A New Life …

Yeah … where? I’ve never cancelled my subscription before. In the past when things got boring at the END of an expansion I’d keep paying while playing another game as sort of an attaboy to the art department for creating my beautiful world.

Bored in under six months into an expansion? Keeping my subscription is the wrong message no matter how much I love the world. It’s unfortunately the only way I can express myself that a business will understand.

For the next month I will continue to get filthy rich from follower missions and fly around all the places I love. I hope something changes to make me feel it’s worth coming back.

So where to go? My first impulse was SWTOR. I’m in a guild there, maybe someone’s still around.

Jeez buddy, back off would you! Oh … crap I forgot about companions, I guess he’s with me. Okay, let’s see. What? Oh, got to pick my talents, attributes, whatever they’re called here.

Oh crap. I  forgot. I’d have to start over. Every time I come back to SWTOR I have to start from scratch. That’s why I have all these medium level characters spread around the galaxy. I’m not sure I’m ready for this. Let’s see.

Really? I couldn’t pick something I’ve still got installed? Typically, my choice came down to what world had I liked the most and WildStar won that one. Tota is at level 50 and I don’t remember ANYTHING about how a Stalker works so her cousin is going to start from level one to help her remember and I find I’m fine with that.

The final entrants were SWTOR, FFXIV, GW2 and WildStar and I took a day to decide but double-jumping around a beautiful world sounded like what I could use about now.

 

Flying, PR and Token Protest!

Oh … hang on, hang on. Got to get to Ashran … use SW portal and TADA … Cat Flying! And it goes without saying if you’ve been here before, you know that you’re not going to find a well thought, reasoned post on flying. There are many fine posts out there like that … just not here. To make up for that I’ll throw in some screen shots instead.

Okay, here’s what I think the problem is, it’s a PR problem. Blizzard is one of the few companies who actually engage their customers. If I want to talk to an actual living human being at Comcast I have to run the gauntlet of their phone deterrent system and waste 45 minutes of my life. With Blizzard I can tweet a question to a developer and maybe get an answer. This is where it gets dangerous. Game developers aren’t public relations people.

Hazziokostas:

“The world feels larger, feels more dangerous,” he says. “There’s more room for exploration, for secrets, for discovery and overall immersion annoyance in the world. At this point, WE feel that outdoor gameplay in World of Warcraft is ultimately better without flying. WE’re not going to be reintroducing the ability to fly in Draenor, and that’s kind of where WE’re at going forward.”

Three royal we in one paragraph, a public relations person would have known better. And I made the edit there because I’m sure he meant to say annoyance. See what I mean? Talking to people isn’t something that just anyone can handle. I thought Ghostcrawler was better at it myself.

So what can be learned from this? A degree in marine biology is much better preparation for public speaking than a law degree. Who knew! Kinda counter intuitive isn’t it.

And the whole immersion/annoyance thingy, I want to know how WE came to the conclusion that not flying improved immersion. What they need are dirty casual testers and I am as dirty as they come.

I sometimes wonder if they know us dirties are out there. Running around on my 7th alt trying to dig at a digsite in my crappy iLevel 600ish gear. If being murdered by a bunch of angry flowers is immersion okay, you’ve succeeded but it is EXTREMELY annoying so maybe immersion isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

So my annoyance with no flying, was for me at least, more about presentation than substance. I will get along with not flying but I felt my daddy was telling me, “I’ll decide what’s right for you!”

My knee jerk reaction was to protest!

THERE! Take that Blizzard! I’m not even going to pay you real money! Yeah how do you like my “token” protest! How do … what? WHAT! ARGGGGHHHH! Dammit! So you’re saying I just caused someone to give five dollars more to Blizzard than if I’d just kept paying my sub? Crap.

I’ll show my displeasure another way. Yeah! I’m not even going to play your game AT ALL! SO THERE! You feeling me Blizzard? You feeling … WHAT?

oh …

sigh …

You know sometimes I feel like us, the community, and Blizzard are like one big, giant dysfunctional family. We generally love each other but we just can’t seem to get along.

Welp, I’m tired after all this typing. I’m tired of trying to not use the word “we,” it’s harder than I thought. Back to Heroes of the Storm where I can get some rest because I spend most of my time dead. Damn you Graves!

Saved by the Spirit Beast of Draenor

Yeah … goat-kicking is usually a sign of unhappiness. Cat usually cheers right up after punting a few goats. I hate to be such a big, fat whiner but when they said Warlords of Draenor would be BRUTAL I thought they meant mean, scary creatures and suchlike.

I did NOT think it meant a brutal grindfest but that’s what I’m feeling right now. The world on the way to 100 was great, but I wonder who thought up this level 100 stuff. Is this like the Peter Principle? Did someone get promoted to their level of incompetence at Blizzard? Yes, I’m grumpy.

Cat finished up An Awfully Big Adventure and that was fun. I must say though that two people I thought were my BFFs gave me the most trouble. Sully the Pickle and I have some history, we went through some tough times in MoP together. Did he cut me a break? Hell no! He was awful! And Cymre too! I hope it wasn’t something I said.

Everyone has pretty much stopped mining their mines and picking their flowers. Cat has even stopped trapping. There must be SOMETHING to do other than sit in the garrison sending out missions or collecting stupidhead Apexis Crystals.

Yeah … finish up the Sha’tari Defense rep grind, no grindfest there HAHAHA. No diplomacy … no high level peace talks … just ANNIHILATION. I guess that’s one way to keep the peace.

Hmm … let’s see … OMG! How did I forget that! I remember hearing about a Spirit Wolf, probably back at launch, how did I forget that! I can’t believe my Hunter hasn’t been yelling at me.

I used this guide to tame Gara, worked great. I drew that quest chain out for two days to make it last. It was great to have purpose again. Finally! A mission that I could do rather than my followers having all the fun. Oh … wait. Here’s a better picture.

Isn’t she lovely? I named her Haze. Yes, don’t look at my Hunter, she has no fashion sense AT ALL. I love Cat the best but the Hunter, Zor, is probably closest to the real me. Talks to animals and is NOT a snappy dresser, that’s us.

So this is for any Beast Mastery Hunters out there who might have missed Gara. Go get her, she’s out there waiting for you!

Real Server Maintenance … I Know! Beta!

So, what to  do … what to do. I’m not used to a real server maintenance, it’s been a while. I know! I have some beta keys!

So yeah … thank you Blizzard I really do appreciate the Heroes of the Storm invites for my “friends” to make a team. It’s just … hahahahahahahahaha … I can just see it. Me trying to convince real life friends to play. Oh sure, you can do it. It’s just like … um … Candy Crush … oh you don’t? Okay Solitaire? Mahjong?

I looked into Starcraft which I knew nothing about to see if that beta might be more me, but as far as I could tell it involved resource gathering. I just want to run around willy-nilly killing stuff and possibly looking good while doing so.

So it looks like I’ll go with the Echo of Soul beta. Yup, I’ll try that!

Uh oh. Yikes. I have a problem playing an eleven year old girl dressed like a dominatrix. Let’s see.

This is weird, if I want to be a Warrior or Assassin I have to be a guy? The casters are all girls? Maybe I’m missing something. Never mind, lets get rolling. Here’s me! My name is Hugh. When I first saw him in the character screen he reminded me of a young Hugh Grant. Hugh Grant with a really, really long-ass sword.

First test for me is can I find the keybinds easily because if I can’t I’m probably not going to make much headway. Yes! Keybinds taken care of now we can move out.

Pluses, Hugh has a pet already! Hugh has a mount already! Those are two big pluses especially as it resolves his sword problem when he mounts up and the pet goes around looting for him. Very nice.

Downside, doesn’t seem to recognize the keys I have bound to my mouse buttons but there may be a way and I just haven’t found it yet.

Hugh is level eight now. I’m not sure what kind of a beta this is as absolutely nothing’s been wrong, no glitches, no problems. It’s really weird. He’s got about another hour left to impress me.

The ONLY problem Hugh has is that we’ve not been able to figure out how to sheath that big-ass sword. WTF Hugh! Look, even the game is saying WTF are you doing dragging your weapon around like that with a big !

I didn’t feel too bad as every other Warrior I saw was also dragging around a big-ass sword. I’m not thrilled about it but it beats the hell out of being an eleven year old dominatrix.

Onward Hugh! Your future depends on it!

 

From a Small Molehill I Made a Towering Mountain

Ironsally is happily back to safety because of the Mother’s Day gift from my husband. This morning she saw she had mail! For me? Who knows I’m here?

Oh Navi! Thank you! My Son of Sethe is beautiful, I love him! Hmm … I have this beautiful pet, I ought to take him around, show him the sights.

Sally, I don’t know. Wasn’t getting to level 85 enough? Seriously? You really want to make a try for 100? (I think she’s missing her glory days between you and me.)

YES! Yes! I mean I won’t take up all of your time but can’t we just try a little?

Sigh … oh alright. No promises, we’ll see how it goes. Where were you? Okay, Uldum it is.

Sally had a quest to kill those snakey things in the water. The first one died simultaneously with her Voidwalker. Sally, you used to be able to heal your minion. This might not work, just saying.

That one snake thingy was enough to reach 86. The next one keeled over dead with barely a bonk on the head. Big jump in power, really big one. This might work.

Sally continued on questing in Uldum. It’s kind of fun to get her out again. Maybe we’ll give it a try. Better have the bank alt check the AH for the next level of poor quality gear. Okay, at level 87 Scruffy gear is the next level available.

None for sale, not even one piece. Times have changed. If only she had a higher level on that server to grind up some Scruffy gear for her. Hmm …

Oh! This must be fate! Lessismora has just been sitting there doing nothing for ages. She was my “leveling in a Lovely Black Dress and a Black Diamond Ring” project. I see she’s sitting in the Wetlands with nothing to do. Soooo ..

Why not … I don’t know … boost her! She can get Sally Scruffy gear!

BOOST!

WHERE IS MY DREADSTEED? I cannot help you without my mount of choice.

Okay, okay, calm down. I’d forgotten about this weird way Blizzard implemented the boost. Only getting a few spells when you do a quest. Kind of annoying. Maybe your Dreadsteed will pop up from a quest. Give it time. Be patient.

I think a short scenario tutorial would have worked much better for boosted characters but what do I know.

So there we are. What started with a wonderful gift because Navi wanted her to have a companion on her new server has turned into another Ironsally production and now she has support staff.

What? Yeah … I’ll ah … I’ll just consider the boost another Mother’s Day present.

Welp, gotta go. Before Lessismora will help I have to find her Dreadsteed. Jeez … Warlocks are such divas.

Oddities, Idiosyncrasies, and a Whine

It’s not as if I didn’t have to feel enough guilt about things in real life. I feel guilt about the situations I get my characters in. I don’t know that Ironsally will give a try at level 100 but I felt guilty about abandoning her on an inhospitable PvP server.  It really bothered me.

So I’ve never figured out why my husband thinks he has to give me a Mother’s Day present … I’m not his mother. Nevertheless he always asks what I’d like. I told him a server transfer for Ironsally.

Does anyone else have this problem? Do you know how hard it is to get a non-gamer to believe this is a REAL present? He laughed and said, what do you really want. I REALLY WANT a server transfer.

Okay get that, but what REAL thing would you like? Jeeezzzz. I give up. There’s no changing him but at least now Ironsally is somewhere safe.

Aw … Cat … give Benjamin Brode a break would you. Cat is fascinated by the avoidance mojo everyone at the garrison has. She purposely stands in Ben’s way just to watch him walk around her.

Her other big entertainment is after trapping in Nagrand she heads to Sunspring Watchpost and stealths around through the shrubbery to make it wave. She especially enjoys doing it close to Orcs.

Hey! Fred! Fred! Did you see that? Is there a breeze? Look at that grass waving around, what the hell is that about? Spooky.

Magrok, have you been buying that Nitro Fuel again? I told you you’d start seeing things if you didn’t knock it off.

I got a chuckle out of this. There were at least two other groups for Only the Penitent that formed and were filled while this person was still waiting after twenty minutes. I wonder if they ever realized shouting, KNOW YOUR STUFF might be less than welcoming … wonder if they ever got a group.

Every time my sixth or seventh alt gets an achievement like this I feel sorry for them. All my character are saying things like, that’s so five years ago. Been there, done that. I wish they wouldn’t do that. Poor little boosted Rogue.

Does anyone know how you get this illusion? I saw someone with it and used Ai-Li’s Skymirror to borrow it and found out they had used a Skymirror too and didn’t know what it was. I  love that, although it was pretty cramped when I went back to the garrison.

This has nothing to do with anything but it’s the only selfie Cat’s taken that we like. I’ll stick it here before my whine. I fear that I’ll sound like a bratty, little thirteen year old but sometimes I’m puzzled by Blizzard.

Cim had an invasion and put up a custom group. We got Platinum, I think Cim was the lowest iLevel at 666. I think the others were in the eighties. Usually, aside from the Garrison Boss once and the mount I don’t get anything in the bag.

This time I got something. Oh! This will be good! Oh! I wonder what … an iLevel 645 weapon? Seriously? Either I’m really bad, which is possible, or sometimes Blizzard seems out of touch. I really don’t see a group that would be able to get a Platinum being dressed in something where iLevel 645 would be considered a reward.

Sometimes rep rewards seem that way too, by the time I ever get to exalted I have no interest in the stuff they’ll “allow” me to buy. So yeah … there’s my whine.

Yeah … I don’t want to end on a whine. I want to end on an uplifting, wonderful high! Fairy Godmother Helke, thank you! Your Fragment of Desire completed my Raiding with Leashes AND AND AND Everbloom Peachick! Cat thought she’d have to wait until the next expansion to go back and get it! Now it is hers!

See, in spite of iLevel 645 weapons all is good in the land! Well … virtual land … oh, you know what I mean.