Various Screenies

Welcome to Lovely Un'Goro Crater! We Hope You'll Be A Crater Too!
The Princess Trumped
Contrae has a Pony and some very pretty Robes

Gong! Carrots for Everybody!
Spinning with Herod

Sunken Temple Defeated

Moments before going to Outland

So, basically, this post was me finally sharing some shots I've had lying around. A few of which were actually taken so I could talk about them on the blog!

Alright, well... the servers are being maintained right now, so I can't continue leveling my engineering or making enough gold to plow through the Paladin mount quest. I guess I could head in to work or something.

Azeroth in Brief - Follow-up

Strael and Contrae are now both 58, after a successful Sunken Temple run. Our hunter friend, however, is only 57, so we're holding off the Dark Portal run until he dings.

Carry on.

Azeroth in Brief

I keep wanting to grab pics and do a post, but I've been busy. So, I'll just sum things up for now:

• Laheth has his Season 1 Shoulders - They look good, and they were definitely an upgrade. Unfortunately, now that they are on, it highlights that most of the rest of my outfit also looks clownish.
• Strael, Contrae, Hunter-Friend, and Warrior-Friend finally have all their quests ready to delve into the Sunken Temple. Humorously enough, all but the warrior are now at 57, so it should go by really fast. And then we can hit the Outlands, which our hunter friend has never seen.
• Laheth is about a quarter of the way to getting his standard flying mount. Frustrating that as a non-flying, non-fishing, non-cook the only daily quest I have accessible is battlegrounds.
• And there was probably something else I can't think of.

New Armory Listing

I know I was complaining about how long it takes for the site to update but still... I talk about em and I figured you might want to know what I was talking about!

So I'm an alt-aholic... we just added a few of my characters... Just the ones I play the most, not even all my high level ones. I have MANY more! *blush* I play a lot of WoW ^_^

Happy Birthday to Angela!!!
There, with that said... I hope you are having a fantastic day out there on your day off! Enjoy it shopping or doing something just as fun!! ^_^

The WoW Armory is really slow to updating. Strael and Contrae are around level 55 now! I even respec'd out of affliction (but I kept the insta-cast Corruption). Gonna get a new pet. We'll see how I like it. Also, saving up mats to make my new Robe of the Void. I sure hope it's worth it! Got most of it except I need 15 more demonic runes and tons more essence of undeath. Anyone wanna donate an essence or 3?

Shoulders for Laheth

~2000 honor and 4 Arathi Basin marks of honor left to obtain. I just can't stomach any more AB tonight, and the honor will come much easier from pretty much anything else.

Also, I'm counting this as my final NaBloPoMo post (since I started a day late) even though I missed one, and it's short because I'm not sure I'll have a chance to post again today.

In the words of Yakko Warner: G'night everybody!

Musing about DLC

Today, we're going to talk about DLC. DLC stands for Downloaded Content. This ranges from free user-created modifications and maps on the PC to purchasable PS3/Xbox360 add-ons for games. I'm mostly going to be talking about PS3/360 stuff, because I was thinking about it this morning.

So, Rock Band just came out, and extra songs available for download showed up either the same day or right after. Now, this is a good thing, but people still clamored about the fact that the developers/publishers could have been withholding this stuff from inclusion in the game to get people to pay for it after and that it's not fair.

...And you know what? They could be right or not, but it doesn't matter. Let's look at two possible routes.

Route A - Harmonix/MTV had the songs ready but didn't include them
The game was designed with the idea of having downloadable content available at some point. So, some set of people were already deciding what sort of stuff to include post-shipping, and the best thing to do in that instance would be to develop some of it concurrently with the project, so that the systems were assured to be in working order.
And you know, from what I've heard, the game is a complete game before getting anything extra, so there's really no reason to complain if they chose to think ahead and prepare things for the future. There's profit to be earned from micro-payments, and although I may not like paying for them myself, I wouldn't mind getting paid for them.

Route B - Harmonix/MTV did not have the songs ready
This is the one that will confuse some people initially. How could they have not had the songs ready but they were by the time the game came out? Most people won't think very in-depth about that, but as with almost every product imaginable, games are finished MONTHS before they hit shelves.
They have to be manufactured, marketed, and packaged. And even before they are "done", there is usually a content-lockdown in place around beta, wherein no new content is supposed to be allowed in the game other than bug-fixes and localization. There's almost always some stuff that gets put in, but the guideline is there to prevent introduction of new bugs and extending testing times.
So, it's entirely possible that the game was locked down and then the extra songs were worked on after that period.


Either way, there's nothing to complain about. It's cool that they already have content available, because otherwise you end up with a menu option that goes to a blank page, and those suck.

More PSO

Surprisingly, we made it up to the end of the Caves at a mere level 10. Of course, the boss one-shotted both of us, so we're not quite up to taking him down.

Goldfire is still enjoying her hunter lots, especially now that she has a Sword and a Partisan to play with, so she doesn't have to worry about not hitting guys before I take them down.

We're probably going to play it some more today (I took yesterday and today off -- sick days), although I'm not sure when we're going to start.

Leveling with Friends

So, our hunter friend, who was practically the same level as us, decided that he was going to take a break for a few days. In preparation for this, he ran through "a couple of the Hinterlands quests" and managed to hit 50.

Huh. Well, Strael was at 48, and Contrae was at 46. So, we ran up to the Hinterlands ourselves and got a level each.

But! We've been eying a few other games to play sometimes, so now we'll probably be a bit behind when we run with him next. Not that a few levels is a huge difference, but it creates a little rift in my head.

Anybody else have issues with this? It's only sort of tangentially related to what the Egotistical Priest was talking about the other day (Although I now realize that the title was stolen almost directly from her).

Oh well. I'm going to play some more PSO with my beautiful bride.

Woo! PSO!

Last night, I decided I wanted to play something other than World of Warcraft for a bit. So, I sat down in front of our rack of games, and asked my wonderful wife if she wanted to join me in playing any game. She said sure, and we settled on playing some Phantasy Star Online for the GameCube (split-screen FOR THE WIN).

Now, I've dropped easily a couple hundred hours in this game in the past. I have a level 131 ranger (RAmarl for those who know what I'm talking about), a couple other characters ranging from 14 to 50, and I've beaten practically everything that you can offline (I can never remember if we took down Olga-Flow on Ultimate... I think I did solo, but he hit my friends Force too hard even at level 129, so we weren't able to knock him out) and yet I still enjoy the hell out of it.

So! I rolled up a ranged guy (woo!), and she made a close-range girl, and we got to it.

We died. A lot. But she enjoyed herself, and so did I, and that's what really matters. Plus, she's really enjoying raising her very own MAG.


Yay!

Mr. T and the Night Elf Mohawk

Alright, everybody has posted about it, but they've all failed to talk about the thing that interests me the most.

Wait, you missed it? Alright, go watch Mr. T talk about WoW HERE.

Back? Good. So, here's what interested me the most about that video: New Night Elf Haircut and Facial Hair. Why wouldn't they use that and make it accessible when Wrath of the Lich King hits? There's absolutely no reason - it's already on in-game models. Now, I don't really care about the mohawk (sorry, I've got a long-haired elfy guy and that's how he's gonna stay... although if I can change his hair color ever I'll do it in a heartbeat. Why did I ever choose that bluish-green?), the facial hair is a completely different matter.

Laheth has the old-style close-to-the-skin-full-beard, and Mr. T's Night Elf Mohawk has a sweet fairly close beard that I don't recognize at all.

I want the new one.

The End of Vacation is Nigh! Also: Fake Guitars.

Tomorrow I'll have to resume work. I like work, but it'll probably be the end of the week before I'm back on a project, so I'll get to continue doing random tools tasks.

Of course, this doesn't count as musing (not that many of my posts in the past have), so I'm going to stop right here and change tracks entirely.


You guys have heard about Guitar Hero, Karaoke Revolution, Dance Dance Revolution, Rock Band, et cetera, right? Well, I dig those games. I dig them because they offer a facsimile of musical/rhythmic talent while not actually requiring me to know how to sing, dance, play guitar, and so forth.
The one exception I can think of to this is that Rock Band's drum set (the part of the game I'm least interested in) is functionally equivalent to actually playing drums. Given that all the instrumental parts are input by a series of button presses timed to the music, I can understand why it's practically the same, but it's just not for me: I tried to learn playing drums before, and that didn't turn out great.

Now, last night, while hanging out with some of our friends who aren't as video gamer as others, I heard an opinion that just seemed strange to me: Somebody didn't ever care to play any of the guitar facsimile games because it wasn't like playing an actual guitar.

I can see his point, but (as I just stated) it's completely opposite of my own reason for playing them, and I'm not sure if a title that was playing an actual guitar, or something that was just like playing a guitar, and being scored for it, would ever be more than completely niche.

Gnomes Make Tiny Posts

Blogging on vacation? Is hard work.
Blogging on weekend? Is also hard work.
Blogging on weekend during vacation? You're out of your mind.

We played our warrior/mage combo tonight - getting ready for the Scarlet Monastery. Don't know when we'll tackle that, but it should be fun.

And now, I need to go put warmer clothes on so we can head to a friends and watch The Fifth Element on Blu-Ray.

Dustwallow - Completed

As far as I am aware, Strael no longer has any quests in Dustwallow Marsh. And neither does Contrae.

We're going to attempt running through Razorfen Downs with just the 3 of us (with the hunter) tonight, which will probably be fine since we're levelled 44-45. We've been having a lot of fun running instances when we're at the very top end of them with our group. We hit up Scarlet Monastery earlier this week, although we added our warrior orc friend to the mix as well.

Alright - we're assembled in Camp Taurajo - time to boogie.

Turkey Day - and I'm Late

So, we just returned from the second of our two Thanksgiving outings... and in the hustle and bustle of preparing food this morning and me preparing myself while that was being done (shaving, showering, and so on), I totally forgot to post to the blog explaining that I wouldn't be able to post to the blog.

So, according to the letter of NaBloPoMo, I've technically not reached the goal. I will continue to follow the spirit of it and post daily until a month has elapsed, and I will (in that vein) count this post towards yesterday (since I haven't gone to sleep yet -- in fact, I haven't done anything else yet since getting home).

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving if you celebrated, or a wonderful Thursday if you didn't.

G'night, I'll talk at you all tomorrow. Technically today. Whatever -- after I sleep and awake.

Where the Blog Got It's Name

Some of you may have been wondering why this little corner of the web is referred to as The Rising Force. Well, it's actually tied into the monikers that my wife and I use to mask our identities.

A few years ago, our friends and us got onto a little bit of a superhero kick, spurred on by watching the Teen Titans animated series. Now, this same group of friends are actually the ones we role-play with, so we ended up starting a game of Mutants and Masterminds where we all took on the roles of super-powered teenagers brought together to form a group. That group was eventually dubbed "the Rising Force", although it took us a damn long time to come up with that.

When I decided that I wanted to start a blog, I decided that I wanted to have it disconnected from other sites that I maintain, and so I borrowed elements from that game, including my character's moniker (Gauntlet) and the name of the group itself. My wife posts here under the name of her character (Goldfire) as well, and if any of my friends who were involved ever want to post here, you might hear from Sparkshot, the Flash, or the Runic Soldier. Although the most likely person to guest-post here didn't have a character, since he was the GM. Maybe he'd want to go by Ignition, one of the more sociable of the villains.

Three Days To Save Dyluck: Day Two

Well, that was short.

No, we haven't saved Dyluck yet. You're supposed to work on this for most of the game, so it was a ridiculous title for this week anyways... but we're not going to get anywhere near that this week, since the player of JOE, who owns the game, is taking tomorrow off.

Oh well, at least we got to take down a couple of bosses and make some headway.


Also, I'm tired today.

Three Days To Save Dyluck: Day One

Our intrepid adventurers (JOE, GIRL, and TRUFFL) made their way to the royal castle at Pandora and met their foe, Thanatos, who has captured Dyluck (and somebody else, but we don't care). Before being able to retrieve him, however, we were dropped into a pit, where we were set upon by...

WALL FACE

Dispatching it at the last moment before being crushed against spikes, we rushed back upstairs only to see Thanatos escape again.

Dyluck Status: Still Captured.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Three Days To Save Dyluck

At work during lunch, we've been playing Secret of Mana. We had some setbacks last week with getting our group together (I was taking care of pets during lunch for 3 of the 5 days, and one of the other players was occupied with some official company visitors), so Dyluck has remained captured.

But no more! During this abbreviated week we have a goal: Three Days To Save Dyluck has begun!

Mahna Mahna

So the child I watch during the day seems just as entertained by watching the ROFLMAO clip and the classic Mahna Mahna over and over again as I am. Maybe I should add a few other videos in like the one my loving husband posted a few days ago or even the zombie one... See? Even 6 month old babies can be corrupted ^_^ Never too early to start!

WoW Short-term Plans

Strael has hit 43. Our hunter friend Krowjin has hit 41 or 42. Contrae is more than halfway through 39.

Tomorrow, we'll get Contrae up to 40, grab her mount, and then group with Krowjin to conquer the new stuff in Mudsprocket and to finish up Brackenwall. We might take a detour through Razorfen Kraul to upgrade Krowjin's pet to one of those shiny armored boars.

Yup. We has plans.

The Weekend Thus Far

...we slept until 1:30 pm, because we didn't get home until after 3 am.
Thus far we've done practically nothing :) We set up the guild bank, populated it, set up some auctions, and now we're having breakfast/lunch/dinner ("The Meal Du Jour") before we go to role-playing.

We also spent a little bit of time browsing Kaliban's Loot List and the WoW Armory, because my wife wants her resto-druid to have better gear. At 70 she's still wearing most of the Wild Draenish set that I made her so long ago. Unfortunately, the Armory suggested a bunch of non-resto junk from instances, and it doesn't look like there's a whole lot to choose from anyways.

Any druids out there who have any thoughts?

I might be a jerk driver

My comfortable following distance for other cars is a few seconds worth (varies depending on speed, blah blah blah)... but I rarely ever strive for it.

Instead, I strive for being close enough that other cars would be uncomfortable merging in front of me. If they do merge in front of me, they're obviously assholes.

Why would I do this? I do it because I get annoyed easily. If I were following car A comfortably, and car B merged into the nice open area between us, then I have to slow down not just to a comfortable space from car B, but even more so that he can be at his comfort level from car A. And I hate slowing down. It wastes my gas and my time.

Yeah, I'm probably a jerk.

Thursday

So, I was working on a post which was about sharing various ideas I've had regarding games recently... but I didn't finish it yet, because I got distracted. I'll save it for another day (hooray for auto-saving drafts).

In the meantime, I'll distract you guys with a video you've probably all seen before.

What? You're still here? Dang. Go do your daily quests. The Alliance/Horde needs YOU.

Shinies

Thus far, after a few hours of messing around, I like the 2.3 changes.

UI improvements? Fantastic!

Daily Play Battlegrounds quest? I played a match of Arathi Basin that didn't suck, and we won!

Guild Bank? Looks pretty, but we haven't set it up yet so I didn't get to poke and prod and use it. Right now our plan is to use it for passing items without the 1 hour delay (if we need to), or to store stacks of things that everybody uses (potions and such).

Multiple Items in a single piece of mail? Hooray! Now I can clutter my alts mailboxes that much easier!

Leatherworking Bags? Finally.

Shiny Clickies? So much easier to find herbs.

Anything else? Haven't seen it, or didn't know that I did.


Hopefully I'll have some time to group tonight.

Tuesday is Monday this week

Which means my brain hasn't entirely switched on.

This week's random task at work has me learning Perl (it was that or Python, and I already have a little bit of Perl knowledge). I'm actually enjoying reading through it more than I was while I was poorly attempting to learn C# for the past few weeks... just wasn't grabbing me, although some of that was (and still is!) post-vacation-relaxation.

Otherwise I don't really know what to say today. We played a hunter/mage combo last night, gaining a level each... but there's not a whole lot to say about that right now. We were tired, so we didn't play much.

So, I'm going to go back to listening to YouTube Muppet Show videos while I read about syntax. You should go play some WoW. I hear 2.3 has landed.

Battlegrounds and Me

Arathi Basin
Available at level 10. 5 capture points which also function as graveyards. While any point is captured, points are being awarded. First to 2000 points is the victor. On our battlegroup it's usually the Horde.

I played it some today with Laheth, because I want the Arena 1 shoulders (they look super-rad) but I'm still seriously lacking AB tokens and I'm only running around with 5000+ honor.

Verdict: Still not much fun, and today the second match was filled with whiners. We won, but anybody reading the battlegrounds chat lost.

Warsong Gulch
Capture the flag. Not much else to say.

I used to love WSG. It's the only battleground I've played with friends (and against once), and it helps showcase each class (IMO). Unfortunately, I stopped enjoying it as much once mounts were introduced. There was just something about having to run. It meant each encounter needed to be handled better. Or something.

Alterac Valley
Go kill the enemy leader guy. Also, capture some places so you can resurrect and so the opposition is weaker, but only if you feel like it.

Honestly, I'm a fan. We'll see if I still like it post 2.3, but I really enjoyed just running along in a Raid group and smooshing NPCs (and the occasional player when we saw them). This might be partly because I don't raid... but there wasn't a whole lot of strategy involved in AV either: go forward and kill the way you do best. Teamwork was sort of coincidence. That's something I'll talk about more when I babble about co-operative game design.

Also, every guy is worth honor points, and so are objectives, so you actually get a decent amount relative to how much crap costs.

Eye of the Storm
What happens if we cross Arathi Basin and Warsong Gulch, but put it in the Outlands? There's a flag in the center and you take it to one of the captureable objective points. Honestly can't remember if it was a point-based system with the flag counting as some amount of points or not.

Played it a few times and encountered zero opposition. Seriously. We had a game fail because the other side quit. That's pretty damn bad. Plus - nowhere near as much honor gained as Alterac Valley.

Huh? What?

NaBloPoMoWhat? I'm supposed to be writing a post today as well? Oh. Right.

Hm. Played with puppies... no, as cute as they are I can't really think of too much to write about them.

Played WoW... Taking the 'lock and hunter through Arathi/Stromgarde stuff. Wearing plate. Kicking ass.

Stayed awake pretty dang late last night because we had some friends over (roleplaying didn't happen due to illness and business). We ended up browsing YouTube for nostalgia in the form of Cartoon and TV Show Intros we remembered from our childhoods. That mostly turned to all of us realizing that we watched a helluvalotof cartoons as kids/teens.

And now, since my wife needs some sleep before waking up early to get to her job tomorrow, I'm going to go to bed. Night!

Weekend Posting!

Alright, I gotta write this quick, since I don't know if I'll be back near my computer before it's Sunday.

Gitaroo Man is awesome. We played it with some friends of ours last night after our standard Friday Night Anime, because we needed to stay awake so we could go get the parents-in-law and take them to the airport around 4 in the morning.
Now, after a few hours of sleep, we're getting ready to head into the city to catch lunch and a play. That's going to be the bulk of our day, followed by checking on the in-law's pets (puppies! kitties! and a bird and fish I guess!)... and then we head over to play Burning Wheel (in theory - we'll see how that turns out).

Ha! I almost signed this like an e-mail. Then you would've known who I am. Oh noes.

Woo! Friday!

I'm having a hard enough time focusing on work and all the stuff that we're doing this weekend that I can't come up with a single thing to talk about.

So I'll talk about multiple things! Solution!

• Reading about the science of science fiction is heady stuff. I submit to you: Atomic Rockets. Be warned - this site covers much physics and sciences.
• I'm looking forward to Rock Band but I'm torn... we have a 360 and it is shiny. Plus - achievements are awesome (someday I'll link my Gamertag, but not yet). However, we also already own two guitars and a couple of microphones for the PS2, since we are fans of Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution. Ah well. We won't be getting it until we don't have to deal with the bundle anyways (I'm not super-excited about the drum-kit).
• I need to find a good site for tips on grammar. I tend to want to write little asides when I'm blogging, and I also would love a reference guide for apostrophes and other punctuation.
• Secret of Mana is fun with three people. It's what we're playing during lunch these days.
• I want to draw a bunch of stuff, but my sketchbooks are all at home since I stopped bringing my briefcase to work. I need to draw superheroes and spacemen. Seriously.
• Also, I could fill several posts with things I want to talk about that I'm doing at work. But then I'd be in trouble, and that's not good. I should write down drafts for when I am allowed to say stuff. Or I could just wing it when the opportunity arises. I'm a fan of winging it.
• And finally - I'm a little sad that the bits of plate mail I have for Strael are light gray or dark blue-greenish. He was looking pretty bad-ass in black and red. Our tabard doesn't go with anything either.
  

Looking forward to 2.3

So, as we're all aware, patch 2.3 is supposed to hit next week and be totally sweet.

And since I love making lists and planning on stuff to do (even if I only intend on using said plans as guidelines)... have at ye, blackguard!

The Alts:
This patch is totally alt-city. I mean... improved experience? New mid-level content? Hooray!

• Chimmery -- Clocking in at the low 30s, this tiny marvel of magic gets to blink hisself around with his brother Tremmery and check out the new sights and old swampiness of the Dustwallow Marsh area. Should be fantastic.
  
• Ashcraft -- I admit it: I want to play my 'lock again after watching my wife run around and DoT everything to hell and back. Plus, having just gotten my shiny pony with my paladin, and I think having a horse on fire sounds like fun times.
  
• Djellin -- We're still working towards our toys, so we'll probably throw down with the shaman/warrior combo meal and get there faster. After we've gnomed it up though.
  
• Vandren -- Go go lower hunter! You're the lowest of the top listed for choice of play though.
  
• And the Rest: While I'd like to play my rogues a little bit I just don't care enough to change them from being bank alts. And my super-tiny druid will wait until the wife has interest.
  

The Mains:
2.3 means some changes that'll affect all 3 of my main characters... let's go over them.

• Laheth -- No deadzone! Yay! Now if only I had stuff to do other than farm. I guess there are instances and gearing towards raids, but there is no way I'm that social. It'll wait until some of our friends hit 70 as well. However, he will need to upgrade his quiver and leatherworking stuff (24 slot bag! Want!). I do want a flying mount, but farming for cash is not my thing.
  
• Starrlia -- She's still in the range of experience bonus, so we'll probably group and try to hit 60. Plus we'll need to see if the changes I'm just about to talk about for Strael benefit our group.
  
• Strael -- My blood elf pally is retribution spec. So... he's going to need a respec and then I'm going to have to see how that is. Also: we're having a lot of fun playing with our Horde group (we added a warrior friend last night) so we'll probably keep doing that.
  

And Finally, Our Guild:

• Our friends-only Alliance guild will need to figure out what we're doing with the new guild bank. I hope to offload some of the materials I have, but the wife and I (she's the leader and I'm co-leader) will need to come up with a plan of action.

There. I used the WoW prompt of the day. Happy now, TJ?

Oh noes!

Silly me, I spent the day working. Um... C# is sort of neat? Naw, that would be a boring topic for most of ya'll.

Ooh! I know! I'll say how we did last night! That'll fill some space :)

Last Night In Azeroth:
We were joined in our Stranglethorniness by my East Coast Time Zone Raiding Friend (henceforth known as whatever the heck I feel like calling him moment to moment) who joined us with his level 70 holy paladin. Man. Things died super quick. That was entertainment.

Our little group is much closer to each other quest-wise now. Especially since we're a trio of 32 (Warlock!), 36 (Hunter!), and 39 (Paladin!). And I know at least myself and the wife are pretty darn close to levelling (3-6 bubbles left).

So, I'm going to finish my wonderful Ikea Meatballs in Ikea Gravy over White Rice and then get me some experience.

How the hell are my characters?

Let's take a look at my mains on the Alliance and Horde, shall we?
And some of their skills at random, when I feel like it.

Laheth - Sittin' Pretty at 70
* Leatherworking - 350. AKA Primals for skillups.
* Skinning - Maxed at 375, just like it has been for the last... 8 levels?
* Cooking - Abyssmal. Although he can make Gingerbread Cookies.
* Fishing - Worse than Cooking.
Plan:
Since I don't group with folks I don't know unless the wife wants to, he's pretty much on hold until I can muster the strength to go grind for cash and mats. Neither sounds fun right now, so he's a landbound goofy-looking fellow. With a chainmail eyepatch that has a skull on it. Gyar.

Strael - 39! That's Like 40, Only Not Quite
* Engineering - a little behind because I don't know what to make, since I value the materials more than the product. Woops.
* Mining - I can mine mithril! EXCITING AND SHINY.
* Cooking - He can cook pretty much everything he kills.
* Fishing - 1. Seriously. Why do I even have that fishing pole in my inventory? I'm gonna sell it.
Plan:
He's gonna run around with the wifelock and my hunter friend in Stranglethorn tonight, visiting stolen-holy vengeance upon dinosaurs trolls and cats. And monkeys. Heh.

Weekend Happenings in Azeroth

This weekend was super awesome in WoW. My wife and I decided, on a whim, to play as some of our neglected Blood Elves. So Strael (the paladin) and his lovely cohort Contrae (the warlock) ran around Hillsbrad, joined fortuitously by our friend's troll hunter.

That was great - they were both self sufficient enough that I didn't have to do much tankery or healery with my retribution-spec, and when the need did arise my extra seven-to-ten levels certainly came in handy :)

We actually made a whole weekend out of that little group, and we all got set up with the in-game voice-chat stuff and ran just the three of us through Shadowfang Keep and Blackfathom Deeps. Not much (read: no) experience for me except for a couple quests I hadn't done in BFD, but it was still a lot of fun to go through them.


Now I'm home after a slow day of work; I'm fed with pizza and pie; and it's just about time for me to play some video games.

Talk at ya more tomorrow!

Pirates of the Caribbean Online

It could be a fun game... but it just doesn't like my wife's computer. I don't know why - her machine is superior to mine in almost every aspect, but she was experiencing constant lag to the point where it looked like she was freezing half the time. Oh well - at least we weren't paying money for it, right?

So! We made two pirates, named James and Kate Shorebane (zero relationship to our actual names, so no tricky thinking by you crazy internet folk), and we ran around as part of the same crew. We also named our ships Crimson Defender (mine!) and Shadow Dancer (hers!)... although we tended to use her ship for most of our travels, and just swapped who was driving every once in a while, since you gain experience by doing things (cannons, piloting, guns, swords - use 'em to gain new skills). The free trial didn't let us do any non-main-storyline-thing-quests, so yeah, but the story stuff has the actual actors performing their roles in a weird storyline that has no place in the actual canon. You start off in jail with Jack Sparrow, and he busts you out - then you head to Port Royal (after a run-in with Davy Jones, the Skull-Faced Pirate Who Has It In For Jack Oh It's Funny You Should Think He's Like the Squid-Faced Guy But He's Totally Not!) to get a sword from Will Turner, and then you go talk to Elizabeth Swan to get a boat (she's waiting for her dad - when could this have possibly taken place?). Yeah, it's weird, but it's cute in it's fan-dream-ish-ness, and it's got a sort of nice interface. The graphics are a little lower-end, and all the males are shaped funny.

I have no idea where I'm going with this. It's not like I'm trying to review it or anything. I think I'll stick to talking about WoW.

Here's a picture of my pirate! Gyarr!!

Holiday Stuff!

Thanksgiving is not yet arrived, and already we're looking towards Christmas. There's a holiday bazaar going on at the high school a few blocks away, so we're going to hit that up and see what they got... right after we start the background downloader for WoW, start installing Pirates of the Caribbean Online on my wife's machine, and have the soup be all cookin' (which it is!).

Here's what we need (non-gift-wise) for Christmas:

• Something visible in our house from outside
• Maybe something for the wall on the stairwell
• To clean up some of our (read: my) junk that is cluttering the surfaces downstairs

And now, I'm going to pay some bills and put my socks'n'shoes on.


Perhaps I'll talk about Pirates tomorree. How's that sound?

Let's Go For a 30 Chain!

So, on a whim after reading this, I've decided to try my hand at updating this ol' blog everyday for the next month.

We'll see.

We played WoW!

In a surprising turn of events, my wife and I sat down and played some World of Warcraft for the first time since we left for vacation.

As a result, our draenei duo (Djellin and Wallase) have both gotten 1 level closer to their shiny toys (Ardent Custodian for me... and like a ring and something else for her. Seriously, I should be able to remember. Maybe a hat?) and all the associated coolness of being 40 (mounts! And we both have 70s who, despite very much needing all the cashes ever, badly, for their flying and then epic flying birds, will gladly donate whatever we need to run around on something at 40... gosh, it's too bad we've got so far to go before we can have anything other than those silly heffalumps).

Also! We both ended up with Pirate Costume wands for Hallow's Eve funness (funituity?). So we pirated it up for a bit. I have pictures! I will crop them and attach them! You'll see! Edit: See, I did!


...yup.

Thoughts while Driving

So, I always tend to think of things that I could blog while I'm driving to or from work, and never manage to actually pen them down (as it were). Here's some of the things I've thought about, which maybe I'll hit up sometime when my wife isn't sick and I'm not trying to get things back together after a week's vacation:

1) Theory on co-operation in video games
2) Thoughts on multiplayer coding (although this will probably have to wait until much later, or not happen at all, since it crosses into the territory of "stuff I do at work that I'm not supposed to talk about".
3) We don't have kids, but thinking ahead about teaching them math as a more abstract concept (using the Chisan-bopp method, however it's spelled, for counting on your fingers)
4) My thoughts on random games that I've played, want to play, or am playing.

Dear Rare:

Why did you put co-operative play into Kameo, but not let us see the story mode or advance the game while we're in it?

Fortunately, we're only borrowing it from a friend, otherwise I'd be much more vexed. I wanted to play through it co-op with my wife. Now we have to swap in single-player to unlock the levels. Sad times.

Why the WoW posts aren't coming.

My wife has a new 360 controller (it is indeed pink). She's been tearing it up in Oblivion for the past few weeks, while I've been playing Halo 3.

I've poked around a bit in WoW myself, upgrading lots of bags and giving Laheth a shirt... and I'm super excited for when 2.3 goes live and I upgrade all my alts to 30 or more.

Oh, and we're nearing the end of our project cycle at work. That hasn't interrupted gaming at all :)

Loves!

I just wanted everyone to know how much I love my husband...
Our Anniversary was a few days ago. I guess that means we are no longer newly weds *pouts* Our first year went fast but was full of many blessings. A nice house, a beautiful trip to Italy and France, a Wii, a 360, a loving new family, and most of all the many loves and tender moments we've shared together.
He loves me so very much and for the icing on the cake... he is buying me a pink 360 controller! I can't wait to play co-op with him ^_^

How's it going?

Since hitting 70, Coperiana and Laheth have gotten a bit less play-time, and we've been catching up on other things. Since I do so love lists and ramblings, I'll combine them now, for my pleasure:

• Sonnik is at a very respectable 66 now.
• I've been crunching for the last week, so I haven't played many games at home.
• We have our 360 now, and just rented Oblivion, which Goldfire is enjoying today.
• Halo 3 multiplayer has dominated my lunch hours since it came out (and a bit of at-work dinner breaks), and I finally have a copy to call my own.
• Our last session of Burning Wheel was... interesting. Almost a total party wipe (unconscious and not dead, fortunately). We'll see how things turn out later.
• I finished a couple of books. Re-read Soul Music and finished If I Pay Thee Not In Gold, which I was apparently borrowing for over two years. Fancy that.

Alright - the build is nearing completion, so it's back to work for me.

Exciting Times!!

Coperiana and Laheth are both 70!

We did some neat things... Got some fun stuff... Made some new friends...

Swoot!

There and Almost There

My wife has hit 70 with her main. I'm at 69, and have a little more than 2 bubbles left.

I'll let her talk about her 70, or I'll take some pretty screenshots and make a big hullaballoo about it once I hit the cap as well.

Burning the Bloody Hills... the begining

So we are starting another new game in Burning Wheel... Exciting times! It is a combination of generic B horror films, Castlevania, and classic Romanian culture surrounding the real Count. We are calling the area in game the Bloody Hills. All based on the in game local history of the Red King and the battles fought in the area to try and take over... However, the legend goes that if you conquer the castle, you claim the kingdom. Entire armies have gone in trying... None have been heard from again.

This is actually the first game where me and Gauntlet actually play husband and wife. We have always tried to keep the personal stuff out of games so we don't make our friends uncomfortable or change the feel of the game... Slightly different group of players and we stated upfront that this is what we wanted to do. I hope it works out well since we are hoping this will be a long running game.

Random Updates while Building

World of Warcraft

• Vandren (and Sutcha) got new stuff - Vandren's outfit was updated to be pretty close to his level, thanks to my wonderful wife and her (now level 60!) hunter Sonnik. Also, Vandren hit 24.
• Ashcraft ran around with Belgore the Voidwalker and hit 22.
• The Paladin Triplets are playing in Un'goro Crater, and are between 48 and 49 now.
• Untraining a leatherworking specialty costs 100 gold!? Crazy.
• Strael is getting close to 40... so very close. A few more sessions and he should get his mount, which will alleviate some of the issues with playing as him (Aspect of the Cheetah spoiled me).
• I'm not allowed to make a dwarf, because my character slots on our preferred server are full. Which is probably a good thing, since I'd be making a class I already have 1 or 2 of (Because he'd have to be a hunter or a paladin, more likely a hunter). Maybe when I hit 70 I'll drop one of my two rogues who sit at 21 and hold things in their banks, inventory, and mailboxes for everybody else.
  

Other Stuff

• We're getting a 360! Yay!
• Earth Defense Force 2017 is a hilarious game.
• I love adventure games. And I appreciate those who continue to make them.
• For the next book I read, I have to decide between a Mercedes Lackey/Piers Anthony book, the next Wild Cards volume, or re-reading some more Discworld stuff. Tough decision.
• My build is done - back to work.
  

Tusk the Tank

Last night my wife and I (running as Coperiana and Laheth) put together a pick-up-group to take down Durn the Hungerer and Major Jerk. Our three other members were a Priest (Holy) Mage (Frost), a Paladin (Not sure, but not protection Holy) and a Rogue (probably something to do with DPS).

Our first attempt was premature - one person asked if everybody was ready, another said yes, and they ran at him, without being blessed or waiting for anybody else. Also, Gava'xi the Bandaged Jerk came by and stabbed the hell out of my wife after he broke free from his ice trap I dropped when I first saw him coming.

Our second attempt was having the Paladin tank... when it got dicey he bubbled and then the rogue went splat, followed by everybody else.

Our third attempt was hilarious and worked - we buffed, we waited for him to come to us (away from all aggressive creatures), and then we had Tusk the Handsome Boar attack him and tank him. He never lost aggro, and he had a priest and restoration druid and mend pet healing him constantly.


I've never been more proud of him :)


Edits: My lovely wife remembered what the people in the party were. Color me attentive :)

Group Specific Talent Builds Follow-up (And More!)

So... sorry I didn't get back to the comparison like I said I was going to. I had a lot to do at work, and that segued nicely into my mini-vacation surrounding PAX which involved very little playing World of Warcraft, and more hanging out with people and other stuff.

Although, I did end up going back and respeccing my Starrlia to follow a more standard protection build, to see if a couple of my choices (Improved Devotion Aura for one) were missed too terribly much. Verdict thus far? Very little difference between my playing, although our Retadin takes hits a bit more, and I proc Reckoning a bit more.

I'll try and give a write-up of some PAX-related stuff too, but I'll give the short of it now:
- Jonathan Coulton was excellent to see in concert.
- Halo 3 is very shiny and I wants it.
- DS is super-best convention gear.
- The WoW TCG is fun.
- Proper hydration is important.

Group-Specific Talent Builds

So, my best friend was checking out our paladins in the armory, and he brought up some questions about our builds which led to a few thoughts I'd like to share.

First up, he didn't have any questions about my wife's Holy Paladin build, but he wondered about some of the choices myself and our other friend had for our Protection (me!) and Retribution (friend!) builds, and the honest answer was a combination of "we built without a distinct plan", and "we built our builds only to play with each other - not for soloing or general group play".

Now, my thoughts I'd like to mull over are: Is it better to have a proven build for each of us, and are our builds as they are effective for ourselves and each other?

1) Is it better to have a proven build for each of us?
There are a few reasons why I prefer our current builds - we all share the same drops (so having us pigeonholed makes it much easier to decide who gets what, itemization-wise), we never solo* so we can each sacrifice things we don't need in favor of maximizing our specializations, so it seems like the things those proven builds are for don't entirely apply.

*(except when the other two are off gathering materials, which is why I lag a little behind in the experience)

2) Are our builds as they are effective for ourselves and each other?
This will probably involve some comparison, and since I'm just waiting for a build to finish, I'll come back and tackle this later.

Character Updates

At some point I should really say stuff other than what's going down with our characters, but that point isn't here yet. So, on to it!

Strael has done much in the aid of Desolace, and is now seeking to tame the wilds of Stranglethorn Vale, though his services have also been requested in the Arathi Highlands. Level 35. His goal beyond aiding those who ask it of him is to get himself a pretty pony.

Starrlia, Starrlea, and Starrlya were joined by their unholy compatriot Violate recently, and managed to get through most of Zul'farrak without any other aid. All but Gahz'rilla and Sergeant Bly done.

Sonnik continues to advance on her inexorable path to 70. Level 53. Also, she picked up a kitty cat who was once called a king, and he now serves as her Backup.

Status: Azeroth

Laheth has gone and grabbed his new pet, a pretty kitty now dubbed Daybreak that he snuck into ZG by his lonesome for (although he needed to form a raid of 2 to be able to enter). I've got pictures to share of all the others he tamed to learn skills for the new pet, but I'd rather do that in it's own post.

Vandren got some playtime recently as well when a group of us decide that our Blood Elves (and one undead - the healer, humorously enough) needed to run Shadowfang Keep. We tore through it, wiping only once at the beginning when we hadn't gotten into our stride, and then falling to Arugal when he noticed us before we were ready. It was a blast. I think everybody levelled at least once. Even Sutcha the boar did.

The Paladin Triplets (Starrlya/Starrlia/Starrlea) ran around the Hinterlands last night, and a few were spotted in Tanaris and Feralas the night before that... they're prepping themselves for a Zul'furrak run in the (hopefully) near future.

And the rest in brief - Strael (Belf pally) is now retribution, and needs better gear. Sonnik (Wife's Belf hunter) is nearing the end of Un'goro Crater, and will shortly need to find more suitable hunting grounds. And I think all the others have been cooling their heels.

Petopia (and Mania) to the Rescue!

So, after pondering what I would do at 70, I stopped pondering, thanks in no small part to Mania (of Petopia fame).

See, here's what happened: I'm at work, doing work-stuff (Non-Disclosure Agreements prevent me from saying anything beyond that I work on video games) and reading Mania's Ongoing Saga of Kaet, and I realize that what I want to do with Laheth is improve his pets.
So, I'm going to go grab a creepy boar from the Eastern Plaguelands to grab Charge Rank 6 and Gore Rank 8 for Tusk, and then I'm going to go grab a Rip-Blade Ravager for Gore Rank 9, and then I think he's pretty much set.

Then it's on to either upgrading my level 50-something kitty Nocturne, or maybe grabbing a new shiny kitty of a higher level and whoever else I need to get the mad kitty skillz.


Thanks Mania, for speaking about your wee dwarven lass!

From Zangarmarsh to Nagrand

Coperiana and Laheth are questing together in Nagrand... they've both hit 67, and we're excited by the prospect of flying around (although Coperiana will get to fly sooner, being a druid).

But talking to Goldfire this morning got me thinking... what am I looking forward to when Laheth hits 70? I don't raid, and I don't do pick-up groups very much. Battlegrounds are something I might play around with, but I'm more likely to start playing an alt than that (especially since I really liked Warsong Gulch, but only pre-mounts). I could grind rep and farm mats, but I've been warned that those are not so much fun when you're not also gaining experience, and I can believe it.

I think I'm looking forward to having a max level character (until the expansion comes out), but I think that once I hit there I'll start looking around for something else, since that's what I did in City of Heroes.

What is there for a casual to do at 70, other than play around?

Draeneiregan

Ran Gnomeregan with our Draenei tonight... just finished (it's a little after 4 AM). We only had 4 people (the 3 draenei and our friend who was running a 37 Warrior and then swapped to a 44 Pally for the final boss). Until we got to the final guy, we hadn't wiped, although we weren't going super-fast or anything.

But man... once we got there? Everything fell apart. So, we had one person hop out and fix their equipment, and we died a few times rushing out to summon them (bad idea - sleepy, impatient, and unwary), and we had our friend swap to the paladin then as well.
Once we had the paladin, it went pretty well, but the bombs still knocked us out. What a pain in the ass encounter to get to when you're in the 27-30 range... which can easily take out the rest of the place.

Now I'm just rambling... so I'll wrap this up: Djellin is 29 (and a healthy half!), she's got new shoulderpads, new pants, new gloves, a new sword, and a new shield that she'll use in a few levels once she's able.

And a final note? Playing WoW with a party of 4 in the same room is great fun.


Night!

Wrath of the Lich King Announced: Productivity Down

Yup. It's official.

There's lots of information at various places (I've been checking out the live blogs at WoW Insider), and that's hitting my productivity a little bit today.

Although having ReMaze running in the background with it's massive cycle eating effects doesn't help either.

And now, Pipe Dreams:

• Possibly changing Laheth's hair color from wonderful green-that-doesn't-go-with-anything.
• Possibly changing Djellin's hair color from similar.
• Arthas related content.
• Death Knights... of any race (I'd be tempted by making a human male, if only I could stand their old-style faces and texturing... they've learned so much since then).
• Pre-ordering instead of waiting in line. That was a silly mistake I don't plan on making again.
  

Good Times: Pick-up Group Instancing

Last night, Coperiana and Laheth (and Tusk!) were invited to run with a couple warriors (both 64) and a mage (61) through the Underbog. Having not done that branch and having some quests there, we went along. Didn't finish it, but had a lot of fun while we were there.

And I gotta say, it felt really good to be #2 in damage meters and to be complimented on trapping. Hooray for the BRK School of Research and Implementation.

We might run it again tonight with the same group and try and finish it off. We started too late last night (and the Salsa Carpet Explosion was a bit distracting in the middle of it).

WoW Happenings

In brief:

• Lilindra and Vandren both hit 21 and finished off the last of the Ghostlands quests.
• Laheth hit 65 and has too many dang quests I want to do... all the stuff in Zangarmarsh, finishing off Terrokar Forest things, Hellfire Citadel, Coilfang Reserve, and now the Nagrand and Blades Edge stuff. Good times!
• Also: Caught a performance of Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain last night outside of Shattrath. Very entertaining, especially when a PVP-riot broke out at the end of the concert (we play on a PVE server, so it doesn't happen that often)... only problem? The stupid Tauren I was fighting got the Peacekeepers involved. Splat. You'd think he would have been able to take a 65 when he's at 70 with what looked like decent gear. Bah.
• And on the other side of things, my beautiful and talented wife hit 50 with Sonnik... she's averaging a level or so a day right now. Craziness.

Alright! Time to clean up breakfast and head off to work.

Sick Day

So, I took today off because I'm sick. Makes sense.
In between bouts of resting, eating, and relaxing, I've found a little bit of time to play some WoW (no surprise there). Figured that right now I'd also babble semi-coherently, while I watch some Azumanga Daioh.

Anyways, on to WoW:
Today I spent a little bit of time playing as my Blood Elf rogue, Lilindra. Dinged 19 and pretty much just have Deatholme quests left in the Ghostlands. Which also means I need to set a new goal for her (I came up with an unwritten goal last week of getting all my characters to 20 and out of their starting zones). Along those same lines, I need a new goal for my horde Hunter, who is also finishing up the same stuff.

Earlier, before my wife went to work, we hit level 14 with our ferals, and headed out to the moonglade for whaever quest they have for us there.

Yeah... nothing that I can declare as totally exciting to hear about - hopefully I'll be able to find a group and have time to run Hellfire Citadel with Laheth. That would be awesome.

Now! Go and comment on my wife's posts! She's awesome!

Goldfire's Pets

I am gonna say first off... Petopia has been a wonderful resource for me. Most of my other hunter hints have come from Gauntlet. Yes, I know he gets most of it from the Big Red Kitty blog and other such sites. We adapt the helpful hints into what works best for our personal needs.

So, I'm not really an experienced Hunter but I know what I like... even if my reasons are weak. I am not so much a number cruncher as a trial and error player. I pick my talents off what I wish to play with and what I use the most. I prefer arms warriors, DPS shamans, combat rogues, pet hunters, demon warlocks, holy pallys, holy priests, resto druids (balance for leveling), and arcane mages. And yes... I have tried just about every other talent tree as well. These are just what I like and prefer. Keep in mind I am a very social creature and often play in groups.

I have tried a few different pet types and I honestly enjoy playing with my dragonhawk. They are exotic and elegant. I love the flying pet types in general... including the non-combat pet types. Tails seems to have a faster focus recharge and the flame breath is beyond awesome. It is an AoE attack (and I always have a soft spot for AoEs) that stays at rank one till lvl 55-ish. That means I have more points to spend on natural armor and stamina than the standard pet attack. I have yet to encounter anything within five levels of myself that my dragonhawk can not kill. Also, I have not yet dealt with anything that has fire immunities. That might help.

Pigs are nice because they eat just about everything you can find and the charge attack is very stunning. Laheth switched to a boar after I tried mine and he seems to like it.
Laheth had a kitty for the first 55 levels, so I wanted to give it a try. I recently caught King B in STV and have been using him for the last couple of days so I can compare the most popular DPS pet to my dragonhawk.
The kitty (I named him Backup) hasn't earned enough training points to get all the ranks available in stamina, armor, avoidance, reflexes, growl, scratch, bite, and dash... he is higher level than Tails and they are both best friends. Tails can afford all of the above with a few points left over (swapping dive for dash and fire breath for scratch). We were going to play with the pet number cruncher on Petopia later to figure it out. My best guess is that Tails can afford it cuz of the fire breath rank one scales damage with levels without having to buy more ranks.

I have caught other pets in the past to learn skills but nothing has stuck with me as my dragonhawk has. I am big into style and being different. I enjoy having rare things. Few people have dragonhawks and people ask me about it all the time. I figure mostly cuz of the requirement to have picked it up outside of Silvermoon and trained it up from level 9. I knew when I made my hunter that I wanted a dragonhawk so I had no issues with leveling it!

Wow... get me talking and I ramble for a while...
Sorry about the length! ^_^

Goldfire's introduction

Greetings everyone! This is my first time posting a comment... ever!
A small introduction might be in order... so here I am (the wife). I might have been mentioned a few times previously. Mostly I play a lot of WoW. I have so many alts.... it's kinda scary. I can't even fit them all on one account! Being a housewife has so many perks. We do other things as well but World of Warcraft is the easiest to talk about. I also read and we're fairly social creatures.

This last weekend we celebrated Gauntlet's birthday by playing at royalty and solved a few problems on an island (Princes' Kingdom). I rather enjoyed it although our game will need a few bugs to be worked out. Mostly its a new game to us and new characters that needed a chance to let the personality come out. There were defiantly issues but I still had fun!

Vandren hit level 20 last night and my hunter, Sonnik and her pet dragonhawk Tails, hit level 43 while hunting whelplings! They are several levels above me but seem to do little damage... after playing so many other classes I am constantly surprised at how durable hunters can be. Sonnik and tails have been quite the entertainment. I know that caster pets are not suggested but I just can't help myself! I love the cone attack fire breath (a directional AoE) and the dragonhawks look so very elegant and colorful! Yes... I may be one of those girls who favor fashion and sets that look neat... but at least I go for functionality, too!
Speaking of neat stuffs... I am getting kinda antsy. Gotta go check my auctions!

What's up in WoW?

So, this week hasn't seen much WoW playing going on for me... Stray and Kritter (my wife's feral) hit 12 one night... I pushed Vandren (and his boar Sucha) up to 18 because he was close and I had a few minutes one morning. Otherwise not much.

My adorable wife got her Blood Elf Hunter (also Beast Mastery ^_^) from 36 to 42, grabbed a purple Chocobo (they call 'em Cockatrices, but they're not fooling me) and some mail armor, and is happily running around being surprised at her effectiveness.
She also is now running with a pet attack/hunter's mark macro and a pull macro, which will hopefully serve her pretty well.

And now, I think it's nearing the end of this build, so it's time to turn to my other monitor and get some stuff done.

Near Alpha

So very tired. Second week of crunch, with our alpha milestone on monday. Efficiency/productivity is way down on my end, which is bad, since I've got a couple medium tasks to finish today.

Wish me luck.

Last Week in WoW

Laheth and Tusk ran around Zangarmarsh and beat up the indigenous and non-indigenous inhabitants for pretty much anybody that asked. Quite mercenary, but hey! They're clearly labelled as villains, be it through quest text or action. No level yet, but I got to play with my lovely wife, which is far better than any advancement.

Yesterday Chimmery ran through Gnomeregan with his brother Tremmery (another of my wife's characters) and a PUG. The last guy dropped a very nice ring, which we both rolled too low for, but it didn't matter, since we unknowingly had a ninja, who took it and then claimed to be a noob and not know what he was doing. According to our healer who was in his guild, he's done it every instance he's run before, so we're calling bullshit on that one.

Ashcraft has enslaved another helpful demon after doing all she could for them Bloodmyst folk. Her new succubus has a pretty neat name which escapes me right now. Oh, and I respecced her for pure demonology, to see if I prefer it over the affliction-ness. Side-note: She needs a new dress.

Stray and her near-twin (played by my wife - see a trend?) hit 10 and pranced off to see a bear about a bear form. We've already diverged in our Feral choices, because she digs DPS, and I dig tanking. I should probably check out some builds and theorycrafting for them.

...and I think that's all I've done this last week. I'll probably accomplish even less this week.

This Blog Is My Blog, This Blog Ain't Your Blog...

Yeah, I said that I was going to probably talk about stuff other than WoW on this blog, and I haven't done it much. Know what? Too bad. I don't want to talk about my personal life (I had a LiveJournal account before (still do, but I don't update it)), and work is tightly under Non-Disclosure Agreements... pretty much all I can about that is where I work and what platforms we develop for (Foundation 9 Studios / Amaze Entertainment / Griptonite; Primarily Nintendo DS currently).

I guess I can give a tidbit of information regarding non WoW stuff though. I've been reading over The Princes Kingdom, and I plan on running a trial to learn the rules and then hopefully an actual game this weekend. We have a group of folks (all friends) who we play roleplaying games together with, but at some point it became a sole member's role to be the Game Master. Which is a shame. He's a great guy, and a great GM (he was my Best Man, and his speech at our wedding was about pen and paper games), but he's been wanting to play in something for a while. A few of our other friends ran games, but they've all had issues (Ah, Fallout. What an appropriate name for our group dynamic, as well as a witty pun about how to gain pertinent information: Drop out of the campaign for a bit).

So I'm taking it on myself to try running something. I'm fairly quick on my feet, I can be engaging enough in conversation, and I wouldn't mind being the leader sometimes. My only real fear is that it won't be fun, and it will be my fault. Which could be construed as being silly, but it's a big deal. Everybody will be there to have fun and hang out, and they are all really good friends who I hate to disappoint.

I had a talk with my friend about it (The Best Man, for lack of a better name that wouldn't link his online presence or mine to this blog), and I'm better mentally prepared for it... but now I'm in the middle of an alpha crunch, and am not sure if we can pull off the trial run before the main event. Maybe I'll try it the morning before the game, if I'm still working late by Thursday (Friday is always taken).

At Work

Don't you hate it when the linker has an issue, and you have to recompile all the code in your project?

Doesn't it take a long time?

No? Well it does for me.

Weekend Happenings In Azeroth (July 7/8)

In addition to what I said last post, Ashcraft also managed to (with the help of a delightful arachnophobic Draenei) down Razormaw and finish off a couple of other quests, pushing all the way up to level 20. Now her little demonically-powered self gets to sit in an inn until she's full up on rest experience, or gets antsy.

And then we played the Paladin Triplets and got Starrlia and Starrlya up to 44, by running through Razorfen Downs a couple of times (drop your helmet again, you stupid lich!).

Otherwise not much happened. Really. At least, in Azeroth. There's always Earth, you know. We play there sometimes too.

WoW Character Goals: First Followup

Laheth and Tusk have both gone through their respective respecs, after Laheth dinged 64 by finishing up the last quests that will get me to the same story points as my wife.

Ashcraft ground some quests away, and finished off the little bit she had in 16, and then blew right through to level 18.


Time for a break. Food and other things beckon.

WoW Character Goals

Snapshot of what I want to accomplish with each of my WoW characters currently:

Laheth and Tusk: (Hunter) I need to spend the gold and do a quick respec of Laheth - he's using a slightly outdated version of the BRK Beast Mastery and Kicking Ass talent build, and being able to drop the full 5 points in Improved Hunter's Mark would make my wife and Tusk happy on the DPS side of things. I'm also tempted to respec Tusk, and see if I can't squeeze some more health at the expense of armor, since he's already a boar.

Starrlia: (Paladin) Due to the dangers of going and mining, and the hand-in-hand destruction of those dangers, Starrlea has managed to sneak ahead to level 44, whilst 'Ia and 'Ya languish in the depths of 43. Whenever we (my wife plays Starrlya) stop enjoying the Outlands (ha!) or our other character pairings, we'll get right on that.

Chimmery: (Mage) My most social character has been in the low 30s for months. I'd love to get him up to 40 so he can run around on a little mechanostrider and make motor noises, but it's really not a very high priority. Being squishy (albeit very blasty) doesn't inspire me to level him.

Saryss: (Rogue) She's doing well in the low 20s, for when other people around that level want to play.

Ashcraft: (Warlock) I'll actually be playing her later today, once I've finished up a couple things that I'm allowed to do right now with Laheth. Her goal is to get through all the Bloodmyst Isle quests and hopefully hit around 20, and then I'll fly her around the world to get her next summon.

Djellin: (Warrior) Another coupled character. We're aiming for Arathi Highlands and Hillsbrad with them.

Stray: (Druid) My newest character. Lowest level. Paired with another of my wife's creations. Only goal is to play as a feral druid, so I guess we aim for level 10 for now.

All Those Horde Characters: (Paladin, Rogue, Hunter) Plain old levelling... and since there is only a poorly-defined goal, coupled with friends playing Alliance and my strongest pull characters also being Alliance, I think they're going to languish in their beautiful magical city of awe and wonder, craving their magical fix.

Knights of Justice (and Others)

Regardless of the fact that nobody knows about this blog yet, I'm going to go ahead and introduce some of the characters that I play in World of Warcraft... largely because I like making lists, dammit.

Server: Scarlet Crusade
Alignment: Alliance

• Laheth and Tusk
• Level 63 Night Elf Beast Mastery Hunter, and my primary character.
• Saved from a life of mediocrity by Big Red Kitty's blog... until I swapped from Marksman to Beast Mastery, my soloing was not very fun, and since that's what I mostly did, he sat on the shelf level-wise for a long while.
  
• Starrlia
• Early 40s Human Protection Paladin. Specifically created for grouping with two other characters (Starrlya and Starrlea)
  
• Chimmery
• Early 30s Gnome Mage. Currently Arcane specialized, although that could change at any time.
• Far and away my most social character, but also a character who I don't level much... I think he broke 30 before the Burning Crusade hit, to give you an idea.
  
• Saryss
• Early 20s Night Elf Rogue. Combat specialized, and an absolute blast to play on rare occasion... I usually like grouping with somebody else so I can backstab over and over and over again. There's something strangely satisfying about that.
  
• Ashcraft
• Late teens Gnome Warlock. She's affliction right now, but I'm going to do some research and see if I wouldn't like Demonology more (especially given how much fun I'm having as a Beast Mastery hunter).
  
• Djellin
• Late 20s Draenei Warrior. Protection spec'd, and intrinsically tied to a couple other characters when it comes time to playing. We (my wife and I) do that a fair amount.
  
• Stray
• I think she's level 3? My wife and I made near-identical Night Elf Druids that we plan on running together as ferals. Should be a blast, as well as a breeze (she played another druid up to 64, switching between resto and balance).
  

Alignment: Horde

• Strael
• Early 30s Blood Elf Paladin. Currently running a hybrid holy/protection spec, but am tempted to make him a retnoob to level. Technically my primary horde character, but I haven't played him in quite a whiles.
  
• Vandren and Sucha
• Late teens Blood Elf Hunter. Beast Mastery. Another boar-partner (this one's black!)
  
• Lilindra
• Blood Elf Rogue... fairly similar to Saryss, except she's horde ^_^

Yeah... that's all of them. I'm an altaholic... and I like elves.
In my defense, my first character ever was on another server, and he was an undead rogue... and I think I've had and deleted one of every race at some point.

Weekend Happenings In Azeroth

Laheth (my main; Night Elf - Beast Mastery Hunter) hit 63 and got leatherworking up to 325... only a few more points to make that nice [Wild Draenish Vest] for my wife (I'm trying to catch up to her 64 Resto Druid).

Also, ran my wife and our friend through Stockades with Laheth... that was fairly hilarious, given how much of a pain that instance was back at the appropriate level as my mage.

Finished up all the Darkshire quests with Draenei Warrior alt, running with the aforementioned (wife and friend both playing Draenei Shamans).

It Begins...

...but I don't really want to type up a proper introduction.
This place will house whatever pops into my mind. Expect role-playing tidbits, World of Warcraft ramblings, possibly some game design, and maybe even a little programming stuff.