Moar legendaries!

Yep, our rogue got his daggers out of DS last night. So when we got Nkm his legendary staff, there was something for the entire guild to share in the reward (i.e. the pet). We get our rogue his legendary and there's nothing for the rest of us? As Kal would say, screwjob!

I tried to get a good pic of Violent with his new shinies, but found his profile pic on the armory was better than I could do:

I then had our three legendary wielders stand for a pic. Profile pic for optimum viewing of the legendaries! :) They look cute.

I hope now we can focus back on DS heroics. I told both Nkm and Violent that legendaries will get refunded if they don't do enough dps. I'm actually looking forward to doing some BGs with Violent and seeing those legendary daggers in some Horde killing action.

Grats again Violent!

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This is how you bring the world together

As Gnomer already posted about, we had the opportunity to get together to BG this past weekend, along with the lovely Pugnacious Priest and BBB. I was looking forward to BGing with two folks who have the Justicar title and one who has Battlemaster! This is crazy serious business PvP!

No, but seriously, there were folks in our group with very little resilience gear and minimal PvP experience. But I would say that going in together as a group of 10 people willing to work together and having voice communication trumps gear. I also learned a number of things this weekend.

As we were planning to coordinate when we'd all be on, I became an expert in converting PST to Gnomer and PP's time zone, which I affectionately started calling Koala Standard Time. You can now ask me at any moment what time it is for them, and I have it seared in my brain. It's +18 hours from PST. :)

Accents are hawt. Well, that's not something I just learned this weekend, but actually something I already knew. Honestly I have long been a sucker for accents. And let me just say that our first couple of BGs were quite disorienting for myself and my guildies as we were distracted by the incredibly hawt Aussie accents... both male and female. Did we even win our first couple matches? I can't even remember. Why can't us US folks sound so cool? Sigh.

BBB is a nightelf?!?! Ok, so clearly my rational mind should have known that BBB had to have a nightelf form, but in my mind he has always been a bear. Always. Like running around SW, interacting with the auction house, getting things in and out of the bank... as a bear. My mind just never processed him having a nightelf form. So seeing a female nightelf with the tag Bigbearbutt was almost as disorienting as the Aussie accents.

I think it was our second day of BGing together that we started talking about differences in Australia and the US, for example what things cost etc etc. It kind of blew my mind there that here we were, a group of about 4 or 5 Aussies and 4 or 5 Americans BGing together. As Gnomer mentioned, it really did feel like we were one guild. I think this is how you bring the world together... group up to kill Horde! Rawr!

I'm looking forward to doing it again in a couple of weeks! I have a feeling the more I BG with them, the more I may start to use the word 'bugger'. Bugger this... bugger that... it's a nifty little word, bugger!

I do wish we could BG with those crazy Europeans as well. Though honestly a BG with Aussie, Scandinavian, British, and possibly other European accents? Whoa... I might be rendered completely useless. I'm not sure I would be able to adequately heal because I'd be too busy fawning. ;)

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Blame the Night Elves

I've been doing a little bit of archaeology again after what must be at least a 6 month hiatus. We'll see how long it lasts, but I want the Tol'vir pet and mount. Anyways, I wasn't the only one this particular night:

So yeah. On behalf of the night elves, I apologize for anyone doing archaeology. Though if it makes you feel any better it's not like us night elves get a break or anything because its just as bad for us.

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Tarecgosa pets for all!

Sunday night we finally got Nkm the legendary staff from Firelands. I think the hardest part was keeping that little gnome alive to walk through the fire to get the heart. Mage needs more fire resist nao!

After the raid we all gathered in SW for the show. Folks went to get popcorn, picnics were laid out, and we took our spots on top of the cathedral:

However when the event started it was clear we wouldn't be able to see anything from back that far, plus the event brought all sorts of additional spectators:

Here's something shiny happening:

After the whole event ended, the image of Nkm stayed around for a while. Though for a little gnome who just got a legendary staff, you would think he'd be happier. I mean look how angry the little gnome looks! Serious face is serious!

Grats Nkm!

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Motivation to tank again

I haven't tanked since ICC, but you know what? This bear sleeping bag just might inspire me to do so.

Created by Eiko Ishizawa, I am so amused by this bear sleeping bag!

This pic just cracks me up:

This site notes "Please be warned that, according to the artist, it is not his responsibility if a wild bear attacks you, or some silly hunter hunts you down". Lawl.

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Another use for your dice

How to Write Badly Well is an incredibly humorous blog written by Joel Stickley. It started with a series of posts dispensing hilarious advice on how to well, write badly well (descriptive titles FTW) and now he has a book coming out as well.

There are so many awesome posts, that I don't even know where to begin in sharing some posts. But here are some: If you find a phrase you like and Personify every object.

Perhaps if I am at a loss on what to blog about, I could just choose one of his posts and write badly well. However it looks like some of my past posts already show signs of writing badly well. I use way too many ellipses, use parenthesis to explain myself, and allow "modern" language to sneak into my posts.

The funniest part of that last link is the last comment on that post... "This would actually be almost reasonable if the characters were playing an MMO". So maybe I get a pass.

Anyways, one of his posts last month caught my eye. The Amazing Random Blurb Roller can basically provide you with a plot. All you need is some dice! Perhaps some inspiration for folks who write RP type posts? Or given how I've mentioned that our guild has been so drama-free, perhaps I can use it to write some made up stories on drama.

So perhaps coming soon, I'll be writing a story about Left Claw drama. Here's the preview:

This story is a disturbing tale of ambition and redemption. The protagonist is sarcastic and haunted; as the story unfolds he/she will be forced to compromise a deeply-held moral code. By the end, our hero will have triumphed, but at what cost?

That sounds like some drama there, no?

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Your public service announcement

I was pretty pissed this morning. Pretty pissed (though I should have been more saddened) that there are people who have to make low, personal attacks on those who don't agree with them. I guess either to make themselves feel better or because they don't have any substance to actually respond to opinions that don't agree with them (different opinions? on the interwebs?!?! the audacity!!!!) by keeping to the matter at hand.

I then had some conversations with fellow bloggers, had lunch, and things got better (meaning I got less angry). Though I still stand by my assertion that such low handed comments are not only unnecessary, but doing it via Twitter where they may not see such comments is downright cowardly. If you want to be a bitch, have the balls to do it to someone's face. Not everyone follows everyone else on Twitter.

But then I also made some posters that helped me and I think they can help you too.

First:

I think I could use that one to help me during particularly painful BGs as well.

And second, I think this could help all of us, especially those who feel they have to make personal attacks against other WoW bloggers:

I believe I've fulfilled my good deed for the month with this public service announcement. Want to make your own keep calm posters? Check it out!

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Weekend roundup

Happy Monday! Hope y'all (you can take the girl out of North Carolina but you cannot take the North Carolina out of the girl) had a good weekend. As for me I went skiing yesterday, which means I am a big bundle of soreness today. While skiing, a guy ran into me and we collided pretty hard. Fortunately I always ski with a helmet on, and I clearly heard a loud clang as my head hit something hard.

I warned the raid last night that if I was particularly nice to Jess or our holy pally Lorosia last night, that I may be experiencing some side effects from a minor concussion. It probably wouldn't have been being actually nice so much as just being really quiet and agreeable and without opinion that would have signaled some level of illness for me. (Emphasis on without opinion). But fortunately last night's raid proved that while my neck is sore as heck, I am just fine. Just ask the raid. ;)

Last night was also the first raid with our newest guildie Heili. I'm quite excited to have her join us because we have doubled the number of females in our raid to a whopping two, increasing the intelligence and general coolness of our raids exponentially. I also love that she plays melee dps (very well by the way... giving our boys a good run for their money last night).

So I've mentioned recently that we have been without guild drama for a really really long time. It feels kind of odd to not have to worry the guild, whether that is due to new guildies who don't work out, performance issues, or even just recruiting. With people leaving the game and all the turn over in guilds lately, I know we've been really lucky to not have to worry about recruiting. We've been able to add new guildies when needed who are friends of friends.

Now saying there is no guild drama isn't saying that we don't drive each other crazy, because we do. But its very much like being driven crazy by your brother or sister. You get irritated, but then you get over it because you're family. There are 9 of us who have been raiding together for 15 months now... while 6 of the 9 have been raiding together for almost 3 years? Then Jess and I have been playing together for over 5 years now.

Also this past weekend was Isle of Conquest weekend. I did a significant number of Isles on Saturday both on K and my level 81 shadow priest. You know, I'm not sure that there is a BG that generates as many opinions on strategy than Isle. I mean you go into an AB... WSG... EOTS... any of the other BGs, the strat is going to be pretty similar match to match.

But Isle? Well for Horde I guess its easy, they go Workshop, at least on my battlegroup. But for Alliance? Everyone spends the two minutes before the gates go up saying there is only one way to win. Docks! All go Workshop! Split docks and hanger evenly! But you know what? I saw wins and losses with various strats and combos of taken nodes.

But sure enough, there's bound to be that one person each Isle, adamant that strategy X is the only way to win. Myself, I think people underestimate the importance and impact of the Quarry and Refinery. Anyways did you guys do Isle this weekend? Thoughts on Isle strategy?

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WoW in the news

Oh my goodness, three days, three posts in a row! Gotta catch up from when I was gone. :) Anyways, a number of WoW related news stories.

First, an article in the LA times on research around how playing video games, and specifically WoW, can improve cognitive ability in older adults. Psychology professors at NC State have just published a paper on their findings.

With this National Science Foundation grant funded project, they found that older adults (aged 60-77) who scored low on initial cognitive tests experienced significant improvement in spatial ability and focus after two weeks of playing WoW for about two hours a day. And why did the researchers choose WoW? One of the researchers noted that:

"It met a bunch of criteria we had. Primarily that it is really engaging and cognitively complex, so we chose a game that we thought would have the best chance of exercising older adults' cognitive abilities and thereby improving them."

Hmmm... so playing WoW as a prescription?

But on the other end we have this video below from Anthony Rosner about his WoW addiction.




I think his film is incredibly well made and engaging, and I think he has a bright future in film making. But anytime I see something like this I feel like it puts a notion or stereotype out there that every WoW player is addicted to some degree. Saying things like "playing WoW is wasting your life" just reinforces that negative stereotype.

At the same time I do wonder how things might be different for someone who starts playing WoW at a much younger age, like in high school. If I had started then, opposed to starting the game at 30 years of age, could I have gotten more addicted? Perhaps I had less self control at 16 or 17? For me, probably.

Or is it that by the age of 30 I had already gotten the advanced degrees and built the career/professional life that I wanted, so I didn't feel like I was "giving up" as much in my "real life"? That it was just more a matter of balancing WoW within my life and interests and hobbies? Hmmm... deep thoughts.

Finally, something much less deep. I've blogged before about Adrianne Curry playing WoW. Two recent interviews from her from Kotaku. In this clip, she talks about being anti pandas.

(I can't get these videos to embed right so you may just have to go click on the links.)


Hmmm.

And in the clip below she talks about getting kicked out of Comic Con, some fragrance she is touting called Erox, and dating a fellow death knight in her guild.


Just think death knights.... YOU could be dating the ex-wife of a Brady Bunch kid.

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