Saga’s Challenge Day 3; My first day in WoW

My first day in Azeroth.  I wish I could tell you specifics, but it was so long ago that all I have are impressions.  The game definitely made an impact on me, but I think it is safe to say that if you are reading this, your first day and mine probably weren’t that much different.  Or maybe they were, but the impact the game had has definitely given us common ground, no matter how different we may be.

The thing that rings truest in my memory is the sense of awe as I watched the opening cinematic.  I was a dedicated console gamer back then, only dabbling in PC games on a whim.  As I have stated before, I had a small bit of experience with MMO’s before WoW, but I would go so far to say that I was casual to the point of making the most casual seem hardcore.  I had never even played Warcraft before, or any Blizzard PC game for that matter.  The opening cinematic set the bar for me, got the juices flowing.  Images of the epic battles fought with my childhood cronies during Dungeons & Dragons sessions percolated in my cerebellum.   I was hooked before I even knew the first bit of lore or the first aspect of game mechanics.

Dungeons & Dragons was a huge part of my adolescence.  From there, I branched out into other games, such as Star Wars, the Roleplaying Game, and Shadowrun, the latter of which occupied a great deal of time in my late teens and early twenties.  When I joined the Navy at the tender age of twenty-two, I found friends who were also gamers.  A lot of my buddies on-board ship were computer guys, but I had a dedicated cadre that I role-played with.  A little bit of the World of Darkness by White Wolf Studios, but most of our time was spent playing Cyberpunk or a game that my friend Will Borral came up with.  I don’t even know what it was called, but Will was the most incredible game master I have ever gamed with.  I have lost touch with him, but heard that he continued in the Navy, and did some work for Steve Jackson Games.   Anyhow, I digress.  My time in the fantasy world of D&D was behind me.  I had graduated to Gaming in a William Gibson-esque world of Street Samurai and Deckers.  Dwarves, Dragons, and Trolls seemed like child’s play, memories of a time when I didn’t know any better.  After I got out of the Navy, it was hard to settle in to gaming without Will. I was spoiled, no, ruined, by my years of gaming under his creative direction.  I turned to another childhood friend, the video game.  Consoles became my recreation of choice, and I dove in with both feet.  Sure, I had a computer, but that was mostly used for looking up FAQ’s or reading game reviews.  Consoles were much easier, all you had to do was get the game for the right system, and you were pretty much good to go.

So there I was, watching this rifle-toting Dwarf with his bear companion navigate a snowy mountainside, listening to this incredible score that I knew. I had never heard it before, but it sounded just like the soundtrack that played in my head during those early gaming sessions with my friends.  Watching the Elf shift into cat form took me completely unaware, and left such an indelible mark that my first character was a Night Elf Druid, which I still play to this day, although he is Tauren now.  That first day was a marathon gaming session that lasted for nearly 8 hours.  I seem to remember not having any clue what I was doing, and that has not necessarily changed.  Everything was either self-taught, or learned through the patience and kindness of others.   I went in without a single friend in Azeroth, but I have certainly made more than a few in my travels.  Even with knowing nobody in the game, none of the history of Azeroth,  or if there was even a clear-cut way to win, I knew that first day that this game was going to be remarkable, if for no one else other than myself.  Did I have a clue as to how remarkable it would become, and how many millions of people would tread the same digital landscape?  Nope, I sure didn’t.  I don’t think anyone did.   Talk about lightning in a bottle.

Anyhow, that is my memory of my first day in WoW.  Sorry for the wall of text, the rambling, and the really disjointed trip down memory lane.  You know what they say about aging, this first thing to go is the memory, and the second things is…crap, I don’t remember.  Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Gaming!

Oz

WoW Blogger Challenge Day 2: Why did you start a blog?

I have given this one a lot of thought, and to be honest, I don’t really know what made me start blogging.  I have always enjoyed writing,  and have kept some form of journal or diary in one shape or form for as long as I can remember.

I remember when the 1up website first came out, and how popular that was.  That site was really my first experience writing online, and I was pretty much hooked.  From my little page there, I got chosen to write for Advanced Media Network, which was an upstart little website that did coverage of video games and gaming culture.  I was reviewing games for the Xbox and doing some editorial pieces for them as well. I enjoyed writing for them, but the submission process was painful, and the deadlines they pushed made little sense. I left them after about 8 months, and kind of dropped off the web for a while.

Then, about 3 years ago, I got the itch to write again.  Well, maybe I should say that the itch finally won.  I had been looking around online for anything that critiqued the leveling guides out there, and couldn’t find anything.  I decided that I was going to try a couple out and review them.  It is hard to believe that this blog has been around for so long, and that I still keep coming back to it.  Even if there really isn’t any more need for leveling guides in-game, I am proud of the work I did.  I don’t know if the internet needs another general WoW blog, but I am going to keep writing.  Hell, I may even begin to write consistently.  I wouldn’t go holding your breath on that one, though.

Hopefully I will have time to post before I head into work tonight.  Regardless, the next post will be Day 3 of Saga’s 20 days challenge; my first day in WoW.

Happy Gaming!

Oz

WoW Blogging Challenge

With server maintenance going on today, I did some meandering around the interwebs and came across Saga’s 20 Days of WoW Blogging Challenge . As anyone who has staggered onto my ramblings could surmise, I sometimes have trouble with my blogging focus, and this seems like a really good way to try to instill some good blogging habits.  That said, here we go…

My WoW life;

I have called many toons my main, and many, many realms home.  My first steps in Azeroth were taken shortly after the game launched on the Elune  realm in the form of a Nelf Druid, Anubrind.  World of Warcraft was my first real MMO, other than a little dabbling in Star Wars Galaxies and some time in City of Heroes with my Brother-in-Law.  I had played the other two at best casually, but as soon as I logged into WoW, I knew that something special was happening.

Many characters later,(I am a bit of an Alto-holic,) I am currently playing on the Earthen Ring realm hordeside.  My main is an 85 Tauren Druid, Oziruz, who interestingly enough, is that same Night Elf I rolled years ago, a few realm transfers and a race change later.  Amongst my army of alts are several 80 somethings, a handful of 70 somethings, and untold throngs of below 40′s.   Most of my time is spent on either Earthen Ring or Icecrown, but I have little guys all over the place, in some form of horrible abandonment or another.  Although I spend most of my time hordeside, I enjoy both factions immensely, and my two favorite races are Orcs and Dwarves.

My non WoW life;

I am a 40-year-old male living in New Orleans, Louisiana.  I just moved to NoLa from Richmond, Virginia in June of 2010, chasing a dream.  I have been a bartender for the past 12 years, and a bassist/keyboardist since I was 11.  But more importantly than any of that, I am a father to a wonderful 17-year-old son, and an uncle to a beautiful 22 month old nephew.  Both live back in Virginia, and I miss them both terribly.  My son was very supportive of my move, if only in the hopes that I will fly him down for every Saint’s home game.

My other hobbies and interests include gaming (if you hadn’t already surmised that,) writing, and art.  The truth be told, I couldn’t draw blood unless I was shaving, but I have always enjoyed doodling.  I think it is just the creative part of me that has to express itself, even if there is no musical instrument around.  I would also love to get into prop making, but just don’t have the workspace to branch off into that yet.

One interesting (or sad, depending how you look at it,) fact about me is that when my son was born, I wanted to name him Luke.  My ex shot that down pretty quickly.  She knew the only reason I wanted that name was so that later in life, I could tell him to do something because “Luke, I am your Father…”  Smart one, she was.  That could explain a lot about why we aren’t married anymore. The smart part, not the not-letting-me-name-him-Luke part.  I am not that much of a jerk.

Happy Gaming!

Oz

Newborn Interrupt!

My WoW life has been trumped by the grand entrance of my nephew, Alexander Ryan!

He made his grand entrance Friday April 3rd at 5:04 PM EDT.  Nine pounds and twenty inches of absolute awesomeness!

My sister should be released this evening, and introducing Alex to his new digs.

Mom, Dad, and Baby are all fine, though Mom is understandably tired, and Dad is a wee bit overwhelmed.

Actual WoW stuff coming later this week!

Happy Gaming!!!

Oz

Carbonite now totally donation driven…

Just a quick update as I get ready to head into work.  Carbon Based Creations now has version 2.59 of carbonite available for free to download on their website.  Version 3.0 is expected out in a short while.

From the carbonite add-on home page;

In response to the recently announced User Interface Add-On Policy we will no longer be selling a subscription to Carbonite. We are in the process of converting Carbonite to be fully compliant with this new policy and will provide more details when we can.

We would like to thank all our customers for their support and hope we can continue to deliver the product and service that you have come to expect.

2.59 is now available on the downloads page and 3.00 should be out next week.

The Carbonite Team.

Happy Gaming!!

Oz

More from the Carbonite Devs, unofficially, or course…

Yet another “personal” message from Fataal, the only Carbonite Dev to post anything about the possibilities that the add-on has in store.  This is a direct quote from his forum post;

A personal message from me (not CBC):

Carbonite will most likely be around in some form surviving on donations. As the incentive to develop addons decreases, the quality and amount will go down. Many hardcore addon developers have already said they will probably be spending less or no time on their addons. Serious software developers will gravitate toward the best platforms for their software and wow just took a nosedive on that list.

Hobbies are fun when you spend a few hours a week on something, but as many people like my wife will tell you, when you take a hobby and do it 30-50 hours a week, it becomes a job. Jobs are jobs and they have lots of parts that are not fun. My wife had fun taking and editing pictures of our kids, but when she started doing it for friends and then strangers many times a week, it developed all those not fun parts that made it a job. If she did not make money from it, she would not be doing it.

I have several game projects I have been wanting to spend time on. They look very attractive now.

As the saying goes “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely”. That is why monopolies are almost always evil self serving entities.

As the Bible says “A workman is worthy of his wages”. Addon authors are certainly worthy of theirs.

Shawn

Now, I could be totally wrong here, but I don’t think that this was an off-the-cuff response.   It has been nearly a week since the policy update, and this is his second post regarding it.  I’m not saying the guy isn’t upset, but this is no emtional rant.  I like the “evil enitity” bit, and the Bible quote added just the right amount of drama.  He even intimated that Blizzard was a monopoly.  Hmm, let’s look at that…

According to the Random House Dictionary;

mo⋅nop⋅o⋅ly

noun, plural -lies.
1.     exclusive control of a commodity or service in a particular market, or a control that makes possible the manipulation of prices.
2.     an exclusive privilege to carry on a business, traffic, or service, granted by a government.
3.     the exclusive possession or control of something.
4.     something that is the subject of such control, as a commodity or service.
5.     a company or group that has such control.
6.     the market condition that exists when there is only one seller.

Since Blizzard doesn’t make the only MMORPG on the market, they do not qualify as a monopoly, if that is what he was going for.  If he was referring to their absolute, (and at times draconian,) control of what can take place in their game, thereby controlling the” market condition” that is World of Warcraft, all I can say is “um, ya think?!“

Blizzard has time and again made it VERY clear that they do not want real-money transactions finding their way into the game.  You can be banned for buying or selling gold.  Account sharing is also a bannable offense.  How does account sharing figure in?  Easy.  Power leveling services.  Okay, maybe that is a stretch, but it makes sense if you look at it hard enough. So a subscription based add-on is definitely not in their realm of thought.  And, since we are playing in their backyard, they do get to make the rules.

Anyways, I know that this is an emotionally charged topic for a great many people.  Heck, on the Carbonite forums, there is even a call for a petition to send to Blizzard about canceling accounts over this.  But even though Fataal’s post was not an official statement, I can’t help but admire the guy’s ability as a wordsmith.  Nothing like a little fire and brimstone to get the villagers riled up.

Well, I have rambled enough for one post, methinks. Time to get back to the grind.  Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Gaming!

Oz

Carbonite Devs break their silence…well, sort of.

Last Friday, after Blizz posted its new UI add-on policy, many dev authors and wow players alike grabbed torches and pitchforks and stormed the official wow forums.  Some of the arguments were intelligent and thought provoking, while others quickly degenerated into finger-pointing and name calling.  The mod community is as divided as America was during the Civil War.  Many Devs are discontinuing their mods in protest, ans still others have stated that they will continue to author and distribute their mods.  Surprisingly to some, a great many of the modders who are protesting are authors who have ever charged for their add ons.

One of the main suspects in the blame storming for this new policy, Carbon Based Creations, the makers of Carbonite, has been strangely mute.  The carbonite forums have been teeming with people rallying in support of the add-on, pledging to donate as long as the add-on stays current, and begging for soemthing from CBC.  But until this afternoon, not a peep from the Devs.  They have pulled Carbonite off of Curse, WowInterface, and you can no longer directly download it from their site.  The website is still up, and the Devs are still active on other threads in the forums, but anything related to this, they are shying away from like the plague.  Finally this afternoon, Faatal, one of the CBC Devs, posted this.  Nothing groundbreaking, and he pointedly posted this as a personal note in a completely new thread.  Complete legal defensive maneuvering, methinks.  Does this mean that litigation is in the near future?  Maybe so.

In an interesting side-note.  Carbonite apparently stopped offering the free version of Carbonite Quest in early March.  As long as I can remember them being on the scene, they have always had the free version and the premium version.  But without announcement or fanfare, the free version vanishes.  Some are calling bait and switch, and others are saying they are completely justified.  Apparently, Blizzard disagrees with the latter.

I honestly don’t know which side I am siding with.  I wholeheartedly agree that the Mod writers should be free to do with their code as they see fit to a degree.  I also believe that Blizzard has every right to dictate what can or cannot happen in game.  I guess only time will tell.

I will try and make more sense of all this as more information surfaces.

Happy Gaming!

Oz.

P.S. I salute all the mod authors, no matter what their stance is on this issue.  I thank each and every one of you for taking the time to try and make this game just that much better.  And a special thanks to all the authors who have stated that they will be continuing support of their add-ons.  /tip hat.

The Future of Add-ons; Blizzard’s new policy.

I popped onto the carbonite site just a few minutes ago to check my version.  I had paid for the full-featured carbonite, but my subscription had expired.  I was about to renew, when I came across a forum post entitled “The Future of Carbonite.”  After years of browsing the WoW forums, I don’t put too much stock in what passes for “news” in most forum posts, but I figured I would check it out.

Lo and behold, Blizz just implemented new policy that formalizes design and distribution guidelines for add-ons.  You can read the entire policy here. I won’t go into gory details, but suffice it to say, times, they are a changin’.   I would like to point out a couple of key points.

Right at the top of the pile of guidelines, Blizzard states that add-ons must be free of charge.  This includes add-ons that have “light” versions and “premium” versions.  Funny how this is timed, since I just had to update my curse client to the new “premium trial” version.

I know a great many of the add-ons out there are completely free, and most of the developers maintian their addons out of pride, a sense of duty to the community, or some other intangible that eludes me.  And I am eternally grateful to them.  I donate where and when I can.  So many of these will be largely nonplussed by this develpment.  But addons such as carbonite, the various leveling guides I have discussed here, and the like, may well be closing down shop.  I don’t mean to hit the panic button, but this could turn into a glider type scenario where warden detects said add-on running in game, and you could forseeably get the perma-ban.

Aside from the free guideline, Blizz also states that add-on codes must be completely visible,  may not negatively impact realms or players (?!?) and may not solicit for donations IN GAME. The policy does allow for donations to be solicited on add-on websites or distribution sites.  I had to bold the in game portion, because some people on the carbonite forums missed that part.  You can solicit all the donations you want to, as long as your add-on doesn’t do it in the actual game.  That was welcome to hear.

The announcement apparantly came out on Friday, so it will be interesting to see how this shapes up.  I will be following this closely, and updating here whenever I come upon more information.  Hopefully this won’t be too damaging to the mod community, but there are a few that I would think would be in danger of shutting down.

More to come, folks, more to come.

Happy Gaming!!

Oz

Eh, it really just isn’t that important.

I beg your forgiveness for my last post.  Guild drama is just that, drama.  And that, my friends, is something I definitely do not want to promote here.  So I took a little time off from writing, played a little wow, and started dabbling a little in photo editing.  I hope to have  a new header image up each day, and hope even more that my somewhat meager skills will grow as I muck about with it.

So what have I been doing in game?  Playing a little on my Death Knight, a little on my Shaman, and a LOT on my army of alts.  I am attempting to level a pally again, as well as a warrior.  And, for the first time ever, I have managed to get a priest to level 40.  Shadow Form is pretty darned cool.

With so much of my focus being on my alts, I have not really been making much gold in game.  I have been doing my gathering, but in order to turn a profit, you kind of have to put those mats up for sale.  My little auction house mule is gathering dust, and I really need to empty out his mailbox before passers-by start noticing the backlog and mark me as an easy target for a late night BnE run.

That said, I am off to dip my toe in Icecrown realm’s economy.  I have an epic flyer to buy for a certain Death Knight, and gold just doesn’t grow on trees.

Happy Gaming!!

Oz

The dreaded guild post.

For the past couple of posts, I have been hinting around at shedding a little light on my social/endgame experience with Wrath of the Lich King.  I have written this post about 6 times but have never really liked the finished product.  This may be time number seven, who knows.  But I wanted to get his out there, if for nothing else than to get it off of my chest.  Sometimes the act of writing (or blogging, in this case,) something down allows you a little distance from which to step back and see it clearly.

For the past year, I have been enjoying my status as a member of a mid-level guild on the Icecrown Realm.  The recruiting ad on the forums was very well written, and threw about such lofty ideas of honor, integrity and COMMUNITY.  I applied, and in short order was welcomed to the fold.  Turns out the ad wasn’t a bunch of flowery spiel and empty promises.  It was a wonderful place to be, and I quickly convinced several friends to apply as well.  I sang the praises of my guild to anyone who would bother to listen.  I was a fanboy.

As we all know, the honeymoon has to end sometime.  After a while, I began to see things that didn’t quite feel right.  Just little things, mind you.  Changing loot rules after a drop didn’t go a certain way for someone.  Taking issues with certain members for things that other members are applauded for.  There was an “IN” crowd and a “THEM” crowd.  Somehow, I managed to straddle the two, so I got to see things from both sides.  I saw the frustrations of people struggling to get groups together for needed gear runs,  pleas being buried in chat by calls for breaking guild records on timed heroic runs. I began to view the guild as three distinct groups.  The officers, the members, and the fillers.

The first two are pretty much self-explanatory, but I may need to get more in-depth on the last group.  These people, no matter how hard they try, will just never “belong.”  Not through any fault of their own, mind you.  I don’t know what the determining factor is, to be honest.  Maybe they haven’t sold themselves, maybe it is just something as silly as what was happening when they joined the guild.  But their presence in the guild serves one purpose; to help pad the numbers for raiding.  To help further the progress of the other two groups.  Sure, they progress as well.  But that invite for Naxx 25  is most likely going to be the only run the get included on from the guild that week.  Heroics?  Don’t need them.  We have enough in the “IN” crowd to successfully fill any number of 5 mans.

Shortly before the launch of Wrath, a good friend of mine left the guild.  He was definitely in the “IN” crowd, and definitely privvy to some of the “inner workings” of the guild.  I stayed in touch, played some WAR with him, and was not shocked at all to find out that he saw the same things I did.  He was what was called a “Master Chief” in the guild.  He saw /o chat, and the stark contrast to /guild was not sitting well with him.  His departure was played off by the Guild Leader as a sad case of “Intense Spouse aggro.”  I happened to have toons on the opposing faction that were guilded with both him and his wife, and I knew this was not the case.  Why would he say that?

Enter Wrath.  And enter the holiday season.  Anyone who has ever worked in the restaurant business will tell you that the holidays are a tough time of year to be in the biz.  My playing time took a hit, which was expected.  By the time I take my first steps into Northrend, many of my guildmates are already 80.  I expect this as well.  When I level, I tend to be a heads-down gamer.  I focus on the quests, and don’t socialize much when I get in stride.  I still see guild chat, but I don’t participate as much unless I am in town or in flight.  I am a solo-leveler, and pretty much don’t instance as a rule.  When I do need or want a run, a quick request in guild chat or from my friends list, and I am knee deep in dungeon.  But, I see other members who aren’t so lucky.  I see the same thing I saw in BC.  I help out where I can, but I can’t put out all the fires.

Okay, this post has deinitely gotten away from me.  I will do a follow up this evening or tomorrow.  Sorry to break it up like that, but if this was a forum post, I would likely get trolled with tl/dr.

Happy Gaming!!

Oz