Sure it’s a really nice thing for Blizzard to do but people on the PvP servers are going to feel really creepy about ganking quest givers now.

I’ve made another foray back into roleplay, this time on Horde side. I’d started a Blood Elf hunter, played her up to 22 or so and really enjoyed her, so I rolled a Blood Elf priest. Couldn’t handle the extremely awkward wand animation, and the non-synced sound that went with it, so I rolled a troll and ran her up to the belf starting area. When she’s of a comparable level with my hunter, I want to try dual-boxing them and roleplaying them both at the same time. (Might be tough, I admit!) I want to play her as a foster-sister who has no idea why she’s so big-boned, why her feet are too big for boots, let alone glass slippers, why her parents never fixed her teeth when she was little, and why her mean, blonde sister keeps making fun of her.

She’s found no love among the Blood Elves, unfortunately – as you can see by the image of Mr. High-and-Mighty above, who refused to let her repair.
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Well my (now former) guild, of which I was a charter member (one of the first 5 folks) has unceremoniously dumped me, without so much as a whisper or mail in-game.

Not that I wanted flowers or a “Dear John” letter, but the original Guild organizer had left to pursue interests outside of Azeroth and I had never done much with the group, but I did trade some items and run some quests, so I wasn’t a complete unknown.

Now, unfortunately, I’m getting messages left and right from folks I’ve never met recruiting me to this guild or that. I think I’m better off – especially since I’m a haphazard-playing, tanking Druid – to just finding random “friends” and enjoying the game that way.

Is my guild assessment wrong? Should I have done more? Is it wrong of them to dump me this way with no notification? Is it kosher to just invite folks willy-nilly to a guild without playing alongside them first?

I actually feel sad a bout this.

There’s a storm going on in the WoW fansite teacup right now, which most of you are probably unaware of. I’m going to write about this, since if you’re reading this you are a member of the WoW community, and you probably read both of the blogs/communities in question – but I’m not going to link to either community, quote any posts, or anything else. If you’re a member, then you know what I’m talking about.

As the web director of a social networking site, I am very involved in the theory and function of virtual communities. When it comes to something like Warcraft, you probably spend a lot of non-game time on various blogs and sites, participating in the community, contributing to it, getting advice and tips, reading about breaking news, etc. The social network in Warcraft extends beyond the game mechanism, and can be just as vibrant and enjoyable as the time that you spend ingame.

What happens when you sever those ties with the rest of the community?
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I’m sure that you’ve all read the accounts of the in-game voice chat that Blizzard is planning. Some people like it, some people hate it (if they ever roll it out to general channels, we’re ALL going to hate it), but it does raise some interesting points. Lag may be an issue, and as a female gamer I’m not looking forward to using it in PUGs.

The interesting issue, for me, is that of the effect on virtual personas. Online, ingame, you can be anyone you want. You can be someone in complete opposition to who you are in real life, which is probably a good thing for people who are put in pigeonholes based on physical appearance, sex, etc. Once you introduce rl elements to your virtual world, however, you lose a lot of the freedom you have to be who and what you want to be.
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I have a routine for most mornings, as I drink my coffee and wake up, prior to getting ready for work. I grind.

My 70 hunter is the breadwinner for most of my other alts. Depending on what I need, she’ll do a circuit around Terrokar from Allerian Stronghold (hides/felscale, dampscale baskilisk eyes, blackened basilisk and warp burgers plus two to four green items for the AH), or Nagrand (clefthoof leather, roasted clefthoof, green items, motes of air and earth from the elementals, cloth from ogres) or Elemental Plateau if I’ve had insomnia and have gotten up really early. Sometimes I fish, mainly to get Golden Fishsticks so that I can make nice to healers.

It should be boring, but is not…you get into a rhythmn, especially on a character that doesn’t have a lot of downtime. There’s something quite peaceful in the repetitive actions, and although not very exciting, grinding is rewarding in its own way. Fishing is much the same, although I can only fish for short periods of time before becoming restless – I think mainly because you have to concentrate on the bobber. What do you think? Do you enjoy grinding, is it a necessary evil, or do you just buy everything on the AH?

This weekend I rolled a Blood Elf hunter, and played her up to level twenty. Blood elf because I haven’t seen any of their quests yet (aside from a peek into the belf starting area at the beginning of TBC, where I was turned off by the bright Candyland feel and never went back), and hunter because there are no rich mains Horde-side to bankroll or boost her. She needed to be good at soloing and grinding, which hunters excel at.

And I totally loved her, despite the broken bow-drawing animation. (Blizz, really! Who on earth authorized that spastic motion as being ready for primetime? Back to the drawing board!) I rolled her on a roleplaying server, and although I may not play her up to 70, I’d like to spend some time rp’ing the cutest, meanest girl ever…if you’re on Moonglade, watch for a skinny belf with big, blonde hair killing kittycats. That’s her. :)

Then again, maybe I’ll go Horde, and make her a main. It’s really tempting. What about you – if you were a diehard Alliance or Horde player, have you ever abdicated to the other side? Or do you have mains on both sides?
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It took a 40-man raid, half a dozen hunter’s traps, a bucket of chicken and Hode but we managed the impossible. We captured a murloc – Alive!

You would be amazed what you can do with an Orb of Deception, a dozen Thorium Widgets and 2 gnomish engineers. Our engineers have assured me that there are absolutely no bugs whatsoever in the translation matrix, and there have been no deaths in the most recent round of testing.

So Finally Here is The English/Murloc Translator

Muigleml!

If you’ve been around the internet this week, you know that someone has cracked the DRM for the HD-DVD format and posted in online.

This has caused quiet a kerfuffle, especially on DIGG (which I realize is somewhat verboten here), but the responses – both pro and con – are interesting.

So, apropos of Paul’s WoW Drama post, I thought I would highlight one WoW player, Gateux, doing his part to spread the 16-bit meme.

Is this a violation of the WoW TOS? Is this kind of dissent useful? Is this a virtual protest akin to some of the Second Life nastiness?

What’s your take?

My guild has a no drama policy. In fact you can (and probably will) be kicked for drama. So where do I go for drama? Well WoW Drama of course. As the site proclaims, “WoW Drama brings you the hilarity of drama in Azeroth and Outland”. From forum drama to guild drama to unexpected sexual missteps this site has it all.
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