WoW Fight Simulator

I was talking to someone the other day about how people learn differently. My reluctance to accompany a herd of strangers into LFR is because no amount of reading strategies or watching videos will help me know what to do. I learn by doing. Which probably means failing a few times. I’m not up for that with a group of potential foul-mouthed jerks. My fear is that spurred on by the foul-mouthed jerkiness I will then descend into responding in even foul-mouthierness. Trust me, it can happen.

So, I was thinking and I came up with a hair-brained scheme! All you smart people out there, listen! Couldn’t you just make a WoW Fight Simulator for those of us that learn by doing? No! I’m sure you could do it! I know Cat would pay big gold for something like that.

Oh well, it was worth a shot. Maybe Blizzard should do it. I’d pay at least as much as an expansion cost, and if they threw in a battle pet I’d even buy the World of Warcraft Fight Simulator Collector’s Edition for oodles of money.

Yeah. Think about it. I can’t be the only introverted, learns by doing, WoW player out there.

Yes, it’s come to that. I need a simulator game to be able to play my massively multiplayer online role-playing … game … sigh.

Biker Jacket. Bears are Really Smart

Mr. Big Bear has a post about building his motorcycle. He doesn’t have one but wants one but this is what I thought was the best addition to a WoW Wishlist ever:

“Too bad you can’t have a Leatherworking pattern that would let you make leather biker jackets that displayed your guild symbol on the back. That would rock.”

That is the best idea! I really, really, want that. I had to see what Cat would look like in her biker jacket. She has a bike but she had to buy it since her handler went and deleted her engineer. She loves that jacket and she’s off to show it to Jarel Moor, but I told her it was just a loaner as I have to get it back to rl.

Best idea ever. And a bear thought it up. But he’s probably smarter than the average bear, don’t you think?

My WoW Wishlist — Mix and Match Titles

First, I don’t know what my Druid is doing, always hanging around in that dive. The Slaughtered Lamb is a Warlock hangout. I guess my Warlock told all the others about Jarel Moor. I don’t know why they all fall for the biker types. It will lead to nothing but heartbreak, mark my words, but I can’t always be around to watch out for them.

I was GOING to say I can’t talk long as I’m on a mission, but I see there is ANOTHER scheduled maintenance today, after the scheduled maintenance yesterday so I guess I have plenty of time to talk.

I’m in a hurry to complete the Elders of the Dungeons achievement because then I’ll have the Elder title and I’m making a request to Blizzard which I’m sure they’ll be eager to implement for me, I mean how hard could it be. I jest Blizzard, “how hard could it be” has been used so many times on me in my working career that I just wanted to see how it felt to say it. But it would be a nice gesture and would help keep our morale high while we wait for Pandaria. And this is like my fifth request, they haven’t fulfilled any of my other desires so I’m pretty sure this time they will … oh, and I have another. So at least one of them they might do for me.

I got the one I was dreading out of the way yesterday.  Maraudon, yeah, no need to say more, just Mara. Some kind person had very good directions posted on Wowhead so it turned out to be relatively painless and I made sure I could hearth out before I did it. Last time I found that elder I was in there lost for about 3 hours.

Off topic here for a second, my computer just locked up and I tried to Alt F4 out of it. Does that mean I play WoW too much? I have a lovely new computer with a GeForce GTX 560 Ti that frequently locks up. Not in game, but almost exclusively while writing posts … in WordPress. I don’t know if it hates WordPress or Firefox. Very inconvenient but I give up. Searching for fixes has only resulted in the knowledge that a great many other people are also in the same pickle. But enough of that.

So anyway, all I want from Blizzard is to kind of mix and match my titles. I know the Elder title is supposed to be “Elder Whoever” but I think we should be able to combine our titles and move them around so that I could truly represent the real me. Ancient the Insane Elder would be just perfect. I’m sure now that they’ve been alerted they’ll get right on that. So that’s why I’m in a hurry to complete the Elders of the Dungeons, so I’ll be ready.

My other request came to me after Ironyca found out that there is a new Ironman Challenge going over on the EU servers. Of course Ironsally was all ears, any chance to gain the spotlight and she’s right there. I think she wants to interview the participants. She even joined their forum to make sure she could follow everything. But here’s the thing. These people aren’t just Ironmen, they are CRAZY IRONMEN, which is even better as they’ve included a no-death clause, YIKE!!

Ironyca, Vrykerion and I twittered … tweeted … whatever about it and Vrykerion, one of the founders along with Pysnister of The WoW Ironman Challenge, said they had considered having a no-death requirement but had tabled that one. Sheesh, I’m glad they did. I could never have done that one.

So, if anyone completes this new Ironman I wanted to be able to send them something. Blizzard, you already have the faction balloons how hard could it be to add balloons to the store. You know, you could pick, Happy Birthday!, Get Well Soon!, Go Go Ironman!, yeah, that kind of thing. I know I would buy them, so just think about it will you.

Oh and I see someone else has requests for Blizzard! Hmmm, these are somewhat more sensible than mine so maybe these might get done. Professions could certainly use an overhaul. Blizzard, take a look at what The Godmother has to say, she’s done all the hard thinking part already, make it so!

Lastly, Akabeko of Red Cow Rise came up with a really fun shared topic on Blog Azeroth.

How do you express your geekery? Do you own obvious paraphernalia like a Horde-symbol bumper sticker, in-joke tshirts like the dps/ups pun, or less obviously related items like a gift from a guildie? Rather than physical indicators, do you mix nerd lingo into your everyday speech or talk/post about geekdom in non-nerd spaces? How do you advertise your nerd tendencies? Does it help you to attract new nerd friends?

I don’t care if anyone thinks I’m a geek, never really have. But recently, I’ve noticed that I don’t really seem to care anymore what anyone thinks of anything about me. It’s like my last birthday was some kind of tipping point. I used to answer my business phone with a tone that implied that I was dressed in a suit. Yesterday I talked to a potential client for the FIRST TIME and I told her that I would email the information to her “before nightfall, muhahaha.” I KNOW! Have I completely lost it. Anyway, we’ll see how that goes, haven’t heard back from her yet. It’s a law firm. I’m sure lawyers are jokey people, aren’t they?

As always I’m disorganized and unprepared and only have this one thing but I wanted to secure my nerd cred so here’s a photo of my note holder, I checked the important note and it’s reminding me to watch The Misfits on Hulu. I don’t know, does that enhance or detract from my nerdiness?

P.S. I didn’t post this as a shared topic cause the only thing I had was Darth Noteholder. Whole wrong galaxy thing and all. But you should go check them out!

My WoW Wishlist — WWRD101: Class Syllabus

Yup, it’s time for another one of my harebrained schemes. The other day I once again had NPCScan go off while I was flying on a rental bird. I rarely see rares any other time. I really want Blizzard to implement an eject button but I’m sure someone’s already addressed that, so I won’t go there.

Blizzard didn’t pick up on my last raid learning tool so this time I’ll approach it differently. This time my WoW Wishlist is directed at the players, so I’m more hopeful. There would be no upfront costs to a player, unlike my wishes directed at Blizzard. You would MAKE MONEY, gold or real, your choice. Yeah, really! Are you excited? Want to hear more?

I’ll admit that some of my ideas are based on how cool I think a picture to illustrate it might be but this idea, I’m really serious about. I’ve been reading posts about how difficult it is to learn raids in an unfriendly environment, or with no direction. Whether in pugs groups or guild raids it can be difficult to learn on the job. Everyone wants you to leap into raiding with complete knowledge about every raid combined with razor sharp skills. People complain that there aren’t enough skilled raiders, but there won’t be, if they can’t learn in at least a moderately enjoyable way. This is where you come in!

Keep in mind I KNOW NOTHING about raiding. I probably never will, but it seems some enterprising and skilled raiders have a unique opportunity here to make some money. Open a raiding school, charge real money or gold. Okay, you’d have to look into the whole legality thing here. I’m not going to rain on my parade worrying about stuff like the law, but really, would that not be the greatest thing ever.

But you can’t just be a great raid leader with a lot of information to share. People skills will be involved. This has to be billed as a polite, patient, informative environment to learn in. Real constructive criticism is expected, but absolutely no MOAR DOTS! MOAR DOTS! (NSFW) Participants must respect the rules. No nerdraging allowed, no name calling, no blaming anyone for anything. Anyone doing so will be immediately suspended from school. It will go on your permanent record. No exceptions.

I know I would enroll. Gold or real money, your call. I’d sign up. Anyway, think about it and if you decide to start one, let me know. I’ll be there. Fenris, 10:00AM to 4:00PM. weekdays. Oh hell, if you wait for me I’ll even roll on your server.

My WoW Wishlist — Drop Box of Good Stuff and Hardcore Realms

Well, we’re out of the “honeymoon” period and she survived. Now that you can train riding at level 20 most of my alts make it that far, but some no further. She even managed to find a Takk’s Nest and get a Leaping Hatchling which seems an appropriate pet for a troll. She’s come across all manner of things that might be valuable to someone else, but are little value to her and she’s too impatient to bother selling them on the auction house.

She found herself wishing she could deposit these in a box of good things, a place where others could browse and take what they need. Like a guild bank, but for anyone. Yes, I know, it would never work. I suppose it could be coded to let you take only something that you had the profession for, or the appropriate level and class. I doubt Blizzard would be interested in implementing a good stuff box just so she can deposit 4 light leather and 3 bolts of linen. But she’s a dreamer and comes up with typical druidy ideas.

What do I want? A reoccurring theme on Twitter and the blogs I read is that nice people feel like letting their subscription lapse because of the abuse heaped on them in randoms. Everyone has encountered the jackasses that ruin your day, some days it feels like WoW is populated by only these people. We need a way to find the other nice players, they are out there.

I want Hardcore and Casual servers. When queuing you could pick which one you want to be grouped with just like you pick healer, tank or DPS. Now the success of this plan hangs on how it’s promoted by Blizzard. I don’t think true hardcore people are the problem. I think hardcore raiders are studying up for the next raid, they aren’t the ones talking trash and being obnoxious in normal dungeons. What we want to get on the hardcore servers are the hardcore wannabees. Blizzard needs to get someone like Vin Diesel for the hardcore promotion and the announcer has to be the Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! guy.

Casual is such a broad term that the promotion will have to make it look unappealing to the trolling, fun-sucking, hating haters. I think they should get Kermit the Frog to do the announcing and Hello Kitty can be our spokesperson.

No self-respecting hardcore wannabe is going to check the casual button. It will be our little secret. We nice people have no ego problems and we can happily check the happy face casual button and then finally find the other nice people and play the game we love in peace. When the truly hardcore figure out what’s up they may come here too, leaving the nasties all alone where they can rage at each other. And if any of them come here to bully us we can overcome them with /hugs, and /waves and /kisses and give them pieces of Delicious Chocolate Cake. Muhahaha! Trust me, they’ll leave, they don’t want THAT buff.

My WoW Wishlist — Adjustable Quests

My druid is still on her “doing the BC fishing dailies” thing. She’s nostalgic for the days of yore. An excuse to visit Nagrand, Zangarmarsh and other locations close to her heart. I’m very fond of BC, those were the glory days on Fenris. You could get a group for Durn or the Ring of Blood and meet new people. Times have changed but I still like to go back and visit.

I was flying around Zangarmarsh looking for Marticar and saw Fhwoor had a quest I’d apparently missed. Great I’ll stop and do it. He proceeded to aggro everything he could, I’m kind of glad I didn’t do it at the appropriate level. It was just nice to do something in an old zone.

Hey, I thought, wouldn’t it be nice if you could wander ’round low levels looking for quests you’d missed and select the level. It’s not much fun bonking level sevens over the head at 85. If you’re going for The Loremaster or doing a quest chain for the lore, sure, but otherwise it’s not much fun.

Just like my other wish I’m not sure how it would be implemented or just how hard it would be to do. Maybe when excepting the quest you could select a level range, like 60’s, 70’s, 80’s. I guess this would have to be done by phasing. To me it seems to be a great way to recycle old content and spread players out over the world.

Yes, I have a bad case of the “I wants” maybe I should make my wishlist a category but I’m pretty sure I’ve exhausted my creativity with two ideas. If I ever get a third idea maybe I will. I suppose I should really try to come up with a third, I mean aren’t you supposed to get three wishes granted by a big supernatural being (Blizzard)?

My WoW Wishlist — Spectator Seats

I know if I thought of it many have before me, but I’m too lazy to search the forums. And scared. I always feel like I’ve wandered into the wrong side of town and I’m going to get mugged there. Or trolled, or spat upon, that’s a tough crowd.

But anyway I would so love it if Blizzard implemented an 11th, 26th, etc. spot in a raid. You would be in the same out-of-bodyness kind of state that you are when you’re dead, to keep you from inadvertently aggroing something and wiping the raid.

You could be a tourist, taking in the action and sights without having to worry about standing in bad. Guilds could use it as a teaching tool, it would be a great way for learning a new encounter for members.

Yeah, I know, now the stupid little non-raiders want to see the raids without any of the work. Yup, I do. But really, believe me when I say this. You DO NOT want me in a raid with you unless I’m in wisp form. I have one super-good hand and one working at about 50%. It was broken in a sort of, I don’t know, dog skiing accident and never really healed properly. It’s good enough for rl, but not so great on a keyboard. Let’s see, my eyesight is well, marginal. I have been wearing glasses or contacts since I was two, so I’d probably be standing in the fire wondering what you’re yelling about. Oh, and then I am after all, the ancient. Reflexes aren’t what they used to be, there’s a definite lag there. Occasional brain lags too.

The only problem I see with this, and the reason it would probably never be implemented is that price tag. I see all kinds of potential for abuse there. The top guilds would be selling seats for a bazillion dollars on eBay. But hey, it could happen. Now I’m going to go check my lottery ticket cause I’m pretty sure it might be that 1 in 175,711,536 that hits. Sheesh, silly little Night Elf dreamer.