift card to buy Diablo II Remastered. I figured why not? I was essentially getting the game for free, so it made sense to try the game that people still say was the best in the Diablo series out before delving into Diablo 3 and Diablo 4.

So.... Does that count as a new game purchase, despite the gift card itself being at least 2 years old?

Eh, whatever.

Now that I think about it, that's the exact same reaction I had when I played it for 4 hours some weeks ago. 

Your character is your character, just like if you were playing Gauntlet back at the video game arcade*

"Warrior needs food badly!"
From the WMS Gaming channel on YouTube.

And if you don't like your character's appearance, well... That's tough luck.

Believe it or not, there's a screenshot there.

Hmm... Now that I think about it, from what I can tell there's not much more story here than what was in that old Gauntlet game back in the day.

Or The Bard's Tale, for that matter.

Back when the name Electronic Arts
meant something good. Yes, kids, that
actually was a thing: EA being a good company.

I did discover that if you died in D2, you lost all your gear and you have to run back to get it. Which can suck. 

But in the end, there's really not a lot of "there" there. Run around, kill things, take their loot, use it. Rinse and repeat.

So.... Gauntlet, anybody?

*Boy do those two things take a body back to the 1980s!