During the past couple of weeks, I’ve been in a kind of lull where I’m just not as excited about playing. Both my main characters are 70, I left a guild that I’d been in for a long time, helped form a new one, and we’re getting new members attuned for raiding. I’m a bit burned out on questing and grinding, so I’ve been turning away from the computer on nights when I would normally have played. And then I went back to my baby Draenei priest.

I do enjoy playing her. I’m looking forward to playing a healing class in instances, since that will be a totally new experience. I love the way she looks, with her chunky hooves, pigtails and vaguely Eastern-European accent. And yet…the thought of taking another character all the way to 70, through all of the old content, through all of that grinding, just makes me tired.

When do you say enough is enough?
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I should really have titled this post “General Asshattery” but I have a little more self respect than that, but only slightly.

First, I want to thank all the gracious and kind commenters on yesterday’s post. Your suggestions and advice were invaluable. As a true Wow n00b and someone who has logged next to zero hours in this or any other MMOG in the last few hours, the few simple tricks have been the most helpful.

Keep reading for my small realizations that have been a huge help.
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Dancing in the nest

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

I love good whimsy in my games, and the quest line that features the Jump-a-tron 4000 is quite possibly one of my favorite “Silly” quests in WoW. Well done, Blizz, this one has kept me laughing all day. Challenging, fun, and good rewards, to boot.

I’ve written in the past about the changes to raiding guilds that the new, smaller instances are going to bring. As a member of a Naxx raiding guild, I really dreaded it. But now we’re a week into TBC and you know what? I think Blizzard made the right decision.

We’re having a two-week hiatus on raiding, so that we can all explore new content and level. We all seem to be having an enormous amount of fun, and the guild dynamic has gone back to the casual comraderie of more social guilds. We come together as needed for quests and instances in different combinations, everyone is posting funny or infuriating things that are happening, and it’s been great.

Tbh, I am dreading having to go back to Naxx…
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Has anyone noticed an increase in the GM phrase “this is working as intended” in relation to obvious bugs? If you play a hunter, you have noticed a huge increase in the amount of mobs that ignore your feign death - it isn’t resisted, they just don’t seem to see it. This is, according to multiple GMs, working as intended. Okay…

A friend just pointed this post out from the forums. The text (for those of you unable to access it from work) reads:

So there i was, flying around netherstorm on my shiny new flying mount, when it occurred to me i had entered combat, confused i looked around, only to realise my pet was running along the ground 40 yards underneath me piling through mobs. While this wasnt a serious concern unless i stopped, it began to worry me. Then flying over a gaping chasm that was an infinite drop into the nether, i happily soared over on my griff, only to watch my piggy selflessly pile straight over the cliff into the nether to its death.

I brought this up with a GM and he stated that it was working as intended. Why would you intend this u cruel evil pet-killing gits? My pet is so stupid and defenseless that he even kills himself now! I was offered the option of dismissing the pet everytime i mount up……..but as well as that being a pain, it loses him happiness. Can’t you just make it despawn the same as when we use a flightpoint?

This seems to be a standard response to most reports of bugs or game issues lately. Has anyone else had the same experience? Although the GMs that I have spoken to have been uniformly polite (to excess), this lacks something in terms of customer service.

I was reading my online comics today and was inspired to see if I could beat the race. I won.

-Chris

It’s been done. A French player reached Level 70 in only 28 hours, using help from multiple guildmates to grind and a very carefully planned attack on the Outland. Full details Here, including on how he made sure to note that he was at the keys for the entire 28 hour stretch.

The line at EB Games in my part of Orlando was not so much a release “event” as it was a midnight “Gimme my game as soon as possible so i can go home and roll a Shaman”. Besides one very excited group of l33t nerds at the front of the line that debated PvP strats (they were at the front because, hey, they would have been at the store loitering anyways), the whole line was full of very quiet, focused gamers who just wanted the thing and wanted to get out. One EBGames employee walked the line trying to psych people up, as if improving morale would insure that a few more strategy guides would be sold. (We were about 15th in line, none were sold before we procured ours.)

Employee: “Man, aren’t people excited about the expansion? Where’s the spirit?”
(deathly silence)
Me: “Uh….. /cheer?”

The only other crack was one older gentleman who remarked, “I’m gonna wait for 10 minutes to get Burning Crusade so I can go home and wait in the AV queue for 40. GG, Blizzard.” GG indeed, considering he was one of the lucky recipients to pre-order one of the *five* collector’s editions available at the store.

Finally, I wanted to make one observation to the kid first in line that *sprinted* out of the store after buying his copy: No matter how fast you ran, you were not going to be the first to 61. Sorry to be the dream-crusher.